Slavery, freedom, and empire

SLAVERY, BRITAIN'S PUSH FOR EMPIRE, and ENLIGHTENMENT

THOUGHT

SLAVE TRADE

FREEDOM AND SLAVERY

• Land, Labor, Staple equation

• Three distinct slave systems existed in the British colonies

• Chesapeake Bay

• South Carolina and Georgia

• Non-plantation societies of New England and the Middle Colonies

Early Slavery: Chesapeake

FREEDOM AND SLAVERY• Chesapeake Bay’s slave system

• Based primarily on tobacco plantations

• Plantations small

• Daily interaction between masters and slaves

• Slavery transformed society into a hierarchy based on freedom

• Large planters

• Yeoman farmers

• Indentured servants and tenant farmers

• Slaves

• Slavery codified slowly, starting in 1660s

• Race divisions begin

• Black= slave

• White= free

FREEDOM AND SLAVERY

• South Carolina and Georgia’s slave system

• Slavery based on rice cultivation

• Rice and indigo required large-scale cultivation

• By 1770, slaves comprised about ½ of SC population

GANG SYSTEM vs TASK SYSTEM

• Chesapeake planters tended to favor the gang system: slaves worked together in groups of varying sizes from dusk to dawn with breaks for meals

• Lowcountry planters assigned tasks based on age/gender• Once these were

completed to the satisfaction of the overseer, no more work was required for the rest of the day

FREEDOM AND SLAVERY

• Slavery in the North• Both agricultural and

urban slavery

• Large estates rare; winters made agricultural slavery unprofitable

• New York: Largest colonial slave population

• Pennsylvania: Eve of Revolution, no more than 8% of Philadelphia pop. were bonded servants

DOMESTIC SLAVERY

SLAVE CULTURE

• In the Chesapeake Bay colonies, slaves learned English and participated in the Great Awakening

• They were thoroughly exposed to English culture and assimilated into main-stream society

• In South Carolina and Georgia, slaves participated in two contrasting societies:

• African culture: consisted primarily of slaves who worked in rice plantations

• Euro-American culture: consisted primarily of urban servants (house workers)

• In the Northern colonies, slaves developed a distinct African-American culture much slower than their counterparts

• Slaves had more access to main-stream society and culture

• They were also not as legally restricted as in the South

SLAVE RESISTANCE• A common sentiment for slaves in America

was the desire for freedom

• Many colonial slaves ran away to Spanish Florida and cities in Northern colonies

• The first slave uprising was in New York (1712)

• Other rebellions:

• Stono Rebellion (1739) – led to a more restrictive slave code

• New York City Fires (1741) – rumored to be part of a slave conspiracy to attack colonists

• As a result, sentiment towards free blacks and slaves worsened

• Numerous slaves were executed in the aftermath

FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS

FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS

SEVEN YEARS’ WAR• Begins in 1754 as the British attempt to

remove the French from western Pennsylvania

• War not officially declared until 1756

• For the first four years, the British lose--- and badly

• Successes in 1758: Duquesne, Louisburg, Frontenac

• Most North American fighting ends in 1760

• Change in British strategy caused by death of George II

• Fighting in North America continues with Anglo-Cherokee War

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TREATY OF PARIS (1763)

• Changed the economic, political, and social relations between Britain, France, and Spain

• France and Britain suffered financially and with long-term consequences

• Britain gains French Canada and Acadia (80,000 primarily Roman Catholic French speakers)

• Spain trades Florida to regain Cuba, also gains Louisiana from France

• Mississippi River open to ALL for trade

PONTIAC'S WAR• The reason for the

Proclamation of 1763 and the creation of an “Indian Reserve”

• Native anger over British policies in the Old Northwest• Major General Jefferey

Amherst, CinC British Army in North America, cuts back on diplomatic gifts, which he considered a form of bribery

• Many natives viewed this policy change as an insult, and that the British viewed them as a conquered people, not allies

• Restrictions on gunpowder and ammunition

The American Enlightenment

1680-1820

Enlightenment Thought

•Four recurring themes:•Modernization• Beliefs and institutions become based on science,

rationality, and religious pluralism

• Skepticism• Doubting appeals to miraculous, transcendent and

supernatural forces

• Reason• Liberty• Assumed a central place in theories of political

association, specifically as limits state authority originating prior to the advent of states (that is, in a state of nature)• Social contracts: addresses the questions of the origin of

society and the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual

Six Key Ideas

•Deism: understanding God’s existence as divorced from holy books, divine providence, revealed religion, prophecy and miracles; instead basing religious belief on reason and observation of the natural world• Liberalism: the notion that humans have natural rights and that government authority is not absolute, but based on the will and consent of the governed• Republicanism: commitment to the notion that a nation ought to be ruled as a republic, in which selection of the state’s highest public official is determined by a general election, rather than through a claim to hereditary right

Six Key Ideas • Conservatism: promotes retaining traditional social institutions• Toleration• Scientific progress

THE GREAT AWAKENING

THE GREAT AWAKENING• A period of heightened religious activity in the colonies between the late 1720s and 1740s

• Brought on by the arrival of young Anglican pastor George Whitefield

• Whitefield traveled through the colonies preaching enthusiastically

• Visited towns, villages, and the backcountry (known as circuit riding)

• Known for attracting large, emotionally charged crowds and generating considerable controversy

• Other preachers such as Jonathan Edwards generated immense controversy through his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

• What was their goal?

• Attempt to compel non-Christians to covert to Christianity and those who were lost to recommit to God

• Controversial because they rejected Calvinism and segregation in church services

• Conservative church members particularly did not care for the circuit riders

George Whitefield Jonathan Edwards

THE GREAT AWAKENING• Factions

• “Old Lights” – conservative church members who rejected the controversial preaching of the circuit riders

• “New Lights” – liberal church members who came under scrutiny for supporting the circuit riders and accepting blacks into white church services

• What did the movement achieve?

• Split Protestantism into more denominations; Presbyterians were especially affected, strengthened Baptist and Methodist congregations

• Had little effect on Anglicans and Quakers

• Became social criticism for colonial society

• Rejected slavery in particular

• Eventually, “New Lights” eclipsed “Old Lights” and ushered in a new era of religious influence in the colonies

• Became a great influence of connecting God’s will with the Revolutionary War in the 1760s and 1770s