Life in 17th Century Chesapeake: Unhealthy, Tobacco Economy, Frustrated Freemen, Colonial Slavery

1. Chapter 4American Life in the 17th Century 1607-1692

2. Unhealthy Chesapeake • Nasty, burtish and short • Malaria, dysentery, typhoid • Half people died before age 20 • Majority of immigrants were: • Single men • Late teens/early twenties • Likely to perish after arrival • Few women

3. Unhealthy Chesapeake • Marriages didn’t last long in Chesapeake • Eventually immunity was acquired • By end of 17C white population began to grow • By 1700 largest colony w/59k population

4. Tobacco Economy • Intense tobacco cultivation exhausts soil • More land wanted, since soil not working • Growers move into native lands, leads to attacks • More tobacco = more labor needed • Native Americans died to quickly • Not a reliable labor force • African slaves = too much $ • GB had “surplus” of displaced farmers • Become Indentured Servants

5. Tobacco Economy • Headright System: • Encourages importation of servant workers • Whoever paid passage of a laborer got 50 acres of land • Encouraged men of moderate means to “gamble” with investments and were able to acquire huge plantations • Became merchant-planters • Chesapeake planters brought 100k indentured servants to the region by 1700 • = more than ¾ of all immigrants to VA and MD in 17C

6. Tobacco Economy • Indentured Servants: • Led hard life (but hopeful) • Hoped to be free and acquire land • BUT land became scarce • Masters started to not give land as part of “freedom dues” • Servant’s lot became harsher as 17C continued • Misbehaving servants were often punished with extended term of service • Some freed, would have to work for former masters for pennies

7. Frustrated Freemen & Bacon’s Rebellion • Many frustrated young men now in Chesapeake (late 17C) • Why? • No land • No women to marry • So? • These unruly bachelors rattle established planters • So? • VA assembly disfranchises landless in 1670

8. Frustrated Freemen & Bacon’s Rebellion • 1000 Virginians led by Nathanial Bacon rebel • Most from backcountry • Resent Berkeley's friendly Indian policies • He thrived on fur trade • He refused to retaliate for a series of brutal Indian attacks • Rebels attacked Native Americans (both hostile and friendly) • Chaos reigns in colony

9. Frustrated Freemen & Bacon’s Rebellion • Bacon dies of disease • Berkeley crushes uprising (hangs 20 rebels) • So? • Well, England couldn’t understand all this • Tensions remain • VA begins to look for less troublesome laborers…African slaves

10. Colonial Slavery • The Stats: • Approx. 10 million Africans brought to New World before American Revolution • Only about 400k came to North America • Most came after 1700 • Early slave ships run by Spanish and Portuguese • Went to South Am. Or West Indies • Appeared in Jamestown around 1619 • By 1670 only = 7% of population of all plantation colonies • Why? • Too expensive and too risky (they die)

13. Colonial Slavery • After 1680s things change: • Wages increase in England = less indentured servants • Former servants in plantation colonies were demanding rights/land • 1698: Royal African company looses exclusive slave trade monopoly • So? • Some Americans (esp Rhode Islanders) began to supply slaves in great numbers • 1700-1710 10k+ slaves come to America, and many more in next ½ century • In South Carolina 2:1 slave population

14. Colonial Slavery • Where’d they come from? • West African coast • Captured by African coastal tribes • Traded then to flesh merchants from Europe/America • Would be branded and bound • Middle Passage: • Travel from Africa to Americas • High death rates (20% at least) • Terrifying • Popular slave trade ports included Charleston, SC or Newport, RI

15. Colonial Slavery • Early, early slaves might have earned freedom • Legal difference b/w slave and servant was blurred • By 1662 racial ordinance appear in Virginia • Slave codes said blacks and their children = property of masters • More slaves = less freedom (perceived racial threat)

16. Colonial Slavery • Beginning in 1662  “Slave Codes” • Made blacks [and their children] property, or chattel for life of white masters. • In some colonies, it was a crime to teach a slave to read or write. • Conversion to Christianity did not qualify the slave for freedom.

17. Africans in America • Deeper south (ie: SC) meant more severe life • Harsh climate • Harsh labor (rice and indigo) • Mainly men, who’d die and be replaced • Plantations far apart = lonely • Chesapeake • Less harsh than southern counterparts • Tobacco = closer plantations = more contact with family/friends • More women = more families • Slave culture develops

18. Africans in America • Slave revolts: • NYC 1712 revolt cost dozen lives of whites and execution of 21 blacks • Some burned at the stake….slowly • Stono Slave Rebellion: • South Carolina 1739 • Slaves revolted (50 or so) and were stopped by local militia • Harsher treatment after rebellion • Not as big as Bacon’s Rebellion

19. Southern Society • Social Hierarchy • Great Planters at top • Owned gangs of slaves and lots of land • Ruled economy • Monopolized politics • Names? • Lees, Fitzhughs, Washingtons • In VA dominated House of Burgesses (before Am. Rev. 70% of legislature came from these families) • Dubbed FFVs (First Families of Virginia)

20. Southern Society • Great Planters (cont) • Not lavish (like English countrymen) • Most were hard-working busineslike • Small Farmers (under merchant-planters) • Largest social group • Maybe own 1-2 slaves • Lived modestly • Landless Whites • Luckless former indentured servants • Indentured Servants • African Slaves

21. Southern Society • Few cities in the South • = few urban professionals (lawyers, financiers) • Life revolves around plantation • Waterways = transportation

22. New England Family • Climate = better in North • =fewer diseases • Lived 10 years longer than southerners • Migration patterns • Unlike southerners came to America with entire family • Family = center of New England life from the beginning • Early marriage (women in their 20s) = many babies (every 2 years) • Child rearing was full-time occupation

23. New England Family • Longevity = family stability • Children expected to be obedient • Guidance from parents & grandparents • *** low premarital pregnancy (higher in Chesapeake) • Property ownership • Women didn’t own separate property • Believed to undercut unity of marriage • ***Southern women retained some property rights, including right to inherit land • Did have more property rights than in England

24. New England Family • Political rights • No vote • Perceived to be weaker than men • Legal rights • Abusive spouses could be restrained • Protected marriage • Divorce rare (granted for adultery or abandonment) • Roles of women • Ok to be a midwife

25. Life in New England Towns • Tight-knit society • Anchored by geography • Unity a purpose of Puritanism • Grew in an orderly manner • Typical example: • Charter was granted for new town • Proprietors would be entrusted to distribute land • Usually family-men • Towns included a meetinghouse = worship place and townhall, would be surrounded by houses • Also included a village green (militia would drill here) • Men received land parcels & woodlot for fuel • Two tracts that could grow crops and pasture animals

26. Life in New England Towns • **different in the Chesapeake • Settlement was taken on haphazardly • Often settlement was spawned by a “lone-wolf” planter • When towns had 50 families, must provide public school • Harvard established only 8 years after colony’s founding • Purpose was to train boys for ministry • ***colleges didn’t appear in Virginia until 1693 = William and Mary

27. Life in New England Towns • Puritan churches run by the people • Logical that Congregational Church govt would lead to democracy in political govt • NE males gathered regularly • Elected officials • Appoint school masters • Discuss municipal matters

28. Half-way Covenant & the Salem Witch Trials • As time went on, religious zeal diminishes • Preachers worried: • Fewer conversions • Meant fewer men admitted to church as members of the elect • So? • Half-Way Covenant (1662)= • A way to confer partial membership rights to children of existing members • Weakened distinction between “elect” and others • Led to church being fully opened to all comers, converted or not

29. Half-way Covenant & the Salem Witch Trials • Halfway Covenant leads to… • Less piety, but more religious participation • After it’s introduction, women become the majority in Puritan Congregations. • Witch hunt • Women play prominent role • Salem Witch Trials: • Girls claim to be bewitched by some older women • Witch hunt ensues, 19 hanged

30. Half-way Covenant & the Salem Witch Trials • Side notes about Salem: • Many of the accused came from families associated with the growing market economy • Accusers from subsistence farming families. • Reflects social stratification & fear of religious traditionalist being overshadowed by Yankee commercialism • Hysteria ends in 1693-(governor’s wife is accused, pardons those already convicted)

31. The New England Way of Life • Hard soil, hardened the soul • Encouraged diversified agriculture and industry • Less ethnically mixed than the South • Conflicted with Native Americans • Nat Ams believed that one could use the land, not own it • English believed Nat Ams were wasting the land & their duty to improve the land • Their way of life (using land for pasture) meant continual need to clear forest • Also, their animals had hooves that compacted the soil = erosion • Terrain was helpful in providing tools for shipbuilding & commerce • Fish = “goldmines of New England”

32. Early Settlers’ Days and Ways • All American colonists lived by the cycles of the seasons • Men worked the land and women kept the home. Children did what they could. • Compared to Europe, they lived an affluent existence • *** most migrants from Europe were of the middling rank (exception = indentured servants) • They modeled their social structure on the Old World, but considered themselves a “better sort” • Still it was a weak attempt • democracy began its reign (at least for white folk)