A Colonial Comparison

1. A Colonial Comparison Lecture #3

2. The Chesapeake/Southern Region • Early Statistics • Malaria, dysentery and typhoid were rampant • One-half born in Virginia and Maryland did not live to see their 20th birthday. • Remaining half would maybe see their 50th birthday (men) or 40th (women) • Most early settlers were young men looking to “get rich quick” • Number of women scarce (1650 = 6 to 1) • Grandparents almost non-existent

3. Most marriages lasted an average of 7 years due to death of either mate. • Southern laws allowed for women to retain land ownership after their husbands passed away because men tended to die young.

4. Eventually colonists would develop immunity to diseases and by the beginning of the 1700s, Virginia had become the most populous colony with 59,000. • Tobacco became the South’s major cash crop which wore out land creating an ever present need for land • 1630s = 1.5 million pounds annually. • 1700 = 40 million pounds annually

5. Colonists originally looked to indentured servants as a labor force and used the “headright system” to gain land (50 acres for every paid passage). • Indentured servants served a period of usually 7 years and lead a very hard life with hopes of someday owning land.

6. Bacon’s Rebellion (1670) • A group of impoverished frontiersmen had been pushed into the Virginia backcountry to find arable land and were attacked by Indians. • Governor Berkeley would not intervene due to a fur trade with the Indians.

7. Bacon lead a group who attacked the Indians and ran Berkeley from Jamestown. • Bacon dies of disease and the rebellion ends. • The rebellion showed planters that white labor could turn rebellious and further encouraged them to look for an alternate labor force.

8. Slavery caused a widening gap between classes. • Top = small but powerful group of large planters who owned gangs of slaves and vast amounts of land – ruled the regions economy and controlled political power (oligarchy = FFVs) • Middle and largest social group = small farmers • Lower class = landless whites • Lowest class = slaves

9. New England Region • Statistics and Women’s Roles • Lower death rate due to clean water and cool temperature • Actually added 10 years to their life expectancy (avg. 70 years) • Colonists tended to migrate as families and at time whole communities.

10. Early marriage encouraged a booming birthrate – women averaged a baby every 2 years. • The largest families were borne by several mothers due to frequent death during childbirth. • Children lived in a nurturing environment with parents and grandparents. • Women were seen as inferior due to original sin and only granted property rights in extreme situations and had to give up their property rights when they married.

11. Puritans believed that if women retained land ownership, it would undermine the power of men in society. • Women could not vote, but in some colonies, they were protected by law from abuse. • They cherished marriage and divorce was extremely rare. The courts could even order separated couples to reunite.

12. New England Society • Society grew from small villages and farms into towns and eventually into cities. • Towns consisted of a meeting house, which served as church and town hall, houses, a village green where the militia trained, a tract for growing crops and a tract for pasteurizing animals. • Towns of 50 families had to provide elementary education and the majority of adults knew how to read and write.

13. Salem Witchcraft Trials • The Salem Witchcraft trials were held when a group of girls claimed to be bewitched and began to blame the townspeople of the bewitching. • By the end, 20 were hung, 1 was pressed to death and two dogs were hung.

14. Most of the accused came from families associated with Salem’s growing economy and their accusers came from subsistence farming families. • The reason for the hysteria has never been successfully explained. • The theories include, taking the land from those accused, ergot poisoning, political cover-ups and superstition fed by the “mere power of suggestion”

15. The New England wealthy tried to recapture the social structure of Old England and passed laws that kept the “meaner sort” in their place. (Example: In Massachusetts in 1651, poorer folk could not wear gold or silver or lace and only “gentlemen” could race horses.) • This social division was hard to enforce in the growing American colonies where equality and democracy was finding its place.

16. Democracies Without Democrats • the colonies were largely left to govern themselves in spite of seemingly repressive laws passed by the governments of Massachusetts and Connecticut. • Primary responsibility for maintaining order rested with the towns of the region. A town meeting

17. The Dominion of New England • (1636) The Dominion of New England was created by royal authority. The Mass. Bay Colony is angry about this change because it removes their ability to govern themselves.

18. Unrest in New England • In order to protect the colonies trade from their competitors and enemies, England designed the Navigation Acts of the 1650s and 1660s. • These acts would enforce the economic system called mercantilism, the belief that colonies should exist to benefit the mother country. • Colonial merchants were expected by law to trade only with England. • The Navigation Acts would end up straining the relationship between England and the colonies.

19. Sir Edward Andros is sent to enforce Navigation Laws and watch over the colonies • He is strongly affiliated with the Church of England • His soldiers were unruly and curbed town meetings. • He restricted the courts, press and closed schools • He revoked all land titles and taxed the people without consent of representation • The “Glorious Revolution” broke out in England and dethrones the Catholic James II and enthrones Protestant William II and Mary. • Andros flees the Bay Colony, yet more English officials were still in control despite the Revolution. (he tries to leave dressed as a woman)

20. The Middle Colonies • The Politics of Diversity • The Middle Colonies developed a more sophisticated political culture than either New England or the southern colonies • - All of the Middle Colonies had • popularly elected representative • assemblies, the most • democratic society and they • emphasized equality. • New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians were less likely than southern colonists to defer to the landed gentry.

21. political divisions led to the trial for seditious libel of John Peter Zenger, the editor of an opposition newspaper who spoke out against New York’s governor. • the Zenger trial established truth as a defense against libel, which was contrary to English common law. • Zenger was found not guilty, thus establishing the principle of “freedom of the press.”

22. Settlers in western Pennsylvania were resentful of eastern indifference to the threat of Indian raids on the frontier. • the Paxton boys slaughtered an Indian village and marched on the capital. • Ben Franklin talked them out of attacking the town.

23. American Enlightenment • The Enlightenment which had begun in Europe was the belief in the improvement and application of reason. • Ben Franklin was a scientist, printer and enlightenment thinker. • Education was highly promoted in the New England region. • In Pennsylvania, Quakers set up private schools. • Southern children were separated and seldom went to formal schools. Wealthy southerners were sent to England or taught by tutors on the plantations.

24. The Great Awakening • Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield the “New Light” preachers became worried when Deism began to grow and people were “falling away” from the established religions. • They felt that people had become to preoccupied spending money instead of serving God. • Their sermons were very emotional and held the congregations spellbound. • This movement would eventually split colonial churches and spawned new religious denominations such as the Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists. • It undermined and weakened the status of the established clergy • It also led to the founding of Princeton, Dartmouth, and Rutgers colleges.

25. What is an American? • Americans came from a variety of backgrounds and intermingling of the races between Indians, Europeans and Africans. • although they never completely abandoned their various heritages, they became different from their relatives who remained in Old World. • Even the most rebellious seldom intended to create an entirely new civilization, but physical separation and a new environment led to different patterns of development. • On the eve of revolution these new “Americans” began to be more aware of their joined culture and grievances against the crown.