 Britain’s interest in est colonies was influenced by the theory of mercantilism
 Mercantilism: An economic system in which nations seek to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by est a favorable balance of trade
 Favorable balance meant more gold coming in than going out
 Britain looked to colonies as a market for British goods and as a producer of goods and materials to be sold to other nations

 Not all the products colonists produced ended up in
England- some made their way to France, Spain and
Holland
 Colonists saw as opportunity to increase their wealth
 English not happy because they saw this as economic threat
 Result was Parliament’s creation of the Navigation Acts in
1651
 Series of laws that restricted colonial trade

The Navigation Acts
 Benefited England because jobs were created for English dockworkers and import taxes for treasury
1. No country could trade with the colonies unless the goods were shipped in either English or colonial ships
2. All vessels had to be operated by crews that were at least three-quarters
English or colonial
 By allowing trade only by
English or colonial ships this created a boom in the colonial shipbuilding industry
3.The colonies could export certain products only to England
4. Almost all goods traded between the colonies and Europe first has to pass through an English port

 King James very unpopular in colonies
 In 1688 had a son- became possible that there would be a dynasty of Roman Catholic monarchs in England
 1689: Parliament votes to offer the throne to William and Mary and est. more power over the monarchy
 Known as the Glorious Revolution
 In the colonies…



Colonists in Mass. staged a bloodless rebellion
Parliament restored the colonies of New England to their original status
More religious toleration and non-Puritan representation in the colonial assembly

 Salutary Neglect: an English policy of relaxing the enforcement of regulations in its colonies in return for the colonies continued economic loyalty
 In the years following the Glorious Revolution Parliament strengthened the Navigation Acts in 2 ways


1. Smuggling trials moved from colonial courts with jury of colonists to England with English judges
2. Created Board of Trade- advisory board with broad power to monitor colonial trade
 Although appeared England tighten colonial grip it actually loosened its hold

 Without being watched by England the colonists began developing ideas for self-government
 Besides a desire for more economic and political breathing room the colonies did not have anything in common to unite them against England
 Northern and Southern colonies were developing distinct societies based on very different economic systems

 Southern colonies had rich soil
 Cash crop: a crop grown by a farmer for sale rather than for personal use
 Tobacco, rice, indigo
 Plantations developed instead of towns
 Long and deep rivers allowed plantation owners to ship goods directly to northern colonies using ships
 No need for shops, bakeries or markets because plantation produced what was needed on the property
 Rural and self-sufficient society

 Large numbers of
European immigrants helped to make the South more diverse
 Plantations and the owners controlled much of the
South’s economy, politics and social institutions
 Chesapeake Bay region extremely wealthyeconomic boom

 Built in 1723
 Birthplace of Robert E. Lee’s mother
 Virginia’s first plantation
 Oldest active plantation in
Virginia
 One of the oldest family-owned businesses in North America,
 Declared a National Historic
Landmark in 1970.

 Women had few legal or social rights- bowed to husbands
 Little formal education- focused on learning domestic duties
 Indentured servants also low on the social ladder
 Struggled to survive on the outskirts of the Southern colonies

 Developed a way of life based on their cultural heritage
 Kept alive musical traditions and retold stories of their ancestors
 Because slave merchants tore apart many families, slaves created new families among the people they lived with
 If a parent was sold, others would step in to raise the child left behind
 One of the most important customs kept alive was dance

 Many slaves resisted their position by faking illness, breaking tools and staging work slowdowns
 Stono Rebellion- September 1739




20 slaves gather at Stono River SW of Charlestown
With guns and weapons they killed several planter families and invited other slaves to join them in their plan to flee to Florida
White militia eventually surrounded slaves and fighting ensued
Many slaves died and those who survived executed
 Although rebellion failed, it sent message to Southern colonies to tighten up already harsh slave laws
 Despite severe punishments that escapes brought, between 1736-
1801 at least 1,279 slaves tried to run
 Many found refuge with NA tribes

 Between 1650-1750 the colony’s economy grew twice as fast as
England’s
 Most growth occurred in Middle and New England colonies
 NE and Middle colonies produced several different crops and raised a variety of livestock
 Smaller farms
 Commercial economy also booming
 Manufactured ships and produced more iron than England
 By mid-1700s merchants were one of the most powerful groups in the north

Crops and Livestock
 Wheat
 Corn
 Cattle
 Hogs
Commercial Economy
 Grinding wheat
 Harvesting fish
 Sawing lumber

 Expansion in trade caused port cities to grow
 Less in the south- more in the north (Boston, NYC, Philly)
 Philadelphia was first city since ancient Rome to be laid out in grid like pattern
 Number of open squares for public use-important for urban planning in the future
 Philly was a sophisticated city but high concentration of people without adequate public services caused problems
 Garbage and clean water

 Northern colonies attracted a variety of immigrants
 German and Scots-Irish were largest groups
 Northern colonies had less incentive to turn to slavery but still did exist
 Still racial prejudice against blacks- free or enslaved
 Slaves in New England did enjoy greater legal status than other parts of the colonies
 They could sue and be sued

 Enlightenment: an 18 th ce intellectual movement that emphasized the use of reason and the scientific method as means of obtaining knowledge
 Ideas spread from Europe to the colonies in books and pamphlets
 Most of NE could read due to Puritan support of public education
 Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson became Enlightenment figures in the colonies


Obtain truth through experimentation and reason
Use reason to conclude that individuals have natural rights

 Great Awakening: a revival of religious feeling in the
American colonies during the 1730s and 1750s
 Puritans had lost grip on society and church membership in decline
 Used counter the currents of the Age of Enlightenment
 Reaffirm the view that:


 being truly religious meant trusting the heart rather than the head prizing feeling more than thinking relying on biblical revelation rather than human reason

 Many preachers, such as
Jonathan Edwards, traveled from village to village getting people to rededicate themselves to
God
 Attracted thousands and meetings held outside
 Brought colonists, Native
Americans and African
Americans into organized
Christian churches

Pros
 Other denominations-
Baptists and Methodistsgained new members
Cons
 Caused people to question traditional authority
 Increased interest in higher ed to train ministers
 Princeton, Brown,
Colombia, Dartmouth
 De-emphasize church authority

 In 1750s France was Great Britain’s greatest rival in their struggle to build a world empire
 Fought over Ohio River Valley
 French originally settled in the North (Quebec) and the
South (Louisiana)
 French colonists had friendlier relations with Native
Americans
 Traded furs and had military alliances

 As French empire expanded it collided with growing
British empire
 British goal was to drive the French out of the Ohio Valley
 French soldiers and their Native American allies often had the upper had due to their gorilla tactics
 British soldiers accustomed to enemies who marched in orderly rows

 After many defeats by the
French, the war took a dramatic turn for the
British in Sept. 1759


Ambushed the French at night and took control of
Quebec
Led to victory in the war
Treaty of Paris
 England claimed all of
North America east of the Mississippi River
 Spain gained the French lands west of the
Mississippi
 French and Indian War officially ended in 1763 with Treaty of Paris

 Claiming ownership of the Ohio River Valley brought England trouble
 Native Americans soon realized that a French loss was also a loss for them and they were not pleased
 NA forces captured 8 British forts in the valley and attacked two others
 British responded by presenting smallpox-infested blankets to
NA during peace negotiations
 Weakened by disease and war most NA groups negotiated treaties with England

 To avoid further conflict with Native Americans,
England issued the
Proclamation of 1763
 Banned all settlement west of the
Appalachians
 However, the British could not enforce this ban and colonists continued moving west on to NA land

 Because the Proclamation of 1763 halted expansion it convinced the colonists that England did not care about their needs
 1761: Massachusetts governor authorized ‘writ of assistance’
 Allowed British customs officials to search any ship or building to crack down on colonial smuggling
 Merchants of Boston were outraged

 British government stationed
10,000 troops to the territories to control Native
Americans and former French subjects
 Colonists saw this as a standing army that might turn against them
Sugar Act
 Lowered the tax on molasses in hopes that colonists would stop smuggling it
 French and Indian War doubled the national debt so the country needed to raise money
 Placed taxes on certain imports
 1764: Prime minister George
Grenville asked Parliament to enact the Sugar Act
 Allowed smuggling cases to be tried in strict military courts