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Continental North America in the 16 th -18 th Centuries: “New Worlds for All”. Dr. Philip P. Boucher Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus University of Alabama in Huntsville boucherp22@hotmail.com Philipboucher.com. Introduction. Whose Colonial America?
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Continental North America in the 16th-18th Centuries: “New Worlds for All” Dr. Philip P. Boucher Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus University of Alabama in Huntsville boucherp22@hotmail.com Philipboucher.com
Introduction • Whose Colonial America? • The older thirteen colonies approach, which most scholars consider obsolete. (Recall the large number of Germans, Swedes and other non-British people in British North America). Excludes Spanish Florida, French settlements in Maine north of Mt. Desert Island, French Louisiana (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas), French settlements along the Mississippi and Missouri River basins (e.g. Ste. Geneviève, MO), French Détroit and many other settlements in northern Indiana and Illinois, Spanish settlements in Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico and after 1769 California (Arnold pronounces it “correctly”), Russian settlements in Alaska.
Topics to be covered • America in 1491 • The Columbian Exchange • Spanish North America, 16th-18th Centuries • French and English Challenges to Spanish hegemony, to c. 1600 • French and English colonization to c. 1700 • The Middle Colonies to c. 1740 • New England (Northern Colonies) to c. 1700 • The Carolina Low Country (Southern colonies) to the 1740s • Transformations, 1690s-1740s • Toward 1776
The Americas in 1491 • Estimates of Population: Best estimate for continental North America (excluding Mexico) between 5-10 million. • Semi-sedentary societies dependent on maize, beans and squash agriculture supported by male hunting and fishing products. • War prevalent among Native American societies but it was a ritualized warfare that emphasized vengeance and captivity rather than European-style kill or be killed battle. • Cultural encounters among Native Americans, West Europeans and West Africans strongly shaped American history.
The Columbian Exchange begins • From the Americas: potatoes, maize, yucca root (manioc flour), sweet potatoes, various squashes and pumpkins, a large variety of beans and legumes (peanuts for example), tobacco, cacao, turkeys etc. Perhaps syphilis came from America. • As potatoes, maize and yucca root are in the top five foods produced in the world today (wheat and rice are the other two), it is easy to understand the importance of Native Americans. The 18th century takeoff in world population probably attributable to the spread of American plants. • Gold and silver in large quantities helped the European economies grow dramatically wealthier, at a huge cost to Native American and African coerced laborers. Large tracts of arable lands on which could be produced sugar, tobacco, cotton, coffee, indigo, cacao etc. were crucial to European capital accumulation and the industrialization of west Europe.
Exchange continued… • From Europe and West Africa (and all parts of the “old world”) to America: wheat, rice, the major domesticated animals (horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats), grapes, olive oil, citrus fruits, bananas and much else including “pests” such as rats. The domesticated animals transformed American life, for good and bad. • Devastating to the Native Americans were the old world diseases (smallpox, the plague, various influenzas, malaria, yellow fever and many others), against which Native Americans had no built up immunities. The toll was terrible and some historians estimate 70-90% of the Native American population in 1491 died in the first 150 years of the encounter with Europeans and Africans.
Spanish North America, 16th-18th Centuries • The Spanish conquistadors and the exploration of North America: Hernan de Soto and the invasion of the native population in the North American heartland. The (presumed) impact on Native American demography (see next image). • The Spanish Missions and expeditions in La Florida and Native Reaction (see image of Philip II of Spain). • Spanish Missions in New Mexico and Native American Reaction: The Pueblo Revolt of 1680. • Onward to Texas and California, 17th-18th centuries. The Franciscan mission reservations. Alta California.
French and English Challenges to Spanish Hegemony, 16th Century • The French in La Florida, 1560s: What went wrong? The French found no gold and the Native Americans (Timuacan Indians) could not support these colonists, who could not figure out how to get food.
The French in La Florida, and Spanish Reactions • Motives for the Ribaut expeditions • Pedro Menéndes de Avilès and the French failure (image of Charlesfort) • Consequences: Building of Saint Augustine, the first European town in North America; the piquing of Elizabeth’s interest in La Florida.
Challenges continued… Queen Elizabeth and North America (see images of Elizabeth and Sir Walter Ralegh) {the way he usually spelled his name and what most historians use}. • The Roanoke Voyages: What went wrong? Bad location, drought and the Indian inability to provide food over the long run
Beyond Charlesfort and Roanoke • Spanish Missions and expeditions northward to the Chesapeake: A Spanish mission in Powhattan’s area destroyed by Opechancanough, brother of Chief Powhattan. • Why did these efforts of the French and English fail so dismally? Basically, the French and English could not do in North America what the Spanish conquistadors did in Mexico and Peru-overwhelm rich civilizations, then forced the survivors to work for them at subsistence wages.
Pushes and Pulls of European Migrations in the 17th Century • Migrations of Free People. The lure of Quick Wealth. The exceptionality of New England as founded by religious dissidents (of course do not forget Catholic colony of Maryland, 1633). Virginia not Massachusetts is the prototypical colony. • Indentured Servitude. Varieties. Some skilled and reasonably well off people apprenticed (i.e. indentured) as servants. Do not exaggerate the numbers in British continental North America. Perhaps 60% of migrants were indentured or bonded servants, 40% free people. Your textbook may say 75% or higher but that figure is less accepted now.
Pushes and pulls continued… • The 17th Century in Europe was, with the exception of the Dutch Netherlands and parts of England, an exceptionally difficult one economically. War and civil conflict characterized what historians call an Age of Crisis. The misery of this century was certainly a factor in pushing migration overseas. • The English superiority in promoting migration was due to a number of factors (elite belief that England was overpopulated and that the poor would be more productive overseas; elite belief that investment in overseas plantations would produce profits-a notion that did not pay off for such as the Virginia Company stockholders.) Also, England did not have a large standing army to absorb poor young men, as did the French.
French and Dutch Colonization to c. 1660 • Dutch colonists few in number because of commercial nature of their outposts e.g New Amsterdam. Dutch society in the 17th century richest in Europe and plenty of work available there for poor people. Dutch establish trading posts at the future Albany and New York city to tap the fur trade of the interior. Dutch outposts in North America important for trade with English and French colonists. The Dutch dominated the slave trade from c. 1630 to c. 1670 and, (in) famously, transported the first Africans to Virginia in 1619 (there were African slaves in Spanish Florida before 1619). Did you know, however, that one fourth the population of New Amsterdam (New York City) in 1660 was African slaves? (see image of Stuyvesant).
French and Dutch continued… • Few French migrants to Acadia and the St. Lawrence River valley because of climate issues (the mini ice age), the reluctance of the fur trading companies to support colonists, the fear of Iroquois attacks and the greater attraction of Caribbean colonial sites. By 1660 only c. 3,000 colonists in New France and Acadia (i.e. Nova Scotia today and northern Maine) compared to some 30,000 in Massachusetts Bay. The French never come close to closing this demographic disadvantage. (see images of Henri IV and Champlain).
Samuel de Champlain (no authentic portrait exists)
The Importance of the Caribbean Colonies • English, French and Dutch penetration of the Spanish Caribbean, 1620s-1650s. • Tobacco, sugar and privateer ventures were sources of wealth. Smuggling with Spanish colonists another. Barbados and the sugar revolution in the 1640s-1650s. • All countries considered their Caribbean colonies of greater importance than the mainland ones. • In the 18th century British North American prosperity depended significantly on legal and illegal trade with the British and French West Indies, and English colonists were well aware of that. They would be amazed that historians of Colonial America underestimate the importance of the West Indies to “American” life in that era.
English Colonization in North America to 1660 • Jamestown and the Virginia Plantation: The terrible years, to 1624 (starving time; conflicts with the Powhattans); 1619-House of Burgesses and first slaves; a surge of economic and demographic expansion, 1624-1660 because of tobacco and the gradual elimination of conflicts with the Powhattans (see images of James I, Captain John Smith, Pocahontas). • Pilgrims and Puritans in New England: Searching for a Religious Utopia (see image of Charles I). These colonies practically independent from the Crown. • Maryland (see image of Calvert). • Cromwell, the Navigation Acts and the effort to lessen independence of the colonies.
Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Lord BaltimoreMaryland as proprietary colony, 1633
Puritans and Pilgrims in New England to c. 1660 • Religious Persecution and Migrations: Charles I and growing persecution of Puritans from 1630. About 20,000 Puritans migrate to Massachusetts Bay by 1640. (see images of William Bradford, John Winthrop). • Dissenters from Puritan rule (Thomas Hooker, Roger Williams) establish Connecticut and Rhode Island. • Relations with Native Americans: Pequot massacre of 1636. Williams policy of good relations. “Praying Indians” and evangelical efforts of John Elliot.
Puritans and Pilgrims continued… • The return of many Puritans to England in the 1640s to assist English Puritans and Cromwell in the fight against Charles I (see image of Cromwell). • Form of Government: In effect theocratic, as a result of the original Covenant. Self government by the “elect”. Hooker and Williams more “democratic,” for lack of a better word. • Economy: Farming, fishing and husbandry. Logging was the only industry. Note for students the incredible environmental impact of husbandry, plow farming, logging and beaver hunting. However, emphasize to students that America was not a “virgin” land as Native Americans transformed their environment in numerous ways such as using fire to create woodland savannahs.
French Colonization, 1660s-1690s • Louis XIV, Colbert and the growth of the French colonial empire and the French navy (see image of Louis XIV). The king was determined to rule French settlements overseas • Populating New France and the Caribbean (1660s-a surge) • Frontenac, La Salle and the surge to the West in search of furs: Creating forts on Lake Ontario and the Illinois River. La Salle’s voyage to the mouth of the Mississippi (1682). Previously, Marquette and Joliet had reached the Arkansas River (1673) • The terrible wars with the Iroquois lasting to 1701: The French Canadian militia becomes the premier European striking force on the continent. With their Native American allies, the militiamen will strike deep into New England and New York in all 18th century wars.
English Colonization: 1660s-1690s continued… • Growth of the Sugar Colonies: French Caribbean colonies well behind the British but will catch and surpass the British in the 18th century. This was a major cause of the mid 18th century wars between these rival empires. Also, the French sugar colonies became a Mecca for North American smugglers, causing British reactions such as the Sugar Acts of 1733 and 1764. The “Bostonians” (as all British North American smugglers were called by French islanders) were not happy with Britain’s efforts to enforce the Navigation Acts, which caused them to pay higher prices for British West Indian sugar.
Mercantilism • Zero sum economic system: If your state grows more prosperous, then rival states’ economies decline. • Proponents of mercantilism stressed need to produce all military goods at home. • Methods of promoting state’s prosperity: remove duties on exports, raise them on imports; give monopolies for promotion of difficult trades (Royal African Company, East India Company etc.) at home or in your colonies produce all goods demanded by the people (silk, tobacco, indigo, sugar, cacao, cotton etc.); subsidize important economic sectors such as the slave trade, shipbuilding, iron making, textiles. • Colonies were to serve the motherland as good children obeyed parents.
Mercantilism continued… • The English Navigation Acts (1651, 1661, 1663 etc.) were a prime example of mercantilism. All goods entering into England and British America had to be brought in English ships. All enumerated commodities from the colonies (sugar, cotton, tobacco, indigo and dyewoods) had to be shipped directly to England. Colonists could ship other goods (e.g. salted fish, beef and pork) to foreign countries such as Portugal and Madeira. In the latter case, Madeira, a heavily fortified wine, did not have to pass through England. After 1698 colonists could participate in the West African slave trade.
English Colonization: 1660s-1690s • Charles II, James II and the impulse to Empire (image of Charles II). • The primacy of the sugar colonies (especially Barbados and Jamaica) and the astonishing growth of the British slave trade. Monopoly of the slave trade by the Royal African Company, whose head was the future James II. • The maturation of Virginia’s economy, increasingly dependant on slave labor; the emergence of a tobacco aristocracy. • Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 a serious but in the end ineffective effort to curtail the power of the tobacco barons.
English Colonization: 1660s-1690s continued… • The new style charter and proprietary companies of Carolina and Pennsylvania: their divergent economies and political structures. • The capture of New Amsterdam in 1664, renamed New York after the Duke of York, the future James II. Image of James II. • The royal colonies become the rule rather than the exception. • The attempted colonial revolution of James II and thus the critical importance of the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89: This was the defining moment in our colonial history. James II had gone a long ways toward imposing royal prerogative on the colonies.
Middle Colonies at c. 1740 • Economies: Wheat and corn farming, husbandry, commerce. Known as the “bread colonies.” Flour milling chief industry. Some salted beef and pork exported to England and the West Indies. • Government: New York and New Jersey were royal colonies with royally appointed governors. Pennsylvania and Delaware were proprietary colonies. (image of William Penn).
Middle Colonies at c. 1740 continued… • Social structure: egalitarian as compared to southern colonies. No significant landed aristocracy. Mercantile class becoming significant. The young Ben Franklin, hard working, pragmatic and empirical is a symbol of this region. In 1745 he and like-minded people established the American Philosophical Society for the promotion of the arts and sciences. • Religion: Many religious groups (Presbyterians, Quakers, French Huguenots, Anglicans) and thus more religious toleration. Quakers and Pennsylvania most well known for that, and Pennsylvania attracted thousands of religiously-persecuted Germans (e.g. the Amish). Later in the century, after the First Great Awakening (1740s), Methodists and Baptists will be numerous in these colonies.
The Chesapeake c. 1740 • Economies: Slave-worked tobacco plantations dominant in the Tidewater. Smaller scale farming in the interior. Commercial activities principally centered in Baltimore. • Politics: Royal rule. As elsewhere, elected legislatures limit power of governors and their councils. • Social Structure: Planter dominated society. Fear of slave uprisings lead smaller farmers to grudgingly accept the political and social guidance of the elite. (William Byrd image).
