Download Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes 1

Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes
Brinkley Chapters 2-3 Notes
Chapter 2:
Transplantations &
Borderlands
The Founding of Jamestown
3 ships set sail for Virginia in 1607. They reached the American coast in the spring of
1607, sailed into Chesapeake Bay and up a river they named the James
The colony was swampy and
bordered the land of local
Powhatan Indians.
Chapter 3:
Society and Culture
in Provincial America
Early colonists were susceptible
to malaria. Futile energy was
spent searching for GOLD rather
than building a permanent
settlement. No women were sent.
Within one year of landing, only
38 of the 104 settlers survived.
Jamestown survived largely as a result of Captain John Smith. Smith united the
divided colony, and imposed work and order. He organized raids on Indian villages to
steal food and kidnap natives. By the summer of 1609, the colony was showing
promise of survival.
Exchanges of Agricultural Technology
Jamestown's survival was largely a result of
agricultural technologies developed by the
Indians and borrowed by the English.
Many who reached Jamestown died from
fever before winter. The winter of
1609-1610 became known as the “starving
time”. The local Indians killed off the
livestock in the woods and kept the
colonists barricaded within their colony.
The colonists lived off what they could
find.
Indians grew beans, pumpkins, and maize. The English
quickly recognized the value of corn, which was easier to
cultivate and produced larger yields than any English
grains. They also learned the advantages of growing beans
alongside corn to enrich the soil.
Indians also introduced the canoe to colonists which was much better at navigating
the rivers and streams than large English vessls.
The Powhatans
Led by Chief Powhatan
Pocahontas Daughter
ensure peace
with English.
Bore a son,
Thomas. Died
when she was
21 in England.
When help arrived they boarded the ship and set sail for England. As the survivors
proceeded down the James, they met an English ship coming up the river – part of the
fleet bringing supplies and the colony’s first governor, Lord De La Warr. The departing
settlers agreed to return to Jamestown. The effort to turn a profit in Jamestown resumed.
Indian War of 1622
Opechancanough Brother of Powhatan
Saved!
Saw English as potential allies. Provided
them with corn. In return wanted
Arranged
hatchets, bells, beads, copper, and "two
marriage to
John Rolfe to great guns." He did not get the tribute.
Reorganization and Expansion
As Jamestown struggled to survive, the London Company (renamed the Virginia
Company) obtained a new charter from the king, which increased its power and
enlarged its territory. In the spring of 1609, the Virginia Company dispatched a fleet
of 9 vessels with about 600 people to Virginia.
Took Captain John Smith
captive.
Powhatan realized the English did not come to trade
but "to invade my people and possess my country"
when John Rolfe began to plant tobacco.
The influx of land hungry migrants and conversion-minded ministers sparked conflict
with the Indians. Relations had been relatively calm between the groups since the
marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe in 1614.
By 1618, upon the death of Chief Powhatan, relations soured. Opechancanough, began
to secretly plan the elimination of the English. In 1622, tribesmen called on the colonists
as if to offer goods for sale - then they suddenly attacked.
347 colonists died but ultimately, the Indians had to retreat. Wars would continue for
years between the two groups. In 1624, shocked by the Indian surprise, King James I
revoked the VA Co's charter and made it a royal colony.
The king and his ministers appointed the governor and a small advisory council. The
House of Burgesses remained, but all legislation had to be approved by the King's Privy
Council (group of political advisors). The king also decreed the legal establishment of
the Church of England. Therefore, Virginians had to pay taxes to support the clergy.
VA became a model for future royal colonies in America.
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Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes
Tobacco in Maryland
The Founding of Maryland
A second growing tobacco colony, with a very different
set of institutions, developed in neighboring Maryland.
King Charles I, successor of James I, was secretly
sympathetic to Catholics. In 1632 he granted the land
known as Maryland to Catholic aristocrat Cecilius
Calvert, who carried the title Lord Baltimore.
As the territorial lord (or proprietor) of Maryland, Calvert could sell, lease, or give away
the land as he pleased. He also had the authority to appoint public officials and to found
churches.
Lord Baltimore wanted Maryland to become a refuge for Catholics. Led by Leonard
Calvert, the founders of Maryland established a colony at St. Mary's City at the point
where the Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay.
Quickly after settling, the colonists demanded a representative government. To prevent
rebellion, a legislative assembly was created, which passed the Toleration Act of 1649.
This was designed to minimize religious confrontations as it allowed all Christians the
right to follow their beliefs and hold church services.
The Carolinas
King Charles II initiated new outposts in America by
authorizing 8 loyal noblemen to settle Carolina, an area
that had long been claimed by Spain and populated by
thousands of Indians.
Subsequently, he awarded the just-conquered Dutch
colony of New Netherland to his brother James, the
Duke of York (who renamed the colony New York).
Like VA, tobacco quickly became the main crop. Europeans
began to crave the nicotine in tobacco.
European demand for tobacco set off a 40 year economic
boom in the Chesapeake. Exports rose from 3 million pounds
in 1640 to 10 million pounds in 1660.
Initially, most plantations were small freeholds, owned and
farmed by families. After 1650, wealthy migrants from gentry
or noble families established large estates along the rivers.
Indentured servants and eventually African slave labor were
used to cultivate the crop.
Life in the Chesapeake
For both the rich and poor, life was harsh. The scarcity of towns deprived settlers of
community.
There were few women and marriages often ended quickly by the death of the child
bearing mother.
Orphaned children, along with unmarried young men formed a large segment of society.
60% of children in Middlesex County, Virginia lost one or both parents before they were
13 years old.
The Carolinas
The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (1669) legally established the Church of
England and prescribed a manorial system, with a mass of serfs governed by a handful
of nobles.
It was a disaster. North Carolina settlers were a mix of poor families and runaway
servants from Virginia and English Quakers who saw no difference between a
"gentlemen and a laborer"
By resisting a series of governors, they forced the proprietors to abandon their dreams of
a feudal society.
The Restoration colonies (Carolinas, NY, NJ, PA) were proprietorships. Proprietary
colonies were lands granted by the monarchy to one or more proprietors who had full
governing rights.
In South Carolina, the colonists also went their own way. The leading white settlers there
were migrants from the overcrowded sugar-producing island of Barbados, and wanted to
re-create that island's hierarchical slave society.
The Duke of York and his fellow aristocrats in Carolina owned all the land and could
rule their colonies as they wished, provided that their laws conformed broadly to those
of England. The Carolina proprietors envisioned a traditional European society.
They used enslaved workers - both Africans and Indians - to raise cattle and food crops
for export to the West Indies. Carolina merchants opened a lucrative trade in deerskins
with neighboring Indian peoples. In exchange for rum and guns, the Carolinians' Indian
trading partners also provided slaves - captives from other Native American peoples.
The Southern Economy
The Chesapeake (VA & MD): Tobacco = 1st Plantations
SC & GA: Rice
Rice cultivation was so difficult and unhealthy that
white laborers generally refused to perform it.
Slave labor was in high demand. African workers were adept at
rice cultivation, in part because some of them had come from
rice-producing regions of west Africa and accustomed to the hot,
humid climate than Europeans and had a greater immunity to
malaria.
Tobacco in Virginia
Under the leadership of its first governors, VA survived and expanded. New settlements
emerged. The colonists had military protection against the Indians and discovered a new,
marketable crop: tobacco.
1612 - John Rolfe cultivated tobacco in VA
Tobacco planting quickly expanded. Needed large
areas of land to grow b/c it exhausted the soil quickly.
Demand for land increased rapidly. Colonists
established plantations deeper into the interior,
isolating themselves from Jamestown and pushing into
Indian territory.
Dependence on large-scale cash crops produced an economy that was very agricultural based and little industry.
Trading in tobacco & rice was handled largely by merchants based in London and, later, in the northern colonies.
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Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes
Tobacco in Virginia
To entice new workers to VA, the VA Co. established the "headright system."
Headrights were 50 acre grants of land. Each new settler received a single headright
for himself or herself.
This encouraged families to migrate
together. More people = more land for
the family. The VA Co also transported
ironworkers and other skilled craftsmen
to VA to diversify the economy.
1619 - VA Co. sent 100 Englishwomen to VA to become wives. It promised male
colonists full rights of Englishmen, an end to arbitrary rule, and even a share in selfgovernment. By the end of July, delegates from various communities in VA met as
the House of Burgesses - the first elected legislature in the colonies.
Bacon's Rebellion
Falling tobacco prices signaled an imbalanced market
Falling prices also reflected the British Parliament's passage of the Navigation Acts of
1651, 1660, and 1663. Acts allowed only British or colonial ships to enter American
ports. This excluded Dutch merchants who paid the highest price for tobacco.
Acts required colonists to ship tobacco, sugar, and other "enumerated articles" only to
England, where monarchs continually raised import duties, stifiling market demand.
Colonists were forced to find a way to reduce their costs to produce tobacco.
First Africans Arrive
Late August 1619 - a Dutch ship brought in "20 and odd Negroes." Colonists 1st
thought of them as indentured servants. Initially, the use of black labor was limited.
Planters preferred European indentured servants until the 1670s.
Africans who labored did so for wealthy plantation owners as indentured servants.
They were not legally enslaved. The English Constitution did not recognize chattel
slavery - the ownership of human beings as property.
Boom and Bust Cycle
Africans were generally socially mobile
until the price of tobacco collapsed in the
1660s. Planters had to find a way to
produce tobacco cheaper - African slavery.
The other event that ushered in the use
of African slaves was Bacon's Rebellion.
Seeds of Rebellion
Despite low prices, Virginians continued to plant tobacco
because there was no other cash crop. Poor planters could
not afford their own land and became indentures or tenant
farmers.
A planter-merchant aristocracy formed as a result. They
secured grants from the royal governors, particularly from
Sir William Berkeley. Berkeley bestowed large land
grants on members of his council. The councilors
promptly exempted these lands from taxation and
appointed friends as local justices of the peace and county
judges.
To win support in the House of Burgesses, Berkeley bought off legislators with
land grants and lucrative appointments as sheriffs and tax collectors. Social
unrest erupted when Berkeley took voting rights away from landless freemen,
who constituted 1/2 of adult white men. By 1670 political representation
declined to where only free property owners could vote.
Berkeley and the Indians
In 1607 there were 35,000 Indians in the land called Virginia.
By 1675, there were 3,500 Indians left living on the fringes of
the Virginia territory.
Poor landless servants demanded that Berkeley expel or
exterminate the Indians. Aristocratic planters objected because
they wanted to prevent those poor farmers from gaining their own
land - they wanted the cheap labor. Berkeley agreed with the
aristocracy.
Fighting broke out late in 1675, when a small VA militia murdered 30 Occaneechee
Indians. Then, 1,000 militiamen surrounded a fortified Susquehannock (Iroquois) village
and killed 5 chiefs. The Indians retaliated by attacking outlying plantations and killing
300 colonists.
Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy landowner living on the frontier, asked governor Berkeley to
grant him a military commission. Berkeley refused. As a result, Bacon mobilized his
neighbors and attacked any Indians he could find.
Bacon and the Indians
Nathaniel Bacon emerged as the leader of the rebels. Bacon
had a position on the governor's council, but he owned a
frontier estate, & differed with Berkeley on Indian policy.
After Bacon mobilized his neighbors and attacked
Indians, Berkeley expelled Bacon from the council and
had him arrested. But Bacon's army forced the governor
to release Bacon and hold legislative elections.
The newly elected House of Burgesses enacted far-reaching political reforms that
not only curbed the powers of the governor and council but also restored voting
rights to landless freemen. The reforms though, came too late.
Backed by over 400 men, Bacon issued a "Manifesto and Declaration of the
People" that demanded the death or removal of the Indians and an end to the rule of
wealthy planters.
Bacon moved his army to Jamestown and burned the plantations of Berkeley's allies.
Bacon then died suddenly of dysentery in 1676 and Berkeley took revenge. He dispersed
the militia, seized the estates of wealthy men in the militia, and hanged 23 men.
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Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes
Impact of Bacon's Rebellion
After Bacon's Rebellion, wealthy planters retained
their dominance by curbing corruption and
appointing ambitious young farmers to public office.
They appeased these yeoman and tenants by cutting
taxes and expelling the Susquehannocks,
Piscataways, and other Indian peoples from the
region.
Rise of the Southern Gentry
As time passed, planters began to model themselves after the English aristocracy - to
act like a gentlemen.
Cultivating gentility - a refined but elaborate lifestyle - they replaced their wooden
houses with mansions of brick and mortar. They filled their homes with furniture and
rugs.
They educated their sons in London as lawyers and gentlemen. They expected their sons
to return to America, marry local heiresses, and assume their fathers' roles: managing
plantations, socializing with fellow gentry, and running the political system.
Wealthy southern women likewise emulated the English elite. They read English
newspapers and fashion magazines, wore the finest English clothes, dined in English
fashions, and drank elaborate afternoon tea.
Most important, wealthy planters
forestalled another rebellion by poor
whites by cutting the use of
indentured servants and instead
importing thousands of African
laborers; the Burgesses explicitly
legalized chattel slavery in 1705.
To enhance their daughters' gentility and improve their marriage prospects, parents hired
English tutors. Once married, planter women deferred to their husbands, reared pious
children, and maintained elaborate social networks, in time creating a new ideal: the
southern gentlewoman. Using the profits of slave labor, wealthy planters formed an
increasingly well-educated, refined, and stable ruling class.
Rise of the Southern Gentry
Wealthy elite plantation owners were never accepted into the English aristocracy
Feeling inferior, they used their wealth to rule over white yeomen families and tenant
farmers but also relied on violence to exploit slaves. To prevent uprisings like Bacon's
Rebellion, the Chesapeake gentry found ways to assist middling and poor whites.
They gradually lowered taxes and encouraged small
landowners to improve their lot by using slave labor.
By 1770, 60% of English families in the Chesapeake
owned at least one slave.
Planters now allowed poor yeomen and some tenants to
vote. The strategy of the leading wealthy families was to
bribe these voters with rum, money, and the promise of
minor offices in county governments.
In return, they expected the yeomen and the tenants to elect them to office and defer
to their rule. This solidified the power of the planter elite, which used its control of
the House of Burgesses to limit the power of the royal governor.
Sugar
Sugar transformed Barbados and other islands into slave-based plantation societies.
To provide raw sugar for refineries in Amsterdam, Dutch merchants provided English
planters with money to buy land, sugar-processing equipment, and slaves.
By 1680, an elite group of 175 planters dominated the Barbados's
economy. They owned more than 1/2 of the island and 1/2 of the
50,000 slaves on the island. As social inequality and racial
conflict increased, hundreds of English farmers fled to South
Carolina and Jamaica.
Sugar was a rich man's crop because it could be produced most
efficiently on large plantations. Scores of slaves planted and
cut the sugarcane, which was then processed by expensive
equipment into raw sugar, molasses, and rum.
The South Atlantic System brought wealth to the entire European economy and
helped Europeans achieve world economic leadership. The Navigation Acts kept the
British sugar trade in the hands of British merchants, who exported it to foreign
markets. Enormous profits also flowed into Britain from the slave trade.
The Imperial Slave Economy
The South Atlantic System had its center in Brazil and the West Indies, and sugar was
its primary product. European merchants, investors, and planters garnered the profits of
the South Atlantic System.
Following mercantilist principles, they
provided the plantations with tools and
equipment to grow and process the
sugarcane and ships to carry it to
Europe. But it was the Atlantic slave
trade that made the system run.
Between 1520-1650, Portuguese traders carried about 820,000 Africans across the
Atlantic. Over the next half century, the Dutch dominated the Atlantic slave trade;
then, between 1700-1800, the British transported about 2.5 million of the 6.1
million Africans to the Americas.
Africans and the Slave Trade
Hundreds of thousands of young Africans died and millions more endured a brutal
life in the Americas. Africans sold into the South Atlantic system suffered the
bleakest fate.
Torn from their villages, they were marched in
chains to coastal ports, their first passage in
slavery. Then, they endured the perilous "Middle
Passage" to the New World in hideously
overcrowded ships. The captives had little to eat or
drink and some died from from dehydration.
About 14% died from illness or
starvation on the passage. Life on
the sugar plantations in Brazil and
the West Indies was one of
relentless exploitation. With sugar
prices high & cost of slaves low,
many planters simply worked their
slaves to death & then bought more.
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Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes
Slavery in the Chesapeake and South Carolina
Masters and Slaves on the Plantation
After Bacon's rebellion, wealthy planters took advantage of the expansion of Britain's
slave trade and bought more Africans putting these slaves to work on even larger
plantations.
By 1720, Africans made up 20% of the Chesapeake population. Slavery had become a
core institution, no longer just one of several forms of unfree labor. Moreover, slavery
was now defined in racial terms. The VA legislators defined virtually all resident
Africans as slaves.
Slaves in the Chesapeake had much better conditions that those in the West Indies.
Tobacco was less labor intensive than sugar, the climate was more temperate, diseases
did not spread as rapid, and profits from tobacco were less than sugar and slaves were
not treated as harsh as a result.
17th century colonial plantations were rough and relatively small. In the early days in VA, they were little
more than crude clearings where landowners and indentureds worked side by side.
Most landowners lived in rough cabins or houses with their servants and slaves nearby. The plantation economy
was precarious. Planters could not control their markets, so even the largest plantations were constantly at risk.
Plantation economy created many new wealthy landowners but also destroyed many. Enslaved Africans on
smaller farms did not always live separately. They were more closely watched by the owner and unable to form
close relationships with other slaves. Sometimes though, they were able to learn some skills from their owners.
Most slaves were imported to the North American colonies by the Royal
African Company of London. Company started by establishing trade
along the West Coast of Africa (Guinea).
By 1680, they expanded to the slave trade,
transporting 5,000 slaves a year across the
Atlantic. From 1672-1689 they transported
90,000 - 100,000 slaves. In 1697, rival
traders broke the RAC monopoly. Trade was
now open to competition.
Slaves in SC labored under more oppressive conditions. The colony grew slowly until
planters began to grow rice. Most rice plantations lay in inland swamps, and cultivation
was dangerous and exhausting. Mosquitos transmitted diseases. Many died from the
spread of disease and exhaustion.
Masters and Slaves on the Plantation
Masters and Slaves on the Plantation
By 1700, there were 25,000 slaves in the British North American colonies. In some areas, Africans
outnumbered whites and there were more than twice the number of African men than women. By 1760,
there were 250,000 slaves in the colonies.
Slaves on larger plantations (10 or more
slaves) were able to develop a society and
culture of their own. Although whites seldom
encouraged formal marriages among slaves,
blacks themselves developed a strong and
elaborate family structure.
Black society was subject to constant intrusions from and interaction with white society.
Black house servants were isolated from their won community.
Boone Hall
Plantation and
Slave Cabin in
SC
There was also a distinctive slave religion, which blended Christianity
with African folklore and which became a central element in the
emergence of an independent black culture. Some slaves were
influenced by the Great Awakening and converted to Christianity.
Black women were subject to unwanted sexual advanced
from the owners and hence to bearing mulatto children
who were rarely recognized by their white fathers.
Resistance and Accommodation
Most slaves were denied opportunities to gain an education, accumulate material
possessions, or create associations.
Slaves who challenged these boundaries did so at
their own peril. The extent of white violence often
depended on the size and density of the slave
population. The larger the labor force, the more
cruel the master was.
Slaves were prohibited from leaving the
plantation without special passes. Masters
called on poor whites to patrol the area at night.
Running away provided no real solution either. For most, there was nowhere to go.
Slaves often passively resisted by working slowly, stealing small items from the owner,
or breaking their master's tools.
Rarely did revolts occur but when they did, they sent a shockwave through the white
community.
Stono Rebellion
In rare instances slaves resisted their masters in large ways. The most serious example in the colonial period
was the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739.
The Catholic governor of Florida
instigated the revolt by promising
freedom to fugitive slaves.
By February, 1739, at least 70 slaves
escaped to St. Augustine and rumors
circulated that a conspiracy of slaves
were to rise and flee to Florida.
100 slaves rose up, seized weapons, killed about 2 whites,
and attempted to escape south to Florida.
White militia executed many of the Stono rebels,
preventing a general uprising. Frightened whites cut
slave imports and tightened plantation discipline
(slave codes).
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Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes
The Pilgrims
Pilgrims - Separatists who broke from the Church of England.
They felt the Church of England was beyond reform. They
demanded the formation of new, separate church congregations.
The Puritans
Puritans - English Protestants who believed the English Reformation did not go
far enough - there was too much Catholic presence left in the Anglican Church.
Because they opposed the Church, they also opposed the King.
In 1630, they set sail for America. Their goal
was to use the Anglican Church values as the
basis of their Protestant religion in America, but
they were going to reform the church further.
Pilgrims sailed to America in 1620 on the Mayflower, led by
William Bradford. They settled in Plymouth, near Cape Cod in
southern MA. Only half of the Pilgrims who landed survived
the first winter. Thereafter, the colony thrived. Religious
discipline encouraged a strong work ethic.
They faced few threats from the Wampanoag Indians as
small pox killed many of them. They built solid houses
and planted ample crops.
To ensure political stability, they issued a written legal
code (Mayflower Compact) providing for representative
self-government, broad political rights, property
ownership, and religious freedom of conscience.
Massachusetts Bay Colony
John Winthrop became the 1st governor of the MA Bay Colony.
"We must consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill. The
eyes of all people are upon us."
If they created a genuinely "New" England, they could inspire
religious reform throughout Christendom.
Winthrop and his associates (shareholders) transformed their
joint-stock corporation into a representative political system with
a governor, council, and assembly.
To ensure rule by the godly, the Puritans limited the right to vote and hold office to
men who were church members.
Rejected Plymouth colony's policy of religious toleration. Established
Puritanism as the state-supported religion. Bible was the legal guide. THEOCRACY
Placed power in the congregation of members - hence the name
Congregationalist for their churches.
Faith was the key to salvation. The spiritual health and welfare of a community as a
whole was paramount. The integrity of the community demanded religious
conformity.
They set sail on the
Arabella, led by John
Winthrop. They established
the Massachusetts Bay
Colony in a town they
named Boston.
They believed they were liberated by God from
oppression & bound to him by a covenant. They
believed God chose them to fulfill a special role - to
establish a new, pure Christian Commonwealth. A
"City Upon a Hill."
The Puritan Community
The characteristic social unit in New England was the city. In the early years of colonization, each new
settlement drew up a "covenant" binding all residents tightly together both religiously and socially.
Colonists laid out a village, with houses and a meetinghouse
arranged around a central pasture, or "common." Thus,
families generally lived with their neighbors close by.
Divided the outlying fields and woodlands among the
residents. Size and location of a family's field depended on
the family's numbers, wealth, and social status. Once a town
was established, residents held a yearly "town meeting" to
decide important questions and to choose a group of
"selectmen," who ran the town's affairs.
Participation in the meeting was generally restricted to adult males who were members of the church. Only
those who could give evidence of being among the elect assured of salvation ("visible saints") were
admitted to full church membership even though all residents were required to attend church services.
The Puritan Community
Roger Williams
New Englanders did not adopt primogeniture. A father divided up his land among all his sons. His control of
this inheritance gave him great power over the family.
MA Bay officials purged their society of religious dissidents. Roger Williams, a
minister in Salem, opposed the decision to establish Congregationalism as the official
religion and praised the Pilgrims' separation of church and state.
Often a son would reach his late 20s before his father would allow him to move into his own household and
work his own land. Even then, sons would usually continue to live in close proximity to their fathers.
He advocated toleration, arguing that
political magistrates had authority over only
the outward lives of men - not their spiritual
lives. He also questioned the Puritans'
seizure of Indian lands.
The early Puritan community was tightly knit. Yet as the years passed and communities grew, strains and
tensions began to affect the communal structure. This was partly because of the increasing commercialization of
New England society. It was also partly because of population growth.
As towns grew larger, residents tended to cultivate lands farther and farther from the community center and, by
necessity, to live at increasing distances from the church. In the first generations, fathers generally controlled
enough land to satisfy the needs of all their sons.
After several generations, there was often too little room to expand outward and many younger residents broke
off and moved elsewhere to form towns of their own.
The magistrates banished him from the
colony in 1636. Williams and his followers
settled south of Boston, founding the town
of Providence on land purchased from the
Narragansett Indians.
In 1644 they obtained a corporate charter from Parliament for a new colony called
Rhode Island. They had full authority to rule themselves. There was no legally
established church and individuals could worship God as they pleased.
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Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes
Anne Hutchinson
The MA Bay magistrates saw a second threat to their authority in
Anne Hutchinson. Hutchinson held weekly prayer meetings for
women and accused various clergymen of placing undue emphasis
on good behavior.
She believed in antinomianism - She denied that salvation could
be earned only through good deeds. She believed God revealed
divine truth directly to individual believers. She insisted that
faith alone was enough to achieve salvation.
Puritan magistrates denounced her as heretical upon trial and banished her to Rhode
Island.
Hutchinson moved often after settling in Rhode Island due to constant threats from
the MA Bay Colony. Her final settlement was in New Netherland. She and her
family were massacred by Siwanoy Indians (Narranganset) in Kieft's War in August
1646.
Puritans and Witchcraft
Puritans believed that they physical world was full of
supernatural forces.
Devout Puritans saw signs of God and Satan's power in stars,
birth defects, and other unusual events. These unexplained events
often led to accusations of witchcraft.
The most dramatic episode of witch-hunting occurred in
Salem, MA in 1692. Several girls who had experienced
strange seizures accused neighbors of bewitching them.
When judges at the accused witches' trial used "spectral"
evidence - visions of evil beings and marks seen only by
the girls - the accusations spun out of control.
MA Bay officials tried 175 people for witchcraft and
executed 19 of them. As a result of the number of deaths,
government officials now discouraged legal prosecutions
for witchcraft. Moreover, many influential people
embraced the outlook of the European Enlightenment.
Metacom's War
The Wampanoag Indians could never gain favor with the Puritans. To the Wampanoag
Chief, Metacom, prospects for coexistence looked dim.
When the Indians copied English ways, raised hogs and sold the pork in Boston, they
were accused of undercutting prices and restricted their trade. When Indians killed
wandering hogs that devastated their cornfields, Puritan authorities prosecuted them for
violating English property rights.
As a result, Metacom concluded that the Europeans had to be expelled. In 1675,
Metacom forged a military alliance with the Narragansetts and Nipmucks and attacked
white settlements throughout New England.
Thomas Hooker
Strict religious policies led others to leave the MA Bay
colony. Thomas Hooker and his congregation established the
town of Hartford.
In 1660, they secured a charter from King Charles II for
the self-governing colony of Connecticut.
Like MA, Connecticut had a
legally established church and
an elected governor and
assembly. However, it granted
voting rights to most propertyowing men, not just to church
members.
The Puritans and the Pequot Indians
Believing they were God's chosen people, the Puritans often treated Native
Americans with a brutality equal to that of the Spanish conquistadors and Nathaniel
Bacon's frontiersmen.
When Pequot warriors resisted English
encroachment onto their Connecticut River Valley
lands in 1636, a Puritan militia attacked a Pequot
Village and massacred 500 people.
English Puritans saw the Indians as
"savages" who were culturally, though not
racially, inferior. Some Puritans tried to
convert the Indians to Christianity. Very
few Indians converted.
Pennsylvania
The Quakers who settled Pennsylvania were pacifists & sought
peace with the Indians. The colony quickly prospered.
1681, Charles II bestowed PA on William Penn as payment for a
large debt owed to Penn's father. Penn, wealthy but also a
Quaker (condemned excessive wealth), designed PA as a refuge
for fellow persecuted Quakers.
Quakers sought to restore Christianity to its early simple spirituality. They rejected the
Puritans' pessimistic Calvinist doctrines, restricting salvation to a small elect. Quakers
believed God infused both men and women with an inner light of grace or
understanding. Quakers did not believe in gender inequality.
Bitter fighting continued into 1676 as the Indians exploited their strategic control of
large tracts of territory and most of the rivers. It ended only when the Indian warriors ran
short of gunpowder and the MA Bay government hired Mohegan and Mohawk warriors
who killed Metacom.
Women could serve as ministers. Penn ensured religious freedom by prohibiting a
legally established church & promoted political equality by allowing all propertyowing men to vote and hold office.
Metacom's War (King Philip's War) was deadly. The Indians destroyed 1/5 of the English
towns in MA and RI and killed 1,000 settlers. But the natives' losses - from famine and
disease, death in battle, and sale into slavery - were much larger. About 4,500 died.
To attract European Protestants, Penn published pamphlets in Germany promising cheap
land and religious toleration. Ethnic diversity, pacifism, and freedom of conscience
made PA the most open and democratic of the Restoration Colonies.
7
Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes
The Colonial Population
The Chesapeake Population
Although immigration remained for a time the most important long-range factor in the increase of the colonial
population growth, the most important long-range factor in the increase of the colonial population was its
ability to reproduce itself.
The New England population more than quadrupled through reproduction alone in the second half of the 17th
century.
Further, life
expectancy in New
England was
unexpectedly high.
Conditions improved much slower in the South. High
death rates in the Chesapeake did not begin to decline to
levels found elsewhere until the mid-18th century.
Throughout the 17th century, the average life expectancy
for European men in the region was just over 40 years,
and for women slightly less.
Only after settlers developed immunity to local diseases
(malaria) did life expectancy increase significantly.
Population growth was substantial in the region, but
largely a result of immigration.
Women in the Chesapeake
Women in New England
Patriarchal Puritanism
The longer lifespan in New England meant that parents continued to control their children longer than did
parents in the South.
The average woman in America married for
the first time at 20-21. Women in the
Chesapeake could anticipate a life consumed
with child bearing.
The average wife experienced pregnancies
every 2 years. Those who lived long enough
bore up to 8 children and typically lost five in
infancy or early childhood.
Family structure was much more stable in New
England. The sex ratio was more balanced, so most
men could expect to marry.
Women married young, began producing children
early, and continued to do so well into their 30s.
Northern children were more likely to survive, and
their families were more likely to remain intact.
Fewer women became widows, and those who did
generally lost their husbands later in life.
Changing Sources of European Immigration
North America was home to a substantial
population of natives, imported Africans, and
immigrants.
The SW region of Germany, Palatine, saw 12,000
Germans flee to Pennsylvania where they
became known as Pennsylvania Dutch.
Other German immigrants headed
to PA also: the Moravians and
Mennonites.
Few sons and daughters could choose a spouse entirely independently of their parents' wishes. Men tended to
rely on their fathers to cultivate.
Women needed dowries from their parents if they were to attract desirable husbands. Stricter parental
supervision of children meant, too, that fewer women became pregnant before marriage than was the case in
the South.
Puritanism placed a high value on the family, and the position of wife and mother was highly valued in Puritan
culture.
At the same time, however, Puritanism served to reinforce the idea of nearly absolute male authority. A wife was
expected to devote herself almost entirely to serving the needs of her husband and the family economy.
The Navigation Acts
English merchants wanted the colonies to produce agricultural goods and raw
materials for English merchants to carry to England. Certain products would then be
exported immediately to Europe in return for gold or goods. Other imports would be
manufactured into finished products and then exported.
The Navigation Act of 1651
attempted to keep colonial trade
in English hands by excluding
Dutch and French vessels from
American ports. The Act also
required that goods be carried
only on ships owned by English
or colonial merchants.
8
Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes
The Navigation Acts
New Parliamentary acts in 1660 and 1663 strengthened the ban on foreign traders,
requiring colonists to export sugar and tobacco only to England, and mandating that
colonists import European goods only through England. The English government backed
these policies with naval force attacking Dutch ships along the African coast.
Many colonists ignored the
mercantilist laws and continued to
trade with Dutch merchants. They
also imported sugar and molasses
from the French West Indies.
Outraged, England denied the claim
of MA Bay to New Hampshire and
eventually established a separate
royal colony there.
England went further to annul the MA Bay charter by charging the Puritan government
with violating the Navigation Acts and virtually outlawing the Church of England.
Northern Economic & Technological Life
Agriculture dominated the North as in the South but it was more diverse. Colder weather and hard, rocky
soil made it difficult for colonists to develop large-scale farming.
NY, PA, and CT grew wheat and were the chief suppliers to the rest of the colonies. A substantial commercial
economy emerged alongside the agricultural one.
Almost every colonist engaged in a certain amount of industry at home. Occasionally these home industries
provided families with surplus goods they could trade or sell.
Beyond these domestic efforts, craftsmen and artisans established themselves in colonial towns as cobblers,
blacksmiths, riflemakers, cabinetmakers, silversmiths, and printers.
In some areas, entrepreneurs harnessed water power to run small mills for grinding grain, processing cloth, or
milling lumber. And in several places, large-scale shipbuilding operations began to flourish.
The Extent and Limits of Technology
Despite the technological progress that was occurring much of colonial society was conspicuously lacking in
even very basic technological capacities. Up to 1/2 of the farmers were so primitively equipped that they did
not even own a plow.
Substantial numbers of households owned no pots or kettles for cooking. And only about half the households in
the colonies owned guns or rifles. Most Americans were too poor to own them.
Many households had few if any candles because they were unable to afford candle molds. Very few farmers
owned wagons. The most commonly owned tool in America was the axe.
Few colonists were self-sufficient in the late 17th century. Few families owned spinning wheels or looms, which
suggests that most people purchased whatever yarn and cloth they needed.
Most farmers who grew grain took it to centralized facilities for processing. The ability of people to acquire
manufactured implements lagged far behind the economy's capacity to produce them.
The Northern Maritime Economy
The sugar economy linked Britain's entire Atlantic empire. In return for the sugar they sent to
England, West Indian planters received credit - in the form of bills of exchange - from London
merchants.
The planters used the bills to buy slaves from
Africa & to pay North American farmers and
merchants for their provisions and shipping
services. The mainland colonists then
exchanged the bills for British manufactures,
primarily textiles and iron goods.
West Indian trade created the first
American merchant fortunes and the first
urban industries. Merchants in Boston,
Philadelphia, and New York invested their
profits in new ships; some set up
Merchants in Salem and other small ports built a
manufacturing enterprises, including
major fishing industry by selling salted mackerel
refineries that produced raw sugar into
and cod to the sugar islands and to southern Europe.
finished loaves. Some distilleries turned
Sawmills in New Hampshire provided low-cost
molasses into rum.
wood for homes, warehouses, and shipbuilding.
Colonial Artisans and Entrepreneurs
The first effort to establish a significant metals industry in the colonies
was an ironworks established in Raynham and Saugus, MA in the 1640s.
Metalworks gradually became an important part of the colonial economy.
That said, they did not become as explosive as the growth in Great Britain
because of English parliamentary regulations such as the Iron Act of 1750
that limited the manufacture of woolen, hats, and other goods.
Other reasons the colonies saw limited manufacturing growth
was because of a lack of labor supply, a small domestic
market, and inadequate transportation facilities and energy
supplies.
Other industries emerged due to the large quantities of natural
resources in North America: lumber, fur trade, mining, fishing,
and ship building.
The Rise of Colonial Commerce
Colonial merchants had no gold & had to rely on barter or money substitutes like beaver skins. Colonists lacked
information about supply and demand and had no way of knowing of what was in foreign ports.
There was also an enormous number of small, fiercely
competitive companies, which made the problem of
rationalizing the system even more acute. Nevertheless,
commerce in the colonies survived and grew.
There was elaborate trade within the triangular trade
systems. Out of the trade emerged a group of adventurous
entrepreneurs who by the mid 18th century were beginning
to constitute a distinct merchant class.
The Navigation Acts protected them from foreign competition in the colonies. They had ready access to the
market in England for such colonial products as furs, timber, and American built ships.
But they also developed markets illegally outside the British Empire - in the French, Spanish, and Dutch West
Indies - where they could often get higher prices for their goods than in the British colonies.
9
Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes
The Rise of Consumerism
Growing prosperity & commercialism created new appetites & opportunities to
satisfy them. Result: growing preoccupation with consuming material goods and
the quality of a person's home, possessions and clothing .
As the class gap widened, the wealthy became more intent on demonstrating
their membership in the upper ranks of society.
The ability to purchase and display consumer goods was a way of flaunting
wealth, particularly in cities that did not have large properties to boast their
success. This was also in part due to the Industrial Revolution in England
making products in America more affordable.
Cities
In the 1770s the two largest cities in the colonies were New York City and Philadelphia.
Cities served as trading centers for the farmers of their regions and as ports for international commerce. Their
leaders were generally merchants who had acquired substantial wealth.
More than in any other area of colonial life, social distinctions were real and visible. Cities were the centers of
what industry existed in the colonies. They were the locations of the most advanced schools and sophisticated
cultural activities and of shops where imported goods could be bought.
Cities were the places where new
ideas could circulate and be
discussed. There were newspapers,
books, and other publications from
abroad, and hence new intellectual
influences.
To facilitate consumer appetites, merchants and traders advertised their goods in
journals and newspapers.
Agents of urban merchants - (traveling salesman) - fanned out through the countryside, to sell luxury goods now
available.
The taverns and coffee houses of
cities provided forums in which
people could gather and debate the
issues of the day.
Products once considered luxuries quickly came to be seen as necessities once readily available: tea, linens, glassware,
manufactured cutlery, crockery, furniture, etc.
The idea of the cultivated "gentlemen" & the gracious "lady" became more powerful throughout the 18th century.
Dominion of New England
The Puritans' troubles worsened with the ascension of
James II to the throne. He was aggressive and inflexible.
He imposed strict royal control on the colonies.
In 1686, he revoked the corporate charters of CT &
RI and merged them with MA Bay and Plymouth
colonies to to form a new royal province, the
Dominion of New England. He appointed Sir
Edmund Andros as governor of the Dominion.
The Dominion extended to America the authoritarian
model of colonial rule that the English government
imposed on Catholic Ireland. James ordered Andros to
abolish any existing legislative assemblies.
In MA, Andros banned town meetings, angering villagers who prized local self-rule;
and advocated worship in the Church of England, offending Puritan
Congregationalists.
Rebellions in America
The Glorious Revolution sparked rebellions by
Protestant colonists in MA, MD, and NY.
In 1688, James' wife gave birth to a son, raising the prospect of a Catholic heir to the
throne. To forestall that outcome, Protestant bishops and parliamentary leaders in the
Whig Party led a quick bloodless coup known as the Glorious Revolution.
The bishops and Whigs forced James into exile and in 1689 enthroned Mary, his
Protestant daughter by his first wife, and her Dutch Protestant husband, William of
Orange. Whig politicians forced King William and Queen Mary to accept the
Declaration of Rights, creating a constitutional monarchy that enhanced the powers of
the House of Commons at the expense of the crown.
The Whigs wanted political power, especially the power to levy taxes. To justify their
coup, the members of Parliament relied on political philosopher John Locke. In his Two
Treatises on Government (1690), Locke rejected divine right, arguing that the legitimacy
of government rests on the consent of the governed and that individuals have inalienable
natural rights to life, liberty, and property.
Rebellions in America
In NY, Jacob Leisler led the rebellion against the Dominion
of New England. Leisler was the leader of the Dutch
Protestant artisans in New York City, who welcomed the
succession of Queen Mary and her Dutch husband.
When news of the coup reached Boston in April
1689, Puritan leaders and 2,000 militiamen seized
Governor Andros, accused him of Catholic
sympathies, and shipped him back to England.
The new monarchs dissolved
the Dominion. However,
they refused to restore the
old Puritan-dominated
government of MA Bay,
instead creating in 1692 a
new royal colony, which
included Plymouth and
Maine.
The Glorious Revolution
James II also angered English political leaders. The king revoked the charters of
English towns, rejected the advice of Parliament, and aroused popular opposition by
openly practicing Roman Catholicism.
The Glorious Revolution of
1688-1689 began a new, nonauthoritarian political era in
both England and America.
England imposed only a few laws
and taxes on the North American
settlements, allowed rule by local
elites, and encouraged English
merchants to develop them as
sources of trade.
Led by Leisler, the Dutch militia ousted Lieutenant Governor
Nicholson, an Andros appointee and an alleged Catholic
sympathizer. Initially, Leisler had vast support. However,
Leisler's denunciations of political rivals alienated many
English speaking New Yorkers.
When Leisler imprisoned 40 of his politcal opponents, imposed new taxes, and
championed the artisans' cause, the prominent Dutch merchants who had
traditionally controlled the city's government condemned his rule.
The newly appointed governor Colonel Henry Sloughter had Leisler arrested and
tried for treason. He was convicted and hanged.
10
Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes
Rise of Colonial Assemblies
After the Glorious Revolution in England of 1688-1689 representative assemblies
in America copied the English Whigs and limited the powers of crown officials.
The legislatures gradually took control taxation
and appointments. Leading the assemblies were
the colonial elite. Although most propertyowing white men could vote, only men of
wealth and status stood for election.
Yet, purposeful crowd actions were a fact of colonial life. Mobs closed
prostitution houses and ran people with infectious diseases out of town. Popular
discontent combined with growing authority of the colonial assemblies created a
political system that was broadly responsive to popular pressure and increasingly
resistant to British control.
George Whitefield, a powerful open-air preacher from
England, made several evangelizing tours through the
colonies and drew tremendous crowds.
The outstanding preacher of the First Great
Awakening was the New England Congregationalist
Jonathan Edwards. Edwards attacked the new
doctrines of easy salvation for all. He preached
anew the traditional Puritan ideas of the absolute
sovereignty of God, predestination, and salvation
by God's grace alone. His vivid descriptions of hell
could terrify his listeners.
His Great Awakening led to the division of
existing congregations "Old Lights" and "New
Light" revivalists. Some of the revivalists
denounced book learning as a hinderance to
salvation.
Other evangelists saw education as a means of furthering religion, and they founded or led schools for the
training of New Light ministers.
The Great Awakening
The Great Awakening
By the early 18th century, similar concerns were emerging elsewhere in the colonies. The result was the
First Great Awakening which began in 1730 and reached its peak in the 1740s.
By the beginning of the 18th century, some Americans were growing troubled by
the apparent decline in religious piety in their society.
The movement of the population westward and the wide scattering of settlements
caused many communities to lose touch with organized in urban areas.
The revival had particular appeal to women (who
constituted the majority of converts) and to younger sons
of the 3rd or 4th generation of settlers - those who stood
to inherit the least land and who faced the most
uncertain futures.
The rhetoric of the revival
emphasized the potential for
every person to break away
from the constraints of the
past and start anew in his or
her relationship with God.
The Great Awakening
Progress of science and free thought caused some colonists to doubt traditional
religious beliefs. Concerns about weakening piety surfaced as early as the 1660s
in New England, where the Puritan oligarchy warned of a decline in the power of
the church.
Powerful evangelists from England helped
spread the revival. John and Charles
Wesley, the founders of Methodism, visited
GA and other colonies in the 1730s.
The Enlightenment
The Great Awakening caused one great upheaval in the colonies. The Enlightenment caused another, very
different one.
The Enlightenment was the product of some of the great scientific and intellectual discoveries in Europe in the
17th century - discoveries that revealed the "natural laws" that regulated the workings of nature.
Ministers preached sermons of despair - jeremiads deploring the signs of waning piety. By the standards of
other societies or other eras, the Puritan faith remained
remarkably strong.
To New Englanders, the decline of religious piety was a
serious problem.
Literacy and Technology
White male Americans achieved a high degree of literacy in the 18th century. By the
time of the Revolution, well over 1/2 of all white men could read and write. The
literacy rate for women lagged until the 19th century.
The new scientific knowledge encouraged many thinkers to begin celebrating the power of human reason and to
argue rational thought, nor just religious faith, could create progress and advance knowledge in the world.
The Enlightenment encouraged people to look at themselves and their own intellect - not just to God - for
guidance as to how to live their lives and shape their societies. It helped produce growing interest in education
and a heightened concern with politics and government.
In the early 17th century, Enlightenment ideas in America were largely borrowed from Europe - from such great
thinkers as Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Rene Descartes. Americans such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine,
Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison made their own important contributions to Enlightenment thought.
The large number of colonists who could read created a market for the first widely circulated publications in
America other than the Bible: almanacs. By 1700, there were dozens, perhaps hundreds, of almanacs circulating
throughout the colonies and even in the sparsely settled lands to the west. Most families had at least one.
11
Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes
Literacy and Technology
Education
Almanacs provided medical advice, navigational and agricultural information, practical wisdom, humor, and
predictions about the weather. The most famous almanac produced was Poor Richard's Almanac, published by
Benjamin Franklin.
Even before Enlightenment ideas penetrated America, colonists placed a high value on formal education.
Some families tried to teach their children to read and write at home, although the heavy burden of work in
most agricultural households limited the time available for schooling.
The wide availability of reading material in colonial America by the 18th century was a result of the spread of
printing technology. The first printing press began operating in the colonies in 1639 and by 1695 there were
more towns in America with printers than there were in England. As literacy rates rose, demand for printed
material rose, and demand for the printing press as well.
In MA, a 1647 law required that every town support a school - a modest network of public schools emerged as a
result.
The first newspaper in the colonies, Publick Occurrences
was published in Boston in 1690. It was the first step
toward what would eventually become a large newspaper
industry.
The Quakers and other sects operated church schools, and in some communities women operated "dame
schools." African Americans had virtually no access to education.
Occasionally a master or mistress would teach slave children to read and write; but as the slave system became
more legal sanctions developed to discourage those efforts.
The first universities: Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, and Princeton were founded to teach the ministry.
Columbia and Penn were secular. Penn will later establish the 1st medical school.
Medicine in the Colonies
Physicians had little or no understanding of infection and sterilization. As a result,
many people died from infections contracted during childbirth or surgery.
Many communities were plagued with infectious diseases transmitted by
garbage or unclean water. Most people practiced medicine with no knowledge.
Women established themselves as midwives. Physicians and midwives practiced
medicine on the prevailing assumption of the time of "humoralism" popularized
by the Roman physician, Galen.
Galen argued the human body was governed by four "humors" that were lodged
in the body: yellow bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm.
In a healthy body, the four humors existed in balance. Illness represented an
imbalance and as a result, bleeding a patient seemed to rid the body of the
excess humor.
Concepts of Law and Politics
The Spread of Science
The clearest indication of the spreading influence of the Enlightenment in America was an increasing interest
in scientific knowledge.
The high value that influential Americans were beginning to place on the scientific knowledge was clearly
demonstrated by the most daring and controversial scientific experiment of the 18th century: inoculation against
smallpox.
The Puritan theologian Cotton Mather learned of experiments in England where
people had been deliberately infected with mild cases of smallpox in order to
immunize them against the deadly disease.
Despite strong opposition, he urged
inoculation on his fellow Bostonians
during an epidemic in the 1720s. The
results confirmed the effectiveness of
the technique.
Concepts of Law and Politics
Although the American legal system adopted most
elements of of the English system, including the right to
trial by jury, significant differences developed in court
procedures, punishments, and the definition of crimes.
More significant for the future relationship between the colonies and England were differences emerging
between the America and British political systems.
In England, a printed attack on a public official, whether
true or false, was considered libelous.
Because the royal government was so far away, Americans created a group of institutions of their own that gave
them a large measure of self-government.
German Immigrant John Peter Zenger published the New York
Weekly Journal. The anonymous authors published editorials
accusing the royal governor of NY William S. Cosby, of rigging
elections, allowing the French to explore the NY Harbor, and
went so far as to call him an "idiot." Zenger was arrested and
charged with libel. He refused to give up the authors' names.
At his trial in 1734-1735 the courts ruled that criticisms of the
government were not libelous if factually true - a verdict that
removed some colonial restrictions on the freedom of press. A
prized freedom seen in the 1st Amendment.
In most colonies, local communities grew accustomed to running their own affairs with minimal interference
from higher authorities.
The result was that the provincial governments in the colonies became accustomed to acting more or less
independently of Parliament and a set of assumptions and expectations about the rights of the colonists took
hold in America that was not shared by policymakers in England.
12
Brinkley, Chapters 2-3 Notes
Salutary Neglect
British colonial policy during the reigns of King George I (1714-1727) and
George II (1727-1760) allowed the rise of American self-government.
Royal bureaucrats, pleased by growing trade and
import duties, relaxed their supervision of internal
colonial affairs.
In 1775, British political philosopher Edmund Burke
would praise this strategy as salutary neglect.
By allowing the colonists to have a larger stake in political, social, and economic
matters, the British system of mercantilism, and the British empire as a whole was
becoming weakened.
The seeds of revolution were being planted.
13