Name: ______________________________________ Period: _____ Due Date: _______________
Time Period 2
-The Salutary Neglect
Period1619-1775
Contents
Chapter
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
5
5
Document
Mayflower Compact
Of Plymouth Plantation
Ann Putnam’s Deposition
Virginia Fortification Laws
Contract of Indenture
Reverend Peter Fontaine’s View of Slavery
The Price of a Human Being
Jonathan Edwards Paints the Horrors of Hell
Observation of the American Colonies
Page
1
3
4
5
8
10
12
14
16
Mayflower Compact, William Bradford, 1620
In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our
dread Sovereign Lord King James, . . . having undertaken for the glory of God, and
advancement of the Christian faith, and the honor of our King and country, a voyage to
plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do. . . solemnly and mutually, in the
presence of God and one another, covenant [pledge] and combine ourselves together into a
civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends
aforesaid; and by virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws,
ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet
[fitting] and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due
submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at
Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James of
England, France, and Ireland, . . . and of Scotland. . . . Anno Domini, 1620.
[Signed by the heads of the families.]
Ch. 3
Mayflower Compact, William Bradford
(1620)
Questions
1. How is James I illustrated? ______________________________________________________
2. Where are the pilgrims going? ____________________________________________________
3. Why are they going to the New World? _____________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
4. How are these new “laws” described? ______________________________________________
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Connections
Because the “heads” of the families signs this compact, what does this illustrate about the Pilgrim
society?
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William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation
From Book II, Chapter XXXII, Anno Dom: 1642
[A HORRIBLE CASE OF BESTIALITY]
And after the time of the writing of these things befell a very sad accident of the like foul
nature in this government, this very year, which I shall now relate.
There was a youth whose name was Thomas Granger. He was servant to an honest man of
Duxbury, being about 16 or 17 years of age. (His father and mother lived at the same time at
Scituate.) He was this year detected of buggery, and indicted for the same, with a mare, a
cow, two goats, five sheep, two calves and a turkey. Horrible it is to mention, but the truth of
the history requires it. He was first discovered by one that accidentally saw his lewd practice
towards the mare. (I forbear particulars.) Being upon it examined and committed, in the end
he not only confessed the fact with that beast at that time, but sundry times before and at
several times with all the rest of the forenamed in his indictment. And this his free confession
was not only in private to the magistrates (though at first he strived to deny it) but to sundry,
both ministers and others; and afterwards, upon his indictment, to the whole Court and jury;
and confirmed it at his execution. And whereas some of the sheep could not so well be
known by his description of them, others with them were brought before him and he
declared which were they and which were not. And accordingly he was cast by the jury and
condemned, and after executed about the 8th of September, 1642. A very sad spectacle it
was. For first the mare and then the cow and the rest of the lesser cattle were killed before
his face, according to the law, Leviticus xx. 15 and then he himself was executed. The cattle
were all cast into a great and large pit that was digged of purpose for them, and no use
made of any part of them.
Ann Putnam's Deposition, 1692
Who testifieth and saith that on 20th of April, 1692 at evening she saw the Apparishton of a
minister at which she was grieviously affrighted and cried out oh dreadfull: dreadfull her is a
minister com, what are Ministers wicthes to: whence com you and What is your name for I
will complains of you tho you be a Minister: if you be a wizzard.... and Immediately I was
tortored by him being Racked and allmost choaked by him: and he tempted me to write in
his book which I Refused with loud out cries and said I would not writ in his book tho he
tore me al to peaces but tould him that it was a dreadfull thing: that he which was a Minister
that should teach children to feare God should com to perswad poor creatures to give their
souls to the devill; oh, dreadfull, dreadfull, tell me your name that I may know who you are;
then againe he tortored me and urged me to writ in his book; which I refused and then
presently he tould me that his name was George Burroughs, and that he had had three
wives: and that he had bewicthed the Two first of them to death; and that he had kiled Miss
T. Lawson because she was so unwilling to goe from the village, and also killed Mr Lawson's
child because he went to the eastward with Sir Edmon and preached to the souldiers and
that he had made Abigail Hobbs a wicth and several wicthes more: and he has contin- wed
ever sence; by times tempting me to write in his book and grievously tortoring me by
beating, pinching and almost choaking me severall times a day and he also tould me that he
was above a wicth he was a conjuror. . . .
Virginia Fornication Laws
[March 1661]
For restraint of the filthy sin of fornication. Be it enacted that what man or woman soever
shall commit fornication, he and she so offending, upon proof thereof by confession or
evidence shall pay each of them five hundred pounds of tobacco fine, (a) to the use of the
parish or parishes they dwell in, and be bound to their good behavior, and be imprisoned
until they find security to be bound with them, and if they or either of them committing
fornication as aforesaid be servants then the masters of such servants so offending shall pay
the five hundred pounds of tobacco as aforesaid to the parish aforesaid, for which the said
servant shall serve half a year after the time by indenture or custom is expired; and if the
master shall refuse to pay the fine then the servant shall be whipped; and if it happen a
bastard child to be gotten in such fornication then the woman if a servant in regard of the
loss and trouble to her master does sustain by her having a bastard shall serve two years after
her time by indenture is expired or pay two thousand pounds of tobacco to her master
besides the fine and punishment for committing the offense and the reputed father to put in
security to keep the child and save the parish harmless.
[October 1661]
Women Servants got with Child by Their Masters . . .
Whereas by act of Assembly every women servant having a bastard is to serve two years, and
later experience show that some dissolute masters have gotten their maids with child, and yet
claim the benefit of their service, and on the contrary if a woman got with child by her master
should be freed from that service it might probably induce such loose persons to lay all their
bastards to their masters; it is therefore thought fit and accordingly enacted, and be it enacted
henceforward that each women servant got with child by her master shall after her time by
indenture or custom is expired be by the churchwardens of the parish where she lived when
she was brought to bed of such bastard, sold for two years, and the tobacco to be employed
by the vestry for the use of the parish.
Negro Women's Children . . .
Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a negro
women should be slave or free, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this present grand
assembly, that all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to
the condition of the mother, And that if any Christian shall commit fornication with a negro
man or women, he or she so offending shall pay double the fines imposed by the former act.
Page 5
[April 1691]
. . . For prevention of that abominable mixer and spurious issue which hereafter may increase
in this dominion, as well by negroes, mulattoes, and Indians intermarrying with English, or
other white women, as by their unlawful accompanying with one another, Be it enacted by
the authority aforesaid, and it is hereby enacted, that for the time to come, what soever
English or other white man or woman being free shall intermarry with a negro, mulatto, or
Indian man or woman bond or free, shall within three months after such marriage be
banished and removed from this dominion forever, and that the justices of each respective
county within this dominion make their particular care, that this act be put in effectual
execution. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, and it is hereby by enacted,
That if any English women being free shall have a bastard child by any negro or mulatto, she
pay the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, within one month after such bastard child shall be
born, to the Church wardens of the parish where she shall be delivered of such child, and in
default of such payment she shall be taken into the possession of the said Church wardens
and disposed of for five years . . .
Page 6
Ch 4
Virginia Fornication Laws
(1661, 1691)
Questions
Women’s Children
1. Which children will be free? ______________________________________________________
2. What happens if a Christian commits fornication with an African? ______________________
______________________________________________________________________________
April 1691
3. What happens if an Englishman/woman marries an African, mulatto, or an Indian?
______________________________________________________________________________
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4. What happens if a woman has a child with an African, mulatto, or an Indian?
________________________________________________________________________________
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Connections
How do the English treat the mixing of the races different from that of the Spanish? Explain.
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Page 7
Source: Contract of Indenture, 1619
That the said Robert does hereby covenant [pledge] faithfully to serve the said Sir
William, Richard, George, and John for three years from the day of his landing in the
land of Virginia, there to be employed in the lawful and reasonable works and labors of
them and to be obedient to such governors as they shall from time to time appoint and
set over him. In consideration whereof, the said Sir William, Richard, George, and John
do covenant with the said Robert to transport him (with God's assistance) with all
convenient speed into the said land of Virginia at their expense, and there to maintain
him with convenient diet and apparel suitable for such a servant; and in the end of the
said term to make him a free man of the said country, thereby to enjoy all the liberties,
freedoms, and privileges of a freeman there; and to grant to the said Robert thirty
acres of land within their territory.
Page 8
Ch 4
Contract of Indenture
(1619)
Questions
1. What are the terms of the agreement? _____________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
2. What will the indentured servant eat? _____________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
3. Who is the financing the trip to Virginia? ___________________________________________
4. What happens after the contract has ended? ________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Connections
How is the life of an indentured servant similar and different from that to a slave?
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Page 9
Reverend Peter Fontaine’s View of Slavery
Introduction
Following Bacon’s Rebellion, tobacco culture continued to flourish. The Virginians had early learned that the
path to wealth and leisure involved the use of African slaves. Even ministers of the gospel parroted the arguments
in behalf of slavery, as is evident in this brutally frank letter by the Reverend Peter Fontaine of Westover, Virginia,
to his brother Moses.
Source
As to your second query, if enslaving our fellow creatures be a practice agreeable to Christianity, it is
answered in a great measure in many treatises at home, to which I refer you. I shall only mention
something of our present state here.
Like Adam, we are all apt to shift off the blame from ourselves and lay it upon others, how justly in our
case you may judge. The Negroes are enslaved by the Negroes themselves before they are purchased
by the masters of the ships who bring them here. It is, to be sure, at our choice whether we buy them
or not, so this then is our crime, folly, or whatever you will please to call it.
But our Assembly, foreseeing the ill consequences of importing such numbers among us, has often
attempted to lay a duty upon them which would amount to a prohibition, such as £10 or £20 a head;
but no governor dare pass such a law, having instructions to the contrary from the Board of Trade at
home. By this means they are forced upon us, whether we will or will not. This plainly shows the
African Company has the advantage of the colonies, and may do as it pleases with the Ministry.
Indeed, since we have been exhausted of our little stock of cash by the war, the importation has
stopped; our poverty then is our best security. There is no more picking for their ravenous jaws upon
bare bones; but should we begin to thrive, they will be at same again. All our taxes are now laid upon
slaves and on shippers of tobacco, which they wink at while we are in danger of being torn from
them, but we dare not do it in time of peace, it being looked upon as the highest presumption to lay
any burden upon trade. This is our part of the grievance, but to live in Virginia without slaves is
morally impossible.
Before our troubles, you could not hire a servant or slave for love or money, so that, unless robust
enough to cut wood, to go to mill, to work at the hoe, etc., you must starve or board in some family
where they both fleece and half starve you. There is no set price upon corn, wheat, and provisions; so
they take advantage of the necessities of strangers, who are thus obliged to purchase some slaves
and land. This, of course, draws us all into the original sin and curse of the country of purchasing
slaves, and this is the reason we have no merchants, traders, or artificers of any sort but what become
planters in a short time.
A common laborer, white or black, if you can be so much favored as to hire one, is 1s . sterling or 15d.
currency per day; a bungling carpenter, 2s. or 2s. 6d.. per day; besides diet and lodging. That is, for a
lazy fellow to get wood and water, £19 16s. 3d. current per annum; add to this £7 or £8 more and
you have a slave for life.
Page 10
Ch 4
Reverend Peter Fontaine’s View of Slavery
(1757)
Questions
1. Who is Adam? __________________________________________________________________
2. What is the condition of the blacks in Africa? _______________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
3. What is the best way to stop slavery? ______________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
4. What would be “morally impossible”? ______________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
5. What would be cheaper, to hire a laborer or to buy a slave? ___________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Connections
How does this individual illustrate why slavery is justified?
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Page 11
The Price of a Human Being
Prices can be calculated from bills of sale, inventories, and other historic documents. In addition, at
least one "price table" has been located.
Age
Value
Age
Value
Age
Value
1
100
19
850
36
500
2
125
20
900
37
475
3
150
21
875
38
450
4
175
22
850
39
425
5
200
23
825
40
400
6
225
24
800
41
375
7
250
25
775
42
350
8
300
26
750
43
325
9
350
27
725
44
300
10
400
28
700
45
275
11
450
29
675
46
250
12
500
30
650
47
225
13
550
31
625
48
200
14
600
32
600
49
175
16
650
33
575
50
150
17
750
34
550
55
100
18
800
35
525
60
50
Other documents, however, make it clear that the price of a slave was variable. Slaves were often
divided into classes, such as









Number One Men (19-25 years old)
Fair/Ordinary Men
Best Boys (15-18 years old)
Best Boys (10-14 years old)
Number One Women
Fair/Ordinary Women
Best Girls (10-15 years old)
Women with One or Two Children
Families (also called "fancies" or "scrubs")
Page 12
An 1857 account reveals these values:
Class
Value in Dollars, 1857 Value in Dollars, 1998
Number 1 men
1250-1450
20,800-24,100
Fair/Ordinary Men
1000-1150
16,700-19,200
Best Boys (Age 15-18) 1100-1200
18,300-20,000
Best Boys (Age 10-14) 500-575
8,300-17,900
Number 1 Women
1050-1225
17,500-20,400
Fair/Ordinary Women
1050-1225
14,200-17,100
Best Girls
500-1000
8,300-16,700
Families
"sell in their usual proportions"
Page 13
Jonathan Edwards Paints the Horrors of Hell (1741)
Introduction
Jonathan Edwards, a New England Congregational minister, was, like George Whitefield, a Great Awakener.
Tall, slender and delicate, Edwards had a weak voice but a powerful mind. He still ranks as the greatest
Protestant theologian ever produced in America. His command of the English language was exceptional, and his
vision of hell, peopled with pre-damned infants and others, was horrifying. As he preached hellfire to his Enfield,
Connecticut, congregation, there was a great moaning and crying: “What shall I do to be saved? Oh, I am going to
hell!” Men and women groveled on the floor or lay inert on the benches.
Source
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect
over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks
upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to
have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful
venomous serpent is in ours.
You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing
but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing
else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you were suffered to awake again in this world,
after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not
dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up. There is no
other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God,
provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is
nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless
pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked
and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender
thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and
burn it asunder…
It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must
suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward,
you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts,
and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any
mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of
millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when
you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know
that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite.
Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say
about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For
"who knows the power of God's anger?"
How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in the danger of this great wrath and
infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born
Page 14
again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh that you would
consider it, whether you be young or old!
There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will
actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats
they sit, or what thoughts they now have. It may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things
without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons,
promising themselves that they shall escape.
If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation, that was to be the
subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an
awful sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the congregation lift up a
lamentable and bitter cry over him!
But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell? And it would be a
wonder, if some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short time, even before this year
is out. And it would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of this meeting
house, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before tomorrow morning!
Ch 5
Jonathan Edwards Paints the Horrors of Hell
(1741)
Questions
1. How is God depicted? ____________________________________________________________
2. Why are you not in Hell yet? ______________________________________________________
3. When will the misery end? _______________________________________________________
Page 15
Observation of the American Colonies, Peter Kalm, 1751
The governor of the province of New York resides in this city and has a palace in the fort.
Among those who have been entrusted with this post, William Burnet deserves to be had in
perpetual memory. His great diligence in promoting the welfare of this province is what
makes the principal merit of his character. The people of New York therefore still reckon him
the best governor they ever had, and think that they cannot praise his services too much.
An assembly of deputies, from all the particular districts of the province of New York, is held at
New York once or twice every year. It may be looked upon as a parliament in miniature.
Everything relating to the good of the province is here debated. The governor calls the
assembly and dissolves it at his pleasure.
The king appoints the governor according to his royal pleasure; but the inhabitants of the
province make up the governor's salary. Therefore, a man entrusted with this job has greater
or lesser income, according as he knows how to gain the confidence of the inhabitants. There
are examples of governors, in this and other provinces of North America, who, by their
disagreements with the inhabitants of their respective governments, have lost their whole
salary, his Majesty having no power to make them pay it.
At the assembly, the old laws are reviewed and amended, and new ones were made, and the
regulation and circulation of currency, together with all other affairs of that kind, are
determined. For each English colony in North America is independent of the other, and has
its proper laws and currency, and may be looked upon in several lights as a state by itself.
Consequently, in time of war, things go on very slowly and irregularly here; for not only the
sense of one province is sometimes directly opposite to that of another; but frequently the
views of the governor, and those of the assembly of the same province are quite different. So
that it is easy to see, that while the people are quarreling about the best and cheapest
manner of carrying on the war, an enemy has it in his power to take one place after another.
It is of great advantage to the crown of England that the North American colonies are near a
country under the government of the French, like Canada. For the English colonies in this part
of the world have increased so much in their number of inhabitants, and in their riches, that
they almost compete with Old England. Now in order to keep up the authority and trade of
their mother country, and to answer several other purposes, they are forbidden to establish
new manufactures, which would turn to the disadvantage of the British commerce. They are
not allowed to dig for gold or silver, unless they send them to England immediately; they have
not the liberty of trading to any parts that do not belong to the British dominions. These and
some other restrictions cause the inhabitants of the English colonies to grow less tender for
their mother country. This coldness is kept up by the many foreigners, such as Germans,
Dutch, and French, settled here, and living among the English, who commonly have no
particular attachment to Old England.
I have been told by Englishmen, and not only by such as were born in America, but even by
such as carne from Europe, that the English colonies in North America, in the space of thirty
Page 16
or fifty years, would be able to form a state by themselves, entirely independent of Old
England. But as the whole country which lies along the seashore is unguarded, and on the
land side is harassed by the French in times of war, these dangerous neighbors are sufficient
to prevent the connection of the colonies with their mother country from being quite broken
off. The English government has therefore sufficient reason to consider the French in North
America as the best means of keeping the colonies in their due submission.
Page 17
Ch 5
Observation of the American Colonies
(1751)
Questions
1. How do the Governor of New York and his constituents act towards one another? _________
______________________________________________________________________________
2. What is the Assembly of Deputies like? _____________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
3. In what different ways do the English colonies in North America act towards one another?
________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
4. Why is it good for England to have France in Canada? _________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
5. How does French Canada hurt the colonists? ________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
6. How do the foreigners (immigrants) act toward Great Britain in the colonies? ____________
______________________________________________________________________________
Connections
According to this article; why would any conflict between Britain and France be a negative?
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Page 18