Colonial America: Conflicts, Slavery, and Cultural Shifts

Native American Conflicts and Treaties

• The English moved into the Connecticut River Valley, leading to the Pequot War and the Treaty of Hartford.
• Similar conflicts and treaties occurred in other regions, such as King Phillips War and the Anglo-Powhatan War.

Slave Rebellions and Slave Codes

• Rebellions against the slave labor system occurred, with the Stonewall Rebellion as a major example.
• The Barbados slave code of 1660 stripped away the rights of enslaved people.
• Each rebellion led to more restrictive slave codes, further limiting the rights of enslaved people.
• The effects of slave rebellions in the 1600s and 1700s included the negation of rights for enslaved people.
• Slavery existed in every colony, not just in the Southern colonies.

Slavery in the Colonies

• Strict racial hierarchy existed in all colonies, with the Southern colonies as a prime example.
• Chattel slavery, established in 1619, treated enslaved people as property.
• Slave codes gave rights to enslavers and took away rights from enslaved people.
• White supremacy and racial superiority were integral to the system, legally, culturally, and socially.
• Even free African Americans were treated as second-class citizens.
• Africans resisted dehumanization through overt methods (slave rebellions) and covert methods (slowing down work, breaking tools, running away).
• Slavery expanded from period one into period two, and significantly in period three (1790-1850).

The Middle Passage

• The Middle Passage refers to the transatlantic journey in the African slave trade.
• Enslaved people faced dehumanizing conditions, with many dying from disease, suicide, sexual assault, and beatings.
• Slavery expanded through the Transatlantic slave system, primarily from West Africa to the Caribbean and then to the North American colonies.

Cultural Changes: The First Great Awakening

• The First Great Awakening was a religious revival in the 1730s and 1740s.
• It aimed to refocus people on religion amid increasing focus on profit from transatlantic trade.
• It was the first of four Great Awakenings, with subsequent ones in the 1830s, 1880s, and 1970s.
• Each Great Awakening led to new religious sects (e.g., Baptists, Anabaptists, Methodists).
• Unlike later awakenings, the First Great Awakening did not immediately lead to an age of reform or application of religious ideas to social and economic problems.

The Enlightenment

• The Enlightenment promoted ideas of natural rights spread through print culture (Gutenberg's printing press).
• It influenced changes in Europe and the Americas, including the evolution of three branches of government, the social contract, and natural rights to life, liberty, and property.