Chapter Two
Government in Colonial America
Stanley L. Engerman
Government in Colonial America by Stanley L. Engerman
Colonial America entailed the movement of settlers from elsewhere into an area previously resided in by Indians. Settlement meant the attraction of free immigrants from elsewhere-mainly the British Isles, the acquisition of slave labor from Africa, and the need to control those already there, or, at least, to work out mutually satisfactory arrangements for co-existence. For free migrants it meant a relocation into an area quite different from that which they had left, while for African slaves it meant a loss of freedom and control.
The role of colonial governments was to provide, within the colonies, for defense and protection, laws in regard to property rights for individuals, the provision of certain public goods, and the regulation of activities of private individuals and businesses. Externally, there were regulations regarding trade (though these were often imposed by England) and defense against foreign attack (again generally provided by the English). Governmental rules could be the basis of a laissez-faire economy or a centrally- controlled one. In either case there is a major role played by government. While the thirteen colonies were subject to control by the English until independence, they did have some flexibility in determining who had the right to vote and to hold office, what laws could be passed, and control over financial issues. Those not able to vote could, however, be the beneficiaries of government policy and also were able to bring pressure on the governments to offset losses in the economic and political sphere. [1]
Early European Settlement of the New World
The nations of western Europe began their colonization movement into, and across, the Atlantic in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The pioneering nations in settling the Americas were Spain and Portugal. Portugal had first moved onto the offshore African islands, including the Azores, Maderia, the Cape Verde Islands, Fernando Pó, Principe, and São Tome, and Spain settled the Canary Islands, before both crossed the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the Americas. Portugal settled in Brazil, while Spain explored several parts of mainland North America, the Caribbean, and Central and South America, primarily settling in what would be called Latin America (South and Central America), several of the islands in the Caribbean (Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola), and a few scattered parts, mainly in the southwest and Florida, of mainland North America. British expansion overseas, first as a trading nation, began with the granting of charters to trading companies, beginning with the Muscovy Company (1553), and, by the end of the sixteenth century there were British companies trading with the Levant, North Africa, and India, and, in the early seventeenth century, West Africa.
Spain had a one century lead over the northern nations of western Europe – France, Britain, and the Netherlands – and settled in those areas which had been the wealthiest parts of the Americas and had by far the greatest numbers of American Indians. Spain’s possessions provided great wealth from the use of Indian labor in mining gold and silver for shipment to Spain, from where it was exported elsewhere in Europe and Asia to finance Spanish purchases of consumer and military goods.
Native American Populations
The British and other Europeans were not, of course, the first to settle in the Americas; they had been preceded by the Native-Americans who had settled throughout North and South America. The locations of Indians at the time of European contact pointed to significant differences in settlement patterns. The areas of Spanish conquest had about three-quarters of the Indian population, mainly in the wealthy and politically sophisticated Inca and Aztec empires, with populations resident in urban areas, military organizations, high agricultural productivity, and large-scale slavery and imperialism. Even with the extreme mortality, primarily due to diseases, after the Spanish contact, these areas continued to have larger Indian populations and, even today, Indians form a large part of the regional population. Mainland North America was quite different. The numbers of Native-Americans were much smaller and the Indians there lived in much smaller political units than those in Latin America.
There was a rather mixed pattern of Indian – European contact. In many cases there was conflict and warfare, between Europeans and Indians, but some Europeans formed coalitions with Indian groups in opposition to other Europeans, but peaceful arrangements also persisted. Trading took place, with furs being sold in exchange for foodstuffs, alcohol, tobacco, and other goods. The French in Canada were heavily involved in the fur trade with Indians, and the British, in their colonies, were also able to establish trading relations in furs and other goods with the Indians. Whether trade was peaceful or antagonistic, there was generally a push of Europeans inland, with the Indians often being forced to relocate further inland. Thus, the land base of the British colonists on mainland North America expanded greatly after initial settlement, as did that of the French in Canada before they lost it to the British in 1763.
Colonial Organization in the Settlement of North America
When the three major northern European nations came to explore and settle in the New World they were left with what were regarded as only limited opportunities relative to Spain and Portugal. Those parts of the Americas left available had had small Indian societies of relatively limited wealth. The overall Indian populations of the settled areas of mainland North America were quite small relative to those of Latin America. Before settling on the mainland, European nations had settled in the generally unoccupied islands of the Caribbean. After an early period of using white indentured labor to produce tobacco, they transformed these islands into major sugar producing areas, using mainly slave labor brought from Africa. Sugar was produced, to be exported to European markets, on large-scale plantations, often of 100 to 200 or more slaves. The rivalries among the British and Dutch, in Europe and in the New World, led to the British introduction of Navigation Acts after 1651, to control export and import markets and shipping patterns, via regulating the trade of their colonies, requiring exports to go to Britain, imports to come from Britain, and goods to be carried in British or colonial vessels. All Europeans pursued similar policies of mercantilism, intended to increase production and trade of the home country at the expense of other nations.
It was only at the end of the seventeenth century that the migration from Britain shifted from the Caribbean to go primarily to the colonies of mainland North America. Settlement on the mainland had begun earlier, in the seventeenth century, but these mainland colonies were not yet considered as attractive a location for settlement by immigrants as were those in the Caribbean, and the demand for slave labor to be imported was much smaller. In the seventeenth century there were several other settlements on the mainland: the French, mainly in Canada; the Swedes in Delaware; and the Dutch in what was called New Amsterdam. The means of establishing settler colonies varied among European nations. The Spanish and Portuguese colonies were often state enterprises, with state decision-making and with a strong role played by the Catholic Church. The British pattern differed, however. Its colonies were established under charters and controls by the crown. Yet, they were settled by individuals or groups, not by the government, and they made decisions in their own or the colony’s interests. There were two basic British patterns of colonial establishment and operation. Proprietorships were colonies established by a grant made to specific individuals and groups. Sometimes these colonies were established for particular religious or philanthropic purposes. The second method was the use of a joint stock company to finance settlement and to establish the group controlling the political life of the colony.
The earliest attempts to establish settlements by the British in North America, both unsuccessful, were proprietorships for Newfoundland (1583) and Roanoke Island, North Carolina (1585). Both involved small numbers of settlers, and lasted only for a very short period, as also did the joint stock company established for the settlement of Kennebec River, Maine (1607). The first successful settlement was that of Virginia, begun as a joint stock company in 1609, with land grants used to encourage colonization. While the settlement was to be successful, the company was not. It failed financially and, in 1624, Virginia became the first Royal Colony. Joint stock companies were used to settle Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620) and Massachusetts (1629, the Massachusetts Bay Company). The former was an attempt at a communal economic system, but was soon seen as unsuccessful and a financial failure in 1627, and there was a shift to private ownership at that time. This communal system did not work well, as individuals and families were less willing to work long and hard as they would if they had privately-owned property on which they need not share their gains with others. In the case of the Massachusetts Bay Company there was a subsequent shift of political power, by the Puritans, to a representative system of local residents in 1634.
In the 1620’s there were several colonies formed by the British in the Caribbean. The first, St. Kitts, was initially settled in 1623, colonized in parts by the French and the British, and came under a grant in 1627. Barbados was first settled after 1624, and was given a grant in 1627 – the same grant that covered St. Kitts and most of the subsequent British Leeward islands in the Caribbean. Barbados was a proprietorship, which led to a series of political disputes in subsequent years. It became a royal colony in 1650, although some financial provisions concerning the sharing of profits with creditors and leaseholders remained in effect for another decade or so. A Puritan joint stock company, following the same laws as the Massachusetts Bay Company, had been established on Providence Island off the coast of Belize, in 1630, but this was neither an economic nor social success, and was captured by the Spanish in 1641. The largest of the British colonies in the Caribbean, Jamaica, was settled after being conquered from Spain in 1655. As such, it was initially treated by the British government as a dependency. The varying patterns of organization in the Caribbean and as the mainland indicate the flexibility of British political controls and settlement arrangements.
There were numerous colonies and many different types of political arrangements. The first post-Massachusetts settlements on the mainland (after 1629) were undertaken by the granting of proprietorships to specific individuals or groups by the king. These proprietorships were not all successful, several of the colonies becoming Crown Colonies within several decades of establishment. Maryland (1634) was formed as a proprietorship granted to the Catholic Lord Baltimore, and became a Crown Colony in 1691: New York, in 1664, was captured from the Dutch who had tried to establish a joint stock company in 1613, and became a Crown Colony in 1683; New Jersey (1664), initially settled by the Swedes, Finns, and Dutch, in 1655 became a Crown Colony in 1702. The Carolinas (1670) became Crown Colonies in 1729. The final two colonies settled as proprietorships were a colony including numerous Quakers with the title Pennsylvania and Delaware (1681), which was to become socially and economically successful, and Georgia (1732), initially a philanthropic venture. Georgia was not successful, and in 1751 it was returned to the Crown, at which time it reversed its earlier policy of excluding slave labor. All thirteen colonies were to become economically successful, over time, and whatever the original provisions, became equivalent states after the Revolution.
Attracting Labor to the Colonies
All colonies had to solve the same set of problems, attracting labor and capital in order to survive economically. While these factors of production were in scarce supply, a third factor, land, was quite abundant and quite fertile. It could be used, after some costs of clearing, in efficient agricultural production. The lower cost of producing food and other agricultural goods in the colonies was offset, due to labor and capital scarcity, by the higher costs of producing manufactured commodities. The Navigation Acts were meant to encourage British manufacturers and limit colonial manufacturers. But, as can be seen by the early nineteenth century production patterns in the United States, these Acts were, at least as far as manufacturing was concerned, unnecessary or redundant. The controls over shipping of colonial commodities were, however, more crucial, and did restrict shipping by the Dutch, raising the cost of the commodities in British and other European markets, and reducing colonial incomes.
The colonial governments adopted several different methods in their attempts to acquire scarce labor. Land was given to encourage immigration, whether granted directly to immigrants or else to those who brought them over. It was sometimes granted immediately, sometimes after time needed to establish permanent residence. A system of indentured labor, along the lines of British apprenticeship, was rapidly introduced. Most migrants lacked the funds to cover the cost of passage to the New World and establishing themselves, therefore migrants traded a number of years of coerced labor time for their transportation from the British Isles to the colonies. This system, it is estimated, accounted for about three-fifths of all white migration to the mainland colonies, and was particularly important for the southern colonies. After the indenture period, funds or land were, at times, given to the laborer, an additional subsidy to encourage migration. The colonies regulated the terms of transportation across the Atlantic, and were responsible for the enforcement of the terms of the contracts and disputes between owners and servants. The mixture of land grants and indentured contracts attracted settlers from many areas of Europe, including all parts of the British Isles, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland, while groups, such as English Pilgrims and the French Huguenots, came seeking religious freedom. Nevertheless, the British were the dominant presence on the mainland.