History 304
Ethnogenesis
Definition: The emergence of new ethnic groups and identities from the consolidation of many peoples disrupted by the invasion of European peoples, animals, and microbes. Time Period: Not limited to a specific time period, but it was very prominent in the 15-17th centuries when the colonies were forming. Impact: This chiefly took place concerning the Indians and early colonizers of America. The colonists tried to push their values and ideals upon the Indians. This changed the very culture of the Indian people, especially concerning religion and religious values. The early American colonists also experienced ethnogenesis because there was a vast number of nationalities represented when America was initially colonized. We are the "melting pot", of which an entire new nationality, "American", was born.
Halfway Covenant
children of partial members could receive baptism, modest • Definition: Children of partial members could receive baptism; modest reform favored by most of the clergy but not supported by full members in many churches who dreaded any compromise in purity. • Time Period: Half-Way Covenant passed in 166 2by the Massachusetts clergy • Relevance: Initially the New English reserved full, formal church membership to the "visible saints" = those who could publicly and persuasively recount a New Birth experience, a personal journey from a despairing sense of utter worthlessness to joyous union with Christ. o New English soon realized that they couldn't sustain such purity and exclusivity. By 1650, most people were partial members who received, as infants, the sacrament of baptism, but who weren't sufficiently confident in their conversion to seek full membership. o This Half-Way covenant ultimately stemmed from this full-membership, partial membership debate and by the end of the 17th C, it prevailed which in turn caused sticklers of the old purity standpoint to convert to the Baptists who favored adult baptism as an initiation to full membership. o Furthermore, during the First Great Awakening, of the 1740s, the two-tier system of membership, 'halfway' for the baptized and full for those who proceeded on to spiritual "conversion" and communion, dissatisfied both the purists and pragmatists which caused New England Congregationalism to sit on a fault line that would shake during the awakening. (New lights vs. Old lights, radicals vs. moderates= led to divides within the Congregationalists at large)
Nat Turner's Rebellion
formed community and led a revolt of slaves - God told him that he has a divine mission and he see's himself as that, he has a purpose in life to come out of slavery and bring others with him led about 70 followers from farm to farm and 59 whites are killed he was captured and executed waited for an opportune time to act - most men were not around and they killed a majority of women and children (the eclipse) shocking to the south - response was to increase legislation to make it more secure stronger defense against abolitionist ideas and individuals from coming into the south 1831 - the liberator started to be published
"City on a Hill"
(A new religious society; a model for England to follow-> ultimately failed) • Definition: Term coined by John Winthrop to persuade his fellow colonists to make Massachusetts an inspirational set of reformed churches conspicuous to the mother country. In short, Winthrop hoped that New England would serve as an ideal example of what a society should look like. • Time Period: New England 1600s-1700s during the Puritan reign in New England • Relevance: This sort of 'city on a hill' caused New England to function as the healthiest, most populous city, and most egalitarian in the distribution of property. o Furthermore, due to the beliefs of the Puritans, New England had the most decentralized and popularly responsive form of government in the English empire= royalists despised the region as a hub for "republicanism". o Ultimately New England failed as a "City upon a Hill" because it intended audience, England, failed to pay attention= fell on deaf ears. o New England Puritans blamed themselves for failing to inspire the mother country= led to jeremiad sermons which catalogued the sufferings and sins of the New England as reason for its failure to live up to its attempt to be the city on a hill. o Still it must be noted that the ideal of New England, ready access to public worship, nearly universal education, land quality, complex economy etc. remain powerful in our own culture today= conveys the enduring importance of the Puritan legacy.
Lord Dunmore's Proclamation
--challenge to slavery --America did not want black men fighting in their war this proclamation promised freedom to slaves if the enlisted in the War and fought for Britain instead of America
The Covenant Chain p.261
Definition: an alliance formed by the English (the NY governor Andros) and the Iroquois which invited the Five Nations to dominate the other native peoples in the Northeast the Five Nations collaborated to build their respective power, at the expense of weaker Indians (Whenever the English wanted coastal Algonquians relocated they lavished gifts on the Iroquois who then mobilized their warriors) Time Period: 1600-1700's (1674) Impact: Emboldened by the Covenant Chain alliance the Iroquois resumed their attacks on the French and their western Indians Allies However, after initial success, the Iroquois faced heavy losses especially at the hands of the French The Iroquois discovered that the New Yorkers only honored the Covenant Chain alliance when it was convenient for them
Coureurs de bois
• 1650-1750 (page 378-379) • Young, independent and defiant traders- they paddled their canoes far beyond the posts to trade with the natives at their own villages • They learned the patterns of the rivers and seasons, the rudiments of Indian languages, and the native ways of trade, war, and love • They traveled alone or in small groups into dangerous settings where the native allies sometimes killed to steal their goods, to keep weapons from reaching their enemies, to avenge a previous killing by another Frenchman, or to satisfy a drunken rage • A trader lived longer and did more business if he entered a partnership with an Indian woman and obtained her kin network, which provided the best security in the native world o She could also teach the native ways and languages • The coureurs de bois offered their wives and Indian kin privileged access to the coveted trade goods of Europe • The coureurs de bois and native women called their offspring metis o Spoke multiple languages, lived in their own villages, and acted as intermediaries between their French and Indian Relatives • Officials of the Church: saw them on one had as disreputable, insubordinate people who traded brandy, slept with native women, and evaded priest and seigneur. On the other hand the coureurs de bois were essential sources of information and conduits for influence.
Bacon's Rebellion
• 1676 Virginia Erupted in rebellion when the frustrated servants and freedmen blamed their plight on an insensitive, exploitative, and unqualified class of ruling planters (page 139) • Led by Nathanial Bacon, young 29 year old with charisma, he rallied common planters to challenge the royal governor Berkeley --more successful plants consolidated larger plantations at the expense of the smaller farms • The Rebellion- "represented a division within the planter elite, a split between a cabal allied with the royal governor and rival set of ambitious but frustrated planters who resented their relative lack of offices and other rewards. Bacon and two partners felt especially aggrieved that Berkeley monopolized the Indian trade and denied their bid to purchase an interest." (Page 149) • Bacon promised immediate freedom to servants who deserted Berkeley's friends to join the rebellion. He would lower taxes and provide better lands to the freedman. Had the poor men plunder the plantations of Berkeley's supporters. • In Sept. 1676 Bacon's men drove the governor and his supporter out of Jamestown and across the Chesapeake Bay to refuge on the eastern shore. To discourage their return Bacon burned Jamestown to the ground (page 150) • Bacon died suddenly leaving his supporters vulnerable. The governor hung 23 of them and plundered his supporters. (page 150) • Bacon attacked the royal governor but did not seek independence from England. He wanted to proclaim loyalty to England and insisted that they act only against the corrupt governor who had betrayed the King by mistreating his loyal subjects • The crown authorities seized upon Bacon's Rebellion as an opportunity to strengthen the imperial control over the valuable colony of Virginia. They sent Berkeley back to England. • Conclusion: In Bacon's rebellion and the crown intervention, the great planters had received a double scare. In fear of the crown involvement again, the great planters felt compelled to build a more popular political base by becoming more solicitous of the smaller planters (page 151) • Great Planters: feel pressure of crown and smaller planters Shifts in Colonial American Slavery • The Rise of Chesapeake Slavery • Bacon's Rebellion - The End of the Rebellion, and Its Consequences: white racial supremacy, started joining with the smaller classes, building solidarity with all free, all White Virginians - Declining Indentured Servants • Moving toward a Slave Society: "faced with a declining supply of white laborers, the Chesapeake planters increasingly turned to African slaves for their plantation labor" (page 153)
William Pitt
• 1739-1775 (page 430-431) • William became a leader after all of the initial embarrassing setbacks that Great Britain experienced during the Seven Years War • William had abilities that matched his ego • He said in 1757, "I believe that I can save this nation and that no one else can" • He invested more troops and money in North America • Pitt got colonial cooperation by reimbursing them with cash for their expenditures—thus drastically increasing their help and efforts • Pitt's policy was financially reckless "augmenting the monstrous public debt, Pitt saddled the colonists and Britons with a burden that would violently disrupt the empire after the war" • Pitt appointed more competent and adaptable generals to command the growing forces deployed against New France • Learned from the Indians war faring tactics—such as the tomahawks • Britain strengthened their Navy cutting off the resources for New France coming from Europe • Cause of war: the ohio river valley • Conclusion of war: "1763 the Treaty of Paris: the French conceded Canada and all of their claims east of the Mississippi, including the Ohio Valley" • Problem: Pitt caused the colonies to be in debt to Great Britain for their protection o Page 438 "This seemed only fair to the British, who had spent so much blood and treasure making the continent safe for the prospering colonists."
George Whitefield
• Awakenings 1700-1750 • A young Anglican minister who developed an evangelical style at odds with the dominant rationalism of the Church of England (page 347). Inspired by God and Edwards A Faithful Narrative of the Surprizing work of God, he toured Wales and England seeking out the poor laboring people usually ignored by the Anglicans. Drawing immense crowds too large for churches and consisting of people uncomfortable in them—he preached conversations to the thousands in the streets, fields and parks—provoking outbursts of emotion • People saw his preaching and thought it was inspired by God • Whitefield's teachings made it into the newspaper print in London, these then made it onto the ships crossing the Atlantic—it conveyed the accounts of his immense crowds and sensational impact on England • The more the colonists read, the more they longed to hear and see Whitefield preach • 1739 Whitefield crossed the Atlantic to tour the colonies—to raise funds for an orphanage in Georgia, but fundamentally to export his form of Evangelical theater to new audiences • Whitefield exploited the proliferation of shipping and newspapers, the improved network of roads, and he and the greater density of settlement, which promised larger crowds especially in the northern colonies. • 1739-41: Whitefield toured from Maine to Georgia integrating the colonies by becoming the first celebrity seen and heard by a majority of the colonists • In late 1739 Whitefield stationed himself in Philadelphia- his base for the next 14 months—there he met Benjamin Franklin--- Franklin was a confirmed rationalist who resisted Whitefield's evangelical message, but admired him as a shrewd entrepreneur and dazzling performer • Benjamin applauded Whitefield for improving the morals of the common people in Philadelphia, and enjoyed that Whitefield furthered his printing business by creating a sensation that sold his papers. Thus, Franklin spread Whitefield's words farther beyond the reach of his voice (page 348)----- TOGETHER they escalated the print revolution in the colonies! • Between 1739 an 1745- at least 80,000 publications of Whitefield by American printing presses • Whitefield made little impact on the southern colonies because they because most Anglicans distrusted his emotional preaching, lacked dense settlements, and many printing presses there were critical to his celebrity in the north (page 348) • Big impact in New England where most adults were literate, newspapers and religious tract were most abundant and a dense network of ministers prepared for his sensational arrival • Whitefield stirred controversy by blaming rationalist ministers for neglecting their duty to seek, experience, and preach conversion (page 349) • 1941- Whitefield returned to England leaving his American admirers and critics to cope with the upheaval he had created
New Lights and Old Lights
• Awakenings 1700-1750 • Whitefield's controversial tour and its divisive aftermath manifested the latent rupture between rationalists and evangelicals. At the same time, the revivals promoted greater cooperation across denominational lines, between evangelicals in different churches. • The Evangelicals became known as the NEW LIGHTS because they believed in new dispensations of divine grace (page 351) • The OLD LIGHTS defended vulnerable institutions and scriptural traditions • The bitter controversy between the New Lights and Old Lights split both the colonial elite and the common people. Both sides included some learned ministers, magistrates, wealthy merchants, common farmers, artisans and laborers o Overtime... men of education, prestige and wealth and influence lined up with the OLD LIGHTS o Most older ministers were OLD LIGHTS because they were more established in their beliefs and career o NEW LIGHTS were younger ministers more wiling to embrace "new measures" • Sermons: o Old- carefully written in advance and designed to persuade with precedents and reason o New- preached emotionally and spontaneously to channel the Holy Spirit- to shock and inspire • Worship o Old- hated the outburst evoked by the revivals: the weeping, crying out, twitching, and falling down during worship • Summary: The New lights championed the uninhibited and disruptive flow of divine grace by inspired itinerants. The old lights regarded Christianity as a stable faith that needed barricades against intrusive innovations. (page 353) Significance: The new lights challenged the ways of the old lights during the first Great Awakening which represented the first of many revivals of religion amongst the colonists. Because the teachings of the new lights emphasized a more loving God that wanted people to form a personal relationship with him, many people connected with this idea and thus a revival of Christianity occured.
The Stono Rebellion
• Between 1720 and 1730 the Carolina planters adopted the West Indian system of strict surveillance and harsh punishment to keep the slaves intimidated and working, colony was convulsed by rumored conspiracies to murder the planters and burn their plantations. The authorities employed torture to obtain confessions, which led to executions, sometimes by hanging but usually by burning at the stake. (page 239) • Sunday September 9, 1739, the fear became reality. Slave rebellion on the Stono River, twenty miles from Charles Town. (page 240) • Initiation: violence began when twenty slaves stole guns and gunpowder from a store, killing and decapitating two store keepers • The slaves wanted to march south to Spanish Florida, where runaway slaves were welcome • Their fault in the plan --- the slaves did not march immediately and make haste. They stopped to make a makeshift flag and were beating drums shouting "Liberty." This was so they could help gather strength in numbers, by destroying plantations and recruiting more to their rebellion. Burnt seven plantations, killed twenty whites, and grew their numbers to 80-100. They spared one white innkeeper "because he was a good mand and kind to his slaves" • The Masters gathered each other, horses, more guns, and equipped themselves with better training in arms and militia command structure. One hundred of them armed and mounted suspired the rebels on the second day and killed most of those that had rebelled. • Scare: to scare the other slaves from starting a rebellion, the masters mounted the heads of the killed slaves on posts every one-mile between the battlefield and Charles Town. • "Masters pitied themselves that they possessed such dangerous form of property" (Page 240) saw themselves as innocent victims • Led to the tightening of South Carolina's slave laws, the planters rendered invisible the slave majority
Jonathan Edwards
• Definition: o Edwards was a Christian preacher, philosopher and theologian and preached about a very angry and terrifying God. One of his sermons was called "Sinners in the hands of an angry God". He told people to fear God's wrath so you better be virtuous to him, or else! Condemnation. Some people committed suicide o Franklin would not be persuaded by this. The grandson of Rev. Solomon Stoddard, who was an energetic preacher who stimulated revivals with his "soul-searching" messages meant to shock the listener into seeing their impending sentence in hell o Appealed to emotions rather than reason o "our people do not so much need to have their heads stored, as to have their hearts touched" o great moaning and crying in their hearts • Time Period: The Revivals during the 18th century • Impact: This preaching provoked conversion experiences, people needed to forsake their false sense of security, recognize their worthlessness, and surrender to God, and feel liberated through saving grace called New Birth o some broke through to new life while others succumbed to suicide o the revivals began to spread and escalate into intercolonial revivalism through the Tennent brothers who reported their succeeds to his congregational correspondents (Edwards emulated this) o His success encouraged other ministers throughout the Connecticut Valley for the most extensive and synchronized set of revivals in colonial experience o After fading in the Connecticut Valley (after the suicide of Joseph Hawley - Edwards uncle) the revival assumed a new power by breaking into print o Edwards published A Faithful Narrative of the Suprizing Work of God: he depicted God acting throughout the colonies and the entire protestant world • provided models of preaching and conversion that guided subsequent revivals (Whitefield read this and developed a differing evangelical style)
"The Starving Time"
• Definition: A phrase used by John Smith, leader of the colonists settling Virginia, in his compilation of the history of Virginia. More specifically "The Staving Time" is in reference to the period just after Smith returned to England in 1609. • Time Period: 1609 (early 17th C.) during the colonization of Virginia • Relevance: Smith's depiction of a starving time (severe famine) gave insight into the less favorable and harsh realities that often occurred with the demanding task of colonization. o He references people even resorting to cannibalism and one man who killed his wife and cooked her because he was so hungry. o Smith makes known some of the atrocities occurring within the colonists' communities that were often not addressed or brought to light. o Furthermore, he seems to imply that the "Salvages" (Indians) were part of the reason as to why the colonists faced starvation since the Indians often ate their livestock.
Olaudah Equiano
• Definition: Also known as Gustavus Vassa, was a former slave who was brought to Barbados, Virginia, and later England from his home in West Africa in the early 18th century. He incurred the harsh realities of the middle passage and eventually he became an abolitionist after he purchased his freedom in England. Eventually marries a white woman= very significant! • Time Period: 1700s (primary document given 1788 date) • Relevance: His autobiography was written to describe the inhumanity of slavery as part of his abolitionist activities. o Equiano's section regarding the Middle Passage details his experience on the ship and as a slave in Virginia. o His commentary on the pestilent environment onboard the ship as well as the horrible treatment of the men and women enslaved to work in the colonies once off the ship helped expose the reality of institution of slavery at large and the eventual impact that such exposures would have on promoting the abolitionist movement. o An example of Equiano's exposure of the nightmarish aspect of slavery is when he writes about his astonishment and shock at seeing a woman slave wearing an iron machine that locked her mouth so she couldn't eat or drink and barely speak= he was referring to one of the inhumane contraptions that the colonists used on the slaves called the iron muzzle.
Cahokia
• Definition: America's first metropolis located near Mississippi River in Illinois. Also has 3rd largest mound in North America (100ft.) It was the Greatest Indian Community north of Mexico. (extended over about 350 square miles) o largest urban center north of Mesoamerica (Mexico), Mississippian peoples (mound builders in the Eastern North America) o contains ~25,000 people o in the midst of a broad flood plain o greatest monument→ immense earthen pyramid, where the flat top had a temple on top that housed the chief o inhabitants sought a supernatural security o surrounded by "woodhenge", a huge stockade of posts 2 miles in circumference with watch towers used to determine the solstices to guide the ritual cycles of the city • Time Period: predominant in between 900 and 1100 AD • Impact: Cahokia ranked as the greatest Indian community north of Mexico. It's location near the junctures of the Missouri, Tennessee, and Ohio Rivers with the Mississippi enabled the inhabitants of Cahokia to dominate the north-south and east-west trade in precious shells and stones. o Cahokia's role as a great center of spiritual and temporal power that must be honored and sustained. Overall, Cahokia was an amazingly complex city with well-thought out infrastructures o There is a dynamic market culture developing that sets them apart from other Indian groups o shows the complexity of Native American cultures that predates the European settlers o does decline because of political factors (decentralized political system with fracturing between the local chieftains) and environmental strains (over dependence on Maize)- abandoned in the 13th century o decline began when they ran out of food due to lack of irrigation, when horticulture failed, and when leadership failed and cycles of warfare took its toll. They depended on gods for food, not soil. o It was the largest, wealthiest, and most complex of the political and ceremonial centers. It gave people a central reference point and demonstrated that the Indians had a complex society before the Europeans came. It began to decline in population and power during the 12th century and was abandoned in the middle of the 13th century.
Mourning wars
• Definition: Cycle of carrying out attacks on other groups to refill their losses o To appease grief, to restore power, and to build their own status, Iroquois warriors would conduct "mourning wars" in which they sought prisoners from their enemies o The chiefs distributed the prisoners to grieving matrilineages, who elder women decided their fate: adoption (given the name of a recently deceased Iroquois) or death (they would practice ceremonial torture and death) o The five nation Iroquois could sustain long distance and large scale raids against multiple enemies ( success in war boosted male prestige and influence, creating powerful incentives for young men to prove themselves against outsiders) • Time Period: 1500-1660 the 15th century • Relevance: If the captured members did not adopt to the proper ways of the capturers they would be ritually killed then chopped up and eaten in a stew so the capturers would regain some spiritual power that they had lost from their deceased members. o The rituals of torture and adoptions had spread to their Algonquin neighbors to become common throughout the northeast long before the European invasion o During the 15th century, the 5 nation Iroquois waged ferocious wars upon one another o The internal violence threatened to destroy the five nations
Encomienda/Encomendero
• Definition: Encomienda= victorious commanders of the conquistador expeditions were given these grants which enabled the holder= the encomendero, with a share in the forced labor and annual produce of the inhabitants of several Indian pueblos. • Time Period: 1500-1600s "New Spain" • Relevance: In turn for their share in the forced labor and annual produce of the inhabitants of several Indian pueblos, the encomendero's were supposed to defend the inhabitants against other Indians and promote their conversion to Christianity by supporting a priest and building a church. o In reality, the encomendero's were really exploitative and sought first 'to grow rich as all men desire to do' rather than treat the Indians with respect. o Imperial officials also feared that these exploitative men were only giving "token allegiance" to the Spanish crown because they were caught up in pursuing their own interests and riches. o Missionary friars argued that peaceful persuasion was the better way to get the natives to convert to Christianity and Hispanic Civilization= caused a former encomendero, Bartolome de Las Casas to renounce is title as an encomendero and enter the Dominican order. In 1680 the Pueblo Revolts were actual due in part to the dissatisfaction with exhortation of their labor and tribute to the encomenderos= that was the biggest grievance of the Pueblo. o provided an additional incentive to capture more land to populate and build up new Spain
The Middle Passage
• Definition: In reference to a trip overseas across the Atlantic to colonial America where the slaves were sent to work. Shortest voyage was from Gambia to Barbados , a distance of about 4,000 miles (trip with fair winds took three weeks, often longer due to unpredictable winds/weather, took 6-8 weeks). • Time Period: 1700s-1800s across the Atlantic (transatlantic passage) • Relevance: Middle Passage was often a life-threating trip overseas where many faced disease, starvation, depression, etc. o The trip conditions were extremely oppressive and scary/disorienting due in part to the fact that the slaves couldn't speak English, could only observe the horrid conditions of the ship. o To discourage epidemics, some slavers even threw overboard the first slaves who became sick with a vast array of illness (measles, smallpox, gonorrhea, syphilis, malaria, yellow fever, etc.) o This passage signifies the ill-treatment that the colonists inflicted on the slaves and the ramifications of such treatment resulted in severe psychological damage such as depression that the slaves titled "fixed melancholy".
Metacom's/King Philip's War
• Definition: Known by the New English as the bloodiest Indian war in their history, titled King Philip's War by the New English who called the Wampanoag sachem, Metacom, as such. Conflict ensued when Plymouth (Puritan) colonists when they seized, tried, and hung three Wampanoag for murdering a praying town Indian who served as a colonial informant.(is this the City on the Hill?) • Time Period: 1675-1676 during the time when the Puritans were trying in earnest to missionize the Indians (praying towns, etc.= permanent and enclosed communities) Mid 17th century • Relevance: Spiraled into a full-fledge war where the Indians were able to inflict quite a bit of damage on the colonists since colonists no longer had the technology they previously had in the Pequot War (Indians now knew how to use the flintlock musket) = enabled them to kill entire colonial families . o Ultimately the Indians annihilated English civilization- churches, houses, fences, barns (which in turn unleashed the livestock). Puritans began to view every dead Indian or burned wigwam has a sign of the resurgent power of their Puritan God and his renewed approval of his chosen people, the New English. o As the puritans saw it... "destruction to the other measured God's favor". Furthermore, the war eventually became civil war among the Indians which caused many of the resentful Indians to turn to French and help the French destroy New England frontier settlements. o The aftermath of the war altered the land and living situations of the Indians permanently o By 1789 every native people along Atlantic seaboard shared the Mohegan fate of living as a small minority on a changed land among invaders (colonists). o For the colonists, they came to view the war as a struggle for their lives (because the Indians had posed a real threat this time around), land, and sense of themselves. o Sent the praying town Indians to the Boston harbor (shared danger united allies with English) o Now there was a firmer boundary between the English and the Indians. o The English now look at Indians very differently, the boundary between what is meant to be English and Indians is confusing o Killed phillip and spread his parts around the colonies to remember that this is the fate of traitors (put Phillips head on a spear at Plymouth to remind them that God still shined on them) o English try to defend themselves against Indian "savagery" and Spaniards "cruelty" o Unsettled not just social life but also worldview
Opechancanough
• Definition: Openchancanough served as the paramount chief beginning in 1618. Powhatan's brother - an Algonquian Indian , came into power during the violent conflicts between the English and the Algonquians, shortly after death of Pocahontas, Powhatan's favorite daughter. • Time period: 1618-1646 (died around 100 years old after being captured and shot dead) • Relevance: He greatly despised the English invaders of their land and until his death he relentlessly put up a fight against them. He staged two large attacks. o March 1622: well-coordinated surprise attack= destroyed outlying plantations killing 347 men, women, and children = nearly a third of the colonists of Virginia. Killed livestock and burned plantations . --May 1623: The English pretended ready to make peace, but they poisoned the alcohol they shared --1632: offered real peace o April 1644: even deadlier surprise attack, killed more than 400 colonists o Ultimately English counterattacks destroyed most of the Indian towns along the rivers, dispersing the survivors into the hinterland. o Angry soldier shot Openchancanough dead in 1646= his death left the weak, battered, Indians to fend for themselves- not very successful. o As a result, the Indians became more dispersed and their population dwindled on the coastal plain. The previously rebellious Indians became confined on small reservations surround by colonial settlements. --Virginia law invited landholders to shoot any native caught trespassing on their plantations
Task v. Gang system (p.31)
• Definition: Task system: emerged over course of the 18th C. and reached its peak in the antebellum period. Once the slave was done with his or her work for the day, he or she could use the remainder of time as he or she pleased. • Time Period: 18th C. and most prominently during antebellum period • Relevance: Provided low country slaves with quite a bit of autonomy and it was a unique system mostly employed in the South Carolina and Georgia low country. • Proponents of the task system argued that it provided slaves with a powerful incentive to hard work . However most Southern slave owners viewed the self-management and economic independence that the system enabled among slaves as subversive of the discipline, order, and dependence essential to slave labor. • Definition: Gang system: system of slavery employment that was more widespread . Especially on large plantations slaves usually worked in gangs and were often headed by a slave driver appointed from among the male slaves for his intelligence, loyalty, and managerial skills. The driver functioned as an assistant to the overseer or master, and directly supervised the agricultural labor. (page 103-104, 106) • Time Period: 18th C. on large plantations and throughout the south except low country area such as South Carolina and Georgia • Relevance: Even under gang labor slaves, like many other preindustrial workers, typically resisted the efforts of their masters and overseers to impose a factory-like work routine= they forced a more relaxed pace through behavior that contemporary whites viewed as laziness= would not tolerate turning into "metaphorical clock punchers" = forced masters to compromise such as give them Sundays off or they had to be paid if they worked on Sunday. o The modest size of most slaveholdings during the antebellum period (i.e not significant large slaveholdings of 100s or more) allowed for a relatively homogenous condition for the majority of slaves-= helped them band together and gather a sense of common identity. • Both systems provided the slaves with some degree of freedom and enabled the slaves to gather a sense of a common identity against their oppressive masters (conditions didn't allow the kind of property inequality and social hierarchy among slaves that typically existed among peasants under serfdom)
Audiencia
• Definition: The Spanish crown divided the American empire into two immense administrative regions known as viceroyalties, each governed by a viceroy appointed by a king. o to prevent the viceroys from accumulating too much power, the crown established a council known as an audiencia o brought administrative functions under one roof, combined the functions of a legislature, executive cabinet, and supreme court o they drafted laws, advised the viceroy, and conducted major trials • Time Period: early 16th century (1525) as Mexico and Peru became the two great centers of the Spanish empire • Impact: The viceroy, audiencia, and archbishop (head of the clergy) all were ambitious aristocrats jealous of the other's privileges, all this friction perpetuated the ultimate control of the monarchy in Madrid. o Multiple appeals, counter appeals, and indecision kept the empire clogged with paperwork and delayed action for years o The Spanish colonial administration was inefficient and slow but it also allowed colonial authorities to delay and distasteful order from the crown o The imperial state was not all powerful and monarchy could never achieve its aspirations to total control
The Black Legend
• Definition: an exaggerated sense of Spanish cruelties told by the rival Europeans to justify their own imperialism o supports the idea that the Spanish were uniquely cruel and farm more brutal and destructive than other Europeans in their treatment of Indians o However, this legend was not necessarily true, the Spanish simply had a head start and a wider opportunity to conquer Indians at their most vulnerable • Time Period: New Spain (1500-1600) • Impact: Spain provided the earliest and most eloquent critics of colonial violence (EX: Bartolome de Las Casas) o we should also avoid the White Legend that whitewashes the immense human costs exacted by Spanish
The Jesuits
• Definition: priest missionaries, wearing long dark robes= Indians referred to them as the Black Robes • Time Period: 1625-1626 and on • Relevance: French missionaries manifested the Counter-Reformation, a reform movement meant to stem and reverse the growth of the Protestantism by bringing in a new rigor and zeal to Catholic institutions. o Jesuits also worried that thousands of Indians faced eternity in hell because of their lack of Christian faith. Jesuits mostly targeted the more prosperous and settled Huron. o Jesuits proceeded in converting the Indians in a manner that was more patient and unique compared to other European missionaries. o For example they mastered the native languages and went into their villages to build churches . o Natives were surprised at the Jesuits single-minded dedication to converting them since they showed little interest in the land, furs, and women that other Europeans coveted. o Jesuits interaction with the Indians was a mixed blessing: Jesuits preached that Christians and non-Christians went to separate afterlives, which caused the Indians to dread eternal separation from their ancestors and relatives= felt compelled to convert entire lineages to Christianity = undermined the unity and morale of the Huron villages= susceptible to attacks by other Indians who disagreed with retaining relationships with the French missionaries. o Never before had native peoples attacked and killed each other on the scale and with the ferocity of the Iroquois during the 1640s-1650s. The ultimate destruction of the Jesuit missions in Huronia in the 1640s due in part to the Iroquois attacks made it evident that traditionalist Indians (Five Nations) armed with trade muskets (from Dutch) could devastate native people's weakened and divided by the provocative presence of Christian missionaries. o This caused the Louisiana French to conclude that a commerce in guns better secured native support than did missionaries= sustained no significant missionary efforts as a result.
