Expansion and Diversity

1. Expansion and Diversity The Rise of Colonial America, 1625-1700

2. I can explain why New Englanders abandoned Winthrop’s vision of a “city upon a hill.” • I can describe why indentured servitude gave way to racial slavery in England’s plantation colonies. • I can differentiate the Southern, Middle, and New England Colonies as it pertains to social, economic and political development

3. England and the Atlantic World • When Elizabeth I became Queen she stepped up exploration • With a militant anti-Catholic foreign policy, Drake sets out around the world • Colonists settle in Virginia: Roanoke • But the colonists refuse to grow their own food and the Spanish-English conflict prevented supplies • 1590 - CROATOAN

4. The realities of settlement in America • Even a well-financed colonizing effort could fail • Colonists didn’t bring enough for the first winter and disdained growing their own food • Future attempts would have to be self-financed • International conflict made it tough

5. Beginnings of English Colonization • Spain began to view the English as less dangerous, and gave up claims in Virginia • Joint-stock companies form • Large sums of money with limited risk to each investor • Two companies • Virginia Co. of Plymouth • Virginia Co. of London: successful ? at Jamestown (38 of 105 by 1608)

6. Very difficult success • Required military rule • Local officials were corrupt • High death rate due to malnutrition • Poor relations with the local Indians

7. New England Begins • Religious dissent meant treason • 1620 – patent to some London merchants for a settlement • 24 families (102 people) in the Mayflower • They were Separatists who first settled in the Netherlands • ½ died within 4 months

8. Puritan values of thrift, diligence, and delayed gratification • Middle class - IMPORTANT • The Great Migration • Push factor – economic depression, crime, taxes, disliked • Pull factor – “every man his own master”; played well with middle-class values

9. Turned from communal farming to individually owned plots; farm surpluses developed; they traded the surplus corn for furs, etc. This established better relations with the Indians • Lasting importance • An outpost for dissenting Puritans • A self-governing society could function • Blueprint for Indian relations

10. By 1700 more than 250,000 people of European birth or parentage (mostly English) • About 1 million Native Americans had died due to contact with Europeans by 1700

11. The New England Way • Beginning in 1635 with Charles I there was a systematic campaign to eliminate Puritan influence • Must read the Common Book of Prayer • Charter secured to colonize Mass. Bay • 1630, a self-governing colony • Non-separatists; 11 ships with 700 passengers

12. John Winthrop’s City Upon a Hill • By fall six towns had cropped up nearby; 30% had died and 10% went home • However, by 1642, 15,000 colonists in New England: it attracted families of modest means

13. The Pequot War, 1637 • One epidemic had wiped up 90% of New England’s coastal Indians, dwindling from 20,000 in 1600 to only a few survivors by the mid-1630s • Puritans had already created “praying towns” – reservations for those who gave in • They were not to practice their ways • An attempt to Christianize

14. When settlement moved into the Connecticut River Valley, the Pequots protested • Mass. And Conn. Coordinated military action in 1637 with the support of the Mohegan and Narragansett • Ruthless (pg. 56) • The Pequots land was awarded to the colonists of Connecticut

15. Dissent and Orthodoxy • The New England Way • Education • Every town of 50 or more households to appoint a teacher • Every town of 100 to maintain a Grammar school • But not compulsory • Harvard College in 1636 (from 1642-1671 it produced 201 graduates, including 111 ministers) • Attendance at church • All adults, and they must pay set rates to support them

16. Roger Williams • He argued that the civil and the religious should be separated • Opposed any type of compulsory church • Thought Indians should be properly compensated • He was banished in 1635 and moved to Providence (R.I.) • Or Rogues Island as stated by those who disliked him

17. Anne Hutchinson • Issue of “good works” as “signs” • She charged that only two of the colony’s ministers had been saved • Her followers were known as Antinomians- those opposed to the rule of law • They included Boston merchants, young men, and the women

18. Anne Hutchinson • While on trial for heresy, she could out knowledge the General Court on Scripture • Her undoing was claiming a personal revelation • She and many of her followers were banished

19. The biggest threat to the “City Upon a Hill” was the pursuit of self-interest. • Government leaders tried to regulate prices so that consumers would not suffer from the chronic shortage of manufactured goods • 1635- no good was to be priced more than 5 % above its cost • Those who violated this were fined and shamed

20. Power of the Saints • They did consider themselves members of the Church of England, but self-governing; ignoring the bishops authority • Control of the congregation was in the hands of the male “saints” • By majority vote these saints chose their ministers, elected a board of elders and decided who else deserved recognition as saints

21. These saints did not just have to profess the Calvinist faith, repent their sins, and live free of scandal (this was the English way) • In America they had to stand before the congregation and provide a convincing “relation” or account of their conversion experience

22. However, political participation was more liberal in New England • Voters or officeholders did not have to own property; you just had to be a male saint • By 1641, 55% of the colony’s 2300 men could vote (by contrast only 30% in England) • 1644- the General Court was bicameral (town’s deputies and appointed Governor’s Council)

23. New England legislatures established a town by awarding a grant of land to several dozen landowner-saints • Established a church • Distributed the land amongst themselves • Established a town meeting • Each town determined its own qualifications for voting and holding office (although most all male taxpayers, including nonsaints, to participate

24. Women’s roles • Sharply curtailed after Anne Hutchinson • “Community of Women” to enforce morals and protect the poor and vulnerable • Matrimony was a contract rather than a religious sacrament • Divorce, though uncommon, was allowed (it was a civil institution that the courts oversaw) • Only 27 from 1639-1692

25. Women’s roles • Had no property rights unless called for in the will or the husband had no other heirs • A widow could usually only claim no more than 1/3 of and estate • In charge of the work in the house, barn, garden

26. New Englanders lived longer and had larger families than the rest of the colonists • New England did not suffer the same prospects of disease as Virginia • Minimal travel between towns • Winters • East access to land provided an adequate diet

27. Half-Way Covenant, 1662 • By 1650 fewer than half the adults in the Boston congregation were saints • Why? Public subjection to grilling • The second generation’s unwillingness to provide a conversion relation meant they were not saints, and Puritan ministers only baptized the children of saints • Most third generation children were unbaptized

28. The compromise was the Half-Way Covenant • Permitted children of baptized adults, including nonsaints, to receive baptism • Allowed the second generation to transmit potential church membership to their grandchildren, leaving their adult children “halfway” members who could not vote or take communion

29. Expansion and Native Americans, 1650-1676 • The fur trade became a liability by midcentury • King Phillip’s War (1676) – also known as Metacom’s Rebellion, this was the last major effort of the Southern New England Indian’s effort to drive out the colonists • Dependency = sovereignty • Metacom is captured and beheaded

30. Social and economic also undermined the New England Way • “outlivers” vs. townspeople • Distribution of wealth becoming uneven • These issues were evident in Salem (2nd largest port)

31. Witches • 1691- what starts out as a few girls asking a slave woman to tell them their fortune, ends up in a colony-wide panic that got to the root of growing problems • A large number of the 342 accused witches were women who had inherited, or stood to inherit, more than the usual 1/3. They were assertive women.

32. The widespread fear led judges to ignore the law’s ban on spectral evidence • The jails filled up • The village’s troubled section accused the wealthier from the eastern division of town • 2/3 of the accusers were 11-20 • More than half had lost one or both parents • Most worked as servants for others • They accused middle-age wives and widows

33. By early 1693 the Governor pardoned all those convicted or accused (his wife was one of the accused) • 55 women confessed (they were isolated, saved, but reinforced the belief in witches) • A few were successful at fleeing • 19 try to bet the accusation and are hanged • One 71 yr.old man was pressed to death • Five (?) die in jail • Over 200 accused

34. Chesapeake Society • Very different from the New England Way of family farms and agricultural/economic subsistence • They were not the wealthiest stock, but they were touchy about their standing (not as educated or refined as they thought they were) • However, they became a few wealthy planters with a majority of indentured servants and a growing number of slaves

35. The State and Church in Virginia • Not set up to be a representative govt. • Made so by Charles I in exchange for a tax on tobacco exports and a transferring the cost of the colony’s government to Virginia’s planters • After 1630 the burgesses met regularly (taxation) • Eventually split into two chambers • House of Burgesses and Gov. Council (life)

36. 1634 – Virginia adopts the county court system • Justices and sheriffs (adm.during the court’s recess) appointed by Gov. • Most everywhere south of New England was run by the unelected county courts until 1710

37. The Church of England • Required to pay fixed rates to the Anglican Church • In each parish were six vestrymen (chosen amongst the wealthy) who handled church finances, etc. • Hard to get ministers (10 served 45 parishes)

38. Maryland • 1632 – Lord Baltimore (Cecilius Calvert) • Proprietary colony – control given to him • Power to appoint all sheriffs and judges • Secured freedom from taxation • The crown controlled war and trade as well as the requirement that an elected assembly approve all laws

39. A refuge for Catholics • 2% of the pop. • Couldn’t worship in public • Had to pay tithes to the Anglican Church • Barred from holding office • Adopted Virginia’s headright system • Wealthy settlers bring others at their own cost • What they got was a 2000 acre manor for 5 adults (moved to 20 by 1640)

40. Settlement did not go as planned • Most were Protestant • They bought their own land to avoid being tenants • Act of Religious Toleration in 1649 • Maryland was second to Rhode Island in granting religious toleration • But was mostly successful symbolically • Punishment for blasphemy; banned Catholics form voting; did not protect non-Christians;

41. In 1654 the Protestant majority banned Catholics from voting and repealed the Toleration Act • They ousted the pro-toleration Governor • He raised an army, was defeated, imprisoned and 3 Catholics were hanged

42. Death, Gender, Kinship • Tobacco lured population to the Chesapeake (110,000 from 1630 to 1700) • 90% indentured servants • 80% male (only 1/3 could find a bride) • Female ind. servants faired better; often hooking up with wealthy planters who bought their years

43. Greatest diseases • Typhoid, dysentery, salt poisoning, malaria after 1650 • Life expectancy for males was 48; females 44 (New England was 70) • Servants usually died within 6 years of arrival • ½ of those married became widows within 7 years

44. Women had more property rights here • Death created very complex family patterns (pg. 70) • High death rates and male immigration retarded growth

45. Tobacco Shapes a Region, 1630-1670 • Population was dispersed (6 per sq.mi) • Most did not travel far from home • In the isolated world tobacco was king, even when it lost 97% of its former value • Grown on fertile river bank soil • transportation

46. Indentured servants faced a bleak future • Entered the world impoverished • Some states obliged masters to provide clothes, corn, ax, hoe, even land (Maryland 50 acres)

47. However, by the 1660s and 1670s the tobacco prices plummeted • England had a law that all of their tobacco was to be shipped exclusively to England in English ships (to drive Dutch merchants out) • The Dutch retaliated by burning farms • Even the Governor was commenting on the colonies addiction to the “vicious, ruinous plant.”

48. Bacon’s Rebellion • Anger over poor lot was taken out on the Indians • Though many Indians had agreed to stay on specific lands, continued white encroachment and being outnumbered the Indians and whites were in constant conflict • The govt. didn’t care to do anything about it – protecting their fur trading

49. Gov. Berkeley (page 147) • His cronies got the best land, paid little taxes and

50. June 1675 – Virginia and Maryland militia pursue the wrong tribe, murdering 14 • Frontier folk wanted the least costly solution – war of extermination • They chose Nathaniel Bacon • He is give free reign at first but then Gov. Berkeley recanted • Bacon and his force march on Jamestown and burn it; the rebels offered freedom to those who supported them • Bacon dies of dysentery and the Governor hangs 23