Explain how free and forced migration to and within different parts of North America causedregional development, cultural diversity and blending, and political and social conflicts through the 19th century
TheTidewater regionofVirginiais the eastern portion of theCommonwealthof Virginialocatednear the James and RappahannockRivers.The termtidewatermay be correctly applied to all portions of any area, including Virginia, where the water level is affected by the tides (more specifically, where the water level rises when the tide comes in).Planters in the early American colonies extended their tobacco productions above the "fall line," where waterfalls or rapids mark the end of the Tidewater and the beginning of the foothill region known as the Piedmont.
COLONY CHART
Sir George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, gets a portion of Virginia for Catholichaven and profit.- Eventually, growth of Protestants meant Catholics become a minority; Catholics feared loss of religious freedom.
Act of Toleration (1649)Guaranteed toleration toallChristians but instituted death penalty for anyone denying the divinity of Jesus (e.g. Jews & atheists)
Motive:Catholics sought to protect their faith by granting certain degree of religious freedom.
Result -Maryland became largest haven for Catholics in British American colonies
The WestIndies: Waystation to Mainland America
Spain, weakened by military overextension and distracted by its rebellious Dutch provinces,
relaxed its grip on much of the Caribbean in the early 1600s.
Sugar formed the foundation of the West Indian economy.
Sugar cane was a richman’s crop. It had to be planted extensively to yieldcommercially
viable quantities of sugar. Extensiveplanting, in turn, required extensive and arduousland clearing
To work their sprawling plantations, they imported enormous numbers of African slaves
(One of the notable atrocities wrought by European colonial expansion)
Scene on the Coast of Africa', by Francois-AugusteBiard c.1840.
Presented to Sir Thomas Foxwell Buxton to commemorate the Abolition of Slavery in 1833
Slavery by the Numbers #
Of the10 to 16million Africans who survived the voyage to the New World, 60 -70%ended up in Brazil or the sugar colonies of the Caribbean. Only6%percent arrived in what is now the United States.
Absentee ownership wascommon in the West Indies, planters relied heavily on paid managers and on a distinct class of free blacks and mulattos to serve as intermediaries with the slave population.
Slaves constituted80 -90 % of the population, many plantations holding 150 slaves or more.
Starting in the 17th century, some British colonies adopted slavecodes from Barbadosthat led to strict racial categories in colonial societies
TheRestorationColonies Settlement of the Carolinas
South Carolina- Carolinacreated in 1670 afterrestorationand named after Charles II.
Goals: grow foodstuffs for sugar plantations in Barbados and export non-English products like wine, silk, and olive oil.
Exported Indians as slaves to West Indies and New England colonies (perhaps as many as 100,000).
Ricebecame main cash crop in Carolina for export; by 1710 blacksoutnumbered whites.
Charles Town(Charleston) became most active seaport in the South.
North Carolinacreated officially in 1712 as a refuge for poor whites and religious dissenters from Carolina and Virginia.
Became most democratic, independent and least aristocratic of original 13 colonies (similar to Rhode Island).
Yet, treated Indians ruthlessly and sold many into slavery.
Georgia
Became last British American colony founded byJames Oglethorp (1733)as ahaven for debtors as well as a buffer state against Spanishand Indian incursions from the South.
Savannah emerged into a diverse community (included German Lutherans Scottish Highlanders; but no Catholics)
From its founding in 1732 throughout the eighteenth century, Georgia was a place of bothreligious tolerance and religious pluralism. Georgia's Royal Charter provided for liberty of conscience for all, and for the free exercise of religion by all except Roman Catholics. The Charter did not establish the Church of England or any other church. (Although the Church of England would later be established by law in 1758, it was, in practice, a weak establishment with little real ecclesiastical presence.)
Southern Society -- 18th century
One of the Grand Southern Plantations
Southern class structure (from most powerful to least powerful)
Plantation ownersTop of social ladder they ruled region's economy and monopolized political power.
Small farmersComprised largest social group. Were considered far below the prestige and power of the planter class. And most lived meager existences; some owned 1 or 2 slavesModest sized plots
Landless Whites-- Most were former indentured servants
Indentured Servants(lowest of whites) decreased as black slavery increased (after Bacon's Rebellion 1676) . Only black slaves were lower in the class structure - Constituted about 20% of colonial population by 1775
KEY QUESTIONS
Why did theSouth remained underdeveloped
1. Few cities emerged
2. Life revolved around southern plantations.
3. Poor transportation -- waterways provided principal means of transportation
Why did the colonies differ from England?
1. Demand for labor of indentured servants in the South (indentured servants)
2. Women came in much smaller numbers
3. Importation of slaves from Africa