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SSUSH2. The student will trace the ways that the economy and society of British North America developed. 2.a- Explain the development of mercantilism and the trans-Atlantic trade.
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SSUSH2 The student will trace the ways that the economy and society of British North America developed
2.a-Explain the development of mercantilism and the trans-Atlantic trade • Mercantilism describes the economic systems emerging in Europe in conjunction with colonial imperialism (1500s-1700s) that correlated a nation’s power with monetary wealth- especially in specie (gold and silver) and through export commodities. • The trans-Atlantic trade that developed in this era served mercantilism in some examples, but also had potential to subvert and undermine it- as in New England, where no one commodity dominated the local economies. This later led to grumbling among some American colonists when the British attempted to enact laws to protect their mercantile interests
Mercantilism • The economic theory of mercantilism correlated a nation’s power with its wealth in specie (gold and silver) and a favorable balance of trade with other nations. In the broadest terms, the rise of mercantilist economies corresponds to the rise of imperialist strong nations in western Europe, whose power depended on control of trade and the establishment of colonies. • Colonies, and the commodities they produced were very important to mercantilism- for raw materials and wealth in trade goods.
Trans-Atlantic Trade • Trans-Atlantic trade describes the exchange of goods between Europe, their colonies in the Americas, and west Africa. • Also known as “triangle” trade, because of the of the three areas involved • In simplified terms this “triangle” trade involved: raw goods produced in American colonies, often with enslaved labor from Africa, to be refined/finished/manufactured, then sold, by and for the benefit of the mother nation.
2.b- Describe the Middle Passage, growth of the African population, and African-American culture • Many of the agricultural plantations/colonies in the Americas grew to depend on enslaved labor imported from Africa. • Following the Spanish colonial model, England turned to slave labor to cultivate sugar in the Caribbean, tobacco in Virginia and Maryland, and rice and indigo in South Carolina and Georgia (after 1750). • As agricultural production increased and required more labor, slave populations in the Americas increased • As African populations grew in the British North American colonies, shared experience and assimilation produced a uniquely African-American culture
The Middle Passage • The middle passage refers to the forced journey of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas. • Chained and shackled slaves would be stuffed onto ships at West African slave outposts, enduring the months long trans-Atlantic journey under unfathomable conditions • Mortality rates could be 30-50% and higher
Growth of African Populations in British North America • Historians estimate that between 1450 and 1870, approximately 10-12 million Africans were forcibly taken to the Americas. • Of these, around 500,000 landed in British North America (and later, the United States, until 1808) • The first shipment of Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, from a Dutch slaver. • Populations grew slowly at first, but after Bacon’s Rebellion, and after the English crown chartered the Royal African Company in 1672- the number of imported Africans grew dramatically. • As the slave populations grew, stricter controls were put in place- e.g. the “slave codes” enacted in Virginia in 1705. • South Carolina, (1670) was founded on the plantation system from the very beginning- and so depended almost entirely on un-free labor for its agricultural production. In some areas of South Carolina, the slave population constituted as much as 90% of the population, allowing for a more distinctly African culture to emerge.
Early African-American Culture • The two primary areas of plantation slavery in the colonial era were in the tobacco regions of Virginia and Maryland, (upper South) and along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia (after 1750), where rice and indigo were the main cash crops. • Plantation owners were careful to import Africans of different ethnicities to avoid the potential for collusion- although within a few generations a syncretic culture began to emerge, blending African, European, and American traditions into a distinctly African-American culture- even more apparent in areas of high population, like South Carolina- for example, Gullah/Geechee culture. • There were also significant numbers of slaves in urban areas like New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, typically in the service of shippers and merchants. • Before slave codes and manumission laws were firmly in place, some free- African American communities developed- almost exclusively in the upper South and in urban areas • Fear of slave rebellions led to ever stricter controls on the slave populations- In South Carolina, the Stono Rebellion, in 1739, was a key turning point.
2.c- Identify Benjamin Franklin as a symbol of social mobility and individualism • Benjamin Franklin is often seen as exemplary of the socio-economic advancement opportunities in the colonial era. • Born in Boston in 1706, the fourteenth of seventeen children, Franklin moved to Philadelphia at age 16 to apprentice as a printer. • By 1733 he had opened his own printing operation to publish Poor Richard’s Almanack, a collection of news, stories, advice, etc. , that became widely read in the American colonies. • Franklin soon became quite famous and wealthy as his publishing business expanded. • Franklin’s story of achievement through perseverance, hard work, and thrift has inspired Americans ever since. • Franklin was also well known for his interest in science and technology- numerous inventions are credited to him- including: bi-focal glasses, a type of wood-burning stove, a musical instrument called the armonica, among many others. • Franklin’s story continues to embody the American spirit in many ways- hardworking, inventive, individualistic, commerce-minded, and without barrier to economic and social advancement • Franklin “retired” from the day-to-day oversight of his company at age 42 (1748) to concentrate on his many other pursuits. He later became a chief advocate of colonial cooperation (Albany Conference, 1754) led the resistance to the British leading up to the American revolution, was chief diplomat during the fighting, and among the chief statesmen at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
Benjamin Franklin- symbol of American individualism and ingenuity
2.d- Explain the significance of the Great Awakening • In the most basic terms, The Great Awakening refers to the religious revival experienced in the American colonies in the 1730s-1750s. • Many historians consider it one of the most important events in American cultural history because it was among the first colonies-wide mass social movements. • The Great Awakening can also be seen as a response to the challenges posed by the Enlightenment philosophies that were gaining currency in Europe during the same era.
The Great Awakening • The roots of the revival are in an English religious movement called pietism- which stressed an individual relationship with God, attained by pious living. Just as in early Puritanism, the conversion experience was all important, equated to a spiritual rebirth. Converts were said to be “born again.” • The idea of a strongly individualistic (and highly emotional) religious expression meshed well with the ideology of many American colonists in the era, who, because of the freedom from “old-world” classism, had begun to assert a uniquely American brand of individualistic thought.
The Great Awakening: Major Figures • Among the most well known revivalists in the British North American colonies were Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield • Edwards was a New England minister who stirred the congregations with sermons such as “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Edwards sought to rekindle the religious fervor of New England. • Whitefield was an English minister who toured the colonies widely in the 1740s. He was influenced by John Wesley, founder of Methodism, and is often credited with kicking off the Great Awakening in America. His speaking tour drew large audiences and changed the character of American Protestantism. By way of local interest, he founded the Bethesda School in Savannah.
George Whitefield- cross-eyed, but powerful orator who inspired a colonies-wide revival movement during his preaching tours in the early 1740s
Great Awakening: Significance • The Great Awakening was a colonies-wide religious movement. • The movement had an especially powerful effect in the South, among backcountry and tenant farmers, as well as among some slave populations. • The conversion of slaves presented a problem to the planter elite, who feared that religious equality could translate into ideas of social and political equality for slaves. Some planters prevented slaves from attending religious meetings. Nonetheless- the 1740s saw a mass conversion of African-Americans to Christianity.
SSUSH2- Summary • During the colonial era, a vigorous trans-Atlantic trade connected Europe and Africa with the Americas • Mercantilist economic ideologies stifled trade in some areas, sowing the seeds of discontent in the colonies. • Benjamin Franklin emerged as a symbol of American social mobility and individualism in the colonial era. • The Great Awakening, a religious revival of the 1730s-40s, helped to establish an American identity rooted in emotionalism and individualism.
