The English Colonies: 3 Models of Colonization I. The Chesapeake: Tobacco and “Un-freedom” I.New England: The Family Model II.The Caribbean: Plantations.

The English Colonies: 3 Models of Colonization

I. The Chesapeake: Tobacco and “Un-freedom”

I. New England: The Family Model

II. The Caribbean: Plantations and Slavery

III. Joining the Models Together

Different colonial structures to fit local environments, international economy and different types of trans-Atlantic connections

The Chesapeake• Virginia Joint-Stock Company

• “Dying Time”

• Head right – 50 acres/person

• Tobacco: 1st crop in 1611, caught on by 1616.

• 1638 – Virginia is world’s #1 supplier of tobacco

• Get rich and go home mentality

• Founding of Maryland

The Chesapeake, Labor

• Indentured Servitude

• 1676, Bacon’s Rebellion

• Race vs. class

• Tobacco plantations in tidewater region; small farmers in back country; closely tied to English economy b/c of tobacco, labor.

New England

• The Family Model

• Connected to England through politics, religion, culture

• Modern Day: Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Plymouth (not N.Y. or Penn)

Push Factor in Europe: Religion

The Protestant ReformationMartin Luther, 1517: 95 Theses, splits W. ChristianitySplinter groups, allied by belief, regionalAll splinter groups referred to as Protestants

2 Main Protestant Reform Branches in EnglandPuritans (non-separatists)Pilgrims (separatists)

Salvation:Catholic – social order/control. Salvation

through belief and being a good person, as shown by good works. Belief in purgatory.

Protestant criticism – “selling salvation” Easier for right to do good works, be saved. Abuses at local level.

Luther – issue of sin, believed most people sinned most of the time. Idea of no deathbed salvation bothered him

Salvation:

Catholic – Salvation by works

Protestant –

M. Luther – Salvation by faith, belief will change behavior

Calvin – Salvation by grace (God’s all-powerful nature)

The problem of Evil?

Catholic – free will

Calvin – free will and God’s all-powerful nature clash. Human choice is a big lie. God is the only one with the power to choose. Takes away good works doctrine. More interested in “the saved” than social control.

IF saved, good will flow from it

• Calvinists and personal introspection• Diaries, journals• Good works FROM salvation• No purgatory, salvation only for “the elect,” most

people going to hell.• Church leaders: “the saved,” “the elect”• Never 100% sure if saved• Signs? Very individualized• Church Members: communion only for those

who seemed to be saved

Political Consequences

Henry VIII

Church of England (Anglican)

England becomes a haven for Protestants

Pilgrims – want to separate from Church of England

Puritans – want to reform or “purify” the Church of England

Pilgrims (separatists)

1608 – Holland

1620 – Plymouth (separate colony until 1691)

Mayflower, 102 people

Rule by the church

“Male saints” (Fathers)

Ministers couldn’t hold office

Early Problems

• Tried to hold land in common• Couldn’t get people to work, esp. across

gender lines• Result: “Dying time”• Completely dependant on local American

Indians for first year. (Why would they help?)

• English trade goods, low population density (major epidemic 2 yrs prior)

Re-organization

Organized society based on social distinctions (classes)

Family ownership of property, not distributed equally

Only married male family members got land

Solved production problems

Single men had to live with a family

Early New England• Family economy• Self-sustaining farming• Little trading and fishing• Minimal integration w/ local or English economies• By 1630 @1,500 people: proved Family model

worked, without dependence on American Indians, ties to English economy or plantation crops

• Inspired other Puritan migrations, spread throughout New England (plus new round of religious persecution in England)

Puritans

1629 – Massachusetts Bay Company

mostly from rising middle class, some “gentlemen” farmers, some Puritans, more merchants (leads to early transition to manufacturing/craftsmen)

1630 – 700 people on 11 ships arrive in Mass. Bay, just as civil war erupts in England.

1649-1660: Parliament ruled England, no monarchy

1660 – Monarchy invited back, religious tolerance declared, ending great wave of Puritan migration.

New England and Puritan Rule

By 1642, 20,000 people moved from England to New England.

Concept of “A City on A Hill”

Puritan New England

• Self-supporting until @ 1660, then start exporting grain

• No “Dying time”

• Emphasis on family/early marriage=natural population increase

New England 1600-1700: from 30,000 to 91, 000

Virginia 1600-1700: from 120,000 to 85,000

New England and American IndiansNo real place in New England society, No great efforts

at conversion, “Praying” IndiansKing Phillip’s War (Metacom), Wampanoag leader.

Pan-Indian movement.Trade issues, discrimination, land hunger, pressure to

convert, sale of alcohol, pressure to submit to colonial gov’ts.

5,000 American Indians killed (@40% of pop)2,500 English killed (@5% of pop)Praying Indians put on Deer IslandNew assertions of identity based on racial linesCaptives absorbed into households as servants/slaves,

sold off, or absorbed into society as INDIVIDUALS b/c of skills. No community, seen as “just in the way.”

The Caribbean

Will EVENTUALLY become the most profitable English colonies, resulting in a stark hierarchy.

1686 London imported £674,000 worth of goods from the Caribbean, and only £207,000 from all the rest of its colonies.

Central to building an international Atlantic Economy

The English are “late to the game”

1627-Barbados

1628-Nevis

1632-Montserrat and Antigua

1654- St. Christopher

Barbados as example

• 1620s/30s – economy based on pig killing• Series of very small plantations, worked by

owners w/white servants• Experiments with tobacco, livestock,

subsistence farming. Tried sugar but didn’t have the technical knowledge.

• Labor: Indentured servants. Tobacco market glutted by 1630s, servitude gets harsher, rebellion in 1647, brutally put down

Sugar

1640s – move toward sugar. Expensive to start up: equipment, precision timing, strenuous/dangerous, technical knowledge.

Cut down all the trees for barrels-Bought knowledge, equipment and slaves from the Dutch, on credit.-Completely dependant on slaves-Population density

Sugar and Barbados

Short window of opportunity

1st generation did well, by selling out as land got more expensive

Increase in plantation size=society becomes more stratified.

By 1680, 175 major sugar plantations

Total sugar economy

Sugar and Barbados

175 plantation owners=wealthiest people in whole English Atlantic.

Lavish lifestyle, luxury imports, families in England, some absentee owners.

Contrast: Poor whites.

2/3rd of white population were impoverished

Labor strife leads to movement toward slavery as sole means of labor.

Sugar and Slavery

Slaves imported in large number=dense population.

By 1660, 53,000 people on 166 sq. miles (@200 people/sq.mile)

By 1700, population doubled, (@400 people/sq. mile)

Sugar and Slavery

Slavery increased as the cost of slaves fell.1635 – young male= £34After 1645, falls to £20.Further encourages slavery.1664 – 800 slaves in Barbados1670 – 27,000 slaves & 26,000 whitesVery oppressive slave regime (b/c whites

are outnumbered)Island not good for revolts, no where to run.

Slavery and Sugar

Very high death rate.

1640-1700, 130,000 Africans imported, by only 50,000 survived.

Very low quality of life.

High infant mortality rate, pop. can’t reproduce itself.

Work schedule: 6 day work week, Market days on Sundays. 11 hour days.

Slavery1661 – first slave codes.

Chattel Slavery – slaves defined as property. Included avenues for slaves to buy their way out. Any punishment by masters is okay, including the horrific.

Restricted movement, no weapons, no drums, no missionaries.

1622 –slavery follows status of mother.

1672 Royal Africa Company

1698 RAC loses monopoly. Competition=lower prices

Barbados and New England

Total devotion to sugar.

Had to import food, lumber, supplies, basically anything besides sugar.

Leads to internationalization of the economy

Supplies from New England.

By 1700, Boston had 15 shipyards, young men becoming sailors.

Triangle Trade Network

Triangle Trade Develops

New England being tied into larger economyTransition from family based to international

economyDisrupts “City on a Hill” idealRum produced in New England, Rhode

Island. Massive increase in government sponsored

slave trade. Est. 1 million Africans by 1770.

Growth of International Economy

Fuels growth of more colonies

Barbados (sort of) has its own colony

The Carolinas: By 1670s all the land in Barbados was in sugar.

1st son gets land, other sons get $ and slaves.

Move to Carolinas, produce for Barbados economy.

The CarolinasInitial period – free range cattle

Relied on Africans from Sahel region, first “cowboys”

1695 – rice from Africa. 1700 – major plantation

crop, export 400,000 lbs.1740 – export 43 million

pounds.Second wealthiest planter

elite, very labor intensive.1739 – Stono Rebellion in

Carolinas.

AfricaLocal affiliations

No concept of “being African” yet

Initially controlled trade w/Europe

Strong economy, produced for export

Quality goods.

Strong governments, state-level, sophisticated, organized labor, massive public works.

Excellent military

Initially, Europe cannot force its way in.

Disease much less of a factor.

Africa

Wealth through people reflected African economy/culture.

Slave System was already in place when Europeans arrived.

- Africans only sold surplus people.

- Slave economy misunderstood by Europeans

Slavery Changes in Americas

Slaves viewed as African.

Language issues & buying strategies

Development of new identities:

-National, Creole, & Pan-African identities

Importation keeps African culture alive

Leadership comes from new exports: warriors and elites conquered in battle.

W. Africa: 4 main culture groups, w/ 7 sub-groups

Not one people, lots of differences.

Africa

Competition

Destabilization

“Playing Sides”

Legacy of the Slave Trade

European view

Joining the Models Together: Creating The Atlantic World

Increasing economy in Atlantic = increase in political/cultural ties to Europe.

Golden Age of Piracy/lawlessness ending.

1670s - @500 trans-Atlantic crossings.

1730s - @1,500.

Shipping is cheaper, faster, more cargo, more passengers.

The Atlantic WorldRaw materials from the

colonies increases English manufacturing.

English staying in England-jobs.

Immigration from other countries.

“Back country” areas begin filling up, development of more marginal/peripheral areas.

Increasing ConnectionsColonies more connected w/one another, more

aware of events in Europe.Newspaper publishing in colonies & EuropeRegular Mail systemEmotional tie to EnglandOther colonies (ports) start publishing

newspapers.Coffee houses in ports/London, tied to colonies.Leads to one intellectual community, later

spread of revolutionary ideas.

Forming the Atlantic World

• Trade becomes more complex

• Trade volume increases

• More markets for grain

• Cost of shipping decreases

• England wants more grain-producing colonies

The Middle Colonies

• Pennsylvania

• New Jersey

• Delaware

• New York (New Amsterdam)

• Replace New England in grain export

England starts paying attention

• Trade volume increases

• Cultural connections increase

• Amount of $ at stake increases

• Colonies become more important to England

• Colonial economies in 1700=4% of England’s GDP

• Colonial economies in 1770=40% of England’s GDP