James L. Roark ● Michael P. Johnson
Patricia Cline Cohen ● Sarah Stage
Susan M. Hartmann
The American Promise
A History of the United States
Fifth Edition
CHAPTER 5
Colonial America in the Eighteenth
Century,
1701–1770
Copyright © 2012 by Bedford/St. Martin's
I. A Growing Population and Expanding Economy in
British North America
1. Phenomenal population growth
• grew from 250,000 in 1700 to well over two million
by 1770. Colonial America was a heterogeneous
society, with colonists of different ethnic groups,
races, and religions living in varied environments
under thirteen different colonial governments
• growth and diversity of the population derived from
natural increase (which amounted to three-fourths
of the total increase) and immigration (one-fourth);
by 1770, only about half of the colonists were of
English descent, while more than 20 percent
descended from Africans.
2. Expanding economy
• almost all colonists lived within fifty miles of the
coast
• almost limitless wilderness to the West made land
cheap
II. New England: From Puritan Settlers to Yankee Traders
A. Natural Increase and Land Distribution
1. New England population grew by natural increase
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Nearly every adult woman married, and most married women had children
wives often had six or more babies.
2. Limited amount of land
original land allotments had to be subdivided to accommodate new generations, making
them too small to support a family. During the eighteenth century, colonial governments
stopped granting land to towns and instead sold it directly to individuals, including
speculators
money, rather than church membership, determined whether a colonist could buy land
B. Farms, Fish, and Atlantic Trade
1. Diversified commercial economy
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New England farmers rarely got rich; as consumers, they participated in a diversified,
Atlantic world economy
merchants stocked imported goods; fish accounted for more than a third of New
England’s eighteenth-century exports
livestock and timber made up another third; two thirds of exports went to the West
Indies
2. Atlantic commerce
3. Wealth in New England
wealthy merchants lived in Boston; by 1770, the richest 5 percent of Bostonians owned
half the city’s wealth
the poorest two-thirds of the population owned less than one tenth
overall, colonists were better off than most people in England
the contrast with English poverty had meaning because the majority of New Englanders
traced their ancestry to England
there were more than 15,000 slaves by 1770
III. The Middle Colonies: Immigrants,
Wheat, and Work
A. German and Scots-Irish Immigrants
1. German migrants (“Pennsylvania Dutch”)
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made up the largest contingent of migrants from the European continent
colonists referred to them as Pennsylvania Dutch, an English corruption of Deutsch
mostly farmers and laborers, but numerous artisans and a few merchants also
emigrated
2. Scots-Irish migrants
from northern Ireland, Scotland, and northern England
tended to be militant Presbyterians
like Germans, Scots-Irish were clannish, residing when they could among relatives
or neighbors from the old country
flooded British North America in the years just before the American Revolution as
economic conditions deteriorated at home
3. Redemptioners and indentured servants
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Many German immigrants were forced to become redemptioners, a variant of
indentured servants
a captain would provide transportation to Philadelphia; once there, redemptioners
would either borrow the money to pay the captain back or, more likely, sell
themselves as servants
Scots-Irish contracted themselves as indentured servants before the trip
both redemptioners and indentured servants endured dangerous voyages across the
Atlantic
redemptioners typically served less time in servitude than indentured servants.
B. “God Gives All Things to Industry”: Urban and Rural Labor
1. Servants and family labor; few slaves
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Only affluent colonists could afford slaves
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most farmers in the middle colonies used family labor, not slaves
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wheat usually required only family labor and a hired hand or two; slaves accounted for only
7 percent of the population by 1770
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most slaves came from the West Indies
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a small number of slaves gained their freedom, but free blacks did not escape whites’
convictions about black inferiority
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blacks became scapegoats for whites’ suspicions and anxieties
2. Availability of land
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swarmed to the middle colonies because of the availability of land
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Pennsylvania’s policy of negotiating with Indian tribes to purchase land reduced conflict, but
the Penn family did sometimes push land agreements to the limit and beyond
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when local Indians granted them the land that a man could walk in a day and a half, the
Penns sent out three runners to claim the most land possible (the “Walking Purchase”)
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standard of living was higher in middle colonies than any other agricultural region of the
eighteenth-century world.
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3. Philadelphia
by 1776, Philadelphia was the second most populous city in the British empire, trailing only
London
merchants held the top stratum of society, and the wealthiest merchants were Quakers
Benjamin Franklin began publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1733, and its popularity
indicated that many Pennsylvanians thought more about profit than religion
the Almanack was full of aphorisms about work, discipline, and thrift.
IV. The Southern Colonies: Land of Slavery
A. The Atlantic Slave Trade and the Growth of Slavery
1. Southern colonies: upper south and lower south
• colonists clustered into two distinct geographic and agricultural zones
• the upper South specialized in growing tobacco
• nine out of ten southern whites and eight out of ten southern blacks lived in the upper
South
• the lower South specialized in growing rice and indigo.
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2. African population increases exponentially
nearly all slaves, increased from just over 20,000 in 1700 to over 400,000 in 1770
growth occurred through natural increase and the Atlantic slave trade
imported slaves came from many different African cultures
mortality during the Middle Passage varied from ship to ship but on average, about 15
percent of slaves died; sometimes half or more perished
they suffered from virulent epidemic diseases but also acute dehydration caused by fluid
loss and a severe shortage of drinking water. Olaudah Equiano published an account of
his enslavement and voyage through the Middle Passage across the Atlantic.
3. Demand for Slaves
Individual planters purchased a relatively small number of newly arrived Africans and
relied on already enslaved Africans to help new slaves become accustomed to their new
surroundings
this process was called seasoning
the demand for slaves led slaveowners to encourage slave women to bear children
by the 1740s due to natural increase, the majority of southern slaves were country born.
B. Slave Labor and African American Culture
1. Harsh working and living conditions
2. Evidence of resistance and rebellion
• Some slaves escalated acts of resistance into direct physical confrontation with
the master, mistress, or overseer
• organized rebellion was rare because whites held the balance of power in the
South
• in 1739, a group of about twenty slaves launched an unsuccessful rebellion at
Stono, South Carolina
• the failure of the rebellion illustrated that eighteenth-century slaves had no
chance of overturning slavery and little chance of defending themselves.
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3. Slaves seek autonomy
Slaves maneuvered constantly to gain a measure of autonomy within the
boundaries of slavery
in the lower South, the task system allowed slaves discretion in how they spent
their time after completing an individual task
these slaves could fish, hunt, spin, or cook once the master’s work was done
eighteenth-century slaves also planted the roots of African American lineages
slaves established kinships and incorporated other features of their West
African heritage, such as diet, music, dance, and religion.
IV. The Southern Colonies: Land of
Slavery
C. Tobacco, Rice, and Prosperity
1. Products of Slave labor
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Slaves’ labor brought wealth to masters, British merchants, and the
monarchies
southern colonies supplied 90 percent of all North American exports to
Britain
in 1770, southern tobacco represented almost one-third of all colonial
exports
Navigation Acts ensured that nearly all of it went to Britain, where it was
marked up and sold to the rest of the continent.
2. Southern colonies richest in North America
Exports made the southern colonies the richest in North America by far
per capita wealth of free whites in the South was four times greater than
that in New England and three times greater than that in the colonies
white yeomen sensed the gentry’s condescension, but they appreciated
the gentry for granting favors, upholding white supremacy, and keeping
slaves in their place
race was a more powerful unifier than wealth was a divider
slaveholding gentry dominated the politics and economy of the South and
also set the cultural standards; southerners entertained lavishly and
gambled regularly.
V. Unifying Experiences
A. Commerce and Consumption
1. Development of mass markets in Atlantic world
• Colonial products spurred the development of mass markets
throughout the Atlantic world; declining prices allowed ordinary
colonists, not just the wealthy elite, to buy things they wanted
along with things they needed.
2. British consumer goods
• exports to North America multiplied eightfold between 1700 to
1770; British merchants extended credit; consumer products
included mirrors, silver plates, spices, linens, tea services, and
books
• despite differences among the colonists, the consumption of British
exports built a certain material uniformity across region, religion,
class, and status; colonists looked and felt more British.
3. Significance of individual choice
• Consumption compelled colonists to think of themselves as
individuals who had the power to make decisions that influenced
the quality of their lives
B. Religion, Enlightenment, and Revival
1. Wide varieties of Protestant faith
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Almost all colonists were Protestants, but there existed wide varieties of Protestant faith; the
middle colonies and southern backcountry included militant Baptists and Presbyterians; New
England Puritanism splintered
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prominent urban colonists belonged to the Church of England.
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2. Deism and the Enlightenment
Many educated colonists became deists; they looked for God’s plan in nature more than in the Bible
deists were informed by Enlightenment ideas, which encouraged people to study the world around
them, to think for themselves, and to ask whether disorderly appearance masked the principles of a
more profound natural order
Philadelphia was the center of Enlightenment thought; American Philosophical Society formed there
in 1769.
3. Great Awakening
colonists seldom went to church, but they considered themselves Christians
ministers were alarmed by religious indifference, denominational rivalry, and comfortable
backsliding
a new style of preaching that appealed more to the heart than the head
historians call this wave of revival the Great Awakening
most famous revivalist was English preacher George Whitefield, who visited North America seven
times and attracted thousands of people to his sermons
revivals refreshed the spiritual energy of colonists struggling with the anxieties of eighteenthcentury life
communicated the message that every soul mattered and that people could choose to be saved;
like consumption of goods, revivals contributed to a set of common experiences that bridged
colonial divides of faith, region, class, and status.
V. Unifying Experiences
C. Trade and Conflict in the North American Borderlands
1. British navy and army defend the colonies
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Each colony formed a militia, and privateers sailed from every port to prey on foreign
ships
but the British navy and army bore the ultimate responsibility for colonial defense; royal
officials constantly monitored the possibility of an alliance between the Indians and New
Spain or New France.
2. Competition for Indian fur trade
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The fur trade linked Indians and settlers
Indians traded furs for guns, ammunition, clothing, and more; British, French, Spanish,
and Dutch officials monitored the fur trade to prevent their competitors from directing
the flow of furs toward their own markets
Indians recognized this and played one trader and empire off another
shifting allegiances struck a fragile balance along the frontier
but the threat of violence from all sides was ever present, and events like the Yamasee
War of 1715 ensured that all parties had to be prepared for the worst
before the 1760s, neither the British colonists nor the British themselves developed a
coherent policy toward the Indians, but both believed Indians made deadly enemies,
profitable trading partners, and powerful allies.
3. Spanish missions
To block Russian access to present-day California, officials in New Spain built forts (called
presidios) and missions there
first California mission founded in 1769
by 1772, Spain had founded other missions along the path from San Diego and Monterey
missions helped spread European diseases, Spanish soldiers raped Indian women, and
missionaries beat Indians and subjected them to near slavery.
V. Unifying Experiences
D. Colonial Politics in the British Empire
1. Restrictions on colonial trade
2. Colonists resist royal interference in internal affairs
• colonists acknowledged British authority to collect customs
duties, inspect cargoes, and enforce trade regulations
• but colonists resisted interference in internal affairs on land
• king appointed royal governors in nine colonies, but
governors were not kings, and the colonies were not
Britain; governors had trouble developing relations of trust
and respect with colonists, since most governors were from
England or living in England
• in addition, with terms of office averaging only five years
3. Colonial governors’ political position
• 1720, assemblies had won the power to initiate legislation,
including tax laws and authorizations to spend public funds
• heated struggles between governors and assemblies taught
colonists to employ traditional British ideas of
representation
• they also learned that the power in the British colonies
rarely belonged to the British government.