Terms Flashcards
(25 cards)
Bacon’s Rebellion
- 1676
- indentured servants began demanding their freedom
- led by Nathaniel Bacon
- against colonists to gain access to land and freedom
- outcome: shift from indentured servitude to slavery
- made more sense to import africans from a purely economic standpoint
- slaves couldn’t gain freedom after 7 years like indentured servants
Cotton Gin
- 1793
- Eli Whitney
- separated seeds from the fiber
- facilitated the spread of cotton production
- made it possible for upland cotton to be produced in a more seamless fashion
- the task of separation was labor intensive before
- could get cotton to market faster
- corresponding spread of slavery westward
Dual Revolution
- combined impact of the industrial revolution and french political revolution
- during 1780’s and done by 1840’s
- end of transatlantic slave trade contributed to a shift where slavery hardened and also assured slaves through law minimal treatment in terms of healthcare, food, clothing
- expansion of the american south as a place and slavery as an institution and cotton as an important part of the economy
- 1790’s marked the date when cotton took off in the south (made possible by the results of the revolution)
- led directly to napoleon’s decision to sell louisiana to US
- Territorial expansion by the americans because of French revolution
- Treaty of paris ending revolutionary war left borders of US in dispute
1808
- closing of the importation of slaves into the US in the constitution
- start to keep slaves as healthy as possible and domesticate them
- slavery turns into a positive good because it takes people who are inferior and exposes them to civilization
Gang System
- way of organizing labor of slaves in the field in which slaves worked as a group on a single task or varied tasks under the supervision of an overseer
- sun up to sun down
- most prevalent in cotton
- it was an aspect of slave production that grew with the expansion of cotton production
Haitian Revolution
- won’t be asked as an identification
- Haitians defeated the french army and made it the second independent republic of the americas
- following french revolution
Ideology of Race
- won’t be asked as an identification
- race is a social construct and so is racism
- didn’t exist at the start of slavery but used later to justify it
Indentured Servants
- original source of labor in a lot of colonies
- production of tobacco was initially based on the labor of english servants
- could gain freedom after a few years
- indentured servitude wasn’t a problem initially for landowners because life expectancy was low so people couldn’t live long enough to claim freedom
Indian Removal
- Jacksonian Indian removal act (1830)
- River of Dark Dreams
- subsequent displacement of the Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Cherokee tribes of the Southeast fulfilled the vision of a white nation
- Jackson said Indians living independently within states presented a major problem for state sovereignty (referred directly to the situation in Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama)
- act called for the removal of the Five Civilized Tribes from their home in the southeastern United States to land in the West, in present-day Oklahoma
Louisiana Purchase
- 1803
- sale of the entire louisiana territory to US
- French army had suffered a disaster at the hands of slaves of haiti
- French feared fighting with great britain would prevent them from occupying louisiana
- France needed money ($15 million sale)
- doubled size of US
- included mississippi river
- once louisiana was acquired, there was conflict over status of slavery in new territory
Missouri Compromise
- 1820
- Missouri compromise debate was one of those moments where people say the south became the south
- compromise over differences of slavery
- admit missouri as a slave state and admitting maine at the same time as a free state
- balanced senate with 12 free and 12 slave states
- congress drew a line decreeing that slavery was forever prohibited north of a certain line except Missouri even though it was above the line
Neighborhoods
- interpretation that slaves understood space as neighborhoods
- gave slaves their own space to do what they wished
Necessary Evil
- early post revolutionary period through early 19th century
- defensive
- it isn’t the best but it’s necessary now and will eventually die out
Positive Good
- affirmative rational
- to justify slavery during the existence of “all men are created equal”
- they are helping the blacks by civilizing them
- good christians
Sea Island (long-staple) Cotton
- grown during the colonial period mostly along sea isles of georgia and south Carolina
- very silky
- very easy to separate from seed
- people couldn’t figure out how to grow it outside the swampy land of the sea isles
Second Middle Passage
- time when slaves, because of expansion of cotton and ending of slave trade in 1808, were carried from this part of the south to the Mississippi and Alabama areas
- at its height during 1830’s and 40’s
Stono Rebellion
- 1739
- disagreement and rivalries among slaveholders was part of what gave the slaves an opportunity to rebel
- one of the biggest slave revolts in US
- epidemics of smallpox and yellow fever caused slaves insist upon better working conditions
- resulted in deaths of more than 60 people
- outcome: institution of new controls on slaves and reduction of saltwater slaves
Task System
- slaves worked on a set task
- more prevalent in rice
- worked until the task was finished
Three-Fifths Clause
- declared that for purposes of representation in Congress, enslaved blacks in a state would be counted as 3/5 of the number of white inhabitants of that state
- Article I, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution of 1787
Life of the southern white majority
- poor non-slaveholding whites
- not well educated
- inferior to slaveholders
- farmed for themselves and their families to survive
- violence (Gouge and Bite)
- didn’t leave behind as much first hand info as the slaveholders
- ¾ of the southern white families owned no slaves on the eve of the civil war
- white majority felt like slavery provided them with an insulation from capitalism and participating in the market society
- there were yeoman farmers who owned slaves (usually less than ten and worked along side them)
Why and when were southern colonies founded?
-the establishment of southern colonies grew out of europeans’ desire to step away from other empires in terms of trade
-south was the part most closely linked to the rest of the world in terms of commerce, agriculture, and slavery
-Chesapeake: production of tobacco was initially based on the labor of english servants
-Low-country: rice and indigo production was basis
-most landowners in low country had ties to Barbados
and brought their slaves with them
-early 17th century
What were major crops of southern colonies and states?
- Chesapeake: tobacco
- low-country: rice and indigo
- English industrial revolution encouraged spread of cotton production
Why did African slaves replace European indentured servants in Chesapeake?
- as settlement became established, more and more indentured servants gained freedom
- price of tobacco began to fall to disastrous levels because freed people could grow their own so landowners tried to keep plantation labor under their control longer
- Bacon’s Rebellion encouraged a shift
- made more sense to import africans from a purely economic standpoint because they couldn’t gain freedom after 7 years like indentured servants
- greatly reduced the need for one group of english people to exploit another
When, how, why did cotton become king in the old south?
- English Industrial Revolution encouraged the spread of cotton production and slavery
- 1790’s
- new inventions helped support production
- it could be put on the market quickly and booted the nation’s economy
- Southern states became chief suppliers of cotton for English revolution
- expansion of slavery and cotton production was a national project promoted by the gov