Putting Down Roots

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Chapter 3

• Putting Down Roots

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Colonial life was hard and often unstable

• The Chesapeake Region
• Settlers were well-scattered
• 24 families in a 25 sq. mi. area
• Thats 6 people per sq. mi. as opposed to New
  England where there were 500 people per sq. mi.
• Isolation
• Many grew tobacco
• Ships could pull up to homes on river banks

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• Towns and cities were slow taking hold
• Indentured servants were used on many farms
• Few women immigrated, so it was hard to find
  brides
• Many female indentured servants married
  prosperous farmers who paid off what they owed

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• Diseases killed many
• Malaria
• Typhoid
• Dysentery
• Salt poisoning from drinking polluted water

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• Life expectancy in the Chesapeake area was 20
  years fewer than the average age in New England
• Colder climate in New England
• Few mosquitoes
• 3 generations often

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• Colonists still saw themselves as British,
  although that would change in the 1700s
• Colonists brought with them that English model of
  government
• England
• King vast authority, needed Parliaments consent
  on money
• Parliament 2 houses, reviewed money issues and
  kings actions

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• America
• When small, had local assemblies
• Later had appointed governors in both royal and
  proprietary colonies
• By 1750, only 2 governors were popularly elected
  Rhode Island Connecticut

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• Governors
• Were of high social standing
• Granted favors
• Sometimes corrupt
• Could veto actions of the assemblies
• Had great power that could go unchecked in the
  colonies

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• Justice of the Peace
• Found in smaller towns
• Maintained order
• Had jurisdiction in criminal and civil matters
• Similar to the duties of counterparts in England

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• Church of England
• The official religion in many of the colonies
• No matter what a colonists religion, all had to
  pay a tithe to the Church of England
• Few Anglican priests came to America, it wasnt
  as powerful in the colonies

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• Local issues dominated political discussions, not
  the policies of the King
• They paid attention to the King only when they
  absolutely had to
• Because of Englands wars
• Because of Native American policies

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• England was concerned with England
• Colonies were to enrich England
• It got money from import taxes
• Imperial officials could be found primarily in
  port towns where these taxes were collected

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• There was no effort to create an empire in
  America until Charles II (r. 1660 1685) took
  the throne of England
• This was after the monarchy had been restored to
  England
• Called the Restoration
• See handout

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• This Glorious Revolution and the changes that
  came with it upset some of the colonies
• Maryland and New York had rebellions
• In Maryland John Coode forced Baltimores
  governor, William Joseph, to resign. Catholics
  lost power when the king made Maryland a royal
  colony in 1691

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Salem

• Making Massachusetts a royal Colony was a blow to
  the Puritans morale
• They began to think that some grave sin had made
  this happen
• This help lead to the Salem Hysteria in 1691
• Salem had the regions 2nd largest port in 1660s
• Trade made merchants more prosperous than the
  farmers

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• Their equal society was no more
• 1681, the richest 1/10 of the population
  possessed 62 of all wealth and much of the power
• Farmers lost their standing and power
• Tensions grew between the merchants of Salem Town
  and the farmers of Salem Village
• Salem Town felt they were being punished for some
  sin

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• They felt someone must have made a deal with the
  devil when 2 young girls fell ill with fits they
  must have been bewitched
• Various people were accused
• Tituba a black from the West Indies where
  voodoo was practiced
• An impoverished hag senile
• An 88 year old cranky man
• An adulteress

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• Those from the wrong side of the tracks or the
  wrong side of a political argument were accused
• When accusation were made against the prominent
  in society, authorities put an end to it
• In all 139 had been accused
• 114 were charged
• 20 were hanged

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• The Salem Witchcraft Hysteria was the last
  witchcraft scare in the Western Hemisphere

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King Philips War

• There was an escalation of violence between
  whites and Native Americans in the 1670s
• Pressure on the land had increased
• Pressure on Native Americans to convert
  increased
• 1675 killing of a Christian Native by 3 other
  Natives who hadnt converted
• Another Native was shot while burglarizing a house

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• Metacom (King Philip) organized 2/3 of Native
  Americans into a fighting force
• This started King Philips War
• 25 of 90 New England towns were destroyed and 600
  colonists were killed
• Puritan forces, in response, killed 6,000 Native
  Americans either in battle or from starvation
• Native American resistance in New England was
  crushed

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Bacons Rebellion

• 1676 Native American raids spread to the
  Virginia Frontier
• When Governor Sir William Berkeley failed to
  retaliate, the settlers rose up against him
• Background
• In Virginia in second half of 1600s, it was
  harder to get rich quick of off tobacco

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• Depression had hit the tobacco market
• Small farmers went bankrupt
• Some moved further west to the foorhills of the
  Appalachians
• They ran into freed indentured servants and
  frontiersmen also looking for land
• They also ran into Native Americans
• Settlers took land from the Susquehannocks and
  the Potomacks

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• These tribes complained to Berkeley
• He tried to solve the problem but the settlers
  werent satisfied
• It looked like war
• Berkeley didnt want war because he traded in
  furs with the Natives he didnt want to lose
  this income
• Settlers, led by Nathaniel Bacon , rebelled
  against the Natives

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• Bacon and his followers attacked the Oconeechee
  who were a peaceful tribe
• To Bacon and his followers an Indian was an
  Indian was an Indian all the same
• Bacon then moved toward the capital where
  Berkeley had him arrested

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• Berkeley was forced to release Bacon because his
  followers were going to take over the Jamestown
• Bacon left Jamestown and then returned later when
  circumstances hadnt changed
• He threatened to kill the Governor
• Berkeley fled to the eastern shore of the
  Chesapeake until Bacon died in of an illness in
  1676

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• This rebellion points out perceived differences
  between Native Americans and the colonists
• It points out differences between rich and poor
  whites during a time of economic depression
• After this rebellion, the Virginia aristocracy
  (Lees, Burwells, Byrds, Carters etc.) still
  dominated its politics, economy, culture

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Slave Trade from the West of Africa

• Begun by Portuguese
• Needed labor for sugar plantations
• Later the Spanish, Dutch, English, and some
  Americans got involved
• Almost 13 million Africans were taken to the
  Americas
• Most went to Caribbean or to Brazil
• After 1700, many went to British North America

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• First Africans came to Virginia in 1619
• Dutch stole slaves from Spanish ship in the
  Caribbean
• Some were slaves for life
• Some were treated like indentured servants
• Some were allowed to purchase their freedom
• Ex. Anthony Johnson

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• Numbers of slaves were small untol end of 1600s
  then numbers increased
• At beginning of 1800s, Virginia declared slaves
  were slaves for life and so were their children
• As numbers increased in 1700s, lawmakers created
  slave codes - racism

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• Blacks were seen as property to be bought and
  sold
• If someone was mulatto, he/she was still
  considered black
• Numbers varied from colony to colony
• South Carolina 60 were slave
• Virginia 40
• Pennsylvania 8
• Massachusetts 3

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• Jobs for slaves varied domestics, fieldworkers,
  blacksmiths
• They tried to preserve their identities
• There was a mixing of African, English, and
  American cultures
• Most adjusted none liked it
• Periodic rebellions Stono Rebellion in
  September, 1739

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• 150 blacks from South Carolina seized guns and
  murdered several planters
• They then tried to get to Spanish Florida
• Many were caught and killed by militia

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Society of British North America

• Gentry money and political power
• Working Class
• Indentured Servants
• Slaves
• Colonies differed from England
• Colonies differed from each other