Colonial America, 16501750

1
Colonial America, 1650-1750

• Regional Variations in Settlement Patterns and
  Economic Development
• Dr. Lucia McMahon
• William Paterson University
• July 2007

2
English Civil War/Restoration Colonies

• 1642 Civil War begins in England
• Disputes over religion, taxation, etc.
• 1649 (Stuart King) Charles I is executed
• Government led by Parliament (under leadership of
  a Puritan, Oliver Cromwell)
• 1658 Cromwell dies
• 1660 Restoration of Stuart Monarchy
• Charles II ascends throne but monarchs power
  diminished monarch agrees to seek Parliaments
  consent on key taxation issues, etc.
• After Charles II ascends throne, SIX new colonies
  are formed in British North America

3
British North American Colonies

• British settlers to North America now have more
  choice/opportunity
• Colonies embedded in trans-Atlantic world of
  trade and commerce
• Colonies help increase strength/centralization of
  Britain as a national power

4
Restoration Colonies

• Colony Founders Date Economic Base
• NY James, duke of York 1664 Farming/Fur Trade
  
• NJ George Carteret/ 1664 Farming
• Lord Berkeley
• NC Carolina proprietors 1665 Tobacco/Timber
• SC Carolina proprietors/ 1670 Rice/Indigo
• Barbados settlers
• PA William Penn 1681 Farming
• DE (part of PA at this time)

5
Pennsylvania

• Founder William Penn offered liberal land grants
  religious tolerance
• Envisioned a neat, orderly pattern of settlement
  laid out Philadelphia in a grid pattern
• At first tried to live peacefully with the
  Indians, and initiated trades/treaties
• Population grew fast by 1682, 4,000 by 1690,
  12,000 people settled
• Early settlement marked by rapid growth
  prosperity
• Diverse, independent-minded group of settlers

6
Quakers in Pennsylvania

• Quakers preached a doctrine of spiritual equality
• Believed both men women had an inner light of
  salvation
• Radical egalitarian social/religious vision
• Quakers were unwelcome in NE several were
  hanged in 1660s for preaching radical doctrines

Mary Dyer, banished from New England and
eventually executed in 1660 http//www.loc.gov/exh
ibits/religion/rel01-2.html
7
South Carolina

• Many early settlers were emigrants from Barbados
• By 1690, SC develops it own cash crop Rice
• Settlers probably learned how to plant/harvest
  rice from African slaves

8
Emergence of Slave Societies

• By 1720, South Carolina is a black majority
• Over 70 of population consists of black slaves
• Wealth/status/power concentrated in hands of
  small elite planter population
• Emergence of slave societies in southern colonies
• Slavery central to economic and social
  organization

9
Defining Characteristics of North American Slave
Societies

• Lifelong
• Racial
• Hereditary
• -- passed on through mothers (codified into law
  in VA in 1662)
• Slave has no legal family relationships
• Freeing of slaves (manumission) becomes more
  difficult and occurs less often

Tobacco Plantation. Image from America A
Narrative History, Media Library
10
Slave Societies, contd

• Slavery sustained through violence or threat of
  violence/coercion
• -- any slave who runs away may be lawfully
  killed
• Attempt to limit free-choice sexual/social
  relations between blacks whites
• -- 1691 interracial marriage banned in VA
• Attempt to limit movement/freedom of slaves
• -- 1682 slaves may not gather for more than
  4 hours at another plantation
• -- 1680, 1705 slaves denied right to own
  livestock, to carry a weapon, denied right to
  testify in court or hold office

The Old Plantation circa 1790
http//www.africanaheritage.com/Gullah_and_Sierra_
Leone.asp
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Regional Variations

• New England -- MA, CT, RI, NH
• mostly self-sufficient but also involved in
  export of surplus crops fish timber
• Middle Colonies NY,NJ, PA, DE
• farming (export of wheat flour) trade
  networks/markets, urban development,
  manufacturing
• Chesapeake VA, MD, northern NC
• tobacco although more small farmers also began
  to grow corn wheat
• Lower South SC, southern NC, Georgia
• rice indigo plantations cash-crop economy
• Caribbean Barbados, Leeward Islands, Jamaica
• Sugar plantations cash-crop economy

13
Trans-Atlantic Networks
Map from America A Narrative History, Media
Library
14
British Mercantilism Empire

• Economic world view there exists a finite
  amount of wealth
• Thus what one nation gained, another nation
  inevitably lost.
• Importance of Colonies
• Colonies supply the mother country with raw
  materials to be consumed at home or abroad
• Provide a market for the mother countrys
  manufactured goods.
• Navigational Acts 1651-1673
• Aimed at centering American trade around England
• Only English or colonial ships could trade in
  their colonies
• Certain American products could ONLY be sold in
  England or other English colonies such as wool,
  sugar, tobacco, indigo, dyes, etc
• All foreign goods destined for sale in colonies
  first had to pass through England pay import
  duties

15
18th-Century Colonial Exports

• Colonial Economy part of trans-Atlantic networks
  of trade and commerce

16
Exports by Region
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An Empire of Goods

• Rising Standard of Living for most Americans
• Larger, more comfortable homes
• More access to comfort and luxury items
• Furniture
• Housewares
• Linens
• Teapots
• Books
• Culture of Refinement

Colonial Family . Image from America A
Narrative History, Media Library
19
Population Growth

• British North America
• 1700 250,000
• 1750 1 million
• 1775 2.5 million
• -- Some immigration
• -- Mostly from natural increase
• Other North America Populations in 1775
• New Mexico 20,000
• New France 70,000

20
Population Diversity
Also achieves natural population growth unlike
Caribbean
21
Rural Life

• 90 of population is rural
• Centered on farming and household production
• Everyday life governed by seasonal
  rhythms/daylight hours

Farming Community in PA, circa 1750
22
Urban Areas
Philadelphia, 1756 http//www.nypl.org/research/c
hss/spe/art/print/exhibits/cities/captions/image20
.html
23
Urban Life

• Urban dwellers tend to purchase more foodstuff
  and everyday goods than rural counterparts
• Lived by clock, rather than sun
• Emergence of elite, merchant class with more
  opportunities for leisure and sociability tea
  parties, balls, theater, clubs, etc.

18th-Century Boston Image from America A
Narrative History, Media Library
24
Internal Tensions

• Religious
• Great Awakening fuels religious fervor, but also
  creates competition among denominations
• Racial/Ethnic
• 20 of population is African-American most are
  slaves
• New ethnic distribution of immigrants
• Economic
• Growing gap between rich/poor, especially in
  urban areas
• Conflict between large land owners and small
  farmers
• Disenfranchised groups at times resort to rioting
  and violent resistance

25
Religion The Great Awakening

• Series of Religious Revivals in 1730s 1740s
• George Whitefield
• Traveled throughout England and colonies,
  preaching to large audiences
• Outdoors in public spaces
• Reached out to entire community
• Drew audiences in the thousands
• Between 1738-1770, made 7 tours of the colonies
• Visited every colony from Maine to Georgia

George Whitefield Preaching http//rylibweb.man.ac
.uk/data1/dg/methodist/exhibition/exhib3.html
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George Whitefield

• When I see Mr. Whitefield come upon the
  Scaffold, he looked almost angelical a young,
  slim, slender youth before some thousands of
  people, and with a bold, undaunted countenance. .
  . .He looked as if he was cloathed with authority
  from the great God.
• Nathan Cole, 1740, describing Whitefields visit
  to Middletown, CT

George Whitefield Image from America A
Narrative History, Media Library
27
Consequences of Great Awakening

• Split American Protestants into Old Light
  traditionalists and New Light evangelicals
• Proliferation of new denominations/choice
• Fostered Religious Tolerance
• Challenged Deference and Existing Leadership of
  Church
• Promoted Individualism and Egalitarianism

28
September 1739 Stono Rebellion

• Slave rebellion begun with 20 slaves near Stono
  River (20 miles from Charlestown)
• Grew to 100 as slaves made their way south
  towards Florida
• Killed 20 white residents and burned/plundered
  several homes
• Group of armed planters killed many of the
  rebels then an intensive manhunt to capture
  remaining rebels
• 31 blacks were executed for rebellion
• New, Harsher Slave Codes Enacted

29
1741 New York Slave Conspiracy

• 1712 slave rebellion took place in NY 18
  slaves were executed
• 1741 1,600 slaves live in NY (18 of
  population)
• Suspicious fires break out, sparking fears of
  slave conspiracy/rebellion
• 70 slaves and accomplices tried for conspiracy
  31 slaves and 4 whites found guilty and executed

Colonial New York
30
1765-66 Land Riots in Hudson Valley

• Conflicts between large land-owners (proprietors)
  and squatters/small farmers (Dutch German
  migrants and New England emigrants) over land
  titles
• Similar conflicts occurred in NJ, Vermont, and
  Carolinas