Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes

The Founding of Jamestown Brinkley Chapters 2-3 Notes 3 ships set sail for Virginia in 1607. They reached the American coast in the spring of 1607, sailed into Chesapeake Bay and up a river they named the James

Chapter 2: The colony was swampy and Transplantations & bordered the land of local Powhatan Indians. Borderlands Early colonists were susceptible to malaria. Futile energy was spent searching for GOLD rather than building a permanent Chapter 3: settlement. No women were sent. Within one year of landing, only Society and Culture 38 of the 104 settlers survived. in Provincial America Jamestown survived largely as a result of Captain John Smith. Smith united the divided colony, and imposed work and order. He organized raids on Indian villages to steal food and kidnap natives. By the summer of 1609, the colony was showing promise of survival.

Exchanges of Agricultural Technology Reorganization and Expansion As Jamestown struggled to survive, the London Company (renamed the Virginia Jamestown's survival was largely a result of Company) obtained a new charter from the king, which increased its power and agricultural technologies developed by the enlarged its territory. In the spring of 1609, the Virginia Company dispatched a fleet Indians and borrowed by the English. of 9 vessels with about 600 people to Virginia.

Many who reached Jamestown died from fever before winter. The winter of 1609-1610 became known as the “starving time”. The local Indians killed off the Indians grew beans, pumpkins, and maize. The English livestock in the woods and kept the quickly recognized the value of corn, which was easier to colonists barricaded within their colony. cultivate and produced larger yields than any English The colonists lived off what they could grains. They also learned the advantages of growing beans find. alongside corn to enrich the soil. When help arrived they boarded the ship and set sail for England. As the survivors proceeded down the James, they met an English ship coming up the river – part of the Indians also introduced the canoe to colonists which was much better at navigating fleet bringing supplies and the colony’s first governor, Lord De La Warr. The departing the rivers and streams than large English vessls. settlers agreed to return to Jamestown. The effort to turn a profit in Jamestown resumed.

The Powhatans Indian War of 1622 The influx of land hungry migrants and conversion-minded ministers sparked conflict with the Indians. Relations had been relatively calm between the groups since the Led by Chief Powhatan Opechancanough - marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe in 1614. Brother of Powhatan By 1618, upon the death of Chief Powhatan, relations soured. Opechancanough, began Saved! Pocahontas - to secretly plan the elimination of the English. In 1622, tribesmen called on the colonists Daughter as if to offer goods for sale - then they suddenly attacked.

Took Captain John Smith 347 colonists died but ultimately, the Indians had to retreat. Wars would continue for Saw English as potential allies. Provided captive. years between the two groups. In 1624, shocked by the Indian surprise, King James I Arranged them with corn. In return wanted revoked the VA Co's charter and made it a royal colony. marriage to hatchets, bells, beads, copper, and "two John Rolfe to great guns." He did not get the tribute. The king and his ministers appointed the governor and a small advisory council. The ensure peace House of Burgesses remained, but all legislation had to be approved by the King's Privy with English. Bore a son, Council (group of political advisors). The king also decreed the legal establishment of Thomas. Died Powhatan realized the English did not come to trade the Church of England. Therefore, Virginians had to pay taxes to support the clergy. when she was but "to invade my people and possess my country" 21 in England. when John Rolfe began to plant tobacco. VA became a model for future royal colonies in America.

1 Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes

The Founding of Maryland Tobacco in Maryland A second growing tobacco colony, with a very different Like VA, tobacco quickly became the main crop. Europeans began to crave the nicotine in tobacco. set of institutions, developed in neighboring Maryland. European demand for tobacco set off a 40 year economic King Charles I, successor of James I, was secretly boom in the Chesapeake. Exports rose from 3 million pounds sympathetic to Catholics. In 1632 he granted the land in 1640 to 10 million pounds in 1660. known as Maryland to Catholic aristocrat Cecilius Calvert, who carried the title Lord Baltimore. Initially, most plantations were small freeholds, owned and farmed by families. After 1650, wealthy migrants from gentry As the territorial lord (or proprietor) of Maryland, Calvert could sell, lease, or give away or noble families established large estates along the rivers. the land as he pleased. He also had the authority to appoint public officials and to found Indentured servants and eventually African slave labor were churches. used to cultivate the crop. Life in the Chesapeake Lord Baltimore wanted Maryland to become a refuge for Catholics. Led by Leonard Calvert, the founders of Maryland established a colony at St. Mary's City at the point For both the rich and poor, life was harsh. The scarcity of towns deprived settlers of community. where the Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay. There were few women and marriages often ended quickly by the death of the child Quickly after settling, the colonists demanded a representative government. To prevent bearing mother. rebellion, a legislative assembly was created, which passed the Toleration Act of 1649. Orphaned children, along with unmarried young men formed a large segment of society. This was designed to minimize religious confrontations as it allowed all Christians the 60% of children in Middlesex County, Virginia lost one or both parents before they were right to follow their beliefs and hold church services. 13 years old.

The Carolinas The Carolinas The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (1669) legally established the Church of King Charles II initiated new outposts in America by England and prescribed a manorial system, with a mass of serfs governed by a handful authorizing 8 loyal noblemen to settle Carolina, an area of nobles. that had long been claimed by Spain and populated by thousands of Indians. It was a disaster. North Carolina settlers were a mix of poor families and runaway servants from Virginia and English Quakers who saw no difference between a Subsequently, he awarded the just-conquered Dutch "gentlemen and a laborer" colony of New Netherland to his brother James, the Duke of York (who renamed the colony New York). By resisting a series of governors, they forced the proprietors to abandon their dreams of a feudal society.

The Restoration colonies (Carolinas, NY, NJ, PA) were proprietorships. Proprietary In South Carolina, the colonists also went their own way. The leading white settlers there colonies were lands granted by the monarchy to one or more proprietors who had full were migrants from the overcrowded sugar-producing island of Barbados, and wanted to governing rights. re-create that island's hierarchical slave society.

The Duke of York and his fellow aristocrats in Carolina owned all the land and could They used enslaved workers - both Africans and Indians - to raise cattle and food crops rule their colonies as they wished, provided that their laws conformed broadly to those for export to the West Indies. Carolina merchants opened a lucrative trade in deerskins of England. The Carolina proprietors envisioned a traditional European society. with neighboring Indian peoples. In exchange for rum and guns, the Carolinians' Indian trading partners also provided slaves - captives from other Native American peoples.

The Southern Economy Tobacco in Virginia Under the leadership of its first governors, VA survived and expanded. New settlements The Chesapeake (VA & MD): Tobacco = 1st Plantations emerged. The colonists had military protection against the Indians and discovered a new, SC & GA: Rice marketable crop: tobacco. 1612 - John Rolfe cultivated tobacco in VA Rice cultivation was so difficult and unhealthy that Tobacco planting quickly expanded. Needed large white laborers generally refused to perform it. areas of land to grow b/c it exhausted the soil quickly. Demand for land increased rapidly. Colonists Slave labor was in high demand. African workers were adept at established plantations deeper into the interior, rice cultivation, in part because some of them had come from isolating themselves from Jamestown and pushing into rice-producing regions of west Africa and accustomed to the hot, Indian territory. humid climate than Europeans and had a greater immunity to malaria.

Dependence on large-scale cash crops produced an economy that was very agricultural based and little industry. Trading in tobacco & rice was handled largely by merchants based in London and, later, in the northern colonies.

2 Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes

Tobacco in Virginia First Africans Arrive

To entice new workers to VA, the VA Co. established the "headright system." Late August 1619 - a Dutch ship brought in "20 and odd Negroes." Colonists 1st Headrights were 50 acre grants of land. Each new settler received a single headright thought of them as indentured servants. Initially, the use of black labor was limited. for himself or herself. Planters preferred European indentured servants until the 1670s.

Africans who labored did so for wealthy plantation owners as indentured servants. This encouraged families to migrate They were not legally enslaved. The English Constitution did not recognize chattel together. More people = more land for slavery - the ownership of human beings as property. the family. The VA Co also transported ironworkers and other skilled craftsmen Boom and Bust Cycle Africans were generally socially mobile to VA to diversify the economy. until the price of tobacco collapsed in the 1660s. Planters had to find a way to produce tobacco cheaper - African slavery. 1619 - VA Co. sent 100 Englishwomen to VA to become wives. It promised male colonists full rights of Englishmen, an end to arbitrary rule, and even a share in self- The other event that ushered in the use government. By the end of July, delegates from various communities in VA met as of African slaves was Bacon's Rebellion. the House of Burgesses - the first elected legislature in the colonies.

Bacon's Rebellion Seeds of Rebellion Falling tobacco prices signaled an imbalanced market Despite low prices, Virginians continued to plant tobacco because there was no other cash crop. Poor planters could Falling prices also reflected the British Parliament's passage of the Navigation Acts of not afford their own land and became indentures or tenant 1651, 1660, and 1663. Acts allowed only British or colonial ships to enter American farmers. ports. This excluded Dutch merchants who paid the highest price for tobacco. Acts required colonists to ship tobacco, sugar, and other "enumerated articles" only to A planter-merchant aristocracy formed as a result. They England, where monarchs continually raised import duties, stifiling market demand. secured grants from the royal governors, particularly from Colonists were forced to find a way to reduce their costs to produce tobacco. Sir William Berkeley. Berkeley bestowed large land grants on members of his council. The councilors promptly exempted these lands from taxation and appointed friends as local justices of the peace and county judges.

To win support in the House of Burgesses, Berkeley bought off legislators with land grants and lucrative appointments as sheriffs and tax collectors. Social unrest erupted when Berkeley took voting rights away from landless freemen, who constituted 1/2 of adult white men. By 1670 political representation declined to where only free property owners could vote.

Berkeley and the Indians Bacon and the Indians

In 1607 there were 35,000 Indians in the land called Virginia. Nathaniel Bacon emerged as the leader of the rebels. Bacon By 1675, there were 3,500 Indians left living on the fringes of had a position on the governor's council, but he owned a the Virginia territory. frontier estate, & differed with Berkeley on Indian policy.

Poor landless servants demanded that Berkeley expel or After Bacon mobilized his neighbors and attacked exterminate the Indians. Aristocratic planters objected because Indians, Berkeley expelled Bacon from the council and they wanted to prevent those poor farmers from gaining their own had him arrested. But Bacon's army forced the governor land - they wanted the cheap labor. Berkeley agreed with the to release Bacon and hold legislative elections. aristocracy. The newly elected House of Burgesses enacted far-reaching political reforms that not only curbed the powers of the governor and council but also restored voting Fighting broke out late in 1675, when a small VA militia murdered 30 Occaneechee rights to landless freemen. The reforms though, came too late. Indians. Then, 1,000 militiamen surrounded a fortified Susquehannock (Iroquois) village and killed 5 chiefs. The Indians retaliated by attacking outlying plantations and killing Backed by over 400 men, Bacon issued a "Manifesto and Declaration of the 300 colonists. People" that demanded the death or removal of the Indians and an end to the rule of wealthy planters. Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy landowner living on the frontier, asked governor Berkeley to Bacon moved his army to Jamestown and burned the plantations of Berkeley's allies. grant him a military commission. Berkeley refused. As a result, Bacon mobilized his Bacon then died suddenly of dysentery in 1676 and Berkeley took revenge. He dispersed neighbors and attacked any Indians he could find. the militia, seized the estates of wealthy men in the militia, and hanged 23 men.

3 Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes

Impact of Bacon's Rebellion Rise of the Southern Gentry As time passed, planters began to model themselves after the English aristocracy - to After Bacon's Rebellion, wealthy planters retained act like a gentlemen. their dominance by curbing corruption and Cultivating gentility - a refined but elaborate lifestyle - they replaced their wooden appointing ambitious young farmers to public office. houses with mansions of brick and mortar. They filled their homes with furniture and They appeased these yeoman and tenants by cutting rugs. taxes and expelling the Susquehannocks, Piscataways, and other Indian peoples from the They educated their sons in London as lawyers and gentlemen. They expected their sons region. to return to America, marry local heiresses, and assume their fathers' roles: managing plantations, socializing with fellow gentry, and running the political system.

Wealthy southern women likewise emulated the English elite. They read English Most important, wealthy planters newspapers and fashion magazines, wore the finest English clothes, dined in English forestalled another rebellion by poor fashions, and drank elaborate afternoon tea. whites by cutting the use of To enhance their daughters' gentility and improve their marriage prospects, parents hired indentured servants and instead English tutors. Once married, planter women deferred to their husbands, reared pious importing thousands of African children, and maintained elaborate social networks, in time creating a new ideal: the laborers; the Burgesses explicitly southern gentlewoman. Using the profits of slave labor, wealthy planters formed an legalized chattel slavery in 1705. increasingly well-educated, refined, and stable ruling class.

Rise of the Southern Gentry The Imperial Slave Economy Wealthy elite plantation owners were never accepted into the English aristocracy The South Atlantic System had its center in Brazil and the West Indies, and sugar was Feeling inferior, they used their wealth to rule over white yeomen families and tenant its primary product. European merchants, investors, and planters garnered the profits of farmers but also relied on violence to exploit slaves. To prevent uprisings like Bacon's the South Atlantic System. Rebellion, the Chesapeake gentry found ways to assist middling and poor whites.

They gradually lowered taxes and encouraged small Following mercantilist principles, they landowners to improve their lot by using slave labor. provided the plantations with tools and By 1770, 60% of English families in the Chesapeake equipment to grow and process the owned at least one slave. sugarcane and ships to carry it to Europe. But it was the Atlantic slave Planters now allowed poor yeomen and some tenants to trade that made the system run. vote. The strategy of the leading wealthy families was to bribe these voters with rum, money, and the promise of minor offices in county governments. Between 1520-1650, Portuguese traders carried about 820,000 Africans across the Atlantic. Over the next half century, the Dutch dominated the Atlantic slave trade; In return, they expected the yeomen and the tenants to elect them to office and defer then, between 1700-1800, the British transported about 2.5 million of the 6.1 to their rule. This solidified the power of the planter elite, which used its control of million Africans to the Americas. the House of Burgesses to limit the power of the royal governor.

Sugar Africans and the Slave Trade Sugar transformed Barbados and other islands into slave-based plantation societies. Hundreds of thousands of young Africans died and millions more endured a brutal To provide raw sugar for refineries in Amsterdam, Dutch merchants provided English life in the Americas. Africans sold into the South Atlantic system suffered the planters with money to buy land, sugar-processing equipment, and slaves. bleakest fate. By 1680, an elite group of 175 planters dominated the Barbados's Torn from their villages, they were marched in economy. They owned more than 1/2 of the island and 1/2 of the chains to coastal ports, their first passage in 50,000 slaves on the island. As social inequality and racial slavery. Then, they endured the perilous "Middle conflict increased, hundreds of English farmers fled to South Passage" to the New World in hideously Carolina and Jamaica. overcrowded ships. The captives had little to eat or drink and some died from from dehydration. Sugar was a rich man's crop because it could be produced most efficiently on large plantations. Scores of slaves planted and About 14% died from illness or cut the sugarcane, which was then processed by expensive starvation on the passage. Life on equipment into raw sugar, molasses, and rum. the sugar plantations in Brazil and the West Indies was one of The South Atlantic System brought wealth to the entire European economy and relentless exploitation. With sugar helped Europeans achieve world economic leadership. The Navigation Acts kept the prices high & cost of slaves low, British sugar trade in the hands of British merchants, who exported it to foreign many planters simply worked their markets. Enormous profits also flowed into Britain from the slave trade. slaves to death & then bought more.

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Slavery in the Chesapeake and South Carolina Masters and Slaves on the Plantation After Bacon's rebellion, wealthy planters took advantage of the expansion of Britain's 17th century colonial plantations were rough and relatively small. In the early days in VA, they were little slave trade and bought more Africans putting these slaves to work on even larger more than crude clearings where landowners and indentureds worked side by side. plantations. Most landowners lived in rough cabins or houses with their servants and slaves nearby. The plantation economy By 1720, Africans made up 20% of the Chesapeake population. Slavery had become a was precarious. Planters could not control their markets, so even the largest plantations were constantly at risk. core institution, no longer just one of several forms of unfree labor. Moreover, slavery Plantation economy created many new wealthy landowners but also destroyed many. Enslaved Africans on was now defined in racial terms. The VA legislators defined virtually all resident Africans as slaves. smaller farms did not always live separately. They were more closely watched by the owner and unable to form close relationships with other slaves. Sometimes though, they were able to learn some skills from their owners. Slaves in the Chesapeake had much better conditions that those in the West Indies. Most slaves were imported to the North American colonies by the Royal Tobacco was less labor intensive than sugar, the climate was more temperate, diseases African Company of London. Company started by establishing trade did not spread as rapid, and profits from tobacco were less than sugar and slaves were along the West Coast of Africa (Guinea). not treated as harsh as a result. By 1680, they expanded to the slave trade, Slaves in SC labored under more oppressive conditions. The colony grew slowly until transporting 5,000 slaves a year across the planters began to grow rice. Most rice plantations lay in inland swamps, and cultivation Atlantic. From 1672-1689 they transported was dangerous and exhausting. Mosquitos transmitted diseases. Many died from the 90,000 - 100,000 slaves. In 1697, rival spread of disease and exhaustion. traders broke the RAC monopoly. Trade was now open to competition.

Masters and Slaves on the Plantation Masters and Slaves on the Plantation By 1700, there were 25,000 slaves in the British North American colonies. In some areas, Africans outnumbered whites and there were more than twice the number of African men than women. By 1760, Black society was subject to constant intrusions from and interaction with white society. there were 250,000 slaves in the colonies.

Black house servants were isolated from their won community. Slaves on larger plantations (10 or more slaves) were able to develop a society and Boone Hall culture of their own. Although whites seldom Plantation and Slave Cabin in encouraged formal marriages among slaves, SC blacks themselves developed a strong and elaborate family structure.

There was also a distinctive slave religion, which blended Christianity Black women were subject to unwanted sexual advanced with African folklore and which became a central element in the from the owners and hence to bearing mulatto children emergence of an independent black culture. Some slaves were who were rarely recognized by their white fathers. influenced by the Great Awakening and converted to Christianity.

Resistance and Accommodation Stono Rebellion Most slaves were denied opportunities to gain an education, accumulate material In rare instances slaves resisted their masters in large ways. The most serious example in the colonial period possessions, or create associations. was the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739. Slaves who challenged these boundaries did so at The Catholic governor of Florida their own peril. The extent of white violence often instigated the revolt by promising depended on the size and density of the slave freedom to fugitive slaves. population. The larger the labor force, the more cruel the master was. By February, 1739, at least 70 slaves Slaves were prohibited from leaving the escaped to St. Augustine and rumors plantation without special passes. Masters circulated that a conspiracy of slaves called on poor whites to patrol the area at night. were to rise and flee to Florida. 100 slaves rose up, seized weapons, killed about 2 whites, Running away provided no real solution either. For most, there was nowhere to go. and attempted to escape south to Florida. Slaves often passively resisted by working slowly, stealing small items from the owner, or breaking their master's tools. White militia executed many of the Stono rebels, preventing a general uprising. Frightened whites cut Rarely did revolts occur but when they did, they sent a shockwave through the white slave imports and tightened plantation discipline community. (slave codes).

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The Pilgrims The Puritans Pilgrims - Separatists who broke from the Church of England. Puritans - English Protestants who believed the English Reformation did not go They felt the Church of England was beyond reform. They far enough - there was too much Catholic presence left in the Anglican Church. demanded the formation of new, separate church congregations. Because they opposed the Church, they also opposed the King.

Pilgrims sailed to America in 1620 on the Mayflower, led by In 1630, they set sail for America. Their goal William Bradford. They settled in Plymouth, near Cape Cod in was to use the Anglican Church values as the southern MA. Only half of the Pilgrims who landed survived basis of their Protestant religion in America, but the first winter. Thereafter, the colony thrived. Religious they were going to reform the church further. discipline encouraged a strong work ethic. They believed they were liberated by God from oppression & bound to him by a covenant. They They faced few threats from the Wampanoag Indians as believed God chose them to fulfill a special role - to small pox killed many of them. They built solid houses establish a new, pure Christian Commonwealth. A and planted ample crops. They set sail on the "City Upon a Hill." To ensure political stability, they issued a written legal Arabella, led by John code (Mayflower Compact) providing for representative Winthrop. They established self-government, broad political rights, property the Massachusetts Bay ownership, and religious freedom of conscience. Colony in a town they named Boston.

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Puritan Community

John Winthrop became the 1st governor of the MA Bay Colony. The characteristic social unit in New England was the city. In the early years of colonization, each new "We must consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill. The settlement drew up a "covenant" binding all residents tightly together both religiously and socially. eyes of all people are upon us." If they created a genuinely "New" England, they could inspire Colonists laid out a village, with houses and a meetinghouse religious reform throughout Christendom. arranged around a central pasture, or "common." Thus, families generally lived with their neighbors close by. Winthrop and his associates (shareholders) transformed their joint-stock corporation into a representative political system with Divided the outlying fields and woodlands among the a governor, council, and assembly. residents. Size and location of a family's field depended on To ensure rule by the godly, the Puritans limited the right to vote and hold office to the family's numbers, wealth, and social status. Once a town men who were church members. was established, residents held a yearly "town meeting" to Rejected Plymouth colony's policy of religious toleration. Established decide important questions and to choose a group of Puritanism as the state-supported religion. Bible was the legal guide. THEOCRACY "selectmen," who ran the town's affairs. Placed power in the congregation of members - hence the name Congregationalist for their churches. Participation in the meeting was generally restricted to adult males who were members of the church. Only Faith was the key to salvation. The spiritual health and welfare of a community as a those who could give evidence of being among the elect assured of salvation ("visible saints") were whole was paramount. The integrity of the community demanded religious admitted to full church membership even though all residents were required to attend church services. conformity.

The Puritan Community Roger Williams New Englanders did not adopt primogeniture. A father divided up his land among all his sons. His control of MA Bay officials purged their society of religious dissidents. Roger Williams, a this inheritance gave him great power over the family. minister in Salem, opposed the decision to establish Congregationalism as the official religion and praised the Pilgrims' separation of church and state.

Often a son would reach his late 20s before his father would allow him to move into his own household and He advocated toleration, arguing that work his own land. Even then, sons would usually continue to live in close proximity to their fathers. political magistrates had authority over only the outward lives of men - not their spiritual The early Puritan community was tightly knit. Yet as the years passed and communities grew, strains and lives. He also questioned the Puritans' seizure of Indian lands. tensions began to affect the communal structure. This was partly because of the increasing commercialization of New England society. It was also partly because of population growth. The magistrates banished him from the colony in 1636. Williams and his followers As towns grew larger, residents tended to cultivate lands farther and farther from the community center and, by settled south of Boston, founding the town of Providence on land purchased from the necessity, to live at increasing distances from the church. In the first generations, fathers generally controlled Narragansett Indians. enough land to satisfy the needs of all their sons. In 1644 they obtained a corporate charter from Parliament for a new colony called After several generations, there was often too little room to expand outward and many younger residents broke Rhode Island. They had full authority to rule themselves. There was no legally off and moved elsewhere to form towns of their own. established church and individuals could worship God as they pleased.

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Anne Hutchinson Thomas Hooker

The MA Bay magistrates saw a second threat to their authority in Strict religious policies led others to leave the MA Bay Anne Hutchinson. Hutchinson held weekly prayer meetings for colony. Thomas Hooker and his congregation established the women and accused various clergymen of placing undue emphasis town of Hartford. on good behavior. In 1660, they secured a charter from King Charles II for She believed in antinomianism - She denied that salvation could the self-governing colony of Connecticut. be earned only through good deeds. She believed God revealed divine truth directly to individual believers. She insisted that faith alone was enough to achieve salvation. Like MA, Connecticut had a legally established church and Puritan magistrates denounced her as heretical upon trial and banished her to Rhode an elected governor and Island. assembly. However, it granted voting rights to most property- Hutchinson moved often after settling in Rhode Island due to constant threats from owing men, not just to church the MA Bay Colony. Her final settlement was in New Netherland. She and her members. family were massacred by Siwanoy Indians (Narranganset) in Kieft's War in August 1646.

Puritans and Witchcraft The Puritans and the Pequot Indians

Puritans believed that they physical world was full of Believing they were God's chosen people, the Puritans often treated Native supernatural forces. Americans with a brutality equal to that of the Spanish conquistadors and Nathaniel Devout Puritans saw signs of God and Satan's power in stars, Bacon's frontiersmen. birth defects, and other unusual events. These unexplained events When Pequot warriors resisted English often led to accusations of witchcraft. encroachment onto their Connecticut River Valley The most dramatic episode of witch-hunting occurred in lands in 1636, a Puritan militia attacked a Pequot Salem, MA in 1692. Several girls who had experienced Village and massacred 500 people. strange seizures accused neighbors of bewitching them. When judges at the accused witches' trial used "spectral" evidence - visions of evil beings and marks seen only by the girls - the accusations spun out of control. English Puritans saw the Indians as "savages" who were culturally, though not MA Bay officials tried 175 people for witchcraft and racially, inferior. Some Puritans tried to executed 19 of them. As a result of the number of deaths, convert the Indians to Christianity. Very government officials now discouraged legal prosecutions few Indians converted. for witchcraft. Moreover, many influential people embraced the outlook of the European Enlightenment.

Metacom's War Pennsylvania The Wampanoag Indians could never gain favor with the Puritans. To the Wampanoag The Quakers who settled Pennsylvania were pacifists & sought Chief, Metacom, prospects for coexistence looked dim. peace with the Indians. The colony quickly prospered. When the Indians copied English ways, raised hogs and sold the pork in Boston, they 1681, Charles II bestowed PA on William Penn as payment for a were accused of undercutting prices and restricted their trade. When Indians killed large debt owed to Penn's father. Penn, wealthy but also a wandering hogs that devastated their cornfields, Puritan authorities prosecuted them for Quaker (condemned excessive wealth), designed PA as a refuge violating English property rights. for fellow persecuted Quakers. As a result, Metacom concluded that the Europeans had to be expelled. In 1675, Metacom forged a military alliance with the Narragansetts and Nipmucks and attacked Quakers sought to restore Christianity to its early simple spirituality. They rejected the white settlements throughout New England. Puritans' pessimistic Calvinist doctrines, restricting salvation to a small elect. Quakers believed God infused both men and women with an inner light of grace or Bitter fighting continued into 1676 as the Indians exploited their strategic control of understanding. Quakers did not believe in gender inequality. large tracts of territory and most of the rivers. It ended only when the Indian warriors ran Women could serve as ministers. Penn ensured religious freedom by prohibiting a short of gunpowder and the MA Bay government hired Mohegan and Mohawk warriors legally established church & promoted political equality by allowing all property- who killed Metacom. owing men to vote and hold office. Metacom's War (King Philip's War) was deadly. The Indians destroyed 1/5 of the English To attract European Protestants, Penn published pamphlets in Germany promising cheap towns in MA and RI and killed 1,000 settlers. But the natives' losses - from famine and land and religious toleration. Ethnic diversity, pacifism, and freedom of conscience disease, death in battle, and sale into slavery - were much larger. About 4,500 died. made PA the most open and democratic of the Restoration Colonies.

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The Colonial Population The Chesapeake Population Although immigration remained for a time the most important long-range factor in the increase of the colonial population growth, the most important long-range factor in the increase of the colonial population was its Conditions improved much slower in the South. High ability to reproduce itself. death rates in the Chesapeake did not begin to decline to levels found elsewhere until the mid-18th century. The New England population more than quadrupled through reproduction alone in the second half of the 17th century. Throughout the 17th century, the average life expectancy for European men in the region was just over 40 years, and for women slightly less. Further, life expectancy in New England was Only after settlers developed immunity to local diseases unexpectedly high. (malaria) did life expectancy increase significantly.

Population growth was substantial in the region, but largely a result of immigration.

Patriarchal Puritanism Women in the Chesapeake Women in New England The longer lifespan in New England meant that parents continued to control their children longer than did parents in the South.

Family structure was much more stable in New Few sons and daughters could choose a spouse entirely independently of their parents' wishes. Men tended to England. The sex ratio was more balanced, so most The average woman in America married for rely on their fathers to cultivate. men could expect to marry. the first time at 20-21. Women in the Women needed dowries from their parents if they were to attract desirable husbands. Stricter parental Chesapeake could anticipate a life consumed supervision of children meant, too, that fewer women became pregnant before marriage than was the case in with child bearing. Women married young, began producing children the South. early, and continued to do so well into their 30s. Puritanism placed a high value on the family, and the position of wife and mother was highly valued in Puritan The average wife experienced pregnancies Northern children were more likely to survive, and culture. every 2 years. Those who lived long enough their families were more likely to remain intact. bore up to 8 children and typically lost five in infancy or early childhood. At the same time, however, Puritanism served to reinforce the idea of nearly absolute male authority. A wife was expected to devote herself almost entirely to serving the needs of her husband and the family economy. Fewer women became widows, and those who did generally lost their husbands later in life.

Changing Sources of European Immigration The Navigation Acts English merchants wanted the colonies to produce agricultural goods and raw North America was home to a substantial materials for English merchants to carry to England. Certain products would then be exported immediately to Europe in return for gold or goods. Other imports would be population of natives, imported Africans, and manufactured into finished products and then exported. immigrants.

The Navigation Act of 1651 attempted to keep colonial trade The SW region of Germany, Palatine, saw 12,000 in English hands by excluding Germans flee to Pennsylvania where they Dutch and French vessels from became known as Pennsylvania Dutch. American ports. The Act also required that goods be carried only on ships owned by English Other German immigrants headed or colonial merchants. to PA also: the Moravians and Mennonites.

8 Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes

The Navigation Acts The Northern Maritime Economy New Parliamentary acts in 1660 and 1663 strengthened the ban on foreign traders, The sugar economy linked Britain's entire Atlantic empire. In return for the sugar they sent to requiring colonists to export sugar and tobacco only to England, and mandating that England, West Indian planters received credit - in the form of bills of exchange - from London colonists import European goods only through England. The English government backed merchants. these policies with naval force attacking Dutch ships along the African coast. The planters used the bills to buy slaves from Africa & to pay North American farmers and Many colonists ignored the merchants for their provisions and shipping mercantilist laws and continued to services. The mainland colonists then trade with Dutch merchants. They exchanged the bills for British manufactures, also imported sugar and molasses primarily textiles and iron goods. from the French West Indies. West Indian trade created the first Outraged, England denied the claim American merchant fortunes and the first of MA Bay to New Hampshire and urban industries. Merchants in Boston, eventually established a separate Philadelphia, and New York invested their royal colony there. profits in new ships; some set up Merchants in Salem and other small ports built a manufacturing enterprises, including major fishing industry by selling salted mackerel refineries that produced raw sugar into and cod to the sugar islands and to southern Europe. finished loaves. Some distilleries turned Sawmills in New Hampshire provided low-cost England went further to annul the MA Bay charter by charging the Puritan government molasses into rum. wood for homes, warehouses, and shipbuilding. with violating the Navigation Acts and virtually outlawing the Church of England.

Northern Economic & Technological Life Colonial Artisans and Entrepreneurs

Agriculture dominated the North as in the South but it was more diverse. Colder weather and hard, rocky The first effort to establish a significant metals industry in the colonies soil made it difficult for colonists to develop large-scale farming. was an ironworks established in Raynham and Saugus, MA in the 1640s.

NY, PA, and CT grew wheat and were the chief suppliers to the rest of the colonies. A substantial commercial Metalworks gradually became an important part of the colonial economy. economy emerged alongside the agricultural one. That said, they did not become as explosive as the growth in Great Britain because of English parliamentary regulations such as the Iron Act of 1750 that limited the manufacture of woolen, hats, and other goods. Almost every colonist engaged in a certain amount of industry at home. Occasionally these home industries provided families with surplus goods they could trade or sell. Other reasons the colonies saw limited manufacturing growth was because of a lack of labor supply, a small domestic Beyond these domestic efforts, craftsmen and artisans established themselves in colonial towns as cobblers, market, and inadequate transportation facilities and energy blacksmiths, riflemakers, cabinetmakers, silversmiths, and printers. supplies.

Other industries emerged due to the large quantities of natural In some areas, entrepreneurs harnessed water power to run small mills for grinding grain, processing cloth, or resources in North America: lumber, fur trade, mining, fishing, milling lumber. And in several places, large-scale shipbuilding operations began to flourish. and ship building.

The Extent and Limits of Technology The Rise of Colonial Commerce Despite the technological progress that was occurring much of colonial society was conspicuously lacking in Colonial merchants had no gold & had to rely on barter or money substitutes like beaver skins. Colonists lacked even very basic technological capacities. Up to 1/2 of the farmers were so primitively equipped that they did information about supply and demand and had no way of knowing of what was in foreign ports. not even own a plow. There was also an enormous number of small, fiercely competitive companies, which made the problem of Substantial numbers of households owned no pots or kettles for cooking. And only about half the households in rationalizing the system even more acute. Nevertheless, the colonies owned guns or rifles. Most Americans were too poor to own them. commerce in the colonies survived and grew.

Many households had few if any candles because they were unable to afford candle molds. Very few farmers There was elaborate trade within the triangular trade owned wagons. The most commonly owned tool in America was the axe. systems. Out of the trade emerged a group of adventurous entrepreneurs who by the mid 18th century were beginning Few colonists were self-sufficient in the late 17th century. Few families owned spinning wheels or looms, which to constitute a distinct merchant class. suggests that most people purchased whatever yarn and cloth they needed. The Navigation Acts protected them from foreign competition in the colonies. They had ready access to the market in England for such colonial products as furs, timber, and American built ships. Most farmers who grew grain took it to centralized facilities for processing. The ability of people to acquire manufactured implements lagged far behind the economy's capacity to produce them. But they also developed markets illegally outside the British Empire - in the French, Spanish, and Dutch West Indies - where they could often get higher prices for their goods than in the British colonies.

9 Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes

The Rise of Consumerism Cities Growing prosperity & commercialism created new appetites & opportunities to In the 1770s the two largest cities in the colonies were New York City and Philadelphia. satisfy them. Result: growing preoccupation with consuming material goods and the quality of a person's home, possessions and clothing . Cities served as trading centers for the farmers of their regions and as ports for international commerce. Their leaders were generally merchants who had acquired substantial wealth. As the class gap widened, the wealthy became more intent on demonstrating their membership in the upper ranks of society. More than in any other area of colonial life, social distinctions were real and visible. Cities were the centers of The ability to purchase and display consumer goods was a way of flaunting what industry existed in the colonies. They were the locations of the most advanced schools and sophisticated wealth, particularly in cities that did not have large properties to boast their cultural activities and of shops where imported goods could be bought. success. This was also in part due to the Industrial Revolution in England Cities were the places where new making products in America more affordable. ideas could circulate and be discussed. There were newspapers, To facilitate consumer appetites, merchants and traders advertised their goods in books, and other publications from journals and newspapers. abroad, and hence new intellectual Agents of urban merchants - (traveling salesman) - fanned out through the countryside, to sell luxury goods now influences. available. The taverns and coffee houses of Products once considered luxuries quickly came to be seen as necessities once readily available: tea, linens, glassware, cities provided forums in which manufactured cutlery, crockery, furniture, etc. people could gather and debate the The idea of the cultivated "gentlemen" & the gracious "lady" became more powerful throughout the 18th century. issues of the day.

The Glorious Revolution Dominion of New England James II also angered English political leaders. The king revoked the charters of The Puritans' troubles worsened with the ascension of English towns, rejected the advice of Parliament, and aroused popular opposition by James II to the throne. He was aggressive and inflexible. openly practicing Roman Catholicism. He imposed strict royal control on the colonies. In 1688, James' wife gave birth to a son, raising the prospect of a Catholic heir to the In 1686, he revoked the corporate charters of CT & throne. To forestall that outcome, Protestant bishops and parliamentary leaders in the RI and merged them with MA Bay and Plymouth Whig Party led a quick bloodless coup known as the Glorious Revolution. colonies to to form a new royal province, the Dominion of New England. He appointed Sir The bishops and Whigs forced James into exile and in 1689 enthroned Mary, his Edmund Andros as governor of the Dominion. Protestant daughter by his first wife, and her Dutch Protestant husband, William of Orange. Whig politicians forced King William and Queen Mary to accept the The Dominion extended to America the authoritarian Declaration of Rights, creating a constitutional monarchy that enhanced the powers of model of colonial rule that the English government the House of Commons at the expense of the crown. imposed on Catholic Ireland. James ordered Andros to The Whigs wanted political power, especially the power to levy taxes. To justify their abolish any existing legislative assemblies. coup, the members of Parliament relied on political philosopher John Locke. In his Two In MA, Andros banned town meetings, angering villagers who prized local self-rule; Treatises on Government (1690), Locke rejected divine right, arguing that the legitimacy and advocated worship in the Church of England, offending Puritan of government rests on the consent of the governed and that individuals have inalienable Congregationalists. natural rights to life, liberty, and property.

Rebellions in America Rebellions in America

The Glorious Revolution sparked rebellions by In NY, Jacob Leisler led the rebellion against the Dominion Protestant colonists in MA, MD, and NY. of New England. Leisler was the leader of the Dutch Protestant artisans in New York City, who welcomed the When news of the coup reached Boston in April succession of Queen Mary and her Dutch husband. 1689, Puritan leaders and 2,000 militiamen seized Governor Andros, accused him of Catholic sympathies, and shipped him back to England. Led by Leisler, the Dutch militia ousted Lieutenant Governor Nicholson, an Andros appointee and an alleged Catholic sympathizer. Initially, Leisler had vast support. However, The new monarchs dissolved The Glorious Revolution of Leisler's denunciations of political rivals alienated many the Dominion. However, 1688-1689 began a new, non- English speaking New Yorkers. they refused to restore the authoritarian political era in old Puritan-dominated both England and America. When Leisler imprisoned 40 of his politcal opponents, imposed new taxes, and government of MA Bay, England imposed only a few laws championed the artisans' cause, the prominent Dutch merchants who had instead creating in 1692 a and taxes on the North American traditionally controlled the city's government condemned his rule. new royal colony, which settlements, allowed rule by local included Plymouth and elites, and encouraged English The newly appointed governor Colonel Henry Sloughter had Leisler arrested and Maine. merchants to develop them as tried for treason. He was convicted and hanged. sources of trade.

10 Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes

Rise of Colonial Assemblies The Great Awakening After the Glorious Revolution in England of 1688-1689 representative assemblies in America copied the English Whigs and limited the powers of crown officials. George Whitefield, a powerful open-air preacher from England, made several evangelizing tours through the colonies and drew tremendous crowds.

The legislatures gradually took control taxation The outstanding preacher of the First Great and appointments. Leading the assemblies were Awakening was the New England Congregationalist the colonial elite. Although most property- Jonathan Edwards. Edwards attacked the new owing white men could vote, only men of doctrines of easy salvation for all. He preached wealth and status stood for election. anew the traditional Puritan ideas of the absolute His Great Awakening led to the division of sovereignty of God, predestination, and salvation existing congregations "Old Lights" and "New by God's grace alone. His vivid descriptions of hell Light" revivalists. Some of the revivalists Yet, purposeful crowd actions were a fact of colonial life. Mobs closed could terrify his listeners. denounced book learning as a hinderance to prostitution houses and ran people with infectious diseases out of town. Popular salvation. discontent combined with growing authority of the colonial assemblies created a political system that was broadly responsive to popular pressure and increasingly Other evangelists saw education as a means of furthering religion, and they founded or led schools for the resistant to British control. training of New Light ministers.

The Great Awakening The Great Awakening By the early 18th century, similar concerns were emerging elsewhere in the colonies. The result was the By the beginning of the 18th century, some Americans were growing troubled by First Great Awakening which began in 1730 and reached its peak in the 1740s. the apparent decline in religious piety in their society.

The movement of the population westward and the wide scattering of settlements The revival had particular appeal to women (who caused many communities to lose touch with organized in urban areas. constituted the majority of converts) and to younger sons of the 3rd or 4th generation of settlers - those who stood Progress of science and free thought caused some colonists to doubt traditional to inherit the least land and who faced the most religious beliefs. Concerns about weakening piety surfaced as early as the 1660s uncertain futures. in New England, where the Puritan oligarchy warned of a decline in the power of the church. Ministers preached sermons of despair - jeremiads - The rhetoric of the revival deploring the signs of waning piety. By the standards of emphasized the potential for Powerful evangelists from England helped other societies or other eras, the Puritan faith remained every person to break away spread the revival. John and Charles remarkably strong. from the constraints of the Wesley, the founders of Methodism, visited past and start anew in his or GA and other colonies in the 1730s. To New Englanders, the decline of religious piety was a her relationship with God. serious problem.

The Enlightenment Literacy and Technology

The Great Awakening caused one great upheaval in the colonies. The Enlightenment caused another, very White male Americans achieved a high degree of literacy in the 18th century. By the different one. time of the Revolution, well over 1/2 of all white men could read and write. The literacy rate for women lagged until the 19th century. The Enlightenment was the product of some of the great scientific and intellectual discoveries in Europe in the 17th century - discoveries that revealed the "natural laws" that regulated the workings of nature.

The new scientific knowledge encouraged many thinkers to begin celebrating the power of human reason and to argue rational thought, nor just religious faith, could create progress and advance knowledge in the world.

The Enlightenment encouraged people to look at themselves and their own intellect - not just to God - for guidance as to how to live their lives and shape their societies. It helped produce growing interest in education and a heightened concern with politics and government.

In the early 17th century, Enlightenment ideas in America were largely borrowed from Europe - from such great The large number of colonists who could read created a market for the first widely circulated publications in thinkers as Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Rene Descartes. Americans such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, America other than the Bible: almanacs. By 1700, there were dozens, perhaps hundreds, of almanacs circulating Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison made their own important contributions to Enlightenment thought. throughout the colonies and even in the sparsely settled lands to the west. Most families had at least one.

11 Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes

Literacy and Technology Education

Almanacs provided medical advice, navigational and agricultural information, practical wisdom, humor, and Even before Enlightenment ideas penetrated America, colonists placed a high value on formal education. predictions about the weather. The most famous almanac produced was Poor Richard's Almanac, published by Some families tried to teach their children to read and write at home, although the heavy burden of work in Benjamin Franklin. most agricultural households limited the time available for schooling.

The wide availability of reading material in colonial America by the 18th century was a result of the spread of In MA, a 1647 law required that every town support a school - a modest network of public schools emerged as a printing technology. The first printing press began operating in the colonies in 1639 and by 1695 there were result. more towns in America with printers than there were in England. As literacy rates rose, demand for printed material rose, and demand for the printing press as well. The Quakers and other sects operated church schools, and in some communities women operated "dame schools." African Americans had virtually no access to education. The first newspaper in the colonies, Publick Occurrences was published in Boston in 1690. It was the first step Occasionally a master or mistress would teach slave children to read and write; but as the slave system became toward what would eventually become a large newspaper more legal sanctions developed to discourage those efforts. industry. The first universities: Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, and Princeton were founded to teach the ministry. Columbia and Penn were secular. Penn will later establish the 1st medical school.

Medicine in the Colonies The Spread of Science

Physicians had little or no understanding of infection and sterilization. As a result, The clearest indication of the spreading influence of the Enlightenment in America was an increasing interest many people died from infections contracted during childbirth or surgery. in scientific knowledge.

Many communities were plagued with infectious diseases transmitted by The high value that influential Americans were beginning to place on the scientific knowledge was clearly garbage or unclean water. Most people practiced medicine with no knowledge. demonstrated by the most daring and controversial scientific experiment of the 18th century: inoculation against smallpox. Women established themselves as midwives. Physicians and midwives practiced medicine on the prevailing assumption of the time of "humoralism" popularized The Puritan theologian Cotton Mather learned of experiments in England where by the Roman physician, Galen. people had been deliberately infected with mild cases of smallpox in order to immunize them against the deadly disease.

Galen argued the human body was governed by four "humors" that were lodged Despite strong opposition, he urged in the body: yellow bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm. inoculation on his fellow Bostonians during an epidemic in the 1720s. The In a healthy body, the four humors existed in balance. Illness represented an results confirmed the effectiveness of imbalance and as a result, bleeding a patient seemed to rid the body of the the technique. excess humor.

Concepts of Law and Politics Concepts of Law and Politics Although the American legal system adopted most elements of of the English system, including the right to More significant for the future relationship between the colonies and England were differences emerging trial by jury, significant differences developed in court between the America and British political systems. procedures, punishments, and the definition of crimes. In England, a printed attack on a public official, whether Because the royal government was so far away, Americans created a group of institutions of their own that gave true or false, was considered libelous. them a large measure of self-government.

German Immigrant John Peter Zenger published the New York In most colonies, local communities grew accustomed to running their own affairs with minimal interference Weekly Journal. The anonymous authors published editorials from higher authorities. accusing the royal governor of NY William S. Cosby, of rigging elections, allowing the French to explore the NY Harbor, and went so far as to call him an "idiot." Zenger was arrested and The result was that the provincial governments in the colonies became accustomed to acting more or less charged with libel. He refused to give up the authors' names. independently of Parliament and a set of assumptions and expectations about the rights of the colonists took hold in America that was not shared by policymakers in England. At his trial in 1734-1735 the courts ruled that criticisms of the government were not libelous if factually true - a verdict that removed some colonial restrictions on the freedom of press. A prized freedom seen in the 1st Amendment.

12 Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes

Salutary Neglect

British colonial policy during the reigns of King George I (1714-1727) and George II (1727-1760) allowed the rise of American self-government.

Royal bureaucrats, pleased by growing trade and import duties, relaxed their supervision of internal colonial affairs.

In 1775, British political philosopher Edmund Burke would praise this strategy as salutary neglect.

By allowing the colonists to have a larger stake in political, social, and economic matters, the British system of mercantilism, and the British empire as a whole was becoming weakened.

The seeds of revolution were being planted.

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