Transcript English to Atlantic World

The English Colonies:
3 Models of Colonization
I. The Chesapeake: Tobacco and “Un-freedom”
I. New England: The Family Model
II. The Caribbean: Plantations and Slavery
III. Joining the Models Together
Different colonial structures to fit local environments,
international economy and different types of transAtlantic connections
The Chesapeake
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Virginia Joint-Stock Company
“Dying Time”
Head right – 50 acres/person
Tobacco: 1st crop in 1611, caught on by
1616.
• 1638 – Virginia is world’s #1 supplier of
tobacco
• Get rich and go home mentality
• Founding of Maryland
The Chesapeake,
Labor
• Indentured Servitude
• 1676, Bacon’s
Rebellion
• Race vs. class
• Tobacco plantations in
tidewater region; small
farmers in back
country; closely tied to
English economy b/c
of tobacco, labor.
New England
• The Family Model
• Connected to England through politics,
religion, culture
• Modern Day: Vermont, Maine, New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Rhode Island, Plymouth (not N.Y. or Penn)
Push Factor in Europe: Religion
The Protestant Reformation
Martin Luther, 1517: 95 Theses, splits W.
Christianity
Splinter groups, allied by belief, regional
All splinter groups referred to as
Protestants
2 Main Protestant Reform Branches in
England
Puritans (non-separatists)
Pilgrims (separatists)
Salvation:
Catholic – social order/control. Salvation
through belief and being a good person,
as shown by good works. Belief in
purgatory.
Protestant criticism – “selling salvation”
Easier for right to do good works, be
saved. Abuses at local level.
Luther – issue of sin, believed most people
sinned most of the time. Idea of no
deathbed salvation bothered him
Salvation:
Catholic – Salvation by works
Protestant –
M. Luther – Salvation by faith, belief will
change behavior
Calvin – Salvation by grace (God’s allpowerful nature)
The problem of Evil?
Catholic – free will
Calvin – free will and God’s all-powerful
nature clash. Human choice is a big lie.
God is the only one with the power to
choose. Takes away good works doctrine.
More interested in “the saved” than social
control.
IF saved, good will flow from it
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Calvinists and personal introspection
Diaries, journals
Good works FROM salvation
No purgatory, salvation only for “the elect,” most
people going to hell.
Church leaders: “the saved,” “the elect”
Never 100% sure if saved
Signs? Very individualized
Church Members: communion only for those
who seemed to be saved
Political Consequences
Henry VIII
Church of England (Anglican)
England becomes a haven for Protestants
Pilgrims – want to separate from Church of
England
Puritans – want to reform or “purify” the
Church of England
Pilgrims (separatists)
1608 – Holland
1620 – Plymouth (separate colony until
1691)
Mayflower, 102 people
Rule by the church
“Male saints” (Fathers)
Ministers couldn’t hold office
Early Problems
• Tried to hold land in common
• Couldn’t get people to work, esp. across
gender lines
• Result: “Dying time”
• Completely dependant on local American
Indians for first year. (Why would they
help?)
• English trade goods, low population
density (major epidemic 2 yrs prior)
Re-organization
Organized society based on social
distinctions (classes)
Family ownership of property, not distributed
equally
Only married male family members got land
Solved production problems
Single men had to live with a family
Early New England
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Family economy
Self-sustaining farming
Little trading and fishing
Minimal integration w/ local or English economies
By 1630 @1,500 people: proved Family model
worked, without dependence on American Indians,
ties to English economy or plantation crops
• Inspired other Puritan migrations, spread
throughout New England (plus new round of
religious persecution in England)
Puritans
1629 – Massachusetts Bay Company
mostly from rising middle class, some “gentlemen”
farmers, some Puritans, more merchants (leads to
early transition to manufacturing/craftsmen)
1630 – 700 people on 11 ships arrive in Mass. Bay, just
as civil war erupts in England.
1649-1660: Parliament ruled England, no monarchy
1660 – Monarchy invited back, religious tolerance
declared, ending great wave of Puritan migration.
New England and Puritan Rule
By 1642, 20,000
people moved
from England to
New England.
Concept of
City on A Hill”
“A
Puritan New England
• Self-supporting until @ 1660, then start
exporting grain
• No “Dying time”
• Emphasis on family/early marriage=natural
population increase
New England 1600-1700: from 30,000 to
91, 000
Virginia 1600-1700: from 120,000 to 85,000
New England and American Indians
No real place in New England society, No great efforts
at conversion, “Praying” Indians
King Phillip’s War (Metacom), Wampanoag leader.
Pan-Indian movement.
Trade issues, discrimination, land hunger, pressure to
convert, sale of alcohol, pressure to submit to
colonial gov’ts.
5,000 American Indians killed (@40% of pop)
2,500 English killed (@5% of pop)
Praying Indians put on Deer Island
New assertions of identity based on racial lines
Captives absorbed into households as servants/slaves,
sold off, or absorbed into society as INDIVIDUALS
b/c of skills. No community, seen as “just in the way.”
The Caribbean
Will EVENTUALLY become the most
profitable English colonies, resulting in a
stark hierarchy.
1686 London imported £674,000 worth of
goods from the Caribbean, and only
£207,000 from all the rest of its colonies.
Central to building an international Atlantic
Economy
The English are “late to the game”
1627-Barbados
1628-Nevis
1632-Montserrat and Antigua
1654- St. Christopher
Barbados as example
• 1620s/30s – economy based on pig killing
• Series of very small plantations, worked by
owners w/white servants
• Experiments with tobacco, livestock,
subsistence farming. Tried sugar but
didn’t have the technical knowledge.
• Labor: Indentured servants. Tobacco
market glutted by 1630s, servitude gets
harsher, rebellion in 1647, brutally put
down
Sugar
1640s – move toward sugar. Expensive
to start up: equipment, precision
timing, strenuous/dangerous, technical
knowledge.
Cut down all the trees for barrels
-Bought
knowledge,
equipment and
slaves from the
Dutch, on credit.
-Completely
dependant on
slaves
-Population
density
Sugar and Barbados
Short window of opportunity
1st generation did well, by selling out as
land got more expensive
Increase in plantation size=society becomes
more stratified.
By 1680, 175 major sugar plantations
Total sugar economy
Sugar and Barbados
175 plantation owners=wealthiest people in whole
English Atlantic.
Lavish lifestyle, luxury imports, families in England,
some absentee owners.
Contrast: Poor whites.
2/3rd of white population were impoverished
Labor strife leads to movement toward slavery as
sole means of labor.
Sugar and Slavery
Slaves imported in large number=dense
population.
By 1660, 53,000 people on 166 sq. miles
(@200 people/sq.mile)
By 1700, population doubled, (@400
people/sq. mile)
Sugar and Slavery
Slavery increased as the cost of slaves fell.
1635 – young male= £34
After 1645, falls to £20.
Further encourages slavery.
1664 – 800 slaves in Barbados
1670 – 27,000 slaves & 26,000 whites
Very oppressive slave regime (b/c whites
are outnumbered)
Island not good for revolts, no where to run.
Slavery and Sugar
Very high death rate.
1640-1700, 130,000 Africans imported, by
only 50,000 survived.
Very low quality of life.
High infant mortality rate, pop. can’t
reproduce itself.
Work schedule: 6 day work week, Market
days on Sundays. 11 hour days.
Slavery
1661 – first slave codes.
Chattel Slavery – slaves defined as property.
Included avenues for slaves to buy their way out.
Any punishment by masters is okay, including
the horrific.
Restricted movement, no weapons, no drums, no
missionaries.
1622 –slavery follows status of mother.
1672 Royal Africa Company
1698 RAC loses monopoly. Competition=lower
prices
Barbados and New England
Total devotion to sugar.
Had to import food, lumber, supplies,
basically anything besides sugar.
Leads to internationalization of the economy
Supplies from New England.
By 1700, Boston had 15 shipyards, young
men becoming sailors.
Triangle Trade Network
Triangle Trade Develops
New England being tied into larger economy
Transition from family based to international
economy
Disrupts “City on a Hill” ideal
Rum produced in New England, Rhode
Island.
Massive increase in government sponsored
slave trade.
Est. 1 million Africans by 1770.
Growth of International Economy
Fuels growth of more colonies
Barbados (sort of) has its own colony
The Carolinas: By 1670s all the land in
Barbados was in sugar.
1st son gets land, other sons get $ and
slaves.
Move to Carolinas, produce for Barbados
economy.
Initial period – free range
cattle
Relied on Africans from
Sahel region, first
“cowboys”
1695 – rice from Africa.
1700 – major plantation
crop, export 400,000 lbs.
1740 – export 43 million
pounds.
Second wealthiest planter
elite, very labor intensive.
1739 – Stono Rebellion in
Carolinas.
The Carolinas
Africa
Local affiliations
No concept of “being African” yet
Initially controlled trade w/Europe
Strong economy, produced for export
Quality goods.
Strong governments, state-level, sophisticated,
organized labor, massive public works.
Excellent military
Initially, Europe cannot force its way in.
Disease much less of a factor.
Africa
Wealth through people reflected African
economy/culture.
Slave System was already in place when
Europeans arrived.
- Africans only sold surplus people.
- Slave economy misunderstood by
Europeans
Slavery Changes in Americas
Slaves viewed as African.
Language issues & buying strategies
Development of new identities:
-National, Creole, & Pan-African identities
Importation keeps African culture alive
Leadership comes from new exports: warriors and
elites conquered in battle.
W. Africa: 4 main culture groups, w/ 7 sub-groups
Not one people, lots of differences.
Africa
Competition
Destabilization
“Playing Sides”
Legacy of the
Slave Trade
European view
Joining the Models Together:
Creating The Atlantic World
Increasing economy in Atlantic = increase in
political/cultural ties to Europe.
Golden Age of Piracy/lawlessness ending.
1670s - @500 trans-Atlantic crossings.
1730s - @1,500.
Shipping is cheaper, faster, more cargo,
more passengers.
The Atlantic World
Raw materials from the
colonies increases
English manufacturing.
English staying in Englandjobs.
Immigration from other
countries.
“Back country” areas begin
filling up, development of
more marginal/peripheral
areas.
Increasing Connections
Colonies more connected w/one another, more
aware of events in Europe.
Newspaper publishing in colonies & Europe
Regular Mail system
Emotional tie to England
Other colonies (ports) start publishing
newspapers.
Coffee houses in ports/London, tied to colonies.
Leads to one intellectual community, later
spread of revolutionary ideas.
Forming the Atlantic World
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Trade becomes more complex
Trade volume increases
More markets for grain
Cost of shipping decreases
England wants more grain-producing
colonies
The Middle Colonies
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Pennsylvania
New Jersey
Delaware
New York (New
Amsterdam)
• Replace New
England in grain
export
England starts paying attention
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Trade volume increases
Cultural connections increase
Amount of $ at stake increases
Colonies become more important to England
Colonial economies in 1700=4% of England’s
GDP
• Colonial economies in 1770=40% of
England’s GDP