A Brief History of Colonial America Daniel Lazar

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A Brief History of Colonial AmericaDaniel
Lazar
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Lecture Objectives

1. To compare and contrast the 13 colonies
2. To explore controversies within and among the
   colonies
3. To analyze the political, economic and social
   objectives of the colonies
4. To assess the various successes and failures in
   experiments with self-government
5. To assess the role of European powers in the
   formation and the governance of the colonies
6. To explore the role of religion in the colonies
7. To examine the extent to which the colonies were
   democratic
8. To examine the extent to which the colonies were
   independent and to trace the evolution of their
   independence.
9. To assess the role of dissent and rebellion in
   the colonies
10. To determine the role of values such as liberty,
    equality, and fraternity
11. To analyze the role of Natives in Colonial
    America
12. To identify the role of various European, Native
    and Colonial leaders
13. To determine which colonies were more/less
    influential in the development of a national
    identity
14. To foreshadow implications of colonial
    development on the United States

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Models of Colonial Development

• Trading Company or Joint Stock Company Colony
• With King's permission, a company forms with
  exclusive rights to trade in a particular area or
  over a particular product.
• Company charters enabled owners to sell stock
  shares to investors
• VA Company of London MA Bay Co.
• NY and DE founded by Dutch W. India Co
• Covenant or Self-governing Colony - colonies
  created and governed by the settlers
• RI, CT
• Proprietary Colony - One individual or group was
  given by the crown the right to settle and govern
  a colony
• PA, MD
• Royal Colony - Crown control. For various reasons
  all English colonies lost their independent
  status and became royal colonies

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Northern, Middle Southern
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Northern Colonies

• Massachusetts Bay
• later MA and ME
• Rhode Island
• New Hampshire
• Connecticut

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Formation of MBC, 1629

• English Civil War (1642-1651) was a Push factor
  for Puritans
• Short story Parliamentarians vs. Royalists over
  taxes, religion, and sovereignty
• Charles I dismissed Parliament in 1627 and did
  not recall them for a decade.
• During the Personal Rule C2 revived High
  Anglicanism and persecuted and taxed Puritans
  who did not attend Anglican mass.
• C2 twice attacked Scotland (which had a Calvinist
  Protestant Ref in 1600s) to enforce Anglican
  policies.
• Charles I beheaded in 1649. His son Charles II
  was exiled (later ruled 1660-85)
• King can no longer rule without Parliament

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Formation of MBC, 1629

• MBC founded in 1629 by non-Separatist Puritans
  out of fear for their faith and England's future.
  
• The "Great Migration" (1630s)
• Pilgrims came aboard the Mayflower in 1620
• Since they had a patent to settle in VA, it
  wouldnt be valid they drafted the Mayflower
  Compact while aboard, an agreement to, combine
  our selves together into a civil body politick.

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Formation of MBC, 1629

• John Winthrop - Governor of MBC
• Most distinguished MBC leaders
• Elected governor 12 times and set the tone for
  religious mission
• Leadership helped MA to prosper
• Covenant Theology Winthrop believed Puritans had
  a covenant with God to lead religious experiment
  in New World
• "We shall build a city upon a hill"

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MBC Politics Culture

• ? MBC became most influential colony
• Strong Economy fur trading, fishing,
  shipbuilding, farming
• Politics Political discussion, voting, and
  governing open to free adult male Puritans (40
  of pop.)
• of eligible officeholders gt than in England
• Non-religious men and all women could not vote
• Townhall meetings emerged as a staple of
  democracy
• Religion Puritan churches grew into
  Congregational Church
• Non-church members required to pay taxes for the
  gov't-supported church.

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MBC Politics Culture

• ?Function of government was to enforce God's laws
  (part of covenant theology)
• Provincial gov't was not a democracy or a
  theocracy.
• Congregational ministers had no formal political
  authority
• Believed democracy was the "meanest and worst" of
  all forms of government
• Distrusted non-Puritans

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MBC Politics Culture

• ? Church leadership
• Public interrogations of people claiming to have
  experienced conversion.
• John Cotton devoted to defending gov'ts duty to
  enforce religious rules but advocated a civil
  government.
• Clergymen not allowed to hold political office
• Congregation had right to hire and fire ministers
  and set salaries.
• In effect, a form of separation of church and
  state.
• MBC Puritans feared the "political" Anglican
  clergy in England
• Cambridge Platform (1648) Voluntary synod where
  Mass., Plymouth, Connecticut New Haven met to
  work out a congregational form of church govt in
  detail.
• Significance Congregational church became more
  uniform throughout New England.

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MBC Politics Culture

• ? Dissent in MBC
• Quakers, who believed in an inner light more so
  than theology, defied authority of Puritan clergy
  and were persecuted.
• Anne Hutchinson believed in antinomianism
  (rejected socially established morality faith
  alone Protestantism)
• She held prayer meetings at home to discuss John
  Cottons sermons with other women this was taboo
  for non-clergy
• Brought to trial for heresy in 1638.
• She claimed direct revelation from Godmore
  heresy.
• Banished from MBC set out for Rhode Island,
  pregnant
• Eventually settled in NY where she and all but 1
  of 14 kids killed by Indians
•        

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MBC Politics Culture

• ? Dissent in MBC
• Roger Williams, minister from Salem 
• Challenged legality of Plymouth and MBC charters
  because land belonged to Indians and was not the
  kings land to grant.
• Claimed colony took land from Indians w/o fair
  compensation
• Liberty of conscience"
• Williams denied authority of civil gov to
  regulate religious behavior.
• In effect, challenged the basis of MBC government
• Stated that no man should be forced to go to
  church.
• Demanded "wall of separation" b/w church and
  state                        
• Jefferson would later use this metaphor to
  disestablish religion in VA which influenced "No
  Establishment" clause of the Const
• General Court banished him from MBC in 1635. He
  fled to RI sheltered by Indian friends.
• He purchased lands from Indians and founded the
  community of Providence, accepting all settlers
  regardless of their beliefs.

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MBC Politics Culture

•    Later challenges to Puritanism
• First generation Puritans began losing their
  religious zeal as time went on.
• Large population influx dispersed Puritan
  population onto outlying farms away from control
  of church and neighbors.
• After the wave of dissent in the 1630s and 1640s
  (e.g. Hutchinson and Williams) conversions
  decreased dramatically.
• Children of non-converted members could not be
  baptized.
• Conversions continued to decrease as 2nd
  generation Puritans had trouble getting their
  conversions authenticated by the church, thus
  preventing their children from being baptized
•    

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MBC Politics Culture

• Half-Way Covenant est in 1662 to attract members
• provided partial church membership for the
  children and grandchildren of church members.
• Those who accepted the Covenant could become
  church members without claiming a spiritual
  experience.
• These half-members could not vote in church
  forums
• Eventually, Puritan churches baptized almost
  anyone
• Distinction between the "elect" and other members
  of society subsided.
• Strict religious purity was sacrificed for wider
  religious participation

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MBC Politics Culture

• Salem Witch Trials, 1692
• Dissent begat widespread paranoia and unrest.
• Not uncommon for Europeans and Colonists at the
  time to believe that the devil worked through
  witches
• First accusations began when young girls, after
  listening to voodoo tales from a black servant,
  began behaving oddly.
• Witch Hunt young female accusers were from the
  poor western part of the community and accused
  the more prosperous people in the eastern part.
• 19 hanged, 1 pressed to death, 2 dogs hanged
• Cotton Mather, prominent clergymen in MA,
  supported the witch trials and thus weakening the
  prestige of the clergy
• Explanations include religious discord, economic
  tensions, misogyny, fear of Indian attacks
• Ended when ministers, led by Increase Mather,
  urged leniency

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Rhode Island - 1636

• Founded on Rebellion - drew independent-minded
  people. Most individualistic and independent
  population
• Egalitarian constitution - majority rule and
  liberty of conscience
• Progressive for its time passed laws abolishing
  witchcraft trials, imprisonment for debt, most
  capital punishment, and in 1652, slavery of both
  blacks and whites
• Provided simple manhood suffrage

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Rhode Island - 1636

• Church State
• Most religious groups welcome, some restrictions
  on Catholicism Judaism.
• Williams built Baptist church at Providence (1st
  in Americas)
• No religious oaths required
• No compulsory Church attendance
• No taxes to support a state church
• Amalgamated into the Dominion of New England in
  1686, when James II attempted to enforce royal
  authority over the autonomous colonies

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New Hampshire - 1623

• Named after the English county of Hampshire
• In 1638 Exeter was founded by John Wheelwright.
  Settlers signed the Exeter Compact , similar to
  Mayflower Compact
• All the towns agreed to unite in 1639, but MA
  claimed the territory. In 1641 an agreement was
  reached with MA to come under its jurisdiction.
  Home rule of the towns was allowed.
• Relationship between MA and NH was controversial
  and tenuous
• 1679 the king separated them
• 1686 reunited (as part of the Dominion of New
  England)
• 1691 re-divided
• 1698 again under the jurisdiction of MA
• 1741 New Hampshire returned to its royal
  provincial status
• All the while, economically dependent on MA
• Modern State motto Live Free or Die

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Connecticut - 1636

• Clergyman Thomas Hooker objected to hegemony of
  Gov Winthrop and his Magistrates
• Hooker and others wanted more land than MBC was
  willing grant.
• Led 100 settlers with 130 head of cattle from
  Cambridge to the CT River, where they established
  Hartford
• 3 valley towns of Hartford, Windsor, and
  Wethersfield est. CT
• 1643, New England Confederation Connecticut, New
  Haven, Plymouth, and MBC formed a league of
  friendship for defense and advice step toward
  the later union of states.
• Fundamental Orders drafted in 1639 (The
  Constitution State)
• First modern constitution in American history
• Established a democracy controlled by
  "substantial" citizens
• Gov based on consent of the people.
• Patterned MBC gov

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Connecticut - 1636

• Like MBC, CT founded by Puritans who est. the
  Congregational Church
• Tax revenues supported the local ministers
• Fined those who didnt attend church
• Until 1708, the Congregational Church was the
  only legal church in CT
• 1718, following a substantial gift from Elihu
  Yale
• Great Awakening sent shock waves through CT in
  mid 18th C., ripping the Congregational Church
  apart.
• Those who embraced Awakening New Lights
• Those opposed Old Lights
• Uninspired by Old Light services, New Lights
  petitioned to form separate societies and
  churches

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Connecticut - 1636

• Pequot War (1634-1638)
• Pequots aimed to expand along CT River to control
  Euro fur trade.
• Pequots allied with Dutch traders Mohegan with
  English
• Pequots vs. MBC Plymouth colonies
  Narragansett Mohegan
• Mystic Massacre 1637, John Mason encircled and
  torched 600-700 Pequot women and children. Thus
  did the Lord judge among the Heathen, filling
  Mystic with dead Bodies." (Mason)
• End of Pequots
• Inspired, for common protection, The New England
  Confederation (1643)

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Middle Colonies

• New York
• later NY VT
• New Jersey
• Pennsylvania
• Delaware
• New Netherland Colony the settled areas are now
  part of NY, NJ, DE CT
• Each colony developed religiously, ethnically,
  and politically heterogeneous population

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New Netherland

• Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage for a NW Passage
• Multicultural haven for religious and
  intellectual refugees
• Religious freedom and free trade (including a
  stock market)
• Initially a private venture to exploit fur trade,
  NN was slowly settled over decades.
• Early conflicts with Natives
• Mismanagement by the Dutch West India Co.

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New York - 1664

• England captured NN from the Dutch in 1667.
• The English sent Navy to seize the colony Dutch
  hardly resisted during the Second Anglo-Dutch War
• Their last director-general, Peter Stuyvesant,
  urged them to fight to the end.
• Treaty of Breda in 1667. Renamed for James, Duke
  of York, brother of Charles II
• Fun/sad fact The Dutch got Suriname
• 1688 the province was made of part of the
  Dominion of New England.
• Religious toleration
• Locally governed. NY remained diverse, loosely
  collected, independent communities.

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New York - 1664

• 1683, New York Chapter of Liberties Granted
  freedom of religion to all Christians and gave
  all landholders right to vote. Created to attract
  more settlers to NY
• Governor Andros said "permit all persons of what
  religion soever, quietly to inhabit within the
  precincts of your jurisdiction"
• Colonial Assembly created - gave New Yorkers more
  rights than any other colony including the
  protection from taxation without representation.
• Economic roots in fur trade. Became THE colonial
  port.
• Largest importer of slaves
• Supply port for pirates
• NY supplied British fleet during wars with France

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New Jersey - 1665

• Part of Duke of Yorks charter. NJ was called
  "Albania
• Lord Berkeley of Stratton, close friend of the
  Duke, was also given a part of NJ. Became East
  and West Jersey. Border was not demarcated and
  often disputed.
• In 1665, NJ was split off from NY to become a
  separate province, but the final border was not
  finalized until 1765
• New YorkNew Jersey Line War a series of border
  skirmishes and raids from 1701-1765

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New Jersey - 1665

• Offered religious freedom to attract settlers.
  Quakers came.
• 1746, College of NJ (now Princeton) was founded
  in Elizabethtown by a group of Great Awakening
  "New Lighters"
• 1766, Queens College (now Rutgers) was founded in
  New Brunswick by Dutch Reformed ministers with a
  Royal Charter from George III

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Pennsylvania - 1681

• William Penn received the colony as payment in
  lieu of a 16,000 debt that the Crown owed his
  father, naval hero William Penn.
• Establishment of the colony helped solve the
  problem of the growing Society of Friends or
  "Quaker" movement in England which embarrassed
  Anglican Church
• Advertised in British Isles, Holland, and Germany
  
• Quakers from the Rhineland, Ireland, and England.
• German Protestant groups were called the
  Pennsylvania Dutch ("Deutschland")
• Scot-Irish Presbyterians arrived in the 1700s as
  indentured servants.

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Pennsylvania - 1681

• ?Quaker Radicalism
• Antinomian. No need for learned ministry. One
  mans interpretation of scripture was as valid as
  the next guys. A liberating belief, especially
  for lower-class English.
• Equality - Female ministers. Cooperated with
  natives. Pennsylvania Gradual Abolition Act of
  1780 was first emancipation statute in the
  colonies. Prison reform. Thee and Thou
  instead of Dr. or Mr. or Lord.
• Simplicity - wore darker colors and would not
  have their portraits painted
• Peace - Quakers refused military service as
  pacifists and when they controlled the
  legislature, they refused to appropriate money to
  fight the Natives

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Pennsylvania - 1681

• By 1750s, Quakers lost their numerical edge,
  abandoned the government, and left for the
  countryside to live by their credo
• German refugees prospered on the fertile soil
• Mennonites - founded Germantown in 1683
• Northkill Amish Settlement, est. 1740, 1st Amish
  settlement in Americas.
• 3rd richest colony in the New World
• Philadelphia was arguably America's most
  important city.

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Delaware - 1701

• Land that became DE changed hands many times.
  Consequently, DE became a heterogeneous society.
• Swedes, Finns, Dutch, French, and some English
• William Penn was granted right to rule by Crown
  in 1681
• Hard time governing diverse pop.
• Attempted to merge the governments of PA and the
  lower counties of DE. Representatives clashed.
• 1701 Penn agreed on two separate assemblies.
  Delawareans in New Castle and Pennsylvanians in
  Philadelphia.
• The Charter of 1701 permitted Delaware a separate
  government from Pennsylvania

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Southern Colonies

• Maryland
• Virginia
• later VA, KY WV
• North Carolina
• later NC TN
• South Carolina
• Georgia

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Virginia - 1624

• King James ?Jamestown ? 1607 ? Christopher
  Newport ? John Smith ? Disaster.
• 90 of Natives wiped out by mid-Century
• John Rolfe, who married Chief Powhatans daughter
  Pocahantas, experimented with tobacco crop,
  creating a milder version that appealed to
  Europeans.
• Reliance on the stinking weed

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Virginia - 1624

• Under Sir Edwin Sandys from 1619-1629, VA Co.
  made substantial reforms, including creating the
  House of Burgesses in 1619
• 1st mini parliament in colonies.
• Created as an incentive to attract settlers to
  the VA "Death Trap"
• Representative self-government
• Most representatives were substantial property
  owners
• Sandys also devised the headright system
• 50-acre plot settlers and each servant or family
  member they brought over
• Created a rise in indentured servitude - most
  came over as teenage boys to work under contract
  (few outlived their 4-7 yr. contract).

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Virginia - 1624

• King Charles I was embarrassed by Jamestown, and
  made the charter Royal, appointing the governor
  and council himself.
• Though he dissolved the House of Burgesses, they
  continued to meet and in 1639 the body was
  officially recognized.
• Daily life in VA was centered on working ones
  own land. People were isolated and there were no
  population centers besides Jamestown.
  Foreshadowing

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Virginia - 1624

• Bacons Rebellion
• In 1674 Nathaniel Bacon led a group of
  disgruntled planters in uprising against VA Gov,
  Sir William Berkeley
• Bacon and others angry that Berkeley failed to
  quell Indian attacksand because Berkeley was
  corrupt, in part because he reserved fur trading
  for his cronies
• Black slaves and white servants, who had their
  own desires for reform, joined Bacon. A motely
  crew of malcontents!
• Burned Jamestown to the ground.

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Virginia - 1624

• Bacons Rebellion
• Disorganized and ineffective.
• When Bacon died in 1676, the rebellion dispersed.
  23 rebels hanged by Berkeley. Berkeley later
  relieved by Charles II.
• Significance of Bacon's Rebellion
• Planters saw white indentured servants as
  unwieldy, unpredictable, and disloyalincreased
  importation of black slaves while reducing number
  of indentured servants.
• Planter elite increasingly played the "race card"
  by encouraging poor whites to discriminate
  against blacks planters feared blacks and poor
  whites could ally again
• "The fear of civil war among whites frightened
  Virginias ruling elite, who took steps to
  consolidate power and improve their image for
  example, restoration of property qualifications
  for voting, reducing taxes and adoption of a more
  aggressive Indian policy. (Eric Foner)

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Maryland - 1632

• MD developed along similar lines to VA
• Like VA, MD relied on tobacco and had plantations
  spread out along the river and therefore didnt
  need towns to exchange goods
• Early populations centers clustered around
  Chesapeake Bay.
• Charles I gave Sir George Calvert, the first Lord
  Baltimore, a portion of VA for a Catholic haven
  and profit. Eventually Catholics became a
  minority and feared loss of religions freedom.
• Act of Toleration (1649)
• Motive Catholics sought to protect their faith
• Effect MD became largest haven for Catholics
• First laws against hate speech in the world.
• Guaranteed toleration to all Christians but death
  penalty those who denied divinity of Jesus.
• Revoked in 1654 by Anglican fiat then reinstated
  in 1692 after Glorious Rev
• By 1700, Maryland was third most populous colony
  (about 30,000 inhabitants)

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Carolinas 1663 / NC SC 1712/ Royal - 1729

• Charles II granted the Carolina charter in 1663
  for lands south of VA and north of Spanish
  Florida
• 1669, Charlestowne founded by English. Sig. port
  town
• Religious freedom dropped (1670) for Anglican
  Church
• 1691 - Because of communication difficulties a
  separate deputy governor was named to administer
  the northern half of the colony. The division of
  the colony into North and South was complete by
  1712, although the same proprietors continued to
  control both colonies.
• 1729 - After nearly a decade-long attempt by the
  British government locate and buy-out 7 of 8
  Lords Proprietors, both Carolinas became royal
  colonies
• Carolina society was envisioned with a hereditary
  nobility granted to proprietors

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Carolinas 1663 / NC SC 1712/ Royal - 1729

• Impact of the British West Indies
• West Indies, especially Barbados, developed sugar
  plantation economy
• Slaves in BWI outnumbered whites 4 to 1
• BWI relied on mainland for food
• As sugar plantations began to crowd out small
  farmers, many came to Carolinas with their slaves
• Carolinas adopted slave code in 1696
• By 1710 blacks outnumbered whites in Carolinas

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Carolinas 1663 / NC SC - 1729

• Stono Rebellion (1739) (aka Cato's Conspiracy or
  Cato's Rebellion)
• Majority of the population of SC were slaves
• Largest slave uprising in colonial history
• Jemmy ("Cato") was a literate slave who led 20
  other enslaved Congolese, who may have been
  former soldiers, in an armed march south from the
  Stono River.
• Recruited 60 other slaves, marched down the road
  with a banner that read "Liberty!. They attacked
  Hutchenson's store at the Stono River Bridge,
  killing two storekeepers and seizing weapons and
  ammunition. Killed 22-25 whites before being
  intercepted by a South Carolina militia near the
  Edisto River. In that battle, 20 whites and 44
  slaves were killed
• Rebellion suppressed, most rebels executed
• In response, the SC legislature passed the Negro
  Act of 1740
• Restricted slave assembly, education and movement
• 10-year moratorium against importing African
  slaves
• Established penalties against harsh treatment of
  slaves.

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Georgia - 1732

• 1732, George II (Georgia) granted charter to
  James Oglethorpe
• Oglethorpe saw GA as a way to thwart Spain from
  taking the area they controlled FL. England and
  Spain fought constantly.
• The Buffer Colony or The Garrison State
• Oglethorpe imagined a province populated by
  "sturdy farmers" that could guard the border
• Because of this, GA charter prohibited slavery
• Populate GA with Englands worthy poor as an
  alternative to debtors prison.
• Few settlers were attracted since there were
  strict rules (no slaves, no rum). Settlers being
  averse to strict rules, GA became a hard-drinking
  (1742 repeal) slave-owning (1749 repeal) colony,
  which still attracted few settlers.
• Charter granted liberty of conscience to everyone
  except Catholics, and limited grants of land to
  500-acre plots. Soon became 2,000 acre plots to
  attract more settlers.
• Savannah emerged into a diverse community
  (included German Lutherans and Scottish
  Highlanders but no Catholics)

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Objectives Revisited

1. To compare and contrast the 13 colonies
2. To explore controversies within and among the
   colonies
3. To analyze the political, economic and social
   objectives of the colonies
4. To assess the various successes and failures in
   experiments with self-government
5. To assess the role of European powers in the
   formation and the governance of the colonies
6. To explore the role of religion in the colonies
7. To examine the extent to which the colonies were
   democratic
8. To examine the extent to which the colonies were
   independent and to trace the evolution of their
   independence.
9. To assess the role of dissent and rebellion in
   the colonies
10. To determine the role of values such as liberty,
    equality and fraternity
11. To analyze the role of Natives in Colonial
    America
12. To identify the role of various European, Native
    and Colonial leaders
13. To determine which colonies were more/less
    influential in the development of a national
    identity
14. To foreshadow the implications of colonial
    development on the United States.

49
Conclusions?