The Restoration Colonies

• In 1642, the English Parliament rebelled against Charles I The Parliament won in 1646, and Charles I was executed; Cromwell assumed control of the government until his death in 1660.

• Charles II arrived after Cromwell's death [The Restoration].

• After 1660 six new colonies were formed [The Restoration Colonies] as proprietorships.

• The founding of the restoration colonies is as follows…

  • New York- Originally a Dutch colony. In 1664 Charles II gave the area to his brother James, the Duke of York.

  • James organized an invasion fleet, and the Dutch surrendered without resistance [the merchants thought it would be bad for business]. In 1672 the Dutch briefly retook the colony, but in 1674 they permanently ceded it as a result of their loss. Previously it was called New Amsterdam.

  • New York was a very diverse colony and had a relatively high % of slaves as well.

  • In 1665, James passed The Duke’s Laws, which allowed religious toleration [each town could pick which church to support]. But it took until 1683 for an elected legislature to be formed. New York grew slowly and remained depopulated.

  • New Jersey- Formed because the Duke of York regranted part of his land in 1664 to his friends Sir George Carteret and John Lord Berkeley

  • New Jersey grew rapidly. Carteret and Berkeley sold their sections to investors. All of Carteret’s part and some of Berkeley’s went to the Quakers

  • Pennsylvania- Founded by Quakers when in 1681 Charles II gave the region to his friend William Penn, who then held it as a personal proprietorship.

  • Penn used his colony as a haven for fellow Quakers but also promised toleration, guaranteed English liberties to all, and established an assembly.

  • Some of the migrants were Native Americans because Penn promised to treat them fairly.

  • The Scots, Irish, Germans and Swiss clashed with them over land

  • Carolina- Granted by Charles II in 1663. This colony attempted to grow silk, olives and wine.

  • John Locke drafted the “Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina” for them, which laid out a semi-feudal hierarchical society. This document was mostly ignored.

  • Carolina ended up splitting into two separate centers, which split into separate colonies in 1729. A society very similar to Virginia settled North Carolina. Wealthy planters from Barbados settled South Carolina and began using large amounts of slaves to cultivate rice and indigo.

Problems Faced by the Existing Colonies in the 1670s and 1680s

• In the 1670s and 80s, the original French, Spanish and English colonies faced crises, mainly caused by their relationships with the Native Americans

• New France expanded into the south and west in the 1670s, bringing them into conflict with the Iroquois Confederacy [the Beaver Wars]. The French began attacking Iroquois villages and in 1701 a neutrality treaty was negotiated by the exhausted Confederacy.

• New Mexico experienced significant problems because the Franciscans had been increasingly harsh on the subjugated Pueblo peoples. The natives rebelled in 1680 under Popé, though Spain regained control in 1692 The governors changed tactics and became more cooperative.

• In the English colonies [both New England and the Chesapeake] problems didn’t start because of trade or religion, but because of land issues.

New England – King Phillip’s War

• In New England, the good conditions and large families caused the population to triple. The settlements came to surround the lands of the Pokanokets, whose chief, King Phillip, was the son of Massasoit. The Pequots began attacking settlements causing King Phillip began the King Phillip War in June 1675

• The tide turned in the summer of 1676, when the Indians began to lack supplies and the colonists began using Christian Indians as guides. The colonists triumphed and started selling the captured Indians into slavery. The power of the coastal tribes was broken. King Phillip was eventually killed.

• The victory came with a cost – 1/10th of the male population was killed or wounded, towns were devastated, and the economy didn’t reach pre-1675 levels until the American Revolution.

The Chesapeake – Bacon’s Rebellion

• Around the same time, Virginians also experienced conflict with the Indians because of land, although the conflict played out slightly differently. Land-hungry Virginians attacked two Indians tribes, after that Indians raided outlying farms as retaliation.

• Governor William Berkeley, however, was reluctant to strike back because he had trade agreements with the Indians and didn’t want to disrupt them and he already had land and didn’t want competition anyway. Berkeley was extremely corrupt.

• Bacon rallied former indentured servants. He was declared to be in rebellion by Berkeley after he held members of the House of Burgesses until they authorized him to attack the Indians.

• Throughout the summer of 1676, Bacon fought both Indians and supporters of the government, even burning Jamestown itself to the ground. Bacon died in October, the point was made and a new treaty in 1677 allowed more territory to be settled.

• The Rebellion was also a turning point due to the the reliance on slave labor instead of indentured servants.

The Introduction of African Slavery

• As a consequence of Bacon’s rebellion and the reluctance of indentured servants to go to the Chesapeake, planters turned to slavery as a labor source.

• They had no real moral qualms about this because slavery had been practiced in Europe for centuries and European Christians believed that it was OK to enslave “heathen” people. Racism against Africans had also been developing in England since the 1500s.

• Even though there was a slave system in the West Indies by the 1650s, it didn’t spread to the mainland colonies until the 70s.

  • Slavery in the South – after 1677 slaves were imported rapidly into the Chesapeake region, and the laws against them became stricter. New slaves were generally assigned more remote posts until they learned local customs. It was uncommon for slaves to be freed.

  • Slavery in the Carolinas – Carolinians enslaved Indians, which contributed to the outbreak of the Yamasee War in 1715.

  • Slavery in the North – most slaves were concentrated in New York and New Jersey. When some slaves did begin to come from Africa, the Creoles didn’t like it and looked down on them because they had difficulty adapting. Most Northern slaves lived in the countryside.

Atlantic Trade Patterns – “Triangular Trade”

• The complex Atlantic trading system that developed as a result of the slave trade during the colonial period is often referred to as Triangular Trade.

• It really did depend on slavery because the sale and transport of slaves, the exchange of stuff they made, and the food required to feed them.

• New England only had one thing England wanted – trees. The colonists sold food to the English islands. By the 1640s, New England was already indirectly dependent on slave consumption.

• The islands would consume products from New England and then ship molasses, fruit, spices and slaves back to colonial ports, where the molasses would be distilled into rum. The product was then shipped to Africa.

• Africa would provide slaves who would be sold by coastal rulers and bought by European slavers, in exchange for the rum and manufactured goods.

Effects of the Slave Trade

• Slavery had major political and economic consequences for Africa and Europe, sparking rivalries which caused changes in the Americas.

• In West Africa, slavery caused increased centralization because the trade created powerful kingdoms, destroyed trading patterns and hurt local manufacturing. It is estimated that 10 to 12 million Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas.

• The slave trade really benefited the Europeans, so the fought to control it. The Dutch replaced the Portuguese in the 1630s, and the Dutch then lost out to the English, who took over through the Royal African Company in 1672. By the 1700s most trading was carried out by independent traders.

• Because of the competition over the slave trade, the English also looked for new sources of revenue, especially because of the Civil War, and they looked to the colonies.

Mercantilism and the Navigation Acts

• The mercantilist system of thought arose in the early 1600s because it was believed that there was a finite amount of wealth. Governments had to control production and competition in order to gain the upper hand.

• By the late 1600s the concept developed that colonies could actually extend the amount of wealth available

• Countries should use their colonies to provide cheap labor and raw materials, which could be processed and then sold back to the colonies at a profit.

• In England, this sort of thinking was applied resulting in the Navigation Acts, which were passed from 1651 to 1673, and stated that…

  • All goods had to stop in England to check that ½ the crew was British

  • Foreign trading was banned between colonial ports, colonists weren’t allowed to serve on competitors’ ships.

  • Lists of enumerated goods [goods that could only be sold to England] were made. These goods included sugar, cotton, and tobacco.

• The purpose was to make England benefit from both colonial imports and exports. Officials soon found out that enforcing the laws was much easier than passing them. Smuggling was rampant, Admiralty Courts were established and a Board of Trade and Plantations was formed in 1696 to supervise the governors. However, it didn't have any direct powers of enforcement.

Colonial Political Development and Imperial Reorganization

• After the crises of the 1670s, English officials began paying more attention tot the colonies. The colonies all had governors (councils helped the governors) and legislatures (some of which were two-house).

• Even though the local institutions varied, colonists everywhere were used to some political autonomy.

• After James II became king, officials decided to clean up the mess and consolidate the colonies under British rule. Massachusetts (1691), New Jersey (1702) and the Carolinas (1729) were made royal colonies.

• The big changes were made in Puritan New England, which was considered a smuggling hotbed and was changed into the Dominion of New England in 1686 run by Sir Edmund Andros. The Dominion of new England was extremely unpopular.

• After the GR, colonists jailed Andros and declared their loyalty to William and Mary. However, William and Mary issued new charters, which destroyed many New England traditions. Suffrage was now based on land ownership instead of church membership.

• New England had to fight King William’s War against the French and their Indian allies from 1689 to 1697. All the upheaval contributed to the famous 1692 Witchcraft Trials. After the Witchcraft thing people settled down with the new administration. Another war, the War of Spanish Succession [Queen Anne’s War in the colonies] was fought, and colonists were encouraged to help out through promises of land grants and offices.

Trends in Colonial Development in the Eighteenth Century

• Colonial development in the 18th century had several key aspects: population growth [mainly due to natural increase], ethnic diversity, the increasing importance of cities, the creation an urban elite, rising levels of consumption and the growth of a stronger internal economy.

• By the second half of the century, social and economic stratification had increased significantly. Much of North America had fallen under European control. These changes transformed the colonies.

Intellectual Trends: The Enlightenment

• Throughout the 18th century a new colonial elite was developing, and one of the things that began separating them from most other people was education, their use of “leisure” time, and their knowledge of The Enlightenment.

• The Enlightenment stressed a belief in rationality and peoples’ ability to understand the universe through mathematical or natural laws. It gave the elite a common vocabulary and subjects to discuss. Famous Enlightenment thinkers included Isaac Newton and John Locke.

• Colleges in the Americas broadened their curriculums to include subjects like science, law and medicine. Prominent colleges included Harvard, Yale, and William and Mary.

• Enlightenment ideals about government, illustrated by John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (1691), were discussed and had an effect on American political life.

Religious Trends: The Great Awakening

• From the mid-1730s to the 1760s waves of religious revivalism swept through America. These revivalists were a counterpoint to the Enlightenment because they stressed feeling over rationalism.

• The Great Awakening began in New England as Reverend Jonathan Edwards' youthful members reacted to a Calvinist based message. Edwards was famous for his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

• The Great Awakening spread when George Whitefield from the Church of England arrived and began touring the colonies and preaching to large audiences. He helped unify the colonies but also created a split in religion between the “Old Lights” and “New Lights.”

• The Great Awakening undermined the dependence on the clergy and was also radically egalitarian.

Cultural Trends: Public Rituals

• Instead of reading about the Enlightenment, most people simply communicated orally because many were poorly educated. The common cultures of North America were mainly oral, communal and very local.

• Since the colonists couldn’t form a common culture through other means, religious and civic rituals served to unite them.

  • Attendance at church was perhaps the most important ritual, but the seating was egalitarian in Quaker meetinghouses.

  • Civic rituals also varied. In New England, colonial governments proclaimed official thanksgiving days and days of fasting and prayer

  • In the Chesapeake, important rituals occurred on court and election days.

  • In all areas of colonial America, punishment of criminals in public also served to unite the community and remind everybody of the proper behavior by humiliating the criminal.

  • A new ritual at the time was consumption, which is a fancy term for going shopping.

  • Rituals developed for communication and negotiation between settlers and Indians.

Colonial Families

• Families constituted the basic units of colonial society, but their forms and structures varied. The types of families included…

  • Indian – dramatic changes for the Indians caused led to bands being reduced in numbers by disease and the creation of new units. Old customs were often changed under pressure from European authorities and new circumstances, and extended families became more important b/c of the high mortality rates. Additionally, the fur trade led to competition among different tribes.

  • Mixed-Race – mostly where the population contained a small number of European women.

  • European – in the 18th century most families included all the inhabitants of the house. Households worked together to produce goods for use or sale, and the head of the household represented it to the outside world. Specific tasks were assigned to men and women

  • African-American – usually African-American families existed as parts of their European households; most were slaves by the 18th century. Family links depended on the region: families were scarce in the North, and in the Chesapeake families were often dispersed

Colonial Politics 1700-1750: Relative Calm

• In the first decades of the century, politics reached a new stability because of the creation of a new elite. An important trend during the period was an increase in the power of the assemblies relative to the power of the governors [“the power of the purse”].

• 1733 (NY) John Peter Zenger tried for criticizing government actions; lawyer said truth could not be defamatory; he was released, setting a precedent for free press

Colonial Politics Continued: Internal Crises At Mid-Century

• Things were going pretty well up to the 1750's. However, a series of crises occurred. Crises demonstrated the tensions that had been building [ethnic, racial, economic].

• The Stono Rebellion occurred in South Carolina in 1739, which shocked the colonists and laws against blacks were made harsher.

• The hysteria generated by the Stono Rebellion, combined with fears of Spain because of King George’s War, manifested itself most strongly in New York in 1741 when whites suspecting that a biracial gang was conspiring to start a slave uprising began the New York Conspiracy

• Additionally, in the Carolinas the Regulator Movements occurred, in which backcountry farmers [mainly Scottish and Irish immigrants] rebelled against the provincial governments because they felt they lacked influence and that the governments were unfair. This also included a lot of violence that was poorly handled by the government.

Changes in Colonial Outlook

• In 1776 the colonists started fighting for independence after over a century of peaceful subordination to Britain

• Many factors affected their change of opinion. In the 1750s the colonists first began looking away from their internal politics and paying attention to British policies, a series of events widened the split.

• The story really all began with the Seven Years War which ended in 1763.

The Seven Years War

• The Seven Years War informally began in July 1754 in the Ohio Valley when an inexperienced George Washington attacked the French. He surrendered.
  The cause of this war was competition between the British and French for land in North America.

• Right before the war actually started, in June 1754, delegates from several colonies had met for the Albany Congress, which had the goals of (1) convincing the Iroquois (2) coordinating colonial defenses. Despite the efforts of Benjamin Franklin, the Albany Congress failed.

• Throughout 1755 the British [under Gen. Braddock], who decided to attempt to kick the French out of N. America, continued to get beaten by French and Indian forces. Their only success was the deportation of the French from Nova Scotia This led to the creation of a new ethnic group, the Cajuns, in rural Louisiana.

• After news of one particularly disastrous battle in 1756 the British and French formally declared war in Europe as well. In 1757 William Pitt offered a compromise, improving the outcome. Finally in 1763 France surrendered. According to the Treaty of Paris, France lost all her North American possessions.

British-Colonial Tensions During the Seven Years War

• Both the Seven Years War itself and its aftermath increased British-colonial tensions. During the actual war.

• The colonials favored Indian-style guerrilla tactics, the British marched in formation. The British thought that the colonists were undisciplined.

• Colonial militias served under their own captains. The British wanted to take charge. The colonists thought that the British were arrogant.

• Different styles of fighting led to significant resentment on both sides.

1763: A Turning Point

• Both the British and colonists were strongly affected by the end of the war. For Britain its conclusion meant that they had a much larger and safer colonial empire, much larger debt, and felt even more contempt for the colonists. The English victory meant that the French were no longer a potential ally for the colonists.

• For the colonies, the war had united them against a common enemy for the first time and created anger against the British, who were viewed as overly harsh commanders who had distain for the colonists.

• The end of the war also led to another key event. In Pontiac’s Rebellion(1763) Indian leader Pontiac united an unprecedented amount of tribes due concern about the spread of colonists and their culture. Pontiac was eventually killed by another Indian.

• Although the colonists eventually triumphed, the British issued the Proclamation Line of 1763 to prevent further conflicts.

English Attempts to Reorganize their Empire

• Anyhow, due partially to their increasing debt and experiences in America, following 1763 the Brits. decided to reorganize.

• In 1761, even before the end of the war, the Brits. allowed for Writs of Assistance. Writs of Assistance allowed customs officials to search anywhere for smuggled goods.

• Then, from 1763 to 1765 four very irritating pieces of legislation were passed by George Grenville

  • Sugar Act (1764) revised existing customs regulations, new duties were explicitly designed to raise revenue. The Sugar Act replaced the Molasses Act of 1733.

  • Currency Act (1764) colonial paper $ was banned for trade. This was passed because British officials felt they were being ripped off because colonial $ had such erratic values, but it greatly irritated colonial merchants, who lost out because their money was made useless.

  • Quartering Act (1765) required a raise in colonial taxes to provide for housing of soldiers in barracks near colonial centers. Many colonists questioned the need for troops considering that the French had been defeated.

  • STAMP ACT (1765) affected almost every colonist because it required tax stamps on all printed materials

Different Theories of Representation

• Grenville’s acts illustrate the different theories of representation. While Grenville and the English believed that Parliament represented all British subjects by definition regardless of where they lived, colonists believed that they needed members that specifically represented their regions. This was called Virtual Representation.

• Another ideology that was beginning to become popular in the colonies was that of the Real Whigs, who stated that a good government left people alone and that government should not be allowed to encroach on people’s liberties and on their property.

Colonial Response to the Sugar and Currency Acts

• The Sugar and Currency Acts could not have been implemented at a worse time, because the economy was already in the midst of a depression. Americans were uncoordinated in 1764.

• Eight colonial legislatures sent separate petitions to Parliament [all ignored].

• The most important individual pamphlet relating to the Sugar Act was The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved by James Otis Jr.

1765: The Stamp Act Crisis

• Initially when the Stamp Act was passed the response was underwhelming. Patrick Henry wrote the Virginia Stamp Act Resolves. Patrick Henry was extremely charismatic.

• The resolves were passed, which essentially reasserted that the colonists had never given up the rights of British subjects, which included consent to taxation.

• Ideologically America’s leaders were searching for some way to maintain self-government but still remain British subjects. However, the Brit attitude made this impossible.

• Organizations began forming to resist the taxes: The Sons of Liberty, a society created to channel resistance into acceptable forms.

1767: The Townshend Acts

• Then, in March 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act.

• The main reason for its repeal was the appointment of Lord Rockingham as prime minister instead of Grenville. Lord Rockingham wanted to pacify the colonists.

• Rockingham still believed Parliament had the rights to tax the colonies and consequently passed the Declaratory Act. The Declaratory Act stated that Parliament could pass laws for the colonies “in all cases whatsoever.”

• The fragility of the Stamp Act victory was exposed when William Pitt got sick, Charles Townshend became the dominant force and decided to impose some more taxes.

• The Townshend Acts (1767) were on trade goods, but were different from the Navigation acts

  • Applied to items imported from Britain.

  • Were designed to raise money to pay for the salaries of royal officials

  • Established an American Board of Customs Commissioners and vice-admiralty courts at several colonial cities.

Colonial Response to the Townshend Acts

• John Dickinson’s Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania best expressed colonial sentiments: Parliament could regulate colonial trade but not use that power to raise revenue.

• The Massachusetts Assembly called for unity in the face of the Acts and circulated a joint petition of protest, rejected to recall, and the governor dissolved the assembly.

• Another important aspect of colonial resistance was the second non-importation movement, which was led by the Daughters of Liberty. In April 1770 the Townshend duties were repealed except for the tea tax.

1770: The Boston Massacre

• On the same day Lord North proposed repealing the Townshend duties, the Boston Massacre occurred in which five civilians were killed. The source of the problem was the decision to base the Board of Customs Commissioners in Boston.

• On March 5, 1770 laborers began throwing snowballs at soldiers, which led to shooting [even though it was not allowed]. This was a tremendous political weapon for the patriots. The soldiers were defended by John Adams, even though John Adams was a patriot. He knew that they deserved a fair trial.

1770 – 1772: The Calm Before the Storm

• From 1770 to 1772 superficial calm prevailed in the colonies. Patriots continued to view themselves as British subjects.

• The calm ended in Fall 1772, when the Brits began implementing the part of the Townshend Act about governors being paid from customs revenues. In response to this, a Committee of Correspondence was created in Boston to gather publicity for the patriot cause.

1773: The Tea Act and Boston Tea Party

• By 1773, the only Townshend duty still in effect was the tea tax. Then, in May 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, which was designed to save the East India Co. from bankruptcy/ It made EIC’s tea the only legal tea in America and enabled the company to sell directly to the colonies.

• This act led to the famous Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. The Sons of Liberty were responsible.

1774: The Coercive “Intolerable” and Quebec Acts

• In response to the Tea Party, the Coercive Acts included the…

  • Port Bill the port of Boston was shut down until the tea was paid in full

  • Government Act annulled what was left of the Massachusetts Charter. Limited town meetings as well.

  • [new] Quartering Act colonial assemblies now forced to either build barracks or have citizens house the soldiers themselves.

  • **Administration of Justice