The Colonies Come of Age Chapter 3

The Agricultural South Chapter 3 section 2

A Plantation Economy arises Since the James Town Colony, the Southern colonists staked their livelihood on the fertile soil from the Chesapeake region to Georgia. A Plantation Economy arises

Many farmers had a single cash crop – one grown primarily for sale rather than for the farmers own use. Tobacco was a favorite cash crop for Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina

In the South, plantations developed instead of towns In the South, plantations developed instead of towns. Plantation owners made most of what they needed on their properties. They didn’t need shops and markets.

There were some cities in the South Charles Town (Charleston, South Carolina), became one of the most thriving ports in the British Empire.

Life in the Southern Society Not all people prospered under the plantation system. Large numbers of European immigrants came to North America during the 1700’s. In the South, Germans came and raise grain, livestock, and tobacco.

Many Scots and Scottish Irish came into North Carolina Many Scots and Scottish Irish came into North Carolina. These people became known as small farmers. They made up the majority of the South’s population.

It was the big plantation owners who controlled the South’s economy, political, and social institutions. By the mid 1700’s many Southerners were doing well.

The Role of Women Women were second class citizens in both the North and the South. Few legal or social rights. Couldn’t vote, couldn’t preach. Daughters of wealthy southern planters were taught only the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

The Role of Women Average Southern fixed dinner Slaughtered pigs Milked cows Sewed Washed clothes Tended the garden Cleaned the house

The Role of Women Plantation women had servants to do all those things.

Indentured Servants Mostly white men who escaped prison or poverty in England for a limited time of servitude in North America. They did not have many rights in bondage. Many died. After there service they went to the western outskirts of the Southern colonies and tried to survive.

Indentured Servants After 1630, they made between ½ and 2/3 of all immigrants. Their numbers declined by 1700. As the work force became harder to come by, the plantation owners turned to African Slaves.

The Evolution of Slavery In the early colonial days, the English tried to get the Native Americans to work for them. Native Americans escaped into the woods though. Without the Indians and the lack of indentured servants coming in the colonists turned to the Africans. The Evolution of Slavery

Many people did not have problems about subjecting Africans to a life of servitude, for they thought of them as inferior. They also thought they were capable of handling the demands of plantation labor in hot climates. In 1690, 13,000 slaves in South In 1750, 200,000 slaves in South

Before the English began bringing in slaves to the colonies, they had been using them in Jamaica and Barbados on sugar plantations. In 1690, on Barbados, the slave population was 60,000. The white population was 20,000.

During the 17th century, Africans became part of the triangular trade network. In the Triangular trade process: merchants carried rum and other goods from New England to Africa; in Africa they traded merchandise for enslaved people, whom they transported to the West Indies and sold for sugar and molasses; these goods were then shipped to New England to be distilled into rum.

The voyage that brought Africans to the West Indies and later to North America was known as the Middle Passage, because it was considered the middle leg of the transatlantic trade network.

The Middle Passage The experience was long and awful for the Africans. First they were branded for identification. They were packed into the dark holds of long ships. They had to smell vomit and waste the whole trip. The Middle Passage

The African Slave Trade, 1440 - 1867

Comments Caption: "Goree, or Slave-Stick Comments Caption: "Goree, or Slave-Stick." Livingstone does not appear to describe this "slave stick," but a French naval officer, in the Angola region in the late eighteenth century, describes how slave traders used "a forked branch which opens exactly to the size of a neck so the head can't pass through it. The forked branch is pierced with two holes so that an iron pin comes across the neck of the slave . . ., so that the smallest movement is sufficient to stop him and even to strangle him . . ." (see LCP-12 on this website; also, PRO-4, Mariners09). The term "Goree" refers to Goree Island (in present-day Senegal), from which French slavers embarked captured Africans. Source David and Charles Livingstone, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries; and of the Discovery of the Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864 (London, 1865, p. 125)

Olaudah Equiano “the closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought sickness among the slaves, of which many died.”

The Middle Passage Many slaves died of disease along the way. Many committed suicide by jumping overboard. Up to 20% of almost every ship failed to make it to the Americas.

Slavery in the South 80% to 90% of slaves went on to work the fields. On plantations, slaves were ordered around by field bosses. On small farms, slaves usually worked alongside farmers.

Slavery in the South 10% to 20% of slaves worked in the house of their owner. They cooked, cleaned, and raised the masters children.

Slavery in the South Other slaves developed skills as carpenters, bricklayers, and blacksmiths. These slaves were often rented out.

For slaves, full time work began about at age 12, and went on till very old age or death. Slaves that were disobedient were often whipped. In Virginia, if a slave owner beat his slave to death, it was not considered murder if the beating was being given out as a punishment.

Culture and Family Slaves wove baskets and made pottery as they had done back in Africa. They kept musical traditions and told stories about their ancestors. Because families were torn apart, the slaves created new families with the people they lived with. If a parent were sold, other slaves would fill the role.

African influence remained particularly strong in South Carolina and Georgia. Many of the slaves that came here had experience with growing rice. Rice soon became the main cash crop. Many of these slaves came from the same region in South Africa.

The Ring Shout Many Africans continued to practice a religious dance known as the ring shout. This dance paid tribute to the ancestors and gods of the slaves. It involved loud chants and quick, circular steps. White colonists tried to stop it, but it endured.

Resistance and Revolt Many Africans resisted by: Faking illness Breaking tools And slowing down on work Some slaves revolted.

Because of slave resistance and revolts… The southern colonists created the Negro Act to enforce laws against the slaves. Slaves were no longer able to grow their own food, assemble, earn money, or learn to read.

Running Away Some slaves ran off to live with Native Americans tribes. Between 1736 and 1801, 1,279 slaves took flight.

Why not in the North The north depended more on commerce than on agriculture.