European colonization efforts in North America stimulated intercultural
contact and intensified conflict between the various groups of colonizers
and native peoples
Stono Rebellion
Bacon’s Rebellion
King Phillip’s War

What was life like for a slave in the British
colonies?
 Rice in the Carolinas
▪ Tasks: clearing swamp, sowing seedlings (into mud w/
bare feet), harvest, threshing (remove rice from hull by
pounding w/ mortal & pestle) & winnowing (separating
using basket)
▪ Environment in fields bad
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

NYC- 1712
Stono Rebellion- 1739
Overt vs. Covert
 Using perception as “dumb, childish” in stories,
sabotage, slowing down work
 Escape, rebellion
"Pompey, how do I look?"
"O, massa, mighty. You looks mighty."
"What do you mean 'mighty,'" Pompey?"
"Why, massa, you looks noble."
"What do you mean by 'noble'?"
"Why, suh, you looks just like a lion."
"Why, Pompey, where have you ever seen a lion?"
"I saw one down in yonder field the other day,
massa."
"Pompey, you foolish fellow, that was a jackass."
"Was it, massa? Well, suh, you looks just like him."

Largest slave revolt in colonial
America
 Near Stono River- 20 m. from Charleston

Problem?
 Spain offering freedom to slaves  escapes
 Fear of revolts by owners  whites arming selves,
more vigilant about control of slaves

Sep. 9, 1739- Jemmy + group of 20 slaves
broke into store
 Owner killed, arm selves w/ guns/ammo

Move southward
 Plantation to plantation, killing, burning houses
 Gain momentum as move south- military fashion,
drums
▪ Good owner/s spared, hidden by slaves


Militia & local planters alerted  organized
group to pursue slaves
Slaves found, fight ensued
 Some resting, some drunk

Militia won  end of rebellion, death to most
involved
 If escaped, tracked down, arrested, executed
▪ Slave who saved life of owner  freedom

40 blacks, 21 whites dead

Effort to control slave, slave behavior
 Fear of revolt intensified

Stricter slave codes (Negro Act of 1740)
 How to treat slaves, punish them, dress them
 No assembly among slaves
 No reading, no writing

Little change until emancipation (1865)
How did the Stono Rebellion affect the treatment
of slaves in colonial America?


Language, culture adapt to W. Hemisphere
Some preservation, autonomy
 Oral tradition
 Group worship

Ex: Xnty + African religions
 Some reject Xnty- religion of slaverholders
 Others hold on to promises of freedom in New
Testament, Moses from Old Testament
 Music, Song

Food
 Sweet potato (yams), rice, okra, sorghum, black-eyed
peas, peanuts

Colonies need for labor increase
 Slavery (tobacco)

Demand for production/acquisition of
commodities increase
 Tobacco, furs

So what?
  goals of monarchs different from colonists

Significance?
 Conflict w/ neighboring NAs
 Pop. uprising vs. royal Gov. of VA
 Land-sensitive colony = friction w/ NA groups
 Ordinary colonists challenge planter elite

1670s- planter class in power in VA
 Land, slaves, political offices
 Headrights, royal grants  control 50% of land
 Land not farmed leased to tenants

Freed IS issues?
 Hard to find land of own
  most lease land

Price of tobacco plummets (1670s)


William Berekely = Gov. of VA (1642-1652,
post-1660)
Large land grants to council
 Exempt land from taxation, friends b/c justices of
peace, county judges
 Legislature (HoB) bought off w/ land grants,
appointments (sheriffs, tax collectors)

Result? Social unrest
 Effect of HoB eliminating vote from landless
freemen (1/2 of adult males)
 Landed yeomen upset by low tobacco price,
corruption in gov., “grievous taxations” that “utter
ruin of us the poor commonalty.”

1675- population statistics
 NA- 3,500
 Euros- 38k
 Africans- 2,500

NAs pushed to frontier
 Treaty-guaranteed land


Same land desired by landless former IS, poor
freeholders
 demands for NA removal, expulsion,
extermination

Planters, Gov. ignore requests
 Need high supply of tenants, laborers
 Need to trade w/ Occaneechee tribe (furs, skins)

Late 1675- fighting begins
 VA militiamen murder 30 NAs , kill NA tribal
leaders  retaliation by NAs on plantations, 300
whites killed
 Against Gov. orders

Response by Berkeley defensive
 Frontier forts to stop NA intrusions
▪ Settlers see as useless plot for high-taxes, possess
tobacco

NB = young, well-connected English migrant
 On Gov. council, not in “inner circle”
 Different w/ Berkelel on NA issue


Denied a military commission by Gov. 
mobilization of NB & neighbors vs. Nas
Berkeley saw as “rebels and mutineers”
  expulsion from council, arrest

NB’s army force release, demand new
elections for HoB


New HoB  reforms to curb power of Gov.,
council  voting rights back to landless
freemen
BUT. . . Too late.
 Poor farmers, servants resent gov. , planters,
arrogance of wealthy/privileged
▪ “A poor man who has only his labour to maintain himself
and his family pays as much [in taxes] as a man who has
20,000 acres.”

NB + 400 issue “Manifesto and Declaration of
the People”
 Demand removal of NAs, end to rule of wealthy
“parasites”
 “All the power and sway is got into the hands of
the rich.”

NB army burn Jamestown, plunder
plantations

Oct. 1676- NB dies of dysentery
  rebel army dispersed, estates of rebels seized,
23 hung

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VA leader’s attempt to appease neighbors
VA planters move from IS  slave labor
In 1700s- planters + poorer whites vs. slaves
as exploited workers
 Ease in tension w/ free people
  generations of race based labor system

Colonies = unfinished “worlds” searching for
foundations
In what ways was Bacon’s Rebellion
symptomatic of social tensions in the colony of
Virginia?


Goals/interests of Euro. Leaders DNE
goals/interests of colonists
Salutary Neglect prior to 1763
 Regulation, but little enforcement  ignoring
laws

Molasses Act of 1733
 Why?
▪ Mercantilism  restrictions on manufacturing, shipping,
trade partners (use of duties)
▪ MA & Navigation Acts (1651) = attempt to restrict trade
▪ Protect English business from Dutch competitors (shipping low)
▪ Protect sugar in British West Indies
▪ Not for revenue
▪ Molasses into NE for RUM
▪ England not want NE purchasing from Dutch, Spanish- only
British WI (Jamaica, Barbados)

Issue for colonial producers
 Supply of molasses drop, price increase (duty, less
rum manufactured)  loss of market share
 Duty paid takes 100% of value of rum (profits = 0)

smuggling molasses from French/Spanish
colonies @ lower price
 Bribe to customs (NY/Mass) = half a penny/gallon
▪ If caught, freed by American juries
 Bring £330 sterling in its first year
▪ £76 annually in 1738-1741
▪ Below the cost to administer it.

1763- Charles Townshend
 Pres. of Board and Trade  use to raise revenue
Reduce rate- 6d to 2d/gallon of molasses.
 Idea? Traders pay the lower, less smuggling
▪ Enforce collection - 1763 Hovering Act.

1764- replaced by Sugar Act (tax at 3d)

Competition over resources b/t Euro. rivals 
conflict b/t groups of colonizers & natives
 Conflict in Europe spreads to N. America
 French v. Dutch v. British v. Spanish
▪ Alliances, trade, arming of NA groups
▪  instability

Why?
 Competition for resources, land b/t Euros 
conflict b/t colonies, NAs
 Continuing contact b/t groups, increase in trade
 cultural/demographic changes

Rival NA groups border colonies  alliances
w/ colonial groups based on interests,
common enemies
 Ex: Wampanoag/Plymouth, Mohegans/MBC/CT,
Narragansetts/RI

Colonies ally w/ NA tribes
 Provide deadlier weapons
 Alcohol
 Reward for NA military action vs. enemies

 more intense, destructive NA warfare

Euro to NA ratio = 3:1
 Euros increase, NA decrease

Metacom = Wampanoag leader
 Coexistence? At first, then unlikely

W adopt English ways/habits
 Raising hogs, selling pork

 accusations of underselling Puritans 
restricted trade of W tribe
Other issues: W kills hogs destroying corn fields
 persecution for violation of property rights
 Land issues
 Conclusion?

 Metacom decision that English must be expelled
  military alliance w/ Narragansetts, Nipmucks in
1675

Next- attacks on white settlements in NE
 “burneing houses, taking cattell, killing men & women
& children: & carrying others captive.” –William
Harris, settler

Warning to



Fighting by NAs into 1676
End when NA groups run out of ammo
+ MBC gov. bring in Mohegan, Mohawk
warriors
 Metacom killed in fighting

Effects?
 1/5 of English towns MBC, RI destroyed
 1,000 settlers killed (5% of adult pop)


Puritan experiment challenged, but survived
NA loss much greater than Puritans
 Famine, disease, death in battle (4,500), slavery

End of NAs as independent peoples in
southern NE
 Surviving NA groups move W, intermarry w/
Algonquin (allies w/ French)
 Revenge
▪ Displaced NA groups join French Catholics
▪ Attack Puritans
How did New Englanders’ religious ideas
influence their relations with neighboring Native
American peoples?

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
1720–1725 and 1733-1743
Chick. have strong relationship w/
Carolina English
Eng. Vs. France  Chick. disruption of French
shipping on MS Riv.
  disruption w/ Fr. Colonies in Canada

Chick. kill Fr. fur trader
 Chick & Eng. think a spy

 Fr. Arming Choctaw, encourage attacks on
Chicks
 Chicks defend villages, fight off Chock


 Chick. cut off Fr. shipping on MS
Peace reached in 1724 b/t Chick and Chock
 Fr. Agree in 1725



1729- Natchez rebel vs. French  200 Fr.
dead
Fr. Retaliate, kill/imprison Natchez
 Natchez join Chickasaws in 1730/1731
 Refuge for Natchez
 Anger French

Choc. refuse to attack Chick. Along
  Fr. Military expedition in 1736. . . fail


1739- another French attack w/ troops sent to
destroy Chick…fail
 true signed b/t Chickasaw & France in 1740
 Chick. agree to Fr. boats on MS River

Smaller attacks persist until French defeat in
Seven Years War (1763)