What is Salutary Neglect?
Background
Jamestown, 1607
Who were they?
Englishmen, not “colonists”
Rights, privileges, great king, amazing flag,
chips, naught, queue, etc., etc.
Fun Fact Time
They ate each other.
Jamestown, 1619
• Stopped eating each other
• Imported the first slaves
• Created the Virginia House of Burgesses
First
“representative”
body in the
future U.S.A.
Why does the VAHOB matter?
• Why would they create a governing
organization?
• Because they needed governing.
• Why wasn’t Britain doing it?
– Distance?
– Didn’t care?
– Busy with other things?
Salutary Neglect, Pilgrim Style
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Called “Separatist” Puritans
Separatists….
Separate
Didn’t like Anglican Church
Anglican….
Englican
England
Didn’t like England
Pilgrim/Puritan/Massachusetts
• 1620 – Mayflower Compact – agreed to create
a government based on majority rule
• Established town meetings
• 1636 – Created Harvard
Shows they didn’t need
England for governing
or for education.
Other Salutary Neglect Stuff
• Colonists fought 2 wars against New France
(Canada, aye), with little British help
• Britain passed a lot of laws that we ignored
and they didn’t enforce (most involved trade)
• Colonial legislatures set their
own tax rates
• We developed our own view
of what it meant to be
“British”
• It wasn’t very realistic.
1754-1763: French and Indian War
•
•
•
•
•
•
Not between the French and Indians
Also called the “Seven Years War”
Actually nine years
British and colonists vs. French and Indians
French and Indians….
French = lose, Indians = die
• French and Indians =
The end of Salutary Neglect
• We win the war, but don’t get to go to
Disneyland
• British begin to pay more attention to us
• A lot more attention
• Taxes
• New trade laws
• And, this time, they
enforce them