Transcript PUTTING DOWN ROOTS: FAMILIES IN AN ATLANTIC EMPIRE America: Past and Present

PUTTING DOWN ROOTS:
FAMILIES IN AN ATLANTIC
EMPIRE
America: Past and Present
Chapter 3
Sources of Stability:
New England Colonies of the
Seventeenth Century
 New
Englanders replicated traditional
English social order
 Contrasted with experience in other English
colonies
 Explanation lies in development of Puritan
families
Immigrant Families
and New Social Order
 Puritans
believed God ordained the family
 Reproduce patriarchal English family
structure in New England
 Greater longevity in New England results in
“invention” of grandparents
 Multigenerational families strengthen social
stability
A Commonwealth of Families
 Most
New Englanders married neighbors of
whom parents approved
 New England towns collections of
interrelated households
 Church membership associated with certain
families
 Education provided by the family
Women’s Lives
in Puritan New England
 Women
not legally equal with men
 Marriages based on mutual love
 Most Women contributed to society as
–
–
–
wives and mothers
church members
small-scale farmers
 Women
accommodated themselves to roles
they believed God ordained
Rank and Status in New England
Society
 Absence
of very rich necessitates creation
of new social order
 New England social order becomes
–
–
–
local gentry of prominent, pious families
large population of independent yeomen
landowners loyal to local community
small population of landless laborers, servants,
poor
The Planters’ World
 imbalanced
sex ratio among immigrants
 high death rate
 scattered population
Family Life in a Perilous
Environment
 Normal
–
–
–
family life impossible in Virginia
Mostly young male indentured servants
Most immigrants soon died
In marriages, one spouse often died within a
decade
 Serial
marriages, extended families
common
 Orphaned children raised by strangers
Women in Chesapeake Society
 Scarcity
gives some women bargaining
power in marriage market
 Women without family protection
vulnerable to sexual exploitation
 Childbearing extremely dangerous
 Chesapeake women died 20 years earlier
than women in New England
Rank and Status in Plantation
Society: The Gentry
 Tobacco
the basis of Chesapeake wealth
 Great planters few but dominant
– Arrive with capital to invest in workers
– Amass huge tracts of land
– Gentry see servants as possessions
 Early
1700
gentry become stable ruling elite by
Rank and Status in Plantation
Society: The Freemen
 The
largest class in Chesapeake society
 Most freed at the end of indenture
 Live on the edge of poverty
Rank and Status in Plantation
Society: Indentured Servants
 Servitude
a temporary status
 Conditions harsh
 Servants regard their bondage as slavery
 Planters fear rebellion
Rank and Status in Plantation
Society: Post-1680s Stability
 Gentry
ranks open to people with capital
before 1680
 Demographic shift after 1680 creates creole
elite
 Ownership of slaves consolidates planter
wealth and position
 Freemen find advancement more difficult
Rank and Status in Plantation
Society: A Dispersed Population
 Large-scale
–
–
tobacco cultivation requires
great landholdings
ready access to water-borne commerce
 Result:
population dispersed along great
tidal rivers
 Virginia a rural society devoid of towns
Race and Freedom
in British America
 Indians
decimated by disease
 European indentured servant-pool wanes
after 1660
 Enslaved Africans fill demand for labor
Roots of Slavery
First Africans to Virginia in 1619
 Status of Africans in Virginia unclear for 50 years
 Rising black population in Virginia after 1672
prompts stricter slave laws

– Africans defined as slaves for life
– Slave status passed on to children
– White masters possess total control of slave life and
labor
– Mixing of races not tolerated
Constructing African American
Identities: Geography’s Influence
 Slave
experience differed from place to
place
 Majority of S. Carolina population black
 Nearly half Virginia population black
 Blacks much less numerous in New
England and the Middle Colonies
Constructing African-American
Identities: African Initiatives
 Older
black population tended to look down
on recent arrivals from Africa
 All Africans participated in creating an
African-American culture
–
Required an imaginative reshaping of African
and European customs.
 By
1720 African population, culture selfsustaining
African-American Identities:
Slave Resistance
 Widespread
resentment of debased status
 Armed resistance such as S. Carolina’s
Stono Rebellion of 1739 a threat
 Runaways common in colonial America
 Black mariners, other travelers link AfricanAmerican communities
Commercial Blueprint for Empire
 English
leaders ignore colonies until 1650s
 Restored monarchy of Charles II recognized
value of colonial trade
 Navigation Acts passed to regulate, protect,
glean revenue from commerce
Response to Economic
Competition
“Mercantilism” a misleading term for English
commercial regulation
 Regulations emerge as ad hoc responses to
particular problems
 Varieties of motivation

– Crown wants money
– English merchants want to exclude Dutch
– Parliament wants stronger Navy—encourage domestic
shipbuilding industry
– Everyone wants better balance of trade
An Empire of Trade:
The Navigation Act of 1660
 Ships
–
–
engage in English colonial trade
Must be made in England (or America)
Must carry a crew at least 75% English
 Enumerated
–
–
goods only to English ports
1660 list included tobacco, sugar, cotton,
indigo, dyes, ginger
1704-05 molasses, rice, naval stores also
An Empire of Trade:
The Navigation Act of 1663
 Goods
shipped to English colonies must
pass through England
 Increased price paid by colonial consumers
An Empire of Trade:
Implementing the Acts
 Navigation Acts
spark Anglo-Dutch trade
wars
 New England merchants skirt laws
 English revisions tighten loopholes
 1696--Board of Trade created
 Navigation Acts eventually benefit colonial
merchants
Colonial Gentry in Revolt:
1676-1691
 English
colonies experience unrest at the
end of the seventeenth century
 Unrest not social revolution but contest
between gentry “ins” and “outs”
 Winners gain legitimacy for their rule
Civil War in Virginia:
Bacon's Rebellion
 Nathaniel
Bacon leads rebellion, 1676
 Rebellion allows small farmers, blacks and
women to join, demand reforms
 Governor William Berkeley regains control
 Rebellion collapses after Bacon’s death
 Gentry recovers positions, unite over next
decades to oppose royal governors
The Glorious Revolution in the
Bay Colony: King Philip’s War
 1675--Metacomet
leads WampanoagNarragansett alliance against colonists
 Colonists struggle to unite, defeat Indians
 Deaths total 1,000+ Indians and colonists
Glorious Revolution: The
Dominion of New England
James II establishes “Dominion
of New England”
 1684--King
–
–
–
Colonial charters annulled
Colonies from Maine to New Jersey united
Edmund Andros appointed governor
of James II’s overthrow sparks
rebellion in Massachusetts
 1689--news
The Glorious Revolution in the
Bay Colony: Outcomes
 Andros
deposed
 William III and Mary II give Massachusetts
a new charter
–
–
Incorporates Plymouth
Transfers franchise from "saints" to those with
property
Contagion of Witchcraft
 Charges
–
of witchcraft common
Accused witches thought to have made a
compact with the devil
 Salem
panic of 1691 much larger in scope
than previous accusations
 20 victims dead before trials halted in late
summer of 1692
 Causes include factionalism, economics
The Glorious Revolution in New
York
of James II’s overthrow
prompts crisis of authority in New York
 Jacob Leisler seizes control
 Maintains position through 1690
 March 1691--Governor Henry Sloughter
arrests, executes Leisler
 1689--News
The Glorious Revolution in
Maryland
 1689--news
prompts John Coode to lead
revolt against Catholic governor
 Coode's rebellion approved by King
William
 Maryland taken from Calvert control
 1715--proprietorship restored to the
Protestant fourth Lord Baltimore
COMMON EXPERIENCES,
SEPARATE CULTURES
Purpose
Families
Ethnicity
Economy
New
England
Religious
Nuclear
families
Mostly
English
Family
farms
Middle
Colonies
Mixed
Nuclear
families
Mixed
European
Family
farms
Chesapeake Gain
wealth
Extended
families
Lower South Gain
wealth
Extended
families
English
(majority)
& African
English &
African
(majority)
Market
plantations
(tobacco)
Market
plantations
(rice, indigo)