Hist 110
American Civilization I
Instructor: Dr. Donald R. Shaffer
Upper Iowa University
Lecture 3
Restoration Colonies
 Proprietary colonies
Colonies given by King to private parties
to rule essentially as their own property
 Maryland: established as the first such
colony by Charles I

 Charles II rewarded supporters and
family with proprietorships
He owed significant debts from his time
in exile after the English Civil War
 Carolina (1663): given the a group of
supporters who failed in their attempt to
create a quasi-feudal society there
 New Netherlands became New York
(1665) under proprietorship of Charles II’s
younger brother, James, the Duke of York

 Pennsylvania (1681)
Given as a proprietorship to William Penn
as payment for a debt that Charles II owed
to Penn’s father
 Colony became a prosperous refuge for
Quakers, and many other groups,
including Germans and Native Americans

Lecture 3
England Tightens its Grip

Mercantilism



Navigation Acts



Prevailing economic doctrine of the 17th
and 18th century
Believed countries must tightly control
international trade to benefit from it
A series of trade regulations imposed
starting in 1651 aimed at forcing English
colonies to trade exclusively with
England and its colonies
These laws often ignored by American
colonists
Charles II
James II
Political Centralization


Massachusetts Charter revoked in 1684
Dominion of New England: James II
consolidateds New England colonies and
New York into authoritarian government
under Edmund Andros (with no
representative legislature)
Edmund Andros
Lecture 3
Glorious Revolution
 James II’s alienated England’s political elite
as well as the American colonists


He openly embraced Catholicism
The birth of his son and prospect of a
Catholic dynasty caused Parliament to force
James II into exile and to invite his Protestant
daughter Mary and her Dutch husband,
William, to become co-monarchs
 Glorious Revolution in America




News of James II’s overthrow sparked
rebellions by Protestants in Massachusetts,
Maryland, and New York
Massachusetts: Andros overthrown,
Dominion of New England dissolved, but old
Massachusetts charter not restored
Maryland: Protestants temporarily succeeded
in overthrowing the Calvert proprietorship
(restored in 1715)
Jacob Leisler led a rebellion in New York, at
first winning support, but alienated some
supporters and was eventually arrested and
hanged for treason
William and Mary
Jacob Leisler
Lecture 3
Imperial Wars
 England and her allies, starting in 1689,
began to fight a series of imperial wars
against France and her allies, that would
last until 1815

These wars were fought over dominance
not only in North Americas, but also
Europe, the Caribbean, West Africa, India
and elsewhere
 Imperial Wars affecting British North
America
King William’s War (1689-1697): parallels
War of the Grand Alliance in Europe
 Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713): parallels
War of the Spanish Succession in Europe
 King George’s War (1744-1748): parallels
War of the Austrian Succession in Europe
 Also connected to the War of Jenkin’s
Ear between Britain and Spain
 French and Indian War (1754-1763):
parallels the Seven Years’ War in Europe

Fortress of Louisbourg
Nova Scotia
A major strategic point
in the Imperial Wars
Lecture 3
Atlantic World Economy
 British North America part of a larger
economic system consisting of legal
trade amongst Britain and her colonies
in the Atlantic basin

The colonies also had substantial illegal
trade outside the British system
 Triangular Trade
Textiles, rum, and manufactured goods
sent to Africa in return for slaves
 Slaves sent to the Americas from Africa
 Sugar, tobacco, rice and other
commodities sent from the Americas to
Europe

 Slavery in the Atlantic World Economy
The slave trade played a key role in this
Atlantic economic system
 Slaves needed to grow plantation crops,
sugar in particular, the demand for which
in the Atlantic basin was key to driving
the entire system

Map depicting the flow of goods
in the Atlantic world economy
Lecture 3
Africa and Atlantic Slave Trade







Europeans tapped into already existing
markets for slaves in Africa that were
controlled by Africans
Europeans, with permission of local leaders
established forts on the coast to wait for
African slave traders to bring captives for sale
Slaves were sold to European traders for rum,
gold, and manufactured goods
They had typically already spent weeks or even
months in a forced march from the interior,
where had been enslaved, to the coast
They could spend a day or less, or sometimes a
year or more in chains at the slave fort on the
coast waiting for transportation across the
Atlantic
The slaves generally were tightly packed below
decks on the slave ships, during the “Middle
Passage” of the Triangular Trade
The journey typically last 4-8 weeks, and 1 out
of 7 slaves died en route
Lecture 3
Development of Slavery in British North America
 Chesapeake
Africans first arrived in Virginia in 1619
 For several decades they were not treated
very differently than white indentured
servants, with some becoming planters
 Read about Anthony Johnson
 The status of Africans deteriorated,
especially after 1650
 After Bacon’s Rebellion African slaves-forlife replaced indentured servants as
tobacco laborers

 South Carolina
Slavery arrived intact with immigrants
from Barbados
 Slaves growing rice for food introduced
the crop that would make slavery there
profitable
 So many slaves were imported into the
colony that by 1705 they were a majority
of the population

Lecture 3
Slaves in Colonial North America

Slaves created a distinct culture



Resistance





Their culture was a combination of
European and African elements
Slaves in South Carolina retained a
higher degree of African culture
because of the black majority and
relative isolation from whites

Read about the Gullah language
Feign illness, work slowdowns, theft,
sabotage, running away, etc.
Read about the Stono Rebellion (1731)
Many slaves adopted Christianity but
imparted to it the enthusiastic character
of African religiosity
Families served a key role in AfricanAmerican culture as a source of
consolation, support, and training in
how to cope with slavery
Slaves managed to leave an imprint on
American culture in such fields as
religion and architecture
Slaves dancing in
Colonial Virginia
Lecture 3
Rise of the Southern Gentry
 A white culture developed in the South
alongside the slave culture
 In exploring this culture as it developed
among southern slaveholders, the
textbook focuses on William Byrd II
Learn more about William Byrd II
 Byrd’s lavish lifestyle epitomizes the quest
for comfort and luxury of Chesapeake
elite in contrast to primitive moneygrubbing planters of the early decades
 He and other members of the American
gentry imitated the lifestyle of the
contemporary aristocracy in England

 They treated their slaves in an
authoritarian fashion, but were forced to
pay a degree of respect to lesser whites
who often could vote

Sample of William Byrd II’s secret diary
William Byrd II
Lecture 3
Northern Maritime Economy
 The northern maritime economy was
deeply tied into the slave economy of the
British Empire
Farmers of the Middle Colonies supplied
the sugar plantations of the Caribbean
with foodstuffs and New England
fisherman sent them salted cod
 Mainland distilleries turned Caribbean
molasses into rum

 American colonists also sent their
products elsewhere and colonial ports
developed to ship out the exports and
process the arrival of imports that came
in from Atlantic basin and elsewhere
 Directing this trade were a group of
prosperous merchants who monetized
transactions with bills of trades
 Merchants operated in an urban
environment with a community of
artisans, shopkeepers, tradesmen,
laborers, and assorted hangers on
Port of Boston, 1770
Engraving by
Paul Revere
Lecture 3
British-American Geo-Politics
 Rise of the Colonial Assemblies
American colonial assemblies worked
successfully after the Glorious Revolution
to grab power away from royal governors
and proprietors
 They did so by using the leverage of
appropriating the salary of the governor
and other royal officials in America

 Salutary Neglect
Americans got away with the power grab
because British from 1689 to 1763 largely
did not care what went on in America
 British neglect of America proved salutary
(i.e., beneficial) because the colonists
proved competent in managing their own
affairs

 Americans and the Navigation Acts

The main point of irritation in American
relationship with Britain was American
evasion of the Navigation Acts