The British Empire in America, 16601750
The Politics of Empire, 1660-1713
The Restoration Colonies
From the 1660s through the 1680s Charles II, after
restoring royal authority in England, extended
royal power across the English trading system by
implementing mercantilist theory through a series
of Navigation Acts.
Simultaneously, King Charles created new
colonies through royal grants of colonial
land to loyal aristocrats and gentry while
consolidating and subsuming other colonial
governments under royal control.
American colonials resisted these political
efforts and the Navigation Acts.
Charles II gave the Carolinas to his aristocratic
friends and gave his brother James, the Duke of
York, the land between the Delaware and
Connecticut rivers.
James took possession of New Netherland and
named it New York; the adjacent land was
established as New Jersey.
American colonials resisted these political
efforts and the Navigation Acts.
A series of popular revolts after the ouster of
the king in the Glorious Revolution of 1688
ended this royal experiment in colonial
integration.
In its place a series of colonial governments
were established in which English control
was limited and most power remained in the
hands of the colonial assemblies.
The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
(1669) prescribed a manorial system with
nobility and serfs.
Poor families in North Carolina refused to
work on large manors and chose to live on
modest farms.
South Carolinians imposed their own design
of government and attacked Indian
settlements to acquire slaves for trade.
South Carolina remained an ill-governed
and violence-ridden frontier settlement until
the 1720s.
Pennsylvania, designed as a refuge for
Quakers persecuted in England, developed a
pacifistic policy toward the Native
Americans and became prosperous.
Penn's Frame of Government (1681)
guaranteed religious freedom for all
Christians and allowed all property-owning
men to vote and hold office.
Ethnic diversity, pacifism, and freedom of
conscience made Pennsylvania the most
open and democratic of the Restoration
colonies.
From Mercantilism to Dominion
In the 1650s the English government
imposed mercantilism, via the Navigation
Acts, which regulated colonial commerce
and manufacturing.
The Revenue Act of 1673 imposed a
"plantation duty" on sugar and tobacco
exports and created a staff of customs
officials to collect it.
In wars between 1652 and 1674, the English
ended Dutch supremacy in the West African
slave trade. The English also dominated
Atlantic commerce.
Many Americans resisted the mercantilist
laws as burdensome and intrusive. To
enforce the laws, English officials pursued a
punitive legal strategy.
The accession of James on to the throne
prompted English officials to create a
centralized imperial system in America.
In 1686 the Connecticut and Rhode Island colonies
were merged with those of Massachusetts Bay and
Plymouth to form the Dominion of New England,
a royal province.
Two years later New York and New Jersey were
added to the Dominion.
Sir Edmund Andros, governor of the Dominion,
was empowered to abolish existing legislative
assemblies and rule by decree.
Andros advocated worship in the
Church of England, banned town
meetings, and challenged land titles.
The Puritans protested to the king
regarding Andros's demands, but their
protests went unheeded.
The Glorious Revolution of 1688
In 1688 James's wife gave birth to a son
raising the prospect of a Catholic heir to the
throne.
In response, Protestant Parliamentary
leaders carried out a bloodless coup known
as the Glorious Revolution.
Mary, James's Protestant daughter by his
first wife, and her husband William were
enthroned.
Queen Mary II and William
III accepted a Bill of Rights
that limited royal prerogatives
and increased personal
liberties and parliamentary
powers.
Parliamentary leaders
relied upon John
Locke's Two Treatises
on Government (1690)
to justify their coup.
Locke rejected divine
right theories of
monarchical rule.
Locke's celebration of individual rights and
representative government had a lasting
influence in America.
The Glorious Revolution sparked colonial
rebellions against royal governments in
Massachusetts, Maryland, and New York.
In 1689 Andros was shipped back to
England and the new monarchs broke up the
Dominion of New England.
The monarchs did not restore Puritan
dominated government, instead they created
a new royal colony of Massachusetts.
Colonies that were of minor economic or
political importance retained their corporate
governments or proprietary institutions
while royal governors ruled the lucrative
staple-producing settlements.
Imperial Wars and Native
Peoples
Between 1689 and 1815 Britain and France
fought wars for dominance of Western
Europe.
These wars involved a number of Native
American warriors armed with European
weapons.
The Spanish Succession (1702-1713) pitted
Britain against France and Spain (Queen
Anne's War).
So that they might help protect their English
settlement, whites in the Carolinas armed
the Creek peoples to fend off French and
Spanish attacks.
The Creeks took this opportunity to become
the dominant tribe in the region.
Native Americans also played a central role
in the fighting in the Northeast; aided by the
French the Abnakis and Mohawks took
revenge on the Puritans
The New York frontier remained quiet due
to the fur trade and the Iroquois' policy of
"aggressive neutrality."
Britain used victories in Europe to win
territorial and commercial concessions in
the Americas in the Treaty of Utrecht
(1713), solidifying Britain's supremacy and
bringing peace to North America.
The Imperial Slave Economy
The South Atlantic System
The South Atlantic system was composed of
land seized from the Indians, slave labor
from Africa, and investment capital from
Europe.
Ships loaded with European manufactured
goods sailed to West Africa where the cargo
was exchanged for African slaves. Then
came the middle passage across the Atlantic
Slaves were sold in the Caribbean and in
North American colonies.
The ships loaded with the sugar, tobacco
and cotton produced in the colonies sailed
back to England and France where the raw
materials were transformed into finished
goods and exported to other countries
Due to the Navigation Acts, by 1750 re-exports of
American sugar and tobacco accounted for half of
all British exports.
Significant profits were made from the slave trade;
7 million slaves were brought to America between
1700 and 1810.
The slave trade changed West African
society by promoting centralized states and
military conquest.
African people of noble birth enslaved and
sold those of lesser status.
The Atlantic trade prompted harsher forms
of slavery in Africa, eroding the dignity of
human life.
The Africans that were forced to endure the
"Middle Passage" suffered the bleakest fate.
Slavery in the Chesapeake and South
Carolina
After 1700 planters in Virginia and
Maryland imported thousands of slaves and
created a "slave society."
Slavery was increasingly defined in racial
terms; in Virginia virtually all resident
Africans were declared slaves.
Living conditions in Maryland and Virginia
allowed slaves to live relatively long lives.
By the middle of the 1700s, American-born
slaves formed a majority among
Chesapeake blacks.
The slave population in South Carolina
suffered many deaths and had few births;
therefore, the importation of new slaves "reafricanized" the black population.
There were no American colonies in which
any one African people or language became
dominant
African American Community
The acquisition of a common language and
a more equal gender ratio were prerequisite
for the creation of an African American
community.
As enslaved blacks forged a new identity in
America, their lives continued to be shaped
by their African past.
African creativity was limited because
slaves were denied education and had few
material goods.
Slaves who resisted their rigorous work
routine were punished with bodily harm,
including amputation.
The Stono rebellion in South Carolina was
the largest slave uprising of the eighteenth
century.
White militiamen killed many of the Stono
rebels and dispersed the rest, preventing a
general uprising.
“Stono's rebellion was only one among
the 250 rebellions documented in the
Colonies and later in the southern United
States. In 1822, a conspiracy to incite
9,000 slaves became known as Vesey's
Rebellion. After Nat Turner's Rebellion
in 1831, where nearly 60 white people
were killed, Turner was executed. When
the slave owners caught up with the
rebels from the Stono River in 1739,
they engaged the 60 to 100 slaves in a
battle. More than 20 white Carolinians,
and nearly twice as many black
Carolinians, were killed. As a result,
South Carolina's lawmakers enacted a
harsher slave code. This new code
severely limited the privileges of slaves.
They were no longer allowed to grow
their own food, assemble in groups, earn
their own money or learn to read. Some
of these restrictions were already in
place, but they had not been strictly
enforced.”
Copied from
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/colonial/jb_colonial_stono_2.html
See also: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/colonial/jb_colonial_stono_1.html
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/sep09.html
Slave Rebellion and Revolution
Collective (group) actions also included
running away together, but could also mean
organized rebellion.
Most important rebellions:
– Stono Rebellion, South Carolina, 1739
– New York City, 1712, 1741
– Gabriel’s Rebellion, Richmond, 1800
– Vesey’s Rebellion, Charleston, 1822
– Nat Turner, Virginia, 1830
• Religious prophet led revolt of 60 slaves
• Killed 55 whites
As the southern colonies became slave
societies, life changed for whites as well as
blacks.
As men lived longer, patriarchy within the
family reappeared.
The planter elite exercised authority over
yeomen and black slaves.
To prevent rebellion, the southern gentry
paid attention to the concerns of middling
and poor whites.
By 1770 the majority of English
Chesapeake families owned a slave, giving
them a stake in the exploitive labor system.
Taxes were gradually reduced for the poorer
whites, and poor yeomen and some tenants
were allowed to vote.
In return, the planter elite expected the
yeomen and tenants to elect them to office
and defer to their power.
By the 1720s the gentry took on the
trappings of wealth, modeling themselves
after the English aristocracy.
The profits of the South Atlantic system
helped form an increasingly well-educated,
refined, and stable ruling class.
The Northern Maritime Economy
The South Atlantic system tied the whole
British Empire together economically.
West Indian trade created the first American
merchant fortunes and the first urban
industries.
The expansion of Atlantic commerce in the
eighteenth century fueled rapid growth in
the North American interior as well as
seaport cities and coastal towns.
A small group of wealthy landowners and
merchants formed the top rank of the
seaport society.
Artisan and shopkeeper families formed the
middle ranks of seaport society, and
laboring men, women, and children formed
the lowest ranks.
Between 1660 and 1750, involvement in the
South Atlantic system brought economic
uncertainty as well as jobs to northern
workers and farmers.
The New Politics of Empire, 17131750
The Rise of Colonial Assemblies
The triumph of the South Atlantic system
changed the politics of empire. The British
were content to rule the colonies with a
gentle hand.
American representative assemblies wished
to limit the powers of the crown and
maintain their authority over taxes.
The colonial legislatures gradually won
partial control of the budget and the
appointment of local officials.
The rising power of the colonial assemblies
created an elitist rather than a democratic
political system.
Neither elitist assemblies nor wealthy
property owners could impose unpopular
edicts on the people.
Crowd actions were a regular part of
political life in America and were used to
enforce community values.
By the 1750s most colonies had
representative political institutions that were
responsive to popular pressure and
increasingly immune to British control.
Salutary Neglect
"Salutary neglect," more relaxed royal
supervision of internal colonial affairs, was
a byproduct of the political system
developed by Sir Robert Walpole.
Radical Whigs argued that Walpole used
patronage and bribery to create a strong
Crown Party.
Landed gentlemen argued that
Walpole's high taxes and bloated
royal bureaucracy threatened the
liberties of the British people.
Colonists, maintaining that royal
governors likewise abused their
patronage powers, tried to
enhance the powers of provincial
representative assemblies.
Protecting the Mercantile System of
Trade
Walpole's main concern was to protect
British commercial interests in America
from the Spanish and the French.
Walpole arranged for Parliament to
subsidize Georgia to protect the valuable
rice colony of South Carolina.
To resist British expansion, Spanish naval
forces sparked the War of Jenkins's Ear in
1739. Or did they?
Walpole used this provocation to launch a
predatory war against Spain's American
Empire.
The War of Jenkins's Ear became a part of a
general European conflict bringing a new
threat from France
Militiamen captured the French naval
fortress of Louisbourg but had to return it at
war's end in 1748.
Colonial merchants took advantage of a
loophole in the Navigation Acts that
allowed Americans to own ships and
transport goods.
The Molasses Act of 1733 placed a high tariff
on imports of French molasses, but sugar
prices rose in the late 1730s, so the act was
not enforced.
The Currency Act (1751) prevented colonies
from establishing new land banks and prohibited the use of public currency to pay private
debts.
In the 1740s British officials vowed to replace
salutary neglect with rigorous imperial
control.
Act/Regulation
Date
Significance/Features
Navigation Act
1651
•Required all crews to be at least 1/2
English in nationality
•Most goods must be carried on English
or colonial ships
•Goal: eliminate Dutch competition
from colonial trading routes
Navigation Act
1660
•Required all colonial trade to be on
English ships
•Master and 3/4 of crew must be
English
•Long list of "enumerated goods"
developed, including tobacco, sugar,
rice, that could only be shipped to
England or an English colony
Staple Act
1663
•Required goods bound for the colonies
shipped from Africa, Asia, or Europe to
first be landed in England before
shipping to America.
Act/Regulation
Date
Significance/Features
Plantation Duty Act
1673
•Required all colonial trade to be on
English ships
•Master and 3/4 of crew must be
English
•Long list of "enumerated goods"
developed, including tobacco, sugar,
rice, that could only be shipped to
England or an English colony
Navigation Act
1696
•Further tightened earlier Navigation
Acts
•Created system of admiralty courts to
enforce trade regulations and punish
smugglers
•Customs officials given power to issue
writs of assistance to board ships and
search for smuggled goods
Act/Regulation
Date
Woolens Act
1699
Hat Act
1732
Molasses Act
1733
American Revenue 1764
Act (Sugar Act)
Significance/Features
•To prevent competition with English
producers, prohibited colonial export of
woolen cloth.
•Prohibited export of colonial-produced
hats.
•All non-English imported molasses
taxed heavily to encourage importation
of British West Indian molasses
•Lord Grenville institutes new policies
to generate revenue by combining new
duties on imported goods with strict
collection provisions. Tax on French
West Indies molasses was actually
lowered, but enforcement attempted to
end bribes and smuggling.