Anglophone Studies I, U.S.A. Week 3 Notes

1. Anglophone Studies I, U.S.A. Week 3 Notes

2. Topics covered from “An Illustrated History of the U.S.A.) • Chapter 5: Colonial Life in America-p. 20 • Chapter 6: The Roots of Revolution-p 24

3. Colonial Life in America • -13 English-owned colonies by 1733 along east coast, from New Hampshire to Georgia. • -most people divided into three main groups:

4. Colonial Life in America, Contd. • 1. New England in far north, small farmers, craftsmen, small towns and villages, stony soil. Depended on sea, felled trees, built ships, sailed to catch cod-traded with England and West Indies-prosperity of coastal towns, like Boston depended on trade, became busy ports 2. Middle Colonies-New York and Pennsylvania were the largest-mainly lived by farming, but growing number of merchants and craftsmen in New York and Philadelphia (latter: capital of Pennsylvania, largest city by 1770 with 28,000 inhabitants)-generally more tolerant of differing religions than New Englanders-many had German, Dutch, Swedish ancestry rather than mainly English 3. Southern Colonies-Virginia, the 2 Carolinas, Georgia-hot and fertile river valleys, wealthy landowners, plantations, fine houses with cool verandahs, fields of tobacco, cotton, most work done by black slaves-dependent on them. Needed to be close to rivers in order to carry the crops to England.

5. Colonial Life in America, contd. • -in 1760 most Americans were farmers still, but Philadelphia had flourished, and its size and paved streets, illuminated by moonlight (people did not believe in wasting money) impressed foreign visitors. Other cities: New York, Boston, about 25k each-all these towns owed much of their prosperity to the profits of transatlantic trade with England-exported fur, timber, tobacco, cotton, brought back fashionable clothes, fine furniture, manufactured goods.

6. Colonial Life in America, contd. • -most people still lived less than 50 miles from the coast-the ‘tidewater’ period of settlement-but over the 50 years after 1733, settlers kept traveling deeper into the continent, going further and further westward. First the land was cleared of trees, which were then cut into logs and planks-these were used to build a house and barn, then the seeds were sowed, and four months later, corn and wheat were harvested. This worked if the soil was fertile-but if not, the settlers left the farms and continued moving westward. They kept on going until there were fewer and fewer settlements, and where the Native Americans lived, this point was referred to as ‘the frontier.’

7. Colonial Life in America, contd. • -People of frontier communities had to rely upon themselves for almost everything they needed. They grew their own food, built their own houses, made the clothes, as well as the tools, developed their own kinds of music, entertainment, art and forms of religious worship. They learned to be tough, independent, self-reliant. They also helped each other with larger tasks. This combined two beliefs-that individuals had to help themselves, as well as to cooperate with one another-and strengthened the feeling that people were equal, no special rights and privileges. The pioneer ancestors helped democratic ideas to flourish in America.

8. Colonial Life in America, contd. • -Daniel Boone-by the 1760’s, American settlers were being prevented from moving more to the West due to the Appalachian mountains-in 1775, a hunter and explorer, Boone, led a party of settlers into the mountains-he claimed he had been ‘ordained by God to settle the wilderness’-with 30 axmen, they cut a track called the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap, a natural pass in the Appalachians. This enabled thousands of settlers to move with horses, wagons, cattle into the fertile lands making up what are now Kentucky and Tennessee.

9. Colonial Life in America, contd. • -The English colonies in America all had a tradition of representative government-i.e., in all of them, the people had a say in how they were governed-each colony had a governor, chosen most of the time by the English king, but these governors depended on the cooperation of assemblies that were elected by the colonies-in almost all cases, it was all white males who owned some land who had the right to vote. By this definition-since so many colonists owned land-more people had the right to vote in America than any other European country at this time.

10. The Roots of Revolution • -Britain and France fought several major wars in the 18th century-in North America, France claimed ownership over Canada (which they called New France-from the St. Lawrence river south to the frontier areas of the English colonies) and Louisiana (named after Louis XIV, from the center of the continent including all lands drained by the Mississippi River and its tributaries)-

11. The Roots of Revolution, contd. • by the middle of the 18th century, both of the vast areas were still unexplored-France’s claim to them had been based upon journeys from the previous century by two explorers-Samuel de Champlain who explored both sides of the St. Lawrence river, set up important posts that grew to become Quebec and Montreal-also Rene La Salle, a fur trader, explorer, empire builder, who visited the Mississippi valley and found it very fertile, rich in fish and meat-he paddled down to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi, where some years later a trading post was built and became New Orleans eventually • -French claim to Louisiana worried both British govt. and American colonies-it would keep the colonists to the east of the Appalachians and prevent the move westward

12. The Roots of Revolution, Contd. • -1756 Britain and France began a war, which to the Americans was known as the French and Indian war. British sent money and soldiers to North America, captured the French strongholds, ended by the Peace of Paris in 1763 in which France gave up claim to Canada and all of North America east of the Mississippi • -Britain had won an empire, but its victory conflicted directly with the American colonies. In 1763, George III of England issued a proclamation, forbidding colonists to settle west of the Appalachians until proper treaties had been made with the Native Americans

13. The Roots of Revolution, Contd. • -This proclamation angered the colonists-made them even angrier when the British govt. put new taxes on imports such as sugar, coffee, textiles, and that they must feed and shelter the British soldiers that it planned on keeping in the colonies. Their reasoning: it had cost British taxpayers a lot of money to defend the colonies during the French and Indian war-surely the colonists would not object to repaying some of this? But they did object. Merchants felt it would make it more difficult to trade at a profit, others that it would raise their costs of living-yet others that if British troops stayed in America they might be used to force them to obey British government-important tradition in American life that the people should not allow govts. to become too powerful

14. The Roots of Revolution, contd. • -Until the 1760’s, most Americans were okay with being ruled by Britain-as long as the French held Canada and Louisiana, the colonists felt they needed the British navy and soldiers to protect them. Another reason: the British govt. rarely interfered in colonial affairs. A century before the British Parliament had passed the Navigation Acts-in it, the colonies were forbidden to export to any country except England certain commodities-but it was easy to avoid this because the American coastline made smuggling either-also, import taxes-duties-were rarely enforced, they were light, carelessly collected, few merchants bothered to pay them and smuggling was easy-when Robert Walpole, the British PM, was asked about why he didn’t enforce the trade laws more, he said ‘let sleeping dogs lie’-he understood the way the people of the colonies thought, and felt it was best not to provoke them

15. The Roots of Revolution, contd. • -1756 British Parliament passed the Stamp Act-intended to raise money yet again to pay for the defense of the colonies-said that the colonists had to buy special tax stamps and attach them to newspapers, licenses, legal papers (like wills and mortgages)-this was not taken well. Americans had claimed the right to elect representatives to decide the taxes they paid, they were ‘freeborn Englishmen’ who could be taxed only by their own colonials assemblies, yet they had no representatives in the British Parliament, so what right did they have to tax them? NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION became the demand. In 1765, representatives from 9 colonies met in New York, formed Stamp Act Congress, organized opposition to it-merchants and shopkeepers refused to sell British goods until the Act was withdrawn-most colonists refused to use them outright. All of this forced the British to withdraw the Stamp Act-but was determined to show the colonists they had the right to tax them. Passed a law called the Declaratory Act-stating that the British govt. had full power and authority over the colonies and the people of America

16. The Roots of Revolution, Contd. • -1767, British placed new taxes on tea, paper, paint, various other goods that were imported from abroad-a customs office was set up in Boston to collect the duties-colonists refused to pay again-riots broke out in Boston, British soldiers sent to keep order-in 1770, British removed all duties except for tea, which calmed down the situation

17. The Roots of Revolution, Contd. • -Samuel Adams-politician, writer, organized opposition in Massachusetts to the British tax laws-used the Boston Massacre (March 5, 1770, a Boston mob shouted insults at British soldiers, sticks, stones flew, a soldier shot, several more were fired, three members of crowd died, several wounded) to sit up American opinion against the British-inaccurately described the event as an unprovoked attack on a peaceful group of citizens, included a dramatic picture, hundreds of copies printed-seen by thousands of people, altogether did a great deal to strengthen opposition to British rule

18. The Roots of Revolution, Contd. • -BUT in December 1773, a group of colonists in Massachusetts disguised themselves as Native Americans, boarded British merchant ships in Boston harbor and threw hundreds of cases of tea into the sea-the Boston Tea Party-the response was to pass another set of laws-the colonists called them the “Intolerable Acts” –the Boston harbor was closed to trade until the tea was paid for-soldiers were sent to keep order-the powers of the colonial assembly of Massachusetts greatly reduced

19. The Roots of Revolution, contd. • -June 1, 1774, British warships took up position at the mouth of the harbor to make sure no ships sailed in or out-the response was in September 1774 for a group of colonial leaders to come together in Philadelphia where they formed the First Continental Congress-claimed to be loyal to the British king BUT called upon all Americans to support the people of Massachusetts by refusing to buy British goods-some went further by organizing themselves into part-time soldiers or ‘militias,’ to gather weapons and ammunition.

20. Recommended Audiovisual Resources for Week 3 • 1776 (a musical) • Hamilton (also a musical)