British North America
I. Introduction
The American colonies built new worlds from diverse origins: servants, slaves, free farmers, religious refugees, and powerful planters.
Native Americans witnessed settlements grow into dominant populations that monopolized resources and reshaped landscapes.
In the 17th–18th centuries, labor arrangements and racial categories hardened into race-based, chattel slavery, increasingly defining the British imperial economy.
The North American mainland started as a small, marginal part of the empire, yet its backwaters remained deeply connected to broader Atlantic networks.
An increasingly complex Atlantic World linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas, shaping lives across continents.
Visual reference (not essential to content): The Old Plantation, c. 1790–1800, illustrates plantation imagery within this Atlantic context.
Key concepts
Atlantic World as framework for understanding cross-continental exchange, conflict, and labor.
Slavery not just an economic system but a driver of racial thinking and social hierarchy.
The colonial landscape combined local autonomy with imperial mechanisms, often using violence and coercion to manage labor and land.
II. Slavery and the Making of Race
1706, Reverend Francis Le Jau arrives in Charles Town, South Carolina, and confronts the brutal reality of American slavery: Middle Passage horrors, Indian captives, and settlers’ fears of invasion from European rivals.
Le Jau baptized and educated many slaves, but masters feared Christian baptism would spur emancipation. He criticized English traders who instigated wars to enslave captives and who labeled white servants as “good for nothing.”
Le Jau’s critique highlights early religious and moral tensions around slavery, even as economic practices persisted.
The 1660s mark a turning point: laws legally sanction lifelong enslavement of Africans, creating a permanent deprivation of freedom and a separate legal status that reinforced racial barriers.
Skin color becomes a marker of a transcendent racial division (white vs black), beyond mere appearance or ancestry.
Early racial ideas were not uniformly “modern racial hierarchies.” Some slaveholders, like Captain Thomas Phillips (1694), rejected essentialist beliefs about color, suggesting profitability as the primary justification for slavery rather than fixed racial creed.
Indian slavery and African slavery intersected with warfare, colonization, and labor demands:
Wars offered a major mechanism for capturing Native American slaves (e.g., Pequot War, 1636–1637; Kieft’s War 1641–1645; Esopus Wars 1659–1663; King Philip’s War 1675–1676).
Indian slaves were exported to Bermuda, Curaçao, Barbados, Jamaica, and elsewhere; estimates suggest between Native Americans were enslaved in the southern colonies between 1670 and 1715.
The 18th century saw continued Indian slave production in Florida, South Carolina, and the Mississippi Valley, though colonial governments often discouraged it.
The Middle Passage (the voyage across the Atlantic) was the middle leg of a triad of journeys:
Leg 1: overland journey in Africa to a coastal slave-trading factory.
Leg 2: the oceanic voyage (the Middle Passage), lasting from one to six months, in which captives endured brutal conditions.
Leg 3: acculturation (seasoning) and transport to labor sites in the Americas.
Slave ship experiences (scholarly accounts described):
Olaudah Equiano (late 18th c.) described crew brutality, filthy holds, inadequate provisions, and the fear that drove suicides.
Alexander Falconbridge described shipboard infections and close confinement; bodies often wore away due to disease, chafing, and abuse.
Global scale of the Atlantic slave trade:
Approximately Africans transported across the Atlantic; about died at sea; millions more died during overland journeys or seasoning.
The Brookes slave ship illustration (c. 1788) shows how many slaves could be packed onboard and the stowage limitations: capacity up to slaves, with some traders claiming as many as ; post-1788 regulation still depicted extreme overcrowding.
The economic and human dimensions of the Middle Passage:
The voyage connected to a triangle of trade: sugar and semi-finished goods from the Americas, European manufactured goods, and enslaved Africans.
The term "Middle Passage" carried multiple meanings: for captains, it was a leg of the triangular trade; for enslaved Africans, it was the middle of their own three-part route to labor in the Americas.
Origins and scale of Africa-to-America labor:
About 450,000 Africans landed in British North America, a relatively small portion of the global slave- trafficking victims (≈ ).
The transatlantic slave system produced a gendered pattern: women represented a sizable share of enslaved populations and bore more children, aiding natural reproduction of slavery in North America.
1662 Virginia law tied an enslaved woman’s children to the mother’s status (property inheritance), implying that children born to enslaved women would be enslaved for life regardless of their father’s status.
Legal and social implications:
The emergence of race as a concept was tied to the colonization of the Americas and the slave trade; race became a category used to justify domination, rather than a fixed identity used by all regions equally.
The English ideal of a gendered household, with paternal dominion, created a social structure in which enslaved people were outside the household and denied marital or familial protections.
Slave marriages were not legally recognized, and masters could refuse visits or sell spouses across distances; some enslaved people formed marriages “abroad” (not owned by the same master).
III. Turmoil in Britain
Religious conflict in sixteenth-century England shaped colonial expectations and loyalties.
Puritan dissenters viewed the New World as a possible beacon of Calvinist Christianity; others continued conflict at home.
The 1640s civil war in England (Parliament vs Crown) redefined loyalties among colonies:
By 1642, no permanent colony was more than about 35 years old; colonists enjoyed varying degrees of independence.
The English Civil War culminated in the execution of Charles I (1649) and the establishment of the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell, altering imperial governance.
Economic and political controls tighten during and after the war:
The 1651 Navigation Act required that colonial merchants ship goods in English ships directly to England, aiming to curb Dutch competition and strengthen imperial control.
The monarchy was restored with Charles II, yet suspicions about Catholic and French sympathies persisted.
The Glorious Revolution of 1688–1689 replaced James II with William and Mary, reshaping imperial administration and reinforcing Protestant governance.
Colonial governance during and after the Glorious Revolution:
The Lords of Trade and Plantations established to oversee the Atlantic empire; the Dominion of New England (1686) consolidated New England colonies along with New York and New Jersey to counter French Canada.
Sir Edmund Andros governed the Dominion and imposed centralized authority, including mandatory military service; this fostered colonial resentment.
The 1689 Bill of Rights in England limited monarchical power and reinforced Protestantism, influencing colonial loyalties and political culture.
Local colonial dynamics in the mid-to-late 17th century:
Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Connecticut emphasized local governance and religious autonomy; many colonies resisted direct royal interference while seeking to benefit from imperial trade.
The Glorious Revolution fostered a Protestant political identity that shaped colonial allegiance and resistance to perceived absolutism.
IV. New Colonies
Maryland (1632 onward) and religious toleration:
Maryland granted to Cecilius Calvert (the second Lord Baltimore) as a haven for Catholics seeking relief from Protestant dominance in England.
Arrivals of Protestant and Catholic settlers in 1634 led to a tobacco-based economy; over time, Maryland faced internal religious conflicts as Puritans and other groups settled there.
After the Glorious Revolution, Maryland became a royal colony (1689 onward).
Connecticut, Rhode Island, and religious liberty:
Connecticut emerged from Saybrook and New Haven settlements; Hartford (Newtown) founded in 1636; New Haven organized in 1643; New Haven absorbed by Connecticut in 1665; Yale College established there.
Rhode Island (Providence Plantations) founded by Roger Williams (1636) and Anne Hutchinson’s followers; 1644 Parliament charter; Rhode Island recognized for toleration and religious freedom.
The Dutch and American mid-Atlantic frontier:
New Netherland established on the Hudson (New Amsterdam, 1625); religious tolerance but relatively small population.
The English seized New Netherland in 1664; briefly retaken by the Dutch in 1667; renamed New York, with potential Dutch resistance persisting into the 18th century.
The proprietary colonies and the expansion of the Atlantic economy:
The Duke of York (later James II) awarded land to East Jersey and West Jersey (1664); Pennsylvania granted to William Penn (1681) as a “colony of Heaven” for the children of Light, with a vision of religious and cultural pluralism.
Quaker influence in Pennsylvania promoted rights and equality but confronted tensions around slavery; controversy within the Society of Friends culminated in a 1688 protest against slavery by Germantown Quakers.
The Chesapeake and Southern colonies grew with slave labor, while Pennsylvania’s climate and soil discouraged large-scale slave agriculture.
The Carolina colony (later split into North and South Carolina) and Georgia:
The Lords Proprietors (Charles II’s favorites) established Charles Town (1670) as a port for expansion and profit, modeled on Barbados with incentives like religious tolerance, political representation, and large land grants.
Rice and indigo plantations became central to Carolina’s economy; slave labor played a major role in these plantations.
The Albemarle region in the north became a site of resistance to proprietary control, leading to the creation of North Carolina in 1691.
Key ideas about colonization and land:
The English empire used land grants, religious justifications, and political rewards to expand settlement and consolidate power across the Atlantic littoral.
Slavery shaped the labor basis of many colonies, while some (e.g., Pennsylvania) sought to balance religious ideals with economic realities.
V. Riot, Rebellion, and Revolt
A pattern of violence marked the seventeenth century in British North America:
Pequot War (1636–1637) and Mystic massacre; King Philip’s War (1675–1676); Susquehannock War; Bacon’s Rebellion (1676); Pueblo Revolt (1680–1681) demonstrate the brutal contest over land, sovereignty, and labor.
The Pequot War and the rise of regional powers:
Puritans from Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Connecticut carried out campaigns against the Pequots; Mohegan and Narragansett groups played pivotal roles.
The Mohegan pivot to English alignment after early stages reinforced English political and economic dominance in New England.
King Philip’s War (1675–1676):
Sparked by a Christian Wampanoag leader (Metacom, King Philip) and loyalty covenants with English colonies, the war devastated many English towns and indigenous communities.
Violence accelerated after the execution of three Metacom supporters in 1675, and Indian resistance spread to Western Massachusetts, Deerfield, Hadley, and other towns.
Narragansett forces were decimated in the December 1675 Great Swamp Fight; many Narragansett joined the broader anti-English resistance.
By spring 1676, English and allied Native forces retaliated; Metacom was killed in August 1676, effectively ending major Native resistance in New England.
Casualties: roughly 800–1,000 English and at least 3,000 Indigenous lives; thousands more fled or were enslaved.
Salem Witch Trials (1692–1693):
A climate of fear and political tension, fueled by local rivalries, trauma from war, and possible environmental factors.
Tituba (an enslaved Indigenous/African woman) became a focal point of accusations; 14 women and 6 men were executed.
Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) in Virginia:
A complex mix of local grievances, class tensions, and frontier violence: a civil revolt against governor William Berkeley’s policies toward Indians and land.
Nathaniel Bacon led frontier settlers against Native tribes and the colonial government; the rebellion exposed simmering tensions among wealthy planters, landless freemen, indentured servants, and enslaved people.
The rebellion ended with Bacon’s death and Berkeley’s suppression, but it exposed deep social fault lines and foreshadowed the shift toward plantation slavery as a more stable labor regime.
Consequences and longer-term patterns:
The violence reinforced elite control over labor and land, while the expansion of slavery intensified racialized social hierarchies.
Indian communities remained a perpetual political and military factor, both within colonies and as bargaining partners or adversaries in frontier regions.
The Yamasee War (1715) in the Carolinas highlighted the fragility of Indigenous–European economies and the shift toward African slave labor on the Atlantic seaboard.
The Walking Purchase (1737) in Pennsylvania:
A coercive land acquisition where Pennsylvanian authorities negotiated with Delaware leaders to measure land by a one-and-a-half-day walk; running a prepared trail, colonists extended a boundary far beyond Delaware intentions, inflicting long-term tensions with Delaware groups and contributing to migration westward toward the Ohio Valley.
VI. Conclusion
The seventeenth century saw the founding and maturation of British North American colonies amid climate challenges, Native resistance, imperial competition, and an expanding Atlantic economy rooted in slavery.
Colonial societies developed distinct religious, economic, and political cultures, yet remained tightly woven into the Atlantic World through trade, conquest, and labor systems.
The era laid the groundwork for a broader Atlantic history, where race, labor, violence, and commerce shaped the social fabric of North America and its connections to Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean.