Governor John Wentworth of New Hampshire by John Singleton Copley, 1769

1. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America • The creation of an “American” identity begins. Governor John Wentworth of New Hampshire by John Singleton Copley, 1769

2. Questions to Ponder • Why was it difficult to for the colonies to both expand westward into the frontier and maintain their “anglicized” (English) cultural traditions? • Why were the economic concerns of the colonies dominated by what they produced, not what they consumed? • How were colonists able to embrace both the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment at the same time? • What were the causes and effects of the Great Awakening? • What were the short-term effects of the French and Indian War in the colonies?

3. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America Provincial America (1600s – 1700s) • Provincial =colonial—the individual colonies were called “provinces” rather than “states,” just as in Canada. • While some colonists had come to escape English persecution—particularly religious persecution—most colonists... • The provinces themselves were diverging from England… • The colonies were more egalitarian than England… • American character… • Slaves & Native Americans impact… • Colonial societies in different regions were also growing in ways that are wildly different from each other.

4. English vs. American • A sharp difference could be seen in the emerging cultures of the Southern and New England colonies. • The South…. • Professionals • In the 1700s… • The New England colonies, and the Middle Colonies to a lesser extent…

5. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America The Colonial Population: Indentured Servitude • After a shaky beginning, the non-Indian population along the Atlantic Coast—including white and African slaves—greatly outnumbered the natives by the end of the seventeen century (1600s). • Dominant among the early settlers were English laborers. In the Chesapeake, three-fourths of all arrivals were… • What is indentured servitude? • In the 1670s, a decrease in birth rate and bettering economic conditions in England lessened the influx of indentured servants. • Some indentured servants settled in as artisans or farmers; some women married propertied men. But many men found themselves unpropertied and rootless, which caused problems because… • Bacon’s Rebellion…

6. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America European Settlements by 1700

7. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America The Colonial Population: Birth and Death • Early on, immigration was the most important source of population increase in the 1600s, but overall, reproduction overtook it, although at different rates in different regions. • After the 1650s, rates of reproduction improved significantly in the Mid-Atlantic and New England colonies. In New England, the rate of reproduction quadrupled since families had more children, but also because life expectancy in New England was unusually high. Why might this be? • Conditions in the South were far slower to improve; in the Chesapeake they did not reach similar levels of other regions until the mid-1700s. Why? • In the South, the life expectancy for men was a little over 40; for women it was a little less. Since women generally live longer today, why would this discrepancy have existed then?

8. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America The Colonial Population: Birth and Death • In the Chesapeake of the 1600s,… • Population growth was substantial in the Chesapeake in the 1600s, but mostly reliant on… • Better natural increase of the population across the colonies was due to… • In the early Chesapeake, more than… of the settlers were male, and even in early New England, which attracted more families from the beginning, … of the inhabitants were male in 1650. • By 1775, the non-Indian population of the colonies was over two million.

9. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America Non-Indian Population of North America, 1700 to 1780 Frame of Reference: 2010 NYC Population: 8.39 million 2010 U.S. Population: 308 million

10. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America Medicine in the Colonies • High death rates among women reflect…. • Physicians had little knowledge of infection and sterilization, and infections contracted during childbirth often killed mother and child. • Infectious diseases carried through tainted water or garbage were not uncommon. • The role of midwife was a common one for colonial women-assisted in births and dispensed other medical advice. • Doctors based their understanding of the body’s health through the lens of “humoralism”—…. • Bleeding a patient was practiced mostly by male doctors, while midwives tended to use laxatives and emetics (substances that induce vomiting).

11. CHAPTER THREE Women and Families in the Colonies • Marriage- • Children- • Indentured servants were not allowed to marry without permission, so many children were born out of wedlock and made to work as indentured servants like their mothers. Women who became pregnant while in service often had to serve more years as punishment. • Many women were widowed, as they were often much younger than their husbands. • Prior to 1700 in the Chesapeake Bay, women…. • New England, which had more families from the beginning, had far more stable family structures than the Chesapeake region. • New England women married young and continued producing children into the thirties. • New England wives also made significant contributions to the family’s economic wellbeing, often as weavers (a male occupation in Britain). • New England Puritanism emphasized the importance of family, but stressed a patriarchal structure of nearly absolute male authority. • As Puritanism faded in the 1700s,…

12. CHAPTER THREE The Beginnings of Slavery in English America • Demand for Labor in the South: Plantation agriculture required a large workforce. Shipments of African slaves remained rare until the 1650s, when a substantial commerce in slaves grew between the southern colonies, Africa, and the Caribbean. Before 1697, over 80% of slaves came across on British slave ships, but eventually the Caribbean-Southern slave trade would come to dominate the market, transported on New England ships. • Atlantic Slave Trade: From the 1500s to 1800s, the trade was responsible for the forced migration of nearly 11 million Africans, but only a small percentage went to North America, as demand was higher on sugar plantations in Caribbean and Brazil (since most slaves there died by 25 and had to be replaced): 50%-South America (mostly Brazil) 42%-Caribbean Islands 5%-British North America 3%-Central America and elsewhere

13. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America The Beginnings of Slavery in English America African Population of the British colonies, 1620 - 1780

14. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America The Beginnings of Slavery in English America • The “Middle Passage”: African slaves were forced to endure being packed together in chains with minimal food, water, and no sanitation deep within the filthy hold of a ship. Those who died during the journey were thrown overboard; sharks followed these ships across the Atlantic. Any sign of revolt was brutally repressed. • Surging Slave Population: In 1697, the Royal African Company of England lost its monopoly on the slave trade, greatly lowering prices and increasing the flow. There were roughly 25,000 slaves in English North America in 1700; by 1760, there were approximately ten times that amount

15. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America The Beginnings of Slavery in English America Slaves being thrown overboard during a revolt

16. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America The Beginnings of Slavery in English America Famous graphic of a Liverpool slave ship used by abolitionists; by 1750s, English ships were being built specifically to haul a human cargo.

17. CHAPTER THREE The Beginnings of Slavery in English America • Ambiguous Legal Status: Until the late 1600s, Africans had ambiguous legal status, often treated much like indentured servants (including potential for freedom). • Slave Codes: Around the 1690s, slavery started to become racialized in the law codes, so that by the early 1700s, being black and born into slavery meant being permanently a slave. • Paternalism: slave owners saw themselves as benevolent father figures who managed their slaves like children, including discipline. This included religious instruction, which became common after 1720s. Slaves were forced to convert to Christianity. • Field hands worked dawn to dusk (men, women, and children). • The rice fields of South Carolina were particularly brutal to whites & blacks alike, as the wet, hard work often killed field hands, while mosquito-born malaria killed their white owners. • Due to sickle cell anomalies common to Africans, many slaves were immune to malaria. • Ironically, although the work was harder, the early death rate among whites changed the slave labor system in South Carolina, where slaves were put on a task system, instead of an overseer system-they had to complete a set number of tasks each day, after which their time was their own. Thus the terrible conditions contributed to more free time, greater autonomy, and an underground economy in trade goods (such as fish, fur, and personal garden items.) • Domestic servants (mostly women) were subject to physical and sexual abuse.

18. CHAPTER THREE Changing Sources of European Immigration • Religious Refugees: Earliest migrants from the Continent (not English) tended to be religious refugees; French Huguenots (Calvinists) had fled France in droves before 1685, when the Edict of Nantes gave them protection from persecution. Many German-speaking people fled for similar reasons, often settling in Pennsylvania—they became known as the “Pennsylvania Dutch.” Why? • Scotch-Irish: Most numerous newcomers were Scotch-Irish, Scotch Presbyterians who had settled in Northern Ireland in the early 1600s (the province of Ulster). Scotch-Irish commonly pushed out to the furthest Western edge of European settlement. • Tended to be violent and clannish. Rough and rugged frontiersmen. Constant conflict with Indians over land and hunting. • Scottish and Irish: Scottish lowlanders and Irish from southern Ireland—often Roman Catholics—also came. Irish from the south were not as prevalent as they would be in the 1800s.

19. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial AmericaMigrant Groups in Colonia America ca. 1760

20. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America THE COLONIAL ECONOMIES The Southern Economy • Boom-and-Bust Tobacco Economy: Many planters became quite wealthy growing tobacco, but in the 1600s and 1700s, supply often exceeded demand, leading to occasional steep drops in price on the world market. The first big drop happened in 1640, giving a shock to the Chesapeake economy. • Rice Production: In the 1700s, the low-lying coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia relied on rice production. The work of rice cultivation was so hard and unhealthy that most white laborers refused to do it, leading to a heavy reliance on slave labor. In addition, many slaves came from rice-producing areas of West Africa and knew how to grow the crop. They were more accustomed to the heat and humidity than Europeans, but still found the work brutal. • Cash-Crop Dependence: Because of southern reliance on cash crops, the region did not develop commercial trading centers, financial and insurance services, or the industrial enterprises of the northern colonies.

21. CHAPTER THREE THE COLONIAL ECONOMIES The Middle Colonies, New England and Technological Development: • Northern Agriculture: New York, Pennsylvania, and southern New England became the colonies’ main producer of wheat, a far less labor-intensive crop, as well as beef. • Artisans and Entrepreneurs: In northern colonial towns, craftsmen and artisans like cobblers, blacksmiths, rifle-makers, cabinetmakers, silversmiths, and printers set up shop; in New England, in towns with access to heavy timber, endeavors like shipbuilding took off. • Ironworks: The first substantial ironworks in the colonies opened in Saugus, Massachusetts, in 1640, and although it produced quality iron, it failed financially. Over the next century, metalworks became an important part of the northern economy, with the largest run by German immigrant Peter Hasenclever in 1764 in northern New Jersey, which eventually employed hundreds of people. • New England was not as prosperous as Middle Colonies. Economy came to depend on lumber, ship-buiding, and rum. Some New England towns (like Newport) built their economy around the slave trade. Some far northern colonies also depended on whaling.

22. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America THE COLONIAL ECONOMIES The Northern Economy and Technological Development • Parliament’s Limitations: Parliament passed the Iron Act in 1750 to limit colonial iron production; it also put limits on the production of other manufactured goods, like woolen goods and hats, to protect English manufacturers. • Limits to Industrialization: Lack of labor supply, a small domestic market, and inadequate transportation and energy supply prevented the same rapid industrialization that was happening in England in the 1760s and 1770s. • Limits to Technology: Much of colonial society lacked any real technological resources at all; many farmers even lacked a plow, or metal pots and kettles. Poverty was fairly widespread. The myth that colonial households were self-sufficient—making their own clothes and candles—was not correct, as most households lacked the molds or spinning wheels to make these items.

23. CHAPTER THREE THE COLONIAL ECONOMIES The Rise of Colonial Commerce • Obstacles to Trade: American merchants lacked the basic tools of commerce, not having nearly any gold or silver, rudimentary financial institutions, and a paper currency that was worthless abroad (and often in other colonies). They also had little information on supply and demand, leading to big losses if prices dropped unexpectedly. • Growth of Commerce: Trade nevertheless grew, mostly between the colonies themselves and the West Indies. The colonies offered Caribbean partners rum, agricultural products, and salted fish and meat. The islands returned sugar, molasses, and occasionally slaves. Growing professional mercantile class emerges. • English attempts to stymy this trade led to a pervasive smuggling economy in the colonies. • Trans-Atlantic Trade: Trade between England, the Continent, and Africa also took place, although not in a neat “triangular trade.” The trade routes were messier and more complicated, managed by an emerging merchant class, particularly in port cities (New York City, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Charleston). Timber, furs and other raw materials from the colonies reached England, but merchants also indulged in illegal trade with the Dutch, French, and Spanish Caribbean.

24. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America THE COLONIAL ECONOMIES The Not Very “Triangular Trade”

25. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America THE COLONIAL ECONOMIES The Rise of Consumerism • Class Difference: While class difference obviously existed in the 1600s, it became more pronounced in the 1700s. The elites viewed the purchase and display of consumer goods as a means to demonstrate their membership in the upper ranks of society. • Industrialization in England and Europe: Imported goods that were mass produced in England or Europe became cheaper than fine goods crafted by hand by artisans. Some luxury goods thus became affordable to the middle class. • “Refinement”: The quality of your home and the possessions it contained became associated with how “refined” an individual was: furniture, formal gardens, wardrobes, and London magazines were markers of upper class.

26. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America THE COLONIAL ECONOMIES: The Rise of Consumerism Silver tea service crafted by Boston silversmith Paul Revere

27. CHAPTER THREE PATTERNS OF SOCIETY • Social Mobility: A rigid class system like the one in England did not emerge in the colonial America. Non-titled aristocracies developed, but these were more based on control of labor rather than land ownership, and were more unstable than the English ones. Masters and Slaves on the Plantation • Precarious Nature of the Plantation Economy: Planters could not control the markets, so they were always at risk. Many got rich, but many were ruined when prices collapsed. • Slave Culture: Slaves were able to develop their own culture on the plantation: their own religious practices that blended Christianity with African elements, their own family traditions and practices, and even their own language in some remote places (Geechee and Gullah along the SC/GA coast). But they were vulnerable to white intrusion at any moment. • Stono Rebellion: Violent slave uprisings were surprisingly rare, but on occasion they did erupt. The largest during the colonial era happened near the Stono River in South Carolina in Sept., 1739. A band of about 100 slaves killed over 20 whites, marching down the road with a banner that said “liberty.” A militia tracked down the rebels and decapitated suspected leaders, putting their heads on posts as an example. • Slave revolts were the terror of whites in the South, as they were often the minority in those colonies. Slave codes became increasingly strict in order to prevent rebellion. • Slaves were not allowed to read, couldn’t legally marry, weren’t allowed to meet without a white person present, couldn’t own property, had to have written permission to travel, and had a curfew in most areas.

28. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America PATTERNS OF SOCIETY The Puritan Community • Close-Knit Communities: In the early years of Puritan settlement, each resident became a member of a “covenant” binding each individual together to the local church and town government, which were one in the same. Families lived in houses that were close together, with agricultural lands surrounding the houses often with a “common” in the middle for grazing animals. • Participatory Democracy: Puritan towns held an annual town meeting in which “selectmen” were directly elected to take care of the town’s important business. Adult males who were members of the church and should signs of being among the “elect” predestined for salvation were the only ones allowed to participate in town government. • Greater democratic participation and concept of civic duty become integral part of New England culture.

29. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America PATTERNS OF SOCIETY The Puritan Community • Communal Strains and Tensions: Over several generations, land in the towns became scarce, forcing members to cultivate lands far away from the church. Eventually younger members broke off to form their own communities. • Witchcraft Hysteria: It doesn’t pay to be “different” in a close-minded society. The close-knit, gossipy, and intensely religious environment of small town life could produce some bizarre results, most notably the witchcraft mania that broke out in Massachusetts in the 1690s, most famously in Salem. New Englanders believed that Satan was a real presence in people’s lives and accused each other of fraternizing with him. Most of those who were accused were poorer middle-aged women with no children of their own, or women who were widowed or single but had inherited some resources, thereby challenging the highly patriarchal society’s gender norms. • 19 “witches” were hanged, 1 “wizard” was pressed to death, and up to 18 more died in prison.

30. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America PATTERNS OF SOCIETY: Cities • Two Largest Ports: In the 1770s, there were Philadelphia (28,000) and New York (25,000). Other sizeable communities included Boston (16,000), Charles Town (12,000), and Newport (11,000). • Leadership: The most prominent citizens tended to be the wealthy merchants who had enriched themselves from overseas commerce, and who put their wealth on display in fancy homes. Colonial Philadelphia

31. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America PATTERNS OF SOCIETY: Cities • Urban Problems: Unlike small towns and rural areas where most American colonists lived, cities dwellers needed to set up constables, fire protection, and systems to the support the poor. • Information Exchange: Cities provided a place to exchange information and for new ideas to circulate. Printers published newspapers and books, and the taverns and coffeehouses were forums for business and political discussions. • Civic and social life in urban areas tended to revolve around the tavern (men only), and “drunkenness” was a persistent problem throughout US history.

32. CHAPTER THREESociety and Culture in Provincial America AWAKENINGS AND ENLIGHTENMENTS PATTERNS OF RELIGION • Multiplying Denominations: The official religion of Virginia, Maryland, New York, the Carolinas, and Georgia was the Church of England. But new Protestant sects were constantly arising or coming over with immigrants: Dutch Reformed, several Baptist sects, etc. • Persistent Anti-Catholicism: Roman Catholics were too few to cause major conflict in the 1700s—the biggest concentration was 3,000 in Maryland—but they were nonetheless persecuted. In Maryland they lost all political rights when the original proprietors lost control of the colony in 1691. • Anti-Semitism: Jews only numbered no more than 2,000 through the colonial period, but they could not hold office or vote in most places. • Declining Piety: By the turn of the 1700s, religious piety was in decline. As early as the 1660s, Puritan father gave “jeremiads” warning of the consequences.

33. CHAPTER THREE The Great Awakening • Appeal: In the 1730s and 1740s, a new evangelical movement arose led by preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield; preachers tried to elicit emotional engagement of the faithful. “Hellfire & Brimstone” preaching-rejection of scientific reasoning and Enlightenment philosophy. • Series of revivals that swept across the colonies and encouraged renewed religious fervor. Also led to many divisions within churches that created new sects, such as Methodists, and different Baptist denominations. • “New Lights” and “Old Lights”: “New Lights” embraced the emotionalism of the revival meetings, while “Old Lights” did not. The Enlightenment • “Natural Law”: Thinkers like Locke, Rousseau, and Voltaire emphasize a faith in human reason to figure out the world and discover “natural laws” that govern it. Originates with the scientific discoveries of Newton, Copernicus, etc. Puts less emphasis on religion in explaining how the world functions. • Agnosticism becomes common among educated elites. Belief is God, but not formal religion.

34. Enlightenment The Enlightenment-European intellectual movement in the 19th and 18th centuries that emphasized the importance of human reason and individualism. • “Natural Law”: Thinkers like Locke, Rousseau, and Voltaire emphasize a faith in human reason to figure out the world and discover “natural laws” that govern it. Originates with the scientific discoveries of Newton, Copernicus, etc. Puts less emphasis on religion in explaining how the world functions. • Agnosticism becomes common among educated elites. Belief in God/Higher Power, but not formal religion.

35. CHAPTER THREE AWAKENINGS AND ENLIGHTENMENTS Literacy and Technology • Early Newspapers: Publick Occurrences was the first colonial newspaper founded in Boston in 1690; the second was the Boston News-Letter founded in 1704. Printed newspapers and pamphlets became the backbone of civic participation and propaganda, especially in the North. • Almanacs: Poor Richard’s Almanack was published by Benjamin Franklin continuously from 1732 to 1758 and was a colonial best-seller with print-runs reaching 10,000 copies a year. Education • Growth of Public Education: First free public school is founded in Dorchester, outside of Boston, in 1639. A 1647 Massachusetts law required all towns to support a school. Free public schools remained rare outside of New England. • Higher Education: Harvard (1636), William and Mary (1693), Yale (1701), King’s College/Columbia (1754), The Academy and College of Pennsylvania (U. Penn – 1755). All began as religious schools that supported one or another sect of the Great Awakening.

36. CHAPTER THREE AWAKENINGS AND ENLIGHTENMENTS The Spread of Science • Growing Interest: Colleges introduced the elites to Newtonian physics and Copernican astronomy. Benjamin Franklin and others corresponded with the Royal Society of London, and Franklin became famed for his 1752 experiment with lightning and a kite. • Smallpox Inoculation: Began as an experiment by self-taught doctor Zabdiel Boylston, based on experiences of earlier Muslim doctors. Theologian Cotton Mather encouraged Bostonians to be inoculated during an outbreak in the 1720s, and it proved effective. Concepts of Law and Politics • Zenger Trial: In 1734 and 1735, the publisher John Peter Zenger was put on trial in New York for libel. The ruling—that criticisms of the government were not libel if they were factually true—marked a divergence with British law. Offers protection for “freedom of the press”. • Powerful Colonial Assemblies: Colonial assemblies began to take on many capacities of Parliament back in England.