Opportunity And Oppression In Colonial Society

PUTTING DOWN ROOTS: OPPORTUNITY AND OPPRESSION IN COLONIAL SOCIETY
America: Past and Present

Opportunity And Oppression In Colonial Society
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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
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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
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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
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Womens 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
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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
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The Challenge of the Chesapeake Environment
Imbalanced sex ratio among immigrants
High death rate
Scattered population
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Race and Freedom
in British America
Indians decimated by disease
European indentured servant-pool wanes after 1660
Enslaved Africans fill demand for labor
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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
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Origins and Destinations of African Slaves, 1619-1760
Constructing African American Identities: Geographys 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
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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
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Constructing African American Identities: Slave Resistance
Widespread resentment of debased status
Armed resistance such as S. Carolinas Stono Rebellion of 1739 a threat
Runaways common in colonial America
Black mariners, other travelers link African American communities
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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
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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 Navyencourage 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
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Regulating Colonial Trade:
The Navigation Act of 1663
Goods shipped to English colonies must pass through England
Increased price paid by colonial consumers
19
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
20
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
21
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 Bacons death
Gentry recovers positions, unite over next decades to oppose royal governors
22
The Glorious Revolution in the Bay Colony: King Philips War
1675–Metacomet leads Wampanoag-Narragansett alliance against colonists
Colonists struggle to unite, defeat Indians
Deaths total 1,000+ Indians and colonists
23
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 IIs overthrow sparks rebellion in Massachusetts
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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
25
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
26
The Glorious Revolution in New York
1689–News of James IIs overthrow prompts crisis of authority in New York
Jacob Leisler seizes control
Maintains position through 1690
March 1691–Governor Henry Sloughter arrests, executes Leisler
27
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
28
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)
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Local Aspirations Within an Atlantic Empire
By 1700 Englands 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
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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)