Bellringer
• What perception of “the South” do we have in
2015 as residents of the “Northeast”?
• What perception of the “Northeast” do you
think people in “the South” have of us today?
Formative Events
in Colonial America
1607-1754
Central Issue
• East vs. West
• Tidewater v. Piedmont
• Urban v. Rural
Event Review
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Founding of Jamestown
Founding of Massachusetts Bay
Bacon’s Rebellion
Creation of Dominion of New England
Trial of John Peter Zenger
Great Awakening
Causes =
(Long-term? Short-term?)
Event
Effects =
(Short-term? Long-term?)
Reflect
• What are some examples of the tension between east &
west in Colonial America?
• How are these similar to the perceptions of the South &
Northeast?
Timeline
Jamestown
What factors aided European
Exploration in the 15th Century?
• Improvements in Technology
• Renaissance
• Creative vitality/increase in scientific knowledge
• Religious Conflict  Spread religion
• Catholic victory and unification in Spain
• Protestant Reformation
• Expanding Trade
• Competition for increased trade with Africa,
China, and India
• Developing Nation-States
• Strong monarchs depended on trade to bring in
needed revenues
What Factors led to the building
of Empire?
• Growing population – 3 million in 1550  4
million in 1600
• Enclosure Acts forced small farmers off
the land
• Economic Depression
• Primogeniture laws
• Creation of Joint Stock Companies
• Peace with Spain
• Thirst for markets, adventure, religious
freedom
What were the factors that led to the
founding of Jamestown?
• King James I (1st Stuart king)
• 1607
• A Corporate colony – operated by a joint-stock
company (The Virginia Company)
• Charter – colonists guaranteed the same rights as
Englishmen
• Early problems
• Disease
• Swampy, unhealthy climate
• Tobacco – Key to prosperity and growth
• Demand for cheap labor and more land
• Became a Royal Colony in 1624
• Early Political Institutions?
• colonists guaranteed rights as Englishmen
• 1619 House of Burgesses – 1st representative
assembly in Am.
• Limitations???
• Economy based on export and building of wealth
• Plantations, indentured servants, African slaves
• Rural
• Tension b/t upper & lower classes
Massachusetts
Role of the Protestant Reformation?
• 1517 – Martin Luther protested against Catholic
Doctrine and hierarchy of the Church – 95
Theses
• John Calvin
• Institutes of the Christian Religion
• God is all powerful and all good – humans are corrupted
by original sin
• Predestination – God chooses those who are saved
• Henry VIII
• Broke with the R.C. Church
• kept the rituals and creeds and the hierarchy of bishops
• became the head of the Church in England
How did Calvinism gain support in
England?
• Switches in church allegiances under the Tudors
• Corruption in the court of King James I
• English clergy was considered ill trained and
corrupt
• Coincided with the rise of trade
• Many reformers from the commercially depressed
woolen districts
• Calvinism – message was stark but reassuring of
a Divine Plan  order
• Fed on social unrest and provided spiritual
comfort
What groups subscribed to Calvinism?
• Presbyterians (more conservative approach)
• Members of the Church of England but believed C. of E. needed
reform
• Get rid of the Bishops – the Church should be ruled by Elders
(Presbyters)
• Infant Baptism
Pilgrims (most radical)
• Further association with the Church of England
would jeopardize their souls
• Only the truly elect should be admitted to
church membership
• It was their duty to withdraw from the corrupt
institution – therefore – they are Separatists
• Withdraw totally into their congregations each
church was independent
• Isolationist – don’t want to be contaminated by
surrounding culture who will not be redeemed
• Administer Baptism to believers
Puritans (moderate)
• Viewed themselves as members of the Church of
England
• God is all powerful – chooses those who are predestined
for salvation – a person can not understand God by
himself – needs a strong, educated ministry
• Only the truly elect (those predestined for salvation)
should be admitted to the Church Congregation
• Infant Baptism
• Sisterly relations with other churches
• Church of England was impure, but can be purified from
within
The Great Migration?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
James I persecuted Separatists and Puritans
Separatists established Plymouth Colony 1621
Charles I even more hostile  Puritans
Puritans gained a charter and established Massachusetts
Bay Company
Turmoil in G.B. sent 70,000 Puritans to the New World –
20,000 Massachusetts Bay
Erect a model Christian society in America – “City Upon a
Hill”
Did not want religious toleration – wanted a place where
their religion would flourish
Only members of the church could vote
• Early Political Institutions?
• Mayflower Compact - Pilgrims pledged to make
decisions by the will of majority – early written
constitution
• Massachusetts Bay Colony - all freemen (male
members of the Puritan Church) participate in yearly
elections for governor, his assistants, and
representative assembly
• Limitations???
• Economy based on small farms & merchants
• Emphasis on town-meetings and civic
participation
Bacon’s Rebellion
How/Why did slavery evolve in the
colonies?
• Chesapeake colonies grew slowly
• Unhealthy climate  high death rate
• Many more men than women
• Tobacco required intensive labor
• Indentured servant – after 4-7 years of labor gained
their freedom and received land of their own
• Headright system – 50 acres of land/immigrant
• Slavery – 1619 –
• Initial status the same as indentured servants
• 1660s House of Burgesses enacted discriminatory legislation
Class/regional struggle in VA?
• Merchants/planters – had sprawling river front estates
• 100,000 indentured servants by 1700 (3/4 of all European
immigrants to VA and MD in the 17th C.
• Looked forward to freedom and land
• As land was used up – masters were reluctant to give land as
“freedom dues”
• With no land – hired out for low wages
Frustrated Freemen
Late 1600s  large numbers of young,
poor, discontented men in the Chesapeake
area.
 Little access to land or women for marriage.
1670  The Virginia Assembly
disenfranchised most landless men!
Nathaniel Bacon’s Rebellion: 1676
Led 1,000 Virginians in a
rebellion against Governor
Berkeley
Nathaniel
Bacon
 Rebels resented Berkeley’s
close relations with Indians.
 Berkeley monopolized the fur
trade with the Indians in the
area.
 Berkley refused to retaliate for
Indian attacks on frontier
settlements.
Governor
William Berkeley
Bacon’s Rebellion
Rebels attacked Indians, whether they
were friendly or not to whites.
Governor Berkeley driven from Jamestown.
They burned the capital.
 Rebels went on a rampage of plundering.
Bacon suddenly died of fever.
Berkeley brutally crushed the rebellion and
hanged 20 rebels.
Results of Bacon’s Rebellion
It exposed resentments between
inland frontiersmen and landless
former servants against gentry on
coastal plantations.
 Socio-economic class
differences/clashes between rural and
urban communities would continue
throughout American history.
Upper class planters searched for
laborers less likely to rebel  BLACK
SLAVES!!
How/why did this change?
Wages rose in England – less servants coming to America
Planters became fearful of former servants who would
become free
Black slaves began outnumbering white servants as new
arrivals
1698 – Americans became involved in slave trade
1662 VA passed “slave codes” defining difference between
servant and slave – made property for life
Slavery began for economic reasons – by the end of the
17th C. embedded in racism
By 1750 – African Americans – ½ pop. in VA and 2/3 of S.C.
Dominion of New
England
What was merchantilism?
• Economic policy that looked upon trade,
colonies, and accumulation of wealth as the
basis for a country’s military and political
strength
• Regulate trade and production to enable selfsufficiency
• Colonies provide raw materials to the parent
country for growth and profit of industry
• Colonies exist to enrich the parent country
What were the Navigation Acts?
1650-1673 (after turmoil of English Civil War)
1. Trade to and from colonies only on English or colonial ships
w/English crews
2. All goods imported into colonies had to pass through
English ports
3. Specified goods from colonies could only go to England.
How did the colonies benefit by these acts?
1.
2.
3.
New England shipbuilding prospered
Chesapeake tobacco had a monopoly in England
English military protected the colonies from possible
French or Spanish attacks
What were the negative effects?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Colonial manufacturing limited
Chesapeake farmers received low prices for crops
Colonists had to pay high prices for goods from
England
Resentment increased in colonies against regulatory
laws imposed by a distant government – led to
smuggling
How were these acts enforced?
• “Benign neglect” – James I and Charles I paid
little attention to the colonies – allowed them to
become semiautonomous commonwealths
• Interregnum 1640s
• 1660 – Charles II became king and tried to
assert authority (Mass. Bay had ignored royal
orders)
• Granted charters to Conn. and R.I. – revoked Mass. Bay
Charter
• Est. Dominion of New England to bolster colonial
defense and promote administration of Navigation
Laws
Effect of the Dominion of New England?
• Meant to tie the colonies closer to England
• American reaction? Increased smuggling
• Sir Edmund Andros – head of the dominion
• Colonists resented him – as a member of the C. of E.
headquartered in Boston
• Curbed town meetings
• Restrictions on courts, press, and schools
• Revoked land titles
• Dispersed colonial assemblies and taxed people w/o
their consent
Trial of John Peter
Zenger
The Zenger Case
• John Peter Zenger put on trial for criticizing NY’s
royal governor
• Zenger’s lawyer (A. Hamilton) argued that Z. had
printed the truth
• English law held that injuring a governor’s
reputation was a criminal act
• The jury ignored the law and found Z. innocent
• Encouraged colonial newspapers to criticize the
government – take greater risks
Great Awakening
What was the Great Awakening?
• Fervent expression of religious feeling among the
masses of people – 1730s -1740s
• With the Enlightenment there was a greater
emphasis on man and morality – religion became
more rational and less emotional
• Puritans – elaborate theological doctrines
• Church attendance down
• Loosening of morals
• Half-Way Covenant – fewer were having a conversion
experience. Children of church members were
baptized – allowed membership
Jonathan Edwards
• Preached folly of good
works ideas for
salvation
• Depend on God’s Grace
• “Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God”
• Evangelical preaching
• Repent and be saved
George Whitefield
• Human helplessness
• Divine omnipotence
• Revival meetings
• Sinners professed
conversion
• Heaped abuse on
sinners and shook
audiences with
emotional appeals
Impact of the Great Awakening?
• Emphasis on direct emotional spirituality – undermined
older clergy (“Old Lights”)
• Dissolve theocracy
• Unified 4/5 of Am. with common understanding of
Christian faith
• Schisms – many denominations formed – increased
competitiveness in American Churches
• Encouraged more missionary work  Indians and black
slaves
• Dissent and Dissenters gained respect – Baptists,
Methodists, Presbyterians took root and grew
• Greater emphasis on educating ministers
• Revived sense of religious mission