I. Southern Plantation Colonies -- general characteristics
A. Dominated to a degree by a plantation economy:
tobacco & rice
B. Slavery in all colonies (even Georgia after 1750);
mostly indentured servants for until 1676
in Virginia and Maryland
-- increasingly black slavery thereafter.
C. Large land holdings in the hands of the favored
few = aristocratic atmosphere (except N.
Carolina and parts of Georgia)
D. Sparsely populated: churches & schools too
expensive for very small towns.
E. All practiced some form of religious toleration
-- Church of England
(Anglican Church) most prominent
F. Expansionary attitudes stimulated
in large part due to degradation of soil from tobacco
farming.
II. The Chesapeake (Virginia & Maryland)
A. Virginia (founded in 1607 by Virginia
Company)
1.
Jamestown, 1607 -- 1st permanent British colony in New World
a. Founded by Virginia Company that received charter in London from
King James I.
i. Main goals: Promise of gold, conversion of Indians to Christianity
(just like
Spain), and new passage to the Indies.
ii. Consisted largely of well-to-do adventurers
b. Virginia Charter
i. Overseas settlers given same rights of Englishmen in England
ii. Became foundation for American liberties; rights extended to other
colonies.
2. Colony wracked by tragedy
during early years: famine, disease, war with Indians
a. By 1625, only 1200 of the nearly 8000 colonists survived
b. Only 60 out of 400 settlers survived "starving time" of 1610-1611
3.Captain John Smith
organized the colony beginning in 1608: "He who will not work shall
not eat."
a. Smith kidnapped in Dec. 1607 by Powhatans led by Chief Powhatan
who subjected
Smith to a what may have been a mock execution.
b. Smith perhaps "saved" by Pocahantas, Powatan's daughter, when
she was only 12
years old
4. Pocahantas
eventually became a central figure in preserving peace in early Jamestown
a. Provided foodstuffs to settlers.
b. Became hostage of colonists in 1613 during military
conflicts.
c. Later married John Rolfe & taught him Indian
way of curing tobacco.
-- Died of small pox at age 22
5. John Rolfe and tobacco
crop economy -- "Colony built on smoke"
a. Rolfe introduced new tough strain of tobacco
b. Tobacco industry became cornerstone of Virginia's
economy.
c. Plantation system emerged
6. House of Burgesses
(an assembly) authorized by London Company in 1619.
a. 1st of miniature parliament in the British American colonies.
b. Representative self-government
i. Most representatives were substantial property owners
ii.Created as an incentive to attract settlers to the Virginia "Death Trap"
7.Virginia Charter revoked
by James I in 1624
a. King believed assembly to seditious but also hated tobacco.
b. Virginia became a royal colony directly under his control
B. Maryland
1. Charles
I gave Sir George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, a portion of
VA for
Catholic haven and profit.
2. Eventually
, growth of Protestants meant Catholics rapidly becoming a minority;
Catholics feared loss of religions freedom.
3.
Act of Toleration (1649)
a. Guaranteed toleration to all Christians but instituted
death penalty for anyone
denying the divinity of Jesus (e.g. Jews & atheists)
b. Motive: Catholics sought to protect their faith by
granting certain degree of religious
freedom.
c. Maryland became largest haven for Catholics in British
American colonies
C. Life in the Chesapeake
1. Disease took heavy toll
early on (10 yrs off life exp.) -- Malaria, dysentery, typhoid
a. Half of all born in early Virginia and Maryland did not live past age
20.
b. Less than 25% of men lived to see 50 -- women only 40
2. Most immigrants were
single men in late teens, early 20's; most died soon after arriving
a. Surviving males competed for extremely scarce women; women thus married
early
b. Most men could not find mates.
3. Region stabilized eventually
due to increased immunities to disease in increased influx of
women
a. By 1700, Virginia was most populous colony (about
50,000 colonists)
b. By 1700, Maryland was third most populous colony (about
30,000 inhabitants)
D. The Tobacco Plantation Economy
1. First
Africans arrived in 1619, but probably were indentured servants in
early 17th c.
-- White indentured servants more predominant until late 17th
century.
2.
"Headright" System
a. A person who paid for the passage of a white indentured
servant received 50 acres
of land.
b. Some planters used the system to acquire enormous
tracts of land.
c. Indentured servants (English yeoman) agreed to
specified years of servitude in
exchange for transatlantic passage (term of servitude was usually about
5 years)
d. After term of contract expired during early-mid 17th
c., the servant was often given
some money, perhaps some land, and other goods to start their own farms.
-- Eventually, former indentured servants were given little and could not
succeed.
e.
By 1700, planters brought in about 100,000 indentured servants, representing
about
75% of all European immigrants to Virginia and Maryland.
E. Bacon's Rebellion (1676)
1. By late 17th century large numbers of frustrated freedmen
(former indentured servants)
existed.
a. Most lived in western Virginia; resented the
planter aristocrats from the east.
b. Many were too poor to own land and could not find
wives (men still greatly
outnumbered women)
c. Freedmen did not gain access to large land grants
in the east; forced to squat for
lands in western part of the colony.
d. Indians resisted white expansion in western Virginia
but freedmen angry that gov't
of Virginia did not do enough to protect white settlers from Indian attacks.
i. Governor Berkeley was generally friendly toward Indians who
traded
with the colony.
ii. House of Burgesses did not usually order attacks on Indians that cooperated
with gov't.
2. Nathaniel Bacon,
a 29-year-old aristocrat in western Virginia and member of House
of Burgesses began mobilizing a militia to protect whites from Indians.
a. In 1676, Bacon's militia massacred Indians and set
fire to Jamestown, chasing
Governor Berkeley out of the city.
b. Rebels opposed to aristocrats and Indians.
c. Bacon subsequently died of disease and Berkeley crushed
the rebellion
d. Significance of Bacon's Rebellion
i. Planters saw white indentured servants as too difficult
to control and
significantly increased importation of black slaves while reducing number
of
indentured servants.
e. Planter elite increasingly played the "race card" by encouraging
poor whites to
discriminate against blacks; planters feared blacks and poor whites could
ally
themselves again in the future.
-- Planters effectively able to psychologically control poor whites by
reinforcing idea
that poor whites, despite their poverty, would always be superior to blacks.
III. The Carolinas
A. Impact of the British West
Indies
1. West Indies, especially Barbados, developed sugar
plantation economy.
2. Slaves in British West Indies outnumbered whites 4
to 1.
3. Slave codes adopted in Barbados to control slaves.
4. West Indies increasingly relied on mainland British
America for foodstuffs.
5. As sugar plantations began to crowd out small farmers,
many came to Carolina with
their slaves to farm.
6. Carolina adopted slave code in 1696
B. American colonization interrupted
during English Civil War (1640s) and Cromwell's
Protectorate
(1650s)
1.New colonies not founded until restoration to the throne of Charles
II (1660-1685)
2. New restoration colonies included the Carolinas, New York
and
Pennsylvania
C. Carolina created in
1670 after restoration and named after Charles II.
1. Goals: grow foodstuffs for sugar plantations in
Barbados and export non-English
products like wine, silk, and olive oil.
2. Exported Indians as slaves to West Indies and New
England colonies (perhaps as
many as 100,000).
3. Rice became main cash crop in Carolina
for export; by 1710 blacks outnumbered
whites.
4.
Charles Town (Charleston) became most active seaport in the South.
a. Became a center for aristocratic younger brothers
of English
aristocrats (who inherited father's fortune due to primogeniture laws)
b. Religious toleration existed.
5. Indians and Spanish soldiers attacked southern Carolina
settlements; resented British
intrusion into the region.
D. North Carolinacreated
officially in 1712 as a refuge for poor whites and religious
dissenters from Carolina and Virginia.
1. Became most democratic, independent and least aristocratic
of original 13 colonies
(similar toRhode Island).
2. Yet, treated Indians ruthlessly and sold many into
slavery.
IV. Georgia became last British American colony
founded (1733).
A. Founded
by James Oglethorp
B. Founded
as a haven for debtors as well as a buffer state against Spanish and
Indian incursions from the South.
C. Savannah
emerged into a diverse community (included German Lutherans and Scottish
Highlanders; but no Catholics)
V. Colonial Slavery
A. Most slaves came from West African coast
(Senegal to Angola)
1. Originally
captured by African coastal tribes who traded them to European &
American buyers.
-- Estimated 40% of slaves captured by Africans in interior died en route
to coast.
2. Estimated
50 million Africans died or became slaves during 17th & 18th c.
B. Of about 10-15 million Africans sent
into slavery in the New World, 400,000 ended up in
North America.
(Majority sent to Spanish and Portuguese South Am. or to W. Indies)
1.
Between 20% to 1/3 of slaves died during the “Middle Passage”
2.
Horrific conditions:
i. Slaves often chained by neck and extremities to deck floor.
ii. Packed into spaces about the size of a coffin; lay in own excrement
iii. In some cases, next deck only 18” above deck floor; slaves could
not turn over; lay on their back the entire voyage.
3. Survivors
eventually sold at auction blocks at ports like Newport, RI,
or Charleston, SC (giant slave market)
4. Most
slaves came after 1700
a. Some came to Jamestown as early as 1619 but only 2,000 in Virginia in
1670
-- Accounted for about 7% of southern plantation population in mid 17th
c.
b. Rising wages in England in 1680's reduced immigration to America.
-- By 1680's, black slaves outnumbered white servants.
c. 1698, Royal African Co. lost its monopoly on the slave trade.
i. Some Americans, esp. from RI, took advantage of lucrative slave trade
ii. Numbers of slaves in America dramatically increased.
-- Accounted for more than 1/2 Virginia population by 1750
-- In SC, outnumbered whites 2 to 1.
5. A few slaves
gained their freedom & some even became slaveowners.
-- However, this fact should not be overexaggerated! Constituted minuscule
number
relative to entire slave population.
C. Slave Codes
1. As Africans
grew in numbers, threatened whites passed laws to severely control the
slave population.
2. Most common
codes stated:
a. blacks and their children were property for life of white masters.
b. it was a crime to teach literacy to slaves.
c. conversion to Christianity was not grounds for freedom.
3. South Carolina’s
inherited Barbados slave codes influenced codes in other colonies.
D. Slavery became the root of racism in America
as a distinct color line was drawn.
-- The notion
of inferiority based on skin color was imbedded in U.S. law until the 1960s!
E. Slave Life
1. Slavery harshest
in the deepest South (esp. SC); least harsh in the middle colonies.
a. Brutal & isolated conditions in rice and indigo farming led to many
deaths
b. Fresh import of slavery needed to sustain productivity
2. Tobacco-growing
in middle south less deadly
a. Plantations larger and closer together
-- Afforded slaves more contact with friends and relatives
b. Increase of female slave populations made family life more possible
by 1720.
i. Slave pop. increased through higher birthrate.
ii.America became one of few slave societies in history to grow by natural
reproduction.
F. Slave culture became a mixture of American
and African folkways
1.
Gullah language evolved on islands off South Carolina coast.
-- Blended English with several African languages: Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa
2.
Banjo and bongo drum imported to America from Africa
3.
Ringshout dance contributed to development of Jazz.
4.
Religion a combination of Christianity and African rituals
-- The free afterlife became a beacon of hope; story of Exodus particularly
appealing
G. Slave rebellions -- approx.
250 instances when minimum of ten slaves joined in a
revolt or conspiracy.
-- Stono Rebellion (1739): largest slave revolt in history of the
13 colonies
i. SC slaves tried to march to Spanish Florida
after Spanish authorities offered
freedom to any slave who reached Florida.
ii. Stopped by militia after 25 whites killed;
eventually scores of slave rebels killed by
militia and setlers.
VI. Southern Society -- 18th century
A. Southern class structure (from most powerful
to least powerful)
1. Plantation
owners at top of social ladder
--Ruled region's economy and monopolized political power.
2. Small farmers
comprised largest social group.
a. Considered far below the prestige and power of the planter class.
b. Most lived meager existences; some owned 1 or 2 slaves
c. Modest sized plots
3. Landless
Whites -- most were former indentured servants
4. Indentured
Servants (lowest of whites)
a. Decreased in numbers as black slavery increased (esp. after Bacon's
Rebellion)
b. Only black slaves were lower in the class structure
5. Constituted
about 20% of colonial population by 1775
B. South remained underdeveloped
1. Few cities
emerged
2. Life revolved
around southern plantations.
3. Poor transportation
-- waterways provided principal means of transportation
C. Why did the colonies differ from England?
(Edmund S. Morgan)
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
Big Ideas:
1. How did Chesapeake region differ from the Carolinas.
Were there actually two Souths?
2. Trace the development of indentured servitude
and black slavery in the 17th and 18th
centuries.
3. To what extent was 18th century southern society
different from 17th century southern
society?
4. What characteristics did all of the Southern colonies
share?
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