Transcript Slide 1
CHAPTER 2
AMERICAN SOCIETY
IN THE MAKING
The American Nation:
A History of the United States, 13th edition
Carnes/Garraty
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SETTLEMENT OF
NEW FRANCE
French settlement progressed slowly after 1700
Difficult to convince French people to move to remote
settlements in America
Military garrisons, individual fur traders and Jesuit
missionaries were the main immigrants
1712 France chartered a private company to settle
the mouth of the Mississippi
Result was New Orleans
In 1729 the Natchez Indians wiped out a sister
settlement at Natchez and the company went bankrupt
In 1731 the French government took control of
Louisiana but settlement lagged
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SETTLEMENT OF
NEW FRANCE
Because few French women came, many
men married Indian women
Fur traders in the north did the same though
for them it was helpful to their success as
traders
As traders moved further west in search of
game, they encountered Indians driven west
by Iroquois
Traders supplied them with guns and
ammunition
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SOCIETY IN NEW MEXICO,
TEXAS & CALIFORNIA
Guns spread from Indians of upper Mississippi to the
Indians of the Great Plains
Earlier Apache and Comanche had started riding
European horses
When guns and horses combined, the Indians with both
became fearful enemies
Comanche increased number and size of hunting bands
as it became easier to hunt buffalo with guns
Encroached on Apache territory and were soon raiding
Spanish and Pueblo settlements
Spanish strengthened garrisons and built new missions in
attempt to protect towns from Indians and French
Indian raids discouraged settlement
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SOCIETY IN NEW MEXICO,
TEXAS & CALIFORNIA
Trade in Indian slaves remained an enduring
aspect of life
Most were women and children
Many Indian women had unacknowledged
children—genizaros—by Spanish men
Women usually worked as household servants
and men as indentured servants on ranches
To increase the numbers of colonists, Spanish
officials granted genizaros the right to own land
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SOCIETY IN NEW MEXICO,
TEXAS & CALIFORNIA
In the 1760s Britain and Russia tried to colonize the
Northwest, threatening Spanish claims in California
Missionaries in California tried to Christianize and
Hispanicize the Indians who belonged to over 300 tribes
speaking more than 100 languages
1769—the first mission was established in San Diego with
others following
Jesuits monitored Indian life closely
Separated girls
Inculcated discipline of work
Paid no wages but fed and cared for the Indians
California Indians, in and out of missions, were decimated
by disease, undercutting the effort to establish a strong
Hispanic colony
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THE ENGLISH PREVAIL ON
THE ATLANTIC SEABOARD
Southern part of English North America comprised of
three regions:
“tidewater”: Virginia and Maryland
“low country”: the Carolinas (and eventually Georgia)
“back country”: a vast territory that extended from the
“fall line” of the foothills of the Appalachians to the
farthest point of western settlement
Late 18th Century emergence of common features—
export oriented agricultural economy, slavery,
absence of towns—result in concept of “South” as
one region
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THE CHESAPEAKE
COLONIES
Virginia suffered from high death rate
Of the 9000 colonists who came to Virginia nearly half died,
leaving only 5,000 by the 1630s
While the climate was hot and moist it was actually the dry
summers that were the main cause of death by causing salt
water contamination of drinking water and dysentery
Well into the 1700s a white male of 20 could expect only 25
more years of life
Result:
Frequent remarriage
Families with children from several different marriages
Women easily found husbands (men outnumbered women
three to two)
Many men had to spend their lives alone or marry Indian
women
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THE LURE OF LAND
Life centered on agriculture
Grants of land were relied upon to attract settlers
Labor to work land was vital
Headright system
Any “head” entering the colony was issued a “right” to
take 50 acres of unused land
Could “seat” the claim and receive title to the land, had
to mark its boundaries, plant a crop and construct a
habitation
May have to pay small annual payment, quitrent, to
grantor
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THE LURE OF LAND
When people could not afford passage, they came as
indentured servants
agreed to work for a stated period (usually about 5
years) in return for their passage
during indenture subject to strict control (women could
not marry and time lost due to pregnancy was added to
total time)
received nothing beyond their keep (headright went to
person who paid their passage)
If survived, servant was free and usually entitled to
an “outfit” (a suit of clothes, some farm tools, seed,
perhaps a gun) and, in some colonies, land
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THE LURE OF LAND
Over half the colonists came as servants and
most servants became landowners
As time passed their lot became harder
Best land belonged to large planters
As more land went into cultivation, crop prices fell
Many slipped into dire poverty or became
“squatters”
Virginia society was on the edge of class war by
the 1670s due to conflict between former
servants and wealthy land owners
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“SOLVING” THE LABOR
SHORTAGE: Slavery
First Africans arrived in Jamestown in 1619 aboard a Dutch
ship—unknown how they were treated
By 1640, some Africans were slaves
By the 1660s local statutes had firmly established the
institution of slavery in Virginia and Maryland
Slavery spread throughout the colonies though numbers were
relatively low in the North
White servants were more highly prized as they were not
alien, like Africans, and they were cheaper
In the 1670s, the flow of indentured servants slowed at the
same time that the chartering of the Royal Africa Company
(1672) made slaves more readily available
By 1700, nearly 30,000 slaves lived in the English colonies
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PROSPERITY IN A PIPE:
Tobacco
Colonists had to find a market for products
in the Old World in order to have the money
to buy manufactured goods
Answer was tobacco (originally brought
from the West Indies by Spanish)
English were initially leery of tobacco,
which clearly contained some sort of habit
forming drug
By 1617, smokers drove the price of a
pound of tobacco to 5 shillings
At this point, the colonists were granted a
monopoly and heavily encouraged
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PROSPERITY IN A PIPE:
Tobacco
Required only semi-cleared land and a
hoe but lots of human labor
A single laborer working two or three
acres could produce as much as 1,200
pounds of cured tobacco which would
result in a 200% profit in a good year
As a result production went from 2,500
pounds in 1616 to 30 million pounds by
the late 17th century (400 pounds per
capita)
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PROSPERITY IN A PIPE:
Tobacco
Planters spread out along rivers in a
helter skelter fashion
Increase in tobacco production led to a
drastic drop in tobacco prices in late
17th century
Small farmers found it increasingly difficult
to make a living
Wealthy were accumulating more land
which allowed them to maintain high
yields by permitting some fields to lie
fallow
The only option for small farmers was new
land—Indian land
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BACON’S REBELLION
In 1676, conflict:
Governor William Berkeley and his “Green Spring” faction
vs. western planters led by Nathaniel Bacon.
Planters wanted approval to attack nearby Indians;
Governor refused
Bacon had raised an army of 500 men
Declared a traitor by Berkeley, Bacon and his followers
murdered some peaceful Indians, marched on Jamestown
and forced Berkeley to give him permission to kill more
Indians
In September, Bacon returned to Jamestown and burned
it to the ground causing Berkeley to flee
Bacon died of dysentery and a British fleet arrived to
restore order
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BACON’S REBELLION
RESULT: Virginia society became wedded to
slavery as an answer to its labor problems
Slave ownership resulted in large differences
in the wealth and lifestyle of planters
20 slaves + land = wealth
Created implicit agreement that class
differences would be overlooked in favor of
racial ones
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THE CAROLINAS
English and, after 1700, Scots-Irish settlers of the
tidewater parts of Carolina also practiced agriculture:
tobacco in the future North Carolina
rice (replacing furs and cereals in 1696) in what would
become South Carolina
Rice became a major cash crop
65 million tons were produced by eve of Revolution
In the 1740s Eliza Lucas introduced indigo to South
Carolina
did not compete for either land or labor with rice
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THE CAROLINAS
Southern colonists bought manufactured goods
by producing: tobacco, rice, indigo, furs, and
forest products such as lumber, tar, and resin
Factors, agents in England and Scotland,
managed the sale of crops, bought the required
manufactures, and extended credit
Small scale manufacturing did not emerge in
South as it did in the North
Retarded development of urban life with
Charleston the only city of note until the rise of
Baltimore in the 1750s
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THE CAROLINAS
Slave labor predominated on rice plantations of
South Carolina
1730: 3 out of every 10 people south of Pennsylvania
was black
In South Carolina blacks outnumbered whites 2 to 1
Slave regulations increased in severity as size of the
black population increased
Blacks had no civil rights under the codes
for minor offenses, whippings were common
for serious crimes blacks could be hanged or burned to
death
for sexual offenses or constant running away they
could be castrated
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THE CAROLINAS
Acculturated slaves, those that could speak English,
use European tools, perhaps practice a trade, were
more valuable but also more likely to run away or
resist
Field hands expressed dissatisfaction by pilferage,
petty sabotage, laziness or feigned stupidity
Slave rebellions were rare in the American South
though fear of them was high
Slavery had economic, social and psychic reasons
Only a few Quakers objected
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HOME AND FAMILY IN THE
SOUTH
Except for those of the most affluent, houses had one
or two rooms, and were small, dark, and crowded
Furniture and utensils were sparse and crudely made
Chairs were rare
Tables were boards
There was no plumbing
Even chamber pots were out of reach of the poor
Clothes were crude, rarely washed and often infested
with vermin
Food was plentiful
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HOME AND FAMILY IN THE
SOUTH
White women (free or indentured) rarely worked in
the fields
They were responsible for tending to farm animals,
making butter and cheese, pickling and preserving,
spinning and sewing, and caring for children
Children were not usually as harshly disciplined as in
New England
Schools were rare and what learning occurred was
done at home
A large percentage of children were illiterate
Children were put to useful work at an early age
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HOME AND FAMILY IN THE
SOUTH
Well-to-do, “middling” planters had maybe three
rooms for a family of four or five, plus servants
Also had a greater variety of food
Until the early 18th Century, few achieved real wealth
such as that held in 1732 by Robert Carter, whose
1,000 slaves and 300,000 acres made him the richest
man in America
Men like Carter lived in solid, two-story houses of six
or more rooms, furnished with English and other
imported carpets, chairs, tables, wardrobes, chests,
china, and silver and were able to send their children
abroad for schooling
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HOME AND FAMILY IN THE
SOUTH
1693: founding of the College of William and
Mary
Mission was to train clergyman
Initially education was little above grammar
school level
Political power and positions belonged to
large planters because
of their wealth
they were generally responsible leaders who
understood the need for sociability
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HOME AND FAMILY IN THE
SOUTH
Most Southerners led isolated lives
Churches were few and far between
By mid-18th Century the Anglican Church was the
“established” religion
1619 attendance at Anglican services became mandatory in
Virginia
1654 Maryland repealed religious toleration; reenacted it in
1657 and permanently repealed it and established the
Anglican Church in 1692
Social events of any kind were great occasions
accompanied by feasting and drinking
Most planters invested their savings in more production,
not in idle amusements
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GEORGIA AND THE BACK
COUNTRY
Back country
Great Valley of Virginia
The Piedmont
Also part of back country was Georgia
founded by a group of London philanthropists in 1733
to give a place of settlement for honest persons who
had been imprisoned for debt
England (who would transport 50,000 convicts during
the colonial period) granted a charter for Georgia in
1732 after the philanthropists agreed to operate the
colony without profit to themselves for 21 years
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GEORGIA AND THE BACK
COUNTRY
In 1733, their leader, James Oglethorpe founded
Savannah with a vision of creating a colony of sober,
yeomen farmers
Land grants limited to 50 acres and made nontransferable
alcohol was banned
so were slaves
Indian trade was strictly regulated
Oglethorpe’s rules were quickly circumvented
The economy developed like South Carolina
In 1752, the proprietors gave up and Georgia
became a royal colony
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GEORGIA AND THE BACK
COUNTRY
Settlers moved into the rest of the southern back
country, mainly Scots-Irish and Germans
By 1770 the back country had about 250,000 settlers,
10% of the population, yet often they felt
underrepresented, which could result in conflict with
the Low Country
1771: Regulators in North Carolina
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PURITAN NEW ENGLAND
New England towns had a
dependable water supply
Surrounding area was
more open than malariainfected terrain of the
tidewater
New Englanders escaped
many of the “agues and
fevers” that beset southern
colonists
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THE PURITAN FAMILY
Puritan society was ordered by a covenant to ensure
everyone’s upright behavior
At the center of society was the family which was nuclear
and patriarchal
Responsibilities of the Father:
providing for the physical welfare of the household, including
servants
making sure they all behaved properly
transacting all economic dealings
Responsibilities of the Wife:
keeping house
educating the children
improving “what is got by the industry of man”
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THE PURITAN FAMILY
Women had as many as 12 to 14 children
Any free time was occupied with dealings with neighbors
and relatives and involvement in church
Childrearing took more than three decades of a woman’s
life since most children survived
Homemaking duties occupied all remaining time
Puritan family was hierarchical, husbands ruled over wives
and parents over children and obedience was expected
Physical correction of children was common
Girls worked around the house
Boys worked outdoors
When older they were sent to nearby families as servants
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THE PURITAN FAMILY
The Great Migration ended in the 1640s with
the outbreak of the English Civil War
Thereafter, population increase was due to
high birthrate (50 births for every 1,000
people—3x today’s rate) and low mortality rate
(20 per 1,000)
Population was more evenly distributed by
age and sex than in the South
Women married in early twenties rather than
late teens
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VISIBLE PURITAN SAINTS
AND OTHERS
Church membership was to be a joint decision
between would-be member, who would relate why
they believed they received God’s grace, and those
already in the church
Originally, those who could not “prove” salvation were
excluded
PROBLEMS:
Growing numbers of non-members could not be
compelled to go to church
It was harder to defend policy that taxpayers could not
vote if they were not church members
Nonmember parents whose children could not be
baptized worried for their souls
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VISIBLE PURITAN SAINTS
AND OTHERS
At first, churches permitted baptism of the children of
church members
HALFWAY COVENEN—To cope with the third
generation who were neither baptized nor church
members, in 1662, 80 ministers and laymen
developed a limited form of membership for any
applicant not known to be a sinner who was willing to
accept the provisions of the church covenant
They and their children could be baptized but they
could not receive communion nor participate in church
decisions
1664 the General Court extended the vote to halfway
church members
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VISIBLE PURITAN SAINTS
AND OTHERS
Opponents of the covenant said it reflected a
slackening of religious fervor
Historian Perry Miller suggests that the 1660s
marked the beginning of religious decline yet
there was a rise in church membership,
ministers continued to be accorded prestige
and there was a lessening of intra-church
squabbling
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DEMOCRACIES WITHOUT
DEMOCRATS
Puritans believed government was both a civil covenant,
entered into by all who came within its jurisdiction, and the
principal mechanism for policing the institutions on which the
maintenance of social order depended
Massachusetts and Connecticut
Passed laws requiring church attendance, levying taxes for
support of the clergy, and banning Quakers from practicing
their religion (when four were hanged, a royal decree was
issued in 1662 prohibiting further executions)
Provided the death penalty for adultery and blaspheming a
parent
Established the price a laborer might charge for his services
or the amount of gold braid servants could wear on their
jackets
Most of daily life regulated by towns
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THE DOMINION OF NEW
ENGLAND
The most serious threat to Puritan control
came in the 1680s during the Restoration
governments of Charles II (1660-1685) and
James II (1685-1688) when the government
sought to bring the colonies under effective
royal control
In 1684, the Massachusetts charter was
annulled, as were all charters north of
Pennsylvania, and the colonies were
combined to form the Dominion of New
England
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THE DOMINION OF NEW
ENGLAND
In 1686 Edmund Andros, a professional soldier and
administrator, arrived to make the colonies behave like
colonies and not like sovereign powers
abolished popular assemblies
changed the land-grant system to give the king quitrents
enforced religious toleration
1689: Andros and the Dominion were overthrown in the
wake of the 1688 Glorious Revolution that put William of
Orange on the throne
1691: Massachusetts became a royal colony
included Plymouth and Maine
governor appointed by the king
General Court elected by property owners (who did not have
to be church members to vote)
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SALEM BEWITCHED
In 1666 families living in the rural outback of the
thriving town of Salem petitioned the General Court
for the right to establish their own church
When it was granted in 1672, the 600 inhabitants of
the village were on their own politically as well
In 1689 Samuel Parris became minister after having
spent 20 years in the Caribbean as a merchant
He arrived with his wife, his daughter Betty, a niece—
Abigail, and a West Indian slave named Tituba who
told fortunes and practiced magic on the side
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SALEM BEWITCHED
When Parris was dismissed in 1692, his daughter, niece
and a playmate began speaking in tongues and were
declared bewitched
The first three accused were Sarah Good, a pauper with a
nasty tongue; Sarah Osborne, a bedridden widow; and
Tituba
When brought before the General Court, the Sarahs
declared themselves innocent while Tituba confessed
By the end of April 1692, 24 more people had been
charged
The hunt spread to neighboring Andover
By May, it spread to Maine and Boston and up the social
ladder to some of the colony’s most prominent citizens
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SALEM BEWITCHED
By June, when the governor convened a special
court, more than 150 persons stood charged with
witchcraft
In the next four months, the court convicted 28, most
of them women
Five confessed and were spared
Several escaped
19 were hanged
The husband of one witch, accused of wizardry, was
crushed to death under stones
Finally, the governor adjourned the court and forbade
any further executions
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SALEM BEWITCHED
While everyone’s reputation suffered, ministers
suffered the most
Increase Mather comes off best, having urged the
governor to stop the trials
His son, Cotton, actively and enthusiastically
participated in the hunt
The event shows the anxiety Puritans had about
women since many of the accused were:
widows of high status
older women who owned property
women who lived apart from the daily guidance of men
All potentially subverted the patriarchal authorities of
church and state
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HIGHER EDUCATION IN
NEW ENGLAND
With the Great Migration came some 150 university-
trained colonists, mostly in divinity, who became the
first ministers
1636: Massachusetts General Court appropriated
money to establish an institution of higher learning to
train ministers—Harvard University—which received
its charter in 1650
Below Harvard were the Grammar schools where
boys spent 7 years learning Greek and Latin
The first was established by Boston in 1636
Massachusetts and Connecticut soon passed
education acts that required all towns of any size to
establish such schools
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HIGHER EDUCATION IN
NEW ENGLAND
Mid-17th Century—majority of men in New England
could read and a somewhat smaller percentage could
also write
Mid-18th century—male literacy was almost universal, a
condition only matched by Scotland and Sweden
Literacy among women also improved steadily
Many settlers brought impressive libraries with them
and continued to import large numbers of books
First printing press was established in Cambridge in
1638
By 1700, Boston was producing an avalanche of printed
matter, most by ministers though not exclusively on
religious matters
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HIGHER EDUCATION IN
NEW ENGLAND
1690s Harvard acquired a reputation for
encouraging religious tolerance
In 1701 several Connecticut ministers
founded Yale to uphold Puritan values
By 1722, they too appeared to have slipped
Even ministers were no longer the
unquestioned last word—attacks on Cotton
Mather in 1721 for his suggestion of
inoculation to combat an outbreak of
smallpox
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A MERCHANT’S WORLD
Colonists grew barley (to make beer), rye,
oats, green vegetables, potatoes, pumpkins,
and corn (not only edible but drinkable)
They grazed cattle, sheep and hogs on
common pastures or in the woods and hunted
deer, turkey, and other game birds
The Atlantic provided cod and other fish
BUT, while colonists had plenty to eat, they
had little surplus and no place to sell it
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A MERCHANT’S WORLD
First generation of puritans accepted
economic marginality but succeeding
generations did not
In 1643 five New England vessels
packed their holds with fish which they
sold in Spain and the Canary Islands,
taking payment in sherry and Madeira
which were tradable in England
one took payment in slaves which were
sold in West Indies thereby initiating the
triangular trade
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A MERCHANT’S WORLD
As maritime trade became the driving force in New
England, port towns like Portsmouth, Salem, Boston,
New Port, and New Haven became larger and faster
growing than interior towns
1720: Boston was the commercial hub of the region
with a population of 10,000 making it the third largest
city in the British Empire
More than one quarter of Boston’s adult male
population had either invested in shipbuilding or were
directly employed in maritime commerce
Ships captains and merchants held most public offices
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A MERCHANT’S WORLD
Beneath the top layer of merchant elite lived
a stratum of artisans and small shopkeepers
Beneath them a substantial population of
mariners, laborers and “unattached” people
with little or no property
1670s: at least a dozen prostitutes worked in
Boston
1720: crime and poverty serious problems
public relief rolls exceeded 200
dozens of criminals languished in jail
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THE MIDDLE COLONIES:
Economic Basis
The Middle Colonies consisted of New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware
About 10% of the population was composed of
slaves
Colonists produced crops for both consumption
and export (wheat)
Colonists in the Hudson Valley and southeastern
Pennsylvania lived spread out
Substantial numbers lived in New York City and
Philadelphia and in interior towns like Albany,
where they engaged in trades
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THE MIDDLE COLONIES:
An Intermingling of Peoples
Scandinavian and Dutch settlers
outnumbered the English in New Jersey and
Delaware
Germans flocked to Pennsylvania and French
Huguenots to New York
Early 18th century hordes of Scots-Irish
settled in Pennsylvania, back country of
Virginia, and the Carolinas
An economic boom in England helps explain
the relatively low level of English colonists
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“THE BEST POOR MAN’S
COUNTRY”
Ethnic differences seldom caused conflict
because they did not limit opportunity
Pennsylvania gave 500 acres to families
upon arrival with only a quitrent due to the
proprietor every year
New Jersey and Delaware had similar
arrangements
In New York the manorial system limited
opportunity but land was available and
tenants could get long term leases
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“THE BEST POOR MAN’S
COUNTRY”
Mixed farming offered main path to prosperity
Inland communities offered comfortable living for
artisans
Cities had a variety of opportunities for the
ambitious
Philadelphia profited from this (and its inland
waterways) and by the 1750s had a population of
15,000, surpassing Boston as America’s largest
city
Most Philadelphians could do well for themselves
while, increasingly, artisans in Boston were mired
in economic stagnation
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THE POLITICS OF
DIVERSITY
Governments of Middle Colonies
Had popularly elected representatives assemblies
Most white males could vote
As in the South, representatives were elected by
counties but, unlike Southern voters, did not
defer to landed gentry
1689: New York suffered a takeover by Jacob
Leisler, a disgruntled merchant and militia captain
Only lasted two years but split NY politics until
1710
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THE POLITICS OF
DIVERSITY
New York’s political tranquility was restored under
Robert Hunter (1710-1719)
1730s: Governor William Cosby demanded back pay
while Chief Justice Lewis Morris opposed him
After Cosby removed him, Morris and allies founded
New York Weekly Journal run by John Peter Zenger
Cosby objected to contents and shut down paper after
two months, charging Zenger with seditious libel
Jury acquitted Zenger after attorney argued that
statements in paper were true and thus not libel
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THE POLITICS OF
DIVERSITY
Pennsylvania politics revolved around two interest groups:
Proprietary party
Quaker/German-speaking Pennsylvania Dutch party
clustered around assembly
Neither organized nor represented particular positions but
did mean political leaders had to consider popular opinion
1763: Paxton Boys (Scots-Irish from Lancaster County)
Murdered peaceful Conestoga Indians in retaliation for
frontier Indian attacks
Marched on Philadelphia
Delegation, led by Benjamin Franklin, acknowledged
grievances and promised bounty on Indian scalps
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BECOMING AMERICANS
In 1650, some 50,000 Europeans had come to North
America
Most clung to Atlantic seaboard
Indians outnumbered Europeans 10 to 1
African slaves were rare
French and Spanish colonization relatively
inconsequential
By 1750 nearly a million settlers occupied the Atlantic
seaboard
About a quarter million African slaves
Indians had been enveloped or retreated
New Spain and New France also grew but still had
fewer than 20,000 inhabitants
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MILESTONES
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WEBSITES
LVA Colonial Records Project—Index of Digital
Facsimilies of Documents on Early Virginia
http://ajax.lva.lib.va.us/F/?func=file&file_name=find-bclas27&local_base=CLAS27
DSL Archives: Slave Movement During the
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Wisconsin)
http://dpls.dacc.wisc.edu/slavedata/index.html
Salem Witch Trials
http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft
Salem Witchcraft Trials (1692)
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htm
Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman
© 2008
WEBSITES
Benjamin Franklin
http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/rotten.html
Religion and the Founding of the American Republic
http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/religion.html
DoHistory, Harvard University Film Center
http://dohistory.org/
Anglicans, Puritans and Quakers in Colonial America
http://www.mun.ca/rels/ang/texts/ang1.html
Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman
© 2008