Transcript England and the New World

English Colonization
in the New World
Period 2: 1607 - 1754
England and the New World
• Church of England
– Henry VII launched a reformation to unify England
after the English Civil War
– His son, Henry VIII, took over and after the Pope
refused to annul his marriage he broke away from
the church and formed the Anglican Church
• Queen Mary
– Restored Catholicism and executed Protestants
• Queen Elizabeth
– Elizabeth I restored the Anglican church and
executed 100+ Catholic priests
English and the Irish
• England’s methods to subdue Ireland in the
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries
established patterns that would be repeated in
America.
– Military Conquest
– Slaughtered Civilians
– Seized Land
• Saw the Irish as wild and barbaric, compared to
them to the Indians that resisted English
Protestantism
England and the North America
• The English crown issued charters for
individuals to colonize American but both
failed
• Sir Humphrey Gilbert
– Newfoundland
• Sir Walter Raleigh
– Roanoke, the lost colony
Spreading Protestantism
• Spain and England became mortal enemies
during this time period
– Spain (Catholic) vs England (Protestant)
• ‘A Discourse Concerning Western Planting’
– 23 Reasons why Queen Elizabeth should support
English colonies in America
– # 1 Reason: Settlement would strike a blow at
England’s enemy, Spain.
Motives for Colonization
• National glory, profit, and a missionary zeal
motivated the English crown to settle
America.
• It was argued that trade and new consumer
products would be the basis of England’s
empire, not gold.
–Other countries saw this area as worthless
• Lacked precious minerals, couldn’t cultivate
sugar
The Social Class in England
• A worsening economy in led to an increase in the
number of poor and a social crisis.
– Enclosure Movement: Small farmers were evicted and closed
out of the ‘commons’ which was previously open to all
– Thousands were uprooted, ½ the population lived below the
poverty line
• Unruly poor were encouraged to leave England for the
New World.
– Henry VIII – branded & whipped the jobless, force them to
join the military or beheaded them
– Queen Elizabeth – put unemployed to work and controlled
hours and wages
Population Boom
Masterless Man
• Thomas Moore’s Utopia (1516) describes a
place such as many could imagine America, a
place where settlers could go to escape the
economic inequalities of Europe.
• The English increasingly viewed America as a
land where a man could control his own labor
and thus gain independence, particularly
through the ownership of land.
The Coming of English
Period 2
English Emigrants
• Sustained immigration was vital for the
settlement’s survival.
• Between 1607 and 1700, a little over half a
million persons left England.
– Settled in Ireland, the West Indies, and North
America.
• North American in the 17th Century was dangerous,
unstable, and disease decimated Indians and settlers
alike.
• Also dealt with Indian conflict and turned to the
motherland for help
Indentured Servants
• 2/3 of English settlers voluntarily came to
America as indentured servants.
– Surrendered freedom for 5 to7 years in
exchange for passage to America
– Land was a source of wealth and power
Land and Liberty
• Land represented liberty/freedom
– King rewarded relatives and loyal allies with land
– Abundance of land so many turned to slave labor
to build a work force
• A grant of land from the crown to a company
or a private individual (proprietor)
Englishmen and Indians
• English motives were opposite of Spanish
– #1 Goal: Displace Indians and settle their land
• No marriages
– (Only 3 in VA before outlawed in 1961) Pocahontas & John
Rolfe
• Not used for organized labor
• Not subjects of the crown
• Most colonial authorities recognized the Indians’
title to land based on occupancy, even though they
felt they didn’t improve the land
Englishmen and Indians
• The seventeenth century was marked by
recurrent warfare between colonists and
Indians.
– Wars gave the English a heightened sense of
superiority.
– More Indians were displaced by the English
that any other country
Transformation of Indian Life
• English goods were eagerly integrated into Indian
life, specifically metal goods.
• Over time, European goods changed Indian farming,
hunting, and cooking practices.
• Exchanges with Europeans stimulated warfare
between Indian tribes.
– Fenced in their land
– Introduced new crops/livestock
• The Chapter 2 reading summary will be online by 4
today, I have one section left to write. If you don’t
have internet access and you want a hard copy swing
by at the end of 7th period.
• I’ll leave my door unlocked and the reading will be on
the front table if I’m not back from the softball field.
• SAQ Quiz tomorrow, question will be from Chapter 2
only and you will receive a rubric to reference during
your quiz.
• Those who completed the Chapter 2 reading guide can
use on their quiz. We will do an SAQ from Chapter 3 in
groups on Monday.
• The Chapter 4 SAQ quiz will be moved to next
Wednesday, the 14th. When we start Period 3 the
calendar will not change that much, thanks for your
patience and flexibility
• #hashtag
Settling the Chesapeake
Period 2
Jamestown (1607)
• Settlement and survival were questionable in the
colony’s early history because of high death
rates, frequent change in leadership, inadequate
supplies from England, and placing gold before
farming.
• By 1616, about 80 percent of the immigrants
who had arrived in the first decade were dead.
• John Smith began to get the colony on its feet
From Company to Society
• Virginia Company – 1618 new policies would
be adopted for survival
– soon realized that for the colony to survive, it
would have to abandon the search for gold, grow
it’s own food, and find a marketable commodity
• Headright System
– V-Co gave 50 acres to whoever could afford
passage to the New World
From Company to Society
• House of Burgesses - first elected assembly in
colonial America - not very democratic (only
landowners could vote)
– A charter of grants and liberties.
• Slavery; the first slaves arrived in 1619.
Powhatan & Pocahontas
• Eng landing in Jamestown (many Indians nearby)
• V-Co treated Indians kindly and tried to convert Ind’s to
Christianity. Depended on Indians for food
• Powhatan, the leader of thirty tribes near Jamestown,
eagerly traded with the English.
• English-Indian relations were mostly peaceful early on.
– Pocahontas married John Rolfe in 1614, symbolizing AngloIndian harmony.
• Smith (leader) captured by Indians (Powhatan =
leader), he was rescued by Pocahontas (married
English Colonist John Rolfe after being Christianized)
Uprising of 1622
• Once the English decided on a permanent colony
instead of merely a trading post, conflict was
inevitable.
– Opechancanough led an attack on Virginia’s settlers in
1622.
• The English forced the Indians to recognize their
subordination to the government at Jamestown
and moved them onto reservations.
• The Virginia Company surrendered its charter to
the crown in 1624
A Tobacco Colony
• Virginia grew tobacco, even though King James I
considered it harmful and dangerous (mainly b/c it was
a commodity)
• Many large landowners had huge profits and started
the “get rich quick” idea. Elite were the ones with lots
of land near the rivers
• Lots of tobacco growing means lots of workers (or
slaves)
• Tobacco was Virginia’s “gold” and its production
reached 30 million pounds by the 1680s.
• The expansion of tobacco led to an increased demand
for field labor.
Women and Family
• Virginian societies lacked a stable family life.
• Social conditions opened the door to roles
women rarely assumed in England.
The Maryland Experiment
• Maryland was established in 1632 as a
proprietary colony under Cecilius Calvert.
• Calvert imagined Maryland as a feudal
domain, but one which would act as a place of
refuge for persecuted Catholics.
• Although the death rate was high in Maryland,
it seems to have offered servants greater
opportunity for land ownership than Virginia.
Religion in Maryland
• Religious and political battles emerged and
Maryland was on the verge of total anarchy in
the 1640s.
• It was hoped Catholics and Protestants could
live in harmony, but Protestants always
outnumbered Catholics.
The New England Way
Chapter 2
The Rise of Puritanism
• Puritanism emerged from the Protestant
Reformation in England.
– Puritans believed that the Church of England
retained too many elements of Catholicism.
• Puritans considered religious belief a complex
and demanding matter, urging believers to
seek the truth by reading the Bible and
listening to sermons.
– Puritans followed the teachings of John Calvin.
Moral Liberty
• Many Puritans immigrated to the New World
in hopes of establishing a Bible
Commonwealth that would eventually
influence England.
• They came to America in search of liberty and
the right to worship and govern themselves.
• Puritans were governed by a “moral liberty.”
The Pilgrims at Plymouth
• Pilgrims sailed in 1620 to Cape Cod aboard the
Mayflower.
– Adult men signed the Mayflower Compact before
going ashore.
• Squanto provided much valuable help to the
Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving was
celebrated in 1621.
The Great Migration
• The Massachusetts Bay Company was charted in
1629 by London merchants wanting to further
the Puritan cause and to turn a profit from trade
with the Indians.
• New England settlement was very different from
that in the Chesapeake colonies
– New England had a more equal balance of men and
women
– New England enjoyed a longer life expectancy
– New England had more families
– New England enjoyed a healthier climate.
The Puritan Family
• Puritans reproduced the family structure of
England with men at the head of the household.
• Women were allowed full church membership
and divorce was legal, but a woman was expected
to obey her husband fully.
• Puritans believed that a woman achieved genuine
freedom by fulfilling her prescribed social role
and embracing subjection to her husband’s
authority.
Government and Society in
Massachusetts
• Massachusetts was organized into self-governing
towns.
– Each town had a Congregational Church and a school
– To train an educated ministry, Harvard College was
established in 1636.
• The freemen of Massachusetts elected their
governor.
• Church government was decentralized.
– Full church membership was required to vote in colonywide elections.
– Church and colonial government were intricately linked.
Puritan Liberties
• Puritans defined liberties by social rank,
producing a rigid hierarchal society justified by
God’s will.
• The Body of Liberties affirmed the rights of
free speech and assembly and equal
protection for all.
• Although ministers were forbidden to hold
office in Massachusetts, church and state
were closely interconnected.
New Englanders Divided
Chapter 2
Roger Williams
• A young Puritan minister, Williams preached
that any citizen ought to be free to practice
whatever form of religion he chose.
• Williams believed that it was essential to
separate church and state
Rhode Island and Connecticut
• Williams was banished from Massachusetts in
1636 and he established Rhode Island.
• Rhode Island was truly a beacon of religious
freedom and democratic government.
• Other spin-offs from Massachusetts include
The Trials of Anne Hutchinson
• Hutchinson was a well-educated, articulate woman
who charged that nearly all the ministers in
Massachusetts were guilty of faulty preaching.
• Hutchinson was placed on trial in 1637 for sedition.
– On trial she spoke of divine revelations.
– She and her followers were banished.
• As seen with Williams and Hutchinson, Puritan New
England was a place of religious persecution.
– Quakers were hanged in Massachusetts.
– Religious tolerance violated “moral liberty.”
Puritans and Indians
• Colonial leaders had differing opinions about
the English right to claim Indian land.
• To New England’s leaders, the Indians
represented both savagery and temptation
– The Connecticut General Court set a penalty for
anyone who chose to live with the Indians.
– No real attempt to convert the Indians was made
by the Puritans in the first two decades.
The Pequot War
• As the white population grew, conflict with
the Indians became unavoidable, and the
turning point came when a fur trader was
killed by Pequots.
• Colonists warred against the Pequots in 1637,
exterminating the tribe
The New England Economy
• Most migrants were textile craftsmen and
farmers.
• Fishing and timber were exported, but the
economy centered on family farms.
The Merchant Elite
• Per capita wealth was equally distributed
compared to in the Chesapeake.
• A powerful merchant class rose up, assuming
a growing role based on trade within the
British empire.
• Some clashed with the church and left to
establish a new town, Portsmouth, in New
Hampshire.
The Half-Way Covenant
• By 1650, the church had to deal with the third
generation of the Great Migration.
• In 1662, the Half-Way Covenant was a
compromise for the grandchildren of the
Great Migration, granting half-way
membership in the church.
Religion, Politics, and Freedom
Chapter 2
The Rights of Englishmen
• By 1600, the idea that certain rights of Englishmen
applied to all within the kingdom had developed
alongside the traditional definition of liberties.
• This tradition rested on the Magna Carta which was
signed by King John in 1215.
– It identified a series of liberties, which barons found to be
the most beneficial.
• The Magna Carta embodied the idea of English
freedom:
– Habeas corpus
– The right to face one’s accuser
– Trial by jury
English Civil War
• English Civil War of the 1640s illuminated
debates about liberty and what it meant to be
a freeborn Englishman.
England’s Debate over Freedom
• John Milton called for freedom of speech and
of the press in the 1640s.
• The Levellers called for an even greater
expansion of liberty, moving away from a
definition based on social class.
• The Diggers was another political group
attempting to give freedom an economic
underpinning.
English Liberty
• 1. After the English Civil War, there emerged a
more general definition of freedom grounded
in the common rights of all individuals within
the English realm: a. A belief in freedom as the
common heritage of all Englishmen b. A belief
that England was the world’s guardian of
liberty
Civil War and English America
• Most New Englanders sided with Parliament in
the civil war.
• Ironically, Puritan leaders were uncomfortable
with the religious toleration for Protestants
gaining favor in England, as it was Parliament
that granted Williams his charter for Rhode
Island.
• A number of Hutchinson’s followers became
Quakers, but were hanged in Massachusetts
The Crisis in Maryland
• Virginia sided with Charles I, but in Maryland,
crisis erupted into civil war.
• In 1649, Maryland adopted an Act Concerning
Religion, which institutionalized the principles
of toleration that had prevailed from the
colony’s beginning.
Cromwell and the Empire
• Oliver Cromwell ruled England from 1649 until
his death in 1658, and he took an aggressive
policy of colonial expansion, the promotion of
Protestantism, and commercial empowerment
in the British Isles and the Western
Hemisphere.
• The next century was a time of crisis and
consolidation.
Creating Anglo America
Chapter 3
King Philip’s War
• In 1675 King Philip (Metacom) and his forces
attacked nearly forty-five New England towns.
• The settlers counterattacked in 1676, breaking the
Indians’ power once and for all.
The Expansion of
England’s Empire
Chapter 3
Mercantilist System
• England attempted to regulate its economy to
ensure wealth and national power.
• Commerce was the foundation of empire, not
territorial plunder.
• The Navigation Acts required colonial products
to be transported in English ships and sold at
English ports
The Conquest of New Netherland
• The restoration of the English monarchy came
in 1660, and the government chartered new
trading ventures such as the Royal African
Company.
• The New Netherlands was surrendered by the
Dutch without a fight in order to retain their
holdings in Africa, Asia, and South America in
1664, during an Anglo-Dutch war.
New York and the Rights of Englishmen
and Englishwomen
• The terms of Dutch surrender guaranteed
some freedoms and liberties, but reversed
others, especially toward blacks.
• The Duke of York governed New York, and by
1700 nearly 2 million acres of land were
owned by only five New York families.
New York and the Indians
• The English briefly held an alliance with the
Five Nations known as the Covenant Chain,
but by the end of the century the Five Nations
adopted a policy of neutrality
The Charter of Liberties
• Demanding liberties, the English of New York
got an elected assembly, which drafted a
Charter of Liberties and Privileges in 1683.
The Founding of Carolina
• Carolina was established as a barrier to
Spanish expansion north of Florida.
• Carolina was an offshoot of Barbados and, as
such, a slave colony from the start.
• The Fundamental Constitution of Carolina
established a feudal society, but did allow for
religious toleration and an elected assembly.
The Holy Experiment
• Pennsylvania was the last seventeenthcentury colony to be established and was
given to proprietor William Penn.
• A Quaker, Penn envisioned a colony of
peaceful harmony between colonists and
Indians and a haven for spiritual freedom.
Quaker Liberty
• Quakers believed that liberty was a universal
entitlement. a. Liberty extended to women,
blacks, and Indians.
• Religious freedom was a fundamental
principle.
– Quakers upheld a strict moral code.
Land in Pennsylvania
• Penn established a government that made a
majority of the male population eligible to
vote.
• He owned all of the colony’s land and sold it
to settlers at low prices rather than granting it
outright.
• Even if he did not, Pennsylvania prospered
under Penn’s policies.
Origins of American Slavery
Englishmen and Africans
• The spread of tobacco led settlers to turn to
slavery, which offered many advantages over
indentured servants.
• In the seventeenth century, the concepts of
race and racism had not fully developed.
• Africans were seen as alien in their color,
religion, and social practices.
Slavery in History
• Although slavery has a long history, slavery in
North America was markedly different.
• Slavery developed slowly in the New World
because slaves were expensive and their
death rate was high in the seventeenth
century.
Slavery in the West Indies
• By 1600, huge sugar plantations worked by
slaves from Africa were well established in
Brazil and the West Indies.
• Earlier, Indians and white indentured servants
had done the labor, but disease had killed off
the Indians and white indentured servants
were no longer willing to do the backbreaking
work required on the sugar plantations.
Slavery and the Law
• The line between slavery and freedom was
more permeable in the seventeenth century
than it would become later.
– Some free blacks were allowed to sue and testify
in court.
– Anthony Johnson arrived as a slave but became a
slave-owning plantation owner.
The Rise of Chesapeake Slavery
• It was not until the 1660s that the laws of Virginia
and Maryland explicitly referred to slavery.
• A Virginia law of 1662 provided that in the case of
a child one of whose parents was free and one
slave, the status of the offspring followed that of
the mother.
• In 1667 the Virginia House of Burgesses decreed
that religious conversion did not release a slave
from bondage
Bacon’s Rebellion: Land and Labor in Virginia
• Virginia’s shift from white indentured servants to
African slaves as the main plantation labor force was
accelerated by Bacon’s Rebellion.
• Virginia’s government ran a corrupt regime under
Governor Berkeley.
• Good, free land was scarce for freed indentured
servants, and taxes on tobacco were rising as the prices
on selling tobacco were falling.
• Nathaniel Bacon, an elite planter, called for the removal
of all Indians, lower taxes, and an end to rule by
“grandees”—a campaign that gained support from
small farmers, indentured servants, landless men, and
even some Africans.
The end of the Rebellion & its
Consequences
• Bacon spoke of traditional English liberties.
• The rebellion’s aftermath left Virginia’s planter
elite to consolidate their power and improve
their image.
A Slave Society
• A number of factors made slave labor very
attractive to English settlers by the end of the
seventeenth century, and slavery began to
supplant indentured servitude between 1680 and
1700.
• By the early eighteenth century, Virginia had
transformed from a society with slaves to a slave
society.
– In 1705, the House of Burgesses enacted strict slave
codes.
Notions of Freedom
• From the start of American slavery, blacks ran
away and desired freedom.
• Settlers were well aware that the desire for
freedom could ignite the slaves to rebel.
Colonies in Crisis
The Glorious Revolution in England
• The Glorious Revolution in 1688 established
parliamentary supremacy and secured the
Protestant succession to the throne.
• Rather than risk a Catholic succession through
James II, the Dutch Protestant William of Orange
was asked to assume the throne.
• The overthrow of James II entrenched the notion
that liberty was the birthright of all Englishmen.
– Parliament issued a Bill of Rights in 1689
The Glorious Revolution in America
• In 1675, England established the Lords of
Trade to oversee colonial affairs, but the
colonies were not interested in obeying
London.
• To create wealth, between 1686 and 1689
James II created a supercolony, the Dominion
of New England.
– The new colony threatened liberties.
The Maryland Uprising
• News in America of the Glorious Revolution in
England resulted in a reestablishment of
former colonial governments.
• Lord Baltimore was overthrown in Maryland.
Leisler’s Rebellion
• Jacob Leisler, a Calvinist, took control of New
York.
• New York was divided along ethnic and
economic lines.
• Leisler was hanged and New York politics
remained polarized for years afterward.
Changes in New England
• In New England, Plymouth was absorbed into
Massachusetts, and the political structure of
Plymouth Colony was transformed. a. Land
ownership, not church membership, was
required to vote.
• A governor was appointed in London rather
than elected.
• The colony had to abide by the Toleration Act.
The Prosecution of Witches
• Witchcraft was widely believed in and
punishable by execution.
• Most accused were women.
The Salem Witch Trials
• In 1691 several girls named Tituba as a witch.
• Accusations snowballed until, in the end,
fourteen women and five men were hanged.
• Increase Mather published Cases of
Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits.
The Growth of Colonial America
A Diverse Population
• As England’s economy improved, large-scale
migration was draining labor from the mother
country.
– Efforts began to stop emigration.
Attracting Settlers
• London believed colonial development
bolstered the nation’s power and wealth.
– 50,000 convicts were sent to the Chesapeake to
work in the tobacco fields.
– 145,000 Scots and Scots-Irish immigrants came to
North America.
The German Migration
• Germans, 110,000 in all, formed the largest
group of newcomers from the European
continent.
• Germans tended to travel in entire families.
• Their migration greatly enhanced the ethnic
and religious diversity of Britain’s colonies.
Religious Diversity
• Eighteenth-century British America was very
diverse, host to many religions.
• Other liberties also attracted settlers:
– Availability of land
– Lack of a military draft
– Absence of restraints on economic opportunity
Indian Life in Transition
• Indian communities were well integrated into
the British imperial system.
• Traders, British officials, and farmers all
viewed Indians differently.
• The Walking Purchase of 1737 brought fraud
to the Pennsylvania Indians
Regional Diversity
• The backcountry was the most rapidly growing
region in North America.
• Farmers in the older portions of the Middle
Colonies enjoyed a standard of living
unimaginable in Europe.
– Pennsylvania was “the best poor man’s country.”
The Consumer Revolution
• Great Britain eclipsed the Dutch in the
eighteenth century as leader in trade.
• Eighteenth-century colonial society enjoyed a
multitude of consumer goods.
Colonial Cities
• Although relatively small and few in number,
port cities like Philadelphia were important.
• Cities served mainly as gathering places for
agricultural goods and for imported items to
be distributed to the countryside.
Colonial Artisans
• The city was home to a large population of
artisans.
• Myer Myers was a Jewish silversmith from
New York.
An Atlantic World
• Trade unified the British Empire.
• Membership in the empire had many
advantages for the colonists.
Social Classes in the Colonies
Chapter 3
The Colonial Elite
• Expanding trade created the emergence of a
powerful upper class of merchants.
• In the Chesapeake and Lower South, planters
accumulated enormous wealth.
• America had no titled aristocracy or
established social ranks.
• By 1770 nearly all upper-class Virginians had
inherited their wealth.
Anglicization
• Colonial elites began to think of themselves as
more and more English.
• Desperate to follow an aristocratic lifestyle,
many planters fell into debt.
The South Carolina Aristocracy
• The richest group of mainland colonists were
South Carolina planters.
• The tie that held the elite together was the
belief that freedom from labor was the mark
of the gentleman.
Poverty in the Colonies
• Although poverty was not as widespread in the
colonies compared to in England, many colonists
had to work as tenants or wage labors because
access to land diminished.
• Taking the colonies as a whole, half of the wealth
at mid-century was concentrated in the hands of
the richest 10 percent of the population.
• The better-off in society tended to view the poor
as lazy and responsible for their own plight.
– Communities had policies to ward off undesirables.
The Middle Ranks
• Many in the non-plantation South owned
some land.
• By the eighteenth century, colonial farm
families viewed land ownership almost as a
right, the social precondition of freedom.
Women and the Household Econony
• The family was the center of economic life and
all members contributed to the family’s
livelihood.
• The work of farmers’ wives and daughters
often spelled the difference between a
family’s self-sufficiency and poverty.
North America at Mid-Century
• Colonies were diverse with economic
prosperity and many liberties compared to
Europe.
Slavery, Freedom, and the
Struggle for Empire to 1763
Chapter 4
Black Slaves in the 1600s
• Slavery began to grow in the colonies for a number
of reasons and a result the Atlantic Slave Trade
would develop
– Better conditions in England meant a decrease in
indentured servants
– Healthier living meant indentured servants were
completing their servitude and acquiring land
– It became more profitable to buy slaves and breed them
• Race decided through the mother
– Indian slaves were too difficult to enslave, many died
from disease so the population was decimated
Black Slaves in the 1600s
• Slaves largely outnumbered the colonists so a
strict, rigid slave code was put into place
immediately
• Slaves became life long property that could be
inherited by children
• Slavery would come to be accepted in all
colonies during the 17th century
Atlantic
Trade
Triangular
Trade
Triangular Trade (Atlantic Trade)
• A result of mercantilism: European merchants
purchased African slaves with goods manufactured
in Europe or imported from Asian colonies
• These merchant sold slaves in the Caribbean for
commodities (Sugar, Cotton, Tobacco)
• Caribbean commodities were later sold in Europe
and North America
• Trade thrived because each partner could get the
resources it wanted by exchanging what it had
available.
Middle Passage – this is the name for the leg of the Atlantic
slave trade that carries the slaves to the Americas.
John Locke & Natural Law
• Major English political philosopher of the
Enlightenment period
• Two Treaties of Government
– Changed the Social Contract Theory
– He believed that life, liberty, and property were
not protected, governments could be overthrown
justly
• This idea will inspire Thomas Jefferson and influence
the Declaration of Independence
Navigation Acts
• Ordered that certain goods shipped from a New
World port were to go only to Britain or to another
New World port.
• Served as the foundation of England’s world wide
commercial system; came out of the economic
philosophy of mercantilism (make money for the
prosperity of the mother country)
• Led to increased tension between Britain and the
colonies
Effects of the Navigation Acts
• Boosted the prosperity of New Englanders who
engaged in large-scale shipbuilding.
• Hurt the residents of the Chesapeake by driving
down the price of tobacco
• Transferred wealth from America to Britain by
increasing the prices Americans had to pay for
British goods and lowering prices Americans
received for the goods they produced
The Enlightenment
• Connects to the idea of deism (the universe was
created by God and then abandoned; no supernatural
controls would be exerted and all things were
explainable by reason)
– (Science)
• Enlightenment philosophy says that human reason
was adequate to solve mankind’s problems and,
correspondingly, much less the father was needed in
the central role of God as an active force in the
universe
American Enlightenment
• Idea moved from Europe to become the New World’s seed
of culture, intellectualism, and society
• Some important Enlightenment Writers
– Issac Newton
– John Locke
– Rene Descartes
• “I think, therefore I am”
• The Enlightenment’s basic assumptions
– Optimistic view of human nature
– God set up the universe and human society to operate
by mechanistic, natural laws
– Those laws can be found through reason
– Most Americans focus on practical knowledge
Ben Franklin (1706 – 1790)
• Ben Franklin as the only American
Enlightenment thinker by Europeans
– Symbolized the enlightenment in America which
was a search for practical knowledge
– Started as apprentice printer and became
achieved wealth through printing business.
Curiosity lead Franklin to important scientific
discoveries and inventions
John Peter Zenger
• German American newspaper publisher and
printer
• His acquittal of libel charges in New York City,
established a legal precedent for freedom of
the press
The First Great Awakening
• A series of emotional religious revivals that
occurred throughout the colonies
• 18th-century religious movement in the British
colonies most clearly signified growing religious
independence, diversity, and uniqueness
• Preachers spread a message of personal repentance
and emphasized faith as a way to avoid hell
• Suggested an equality between God and the Bible.
George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards became
its most dynamic preachers
The First Great Awakening
• While the Awakening created conflict among
those who argued about religion, its ideas helped
build connections between the colonies
• More denominations of Christianity were formed
• A number of colleges were founded by those
who accepted the Great Awakening
– Rutgers, Princeton, Brown
Great Awakening
• Spontaneous, evangelical revivals. People began to rethink basic assumptions about church and state,
institutions and society. Movement occurred among
many denominations in different places at different
times over several decades.
• Jonathan Edwards sparked it as reminder of Puritan
ideas – predestination.
• Evangelical part of Great Awakening – George
Whitefield preached informal outdoor sermons to
thousands in nearly all colonies.
• Split established churches into “new lights” and “old
lights”
Jonathan Edwards
• Preacher of the Great Awakening who
emphasized personal religious experience,
predestination, and dependence of man upon
God and divide grace.
• One of his widely read sermons was “Sinners
in the Hands of an Angry God”
• One of the most prominent Calvinists
French & Indian War (1756)
• Rivalry between France, Britain, and various Native
American tribes over land in the Ohio region.
• It was one of a series of wars fought between France
and England through out the world at the time
• Battles continued on European and American fronts
until Britain gained control of Canada
• It was in these conflicts that George Washington first
appeared as an able military leader
• William Pitt was Britain’s energetic prime minister.
After several humiliating defeats, he led Britain to
virtually destroy the French empire in North America by
focusing on the French headquarters in Canada
Albany Plan & Benjamin Franklin
• Delegates of seven colonies met in New York to
discuss plans for collective defense
• The Pennsylvania delegate, Benjamin Franklin,
proposed a plan for an intercolonial government, but
the plan was rejected by the colonial legislatures as
demanding too great a surrender of power
• While the other colonies showed no support for
Franklin’s plan, it was an important precedent for the
concept of uniting in the face of a common enemy
Treaty of Paris, 1763
• Ended the hospitalities of the French and Indian
War.
– France lost all its North American holdings
– Spain took the Louisiana territory
– Marked the end of Salutary neglect, a relationship in
which the British Parliament had somewhat ignored
the colonies, allowing them to develop their
character without interference
Impact of the French and Indian War
on British Colonial Policy
• Britain set out to solve the large national debt
incurred in recent conflicts
• It created the series of acts that raised taxes on
American goods, leading to rebellious activities
in the colonies. Acts included:
– The Proclamation of 1763
– Sugar Act
– Stamp Act
– Quartering Act
French & Indian War
• Perception of War –
– Expanded horizons of colonists – more aware of
their land. Created trained officer corps that
knew British vulnerabilities. British felt colonists
ungrateful and not willing to bear their fair share
of burden. Colonists saw themselves as “junior
partners” to British. This conflict forced colonists
to cooperate with each other.
Writs of Assistance
• Court orders that authorized customs officials to
conduct non-specific searches to stop colonial
smugglings
• Allowed for the searching of homes, warehouses,
and shops
• James Otis served as a prosecutor in a failed
Massachusetts legal cases; he argued that these
searches were contrary to natural law
• Later, the 4th amendment would protect citizens
against “unreasonable searches and seizures”
Proclamation of 1763
• A results of Pontiac’s Rebellion, a Native Americans
uprising against the British for their mistreatment
• Forbade white settlement west of the Appalachians
to reduce friction between Native Americans and
the settlers
• Stated that Native Americans owned the land on
which they were residing
• Outraged colonists believed that the successful
outcome of the French and Indian War should have
allowed settlement in the Ohio Valley