MR. LIPMAN’S APUS
POWERPOINT
CHAPTER 4
Chesapeake
Colonies in
the
Seventeenth
Century
Diseases
ravaged the people in the
Chesapeake
Low
life expectancy
The
Chesapeake grew slowly in the 1600s
and mostly from new immigrants from Europe,
not natural birth
 Most immigrants were single men

BY THE EARLY 1700S MANY MORE FAMILIES
HAD TAKEN HOLD AND ILLNESS BECAME
LESS FREQUENT
The Chesapeake good for tobacco but it ruined the
soil
Settlers moved inland for more new land, thus
pushing the Indians further west and causing
increased conflicts.
As production of tobacco increased, the price
dropped, causing farmers to grow more to remain
profitable.
This increased the need for more labor, and with
the price of slaves very high, the need for
indentured servants grew.
 Indentured servants were white English farmers
displaced by the enclosure movement
 They voluntarily mortgaged their labor for
several years to get a transatlantic passage and
“freedom dues” after their time was up (a few
barrels of corn, clothing, and possibly a small
piece of land)
 The headright system encouraged indentured
servants to come: for every indentured servant
who was brought over the master, or payer,
would receive 50 acres of land. This led to a
rapid expansion of indentured servitude and
the need to push settlers further West for
more land.
Bacon’s Rebellion
 In
1676 1,000 Virginians, most former
indentured servants who had moved
west to the Piedmont area for available
land, rebelled. Led by Nathaniel Bacon

Resented Governor Berkeley’s relations
with the Indians and how he monopolized
the fur trade with the Indians in the
Chesapeake
• He also refused to retaliate for Indian
attacks on frontier settlements
Nathaniel
Bacon
Bacon’s Rebellion
 Rebels attacked the Indians
 Governor Berkeley was driven from
Jamestown and rebels burned the city
 Bacon suddenly died of disease
 After they lost their leader, Gov.
Berkeley crushed the rebellion and 20
rebels were then hung as punishment
for their actions.
 Rebellion
exposed resentment between
the frontiersman and the rich gentry on
their Tidewater coastal plantations


The rich planters searched for
workers less likely to rebel and this
led to large-scale use of African
slaves
Before this most slaves had been
transported to the British West Indies
and the Caribbean
The Atlantic Slave Trade before Bacon
In 1619 slaves first introduced in
Jamestown
 By 1670 slavery was still only a small %
 Reason few slaves were imported is
because struggling white colonists could
not afford $ for slaves who might die
soon after arrival

White indentured servants were far
less costly than Africans
 During the 1680s, changes in Europe
and America led to African enslavement
 Rising wages in England so less
people were willing to sell themselves
as indentured servants
 Large planters were fearful of large
numbers of former servants (as
demonstrated by Bacon’s Rebellion)
 Established planters now had income
to spend on slaves
 As slaves increased, white colonists acted to
put down any possible racial threat

“Slave codes” were adopted, setting strict
conditions of slavery
• blacks (and their children) became
property (“chattels”) for the life of their
white masters
• Some colonies made it a crime to teach
a slave to read or write
• Even conversion to Christianity did not
qualify a slave for freedom
 Slave revolts did occur, but overall there were
few of them
 In 1712 a rebellion in New York occurred in
which 12 whites were killed and 21 blacks
were executed as revenge.
 In 1739, the Stono Rebellion in South
Carolina occurred

Blacks rebelled and tried to march to Spanish
Florida and freedom but were stopped by the
white militia
Southern Society





At top were rich plantation owners with large
tracts of land
Second were small landowners who owned
one or two slaves (these were the majority of
colonists)
Third were the poor, non-landowning, nonslave owning whites who worked for other
whites
Fourth were indentured servants
Black slaves were at the lowest level
Southern Society vs. New England Society
 Southern
society revolved around the
plantation so few cities developed
 an
urban professional class (like
lawyers, bankers) was slow to emerge

Poor roads meant that most transportation
was done over waterways
 New
England enjoyed a much healthier
climate than the South
 Clean water and cool temperatures
stopped the growth of disease

Better transportation system because
of better roads and navigable water
ways.
 New
Englanders generally migrated as
families
 Population grew from natural
reproduction
 Early marriage and women had
children every 2 years until
menopause
 The typical woman would have 10
children (with 8 surviving past
infancy)
 Many women died during childbirth
and women came to fear pregnancy
 Southern women’s rights were more
advanced because men frequently died
young and there were fewer of them

Women in the South were allowed to keep
separate rights to property (from their husbands)
and to inherit their husband’s estate
 New England women gave up property rights
upon marriage


Puritan lawmakers worried about dividing men and
women in marriage based on property
Widows did have secure rights to property (in
contrast with England)
The Scarlet
Letter
Life in the New England Towns
 Towns
with over 50 families were
required to provide an elementary
education
 1/2 adults were literate in New England
 In 1636, Harvard College was
established to train local boys for the
ministry

The first college (William and Mary) was
not established in Virginia until 1693
The Half-Way Covenant and the Salem
Witch Trials
 In the mid 1600s, religious enthusiasm began
to die down:

To combat this, Puritan preachers began using the
“jeremiad”, or strong calls to repentance and
stronger faith values
 In 1662 the Half-Way Covenant introduced


Weakened the purity of the original settlements
Eventually, Puritan church was opened to all,
purity was sacrificed for wider participation
The Salem Witch trials began in 1692 in
Massachusetts :
Young girls claimed to be possessed by
older women who they claimed were
witches
In the ensuing “witch hunt”, 20 people
were killed, 19 by hanging; 1 by
pressing; 2 dogs were also hanged
Causes of Salem reflected the widening of
economic classes in New England and fear that
Puritanism was being corrupted by commercialism
Most of the accused witches came from
families associated with Salem’s growing
market economy in town
The accusers came mostly from subsistence
farming poor families
Key is it is based on economic jealousy
The Geography of Witchcraft:
Salem Village, 1692
 By 1693, the witchcraft hysteria had
ended in Salem

The Massachusetts governor acted
(because of accusation against his
wife) and prohibited further trials and
pardoned convicted witches
 20 years later, state legislature annulled
the convictions of accused witches and
paid reparations to their heirs
 New England differences with South







Difficult farming because of rocky soil
Back-breaking work shaped strong character
Less ethnically diverse (immigrants were not
attracted to farms or harsh religious life)
Climate led to diversified agriculture and industry,
instead of relying on a few staple crops
Mostly small farms due to geography
Because slavery was not profitable on small farms
the colonists relied less on slave labor.
Used harbors for shipping and commerce, leading
to shipbuilding and the use of forests

Most immigrant colonists were middle class


Upper classes had no reason to leave Europe
(“Dukes don’t emigrate”)
Poor lacked money to emigrate
 Colonists tried to prevent class distinctions


Society much more egalitarian than Europe, especially
northern and middle colonies
Rebellions of lower classes against upper classes
occurred, such as Bacon’s Rebellion, Maryland Protestant
rebellion (1676), Leisler’s Rebellion (1689 – 1691) NYC
KEYS TO THE CHAPTER
 Head
right System
 Bacon’s Rebellion
 Middle Passage
 Salem Witch Trials
 Half-Way Covenant
 Differences between Northern and
Southern colonies