The Colonial Era: Expansion, Slavery, and Social Transformation in America
1. Introduction: King Philip’s War
2. Global Competition and the Expansion of England’s Empire
1. The Mercantilist System
England attempted to regulate its economy to ensure wealth and national power.
Commerce, not territorial plunder, was the foundation of the English empire.
The 1651 Navigation Acts required colonial products or “enumerated” goods to be transported in English ships and sold at English ports.
2. The Conquest of New Netherland
The restoration of the English monarchy came in 1660 with Charles II, and the government chartered new trading ventures such as the Royal African Company.
In 1664, during an Anglo-Dutch war, New Netherland came under control of the English.
The terms of Dutch surrender guaranteed some freedoms and liberties but reversed others, especially for blacks.
The Duke of York governed New York, and by 1700 nearly 2 million acres of land were owned by only five New York families.
3. New York and the Indians
The English briefly held an alliance with the Five Nations known as the Covenant Chain, but by the end of the century the Five Nations adopted a policy of neutrality.
4. The Charter of Liberties
Demanding liberties, the English of New York got an elected assembly, which drafted a Charter of Liberties and Privileges in 1683.
5. The Founding of Carolina
Carolina was established as a barrier to Spanish expansion north of Florida.
Carolina was an offshoot of Barbados and, as such, a slave colony from the start.
From 1670 until 1720, Carolina engaged in a slave trade that sold captured local Indians to other mainland colonies and to the West Indies.
The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina envisioned a feudal society. The colonial government did allow for religious toleration, an elected assembly, and a generous headright system.
The economy grew slowly until planters discovered rice, which would make them the wealthiest elite in English North America.
6. The Holy Experiment
Pennsylvania was the last seventeenth-century colony to be established and was given to proprietor William Penn.
A Quaker, Penn envisioned a colony of peaceful harmony between colonists and Indians and a haven for spiritual freedom.
Quakers believed that liberty was a universal entitlement.
1. Liberty Extended to Women, Blacks, and Indians
Religious freedom was a fundamental principle.
1. Quakers Uphold a Strict Code of Personal Morality
7. Land in Pennsylvania
Penn established an appointed council to originate legislation and an assembly elected by male taxpayers and “freemen,” which meant that a majority of the male population could vote.
He owned all of the colony’s land and sold it to settlers at low prices rather than granting it outright.
Pennsylvania attracted immigrants from all over Western Europe.
3. Origins of American Slavery
The spread of tobacco led settlers to turn to slavery, which offered many advantages over indentured servants.
1. Englishmen and Africans
In the seventeenth century, the concepts of race and racism had not fully developed.
Africans were seen as alien in their color, religion, and social practices.
2. Slavery in History
Although slavery has a long history, slavery in North America was markedly different.
Slavery in the Americas was based on the plantation and the death rate was high in the seventeenth century.
3. Slavery in the West Indies
By 1600, huge sugar plantations worked by slaves from Africa were well-established in Brazil and in the West Indies.
By 1600, disease had killed off the Indians, and white indentured servants were no longer willing to do the backbreaking work required on sugar plantations.
Sugar was the first crop to be mass-marketed to consumers in Europe.
4. Slavery and the Law
The line between slavery and freedom was more permeable in the seventeenth century than it would become later.
1. Some Free Blacks Were Allowed to Sue and Testify in Court
5. The Rise of Chesapeake Slavery
It was not until the 1660s that the laws of Virginia and Maryland explicitly referred to slavery.
A Virginia law of 1662 provided that in the case of a child born to one free parent and one slave parent, the status of the offspring followed that of the mother.
In 1667 the Virginia House of Burgesses decreed that conversion to Christianity did not release a slave from bondage.
6. Bacon’s Rebellion: Land and Labor in Virginia
Virginia’s shift from white indentured servants to African slaves as the main plantation labor force was accelerated by Bacon’s Rebellion.
Virginia’s government ran a corrupt regime under Governor Berkeley.
Good, free land was scarce for freed indentured servants.
Nathaniel Bacon, an elite planter, called for the removal of all Indians, lower taxes, and an end to rule by “grandees.” His campaign gained support from small farmers, indentured servants, landless men, and even some Africans.
Bacon spoke of traditional English liberties.
6.the rebellion’s aftermath left virginia’s
planter elite to consolidate their power and improve their image.
7.a slave society
1.by the end of the seventeenth century, a number
of factors made slave labor very attractive to english settlers; and slavery
began to supplant indentured servitude between 1680 and 1700.
2.by the early eighteenth century, virginia had
transformed from a society with slaves to a slave society.
1.in 1705, the house of burgesses enacted strict
slave codes.
3.from the start of
american slavery, blacks ran away and desired freedom.
4.settlers were well aware that the desire for
freedom could ignite the slaves to rebel.
4.colonies in crisis
1.the glorious revolution
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, a group of english aristocrats invited the dutch protestant william
of orange to assume the throne.
3.the overthrow of james ii entrenched the notion
that liberty was the birthright of all englishmen.
1.parliament issued a bill of rights (1689)
guaranteeing individual rights such as trial by jury.
2.parliament adopted the toleration act (1690),
which allowed protestant dissenters (but not catholics) to worship freely,
although only anglicans could hold public office.
2.the glorious revolution in america
1.in 1675, england established the lords of trade
to oversee colonial affairs, but the colonies were not interested in obeying
london.
2.to create wealth, between 1686 and 1685 james ii
created a “super-colony,” the dominion of new england.
1.the new colony threatened liberties.
3.news in america of the glorious revolution in
england resulted in a reestablishment of former colonial governments.
4.lord baltimore’s charter for maryland was
revoked for mismanagement.
5.jacob leisler, a calvinist, took control of new
york.
6.leisler was executed, and new york politics
remained polarized for years.
7.in new england, plymouth was absorbed into
massachusetts, and the political structure of the bible commonwealth 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.
3.the salem witch trials
1.witchcraft was widely believed in and punishable
by execution.
1.most accused were women.
2.in 1691, several girls suffered fits and
nightmares, which were attributed to witchcraft.
3.three women, including a caribbean slave named
tituba, were named as witches.
4.accusations snowballed; ultimately fourteen
women and six men were executed before the governor halted all prosecutions.
5.the growth of colonial america
1.a diverse population
1.as england’s economy improved, large-scale
migration was draining labor from the mother country.
1.efforts began to stop promotion of emigration.
2.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.
3.145,000 scots and scots-irish immigrants came to
north america.
2.the german migration
1.germans, 110,000 in all, formed the largest
group of newcomers from the european continent.
2.entire german families emigrated as
“redemptioners.”
3.religious diversity
1.in eighteenth-century british america, ethnic
groups tended to live and worship in relatively homogenous communities.
2.dissenting protestants in most colonies gained the
right to worship as they pleased in their own churches.
4.indian life in transition
1.indian communities were well integrated into the
british imperial system.
2.traders, british officials, and farmers all
viewed indians differently.
3.the walking purchase of 1737 brought fraud to
the pennsylvania indians.
5.regional diversity
1.the backcountry was the most rapidly growing
region in north america.
2.farmers in the older portions of the middle
colonies enjoyed a standard of living unimaginable in europe.
1.pennsylvania was known as “the best poor
man’s country.”
6.colonial cities
1.although relatively small and few in number,
port cities like philadelphia were important.
2.cities served mainly as gathering places for
agricultural goods and for imported items to be distributed to the countryside.
3.the city was home to a large population of
artisans.
6.social classes in the colonies
1.the colonial elite
1.expanding trade created the emergence of a
powerful upper class of merchants.
2.in the chesapeake and lower south, planters
accumulated enormous wealth.
3.america had no titled aristocracy or established
social ranks.
2.anglicization
1.colonial elites began to think of themselves as
more and more english.
2.desperate to follow an aristocratic lifestyle,
wealthy americans tried to model their lives on british etiquette and behavior.
3.the tie that held the elite together was the
belief that freedom from labor was the mark of the gentleman.
3.poverty in the colonies
1.although poverty was not as widespread in the
colonies as it was in england, many colonists had to work as tenants or wage
laborers because access to land diminished.
2.taking the colonies as a whole, half of the wealth
at mid-century was concentrated in the hands of the richest 10 percent of the
population.
3.the better-off in society tended to view the
poor as lazy and responsible for their own plight.
4.the middle ranks
1.many in the nonplantation south owned some land.
2.by the eighteenth century, colonial farm
families viewed land ownership almost as a right: the social precondition of
freedom.
5.women and the household economy
1.the family was the center of economic life, and
all members contributed to the family’s livelihood.
2.in the eighteenth century, the division of labor
along gender lines solidified.
6.north america at mid-century
1.as compared to europe, colonies were diverse, prosperous, and offered many liberties.