Antiquated Terms

instant – meaning “of the same,” usually with reference to time, and especially days of the month; “the sixth instant” means “the sixth of this month”

lusty – strong or healthy

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Clothing

breeches – a pair of trousers that come to just below the knee

calico – a type of fabric made from cotton

cheridary (cherridery) – a cotton fabric from India

drugget – a coarse fabric made from wool

homespun – plain cloth woven at home

kersey – a type of cloth made from wool

ozenbridge (osnabrug) – a light, coarse fabric whose name comes from the German city of Osnabrück

petticoat – an underskirt worn beneath a skirt or dress

shalloon – lightweight fabric, often from wool, used as a liner

stockings – long socks that often covered the knees

worsted – a high quality wool yarn

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Indigenous Terminology

cacique – derived from the Taino word for leader; the Spanish used cacique to refer to the leaders of many Indigenous groups in the Americas

Dawnland – not usually used in colonial records, but is a decolonized way to speak of what is now referred to as New England

papoose – Algonquian word for “baby,” although often used in imprecise and insensitive ways

sachem – designation of the chief or head of a tribe or nation

sonksq – female sachem

squa – Algonquian word for “woman,” although often used derisively and in stereotyped ways

Turtle Island – not usually used in colonial records, but is often used by Native peoples to refer to North America, based on the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) emergence story

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Locational-Racial

Colonial records often obscure tribal origins of Native people who were stolen. Instead, they used imprecise locational-racial designations to indicate the rough area of origination, using colonial location names. What follows is representative, not comprehensive.

Carolina Indian – colonizer term for Indigenous people in or from the southeastern region of Turtle Island, or North America

Dutch Indian – colonizer term for Indigenous people in or from regions nominally claimed by the Dutch

French Indian – colonizer term for Indigenous people in or from regions nominally claimed by the French

Miskito Indians – the term used to refer to the Indigenous groups on the Mosquito Coast in Central America, who in the colonial era were both enslaved by and allied with the British

North American Indian – term used to refer to a Native person from any North American region

Spanish Indian – colonizer term for Indigenous people in or from regions nominally claimed by the Spanish

South American Indian – referring to a Native person from any South American region

Surinam (Surrinam) Indian – colonizer term for Indigenous people in or from the northern rim of South America

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Occupation

chandler – a maker or seller of candles; can also refer to a retailer of general goods

cooper – a maker of wooden vessels such as barrels

cordwainer – a person who makes shoes

lighterman – a person who works on a lighter, a boat used for loading and unloading ships that can’t reach a wharf

maltster – a person who makes malt, used for brewing beer or whiskey

sadler – a person who makes saddles

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Racial

Note: Although in the database project, we have chosen to generally not use these terms, we list them here as a point of information, recognizing that they are colonizer terms that have caused harm to Black and Indigenous peoples.

Black – English translation of “negro,” referring to dark-skinned people, most commonly from Africa or African-descended, but also applied to other people of color, including Natives

Christian – for the first few centuries of colonization, Europeans were often distinguished from other global populations by religious differences, such as Christian (vs. non-Christian). In many records, Christians were presumed to be white Europeans

East Indian – a colonizer term for enslaved people trafficked from the Indian Ocean or Asia

grif – a colonizer term in French colonial Louisiana that referred to children who had one Native American parent and one African parent

Indian – the most common word used in archival documents for Native peoples of the Americas

mestizo/mestiza – a colonizer term used in Spanish regions to denote a multi-racial Indigenous person

mulatto – a colonizer term to refer to a multi-racial person (usually either Black and white or Black and Indigenous); often used to erase Indigenous identity

mustee – a colonizer term to refer to a multi-racial Indigenous person (usually Native and white)

Negro – general racial term applied by colonizers to dark-skinned people, most commonly from Africa or African-descended, but also applied to other people of color, including Natives. Also synonymous with “slave” in the records at times

quadroon – a racialized term derived from Spanish and French terms that indicate one-quarter African ancestry; could also be applied to Native people

white – less common in some records, this term often referred to Europeans and European-descended people

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Regions and Geographies

East Indies – Indian and Pacific Ocean region, often with reference to European colonies there

Mosquito (Miskito) Coast – a region on the eastern shore of present day Nicaragua and Honduras, home to the Miskito Nation

Piscataqua – a region around the river of the same name, which divides present-day Maine and New Hampshire

West Indies – could refer to the Caribbean or even the entirety of the Americas; used by colonizers to distinguish from the East Indies

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Tribal

Note: Archival records generally did not consistently record tribal names. We are working on a full listing of tribal designations used in the records of this project.

 

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Slavery, Stealing, and Loss

abduction/stealing – any instance of an Indigenous person being taken against their will, whether during times of peace or war

apprentice – someone bound (often by a contract) to learn a particular trade; such positions could also contain elements of unfreedom and coercion in the cases of Native children and teens

captive – someone held against their will, whether as the result of an abduction or capture during warfare; the outcome of such captivity is sometimes not clear, although often captivity led to enslavement or servitude

criada/criado – Spanish term for servant

debt slavery – an assigned time of service due to debts owed to a creditor; can also be related to “peonage” (see below)

freedman – Black individuals who had been enslaved by the so-called “Five Civilized Tribes” in Oklahoma who, after the Civil War, were required by the U.S. government to be taken into those tribes as citizens

indenture – usually a term-limited contractual form of servitude that could be imposed on Native individuals or entered into quasi-voluntarily by parents, relatives, or individuals themselves

judicial enslavement – a term used by scholars to denote slavery imposed by courts or legal authorities, often as a punishment for a crime or indebtedness

nabori – Spanish  designation for an Indigenous servant or slave

peonage – an arrangement that is similar to debt servitude, in which a person is held and required to labor, sometimes for a small wage, but often in a way that financially obligates them to continue working off their debts (or be kept in bondage due to other family or legal situations)

servitude (ambiguous) – many of the records of Native enslavement refer to “servitude,” which could and often was often used for lifelong slavery.

slavery – in its most extreme (and usual) form, slavery for Africans and Natives alike was life-long and heritable (meaning children were also enslaved); also referred to as chattel slavery

unfree – a term often used by academics to refer generally to all conditions of not being free in some way, whether servitude, slavery, indenture, etc.