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America: Pathways to the Present
Chapter 3
Growth of the
American Colonies
(1689–1754)
Copyright © 2003 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as
Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. All rights reserved.
America: Pathways to the Present
Chapter 3: Growth of the American Colonies (1689–1754)
Section 1: An Empire and Its Colonies
Section 2: Life in Colonial America
Section 3: African Americans in the Colonies
Section 4: Emerging Tensions
Copyright © 2003 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as
Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. All rights reserved.
An Empire and Its Colonies
Chapter 3, Section 1
• How did the English Civil War affect the development
of the colonies?
• How did mercantilism influence England’s colonial
laws and foreign policy?
• What was Britain’s colonial policy in the early 1700s?
• What farming, trade, and settlement patterns defined
the diverse economies of the colonies?
The Rights of Englishmen
• “Even as the English began the settlement of the
colonies in North America, England found itself
enmeshed in political and religious conflict, in
which ideas of liberty played a central role. The
struggle over English liberty in the first half of the
17th c. expanded the definition of freedom at
home and spilled over into early English North
America.” (GML, p.77)
• By 1648, England found itself in a civil war.
The Rights of Englishmen
• “By 1600, the traditional definition of ‘liberties’ as a set of
privileges confined to one or another social group still
persisted, but alongside it had arisen the idea that certain
‘rights of Englishmen’ applied to all within the kingdom.
This tradition rested on the Magna Carta of 1215 which
limited the power of the king to take arbitrary actions
threatening certain rights and freedoms of the high
nobles…But over time, the document came to be seen as
embodying the idea of ‘English freedom’ that the king was
subject to the rule of law, and that all persons should
enjoy security of person and property.” (GML, pgs.77-78)
English Civil War
• In the 14th century Parliament began as an informal
council of nobles and bishops to advise the king. By the
16th century, two houses of Parliament had emerged, the
House of Lords and the House of Commons. While
certainly not democratic by modern standards, since less
than 10% of Englishmen could vote for members and far
fewer could even qualify to serve, Parliament helped
create the ideas of representative government and of a
check on the executive.
• By the early 17th century, King James I and then Charles I
were determined to rule without Parliament setting up a
showdown in the late 1640s.
The English Civil War
Chapter 3, Section 1
• “The struggle for political supremacy between Parliament
and the Stuart monarchs James I and Charles I
culminated in the English Civil War of the 1640s.”
• England’s Parliament was made up of representatives of
the people. It had the power to make laws and approve
new taxes.
• King Charles I believed in divine right.
• King Charles I demanded money from towns and cities
without Parliament’s consent. Parliament saw this as an
attempt to limit its power and the rights of English
property owners. War broke out.
The English Civil War
• Cavaliers v.
Roundheads
Oliver Cromwell: “Lord Protector”
• Parliament’s forces, known as
the Roundheads defeated and
executed King Charles in 1649.
• The leader of Parliament, Oliver
Cromwell, governed England as
a dictator until his death in 1659.
• In 1660, Parliament restored
the monarchy by placing
Charles II, the son of Charles I,
on the throne. Parliament
wanted stability.
England’s Debate Over Freedom
• During the English Civil War new radical
groups emerged that challenged both the
monarchy and the aristocracy.
• “The Levellers, history’s first democratic
political movement called for a written
constitution…abolishing the monarchy and
the House of Lords and to greatly expand the
right to vote.”
England’s Debate Over Freedom
• “…the Diggers went even further, hoping to
give freedom an economic underpinning
through the common ownership of land.”
• “Even before the restoration of the monarchy,
the Levellers, Diggers, and other radical
movements spawned by the English Civil War
had been crushed or driven underground.”
(GML, .79)
English Liberty
• “The political struggles in England elevated the notion of
‘English liberty’ to a central place in Anglo-American
culture….The medieval idea of liberties as a collection of
entitlements enjoyed by specific groups did not suddenly
disappear. But it was increasingly overshadowed by a
more general definition of freedom grounded in the
common rights of all individuals within the English
realm…All Englishmen were governed by a king, but ‘he
rules over free men,’ according to the law, unlike the
autocratic monarchs of France, Spain, Russia, and other
countries.” (GML, p.79)
English Liberty
• Henry Care’s 1680 book, English Liberties labels English
system of government as a “‘Qualified Monarchy,’ the best
political structure in the world…”
• “The belief in freedom as the common heritage of all
Englishmen and the conception of the British Empire as
the world’s guardian of liberty helped to legitimize English
colonization in the Western Hemisphere and to cast its
imperial wars against Catholic France and Spain as
struggles between freedom and tyranny.” (GML p.82)
The Civil War and English America
• “Struggles in England, with their vigorous
discussion of the rights of freeborn
Englishmen, inevitably reverberated in
England’s colonies, dividing them from one
another and internally.” (GML, p.82)
Creating Anglo-America, 1660-1750
• “In the last quarter of the 17th century, a series of
crises rocked the European colonies of North
America. Social and political tensions boiled over in
sometimes ruthless conflicts between rich and poor,
free and slave, settler and Indian, and members of
different religious groups.
Creating Anglo-America, 1660-1750
• At the same time struggles within and between
European empires echoed in the American colonies.
Aggrieved groups seized upon the language of
freedom to advance their goals. Although each
conflict had its own local causes, taken together they
added up to a general crisis of colonial society in the
area that would become the United States.” (GML,
p.85)
Mercantilism
Describe mercantilism
(What it is, how it
worked, why it was
practiced?)
“As the New World became a
battleground in European nations
endless contests for wealth and power,
England moved to seize control of
Atlantic trade, solidify its hold on North
America’s eastern coast, and exert
greater control over its empire. By the
middle of the 17th century, it was
apparent that the colonies could be an
important source of wealth for the
mother country. According to the theory
of mercantilism…
Mercantilism
Describe mercantilism
(What it is, how it
worked, why it was
practiced?)
• “According to the prevailing
theory of ‘mercantilism,’ the
government should regulate
economic activity so as to
promote national power…Above
all, trade should be controlled so
that more gold and silver flowed
into the country than left it. That is
exports of goods…should exceed
imports…”
Mercantilism
Describe mercantilism
(What it is, how it
worked, why it was
practiced?)
• “In the mercantilist outlook, the
role of colonies was to serve the
interests of the mother country by
producing marketable raw
materials and importing
manufactured goods from home.
(GML, p.87)
Mercantilism
How did England
implement
mercantilism?
Beginning under Cromwell,
and then under King Charles
II, Parliament enacted a
series of Navigation Acts
designed to wrest control of
world trade from the Dutch
and enjoy the profits arising
from the English Empire.
Mercantilism
How did England
implement
mercantilism?
• “According to the Navigation Acts,
certain ‘enumerated’ goods – essentially
the most valuable colonial products,
such as tobacco and sugar- had to be
transported in English ships and sold
initially in English ports, although they
could then be re-exported to foreign
markets. Similarly, most European
goods imported into the colonies had to
be shipped through England, where
customs duties were paid.” (GML, p.87)
Who benefitted?
Who benefitted
from
mercantilism?
• “[The Navigation Acts] enabled
merchants, manufacturers,
shipbuilders and sailors to reap the
benefits of colonial trade, and the
government to enjoy added income
from taxes.”
• “As members of the empire,
American colonies would profit as
well, since their ships were
considered English. Indeed, the
Navigation Acts stimulated the rise
of New England’s shipbuilding
industry.”
Who benefitted?
Who benefitted
from
mercantilism?
• American farmers and planters
had a ready market for their
agricultural products. (England
was always ready to buy
whatever they produced.)
• The English navy protected all
commerce at no real cost to the
colonists.
• Both sides, therefore,
benefitted.
Describe the political relationship between England and
the American colonies up through the end of the Civil War.
• England largely left the colonies alone to govern
themselves.
• North America was 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.
• England could not maintain firm control over the distant
wilderness America was.
• England wanted to encourage settlement and giving
colonies their “space” was one way.
• Colonies early on developed forms of representative
government. (House of Burgesses in Virginia in 1619.
Mayflower Compact in 1620. New England town
meetings.)
What steps did England take to reassert control after the
Civil War? How did these measures fare?
• Parliament implemented mercantilism by passed a
series of Navigation Acts.
• All colonial trade had to pass through England.
• For the most part the colonies obeyed these laws
since they, too, benefitted.
• However, smuggling did occur, especially in New
England.
The Restoration of the English Monarchy
• With the restoration of the
English monarchy in 1660
under Charles II, England
expanded its colonial reach.
It chartered new trading
ventures, such as the Royal
African Company, which was
given a monopoly on the
slave trade, and soon
doubled the number of
English colonies in North
America.
England Seizes New Netherlands
• The English seized New
Netherland in 1664 as part of
an Anglo-Dutch war that also
resulted in the conquest of
Dutch trading posts in Africa.
England transformed the minor
military post of New
Netherlands into an important
imperial seaport and military
base for operations against the
French. The colony now
became New York.
The English Take the New Netherland Colony
• English rule over New York expanded and
constricted freedom for certain groups. The English
promised to continue religious toleration and respect
property holdings, but they eliminated some rights for
married women and practices that benefited female
colonists. The English also discriminated against free
blacks who had previously enjoyed all the rights of
other “freemen.”
The English Take the New Netherland Colony
English rule also for a time strengthened the
Iroquois Confederacy in upstate New York. In
the mid-1670’s, New York’s Governor, Sir
Edmund Andros, formed an alliance with the
Iroquois known as the Covenant Chain. This
expanded English and Iroquois power in the
Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions at the
expense of the French and their Indian allies.
New York is Born
• At the same time, many English colonists began to
complain that they were being denied their English
liberties, particularly the right to consent to taxation.
The Dutch in New Netherland had not had a
representative assembly, and English rule began
without one, either. In 1683, the Duke of York agreed
to call an elected assembly, which soon drafted a
Charter of Liberties and Privileges affirming
traditional English religious and political rights.
Rivers were
important to
the Middle
Colonies for
many reasons.
The Founding of Carolina
• In the 1660s, 8 English proprietors who were
awarded the right to establish a colony north of
Florida by King Charles II, in order to check Spanish
expansion, founded Carolina. Initially the sons of
wealthy plantation owners in Barbados, Carolina
colonists traded with local Indians, employed them in
raids against the Spanish, and also raided Indian
communities for a burgeoning trade in Indian slaves.
The Founding of Carolina
• But in 1715, Yamasee and Creek Indians alarmed by
their trading debts and English slave trader’s raids
into their territories mounted a rebellion which, when
crushed, resulted in the enslavement or expulsion
into Spanish Florida of most of the Indian tribes.
Slavery was fundamental to Carolina and made it the
most hierarchical - and once rice plantation
agriculture developed— the wealthiest of England’s
North American colonies.
By 1732,
England had
five colonies in
southern North
America.
The beginnings of the
Georgia Colony in 1732:
•
The proprietary colony was
established to prevent the
expansion of Spain’s Florida
colony and as a refuge for
English debtors.
•
Mostly settled by poor English traders, craft workers, and
debtors.
•
Slavery and alcohol not allowed. (This was later repealed.)
•
Founded by James Oglethorpe.
The Pennsylvania Colony was founded
in 1682.
•
Started by William Penn, a wealthy Quaker who
cultivated peace with the Indians.
•
Quaker beliefs:
•
no clergy leadership
•
women spiritually equal to men
•
pacifist―do not fight wars or bear arms
•
tolerate other faiths
William Penn and the Quakers
The “Holy Experiment”
• Was Pennsylvania “The Best Poor Man’s Country”?
• The last English colony established in the 1600s was
Pennsylvania. Its proprietor, William Penn, an
advocate of religious toleration and spiritual freedom,
intended the colony as a space for social harmony
between European migrants escaping religious
persecution and Indians. A devout member of the
Society of Friends, known as the Quakers, Penn
encouraged Quaker settlement and helped frame the
colony’s liberal government, which established
religious liberty and an elected assembly with broad
suffrage.
Unlike other
English leaders,
Quaker William
Penn bought
land from the
Indians.
Quaker Liberty
• Penn envisioned his colony as a “holy
experiment” to be governed on Quaker principles,
including the equality of all persons (including
women, blacks, and Indians) under God and the
primacy of the Individual conscience.
• Penn and the colony’s Quakers treated the Indians with
special consideration, making peace with them (Quakers
were pacifists, and did not have militias), and taking pains
to pay all Indian land claims. Above all, Penn emphasized
religious freedom, which was ensured in 1682 in the
colony’s Charter of Liberty.
Land in Pennsylvania
• Penn formed an assembly elected by male
taxpayers and freemen—either free
immigrants with 100 acres of land or former
indentured servants with 50 acres—thus
giving the vote to a majority of the colony’s
men. Penn also owned all the land and sold it
to settlers at low prices to encourage a broad
distribution of landed wealth and social
equality.
Land in Pennsylvania
• How did greater freedom and opportunity for whites in
Pennsylvania lead to less freedom for others?
• Pennsylvania’s freedom attracted migrants from all
over Europe. This made the colony prosperous, but
also increased tensions with Indians as whites who
were not Quakers and pacifists pushed into Indian
territory.
• It also fostered the growth of African slavery in
southern colonies as more indentured servants
chose to migrate to Pennsylvania rather than
Virginia or Maryland.
Englishmen and Africans
• While the English, like all other European colonists in
the Americas, did not intend to rely on African slaves
as a labor force, the growing demand for labor for
tobacco cultivation in the Chesapeake region led
planters there to turn to the transatlantic slave trade.
• Starting as one form of un-free labor among several
forms, slavery existed in all 13 colonies and became
the main source of labor in the plantation-based
southern economy by the late 17th century.
• (in a hurry, skip to slide #60)
Englishmen and Africans
• White masters saw many advantages in using African
slaves rather than white indentured servants: African
slaves were not protected by English common law,
their terms never expired, they did not become
discontented landless men, as had so many former
servants, their children were slaves, their skin color
made it more difficult for them to escape, and they
were accustomed to difficult agricultural work. Also,
compared to Native American slaves, African slaves
were already immune from many European diseases.
Englishmen and Africans
• While the English did not have modern
notions of “race”—in which humankind is
divided into groups associated with skin
color—or racism—-an ideology based on the
idea that some races are inherently superior
to others and entitled to rule over them—the
English did view other peoples, such as the
Irish, Native Americans, and Africans as
uncivilized, pagan, and savage and animallike.
Englishmen and Africans
• At the time, the English, like other Europeans,
tended to divide humanity between those
were either civilized or barbarian, or Christian
or non-Christian. Yet Africans, because of
their skin color, religion, and social practices
were seen by the English as “enslaveable” in
a way that poor Englishmen were not.
Slavery in History
• Slavery has existed for almost all of human history. It was
central to ancient Greece and Rome and survived in northern
Europe among Germans, Vikings, and Anglo-Saxons after the
Roman Empire’s collapse. Although slavery existed in the
1600s in the Mediterranean and Africa, it was quite different
from the plantation form of slavery that developed in the
Americas, in which large numbers of slaves were brought
together for very demanding agricultural labor under a single
owner. The large numbers of slaves increased the dangers of
slave rebellion and invited harsh discipline. Unlike in Africa, the
death rate was higher, and African slaves who became free still
had a skin color that whites associated with slavery, and thus
were marked as unworthy of equality in a free society.
Demand for Sugar Increases demand for
Slaves
• The African slave trade
became a major
international and
transatlantic business only
in the 1600s. Slavery
developed first in the
western hemisphere outside
of North America. By 1600,
Brazil (a Portuguese
colony), had large sugar
plantations worked by
African slaves.
Slavery in the West Indies
• By the end of the seventeenth century, the profits to
be had from sugar had transformed English, Dutch,
French, and Danish colonies in the West Indies from
mixed economies with few slaves and small farms
worked by white servants to those dominated by
lucrative sugar plantations worked exclusively by
African slaves. Sugar was the first good to be massmarketed to European consumers, and became the
most important product of the British, French, and
Portuguese empires.
Slavery and the Law
• Compared to its rapid introduction in Brazil and the
West Indies, slavery grew slowly in North America.
English indentured servants constituted the majority
of the labor force in the Chesapeake well into the
1680s. The most significant line of division in this
region in the seventeenth century was not between
whites and blacks, but between white plantation
owners who dominated politics and society and
everyone else—small farmers, servants, and slaves.
Slavery and the Law
• While Spain had liberal laws granting slaves various rights and
the Catholic church often encouraged masters to free their
slaves, the legal status of slaves in the English colonies was
initially ambiguous and undeveloped. Beginning in 1619, small
numbers of Africans were brought to the Chesapeake, and while
they were almost certainly treated as slaves, some were freed
after serving a term of years. But racial distinctions were
codified into law from the beginning; one such early Virginia law
barred blacks from serving in the militia. But in both Virginia and
Maryland, free blacks could sue and testify in court, and some
even acquired land and purchased white servants and black
slaves. Blacks and whites worked side by side in the region’s
tobacco fields, occasionally ran away together, and established
intimate relationships.
The Rise of Chesapeake Slavery
• Though evidence shows that slaves were being held for life as
early as the 1640s, only in the 1660s did Virginia and
Maryland’s laws refer explicitly to slavery. As tobacco planting
spread and labor demand increased, conditions facing black
and white servants diverged. To encourage migration, colonial
authorities tried to improve the status of white servants.
Simultaneously, blacks’ opportunities for freedom were
restricted. By 1680, ideas of racial difference were strongly
reflected in these colonies’ laws, despite their small black
population. New laws, for example, mandated that children of
free and slave parents would have the legal status of the
mother—ensuring that masters could profit from sexually
abusing female slaves, since the child would become the
master’s property.
Bacon’s Rebellion
• The shift from white indentured servants to African slaves as the
main plantation workforce was hastened in 1676 by Bacon’s
Rebellion. Governor William Berkeley had long ruled Virginia
through a corrupt regime, forged in alliance with a small elite of
the colony’s wealthiest tobacco planters, giving his supporters
the best lands as white settlement pushed inland. With all the
best lands already taken by wealthy planters, an increasingly
poor population of freed white servants and migrants found it
harder to acquire land. Forced to settle frontier areas, these men
were also disenfranchised in 1670 by a new law limiting the
vote, once given to all adult men, to landowners.
The End of the Rebellion and its
Consequences
• In 1676, disgruntled frontier whites demanded that
Berkeley exterminate or expel frontier Indians to
make room for white settlers, but the governor,
fearing war and profiting from the Indian trade,
refused. Led by planter Nathaniel Bacon, small
farmers, landless men, indentured servants and even
some Africans who also demanded lower taxes and
an end to elite rule waged war against the Indians
and the colonial government. They plundered
plantations and burned Jamestown to the ground
before English warships helped quell the rebellion.
The End of the Rebellion and its
Consequences
• Virginia’s ruling elite consolidated their rule by both
limiting democracy and expanding social opportunity
for poorer whites. They reinforced property
qualifications for voting, but also reduced taxes and
adopted aggressive policies towards Indians to open
up more western lands. Most important, tobacco
planters more and more spurned potentially
rebellious white servants for African slaves, making
the Chesapeake region a society based on slavery.
A Slave Society
• Between 1700 and 1750, blacks went from more than
10 percent to almost 50 percent of the colony’s
population—and almost all were slaves. Several
factors contributed to the growth of slavery in
Virginia. In 1705, Virginia’s legislature adopted a new
slave code, embedding white supremacy in law,
clearly defining black slaves as property and sharply
limiting the freedom of free and enslaved blacks.
Virginia had shifted from being a “society with
slaves,” in which slavery was just one labor system
among other systems, to a “slave society,” in which
slavery was central to the society and economy.
Notions of Freedom
• Europeans, Indians, and Africans alike all feared
enslavement. Slaves often tried to escape, and those
who spoke or read English or were familiar with
European culture sometimes contested their
condition. Slaves continued to resist their masters
even as legal avenues for freedom receded in the
Chesapeake at the end of the seventeenth and
beginning of the eighteenth centuries.
Why did slavery begin in British North
America?
• England, embarked on the colonization of the New
World with the intention of relying on African slaves
for the bulk of the labor force. But the incessant
demand for workers spurred by the spread of tobacco
cultivation eventually led the Chesapeake planters to
turn to the transatlantic trade in slaves.”
• “Compared with indentured servants, slaves offered
planters many advantages.
• First, as Africans, they could not claim the protection
of English common law.
Why did slavery begin in the English
colonies?
• “Compared with indentured servants, slaves
offered planters many advantages.
• As Africans, they could not claim the protection
of English common law.
• Slaves’ term of service never expired, and they
could therefore never become a population of
unruly landless men.
• Nor could they eventually gain land and the right
to vote and thus be economic and political
competition to the planter class.
Why did slavery begin…?
• Their children were slaves, and their skin color made it
more difficult for them to escape…
• African men, unlike their Native American counterparts,
were accustomed to intensive agricultural labor, and they
had encountered many diseases known in Europe and
developed resistance to them, so they were less likely to
die from epidemics.” (GML, p.94)
• Price of slaves dropped.
• Number of people willing to indenture themselves dropped
as conditions in Britain improved.
• (In Chesapeake, Bacon’s Rebellion was important event…)
• Massachusetts was actually the first colony to legalize
slavery (1641).
What steps were taken by Charles II and James II to rein in the
colonies? How did these measures fare?
• “Shortly before his death, Charles II revoked the Mass.
Charter, citing wholesale violations of the Navigation
Acts.”
• “Hoping to raise more money from the colonies in order to
reduce his dependence on Parliament, James II between
1686 and 1688 combined Connecticut, Plymouth,
Massachusetts, NH, RI, NY, and E. and W. Jersey into a
single super-colony, the Dominion of New England. It
was ruled by Sir Edmund Andros, who did not have to
answer to an elected assembly.”
• “These measures reinforced the impression that James II
was an enemy of freedom.” (GML, p.103)
King Philip’s War
•
Bacon’s Rebellion was only one of many crises in the late seventeenthcentury colonial America. The year before, 1675, witnessed the beginning
of a war in New England between Indians and colonists unprecedented in
its scale, ferocity, and devastation.
•
An alliance of Indian tribes in southern New England attacked English
farms and settlements encroaching on Indian territories. Wrongly believing
that the Indians were led by the Wampanoag leader Metacom, whom they
called King Philip, the far more numerous whites were unprepared for the
assault. Suffering, by 1676, the destruction of nearly half of New England’s
ninety towns, they retreated to the region’s coastline. The settlers, aided by
loyal Indian tribes, mounted a counter-attack that, when combining combat
with Indian warriors and the massacre and burning of Indian villages, killed
Metacom and crushed the rebel natives, some of whom were sold into
slavery in the West Indies.
Upheaval in New England
• King Philip’s War, causing the deaths of 1,000 of
New England’s 52,000 white settlers, and 3,000 of its
20,000 Indians, expanded whites’ access to land only
by finally dispossessing the region’s Indians of theirs.
• This war also took place in the midst of growing
political turmoil in England between Parliament and
the King, as well as at home as the English king laid
his heavy hand upon the Puritan dominated New
England colonies.
The Glorious Revolution
• Upheaval in England also affected the colonies. In
1688, the struggle for control over English
government between Parliament and the crown
culminated in the Glorious Revolution, a bloodless
event that finally established parliamentary
supremacy and a Protestant succession to the
throne. Under Charles II’s rule, Parliament had
expanded its authority and powers, but his unpopular
successor, James II, alienated much of England after
claiming to rule by divine right and seeking religious
toleration for Protestant Dissenters and Catholics.
The Glorious Revolution
• Fearing that the throne would go to his Catholic son,
English aristocrats invited William of Orange, a Dutch
nobleman and husband to Mary, James II’s
Protestant daughter, to assume the throne in the
name of English liberties. In 1688, James II fled
before William’s invading army, and William and Mary
took the throne. The Parliament soon enacted a Bill
of Rights, giving the Parliament control over taxation
and establishing individual rights like trial by jury.
The Glorious Revolution
• This peaceful coup assured the
perpetuation of England’s balanced
constitutional monarchy, allowing English
subjects at home and in the colonies to
celebrate English Protestantism and
“rights and liberties.”
The Glorious Revolution
• Before the Glorious Revolution, England’s
rulers sought to reduce growing colonial
autonomy within the empire. Charles II had
revoked Massachusetts’ colonial charter for
violations of the Navigation Act, which the
Massachusetts legislature had earlier refused
to recognize (because the colony, they
alleged, had no direct representation in
Parliament).
The Glorious Revolution
• And by 1688 James II had combined the colonies of
Connecticut, Plymouth, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, East and West Jersey
(Pennsylvania) into a single super-colony, the
Dominion of New England, ruled by New York’s
former governor, Sir Edmund Andros, who was
unaccountable to any legislature. The actions of King
James and Andros alienated many colonists.
Charles II and James II reassert control
• “Andros’s rule threatened both English
liberties and the church-state relationship at
the heart of Puritan order.” (GML, p.104)
• “In 1689, news of James II’s overthrow
triggered rebellions in several American
colonies. Rebellions broke out in Boston
(Mass.), Maryland, and New York.
Uprisings in Maryland and New York
• News of King James’s ouster in 1689 caused
rebellions in several American colonies. Boston
militia jailed Andros and other imperial officials,
whereupon the New England colonies re-established
their governments. In New York, rebels led by Jacob
Leisler took control. Soon thereafter, Protestant
rebels in Maryland overthrew the government of that
colony’s Catholic proprietor, Lord Baltimore,
successfully revoked the old charter and created a
new, Protestant-dominated government.
Leisler’s Rebellion in New York
• Leisler’s Rebellion was not as successful. Leisler’s
government unintentionally divided the colony along
ethnic and economic lines, causing strife between the
Dutch majority and English minority and between
poor rebels and the wealthy. Soon alienated Dutch
merchants and prominent English colonists united
against him and convinced King William to suppress
Leisler, who was executed, and his regime. The
rebellion and its suppression polarized New York
politics for decades.
What was the impact of the Glorious Revolution
in the colonies?
• The Puritans and Separatists lost their charters.
Massachusetts became a royal colony with its
governor appointed by the king. Religious freedom
for all Protestants was guaranteed and all Protestant
landowners could vote for the colonial legislature.
“The demise of the ‘New England way’ greatly
benefitted non-Puritan merchants and large
landowners, who came to dominate the new
government.” (GML, p.105)
What was the impact of the Glorious Revolution
in the colonies?
• The colonies benefitted from Parliament’s supremacy over the
King. The Board of Trade was set up in 1696 to regulate colonial
affairs. It wrote laws for the colonies and could review laws
passed by colonial assemblies. In actuality, the colonies
strengthened their tradition of representative government.
Moreover, in the colonists’ daily lives, local governments
were far more influential. Colonial assemblies (legislatures)
– most of which were modeled on the Parliament in London
- became the most important law makers and tax leviers in
the colonies. Governors, who had power on paper, depended
on assemblies for their salaries.
• Ironically, as freedom expanded so too did slavery.
Summary/Review
Chapter 3, Section 1
Theory of Mercantilism Effects on War and
Effects on Trade Laws
Politics
• A country should try • The Navigation Act
• European
to get and keep as
tightened English
countries fought
much bullion, or gold
control over colonial
over territory and
and silver, as
trade by requiring the
trade routes.
possible.
colonies to sell
• To achieve this, a
certain goods only to • British rulers
tightened controls
country’s balance of
England.
over the American
trade, or the
• If colonists wanted to
difference between
sell goods to other
colonies. King
imports and exports,
parts of the world,
James II tried to
should show more
they had to pay a
take direct control
exports than imports.
duty, or tax, on it.
over New York and
New England by
creating the
Dominion of New
England.
Anger in the Colonies
• Colonists resented
James’s grab for
power. They were
angry with the
governor of the
Dominion that James
had appointed. When
Parliament replaced
James II with his
daughter Mary and her
husband William of
Orange, New England
citizens rebelled and
ended the Dominion.
• Massachusetts
becomes royal colony.
Britain’s Colonial Policy in the By Late 1600s
and Early 1700s
Chapter 3, Section 1
Origins of Self-Government
• In theory, the royal governors
of the colonies had great
power. In reality, the colonial
legislatures held the most
power. They created and
passed laws regarding
defense and taxation. They
set salaries for royal officials
and influenced appointments
of local officials.
Salutary Neglect
• Britain allowed its colonies more
freedom to govern themselves
than other European nations did.
This British policy, known as
salutary neglect, had three
causes:
– England had a long tradition
of strong local government
and weak central power.
– British government lacked
the resources to enforce its
wishes.
– Britain gave the colonies
freedom because the existing
economy and politics served
the British interests.
Effects of Glorious Revolution on New
England
• With the removal of Andros and the dissolution of the Dominion
of New England, the English crown restored most colonies’ old
charters. But Massachusetts received a new charter as a royal
colony, which now incorporated Plymouth. The new charter
made property ownership, not church membership, the
qualification for voting in elections for the colony’s legislature,
made the governor a crown appointee, and required religious
toleration for all Protestant denominations. These measures
ended the Puritan’s Bible Commonwealth, empowering nonPuritan merchants and large landowners and increasing
anxiety among Puritans ever alert to the devil’s work.
Witchcraft Trials in Salem
• Many Puritans, like other Europeans and colonial Americans in
the seventeenth century, believed in magic, astrology,
witchcraft, and other supernatural phenomena, and often
interpreted natural events as having religious or otherworldly
meaning. Witchcraft was punishable by hanging in Europe and
the colonies, and occasionally individuals convicted of witchcraft
had been hanged in New England. Most accused of witchcraft
were women beyond childbearing age who were outspoken,
economically independent, estranged from their husbands, or
otherwise thought to violate gender norms. A witch’s powers
were held to challenge God’s will and the stature of men as
family heads and rulers of society.
Salem Witchcraft Trials
• In 1691, in Salem, Massachusetts, initial accusations of
witchcraft snowballed into a full-blown crisis, as more and more
of the accused tried to save themselves by confessing and
naming others as witches. The frenzy of accusations led to legal
charges against nearly 150 persons, most of them women, and
nineteen men and women were hanged. Massachusetts
religious and civil authorities were aghast. They dissolved the
Salem courts, and warned that courts should no longer accept
testimony from those claiming to be possessed or accept the
confessions and accusations of those facing execution.
• The Salem witchcraft craze discredited the prosecution of
witches and encouraged a greater interest among prominent
colonists in finding scientific explanations for natural events.
Diverse Colonial Economies
Chapter 3, Section 1
Southern Colonies
• This economy was
based on staple
crops—crops that
are in constant
demand.
• Staple crops
included tobacco
and rice, both
grown on large
plantations worked
by slaves.
Middle Colonies
• The economy of the
Middle Colonies
was a mixture of
farming and
commerce.
• Rich, fertile soil
produced wheat,
barley, and rye.
• New York and
Philadelphia
supported the
business of
merchants, traders,
and craftspeople.
New England Colonies
• The New England
economy relied on
“carrying trade.”
Merchants carried
crops and goods
from one place to
another.
• The business of
trading goods
between the
Americas, Europe,
and Africa, was
called triangular
trade.
An Empire and Its Colonies - Assessment
Chapter 3, Section 1
Under the theory of mercantilism, a country’s balance of trade should show
(A) more imports than exports.
(B) a balance of imports and exports.
(C) more exports than imports.
(D) an even number of trades.
Which of these was not considered a staple crop in the 1700s?
(A) tobacco
(B) rice
(C) wool
(D) wheat
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An Empire and Its Colonies - Assessment
Chapter 3, Section 1
Under the theory of mercantilism, a country’s balance of trade should show
(A) more imports than exports.
(B) a balance of imports and exports.
(C) more exports than imports.
(D) an even number of trades.
Which of these was not considered a staple crop in the 1700s?
(A) tobacco
(B) rice
(C) wool
(D) wheat
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Life in Colonial America
Chapter 3, Section 2
• How was colonial society organized?
• Why was wealth in land important?
• What were some common trades and occupations in
the colonies?
• What rights and responsibilities did colonial women
have?
• What was the nature of work and education in the
colonies?
What accounts for the exceptional pace and diversity of colonial
development during the 18th century?
• “Probably the most striking characteristic of colonial
American society was its sheer diversity…In the 18th
century, African and non-English European arrivals
skyrocketed, while the number emigrating from
England declined. (see Table 3.1, GML, p.107)
• London believed colonial development bolstered the
nation’s power and wealth, even though they did not
want skilled workers and professionals to leave
Britain.
What accounts for the exceptional pace and diversity of colonial
development during the 18th century?
• 50, 000 convicts were sent to the Chesapeake to work in the
tobacco fields.
• Germans, 110, 000 in all, formed the largest group of
newcomers from Europe. Germans tended to travel in
families. Their migration enhanced the ethnic and religious
diversity of the colonies.
• From 1713 to 1754, five times as many slaves poured onto
mainland North America as in all the preceding years. The
proportion of blacks in the colonies doubled, rising from
11% in 1700 to 20% by mid-century.
What accounts for the exceptional pace and diversity of colonial
development during the 18th century?
• Increasing religious toleration encouraged emigration. By
the mid-18th century, dissenting Protestants in most
colonies had gained the right to worship as they pleased
and own their churches…
• The availability of land (and with it, in most cases, the right
to vote)
• The lack of a military draft.
• Absence of restraints on economic opportunity.
• Great demand for skilled workers.
• Overall, much more freedom in the colonies attracted
people.
• Finally, high birth rates was the main reason for rapid
population growth.
Colonial Society: The Colonial Elite
Chapter 3, Section 2
• “Most free Americans benefitted from economic growth,
but as colonial society matured an elite emerged that,
while neither as powerful or wealthy as the aristocracy
in England, increasingly dominated politics and society.
Indeed, the gap between rich and poor probably grew
more rapidly in the 18th century than in any other period
in American history.” (GML, p.118)
• “In New England and the Middle Colonies, expanding
trade made possible the emergence of a powerful upper
class of merchants, often linked by family or commercial
ties to great trading firms in Britain…”
Colonial Society: The Colonial Elite
Chapter 3, Section 2
• “By 1750, the colonies of the
Chesapeake and Lower South were
dominated by slave plantations
producing staple crops…for the world
market…planters accumulated great
wealth.”
• “The colonial elite also included the rulers of
proprietary colonies like Pennsylvania and
Maryland.” (GML, p.118)
Colonial Society
Chapter 3, Section 2
• America had no titled aristocracy as in Britain…But
throughout American, men of prominence controlled colonial
government.
• American colonists brought many ideas and customs from
Europe. Most colonists believed:
– The wealthy were superior to the poor.
– Men were superior to women.
- Whites were superior to blacks.
Anglicization
• “Rather than thinking of themselves as distinctly American,
colonial elites became more an more English – a process
historians call ‘Anglicization.’”
• “Wealthy Americans tried to model their lives on British
etiquette and behavior…they sought to demonstrate their
status and legitimacy by importing the latest British
fashions and literature, sending their sons to Britain for
education…” (GML, p.119)
The South Carolina Aristocracy
• “The richest group of mainland colonists were South
Carolina planters.
• “Like their Virginia counterparts, SC grandees lived a
lavish lifestyle amid imported furniture, imported
wines, silk clothing…”
• “The wealth in SC was highly concentrated. The
richest 10% of the colony owned half the wealth in
1770, the poorest quarter less than 2%.” (GML, p.119)
The Middle Ranks
• “The
large majority of free Americans lived
between the extremes of wealth and poverty.
Along with racial and ethnic diversity, what
distinguished the mainland colonies from
Europe was the wide distribution of land and
the economic autonomy of most ordinary free
families.” (GML, p.122)
The Middle Ranks
• “By the 18th century, colonial farm families viewed
land ownership almost as a right, the social
precondition of freedom…A dislike of personal
dependence and an understanding of freedom as not
relying on others for a livelihood sank deep roots in
British North America. These beliefs, after all,
accorded with social reality-a wide distribution of
property made economic independence part of
the lived experience of large numbers of white
colonists.” (GML, p.122)
Poverty in the Colonies
• “At the other end of the social scale, poverty emerged
as a visible feature of 18th century colonial life.’
• “Among free American, poverty was hardly as
widespread as in Britain…but as the colonial
population as expanded, access to land diminished
rapidly, especially in long settled areas….By midcentury, tenants and wage laborers were a growing
presence in the Middle Colonies.”
Poverty in the Colonies
• “In the colonial cities, the number of propertyless
wage earners steadily increased. In Boston, one-third
of the population in 1771 had no property at all.”
(GML, p.121)
• “Attitudes and policies toward poverty in colonial
America mirrored British precedents. The better-off
colonists generally viewed the poor as lazy, shiftless,
and responsible for their own plight.”
• Many poor were members of families headed by
widowed or abandoned women.” (GML, p.121)
Colonial Society: The Colonial Elite
Chapter 3, Section 2
• The differences between social ranks could be seen in
colonial clothes, houses, and manners.
• Ordinary people wore dresses or plain pants and shirts.
• Gentry (“gentle folk” ) wore wigs, silk stockings, lace cuffs,
and the latest fashions.
• Gentry — men and women wealthy enough to hire others to
work for them
Wealth in Land
Chapter 3, Section 2
• For English colonists, land was the foundation for real
wealth. Most landowners were white men.
• In the 1700s, gentry built mansions to display their
wealth and filled them with fine furniture, silver, and
porcelain.
• In each colony, a small group of elite, landowning
men dominated politics.
• Yet, important to remember, while most men owned
enough land to vote for their colonial representatives,
they voted for the elite. In doing so, they limited
themselves to voting for the wealthiest men in their
colony.
Trades and Occupations
Chapter 3, Section 2
Artisans
• Young boys became apprentices, individuals placed under a legal contract to
work for another person in exchange for learning a trade.
• Artisans made silver products, cabinets, tinware, pottery, and glassware.
Printers
• Colonial printers were considered vital because they gathered and circulated
local news and information.
• Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s most famous printers, published Poor
Richard’s Almanac.
• An almanac is a book containing information such as calendars, weather
predictions, and advice.
Farmers
• Farms in the colonies varied in size from large cash-crop plantations in the
South to small, self-supporting farms in the Middle and New England Colonies.
Fishermen
• Fish was dried, salted, and shipped out from harbor cities.
• Fishing became a strong industry and promoted the growth of shipbuilding.
Indentured
Servants
• Many immigrants came to the colonies as indentured servants.
Colonial Women
Chapter 3, Section 2
Women and the Law
• Under English common law, a
husband had complete control
over his wife. Women could not
– Own property.
– Vote.
– Hold office.
– Serve on a jury.
• Husbands were allowed to beat
their wives.
• “Free women were expected to
devote their lives to being good
wives and mothers” (GML, p.123)
Women’s Duties
• Cooking
• Gardening
• Washing
• Cleaning
• Weaving cloth
• Sewing
• Assisting other women in
childbirth
• Training daughters to do all
of the above
The Nature of Work
Chapter 3, Section 2
• The goal of the colonial household was to be self-sufficient.
Everyone in the household worked to produce food and
goods.
• Men grew crops, or made goods like shoes, guns, and
candles.
• Women ran the household and assisted with the crops.
• Children helped both parents.
• Self-sufficient — able to make everything needed to
maintain itself
Colonial Education
Chapter 3, Section 2
• During colonial times, children received very little
formal education.
• Because Puritans believed everyone should be able to
read the Bible, the New England Colonies became
early leaders in the development of public education.
• In 1647, Massachusetts passed a law requiring towns
to set up grammar schools for boys. Girls were
expected to learn from their mothers at home.
• Generally, only the wealthy attended college, where
they trained to be lawyers or ministers. Harvard, Yale,
and William and Mary were the only three colleges in
the colonies until the 1740s.
• Go to new power point
• “An Empire of Freedom”
(slide 46)
The Colonial Press
• “In British North America, the press expanded rapidly
during the 18th century. So did the number of political
broadsides and pamphlets published, especially at election
time. Widespread literacy created an expanded market for
printed materials. By the eve of the Revolution, some ¾ of
the free adult male population in the colonies (and over 1/3
of women) could read and write…”
• The first continuously published colonial newspaper
appeared in Boston 1704.
• “…by the 1730, political commentary was widespread in the
American press.” (GML, pgs.148-149)
Freedom of the Press and its Limits
• “The public sphere thrived on the free exchange of ideas.
But free expression was not generally considered one of
the ancient rights of Englishmen…Outside of Parliament,
free speech had no legal protection.”
• “As for freedom of the press, governments on both sides of
the Atlantic viewed this as extremely dangerous, partly
because they considered ordinary citizens as prone to be
misled by inflammatory printed materials…”
Freedom of the Press and its Limits
• “But, until 1695, when an English law requiring the
licensing of printed works before publishing expired, no
printed work could legally be printed without a government
license.”
• “After 1695, the government could not censor newspapers,
books, and pamphlets before they appeared in print,
although it continued to try to manage the press by direct
payments to publishers and individual journalists. Authors
and publishers could be prosecuted for ‘seditious libel’ – a
crime that included defaming government officials – or
punished for contempt.”
Freedom of the Press and its Limits
• “Elected assemblies, not governors, most frequently
violated freedom of the press in colonial America. Dozens
of publishers were hauled before assemblies and forced to
apologize for comments regarding one or another member.
If they refused, they were jailed.”
• “Colonial newspapers vigorously defended freedom of the
press as a central component of liberty…”
The Trial of Zenger
• “The most famous colonial court case involving freedom of
the press demonstrated that popular sentiment opposed
prosecutions for criticism of public officials. This was the
1735 trial of John Peter Zenger.”
• “Zenger’s newspaper…lambasted the governor for
corruption, influence peddling, and ‘tyranny.’”
• Zenger was arrested for seditious libel.
The Trial of Zenger
• “The judge instructed the jurors to consider only whether
Zenger had actually published the offending words, not
whether they were accurate. But Zenger’s attorney urged
the jury to judge not the publisher, but the governor. If they
decided that Zenger’s charges were correct, they must
acquit him.”
• “Zenger was found not guilty. The case sent a warning to
prosecutors that libel cases might be difficult to win…”
• “…the outcome helped promote the idea that the
publication of truth should always be permitted, and it
demonstrated that the idea of free expression was
becoming ingrained in popular imagination.” (GML, p.150)
Life in Colonial America - Assessment
Chapter 3, Section 2
“Gentle folk” was a colonial term for
(A) ministers.
(B) the gentry.
(C) senior citizens.
(D) midwives.
Which of these would not be found in an almanac?
(A) Calendars
(B) Weather predictions
(C) News stories
(D) Wise sayings
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Life in Colonial America - Assessment
Chapter 3, Section 2
“Gentle folk” was a colonial term for
(A) ministers.
(B) the gentry.
(C) senior citizens.
(D) midwives.
Which of these would not be found in an almanac?
(A) Calendars
(B) Weather predictions
(C) News stories
(D) Wise sayings
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African Americans in the Colonies
Chapter 3, Section 3
• What was the Middle Passage?
• How did the experience of slavery differ from colony
to colony?
• What restrictions did free blacks face?
• How did laws attempt to control slaves and prevent
revolts?
Slavery’s
Beginnings
How did slavery begin
in the English
Colonies?
• “No European nation, including
England, embarked on the colonization
of the New World with the intention of
relying on African slaves for the bulk of
the labor force. But the incessant
demand for workers spurred by the
spread of tobacco cultivation eventually
led the Chesapeake planters to turn to
the transatlantic trade in slaves.”
• “Compared with indentured servants,
slaves offered planters many
advantages.
• First, as Africans, they could not claim
the protection of English common law.
How /why did
slavery begin in
the English
colonies?
• “Compared with indentured servants,
slaves offered planters many
advantages.
• As Africans, they could not claim the
protection of English common law.
• Slaves’ term of service never expired,
and they could therefore never
become a population of unruly
landless men.
• Nor could they eventually gain land
and the right to vote and thus be
economic and political competition to
the planter class.
WHY?
•
How /why did
slavery begin in
the English
colonies?
•
•
•
•
Their children were slaves, and their skin
color made it more difficult for them to
escape…
African men, unlike their Native American
counterparts, were accustomed to
intensive agricultural labor, and they had
encountered many diseases known in
Europe and developed resistance to
them, so they were less likely to die from
epidemics.” (GML, p.94)
Price of slaves dropped.
Number of people willing to indenture
themselves dropped as conditions in
Britain improved.
(In Chesapeake, Bacon’s Rebellion was
important event…)
The Middle Passage
Chapter 3, Section 3
• The Middle Passage was one leg of the triangular
trade between the Americas, Europe, and Africa. This
term also refers to the forced transport of slaves from
Africa to the Americas.
• Roughly 10 to 40 percent of Africans on slave trips
died in the crossing. Slaves were beaten and had to
endure chains; heat; and cramped, unsanitary
conditions.
• Occasionally enslaved Africans staged a mutiny, or
revolt, on the slave ships. Many of these were
successful.
Chesapeake Slavery
• What were the major varieties of African slavery in 18th
century British America?
• “By the mid-18th century, three distinct slave systems were
well entrenched in Britain’s mainland colonies: tobaccobased plantation slavery in the Chesapeake, rice-based
plantation slavery in South Carolina and Georgia, and nonplantation slavery in New England and the Middle
Colonies.”
• “The largest and oldest of these was the tobacco plantation
system of the Chesapeake, where more than 270,000 slaves
resided in 1770, nearly half of the region’s population.”
Chesapeake Slavery
• “One the eve of the Revolution, VA and MD were as closely
tied to Britain as any other colonies and their economies
were models of mercantilist policy…In the 18th century, the
growing world demand for tobacco encouraged continued
slave imports…”
• “As Virginia shifted westward, so did slavery…”
Chesapeake Slavery
• “Most Chesapeake slaves toiled in the fields, but
thousands labored as teamsters, as boatmen,
and in skilled crafts…Numerous slave women
became cooks, seamstresses, dairy maids, and
personal servants.”
• “Slavery was common on small farms as well as
plantations…Nearly half of Virginia’s white
families owned at least one slave in 1770”
Chesapeake Slavery
•
•
“Slavery laid the foundation for the consolidation of the
Chesapeake elite, a landed gentry that, in conjunction with
merchants who handled the tobacco trade and lawyers who
defended the interests of slaveholders, dominated the region’s
society and politics.”
“Meanwhile, even as the consumer revolution improved the
standard of living of lesser whites, their long-term economic
prospects diminished. As slavery expanded, planters engrossed
the best lands and wealth among the white population became
more and more concentrated.”
Chesapeake Slavery
•
“Slavery transformed Chesapeake society into a hierarchy of
degrees of freedom.” (GML, p.132)
•
“…planters filled the law books with measures enhancing the
master’s power over his human property and restricting blacks’
access to freedom”
“Race took on more and more importance as a line of social
division. Whites increasingly considered free blacks dangerous
and undesirable. Free blacks lost the right to employ white
servants and to bear arms, were subjected to special taxes, and
could be punished for striking a white person, regardless of the
cause. In 1732, Virginia revoked the voting privileges of propertyowning free blacks.” (GML, pgs.132-133)
•
South Carolina and Georgia: The Rice
Kingdom
• “Farther south, a different slave system, based on rice
production, emerged in South Carolina and Georgia.”
• “The English Barbadians who initially settled SC in the
1670s were quite familiar with African slavery, but their first
victims were members of the area’s native population…”
• “The local Creek Indians initially welcomed the settlers and
began selling them slaves, generally war captives and their
families, most of whom were sold to the West Indies…As
the plantation system expanded, however, the Creeks
became more and more concerned, not only because it led
to encroachment on their land, but because they feared
enslavement themselves.” (GML, p.134)
South Carolina and Georgia: The Rice
Kingdom
• “Ironically, it was Africans, familiar with the crop at home,
who taught English settlers how to cultivate rice, which
became the foundation of SC slavery and of the wealthiest
slaveholding class on the North American mainland.”
• “…SC planters owned far more land and slaves than their
counterparts in Virginia.”
• “In the Chesapeake, field slaves worked in groups under
constant supervision. Under the ‘task’ system that
developed in 18th century SC, individual slaves were
assigned daily jobs, the completion of which allowed them
time for leisure or to cultivate crops of their own.”
The Georgia Experiment
• “Initially, the proprietors banned the introduction of
both alcohol and slaves, leading to continued battles
with settlers, who wanted both. By the 1740s, Georgia
offered the spectacle of colonists pleading for the
‘English liberty’ of self-government so that they could
enact laws introducing slavery. In 1751, the
proprietors surrendered the colony to the Crown…”
• “The elected assembly repealed the ban on liquor and
slavery, as well as an early measure that had limited
land holdings to 500 acres. Georgia became a
miniature version of SC.” (GML, pgs.134-135)
Slavery in the North
• “Compared to the plantation regions, slavery was far less
central to the economies of New England and the Middle
Colonies, where small farms predominated. Slaves
represented only a minor part of these colonies
populations, and it was unusual for even rich families to
own more than one slave…Nonetheless, slavery was not
entirely marginal to northern colonial life.”
• “Slaves worked as farm hands, in artisan shops, as
stevedores loading and unloading ships, and as personal
servants.”
Slavery in the North
• “In the early 18th century, at least ¾ of the urban elite
owned at least one slave. But with slaves so small a part of
the population that they seemed to pose no threat to the
white majority, laws were less harsh than in the South.”
• “In New England, where in 1770 the 17,000 slaves
represented less than 3% of the population, slave
marriages were recognized in law, the severe punishment
of slaves was prohibited, and slaves could bring suits in
court, testify against whites, and own property and pass it
on to their children – rights unknown in the South.” (GML,
p.135)
Slavery in the North
• “Slavery had been present in NY from the earliest days of
Dutch settlement. With white immigration lagging far
behind that of PA, the colony’s Hudson landlords, small
farmers, and craftsmen continued to employ considerable
amounts of slave labor in the 18th century.”
• “As NYC’s role in the slave trade expanded, so did slavery
in the city. In 1746, its 2,440 slaves amounted to one-fifth of
NYC’s total population. Some 30% of its labor-force were
slaves, a proportion second only to Charleston among
American cities.”
• “Slavery was also a significant presence in
Philadelphia…(GML, p.136)
Slavery in the Colonies
Chapter 3, Section 3
South Carolina and Georgia
• High temperatures and disease made slave conditions especially harsh in this region.
• African Americans made up the majority of the population in South Carolina and more than
one third of Georgia’s population.
• Southern slaves kept their culture alive through their speech, crafts, and music.
Virginia and Maryland
• Slaves in Virginia and Maryland made up a minority of the population.
• Few of those slaves came directly from Africa.
• Slaves had other tasks in addition to growing crops.
• There was more integration of European American and African American cultures than in
South Carolina and Georgia.
• To save money, slaveowners encouraged slaves to have families.
New England and the Middle Colonies
• There were far fewer slaves in New England and the Middle Colonies than in the South.
• Slaves had more freedom to choose their occupations.
• Slaves in this region typically worked as cooks, housekeepers, and personal servants. They
also worked as skilled artisans, dockworkers, merchant sailors, fishermen, whalers,
privateers, lumberjacks, and in manufacturing.
Estimated African American Population,
1690–1750
Chapter 3, Section 3
Year
New England
Colonies
Middle
Colonies
Southern
Colonies
1690
950
2,472
13,307
1700
1,680
3,661
22,476
1710
2,585
6,218
36,063
1720
3,956
10,825
54,058
1730
6,118
11,683
73,220
1740
8,541
16,452
125,031
1750
10,982
20,736
204,702
SOURCE: Historical Statistics of the United States,
Colonial Times to 1970
Free Blacks
Chapter 3, Section 3
• Slaves that earned money as artisans or laborers had
the possibility of saving enough to purchase their
freedom. Free African Americans did the same kind of
work as enslaved African Americans, but were often
worse off economically and socially.
• Free blacks faced poorer living conditions and more
discrimination than slaves who were identified with
specific white households.
• Free blacks could not vote, testify in court, or marry
whites.
Laws and Revolts
Chapter 3, Section 3
Laws
• Slaves could not go aboard ships
or ferries, or leave the town limits
without a written pass.
• Slaves could be accused of
crimes ranging from owning hogs
or carrying canes to disturbing
the peace or striking a white
person.
• Punishments included whipping,
banishment to the West Indies,
and death.
Revolts
• In the Stono Rebellion, several
dozen slaves in South Carolina
killed more than 20 whites. The
rebels were captured and killed.
• New York City had slave
rebellions in 1708, 1712, and
1741. After the 1741 revolt, 13
African Americans were burned
alive as punishment.
• African Americans undertook
almost 50 documented revolts
between 1740 and 1800.
African Americans in the Colonies Assessment
Chapter 3, Section 3
Which term refers to the forced transport of slaves from Africa to the Americas?
(A) The Underground Railroad
(B) The Northwest Passage
(C) Tobacco Row
(D) The Middle Passage
In which colony did African Americans make up the majority of the population?
(A) South Carolina
(B) Massachusetts
(C) Virginia
(D) Georgia
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African Americans in the Colonies Assessment
Chapter 3, Section 3
Which term refers to the forced transport of slaves from Africa to the Americas?
(A) The Underground Railroad
(B) The Northwest Passage
(C) Tobacco Row
(D) The Middle Passage
In which colony did African Americans make up the majority of the population?
(A) South Carolina
(B) Massachusetts
(C) Virginia
(D) Georgia
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Emerging Tensions
Chapter 3, Section 4
• What drove the western expansion of colonial
settlement?
• How did Native Americans and the French react to the
expansion of the colonies?
• Why did the Great Awakening both resolve and
contribute to religious tensions?
Western Expansion
Chapter 3, Section 4
• In the mid-1700s, the colonial population was
increasing rapidly, nearly doubling every 25 years.
• Birth rates were rising.
• Immigrants from England, Ireland, Germany, and
other countries were settling in colonial America.
• As the population grew, settlers pushed west in
search of more land. These settlers were part of a
migration, or movement, in search of land on which
they could build independent lives and maintain their
households.
• Immigrants — people who enter a new country to
settle
Native American and French Reaction
Chapter 3, Section 4
Native American Response
• As white settlers migrated
into Indian territory, the
Indians were forced to
relocate into lands already
occupied by other Native
American groups.
• The Cherokees, Creeks,
Chickasaws, and
Choctaws put up a
powerful struggle to block
westward colonial
expansion.
French Actions
• In 1752, the French built Fort
Presque Isle in Pennsylvania
and attacked and killed the men
defending an English trading
post in the Ohio Valley.
• By the early 1750s, it became
clear that Pennsylvania would
become the setting for a
struggle between the colonists,
Native Americans, and the
French.
The Enlightenment
•
•
American intellectuals, like Benjamin Franklin, were much influenced by
the ideals of the 18th century Enlightenment. Enlightenment thinkers
emphasized reason, progress, science, and the capacity for human
improvement. Some Enlightenment figures were Deists – that is, they
believed in a god who created a universe and set it in motion according
to natural laws discoverable by human intellect but did not intervene
thereafter with miracles. Deists such as Franklin and Thomas
Jefferson, while formally considering themselves Christian and
attending church, disliked zealots who persecuted others in the name
of religion.
“Enlightenment thinkers insisted that every human institution, authority,
and tradition be judged before the bar of reason…They sought to apply
to political and social life the scientific method of careful investigation
based on research and experiment” (GML, pgs.150-151)
Religious Tensions
Chapter 3, Section 4
• The British colonies were primarily Protestant.
– Southern planters, northern merchants, and
northern professionals tended to belong to the
Church of England.
– Most New Englanders were either
Congregationalists or Presbyterians.
– Quakers, Lutherans, and Mennonites were
common in Pennsylvania.
– The Dutch Reformed Church thrived in the
colonies of New York and New Jersey.
What was the Great Awakening, what gave rise to it, and
what impact did it have on colonial America?
• “Many ministers were concerned that westward
expansion, commercial development, the growth of
Enlightenment rationalism, and lack of individual
engagement in church services was undermining
religious devotion. These fears helped to inspire the
revivals that swept through the colonies beginning in
the 1730s.”
• “Known as the Great Awakening, the revivals were
less a coordinated movement than a series of local
events united by a commitment to a ‘religion of the
heart,’ a more emotional and personal Christianity
than that offered by existing churches.” (GML, p.152)
The Great Awakening Sparks Religious
Revivals
• “During the 1720s and 1730s, the NJ Dutch Reformed
clergyman Theodore Frelinghuysen, his Presbyterian
neighbors William and Gilbert Tennent, and the
Massachusetts Congregationalist minister Jonathan
Edwards pioneered an intensely emotional style of
preaching…”
• “Only a ‘new birth’ – immediately acknowledging one’s sins
and pleading for divine grace – could save men from
eternal damnation.”
The Great Awakening Sparks Religious
Revivals
• “Religious emotionalism was not confined to the American
colonies – it spread through much of mid-18th century Europe as
well. More than any other individual, the English minister
George Whitefield, sparked the Great Awakening…God.
Whitefield proclaimed was merciful. Rather than being
predestined for damnation, men and women could save
themselves by repenting of their sins.”
• “Tens of thousands of colonists flocked to Whitefield’s sermons,
which were widely reported in the American press…”
• “Whitefield had inspired the emergence of numerous Dissenting
churches… ‘New Lights’ vs. ‘Old Lights’” (GML, pgs.152-153)
The Awakening’s Impact
• “Although the revivals were primarily a spiritual
matter, the Great Awakening reflected existing
social tensions, threw into question many forms
of authority, and inspired criticism of all aspects
of colonial society. They attracted primarily men
and women of modest means…”
• “…the impact of the Great Awakening spread
beyond purely spiritual matters. The newspaper
and pamphlet wars it inspired greatly expanded
the circulation of printed materials in the
colonies.”
The Awakening’s Impact
“The revivals encouraged many colonists to trust
their own views rather than those of established
elites…”
• “The revivalists’ aim was spiritual salvation, not
social or political revolution. But the independent
frame of mind they encouraged would have
significant political consequences.” (GML, p.154)
• Ironically, the very different Enlightenment and
Great Awakening had similar outcomes. Both
stressed individualism and inspired challenges to
authority.
The Great Awakening
Chapter 3, Section 4
• The Great Awakening refers to a revival of religious feeling that
began in the early 1700s. These revivals were designed to renew
religious enthusiasm and commitment.
• Jonathan Edwards — Edwards, a Massachusetts minister, is
believed to have started the Great Awakening. His success
inspired other ministers to increase their efforts to energize their
followers.
• George Whitefield — Whitefield was an itinerant, or traveling,
preacher who toured the colonies seven times between 1738 and
1770.
• These ministers preached that any Christian could have a
personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They stated that faith
and sincerity, rather than wealth and education, were the major
requirements needed to understand the Gospel.
Churches Reorganize
Chapter 3, Section 4
• In the 1740s and 1750s, many New Englanders converted to
the Baptist faith.
• In the South, both the Baptist and the Methodist churches
drew many followers through their powerful, emotional
ceremonies and their celebration of ordinary people.
• Revivals caused several churches to break apart. While some
embraced the new emotionalism, others rejected it.
• Some of the splinter groups were more tolerant of dissent than
the organizations from which they split.
• Dissent — difference of opinion
Emerging Tensions - Assessment
Chapter 3, Section 4
To migrate is to
(A) sleep all winter.
(B) move in search of land.
(C) change religion.
(D) divide a parcel of land among heirs.
The Great Awakening was a
(A) civil rights movement.
(B) new awareness of the opportunities out West.
(C) treaty between the French and Native Americans.
(D) religious movement.
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Emerging Tensions - Assessment
Chapter 3, Section 4
To migrate is to
(A) sleep all winter.
(B) move in search of land.
(C) change religion.
(D) divide a parcel of land among heirs.
The Great Awakening was a
(A) civil rights movement.
(B) new awareness of the opportunities out West.
(C) treaty between the French and Native Americans.
(D) religious movement.
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