Chapter 3 A Meeting of Cultures

1. Chapter 3 A Meeting of Cultures

2. Key Questions: • What were the patterns of contact between Native Americans and Spanish, French, and English colonists? • How did slavery and other labor systems develop in early America? • How were African American communities formed? • What were the causes and consequences of European immigration to America?

3. EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN THE MIDDLE AGES • American History is product of European expansion • Middle Ages (476-1400s) • Crusades (1100-1300) • Changes in Society = European Renaissance • Changes in Church = Reformation

4. I. American History is the Product of European Expansion

5. II. Middle Ages (476-1400s) • Not nations like today • Feudal system with serfs • Catholic church was only real institution

6. III. Crusades (1100-1300) • Muslims were expanding empire • Europeans exposed to new ideas & cultures • Increases desire for trade • Bubonic Plague or Black Death • Bring out your dead • Little Ice Age in early 1300s • Reduced Population

7. IV. Changes in society = European Renaissance • Decrease in population leads to break up of feudal system • Rise of middle class – education improves • Printing Press • Rise of Kings and Nationalism • Consolidation of power is not uniform across Europe

8. V. Changes in Church = Reformation • Weakening power • Martin Luther (1483-1545) • Indulgences • Protestant • John Calvin (1509-1564) – predestination • Religious conflicts contribute to foundation of American colonies

9. AGE OF EXPLORATION & DISCOVERY • Before Columbus? • European exploration & colonization begins in 15th century • Portugal • Spain

10. I. Before Columbus? • China • Ireland? • Norse or Vikings • Eric the Red • Lief Ericson (1001) • Thor Karlsfini

11. II. European Expansion & Colonization begins in 15th Century • Why? • Objectives = God, Gold, Glory

12. III. Portugal • Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) • Bartholomew Dias 1488 • Vasco de Gama 1498 • Slaves introduced • Pedro Cabral discovers Brazil in 1500

13. IV. Spain • Want to go West • Christopher Columbus (1451? – 1506) • 3 ships, 90 men sailed Augusts 3, 1492 • San Salvador (Holy Savior) • Amerigo Vespucci (1452-1512) • Other Spanish explorers • Juan Ponce de Leon • Vasco Nunez de Balboa • Ferdinand Magellan

14. Indians and Europeans • Indian workers in the Spanish borderlands • Spanish control of labor depended upon the existence of a sizable Indian communities and a large Spanish military force. These conditions were met in New Mexico and to a lesser extent, Florida. • To control Native American labor, the Spanish used several methods including: • The encomienda–the right to collect tribute from native peoples. • The repartimiento–a mandatory draft of Indian labor for public projects. • Rescate–ransoming captives that Indian groups captured from one another.

15. Indians and Europeans (cont’d.) • The web of trade • Indians believed that trade required the giving of gifts to prove their friendship. The French proved most successful in understanding this aspect of trade. • Trade benefited both Indians and the French as Indians received metal weapons and goods, wool blankets, and glass beads while the French received furs. • As Indians grew dependent on European trade goods, the French exercised more control over the Indians. • European trade eventually led to violence and warfare. The Beaver Wars between the Iroquois and Huron led to the destruction of the Huron.

16. Indians and Europeans, cont’d. • Displacing Native Americans in the English colonies • Unlike the French and Dutch, the English colonies were settled by farmers who competed with Indians for land. • Disputes between Native Americans and English colonists arose in part because the English and Native Americans had different ideas and practice of land use. • The increase in colonial population led to the displacement of Indians. The colonists acquired Indian lands through purchase, fraud and in the aftermath of war. • Native Americans who survived war and disease often regrouped to form new communities beyond colonial settlements.

17. Indians and Europeans, cont’d. • Bringing Christianity to Native Peoples • Franciscan priests drove Spain’s efforts to control the New Mexico and Florida colonies. In seeking converts, the missionaries used goods and ceremonies to impress Indians, followed epidemics to show the power of the Christian God, and offered protection from attack and food. • Indian converts incorporated Christian teaching into their native beliefs and practices. • French Jesuits in Canada used similar strategies with similar results. • English missionaries enjoyed little success. • Map: Spanish and French Missions in North America, p. 64

18. Indians and Europeans, cont’d. • After the first 100 years: conflict and war • King Philip’s War resulted from the growing frustration of the Wampanoags with land-hungry settlers. Initially victorious, the Indians led by Metacom (King Philip) were defeated and lost what remained of their independence. • Bacon’s Rebellion began when frontier settlers attempted to violently seize the land of the Susquehannocks. The Virginia governor opposed the attacks, sparking the rebellion. As a result, the Powhatans lost their remaining lands.

19. Indians and Europeans (cont’d.) • After the first 100 years: conflict and war • The Pueblo revolt led by Pope resulted from discontent with harsh Spanish rule. The initial result was the removal of the Spanish from New Mexico for 13 years. Their return was marked by less stringent policies toward Indians. • After the Beaver Wars, the Iroquois adopted a policy of neutrality between European powers.

20. Africans and Europeans • Labor needs and the turn to slavery • Europeans were pleased with the abundant land in the new World but perplexed by the scarcity and high cost of labor. The reverse had been true in Europe. • Europeans first attempted to enslave Indians but their declining numbers, the refusal of men to do farm labor, and the ease of escape made Indians unsuitable as a labor source. • Europeans relied on Africans to capture slaves, establishing forts and posts on the West African coast. Africans of all social ranks were enslaved. Slaves were marched to the coast in chains, loaded on to ships for the brutal middle passage, and then sold in the Americas.

21. Africans and Europeans, cont’d. • African slaves in the New World • Slavery arose in the southern colonies because indentured servants became harder to find and African slaves became more available. • Slaves were preferable to servants because slave status passed from a mother to their children and so could be a self-reproducing labor force, were easily captured if they tried to escape, and were slaves for life. • By 1720, slavery was firmly established in the South because it met the labor needs of planters commercially producing staple crops for market. • Map: African Origins of North American Slaves, p. 73

22. Africans and Europeans, cont’d. • African slaves in the New World • Slavery was present in every British colony but fewer slaves lived in northern colonies. • In northern areas where large commercial farms existed, slavery existed. • Northern slaves were found in cities, especially ports. In Philadelphia at the beginning of the eighteenth century, one of six residents was a slave. • Race relations became more rigid after 1700 when laws restricted the rights and opportunities of free blacks. • Conditions of slaves also worsened as slave codes reduced an entire class of people to property.

23. Africans and Europeans, cont’d. • African American Families and Communities • African families and communities emerged with greater success in the southern colonies, and witnessed the rise of a creole (American-born) slave community. • Most slaves were field hands, except for men trained as skilled workers and women who were nurses and cooks. • Though fragile, most slaves lived in family groups by the late eighteenth century. Kinship reflected West African traditions. • Community life forged ties among slaves and offered opportunities to preserve elements of African heritage, especially funerals. Few slaves were attracted to Christianity before the American revolution.

24. Africans and Europeans, cont’d. • Resistance and rebellion • Though it was a desperate act, thousands of slaves ran away. • Slave resistance included working slowly, breaking tools, feigning illness, damaging crops, stealing, and setting fire to barns, house, and fields. • Organized rebellion was the rarest form of rebellion and the hardest to implement because it required complete secrecy. • The Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739 was started by about 20 slaves, many newly arrived from Angola. The revolt was put down by white troops with Indian help and led to the passage of laws requiring stricter regulation of slave activities.

25. European Laborers in Early America • A spectrum of control • One-half to two-thirds of all white immigrants were indentured servants.Chesapeake planters also employed transported English convicts, mostly young, lower-class men. • The redemption system brought many German families to the colonies. Redemptioners were to pay the costs of passage on arrival in America. • Owners of undeveloped land rented tracts to families without property to clear the land. • Merchants seeking to develop fisheries advanced credit to fishermen to outfit their boats but later moved to a wage system. • Northern farmers used children as laborers.

26. European Laborers in Early America • New European immigrants • European immigrants flooded into America in the 17th and 18th centuries, including 250,000 Scotch-Irish, thousands of Irish Catholics, and almost 100,000 German Protestants • Most immigrants went to locations where land was cheap and labor was in demand, the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, from western Pennsylvania to the Carolinas. • Map: Ethnic distribution of Settler Populations in British mainland colonies, c. 1755, p. 81

27. Conclusion • Eighteenth century America presented a mosaic of people and communities. • Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans adapted to each other and to changing American conditions. • European nations became more involved in their American colonies as the 18th century proceeded.

28. MAP 3–1 Spanish and French Missions in Seventeenth-Century North America Spanish Franciscans in New Mexico (A) and Florida (B) and French Jesuits in New France (C) devoted considerable effort to converting native peoples to Catholic Christianity.

29. MAP 3–2 African Origins of North American Slaves, 1690–1807 Nearly all slaves in English North America were West Africans. Most had been captured or purchased by African slave traders, who then sold them to European merchants.

30. MAP 3–3 Ethnic Distribution of Settler Population in British Mainland Colonies, c. 1755 Settlers of different ethnic backgrounds tended to concentrate in certain areas. Only New Englanders were predominantly English, while Africans dominated in the Chesapeake Tidewater and South Carolina. German, Scottish, and Scots-Irish immigrants often settled in the backcountry.

31. As the top portion of this eighteenth-century French engraving suggests, the horrors of slavery began as soon as African were torn from their families and marched to ships anchored off the coast. The bottom part of the picture shows how tightly slaves were packed below the decks of these vessels, evidence that merchants’ thirst for profit overrode concerns for the slaves’ health or welfare. Archives Charmet, Musee des Arts d’Afrique et d’Oceanie, Paris, France.

32. This eighteenth-century engraving illustrates, in idealized form, the way Indian peoples traded furs for European goods. The barrel may have contained kettles or other metalware packed in sawdust, while the bale to the left probably held cloth. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

33. FIGURE 3–1 Estimated Populations of Selected Indian Peoples, 1600–1730 Indian populations shrank dramatically due to diseases brought by Europeans from the Old World. By about 1750, native peoples had become a minority of the inhabitants of America north of the Rio Grande. Data Sources: Daniel Richter, The Ordeal of the Longhouse (1992); Helen Rountree, Pocahontas’s People (1990); David Weber, The Spanish Frontier in North America (1992); Peter Wood, et al., eds., Powhatan’s Mantle (1989).

34. This Jesuit missionary, wearing his distinctive Catholic vestments, is baptizing an Indian in New France. French Jesuits proved to be more tolerant than most European missionaries in allowing Indian converts to retain at least some of their own customs.

35. This ball-headed war club, carved of maple wood, is thought to have been owned by King Philip, who led a confederation of Wampanoags and other New England Indians in a war against the colonists in 1675–1676. It is inlaid on both sides with pieces of white and purple wampum, which supposedly represented the number of English and Indian enemies killed. King Philip’s War Club Published courtesy of Fruitlands Museums, Harvard, Massachusetts.

36. One of the many pueblos scattered along the Rio Grande valley, Taos served as Popé’s headquarters at the start of the Pueblo Revolt in August 1680. Within a few weeks, the Indians drove the Spanish from New Mexico and destroyed most of their settlements. The Spanish did not return until 1693.

37. FIGURE 3–2 Destination of Slaves Imported from Africa to the Americas between 1451 and 1810 Approximately 7.5 million Africans were brought as slaves to the Americas before 1810. The vast majority went to the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America, where they toiled in mines and on sugar plantations. Data Source: Philip Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (1969), p. 268.

38. FIGURE 3–3 Estimated Population of Black and White Settlers in British Colonial Regions, 1650–1750 Settler populations increased rapidly in all colonial regions, but the racial composition varied. By 1750, black people overwhelmingly predominated in the West Indies and were quite numerous in the southern colonies; north of Maryland, however, their numbers remained small. Data Source: John J. McCusker and Russell Menard, The Economy of British America, 1607–1789 (1985).

39. The freed slave Olaudah Equiano appears in this 1780 portrait by an unknown artist. After purchasing his freedom, Equiano wrote a vivid account of his capture in Africa and his life in slavery. One of the first such accounts to be published (in 1789), this narrative testified to slavery’s injustice and Equiano’s own fortitude and talents. “Portrait of a Negro Man, Olaudah Equiano,” 1780s (previously attributed to Joshua Reynolds) by English School (18th c.). Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, Devon, UK/Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York.

40. Although this watercolor of a slave ship bound for Brazil dates from the nineteenth century, it depicts a scene common on slavers in the 1700s. The artist’s attention to detail suggests both the misery of the slaves’ surroundings and the dignity of the individuals forced to live under such conditions. The Granger Collection, New York.

41. This 1769 broadside advertised the arrival of a cargo of West African slaves in Charleston, South Carolina. By that date, slaves made up over two-thirds of the colony’s settlers. Note that nearly equal numbers of men and women have been imported. This practice would eventually contribute to the formation of slave families and communities.

42. This English woodcut, dating from about 1700, served as a label on a tobacco package. In the foreground, planters smoke and take their ease, while in the background, slaves toil under the hot sun.

43. This eighteenth-century painting from South Carolina records the preservation of certain African traditions in American slave communities. The dance may be Yoruba in origin, while the stringed instrument and drum were probably modeled on African instruments. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Colonial Foundation, Williamsburg, VA.

44. A 19th century slave with scars on his back from whipping.

45. Hand cuffs used to restrain a slave

46. Senegal Goree Island, The Slave House

47. Tunnel which led to slave ships at the House of Slaves on the Goree Island, off Dakar. French politician and anti-slavery activist Victor Schoelcher’s actions in 1848 as under French Secretary of State for colonies in the Provisional Government, his presidency of the commission for the abolition of slavery and the preparation, under his direction of the French decree abolishing slavery of April 27, 1848—which made slaves “newly freed” and “new citizens”—gave birth to a republican political movement in Guadeloupe and Martinique, “Schoelcherism”. The bicentenary of Schoelcher’s birth will be celebrated 22 July 2004.

48. Early 18th century slave market along the waterfront at Wall Street in New York City.

49. FIGURE 3–4 Ethnic Distribution of Non-Indian Inhabitants of British Mainland Colonies, c. 1770 By the third quarter of the eighteenth century, the colonial population was astonishingly diverse. Only two out of three settlers claimed British ancestry (from England, Wales, Scotland, or northern Ireland), while one out of five was African in origin. Data Source: Thomas L. Purvis, “The European Ancestry of the United States Population, 1790,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d series, 41 (1984), p. 98.