Colonial Ways of Life (1608-1763)
Chapter 3
The Southern Colonies
Southern Economy
• Tobacco was a cash crop in Virginia & Maryland
• South Carolina grew rice & indigo
• Plantation – large commercial (for profit) estate where
labors lived and cultivated crops for owner
• Indentured Servants – VA & MD had plenty of land, but
not enough labor. England had poor willing to come to
America
• Indentured Servant: laborers bound to land owner
working off debt of travel,
• Contract lasted 4-11 years
Southern Society
• Plantations were self-contained communities
that had schools, churches, and workshops
• 1600s, plantations small; 1700s, plantations
large due to slave labor
• Small land owners lived in the backcountry
(frontier), close to Native American land
• Small farmers known as yeoman
• Practiced subsistence farming: only growing
enough crops for themselves
– Corn, beans, potatoes, barley, rye
Social Classes in Southern Society
Wealthy
Planters
Poor Yeoman
Farmers
Tenant Farmers
Indentured Servants
Slaves
Bacon’s Rebellion
• Sir William Berkeley – governor of Virginia
– Allowed wealthy planters to dominate society
– Controlled by appointing supporters to the
governing council and giving land to burgesses
– Restricted vote to wealthy land owners – almost
½ lost right to vote
– Angered backcountry farmers and tenant farmers
– Native American relations will spark the rebellion
Bacon’s Rebellion: Crisis Over Land
• LAND!!! *That’s why people came to America!
• Indentured servants & tenant farmers wanted to
own land eventually
• Backcountry farmers wanted to expand their
land holdings
• Colonists did not want war with Native
Americans
• Berkeley asked burgesses for $$ to build forts
along the frontier to protect backcountry
farmers
Bacon Leads a Revolt
• Backcountry farmers will meet at Nathaniel
Bacon’s house
– Bacon member of governor’s council but he took
up cause of small farmers because he had been
attacked by Native Americans
– Organized a militia (army)
– Berkeley restored voting rights to all FREE men
– Changes did NOT satisfy Bacon & his men, they
went to Jamestown, seized power, and charged
Berkeley with corruption
Slavery in the Colonies
• 1450-1870: 10-12 million Africans enslaved
• 1450-1870: 2 million will die in transit
• 500,000 taken to North America – first arrive
in 1619
• Chattel Slavery – humans owning other
humans; slaves first treated like indentured
servants; enslaved because they weren’t
Christian
Slavery in the Colonies
• Maryland was the first to formally recognize
slavery when it denied Africans same rights
as English citizens
• 1705, VA enacted a slave code
– Set of laws to regulate rights and behaviors of
slaves
• Because slaves played an important role in
growth of colonies plantation economy
New England & Middle Colonies
Section 2
Puritan Society
• Puritan law banned: card games, dice, plays,
dancing
• Salem & Witchcraft
– Devout Puritans believed Satan used witches to
work evil in the world
– Salem, MA 1692: 20 residents of Salem were
charged with witchcraft & executed
– Began because a group of teenage girls accused
an African servant of being a witch
Trade & Rise of Cities
• New England wanted to buy: ceramic plates,
hardware, fine cloth, and linens
• Triangular Trade
– New England bought goods from England by
selling NE products to foreign countries in
exchange for goods England wanted
– Bill of exchange: credit slips English merchants
gave planters in exchange for sugar – could buy
English goods with them
Triangular Trade
• This trade made many New England
merchants wealthy.
• Many of these wealthy merchants built
factories to refine raw sugar & distill
molasses into rum
• NE will sell their rum to Southern colonies for
rice, tobacco, and indigo
The Imperial System
Section 3
Mercantilism
• Mercantilism: a set of ideas about the world
economy & how it worked; popular in the 1600s1700s.
– Country had to keep a favorable balance of trade
– Country should be self-sufficient in raw materials
– Should establish colonies where raw materials were
available
– Raw materials in exchange for manufactured goods
– Negative: colonies could not sell goods for gold or silver
– NE turned to triangular trade & smuggling
Navigation Acts
• Mercantilists policies simple in 1600s, English
government tried to encourage exports and
restrict imports
• Charles II, king in 1660, wanted to change the lax
policies & enact a navigation act
• All goods imported/exported had to be shipped
on British ships
• Specific raw materials could only be sold in
England: sugar, tobacco, lumber, cotton, wool, &
indigo
Navigation Acts
• 1663, Parliament passes the Staple Act
– All merchants bringing European goods to the
colonies had to stop in England to pay taxes
– Colonial merchants were frustrated with the new
acts & broke the laws
– As a colonial power, England had the authority to
appoint customs officials/inspectors who directly
reported to the English government
– In response to colonial disobedience, Parliament
& the king created the Dominion on New England
Glorious Revolution
• English were suspicious of their new king
James II. He insisted on his divine right to rule
– King chosen by God & given all power to rule
– James II angered people by rejecting advice of
Parliament, prosecuted bishops in the Anglican
Church, revoked charters of English
towns/corporations, and offended the people by
practicing Catholicism
Bloodless Revolution
• Fearful that James II could turn England back
to Catholic nation, Parliament asked Mary &
William to succeed James II to the throne
• In response to invitation, James II fled England
• Exchange of power = Glorious Revolution
• Before taking the throne William & Mary had
to sign the English Bill of Rights
– Guaranteed: freedom of speech (in Parliament),
no excessive bail, no cruel punishment, illegal for
king to tax or raise army without Parliament’s ok
Legacy of John Locke
• Glorious Revolution set a precedent – it
showed a revolution against the king was
(sometimes) justified
• During the turmoil, English philosopher, John
Locke, wrote a book called The Two Treatises
of Government
• Locke argued king’s right to rule came from
the consent of the governed (the people)
Legacy of Locke
• Locke believed everyone had certain natural
rights: life, liberty, & pursuit of property
• People form a contract with government in
exchange for protection
• Locke said if rights of people were violated,
then people were justified to rebel & replace
the government
• U.S. Constitution & Declaration of
Independence – based on Locke’s ideas
Legacy of Locke
• Mayflower Compact & Fundamental Orders
of Connecticut were examples of how
colonists understood the contract between
government & the people
• Colonists will use Locke’s ideas when they
rebel in 1775 against England
• Thomas Jefferson will use Locke’s ideas in the
Declaration of Independence in 1776
Diverse Society
Section 4
The Enlightenment
• Enlightenment Period: challenged authority
of church in science & philosophy while
elevating the power of human research
• Enlightenment thinkers believed in natural
laws – could be applied to political, social,
and economic relationships
– Rationalism: focus on logic
• Rousseau wrote The Social Contract – argued
govt should be formed from consent of
people & people should make laws
The Enlightenment
• Baron de Montesquieu proposed three types
of power in government: judicial, executive,
and legislative & each power should be
separate!
– Three branches to protect the power of the
people
– Separation provided a system of checks and
balances that would prevent government from
abusing its authority
– Ideas influenced the U.S. Constitution
The Great Awakening
• Stressed dependence on God – appealed to
farmers, works, and enslaved people
• Revival spread from England – movement
stressed piety
– Pietism: focus on devoutness & emotional unity
with God
– Revival: large public meetings for preaching &
prayer
Great Awakening
• Many preachers felt religion was decreasing due to
focus on reasoning and not a reliance on God
– NE preacher – Jonathon Edwards
• Person had to be “born again”
• Having a personal internal emotional experience that brought
a person to God was a central part of Great Awakening
• Had a profound effect on the South – Baptists let
their slaves attend revivals where preachers
condemned brutality of slavery and all people
were equal in eyes of God
Overall Effect of Enlightenment &
Great Awakening
• E. last two cultural movements in the colonies
before the American Revolution
• F. Both movements emphasized individualism
which supported independence.
Enlightenment provided arguments against
British rule and Great Awakening undermined
allegiance to a traditional authority.