Colonial America Lesson Plan 1

First two and half centuries rural society 90% lived in countryside

Included a number of bustling seaport cities Boston (north) to Charleston (south) day laborers and craftsmen.

Northern Colonies more urban - industries diversified - small industries besides farming included things such as fur trading, blacksmithing, shipbuilding, and the manufacture of products such as rum, molasses and textiles from raw materials from the Southern United States Southern Colonies agriculture food and cash crops (tobacco, rice, cotton)

People self-employed independent farmers, artisans or host of urban retail trades and professions.

Due to surplus of resources and heavy demand for labor - it became difficult to keep wage earners on the job constantly moving on to frontier communities where pay was higher or else they were taking up land and becoming independent farmers.

17th Century -18th century - Satisfy rising demand of labor indentured servants and slavery.

Three types of Labor Indentured Slave Free

IndenturedInitially slavery was not the dominants system of labor for the colonies. It was indentured Servitude.

50-66% of white immigrants came to the colonies under these contracts.

Three sources of indentured servitude: Men, women and children whose articles of servitude were signed before leaving the Old World. The redeptioners so called free-willers- who agreed to reimburse their passage money by selling their labor after coming to the colonies. Convicts criminals convicted of capital crime in England could be transported in lieu of a death sentence.

Young unskilled males usually had a contract that lasted 2-7 years. Children who were indentured were expected to serve until they turned 21. Some workers were convicts or vagabonds sentenced to service for up to 14 years by the English courts.

ConditionsMasters were expected to feed, clothe and house servants. The reality, however, could be quite different. Indentured servants were treated the same as, and in some cases worse than, slaves. Female servants were the victims of sexual exploitation. 2 out of 5 of indentured servants died before completing their term.Living and working conditions were horrible, and servants who tried to escape could have their term of service extended.

Once servants completed his contract, s/he was freed they were given land, tools, seed, and animals. However, they did not receive voting rights. Some became farmers or artisans, other became discontented rural class of poor whites or became casual labor in port cities.

SlaverySlavery was introduced by the Spanish into the West Indies after Columbus discovery of the AmericasSpanish and Portuguese expanded African slavery into Central and South American after enslaved Indians began dying off.1619 the first recorded introduction of African slaves into the colonies was in the settlement of Jamestown (20 slaves were purchased)

By 1800 10 to 15 million blacks had been transported as slaves to the Americas.It is estimated that Africa lost 50 million humans at the hands of slave traders and plantation owners of modern Western Europe and Americas.

Slaves resorted to revolts in the 13 colonies and later in the southern U.S. 250 insurrections have been documented; between 1780 and 1864. 91 African-Americans were convicted of insurrection in Virginia alone. First revolt in what became the United States took place in 1526 at a Spanish settlement near the mouth of the Pee Dee River in South Carolina. Slave Revolts would lead plantation owners to develop a series of slave laws/codes which restricted the movement of the slaves. Slaves were not taught to read or write Restricted to the plantation Slaves could not congregate after dark Slaves could not possess any type of firearm A larger slave population than white in some statesSlave owners wanted to keep their slaves ignorant of the outside world because learning about life beyond the plantation could lead to more slave revolts and wanting to escape

Free Labor Made up of immigrant artisans and mechanics who were able to pay their own passage to the new world or of bound servants who have served their time as indentured servitude. Free labor carpenters, masons, shipwrights, sail-makers, tanners, weaver, shoemakers, tailors, smiths, coopers (barrel makers), glazers (glass makers) and printers.Skilled crafts first applied their craft independently but as centers of populations grew, master workmen set up small retail shops and employed journeymen and apprentices who worked for wages. Close to the 18th century journeymen began to form local trade societies early formations of the first unions.

Labor/Class LawsBecause of high demand for labor wages were high

Tudor Industrial Code brought over from England. Behind these codes was the idea low wages ensured continued productivity and decreased the likelihood of immoral conduct.

Principles of code included:1. Compulsory labor for all able-bodied persons;2. To protect the workingmen and to check unemployment, it restrained wrongful dismissal of employees.3. It provided for the fixing of maximum wages by justice of the peace according to the plenty or scarcity of the times4. It declared illegal any combination of workmen to secure higher wages (i.e., unions)5. It provided that no workman was to depart before the end of his agrees term, and then he was required to produce letters testimonial to show that he was free to hire himself out.6. To assure an adequate supply of skilled workmen and good quality in the manufactured product it set a term of apprenticeship of seven years; 18th century amendments to the code further attempted to maintain the skilled labor supply by restricting the emigration of artisans.

Every American colonies made some attempts to apply the principles of the Tudor Industrial Code.All colonies adopted the principle of compulsory labor. (early laws punished idleness by whipping or fees)

1630 General Court of Massachusetts wage ceiling of two shillings a day for carpenters, joiners, bricklayers, sawyers, thatchers and other artisans; eighteen pence for all day laborers. Also created a provisions that all workmen shall worke the whole day, alloweing convenient tyme for food and rest. (sic).

1647 Rhode Island Labor Code Any artificer or laborer who agreed to finish any specific task should not part from the same. Until it is finished. Penalty was payment of five pounds

1661 Maryland law declared that all servants hired for wages were liable to be taken up as runaways if found ten miles away from home without permission from their master and provided a penalty of ten days service for every day of absence.

Laws also defined a workday as ten hours a day.

The court further declared that anyone who gave wine or strong liquor to any workingman, except in the case of emergency, would be fined twenty shillings for each offense.

Sumptuary Laws - Banned people of lower class form dressing in garbs of gentlemen1634 - General Court of Massachusetts banned the poor from wearing clothing that would dishonor God and was altogether unsuitable to their poverty wearing gold or silver laces or buttons Woolen or silk or linen with any lace on it points at their knees new fashions from the old world Wear great boots Women silk or tiffany scarfsLaw became was no longer enforced by the 18th Century

Workers, Politics and RevolutionWorkers lacked basic political rights right to vote was restricted to property ownersThe protest over the lack of basic rights combined with the opposition of English-rule led many workers to sympathetic towards the independence cause.Small tradesmen, artisans and mechanics played an important role in promoting the revolutionary cause in colonies like Massachusetts.The popular party in Boston (led by Sam Adams) was largely made up of warfinger (wharf operators), shipwrights, bricklayers, weavers and tanners who were equally opposed to rule by the British or colonial aristocrats. The Sons of Liberty (Tea Party) and later the local Committees of Correspondence were generally recruited from workers from the docks and shipyards.

Workers, mechanics, artisans, and small tradesmen generally voiced more radical demands in support of colonial liberties and increased the level of agitation when merchants were usually more willing to compromise.

Boston Massacre grew directly out of a dispute between colonial workingmen and British troops

New government reflected more of the conservative rather than radical views espoused by the workers.Whittled away the democratic gains made during the struggle for independenceEmphasized property interests rather than individual libertyHowever with lure of foreign commerce, many were blinded by the potential of new work and employment