What did people think of motion, velocity, and acceleration before the seventeenth century?

Answer 1

Decarte first defined the general concept of position within three dimensional space with his "Cartesian coordinates". Galileo provided the first mathematical definition of instantaneous velocity. Prior to this velocity was only definable in terms of finite displacements over a finite period of time (what today is called average velocity). Newton provide the first mathematically rigorous definition of acceleration as the time derivative of velocity. He had to invent calculus for this.

Answer 2

Not much. Since all earthly visible motion is limited by friction, the existence of friction as a separate force wasn't understood. And at the slow velocities of things moving in those days, acceleration wasn't really an issue. Not until Newton's mechanics was there any real understanding of what was going on.