Life in 17th Century Chesapeake: Challenges and Evolution

1. Chapter 4 American Life in the Seventeenth Century

2. The Unhealthy Chesapeake

3. Life harsh in Chesapeake • Malaria, dysentery, typhoid • ten year life expectancy • few lived to 50

4. Settlements grew slowly because of disease • Majority of immigrants single men • competed for women’s affection • eligible women did not remain single for long

5. Families few and fragile • Most marriages destroyed by death within 7 years • few children reached adulthood • few ever saw their grandparents • pregnancy among unwed women

6. Gradually acquired immunity to diseases • More women allowed more families • by 1700, Virginia had 59,000 people and most populous colony

7. The Tobacco Economy

8. Chesapeake hospitable to tobacco • Made great profits • exhausted the soil • creates demand for virgin soil • provoked more indians

9. Growth of tobacco exports enormous • Deflate prices • farmers plant more acres (prices fall further)

10. More tobacco meant more labor • Families die too quickly to provide labor • Indians died from disease • African slaves cost too much • England sent over indentured servants (or displaced farmers looking for a job) • passage for freedom dues

11. Headright system in Virginia and Maryland • Whoever paid passage of laborer would receive 50 acres of land • masters reaped the benefit • some make great landholdings thru servants • Eventually dominate agriculture of Southern plantations

12. 100,000 indentured servants by 1700

13. Indentured servants lead hard life • Master’s reluctant to release servants as land becomes scarcer or give them land in freedom dues • punishment usually included extended service • freed servants usually had to hire themselves out again

14. Frustrated Freedmen and Bacon’s Rebellion A pit full of broken wine bottles and bones suggest occupation by Bacon's rebels.

15. Mass of unemployed servants roaming countryside • Frustrated at no land or opportunity

16. Many disenfranchised in Virginia • Seen as misfits and trouble makers

17. Bacon leads rebellion in 1676 • Frontiersmen forced into back country looking for land • resentful of Berkeley’s trade with Indians (want them moved) • Bacon’s men fell upon Indians after raids were ignored by Berkeley • chased Berkely and legislature from Jamestown • chaos sweeps the colony

18. Civil War in Virginia • Bacon dies of disease • Uprising brutally crushed by Berkeley • Bacon’s rebellion creates fear in Virginia • tensions remained • planters look for less troublesome laborers

19. Colonial Slavery

20. 10 million African Americans hauled to New World • Only 400,000 end up in North America • Most go to West Indies or South America

21. Slavery grew slowly in the 1600s • Many died • planters did not want to pay high prices for those who might die

22. Drastic changes in 1680s • Rising wages in England shrank pool of indentured servants coming to America • Planters fearful of rebellious former servants • By 1680s black slaves outnumber white servants

23. Royal African Company looses its monopoly to carry slaves to colonies • Rhode Islanders cash in on slave trade • After 1700 many Africans pushed ashore • Begin to outnumber whites

24. Most slaves to America came from West Africa • Middle Passage-gruesome passage to North America aboard slave ships • Auctioned in New World ports

25. Few gained their freedom • Some even became slave owners

26. Legal difference between lave and servant unclear • Virginia slave statutes appear in 1662 • made blacks and their children slaves for life • racial discrimination begins to take shape

27. Africans In America

28. Slave life most severe in deep South • South Carolina was especially cruel to plantation slaves • Population kept by influx of slave trade

29. Chesapeake slaves had it a bit easier • Proximity allows contact with others • Female proportion begins to rise in 1700s • population begins to perpetuate itself

30. Distinct slave culture emerges • Mixture of Afrixcan and American folkways • Gullah-unique language in islands of South Carolina • Words-goober gumbo, voodoo • Dancing • Banjo, bongo drum

31. Labor helps build the country • Many skilled artisans • most do menial tasks • Though they might have tried to rise up against slavery- they were a manageable work force

32. Southern Society

33. Southern society develops a distinct hierarchy of social status • Small but powerful group of planters • ruled economically and politically • Lee’s, Washingtons, Fitzhughs • 70% of legislature came from these families prior to Revolutionary War • Built great stately mansions • Most worked hard for their business • Ruled over slaves

34. Small farmers next social group • largest social group • might own 1 or 2 slaves • worked along side slaves • Landless whites-many former indentured servants • soon replaced by black slaves • slaves on bottom of hierarchy

35. Few cities mean few professional people • Lawyers, financiers slow to emerge • Life revolves around the plantation • waterways major mode of transportation • Roads were horrible • Could not reach church burial grounds so develop family plots

36. The New England Family

37. Nature nicer to England • 10 years added on to life • clean water and cool temperatures • average 70 years

38. Migrated as families • Families center of New England life • Population grew naturally

39. Early marriage • Boom in birth rates (every 2 years) • wore out mothers • several mothers to a large family • feared pregnancy • average 10 kids • 8 survive • raising children until death

40. Longevity creates stability in family • Grand parents add to raising children • New England invented grandparents • low premarital pregnancies

41. Fragility of south gave women more property rights • Allowed to retain property ownership

42. New women gave up property rights • Undermine unity of married persons by acknowledging conflict of interests • extend rights for widows • protect women within the marriage

43. Women beginning to gain certain rights • Still could not vote because they were weak • did restrain abusive husbands • sphere of autonomy • midwifery

44. Laws were to defend integrity of marriage • Divorce rare • abandonment acceptable • adultery was punished • The Scarlet Letter

45. Life in the New England Town

46. Society revolved around the town or village • Anchored by geography and hemmed in by Indians • made for unity and purpose

47. Chesapeake region developed randomly

48. New England expanded in an orderly fashion • Receive a charter • entrusted to town elders or proprietors • laid out town • meetinghouse, houses, village green, land for fuel and crops and pasture • Towns of more than 50 require school • majority know how to read and write • Establish Harvard (Virginia did so in 1693)

49. Ran their own churches • Led to democracy in other areas • Town meeting • elect officials, appoint school masters, discuss matters • “Best school of political liberty that the world ever saw”-Thomas Jefferson

50. The Half Way Covenant and the Salem Witch Trials