Virginia and the Middle Colonies

1. Virginia and the Middle Colonies

2. Virginia: Tobacco • By 1619: tobacco prices had skyrocketed in Europe • 1629: prices fell by 97%, and stabilized at 10% of highest price • Low prices led to plantations to cut costs wherever possible: • Located on river for transportation, and in flat “Tidewater” area east of mountains • Used cheap labor: indentured servants and slaves • Supplemented income with rent, lending for interest, and other crops • As a result, plantation life: • Divided rich and poor, with tiny exploitive landed class and huge poor landless class • Diverted imports and exports to private riverside docks, forestalling growth of cities

3. Bacon’s Rebellion: 1676 • Most Virginia landowners struggled to avoid poverty; freedmen despaired at inability to prosper • Nathaniel Bacon: young, wealthy recent immigrant landowner • Frontier farmers feared and resented small Indian presence to west: skirmishes led to open war • Governor Berkeley proposed string of forts; farmers wanted to exterminate Indians • Assembly approved land seizure and enslavement of Indians, but Berkeley ordered attacks to cease • Bacon turned his forces against Berkeley, but Bacon died of dysentery, ending the rebellion

4. Colonial Slavery • Need for cheap plantation labor created market for slavery in South from 1619 • Phase 1: 1619-40 Enslaved Africans could earn freedom, but were seen as different from whites; children were not always enslaved • Phase 2: 1640-1660 Black slavery became inherited, passing to children • Phase 3: 1660 onward official recognition and legislation of inherited lifelong, racial slavery • Slavery increasingly ended class animosity between whites

5. New Amsterdam • New Netherland established 1614 as a fur trading outpost after Henry Hudson claimed the Hudson River Valley (NY) for the Dutch • New Amsterdam (NYC) quickly became a major trading port • Diverse population w/ Dutch, Swedish, German, Norwegian, Finnish, French and African settlers • No official church - included Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims • 1664 seized by Britain in 1664

6. Carolinas • Established in 1663 after restoration of monarch (Charles II) after English Civil War • To draw settlers, land was given freely • Initially, northern Carolina focused on tobacco, lumber and pitch southern Carolina raised livestock and exported deer skins At first, little need for African slaves • By late 1600’s, a new cash crop, rice, gains prominence • Rice cultivation increased use of African slaves: many familiar w/ rice, many developed resistance to malaria • By 1700: first colony with majority black population

7. Pennsylvania Background • Quakers • Emerged in English poorer classes • Believed all individuals could access Inner Light or Holy Spirit through self-examination and discussion • Refused to show deference to wealthier classes: recognize for spiritual not material accomplishments • Refused to swear oaths of loyalty to the Crown; refused to bear arms • Women considered spiritual equals to men • Brutally persecuted in England and other colonies • William Penn • Wealthy British aristocrat became a Quaker • Used royal grant in west NJ to create Pennsylvania as Quaker refuge & for profit

8. Early Pennsylvania • Unlike other proprietors, Penn settled in colony himself • Indian land initially bought, not taken (Penn wanted harmony) • Philadelphia: city planned by Penn • Settled by families: grew rapidly • Property meticulously divided among settlers to avoid conflict • Gov't had strong executive, weak legislature, to avoid dissention • Grain farming prospered due to rich soil and long growing season Excess shipped to West Indies and • Philadelphia became major port city • As non-Quaker immigrants arrived, political tensions grew • Dutch and Swedes in south broke away to create Delaware in 1704

9. Other Colonies • Maryland (1632) • First established as Catholic refuge • In reality, Catholics were minority • Nearly feudal allocation of land • Georgia • Established by James Oglethorpe as haven for debtors • Challenged Spain for southern control • At first outlawed slavery, but then legalized it due to economic pressures of plantations Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore