AE

2.5 Race and Identities in the Colonies

Essential Questions:

  • What were the features of the urban economy of the northern colonies?

  • How did salutary neglect lead to self-government and challenges to British authority?

    • British control policy allowed a rise of self-government as royal beaurocrats → 

      Because they were pleased by trade relaxed supervision → salutary neglect

      • So busy fighting wars/conflicts, takes all time & energy

      • Colonists Gained a bigger sense of independence and freedom

  • How did Parliament attempt to protect its mercantile system?

South hierarchy

  • planters, enslavers

  • yeomen (free poorer white)

  • Indentured servants

  • slaves

Colonial Vrginia - if your not the first son, you dont inherit anything

  • English men migrated to Americas

Identification/Key Terms

  • An African American Community Emerges . . . (97)

  • White planters welcomed african diversity to diminish revolts

    • Differences in languages → cannot reconcil

      • Africans classified by clans, sought eachother

      • ex: ibo ppl married eachother & maintained culture

    • Building Community (97)

      • High death rate of Carolina → harder for slaves to form families

      • Better Chesapeke conditions → slaves formed nuclear families & extended kins

      • “Nation within a Nation” Maryland plantation was made up of slave families

      • Let some practices go, but tangible practics prospered

        • ex: let go ritual scars, but kept hairstyles, pottery, architecture, & musical instruments

        • religious beleifs persisted, like Muslim beleifs & spiritual deities

    • Resistance and Accommodation  (100)

      • slaves freedom of action was circumscibed

        • illegal to teach to read/write, did not own property

        • instution rested on fear, cruel punishments

        • more slave pop → more violence (sugar & rice plantatiosn)

        • Some slaves ran away

          • off mainland, Jamaica, runaways formed Maroon communities

          • Slaved who spoke English w/ artisanal skills fled to colonial towns

        • Rebellions were owners biggest fear

          • Almost impossible required communication, dissemination of strategiy, & weapons

    • The Stono Rebellion (101) - (1739) South Carolina, largest slave uprising in mainlaind colonies

      • Catholov gov of Spanish Florida → Promised freedom to fugituve slaves

        • at least 69 slaves escaped to St Augustine

        • Rumored of conspiracy \ Slaves in carolina was rising to make way out of province

      • War betw England & Spain → Africans revolted & killed whites near stono river

        • rebels - portugeuse speaking Catholics from kingdom of Kongo aspiring to escape to Florida

          • Kongo slave raiding militarized community

      • On way to Florida → rebels met by South Corolina militia → 44 slaved killed, rebellion supressed

        • South Carolinians cut slave imports & tightened plantation discipline

  • Thinking like a Historian: Servitude and Slavery . . . (98)

  • The Rise of the Southern Gentry . . . (102)

    • Southern colonies became slave societies → life changed for whites & blacks

      • William byrd II - sent to england by father to marry intro english gentry → shunned by english classmates, called a “colonial”

        • gradations of race in English society

        • denied post at Board of Trade, passed as english gov, and rejected as suitor for english women

          • moved back to virginia and won appointment to gov council

        • plantermerchants - trapped in Virginia & South Carolina by inferior colonial status

          • used wealth to rule ovr white yeomen families & tenant farmers, violently exploited blacks

          • made plantations self sufficient → Chesapeak elite survived 1670 - 1720 depressed tobacco market

    • White Identity and Equality  (102)

      • Prevent uprisings like Bacon’s → Chesapeake gentrey tried to assist poor whites

        • lowered taxes,

        • ecouraged smallholders to use slavery

          • 1770 - 60% English farmers in Chesapeake owned at least 1 slave

        • planters allowed poor yeomen & some tenants to vote, bribed by leading families with money & commodities, Y promises of minor offices in country govs for their vote

          • solidified authority of the planter elite → used control of House of Burgesses to limit royal gov pwr

      • Gentility - used to culturally seperate wealthyfrom smallholders

        • stressed refinement & self-control

          • planters educated sons in london → politically & economically fulfilled father’s roles in America

        • Wealthy Chesapeak & South carolinia mimiced English elite

          • Parents hired English tutors

          • Once married → deferred to husbands, reared pious childrenm & maintained complex social networks

            • new ideal: southern gentlewomen

        • With profits generated by Africans, wealthy planters formed well educated, refined, & stable ruling class.

  • The Northern Maritime Economy

    • 1640s, New England farmed supplied sugar islands w/ bread, lumber, fish, & meat

    • 1700, economies of west indies & New England closely interwoven

      • farmers & merchants in NY, NJ, & Penn were also shipping wheat, corn, & bread to carribean

      • 1750s 2/3s New Englands exports & half from Mid Atlantic colonies went to British & French sugar islands

        • Sugar eco linked britain’s Atlantic empire

          • In return for sugar sent to England, West Indian planters received credit (bills of exchange) from London merchants

            • used credit to buy slaves & pay north american farmers/merchants for provisions & shipping services

            • mainland colonists exchanged bills for British manufactures (textiles & iron goods)

  • The Urban Economy . . . (103)

  • triangular trade, molasses, rum, slaves

    • West Indian trade → created 1st American merchant fortunes & 1st urban industries

      • Merchants in Boston, Newport, Providence, Philly, & NY invested their profits in new ships

        • manufacturing enterprises

        • Salem, Marblehead, & smll New england ports built a major fishing industry, exporting tosugar islands & southern europe

        • Baltimore merchants become port while developing uisness in wheat

        • Charleston - shipped deerskin, indogo, & rice to european markets

      • Transatlantic trade expanded → American port cities grew in size & complexity

        • Philidelphia - largest port (1776, pop of30, 000)

        • smaller coastal towns emerged as centers of lumber & shipbuilding communities

          • 1770s - colonial built ships 1/3 british merchant fleet

      • South Atlantic system expanded into interior

        • smll vessels sailed betw hudson & delaware riv → delevired european manufactures & picking up flour & wheat for NY & Philly to export to West Indies Europe

        • 1750s - hundreds of Maryland teamsters stransported 370,000 bushels of wheat & corn & 16,000 barrels of flour to urban markets each yr

          • as traffic control - taverns, horse stables, & barrel making shops were set up in towns along wagon roads

  • Urban Society . . . (105)

    • wealthy merchants dominated social life of seaport cities, imitating british upper class through mansions & architectual design

      • 1750 - 40 merchants controlled 50%+ philly’s trade

      • Middle rank - Artisan & shopkeeper families, made up almost half of population

        • toiled to maintain familly’s modest comfort

        • taught “mysteries of craft” to children

      • Lowest rank - laboring men & women

        • merchants used enslaved blacks & servants as dockworkers

          • till 1750s, made up 30% philly workforce

    • Per. of stagnant commerce threatened finincial security

      • Sugar & slave based south atlantic system & imeperial warfare → econnomic uncertainty & oppurtunity

The New Politics of Empire, 1713-1750

  • British ministers pleased with wealth from trade → gentler rule → colonists strengthened political institutions & challenged mercantalism

  • The Rise of Colonial Assemblies . . (106)

    • Glorious rev → representative assemblies copied english Whigs & limited pwr of crown officials

      • Massachusettes 1720s - assembly ignored king’s instructions to provide royal gov w/ permanent salary

        • legislatures in North carolina, NJ, & Penn did same

          • legislatures took cntrl of taxation & appointments → angered imperial beaurocrats & absentee proprietors

      • members of colonial elite led increasingly powerful assemblies (only men of wealth & status stood for election)

        • wealthy families dominated assemblies (90%)

        • No matter status, pleasement of crowd was crucial for peace

          • ex: overthrow of Dominion,

          • created political system responsive to public pressures, & resistant to british cntrl

  • Salutary Neglect . . . (106)

    • British cntrl policy (George I 1714, 1727; to Geore II 1727 - 1760) allowed rise of self government as royal beaurocrats → pleased by trade relaxed supervision → salutary neglect

      • S.N. - by product of Sir Robert Walpole’s (Whig leader house of commons 1720 - 1742) political system of patronage

        • giving offices & salaries to political allies → create strong court party

        • brit gov achieved polit stability & financial aid

          • Country Party - charged Walpole’s policies (high taxes & bloated royal bureacracy) threatened british liberties

          • North America → colonial legoslaters complained royal govs abused patronage pwrs

            • colonists strenghtened pwrs of representative assemblies → layed foundation for American independence movement

  • Protecting the Mercantile System . . . (107)

    • 1732 - Walpole provided parliamentary subsidy fr new colony of Georgia

      • Aimed to preserve rice growing colony of South Carolina, while trustees wanted a refuge for Britains poor

        • had opp effect, expansion outraged Spanish → naval forces stepped of forces of seizures of illegal traders

        • 1739 - 1741 Walpole dec;ared war on spain, “War of jenkins ear”

        • Merged into general european conflict, “war of the Austrian Sucession (1740 - 1748)

          • 1745, New England forces & British navy captured Louisbourg, french fort guarding entrance to St. LAwrence river

            • Treaty of Aix la Chapelle (1748) returned Louisbourg to french

              • proved yo colonial eladers that england would act on tis own interests

  • Mercantilism and the American Colonies . . . (107)

  • Parliment prohibited Americans from manufacturing textiles & iron producys & from printing own money

    • couldnt prevent colonies from maturing economically

      • American merchants controlled 75%+ transatlanic trade in manufacturers, 95% commerce betw mainland & British west indies

    • 1720s - British sugar island couldnt absorb commerce produced by mainland settlers

      • Ignoring British french rivalry, colonial merchants sold produce to french sugar islands

        • Molasses act of 1733 - placed high tariff on French molasses, since American merchants were buyinh them cheap

          • no longer profitable for American merchants to import

          • Parliment ignored American worries abt crippling distilling industry → Americans smuggles molasses by bribing customs officials

        • 1749 - Angered by conflict, Charles Townshend (Board of Trade) vowed to replace salutary neglect w/ rigorous imperial cntrl

          • Glorious revolution & salutory neglect → weakened british political cntrl over American colonies

            • self gov became threat, in late 1740s officials vowed to reassert pwr in America