Transcript Southern Society - Sunny Hills High School

Colonial Society in the
17th Century
Southern Families - 1600’s
Men
outnumbered women.
Most immigrants died
young.
Family
structure was weak.
Native born slowly acquired
immunities and more
women arrived.
Population Growth
By
the 1700’s Virginia was
the largest colony with
59,000 people.
Maryland was third after
Massachusetts.
The Tobacco Economy
Chesapeake land was
excellent for growing tobacco.
Tobacco exports brought
wealth to planters.
Prices decreased - so planters
increased acreage of tobacco.
Indentured Servants
the
Indians were an
unreliable work force - they
died in such large numbers.
African slaves cost too much
money.
families
grew too slowly to
provide a natural population
increase.
Headright System
person paying passage of
servant got 50 acres - large
plantations grew.
3/4 of immigrants to VA
and MD were indentured
servants.
Conditions
got worse for
servants over time.
Fewer had the opportunities
fo the earlier immigrants.
Bacon’s Rebellion
Impoverished
former
servants wandered without
land or work.
1670
- Laws took away their
franchise.
1676
- Nathaniel Bacon leads
an uprising against Governor
Berkeley and the planters.
Reasons for rebellion
Landless
men pushed
westward into the frontier.
Westward migration caused
problems with the Indians.
Governor
Berkeley refused
to intervene for the settlers.
WHY?
Because
Governor Berkeley
controlled the monopoly on
the fur trade with the
Indians.
The Outcome
Berkeley
is chased from
Jamestown and the town
burned.
Bacon
dies of smallpox - 20
rebels are hung.
Rebellion ends.
Consequences.
Ignites
conflict between
frontiersmen and the
Tidewater Aristocracy.
Led
to an increase in reliance
on African slaves who could
be more easily controlled.
Colonial Slavery
1619
- first slaves brought to
Virginia by the Dutch.
1670
- only 7% of the
southern population was
black.
Most
colonists could not
afford slaves.
1670’s and `80s.
1676
- Bacon’s Rebellion.
1680’s - wages increased in
England.
Planters feared the poor
whites.
Blacks
outnumbered whites
as servants by the late 1680s.
1698 - The Royal African
Company lost its monopoly
on the slave trade.
Newport,
Rhode Island and
Charleston, South Carolina
became major slave ports.
The trade in African slaves
increased dramatically by the
1700’s.
The Slave Trade
10
million or more Africans
were captured by Slave
Traders.
About 400,000 black slaves
were sold in North America.
The Middle Passage
Most
African-Americans
were brought to this
country from the west
coast of Africa.
They
were branded and
herded into the foul cargo
holds of slave ships and in
many cases one out every
five died enroute.
The
survivors were forced
to give up their names,
their families, their tribes ,
their language and their
religion.
By
1750, African slaves made
up nearly half of Virginia’s
population.
A few slaves eventually
gained their freedom and
made their way into white
society.
Slave Codes
Laws
made slaves chattel for
life.
Slave marriages were not
recognized.
Many
states outlawed
teaching slaves to read and
write.
African influence in American
Culture
words,
dances, styles of
rhythm.
Bongo drums, banjos.
Slave Revolts
The
few that occurred were
brutally put down.
The Southern Social Structure
Concentration
of property
and wealth saw the
creation of a “hierarchy of
wealth” over time.
Social Structure
The Great Planters =
American “gentlemen” for example the FFV’s of
Virginia.

Small Farmers =
“middlin’ “ or “yeomen”
farmers with few acres
and few slaves. It was the
largest social group.

Landless
whites = most of
them former indentured
servants.
Indentured servants.
Black slaves.
South was
predominantly rural.
few
cities developed in the
south.
Large
plantations were
separated by distance and
connected by waterways.
Small
farms had few acres
and little access to major
streams.
The
hinterland and
mountain valleys were
slowly occupied by log
cabins surrounded by
stumps and threatened by
Indian raids.
The
Appalachian
mountains
became the
geographic
goal of the
adventurous
poor.
Many
Scots-Irish
migrated to
the frontier.
New England Society
better
climate made for
longer life spans.
New Englanders tended
to migrate as family units.
New
England population
began to grow by natural
increase.
people married early and
had lots of children.
Many
women died in
childbirth but most
survived as many as 10
pregnancies and had as
many as eight surviving
children.
Large
families, longer life
spans and extended
family groups made for a
very strong and stable
social structure.
New England Towns
New
England life
centered around small
towns and villages.
Towns
laid out around a
central “commons” with a
meeting hall and church.
communities
tended to be
very tight (tightly
controlled?) and the
leaders exhibited a high
degree of moral concern.
New
towns were
chartered by Colonial
authorities and land was
distributed by the town
fathers - “proprietors.”
Importance of Education.
Towns
of more than 50
people had to provide
elementary education.
1636 - Harvard University
was founded.
Virginia,
on the other
hand, did not establish
William and Mary College
until 1693.
The Roots of Democracy.
New
England town
meetings became a
“school of political
liberty.”
The
decreasing control of
the Puritan churches over
everyday life increased
the level of democracy.
More Trouble in Paradise
Fears that the Puritans were
losing the initial religious
zeal led to the preaching of
“Jeremiad” sermons
warning the congregations
about the loss of piety.
The Halfway Covenant
Church
leaders became
concerned about the lack
of new conversions.
They
announced the
“Halfway Covenant” in
1662.
Congregationalists
now
allowed non-elect to be
members of the church,
thereby increasing the
level of participation.
Women
now made up a
larger proportion of
Puritan congregations.
The
resulting social
upheavals led to a
weakening of the clergy.
The Salem Witch Trials.
Adolescent
girls claimed
to have been bewitched by
older women.
1692
- a witch hunt began
in Salem - 20 people (and
2 dogs) were put to death.
Leading
clergy, like
Cotton Mather, defended
the hysteria and
subsequent punishments.
after
the passions had
subsided, comments and
actions by the clergy led to
a weakening of their
power and influence.
Witch
trials, such as
Salem’s, were common in
Europe and happened in
other parts of the colonies.
But
the Salem trials are
significant as an indicator
of the troubles in New
England society and for
the subsequent weakening
of the clergy.
New England Life
Farming
was the leading
occupation of most
colonists but was very
difficult in New England.
Soils
were thin and rocky,
the climate was cold in the
winter and hot in the
summer, and the growing
season was short.
New
England remained
the least ethnically diverse
of the colonies and would
later be a source of
westward migration.
The New England Economy
besides
farming, other
leading economic activities
included trading, timber
extraction, ship building,
shipping and fishing.
The Yankee
personal
characteristics of
the Puritans and New
Englanders helped shape
the “American Ideal.”
Yankee
ingenuity.
Tough, hard-working,
thrifty.
The Puritan Ethic.
Everyday Life in the
Colonies
Farming dominated all of
the colonies
people worked from “no
light to no light”
Foreign
observers always
remarked about the sound
of the ax - as land clearing
was a constant occupation.
Gender Division of Labor
Women’s
work included -cooking and preserving,
spinning, weaving and
sewing, child rearing and
often working in the fields.
Men’s
jobs included -hunting, farming, building
and clearing land.
Life styles
Americans
typically lived
much better and often
longer lives than their
European counterparts.
Rise of the Middle Class
richest
and poorest of
Europe did not come to
America.
Nor, typically, did the
weak, sick or cowardly.
The
New England and
Middle Colonies
developed less class
distinctions.
social
differences did still
exist, however, and gave
rise to class conflicts, such
as
Bacon’s
Rebellion in
Virginia
The Protestant minority’s
uprising against the
Catholic proprietors of
Maryland.
Leisler’s
Rebellion in New
York City.