Life in the 1600s southern colonies – Ch. 4 of The American Pageant, “American Life in the Seventeenth Century,” pp. 66-76
Overall main idea: Tobacco cultivation and plantations grew in the South in the 1600s, leading to social hierarchy, increased reliance on slavery, and a new African-American culture.
The Unhealthy Chesapeake
Main idea: Life in Virginia and Maryland in the 1600s was difficult, short, and solitary due to disease and unhealthy conditions.
Diseases (malaria, dysentery, typhoid) cut ten years of life expectancy from settlers of the Chesapeake region; life expectancy was less than fifty years
Chesapeake colonies grew only by immigration at first as the birth rate couldn’t increase the population alone until around 1700
Men vastly outnumbered women so marriages and families were few; single parents were common; grandparents were hardly known
Virginia was the most populous colony, then Massachusetts, then Maryland
The Tobacco Economy
Main idea: The success of tobacco cultivation in the Chesapeake led to large numbers of indentured servants and vast plantations.
Tobacco exhausts the soil quickly, so farmers looked for new land often, especially up river valleys - provoked Indian attacks
Tobacco production increased through the 1600s, making prices fall, so farmers grew more tobacco to try to make up the difference
Indians died too quickly, African slaves were too expensive, so white indentured servants worked on most of the plantations
Headright system - colonists received 50 acres of land for every new servant they brought over; encouraged the growth of labor to work in the fields, but also increased the size and power of tobacco plantations
Indentured servants hoped to receive “freedom dues” and their own land after their servitude ended, but struggled to find land and often ended up working for their old masters for little pay
Frustrated Freedmen and Bacon’s Rebellion
Main idea: Discontented Virginia backcountry farmers violently rebelled after repeated Indian attacks, frustrations with land and women, and a lack of representation in the Virginia government.
Unsettled, poor, single, white former servants roamed the backcountry in search of available land not taken by aristocratic planters or Native Americans; they lost the right to vote in the Virginia assembly, found few women for marriage, and suffered repeated Indian attacks with no help from the government in the East, so...
Nathaniel Bacon led the frustrated farmers in a rebellion in 1676, attacking friendly and hostile Indians, then marching on the capital at Jamestown, burning it; then they rioted, plundering the countryside - basically civil war
Bacon died of disease, the governor hanged twenty of the rebels, and the rebellion fell apart; tensions remained between the lower-class backcountry farmers and the upper-class eastern plantation owners; the planters needed a less troubling labor force, so they looked to slaves
Colonial Slavery
Main idea: African slavery replaced indentured servants as the primary labor force in the South in the late 1600s, leading to increased slave trade and slave codes in America.
The majority of slaves were brought to the West Indies and South American colonies
African slaves were a small percentage of the Southern population until the late 1600s; instead, white indentured servants were the main labor force for plantation agriculture; slaves were more expensive, esp. considering they might easily die in the difficult conditions of the American South in the early 1600s; slave supply was not very high, as one company had a monopoly on it
1680s - African slaves increase and replace white indentured labor; reasons:
1. Less indentured servants came to America
2. Planters were afraid of mobs of frustrated former servants like Bacon’s Rebellion
3. It was easier to control slaves due to racial distinction and slave codes
4. The slave trade monopoly was broke and supply increased
5. Conditions were improving in adapting to life in to the South
6. Slaves were better workers at certain crops, like rice
Most slaves came from West Africa, where they were captured by coastal tribes and traded to European and American traders
The Middle Passage - the terrible journey by slave ship from Africa to America
Slave codes appeared as early as 1662 in North America - inc. making black slaves and their children the property of their master for life, forbidding slave literacy, few qualifications for freedom
Slavery began for economic reasons but continued also due to racial discrimination
Africans in America
Main idea: Africans in America performed hard labor, created new cultures, and rebelled against their slavery.
Slave life was more difficult in the Deep South - rice growing and diseases killed slaves more than tobacco growing in VA and MD; in the Upper South, better conditions led to slave reproduction and family life (one of the few slave societies in the history of the world to reproduce itself naturally)
African-American slave culture developed, including new languages (Gullah) and music (ringshouts that later evolved into ragtime and jazz)
Some slaves were skilled artisans but most did very difficult menial labor, inc. clearing swamps, timber, and of course, farming
Early slave revolts - New York City, 1712 - 21 slaves executed; Stono Rebellion, 1739 - 50 slaves escaped down the Stono River, SC, and headed toward Spanish Florida but were stopped and executed by local military; as a result of Stono, harsher slave codes were enacted in SC
Southern Society
Main idea: As slavery spread, social hierarchy and plantations grew while cities were few.
Early settlers were all struggling with poverty and disease and so did not have time or ability to develop much social structure - everyone was just trying to survive
Social class hierarchy beginning in the late 1600s:
Planters - small amount of wealthy owners of large plantations of cash crops; many slaves; controlled economy and politics in the legislature
Small farmers - largest group; might have one or two slaves, but most did not; more difficult subsistence existence but did raise cash crops
Landless whites - usually former servants, worked as laborers for low wages
Indentured servants - decreased as slaves increased
African slaves
Because of the success of large plantation agriculture, which was mostly self-sufficient, and river transportation, few cities developed in the South except for coastal trading centers; roads were terrible
Makers of America: From African to African American
Main idea: African slaves reproduced in America and created a unique new culture that helped them cope with their bondage and enriched American culture.
African-American culture did not really develop until slaves reproduced in America; African-born slaves usually kept their same general culture
The first African slaves were mostly males; there were few specific laws concerning their rights and status; slaves codes began in the late 1600s
Female slaves often worked harder than males, preforming daily work plus evening clothing-work and fear of sexual exploitation by male masters
Slaves adapted Christianity to their own African religions
African spirituals often had double meanings
Overall main idea: Tobacco cultivation and plantations grew in the South in the 1600s, leading to social hierarchy, increased reliance on slavery, and a new African-American culture.
Life in the 1600s New England colonies – Ch. 4 of The American Pageant, “American Life in the Seventeenth Century,” pp. 76-83
Overall main idea: Life in New England was centered on family, towns, Puritanism and a diversified economy, almost completely resulting from geography.
The New England Family
Main idea: Settlers in New England had long life spans, large strong families, and few individual rights for women.
In contrast to the South, English emigrants added ten years to their life span by immigrating to New England; average life span: 70 years; less disease and cleaner water
New Englanders arrived in families rather than single men and women; early marriage and frequent childbirth; women often feared childbirth but it was not as dangerous as sometimes portrayed; women were expected to be housewives and child-rearers for much of their entire adult life
NE had large families, including the relatively new concept of living grandparents
NE laws limited women’s individual rights to encourage marriage and strong family life; no voting or property rights, although widows could own property; no divorce except in cases of abandonment or adultery
Midwifery (assisting childbirths) was one of the few occupations where women had autonomy and economic power
Life in the New England Towns
Main idea: New England settlers lived in organized towns that included schools and democratic town meetings.
Geography and close “enemies” of other Europeans and Indians influenced New Englanders to form small towns; each was organized by “proprietors” and included a town meetinghouse/church, a village green, and houses with parcels of land for wood, crops, and livestock
Larger towns required elementary education; half of adults were literate; Harvard College was founded in 1636, the oldest college (and corporation) in the United States; Virginia’s William and Mary College was not founded until 1693
Puritan Congregationalist churches were run democratically and so town meetings were also; each adult male was able to meet, discuss and vote on almost all town issues
The Half-Way Covenant and the Salem Witch Trials
Main idea: As the population grew, religious zeal waned, and commercialism increased, New England Puritans turned to the Half-Way Covenant and were involved in witch-hunting.
Population growth made New Englanders expand out from their towns, loosening community and religious bonds
Puritan ministers preached “Jeremiads,” sermons scolding people for losing their piety and commitment to Christianity
Half-Way Covenant - introduced in 1662, it loosened the restrictions of entering the Puritan church; formerly members needed a conversion experience to be considered one of the “Elect,” but the Half-Way Covenant allowed the Elect’s children to have partial church membership, though not “full communion,” even if they did not have a conversion experience yet; this allowed more people to join the church but it weakened the overall spiritual purity and zeal of its membership
Salem Witch Trials, 1692 - twenty Massachusetts people were executed by the church/government for being “witches”; showed superstition, prejudices of age, and changing social conditions; the accused were often older independent women, “outsiders,” and those associated with the growing economy rather than community farming
The Massachusetts government later apologized, annulled the “convictions, paid reparations to families
“Witch-hunting” is now a metaphor for irrational pursuit of scapegoats/excuses for problems
The New England Way of Life
Main idea: New England way of life, including farming, land use, economy and character, was shaped in large part due to its geography.
New England geography - rocky soil, timber, hot summers and cold winters, mountains, short fast rivers, multitudes of fish and good harbors
Farming was difficult and on a small scale; NE did not have the expanses of flat, fertile soil with large slow rivers or the long growing seasons that plantation cash crop agriculture required; NE’ers had to work hard, live simply and frugally to survive off farming; encouraged diverse economy; slavery was not useful
NE’ers believed in owning and “improving” the land by clearing woodlands for farming and creating settlements, which clashed with Indian ideas of simply “using” the land; livestock could negatively impact the geography
NE turned to shipbuilding, commerce, and fishing due to geography; “gold mines of New England” = huge amounts of codfish
Combination of Puritanism and geography created the unique NE Yankee Character = hard work, purpose, strict discipline, stubbornness, independence, frugality, Christian conscience; as NE’ers moved to other parts of the country, spreading these ideas, these came to be considered all-American qualities; highly influenced the rest of American culture and history
The Early Settlers’ Days and Ways
Main idea: Average American settlers in the 1600s had very similar lives centered on the seasons, farming, and survival with little class distinctions except in the South.
Overwhelming majority of early American settlers were farmers whose life centered on the seasons of farming and survival and related chores; life was more comfortable than most European standards, mostly due to available cheap land
“Dukes don’t emigrate” - most American immigrants were not rich, but most were not really poor except for indentured servants
Difficult life for all did not allow for many social classes except for in the South; democratic institutions in church and town meetings in NE also limited class privileges
Overall main idea: Life in New England was centered on family, towns, Puritanism and a diversified economy, almost completely resulting from geography.