Transcript Chapter 4 - HCC Learning Web

Houston Community College
History 1302 Professor Williams
Mercantilism
 Navigation Acts
 Enumerated goods
 Indentured servants
 Bacon’s Rebellion
 Glorious Revolution
 Salem witchcraft
 Roots of Slavery


Tobacco farming
required more workers.
› 1st white indentured
servants from England.
› 1619-Duthc merchant
ship arrives in
Jamestown with 20
Africans.
› Sold to tobacco farmers
as indentured servants,
not slaves.
› By 1662, Africans will
replace indentured slaves
due to revolts such as
Bacon’s Rebellion.

Headright System:
› Plantation owners give 50
acres for every
indentured servant they
sponsored to come to
America.
› 3 to 7 years
› Mostly England’s poor
› Indentured servants will
decrease
Nathaniel Bacon, young Virginia planer
who wanted to be an ‘elite planter’.
 1st grassroot movement
• Specifically, Bacon was angry at Virginia
Governor William Berkeley
• Berkeley ran a corrupt government
for 30 years in an alliance with
Virginia’s wealthiest tobacco planters
(Bacon was not invited to the club)
• He gave them the best land grants,
leaving new planters little choice on
the land they received
• He also did not want to forcibly take
Indian lands

•
The conflict began with a minor confrontation between
Indians and settlers on the western frontier
• Bacon was furious and began to raid Indian and settlers’ villages
• Declared a traitor by Berkeley
• Indians were his primary target, but settlers became collateral
damage
•
Bacon proceeded to march on Jamestown and burn it to
the ground
• Became the de facto ruler of Virginia for a short time after he
ran the governor off
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•
Control was finally restored after British warship came
Overall, he effectively pushed the Indians out of the
Chesapeake Bay
•
Threats of Civil War
• Bacon’s Rebellion served as a rude awakening for
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many of the colonial elite
The elite previously did not think the non-elite
would attempt to revolt
This was essentially a struggle between economic
classes
The elite slowly realized they had to improve
their image and show some concern for the poor
Essentially, this was a perfect example of the
danger of many land-less freemen in a society
controlled by a few elite
• Resembles Early Marxism
•
During the 17th century, over 350 New Englanders were accused of
witchcraft
• Over 200 accused in Salem, Massachusetts alone
• Virtually no one was accused in the South; this was truly a Northern
phenomenon
•
Who was accused?
•
In Salem, an Indian slave woman named Tituba was blame for the
outbreak of witchcraft
• Typically, older, outcast women were the primary targets
• They usually were post-menopausal, did not have sons, had economic
autonomy, and were single
• Economic autonomy alone gave men a reason to envy this women to some
degree
• Led to hysteria
• 14 women and 5 men were executed as a result
•
What ends the hysteria
• The governor’s wife eventually gets accused of witchcraft
• Thus, the governor believe the hysteria had gone too far and ended the
numerous trials

Primary reason for expansion of slavery in North
America was the need for labor on the growing
tobacco plantations.
› Chesapeake Bay slave system
 Primarily existed on tobacco plantations
 Generally small-masters & slaves
 Slavery transformed society into a hierarchy based on freedom
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Large planters-most free
Yeoman farmers-middle class, some restrictions on freedom
Indentured servants & tenant farmers –lower class, many restrictions
Slaves-not recognized as citizens or people, very restricted.
 Laws created for slave owners to ensure their legal power over
slaves.
 Race divisions begin
 Blacks became synonymous with slave
 White became synonymous with freedom


South Carolina & Georgia
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Need for slavery demand due to rice plantations
Rice and indigo were large-scale cultivation
For rice farms, they needed large plantations and labor force
By 1770, over 100,000 slaves populated South Carolina
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Economically based on small farms
A large labor force not required
Very few slaves, so little threat to colonists
Laws not as harsh for slaves such as the South
Northern colonies
› Africans in America-PBS

Documented black indentured
servant (black Angolan)
› Worked his term of service, 1635
› Married a free black woman
› Owned 250 acres in Maryland
 Had indentured servants and one African
slave
› Due to the rise of slavery, Johnson and
his family will lose their land and move
to start a tobacco farm.
•After 1672, The Royal
African Co. was
chartered to meet the
colonial planters’
demands for black
laborers.
• It was granted a
monopoly in the slave
trade.
•5,000 slaves /year
•249 voyages to
Africa, 1680-88
Slavery was widespread in African and had existed for
thousands of years. Slaves were the only form of private,
revenue-producing property recognized under African law;
no private or personal ownership of land.
 Triangle
Trade linked Europe, Africa and
the Americas
› “outward passage” – Africans
exchanged war captives for
manufactured goods (guns, jewelry,
cloth, rum)
› “middle passage” – horrific transport
of slaves across the Atlantic, to the
Caribbean
› “return passage” – raw materials
(sugar, tobacco, rice, cotton) from
plantations in the Caribbean to Europe
Slaves’ transatlantic voyage
 Most horrible inhumane conditions
 Lasted weeks to months
 Deaths, suicides, revolts


A slave kidnapped from the Eboe province
› Shipped to Bardados(not sold)
 Then to Virginia (sold)
 A Royal Navy officer-Lt. Michael Pascal, renamed him Gustavus Vassa
 Travelled the oceans for 8 years with Pascal
 Sold to a ship captain in London, then sold to a
prominent merchant Robert King.
 Within 3 years he purchases his freedom
 Travels for 20 years, 1786 becomes abolitionist

When I looked round
the ship too and saw a
large furnace of
copper boiling, and a
multitude of black
people of every
description chained
together, every one of
their countenances
expressing dejection
and sorrow, I no longer
doubted of my fate
and quite overpowered
with horror and
anguish, I fell
motionless on the deck
and fainted. . . . I
asked if we were not
to be eaten by those
white men with
horrible looks, red
faces and long hair?“ _Olaudah Equiano
"I had seen a black woman slave
as I came through the house,
who was cooking the dinner,
and the poor creature was
cruelly loaded with various
kinds of iron machines; she
had one particularly on her
head, which locked her mouth
so fast that she could scarcely
speak, and could not eat or
drink. I [was] much astonished
and shocked at this
contrivance, which I
afterwards learned was called
the iron muzzle.“ (Olaudah
Equiano)
The first record of slave trading
there dates back to 1536 and
was conducted by Portuguese,
the first Europeans to set foot
on the Island in 1444. The house
of slaves was built in 1776. Built
by the Dutch, it is the last slave
house still standing in Goree and
now serves as a museum. The
island is considered as a memorial
to the Black Diaspora.

A sentiment for slaves in
America was the desire to be
free.
Many colonial slaves ran away to
Spanish Florida/Northern cities
1st slave uprising-NY-1712

1739-Stono Rebellion
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
› Led to more restrictive slave
code

1741-New York City fires
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Slave Codes
› Laws

Enlightenment Period
› Laws of nature
› Franklin’s influence
› Jefferson
› Education in the
colonies

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Religious toleration
The Great Awakening

Religion/Tradition-Social
Roles
› Women-subservient to
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husband
Slave-subservient to
master
Father/husbandprotector of
women/children
Children-subservient to
father
Family-large

Origins
› Scientific: early science was related to sun and
stars
› Mixed religion with science., theology and science
were self reinforcing for many years
› Superstition played a role in belief of important
social events

Belief
› Thinkers argued that reason, or rational thinking,
rather than divine revelation, tradition, intuition, or
established authority, was the true path to reliable
knowledge and to human progress.
•
Part of the larger movement in Europe known as the
“Age of Enlightenment”
• Europeans were greatly influenced by the scientific
•
•
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revolution in the 17th century and sought to apply
scientific and investigative methods to political and
social life
• Research, logic, and experimentation were key
components
The movement came in part as a reaction to the bloody
religious wars of Europe of late 16th and 17th centuries
Concepts of “natural laws” came into vogue and began
to encompass the spirit of the American
Enlightenment
Religion was questioned by Deists
• They believed that a supreme being created the universe and
that reason and logic could determine religious “truth”
• Hence, there was no need for faith or organized religion
• This movement was particularly popular with founding fathers
such as Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and George
Washington

Isaac Newton: Principia
1687
› Used mathematics to
establish laws for
governing the universe.
› Rules/laws=
order=Predictability
 3 laws of motion
 Body at rest stays at rest
unless acted upon by some
force (inertia0
 Change of body’s motion is
proportional to force
acting on it
 For every action there is
an equal and opposite
reaction.
•
Locke: The sole right for a man to defend himself in
nature is not enough. Men must come together in a civil
society (social contract).
• Government is needed to help resolve the endless conflicts
• He advocated for separation of powers
• Believed that revolution against a tyrant government was a right and
an obligation of a civil society
• Believed in individual rights, consent of the government, etc.
• Framework for the United States’ application of liberalism and
democratic government
•
Overall:
• Locke’s theories of liberalism and democratic government +
Rousseau’s republican framework = the future United States’
political theory
Isaac Newton- Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy
 John Locke -Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Two
Treatises of Civil Government
 Voltaire-Philosophical Letters
 Montesquieu-The Spirit of Laws
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau-The Social Contract, Emile or
On Education
 Denis Diderot-Encyclopedia
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Reason & Logic

Traditions & Superstitions
› Rationalism
› Nostalgia for the past
› Empiricism
› Organized religions
› Tolerance
› Irrationalism
› Skepticism
› Emotionalism
› Deism
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George Whitefield
Denominations
Jonathan Edwards
Piety and reason
Stirrings
George Whitefield
Jonathan Edwards

•
An attempt to regain Puritan ideals from founding.
A period of heightened religious activity in the colonies between
the late 1720s and 1740s
• Brought on by the arrival of young Anglican pastor George Whitefield
•
Whitefield traveled through the colonies preaching enthusiastically
• Visited towns, villages, and the backcountry (known as circuit riding)
• Known for attracting large, emotionally charged crowds and generating
considerable controversy
•
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Other preachers such as Jonathan Edwards generated immense
controversy through his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God”
What was their goal?
• Attempt to compel non-Christians to covert to Christianity and those who
were lost to recommit to God
• Controversial because they rejected Calvinism and segregation in church
services
Conservative church members particularly did not care for the
circuit riders
•
Factions
• “Old Lights” – conservative church members who rejected the
controversial preaching of the circuit riders
• “New Lights” – liberal church members who came under
scrutiny for supporting the circuit riders and accepting blacks
into white church services
•
What did the movement achieve?
• Split Protestantism into more denominations; Presbyterians
were especially affected
• Became social criticism for colonial society
• Rejected slavery in particular
• Eventually, “New Lights” eclipsed “Old Lights” and ushered in
a new era of religious influence in the colonies
• Became a great influence of connecting God’s will with the
Revolutionary War in the 1760s and 1770s
Age of Imperial Warfare
 Great War for Empire
 Outcomes of the Great War for Empire


England and France struggled for the
mastery of Europe
› The colonists fought one another in America
The goal of the British colonies was to
capture Canada
 War ends with the Treaty of Ryswick
 Results:

› Port Royal in Acadia was returned to France
› France maintained a presence in New World
English unsuccessful to capture Quebec
 Native Americans support by French burned
British frontier settlements
 British gained Nova Scotia from France and
trade rights with Spanish America

› Results:
 France renounces plans to unite with Spain
 England gains Caribbean islands
 War takes financial toll on the colonies
Merged with the War of Jenkins’s Ear, 17391740
 France allied itself with Spain, England’s troops
captured the fortress of Cape Breton Island.
(access to St. Lawrence River)

› Later the British exchanged this for India gains
(Madras, India)
French head south from Canada to Pennsylvania
to prevent British expansion
 Sets the stage for the Ohio River Valley to
become the future battleground for all conflicts
between the French and English.
 Results: Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle

Began in 1754, with Washington’s battle with
the French.
 England and Prussia vs. France, Spain,
Austria, and Russia

› Indians initially ally with the French to keep the
British from taking their land
For the first two years, the British lose
• After numerous battles, the British forces
(regulars and colonial militias) force the
French out of Canada
•
• Seen as a huge victory over the Catholics
Peace Treaty at Paris in 1793
France lost all territory in North America, but
kept the Caribbean Islands
• England’s King George III looks like a hero

•
• A statue of him is erected in New York City
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France’s loss severely damaged their
relationship with the Native Americans
• Britain took their revenge against the Indian
betrayers in trading
• They stopped buying items from the Indians at high
prices
• Indians were forced to begin hunting again
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After numerous conflicts with Indians in the Ohio
River Valley after the end of the Seven Years’
War, the British were forced to respond
King George III used this proclamation as an
excuse to avoid further Indian conflicts
• He was too worried about paying back all the war debt
•
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The goal was to stabilize the volatile situation on
the colonial frontier and avoid future border
conflicts
All in all, the proclamation closed the frontier for
future colonial expansion
Kevin M. Schultz, HIST, Volume 1. Boston:
Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011.
 Edward L. Ayers, et.al. American Passages:
A History of the United States, 4th
Edition. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage
Learning, 2009.
 Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty!: An American
History, Seagull Third Edition. New York
and London: W. W. Norton & Company,
2012.
 PBS, Africans in America, 1998.
