Bellwork

• In an earlier lesson, we discussed that Virginia already began using indentured servants for labor. Do you think that using indentured servants may have affected the later use of slaves in the south? What do you think the difference between an indentured servant and slave is?

American History

Section 5, Unit 2Southern Colonies

Objectives

• Map where the southern colonies are located• Identify the cultural characteristics of these

colonies• Explain how agriculture became the main

economic force in these southern colonies• Identify why indentured servitude began to

end and how slavery- along racial lines- formed after Bacon’s Rebellion.

The Chesapeake

• Within 25 years of Jamestown’s founding, Virginia was a thriving colony with a population of 2,500.

• Tobacco fueled the colony, with production rising to about 50,000 lbs in 1618 to more than 1 million lbs in the late 1630’s.

• The promise of huge profits led many wealthy Englishmen to establish a colony in the Chesapeake– the land surrounding the Chesapeake Bay.

Chesapeake Bay

House of Burgesses

• Within 25 years of Jamestown, the Virginia Company established the House of Burgesses. It was the first elected assembly of representatives in North America and it’s first meeting was in Jamestown.

House of Burgesses

• It was established to encourage English craftsmen to settle in North America and to make conditions more agreeable for its’ current inhabitants.

• Between the House and the beliefs of wealth, Virginia began to grow even more so overtime.

Cecilius Calvert• Cecilius Calvert became the

owner and proprietor of millions of acres of the upper Chesapeake Bay thanks to Charles I.

• He created a colony and named it Maryland, after Charles’ French wife, Henrietta Maria.

• As proprietor, Calvert was free to dispose of the land and to govern– within guidelines– as he wished.

Calvert's Goals

• Calvert wanted to create a haven for fellow Roman Catholics in a largely Protestant England and America.

• However, he also hoped to make money. – Because there were not enough Catholic

immigrants to America to make Maryland profitable, he opened his colony to Protestants.

– Overtime, Protestants outnumbered Catholics in this once Catholic-only colony.

Question: How do you think too many Protestants would affect the colony?

Toleration Acts

• In 1649, Calvert passed The Toleration Act of 1649, which guaranteed religious freedom to all Christians.

...no person or persons...professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth be anyways troubled, Molested or discountenanced for or in respect of his or her religion nor in the free exercise thereof within this Province... —Maryland Toleration Act, 1649

Toleration Acts

• The Acts created the first legal limitations on hate speech in the world. – It made it a crime for anyone to blaspheme the

trinity or divinity of Jesus. • It allowed for the freedom of worship, but

punished anyone who denied the divinity of Jesus.

Toleration Acts

• The Toleration Act would set a precedent for future laws concerning Free Speech (such as the First Amendment) and separation of church and state.– While the Toleration Acts did not secure religious

freedom– and while it included severe punishments– it was the first law to predate the Enlightenment that guaranteed at least some form of religious freedom.

Population

• Catholic and Protestant settlers in Maryland began to follow Virginia’s lead and devoted much of their land to the production of tobacco. – As a result, the cultures of the areas became quite

distinct in the Chesapeake.

Population

• Most white colonists in the Chesapeake came as indentured servants. – Many came because they could not find work in

England. – However, not all came willingly. Some people-

including children- were kidnapped off the streets of London to meet the demand for labor.

– By the 1700’s, England also sent almost 30,000-50,000 convicts to work in the Chesapeake.

Population• Of the colonists who came as indentured

servants, some 75% were men or boys between 15-24 years old.

• In 1704, Maryland had a population of men that was three times as large as women. Because of the population differences, most men were never married.

Indentured servant cutting wood.

Death and Population

• High death rates also heavily affected the population. Throughout the 1600’s, typhoid, malaria, and other diseases ravaged the colonies. Up to 55% of those born in the Chesapeake died before age 20.

• However, life expectancy improved near the 18th century as the number of native-born colonists- with better immunity- began to increase.

Effects of high death rates

• Question: What effect might high death rates have on marriage in the Chesapeake?

• The high death rates gave rise to family patterns very different than those in New England. New England had low death rates, meaning that most people only married once.

Death rates

• In the Chesapeake, however, one partner in most marriages died within 7 or 8 years of marrying and, most of the time, the surviving partner remarried.

• As a result, most families included stepparents, stepsiblings, half siblings, and even orphans of dead relatives, which was very different from the New England-style family.

Rural Society

• The vast majority of colonists in the Chesapeake lived on widely scattered farms and plantations.

• They produced tobacco for export and grew or made many of the things they needed.

• Away from the coasts, poor settlers mostly grew corn and vegetables, kept a some domestic animals, and hunted.

Society

• Most large plantations were near the many rivers that flow into the Chesapeake Bay.

• Originally, English trading ships stopped at the planters docks to collect tobacco and deliver goods.

• However, Scottish traders began to set up stores elsewhere and would trade tobacco.

Towns

• Because most traders/planters did not have to go to a central location to trade, towns did not grow as large.

• By 1750, the only large town was Baltimore, Maryland.

• Without towns, the Chesapeake was slow to develop a substantial class of independent artisans and shopkeepers.

Education

• Because of the lack of towns, education was hindered.

• Education was left to individual families who either taught their own children or hired tutors.

• Wealthy families ensured their children were educated, but did not help support schooling for others.

William Berkeley

Education (cont.)

• However, the culture of the Chesapeake may have had a role to play as well. In fact, in 1671, Virginia Governor William Berkley proudly claimed to English government that Virginia had “no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these [for a] hundreds years. – Many of those in the Chesapeake believed that

schools made ordinary people “unfit” for their “station” in life

Question

• Who are indentured servants? • Did all indentured servants come to America

willingly?

Free indentured Servants

• A lack of schooling, however, did not stop colonists from questioning authority.

• Virginia was home to an increasing number of free indentured servants, who would soon struggle to afford to live in the colonies.

Tobacco Prices stumble

• In 1660, the prices of tobacco fell sharply and, because tobacco sold so low, most free indentured servants could not afford to buy their own land.

• Many of them were forced to rent land or work as wage laborers for wealthy planters.

• Landless laborers and small landowners grew increasingly discontented.

Violence

• The workers were in debt, taxes were high, and they saw their legislature doing nothing to help them.

• This discontent erupted in violence in 1675. – Many poor farmers and laborers, believing more land

will help solve their problems, moved westward in Virginia to gain more land.

– However, this land was guaranteed to the Powhatans in a 1646 treaty. However, the treaty did not stop settlers from moving onto Native lands.

Violence (cont.) • When the settlers moved onto Native lands,

they killed a group of friendly Susquehannocks and, when no compensation was made, the Susquehannocks attacked outlying plantations.

• The colonists made a call to Virginia Governor Berkeley and the House of Burgesses to go to war with the Natives.

Tension grows

• When Berkeley refused to go to war with the Natives, farmers gathered around at the report of a new raiding party (a group who would attack the Natives).

• They would soon be led to action by a man named Nathaniel Bacon.

Nathaniel Bacon• Nathaniel Bacon, a young

planter and part of the governors council, believed it was necessary to attack the Natives in retaliation.

• He formed a following and small militia, mostly made up of indentured servants, discontented laborers, and enslaved Africans.

Bacon’s Rebellion

• Although Berkeley ordered that no one attack the Natives, Bacon’s group moved south and attacked the Susquehannock. They killed most of the villagers and burned the village.

Bacon’s Rebellion

• When the group returned to Jamestown, they discovered that Berkeley had called for new elections in the Burgesses to better solve the Native problem. – The house had enacted a few new reforms (which

Bacon did not attend), which limited the powers of the governor and restored suffrage rights to landless freemen (voting rights). However, the reforms did not quell Bacon and his men, who wanted more action against the Natives.

Bacon’s Rebellion (cont.)

• After the passage of these laws, Bacon arrived with 500 followers to Jamestown to demand that he be allowed to lead a militia against the Native Americans.

• The governor continued to refuse to yield. – When Bacon had his men aim

their weapons at Berkeley, Berkeley “bar[ed] his breast” to Bacon and told Bacon to shoot him himself.

Bacon’s Rebellion (cont.)

• Because the governor could not be moved, Bacon instead had his men aim their guns at the assembled burgesses, who quickly granted Bacon the right to have his militia.

• By 1676, Bacon and his army of settlers had begun to randomly attack Natives on the frontier land, but were still not fully satisfied.

Bacon’s Rebellion• In 1676, Bacon and his army issues the

“Declaration of the People of Virginia”, which criticized Berkeley’s administration in detail and accused him of:– Levying unfair taxes– Appointing friends to high positions– And failing to protect frontier settlers from Natives

• In response, Bacon began to attack Natives, wealthy plantations, and those who assisted the Natives.

Bacon’s Rebellion• After months of conflict

with Berkeley’s administration (and the English militia that was there), Bacon’s forces of 300-500 men moved to Jamestown.

• They burned the colonial capital in late-1676.

• Berkeley attempted to retaliate, but being outnumbered, Berkeley retreated across the river.

Bacon’s Rebellion

• The English eventually sent extra forces to quell Bacon’s Rebellion, but by the time they arrived, the rebellion had ended with the death of Bacon, who died of dysentery a month after burning Jamestown.

• The English would stem any further rebellion and ultimately ordered Berkeley to return to England.

Causes and Effects of Bacons’ Rebellion

Causes• High taxes• Unfair social standings

(laborers and indentured servants could not pay off debts)

• Low tobacco prices made paying off debts difficult

• Reluctance of Virginia’s government to attack the Natives and expand westward

Effects• The House of Burgesses

would quietly cut taxes and open Indian lands to colonists

• Bacon’s Rebellion may have caused a hardening of racial tensions between whites and blacks.

Slavery• While Bacon’s Rebellion

was short-lived, it had one far reaching effect: it strengthened the move from indentured labor to slave labor.

• More indentured servants ultimately meant more discounted freed servants (once they paid their debts).

Slavery

• Slaves, however, did not pose this problem. • Slaves were property and could be freely

traded between owners. • Slave status was also hereditary, meaning that

the children of slaves were also slaves.– Unless a owner released their slaves (or a slave

ran away), they normally could not become free.

Slavery

• Slaves were becoming more plentiful around the late 17th century and they were cheaper than indentured servants.

• As employment opportunities increased in England, fewer people were willing to become indentured servants. – However, slaves would soon replace the need for

those servants.

Effect of Bacon’s Rebellion• The rebellion most likely hastened the

hardening of racial lines associated with slavery.• The belief among planters at the time was that

they may not be able to control poor white people, but they may be able to control poor blacks more easily.

Growth of Racism

• This belief system would, overtime, soon turn into a full-fledged racist belief system of white superiority. • Consider this: when you

dehumanize a group long enough, it becomes easy to see how another group could see themselves as superior.

• In another words, they might be slaves because they “deserve it” or are simply “lesser”.

Brief History of Slavery

• The first Africans brought to the Chesapeake were indentured servants and, after they paid their debt, where free to work for themselves.

• However, by 1640, some Africans were now becoming slaves rather than servants.– This trend would only increase overtime.

The Atlantic Slave Trade

• During the early years of the slave trade, African traders sold criminals and war captives to European colonists.

• However, as the demand for plantation workers, in both Spanish America and British America increased, African raiders moved farther inland to capture slaves. – They would raid entire villages and move them

from farther inland Africa to the western seaboard.

The Atlantic Slave Trade

• Between 1500-1600, the Atlantic Slave Trade became a massive enterprise that transported nearly 300,000 slaves to the Americas. By 1870, that number rose to 9.5 million Africans shipped to the Americas. – Only about 5% of all slaves traded ended up in the

United States.

• Video: Crash Course history on the Atlantic Slave Trade– Questions: How did slavery change over time? How did

Europeans begin to base slavery on skin color?

Middle Passage• African slave trading

occurred in a triangular fashion.

• The main leg of the trade, the Middle Passage, was the direct route of slaves to the Americas, primarily to the West Indies and the Chesapeake area.

Slave Experience

• Many captives killed themselves before actually being shipped off.

• For those who did not, they often suffocated, died of disease, or experienced violence on the ships they were on

• Conditions were generally horrific, as people were stacked on top of one another and could barely move during the entire trip.

Olaudah Equiano

• Olaudah Equiano was a kidnapped African who experienced first hand the Middle Passage and it’s horrors.– (we will see this on the

next slide)

• Overtime, he did earn his freedom and became an early abolitionist of slavery.

Description of the Middle Passage

“There I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life. With the loathesomeness of the stench and the crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything. I now wished for the last friend, Death, to relieve me; Soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables and on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands and laid me across the windlass and tied my feet while the other flogged me severely. I had never experienced anything of this kind before. If I could have gotten over the nettings, I would have jumped over the side, but I could not. The crew used to watch very closely those of us who were not chained down to the decks, lest we should leap into the water. I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating.”-- Equiano

Question

• How would the cruelty of the Middle Passage been preparing captives for the life of slavery in the Americas?

Abolitionists

• Equiano was not the only person to speak out against slavery.

• Other blacks and some white colonists denounced slavery– these people were referred to as Abolitionists (because they wanted slavery abolished).

Quakers• The abolitionist movement

did not become a force until a sect of protestants- the Quakers (or Religious Society of Friends)- took a public stand against slavery in 1688.

• They published an anti-slavery pamphlet called The Selling of Joseph, in which they described all men as equal, being the “Sons of Adam”.

Quakers

• By the mid-1700’s, most Quakers condemned slavery.

• Quakers even urged that those who do not agree with slavery to no longer buy products made by slaves. – The belief was that with enough economic

incentive, slaveholders would eventually stop using slave labor.

Slave Codes

• Despite the protests, slavery was practiced in all English colonies.

• As Africans became more numerous after 1660, they were required by law to be treated inferior to whites. – These would be known as

the slave codes.

Purpose of Slave Codes

• The slave codes were designed to prevent escape and discourage revolt.

• The codes forbade slaves to meet together, leave the plantation, learn to read or write, or own weapons.

• The codes even protected slave masters that killed a slave while “correcting” their behavior.

Effective of the Codes

• The harsh rules did not entirely prevent rebellion

• New slaves often ran away and there were some uprisings:– In 1739, slaves killed some 30 whites before a

militia quelled the uprising. The slaves who survived were put to death in harsh ways.

– Uprsings often lead to harsher conditions for slaves and new methods of controlling the slaves.

The Colonies

• Slavery would continue to be a issue surrounding the southern colonies for another century.

• However, overtime, many colonies would soon become less dependent on slavery as their economies grew out of requiring agricultural work and instead focus on trade.

Review Objectives

• Map where the southern colonies are located• Identify the cultural characteristics of these

colonies• Explain how agriculture became the main

economic force in these southern colonies• Identify why indentured servitude began to

end and how slavery- along racial lines- formed after Bacon’s Rebellion.

Questions

• If you have any questions, please ask now.

Next Lesson

• In the next lesson, we are going to discuss post-restoration colonies.

Review1. What was the effect of Bacon’s Rebellion on slavery and racial

tensions? 2. What were conditions like for slaves while they were being

transported to the Americas? Describe them. 3. If the Chesapeake had more towns and required less

agricultural labor, do you think they would still require slaves? Why or why not?

4. Why did Bacon’s rebellion occur– what were the protesters upset about?

5. Name at least two benefits of slave labor that made it more feasible than indentured servitude. Explain each benefit.

6. Why did the population of the Chesapeake have little formal education? How did wealthy families solve this for themselves?

7. Why did the Quakers oppose slavery? What were the people who opposed slavery called as a whole?