COLONIAL SOCIETY: BRITISH OR AMERICAN?

CHAPTER 3

1) King Philip’s Wara. In 1675 King Philip and his forces attacked nearly 45 New England towns. b. The settles counterattacked in 1676, breaking the Indians’ power once and

for all.2) The Expansion of England’s Empire

a. The Mercantilist Systemi. England attempted to regulate its economy to ensure wealth and

national power.1. Commerce was the foundation of empire, not territorial

plunderii. The Navigation Act required colonial products to be transported in

English ships and sold at English ports.b. The Conquest of New Netherland

i. The restoration of the English monarch came in 1660, and the government chartered new trading ventures such as the Royal African Company.

ii. The New Netherlands was surrendered by the Dutch without a fight in order to retain their holdings in Africa, Asia, and South American in 1664, during an Anglo-Dutch war.

c. New York and the Rights of Englishmen and Englishwomeni. The terms of Dutch surrender guaranteed some freedoms and

liberties, but reversed others, especially toward blacks.ii. The Duke of York governed New York, and by 1700 nearly 2 million

acres of land were owned by only 5 New York families.d. New York and the Indians

i. The English briefly held an alliance with the Five Nations known as the Covenant Chai, but by the end of the century the Five Nation adopted a policy of neutrality.

e. The Charter of Libertiesi. Demanding liberties, the English of New York got an elected

assembly, which drafted a Charter of Liberties and Privileges in 1683f. The Founding of Carolina

i. Carolina was established as a barrier to Spanish expansion north of Florida.

ii. Carolina was an offshoot of Barbados and, as such, a slave colony from the start.

iii. The Fundamental Constitution of Carolina established a feudal society, but did allow for religious toleration and an elected assembly.

g. The Hold Experimenti. Pennsylvania was the last seventeenth-century colony to be

established and was given to proprietor William Penn.ii. A Quaker, Penn envisioned a colony of peaceful harmony between

colonists and Indians and a haven for spiritual freedom.h. Quaker Liberty

i. Quaker believed that liberty was a universal entitlement.

1. Liberty extended to women, blacks, and Indians.ii. Religious freedom was a fundamental principle.

1. Quakers upheld a strict moral code.i. Land in Pennsylvania

i. Penn established a government that made a majority of the male population eligible to vote.

ii. He owned all of the colony’s land and sold it to settlers at low prices rather than granting it outright.

iii. Even if he did not, Pennsylvania prospered under Penn’s policies3) Colonies in Crisis

a. The Glorious Revolution i. ENGLAND:

1. The Glorious Revolution in 1688 established parliamentary supremacy and secured the Protestant succession to the throne.

2. Rather than risk a Catholic succession through James II, the Dutch Protestant William of Orange was asked to assume the throne.

3. The overthrow of James II entrenched the notion that liberty was the birthright of all Englishmen.

a. Parliament issued a Bill of Rights in 1689ii. AMERICA

1. England established the Lords of Trade to oversee colonial affairs, but the colonies were not interested in obeying London.

2. To create wealth, James II created a supercolony, the Dominion of England.

a. The new colony threatened liberties.b. The Maryland Uprising

i. News in America of the Glorious Revolution in England resulted in a reestablishment of former colonial governments.

ii. Lord Baltimore was overthrown in Marylandc. Leisler’s Rebellion

i. Jacob Leisler, a Calvinist, took control of New York.ii. New york was divided along ethnic and economic lines.

iii. Leisler was hanged and New York politics remained polarized for years afterward.x

d. Changes in New Englandi. In New England, Plymouth was absorbed into Massachusetts, and

the political structure of Plymouth Colony was transformed.1. Land ownership, not church membership, was required to

vote.2. A governor was appointed in London rather than elected. 3. The colony had to abide by the Toleration Act.

e. The Prosecution of Witchesi. Witchcraft was widely believed in and punishable by execution.

ii. Most accused were women.f. The Salem Witch Trials

i. Several girls named Tituba as a witch.

ii. Accusations snowballed until, in the end, fourteen women and five men were hanged.

iii. Increase Mather published Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits.

4) The growth of Colonial Americaa. A Diverse Population

i. As England’s economy improved, large-scale migration was draining labor from the mother country.

1. Efforts began to top emigrationb. Attracting Settlers

i. London believed colonial development bolstered the nation’s power and wealth.

1. 50,000 convicts were sent to the Chesapeake to work in the tobacco fields.

2. 145,000 Scots and Scots-Irish immigrants came to North America

c. The German Migrationi. Germans formed the largest group of newcomers from the European

continent.ii. Tended to travel in entire families.

iii. Their migration greatly enhanced the ethnic and religious diversity of Britain’s colonies.

d. Religious Diversityi. 18th century British America was very diverse, host to many

religions.ii. Other liberties also attracted settlers:

1. Availability of land2. Lack of a military draft3. Absence of restraints on economic opportunity

e. Indian Life in Transitioni. Indian communities were well integrated into the British imperial

system.ii. Trader, British officials, and farmers all viewed Indians differently.

iii. The walking Purchase of 1737 brought fraud to the Pennsylvania Indians.

f. Regional Diversityi. The backcountry was the most rapidly growing region in North

America.ii. Farmers in the older portions of the Middle Colonies enjoyed a

standard of living unimaginable in Europe.1. Pennsylvania was “the best poor man’s country.”

g. The Consumer revolutioni. Great Britain eclipsed the Dutch in the eighteenth century as leader

in trade. ii. 18th century colonial society enjoyed a multitude of consumer goods.

h. Colonial Citiesi. Although relatively small and few in number, port cities like

Philadelphia were important.

ii. Cities served mainly as gathering for agricultural goods and for imported items to be distributed to the countryside.

i. Colonial Artisansi. The city was home to a large population of artisans.

1. Myer Myers was a Jewish silversmith from New York.j. An Atlantic World

i. Trade unified the British Empire.ii. Membership in the empire had many advantages for the colonists.

5) Social Classes in the Coloniesa. The Colonial Elite

i. Expanding trade created the emergence of a powerful upper class of merchants.

ii. In the Chesapeake and Lower South, planters accumulated enormous wealth.

iii. America had no titled aristocracy or established social ranks.iv. By 1770 nearly all upper class Virginians had inherited their wealth.

b. Anglicizationi. Colonial elites began to think of themselves as more and more

English.ii. Desperate to follow an aristocratic lifestyle, many planters fell into

debt. c. The South Carolina Aristocracy

i. The richest groups of mainland colonists were South Carolina planters.

ii. The tie that held the elite together was the belief that freedom from labor was the mark of the gentleman.

d. Poverty in the Coloniesi. Although poverty was not as widespread in the colonies compared to

in England, many colonists had to work as tenants or wage labors because access to land diminished.

ii. Taking the colonies as a whole, half o the wealth at mid-century was concentrated in the hands of the richest 10% of the population

iii. The better off in society tended to view the poor a lazy and responsible for their own plight.

1. Communities had policies to ward off undesirables.e. The Middle Ranks

i. Many in the non-plantation South owned some land. ii. By 18th century, colonial farm families viewed land ownership almost

as a right, the social precondition of freedom.f. Women and the Household Economy

i. The family was the center of economic life and all members contributed to the family’s livelihood.

ii. The work of farmers’ wives and daughters often spelled the difference between a family’s self-sufficiency and poverty.

g. North America at Mid-centuryi. Colonies were diverse with economic prosperity and many liberties

compared to Europe

SLAVERY IN COLONIAL AMERICA

CHAPTER 3:

1) Origins of American Slaverya. Englishmen and Africans

i. The spread of tobacco led settlers to turn to slavery, which offered many advantages over indentured servants.

ii. In the 17th century, the concepts of race and racism had not fully developed

iii. Africans were seen as alien in their color, religion, and social practices.

b. Slavery in Historyi. Although slavery has a long history, slavery in NA was markedly

different.ii. Slaver developed slowly in the New World because slaves were

expensive and their death rate was high in the 17th century.c. Slavery in the West Indies

i. By 1600, huge sugar plantations worked by slaves from Africa were well established in Brazil and the West Indies.

ii. Earlier, Indians and white indentured servants had done the labor, but disease had killed off the Indians and white indentured servants were no longer willing to do the backbreaking work required on the sugar plantations.

d. Slavery and the Law i. The line between slavery and freedom was more permeable in

the 17th century than it would become later.1. Some free blacks were allowed to sue and testify in court2. Anthony Johnson arrived as a slave but became a slave-

owning plantation owner.e. The Rise of Chesapeake Slavery

i. It was not until the 1660s that the laws of Virginia and Maryland explicitly referred to slavery.

ii. A Virginia law of 1662 provided that in the case of a child one of whose parents was free and one slave, the status of the offspring followed that of the mother

iii. In 1667, the Virginia House of Burgesses decreed that religious conversion did not release a slave from bondage.

f. Bacon’s Rebellion: Land and Labor in Virginiai. VA’s shift from white indentured servants to African slaves as the

main plantation labor force was accelerated by Bacon’s Rebellionii. VA’s government ran a corrupt regime under Governor Berkeley.

iii. Good, free land was scarce for freed indentured servants, and taxes on tobacco were rising as the prices on selling tobacco were falling.

iv. Nathaniel Bacon, an elite planter, called for the removal of all Indians, lower taxes, and an end to rule by “grandess” – a

campaign that gained support from small farmers, indentured servants, landless men, and even some Africans.

g. The End of the Rebellion and Its Consequencesi. Bacon poke of traditional English liberties.

ii. The rebellion’s after math left VA’s planter elite to consolidate their power and improve their image.

h. A Slave Societyi. A number of factors made slave labor very attractive to English

settlers by the end of the 17th century, and slavery began to supplant indentured servitude between 1680 and 1700.

ii. By the early 18th century, VA had transformed from a society with slaves to a slave society

1. In 1705, the House of Burgesses enacted strict slave codes.

i. Notions of Freedomi. From the start of American slavery, black ran away and desired

freedom ii. Settlers were well aware that the desire for freedom could ignite

the slaves to rebel.CHAPTER 4

1) Olaudah Equiano

2) Slavery and the Empire

a. The Triangular Tradesi. A series of Triangular trade routes crisscrossed the Atlantic.

ii. Colonial merchants all profited from the slave trade.iii. Slavery became connected with the color black and liberty with

the color whiteb. Africa and the Slave Trade

i. With the exception of the king of Benin, most African rulers took part in the slave trade, gaining guns and textiles in exchange for their slaves.

ii. The slave trade was concentrated in western Africa, greatly disrupting its society and economy.

c. The Middle Passagei. The Middle Passage was the voyage across the Atlantic for slaves.

ii. Slaves were crammed aboard ships for maximum profit.iii. The numbers of slaves increased steadily through natural

reproduction.d. Chesapeake Slavery

i. Three distinct slave systems were well entrenched in Britain’ mainland colonies

1. Chesapeake2. South Carolina and Georgia3. Nonplantation societies of New England and the Middle

Coloniesii. Chesapeake Slavery was based on tobacco.

iii. Chesapeake plantations tended to be smaller and daily interactions between masters and slaves were more extensive.

iv. Slavery transformed Chesapeake society into an elaborate hierarchy of degrees of freedom:

1. Large planters2. Yeomen farmers3. Indentured servants and tenant farmers4. Slaves

e. Freedom and Slavery in the Chesapeakei. With the consolidation of a slave society, planters filled the law

books to protect their power over the slaves.ii. Race took on more and more importance as a line of social

division and liberties of free blacks were stripped away as “free” and “white” had become virtually identical.

f. Indian Slavery in Early Carolinai. The Creek Indians initially sold the early settlers their slaves,

generally war captives and their families.ii. As the Carolina plantations grew, the Creeks became more

concerned.g. The Rice Kingdom

i. South Carolinian and Georgian slaver rested on rice.ii. Rice and indigo required large-scale cultivation, done by slaves.

iii. The economy of scale for rice was such that plantations were large.

iv. By 1770, the number of SC slaves had reached 100,000, well over half the colony’s population.

h. The Georgia Experimenti. Georgia was established by group of philanthropists led by James

Oglethorpe in 1733ii. Oglethorpe had banned liquor and slaves, but the settlers

demanded their right of self-government and quickly repealed the bans.

i. Slavery in the Northi. Since the economics of New England and the Middle Colonies

were based on small farm, slavery was far less important.ii. Given that slaves were few and posed little threat to the white

majority, law were less harsh than in the South.iii. Slaves did represent a sizable percentage of urban laborers,

particularly in NY and Philadelphia. 3) Slave Culture and Slave Resistance

a. Becoming African-Americansi. Their bond was not kinship, language, or even “race,” but slavery

itself, and by the 19th century slaves identified themselves as African-American.

ii. Most slaves in the 18th century were African by birth.b. African-American Cultures

i. In the Chesapeake, slaves learned English, were part of the Great Awakening, and were exposed to white culture.

ii. In SC and GA, two very different black societies emerged:1. Rice plantations remained distinctly African.

2. Urban servants assimilated into Euro-American culture.iii. In the northern colonies a distinctive African-American culture

developed more slowly and AAs enjoyed more access to the mainstream of life

c. Resistance to Slaveryi. A common thread for AAs was the desire for freedom.

1. Many slaves ran away to Florida or cities2. The first 18th century slave uprising occurred in NY City

in 1712d. The Crisis of 1739

i. The Stono slave rebellion in SC led to the tightening of the slave code.

ii. A panic in 1741 swept NYC after a series of fires broke out that were rumored to have been part of a slave conspiracy to attack whites.

THE IMPERIAL POLITICAL & ECONOMIC SYSTEM

CHAPTER 4

1) An Empire of Freedoma. British Patriotism

i. Despite the centrality of slavery to its empire, 18th century GB prided itself on being the world’s most advanced and freest nation.

ii. Britons shared a common law, a common language, a common devotion to Protestantism, and a common enemy in France.

iii. Britons believed that wealth, religion, and freedom went together.

b. The British Constitution i. Central to this sense of British identity was the concept of liberty.

ii. British liberty was simultaneously a collection of specific rights, a national characteristic, and a state of mind.

iii. Britons believed that no man, even the king, was above the law.c. The Language of Liberty

i. Increasingly the idea of liberty became more and more identified with a general right to resist arbitrary government.

ii. It was common for “liberty” to be used as a the battle cry of the rebellious.

d. Republican Liberty i. Republicanism called for the virtuous elite to give themselves to

public service.ii. The Country Party was critical of the corruption of British

politics. 1. Cato’s Letters was widely read by American colonists.

e. Liberal Freedomi. Liberalism was another political idea celebrating freedom and

was put forth by the leading philosopher John Locke.

ii. Lockean ideas included individual rights, the consent of the governed, and the right of rebellion against unjust or oppressive government.

iii. Locke’s ideas excluded many from freedom’s full benefits in the 18th century, but they opened the door to many to challenge the limitation on their own freedom later.

iv. Republicanism and liberalism eventually came to be seen as alternative understandings of freedom.

2) The Public Spherea. The Right to Vote

i. Ownership of property was a common qualifier for voting in the colonies.

ii. Suffrage was much more common in the colonies than in Britain.iii. Property qualifications for office holding were far higher than for

voting. b. Political Cultures

i. Those with appointive, not elective, offices held considerable power.

ii. Property qualifications for office holding were far higher than for voting.

iii. By the mid 18th century, the typical officeholder was considerably riche than the average person with the century began.

c. Colonial Governmenti. During the first half of century the colonies were largely left to

govern themselves, as British governments adopted a policy of “salutary neglect.”

ii. The colonial elected assemblies exercised great influence over the appointed officials.

d. The Rise of the Assembliesi. Elected assemblies became dominant and assertive in colonial

politics in the 18th centuryii. The most powerful assembly was in PA, followed by those in MA,

NY, VA, and SCiii. Leaders of the assemblies found in the writings of the English

Country Party a theory that made sense of their own experience. e. Politics in Public

i. The American gentry were very active in the discussion of politics, particularly through clubs.

1. Junto was a club for mutual improvement founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1727.

f. The Colonial Pressi. Widespread literacy and the proliferation of newspapers

encouraged political discourse.ii. Bookstores, circulation libraries, and weekly newspapers all

contributed to the dissemination of information.g. Freedom of Expression and It Limits

i. Freedom of speech was a relatively new idea.ii. Freedom of the press was generally views as dangerous.

iii. After 1695, the government could not censor print material, and colonial newspapers defended freedom of the press as a central component of liberty.

h. The Trial of Zengeri. John Peter Zenger went on trial in 1735 for seditious libel.

1. Found not guilty2. Outcome promoted the ideas that the truth should

always be permitted to hold sway and that free expression should be allowed.

i. The American Enlightenmenti. Americans sought to apply to political and social life the scientific

method of careful investigation based on research and experiment.

ii. One inspiration for the Enlightenment was a reaction against the bloody religious wars that wracked Europe in the 17th Century.

iii. Deism and natural laws embodied the spirit of the American enlightenment.

RELIGION, WARFARE, & AMERICAN IDENTITY

1) The Great Awakeninga. Religious Revivals

i. Concern that westward expansion, commercial development, the growth of Enlightenment rationalism, and a lack of individual engagement in church services led to a revival that redrew the religious landscape of the colonies.

b. The Preaching of Whitefieldi. George Whitefield, sparker of the Great Awakening, preached

that the people could save themselves by repenting on their sinsc. The Awakening’s Impact

i. The Great Awakening were not only a spiritual matter but it reflected existing social tensions, threw into questions many forms of authority, and inspired criticism of aspects of colonial society.

2) Imperial Rivalriesa. Spanish North America

i. The Spanish government made a concreted effort to reinvigorate its empire north of the Rio Grande.

b. The Spanish in Californiai. A string of Spanish missions dotted the California coastline, from

San Diego to Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Francisco and Sonoma.

c. The French Empirei. The French empire expanded from Canada trough the

Mississippi River valley southward through the Great Lakes toward Mobile and New Orleans.

3) Battle for the Continenta. The Middle Ground

i. The Western frontier of British North America was the flashpoint of imperial rivalries.

b. The Seven Year’s Wari. The existence of global empires implied that warfare would

become globalc. A World Transformed

i. Britain’s victory fundamentally reshaped the world balance of power.

d. Pontiac’s Rebellioni. Indian’s saw the England and its colonies victory over France as

a threat to their own freedom.e. The Proclamation Line

i. Indian Rebellion in the western part of North America, led to the development of the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited further settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains

f. Pennsylvania and the Indiansi. The Seven Years’ War shattered the decades-old rule of the

Quaker elite and dealt the final blow to the colony’s policy of accommodation with the Indians.

g. Colonial Identitiesi. The Seven Year’s war strengthened the colonists’ pride in being

members of the British Empire.