Chapter 4 – Life in the Colonies
Vocabulary
1. bill of rights - written list of freedoms the government promises to
protect
2. English Bill of Rights - a 1689 document that guaranteed rights of English
3. middle class - class that included skilled craft workers, farmers,
and some trades people
4. indentured servant - person who agreed to work without wages for a
period of time in exchange for passage to the colonies
citizens
5. libel - act of publishing a statement that may unjustly
damage a person’s reputation
6. gentry - highest social class in the Thirteen English Colonies
7. apprentice - person who learns a trade or craft from a master
8. triangular trade - colonial trade route between New England, the
the West Indies, and Africa
9. slave code - laws that controlled the lived of enslaved
African Americans and denied them basic rights
10. racism - belief that one race is superior to another
11. public school - school supported by taxes
12. tutor - private teacher
13. dame school - school run by a woman, usually in her home
14. Great Awakening - religious movement in English colonies in early
in the 1700s
15. Enlightenment - movement in Europe in the 1600s and 1700s that
emphasized the use of reason
16. Magna Carta - signed in 1215 – British document containing two
basic ideas: 1. Monarch had to obey laws, and, 2. citizens had basic rights
17. Parliament - representative assembly in England
Chapter 4 – Life in the Colonies (1650-1750)
Section 1 – Governing the Colonies
Obj: government and how the liberties of the colonists were limited; colonial trade regulations
The British colonists brought with them the idea that they had political rights.
The Magna Carta:
· 1215 – English nobles forced King John to sign the “Great Charter”
o The first document to place restrictions on an English ruler’s power
o Limited the monarch’s right to levy taxes without consulting the nobles
o Protected the right to own private property
o Guaranteed the right to trial by jury
§ At first, the rights were limited to nobles
§ Over time, rights were extended to all English citizens
o The Great Council formed under the Magna Carta
o Council developed into the English Parliament
§ Two-house legislature
· House of Lords (made up of nobles inheriting their titles)
· House of Commons (elected)
§ Only a few rich men and landowners had the right to vote for the House of Commons
· Parliament’s greatest power – the right to approve new taxes
o Monarch needed Parliament’s consent (power of the purse)
· 1640s – power struggles between King Charles I and Parliament let to the English Civil War
o Parliament won
o King executed
o Briefly had complete control of England
· 1660 – monarchy restored
o Parliament retains traditional rights
The English Bill of Rights
· 1688 – The Glorious Revolution won colonists even more rights
o Parliament removed King James II from the throne
o Asked William and Mary of the Netherlands to rule
o In return for support, William and Mary signed the English Bill of Rights in 1689.
§ Freedoms the government promises to protect
§ Protected the right of individuals and gave anyone accused of a crime the right to a trial by jury
§ A ruler could not raise taxes or an army without the approval of Parliament
§ Parliament consent needed to raise an army
§ Parliament required to meet regularly
Freedom of the Press
· 1735 Court Case helped establish another important right
o Freedom of the press
· John Peter Zenger, published of the New York Weekly journal
o Arrested for printing a series of articles that criticized the governor
o He was charged with libel
o His lawyer, Andrew Hamilton admitted the critique of his client
o However, he also argues that the articles published were based on fact and should not be considered as libel
o The jurors agreed
o Zenger found not guilty
· Democracy based on well-informed citizens
o Therefore, the press has a right and responsibility to keep the public informed of the truth
*Freedom of the press is recognized as a basic American liberty
· By the 1700s – trade flourished all along the Atlantic coasts
o As trade increased, England began to take a new interest in its colonies.
· England believed that its colonies should benefit the home country
o Mercantilism
o Mercantilists thought that a country should export more than it imported
· 1650s – English Parliament passed a series of Navigation Acts
o These acts regulated trade between England and its colonies.
o Their purpose was to ensure that only England benefited from colonial trade
· Navigation Acts –
o Helped the colonies as well as England
o Colonists were encouraged to build their own ships
o New England became a prosperous shipbuilding center
o Colonial merchants did not have to compete with foreign merchants because they were sure of having a market for their goods in England.
o Still, many colonists resented the Navigation Acts
§ Ignored them
§ Found ways to get around them
Chapter 4 – Life in the Colonies (1650-1750)
Section 2 – Colonial Society
Obj: to understand how the society of colonial America worked, their education, differences, and how the new ideas affected them
· As the American colonies grew, they became more than rough settlements
· Gradually, old customs and ideas were being shaped into a new culture that was distinctly America.
· As in England, birth still determined a person’s opportunity in life
· Like Europeans, colonial Americans thought it was only natural that some people rank more highly than others.
o A person’s birth and wealth still determined their social status
o Gentry –
§ Wealthy planters
§ Merchants
§ Ministers
§ Successful lawyers
§ Royal officials
o Middle class –
§ Farmers who worked their own land
§ Skilled craft workers
§ Some tradespeople
§ Nearly three quarters of all white colonists belonged to the middle class
o Lowest social class –
§ Indentured servants
§ Hired farmhands
§ Slaves
· Indentured servants – when their contract term of service was completed, they received “freedom dues”, a set of clothes, tools, and 50 acres of land.
o Thousands of men, women and children came to North America as indentured servants.
o Some even became successful and rose into the Middle Class
· Women and the colonies –
o In the colonies –
§ Women performed many of the same tasks
· Household
· Husband
· Family
· Cooked meals
· Milked cows
· Watched children
· Made clothes
o In the back country –
§ Wives and husbands often worked side by side in the fields at harvest
o In the cities –
§ Women sometimes worked outside the home
· Maids
· Cooks
· Nurses
§ Others were midwives
§ Seamstresses
· Each colony developed its own government
o A governor directed the colony’s affairs and enforced the laws
o Most governors were appointed by either the king or colony’s proprietor
o In Rhode Island and Connecticut, however, colonists elected their own governors.
o Each colony also had its own legislature
§ Each legislature had upper and lower houses
§ The upper house was made up of advisors appointed by the governor.
§ The lower house was an elected assembly.
· It approved laws and protected the rights of citizens
· It had the right to approve any taxes the governor asked for
· Any governor who ignored the assembly risked losing this salary.
o Each colony had their own rules about who could vote.
§ 1721 – all the colonies had laws that restricted the right to vote to white Christian men over the age of 21.
§ In some colonies, only Protestants or members of a particular church could vote
§ All voters had to own property
o Colonists also valued the rights the Magna Carta gave them as English subjects
Chapter 4 – Life in the Colonies (1650-1750)
Section 3 – Slavery in the Colonies
Obj: how slavery developed in the colonies and its affect on colonial life; the triangular trade; African cultural influence
· However, the rights of the English citizens did not extend to all colonists
o Women’s rights wavered within each individual colony
o Africans and Native Americans in the colonies had almost no rights
o Colonists enjoyed English liberties
o Most Africans were bound in slavery
· Spanish and Portuguese settlers were the first to bring Africans to the Americans as a source of the slave trade.
· Slavery spread to the colonies of the other European countries.
o British
o Dutch
o French
· Millions of Africans were transported to the colonies against their will.
· Slave traders set up posts along the West African coast
o Captives were bound at the leg and neck
o They were forced to march as far as 300 miles to the coast
o Half of the captives died along the way
**This was known as the Atlantic Slave Trade
Middle Passage :
· Once they arrived at the coast:
o Captives traded for guns and other goods
o They were loaded onto slave ships
o Transported across the Atlantic on a brutal voyage
· The Middle Passage
· To increase their profits, some slave-ship captains:
o Crammed the maximum number of captives on board
o As many as 350 people bound together in a tiny space below deck
o No light, no air
· Other captains provided better conditions
o Hoped that more captives would survive in good health and get a higher price
· As a result of such conditions:
o From 15 to 20 percent died or committed suicide during the Middle Passage
· Once slave ships reached the Americas:
o Healthy men, women, and children were put on the auction block
o Could be sold one by one or in groups
o Family members often separated
· Vast majority sold ended up on plantations in the Spanish colonies, Brazil, or the Caribbean
· But for some 500,000 enslaved Africans, their final destination was British North America
· English colonists in the Americas enjoyed more freedoms than did the English themselves.
· New England traders were known as Yankees
· There were many trade routes
· The “Triangle Trade” route –
o There were three legs of the route that formed a triangle
o First leg – ships from England carried fish, lumber and other goods to the West Indies.
§ There, Yankees bought molasses
§ Ships then sailed back to New England where colonists used the molasses and sugar to make rum.
o Second leg – ships carried rum, guns, gunpowder, cloth and tools from New England to West Africa.
§ In Africa, Yankee merchants traded these goods for slaves
o Third, and final, leg – ships carried enslaved Africans to the West Indies
§ With profits from selling the enslaved Africans, traders bought more molasses.
o This was a direct disobedience of the Navigation Acts
§ Bribes made customs officials look the other way
The system of slavery in the Americas was harsher than in most ancient times.
Slavery Takes Root:
o Jamestown – first Africans may have been treated as slaves
o Late 1600s – growing numbers of enslaved Africans arrived on ships
o Plantation system helped slavery take root
o Profits from tobacco and rice plantations
o Thousands of enslaved Africans needed to work the fields
o Southern economy came to depend on slavery
o Planters preferred slaves over servants
o Indentured servants were temporary (once terms satisfied, they could go)
o Also, as conditions improved in England, fewer servants came to America
Enslaved for Life:
o As the need for cheap labor grew, colonies made slavery permanent
o 1663 – Virginia – any child born to a slave was a slave too
o There were early attempts to stop slavery:
o 1652 – Rhode Island
o Until the 1750s – Georgia had a ban on trade
o Because of high profits – slavery became legal in all the colonies
o Not every African in America was a slave
o Slavery did come to be restricted to people of African descent
o Thus, slavery was linked to racism
o Most English colonists believed themselves superior to Africans
o Believed that they were helping them by introducing Christianity and their European way
Resistance to Slavery:
o As slave numbers grew, whites began to worry that they would revolt
o First serious result – Gloucester, VA – rebels betrayed – uprising failed
o Other revolts occurred in Connecticut and Virginia
o Fearing more trouble:
o Colonial authorities wrote slave codes
o Enslaved people could not:
§ Meet in large numbers
§ Own weapons
§ Leave a plantation without permission
§ Could not be taught to read and write
o Masters could kill an enslaved person without being tried for murder
o Codes gave masters more control and made it harder for escaped slaves to survive
There was resistance and revolts (South Carolina by Jemmy, an enslaved Angolan)
Revolts would continue to flare up until slavery itself ended in 1865.
African Cultural Influences:
§ Enslaved Africans differed greatly from colony to colony
o 10% lived north of Maryland
o Virginia and Maryland – enslaved Africans were less isolated from white society
§ African customs survived
o Craftsworkers created fine quilts, furniture, carved walking sticks, etc.
o Drum rhythms found their way into American music (used as communication in the their culture)
§ As did the banjo
§ As did their folk tales
Chapter 4 – Life in the Colonies
Section 4 – The Spread of New Ideas
Obj: the Great Awakening; education, differences, and how the new ideas affected them