American History Chapters 3 and 4

Who was King George III? And what were some of the biggest issues with his reign?

He assumed power in 1760 on the death of his grandfather. He was determined to be an active and responsible monarch. He removed from power the longstanding and relatively stable coalition of WHIGS, WHO HAD GOVERNED THE EM[IRE FOR MUCH OF THE CENTURY AND WHOM THE NEW KING MISTRUSTED. IN THEIR PLACE, HE CREATED A NEW COALITION OF HIS OWM THROUGH PATRONAGE AND BRIBES AND GAINED AN uneasy control of Parliament. The new ministries that emerged as a result of these changes were inherently unstable, each lasting in office an average of only about two years. He suffered from a rare disease that produced intermittent bouts of insanity. Yet even when he was lucid and rational he was painfully immature and insecure--striving constantly to prove his fitness for his position but time and again finding himself ill equipped to handle the challenges he seized for himself. The king's personality contributed to both the instability and intransigence of the British government during these critical years.

When did the proportion of females to males become more balanced in the colonies?

In the late seventeenth century.

What were the Virginia Resolves?

A set of resolutions introduced by Patrick Henry declaring that the Americans possessed the same rights as the English, especially the right to be taxed only by their own representatives; that Virginians should pay no taxes except those voted by the Virginia assembly; and that anyone advocating the right of Parliament to tax Virginians should be deemed an enemy of the colony. The House of Burgesses defeated the most extreme of Henry's resolutions, but all of them were printed and circulated as the "Virginia Resolves"

What was the conflict that occurred in the late 1750s and early 1760s?

A war in America that was part of a titanic struggle between England and France for dominance in world trade and naval power. The British victory in that struggle, known in Europe as the Seven Years' War, rearranged global power and cemented England's role as the world's great commercial and imperial nation. It also cemented its control of most of the settled regions of North America. By bringing the Americans into closer contact with British authority than ever before, it raised to the surface some of the underlying tensions in the colonial relationship.

What was the Stamp Act Congress?

An intercolonial congress that met due to the persuasion of James Otis in October 1765 for action against the new tax. It met in New York with delegates from nine colonies and decided to petition the king and the two houses of Parliament. Their petition conceded that Americans owed to Parliament "all due subordination," but it denied that the colonies could rightfully be taxed except through their own provincial assembly.

How did wealth in the colonies differ from England?

Aristocracies emerged in America, to be sure. But they tended to rely less on land ownership than on control of a substantial work force, they were generally less secure and less powerful than their English counterparts. Far more than in England, there were opportunities in American for social mobility--both up and down.

How were indentured servants acquired besides those who came voluntarily?

As early as 1617, the English government occasionally dumped shiploads of convicts in America to be sold into servitude. The government also sent prisoners taken in battles with the Scots and the Irish in the 1650s as well as other groups deemed undesirable: orphans, vagrants, paupers. Some were simply the victims of kidnapping or "impressent" by aggressive and unscrupulous investors and promoters.

How many Africans were forced to immigrate to the New World before the nineteenth century?

As many as 11 million

Who was George Grenville?

Was made prime minister in 1763, Grenville did not share his brother-in-law William Pitt's sympathy with the American point of view. He agreed instead with the prevailing opinion within Britain that the colonists had been too long indulged and that they should be compelled to obey the laws and to pay a part of the cost of defending and administering the empire. He promptly began trying to impose a new system of control upon what had been a loose collection of colonial possessions in America.

What was the first phase of the French and Indian War?

It lasted from the Fort Necessity debacle in 1754 until the expansion of the war to Europe in 1756. It was primarily a local, North American conflict, which the English colonists managed largely on their own. The British provided modest assistance during this period, but they provided it so ineptly that it had little impact on the struggle. The British fleet failed to prevent the landing of large French reinforcements in Canada; and the newly appointed commander in chief of the British army in America, General Edward Braddock, failed miserably in a major effort in the summer of 1755 to retake the crucial site at the forks of the Ohio River where Washington had lost the battle at Fort Necessity. A French and Indian ambush a few miles from the fort left Braddock dead and what remained of his forces in disarray. The local colonial forces were preoccupied with defending themselves against raids on their western settlements by the Indians of the Ohio Valley. By late 1755, many English settlers along the frontier had withdrawn to the east of the Allegheny Mountains to escape the hostilities.

How long did the French and Indian War last? And how many distinct phases did it have?

It lasted nearly nine years and it had three distinct phases?

What did slavery look like in the seventeenth century South?

It was often difficult for European and Africans to maintain strictly separate roles. In some areas whites and blacks lived and worked together for a time on terms of relative equality. Some blacks were treated much like white hired servants, and some were freed after a fixed term of servitude. A few Africans themselves became landowners, and some apparently owned slaves of their own.

When was the Stamp Act Repealed?

It was repealed on March 18, 1766 after Marquis of Rockingham the prime minister convinced the king to repeal it.

What did the Peace of Paris do and when was it signed?

It was signed in 1763. Under its terms, the French ceded to Great Britain some of their West Indian islands and most of their colonies in Indial They also transferred Canada and all other French territory east of the Mississippi, except New Orleans, to Great Britain. They ceded New Orleans and their claims west of the Mississippi to Spain, thus surrendering all title to the mainland of North America.

What was the Royal Society of London?

It was the leading English scientific organisation.

What was the Quebec Act?

Its object was to provide a civil government for the French-speaking Roman Catholic inhabitants of Canada and the Illinois country. The law extended the boundaries of Quebec to include the Frencg communities between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. It also granted political rights to Roman Catholics and recognized the legality of the Roman Catholic Church within the enlarged province.

Who were the major preachers involved in the Great Awakening?

John and Charles Wesley. George Whitefield. And Jonathan Edwards.

What significant event happened in 1768 Massachusetts?

Samuel Adams called a convention of delegates from the towns of the colony to sit in place of the General Court, which the governor had dissolved. The Sons of Liberty, which Adams had helped organize in Massachusetts and which sprang up elsewhere as well, became another source of power. Its members are times formed disciplined bands of vigilantes who made certain that all colonists respected the boycotts and other forms of popular resistance. And in most colonies, committees of prominent citizens began meeting to perform additional political functions.

Who lead the public outrage over the Boston Massacre?

Samuel Adams, the most effective radical in the colonies. He was born in 1722 and was somewhat older than other leaders of colonial protest. As a member of an earlier generation with strong ties to New England's Puritan past, he was particularly inclined to view public events in stern moral terms. A failure in business, he became an unflagging voice expressing outrage at British oppression. England, he argued, had become a morass of sin and corruption; only in America did public virtue survive. He spoke freqay Boston town meetings; and as one unpopular English policy followed another his message attracted increasing support. In 1772, he proposed the creation of a "committee of correspondence" in Boston to publicize the grievances against England throughout the colony.

What happened in the summer of 1765?

Serious riots broke out up and down the coast, the largest of them in Boston. Men belonging to the newly organized Sons of Liberty terrorized stamp agents and burned the stamps. The agents, themselves Americans, hastily resigned; and the sale of stamps in the continental colonies virtually ceased. In Boston, a crowd also attacked such pro-British "aristocrats" as the lieutenant governor, Thomas Hutchinson (who had privately opposed passage of the Stamp Act but who, as an officer of the crown, felt obliged to support it once it became law). The protestors pillaged Hutchinson's elegant house and virtually destroyed it.

What did the governing from royal officials look like in the American colonies?

Some of these officeholders were able and intelligent men; most were not. Appointments generally came as the result of bribery or favoritism, not as a reward for merit. Many appointees remained in England and, with part of their salaries, hired substitutes to take their places in America. Such deputies received paltry wages and thus faced great temptations to augment their incomes with bribes. Few resisted the temptation. Customs collectors, for example, routinely waived duties on goods when merchants paid them to do sol Even honest and well-paid officials usually found it expedient, if they wanted to get along with their neighbors, to yield to the colonists' resistance to trade restrictions.

What did the conditions of slave ships look like?

Some took care of there cargo but others packed the African prisoners in such close quarters that they were unable to stand, hardly able to breathe. Some ships supplied them with only minimal food and water. Women were often victims of rape and other sexual abuse. Those who died en route were simply thrown overboard.

Where did colonists draw their ideas that supported the Revolution from?

Some were drawn from religious (particularly Puritan) sources or from the political experiences of the colonies. Others came from abroad. The "radical" ideas of those in Great Britain who stood in opposition to their government. Some were Scots, who considered the English state tyrannical. Others were embittered "country Whigs" who felt excluded from power and considered the existing system corrupt and oppressive. Drawing from some of the great philosophical minds of the earlier generations--most notably John Locke--these English dissidents framed a powerful argument against their government.

What the most important slave revolt during the colonial period?

Stone Rebellion in south Carolina in 1739, about 100 Africans rose up, seized weapons, killed several whites, and attempted to escape south to Florida. Whites quickly crushed the uprising and executed most participants.

What did the Enlightenment put emphasis on?

Stressed the importance of science and human reason.

What happened on March 5, 1770?

That night followed a particularly intense skirmish, that had happened only days before, between workers at a shiprigging factory and British soldiers who were trying to find work there, a crowd of dockworkers, "liberty boys," and others began pelting the sentries at the customs house with rocks and snowballs. Hastily, Captain Thomas Preston of the British Regiment lined up several of his men in front of the building to protect it. There was some scuffling; one of the soldiers was knocked down; and in the midst of it all, apparently, several British soldiers fired into the crowd, killing 5 people.

What belief did colonial midwives and physicians base their practice off of?

That the human body had four humors that it was governed by and illness represented an imbalance and suggested the need for removing from the body of the excess of whatever fluid was causing the imbalance.

What were the effects of King George's War in the colonies?

The English colonists in America were drawn into it and between 1744 and 1748 they engaged in a series of conflicts with the French. New Englanders captured the French bastion at Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island; but the peace treaty that finally ended the conflict forced them to abandon it. In the aftermath of King George's War, relations among the English, French, and Iroquois in North America quickly deteriorated. The Iroquois began for the first time to grant trading concessions in the interior to English merchants. That decision set in motion a chain of events disastrous for the Iroquo8s Confederacy. The French feared that the English were using the concessions as a first step toward expansion into French lands. They began in 1749 to construct new fortresses in the Ohio Valley. The English interpreted the French activity as a threat to their western settlements. They protested and began making military preparations and building fortresses of their own.

What was the cause of the religious and commercial tensions between English and French settlers in North America by the 1750s?

The French expanded their presence in America in the late 17th century. The lucrative fur trade drew immigrant French peasants deeper into the wilderness, while missionary zeal drew large numbers of French Jesuits into the interior in search of potential converts.

What did the French Empire look like by the mid 1700s?

The bottomlands of the Mississippi River valley attracted French farmer discouraged by Canada's short growing season. Louis Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette, French explorers of the 1670s journeyed together by canoe from Green Bay on Lake Michigan as far south as the junction of Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers. A year later Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, began the explorations that in 1682 took him to the delta of the Mississippi, where he claimed the surrounding country for France and named it Louisiana in the king's honor. Subsequent traders and missionaries wandered to the southwest as far as the Rio Grande; and the explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Verendrye, pushed westward in 1743 from Lake Superior to a point within sight of the Rocky Mountains. The French had by then revealed the outlines of, and laid claim to, the whole continental interior.

What made life spans shorter in the southern colonies until the mid-eighteenth century?

The continued ravages of disease and the prevalence of salt-contaminated water kept the death rate high in the South; only after the settlers developed immunity to the local diseases did life expectancy increase significantly. Population growth was substantial in the region, but largely as a result of immigration.

What caused life spans to increase in the Northen colonies?

The cool climate and the relatively disease-free environment it produced, clean water and the absence of large populations centers that might breed epidemics.

What was one thing that prevented the economy from growing quickly in the colonies?

They had no gold or silver coins. They experimented at times with different forms of paper currency--tobacco certificates, for example, which were secured by tobacco stored in warehouses;or land certificates, secured by property. Such paper was not acceptable as payment for any goods from abroad and it was in any case ultimately outlawed by Parliament. For many years, colonial merchants use to rely on a haphazard barter system or on crude money substitutes such as beaver skins.

What 5 major decisions were made at the First Continental Congress?

They rejected a plan for a colonial union under British authority. They endorsed a statement of grievances, whose tortured language reflected the conflict among the delegates between moderates and extremists. The statement seemed to concede Parliament's right to regulate colonial trade and addressed the king as "Most Gracious Sovereign";but it also included a more extreme demand for the repeal of all the oppressive legislation passed since 1763. They approved a series of resolutions, recommending, among other things, that the colonists make military preparations for defense against possible attack by the British troops in Boston. They agreed to nonimportation, nonexportation, and nonconsumption a means of stopping all trade with Great Britain, and they formed a "Continental Association" to enforce the agreements. When the delegates adjourned, they agreed to meet again the next spring, thus indicating that they considered the Continental Congress a continuing organization.

How did the colonists respond to the Quartering Act?

They resented that these contributions were now mandatory, and they considered it another form of taxation without consent. They responded with defiance. The Massachusetts Assembly refused to vote the mandated supplies to the troops. The New York Assembly soon did likewise, posing an even greater challenge to imperial authority, since the army headquarters were in New York City.

How did the Boston merchants respond to the new board of customs commissioners?

They were aggrieved now that the new commission was diverting the lucrative smuggling trade elsewhere. They took the lead in organizing another boycott. In 1768, the merchants of Philadelphia and New York joined them in a nonimportation agreement, later some southern merchants and planters also agreed to coorperate. Colonists boycotted British goods subject to the Townshend Duties; and throughout the colonies, American homespun and other domestic products became suddenly fashionable, while English luxuries fell from favor.

Why was the Quebec Act viewed as a threat by many colonists in America?

They were already alarmed by rumors that the Church of England was scheming to appoint a bishop for America who would impose Anglican authority on all the various sects. Since the line between the Church of England and the Church of Rome had always seemed to many Americans dangerously thin, the passage of the Quebec Act convinced some of them that a plot was afoot in London to subject Americans to the tyranny of the pope. Those interested in western lands, moreover, believed that the act would hinder westward expansion.

How did city governments look?

They were more elaborate government systems. They set up constables' offices and fire departments. They developed systems for supporting the urban poor.

What did most 17th century colonial plantations look like?

They were rough and relatively small estates. In the early days in Virginia, they were little more than crude clearings where landowners and indentured servants worked side by side in conditions so horrible that death was an everyday occurrence. Even in later years, when the death rate declined and the land holdings became more established, plantation work forces seldom exceeded thirty people. They had to be self contained because of their distant from towns.

What did punishment look like in the colonial American government?

They were tried by jury but instead of the gallows or prison colonists were more commonly resorted to the whipping post, the branding iron, the stocks, and the ducking stool.

What did indentured servitude look like in the colonies after 1700?

Those who did travel to America as indentured servants generally avoided the southern colonies, where working conditions were arduous and prospects for advancement were slim, and took advantage of the better opportunities in the mid-Atlantic colonies. And in Chesapeake, landowners themselves began to find the indenture system less attractive, in part because they were troubled by the instability that former servants created or threatened to create. That was one reason for the increasing centrality of African slavery in the southern agricultural economy.

How did the French protect their territory in North America?

To secure their hold on these enormous claims, they founded a string of widely separated communities, fortresses, missions, and trading posts. Fort Louisbourg, on Cape Breton Island, guarded the approach to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Would-be feudal lords established large estates along the banks of the St. Lawrence River; and on a high bluff above the river stood the fortified city of Quebec, the center of the French Empire in America. To the south was Montreal, and to the west Sault Sainte Marie and Detroit. On the lower Mississippi emerged plantations. New Orleans founded in 1718 to service the French plantation economy, soon was as big as some of the larger cities of the Atlantic seaboard; Biloxi and Mobile to the east completed the string of French settlements.

How were women crucial to the New England agriculture economy?

Not only did they bear and raise children who at a relatively young ages became part of the work force, but they themselves were continuously engaged in tasks vital to the functioning of the farm--gardening, tending livestock, spinning and weaving as well as cooking, cleaning, and washing.

Who was Cotton Matter?

A Puritan theologian who after hearing of deliberately infecting people with mild cases of smallpox in order to immunize them against the deadly disease encouraged inoculation during an epidemic in the 1720s.

What was the major point of conflict with the American governments and the British rule leading up to the Revolution?

Americans were in effect arguing for a division of sovereignty. Parliament would be sovereign in some matters; the assemblies would be sovereign in others. To the British, such an argument was absurd. In any system of government there must be a single, ultimate authority. And since the empire was, in their view, a single, undivided unit, there could only be one authority within it: the English government of king and Parliament.

What was the third phase of the French and Indian War?

Beginning in 1758 initiated by Pitt by relaxing many of the policies that Americans found obnozious. He agreed to reinburse the colonists for all supplies requisitioned by the army. He returned control over military recuitment to the colonial assemblies(which resulted in an immediate and dramatic increase in enlistments). And he dispatched large numbers of additional troops to America. Finally, the tide of battle began to turn in England's favor. The French had always been outnumbered by the British colonists; after 1756, they suffered as well from a series of poor harvests. As a result, they were unable to sustain their early military successes. By mid-1758 the British regulars in America and the colonial militias were seizing one French stronghold after another. Two brilliant English generals, Jeffery Amherst and James Wolfe, captured the fortress at Louisbourg in July 1758; a few months later Fort Duquesne fell without a fight. The next year, at the end of a siege of Quebec, supposedly impregnable atop its towering cliff, the army of General James Wolfe struggled up a hidden ravine under cover of darkness, surprised the larger forces of the Marquis de Montcalm, and defeated them in a battle in which both commanders died. The dramatic fall of Quebec on September 13, 1759, marked the beginning of the end of the American phase of the war. A year later, in September 1760, the French army formally surrender to Amherst in Montreal.

When did Britain decide to tighten it's control over the American colonies?

Beginning in 1763

What was the Sugar Act of 1764?

Designed in part to eliminate the illegal sugar trade between the continental colonies and the French and Spanish West Indies, strengthened enforcement of the duty on sugar (while lowering the duty on molasses, further damaging the market for sugar grown in the colonies). It also established new vice-admiralty courts in America to try accused smugglers--thus depriving them of the benefit of sympathetic local juries.

What caused a war between Spain and Britain and led to clashes between the British in Georgia and the Spaniards in Florida?

Disputes over British trading rights in the Spanish colonies.

When did the first black laborers arrive in English North America? When did traders start importing blacks directly from Africa to North America?

First arrived before 1620 and slaves were directly imported by the 1670s.

When did the witchcraft hysteria happen widespread?

In the 1680s and 1690s.

What did the slave population look like by 1700?

In the Chesapeake at least, more new slaves were being born than being imported from Africa. In South Carolina, by contrast, the difficult conditions of rice cultivation--abs the high death rates of those who worked in the rice fields--ensured that the black population would barely be able to sustain itself through natural increase until much later.

What was the purpose of the new board of customs established under Townshend?

He hoped the new board would stop the rampant corruption in the colonial customs houses, and to some extent his Hope's were fulfilled. The new commissioners virtually ended smuggling in Bosyon, their headquarters, although smugglers continued to carry on a busy trade in other colonial seaports.

Who was Charles Townshend?

He was the chancellor of the exchequer who took William Pitt's place in administration because Pitt was hobbled by four and at times incapacitated by mental illness. Townshend was a brilliant, flamboyant, and at times reckless politician known to his contemporaries variously as "the Weathercock" and "Champagne Charlie."

What encouraged people to take on indentured servants?

Headright systems granted more land if you had more people that would be living on it.

When did the colonial postal service come into existence and how far was its reach by 1732?

IN 1691, it had operated only from Massachusetts to New York and Pennsylvania. In 1711, it extended to New Hampshire in the North; in 1732 , to Virginia in the South; and ultimately, all the way to Georgia.

What were the results of King William's War(1689-1697) in the North American colonies?

IT produced a few, indecisive clashes between the English and French in northern New England.

By the early eighteenth century how had immigration to the colonies change?

Immigration from England had declined and French, German, Swiss, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and Scandinavian immigration continued and increased.

What did Benjamin Franklin do?

In 1752 his demonstration, using a kite, of his theory that lightning and electricity were the same was widely celebrated in the colonies.

What did the Paxton Boys do?

In 1763 a band of people from western Pennsylvania known as the Paxton Boys descended on Philadelphia with demands for relief from colonial taxes and for money to help them defend themselves against Indians; the colonial government averted bloodshed only by making concessions to them.

What did schooling look like in the 17th and 18th centuries?

In Massachusetts, a 1647 law required every town to support a public school, and while many communities failed to comply, a modest network of educational establishments emerged as a result. Elsewhere, the Quakers and other sects operated church schools. And in some communities widows or unmarried women conducted "dame schools" by holding private classes in their homes. In cities, master craftsmen set up evening schools appearing between 1723 and 1770.

When did Patrick Henry give a speech at the House of Burgesses?

In May 1765

What did colonists do in the last weeks of 1773 to prevent the East India Company from landing its cargoes in colonial ports?

In Philadelphia and New York, determined colonists kept the tea from leaving the company's ships. In Charleston, they stored it away in a public warehouse. In Boston, after failing to turn back the three ships in the harbor, local patriots staged a spectacular drama. On the evening of December 16,v1773, three companies of 50 men each, masquerading as Mohawks, passed through a tremendous crowd of spectators, went aboard the three ships, broke open the tea chests, and heaved them into the harbor. As the electrifying news of the Boston "tea party" spread, other seaports followed the example and staged similar acts of resistance.

Where and when did the first Contential Congress meet?

In September of 1774 they met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia.

How permanent were early colonial settlements?

In some cases families pulled up stakes every few years to move to a more promising location

What was the second phase of the French and Indian War?

It began in 1756, when the governments of France and England formally opened hostilities and a truly international conflict(the Seven Years' War) began. In Europe, the war was marked by a realignment within the complex system of alliances. France allied itself with its former enemy, Austria; England joined France's former ally, Prussia. The fighting now spread to the West Indies, India, and Europe itself. But the principal struggle remained the one in North America, where so far England had suffered nothing but frustration and defeat. Beginning in 1757, William Pitt, the English secretary of state, began to transform the war effort in America by bringing it for the first time fully under British control. Pitt himself began planning military strategy for the North American conflict, appointing military commanders, and issuing orders to the colonists. Military recruitment had slowed dramatically in America after the defeat of Braddock. To replenish the army, British commanders began forcibly enlisting colonists(a practice know as impressment). Officers also began to seize supplies and equipment from local farmers and tradesmen and compelled colonists to offer shelter to British troops--all generally without compensation. They resented these new impositions and firmly resisted them--at times, as in a 1757 riot in New York City, violently. By early 1758, the friction between the British authorities and the colonists was threatening to bring the war effort to a halt.

When did the Great Awaken occur?

It began in earnest in the 1730s and reached its climax in 1740s. It brought a new spirit of religious fever. It had particular appeal women and to younger sons of the third or fourth generation of settlers.

What were the results of Queen Anne's War, which began in 1701 and continued for nearly twelve years, in the North American colonies?

It caused border fighting with the Spaniards in the South as well as with the French and their Indian allies in the North. The Treaty of Utrecht, which brought the conflict to a close in 1713, transferred substantial areas of French territory in North America to the English, including Acadia (Nova Scotia) and Newfoundland.

What did the Proclamation of 1763 do? Why was it appealing to the British?

It forbide settlers to advance beyond a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains. The Proclamation of 1763 was applealing to the British for several reasons. It would allow London, arather than the provincial governments and their land-hungry constituents, to control the westward movement of the white population. Hence, westward expansion would proceed in an orderly manner, and conflicts with the tribes might be limited.

What was the Tea Act of 1773?

It gave the East India Company the right to export its merchandise directly to the colonies without paying any of the navigation taxes that were imposed on the colonial merchants, who had traditionally served as middlemen in such transactions. With these privileges, the East India Company could undersell American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade. Since the tax on tea was the only Townshend duty to still survive it was the East India Company's exemption from that duty that put the colonial merchants at such a grave competitive disadvantage.

What effects did the French and Indian War have on the British Empire and the American colonies?

It greatly expanded England's territorial claims in the New World. At the same time, it greatly enlarged Britain's debt; financing the vast war had been a major drain on the treasury. It also generated substantial resentment toward the Americans among British leaders who were contemptuous of the colonist for what they considered American military ineptitude during the war. They were angry that the colonists had made so few financial contributions to a struggle waged largely for American benefit' they were particularly bitter that some colonial merchants had been selling food and other goods to the French in the West Indies throughout the conflict. The friction of 1756-1757 over British requisition and impressment policies, and the 1758 return of authority to the colonial assemblies, established an important precedent in the minds of the colonists: it seemed to confirm the illegitimacy of English interference in local affairs.

What did the small scale civil war in 1771 look like?

It happened as a result of the so-called Regulator movement. The Regulators were farmers of the Carolina upcountry who organized in opposition to the high taxes that local sheriffs(appointed by the colonial governor) collected. The western counties were badly underrepresented in the colonial assembly, and the Regulators failed to win redress of their grievances there. Finally they armed themselves and began resisting tax collections by force. TO suppress the revolt, Governor William Tryon raided an army of militiamen, mostly from the eastern countries, who defeated a band of 2,000 Regulators in the Battle of Alamance. Nine on each side were killed, and many others were wounded. Afterward, six Regulators were hanged for treason.

What was the Stamp Act of 1765 and why was it so controversial in the colonies?

It imposed a tax on printed documents in the colonies: newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets, deeds, wills, licenses. It was seen as a direct attempt by England to raise revenue in the colonies without the consent of the colonial assemblies. If this new tax passed without resistance, the door would be open for more burdensome taxation in the future.

Where did what little was known, in England, about the American colonies come from?

It largely came from agents sent to England by the colonial assemblies to lobby for American interests.

Who repealed most of the Townshend Duties and when?

Lord North secured the repeal of all the Townshend Duties except the tax on tea in March 1770.

What did slavery look like in the 18th century South?

Masters were contractually obliged to free white servants after a fixed term of servitude. There was no such necessity to free black workers, and the assumption slowly spread that blacks would remain in service permanently. Another incentive for making the status of Africand rigid was that the children of slaves provided white landowners with a self-perpetuating labor force. Slave codes had also been passed to limit the rights of blacks in law ensuring almost absolute authority to white masters.

Midwives v. Physicians

Midwives assisted women in childbirth, but they also dispensed other medical advice--usually urging their patients to use herbs or other natural remedies. Midwives were popular because they were usually friends and neighbors of the people they treated, unlike physicians, who were few and therefore often not well known to their patients. Male doctors felt threatened by the midwives and struggled continually to drive them from the field.

What was the main cause of increased population in the 1650s in the colonies?

Natural increase.

What made up much of the economy in the north?

New York, Pennsylvania, the Connecticut River valley were the chief suppliers of wheat to much of New England and to parts of the South. There was also a substantial commercial economy alongside the agricultural one.

What did life look like in New England?

Northern children were more likely to survive and families were more likely to remain intact. Fewer New England women became widows, and those who did generally lost their husbands later in life. Hence women were less often cast in roles independent of their husbands. Young women also had less control over the conditions of their marriage because their were fewer unmarried men vying for them and their fathers were more often alive and exercise control over their choice of husbands. Men usually depend on their fathers for land and women needed dowries from their parents if they were to attract desirable husbands.

What were the Coercive(Intolerable) Acts of 1774?

Parliament closed the port of Boston, drastically reduced colonial self-government, permitted royal officers to be tried in other colonies or in England when accused of crimes, and provided for the quartering of troops in the colonists' barns and empty houses.

What was the Declaratory Act?

Passed on the same day as the repeal of the Stamp Act, it asserted Parliament's authority over the colonies "in all cases whatsoever."

What were some causes of infection and death in the 17th and 18th century colonies?

Physicians had little or no understanding of infection and sterilization. As a result, many people died from infections contracted during childbirth or surgery from dirty instruments or dirty hands. Because communities were unaware of bacteria, many were plagued with infectious diseases transmitted by garbage or unclean water.

What was the Albany Plan?

Proposed by Ben Franklin, and the delegates tentatively approved, a plan by which Parliament would set up in America "one general government" for all the colonies. Each colony would "retain its present constitution," but would grant to the new general government such powers as the authority to govern all relations with the Indians. The central government would have a "president general" appointed and paid by the king and a legislature elected by the colonial assemblies. The plan was presented to the colonial assemblies: None approved it.

How did the Grenville ministry increase its authority in the colonies?

Regular British troops would now be stationed permanently in America; and under the Mutiny Act of 1765 the colonists were required to assist in provisioning and maintaining the army. Ships of the British navy were assigned to patrol American waters and search for smugglers. The customs service was reorganized and enlarged. Royal officials were order to take up their colonial posts in person instead of sending substitutes. Colonial manufacturing was to be restricted, so that it would not compete with the rapidly expanding industry of Great Britain.

What was the Currency Act of 1764?

Required the colonial assemblies to stop issuing paper money(a widespread practice during the war) and to retire on schedule all the paper money already in circulation.

Why did South Carolina and Georgia rely so heavily on slavery?

Rice cultivation was a task so difficult and unhealthy that white laborers generally refused to perform it. It was not only because Africans could be compelled to perform difficult work that whites found them do valuable. It was also because they were much better at it. They showed from the beginning a greater resistance to malaria and other local diseases. And they proved more adept to the basic agricultural tasks required. It was also because most Africans were more accustomed to hot and humid climates such as those of the rice-growing regions than the European were.

What prevented the Iron works in the colonies from thriving?

The Iron Act of 1750 restricted metal processing in the colonies.

What two measures did Townshend steer through Parliament in 1767?

The first disbanded the New York Assembly until the colonists agreed to obey the Mutiny (Quartering) Act. The second levied new taxes(known as the Townshend Duties) on various goods imported to the colonies from England--lead, paint, paper, and tea.

What industries started appearing in the mid-seventeenth century?

The flourishing fur trade of earlier years was in decline. Taking its place were lumbering, mining, and fishing. These industries provided commodities that could be exported to England in exchange for manufactured goods.

What was a major event in the summer of 1754?

The governor of Virginia sent a militia force(under the command of an inexperienced young colonel, George Washington) into the Ohio Valley to challenge French expansion. Washington built a crude stockade(Fort Necessity) not far from the larger French outpost, Fort Duquesne, on the site of what is now Pittsburgh. After the Virginians staged an unsuccessful attack on a French detachment, the French countered with an assault on Fort Necessity, trapping Washington and his soldiers inside. After a third of them died in the fighting, Washington surrendered. That clash marked the beginning of the French and Indian War.

What caused the growth of eighteenth-century consumerism?

The growing differences in class. The upper class who didn't have estates wanted goods to display their wealth, but the industrial revolution was also a major factor even in its early stages. Merchants hired agents to go to rural areas to try to interest wealthy people in their goods and merchants often allowed colonists to purchase items on credit.

What prevented the growth of most of the New England industries?

The inadequate labor supply, a small domestic market and inadequate transportation facilities and energy supplies.

What became of female servants who became pregnant before expiration of their terms?

They could expect harsh treatment such as heavy fines, whippings if no one could pay the fines, an extra year or two of service added to their contracts and the loss of their children after weaning.

What was the issue with the British colonies gaining more territory in 1763?

The problems of governing it became even more complex. Some argued that the empire should restrain rapid settlement in the western territories. To allow Europeans to move into the new lands too quickly, they warned, would run the risk of stirring up costly conflicts with the Indians. Restricting settlement would also keep the land available for hunting and trapping. Other colonists wanted to see the new territories opened for immediate development, but they disagreed among themselves about who should control the western lands. Colonial governments made fervent, and often conflicting, claims of jurisdiction. Others agued that control should remain in England, and that the territories should be considered entirely new colonies, unlinked to the existing settlements. They were a host of problems and pressures that the British could not ignore.

What had happened to the American assemblies by the 1750s?

They had claimed the right to levy taxes, make appropriations, approve appointments, and pass laws for their respective colonies. Their legislation was subject to veto by the governor or the Privy Council. But the assemblies had leverage over the governor through their control of the colonial budget, and they could circumvent the Privy Council by repassing disallowed laws in slightly altered form. The assemblies came to look upon themselves as little parliaments, each practically as sovereign within its colony as Parliament itself was in England.

To what extent was colonial government based out of England?

There was no colonial office in London. The nearest equivalent was the Board of Trade and Plantations, established in 1696--a mere advisory body that had little role in any actual decisions. Real authority rested in the Privy Council (the central administrative agency for the government as a whole), the admiralty, and the treasury. But those agencies were responsible for administering laws at home as well as overseas; none could concentrate on colonial affairs. To complicate matters further, there was considerable overlapping and confusion of authority among the departments.

What was the colonists' response to the suspension of the New York Assembly?

They considered this assault on the rights of one provincial government a precedent for the annihilation of the rights of all of them. The Massachusetts Assembly took the lead in opposing the new measures by circulating a letter to all the colonial governments urging them to stand up against every tax, external or internal, imposed by Parliament. At first, the circular evoked little response in some of the legislatures. Then Lord Hillsborough, secretary of state for the colonies, issued a circular letter of his own from London in which he warned that assemblies endorsing the Massachusetts letter would be dissolved. Massachusetts defiantly reaffirmed its support for the circular. The other colonies rallied to support Massachusetts.

What gave women more powerful economic and family roles in the South?

Women generally married at a younger age than men so they tended to outlive their husbands. Widows were often left with several children and with responsiblity for managing a farm or plantation, a circumstance of enormous hardship but one that also gave them significant economic power. Widows seldom remained unmarried for long. Those who had no grown sons to work the tobacco farms and plantations had particular need for male assistance and marriage was the surest way to secure it. Since many widows married men who were themselves widowers, complex combinations of households were frequent. With numerous stepchildren, half brothers and half sisters living together in a single household women often had to play peacemaker probably enhancing their authority within the family.

What did indentured servitude look like in the colonies?

Young men and women bound themselves to masters for a fixed term of servitude. In return they recieved passage to America, food, and shelter. Upon completion of their terms of service, male indentures were supposed to receive such benefits as clothing, tools, and occasionally land; in reality however, many left service without anything at all, unprepared and unequipped to begin earning livings on their own. In the seventeenth century women who came as indentured servants were domestic servants and could often expect to marry after they had finished their servitude.