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 Societybetter 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 ParadiseFears 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 CovenantChurch 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 LaborWomen’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.