Unit 2: Period 2: 1607-1754

2.1 Colonization

British Treatment of the Colonies

• Period preceding the French and Indian War is often described as salutary neglect or benign neglect.
• England regulated trade and government in its colonies but interfered in colonial affairs as little as possible.
• England set up absentee customs officials and colonies were left to self-govern.
• England occasionally turned a blind eye to the colonies' violations of trade restrictions.
• Developed a large degree of autonomy.
• Helped fuel revolutionary sentiments when monarchy later attempted to gain greater control of the New World.

English Regulation of Colonial Trade

• Throughout the colonial period, Europeans used a theory called mercantilism.

• Mercantilists believed that economic power was rooted in a favorable balance of trade and control of specie

• Colonies were important mostly for economic reasons, which is why the British considered their colonies in the West Indies more important than their colonies on the North American continent

• Colonies on the North American continent were seen primarily as markets for British and West Indian goods, but also as sources of raw materials

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British Control of Colonial Commerce

• British government encouraged manufacturing in England and placed protective tariffs on imports that might compete with English goods
• Navigation Acts passed between 1651 and 1673, required colonists to buy goods only from England, sell certain of their products only to England, and import non-English goods via English ports and pay a duty on those imports
• Navigation Acts also prohibited the colonies from manufacturing a number of goods that England already produced
• Wool Act of 1699, forbade both the export of wool from the American colonies and the importation of wool from other British colonies
• Molasses Act of 1733, imposed an exorbitant tax upon the importation of sugar from the French West Indies
• New Englanders frequently refused to pay the taxes imposed by these acts

Wool Act of 1699

• Forbade both the export of wool from the American colonies and the importation of wool from other British colonies
• Some colonists protested this law by dealing only in flax and hemp

Molasses Act of 1733

• Imposed an exorbitant tax upon the importation of sugar from the French West Indies
• New Englanders frequently refused to pay the tax, an early example of rebellion against the Crown.

Colonial Governments

• Despite trade regulations, colonists maintained a high degree of autonomy
• Each colony had a governor appointed by the king or proprietor
• Governor had powers similar to the king, but also dependent on colonial legislatures for money
• Governor's power relied on cooperation of colonists, most ruled accordingly

Legislatures:

• Except for Pennsylvania, all colonies had bicameral legislatures modeled after British Parliament
• Lower house functioned similar to House of Representatives, members directly elected by white, male property holders and had "power of the purse"
• Upper house made of appointees serving as advisors to governor, had some legislative and judicial powers
• Most upper house members chosen from local population and concerned with protecting interests of colonial landowners

British Central Government:

• British never established powerful central government in colonies
• Autonomy allowed eased transition to independence in following century

Colonial Efforts Toward Centralization:

• Small efforts made by colonists towards centralized government
• New England Confederation most prominent attempt
• No real power, but offered advice to northeastern colonies when disputes arose
• Provided opportunity for colonists from different settlements to meet and discuss mutual problems

2.2 The Regions of the British Colonies

Development of the Colonies

• Colonies "grew up," developing fledgling economies.
• Beginnings of an American culture, as opposed to a transplanted English culture, took root.

Puritan Immigration

• Near halt between 1649 and 1660 during Oliver Cromwell's rule as Lord Protector of England
• Puritans had little motive to move to New World during Interregnum (between kings)
• With the restoration of the Stuarts, many English Puritans again immigrated to the New World, bringing with them republican ideals of revolution

Differences between New England and Chesapeake

• Entire families tended to immigrate to New England, but Chesapeake immigrants were often single males
• Climate in New England was more hospitable, leading to longer life expectancy and larger families
• Stronger sense of community and absence of tobacco as cash crop led New Englanders to settle in larger towns
• Chesapeake residents lived in smaller, more spread-out farming communities
• New Englanders were more religious, settling near meetinghouses
• Slavery was rare in New England, but farms in middle and southern colonies were much larger, requiring large numbers of enslaved Africans
• South Carolina had a larger proportion of enslaved Africans than European settlers

Other Early Colonies

Proprietorships

• Several colonies were owned by one person, usually received land as gift from king
• Connecticut and Maryland were two such colonies

Connecticut

• Received charter in 1635
• Produced Fundamental Orders, considered first written constitution in British North America

Maryland

• Granted to Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore
• Calvert intended to create haven colony for Catholics and make a profit growing tobacco
• Offered religious tolerance for all Christians but tension between faiths soon arose
• Act of Tolerance passed in 1649 to protect religious freedom but situation devolved into religious civil war

New York

• Royal gift to James, king's brother
• Dutch Republic was largest commercial power of the century and economic rival of the British
• Dutch had established initial settlement in 1614 near present-day Albany, which they called New Netherland
• In 1664, Charles II of England waged war against the Dutch Republic and captured New Netherland
• James became Duke of York, and when he became king in 1685, he proclaimed New York a royal colony
• Dutch were allowed to remain in colony on generous terms and made up large segment of population for many years

New Jersey

• Given to friends of Charles II, who sold it off to investors, many of whom were Quakers

Pennsylvania

• William Penn, a Quaker, received colony as a gift from King Charles II
• Charles had a friendship with William Penn and wanted to export Quakers to someplace far from England
• Penn established liberal policies towards religious freedom and civil liberties
• Pennsylvania had natural bounty and attracted settlers through advertising, making it one of the fastest growing colonies
• Penn attempted to treat Native Americans more fairly but had mixed results
• Penn made a treaty with the Delawares to take only as much land as could be walked by a man in three days. His son, however, renegotiated the treaty, hiring three marathon runners for the same task, thereby claiming considerably more land.

Carolina Colony

• Proprietary colony (English-owned)
• Split into North and South in 1729

North Carolina

• Settled by Virginians

South Carolina

• Settled by descendants of Englishmen who had colonized Barbados
• Barbados’ primary export: sugar
• Plantations worked by enslaved people

Slavery in the Colonies

• Existed in Virginia since 1619
• Arrival of settlers from Barbados marked the beginning of the slave era in the colonies
• First Englishmen in the New World to see widespread slavery at work

Formation of Georgia

• Formation of South Carolina and ongoing armed conflicts with Spanish Florida prompted British to support formation of Georgia by James Oglethorpe in 1732
• Georgia initially banned slavery

Slavery in Georgia

• Ban was soon overturned due to economic advantage and growth afforded to neighboring South Carolina due to slavery

Proprietary Colonies

• Most of the proprietary colonies were converted to royal colonies (owned by the king)
• Greater control over government

Royal Colonies

• By the time of the Revolution, only Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were not royal colonies.

2.3 Diversity in the Colonies

Population Growth in the Colonies

• Population in 1700 was 250,000 and by 1750 it was 1,250,000
• Substantial non-English European populations (Scotch-Irish, Scots, Germans) started arriving in large numbers during the 18th century
• English settlers continued to come to the New World as well
• Black population in 1750 was more than 200,000
• In a few colonies, Black population would outnumber whites by the time of the Revolution
• Over 90% of colonists lived in rural areas

Rural Life in the Colonies

• Labor divided along gender lines, men doing outdoor work and women doing indoor work
• Opportunities for social interaction outside the family were limited
• Patriarchy society, children and women were subordinate to men
• Children's education was secondary to their work schedules
• Women were not allowed to vote, draft a will, or testify in court

Black People in the Colonies

• Predominantly lived in the countryside and in the South
• Lives varied from region to region, with conditions being most difficult in the South
• Enslaved people who worked on large plantations and had specialized skills fared better than field hands
• Condition of servitude was demeaning
• Enslaved people often developed extended kinship ties and strong communal bonds to cope with the misery of servitude
• In the North, Black people often had trouble maintaining a sense of community and history.

Conditions in the Cities

• Often worse than in the countryside
• Immigrants settled in cities for work, but work paid too little and poverty was widespread
• Sanitary conditions were primitive, epidemics such as smallpox were common
• Cities offered residents wider contact with other people and the outside world
• Centers for progress and education

Education in the Colonies

• Citizens with anything above a rudimentary level of education were rare
• Nearly all colleges established during this period served primarily to train ministers
• Early colleges in the North include Harvard and Yale (established in 1636 and 1701, respectively)
• College of William and Mary was chartered in the South in 1693

Regional Differences in the Colonies

• New England society centered on trade, Boston was the colonies' major port city
• Population farmed for subsistence, subscribed to rigid Puritanism
• Middle colonies (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey) had more fertile land and focused primarily on farming
• Lower South (the Carolinas) concentrated on cash crops such as tobacco and rice
• Slavery played a major role on plantations, but majority of Southerners were subsistence farmers
• Blacks constituted up to half the population of some southern colonies
• Chesapeake colonies (Maryland and Virginia) combined features of the middle colonies and the lower South
• Slavery and tobacco played a larger role in the Chesapeake than in the middle colonies
• Chesapeake residents also farmed grain and diversified their economies
• Development of major cities in the Chesapeake region distinguished it from the lower South, which was almost entirely rural.

2.4 Major Events in the Period

Bacon's Rebellion:

• Took place on Virginia's western frontier in 1676
• Frontier farmers forced west into back country due to all coastal land being claimed
• Encroaching on land inhabited by Native Americans led to raids on frontier farmers
• Frontier settlers sought to band together and drive out native tribes
• Stymied by government in Jamestown, which did not want to risk full-scale war
• Class resentment grew as frontiersmen suspected eastern elites viewed them as expendable "human shields"
• Nathaniel Bacon, a recent immigrant, rallied the farmers and demanded Governor William Berkeley grant him authority to raise a militia and attack nearby tribes
• When Berkeley refused, Bacon and his men attacked the Susquehannock and Pamunkeys, who were actually allies of the English
• Rebels then turned their attention to Jamestown, sacking and burning the city
• Rebellion dissolved when Bacon died of dysentery, conflict between colonists and Native Americans averted with new treaty
• Often cited as early example of populist uprising in America

Stono Uprising:

• First and one of the most successful slave rebellions
• Took place in September 1739 near Stono River, outside of Charleston, South Carolina
• Approximately 20 enslaved people stole guns and ammunition, killed storekeepers and planters, and liberated a number of enslaved people
• Rebels fled to Florida, where they hoped the Spanish colonists would grant them their freedom
• Colonial militia caught up with them and attacked, killing some and capturing most of the others
• Those who were captured and returned were later executed
• As a result of the Stono Uprising, many colonies passed more restrictive laws to govern the behavior of enslaved people
• Fear of slave rebellions increased, and New York experienced a "witch hunt" period

Salem Witch Trials:

• Took place in 1692, not the first witch trials in New England
• During the first 70 years of English settlement in the region, 103 people (almost all women) had been tried on charges of witchcraft
• Never before had so many been accused at once, more than 130 "witches" were jailed or executed in Salem
• Historians have different explanations for why the mass hysteria started and ended so quickly
• Region had recently endured the autocratic control of the Dominion of New England
• In 1691, Massachusetts became a royal colony under new monarchs, suffrage was extended to all Protestants
• War against French and Native Americans on the Canadian border increased regional anxieties

Puritanism in America

• Feared that their religion was being undermined by commercialism in cities like Boston
• Many second and third generation Puritans lacked the fervor of the original settlers
• Led to the Halfway Covenant in 1662 which changed rules for Puritan baptisms
  • Prior to the Halfway Covenant, a Puritan had to experience God's grace for their children to be baptized
  • With many losing interest in the church, the Puritan clergy decided to baptize all children whose parents were baptized
  • However, those who had not experienced God's grace were not allowed to vote
• All of these factors (religious, economic, and gender) combined to create mass hysteria in Salem in 1692
  • Accusers were mostly teenage girls who accused prominent citizens of consorting with the Devil
  • Town leaders turned against the accusers and the hysteria ended
• Generations that followed original settlers were generally less religious
• By 1700, women constituted the majority of active church members
• First Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s
  • Wave of religious revivalism in the colonies and Europe
  • Led by Congregationalist minister Jonathan Edwards and Methodist preacher George Whitefield
  • Edwards preached severe, predeterministic doctrines of Calvinism
  • Whitefield preached a Christianity based on emotionalism and spirituality
  • Often described as a response to the Enlightenment, a European intellectual movement emphasizing rationalism over emotionalism or spirituality.

Benjamin Franklin

• Self-made, self-educated man who typified Enlightenment ideals in America
• Printer's apprentice who became a wealthy printer and respected intellectual
• Created Poor Richard's Almanack which remains influential to this day
• Did pioneering work in electricity, inventing bifocals, the lightning rod, and the Franklin stove
• Founded the colonies' first fire department, post office, and public library
• Espoused Enlightenment ideals about education, government, and religion
• Colonists' favorite son until George Washington came along
• Served as an ambassador in Europe and negotiated a crucial alliance with the French and peace treaty that ended the Revolutionary War.