us history: chapter 3
the rise of chesapeake slavery
-as tobacco planting spread and the demand for labor increased, the condition of black and white servants diverged sharply. -authorities sought to improve the status of white servants. at the same time, access to freedom for blacks receded. -virginia law of 1662 provided that in the case of a child one of whose parents was free and one slave, the status of the offspring followed that of the mother. -the virginia house of burgesses decreed that religious conversion did not release a slave from bondage. -in british north america, unlike the spanish empire, no distinctive mulatto, or mixed-race, class existed; the law treated everyone with african ancestry as black.
colonies in crisis
king philip's war of 1675-1676 and bacon's rebellion the following year coincided with disturbances in other colonies.
the end of the rebellion, and its consequences
-bacon promised freedom (including access to indian lands) to all who joined his ranks. -his supporters invoked the tradition of "english liberties" and spoke of the poor being "robbed" and "cheated" by their social superiors. -in 1676, bacon gathered an armed force for an unauthorized and indiscriminate campaign against those he called the governor's "protected and darling indians." he refused berkeley's order to disband and marched on jamestown, burning it to the ground. -they restored property qualifications for voting, which bacon had rescinded. at the same time, planters developed a new political style in which they cultivated the support of poorer neighbors.
quaker liberty
-he hoped that pennsylvania could be governed according to quaker principles, among them the equality of all persons (including women, blacks, and indians) before god and the primacy of the individual conscience. -eventually make them the first group of whites to repudiate slavery. -penn also treated indians with a consideration unique in the colonial experience, purchasing land before reselling it to colonists and offering refuge to tribes driven out of other colonies by warfare. -came to america unarmed and did not even organize a militia until the 1740s, peace with the native population was essential. -his charter of liberty, approved by the assembly in 1682, offered "christian liberty" to all who affirmed a belief in god and did not use their freedom to promote "licentiousness." -the quakers upheld a strict code of personal morality.
a diverse population
-in 1700, the colonies were essentially english outposts. relatively few africans had yet been brought to the mainland, and the overwhelming majority of the white population (90%) was of english origin. -as economic conditions in england improved, the government began to rethink the policy of encouraging emigration. -no longer concerned with an excess population of vagabonds and "masterless men," authorities began to worry that large-scale emigration was draining labor from the mother country. -about 40% of european immigrants to the colonies during the eighteenth century continued to arrive as bound laborers who had temporarily sacrificed their freedom to make the voyage to the new world. -this brought to an end official efforts to promote english emigration.
the maryland uprising
-in april, the boston militia seized and jailed edmund andros and other officials, whereupon the new england colonies re-established the governments abolished when the dominion of new england was created. -maryland's protestant association overthrew the government of the colony's catholic proprietor, lord baltimore. -catholics retained the right to practice their religion but were barred from voting and holding office. in 1715, after the baltimore family had converted to anglicanism, proprietary power was restored. but the events of 1689 transformed the ruling group in maryland and put an end to the colony's unique history of religious toleration.
slavery in history
-in the americas, slavery was based on the plantation, an agricultural enterprise that brought together large numbers of workers under the control of a single owner. -this imbalance magnified the possibility of slave resistance and made it necessary to police the system rigidly. -labor on slave plantations was far more demanding than in the household slavery common in africa, and the death rate among slaves much higher. -associated with race, which drew a permanent line between whites and blacks.
north america at mid-century
-large numbers of colonists enjoyed far greater opportunities for freedom—access to the vote, prospects of acquiring land, the right to worship as they pleased, and an escape from oppressive government—than existed in europe. -the colonies' economic growth contributed to a high birth rate, long life expectancy, and expanding demand for consumer goods. -yet many others found themselves confined to the partial freedom of indentured servitude or to the complete absence of freedom in slavery.
colonial artisans
-the artisan's skill, which set him apart from the common laborers below him in the social scale, was the key to his existence, and it gave him a far greater degree of economic freedom than those dependent on others for a livelihood. -despite the influx of british goods, american craftsmen benefited from the expanding consumer market. -most journeymen enjoyed a reasonable chance of rising to the status of master and establishing a workshop of their own.
leisler's rebellion
-he german-born leisler -feared that james ii intended to reduce england and its empire to "popery and slavery."
englishmen and africans
-africans were seen as so alien (in color, religion, and social practices) they were "enslavable" -so easy for indians, familiar with the countryside, to run away, that indian slavery never became viable. -but it is difficult to enslave people on their native soil. slaves are almost always outsiders, transported from elsewhere to their place of labor.
changes in new england
-after deposing governor andros, the new england colonies lobbied hard in london for the restoration of their original charters. -massachusetts became a royal colony (maj of whose voters were no longer puritan saints) -it was required to abide by the english toleration act of 1689 to allow all protestants to worship freely. the demise of the "new england way" greatly benefited non-puritan merchants and large landowners, who came to dominate the new government. -the advent of religious toleration heightened anxieties among the puritan clergy, who considered other protestant denominations a form of heresy.
poverty in the colonies
-among free americans, poverty was hardly as widespread as in britain, where in the early part of the century between one-quarter and one-half of the people regularly required public assistance. -in new england, received few immigrants, the high birthrate fueled population growth. -by mid-century, tenants and wage laborers were a growing presence on farms in the middle colonies. in colonial cities, the number of propertyless wage earners subsisting at the poverty line steadily increased. -taking the colonies as a whole, half of the wealth at mid-century was concentrated in the hands of the richest 10 percent of the population. -the better-off colonists generally viewed the poor as lazy, shiftless, and responsible for their own plight. -but to minimize the burden on taxpayers, poor persons were frequently set to labor in workhouses, where they produced goods that reimbursed authorities for part of their upkeep.
women and the household economy
-as the population grew and the death rate declined, family life stabilized and more marriages became lifetime commitments. -free women were expected to devote their lives to being good wives and mothers. already enshrined in law and property relations, male domination took on greater and greater social reality. -in several colonies, the law mandated that estates must be passed intact to the oldest son. -as colonial society became more structured, opportunities that had existed for women in the early period receded. -in the eighteenth century, the division of labor along gender lines solidified. -women's work was clearly defined, including cooking, cleaning, sewing, making butter, and assisting with agricultural chores. -lower infant mortality meant more time spent on child care and domestic chores. the demand for new goods increased the need for all family members to contribute to family income.
bacon's rebellion: land and labor in virginia
-bacon's rebellion of 1676. -governor william berkeley had for 30 years run a corrupt regime in alliance with an inner circle of the colony's wealthiest tobacco planters. -but as tobacco farming spread inland, planters connected with the governor engrossed the best lands, leaving freed servants with no options but to work as tenants or to move to the frontier. -in addition, the right to vote, previously enjoyed by all adult men, was confined to landowners in 1670. -in 1676, social tensions coupled with widespread resentment against the injustices of the berkeley regime erupted in bacon's rebellion. -settlers now demanded that the government authorize the extermination or removal of the colony's indians, to open more land for whites. -fearing all-out warfare and continuing to profit from the trade with indians in deerskins, berkeley refused. -an uprising followed that soon careened out of control. beginning with a series of indian massacres, it quickly grew into a full-fledged rebellion against berkeley and his system of rule.
the founding of carolina
-barbados -in the mid-seventeenth century, barbados was the caribbean's richest plantation economy, but a shortage of available land led wealthy planters to seek opportunities in carolina for their sons. -the yamasee uprising was crushed, and most of the remaining indians were enslaved or driven out of the colony into spanish florida, from where they occasionally launched raids against english settlements. -the fundamental constitutions of carolina, issued by the proprietors in 1669, proposed to establish a feudal society with a hereditary nobility (with strange titles like landgraves and caciques), serfs, and slaves. -slavery made carolina an extremely hierarchical society. -the proprietors instituted a rigorous legal code that promised slaveowners "absolute power and authority" over their human property and included imported slaves in the headright system. -this allowed any persons who settled in carolina and brought with them slaves, including planters from barbados, instantly to acquire large new landholdings. -(rice) that would make them the wealthiest elite in english north america
a slave society
-between 1680 and 1700, slave labor began to supplant indentured servitude on chesapeake plantations -as the death rate finally began to fall, it became more economical to purchase a laborer for life. improving conditions in england reduced the number of transatlantic migrants, and the opening of pennsylvania, where land was readily available, attracted those who still chose to leave for america. -house of burgesses in 1705 enacted a new slave code, adding new provisions that embedded the principle of white supremacy in the law. -slaves were property, completely subject to the will of their masters and, more generally, of the white community. they could be bought and sold, leased, fought over in court, and passed on to one's descendants. blacks and whites were tried in separate courts. no black, free or slave, could own arms, strike a white man, or employ a white servant. any white person could apprehend any black to demand a certificate of freedom or a pass from the owner giving permission to be off the plantation. -virginia had changed from a "society with slaves," in which slavery was one system of labor among others, to a "slave society," where slavery stood at the center of the economic process.
land of pennsylvania
-but pennsylvania's religious toleration, healthy climate, and inexpensive land, along with penn's efforts to publicize the colony's advantages, attracted immigrants from all over w europe. -the freedoms pennsylvania offered to european immigrants contributed to the deterioration of freedom for others. -the opening of pennsylvania led to an immediate decline in the number of indentured servants choosing to sail for virginia and maryland, a development that did much to shift those colonies toward reliance on slave labor.
the mercantilism system
-by the middle of the seventeenth century, it was apparent that the colonies could be an important source of wealth for the mother country. -in the mercantilist outlook, the role of colonies was to serve the interests of the mother country by producing marketable raw materials and importing manufactured goods from home. -parliament passed in 1651 the first navigation act, which aimed to wrest (seize) control of world trade from the dutch, whose merchants profited from free trade with all parts of the world and all existing empires. -tobacco and sugar had to be transported on english ships. they sold initially in english ports, although they could then be re-exported to foreign markets. -the acts stimulated new england shipbuilding industries -this enabled english merchants, manufacturers, shipbuilders, and sailors to reap the benefits of colonial trade and the government to enjoy added income from taxes and shipbuilding industries in new england.
colonial cities
-colonial cities like boston, new york, philadelphia, and charleston were quite small by the standards of europe or spanish america. in 1700, when the population of mexico city stood at 100,000, boston had 6,000 residents and new york 4,500. -philadelphia merchants organized the collection of farm goods, supplied rural storekeepers, and extended credit to consumers. (exported flour, bread, and meat to the west indies and europe)
the consumer revolution
-during the 18th century, great britain eclipsed the dutch as the leading producer and trader of inexpensive consumer goods (like coffee and tea, and such manufactured goods as linen, metalware, pins, ribbons, glassware, ceramics, and clothing) -in port cities and small inland towns, shops proliferated and american newspapers were filled with advertisements for british goods. -now, even modest farmers and artisans owned books, ceramic plates, metal cutlery, and items made of imported silk and cotton. tea, once a luxury enjoyed only by the wealthy, became virtually a necessity of life.
new york and the rights of englishmen and english women
-english observers had concluded that dutch prosperity stemmed from "their toleration of different opinions in matters of religion," which attracted "many industrious people of other countries." -but english law ended the dutch tradition by which married women conducted business in their own name. as colonists of dutch origin adapted to english rule, their wills directed more attention to advancing the fortunes of their sons than providing for their wives and daughters. -the english, in a reversal of dutch practice, expelled free blacks from many skilled jobs. (more restricted)
slavery and the law
-las siete partidas (a series of laws granting slaves certain rights relating to marriage the holding of property, and access to freedom) these laws were transferred to spain's american empire. -catholic church often encouraged masters to free individual slaves. the law of slavery in english north america became far more oppressive than in the spanish empire, especially on the all-important question of whether slaves could obtain freedom. -the first africans (20) arrived in virginia in 1619. -as early as the 1620s, the law barred blacks from serving in the virginia militia. the government punished sexual relations outside of marriage between africans and europeans more severely than the same acts involving two white persons. -virginia and maryland: free blacks could sue and testify in court, and some even managed to acquire land and purchase white servants or african slaves. -blacks and whites labored side by side in the tobacco fields, sometimes ran away together, and established intimate relationships.
the charter of liberties
-many colonists, began to complain that they were being denied the "liberties of englishmen," especially the right to consent to taxation. -there had been no representative assembly under the dutch -first act was to draft a charter of liberties and privileges. -the charter required that elections be held every three years among male property owners and the freemen of new york city; it also reaffirmed traditional english rights such as trial by jury and security of property, as well as religious toleration for all protestants.
new world cultures
-many european immigrants maintained traditions, including the use of languages other than english, from their home countries. -some cultures mixed more than others: intermarriage with other groups was more common among huguenots (french protestants) than among jews, for example. those from the british isles sought to create a dominant "english" identity in the new world. -many in great britain, however, saw the colonists as a collection of convicts, religious dissidents, and impoverished servants. -but since most indians preferred to maintain their own cultures and religions, the colonists did not include them in a collective colonial identity.
the holy experiment
-pennsylvania -william penn, envisioned it as a place where those facing religious persecution in europe could enjoy spiritual freedom, and colonists and indians would coexist in harmony. -penn was particularly concerned with establishing a refuge for his coreligionists, who faced increasing persecution in england. -the west jersey concessions, one of the most liberal of the era. -based on quaker ideals, it created an elected assembly with broad suffrage and established religious liberty.
an atlantic world
-people, ideas, and goods flowed back and forth across the atlantic, knitting together the empire and its diverse populations and creating webs of interdependence among the european empires. -sugar, tobacco, and other products of the western hemisphere were marketed as far away as eastern europe. -although most colonial output was consumed at home, north americans shipped farm products to britain, the west indies, and, with the exception of goods like tobacco "enumerated" under the navigation acts, outside the empire. -most americans did not complain about british regulation of their trade because commerce enriched the colonies as well as the mother country and lax enforcement of the navigation acts allowed smuggling to flourish.
slavery in the west indies
-planters and government authorities had to be convinced that importing african slaves was the best way to solve their persistent shortage of labor. -huge sugar plantations worked by slaves from africa had made their appearance in brazil, a colony of portugal. -in the seventeenth century, england, holland, denmark, and france joined spain as owners of west indian islands. -barbados, a tiny island owned by england, was home to around 11,000 white farmers and indentured servants and 5,000 slaves. as sugar cultivation intensified, planters turned increasingly to slave labor. -by 1660, the island's population had grown to 40,000, half european and half african. ten years later, the slave population had risen to 82,000, concentrated on some 750 sugar plantations. -by the end of the seventeenth century, sugar plantations manned by hundreds of slaves dominated the west indian economy, and the african population far outnumbered that of european origin. -sugar was the first crop to be mass-marketed to consumers in europe. -slavery developed slowly in north america. slaves cost more than indentured servants, and the high death rate among tobacco workers made it economically unappealing to pay for a lifetime of labor.
the growth of colonial america
-powerful states had been destroyed and the native population decimated and in some areas deprived of its land. -the urban-based spanish empire, with a small settler elite and growing mestizo population directing a large indian labor force, still relied for wealth primarily on the gold and silver mines of mexico and south america. -the french empire centered on saint domingue, martinique, and guadeloupe, plantation islands of the west indies. -in north america north of the rio grande, the english colonies had far outstripped their rivals in population and trade. -thanks to a high birthrate and continuing immigration, the population of england's mainland colonies, 265,000 in 1700, grew nearly tenfold, to over 2.3 million seventy years later.
the conquest of new netherland
-royal african company, which was given a monopoly of the slave trade. -1660: restoration of english monarchy -first to come under english control was new netherland, seized in 1664 by dutch during an anglo-dutch war that saw england gain control of dutch trading posts in africa. -the dutch fought to retain their holdings in africa, asia, and south america, but they surrendered new netherland in 1664 without a fight. -minor military base into an important imperial outpost
the salem witch trials
-the crisis began late in 1691 when several young girls began to suffer fits and nightmares, attributed by their elders to witchcraft. -by the middle of 1692, hundreds of residents of salem had come forward to accuse their neighbors. local authorities took legal action against nearly 150 persons, the large majority of them women. -as accusations and executions multiplied, it became clear that something was seriously wrong with the colony's system of justice. toward the end of 1692, the governor of massachusetts dissolved the salem court and ordered the remaining prisoners released. -cases of conscience concerning evil spirits, warning that juries should not take seriously either the testimony of those who claimed to be possessed or the confessions and accusations of persons facing execution. -the events in salem discredited the tradition of prosecuting witches and accelerated a commitment among prominent colonists to finding scientific explanations for natural events like comets and illnesses, rather than attributing them to magic.
the colonial elite
-the gap between rich and poor probably grew more rapidly in the 18th century than in any other period of american history. -in new england and the middle colonies, expanding trade made possible the emergence of a powerful upper class of merchants, often linked by family or commercial ties to great trading firms in london. -there were no banks in colonial america. credit and money were in short supply, and mercantile success depended on personal connections as much as business talent. -by 1750, the chesapeake and lower south were dominated by slave plantations producing staple crops, especially tobacco and rice, for the world market. -members of the gentry controlled the local governing bodies, of the est anglican church, dominated the county courts (political as well as judicial institutions that levied taxes and enacted local ordinances), and were prominent in virginia's legislature. -eighteenth-century virginia was a far healthier environment than in the early days of settlement. -planters could expect to pass their wealth down to the next generation, providing estates for their sons and establishing family dynasties.
origins of american slavery
-the incessant demand for workers spurred by the spread of tobacco cultivation eventually led chesapeake planters to turn to the transatlantic trade in slaves. -compared with indentured servants, slaves offered planters many advantages. as africans, they could not claim the protection of english common law. -slaves' terms of service never expired, and they, therefore, did not become a population of unruly landless men. -their children were slaves, and their skin color made it more difficult for them to escape into the surrounding society. -african men, moreover, unlike their native american counterparts, were accustomed to intensive agricultural labor, and they had encountered many diseases known in europe and developed resistance to them.
the middle ranks
-the large majority of free americans lived between the extremes of wealth and poverty. -along with racial and ethnic diversity, what distinguished the mainland colonies from europe was the wide distribution of land and the economic autonomy of most ordinary free families. -by the 18th century, colonial farm families viewed landownership as a right, the social precondition of freedom.
the south carolina aristocracy
-the richest group of mainland colonists were south carolina planters. -here aristocratic social life flourished, centered on theaters, literary societies, and social events. -like their virginia counterparts, south carolina grandees lived a lavish lifestyle amid imported furniture, fine wines, silk clothing, and other items from england. they surrounded themselves with house slaves dressed in specially designed uniforms. -in 1774, the per capita wealth in the charleston district was £2,300, more than four times that of tobacco areas in virginia and eight times the figure for philadelphia or boston. the richest 10 percent of the colony owned half the wealth in 1770, the poorest quarter less than 2 percent. -they viewed society as a hierarchical structure in which some men were endowed with greater talents than others and destined to rule. the social order, they believed, was held together by webs of influence that linked patrons and those dependent on them.
the glorious revolution
-until the mid-1670s, the north american colonies had essentially governed themselves, with little interference from england. -governor berkeley ran virginia as he saw fit; proprietors in new york, maryland, and carolina governed in any fashion they could persuade colonists to accept; and new england colonies elected their own officials and openly flouted trade regulations. -in 1675, england established the lords of trade to oversee colonial affairs. three years later, the lords questioned the massachusetts government about its compliance with the navigation acts. -they received the surprising reply that since the colony had no representatives in parliament, the acts did not apply to it unless the massachusetts general court approved. -in the 1680s, england moved to reduce colonial autonomy. -hoping to raise more money from america in order to reduce his dependence on parliament, james ii between 1686 and 1689 combined connecticut, plymouth, massachusetts, new hampshire, rhode island, new york, and east and west jersey into a single super-colony, the dominion of new england. -it was ruled by the former new york governor sir edmund andros, who did not have to answer to an elected assembly. -these events reinforced the impression that james ii was an enemy of freedom.
prosecution of witches
-witches were individuals, usually women, who were accused of having entered into a pact with the devil to obtain supernatural powers, which they used to harm others or to interfere with natural processes. -when a child was stillborn or crops failed, many believed that witchcraft was at work. -most were women beyond childbearing age who were outspoken, economically independent, or estranged from their husbands, or who in other ways violated traditional gender norms.
