Consumer Revolution (17th to 18th Century)

• Colonists + English moved from subsistence to consumption of consumer goods

  • due to improvement in manufacturing, transport, and credit availability

• Colonists could purchase goods instead of making them

• Colonists sent material to England and they gave manufactured goods in return

• Ability to buy goods = respect in colonies

• Everyday people buying goods

Commodity Money (1619 - 1750)

• Money with eccentric (representative) value → medium of exchange

• Price of commodity money fluctuates

• 1727, Virginia tobacco notes = certificates of value for physical items used to exchange for goods

  • end of commodity money in Virginia

Bills of Credit (1690)

• paper bills

• Massachusetts first to use in 1690

• only good in the colony it is from

• lost value quickly

• easily counterfeited

Currency Acts of 1751 and 1763

Navigation Acts

Benign Neglect

The Gang System of Labor (17th century)

• Mostly on large plantations with a lot of slaves

• Slaves worked from dawn to dusk

• Managed by white overseer (entrusted with entire plantation) or black driver (watched slaves to ensure productivity)

• Virginia

James Oglethorpe (1732)

• Philanthropist

• Founded Georgia

  • Georgia banned slavery when founded but legalized it by 1750

• Wanted to give British people in debt a 2nd chance in the New World

The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (1669)

• Document that legitimized slavery in the Carolinas

• coauthored by John Locke

• slaves could only be freed if they left the colony

The Task System of Labor

• Used in South Carolina

• Used on smaller plantations/ estates with fewer slaves

• Slaves given tasks and after tasks done, slave was done with work for the day

• employed due to rice (cash crop) which was grown in swampy conditions → possibility of disease due to mosquitos

• Plantation owner didn’t live on planation b/c they didn’t want to get sick → lived in Charlestown and had an overseer to manage the estate

• Small plots of land given to Slaves to grow personal garden → money from underground market

The Stono Rebellion (1739)

• 80 - 100 African Slaves marched to Florida

• They burned plantations and killed 20 people in the process

• Rebellion was stopped by the militia → slave survivors executed

Provincial, Proprietary, and Charter Colonies

1. Provincial (Royal Colonies)

   • tightly controlled by the crown

   • crown appointed governors

   • governors can veto assembly decisions

   • New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina

2. Proprietary (Lord Proprietor)

   • more liberty + freedom than provincial

   • governor chosen by lord proprietor

   • lord proprietor has rights to colony from the crown

   • still under authority of the crown

   • Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland

3. Charter (Political Corps./Interest groups)

   • legislative, executive, judicial branch

   • governors elected by property holding men in the colony

   • colonial assemblies and colonial councils were below the governor

     • council: prominent men in society that advise the governor

     • assembly: elected men with property that made sure that colonial law adhered to English law, approved taxed, new budgets, and ensured governor didn’t get too powerful

   • Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island

Republican Wives/ Republican Motherhood (18th Century)

• fertility increase

• women asserted more control over their bodies → decreased family size

• Sentimentalism - marriage viewed for its emotional value rather than economic value

• women provided emotional support to husbands and taught children principles of Republican citizenship:

  • Need for virtuous citizenry

  • Freedom

  • State is a bounded community of citizens

Coverture (18th century)

• Women (white women) lost all political and economic rights to their husband at marriage → women had no legal independent identity → divorce rates + abandonment increase

Print Culture

• All forms of printed text and visual communication

• John Adams said the origins of the American Revolutions can be found in the colonies’ print culture

• fueled the great awakening

• The Virginia Gazette = first colonial newspaper (1736)

Great Awakening (1730s to 1750s)

• Early Piety (1711, Increase Mather) → Great Awakening

  • Founding fathers came into wilderness for religious reasons

  • what has new England come to

  • spoke to sense of inferiority → search for reinvigorated religious experience → Great Awakening

• New England → all colonies

• Returning to pious lifestyle, stripping worldly concerns

• Left a profound impact on colonies and made them question the world around them

• revivals gave colonists individualism and reinforced print culture

• led to the American Revolution

George Whitefield (1730s)

• England

• Part of iterant (traveling) preachers

  • spread revival

  • Shared Johnathan Edward’s message

    • looking inside for ones salvation

  • had meetings outside → audiences put into emotional frenzies

• Most popular preacher

• God pleased with heartfelt faith → churches encouraged apathy

• traveled from New York to South Carolina

• former actor → dramatic style + simple message

Seven Year’s War

• Pushed colonists together politically and culturally

• led to imperial reforms on taxation, commerce and politics

  • meant to help Britain pay for the expensive war → colonists saw themselves as a collective group

• Led to American Revolution

Pontiac’s War/Rebellion (1763 to 1766)

• Pontiac + 300 warriors attempted surprise attack on Fort Detroit → 6 month siege → Pontiac lost

• inspired other native groups to attack British Colonists to end British Colonization

• ended b/c of disease and supply shortages

  • British were supplying the Natives and when they waged war the supplies were cut off

• Led to British changing British Native policy

  • to maintain peace they must protect native lands by regulating Anglo American trade

• led to American Revolution

Royal Proclamation of 1763

• Result of the Pontiac War

• Creation of the proclamation line that runs on the west side of colonies and is the boundary between colonists and Natives → discontent among colonists b/c they think the land west of the Appalachian mountains is their reward for helping the British win the war