American Stories:
A History of the United States
Second Edition
Chapter
3
Putting Down Roots
Opportunity and
Oppression in
Colonial Society
1619–1692
American Stories: A History of the United States, Second Edition
Brands • Breen • Williams • Gross
The Mason Children David, Joanna, and
Abigail, c. 1670. An early portrait of three
children from a wealthy Massachusetts Bay Colony
family. (Source: The Freake-Gibbs Painter,
American. “The Mason Children: Davis, Joanna and
Abigail,” 1670. Oil on canvas, 39-1/2" 42-11/16.”
The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, San
Francisco, CA. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D.
Rockefeller, III.)
Putting Down Roots
1619–1692
• Social Stability: New England Colonies of the
Seventeenth Century
• The Challenge of the Chesapeake
Environment
• Race and Freedom in British America
• Blueprint for Empire
• Colonial Political Revolts
Families in the Atlantic Empire
• New Englanders migrated to America in
family groups
• Easier for young people to marry and
start families
Social Stability: New England
Colonies of the 17th Century
Sources of Stability: New England
Colonies of the 17th Century
• New Englanders replicated traditional
English social order
• Contrasted with experience in other
English colonies
• Explanation lies in development of
Puritan families
Immigrant Families
and New Social Order
• Puritans believed God ordained the
family
• Reproduced patriarchal English family
structure in New England
• Huge population growth caused by high
life expectancy more than high fertility
Immigrant Families
and New Social Order (cont’d)
• Greater longevity in New England
resulted in “invention” of grandparents
• Multigenerational families strengthened
social stability
Puritan Women in New England
• Women’s roles
 Farm labor, although not necessarily same
tasks as men
 Often outnumbered men 2:1 in church
membership
• Women could not control property
Puritan Women in New
England (cont’d)
• Divorce difficult for a woman to obtain
• Both genders accommodated
themselves to roles they believed God
ordained
Establishing a New Social Order
• Absence of very rich necessitated
creation of new social order
• New England social order:
 Local gentry of prominent, pious families
 Large population of independent yeomen
landowners loyal to local community
 Small population of landless laborers,
servants, poor
Establishing a New
Social Order (cont’d)
• Only moderate disparities of wealth
• Servitude was more an apprenticeship
The Challenge of the
Chesapeake Environment
The Challenge of the
Chesapeake Environment
• Despite similarities in background and
timing with New England, Chesapeake
settlements were very different
• High death rate most important source
of distinctiveness of Chesapeake
Families at Risk
• Normal family life impossible in Virginia
 Mostly young male indentured servants
 Most immigrants soon died
 In marriages, one spouse often died within
seven years
Families at Risk (cont’d)
• Extended families common
• Mortality rates so high that without
immigration, population would have
declined
The Structure of Planter Society
• Tobacco the basis of Chesapeake
wealth
• Large landowners had to have labor
under their control
 Gentry intermarried and become colony’s
elite leaders
The Structure of
Planter Society (cont’d)
• Freemen-largest class in Chesapeake
society
• Most freed at the end of indenture
The Structure of
Planter Society (cont’d)
• Lived on the edge of poverty
• Indentured Servants—Servitude a
temporary status
 Regarded their bondage as slavery
• Planters feared rebellion
• Post-1860s Stability
The Structure of
Planter Society (cont’d)
• Demographic shift after 1680 created
Creole elite
• Ownership of slaves consolidated
planter wealth and position
• Freemen found advancement more
difficult
Race and Freedom in
British America
Race and Freedom
in British America
• Indians decimated by disease
• European indentured servant pool
waned after 1660
• Enslaved Africans filled demand for
labor
Roots of Slavery
• First Africans came to Virginia in 1619
• Status of Africans in Virginia unclear for
fifty years
Virginian Luxuries Undated, unsigned, and
hidden on the back of another painting, the twopart painting Virginian Luxuries depicts a white
man kissing a black woman and whipping a black
man.
Roots of Slavery (cont’d)
• Rising black population in Virginia after
1672 prompted stricter slave laws
 Africans defined as slaves for life
 Slave status passed on to children
 White masters possessed total control of
slave life and labor
 Mixing of races not tolerated
Map 3.1 Origins and Destinations of African
Slaves, 1619–1760 Although many African
slaves were carried to Britain’s North American
colonies, far more slaves were sold in the
Caribbean sugar colonies and Brazil, where,
because of horrific health conditions, the death rate
far exceeded that of the British mainland colonies.
Constructing African
American Identities
• Slaves developed new Creole languages
• Enduring kinships mitigated hardships
• Developed new music and folk art with
African roots
• Adapted Christianity to include African
religious influences
Aboard a Slave Ship This watercolor, Slave Deck
of the Albanoz (1846), by naval officer Lieutenant
Godfrey Meynell, shows slaves packed with cargo in
the hold of a ship after being taken captive in West
Africa.
Slave Auctions This public notice
announces a slave auction to be held at
the Charles Town wharf (1769).
Blueprint for Empire
Blueprint for Empire
• English leaders ignored colonies until
1650s
• Restored monarchy of Charles II
recognized value of colonial trade
• Believed colonists should be more
controlled by mother country
Response to
Economic Competition
• “Mercantilism”
 One country’s gain is another country’s
loss
 Countries gain by control of world’s scarce
resources
• English trade regulations more ad hoc
responses to particular problems than
coherent mercantilist policy
Response to Economic
Competition (cont’d)
• Varieties of motivation
 Crown wanted money
 English merchants wanted to exclude
Dutch
 Parliament wanted stronger navy—
encouraged domestic shipbuilding industry
 Most people preferred more exports, less
imports
Wedding in the Slave Quarters Old Plantation,
a watercolor by an unknown artist (about 1800),
shows that African wedding customs survived
plantation slavery.
Regulating Colonial Trade
• Parliament passed Navigation Act in
1660
• Aimed at removing Dutch role in
commerce
• 1696—Admiralty Courts and Board of
Trade created
• Navigation Acts eventually benefited
colonial merchants
Colonial Political Revolts
Colonial Political Revolts
• English colonies experienced unrest at
the end of the 17th century
• Unrest not social revolution but a
contest between gentry “ins” and
“outs”
• Winners gained legitimacy for their rule
Civil War in Virginia:
Bacon’s Rebellion
• Discontent with Governor Berkeley’s
rule
 Green Spring faction controlled lucrative
economic activity
 Frontier population felt that Berkeley did
not protect them from Native Americans
Civil War in Virginia:
Bacon’s Rebellion (cont’d)
• Nathaniel Bacon united this discontent
into rebellion in 1676
• Rebellion allowed small farmers, blacks
and women to join, demand reforms
Civil War in Virginia:
Bacon’s Rebellion (cont’d)
• Rebels burned capital, caused great
disorder
• Governor William Berkeley regained
control, but was recalled to England
Civil War in Virginia:
Bacon’s Rebellion (cont’d)
• Rebellion collapsed after Bacon’s death
• Gentry recovered positions and united
over next decades to oppose royal
governors
The Glorious Revolution
in the Bay Colony
• Population divided by increased trade
 Brought non-Puritan settlers
 Navigation Acts inflicted direct royal
presence
• 1675—Metacomet led WampanoagNarragansett alliance against colonists
The Glorious Revolution
in the Bay Colony (cont’d)
• Colonists struggled to unite, to defeat
Indians
• Deaths totaled 1000+ Indians and
colonists
Contagion of Witchcraft
• Charges of witchcraft common
 Accused witches thought to have made a
compact with the devil
• Salem panic of 1691 much larger in
scope than previous accusations
 Twenty victims dead before trials halted in
late summer of 1692
Contagion of Witchcraft (cont’d)
• Ministers outside Salem condemned
practice of using “Spectral Evidence” in
trials
• Causes included church factionalism,
economic jealousy, misogyny, and fear
of Native American attack
Cotton Mather The publication of Cotton Mather’s
Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts
and Possessions (1689) contributed to the hysteria
that resulted in the Salem witchcraft trials. Mather
is shown here surrounded by some of the forms a
demon assumed in the “documented” case of an
English family besieged by witches.
Conclusion: Foundations of an
Atlantic Empire
Conclusion: Foundations of
an Atlantic Empire
• By 1700, England’s attitude toward the
colonies had changed dramatically
• Sectional differences within the colonies
were profound
• They were all part of Great Britain but
had little to do with each other
Timeline