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Understanding Foner

Understanding Foner. Chapter 3: Creating Anglo-America, 1660-1750. http:// profcivitella.wordpress.com. Main Ideas. MERCANTILISM ORIGINS OF SLAVERY CAROLINAS THE COLONIAL ELITE. Mercantilism.

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Understanding Foner

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  1. Understanding Foner Chapter 3: Creating Anglo-America, 1660-1750 http://profcivitella.wordpress.com

  2. Main Ideas • MERCANTILISM • ORIGINS OF SLAVERY • CAROLINAS • THE COLONIAL ELITE

  3. Mercantilism • Britain utilizes mercantilism—an economic theory based on government regulating economic activity and exporting more than importing—which helps them become the economic power by the mid-18th century. • Other principles: • Promote manufacturing, commerce, and monopolies. • Control trade so that more gold/silver flow into the mother country than left it. • Role of colonies was to serve the interests of the mother country. • Colonies send raw materials to mother country. • Mother country sends finished goods to colonies.

  4. Mercantilism • To maximize profit and protect their economy, Britain passed several Navigation Acts: • Certain goods needed to be transported via British ships. • Certain items needed to be initially sold in British ports. • Goods being imported to colonies needed to go through mother country first. • In the beginning, everyone profited immensely: • Merchants. • Manufacturers. • Shipbuilders. • Sailors. • British government. • Colonies.

  5. Carolinas • Established as a barrier to Spanish expansion (1670). • Promised strong legal codes promising slave owners “absolute power and authority” over slaves • Promised 150 acres for each member of an arriving family. • Would eventually become the richest group of mainland colonists through the cultivation of their staple crop, rice. • Lived lavish lifestyles: • E.g., imported expensive furniture, fine wine, silk clothing; vacationed in the north; various social events. • Viewed liberty as the power to rule and viewed society as a hierarchical structure. • Freedom from labor was the mark of a true gentleman. • Wealth was very concentrated. • Richest 10% of the colony owned 50% of the wealth; the poorest less than 2% (1770).

  6. Origins of Slavery • Slavery has existed for nearly the entire span of human history. • But slavery was never an “institution” like it was in the British colonies. • Slavery eventually became an American institution after planters and government authorities were convinced that importing African slaves was the best way to solve their labor issue. • The Atlantic slave trade would turn into a very lucrative global business. • Nearly 10 million Africans were transported to the Americas. • The successful use of slaves as the basis of labor was first seen in the West Indies on sugar plantations in the mid-1600s. • Virginia and Maryland eventually adopted this method for their tobacco plantations.

  7. Origins of Slavery

  8. Origins of Slavery • English had a history of viewing “alien” people with disdain. • Irish; Native Americans; Africans • Described them as savages, pagans, uncivilized, and compared them to animals. • Over the years rules and regulations were adopted to protect the institution of slavery and white supremacy: • Slaves could be bought; sold; leased; fought over in court; passed on to one’s descendants; needed pass to leave their plantation; slaves could not own arms or strike a white person. • Virginia, and eventually the south, had transformed from a society with slaves to a slave society. • Slave population: 1700, 10% 1750, nearly 50%

  9. The Colonial Elite • As time passed and people benefited from economic growth, an elite group started to emerge in Colonial America that began to dominate politics and society. • Virginia’s upper-class was so tight and intermarried that it was said to have been ruled by a “cousinocracy.” • The gap wealth gap grew more rapidly in the 18th century than any other period in American history (Foner). • There were no banks in Colonial America, so credit and money were in short supply; you either had it or you didn’t. • Most wealth was inherited. • Much of the elite thought of themselves as British as opposed to American—Anglicanization—modeling their lives on British etiquette and behavior.

  10. Main Ideas • MERCANTILISM • Regulated trade + colonial exploitation = $$ Britain • ORIGINS OF SLAVERY • South becomes slave society and rules are adopted to protect it • CAROLINAS • Rice becomes staple crop creating the richest/most elite colony • THE COLONIAL ELITE • Wealth/power gap increases tremendously in the 18th century

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