Chapter 4 AMERICAN LIFE IN THE 17 TH CENTURY

 American wilderness  Brutal  Disease  Malaria, dysentery, typhoid  Life expectancy declined  Men outnumbered women 6 to 1  Men could not find mates CHESAPEAKE

 Planted tobacco to sell before planting corn to eat  Exhausted soil  Demand for new land  Went further up rivers and pushed west  More tobacco = More labor  Indentured servants TOBACCO

 Head-right System  Servant Workers  Paid passage = 50 acres of land  100,000 Indentured servants = 1700  Virginia/ Maryland CONT.

 Freemen = looking for land / Women  Governor Berkeley  Friendly policies with Native Americans  Nathaniel Bacon  Looking for untamed land  1,000 broke out of control = 1676  Plundering and Pilfering  Civil War in Virginia BACON’S REBELLION

 7 million slaves to New World COLONIAL SLAVERY

 1680’s  Black slaves outnumbered whites in plantations colonies  Royal African Company = Charter lost  Rhode Islanders = Cash in on slave trade  1750  ½ population = Virginia  Outnumbered 2 to 1 = S. Carolina CONT.

 Middle Passage  Journey from Africa to the West Indies  Passage was extremely difficult  20% of the slaves died on the trip COLONIAL SLAVERY

 Slave life severe in deep South  Life draining  Rice/Indigo  Tobacco = less demanding  Plantations closer together  More contact with other slaves  Culture  Gullah (Language)  Jazz AFRICANS IN AMERICA

 New York Slave Revolt – 1712  9 whites died  21 slaves executed = burned at the stake  South Carolina Slave Revolt – 1739  50 slaves  Stono River = Spanish Florida CONT.

 Plantation owners ran the South’s economy  Monopolized political power  Families = Fitzhughs, Lees, Washingtons  Dominated House of Burgesses  Hard working, businesslike, long hours  Small Farmers  Largest group  Hand to Mouth  1-2 slaves  Landless whites  Former indentured servants SOUTHERN SOCIETY

 Southern families = economic security for women  Men died young  Women retain separate title to their property  Widows right to inherit CONT.

 Few cities sprouted  Life revolved around plantations  Waterways = transportation CONT.

 Clean Water, Cool Temperatures  Added 10 yrs to life  Migrated as families  Early marriages  Birth Rate increased  10 pregnancies / 8 children  Parents / Grandparents NEW ENGLAND

 Women gave up property when married  Lawmakers = protect / defend marriages  Divorce rare  Midwifery  Childbirth  Female monopoly CONT.

 Tight knit society  Puritans = unity of purpose  Moral health  Distribution of land in hands of proprietors  Woodlot, tract (crops), pasture  50 plus = schools  Massachusetts  Harvard – 1636  Virginians  William and Mary – 1693  Congregational Church Government NEW ENGLAND TOWNS

 Jeremiad  Doom-saying  Scolded parishioners  Decline in conversions  Half Way Covenant  Admit to baptism – not full communion  Doors to Puritan church swung open CONT.

 Salem Witch Trials – 1692  Massachusetts  Witch hunt  20 individuals  Gossip  Superstitions  Property owning Widows  Ended in 1693 CONT.

 Less ethically mixed  Stony soil /Extreme weather  Expert shipbuilders / commerce  Codfish  “fishy goldmines of New England”  Huge impact on the rest of the nation NEW ENGLAND

 Most were farmers  Sun up to sun down  Women managed the home (plantation)  Distinction amongst classes  Leisler’s Rebellion – 1689  Lordly landowners against Merchants  Gentlemen / dividing class  Laws passed to keep them in their place EARLY SETTLERS