America: Past and Present

1

• America Past and Present
• Chapter 3 Putting Down RootsFamilies in an
  Atlantic Empire
• SOURCES OF STABILITY NEW ENGLAND COLONIES OF THE
  SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
• Replicating a traditional family life and social
  order led to greater stability and longer life in
  New England versus the Chesapeake (Virginia and
  Maryland).
• Gotta love those Puritans!
• Various local societies reflected a. supply of
  labor
• b. abundance of land c. demographic patterns
  
• d. commercial ties w/ Europe
• What two things pulled American settlers
  together? language and religion

2

• Immigrant Families and New Social Order
• Puritans believed that God ordained the family
  for human benefit
• The family was to be patriarchal
• Family was the source of their societal and
  cultural identities
• 20,000 came to NE before the English Civil War
  (1642)
• Great Migration-1630s and early 1640s
• Life expectancy in NE was greater than that in
  England proper
• pure drinking water, cool climate, dispersed
  population
• Grandparents were invented
• Social and economic stability were enhanced

3

• Commonwealth of Families
• Single life morally suspect and physically
  difficult
• Young men and women initiated their own
  courtships
• Parents discouraged union with immoral partners
• Children usually accepted this guidance
• Men offered land to the marriage
• Womens dowries1/2 the value of the land
• Land and home represented survival and hard
  work
• Small farms produced food and surplus
• Surplus was used for barter
• Farms were not self-sufficient
• Towns were collections of families-people rarely
  moved
• Single newcomers were not readily accepted

4

• Church government was built on familial
  connections and election
• Half-Way Covenant adopted in 1662
• Allowed sacraments based upon the spiritual
  traditions and
• reputations of grandparents
• Parents did not need to show evidence of
  election
• Massachusetts General Court mandated the
  teaching of reading (1642)
• For religious and moral purposes
• 15 families must open elementary school
• New-England Primer taught children the
  alphabet
• Allowed publications like The Day of Doom to
  sell
• fate of sinners on Judgment Day
• First seminary, Harvard, founded in 1638
• Yale in 1702

5

• Womens Lives in Puritan New England
• All work, no play, but impressive church
  attendance!
• Quakers gave women a larger role in religious
  affairs. WHY?
• Womens production of food essential
• No property rights
• Divorce was difficult and uncommon (you could
  runquickly)
• Anne Bradstreet poet-wrote of affection for
  husband

6

• Rank and Status in New England Society
• Lack of wealth and title made social status a
  tricky thing to judge
• Natural leaders became provincial gentry
• Winthrops, Dudleys, Pynchons
• Sumptuary laws were passed-only wealthy can
  wear fine apparel
• Economic status was more fluid than was
  planned
• Most northern colonists were yeomen-independent
  farmers
• Economic independence was highly likely in this
  region
• Possession of land gave agrarian families a
  sense of independence
• from external authority
• Some NE families placed their adolescent
  children in nearby homes
• for 4-5 years as an apprentices

7

• THE PLANTERS WORLD
• Why were the regions so different? You know the
  answerplantations!
• Family Life in a Perilous Environment
• 70-85 of white immigrants to this region in the
  1600s were not free
• Most were young men, aged 18-22
• Ratio of men to women was 6 to 1 before 1640, 2½
  to 1 by 1700
• High mortality rates brought life expectancy to
  43 for men, women ?
• Average marriage lasted 7 years
• Few children were raised by birth parents
• Women had great value, sort of
• Infant mortality was 25, another 25 died
  before age 20
• Young women in servitude lost several
  reproductive years-vulnerable to sexual
  exploitation by their masters

8

• Rank and Status in Plantation Society
• Indentured servants and slaves were imported for
  plantation labor
• Tobacco was the staple of the Chesapeake region
• Planters dominated society
• Freemen were the largest classthese survived
  their period of indenture
• Indentured servants were below planters and
  freemen
• Slaves were at the bottom
• A longer-lived creole class (native born
  Americans) developed after 1680
• NOT mulattodont get confused!
• Built Williamsburg, College and William and Mary
• Key to the success of this class was slavery
• This class did not want education for other
  classes
• Creoles sent sons to university in England or
  Scotland
• Even William and Mary did not suffice
• Opportunities for advancement decreased during
  17th c.
• Gentry consolidated its hold on political and
  econ. instit.

9

• Brother Ali
• The Travelers

10

• RACE AND FREEDOM IN BRITISH AMERICA
• Roots of Slavery
• Africans first landed in VA in 1619 as a cargo
  of slaves stolen by
• a Dutch trader from a Spanish merchant ship in
  the Caribbean.
• Slavery grew quickly in the 1700s
• Males outnumbered females 2 to1
• English masters saw slavery as a great way to
  civilize Africans
• Why is Anthony Johnson important? His life
  illustrates the complexity of race relations in
  early Virginia. What happened to his land when
• he died?
• Race was only a single factor shaping relations
  among colonists
• Slavery was assumed to be a lifelong legal status
  after 1680
• 11,000 slaves were sold to Virginians between
  1695-1709
• Slaves were legally considered to be property
• Race mixing was not acceptable to English
  colonists
• Mulattos were considered black for legal
  purposes
• Lineage was traced through slave mothers

11

• Constructing African American Identities
• The size and density of the slave population
  determined in large measure how successfully
  black would maintain a separate cultural
  identity.
• 60 of SC lowland population was black
• These men and women were on isolated rice
  plantations, and their contact with whites was
  limited (creole languages). They also developed
  elaborate kinship networks.
• Native-born blacks looked with contempt on slaves
  who had just arrived from Africa. Newly arrived
  slaves were more likely to run away, assault
  their masters and organize rebellions.
• 40 of VA population was black
• Gullah (creole language spoken on some Sea
  Islands and other pidgin languages developed (A
  pidgin is a simplified language that develops as
  a means of communication between two or more
  groups that do not have a language in common.)
• Slaves mixed African culture with Christianity,
  music and art
• Mainland slaves had a longer life expectancy
  than island slaves

12

• Major turning point of African American people
  occurred in early decades of 18th c. Blacks
  living in Englands mainland colonies began to
  reproduce successfully. WHY? Even with imported
  slaves the creole population was always much
  larger than that of the immigrant blacks.
• Slave rebellions were often rumored and planned
• The Stono Rebellion was most successful (Sept
  1739)
• 150 SC blacks rose up and killed several
  planters
• They hoped to reach freedom in FL
• Local militia killed a majority
• This persuaded whites everywhere that their own
  blacks might secretly be planning a bloody
  revolt.
• 18 of mariners were African American in 18th
  c.
• These men brought news of distant rebellions
  and spread radical political ideologies to other
  slaves.

13

• COMMERCIAL BLUEPRINT FOR EMPIRE
• Salutary neglect (British policy of avoiding
  strict enforcement of parliamentary laws meant to
  keep the American colonies obedient to Great
  Britain.)
• reigned until Charles II.
• The beginnings of enforced mercantilism
  developed.
• Response to Economic Competition
• Yes, our old friend Adam Smith (18th c. Scottish
  economist) coined the term mercantilism
• Aspects of this system developed over time-
• a.king needed money,
• b. English merchants wanted to exclude Dutch
  rivals from American markets,
• Parliament wanted to improve navy,
• and almost everyone agreed England needed a more
  favorable trade balance.

14

• An Empire of Trade
• Navigation Act of 1660-most important piece of
  imperial legislation drafted before the American
  Revolution.
• Required trade to be conducted with crew that
  were 75 English
• Permitted domestic shipbuilding
• Limited trade of colonial goods to English or
  colonial ports for enumerated goods-tobacco,
  sugar, cotton, indigo, dye-woods and ginger.
• Rice and molasses added in 1704, rosins, tars
  and turpentines in 1705
• Required colonists to pay import duties

15

• Staple Act of 1663 prohibited almost all non-Brit
  imports to the colonies unless first transshipped
  through England
• Dutch trade was excluded and colonial expenses
  rose dramatically-especially for small planters
• New Englanders simply ignored regulations
• Navigation Acts of 1673 were passed to rectify
  this situation
• Enhanced collection of import duties at colonial
  ports
• GB did not have enough agents to enforce the law
• Those who did collect taxes were unpopular
• (Think Edmond Randolph-most hated man in Mass.)
• 1696 Parliament est. vice-admiralty courts to
  settle disputes that occurred at sea-no juries,
  nor cross examination.
• William III established the Board of Trade to
  more closely regulate the
• colonies

16

• COLONIAL GENTRY IN REVOLT, 1676-1691
• Different factions fought with each other over
  political viability
• Civil War in Virginia Bacons Rebellion
• Bacon envied govt patronage.
• Governor Berkeley denied a-fur trading license
  to Nathaniel Bacon
• These were reserved for Berkeleys cronies
• Berkeley then refused to send an army to
  retaliate against natives
• Bacon volunteered to raised troops for free
• In exchange for the right to fight other
  Indians
• Berkeley said NO-build forts instead (by his
  friends?)
• Both Berkeley and Bacon appealed to the
  populace
• Bacon burned Jamestown-forced governor to leave
• Women made political views clear during
  rebellion (Sarah Glendon)
• Bacon died of dysentery and the rebellion
  subsided
• Berkeley recalled to England

17

• Planter elite did not see the legitimate
  grievances and Bacons followers were demanding
  substantial reforms, not just a share in the
  governors fur monopoly.
• This was a sign of rebellion against greedy
  royal appointees

18

• The Glorious Revolution in the Bay Colony
• Politic crisis between new merchants (Anglican)
  and Puritans emerged then
• Metacomet (King Philip) declared war on New
  Englanders
• The spark that ignited King Phillip's War was a
  report from a Native American Christian convert
  (Praying Indian") early Harvard graduate,
  translator, and adviser to Metacom named John
  Sassamon. Sassamon told Plymouth Colony officials
  the news of King Philip trying to arrange Native
  American attacks on widely dispersed colonial
  settlements. Before colonial officials could
  investigate the charges, John Sassamon was
  murdered his body was found beneath an
  ice-covered pond, allegedly killed by a few of
  Philip's Wampanoag angry at his betrayal. Other
  texts mention a stolen cow.

19

• On the testimony of a Native American witness,
  Plymouth Colony arrested three Wampanoags,
  including one of Metacomet's councilors. A jury
  having some Indian members convicted them of
  Sassamon's murder they were hanged on June 8,
  1675 at Plymouth. Some Wampanoag believed that
  both the trial and the court's sentence were an
  insult to Indian sovereignty. In response, on
  June 20, a band of Pokanoket, possibly without
  Philip's approval, assaulted several isolated
  homesteads in a small Plymouth colony. Laying
  siege to the town, they destroyed it five days
  later and killed several settlers and others
  coming to help the settlers
• The Narrangansetts joined Metacome
• Thousands died, debt remained-Over 600
  colonists and 3,000 Native Americans had died,
  including several hundred native captives that
  were tried and executed or sold as slaves in
  Bermuda.
• King Philip's War was proportionately one of the
  bloodiest and costliest in the history of
  America.

20

• In her book, The Name of War, Boston University
  Professor Jill Lepore theorizes that King
  Philip's War was the beginning of the development
  of a greater American identity, for the trials
  and tribulations suffered by the colonists made
  them into a group distinct from their English
  ties.
• Tribes lost most of their power, creating a
  political vacuum that spurred bickering among
  factions of English in Connecticut,
  Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Rhode Island.
• The colonists argued over topics ranging from
  colonial boundaries to blame for the bloody
  conflict from which they had just emerged.
• This factionalism eventually drew the attention
  of England's imperial authorities who, until this
  point, had largely ignored the activities of New
  Englanders.
• In 1686, Royal officials finally created the
  Dominion of New England, which put the New
  England colonies under the rule of New York's
  Governor Edmund Andros. (pronounced Andrews)

21

• Ironically, even though New England's colonies
  had prevailed on the battlefield, King Philip's
  War led to the loss of much of their political
  autonomy.
• The colonial charter was rescinded, the Dominion
  of NE created
• By James II, no lover of Parliament
• Sir Edmund Andros was selected as governor
  abolished elective assemblies, enforced Nav.
  Acts, declared town meeting illegal, packed
  courts with supporters.
• Andros was overthrown after the Glorious
  Revolution
• He was peacefully arrested
• Increase Mather convinced William to abandon the
  Dominion
• Massachusetts received new royal charter in
  1691-gov. chosen by king
• The franchise was granted to male property
  owners
• Colonial government became more secular

22

• Contagion of Witchcraft
• Instability of Mass. govt led this to be a major
  colonial crisis
• Increase Mather and others did urge restraint
  here-troubled over spectral evidence (dreams and
  visions)
• You know how it turned out (summer 1692)
• 19 dead
• Why?
• a. religious discord-factions over choice of a
  minister
• b. economic tensions-poorer farmers accused
  commercially oriented
• c. misogyny
• d. fear of Native American attacks
• So much for moderation

23

• The Glorious Revolution in New York and Maryland
• Glorious revolution in NY more violent than in
  Mass. Bay-religious and ethnic differences
• English newcomers and Anglo-Dutch v. older Dutch
  elite
• Jacob Leisler leads the fun in NYC (1689)
• Seizes the local fort in the name of Wm and Mary
• Royal governor Sloughter tells him to surrender
  (1691)
• He refuses-Was Sloughter sent by James or
  William?
• Is quickly arrested, tried and executed
• He was pardoned by Parliament a few years after
  his death
• John Coode leads a more healthy protest in
  Maryland
• Protestant Association forces the resignation of
  the governor
• Maryland becomes a royal colony, excluding
  Catholics from public service
• 1715 crown restored proprietorship to the
  fourth Lord Baltimore
• who had been raised as a member of the Church
  of England
• Calvert family ruled until 1776
• COMMON EXPERIENCES, SEPARATE CULTURES
• Political experiences converged despite regional
  cultural differences