1. PUTTING DOWN ROOTS: OPPORTUNITY AND OPPRESSION IN COLONIAL SOCIETY
America: Past and Present
Chapter 3

2. Sources of Stability: New England Colonies of the Seventeenth Century
New Englanders replicated traditional English social order
Contrasted with experience in other English colonies
Explanation lies in development of Puritan families 2

3. Immigrant Families and New Social Order
Puritans believed God ordained the family
Reproduce patriarchal English family structure in New England
Greater longevity in New England results in “invention” of grandparents
Multigenerational families strengthen social stability 3

4. Commonwealth of Families
Most New Englanders married neighbors of whom parents approved
New England towns collections of interrelated households
Church membership associated with certain families
Education provided by the family 4

5. Women’s Lives in Puritan New England
Women not legally equal with men
Marriages based on mutual love
Most Women contributed to society as
wives and mothers
church members
small-scale farmers
Women accommodated themselves to roles they believed God ordained 5

6. Social Hierarchy in New England
Absence of very rich necessitates creation of new social order
New England social order becomes
local gentry of prominent, pious families
large population of independent yeomen landowners loyal to local community
small population of landless laborers, servants, poor 6

7. The Challenge of the Chesapeake Environment
Imbalanced sex ratio among immigrants
High death rate
Scattered population 7

8. Family Life at Risk Normal family life impossible in Virginia
mostly young male indentured servants
most immigrants soon died
in marriages, one spouse often died within a decade
Serial marriages, extended families common
Orphaned children raised by strangers 8

9. Women in Chesapeake Society
Scarcity gives some women bargaining power in marriage market
Women without family protection vulnerable to sexual exploitation
Childbearing extremely dangerous
Chesapeake women died 20 years earlier than women in New England 9

10. The Structure of Planter Society: The Gentry
Tobacco the basis of Chesapeake wealth
Great planters few but dominant
arrive with capital to invest in workers
amass huge tracts of land
gentry see servants as possessions
Early gentry become stable ruling elite by 1700 10

11. The Structure of Planter Society: The Freemen
The largest class in Chesapeake society
Most freed at the end of indenture
Live on the edge of poverty

12. The Structure of Planter Society: Indentured Servants
Servitude a temporary status
Conditions harsh
Servants regard their bondage as slavery
Planters fear rebellion

13. The Structure of Planter Society: Post-1680s Stability
Gentry ranks open to people with capital before 1680
Demographic shift after 1680 creates creole elite
Ownership of slaves consolidates planter wealth and position
Freemen find advancement more difficult

14. The Structure of Planter Society: A Dispersed Population
Large-scale tobacco cultivation requires
great landholdings
ready access to water-borne commerce
Result: population dispersed along great tidal rivers
Virginia a rural society devoid of towns 11

15. Race and Freedom in British America
Indians decimated by disease
European indentured servant-pool wanes after 1660
Enslaved Africans fill demand for labor 12

16. Roots of Slavery First Africans to Virginia in 1619
Status of Africans in Virginia unclear for 50 years
Rising black population in Virginia after 1672 prompts stricter slave laws
Africans defined as slaves for life
slave status passed on to children
white masters possess total control of slave life and labor
mixing of races not tolerated 13

17. Origins and Destinations of African Slaves, 1619-1760

18. Constructing African American Identities: Geography’s Influence
Slave experience differed from colony to colony
60% of South Carolina population black
Nearly half Virginia population black
Blacks much less numerous in New England and the Middle Colonies 14

19. Constructing African American Identities: African Initiatives
Older black population tended to look down on recent arrivals from Africa
All Africans participated in creating an African American culture
Required an imaginative reshaping of African and European customs.
By 1720 African population, culture self-sustaining 15

20. Constructing African American Identities: Slave Resistance
Widespread resentment of debased status
Armed resistance such as S. Carolina’s Stono Rebellion of 1739 a threat
Runaways common in colonial America
Black mariners, other travelers link African American communities 16

21. Rise of a Commercial Empire
English leaders ignore colonies until 1650s
Restored monarchy of Charles II recognized value of colonial trade
Navigation Acts passed to regulate, protect, glean revenue from commerce 17

22. Response to Economic Competition
“Mercantilism” a misleading term for English commercial regulation
Regulations emerge as ad hoc responses to particular problems
Varieties of motivation
crown wants money
English merchants want to exclude Dutch
Parliament wants stronger Navy—encourage domestic shipbuilding industry
everyone wants better balance of trade

23. Regulating Colonial Trade: The Navigation Act of 1660
Ships engage in English colonial trade
must be made in England (or America)
must carry a crew at least 75% English
Enumerated goods only to English ports
1660 list included tobacco, sugar, cotton, indigo, dyes, ginger
molasses, rice, naval stores also 18

24. Regulating Colonial Trade: The Navigation Act of 1663
Goods shipped to English colonies must pass through England
Increased price paid by colonial consumers 19

25. Regulating Colonial Trade: Implementing the Acts
Navigation Acts spark Anglo-Dutch trade wars
New England merchants skirt laws
English revisions tighten loopholes
1696--Board of Trade created
Navigation Acts eventually benefit colonial merchants 20

26. Colonial Factions Spark Political Revolt, 1676-1691
English colonies experience unrest at the end of the seventeenth century
Unrest not social revolution but contest between gentry “ins” and “outs”
Winners gain legitimacy for their rule 21

27. Civil War in Virginia: Bacon's Rebellion
Nathaniel Bacon leads rebellion, 1676
Rebellion allows small farmers, blacks and women to join, demand reforms
Governor William Berkeley regains control
Rebellion collapses after Bacon’s death
Gentry recovers positions, unite over next decades to oppose royal governors 22

28. The Glorious Revolution in the Bay Colony: King Philip’s War
1675--Metacomet leads Wampanoag-Narragansett alliance against colonists
Colonists struggle to unite, defeat Indians
Deaths total 1,000+ Indians and colonists 23

29. Glorious Revolution: The Dominion of New England
1684--King James II establishes “Dominion of New England”
colonial charters annulled
colonies from Maine to New Jersey united
Edmund Andros appointed governor
1689--news of James II’s overthrow sparks rebellion in Massachusetts 24

30. The Glorious Revolution in the Bay Colony: Outcomes
Andros deposed
William III and Mary II give Massachusetts a new charter
incorporates Plymouth
transfers franchise from "saints" to those with property 25

31. Contagion of Witchcraft
Charges of witchcraft common
accused witches thought to have made a compact with the devil
Salem panic of 1691 much larger in scope than previous accusations
20 victims dead before trials halted in late summer of 1692
Causes include factionalism, economics 26

32. The Glorious Revolution in New York
1689--News of James II’s overthrow prompts crisis of authority in New York
Jacob Leisler seizes control
Maintains position through 1690
March Governor Henry Sloughter arrests, executes Leisler 27

33. The Glorious Revolution in Maryland
1689--news prompts John Coode to lead revolt against Catholic governor
Coode's rebellion approved by King William
Maryland taken from Calvert control
1715--proprietorship restored to the Protestant fourth Lord Baltimore 28

34. COMMON EXPERIENCES, SEPARATE CULTURES29

35. Local Aspirations Within an Atlantic Empire
By 1700 England’s attitude toward the colonies had changed dramatically
Sectional differences within the colonies were profound
They were all part of Great Britain but had little to do with each other