Chapter 4 Section 1 Governing the Colonies Terms and People legislature – a group of people who have the power to make laws bill of rights – a written

Chapter 4 Section 1

Governing the Colonies

Terms and People

• legislature – a group of people who have the power to make laws

• bill of rights – a written list of freedoms that a government promises to protect

• habeas corpus – the principle that a person cannot be held in prison without being charged with a specific crime

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Terms and People (continued)

• freedom of the press – the right of journalists to publish the truth without restriction or penalty

• libel – the publishing of statements that damage a person’s reputation

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How did English ideas about government and trade affect the colonies?

All English colonies shared a common English heritage, and that heritage included the idea that citizens had political rights.

England also promoted the theory of mercantilism—that colonies existed to benefit their parent country—but some colonists began to question that theory.

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In 1215, English nobles forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, which was the first document to place restrictions on an English ruler’s power.

The rights listed in the Magna Carta were at first limited to nobles.

Over time, the rights were extended to all English citizens.

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The Magna Carta:

• limited the monarch’s right to levy taxes without consulting the nobles.

• protected the right to property.

• guaranteed the right to trial by jury.

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Parliament

Great Council

• Under the Magna Carta, nobles formed a Great Council to advise the king, and this body developed into the Parliament.

Two-House Legislature

• Parliament was a two-house legislature.

• The House of Lords was made up of nobles who inherited their titles.

• Members of the House of Commons were elected, but only a few rich men and landowners had the right to vote.

Taxes • Parliament’s greatest power was that no monarch could raise taxes without its consent.

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In the 1640s, power struggles between King Charles I and Parliament led to the English Civil War.

Parliamentary forces eventually won the war, executed the king, and briefly ruled England.

King Charles I Parliament

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In 1660, the monarchy was restored, but Parliament retained its traditional rights.

In 1688’s Glorious Revolution, Parliament removed King James II from the throne and invited his daughter Mary and her husband William to rule.

A condition of their rule, however, was that they sign the English Bill of Rights.

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The English Bill of Rights:

• restated many of the rights granted by the Magna Carta.

• upheld habeas corpus.

• required that Parliament meet regularly.

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The legal rights that Englishmen had won over the centuries led the colonists to expect a voice in their government.

By 1760, every British colony in North America had a legislature of some kind, although the legislatures sometimes clashed with the colonial governors appointed by the king.

Colonial Governors

Appointed by the King

Colonial Legislatures

Most were elected

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British and colonial governments were similar in some ways, but they had important differences.

Great Britain American Colonies

King Governor

• Inherited executive power • Appointed by and served the king but paid by the colonial legislature

Parliament Colonial Legislatures

House of Lords•Aristocrats with inherited titles also inherited legislative power

Upper House or Council•Appointed by governor•Prominent colonists but without inherited titles

House of Commons•Elected by men who held significant amounts of property•Less than 1/4 of British men qualified to vote

Lower House or Assembly•Elected by men who held property•About 2/3 of colonial men qualified to vote

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In the colonies, 50 to 75 percent of white men could vote, which was a far greater percentage than in England.

• English women, even those who owned property.

• Native Americans.

• Africans, whether free or enslaved.

But the following groups could not vote:

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Another important right for American colonists was the freedom of the press.

In England, writers who criticized the government were punished, even if what they said was true.

However, a trial in the colonies granted writers new freedom to publish the truth.

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John Peter Zenger, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal, was charged with libel for printing articles that criticized the governor.

Jurors found Zenger not guilty because the articles he published were based on facts.

FACTS

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The Zenger case helped establish the principle that a democracy depends on well-informed citizens.

Therefore, the press has a right and a responsibility to keep the public informed of the truth.

Today, freedom of the press is recognized as a basic American liberty.

Freedom of

the Press

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Under the theory of mercantilism, colonies existed in order to enrich their parent country.

In 1651, the English Parliament passed the first of several Navigation Acts, laws designed to funnel the colonies’ wealth to England.

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While colonists maintained some important rights, they felt burdened by Britain’s economic policies.

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Pros and Cons of the Navigation Acts

Pros • Colonial traders had a sure market for their goods in England.

• The law contributed to a booming shipbuilding industry in New England.

Cons • Many colonists began to resent the Acts because they thought the Acts favored English merchants at the colonists’ expense.

• Some colonists thought they could make more money if they were free to sell to foreign markets themselves.

• Some colonists smuggled goods to foreign markets to avoid the Navigation Acts.

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SECTION 2- Colonial Society

Terms and People

• extended family – a family that includes, in addition to the parents and their children, other members such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins

• apprentice – someone who learns a trade by working for someone in that trade for a certain period of time

• gentry – the upper class of colonial society

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Terms and People (continued)

• middle class – in colonial society, a class made up of small planters, independent farmers, and artisans

• indentured servant – someone who signed a contract to work from 4 to 10 years in the colonies for anyone who would pay for his or her ocean passage to the Americas

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In colonial America, many people lived with their extended families.

Most colonists lived on farms, where having a large family was an advantage because many people were needed to do all the work.

Most farms were isolated, so it was important for families to work well together.

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In farmhouses, which were made of wood and had few rooms, people used planks or mattresses of corncobs for beds.

In the New England and Middle colonies, winters were cold, and often the only source of heat was a fireplace in the kitchen.

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In the colonies, men and women generally took on different roles.

If men were not farmers, they worked as carpenters, coopers, butchers, wheelwrights, or in other trades.

A husband and father was the leader of his family, and he controlled his family’s income and property.

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The lives of colonial women were different from the lives of American women today.

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A colonial woman often bore her husband many children, and childcare took up much of her time.

Her other domestic responsibilities included cooking, laundry, making cloth and sewing clothes, gardening, tending animals, and preserving food.

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Other Roles of Women

On Farms • A woman might help plow, pitch hay, or do other chores, especially if she lived on the western frontier.

In Towns • A woman might keep a shop or an inn or work as a baker, a printer, or even an undertaker.

In Public Life

• Because they could not vote or hold office, women had little or no role in public life.

• But on the western and southern frontiers, once in a while women participated in government in an advisory capacity.

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If they survived infancy, colonial children had seven years before they were required to work.

Children often played games such as hopscotch and jump rope, and they played with toys such as homemade dolls and tops.

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By the age of seven, most children did household or farm chores, or, if they were poor, they might become servants in other families.

When they got older, boys learned how to farm from their fathers, while girls learned how to keep house from their mothers.

Boys who were learning trades began as apprentices and then worked independently.

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In Europe, land was the main measure of wealth, but only a small number of people owned it.

America had land in abundance, and many European colonists moved there because they hoped to own land of their own.

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In Europe, there was not much movement among social and economic classes.

But in colonial America, there was more social equality among settlers—at least among white settlers.

Still, there were many class distinctions.

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The Gentry

Size of Group • The gentry were few in number, but they were the most powerful people.

Occupations • The gentry included wealthy planters, merchants, ministers, royal officers, successful lawyers and, often, prosperous artisans.

Lifestyle • People in this group often had luxurious homes filled with expensive furniture.

Public Office • Because many official jobs paid no salary, few but the gentry could afford to hold office.

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The Middle Class

Size of Group • The great majority of European colonists were middle class and were neither rich nor poor.

Occupations • Men in the middle class were small planters, independent farmers, and artisans.

Ethnicities • The middle class was mostly white, but some of its members were of African descent.

Public Office • Middle-class men could vote, and a few held public office.

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The growth of the middle class gave the poor something to hope for and work for.

In this way, the colonies were different from England and the rest of Europe.

In America, people could acquire property and move up the social scale.

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Indentured Servants

Countries of Origin

• In the 1600s, most indentured servants came from England.

• In the 1700s, a growing number came from Ireland and Germany.

Status • Indentured servants and farmhands were just above enslaved Africans on America’s social scale.

Rights • Indentured servants were bound to obey their masters, and they had few, if any, rights.

• Those who disobeyed could be whipped, or time might be added to their service.

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At the end of a term, an indentured servant received clothes, tools, and 50 acres of land.

About 1 indentured servant in 10 became a prosperous landowner, and another 1 in 10 became an artisan.

The others either returned to their country of origin or joined a class of landless, poor whites.

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In 1763 almost half of the colonial population came from Africa, but very few African Americans were free.

During the first census in 1790, there were 60,000 free people of African ancestry and 757,000 enslaved people of African ancestry in the colonies.

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Even in the South, free African Americans were allowed to own property, and they also could become slaveholders.

But most African American property owners were not allowed to vote or sit on juries.

Some free blacks purchased enslaved relatives and set them free.

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SECTION 3-Slavery in the Colonies

Terms and People

• triangular trade – a three-way trade between the colonies, the islands of the Caribbean, and Africa

• racism – the belief that one race is superior or inferior to another

• slave codes – strict laws that restricted the rights and activities of slaves

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How did slavery develop in the colonies and affect colonial life?

Spanish and Portuguese settlers were the first to bring enslaved Africans to the Americas.

Slavery spread to the colonies of other European countries, where it became a regular part of trade and provided cheap labor to Southern plantations.

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The British, Dutch, and French entered the slave trade.

In time, English colonists—especially from New England—were actively shipping enslaved Africans across the Atlantic.

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Slave traders set up posts along the African coast.

Africans who lived on the coast made raids into the interior, seeking captives to sell to the Europeans.

More than 10 million enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas between the 1500s and the 1800s.

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Once they arrived at the coasts, captives were traded for guns and other goods.

Then they were sent across the Atlantic Ocean on a brutal voyage known as the Middle Passage.

Half of the captives died on forced marches to the coast, some of which were as long as 300 miles.

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To increase their profits, some slave-ship captains crammed the maximum number of captives on board.

As a result of the foul conditions, 15 to 20 percent of enslaved Africans died or committed suicide during the Middle Passage.

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In the Americas, healthy enslaved Africans were auctioned off, and families often were separated.

About 500,000 enslaved Africans ended up in British North America.

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By about 1700, slave traders in the British colonies had developed a regular routine, known as the triangular trade.

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Triangular Trade

First Leg • New England traders sailed to the Caribbean islands, where they traded fish and lumber for sugar and molasses.

• The ships then sailed back to New England, where colonists used the sugar and molasses to make rum.

Second Leg

• New England traders sailed to West Africa, where they traded rum and guns for slaves.

Third Leg

• New England traders then sailed to the Caribbean islands, where they traded slaves for more molasses.

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Although the triangular trade was illegal under the Navigation Acts, many New England merchants violated the rules because it made them wealthy.

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The first enslaved Africans in the colonies may have been treated as servants, and some eventually were freed.

But as the need for cheap labor grew, colonies made slavery permanent.

Some colonies tried to ban slavery, but it eventually became legal in all the colonies.

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Why did slavery take root in the colonies?

• The plantation system led the southern economy to depend on slavery.

• Planters preferred slaves because while indentured servants were freed after their terms were over, slaves were slaves for life.

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Not every African in America was a slave, but slavery came to be restricted to people of African descent, and slavery was thus linked to racism.

Most English colonists thought they were superior to Africans.

They thought it was their duty to convert Africans to Christianity and European ways.

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There were so many slaves in the colonies that whites began to worry about slave revolts.

The first serious slave revolt took place in 1663 in Gloucester, Virginia, and others soon followed.

ColonistsEnslaved Africans

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Colonial authorities wrote slave codes that said enslaved people could not:

• meet in large numbers or own weapons.

• leave a plantation without permission.

• learn to read and write.

Slave codes also said that masters who killed slaves could not be tried for murder.

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The new codes did not stop resistance.

Revolts continued to flare up until slavery itself ended in 1865.

In 1739, 20 white colonists were killed during a slave revolt in South Carolina.

Slave Codes

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Lives of Enslaved Africans

In the North

• Only 10 percent of the enslaved population lived north of Maryland.

• Northern slaves worked as blacksmiths, house servants, or farm laborers.

• Over time, they might buy their freedom.

In the South

• On rice plantations in South Carolina, slaves kept the customs of West Africa.

• They made African grass baskets and spoke Gullah, a dialect that blended English and several African languages.

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African culture influenced American culture:

• Craftsworkers in cities used African styles of quilts, furniture, and other objects.

• African drums and banjos became part of American music.

• African folk tales became part of American culture.

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Documents

Chapter 4 Section 1 Governing the Colonies Terms and People legislature – a group of people who have the power to make laws bill of rights – a written