america to 1877 governor john wentworth of new hampshire by john singleton copley, 1769 chapter...

AMERICA TO 1877

Governor John Wentworth of New Hampshire by John Singleton Copley, 1769

CHAPTER THREE

Society and Culture in Provincial America

ReviewWhat is Happening in the rest of the world?

What have we learned so far about America?

The Enlightenment

Copyright ©2008 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Provincial America (1600s – 1700s)

By “provincial” we mean “colonial”—the individual colonies were called “provinces” rather than “states,” just as in Canada.

While some colonists had come to escape English persecution—particularly religious persecution—most colonists still self-identified as Englishmen.

The provinces themselves were diverging from the mother country just by virtue of the physical environment of the New World and by their openness to accepting diverse immigrants: Scottish, Irish, Dutch, German, Spanish, etc.

The importation of slaves and the contact with Native American populations also contributed significantly to making colonial life diverge regular from English life.

Colonial societies in different regions were also growing in ways that are wildly divergent from each other, not just the mother country.

The Colonial Population: Indentured Servitude

After a shaky beginning, the non-Indian population along the Atlantic Coast—including white and African slaves—greatly outnumbered the natives by the end of the seventeen century (1600s).

Dominant among the early settlers were English laborers. In the Chesapeake, three-fourths of all arrivals were indentured servants.

In the 1670s, a decrease in birth rate and bettering economic conditions in England lessened the influx of indentured servants.

Some indentured servants settled in as artisans or farmers; some women married propertied men. But many men found themselves unpropertied and rootless, a source of potential social unrest.

Indentured servants that did come during and after the 1670s tended to avoid the southern colonies, thus landowners in the Chesapeake increasingly turned to African slave labor.

Do you think we would accept indentured servitude today?


European Settlements by 1700

The Colonial Population: Birth and Death

Early on, immigration was the most important source of population increase in the 1600s, but overall, reproduction overtook it, although at different rates in different regions.

After the 1650s, rates of reproduction improved significantly in the Mid-Atlantic and New England colonies. In New England, the rate of reproduction quadrupled since families had more children, but also because life expectancy in New England was unusually high. Why might this be?

Conditions in the South were far slower to improve; in the Chesapeake they did not reach similar levels of other regions until the mid-1700s. Why?

In the South, the life expectancy for men was a little over 40; for women it was a little less. Don’t women typically live longer now? Why this discrepancy?

The Colonial Population: Birth and Death

In the Chesapeake of the 1600s, one in four children died in infancy and half died before the age of twenty. Widows, widowers, and orphans were very common features of Chesapeake society.

Population growth was substantial in the Chesapeake in the 1600s, but mostly reliant on immigration.

Better natural increase of the population across the colonies was due to an improved balance between the population of men and women.

In the early Chesapeake, more than 75 percent of the settlers were male, and even in early New England, which attracted more families from the beginning, 60 percent of the inhabitants were male in 1650.

By 1775, the non-Indian population of the colonies was over two million.


Non-Indian Population of North America,1700 to 1780

Frame of Reference:

2010 NYC Population:8.39 million

2010 U.S. Population:308 million

Medicine in the Colonies High death rates among women reflect the dangers of childbirth.

Physicians had little knowledge of infection and sterilization, and infections contracted childbirth often killed people.

Infectious diseases carried through water or garbage were not uncommon.

The role of midwife was a common one for colonial women: assisted in births and dispensed other medical advice.

Doctors based their understanding of the body’s health through the lens of “humoralism”—a theory popularized by the second-century Roman physician Galen. He believed the body was governed by four “humors”: yellow bile (“choler”), black bile (“melancholy”), blood, and phlegm. A healthy body had all four in a balance, and illness represented an imbalance (moods were also seen as connected to humors).

Bleeding a patient was practiced mostly by male doctors, while midwives tended to use laxatives and emetics (substances that induce vomiting).

Women and Families in the Colonies

The smaller number of women meant that they did not remain unmarried for long, the average women marrying at age twenty or twenty-one in the 1600s.

A married Chesapeake woman on average had a pregnancy every two years and would have eight children if she lived long enough to do so.

Indentured servants were not allowed to marry, so many children were born out of wedlock and made indentured servants like their mothers.

Many women were widowed since they were often quite younger than their husbands.

New England, which had more families arriving, had a far more stable family structures than the Chesapeake, and most men could expect to marry.

New England women married young and continued producing children into the thirties.

New England Puritanism emphasized the importance of family, but stressed a patriarchal structure of nearly absolute male authority.

The Beginnings of Slavery in English America

Demand for Labor in the South: From the beginning, there was a great demand for labor always. Shipments of African slaves remained rare until the 1650s, when a substantial commerce in slaves grew between the southern colonies and the Caribbean.

Atlantic Slave Trade: From the 1500s to 1800s, the trade was responsible for forcing as many as 11 million to cross, but interestingly, of this number only a small percentage went to North America:

50% went South America (mostly Brazil)

42% to the Caribbean Islands

5% British North America

3% to Central America and elsewhere


African Population of the British colonies, 1620 - 1780


The “Middle Passage”: African slaves were forced to endure being packed together in chains with minimal food, water, and no sanitation deep within the filthy hold of a ship. Those who died during the journey were thrown overboard; sharks followed these ships across the Atlantic. Any sign of revolt was brutally repressed.

Surging Slave Population: In 1697, the Royal African Company of England lost its monopoly on the slave trade, greatly lowering prices and increasing the flow. There were roughly 25,000 slaves in English North America in 1700; by 1760, there were roughly ten times that amount


Slaves being thrown overboard during a revolt


Famous graphic of a Liverpool slave ship used by abolitionists; by 1750s, English ships were being built specifically to haul a human cargo.


Ambiguous Legal Status: Until the late 1600s, Africans had ambiguous legal status, often treated much like indentured servants.

Slave Codes: Around the 1690s, slavery started to become racialized in the law codes, so that by the early 1700s, being black and born into slavery meant being permanently a slave.

Why do you think this change happened and why no moral outcry over it?

Changing Sources of European Immigration

Religious Refugees: Earliest migrants from the Continent (not English) tended to be religious refugees; French Huguenots (Calvinists) fled France in 1685 when the Edict of Nantes, gave them protection from persecution. Many German-speaking people fled for similar reasons, often settling in Pennsylvania—they became known as the “Pennsylvania Dutch.” Why?

Scotch-Irish: Most numerous newcomers were Scotch-Irish, Scotch Presbyterians who had settled in Northern Ireland in the early 1600s (the province of Ulster). Scotch-Irish commonly pushed out to the furthest Western edge of European settlement.

Scottish and Irish: Scottish lowlanders and Irish from southern Ireland—with some Roman Catholics—also came. Irish from the south were not as prevalent as they would be in the 1800s.

CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial AmericaMigrant Groups in Colonia America ca. 1760

THE COLONIAL ECONOMIESThe Southern Economy Boom-and-Bust Tobacco Economy: Many planters became quite wealthy growing tobacco, but in the 1600s and 1700s, supply often exceeded demand, leading to occasional steep drops in price on the world market. The first big drop happened in 1640, giving a shock to the Chesapeake economy.

Rice Production: In the 1700s, the low-lying coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia relied on rice production. The work of rice cultivation was so hard and unhealthy that most white laborers refused to do it, leading to a heavy reliance on slave labor. In addition, many slaves came from rice-producing areas of West Africa and knew how to grow the crop. They were more accustomed to the heat and humidity than Europeans, but still found the work brutal.

Cash-Crop Dependence: Because of southern reliance on cash crops, the region did not develop commercial trading centers, financial and insurance services, or the industrial enterprises of the northern colonies.

What are some long term problems that might occur because of this?

THE COLONIAL ECONOMIES

The Northern Economy and Technological Development Northern Agriculture: New York, Pennsylvania, and southern New England became the colonies’ main producer of wheat, a far less labor-intensive crop.

Artisans and Entrepreneurs: In northern colonial towns, craftsmen and artisans like cobblers, blacksmiths, riflemakers, cabinetmakers, silversmiths, and printers set up shop; in certain locations, endeavors like shipbuilding took off.

Ironworks: The first substantial ironworks in the colonies opened in Saugus, Massachusetts, in 1640, and although it produced quality iron, it failed financially. Over the next century, metalworks became an important part of the northern economy, with the largest run by German immigrant Peter Hasenclever in 1764 in northern New Jersey, which eventually employed hundreds of people.

What are some long term problems that might occur because of this?

THE COLONIAL ECONOMIESThe Northern Economy and Technological Development Parliament’s Limitations: Parliament passed the Iron Act in 1750 to limit colonial iron production; it also put limits on the production of other manufactured goods like woolen goods and hats to prevent competition for English goods.

Limits to Industrialization: Lack of labor supply, a small domestic market, and inadequate transportation and energy supply prevented the same rapid industrialization that was happening in England in the 1760s and 1770s.

Limits to Technology: Much of colonial society lacked any real technological resources at all; many farmers even lacked a plow, or metal pots and kettles. Poverty was fairly widespread. The myth that colonial households were self-sufficient—making their own clothes and candles—was not correct, as most households lacked the molds or spinning wheels to make these items.

THE COLONIAL ECONOMIESThe Rise of Colonial Commerce Obstacles to Trade: American merchants lacked the basic tools of commerce, not having nearly any gold or silver, rudimentary financial institutions, and a paper currency that was worthless abroad. They also had little information on supply and demand, leading to big losses if prices dropped unexpectedly.

Growth of Commerce: Trade nevertheless grew, mostly between the colonies themselves and the West Indies. The colonies offered Caribbean partners rum, agricultural products, and salted fish and meat. The islands returned sugar, molasses, and occasionally slaves. Growing professional mercantile class emerges.

Trans-Atlantic Trade: Trade between England, the Continent, and Africa also took place, although not in a neat “triangular trade.” The trade routes were messier and more complicated, managed by an emerging merchant class. Timber and furs from the colonies reached England, but merchants also indulged in illegal trade with the Dutch, French, and Spanish Caribbean.

CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America

THE COLONIAL ECONOMIESThe Not Very “Triangular Trade”


THE COLONIAL ECONOMIESThe Rise of Consumerism Class Difference: While class difference obviously existed in the 1600s, it became more pronounced in the 1700s. The elites viewed the purchase and display of consumer goods as a means to demonstrate their membership in the upper ranks of society.

Industrialization in England and Europe: Imported goods that were mass produced in England or Europe became cheaper than fine goods crafted by hand by artisans. Some luxury goods thus became affordable to the middle class.

“Refinement”: The quality of your home and the possessions it contained became associated with how “refined” an individual was: furniture, formal gardens, wardrobes, and London magazines.


THE COLONIAL ECONOMIES: The Rise of Consumerism

Silver tea service crafted by Boston silversmith Paul Revere

PATTERNS OF SOCIETY Social Mobility: A rigid class system like the one in England did not emerge in the colonial America. Aristocracies developed, but these were more based on control of labor rather than land ownership, and were more unstable than the English ones.

Masters and Slaves on the Plantation Precarious Nature of the Plantation Economy: Planters could not control the markets, so they were always at risk. Many got rich, but many were ruined when prices collapsed.

Slave Culture: Slaves were able to develop their own culture on the plantation: their own religious practices that blended Christianity with African elements, their own family traditions and practices, and even their own language in some remote places (Geechee and Gullah along the SC/GA coast). But they were vulnerable to white intrusion at any moment.

Stono Rebellion: Violent slave uprisings were surprisingly rare, but on occasion they did erupt. The largest during the colonial era happened near the Stono River in South Carolina in Sept. 1739. A band of about 100 slaves killed over 20 whites, marching down the road with a banner that said “liberty.” A militia tracked down the rebels and decapitated who they thought the leaders were, putting their heads on posts as an example.


PATTERNS OF SOCIETYThe Puritan Community Close-Knit Communities: In the early years of Puritan settlement, each resident became a member of a “covenant” binding each individual together to the local church and town government, which were one in the same. Families lived in houses that were close together, with agricultural lands surrounding the housesm often with a “Common” in the middle for grazing animals.

Participatory Democracy: Puritan towns held an annual town meeting in which “selectmen” were directly elected to take care of the town’s important business. Adult males who were members of the church and should signs of being among the “elect” predestined for salvation were the only ones allowed to participate in town government.


PATTERNS OF SOCIETYThe Puritan Community Communal Strains and Tensions: Over several generations, land in the towns became scarce, forcing members to cultivate lands far away from the church. Eventually younger members broke off an form their own communities.

Witchcraft Hysteria: The close-knit, gossipy, and intensely religious environment of small town life could produce some bizarre results, most notably the witchcraft mania that broke out in Massachusetts in the 1690s, most famously in Salem. New Englanders believed that Satan was a real presence in people’s lives and accused each other of fraternizing with him. Most of those who were accused were poorer middle-aged women with no children of their own, or women who were widowed or single but had inherited some resources, thereby challenging the society’s gender norms.


PATTERNS OF SOCIETY: Cities Two Largest Ports: In the 1770s, there were Philadelphia (28,000) and New York (25,000). Other sizeable communities included Boston (16,000), Charles Town (12,000), and Newport

(11,000). Leadership: The mostprominent citizens tendedto be the wealthy merchantswho had enrichedthemselves from overseascommerce, and who puttheir wealth on display infancy homes.

Colonial Philadelphia


PATTERNS OF SOCIETY: Cities Urban Problems: Unlike small towns and rural areas where most American colonists lived, cities dwellers needed to set up constables, fire protection, and systems to the support the poor.

Information Exchange: Cities provided a place to exchange information and for new ideas to circulate. Printers published newspapers and books, and the taverns and coffeehouses were forums for business and political discussions.

AWAKENINGS AND ENLIGHTENMENTSPATTERNS OF RELIGION

Multiplying Denominations: The official religion of Virginia, Maryland, New York, the Carolinas, and Georgia was the Church of England. But new Protestant sects were constantly arising or coming over with immigrants: Dutch Reformed, several Baptist sects, etc.

Persistent Anti-Catholicism: Roman Catholics were too few to cause major conflict in the 1700s—the biggest concentration was 3,000 in Maryland—but they were nonetheless persecuted. In Maryland they lost all political rights when the original proprietors lost control of the colony in 1691.

Anti-Semitism: Jews only numbered no more than 2,000 through the colonial period, but they could not hold office or vote in most places.

Declining Piety: By the turn of the 1700s, religious piety was in decline. As early as the 1660s, Puritan father gave “jeremiads” warning of the consequences.


AWAKENINGS AND ENLIGHTENMENTSThe Great Awakening Appeal: In the 1730s and 1740s, a new evangelical movement arose led by preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield; preachers tried to elicit emotional engagement of the faithful.

“New Lights” and “Old Lights”: “New Lights” embraced the emotionalism of the revival meetings, while “Old Lights” did not.

The Enlightenment “Natural Law”: Thinkers like Locke, Rousseau, and Voltaire emphasize a faith in human reason to figure out the world and discover “natural laws” that govern it. Originates with the scientific discoveries of Newton, Copernicus, etc. Puts less of an emphasis on religion in explaining how the world functions.

AWAKENINGS AND ENLIGHTENMENTS

Literacy and Technology Early Newspapers: Publick Occurrences was the first colonial newspaper founded in Boston in 1690; the second was the Boston News-Letter founded in 1704.

Almanacs: Poor Richard’s Almanack was published by Benjamin Franklin continuously from 1732 to 1758 and was a colonial best-seller with print-runs reaching 10,000 copies a year.

Education Growth of Public Education: First free public school is founded in Dorchester, outside of Boston, in 1639. A 1647 Massachusetts law required all towns to support a school. Free public schools remained rare outside of New England.

Higher Education: Harvard (1636), William and Mary (1693), Yale (1701), King’s College/Columbia (1754), The Academy and College of Pennsylvania (U. Penn – 1755)

AWAKENINGS AND ENLIGHTENMENTSThe Spread of Science Growing Interest: Colleges introduced the elites to Newtonian physics and Copernican astronomy. Benjamin Franklin and others corresponded with the Royal Society of London, and Franklin became famed for his 1752 experiment with lightning and a kite, that posited that electricity and lightning were one in the same.

Smallpox Inoculation: Theologian Cotton Mather encouraged Bostonians to be inoculated during an outbreak in the 1720s, and it proved effective.

Concepts of Law and Politics Zenger Trial: In 1734 and 1735, the publisher John Peter Zenger was put on trial in New York for libel. The ruling—that criticisms of the government were not libel if they were factually true—marked a divergence with British law.

Powerful Colonial Assemblies: Colonial assemblies began to take on many capacities of Parliament back in England.

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