Resistance to Slavery and Colonial America

Resistance to Slavery

Overt Resistance

  • Enslaved people sought freedom through various means.
  • Running Away:
    • A common form of resistance.
    • In Virginia and Maryland, enslaved people escaped to Northern colonies.
    • In the Carolinas and Georgia, they fled to Spanish Florida, establishing Maroon Communities.
  • Uprisings, Revolts, or Rebellions:
    • Occurred in groups.
    • First revolt in 1712 in New York.
    • 1739 Stono Rebellion in South Carolina led to the tightening of Slave Codes giving white people the right to kill enslaved people.
    • Enslaved people formed alliances with Native Americans.

Covert Resistance

  • A more common and less easily identified form of resistance.
  • Physical Level:
    • Breaking tools.
    • Feigning illness.
  • Psychological Level:
    • Worshipping without white supervision.
    • Burying the dead according to their own customs.
    • Marrying and having children to maintain familial bonds and cultural continuity.
    • Simply surviving and enduring the brutal system was an act of resistance.
    • Maintaining culture and identity in the face of dehumanization.
  • Trickster Tales:
    • Using wit and cunning to survive and make life more bearable.
    • Example: Br'er Rabbit, a slow animal outsmarting a swift opponent.

The Growth of Colonial America

A Diverse Population

  • Diversity as a Striking Characteristic:
    • In the early 1700s, the colonies were primarily English outposts.
    • By the mid-1700s, there was a significant increase in African and non-English European arrivals.
    • The English population decreased from close to 90 percent.
  • Reasons for Population Change:
    • Improved economic conditions in England led the government to rethink its policy of encouraging emigration.
    • Authorities worried about labor shortages in England due to large-scale emigration.
    • About 40 percent of European immigrants arrived as indentured servants.
    • As the colonial economy prospered, more professionals and skilled craftsmen (teachers, ministers, weavers, carpenters) migrated.
    • Official government efforts to promote English emigration ended.

Attracting Settlers

  • Government Encouragement:
    • The English government believed colonial development enhanced the nation's power and wealth.
    • Nearly 50,000 convicts were sent to work in the tobacco fields of the Chesapeake colonies.
    • Protestant immigration from non-English parts of the British Isles and the European continent was actively encouraged.
    • Newcomers were promised easy access to land and the right to worship freely.
    • A 1740 law offered European immigrants British citizenship after seven years of residence.
    • America was promoted as an asylum for those persecuted in foreign lands.
  • Migrants from the British Isles:
    • 80,000 English newcomers (many convicted criminals) were outnumbered by 145,000 from Scotland and Ulster (Northern Ireland).
    • Scottish and Scotch-Irish immigrants significantly contributed to religious diversity, mainly as Presbyterians.
    • They included poor farmers, merchants, teachers, and professionals (many physicians were of Scottish origin).

The German Migration

  • Reasons for Migration:
    • 110,000 Germans formed the largest group of newcomers from the European continent.
    • They came mostly from the Rhine River valley.
    • Religious persecution in Germany, which was divided into small states with varying official religions (Lutherans, Catholics, Mennonites, Moravians, Dunkers), was a major factor.
    • Agricultural crises and difficulty in acquiring land also motivated emigration.
    • German migration to America was part of a larger reshuffling of the German population, with many moving eastward to Austria-Hungary and the Russian empire.
  • Unique Characteristics:
    • Germans tended to migrate in entire families.
    • English and Dutch merchants organized a system for "redemptioners" (indentured families) to receive passage in exchange for labor.
    • Most settled in frontier areas (rural New York, western Pennsylvania, and the southern backcountry), forming tightly-knit farming communities where German remained the dominant language for many years.
    • Their arrival enhanced ethnic and religious diversity in the British colonies.

Religious Diversity

  • Heterogeneity:
    • Eighteenth-century British America was not a "melting pot." Ethnic groups tended to live and worship in homogeneous communities.
    • Outside of New England, American society was more diverse than Britain.
  • Changing Religious Landscape:
    • In the early 1700s, most churches were Congregational (in New England) or Anglican (Church of England).
    • The Anglican presence expanded in the eighteenth century.
    • The number of dissenting congregations also multiplied.
    • Except for Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, colonies did not adhere to a modern separation of church and state.
    • Taxes were levied to pay ministers of established churches.
    • Catholics and Jews were barred from voting and holding public office.
  • Increasing Toleration:
    • De facto toleration flourished among Protestant denominations due to new immigrant churches and the Great Awakening.
    • By the mid-eighteenth century, dissenting Protestants in most colonies could worship as they pleased and own churches but were often barred from holding public office and taxed to support the official church.

Freedom and Opportunity

  • Attractiveness of Colonial Life:
    • "Liberty of conscience" was a key virtue of British North America.
    • Other freedoms included the availability of land, lack of a military draft, and absence of restraints on economic opportunity.
    • Skilled workers were in great demand and earned well.
    • Immigrants wrote home about low taxes, the right to enter trades and professions without exorbitant fees, and freedom of movement.

Indian Life in Transition

  • Impact of Newcomers:
    • The influx of newcomers threatened Indian populations.
    • By the eighteenth century, Indian communities were integrated into the British imperial system.
    • Indian warriors fought in imperial wars.
    • Indian societies had changed due to disease and warfare.
    • New tribes, like the Catawba and Creek Confederacy, were formed from remnants of older societies.
    • Few Indians chose to live among whites.
  • Dependence on European Goods:
    • Indians used European products like knives, hatchets, needles, kettles, and firearms.
    • Alcohol introduced by traders caused social chaos.
    • Indians relied on whites for essential goods like clothing and ammunition.
  • Conflicting Views:
    • Traders sought profits in Indian villages.
    • British officials saw Indians as allies against France and Spain.
    • Farmers and planters viewed Indians as obstacles to land acquisition.