1607-1754

The first and last topics of each unit are just reviews so there are no note for them. These notes are based on Heimler History videos with some additions.

2.2 - European Colonization of the Americas

Review of Spanish Colonization

• The Spanish established colonies in the Americas to extract wealth

  • Agriculture

  • Mining of gold and silver

  • Encomienda system: subjugated native population for labor

• Transition to forced labor from Africa

• Introduction of caste system based on racial ancestry

• Mission system to convert natives to Christianity, with mixed success

French Colonization Efforts

• Initially focused on finding water route to Asia

• Distracted by European wars and Huguenot persecution

• Established presence in Americas later

• Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec in 1608

• French more focused on trade (fish and fur)

• Few French colonizers in Americas

• Established trading settlements in North America

• Formed alliances with native peoples

• Engaged in cultural exchanges

Dutch Colonization Efforts

• Dutch sent Henry Hudson to find water passage through Americas

• Hudson claimed region around Hudson River for Dutch in 1624

• Dutch goals were economic

• New Amsterdam became a trading hub

• Dutch not interested in converting natives to beliefs

British Colonization Efforts

• Reasons for Colonization

  • The English economy had changed drastically due to the Columbian Exchange and wars with France and Ireland. Nobles and peasants sought new economic opportunities

  • Peasantry needed land due to the enclosure movement, which took land from common ownership and sold it to private parties.

  • Some individuals sought to escape religious persecution.

  • Others wanted to improve their living conditions.

• The British colonizers arrived in family groups, establishing new homes, which differed from the French and Dutch approaches.

• Initially, the English peacefully coexisted with the natives, but this soon gave way to tension and violence as settlers encroached on native lands.

• Unlike the Spanish, who subjugated native populations, the English expelled them.

2.3 - European Colonization in the Americas

The Chesapeake Colonies

• Jamestown (1607): The first North American colony established by the British, financed by a joint stock company.

• A joint stock company was a private enterprise. In order to pay for the exploration, a group of investors pooled their money together and shared the financial risk.

• Purpose of the Colony: Profit

• Early Years: Colonists divided their time between digging for gold and silver and constructing a military fort to protect their findings. Unfortunately, they didn't realize they couldn't eat their gold, which led to famine, disease, and even cannibalism.

• Tobacco: John Rolfe's experimentation with tobacco planting in 1612 saved the colony. Most labor was done by indentured servants, who worked to pay off their settlement fees and then went free.

• Conflict with Native Americans: Farmers needed more land to plant tobacco, leading to encroachment on Native American land and eventually, violent retaliations and Bacon's Rebellion.

The New England Colonies

• Pilgrims (1620): Settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, paving the way for Puritansettlers.

• Reason for Emigration: Primarily for economic reasons, not religious freedom.

• Family Groups: Colonists migrated as family groups, establishing a society and creating family economies as farmers.

• Life Was Rough: Fever and disease killed nearly half of the original settlers, but they eventually established a thriving society and economy centered on agriculture and commerce.

The British West Indies and Southern Atlantic Coast

• Caribbean Islands (1620s): The British established their first permanent colonies on islands like Saint Christopher, Barbados, and Nevis.

• Tobacco and Sugarcane: Tobacco was the primary cash crop, but by the 1630s, sugarcane became a more profitable crop, leading to a spike in demand for African enslaved people.

• Slave Codes: Harsh laws regulating the behavior of enslaved people and formally defining them as property or chattel.

The Middle Colonies

• New York and New Jersey: Colonies developed an export economy based on cereal crops, with a diverse population that became increasingly unequal due to an emerging elite class.

• Pennsylvania (founded by William Penn): Recognized religious freedom for all, with a focus on negotiation with Native Americans when expanding land holdings.

Systems of Governance

• Democratic Systems: The British colonies developed unusually democratic systems of governance due to the difficulty of governing from across the Atlantic.

• Examples:

  • Virginia: House of Burgesses (representative assembly)

  • New England: Mayflower Compact (self-governing church congregation model)

  • Middle and Southern Colonies: Representative bodies dominated by the elite of those societies

2.4 - The Transatlantic Trade

The Triangular Trade

• The triangular trade was a three-part journey taken by merchant ships, which formed a rough triangle when sketched out on a map.

  • New England → West Africa

    • Rum → Enslaved laborers

  • West Africa → British West Indies

    • Enslaved laborers → Sugarcane

  • British West Indies → New England

    • Sugarcane → Rum

• The middle passage was a brutal part of the triangular route, where enslaved people were subjected to harsh conditions.

Mercantilism

• Mercantilism: an economic system that dominated Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries.

• In the mercantilist worldview, there was only a fixed amount of wealth in the world, so they measured wealth in terms of gold and silver.

• Key Features of Mercantilism:

• Maintaining a favorable balance of trade

• Establishing colonies for:

  • Access to raw materials

  • Markets for manufactured goods

• Navigation Acts: requiring merchants to trade with English colonies exclusively in English ships, and taxing valuable trade items passing through British ports.

Effects of the Transatlantic Trade

• Wealth and Urbanization:

  • Massive wealth generated for elites (merchants, investors, and plantation owners)

  • Transformation of America's seaports into thriving urban centers

• Consumer Revolution:

  • Affluent families buying more goods, changing the way society was shaped

  • Societal status tied to financial success and refined lifestyle, rather than family pedigree

• Global Impact:

  • Creation of a truly global trade network

  • Fundamental alteration of societies in Europe, Africa, and America

2.5 - European Interactions with American Indians

Spanish Interactions

• The Spanish fundamentally altered the society of the Americas by introducing a caste system

  • The Caste System reordered people based on their racial ancestry.

  • The Native Americans were viewed as only good for labor and religious conversion, and were thus placed near the bottom of the caste system.

• Pueblo Revolt

  • The Spanish established Santa Fe as the capital of New Mexico in 1610. They employed coercive and brutal measures to convert the Pueblo Indians to Christianity, leading to the Pueblo Revolt

  • The Pueblo sought to purge the Spanish from their territory.

  • Although the purge was successful, the Spanish returned 12 years later and reconquered Santa Fe.

Comparison with English Interactions

• Labor Force

  • Spanish: Enslaved laborers in the encomienda system

  • English: No large labor for to enslave

• Intermarriage

  • Spanish: Interested in intermarrying with natives

  • English: Not interested in intermarrying with natives

• Coexistence with natives

  • Initial coexistence was brutal and coercive

  • Initial coexistence was peaceful, with cultural exchange

• The English colonists in New England coexisted peacefully with the natives, with each group borrowing from the other's culture.

  • The English provided manufactured goods and iron tools,

  • Native Americans schooled the English in farming and hunting techniques.

• However, this peaceful coexistence was short-lived, as the growing English population needed more land.

• The encroachment on Native American lands led to Metacom's War (also known as King Philip's War) in 1675

  • The Wampanoag Indians, led by Metacom, allied with other Indian groups to resist the English.

  • Resulted in english victory

• The more the British settlers encroached on their land, the more angry the natives became

French Interactions

• French Colonialism

  • French made trading posts

  • Traded with natives

  • Military allies with natives

• British and Spanish Colonialism

  • Forced out or enslaved natives

  • Permanent Settlements

• Despite their relatively peaceful interactions, Europeans rarely saw the Native Americans as equal to themselves.

• The diversity of Native American groups and their sometimes warring relationships with each other meant that the Europeans rarely had to worry about a unified resistance.

2.6 - Slavery in the British Colonies

The Distribution of Enslaved Africans

• The population of enslaved Africans was distributed differently throughout the British colonies.

• New England

  • Small farms with few slaves

  • a few household servant slaves

• Middle Colonies

  • Large plantations

  • mix of enslaved and indentured servants

• Chesapeake Colonies

  • Plantations

  • large amount of slaves

• Southern Colonies

  • Highest amount of slaves

  • huge plantations

Chattel Slavery

• Chattel Slavery: enslaved people were viewed as possessions, no different from farm tools or domesticated animals.

• The institution of chattel slavery was established and influenced by the British West Indies. The harsh laws and practices there were adopted by other colonies, particularly in the Southern colonies. For example, in Virginia:

  • Slavery was made a perpetual institution, passed from one generation to the next.

  • Laws became increasingly harsh over time, allowing plantation owners to kill enslaved laborers who defied their authority.

  • Enslaved Africans were not allowed to possess weapons or leave the plantation without formal permission from their owners.

  • Interracial relationships were made illegal, establishing a firm line of demarcation between the white and black races.

Slave Resistance

• Despite the harsh conditions, enslaved Africans did not resign themselves to their fate. Instead, they found ways to resist the dehumanizing institution of slavery.

• Covert Means of Resistance

  • Secretly practiced cultural customs from their homeland

  • Maintained their belief systems and spoke their native languages

  • Kept their naming practices from home

  • Slowed the pace of work by breaking tools and damaging crops

• Overt Rebellion

  • The Stono Rebellion (1739) in South Carolina, where a group of enslaved men stole weapons, killed white owners, and burned plantations, ultimately challenging the narrative of plantation owners as benevolent caretakers.

2.7 - Colonial Society and Structure

Setting the Stage: The Enlightenment

• The Enlightenment was a movement in Europe that emphasized rational thinking over tradition and religious revelation.

  • This movement took firm root in the colonies due to a robust transatlantic print culture, which spread the Enlightenment thinkers' ideas to British Americans.

• John Locke - Introduced the idea of natural rights, which states that human beings have rights to life, liberty, and property given by a creator, not a monarch.

• Rousseau - Advocated for a government with three branches that could check and balance each other.

• Voltaire - Wrote about the social contract between the people and their government, where the power to govern lies in the hands of the people.

• Emanuel Kant - Taught the colonists to long for a government with a system of checks and balances

The Impact of Enlightenment on Religion

• The Enlightenment thinkers emphasized that what is knowable in this world comes to us through our senses, therefore scientific inquiry is important

• This led to a decline in confidence in the authority of biblical revelation, which claims that what is knowable starts with God and that our authority comes through revelation by God.

The Great Awakening

• The Great Awakening was a massive religious revival that swept through all the colonies, generating an intense Christian devotion and enthusiasm.

• The Great Awakening was led by New Light Clergy, who emphasized the heart over the head in spiritual matters.

• Johnathan Edwards Preached sermons that combined Enlightenment ideas with intense religious fervor, igniting the Great Awakening.

• George Whitefield traveled to America from England, spreading the message of God's salvation by grace and Jesus Christ to all the colonies.

Social Consequences of the Great Awakening

• Emphasized democratic tendencies in the Bible, especially in the New Testament.

• Taught the common people that lack of wealth did not diminish God's favor upon them.

• Gave colonists biblical justification to resist the tyranny of wealthy colonial officials.

• Led to the formation of self-governing structures like participatory town meetings, tasked with electing members to their colonial legislature.

Enlightenment and the Great Awakening: A Perfect Stew

• The Enlightenment thinkers awakened American colonists to ideas about liberty and rights and democratic government.

• The Great Awakening created a nationwide movement that truly bound American society together and taught them to resist threats to democracy.