Chapter 4-- Slavery, Freedom, and the Struggle for Empire

Slavery and the Empire

• Atlantic slave trade was a regularized business in the Columbian Exchange

• European empire utilized slave labor and competed for control of slave trade

• Britain’s acquisitions of asiento from the Dutch in the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 was a major step in its rise to commercial supremacy

Atlantic Trade

• Africa → NW: slaves

• NW → Britain: colonial products

• Britain → Africa: manufactured goods and weapons

• most colonial vessels went back and forth between cities like NY, Charleston, and Savannah, and to ports in the Caribbean

• slave economies of West Indies were the largest market for fish, grain, livestock, and lumber exported from New England & the middle colonies

• Britain: profits from slavery stimulated rise of ports (Liverpool & Bristol) & the growth of banking, shipbuilding, and insurance, and helped to finance the early Industrial Revolution

• “the idea of slavery being connected with the black color, and liberty with the white”

Africa and the Slave Trade

• few African societies, like Benin for a time, opted out of the slave trade

• African rulers played a part in having Europeans compete against each other, collecting taxes from foreign merchants, and keeping the capture and sale of slaves under their control

• textiles and guns were a major market for European goods

  • cheap imported textiles undermined traditional craft production

  • guns encouraged the further growth of slavery since the only way to obtain weapons was supplying slaves

    • EX: Ashant & Dahomey (West Africa)

• slave trade weakened and distorted West Africa’s society and economy due to 10k deaths yearly

The Middle Passage

• voyage across the Atlantic for slaves

• terrible conditions that most succumed to their death before arriving to NW

  • over cramped

  • measles and smallpox

  • sick thrown overboard

• vast majority landed in West Indies or Brazil

  • death rates on sugar plantations were extremely high, which led to constant demand for new slave imports

Chesapeake Slavery

• three distinct slave systems: tobacco-based plantation slavery in the Chesapeake, rice-based plantation, slavery in the SC and GA, and non-plantation slavery in New England and the Middle colonies

• VA and MD were closely tied to Britain and their economies were models of mercantilist policy

  • supplied England w/ valuable agricultural products, imported large amounts of British goods, and were closely linked in cultural and political values to London

• by the eve of American Revolution, there were types of slave labor

  • most worked in fields

  • teamsters, boatmen, skilled crafts, service-labor (women), manufacturing labor (men)

• slavery laid foundation for the consolidation of Chesapeake elites

  • merchants: handled tobacco trade

  • lawyers: defended the interest of slavery

  • landed gentry that dominated region’s society and politics

• as slavery expanded, land became more concentrated

Freedom and Slavery in the Chesapeake

• planters filled law books w/ measures enhancing the master’s power over his human property and restricting blacks’ access to freedom

• race took on more importance as a line of social division

  • free blacks lost rights to employ white servants, bear arms, and voting privileges of property-owning free-blacks had

    • subjected to special taxes

    • could be punished for striking a white person, regardless of cause

• VA law required free slaves be sent out of the colony

Indian Slavery in Early Carolina

• local creeks (native am.) initially welcomes settlers and began selling slaves; most sold to West Indies

• local creeks launched wars against neighboring tribes for the purpose to capture and sell slaves

• local creeks began to worry about stolen land and enslavement themselves

Rice Kingdom

• frontier conditions allowed small-population of African-born slaves to fight the Spanish and Indians

• rice was equivalence of VA’s tobacco

  • economic development, large-scale importation of slaves, and divide between whites and blacks

• 1740s: Indigo developed

  • required large-scale cultivation grown by slaves

• Africans taught English settlers how to cultivate rice

• rice plantations need to be large as possible for economic advantage

  • production requires capital investments to drain swamps and create irrigation systems

• mosquitos who carried malaria flourished in watery rice fields, so planters tended to leave plantations under the control of our seers and slaves

  • slaves had partial immunity to disease

• compared to Chesapeake’s supervised groups in field slaves, SC “task” system assigned individual slaves daily jobs, the completion of which allowed them time for leisure to cultivate crops of their own

• SC tried to get poor protestants to immigrate in fear of overly black population but got rejected by London

Georgia Experiment

• founded by philanthropists led by James Oglethrope in 1732

  • wealthy reformer whose causes included improved conditions for imprisoned debtors and the abolition of slavery

  • hoped to establish a haven where “worthy poor” could enjoy economic opportunity

• allied w/ SC during their feud w/ Spain & Native America in FL

• initially, proprietors banned liquor and slaves → 1751, proprietors surrendered to the crown, which gave colonists a right to elected assembly → revoked bans and more land

• 1740s: colonists pleading for “English liberty” of self-govt so they could enact laws introducing slavery

Slavery in the North

• not as apparent; laws were less harsh in New England

  • slaves worked as farm hands, in artisan shops, as stevedores loading and unloading ships, and as personal servants

• NY’s role in slave trade expanded → slavery did too

• 1746: 2440 slaves = 1/5 population (NY)

• slavery stagnated in 1750 as merchants and artisans began to rely on wage laborers (Philly)

• urban economy grew but also changed with international trade

• wage labor became more practical than slavery

• wage workers could be easily hired or fired depending on need

Slave Cultures and Slave Resistance

Becoming African American

• 19th century: slaves identified as AA

  • music, art, folklore, language, and religion, their cultural expressions emerged as a synthesis of African traditions, European elements, and new conditions in America

• 18th century: majority of slaves were African by birth

  • runaway slaves often described by origin and ethnic identity marks on body

• creole outnumbered by slave-imports

  • slaves born in NW

African Religion in Colonial America

• West Africa: belief in the presence of spiritual forces in nature and a close relationship between the sacred and secular world; “creators of all things “who govern” events on earth; nature was sufussed w/ spirit; dead could influence living

• North Africa: Islam

• North American slaves kept their faith, but when they ddi adopt Protestant religious practices, slaves blended them w/ traditional beliefs

African-American Cultures

• Chesapeake: slave population began to reproduce by 1740, which evened gender ratio and made it possible for creation of family-centered slave communities

  • small plantations and large number of white yeomen farmers - exposure to white culture

    • learned English → Great Awakening

• SC & GA: low birth rates meant reliance on continued slave imports from Africa

  • limited contact w/ whites → more autonomy

  • african-based culture: african style-houses, african names for children, spoke Gullah

  • slaves gradually created families and intergenerational communities

  • Urban communities

    • slaves in Charleston and Savannah worked as servants and skilled laborers

      • assimilated more quickly into European-American culture

    • sexual liaisons between white owners and enslaves women → emergence of free mulatoo class

• North; slow developed culture, more enjoyment, fewer opportunities to create stable family life or cohesive community

Resistance to Slavery

• runaway slaves

• Edward Trelawny’s “dangerous spirit of liberty” was widespread among slaves in NY

  • first slave uprising— NYC, 1712

    • group of slaves set fire to houses and killed 9 whites who first arrive at scene

• 1730s-1740s: continuous warfare w/ European empires and Indians opened door for slave resistance

  • 1731: slave rebellion in Louisiana

    • french and Indians at war

  • “maroons” — fugitive slaves (Jamaica)

    • waged war against British authorities until treaty of 1739 recognized their freedom in exchange to return future escapees

Crisis of 1739-1741

• War of Jenkin’s Ear (1739): conflict between England and Spain that created opportunities for slave rebellions

• Stono Rebellion (1739):: SC, groups of slaves, many from Congo, some w/ military experience

  • Actions

    • seized weapons from a stone in Stono

    • march towards FL, calling for “liberty”

    • burned buildings, killed whites

  • Outcome

    • rebels grew to around 100 slaves

    • defeated by colonial militia

    • defeats of over 25 whites and as many as 200 slaves

  • Consequence

    • some escaped to FL and later armed by Spanish

    • led to tightening of SC slave code

    • imposed prohibitive tax on imported slaves

  • NY Conspiracy Panic (1741)

    • series of fires led to widespread panic and rumors of a slave revolt

    • allegations involved a plan by slaves and whites allies to burn parts of the city, seize weapons, and either turn the city over to Spain or murder white inhabitants

      • over 150 blacks and 20 whites arrested

      • 34 alleged conspirators executed, including four white individuals

An Empire of Freedom

British Patriotism

• complex govt system w/ a powerful parliament representing the interests of aristocracy and merchant class

• possessed single political-cultural-social capital

• war w/ France → military establishment, high taxes, and creation of bank of England to help finance European/imperial conflicts

• saw France as “wooden shoe"s”

• British identity associated with widespread prosperity, individual liberty, the rule of law, and protestant faith

British Constitution

• liberty was Britain’s unique possession

  • due to English Civil War & Glorious Revolution

• Continental writers looked at British liberty as model

• Britans view of others: “enslaved”

  • popery, tyranny, or barbaric

• anybody, like, laborers, sailors, and artisans spoke of liberty/protested against what they believed as oppressive territory

  • ordinary people protested to raise cost of bread

  • Royal Navy’s practice of impressment

    • kidnapping poor men on the streets for maritime service

Republican Liberty

• active participation in public life by economically independent citizens

• assumed only property-owning citizens possessed virtue

• “the Country Party” support arose from landed gentry

  • John Trenchard & Thomas Gordon’s Catto Letters (1720s) attracted elites on the emphasis of independent landowners and the warnings against the tendency of political power to infringe upon liberty

Liberal Freedom

• individual and private

• John Locke’s Two treats of Government (1680) was formed by a mutual agreement among equals

• “social contract” — men lost part of their rights to govern themselves in order to enjoy benefits of the law but had natural rights

• Locke’s liberalism opened doors to the poor, women, and even slaves to challenge limitations of their freedom

The Public Sphere

Right to Vote

• property = voting rights for protestant white men

  • better in NW than Britain

• MA & Long Island let proprietor women cast ballots

• in some colonies, anti-protestant could not vote

Political Culture

• strong competitive election was only normal in the middle colonies

• power in colonial politics rested w/ those who help appointive, not elective, office

• laws passed by colonial assemblies could be vetoed by governors or in london

• property qualifications for office holdings were far higher than for voting

  • SC: nearly every man had 50 acres of land or payment of 20 shillings in taxes but for occie one had to have 500 acres and 10 slaves/$1000 town property

  • NY: assembly through relatives and allies of the great landed families (Livingstons and De Lancey’s)

    • Great Hudson River estate connections

• deference (when common people accepted elite rule and didn’t challenge the power of the rich) limited effective choice in elections

  • VA: combine political democracy w/ the tradition that voters should choose among candidates from the gentry

    • aspirants for public office to sought integrate themselves w’ ordinary voters, giving free food and free liquor at courthouse where balloting took place

Colonial Govt

• Britain’s salutary neglect towards colonies due to imperial rivalries caused colonial assemblies to take control for “will of the people” & left colonies to govern themselves

  • refused to levy taxes unless for exchange for concession of appointment, land policy, and other issues and assemblies authorized soldiers once a year

Rise of Assemblies

• leaders insisted assemblies possessed the same rights and powers in local affairs as the House of Commons enjoyed in Britain

• most successful governors were those who used their rising appointed powers and control of land grants to win allies maong assembly members

• PA: most powerful; new charter (1701) eliminated governor’s council which established a one-house legislature in colonies

• NY, VA, SC, and MA followed

• many conflicts between governors and elected assemblies stemmed from economic growth

  • paper money was dissented upon by British merchants/London

• additional reason of conflict: land policy and level of rents charged to farmers on land owned by the crown or proprietors

Politics in Public

• “political nation” was dominated by the American gentry whose members addressed each other in a multitude of ways w/ Latin and references to classical learnings

• world of political organization and debate independent from the govt

  • Boston, NY, Philly

  • “club for mutual improvement” (founded by Benjamin D. Franklin) for political and economic questions and discussions

Colonial Press

• press expanded rapidly 18th century

• widespread literacy → expandable market for printed material

• library company of philadelphia was the first library established by Ben Frank → libraries in other towns

• the Boston News Letter (1705) — first continuously published colonial newspaper

  • ads, religious affairs, british society and govt

• 1730s— political commentary widespread in American press

Freedom of Expression and its Limits

• free speech had no legal protection in British

• govt on both Atlantic viewed freedom of press dangerous

  • partly because they considered ordinary citizens prone to be mislead by inflammatory printed materials

• freedom of press was illegal after 1695

• elected assemblies discouraged freedom of press in colonial America

• publishers could go to prison

• colonial newspapers defended freedom of press by saying it’s a part of central component of liberty

Trial of Zenger (1735)

• condemned NY governor for eventual tyranny

• law of libel helped to promote the idea that the publication of truth should always be permitted and idea of free expression becoming ingrained the popular imagination

American Enlightenment

• human institution, authority, and tradition be judged before the bar of reasoning

• Ben Frank’s wide range of activities exemplified the Enlightenment spirit

  • establishing a newspaper, debating clubs, and library; publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack; conducting experiments to show that lightning is form of electricity

• should be applied to churches

  • John Locke’s The Reasonableness of Christianity

• arminianism: reason alone was capable of establishing the essentials of religion

  • many americans moved towards here

• deism: belief that God essentially withdrew after creating the world to function according to scientific law without divine intervention

  • Ben Frank & Thomas Jefferson

The Great Awakening

Religious Rivals

• ministers concerned that westward expansion, commercial development, Enlightenment rationales, and lack of church service was a threat to religious devotion

  • Great Awakening: revival of a more emotional and personal Christianity

• other “great awakenings” formed

  • transatlantic movement

• Jonathan Edwards Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

  • he described people as sinful and helpless, like a disgusting insect hanging by a thin thread over hell

  • god could let them fall into eternal fire at any moment if they don’t repent

  • purpose to scare people into changing their ways and turning to god

Preaching of Whitefield

• George Whitefield sparked Great Awakening

  • “Are you saved?” implying they need to change sinful ways be their lack of faith/surrender to god

• tens of thousands went to Whitefield’s sermons

• critics condemned revivalist preachers for lacking theological training, encouraging disrespect for “the established church and ministers” and fling churches w “genera; disorders”

• CT had laws to punish loud traveling preachers but by 1760s, revivals went from religious configuration → boundaries of liberty

• emergence of dissenter churches, congregations split into factions headed by Old Lights and new Lights and new Churches proliferated

Awakening Impact

• social tensions and challenged authority

  • attracted men and women of modest means

  • revivalists preachers criticized commercial society focus on salvation, not profit

  • new england condemned merchants as greed and unchristian for trapping people in debt

  • in southern backcountry, criticized wealthy planters and sinful activities like gambling and lavish entertainments

• slavery and acculturation

  • some preachers condemned slavery, and a few others (Robert Carter III) freed slaves

  • slaves converted to Christianity, aiding their acculturation as African American

  • some black individuals became preachers

  • female exhorters briefly broke male monopoly on preaching

• religious/political

  • revivals broadened religious diversity and created civisions but also integrated Americans into transatlantic religious developments

  • newspaper and pamphlet wars → printed material circulation

  • revivals encouraged ordinary colonist to trust their own views over elites and claim independent judgement in religion

Imperial Rivalries

Spanish North America

• consisted of a few small and isolated urban clusters

  • prominent in St. Augustine (FL), San Antonio (TX), Santa Fe & Albuquerque (NM)

• Spanish govt made a concerted effort to reinvigorate empire north of the Rio Grande River

  • sought to stabilize relations w/ Indians

    • particularly Comanche & Apache

      • comanche and apache would raid each other→ contributed to regional instability

      • comanche and apache raided spanish mines, ranches, and settled Indian communities → caused havoc on Spanish settlement and economic activity

      • comanche violently displaced previous Native American residents of the area

• Growing number of French merchants

• Carlos II & Carlos III hoped that Enlightenment would bring progress to society, but they also wanted to preserve the absolutist monarchy and Spain’s American empire

  • debated whether Indians were capable of being integrated into Spanish society or should remain subject people

• 1776: Spain put the reign under a local military commander

  • coercion, gifts, and trades to woo unconquered Indians

• Spain’s problem stemmed in large part from small settler population size

• demands of wars in Europe made it impossible for Spanish govtt to meet local military commander’s request for more troops

Spanish in CA

• empire builders in Moscow dreamed of challenging the Spanish for control of region’s fur trade, minerals, and ports

• Fort Ross: founded by Russians in 1812

  • San Francisco, CA

• small numbers of Russians alarmed Spanish in 1769

  • “Sacred Experiment” to take control of the coast north of San Diego to prevent its occupation by foreigners

• 1774: Juan Bautista de Anza led an expedition that discovered an unusable overland route to CA from Northern Mexico

• 1776: Juan founded new presido at San Francisco

• 1781: Native American uprising govt control of route from Spanish

• authorities in Mexico city decided to establish missions in CA run by the Franciscan religious order; friars would set up ranching and farming activities and convert Indians into loyal Spaniards

• Spanish missions → coastlines dotted CA

• Father Junipero Serra— missionary who began and directed the CA mission system in the 1770s-1780s; presided over the conversion of many Indians to Christianity but also engaged them in forced labor

• outposts served as religious institutions and centers of govt and labor

  • aim = transform local cultural and assimilate it into Spanish civilization

• diseases/labor reduced Indian society and resettlement

French Empire

• rival w/ Britain

• 18th century: population and economy of Canada expanded

  • french traders pushed into MS River Valley

  • St. Lawrence River Valley— prosperous farming communities developed

  • mid-century: sugar plantations between New Orleans and Baton Rouge

• small french population

• prejudice against emigration to North America in France

  • Manon 1731 expressed views of colony as a place of cruel exile for criminals and social outcasts

• by claiming control of a large arc of territory and by establishing close trade and military relations w/ many Indian tribes, French was a challenge to British

  • competed w each other in terms of control of trade in deerskins and forming alliances w/ local Indians

• french forts and trading posts were near New England frontiers (+ NY & PA)

Battle for the Continent

Middle Ground

• a borderland between European empires and Indian sovereignty, villages sprang up where members of numerous tribes lived side by side, along with European traders and the occasional missionary

• Native Americans sought to rival Europeans against each other and control trade

  • Iroquois power-and-balance diplomacy but challenged by French and Indians

• 1750s— whites inhabited → VA awarding mass land to valley in 1749

  • threatened Indian’s & PA’s claimed land speculator

• Ohio River Valley became caught up in a struggle for power involving the French, British, rival Indian communities, and settlers & land companies pursuing their own interest

• Ohio company’s demand for French recognization of its land claims → Seven Years’ War/French and Indian War

Seven Years’ War

• Britain was the world’s leading empire due to imperial wars

• to finance wars, Britain’s public expenditures, taxes, and national debt rose rapidly

• 1754: British efforts to dislodge the French from ports they had constructed in western PA was a fail

  • washington’s attempts were unsuccessful and defense sucked so bad that Washington was forced to surrender

• general edward braddock against fort duquesne was ambushed

• inhumanity flourished on all sides

  • raids, expelling from land, fires

World Transformed

• Peace of Paris (1763)— France ceded Canada to Britain, receiving back in return the sugar islands of Guadeloupe & Martinique

• Spain ceded FL to Britain in exchange for the return of the Philippines and Cuba

• entire continent east of MS was now in British hands

• war cost produced a financial crisis in France that almost three decades later would spark the French Revolution

• to recoup cost, British would increase American colonies taxes

Pontiac’s Rebellion

• Indians wanted Independence from both France & Britain

  • wanted middle ground bc that's where various power was held & that would maintain their liberty

• outside powers meant loss of freedom

• without consulting them, Thorns French had ceded land Indian dained as their own to British control

• Treaty of Paris left Indians dependent on British & ushered a period of confusion, over land claims, control of fur trade, & tribal relations

• 1763: after French defeat, Indians of the Ohio River Valley a Great Lakes launched revolt against British— Pontiac's Rebellion

  • teachings of Neolin

    • Neolin's message combined the lack of dependency needed against Europeans w/ a new idea of Pan - Indian identity

      • preached all Indians Were a single people, and only through cooperation could they regain their lost independence

Proclamation Line

• 1763: Ottawas, Hurons, and other Indians besieged Detroit, then a major British military outpost, seized 9 other forts, and killed hundreds of white settlers who intruded on to Indian lands

• uprising inspired London to issue the Proclamation Line, which prohibited further colonial settlement west of Appalachian Mountains

  • aim was to stabilize situation on colonial frontiers and avoid being dragged into an endless series of broader conflicts but this act enraged both speculators and colonists who wanted to take French land

    • colonists didn’t listen → worsened Indian-settler relations

PA & the Indians

• during 7 years war, western PA demanded that colonial authorities adopt a more aggressive stance

  • deepened antagonism of west farmers towards Indians & witnessed discriminative assaults on Indian communities

    • governor declared war on hostile Delawares, raised a militia, and offered a bounty for Indians scalps → assembly Quakers resigned seats → ended control of PAs politics

• Dec 1763— Scottish Irish farmers destroyed Indian village of Conestoga Lancaster → Philly

• 1760s: PA’s holy experiment was at an end, ending Penn’s promise of “those friendship & amity”

Colonial Identities

• Albany Plan of Union (1754)

  • Benjamin Franklin drafted

  • envisioned grand council composed of delegates from each colony, with the power to levy taxes & deal with Indian relations & the common defense

    • rejected by assemblies; never sent to London for approval

  • defeat of Catholic French reinforced the equation of British nationality, Protestantism, and freedom

    • stronger bonds w/ Britain

  • diversity: all under British

  • "Join or Die"