Notes for The British Atlantic World, 1660–1750 (Chapter 3)

The British Atlantic World, 1660–1750 — Comprehensive Study Notes

The big idea: the South Atlantic System and an interconnected Atlantic World

• Central question: How did the South Atlantic System knit together Atlantic economies and shape development in the British colonies?
• Lancaster Conference (June 1744): Iroquois and colonial representatives (Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia) met for diplomacy under the Covenant Chain; minutes became official colonial records.
• Iroquois diplomacy sought to air grievances, resolve conflicts, and secure land and military support amid looming war with France.
  • Gachradodon (Cayuga orator): warned that land would endure while white settlers’ gains would fade; land last forever, faces a shift in power.
  • Canassatego (Onondaga orator): emphasized shared interests and mutual watch over enemies: “We shall never forget that you and we have but one Heart, one Head, one Eye, one Ear, and one Hand.”
• Pattern: British colonies increasingly relied on Native American alliances to extend power; Native nations restructured themselves into organized political units (often labeled “tribes” by Europeans) to cooperate with neighboring colonies.
• Outcome: Colonies unified economically within the South Atlantic System, gaining prosperity and political autonomy, which contributed to a broader sense of British subject identity.
• Key connections to later course themes: imperial wars, Native alliances, and Atlantic slave economy all interlinked with the rise of colonial assemblies and a growing sense of American political identity.

Key concepts and terms (quick reference)

• Covenant Chain
• South Atlantic System
• Mercantilism
• Navigation Acts
• Dominion of New England
• Glorious Revolution
• Salutary neglect
• Tribalization
• Stono Rebellion
• Gentility (southern) and the rise of planter elites
• Land banks and currency issues in the colonies

The Covenant Chain, Lancaster Conference, and Native Alliances

• The Covenant Chain: a diplomatic system tying colonies and Iroquois to air grievances and resolve conflict.
• Lancaster Conference (1744) showcased public diplomacy and recorded negotiations between colonists and Native nations.
• Iroquois diplomacy helped safeguard lands and coordinate responses to European encroachment; diplomacy could shape military outcomes and land transfers.
• Important quotes and moments:
  • Gachradodon on land enduring while Europeans gain wealth and lose land.
  • Canassatego’s pledge of mutual vigilance against enemies and shared sovereignty concepts.
• Significance: Native alliances shaped colonial expansion and defense strategies; the Covenant Chain served as a model for British-Native relations and influenced policy decisions in successive decades.

1660–1713: Colonies to Empire; Restoration Colonies and Imperial Expansion

Charles II and James II: early moves toward centralized control

• Charles II (r. 1660–1685) expanded English power and pressed settlements into proprietary colonies (Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania).
  • 1662–1663: Catherine of Braganza’s dowry included Bombay; 1663: Carolina land grants to eight loyal noblemen; 1664: New Netherland given to James, Duke of York (later New York); 1681: Penn granted Pennsylvania.
  • Vision: Oust Dutch, extend English influence, formalize proprietary rule over new colonies; laws broadly aligned with English governance.
• Carolina’s early colonial arrangement reflected a feudal fantasy (Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, 1669) with a Church of England and a large, land-based gentry.
  • Reality: First settlers were diverse (poor families, runaway servants, Quakers) resisting feudal plans; rebelled against tobacco taxes (1677) and Anglican taxes (1708).
• Pennsylvania under William Penn contrasted with the Carolinas: unity of purpose, religious toleration, and a Frame of Government (1681) promoting religious freedom, property qualifications for voting, and broad political equality for landowning men.
  • Penn’s diplomacy with Indians (1682 treaty with Delaware) helped establish peaceful land purchases around Philadelphia.
  • German Town and other European migrants diversified the colony (German immigration in the 1680s).

From mercantilism to imperial dominion: Navigation Acts and enforcement

• Mercantilism: English policy to channel colonial trade through English ports and ships; maximize English profits from colonial commerce.
• Navigation Acts (summary timeline):
  • $1651$ Act: restricted Dutch trade and required ship ownership by English/colonial merchants.
  • $1660$ Act: banned foreign shipping; designated enumerated goods to England; most exports to England; three-quarters of crew aboard English ships had to be English.
  • $1663$ Act: European imports to pass through England; reinforced mercantile control.
  • $1673$ Act (Staple Act): enumerated goods must go to England; enforcement through vice-admiralty courts established in $1696$.
  • $1696$ Act: creation of vice-admiralty courts; enforcement of navigation laws.
  • $1699$ Woolen Act: restricted export/intercolonial sale of textiles.
  • $1732$ Hat Act: restricted export/intercolonial sale of hats.
  • $1733$ Molasses Act: taxed molasses from non-British sources to protect Caribbean refiners; provoked widespread smuggling and resistance.
  • $1750$ Iron Act: restricted manufacture of finished iron products in colonies; extensive violations continued.
  • $1751$ Currency Act: restricted use of paper currency as legal tender; limited colonial monetary flexibility.
• Enforcement and military backing: English navy campaigns against Dutch/French rivals; growth of English ships and naval power in the Atlantic; Boston and other ports grew in ship tonnage and capacity.
• Colonial response: Violations and evasions persisted (Dutch and French trade with colonies; sugar and molasses imports from non-English sources).

The Dominion of New England and its collapse; Glorious Revolution’s Atlantic reverberations

• Dominion of New England (1686–1689): James II merged colonies into a vast royal province; Andros served as governor; Charlotten and Puritan self-rule curtailed; land titles repealed; favored Church of England; town meetings suppressed.
• Glorious Revolution (1688–1689) in England and America:
  • William of Orange and Mary (Protestants) overthrew James II; creation of constitutional monarchy with Parliament and the Declaration of Rights.
  • Rebellions in the colonies: Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, and New York rose; Andros was shipped back to England; Dominion dissolved.
  • 1696 Board of Trade established to modernize imperial oversight, while allowing local autonomy to flourish under a more balanced imperial system.
• Consequences for colonial governance:
  • Enhanced colonial self-rule and representative assemblies; a shift toward governance based on consent of the governed and property-owning male suffrage.
  • The Glorious Revolution promoted the idea that government legitimacy rests on the governed’s consent, influencing colonial leaders’ visions of governance and rights.

Imperial wars and Native peoples; tribalization and diplomacy

Imperial warfare and Native alliances

• The Second Hundred Years’ War (1689–1815) shaped North American politics:
  • Britain (and later Britain as a unified state after 1707) fought seven major wars; most conflicts spilled into North America.
  • Wars forced colonial mobilization, alliances with Native peoples, and the creation of a more militant imperial state that spent a large share of revenue on military/naval expenses.
• Native diplomacy and warfare:
  • Iroquois neutrality in European wars became leverage; alliances with both English and French powers occasionally used to maximize autonomy and gains.
  • War in the Southeast (War of the Spanish Succession, 1702–1713) saw Creeks ally with English against Spanish Florida; later Creek–Yamasee conflicts and Tuscarora resistance intertwined with English and French hostilities.
  • Four Indian Kings visit London (1710) highlighted imperial diplomacy and the attempt to secure support for Canada invasion; largely unsuccessful (1711 invasion fail).
• The Covenant Chain becomes a model for British-Native diplomacy; diplomatic gifts (guns, powder) and negotiated land deals shaped policy and access to resources.

Indian goals and outcomes in conflicts

• Creek aims: dominate the region by defeating Choctaws and Apalachees; sought control of resources and trade; engaged in Creek–Yamasee uprisings (1704–1715).
• Tuscarora War (1711–1715): Carolina-led campaigns against the Tuscaroras; eventual migration of many to join the Iroquois in New York.
• French–British competition and Native responses:
  • Native groups wove diplomacy with both powers, using alliances to extract goods and protection, while preserving as much autonomy as possible.
• Consequences: Imperial warfare intensified Native political organization (tribalization), made Native communities central actors in empire building, and shifted land and resource control in frontier zones.

The Imperial Slave Economy and the South Atlantic System

The South Atlantic System: core ideas and products

• Centered in Brazil and the Caribbean; the system produced sugar, tobacco, and rice for global markets.
• Profits flowed to European merchants and planters; slave labor powered the plantations and the broader Atlantic economy.
• The slave trade was essential to this system: between $1520$–$1650$, Portuguese traders moved roughly $8.2 imes 10^{5}$ Africans; between $1700$–$1800$, the British transported about $2.5 imes 10^{6}$ Africans (of a total $6.1 imes 10^{6}$ across the Americas). This made Britain a central actor in the slave trade and in Atlantic commerce.
• By the mid-18th century, sugar was the most profitable crop, and slave labor was organized on large plantations with heavy equipment (crushers, mills, distilleries) to convert sugarcane to sugar, molasses, and rum. Profits to planters exceeded 10 ext{%} annually on average, making the sugar economy a cornerstone of the Atlantic world.
• The system created vast wealth for absentee owners in Britain, who invested profits back into England’s economy while colonies supplied raw materials and labor.

Slavery in the Atlantic world: regional differences in the Chesapeake, Carolina Lowcountry, and the West Indies

• The South Atlantic System produced stark regional differences in slavery:
  • Chesapeake (Virginia, Maryland): Slavery became entrenched after Bacon’s Rebellion; tobacco farming required steady labor; by 1720, enslaved Africans formed about 20% of the Chesapeake population; by 1740, they constituted about 40%. Conditions varied; tobacco work was less deadly than tropical crops, diseases were less prevalent in dispersed holdings, and some enslaved families formed stable kin networks.
  • South Carolina and Georgia (lowcountry): Rice cultivation demanded large slave labor forces; by 1710, enslaved Africans were a majority in South Carolina; by mid-18th century, enslaved population dominated in rice-producing areas. Malaria, swamp environment, and disease created high mortality, but slave imports continued to grow to sustain production.
  • West Indies and Brazil: Sugar plantations dominated, with brutal conditions and extreme forms of discipline; large-scale slave revolts occurred (e.g., Irish/Sugar island uprisings) and a highly racialized slave society emerged.
• The African diaspora within the Atlantic world created a rich blend of cultures, languages, and religious practices that persisted and adapted in the Americas (e.g., rice cultivation knowledge, maroon communities, and African religious practices such as obeah/orisha concepts in some places).
• The “nation within a nation” concept emerged as enslaved communities built kin groups, maintained some African practices, and gradually forged new cultural identities in the Americas.

Consequences for Africa and the Atlantic economy

• African states and coastal kingdoms engaged in the slave trade for wealth and power (e.g., Dahomey’s elite monopolized the slave trade and used European firearms to expand influence).
• The trade altered African political geography, economies, and social structures, often strengthening militarized states and contributing to state formation along the coast.
• The Atlantic slave trade caused immense human suffering: about 14% of enslaved Africans died during the Middle Passage; millions were enslaved, dehumanized, and displaced, creating enduring social and political consequences across the Atlantic world.

The North American mainland: slavery, society, and the rise of the southern gentry

Slavery in the Chesapeake vs. the Carolinas

• Chesapeake: tobacco economy; enslaved population growth slowed mortality; presence of relatively longer life expectancy for slaves; some nuclear families formed; enslaved people negotiated limited autonomy within the plantation system.
• South Carolina/lowcountry: rice cultivation required many enslaved workers; enslaved population rose to become the majority in the colony by the early 18th century; harsh conditions, high death rates, and a dynamic but brutal slave regime.
• Across both regions, slavery was a brutal system designed to maximize plantation output and profits, with violence, surveillance, and legal restrictions on enslaved people.

An African American community emerges

• Slaves came from diverse African groups (Kwa, Mande, Kibongo, Yoruba, etc.); initially organized around kinship groups, gradually formed broader communities across plantations.
• Language and cultural blending occurred as enslaved Africans shared experiences and adapted to plantation life; over time, distinctive African American cultures developed (music, woodcarving, pottery, rice tools, and house designs).
• Religion and beliefs persisted, including Muslim influences and conjure traditions (obeah/orifa) referenced by observers.
• Family life persisted despite high risks of sale and separation; some slaves built extended kin networks that helped preserve cultural memory and community resilience.

Resistance and accommodation

• Slaves faced constant surveillance and brutal punishments; some resisted by work slowdowns, theft, or renegotiating work terms.
• Notable resistance events: small uprisings, clandestine networks, and, in some regions, Maroon communities (though less common on the mainland than in Jamaica).
• The Stono Rebellion (1739) in South Carolina illustrates the limits of resistance: a large, organized revolt was met by a swift military response; resulting policies tightened import controls and discipline.

The Rise of the Southern Gentry and the Northern Maritime Economy

The southern planter aristocracy and social order

• The rise of planter elites like William Byrd II in Virginia showed how colonial elites sought gentility and cultural status by emulating English aristocracy.
• Planters used wealth from enslaved labor to purchase land, build mansions, educate children in England, and secure political power through local assemblies. They often wielded influence over local politics via patronage.
• The elite sought to create a stable social order and used social networks to consolidate power, while still relying on enslaved workers to sustain production.
• The gendered dimension of gentility extended to planters’ wives, who managed social networks, education, and cultural displays that signaled status.

The Northern Maritime Economy and urban growth

• The South Atlantic System linked to northern colonies through the exchange of goods and capital:
  • New England supplied bread, fish, and lumber to Caribbean plantations; by 1700, New England and West Indian economies were closely interwoven.
  • By the 1750s, two-thirds of New England’s exports and half of Middle Atlantic exports went to sugar islands or were tied to the Caribbean economy.
  • Mainland merchants used these profits to fuel urban growth (Boston, Newport, Philadelphia, New York), build ships, and support manufacturing (refineries, distilleries, rope and sail making).
• The urban economy: cities like Philadelphia, Boston, and New York grew as centers of shipping, finance, and manufacturing; wealth concentrated in merchant elites who dominated trade networks and influenced political life.
• The transportation network extended inland via rivers (Hudson, Delaware) and wagon routes to port markets; urbanization spurred the development of inns, stables, taverns, and service industries necessary to sustain trade and travel.

The rise of colonial assemblies and political autonomy

• After the Glorious Revolution, colonies built representative assemblies drawing on English Whig ideals, limiting imperial officials’ powers.
• Examples of growing autonomy: Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania assemblies asserted control over taxation and appointments; the colonial political class came from wealthier families (Fig. 3.3 shows New Jersey elites dominating in 1700–1776).
• Mobilization and protests spread: mobs disrupted markets, challenged governors, and asserted popular sovereignty (e.g., Boston’s market, New Jersey land disputes).
• Salutary neglect: during the reigns of George I and II, Britain exercised lax imperial control to promote economic growth; Walpole’s patronage maintained political support but weakened imperial legitimacy over time.
• The Currency Act of 1751 constrained colonial paper money; Rhode Island faced particular pressure from creditors and merchants over tender laws; these monetary disputes fueled colonial push for greater autonomy.

War, economy, and imperial policy in the mid-18th century

The War of Jenkins’s Ear and the broader War of the Austrian Succession

• Jenkins’s Ear (1739–1741): British raid on Spanish-held ports; the conflict merged into the larger War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748).
• Atlantic theatres of war shaped colonial policy and commerce; colonial militias and British naval power were leveraged to expand or defend imperial interests.
• Louisbourg siege (1745): New England forces captured Louisbourg; return to France in the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle; a clear example of how imperial struggles affected colonial expectations and diplomacy.

Mercantilism in practice and resistance

• Despite mercantilist constraints (Woolen, Hat, Iron Acts; Molasses Act; Currency Act), colonial economies matured and diversified, linking markets across the Atlantic.
• The Molasses Act (1733) sought to curb non-British molasses imports; colonists rebelled by smuggling and bribing officials; Parliament’s enforcement faced practical limits.
• The Currency Act (1751) and land-bank debates highlighted colonial pushback against restrictions on colonial money; assemblies sought to preserve autonomy while managing debt finance.
• The broader question: can a centralized imperial power maintain strict mercantilist control while allowing colonial economic growth and political autonomy? The late 1740s suggested growth coupled with waning imperial authority.

Summary: political, social, and economic currents (1660–1750)

• Politics and power:
  • Early efforts to centralize control (Charles II, James II) gave way to the Covenant Chain diplomacy; the Glorious Revolution reinforced colonial self-government and Parliament’s influence via the Board of Trade.
  • The rise of colonial assemblies and the practice of salutary neglect allowed colonists to gain political experience and a sense of rights as English subjects, laying groundwork for later independence.
• Society and the South Atlantic System:
  • The South Atlantic System connected Britain, Africa, the Caribbean, and North America in a single economic network centered on sugar, tobacco, rice, and enslaved labor.
  • The system produced enormous wealth for European powers and British merchants, while imposing severe human costs on Africans and enslaved people in the Americas.
  • Slavery became a defining feature of southern colonies and Caribbean islands, with different regional expressions (Chesapeake tobacco vs. Carolina rice vs. Caribbean sugar).
• The North American mainland economy:
  • The North American mainland benefited from a strong maritime economy; urbanization and merchant wealth grew as part of the wider Atlantic system.
  • The slave economy and the South Atlantic System had enduring effects on demographics, social structures, and political power in the colonies.

Key dates and turning points (timeline highlights)

• $1651$: First Navigation Act (restricts Dutch trade; mercantilist framework begins)
• $1660$: Reign of Charles II; Restoration Colonies expand; imperial expansion accelerates
• $1663$: Navigation Act strengthens mercantilist controls; European imports pass through England
• $1669$: Carolina’s founders publish the Fundamental Constitutions (feudal-inspired framework)
• $1681$: William Penn founds Pennsylvania
• $1686–1689$: Dominion of New England established; Andros as governor; Glorious Revolution in England causes reforms
• $1689–1691$: Revolts and reorganization; Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland resist dominion power
• $1696$: Board of Trade created; vice-admiralty courts established (enforcement of Navigation Acts)
• $1702–1713$: War of the Spanish Succession; territorial and commercial gains; Port Royal, Nova Scotia, etc.
• $1713$: Treaty of Utrecht; Britain gains Newfoundland, Acadia, Hudson Bay; access to western Indian trade; Gibraltar obtained from Spain (for 30 years)
• $1732$: Georgia chartered; rivalry with Spanish interests increases in the lower Atlantic
• $1733$: Molasses Act; distillers affected; smuggling becomes widespread
• $1739–1741$: War of Jenkins’s Ear; Stono Rebellion (1739) prompts stricter slave import controls
• $1745–1748$: Siege of Louisbourg; colonial and imperial consequences in North America
• $1750–1751$: Iron Act and Currency Act shape colonial manufacturing and currency use

Concepts to understand for exams

• South Atlantic System: the integrated Atlantic economy based on sugar, tobacco, rice, and enslaved labor; its center in the Caribbean and Brazil; profits generated in Europe and North America; tied to mercantilist policy.
• Tribalization: Native American adaptation to the pressures of empire-building; formation of more centralized political structures among tribes; strategies to use European wars to leverage power.
• Covenant Chain: diplomacy between the Iroquois and British colonies; model of Atlantic diplomacy with Native nations; concept of mutual surveillance against common enemies.
• Mercantilism and the mercantile system: policies to maximize exports, limit imports, ensure English control over colonial trade; supported by navy and war effort; enforced by acts and legal instruments.
• Salutary neglect: a period when Parliament’s lax enforcement allowed colonial assemblies to gain power and experiment with self-government; later challenged as Britain reasserted imperial control.
• Slavery and the slave economy: the Middle Passage mortality rate (about 14 ext{%} of enslaved Africans died en route); regional differences in slave labor; the rise of a slave-based plantation system; cultural persistence and transformation among enslaved communities.
• The Stono Rebellion (1739): a key example of resistance and the response by colonial authorities; it shaped later slave policy and attitudes toward Africans in the mainland colonies.
• The rise of colonial assemblies and urban merchant power: the growth of urban economies in the North and South; development of a powerful merchant class that would influence political life and national identity.

Connections to broader study themes

• The Atlantic World was an interconnected system linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas; economic practices (mercantilism, slave trade) and political changes (Dominion, Glorious Revolution, salutary neglect) shaped colonial development and imperial policy.
• The experiences of Native Americans and enslaved Africans were central to shaping policy, warfare, land relations, and social hierarchies across the empire.
• The gradual rise of colonial autonomy and the formation of representative assemblies contributed to a long trajectory toward American independence, even as Britain sought to reassert control in the late 1740s.

Quick visual references (to map concepts mentally)

• Map 3.1: Dominion of New England (1686–1689) shows how far imperial consolidation extended before revolts.
• Map 3.2: Britain’s American Empire after Utrecht (1713) highlights expanded sugar islands and territorial gains.
• Map 3.3: Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade (1700–1810) shows slave importation areas and major slave ports; emphasizes the vast geographic scope of the slave trade.
• Map 3.4: The Growing Power of American Merchants (1750) demonstrates the shift from Britain-dominated to American-dominated transatlantic trade by mid-18th century.

Key terms to review (condensed)

• proprietorship, Quakers, Navigation Acts, Dominion of New England, Glorious Revolution, constitutional monarchy, Second Hundred Years’ War, tribalization, Covenant Chain, South Atlantic System, Middle Passage, Stono Rebellion, gentility, salutary neglect, patronage, land banks, William Penn, Edmund Andros, William of Orange, John Locke, Jacob Leisler, William Byrd II, Robert Walpole

Practice questions (to test understanding)

• Identify and explain the main strategies Charles II and James II used to centralize control in America; what did James II hope to achieve with the Dominion of New England?
• How did the era of imperial warfare beginning in 1689 affect colonies, Native peoples, and intercolonial relations?
• What was the South Atlantic System, and how did it shape colonial society and economy?
• How did slavery develop in the Chesapeake, the Carolinas’ low country, and the West Indies, and why did regional differences emerge?
• How did the rise of colonial assemblies reflect the broader shift toward self-government and prepare the colonies for independence?

Quick concluding synthesis

• The chapter demonstrates that from 1660 to 1750, Britain, its colonies, Africa, and Native nations formed an intricate web of political and economic relationships. Mercantilist policy and imperial wars intertwined with local institutions (assemblies, land banks, and patronage networks) to create a dynamic Atlantic world. The South Atlantic System produced immense wealth for European powers and colonial merchants, while slavery powered the labor needs of vast plantation economies and created enduring social hierarchies and cultural shifts that would echo into the American Revolution and beyond.