Life in 17th Century English Colonies

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Life in 17th CenturyEnglish Colonies

• The Economic, Social, Political Culture of the
  English Colonies

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Colonial Society in the 17th
Century New England
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Families in New England
Possibly the 1st society in history to reasonably
expect to live long enough to see their
grandchildren

• New England society was much more stable than
  other colonies
• New England Puritans migrated to America as
  families
• Marriage was easy as most people shared common
  values
• Colonists lived longer due to more a dispersed
  population, purer water, a cooler climate

New England invented grandparents
Towns became networks of intermarried families
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Education in New England

• NE towns regarded education as fundamental family
  responsibility towns began to create elementary
  schools funded with local taxes
• NE had, by far, the highest literacy rate in
  America
• In 1638, Harvard became
  Americas first
  college

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Women in New England

• Was the colonial era the golden age for women?
• Women contributed to society as wives mothers,
  devout church members, ran small-scale farms
• But were not equals with men
• Women could not legally own or sell property
  divorce was difficult
• Women did what God ordained

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Colonial Society in the 17th
Century The Chesapeake
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Families in the Chesapeake

• Normal, English family life was impossible in
  Virginia
• 70-85 of immigrants were young male indentured
  servants
• High death rate (average age was 10-20 years
  lower than NE)
• One married spouse often died within a decade
• Children often never knew their parents (let
  alone grandparents)

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Women in Chesapeake Society

• Scarcity gave some women bargaining power in the
  marriage market allowed some women to improve
  their social status
• But women were vulnerable
• sexual exploitation
• Childbearing was dangerous
• Chesapeake women died 20 years earlier than women
  in NE

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Chesapeake Culture

• By 1680, social mobility in the Chesapeake was
  limited
• An American-born elite class had emerged (this
  social aristocracy was absent earlier)
• The plantation economy ownership of slaves
  allowed the gentry to produce more tobacco
• High death rates halted the development of
  schools towns

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Colonial Society in the 17th
Century African Slaves
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The Roots of Slavery

• The importation of African slaves was based on a
  need for labor
• Native Americans made poor slaves because they
  were decimated by European disease
• Indentured servant-pool waned after 1660
• An estimated 11 million slaves (mostly males)
  were brought to the English American colonies

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The Roots of Slavery

• Slaves were originally treated as indentured
  servants but the growing black population in VA
  by 1672 prompted stricter slave laws
• Africans were defined as slaves for life
  permanent slave status was passed on to slave
  children
• By 1700, slavery was based exclusively on skin
  color

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The Slave Population
Free enslaved blacks were much less numerous in
NE Middle colonies
60 in SC
40 in VA

• In the Chesapeake Southern colonies with large
  black populations, slaves found it easier to
  maintain their African culture
• By 1720, the African population became
  self-sustaining
• Fertility rates exceeded immigration rates for
  the 1st time
• Did not occur in the Caribbean or in South America

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The Slave Population
150 blacks rose up seized a munitions hold
killed several white planters

• Widespread resentment of their slave status led
  to resistance in the 18th Century
• Armed resistance such as the Stono Rebellion of
  1739 (SC)
• In 1741, 106 slaves were hung or deported due to
  a rumor that slaves planned to burn NYC
• Runaway slaves were common

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The Colonial Economy in the 17th
Century Commercial Empire
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Economic Diversity of the English Colonies
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Rise of a Commercial Empire

• English govt largely ignored the colonies until
  the 1650s (salutary neglect) The colonies were
  not state-funded nor state protected
• ButCharles II initiated colonial intervention in
  1660 to maximize exports, decrease imports,
  generate more govt revenue

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Response to Economic Competition
Enumerated goods (tobacco, sugar, cotton, rice,
rosin, tar) could only be sent to English ports

• Mercantilism became the blueprint for Englands
  empire
• Wanted more money a favorable balance of trade
• Wanted to eliminate Dutch rivals
• Wanted a stronger navy
• Began to restrict colonial trade
• Navigation Act of 1660
• Navigation Act of 1663

No ship could trade in colonies unless it was
made in England
Goods shipped to English colonies must pass
through England (Increased the price paid by
colonial consumers)
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Implementing the Acts

• NE merchants found loopholes to avoid paying
  taxes so the English made more restrictions
• In 1696, created a Board of Trade to oversee
  colonial trade
• Created maritime courts to mediate disputes
• The Navigation Acts eventually benefited the
  colonial merchants smuggling virtually ended

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Colonial Factions Spark Political Revolt,
1676-1691
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Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia

• Former indentured servants living in the VA
  frontier suffered due to
• Poor tobacco prices in 1660s
• Indian attacks in 1675
• These farmers blamed VAs royal governor Berkeley
  who did little to help Nathaniel Bacon led a
  rebellion in 1676 against Berkeley was joined
  by small farmers, blacks, women

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King Philips War

• In 1675, Metacom (King Philip) led the
  Wampanoag Indians against NE colonists
• 1,000 Indians colonists died
• Large war debt led James II to annul the Mass Bay
  charter create the Dominion of New England by
  combining Mass, Conn, RI, Plymouth, NY, NJ, NH
  under a new royal charter

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King Philips War
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Dominion of New England

• Edmund Andros was hated by Puritans, moderates,
  merchants
• In 1689, Andros was deposed when William Mary
  began reign
• Massachusetts was given a new charter that
  incorporated Plymouth but shifted power from the
  elect" to those with property

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Witchcraft in New England

• Charges of witchcraft were common in New England
• But the Salem panic of 1691 led to 20 public
  executions before the trials were halted in 1692
• Possible causes
• argument over church ministers
• poor farmers accusing rich farmers to gain land
• reactions to independent women

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Salem Witch Trials
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Conclusions

• By 1700
• Englands attitude toward the colonies had
  changed dramatically
• Sectional differences within the colonies were
  profound
• All the colonies were all part of Great Britain
  but had little to do with each other

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Experience of Empire 18th Century America

• American Colonial Culture 1700-1780

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Growth Diversity in 18th Century America
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Growth Diversity in British America

• By 1770, the English colonies became much more
  different from New Spain New France
• Population boomed 1,000 due to increased
  birth rates, falling death rates, a huge wave
  of non-English immigration
• Surging economic growth
• New political religious ideas

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Distribution of European African
Immigrants in British North America by
1770
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18th Century Immigrants

• 1790 census showed less than 50 of American
  colonists were English 18th Century immigration
  brought unprecedented diversity
• African slaves were largest group to immigrate
• The Transportation Act (1718) allowed English
  judges to send convicted felons to the colonies
  (50,000 forcibly immigrated)

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18th Century Immigrants

• The Scotch-Irish were the largest European group
  to immigrate
• Initially welcomed as a frontier barrier between
  Indians PA
• Challenged authority wherever they settled
• Germans were the 2nd largest European group to
  immigrate
• Seen as hard-working farmers
• Clung to German traditions rather than
  Anglicizing

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18th Century American Commerce
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Economic Transformation

• In the 1700s, Spanish French colonial economies
  stagnated but English colonial economies grew
• Led to an increased standard of living
  affluence for Americans
• The colonial economy kept pace with its expanding
  population
• English mercantilism increased a desire for
  American products (esp. tobacco sugar)

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Birth of a Consumer Society

• The availability of cheap English mass-produced
  goods led to a rise in colonial consumption
• Colonists grew an insatiable desire for goods
  from home
• The increase in inter-colonial Caribbean trade
  gave colonists the money they needed to buy
  British manufactured goods
• But, many colonists fell heavily in debt to
  English merchants

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American Urban Life

• Few colonists lived in cities
• Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia,
  Charles Town contained only 5 of total colonial
  population
• Cities were geared toward intermediary trade but
• Cities began to attract colonists seeking
  opportunities

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18th Century American Politics
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Contrasting Colonial Politics

• Unlike state-controlled Spanish French
  colonies, the English colonies were
  decentralized
• All colonies (except CT RI) had royal governors
• But all had colonial assemblies that controlled
  local finances
• Colonies were not democratic Power was
  centralized with the wealthy, landed elite

The legacy of Salutary Neglect
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English Control over America

• In the 18th century, England maintained a unique
  political economic relationship with America
• As long as the colonies were profitable few
  British regulations were enforced colonists
  could do as they pleased

Economic relationship was defined by mercantilism
Political relationship was defined by salutary
neglect
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The Great Awakening
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Decline in Religious Devotion

• The 1700s saw a decline in religious devotion
• Outside of NE, 1 in 15 people was a member of a
  church
• NE suffered a decline in church attendance (15
  were members)
• Church sermons were seen by many as cold
  impersonal
• Led to a rise in Arminianism (free will, not
  predestination)

The Half-Way Covenant (1662) was a way for NE
churches to increase membership to the
unconverted children
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The Great Awakening

• The Great Awakening was a series of revivals
  among Protestants in which of people experienced
  religious conversion in response to gifted
  preaching
• It was not a unified movement Great Awakenings
  occurred in many denominations in different
  places at different times

Was not really American either as similar
phenomena occurred in Europe
The Great Awakening hit New England in the 1730s
in Virginia in 1750s 1760s
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The Great Awakening

• The 1st stirrings of the Great Awakening began
  with Jonathan Edwards in Northhampton, MA
• Used fire passion to reach the discontent
  youth of NE
• Encouraged people to examine their eternal destiny

A reading from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God (1741)
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The Great Awakening

• George Whitefield became the most popular of the
  evangelists of the Great Awakening
• He preached outdoor sermons to 1,000s in nearly
  every colony
• As a result, itinerants disrupted their
  established churches claiming ministers were not
  taught to see the New Light

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From Authority to Individualism Activity
Comparing Puritanism, the Great Awakening,
the Enlightenment
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The Great Awakening

• The impact of the Great Awakening
• New universities such as Princeton, Dartmouth,
  Brown, Rutgers were formed to educate New
  Light preachers
• 1st national event Encouraged contact among
  scattered colonists in different regions
• Empowered non-elites to challenge their social
  superiors

Including women African-Americans