Unit Three: Colonial Culture and Conflict

Colonial Society

The American Culture • During the Colonial period the colonists began to

develop a distinctly different culture than the nation they came from, an American Culture.

• The American culture developed because of several reasons:– 1.) Geo-determinism - Colonials developed

different habits and ways due to the new geographical areas that they lived in.

– 2.) Egalitarian society – The different classes of people saw each other at a more equal playing field because of the hardships of colonial life.

The American Culture– 3.) Salutary Neglect – Because of wars and other

problems in England and Europe, the British could not strongly watch over the developments of the colonies, so they developed differently from the home nation.

– 4.) Distance – The American colonies were 3,000 miles away across the Atlantic from England.

– 5.) Natives – The Colonials had to adapt to the Native American culture, thus changing their own.

– 6.) Self-government – The colonials were able to develop their own forms of self-government.

Alexis de Tocqueville • Alexis de Tocqueville in his book

Democracy in America describes how the colonials were very different from Europeans, that they had developed an American culture.

• “As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?”

Government in the Colonies • In the different colonies, different types of

governments developed due to religious and economic factors.

• Most colonies had a Governor (Executive), Legislative House or houses (Legislature) and a High Court (Judiciary).

• The Virginia House of Burgesses was the first example of representative limited self government in America.

• Each town or precinct elected two freemen to be Burgesses (Representatives) to make the laws to govern the colony.

• The right to vote was considered a privilege not a right, and could be taken away.

Government in the Colonies• The legislative houses in the other colonies were

called House of Delegates, General Court, Provincial Assembly, and etc.

• Some colonies placed requirements on the ability to vote (suffrage) such as land requirements or religious affiliation.

• In New England, local governments called town meetings were held where citizens of a town voted on issues that were headed by Selectmen.

• To deal with law enforcement a local constable or shire reeve (Sheriff) was appointed to enforce the law, but vigilantes (mobs or groups of citizens) also helped with keeping people in line.

Virginian/ Southern Colonial Life

• In Virginia there developed two types of people: the Tidewater Gentry (wealthy plantation owners) and Backcoutnrymen (yeomen farmers, traders, or trappers).

• The Tidewater Gentry also called Cavaliers lived on large agricultural estates called plantations.

• The Cavaliers wanted to create a type of feudalism in America with the slaves, indentured servants, and tenant farmers, to show the differences in the classes.

Virginian/ Southern Colonial Life

• The Gentry passed on their lands through a process called Primogeniture (the eldest son gets all their parents estate).

• The Gentry passed Sumptuary laws that dictated what a person from each class could wear and what they could not.

• The Gentry did not believe in equality, but hegemonic liberty (that only the wealthy have rights like voting and holding public office because they were chosen by birth and education to led the society).

Virginian/ Southern Colonial Life

• The Gentry were also called the Cousinary because they chose to marry within their family to keep the blood “pure” (usually third and so on cousins).

• One of the founding families of the Tidewater Gentry was Richard Lee.

• The greatest primary source of gentry life style was written in the Diary, and Life, of William Byrd II of Virginia.

• The Tidewater Gentry wanted to become the nobility of America like in England, but were always looked down on by the English nobility.

Virginian/ Southern Colonial Life• The Plantation life style developed in the

Southern Colonies because of the vast amounts of land and fertility of the land.

• The Plantation owners grew cash crops (crops only grown for profit) and staple crops (crops that were in constant demand). These included tobacco, sugar, indigo, and rice.

• John Rolfe introduced Tobacco to Virginia, and Eliza Lucas introduced Indigo to South Carolina.

• For Plantation style farming to succeed a large labor source was needed to plant, maintain, and harvest crops.

Virginian/ Southern Colonial Life• The first source of labor was Natives, but they

died off quickly. • The second source was indentured servants

(white slaves), but they had to be treated “well” and after their indentured time had to be paid and given land, but most did not like the hot conditions and the workload.

• The shortage of Natives and indentures led to the development of African Slavery in America.

• The first slaves brought to America were in 1619, twenty Angolans were bought in Jamestown Colony.

Virginian/ Southern Colonial Life• The abundance of African slaves that could be

purchased from the Portuguese or Dutch, the immunity of Africans to European diseases, and the ability to have total control over the person (slavery) led to the growth of the American Slave Trade.

• The Slave Trade was part of the Triangular Trade route (Slaves to the Americas, Raw materials like sugar and tobacco to Europe, Finished products and rum to Africa)

• The Middle Passage was the direct trade route from Africa to the Colonies in the Triangular Trade.

Virginian/ Southern Colonial Life• The Africans sold slaves to the Europeans, but

both had two different viewpoints on slavery:– 1. African Slavery – slave for one year or

more, but had an end, a slave could become part of the tribe or go back to theirs (African slaves could own land and slaves)

– 2. European Slavery – slave for life, all children are slaves, and the master has complete control over their slave.

• Slaves were brought to the Americas in slave ships shackled in the cargo holds either in tight packs (as many as can hold) or loose packs (only enough so space can be given.

Virginian/ Southern Colonial Life• Slaves were usually first carried to the

Caribbean to be “seasoned” (adapted to the life of slavery) then were shipped to the mainland colonies or their children.

• To regulate and control the slave trade, colonial governments instituted slave codes (colonial laws on the treatment and upkeep of slaves) like, slaves could not marry, be taught to read or write, or have sexual relations with white people.

Virginian/ Southern Colonial Life• One of the greatest primary sources of the early

slave trade is the personal account of Olaudah Equiano in his book The Interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano .

• The awful treatment of slaves did led to one of the first slave rebellions in the colonies in 1739 in Stono, South Carolina called Stono Rebellion or Conspiracy to take over the colonial government, but all were killed.

• Slave rebellions were a constant fear in the plantation south, which led to very strict laws and even worse treatment of slaves.

Slavery

Virginian/ Southern Colonial Life• The Backcountrymen were made up of trappers,

traders, and yeoman farmers (own a small family run farm maybe with five or less slaves or indentures)

• A large portion of these people were Scots-Irish who came to America through New York and Pennsylvania and quickly headed to the Appalachian Mountain chain and the southern frontier lands.

• They lived in dog-trot cabins and stayed mostly to themselves (did not trust outsiders).

• Most of these people were very fatalistic (believe that everything is due to fate, so why care).

Middle/ New England Colonial Life • The Middle and New England colonies did not

develop large plantation style farming because of confined land, too many people, and some people were involved in other enterprises (businesses).

• The Middle/New England Colonies did use Indentured servants and slaves, but in these colonies the first laws were developed to end the slave trade.

• The farmers in the Middle and New England colonies were either yeomen farmers who hired tenant farmers or field hands to grow grains like wheat, barley, and rye, or were subsistence farmers (only growing enough to feed the family and sell some products in town.

Middle/ New England Colonial Life• The large amounts of grains led to grist mills

to grind the grains into flour. • The people of New England because of the

geography of the coastline and the Grand Banks (a swallow ocean pool that tends to plankton growth) were excellent fisherman and whalers.

• The blubber (fat) from whales was used to make candles and oil for lamps, ambergris (intestinal juice) used for perfume, and bones for combs and to supply the frame for women’s corsets.

Middle/ New England Colonial Life

• The need for ships for the colonial fishing fleets led to the growth of the shipbuilding industry, lumber industry (lumberjacks), and Cooper industry (barrel makers).

• The ships and colonial homes were built from American hardwoods (cedar, oak, etc.) in great abundance in the colonies made mostly along the fall line (area in New England with many waterfalls and rivers) to run sawmills.

• The best of the colonial furniture makers were the Puritan carpenters and latter Shakers.

Middle/ New England Colonial Life• The Middle and New England colonies because

of their growing urban centers were home to entrepreneurs (a person who takes the risk of opening a new business) and capitalists (people who have enough money to invest in businesses).

• The different Tradesmen/Artisans/Craftsman (skilled labors like masons (brick layers), blacksmiths (metal workers), glass blowers, seamstresses, haberdasher (cloths seller), bakers, cobblers (shoe makers), printers, and etc.) required people to learn the trade through the craftsman’s process.

Middle/ New England Colonial Life• The craftsman’s process was three steps:

– 1.) Apprentice – young boy who lives with the craftsman and family pays the Craftsman to teach the boy a trade.

– 2.) Journeyman – a young man who works for the craftsman and earns a wage.

– 3.) Master Craftsman – a man who owns his own shop.

• The Middle and New England colonies because of their large ports and growing urban centers developed large commerce centers with traders, merchants, and bankers.

Middle/ New England Colonial Life

• The people of New England were highly religious and town life reflected this.

• People held town meetings in the church (meeting house) which was usually the center of town next to the common area (either communal garden, pasture, or park).

• To keep people in line everyone was a holy watcher (person who outs someone who has sinned) and people had to confess their sins of the week in front of the church or risk being kicked out of the church).