Period 2 (KCO Notes)

key concept 2.1

Europeans developed a variety of colonization and migration patterns, influenced by different imperial goals, cultures, and the varied North American environments where they settled, and they competed with each other and American Indians for resources.

I. Spanish, French, Dutch, and British colonizers had different economic and imperial goals involving land and labor that shaped the social and political development of their colonies as well as their relationships with native populations.

A. Spanish efforts to extract wealth from the land led them to develop institutions based on subjugating native populations, converting them to Christianity, and incorporating them, along with enslaved and free Africans, into the Spanish colonial society.

  • the Black Legend
    • Stereotype perpetuated by other Europeans about Spain
    • Used revolting Spanish actions in the New World as justification for discrimination against Spaniards in trade, etc.
    • Spanish were portrayed as bigoted, ignorant, cruel, lazy, etc.
    • Fueled by publications following Las Casas’ conflict with various European nations
    • Term coined by Julian Juderias in 1914
    • The Black Legend, a stereotype based on Spanish actions in the New World, gave other European nations a reason to discriminate against the Spanish amidst the European competition over land and resources in the New World.

B. French and Dutch colonial efforts involved relatively few Europeans and relied on trade alliances and intermarriage with American Indians to build economic and diplomatic relationships and acquire furs and other products to export to Europe.

  • Quebec (French)
    • Founded by Samuel de Champlain along the St. Lawrence River in 1608
    • Fur trading post
    • French traded with numerous tribes (Cree-speaking Montagnais, Algonquian-speaking Micmacs, Ottawas, Ojibwas + Iroquois-speaking Hurons)
    • Champlain traded manufactured goods (kettles, hatchets, etc.) for beaver pelts to export to Europe
    • Hurons also became first focus of French Catholic missionary activity
    • Quebec was an example of a French colony that involved very few Europeans but was prosperous through trade with Native Americans - in this case, the trade of various manufactured goods for furs to be exported to Europe (especially beaver).
  • New Netherland (Dutch)
    • Flourishing trade enterprise (similar to New France)
    • Traded with Iroquois
    • Had less respect for Algonquian peoples (seized prime land; took over trade network)
    • War in 1643 that caused the West India Company to abandon New Netherland
    • Formed alliance with the Mohawks
    • Authoritarian governor
    • Demands for a representative government rejected
    • British invaded and took control in 1664
    • New Netherland showed how a Dutch colony that didn’t get along with all of its Native neighbors was ultimately abandoned due to a lack of new products to export and no alliances within which to trade.

C. English colonization efforts attracted a comparatively large number of male and female British migrants, as well as other European migrants, all of whom sought social mobility, economic prosperity, religious freedom, and improved living conditions. These colonists focused on agriculture and settled on land taken from Native Americans, from whom they lived separately.

  • Jamestown
    • Initially founded by an all-male group looking to collect tribute from Native Americans and search for new sources of wealth in 1607
    • 1,200 colonists were dispatched in 1611 (only around half survived)
    • Traded with Powhatan’s tribes
    • Both expected tribute from each other
    • Farmers and mostly Christian (Protestant)
    • Bordered by Native tribes that were sometimes peaceful trade partners and sometimes enemies
    • Some attempts were made to integrate cultures but tribute issue nullified them
    • Jamestown was an example of a British colony that lived alongside/traded with Native Americans, though they tried to stay fairly separated from them overall.
  • Catholics in Maryland
    • Governor of Maryland (Lord Baltimore) was Catholic
    • Maryland became a religious safe haven amidst the First Great Awakening + rise of Puritanism and Protestant Christianity
    • Catholics subject to persecution in England and came to Maryland to be safe and free
    • Catholicism had to be practiced in private so as to keep away from religious unrest
    • Maryland grew quickly thanks to arriving artisans and these Catholics
    • Maryland was a safe haven for Catholics as well as a farming community (specifically, tobacco) founded by Lord Baltimore and funded by British King Charles I.
II. In the 7th century, early British colonies developed along the Atlantic coast, with regional differences that reflected various environmental, economic, cultural, and demographic factors.

A. The Chesapeake and North Carolina colonies grew prosperous exporting tobacco - a labor-intensive product initially cultivated by white, mostly male indentured servants and later by enslaved Africans.

  • Chesapeake shipping registers
    • Over 100,000 English migrants came to Virginia/Maryland by 1700 (shown by these shipping registers)
    • 5,000 servants left Britain to go to Chesapeake (3/4 of which were male)
    • Indentured servants were bound to a master for 4-5 years
    • Exports of tobacco to Europe rose from 3 million pounds to 10 million pounds between 1640-1660
    • Powerful families copied English hierarchical system
    • Servants were a bargain for plantation owners as the headright system gave them 50 acres for every servant whose passage they paid
    • Male servants could produce 5 times their purchase price in a year during the tobacco boom
    • Servants were ruthlessly exploited
    • Shipping registers from Bristol to Chesapeake confirm the voyage of thousands of white, male indentured servants that obviously worked on plantations producing tobacco for their masters during the Chesapeake tobacco boom.
  • Maryland
    • Tobacco-growing colony near Chesapeake
    • King Charles I granted land to Catholic aristocrat Cecilius Calvert (Lord Baltimore)
    • Refuge for Catholics in England
    • St. Mary’s City passed laws to keep the Protestants safe and the Catholics quiet
    • Grew quickly because of imported artisans and land given to wealthy merchants
    • Representative assembly with the right to initiate legislation
    • Tolerance Act granted all Christians the right to hold their beliefs/church services
    • Tobacco was the main crop
    • Maryland was an example of a tobacco-growing colony that grew prosperous thanks to exports of its main crop in addition to religious freedom, representative government and migrants/artisans coming over (from England in particular).

B. The New England colonies, initially settled by Puritans, developed around small towns with family farms and achieved a thriving mixed economy of agriculture and commerce.

  • Massachusetts Bay colony
    • Founded by English Protestants near Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1620
    • Attracted over 20,000 migrants by 1640
    • Founders/migrants came in family groups to create communities similar to England (but with Protestant Christianity instead of Anglican/Catholic)
    • Small compared to other colonies (i.e. Chesapeake)
    • Balanced sex ratio
    • Organized community function
    • Holy commonwealth
    • Society of independent farm families
    • Multiplied quickly
    • The Massachusetts Bay Colony was a key example of a New England colony that was centered around community and family while maintaining an agriculture-based economy and their Protestant faith.
  • Pilgrims
    • Religious separatists (Puritans who left the English church)
    • King James I threatened to get rid of them somehow
    • Total of 102 people led by William Bradford
    • Sailed to America on the Mayflower
    • The Mayflower Compact made the Puritans’ religion the basis for their political structure
    • Lacked a royal charter
    • Representative self-government, political rights, property ownership, freedom of religion
    • The Pilgrims were an example of a Puritan group that settled in the New England area in a colony such as the ones described in the thesis.

C. The middle colonies supported a flourishing export economy based on cereal crops and attracted a broad range of European migrants, leading to societies with greater cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity and tolerance.

  • Maryland exports
    • Part of the South Atlantic System
    • Hundreds of professional teamsters were transporting 370,000 bushels of wheat and corn as well as 10,000 barrels of flour to urban markets annually by the 1750s
    • This required over 10,000 wagon trips
    • Taverns, stables and shops built along wagon paths
    • The sheer numbers of Maryland cereal crop exports in the 1750s prove that their economy likely depended on those exports, which also attracted scores of artisans and entrepreneurs to sell things to those transporting the crops by wagon.
  • Artisans
    • Middle ranks of seaport society
    • Made up nearly half the population
    • Innkeeping, butchering, seamstresses, shoemaking, weaving, baking, building, masonry
    • Wives and husbands worked as teams
    • Passed their craft down to their children
    • Most artisans weren’t very well-off, though some became wealthy
    • Threatened by periods of stagnant commerce alongside merchants
    • Provided several goods that supported the maritime community
    • Artisans, the middle class in seaport society, were varied in skill as well as background and were a huge support for those colonies’ economies.

D. The colonies of the southernmost Atlantic coast and the British West Indies used long growing seasons to develop plantation economies based on exporting staple crops. They depended on the labor of enslaved Africans, who often constituted the majority of the population in these areas and developed their own forms of cultural and religious autonomy.

  • Brazil’s sugar plantations
    • Planters originally planned to rely on Native Americans for labor
    • Had to turn to African slaves when smallpox decimated the Native population beginning in 1559 (switch completed by 1620)
    • Sugar was in extremely high demand in Europe
    • Backbreaking work (agricultural labor and refining processes)
    • Over 1,000 sugar plantations
    • Resembled Industrial Revolution-era factories
    • Sugar plantations in Brazil were a major factor that supported the economy of the European colonies and relied on massive amounts of slave labor to do the heavy lifting to produce the sugar, the demand for which was huge in Europe.
  • South Carolina plantations
    • Leading white settlers were migrants from Barbados
    • Tried to recreate Barbados’ hierarchical society with enslaved Africans/Natives
    • Raised crops/cattle to export to the West Indies
    • Hit rice cultivation around 1700 (fit to environment and slaves could do the labor)
    • African population exploded because the plantation masters relied on slave labor
    • Blacks outnumbered whites by 1710
    • 2/3 of the population was black by 1740
    • South Carolina was one colony that exported staple goods (namely, rice) and depended on slave labor to do so. They were also a key example of a colony with a large African population thanks to their economy’s reliance on slavery.

E. Distance and Britain’s initially lax attention led to the colonies creating self-governing institutions that were unusually democratic for the era. The New England colonies based power in participatory town meetings, which in turn elected members to their colonial legislatures; in the Southern colonies, elite planters exercised local authority and also dominated the elected assemblies.

  • House of Burgesses
    • System of representative government
    • First convened in 1619
    • Made laws + levied taxes in Virginia Company
    • English governor + company council could veto its acts
    • Land ownership, self government and judicial system based on English laws
    • Way of ruling attracted some 4,500 newcomers
    • Retained following increased British control after the Indian War of 1622, though laws had to be ratified by the king’s Privy Council
    • The House of Burgesses was a key example of an unusually democratic government that ran the Virginia Company even following increased British attention and control after the Indian War of 1622.
  • New England town meetings
    • Main institution of local government
    • Allowed citizens (most local men) to have a vote
    • Representative government
    • Ordinary farmers had more political power than Chesapeake yeomen or European peasants
    • Votes had no connection to socioeconomic status
    • Meetings levied taxes, enacted various ordinances + chose men to lead town affairs
    • Selected representatives on the General Court, which eventually overtook the governor
    • Town meetings in New England were an early example of a representative, exceptionally democratic form of government that gave power to everyone, not just the elite, wealthy monarchs.
III. Competition over resources between European rivals and American Indians encouraged industry and trade and led to conflict in the Americas.

A. An Atlantic economy developed in which goods, as well as enslaved Africans and American Indians, were exchanged between Europe, Africa, and the Americas through extensive trade networks. European colonial economies focused on acquiring, producing, and exporting commodities that were valued in Europe and gaining new sources of labor.

  • African slave trade
    • European and American traders bought slaves from their fellow Africans
    • Slaves were war captives, debtors, criminals, or random abductions
    • Some buyers in certain places preferred different “types” of slaves
    • Traded in goods rather than money (textiles, guns, powder, alcohol, mirrors, etc.)
    • Followed supply and demand
    • Prices rose with 17th century growth of slave-based plantation economies
    • Slaves worked to produce goods like sugar, tobacco, and rice to export to Europe
    • Annual average of 60,000 slaves imported to the New World between 1740-1810
    • The African slave trade was key to the production of goods in high demand by Europe, such as sugar and tobacco. They were especially important because they weren’t falling to European diseases like the Natives were. The prices of slaves followed supply and demand and rose alongside plantation-based economies.
  • Spanish colonizers in Hispaniola
    • 2 black people disembarked on Hispaniola in 1494 with Columbus’ second expedition
    • Spanish originally intended to rely on Native labor until they started dying of foreign diseases
    • Spanish law sanctioned slavery but called it despicable and evil
    • The colonists were given permission to import slaves in 1501
    • Origin of African slavery in the Americas, which was a key factor in the American economy later on (see above)
    • Spanish colonizers in Hispaniola were some of the first to introduce the African slave trade in the Americas after being granted permission by the Spanish royalty in 1501. This kickstarted and supported plantation-based economies in America and the export of American goods to Europe.
  • The Middle Passage
    • Route for European traders to bring African slaves to the New World
    • Ships were extremely overcrowded and stinky
    • Slaves often died of disease outbreaks, starvation, dehydration, etc.
    • Some slave uprisings occurred
    • 100,000 slaves died in the uprisings
    • 1.5 million slaves (14%) died of disease/illness
    • Worked ten hours a day on cheap diets, saving masters a lot of money to make extremely profitable crops
    • Slaves were the cheapest form of labor
    • Planters worked slaves to death and then brought more over
    • The Middle Passage was the route by which the vast majority of African slaves travelled to the New World. Slavery was a cheap solution to the need for labor in the Americas following an increased European demand for New World crops.

B. Continuing trade with Europeans increased the flow of goods in and out of American Indian communities, stimulating cultural and economic changes and spreading epidemic diseases that caused radical demographic shifts.

  • Innu
    • One of Powhatan’s tribes that British Jamestown settlers traded with
    • Traded food for English goods, which eventually made their way into Native markets
    • Weapons, metals (i.e. copper), etc.
    • Nationwide trade that upset Powhatan
    • Native political systems were threatened
    • As Jamestown settlers died of disease, those diseases devastated Native American populations, who had little to no immunity to them
    • Disease caused significant decrease in Native populations
    • The Innu were one of Powhatan’s tribes who traded with British settlers. These British goods changed their economies and their nationwide systems of trade disrupted political systems. Many of them died of smallpox as they had no immunity to it.
  • Iroquois
    • Located in New York
    • Used location to capitalize on both French and Dutch presence
    • Dutch goods/guns at Fort Orange
    • Affected by smallpox in 1633
    • Fought wars with various other Native tribes between 1649-1660
    • Terrorized villages; killed/enslaved residents
    • Beaver Wars changed North America (war between Iroquois/French over beaver pelts)
    • Iroquois eventually forced to accept Jesuit missionaries
    • Any Iroquois who remained after the Beaver Wars formed alliances with the British settlers who invaded New Netherland.
    • The Iroquois obtained various goods from their Dutch trading partners that helped them during the Beaver Wars after smallpox devastated their population. After losing the Beaver Wars, many Iroquois were forced to accept Christianity.

C. Interactions between European rivals and American Indian populations fostered both accommodation and conflict. French, Dutch, British, and Spanish colonies allied with and armed American Indian groups, who frequently sought alliances with Europeans against other Indian groups.

  • Pequot War
    • 1636-1638 in New England
    • Pequot tribe + Dutch vs. British colonists + Narragansett/Mohegan tribes
    • Struggle to control the fur/wampum trade
    • Pequot/Dutch controlled all regional trade for a time
    • Some English traders were murdered in the struggle (i.e. John Stone) in the conflict for the trade, which helped start the actual war
    • English raided various Pequot-controlled areas/villages, one key example of which was the infamous Mistick Fort Campaign
    • Both sides grew weary and low on ammunition
    • Pequot eventually abandoned their territory for fear of further attacks
    • War began + ended on Block Island
    • “Ended” in August 1637, but officially ended with the ratification of the Treaty of Hartford on September 21st, 1638
    • The Pequot War was an example of one group of Europeans and Native tribes fighting other Europeans and their Native allies. In this case, the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes allied with the British to fight the Pequot and Dutch. The entire war was originated from the desire to control the fur and wampum trade in the area.
  • Lacrosse
    • Oldest team sport in North America
    • Given to Haudenosaunee by the Creator as a medicine gift (heal, peace, fun)
    • Stick represented connection to nature
    • “Lacrosse” was coined by French missionaries
    • First played outside reservations in Montreal, Canada
    • “Lifeblood of the Haudenosaunee”
    • Canada declared lacrosse its national sport, which blended Native and Canadian culture, but also hid the game’s original meaning
    • Lacrosse was an example of an intersection between Native and colonial cultures. Canadians adopted the sport and made it their national sport, and although it was admittedly an example of European respect for other cultures, Natives ultimately felt that the original point of the game was overshadowed by the colonists.

D. The goals and interests of European leaders and colonists at times divided, leading to a growing mistrust on both sides of the Atlantic. Colonists, especially in British North America, expressed dissatisfaction over issues including territorial settlements, frontier defense, self-rule, and trade.

  • Currency Act (1751)
    • 10 colonial assemblies established public land banks in response to a lack of money
    • American merchants used gold/silver coins to pay for British manufactures, leaving no money left for intercolonial transactions
    • Banks lent paper money to farmers who pledged land for collateral
    • This stimulated trade
    • Some colonial assemblies required merchants to accept it as legal tender
    • English merchants complained about this forced trade for something that held basically no value for them
    • Parliament passed the Currency Act in 1751 to prevent New England from forming banks and using paper money for private debts
    • These conflicts angered British political leaders
    • The Currency Act of 1751 was an example of a response by British political leaders to a trade-related issue that angered said leaders as colonists found other ways to work around British-inspired issues.
  • Salutary neglect
    • By-product of the political system created by Sir Robert Walpole (Whig leader in House of Commons from 1720-1742)
    • Allowed for the rise of American self-government + relaxed their supervision of internal colonial affairs because they were pleased by the increase in trade and import
    • Ultimately weakened the British empire’s control over the colonies by undermining the legitimacy of the political system
    • Leaders such as Charles Townshend (of the Board of Trade) wanted to replace salutary neglect with rigorous imperial control
    • Salutary neglect, part of the British response to colonial self-rule, was even divisive among political leaders and ultimately weakened British control over the colonies.
  • Bacon’s Rebellion
    • Around the same time as Metacom’s War
    • Occurred in Virginia
    • Social unrest generated when William Berkeley and the Burgesses took the vote away from landless freemen
    • Indentured servants received land after their period of servitude but it was always inland and bumped up against Native land
    • Poor white farmers were tired of defending their land against Native attacks
    • Nathaniel Bacon led the rebels against the Natives and was arrested
    • Rebels forced the governor to release Bacon and the Burgesses restored voting rights to landless freemen
    • Reforms came too late and Bacon’s army burned down Jamestown
    • The governor took revenge in October 1676 when Bacon died
    • Virginian leaders worked harder to appease neighbors
    • Same time as shift from indentured servitude to slavery
    • Bacon’s Rebellion was an example of a military conflict that ensued between the poorer British residents of Jamestown (specifically, freed former indentured servants) and Native Americans over land disputes, as well as rebellion by these same poor white farmers against the colonial elite.

E. British conflicts with American Indians over land, resources, and political boundaries led to military confrontations, such as Metacom’s War (King Philip’s War) in New England.

  • Metacom’s War
    • Occurred in 1675-1676
    • Europeans outnumbered Native Americans in New England 3:1
    • The Wampanoag leader Metacom (aka King Philip) saw that future coexistence was unlikely
    • British colonists persecuted Natives for various random reasons
    • Natives forged an alliance with the Narragansetts and Nipmucks
    • Attacked white settlements in New England
    • Ended when the Natives ran out of gunpowder and Mohegan and Mohawk warriors hired by the Massachusetts Bay government killed Metacom
    • Metacom’s War was an example of a military confrontation between the Natives and the British after disagreements over trade prices and land boundaries (among other things). It devastated both sides and fairly settled no arguments - only destroyed the existence of independent Native peoples.
  • Indian War of 1622 (Conflict)
    • British explorers including John Smith
    • Dispatched 1,200 colonists to Jamestown by 1611
    • Wanted to dominate the local Native population but couldn’t because of Powhatan, the chief who oversaw 30 tribal chiefdoms between the Potomac and James rivers
    • Treated British as potential allies + trading partners
    • Each group expected tribute from the other
    • Powhatan wanted to make Jamestown one of his chiefdoms
    • Couldn’t decide who would pay tribute, leading to uneasy relations and eventually warfare
    • Powhatan’s successor Opechancanough attacked English settlers in 1607 and wouldn’t agree to any treaties or concede
    • Killed hundreds of settlers
    • War lasted a decade
    • The Indian War of 1622 is significant to this as it is a key example of initial mutual accommodation between Native communities and European colonists leading to conflict after those interactions could not lead to agreement as the 2 groups’ interests conflicted somewhat. (Jamestown)

F. American Indian resistance to Spanish colonizing efforts in North America, particularly after the Pueblo Revolt, led to Spanish accommodation of some aspects of American Indian culture in the Southwest.

  • Pueblo Revolt
    • Most successful Native revolt in the U.S.
    • August 1680
    • Initiated by Pope, a Pueblo leader
    • All Pueblo people participated
    • Killed 21 priests
    • Ran Spaniards off land
    • Burned Christian churches
    • Pueblo were free for 12 years until Spanish regained control in 1692, though they secured some concessions
    • The Pueblo Revolt was a key example of Native American resistance that led to their freedom for 12 years, as well as some remaining freedoms granted them by the Spanish after a new governor took charge.

key concept 2.2

The British colonies participated in political, social, cultural, and economic exchanges with Great Britain that encouraged both stronger bonds with Britain and resistance to Britain’s control.

I. Transatlantic commercial, religious, philosophical, and political exchanges led residents of the British colonies to evolve in their political and cultural attitudes as they became increasingly tied to Britain and one another.

A. The presence of different European religious and ethnic groups contributed to a significant degree of pluralism and intellectual exchange, which were later enhanced by the First Great Awakening and the spread of European Enlightenment ideas.

  • Salem witch trials
    • Puritans believed the world was full of supernatural forces and were hostile to those who tried to manipulate them
    • Labeled these so-called “manipulators” as witches
    • Salem witch trials were the most dramatic instance of witch-hunting
    • Occurred in 1692
    • Girls having seizures accused their neighbors of witchcraft
    • 175 people tried, 19 executed (18 of whom were women)
    • May have been caused by rivalries, sexism or political instability
    • Caused the shift to a ban on legal prosecution for witchcraft and to European Enlightenment ideas
    • The Salem witch trials were a turning point in the Massachusetts Bay colony that caused more and more people to turn away from solely religion-based ways of thinking to those of science and reason like the European Enlightenment.
  • First Great Awakening
    • Period when spirituality and religious devotion were revived
    • Swept through American colonies (1730s-1770s)
    • Revival of Protestant beliefs specifically
    • Part of a much wider movement in Europe
    • Transformed religious climate in the American colonies
    • Increase of interest in religion
    • Profound sense of conviction
    • Sparked a number of reform movements
    • Protestantism became prominent on both sides of the Atlantic
    • One key preacher was Jonathan Edwards
    • Spread of pietism
    • The First Great Awakening allowed for the increased spread of new religious ideas and combined several religions in the same places.
  • John Locke
    • English philosopher
    • Contributed a lot to the Enlightenment
    • Stressed impact of environment/experience on behavior/beliefs
    • Character is not fixed, can be changed through education, rational thought and purposeful action
    • Enhanced the theory that political power wasn’t given to monarchs by God but was derived from social compacts
    • Preserve natural rights (life, liberty and property)
    • Argued that people should have power to change the government’s policies
    • These ideas spread throughout the colonies and later helped bring about the Revolutionary War
    • John Locke’s Enlightenment ideas were a major factor in the later revolution by the colonies and a foundation for the American government.
  • Pietism
    • Christian movement starting in 1700 in Germany
    • Emphasized personally righteous behavior
    • Emotional services + individual striving for a union with God
    • Appealed to the heart instead of the mind (opposite of deism)
    • Sparked a religious revival in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as well as renewing religious zeal and instilling it into Puritan culture/logic in New England
    • Spread enhanced by the print revolution
    • Pietism was a religious movement that enhanced other groups in the colonies thanks to its spread via migrants and print culture.

B. The British colonies experienced a gradual Anglicization over time, developing autonomous political communities based on English models with influence from inter-colonial commercial ties, the emergence of a trans-Atlantic print culture, and the spread of Protestant evangelicalism.

  • Colonial assemblies
    • New World version of English Whigs
    • Limited power of crown officials following the Glorious Revolution
    • In Massachusetts, they ignored the king’s instructions to pay the royal governor
    • Colonial legislatures gradually took control of taxation and appointments
    • Angered imperial bureaucrats and proprietors
    • Colonial elite led assemblies (90% were elite in New Jersey in 1750, Lee family dominated Virginia House of Burgesses, descendents of Puritans formed leader core in New England)
    • Whigs influenced colonists to protest higher powers and fight for liberty
    • Unintentionally laid groundwork for the American independence movement
    • Colonial assemblies, part of the groundwork for the American independence movement, were modeled after the radical British Whigs, who fought for the liberties of the people and against the dictatorship of the monarchy.
  • Licensing Act lapse (1695)
    • Parliament allowed the Licensing Act, which had given the British the power to censor all printed materials, to lapse
    • Paved the way for a trans-Atlantic print culture that led to a print revolution
    • This enhanced both the spread of Enlightenment ideas and Pietism
    • Led to colonies beginning their own newspapers (37 different papers in the 13 colonies by 1776) which helped them share common cause
    • Allowed for faster spread of ideas and published uncensored thought as well as shared thought as well as shared thought across seas and borders instead of it just being limited to one community
    • British relinquished control over a key asset that later helped with the spread of Revolutionary ideas in several ways
    • By allowing the lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695, the British relinquished control over publication, leading to a widespread trans-Atlantic print revolution that allowed for a faster spread of ideas, news and information.

C. The British government increasingly attempted to incorporate its North American colonies into a coherent, hierarchical, and imperial structure in order to pursue mercantilist economic aims, but conflicts with colonists and American Indians led to erratic enforcement of imperial policies.

  • Navigation Acts (1651, 1660, 1663, 1673)
    • English ministers wanted to reap the economic benefits of the colonies
    • Others were buying goods from English colonies and shipping them directly to foreign markets
    • Navigation Act of 1651 required that goods be carried on ships owned by English/colonial merchants
    • 1660/1663 acts further banned foreign traders (exports/imports only through England)
    • 3/4 of the crew on English vessels had to be English
    • Policies backed by military force
    • Many colonists still violated these acts (both imports and exports)
    • The Navigation Acts were an example of a British attempt to take control of the economies of its colonies. Additionally, colonists rebelled against these acts and they were not always enforced. The British wanted to reap the economic benefits of their colonies.
  • Massachusetts Bay resistance
    • Declared that England’s laws only applied to the mainland and not the colonies
    • Lords of Trade denied Massachusetts Bay’s claim to New Hampshire and established another royal colony there in 1679
    • Annulled Massachusetts Bay charter in 1684 by charging the Puritan government with violating the Navigation Acts and nearly outlawing the Church of England
    • Resistance to the Navigation Acts by the Massachusetts Bay colony was an example of colonial resistance to British economic control that led to further enforcement of British policy overseas.
  • Molasses Act (1733)
    • British law that imposed a tax on molasses, sugar, and rum imported from non-British colonies into North American British colonies
    • Planters kept trading with the Dutch in violation of the Navigation Acts
    • The Molasses Act was an example of the British trying to control the trade-related aspects of its colonies’ economies with taxes on key products like molasses.

D. Colonists’ resistance to imperial control drew on local experiences of government, evolving ideas of liberty, the political thought of the Enlightenment, greater religious independence and diversity, and an ideology critical of perceived corruption in the imperial system.

  • Protestant rebellions
    • Massachusetts, Maryland, New York
    • Inspired by the Glorious Revolution in England
    • Puritan leaders seized Governor Andros and sent him back to England in 1689
    • Broke up the Dominion of New England
    • Wouldn’t restore the Puritan-run government of Massachusetts Bay
    • New charter empowered the king to appoint officials, got rid of restrictions on the Church of England, and gave the vote to all male property owners
    • Had economic and religious motivating factors in the colonies (i.e. Maryland)
    • Protestant rebellions in various British colonies inspired by the Glorious Revolution led to political upheaval/change, new laws concerning religion, and economic changes in the colonies.
  • Maryland rebellion
    • Falling tobacco prices beginning in 1660 hurt poorer farmers while taxes/fees paid to already rich Catholic officials kept rising
    • Protestants forcibly removed the Catholic governor when Parliament ousted James II
    • Lords of Trade imposed royal government and made the Church of England the legal religion
    • Lasted until 1715 when the 4th Lord Baltimore converted to the Anglican faith
    • The uprising in Maryland was an example of a Protestant revolution motivated by colonists’ anger at imperial control and need for religious freedom and lower taxes on already poor farmers.
II. Like other European empires in the America that participated in the Atlantic slave trade, the English colonies developed a system of slavery that reflected the specific economic, demographic, and geographic characteristics of those colonies.

A. All the British colonies paticipated to varying degrees in the Atlantic slave trade due to the abundance of land and a growing European demand for colonial goods, as well as a shortage of indentured servants. Small New England farms used relatively few enslaved laborers, all port cities held significant minorities of enslaved people, and the emerging plantation systems of the Chesapeake and the southernmost Atlantic coast had large numbers of enslaved workers, while the great majority of enslaved Africans were sent to the West Indies.

  • West Indies
    • Small colonies producing tobacco and livestock hides originally
    • Transformed into slave-based sugar plantation colonies in 1650
    • Had 700 large sugar plantations by 1750
    • Sugar was a time-consuming product requiring a lot of manual labor (which was all performed by slaves/indentured servants)
    • British transported 2.5 million of the 6.1 million slaves brought to America and most went to the West Indies
    • Enormous profits for Britain (value of goods used to buy slaves went from 1/10th to 1/3rd of value of crops)
    • A British ship carrying 300-350 slaves left an African port every other day
    • The West Indies, which produced crops such as sugar thanks to the tropical climate, received the majority of African slaves imported by England and their crops were both highly labor-intensive and in very high demand back in Europe.
  • Chesapeake slavery
    • Came to the region following Bacon’s Rebellion
    • Africans made up 40% of the population by 1740
    • Core institution
    • Virginia legislators outlawed sexual relations between races and defined all African residents as slaves
    • Violence was common and uncontrolled by laws
    • Inherently brutal instutition
    • Less demanding environment than the West Indies because Chesapeake crops were less labor-intensive
    • In 1720, women made up over 1/3 of the Africans in Maryland because planters tried to increase their workforce by bringing in African women to have children
    • The Chesapeake colony was a British colony that used slave labor to produce and export a product - tobacco - that was increasing in demand in Europe, though not as much as the Carolinas and West Indies.

B. As chattel slavery became the dominant labor system in many southern colonies, new laws created a strict racial system that prohibited interracial relationships and defined the descendants of African American mothers as black and enslaved in perpetuity.

  • Chattel slavery
    • Most common form of American slavery
    • Allowed people to be considered legal property and to be bought and owned forever
    • Supported by the U.S. and European governments from the 16th-17th centuries
    • Slaves were inherited after their original masters died
    • Chattel slavery was the most common system of slavery adhered to in the New World. Governments such as the Virginia House of Burgesses defined all Africans as slaves and prohibited interracial sexual relations. Slaves were inherited, not freed.
  • Chesapeake gentry
    • Wanted to prevent uprisings like Bacon’s Rebellion
    • Gradually lowered taxes for poor/middle class whites
    • Encouraged slave labor as a means of improving economic standings for individuals
    • By 1770, 60% of Chesapeake’s English families owned at least one slave
    • Some poor yeomen and tenants were given the right to vote
    • Elite families bribed them with goods, money and jobs so they would vote them into office and defer to their rule
    • Solidified elite authority
    • Men and women imitated English gentility to appear refined and cultured while still keeping certain colonial ways of life.
    • The Chesapeake gentry bribed the peasants into giving political power to the planter elite, who used slave trade profits to build a stable ruling class. They kept slavery because they themselves benefited majorly from it.

C. Africans developed both overt and covert means to resist the dehumanizing aspects of slavery and maintain their family and gender systems, culture, and religion.

  • Crops (yams, okra, etc.)
    • African crops were brought on slave ships for the slaves
    • One key crop was okra
    • Okra was used for food as well as its leaves serving as a coffee substitute and in medicine
    • Pods also used to perform abortions
    • Peanuts were also a key crop
    • Very filling and nutritious
    • Community peanut boilings
    • African cooks introduced their crops + cuisine to their masters
    • Were given discarded leftovers that they turned into “soul food”
    • The shipment of African crops to the New World helped slaves preserve an important aspect of culture - food. This helped them turn the leftover food they were expected to live off of into a unique cuisine that lives on today (“soul food”).
  • African values/beliefs
    • Muslim beliefs passed down to children (how Islam came to the New World amidst the spread of Protestant Christianity)
    • Spiritual powers of conjurers (obeah/ifa) who knew they ways of the African gods
    • Some consulted Orunmila (god of fate)
    • Some relied on obeah to “revenge injuries and insults” and “discover and punish thieves and adulterers” and “predict the future”
    • This means they resisted conversion to Christianity
    • African slaves were able to hold onto their religion and values while resisting the conversion to Christianity presumably desired for them by their European masters.
  • Stono Rebellion
    • Largest slave uprising in the mainland colonies
    • Occurred in 1739 in South Carolina
    • Spanish Florida’s governor promised freedom to fugitive slaves
    • At least 69 slaves escaped to St. Augustine
    • When war broke out between England and Spain, 75 slaves revolted and killed several whites near the Stono River
    • Some rebels were Catholics from Kongo (decades of war there had rendered them well-trained in the military)
    • Marched toward Florida beating drums and flying colors
    • Met by the South Carolina militia
    • 44 slaves killed in the encounter
    • Slave imports were cut and plantation discipline was tightened
    • The Stono Rebellion was one of the largest slave revolts in America and showed that slaves still had a remaining desire for freedom and to maintain their cultural identity as a whole.

Other Notes

Constitution Day Mystery Sources
  • Longhouse relation to the Constitution (link: https://www.pbs.org/native-america/blogs/native-voices/how-the-iroquois-great-law-of-peace-shaped-us-democracy/)
    • Longhouses were often used by the Iroquois Confederacy, the oldest living participatory democracy on Earth
    • Also called Haudenosaunee, meaning “peoples of the longhouse”
    • Consisted of 5 separate nations - the Mohawks (people of the flint country), the Onondaga (people of the hills), the Cayuga (where they land the boats), the Oneida (people of the standing stone), and the Seneca (people of the big hill). The Tuscarora joined later on.
    • The 13 colonies coming together as a new nation was influenced by the existence of the Iroquois Confederacy, as well as several of the principles in the Constitution
    • The Great Law of Peace was introduced by Hiawatha
    • This Great Law was referenced by Benjamin Franklin when developing his Plan of Union, which he presented at the Albany Congress in 1754
    • “The rafters of that Longhouse are our laws that are defined in the Great Law, which is our Constitution. The floor of that Longhouse is Mother Earth, and the roof is the sky.”
    • This quote from Kay Olan, a Mohawk presenter and educator, shows how the Great Law was the basis for the U.S. Constitution
    • The Great Law was commemorated on wampum beads
    • The Hiawatha belt represents the formation of the League of Six Nations
    • Included concepts such as:
    • A restriction on holding dual offices
    • Processes to remove leaders within the confederacy
    • A bicameral legislature with procedures in place for passing laws
    • A delineation of power to declare war
    • A creation of a balance of power between the Iroquois Confederacy and individual tribes, according to later transcriptions
    • Several founding fathers were regularly in contact with the Iroquois Confederacy, and Iroquois leaders were invited to address the Continental Congress in 1776
  • Join or Die poster
    • Made by Benjamin Franklin in 1754
    • Commentary on the disunity of the 13 colonies during the French and Indian War
    • Meant to encourage the colonies to unite for independence from the British
  • Government minted commemorative coins to memorialize Native impact on U.S. government, culture and history (public law 110-82-Sept. 20, 2007)
  • Government also formally acknowledged the Iroquois Confederacy for their influence on the development of the Constitution (H. Con. Res. 331)