Slavery, Freedom, and the struggle for empire, to 1763

The Caribbean

• atlantic trade

-atlantic slave trade vital part of world economy

-In the 18th century, caribbean remained commercial focus of British empire

• triangular trade routes moved people and goods around atlantic

-slavery becoming more entrenched

-even in areas where slavery was not well developed, economy benefited from the

institution of slavery

Slavery in West African societies

•  africa and the slave trade

-african rulers involved, created major market for european

-slavery more central to west african societies

-lasting effects because loss of so many people to the slave trade

•  The Middle Passage: voyage across the atlantic

-people crammed, spread of disease, sent to mainland North America, Brazil, West Indies

Slave Systems in British North America

• Chesapeake slavery: tobacco plantation system

-response: demand for labor matched global demand for tobacco=increase slave labor

-enslaved people: fields, some skills and domestic labor

-Chesapeake elite= hierarchy with planters at top

• freedom and slavery in the chesapeake

-legal measures passed, whites power over blacks

-race created line in social division

-”free” and “white” became virtually identical

The Rice Plantation System

• the rice kingdom in south carolina

• barbados origins

-rice led to economic development, large-scale importation of slaves, growing divisions between

races

-south carolina becomes first mainland colony to have a black majority

-africans taught english settlers how to cultivate rice

-indigo becomes a staple crop

-widespread malaria kept planters away

-”task system”

-assigned daily jobs, allowed leisure/personal time

Georgia

• The Georgia Experiment: James Oglethorpe

-british prisoners and debtors

• slavery in the North

-lenient laws due to lower numbers of slaves

-labor: skilled and domestic

-in an urban economy, wage labor best

Slave cultures

• becoming african american

-individuals with different languages, cultures, and religions now together

-African American culture: african tradition, european elements, and new conditions in america

-multiple religions, shared beliefs in a singular creator and spiritual forces in nature-cultures

-different slave systems produced different cultures

• chesapeake

-family centered slave communities

-english and religious conversion

-south carolina and georgia

-african based culture

-gullah

-wedding/funeral ceremonies

• the northern colonies

-few enslaved people dispersed across the region

-a distinctive culture developed slowly

Slave resistance

• resisted:

-desire for freedom= runaway slaves

• slave uprisings

-NYC, 1712

-Louisiana, 1731

• Stono Rebellion

-led to a severe tightening of the South Carolina slave codes

Eighteenth century colonial america

• republican liberty and liberal freedom

• republicanism: celebrated participation in public life by economically independent citizens as

essence of liberty

• liberalism:

-individual and private

-John Locke’s two treaties of government

-”social contract”

• the right to vote: requirements varied between colonies

-political culture

Colonial government:

“salutary neglect”

• the rise of the assemblies: with increased economic development, assembly leaders became more

assertive

• politics in public

-expansion of the “public sphere”

-clubs provide public discussion of public affairs

-the “junto”

• the colonial press

-printing press

-widespread literacy

-political broadsides, pamphlets, newspapers

-libraries

Enlightenment

• The American Enlightenment

-inspired by european enlightenment

-Benjamin Franklin: lightning is electricity

-reaction against religious wars in europe

Causes and impact of the great awakening

• religious revivals

-a more emotional and personal christianity

-Jonathan Edwards’ S i n n e r s I n T h e H a n d s o f a n A n g r y G o d

• the preaching of Whitefield

-highly emotional preaching spread around the colonies

-revivals were the first major intercolonial events in north american history

-critics: old light vs. new light

• the awakening's impact

-reflected existing social tensions and criticism of aspects of colonial society

-attracted people of modest means, condemned worldlines and greed

-a few preachers explicitly condemned slavery

-broadened the range of religious alternatives

New France: The French Empire

-expansion of trade and territory-small population

-challenge to british

The Western Frontier:

• The Ohio Valley

-Western frontier of British North America

-Borderland between french and british empire and indian sovereignty

• The Seven Years War (the French and Indian war)

-in 1754, British efforts to remove French forced form forts in western Pennsylvania ignited a

worldwide struggle for domination

-afterbrutal backcountry fighting, the british emerged victorious

• a world transformed

-global balance of power shifted

-Peace of Paris (1763)= ends the war

-the war was enormously expensive

-increased taxes on American colonists

The Proclamation line

• Pontiac’s war and native freedom

-Neolin, a Delaware prophet

-preached rejection of european ways of life

-created a pan-indian identity

• Pontiac’s war 1763

-indians of ohio valley and great lakes attacked british forts

-some forts and settlements destroyed, hundreds of british settlers killed

• The Proclamation of 1763