BRINKLEY 3: SOCIETY & CULTURE IN PROVINCIAL AMERICA (1600s-1700s)

Indentured Servants First Great Awakening Scotch-Irish George Whitefield Triangular Trade/TransAtlantic Slave Trade Enlightenment Slave Culture Benjamin Franklin Stono Rebellion - SC 1739 MA 1647 School Law Town Meeting Harvard College (1636) Salem Witchcraft Trials John Peter Zenger Trial

Indentured Servants

• 17th century: most amount of immigrants were indentured servants to Chesapeake region: VA and Maryland

• Indentured servants = temporary servitude bound themselves to masters for several years in exchange for passage to America

• When their terms were over, many of them were landless = problem in the Chesapeake

  • 1670s - England’s economy was better, so less indentured servants to America

  • 1697 - so Chesapeake’s increased use of African slave labor for plantations

Scotch-Irish: (1600s-1700s)

• Changing sources of immigration changed from English indentured servants to Ireland and other European countries

• Besides African slaves, the most numerous immigrants were the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian & Catholic: they pushed out to the western frontiers of the colonies; they fled high rents and unemployment in Ireland (many abandoned Catholicism in America bc many were Protestant)

Northern Economy:

• Agriculture dominated, but diverse agriculture; trades: cobblers, blacksmiths, etc. =goods: fishing, mining; 

• Goods that were traded with England; commercial class in North —>mercantilism & Navigation Acts (1660, 1663, 1673)

Southern Economy:

• Agriculture dominated, but large cash crop plantations: tobacco (biggest), sugar, cotton, rice; in VA/Chesapeake, etc. ;   due to Europe’s high demands for tobacco and sugar 

• The South had less of an industrial economy like the North; depended on African slaves

Triangular Trade / Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade:

• Commerce in the colonies grew —---> triangular trade/increase in Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

• elaborate trade among Europe (Britain), West African coast, West Indies (Caribbean), and colonists and back to Europe & other paths

• dreaded “Middle Passage” = Africa to Americas

  • Slaves crammed into ship, some got sick and died

• More slaves used due to Europe’s increasing demand for tobacco and sugar

• **for trades look at image

• British Navigation Acts protected new merchant class from foreign competition in the colonies; access to English market; illegal trade outside of British Empire

• Growing prosperity & commercialism = materialism and social mobility in colonies

• New forms of community/govt that were different in each region (think of VA/Chesapeake vs. MA/New England) (this is a Degler Diagram)

  • VA: county, very spread out plantations1

  • MA: town centered around Meetinghouse (“Town Meeting”)

Slave Culture:

• African slaves on plantations developed strong family structure despite whites not encouraging formal marriage

• Had slave religion: blend of Christianity and African folklore (blues songs)

• Some slaves learned trades and set up their own establishments for profits to share with owners or buy their own freedom

Stono Rebellion: SC in 1739

• Most severe resistance; 100 African slaves got weapons, killed several whites; tried to escape south to Florida; uprising quickly crushed, most executed

  • More frequent form of resistance was running away (could escape to Spanish St. Augustine, FL to be granted freedom by Spanish), but didn’t really work

Town Meeting:

• Local govt in New England was the town (Puritans used the covenant/promise to tie town together religiously and socially; residents centered around MeetingHouse/Church Building

• Residents held yearly “Town Meeting” at the Church to decide selectment to run the town and important decisions

• Voting in Town Meeting restricted to adult males who were “visible saints/elect” (Calvinism= Predestination)

Salem Witchcraft Trials: (1692-1693)

• Early Puritan towns were tightly knit, but due to increasing commercialization of New England and population growth, people lived farther apart, so less Puritan leader control over them, so tensions —-> Salem Witchcraft Trials

• Salem, MA: girls accused West Indian servants, so hysteria spread and many accusations

• 19 people in Salem executed

• Ideas spread through cities for First Great Awakening, Enlightenment, and American Revolution

• Great Awakening vs. Enlightenment:

  • Faith in God vs. scientific inquiry/reasoning

The First Great Awakening: (1720s-1740s)

• Religious toleration in America due to immigrants bringing different denominations of Protestantism (Catholic not liked in America)

• Rise of commercial prosperity led to secular outlook, so led to the First Great Awakening

• Women were majority of converts and younger sons with less land inherited

• Rhetoric of revival: every person can break away from past, and start anew in his or her relationship with God

• Famous preachers: George Whitefield; Jonathan Edwards (“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”)

• Awakening led to division: New Lights revivalists vs. Old Light traditionalists

  • New Lights: believed newer teachings of The Great Awakening = free-will salvation

  • Old Lights: believed in traditional teachings of Puritanism = Calvinism/predestination

• Formation of 1636 - Harvard College

George Whitefield:

• Popular evangelist from England who spread revival during the First Great Awakening in America

•  Powerful open-air preacher; made evangelizing tours through the colonies w/ large crowds

• Founded the Calvinist Methodist movement

The Enlightenment: (1680-1820)

• Product of scientific discoveries in Europe

• Philosophes: John Locke, Francis Bacon, Renee Descartes

• Power of human reason, scientific inquiry to create progress and change in society rather than religion

  • Technology: printing press for more Bibles and books printed, and more colonists became literate

  • Education: Massachusetts 1647 School Law = every town has to support a school, modern network of schools emerged as result (no schooling available for slaves or Indians)

    • 1636 - Harvard College in Boston, MA = the first American college, by Puritans as a training center for ministers; led to more religious and secular colleges

 Politics: colonists thought their colonists was exactly like the Old World, but wasn’t really: 1734-1735 - John Peter Zenger Trial: Zenger published critics about a public official, but the court decided not libelous if critique was true —-> led to freedom of press

Benjamin Franklin: (1706-1790)

• Influenced by Enlightenment (also Thomas Paine-“Common Sense”), Jefferson-Declaration of Independence, James Madison) (& First Great Awakening)

• Most famous almanac: “Poor Richard’s Almanac” to teach about the weather and crops and money = advice

• 1755 - Academy & College of Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania) =secular college

• Around 1750 - used kite to show that lighting was electricity; led to formation of lightning rod

• He felt moved by George Whitefield’s preaching in the Great Awakening

THEME:

• The colonies were becoming less like England even though they thought themselves as Englishmen. The colonies were becoming more like each other with the same values, leading to conflict between England and American colonies leading to American Revolution. (though the North and South were very different)

• Between the 1650s and 1750s, the English colonists grew in population and economically and commerce and exporting in Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

• Colonists condescending manner toward African slaves and Native Americans

• More significant for future relationship between colonies and England was differences between American and British political systems

  • Americans created colonial legislatures for self-govt and exercised powers that Parliament exercised in England

  • America’s definition of contitution was different from England’s version

  • Colonies acted independently of Parliament and English Crown

  • 1763: English govt tried to tighten its control over American colonies, but a great imperial crisis resulted = the American Revolution