Period 2: 1607-1763

Motives for Spanish colonization (2)

• Wealth via agriculture and mining of silver

  • Use enslaved native labor under encomienda system → switched to slave labor

• Convert natives via mission system

Caste system

Racial hierarchy implemented by Spanish in Americas

Quebec (1608)

Established by Samuel De Chamlain, 1st permanent French settlment

Ojibwa and French (2)

French foster alliances w/ = cultural exchanges

• Ojibwa prepare beaver pelts for market

• French give iron cookware and tools

Henry Hudson

Sought to find water based route through Americas → claims portion of Hudson River for Dutch

• Becomes New Amsterdam (1624)

Roanoke Colony (1585)

Britain’s 1st attempt at establishing permanent settlement in N. America

Joint Stock Company

Group of investors pool money and share in risk

House of Burgesses (1619)

1st elected representative assembly in N. America

• Only landowners can vote

• Virginia Co. could veto any legislation

John Rolfe

Experiments w/ tobacco planting = allowed cultivation of tobacco in 1612

Indentured servants

Could not afford passage across Atlantic → sign 7-yr labor contract, work to pay off settlement feed

Headright system (1618)

Introduced by Virginia Co. to attract more settlers → gave 50 acres to anyone who brought indentured servant to America

Bacons Rebellion (1676)

Colonists call on gov. William Berkley to act about Indian violence → Berkeley does nothing

Colonist Nathaniel Bacon = resentful of Indian violence and Berkeley’s neglect 

• Leads poor farmers and indentured servants to attack Indians and Berkeley’s property

• Rebellion squashed

Effects of Bacons Rebellion

Planters fear their indentured servants will revolt against them → switch to enslaved African Labor

Plymouth Bay Colony (1620) 

Pilgrims arrive on Mayflower - mix of puritans and pilgrims

• Came for both religious freedom and econ.

• Came as families → come to establish society

Starving Times (1620-1621)

Winter were disease ½ of settlers

• Natives help, show how to farm, fish, and hunt

Mayflower Compact (1620)

Signed by pilgrims on Mayflower → agreed to choose leader, make laws, and submit to majority rule

• 1st American example of plan of self-gov.

• Precedent for America’s democratic beliefs

Puritans

Protestants - wanted to purify the Anglican Church from Catholic influences

• Believed in predestination

• Elect people to office, but still theocracy

Pilgrims/Separatists

Protestants - believe Anglican Church was too far gone and could not be purified

• Want to completely separate

• Elected to office → democracy

Original Sin

Humans sinful by nature

Puritan Great Migration (1630-1640)

John Winthrop leads 16,000 people to the Mass. Bay Colony

John Winthrop’s “City on a Hill”

Belief that Puritans would build a model protestant community for all others to admire and strive toward

• Superior to all others

Open field agriculture

Shared, communal land where crops were grown

Closed field agriculture

Private farms for growing crops

• Land allocated based on a man's wealth, home, and contributions to church

John Elliot’s “praying villages”

Forced Natives to convert and adopt white/Puritan ways

Roger Williams

Promoted religious freedom and wanted separation of church and state → established Rhode Island

• Exiled by Puritans from MA

Rhode Island (1636)

Founded by Roger Williams → many who banished by Puritans sent to

Anne Hutchinson

Woman who criticized Puritan minister → believed God had personal relationship w/ each person = no need for ministers

• Banished to RI

British W. Indies econ and effects (1)

Initially used tobacco as main cash crops → switch to sugar

• Sugar more labor-intensive = spike in demand for slaves

Slave codes

Enacted in the British W. Indies b/c slaves outnumbered planter class → Strictly reg. slave behavior + define as chattel

William Penn

Quaker and Pacifist → would establish Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania (1681) beliefs (4)

Great religious tolerance and equality

• Religious freedom for all

• Buy land from Indians

• Negotiate treaties w/ Natives

S. colonies econ (3)

Agriculture: climate ideal for plantations and cash crops

• Led to demand for large labor force -> slavery

• Plantations → self-sufficient = very few large cities develop

Labor in S. (2)

Plantations need large amounts of labor, but many indentured servants leaving plantations → turn to slave labor

• Use slave laws to est. control

Triangular Trade

Merchant ships carry rum to W. Africa → trade for slaves → sail across middle passage → arrive in British W. Indies and traded for sugar cane → head to New England and trade sugar cane for rum

Middle Passage

Route carried slaves to Americas → extremely harsh conditions on ships

• From 1500 to 1900, transport 10-16 million Africans across

• 2 million die during Middle Passage

Slave Trade act

Limited # of slaves on ships across middle passage → ineffective, conditions still harsh

Mercantilism (3)

Assumes only fixed amount of wealth in world → goal was to maintain favorable balance of trade and establish colonies

• More exports than imports

• Colonies exist for benefit of home country → new resources and markets

Navigation Acts (1660s) (3)

Merchants can only trade w/ English colonies w/ English ships

• Sought to restrict colonial trade and benefit English via mercantilism

• S. supports→ means guaranteed markets

• NE does not support → decreased merchant’s profits, begin to smuggle

Pueblo Revolt (1680)

Spanish utilize brutality to convert Indians to Christianity → Pueblo rebel, and initially successful

• Spanish reconquer 12 yrs later

Metacom’s (King Philip’s) War (1675)

Chief of Wampanoag Indians, Metacom, resents Puritian encroachment on their land 

• Believed would destroy ancestral way of life -> needed to be dispelled

Metacom allies w/ neighboring tribes and leads attack on colonists

• Burn fields, kill men, capture women and children

British call on powerful, allied native tribe, Mohawk -> ambush and kill Metacom

• Marks end of rebellion

Effects of Metacom’s War (1675) (3)

1. Indians killed or sold into slavery in W. Indies

2. Extremely costly - cost more than all the personal property of New England

3. Halted Puritan’s expansion

Describe distribution of slaves in the colonies (4)

More S. = more slaves

• New England: farms smaller = have fewer slaves, mostly work in agriculture

• Middle colonies: work in agriculture, but most work in household services

  • But major port cities have large numbers of enslaved people

• Chesapeake colonies: far more slaves → need for emerging plantation system

• British W. Indies: greatest portion of slaves

Chattel Slavery

One human being can own another as property, typically race based

• Life-long and inherited

• British used to justify slavery → knew was immoral, but considered fine if they were property

Virginia slave laws

• Legally define African slaves as chattel

• Slavery is passed from one gen. to the next -> perpetual institution of slaver

• Becomes harsher as time continues

  • E.g., in later 17th century, Virginia plantation owners granted right to kill slave if defies

• Interracial relations = illegal

Slave Codes/Black Codes (5)

1. Denied right to vote

2. Denied right to trail by jury

3. Cannot testify against whites

4. Cannot own property

5. Cannot carry weapons

Stono Rebellion (1739)

Slave rebellion in S. Carolina → small group of enslave men steal weapons from store and kill white owners

• Head S. to Spanish St. Augustine, march along Stono river → more slaves join, burn plantation and killing whites

  • 50 white militia confronts and stops

• Most slaves killed in battle or hanged after

Largest slave uprising in colonies before American rev.

Effects of Stono Rebellion

Directly challenged plantation owner’s narrative as being the caretaker’s of slaves

Salutary Neglect (3)

Britain’s hands-off policy towards governing the colonies -> allowed colonies to develop w/o strict control

• Colonies learn to govern and manage themselves

• Develop independent colonial identity

Enlightenment in Europe and colonies

Movement emphasizing the rational thinking over tradition and religion

• Gains strong foothold because of transatlantic print through port cities →spread Enlightenment ideas to colonies

• Says that authority comes from scientific inquiry, not god

Effects of Enlightenment

• Awakened colonists to ideas of liberty, rights, and democratic gov.

• Undermined the authority of the Bible

• Presence of Enlightenment sentiment in colonies = religious apathy

• Leads to Great Awakening

John Locke (1689)

Writes the Two Treatises on Government → says people, just by existing, have certain natural rights

Natural Rights

People have the initiate right to life, liberty, and property

• Not given by monarch, but by creator

Social Contract

The power to govern in hand of people → willingly give up power to gov., and, in turn, must protect natural rights

• Would become center to American Revolution

The Great Awakening (1730s-40s) (3)

Massive religious revival throughout the colonies → intense Christian devotion 

• 1st nation-wide American event

• Taught colonists to resist threats to democracy

New Light Clergy (2)

Lamented lack of religious devotion in colonies → inspired by German pietism, empathizing the heart over the head

• Used intense and passionate preaching to spread Christianity

Jonathan Edwards

Preaches sermons w/ enlightenment ideas + intense religious fervor

• Major player in Great Awakening

• Famous sermon Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God (1741)

George Whitefield

Was part of the Methodist revival in England, travels to America→ preaches of God’s salvation and grace to colonies

• Preaches in almost all the colonies and in any environment

  • Highly unusual

• Extremely passionate speaker

Impressment

Practice of seizing men and forcing to serve in Royal Navy

• British supported, but Americans hated