Life and Death in 17th Century British North America

How did birth and death rates influence the development of British

colonies?

I. Stable Societies: The New England Colonies

A. The “Numbers”

• Nuclear families came in tact across the Atlantic

• Key to population increase was longevity, not fertility

• One of the first western societies in recorded history where one could count on knowing one’s grandchildren

• Average woman marrying in early twenties bore eight children

B. Family Life

• Family = central unit of social stability

• Goal = “godly” family ruled by the patriarch

• Young people generally picked their own mates, usually neighbors

B. Family Life (cont.)

• At first, married children continued to live in the same towns with their parents

• Romantic Puritans and the practice of “bundling”

• Burst of illegitimacy during the first half of 1700’s

B. Family Life (cont.)

• Puritans were much more “secular” than often recognized

• The place of “work” was the household and children were the source of extra laborers

B. Family Life (cont.)

• Churches were built on the foundation of family life

-- “Half-Way Covenant” (1662)

• Significant rates of literacy characterized New England

--Ye Olde Deluder Satan Act (1647)

B. Family Life (cont.)

• Cambridge has a printing press by 1639

--The Day of Doom

• First Bible printed in America (1663)

--Algonquian, produced by John Eliot

• First newspaper to endure in the colonies = Boston Newsletter (1704)

• Harvard established (1636)

C. Women’s roles and Class Status

• A Proverbs 31 Woman

• Distinct duties in the household

• Women joined church more than men

• Little political and legal rights

• Women seen as weaker vessels with feebler minds

• Less class inequality than in Europe or in the Chesapeake

-- “yeoman” farmers

C. Women’s roles and Class Status (cont.)

• Wealth, not bloodlines nor religion, becomes the key determinant of social ranking

• Pressure on the land brought tension due to the creation of new towns and the move into alternative occupations

• Not uncommon for northern colonists to be servants at one time or another

II. “Life on the Edge”: Southern Plantation Societies

A. The “Numbers”

• Much lower life expectancy than in New England

• People married later due to indenture contracts

• Greater informal power for women

• Only one of three marriages survived a decade—lots of blended families

B. Family Life

• 70-85% of immigrants came as single indentured servants with many more men than women immigrating—so fewer stable nuclear families as a foundation

• Wealthy fathers sent their sons to England for school and no printing press until 1671

• Sex ratio finally nearly even by 1690

C. Class Status

• A Tobacco Economy produced class inequity

• Indentured servants more economical than African slaves until the death rate drops

• Third generation of planters come to dominate society and politics

C. Class Status (cont.)

• Freed indentures and indentured servants represented an increasing problem with land becoming increasingly difficult to obtain

• Alternatives = Middle Colonies, Backcountry, or just wandering about

III. The African-American Experience

A. Some Freedom before the 1670’s

• Approximately 12 million Africans brought to the Americas—most to the Caribbean

• Experience on board for African slaves

• Sullivan’s Island in Charleston Harbor = the African “Ellis Island”

A. Some Freedom (cont.)

• Gender imbalance 2:1 in favor of males

• Christian conversion = “benefit” for loss of freedom

• Status of African-Americans fluid until death rate drops

B. Escalation of Slavery after 1670’s

• Formation of Royal African Company in 1672• Increase of Black codes during the last quarter of

the 17th century

--1660 = first recognition of slavery in Va. Law

--1661 = comprehensive code in Barbados

--1670 = recognized as life-long, inherited status

--1696 = S.C. adopts Barbados-style slave code

--1705 = Va. adopts Barbados-style slave code

C. Colonial African-American Culture

• Cultural identity protected by the size and density of population

• Typical slave lived on a plantation having a work force of ten or more

• Arrival time creates barriers between African-Americans

C. Colonial African-American Culture (cont.)

• Early decades of 18th century = “turning point” for African-American family life

• Number of rebellions small, but fear of them occurring was great

--Stono Rebellion (1732)

IV. Social and Political Instability: 1675-1700

• Pressure on the land north and south

• Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)

• “Glorious Revolutions” in America (1688-1691)

--Massachusetts, New York and Maryland

• The Salem Witch Trials (1692)

-- “Spectral Evidence”