Chapter 4

Chesapeake

An inlet of the Atlantic Ocean separating the Delmarva Peninsula from mainland
Maryland and Virginia. Explored and charted by John Smith in 1608, it is an important
link in the Intercostals Waterway.

Indentured Servants

A laborer under contract of an employer for some period of time, usually three to seven
years, in exchange for transportation there, food, drink, clothing, and other necessities.
Over half of all white immigrants to the English colonies of North America during the
17th and 18th centuries consisted of indentured servants.

Bacon

A wealthy colonist of the Virginia Colony, famous as the instigator of Bacon's Rebellion
of 1676, which collapsed when Bacon himself died.

Governor Berkeley

He was governor from 1641-1652 and 1660-1677. As proprietor of Green Spring

Plantation in James City County, he experimented with activities such as growing
silkworms as part of his efforts to expand the tobacco-based economy of the colony of
Virginia.

Royal African Company

The Royal African Company was a slaving company set up by the Stuart family and
London merchants once the former retook the English throne in the English Restoration
of 1660.

Middle Passage

A passage of African people from Africa to the New World, as part of the Atlantic slave
trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with commercial goods, which were in
turn traded for kidnapped Africans who were transported across the Atlantic as slaves;
the enslaved Africans were then sold or traded as commodities for raw materials, which
would be transported back to Europe to complete the triangular trade.

Ring shout

Dance ritual, first practiced by African slaves in the West Indies and the United States, in
which worshippers move in a circle while shuffling their feet and clapping their hands.
1712 NYC Slave Revolt

An uprising in New York City of 23 enslaved Africans who killed nine whites and
injured another six. More than three times that number of blacks, 70, were arrested and
jailed.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

His writing centers on New England, many works featuring moral allegories with a
Puritan inspiration.

New England Conscience

Nearly 200 pages, explaining the working of a girl's mind, contains a description of that
religious feeling which certainly exists in some exceptional portions of the New-England
of to-day.

Harvard

Harvard was founded in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the
United States.

William and Mary

To end the Glorious Revolution, William and Mary signed the English Bill of Rights, and
began a new co-operation between the Parliament and the monarchs, leading to a greater
measure of personal liberty and democracy in Britain.

Halfway Covenant

A form of partial church membership created by New England in 1662 by the Reverend
Solomon Stoddard, who felt that the people of the English colonies were drifting away
from their original religious purpose.

Salem Witch Trials

A series of hearings before local magistrates followed by county court of trials to

prosecute people accused of witchcraft in Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex counties of
colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693.

Leisler’s Rebellions

An uprising in late 17th century colonial New York, in which militia captain Jacob
Leisler seized control of lower New York from 1689 to 1691 in the midst of Britain's
"Glorious Revolution".
2. In the south there was a lack of education and church and life expectancy was short,
whereas in New England it was the opposite. There were more families and longer lives
lived.

3. One of the underlying causes of slavery, and its expansion in North America, was the
nature of the capitalist economic system itself. Slaves were paid very low wages to
ensure the slave owners made unusually high profits from the cultivation of cotton,
tobacco, and other labor-intensive agricultural products sold on the North American and
European markets.

4. Native-born African Americans contributed to the growing slave culture. They started
mixing the cultures in elements of speech, religion, and folkways. Off the islands of
South Carolina’s coast, Africans evolved a language with elements of English and
African dialect called Gullah. The ring shout, a dance Africans performed in Africa, were
brought from the slaves and contributed to the development of jazz. Other contributions
to the American culture by the Africans were the banjo and bongo drums.

5. When married, an English woman lost her maiden name and personal identity,
meaning she could not own property, file lawsuits, or participate in political life, even
when widowed. The role of wives was to raise and nurture healthy children and support
their husbands. Women taught basic reading and writing skills, and stayed in the kitchen
primarily.

6. From New England seaports such as Boston, Salem, Providence and New London, the
Yankees built an international trade, stretching to China by 1800. Much of the merchant
profits were reinvested in the textile and machine tools industries.
In religion, New England Yankees originally followed the Puritan tradition, as expressed
in Congregational churches

7. Most of the people around there were Quakers. They accepted no unordinary behavior,
and if something unusual happened they blamed someone with no proof, so they just
believed what they heard.