SSUSH2
The student will trace the ways that the economy
and society of British North America developed.
A. Explain the development of mercantilism
and the trans-Atlantic trade.
Trans-Atlantic Trade
• Characterized by competition between
European nations as they sought to
increase power and gain wealth through
mercantilism
• Involved colonies as locations that
provided resources
• Leads to trading of slaves and expansion
of institution of slavery in America
Economic Development
• Mercantilism: economic principle
followed by European nations during
colonial era
• Included concepts of:
1) acquire and maintain wealth to
increase power in world
2) export more than imported
(“favorable balance of trade”)
3) acquire colonies to provide resources
needed by mother country
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Mercantilism
Mercantilism also inspired
Parliament to control
transatlantic trade with its
American colonies by passing the
Navigation Acts in the 1660’s.
All goods shipped to or from
British North America had to travel
in British ships, and any goods
exported to Europe had to land
first in Britain to pay British taxes.
Some goods could be exported to
Britain only.
These restrictions were designed
to keep the colonies from
competing against Britain.
Some Americans responded by
becoming smugglers.
Mercantilism
• Mercantilism inspired the British
government to view its American
colonies as sources of wealth that
would make Britain wealthier &
stronger.
• The more land the British could
colonize in America, the less land
in the New World there would be
for France & other European
countries.
• The more American goods the
British could sell to other countries,
the less money those countries
would have for themselves.
• Great Britain would get stronger, &
its European rivals would get
weaker.
SSUSH2
The student will trace the ways that the economy
and society of British North America developed.
B. Describe the Middle Passage, growth of
the African population, and AfricanAmerican culture.
Middle Passage
• Refers to “trans-atlantic” journey made by
African slaves (16th-18th centuries)
• One leg of the “Triangular Trade” that
evolved across the Atlantic Ocean (Africa,
Europe, Americas)
“Triangular Trade” routes in
transatlantic trade
Pictures from
Tom Feeling’s 1995 Book:
“The Middle Passage: White Ships, Black
Cargo”
Growth of the African Population
• As tobacco farmers and
other cash-crop farmers
prospered, they greatly
expanded the size of
their farms.
• There were never
enough workers
available to plant, grow,
& harvest the crops, so
farmers turned to African
slaves to do this work.
• Many white colonists
believed every black
person was a savage
who needed to be taken
care of by white people.
Growth of the African Population
• When the Virginia Company
founded Jamestown in 1607,
there were no African slaves
in British North America.
• By 1700, however, there
were thousands of African
slaves throughout the British
colonies.
• The vast majority of these
slaves were located in the
southern colonies, where
they supplied the labor
required to support the
region’s agriculturally based
economy.
Growth of the African population
• By 1768, the English slave trade had a
figure of 53,000 slaves a year being
shipped to the North American continent.
Other slave traders included the French at
23,000, the Dutch at 11,000, and the
Portuguese at 8,700 slaves being
transported yearly from Africa. Estimates
of up to 10 million slaves took the Middle
Passage Voyage to reach the Americas.
The Middle Passage
• The sea voyage that carried
Africans to North America was
called the Middle Passage
because it was the middle
portion of a three-way voyage
made by the slave ships.
• First, British ships loaded with
rum, cloth, and other English
goods sailed to Africa, where
they were traded for Africans
originally enslaved by other
Africans.
• Then, in the Middle Passage,
the slaves would be transported
to the New World.
The Middle Passage
• The crew would buy tobacco and
other American goods using
profits they made from selling the
slaves in the colonies, & they
would ship the tobacco and
goods back to Britain.
• This process was repeated for
decades.
• It was said that people in the
colonial port cities could smell the
slave ships arriving before they
could see them.
• The slaves were packed like
bundles of firewood.
• About two of every ten slaves
died during the passage.
African American Culture
• In America, slaves attempted to
“make the best” of their lives
while living under the worst of
circumstances.
• Slave communities were rich with
music, dance, basket weaving, &
pottery making.
• Enslaved Africans brought with
them the arts & crafts skills of
their various tribes.
• Indeed, there could be a hundred
slaves working on one farm &
each slave might come from a
different tribe & a different part of
Africa.
SSUSH2
The student will trace the ways that the economy
and society of British North America developed.
C. Identify Benjamin Franklin as a symbol of
social mobility and individualism.
Benjamin Franklin
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Scientist
Inventor
American Statesman
Philosopher
Musician
Economist
Printer
Librarian
American Individual
Born January 17, 1706
Franklin died on April 17, 1790 at the age
of 84. 20,000 people attended the funeral
Benjamin Franklin,
writes journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson,
was that “rare Founding Father. The revolutionary
leader represents a political tradition that has
been all but forgotten today, one that prizes
pragmatism over moralism, religious tolerance
over fundamentalist rigidity, and
social mobility over class privilege.”
Benjamin Franklin : An American Life -
• America: Land of the Self-Made Man
• Benjamin Franklin best exemplified and first
publicized America as the land of the mobile
society. "He is the prototype of the self-made
man, and his life is the classic American success
story — the story of a man rising from the most
obscure of origins to wealth and international
preeminence," one of his many biographers,
Gordon S. Wood, wrote in 2004.
Benjamin Franklin (2c)
• Benjamin Franklin, along with
George Washington, is the best
known of America’s Founding
Fathers.
• Franklin was born into a poor
Boston family in 1706.
• At age 12, he became an
apprentice to one of his brothers,
who was a printer.
• At age 17, Franklin ran away to
Philadelphia to start a life of his
own choosing, independent from
his family.
• A few months later he sailed to
London to gain more experience
in the printing business.
Benjamin Franklin (2c)
• He returned to Philadelphia in
1726 as an experienced
printer, writer, and
businessman.
• These are just some examples
of how, throughout his life,
Franklin sought ways to
improve himself
(individualism) & to rise in
society (social mobility).
• Over his 84- year life, Franklin
succeeded in making himself
one of the world’s leading
authors, philosophers,
scientists, inventors, &
politicians.
“A penny saved is a
penny earned.”
“Early to bed and early to rise,
makes a man healthy, wealthy
and wise.”
-- Thoughts by
Benjamin Franklin from Poor
Richard's Almanac.”
Albany Plan of Union
SSUSH2
The student will trace the ways that the economy
and society of British North America developed.
D. Explain the significance of the Great
Awakening.
The Great Awakening
• Between 1720 and 1750 a widespread
and intense revival of interest in religion
occurred in the American colonies, a
phenomenon that supporters called the
Great Awakening.
George
Whitefield
The most famous
contributor to this
contagious religious
response was the
English itinerant
preacher George
Whitefield.
The Great Awakening
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Christian worship changed in the
northeastern colonies in the 1730s &
1740s.
Ministers said people would feel
God’s love only if they admitted their
sins.
People were told that each believer
should seek his or her own personal
& emotional relationship with God, &
that doing this was more important
than the Puritan idea of
congregations gathering together to
hear intellectual sermons.
These ministers attracted enormous
audiences & often traveled from
colony to colony to preach to anyone
who wanted to listen, regardless of
what church he or she might belong
to.
The Great Awakening
• Christianity grew, although
established churches lost
members to the new way of
Christian worship.
• Some preachers said American
society had become as corrupt as
the English society the colonists’
ancestors had escaped.
• As a result, some people started
saying that America needed to cut
its ties with Britain to keep its
religion pure.
• Jonathan Edwards & George
Whitefield were two of the most
famous preachers of the Great
Awakening.
Impact of the Great Awakening
A. New colleges to train ministers--Princeton,
Brown, Rutgers
B. Divisions in denominations: differences between those who
defined religion as a rational process (old lights) and those who
focused on experience (new lights).
C. Development of revivalism tradition in American religion. Future
outbreaks:
1) Second Great Awakening in first half of 19th century--camp
meetings and frontier revivals featuring emotional appeals and
spontaneous religious expressions
2) Charles G. Finney and Dwight Moody--19th century urban
revivalism with campaigns in many cities
3) Billy Sunday, Billy Graham and mass meetings--20th century
revivalism
Geographic Regions & Economies
• New England: lumber, fishing, merchants
• Middle: wheat, “bread basket” colonies
• Southern: Plantation system, tobacco,
rice, indigo