Chapter 3: Society and Culture in
Provincial America

What is indentured servitude?

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Young men and women bound (legal obligation) themselves to masters for approximately 4 to 5 years.
Male indentures were to receive benefits at the end of their servitude (clothing, tools, and occasionally land).
Most indentured servants came to American voluntarily, others did not.
In 1617, the English government shipped convicts to America to be sold into servitude.
Indentured servants avoided the southern colonies.
Indentured servitude

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High death rates for women
Easy entrance into medical field with no or very little professional training.
Women established themselves as midwives.
Medicine in the Colonies

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Tobacco cultivation
Limited supply of African laborers during 17 th century
Middle Passage
Unclear status of black laborers in America
In the 18 th century, a clear distinction between white slaves and black slaves had been established.
English assumptions
Slave codes
Origins of Slavery

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English immigration began to decrease
Other European immigration on the rise:
French, Irish, German, Swiss, Welsh,
Scottish, and Scandinavian
Germans
Changing Sources of European
Immigration

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Tobacco was the base of the economy.
South Carolina and
Georgia
Rice was the staple crop
Dependent on African slaves
Indigo in South
Carolina
Eliza Lucas
Southern Economy

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Soil and Climate
Metal industry in
Massachusetts
Iron act of 1750
Natural resource industry
Northern Economy

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First systems emerged in Virginia and
Maryland.
Charles Carroll of Maryland
17 th century colonial plantations
Larger plantations
Plantation System

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African slaves living conditions
Africans developed a strong family structure
Family was in jeopardy most of the time
Stono Rebellion
Plantation Slavery

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1680’s-1690’s
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem witch trials
Adolescent girls displayed unusual behavior.
Accused witches were middle-aged women, widowed, with few or no children.
“Independent” women challenged the norms of Puritan society.
Witchcraft Phenomenon

o o Roger Williams
Anti-Catholicism o
Jews

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First great American revival
1730’s-1740’s
Break from their past and start a new relationship with god
Jonathan Edwards
The Great Awakening

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Scientific and intellectual discoveries in
Europe
Reason vs. faith
Seek guidance within themselves
17 th century European giants: John Locke and Francis Bacon.
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson,
Thomas Paine, and James Madison
The Enlightenment