Chapter 3
Colonial Ways of Life
1607-1763
C3, Sec 1 – The Southern Colonies
• South’s first successful cash crop –
• Plantations used to grow tobacco and other cash
crops. Many laborers (mostly slaves) were used
to cultivate crops for the landowners.
• WHAT is SUPPLY & DEMAND?
When the demand for a product is greater
than the supply, the price is higher.
When the demand for a product is less than
the supply, the price is lower.
C3, Sec 1 – The Southern Colonies
• 1620-1660 – The demand for tobacco in Europe
was greater than the supply.
This kept the price HIGH.
• Chesapeake Bay was ideal for growing tobacco
– rivers served as roads.
• Indentured Servants – people whose passage
was paid to America by colonists, and who
agreed to become servants for a specific
number of years.
• VA and MD had large numbers of indentured
servants to grow and harvest tobacco.
C3, Sec 1 – The Southern Colonies
• SOUTH CAROLINA –
• Sugarcane crops failed.
• Rice became the major cash crop.
• Later, indigo became a cash crop.
• Eliza Lucas, only 17, discovered the secret to
growing indigo – it needed high ground and
sandy soil.
•
Indigo
C3, Sec 1 – The Southern Colonies
The Southern Economy - Social Order in the South.
= Wealthy Gentry
Plant
er
Elite
Backcountry
Farmers
= Yeomen
Landless Tenant
Farmers
Servants and enslaved Africans
C3, Sec 1 – The Southern Colonies
• Planter Elite – wealthy landowners,
gentry, had political and economic
influence. Plantations were
like small towns.
Most plantations were small, rough estates & the
planters & their indentured servants worked
side-by-side. Usually 30 or less people.
In VA & MD, planters switched from indentured
servants to slave labor which allowed them to
grow larger. The gentry
became real gentlemen
and amused themselves
with hunting, fishing,
gambling.
C3, Sec 1 – The Southern Colonies
• Backcountry Farmers – Most landowners
in the colonial south were actually small
farmers living in the “backcountry” farther
inland and were called YEOMEN, to
distinguish them from the gentry.
• They grew some tobacco, but practiced
subsistence farming – enough to feed
their families.
C3, Sec 1 – The Southern Colonies
• UNEVEN distribution of wealth & power led to
REBELLION.
•
BACON’S REBELLION –
1. Sir William Berkeley – governor of VA
who controlled the colony.
a. Exempted himself & his councilors from taxation.
b. Restricted the vote to people who owned property.
c. These actions & his Native American polices angered
the backcountry & tenant farmers.
C3, Sec 1 – The Southern Colonies
2. 1675 – war erupted between the backcountry farmers (who
wanted Native American land) & Native Americans.
Gov. Berkeley did not use military action but asked for
money from the House of Burgesses to build forts for
protection.
BACON took up the backcountry farmers cause because
his land was attacked by Natives; he & his men attacked
the Natives.
The newly elected House (1) authorized troops to attack the
Natives, (2) restored the vote to all free men and (3) took away
the tax exemption.
Bacon was still not satisfied & returned in 1676 with troops and
seized power. Then, he fled after being pursued and raised his
own army.
He got sick and died; his army disintegrated.
C3, Sec 1 – The Southern Colonies
IMPORTANCE OF BACON’S REBELLION
It convinced many wealthy planters that the best way to
keep Virginian society stable was to have land available
for the backcountry farmers regardless of how it effected
Native Americans.
It also accelerated an existing trend in VA of using
enslaved Africans instead of indentured servants to
work the fields because they did not have to be freed &
fewer people wanted to be indentured servants.
Also, King Charles II granted a charter to the
ROYAL AFRICAN COMPANY for slave trade and, thus,
it was easier to acquire slaves.
C3, Sec 1 – The Southern Colonies
SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES
• 1450 – 1870 – 10-20 million Africans were
forcibly transported to the Americas.
Roughly 2 million died at sea.
• OLAUDAH EQUIANO – kidnapped by
other Africans from his home in West
Africa and traded to Europeans, then
shipped to America. Later, he became a
writer & described his journey across
the Atlantic.
C3, Sec 1 – The Southern Colonies
DID YOU KNOW?
• Of the 8-10 million Africans who came to
the Americas, approximately 3.5 million
went to Brazil, & another 1.5 million went
to the Spanish colonies.
• The British, French, & Dutch colonies in
the Caribbean imported nearly 4 million
others to work on their sugar plantations.
• Approximately 500,000 Africans were
transported to North America before the
slave trade ended in the 1800s.
C3, Sec 1 – The Southern Colonies
DID YOU KNOW?
The first Africans brought to VA & MD were treated like
indentured servants & their children who were born
were not always considered slaves.
Some of the first enslaved Africans obtained their freedom
by converting to Christianity.
MARYLAND was the first colony to legalize slavery.
In 1705, VA passed a SLAVE CODE.
1. They could not own property.
2. They could not testify against a white person.
3. They could not assemble in large numbers.
SLAVES PLAYED A VITAL ROLE IN PLANTATION
GROWTH
Chapter 3, Section 2
• Why didn’t New England farmers grow wheat?
• What is plankton and where can you find it?
• How did most people in New England make a
living?
• What is a fall line?
• What did every colony need?
• Why did the English buy ships made in
America?
• Why were towns important in New England?
C 3, SECTION 2 – New England
and the Middle Colonies
Describe how resources affected
economic development.
NEW ENGLAND
Resources
-------------------------------------------
Industries
Fishing & whaling
Lumber & ship building
Subsistence farming of
corn, vegetables,
orchards, & livestock
Chapter 3, Section 2 – Continued




Town Meetings developed into local town
government. Selectmen managed the town’s
affairs.
Town meetings helped set the stage for the
American Revolution & the emergence of
democratic government.
PURITAN’S’ houses were located close to the
church so they could never have an excuse not to
come to church.
They did “Holy Watching.”
But Puritans did drink rum,
enjoyed music & liked to wear
bright colors.
C 3, SECTION 2
C 3, SECTION 2
• Devout Puritans believed that Satan used witches to
work evil in the world.
• In 1692, 20 residents of Salem, MA were executed for
witchcraft.
• Teenage girls accused an African servant of being a
witch, and then others.
• Sometimes accused witches were spared if they
confessed or pointed a finger at other community
members.
• Some people denied being
witches and were hanged.
• Only after the Salem witchcraft
trials ended in 1692, did the original
accusers admit that they had made
up the entire story.
Chapter 3, Sec 2 - TRADE
• Cities grew because of trade.
• TRIANGULAR TRADE England
Manufactured
Goods
Triangular
Trade
New England
Fish, lumber
& meat
Caribbean
Sugar/Rum
• Other 3-way trade systems also existed.
Example: New England traded rum to
British merchants in exchange for
British goods. British merchants then
traded the rum to West Africans in
exchange for slaves, who were then
transported across the Atlantic to the
Caribbean & traded for sugar.
C 3, Sec 2,
NEW URBAN SOCIETY
• Philadelphia – 1760 – largest
colonial city
• Charles Town, SC –
largest city in the South
• Artisans made up nearly
half of the urban population
• People without skills or property – 30%
• Slaves – 20%
• City problems – overcrowding,
crime, pollution,& epidemics.
C 3, Sec 2 - MIDDLE COLONIES SOCIETY
• PA, NY, NJ & DE had rich soil & wheat
was the big cash crop.
- Philadelphia & New York were biggest
cities in the British colonies.
- Middle colonies changed because of the
wheat trade and the new settlers.
- Capitalists – made money on wheat &
invested in new businesses.
C 3, Sec 2 - Middle Colonies Society
• Wealthy entrepreneurs who owned
large farms and businesses were the
top class;
• in the middle were small farmers;
• & at the bottom were landless workers.
Chapter 3, Section 3
THE IMPERIAL SYSTEM
• MERCANTILISM – set of ideas about the
world economy. Mercantilists believed
that to become wealthy & powerful, a
country had to accumulate gold and silver.
• HOW DID THEY DO THIS?
By selling more goods to other countries
than it bought from them.
(More gold & silver flows into
the country than out of the country.)
Chapter 3, Section 3
• Mercantilist also believed that a country should be
self-sufficient in raw materials; therefore, a
country needed colonies so that it would not have
to pay out gold and silver, but could sell products
back to the colonies to make money.
• FOR COLONIES – it gave them a market for their raw
materials & a supplier of the manufactured goods
they needed; however, the colonies could not sell
to other countries.
• NOTE: The only way the New
England colonies could get silver
& gold was to smuggle through
triangular trade.
Chapter 3, Section 3
1.
Navigation Act – Required all goods imported or exported
to be carried on English ships, & stated that at least ¾ of the
crew on each ship had to be English. Certain raw materials
(major money products) could be sold ONLY to England or
other English colonies.
(SUGAR, TOBACCO, LUMBER, COTTON, WOOL, & INDIGO)
English
Ships
2.
The STAPLE Act – required everything the colonies imported
had to come through England. (There were customs inspectors
to enforce the act.)
Chapter 3, Section 3
3.
King Charles II discovered that the colonies
were smuggling through the Dutch
merchants; then when MA did not obey
the Navigation Acts, he pulled their
charter & made it a royal colony.
CHAPTER 3, Sec 3
4.
James II merged MA, Plymouth, & RI together to
create the royal province called the Dominion of New England.
Then, he forced CN and NJ to join the province, and later NY.
He abolished their colonial assemblies & placed a governorgeneral in charge –
Sir Edmund Andros who strictly enforced the
Navigation Acts & new land taxes offended the
Puritans by declaring only Anglican Church marriages
were legal.
James II
5.
Andros managed to anger nearly everyone
in New Englandlandowners,
church leaders,
and merchants.
Chapter 3, Section 3
• MEANWHILE – back in England a
GLORIOUS REVOLUTION occurred.
• James II was becoming a problem, but people
felt that his daughter would become Queen
soon.
• Then, James II had a son, so his daughter would
not become Queen and something had to be
done to keep the country from becoming
Catholic again.
• Parliament asked Mary and her husband William
to take the throne & James II fled.
• This was a bloodless change of power & so it
was a Glorious Revolution.
Chapter 3, Section 3
• Parliament
Queen Mary
William of Orange
Chapter 3, Section 3
• William and Mary did not allow the old system
before the Dominion of England to go back in
place.
• Rhode Island and Connecticut were allowed to
resume their previous form of government.
• The king issued a new charter in 1691 for MA
that combined MA, Maine, and Plymouth into a
royal colony of MA. The king appointed a
governor, but the colony could elect an
assembly & the councilors.
• Under this system voters had to own
property, but did not have to be a member
of the Puritans.
Chapter 3, Section 3
• JOHN LOCKE – wrote Two Treatises of Government
He argued that a monarch’s right
to rule came from the people.
“All people are born with natural
rights” that includes the right to
life, liberty, & property. People
Wrote on the
philosophy of
government.
were born in a natural state & to
protect their rights, people came
together & agreed to create a
government – a contract.
People agreed to obey government’s laws & the
government agreed to uphold their rights in return. *
CHAPTER 3, SECTION 4
A Diverse Society
Did you know?
Ben Franklin was 1 of 17 children!
• Family Life in Colonial America
Population Growth:
On average, women had
7 children.
1640 - 25,000
1700 - more than 250,000
1750s – more than 1,000,000
1775 – about 2,500,000
CHAPTER 3, Section 4
Women in Colonial Society
• Married women had no legal status.
Could not own anything
When she got married, her property
became her husband’s
Could not make a contract
Could not be a party to a lawsuit
Could not make a will
HUSBANDS were allowed to discipline
children and wives.
• SINGLE women & widows could own and manage
property, file lawsuits, & run businesses.
• Despite their legal limitations, women worked outside
the home in taverns, shops, managed plantations, ran
print shops, and published newspapers.
CHAPTER 3, Section 4
• Health & Diseases
Typhoid Fever – bacterial infection
caused by Salmonella
Tuberculosis
Cholera
Diphtheria
Diarrhea (fluxes)
Malignant Fever (flu)
Typhus
Scarlet Fever
CHAPTER 3, Section 4
SmallpoxEpidemic
Epidemic
– Boston
1721
• Smallpox
– Boston
1721
Rev.
Cotton Mather
Mather (a
(a Puritan
Puritan leader)
leader)
Rev. Cotton
urged
Boylston, to
to inoculate
inoculate
urged his
his friend,
friend, Dr.
Dr. Boylston,
volunteers
volunteers against
against the
the disease
disease based
based on
on
information
African slaves
slaves that
that the
the Turks
Turks
information from
from African
had
had developed
developed an
an inoculation
inoculation for
for smallpox.
smallpox.
**As
**As a
a result,
result, out
out of
of 6,000
6,000 people
people who
who were
were not
not
inoculated,
inoculated, about
about 15%
15% (900)
(900) died.
died.
BUT
BUT out
out of
of 241
241 inoculated
inoculated people,
people,
only
only 6
6 died
died (less
(less than
than 3%)
3%)
Cotton
Cotton Mather
Mather
CHAPTER 3, Section 4
• IMMIGRANTS in Colonial America
1. German Immigrants – Pennsylvania
Mennonites – settled Germantown in 1683
In 1775: they made up 1/3 of the population
(100,000)
Called Pennsylvania Dutch
(Deutsche means German)
• They were prosperous farmers.
• Introduced the Conestoga wagon that was used to
cross America.
• Many Germans headed south - some to the Shenandoah
River Valley of VA and spread down through the
Carolinas.
• FAMOUS GERMAN – Peter Zenger was
arrested for printing libel against the
governor, but was cleared by a jury.
He led the way for freedom of press.
CHAPTER 3, Section 4
2. Scotch-Irish – descendents of Scots who
had helped England claim control of N. Ireland.
Reasons for immigration –
(1) rising taxes, (2) poor harvests,
& (3) religious discrimination.
150,000 came to American colonies
between 1717 and 1776. Many migrated
west to find land and some to the back
country of the Southern colonies.
CHAPTER 3, Section 4
• 3. JEWISH Community – Jews came
fleeing from the Portuguese in Brazil to
practice their religious freedom.
• 15,000 lived in the colonies by 1776
• In Western Europe, Jews could not own
property or participate in professions.
In America they could live and
work with Christians.
• Most lived in cities and
were artisans or merchants.
CHAPTER 3, Section 4
• 4. AFRICANS in Colonial America
A New Culture
1. In SC, Africans worked & lived in large
groups isolated from the white planters
which made them more independent.
They developed a language called
Gullah – a language that combined
English and African words.
2. In the Chesapeake region,
Africans spoke English because
most were born in the colonies.
3. African Religion mixed with
Christian faith.
GULLAH
CULTURE
CHAPTER 3, Section 4
• Oppression & Resistance
In SC to maintain control, whippings &
beatings were common.
Some planters branded the disobedient; slit noses
or amputated fingers and toes to horrify others
as an example of what would happen if they
disobeyed. In VA planters used harsh
punishment, but also used persuasion such as
extra food or days off to get them to work.
Resistance – Passive – staged deliberate work slowdowns, “lost”
or broke tools, or refused to work hard. Some escaped; some
bought freedom.
Governor of Spanish Florida (to weaken the South Carolina
colony) promised freedom & land to enslaved people who
would come to Florida.
CHAPTER 3, Section 4
STONO REBELLION – 75 Africans attacked
their white overseers near the Stono River,
stole guns, & then went toward Florida.
The local militia killed 30-40 Africans and
ended the rebellion.
CHAPTER 3, Section 4
• THE ENLIGHTENMENT – challenged the authority of the
church in science & philosophy while elevating the power of
human reason. ** IMPORTANT**
LOGIC & REASONING = rationalism **
JOHN LOCKE – very influential with his contract.
Also, in Essay on Human Understanding he argued
that contrary to the Church, people were not born sinful.
Their minds were blank & would be shaped by society &
education.
The Social Contract – he argued that a government should be
formed by the consent of the people.
BARON MONTESQUIEU –Spirit of the Laws – suggested three
types of political power – executive, legislative, and judicial.
Each branch would provide checks & balances.
CHAPTER 3, Section 4
THE GREAT AWAKENING – religious
movement that stressed dependence
on God. (religious feeling)
PIETY – stressed an individual
devoutness. Ministers spread the word through
revivals.
Jonathan Edwards wanted to restore spirituality to
New England. He preached that people had to
repent and convert to be “born again.”
George Whitfield –
created tension by preaching
that some ministers had not
been born again.
Chapter 3, Section 4
New England churches split into factions –
New Lights & Old Lights
Churches embracing new ideas –
Baptist, Presbyterians,
Congregationalists and Methodists all grew.
In the South Baptists welcomed enslaved Africans
at revivals & condemned brutality.
Equality before God was taught.
Planters feared an uprising by the slaves & broke
up Baptists meetings.
** The Enlightenment provided arguments
against British rule.
The Great Awakening undermined allegiance to
traditional authority