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PUTTING DOWN ROOTS: OPPORTUNITY AND OPPRESSION IN COLONIAL SOCIETY

America: Past and Present

Chapter 3

Sources of Stability:
New England Colonies of the Seventeenth Century

New Englanders replicated traditional English social order
Contrasted with experience in other English colonies
Explanation lies in development of Puritan families

Immigrant Families
and New Social Order

Puritans believed God ordained the family
Reproduce patriarchal English family structure in New England
Greater longevity in New England results in “invention” of grandparents
Multigenerational families strengthen social stability

Commonwealth of Families

Most New Englanders married neighbors of whom parents approved
New England towns collections of interrelated households
Church membership associated with certain families
Education provided by the family

Women’s Lives
in Puritan New England

Women not legally equal with men
Marriages based on mutual love
Most Women contributed to society as

wives and mothers

church members

small-scale farmers

Women accommodated themselves to roles they believed God ordained

Social Hierarchy in New England

Absence of very rich necessitates creation of new social order
New England social order becomes

local gentry of prominent, pious families

large population of independent yeomen landowners loyal to local community

small population of landless laborers, servants, poor

The Challenge of the Chesapeake Environment

Imbalanced sex ratio among immigrants
High death rate
Scattered population

Family Life at Risk

Normal family life impossible in Virginia

mostly young male indentured servants

most immigrants soon died

in marriages, one spouse often died within a decade

Serial marriages, extended families common
Orphaned children raised by strangers

Women in Chesapeake Society

Scarcity gives some women bargaining power in marriage market
Women without family protection vulnerable to sexual exploitation
Childbearing extremely dangerous
Chesapeake women died 20 years earlier than women in New England

The Structure of Planter Society: The Gentry

Tobacco the basis of Chesapeake wealth
Great planters few but dominant

arrive with capital to invest in workers

amass huge tracts of land

gentry see servants as possessions

Early gentry become stable ruling elite by 1700

The Structure of Planter Society: The Freemen

The largest class in Chesapeake society
Most freed at the end of indenture
Live on the edge of poverty

The Structure of Planter Society: Indentured Servants

Servitude a temporary status
Conditions harsh
Servants regard their bondage as slavery
Planters fear rebellion

The Structure of Planter Society: Post-1680s Stability

Gentry ranks open to people with capital before 1680
Demographic shift after 1680 creates creole elite
Ownership of slaves consolidates planter wealth and position
Freemen find advancement more difficult

The Structure of Planter Society: A Dispersed Population

Large-scale tobacco cultivation requires

great landholdings

ready access to water-borne commerce

Result: population dispersed along great tidal rivers
Virginia a rural society devoid of towns

Race and Freedom
in British America

Indians decimated by disease
European indentured servant-pool wanes after 1660
Enslaved Africans fill demand for labor

Roots of Slavery

First Africans to Virginia in 1619
Status of Africans in Virginia unclear for 50 years
Rising black population in Virginia after 1672 prompts stricter slave laws

Africans defined as slaves for life

slave status passed on to children

white masters possess total control of slave life and labor

mixing of races not tolerated

Origins and Destinations of African Slaves, 1619-1760

Constructing African American Identities: Geography’s Influence

Slave experience differed from colony to colony
60% of South Carolina population black
Nearly half Virginia population black
Blacks much less numerous in New England and the Middle Colonies

Constructing African American Identities: African Initiatives

Older black population tended to look down on recent arrivals from Africa
All Africans participated in creating an African American culture

Required an imaginative reshaping of African and European customs.

By 1720 African population, culture self-sustaining

Constructing African American Identities: Slave Resistance

Widespread resentment of debased status
Armed resistance such as S. Carolina’s Stono Rebellion of 1739 a threat
Runaways common in colonial America
Black mariners, other travelers link African American communities

Rise of a Commercial Empire

English leaders ignore colonies until 1650s
Restored monarchy of Charles II recognized value of colonial trade
Navigation Acts passed to regulate, protect, glean revenue from commerce

Response to Economic Competition

“Mercantilism” a misleading term for English commercial regulation
Regulations emerge as ad hoc responses to particular problems
Varieties of motivation

crown wants money

English merchants want to exclude Dutch

Parliament wants stronger Navy—encourage domestic shipbuilding industry

everyone wants better balance of trade

Regulating Colonial Trade:
The Navigation Act of 1660

Ships engage in English colonial trade

must be made in England (or America)

must carry a crew at least 75% English

Enumerated goods only to English ports

1660 list included tobacco, sugar, cotton, indigo, dyes, ginger

1704-05 molasses, rice, naval stores also

Regulating Colonial Trade:
The Navigation Act of 1663

Goods shipped to English colonies must pass through England
Increased price paid by colonial consumers

Regulating Colonial Trade:
Implementing the Acts

Navigation Acts spark Anglo-Dutch trade wars
New England merchants skirt laws
English revisions tighten loopholes
1696--Board of Trade created
Navigation Acts eventually benefit colonial merchants

Colonial Factions Spark Political Revolt, 1676-1691

English colonies experience unrest at the end of the seventeenth century
Unrest not social revolution but contest between gentry “ins” and “outs”
Winners gain legitimacy for their rule

Civil War in Virginia:
Bacon's Rebellion

Nathaniel Bacon leads rebellion, 1676
Rebellion allows small farmers, blacks and women to join, demand reforms
Governor William Berkeley regains control
Rebellion collapses after Bacon’s death
Gentry recovers positions, unite over next decades to oppose royal governors

The Glorious Revolution in the Bay Colony: King Philip’s War

1675--Metacomet leads Wampanoag-Narragansett alliance against colonists
Colonists struggle to unite, defeat Indians
Deaths total 1,000+ Indians and colonists

Glorious Revolution: The Dominion of New England

1684--King James II establishes “Dominion of New England”

colonial charters annulled

colonies from Maine to New Jersey united

Edmund Andros appointed governor

1689--news of James II’s overthrow sparks rebellion in Massachusetts

The Glorious Revolution in the Bay Colony: Outcomes

Andros deposed
William III and Mary II give Massachusetts a new charter

incorporates Plymouth

transfers franchise from "saints" to those with property

Contagion of Witchcraft

Charges of witchcraft common

accused witches thought to have made a compact with the devil

Salem panic of 1691 much larger in scope than previous accusations
20 victims dead before trials halted in late summer of 1692
Causes include factionalism, economics

The Glorious Revolution in New York

1689--News of James II’s overthrow prompts crisis of authority in New York
Jacob Leisler seizes control
Maintains position through 1690
March 1691--Governor Henry Sloughter arrests, executes Leisler

The Glorious Revolution in Maryland

1689--news prompts John Coode to lead revolt against Catholic governor
Coode's rebellion approved by King William
Maryland taken from Calvert control
1715--proprietorship restored to the Protestant fourth Lord Baltimore

COMMON EXPERIENCES, SEPARATE CULTURES

	Purpose	Families	Ethnicity	Economy
New England	Religious	Nuclear families	Mostly English	Family farms
Middle Colonies	Mixed	Nuclear families	Mixed European	Family farms
Chesapeake	Gain wealth	Extended families	English (majority)& African	Market plantations (tobacco)
Lower South	Gain wealth	Extended families	English & African (majority)	Market plantations (rice, indigo)

Local Aspirations Within an Atlantic Empire

By 1700 England’s attitude toward the colonies had changed dramatically
Sectional differences within the colonies were profound
They were all part of Great Britain but had little to do with each other

Purpose

Families

Ethnicity

Economy

New

England

Religious

Nuclear

families

Mostly

English

Family

farms

Middle

Colonies

Mixed

Nuclear

families

Mixed

European

Family

farms

Chesapeake

Gain

wealth

Extended

families

English

(majority)

& African

Market

planta

tions

(tobacco)

Lower South

Gain

wealth

Extended

families

English &

African

(majority)

Market

plantations

(rice, indigo)