Colonial Society: Settlements, Slavery, and Governance (1607-1754) Cheat Sheet

The core ideas of Colonial Society: Settlements, Slavery, and Governance (1607-1754) distilled into a single, scannable reference — perfect for review or quick lookup.

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Quick Reference

Indentured Servitude

A labor system in which individuals agreed to work for a set period (typically 4-7 years) in exchange for passage to the colonies, food, and shelter. After serving their term, they received 'freedom dues' and became free colonists.

Chattel Slavery

A system in which enslaved people were treated as permanent, hereditary property. Unlike indentured servitude, chattel slavery was lifelong, passed from parent to child, and defined by race after the mid-1600s.

Salutary Neglect

The unofficial British policy of loosely enforcing trade regulations in the colonies, allowing colonial assemblies significant self-governance. This fostered a tradition of autonomy that made later British taxation deeply resented.

Great Awakening

A series of religious revivals in the 1730s-1740s that emphasized personal conversion, emotional preaching, and the equality of all souls before God. It challenged established churches and promoted individualism.

Triangular Trade

The transatlantic trade network connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas: manufactured goods went to Africa, enslaved people were shipped to the Americas (the Middle Passage), and raw materials flowed back to Europe.

Colonial Assemblies

Elected legislative bodies in the colonies that controlled taxation, spending, and local laws. They developed from the Virginia House of Burgesses (1619) and became the foundation of American representative government.

Bacon's Rebellion (1676)

An armed uprising of frontier settlers and former indentured servants against Virginia's colonial government, driven by frustration over indigenous policy, land access, and political exclusion of non-elites.

Middle Passage

The horrific transatlantic voyage that transported enslaved Africans from West Africa to the Americas. Conditions were brutal: people were chained in overcrowded holds with mortality rates of 15-20% or higher.

Key Terms at a Glance

Jamestown:The first permanent English settlement in North America (1607), located in Virginia. It survived through tobacco cultivation.

Mayflower Compact:A 1620 agreement among Pilgrim settlers establishing self-governance by majority rule in Plymouth Colony.

Headright System:A Virginia policy granting 50 acres of land for each person whose passage to the colony was paid.

Indentured Servitude:A labor system in which workers contracted to serve for a fixed period in exchange for passage to America.

Chattel Slavery:A system in which enslaved people were treated as property that could be bought, sold, and inherited, with status passed to children.

House of Burgesses:The first representative legislative assembly in British North America, established in Virginia in 1619.

Middle Passage:The forced transatlantic voyage of enslaved Africans from West Africa to the Americas.

Triangular Trade:A transatlantic trade network connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas through the exchange of goods, enslaved people, and raw materials.

Great Awakening:A widespread religious revival in the 1730s-1740s emphasizing personal conversion and emotional spirituality.

Bacon Rebellion:A 1676 armed uprising in Virginia by frontier settlers against Governor Berkeley that accelerated the transition to racial slavery.

Stono Rebellion:The largest slave uprising in British colonial America (1739, South Carolina), leading to harsher slave codes.

Quakers (Society of Friends):A Protestant group founded by George Fox, known for pacifism, egalitarianism, and opposition to slavery. William Penn founded Pennsylvania as their refuge.

Town Meeting:A New England form of direct democracy in which property-owning men gathered to vote on local governance matters.

Salutary Neglect:The British policy of loosely enforcing trade regulations in the colonies, allowing significant colonial self-governance through much of the 17th and early 18th centuries.

Cash Crop:An agricultural crop grown primarily for sale and export rather than personal consumption, such as tobacco, rice, and indigo in the colonial South.

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