British Empire in North America
Regions in 18th Century North America
Similarities among all 13 colonies
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Mostly English
Rights of Englishmen
Self-government
Religious toleration
Educational opportunity (most NE; least South)
Economic & social opportunity
Increasingly unique identity
Differences among colonial regions
• New England: MA, CT, RI, NH – Puritans
dominated, less religious tolerance, more industry,
less farm land
• Middle Colonies: NY, NJ, PA, DL – ethnically
diverse, religious tolerance, Quakers, farming,
lumbering, ship building, shipping, trade, fur
trapping
• Southern Colonies: MD, VA, NC, SC, GA –
plantation economy, aristocratic, slavery, cash
crops, scattered population, some religious
toleration
Life in the Colonies
New England
• 250,000 in 1700, to
2.5 million in 1770s
• Most lived in
town>worked on
outskirts
• town meetings
• (rocky soil):
subsistence
farming
Middle Colonies
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Fertile soil, bigger harvests,
wheat & grain
Industries
– Home based crafts: carpentry,
silversmith, flour making
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Iron works> by 1760 Penn.
Produce more iron than England
Cultural Diversity
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German Immigrants: 100,000
came to Pennsylvania
– Scots-Irish>Protestant
– Less loyal to British Crown
Southern Colonies
• Rich soil, warm climate
• Tobacco, Rice, Indigo
• Tidewater
– Plantations on rivers>access to ships
– Each plantation self-contained community
• Slave cabins, chapel, workshops
• Backcountry
– Piedmont/Appalachian Mts.
– Independent small farmers
– Lacked wealth and influence
Ethnic Groups in 18th c.
British N. America
Family Roles
• Family foundation of colonial
society
• Farm both work & home
• Men heads of family
– Arranged apprenticeships for
sons
• Married women had few rights
• Widows could be teachers, nurses,
and seamtresses
• Child mortality rates high>large
families
Education
• Most colonist valued
education
– Kids often taught at home
• Puritans passes a
public education law in
N.E.
– Literacy rate of New
England was about 70%
• Harvard 1636
• William and Mary 1693
Colonial Governments
• 3 types of govt.
– Charter, Proprietary,
and Royal Colonies
– some degree of
intervention by
England and colonial
assemblies
– Corrupt Governors
Mercantilism
• NATION’S EXISTANCE DEPENDS ON POWER
• TO GAIN POWER NATION MUST INCREASE ITS
WEALTH
• TO GAIN WEALTH A NATION MUST HAVE
COLONIES
• COLONIES PROVIDE NATION WITH SUPPLY OF
RAW MATERIALS
• & SERVE AS MARKET FOR MANUFACTURED
PRODUCTS
• COLONIES ONLY EXISTED TO BENEFIT THE
MOTHER COUNTRY
English Mercantilism
• Gold: build up gold reserves.
• Manufacturing: use colonial raw material
• Trade: export more than import
– Limit competition from other countries.
• Navy: build strong navy to protect trade.
• Protectionism: high import duties.
THE NAVIGATION ACTS
• Navigation Act of 1660:
– reserved the entire trade of the colonies to English
ships and required the captain and 3/4 of his crew be
English
– Certain “enumerated articles”—sugar, tobacco, cotton,
ginger, and dyes—could not be moved outside the
empire
• 1663: required all European products bound for
colonies had to go through England
• Early 18th century enumerated items expanded to
include rice, molasses, naval stores, furs, and
copper
THE RELATIONSHIP
• Essentially symbiotic relation:
– Crown prohibited growing of tobacco in England and
paid bounties to colonial producers of indigo and
naval stores
• Restrictions put on colonies:
– 1699 Wool Act prohibited export of colonial woolen
cloth
– 1732 similar act regarding hats
– 1750 Iron Act outlawed construction of new rolling
and slitting mills in America (though Parliament
eliminated duties on colonial pig and bar iron
entering England)
PROS & CONS TO NAVIGATION
ACTS
• BENEFITS
– Encouraged
shipbuilding esp. in
N.E.
– English navy protected
American ships
– Guaranteed market for
American products-no
need to compete
• DRAWBACKS
– Felt like children; being
told what to buy and
from whom
– Goods from Europe
were more expensive
because they had to
shipped through
England and were
taxed
Triangular Trade
Two issues to keep in mind:
1. When conflict of interest, Mother Country
always won.
2. Mercantilism blunted by inefficiency &
salutary neglect
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Mercantilism hurt some colonists (tobacco
growers) but helped others (indigo)
Mercantilism was profitable for England
33% British trade with the colonies