Glossary: The Origins of American Slavery
Glossary terms are listed in the order in which they appear.
Background Essay
| Coerced | forced |
| Atlantic System | A system of trade during the 18th and 19th centuries that involved Western Europe, West Africa and Central Africa, and North and South America. Major goods traded involved manufactured goods such as firearms and alcohol, slaves, and commodities such as sugar, molasses, tobacco, and cotton. |
| Execrable | horrific |
| Middle Passage | The part of the Atlantic slave trade where Africans were densely packed onto ships and transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. |
| Natural rights | Rights which belong to humans by nature and can only be justly abridged through due process. Examples are life, liberty, and property. |
| Gang system | A way of managing enslaved work on plantations in which planters or their overseers drove groups of enslaved persons, closely watched their work, and applied physical coercion to compel them to work faster. |
| Task system | A way of managing enslaved work on plantations where enslaved persons were often assigned specific tasks and allowed to stop working when they reached their goals. |
| Paternalistic | Making decisions for another person as if a parent, rather than allowing that person the freedom to make their own decisions and choices. |
Lesson and Activities
| Petition | A formal written request, typically to a government or government official. |
| Indentured servants | Men and women who signed a contract or were indentured to work for a certain number of years in return for transportation to the American colonies and food, clothing, and shelter once they arrived. After completion of their contract, they were given their freedom. |
| Codify | To officially compile into written law that must be followed. |
| Mulatto | A person of mixed African and European descent. |
| One hundred and fifty pounds | The pound was a unit of British money. One pound equaled 20 shillings or 240 pence. £150 was a very large sum of money for 1769 and is roughly equivalent to $36,000 in 2022. |
| Manumit | To release legally from slavery. |
| Wench | An insulting term for a woman. |
| Pamunky (Panmunkey) | Virginia Indian tribe in the coastal area of southeastern Virginia. The Pamunkey River is named for the tribe. |
| Countenance | Appearance |
| Waitingman | A person who waits on customers as in an inn or place of lodging or in the home of a family. |
| Endeavor | To try |
Extend Activity
| Indentured servitude | A system in which men and women signed a contract or were indentured to work for a certain number of years in return for transportation to the American colonies and food, clothing and shelter once they arrived. |
| Indenture | The contract signed by an indentured servant and their master as an agreement to provide a certain number of years of labor in return for passage to the American colonies and food, clothing and shelter once they arrived. |
| Chattel | Personal property |
| Mulatto | A person of mixed African and European descent. |
| Freedom dues | A gift of land and starting materials such as clothing or seeds from a master to a former indentured servant after their contract for labor was complete. |
| Staymaker | A person who makes corsets. |
| Mantuamaker | A person who makes women’s clothing. |
| Contrives | Delivers |
| Pistole | A Spanish gold coin. Colonists were not allowed to coin their own money and usually used foreign coins. In the mid-18th century, a pistole was worth slightly less than one pound. |
