AP U.S. History
Student Lecture Notes
The Southern Colonies in the 17th and 18th Centuries
I. Southern Plantation Colonies -- general characteristics
A. Dominated to a degree by a plantation economy: tobacco
& rice
B. Slavery in all colonies (even Georgia after 1750); mostly
indentured servants
until late 17th century
in Virginia & Maryland; increasingly black slavery thereafter
C. Large land holdings in the hands of the favored few =
aristocratic atmosphere
(except North Carolina and parts of
Georgia)
D. Sparsely populated: churches & schools too expensive
for very small towns.
E. All practiced some form of religious toleration
-- Church of England (Anglican
Church) most prominent
F. Expansionary attitudes resulted from
need for fresh land to compensate for the
degradation
of existing lands from soil-depleting tobacco farming.
II. The Chesapeake (Virginia & Maryland)
A. Virginia (founded in 1607 by Virginia Company)
1. Jamestown,
1607 -- 1st permanent British colony in New World
a. Founded by Virginia Company that received charter from King James I.
i. Main goals: Promise of gold, conversion of Indians to Christianity
(just like Spain), and new passage to the Indies.
ii. Consisted largely of well-to-do adventurers
b. Virginia Charter
i. Overseas settlers given same rights of Englishmen in England
ii. Foundation for American liberties; rights extended to other colonies.
2. Colony wracked by tragedy during
early years: famine, disease, war with Indians
a. By 1625,
only 1200 of the nearly 8000 colonists survived
b. Only 60
out of 400 settlers survived "starving time" of 1610-1611
3.Captain John Smith organized
the colony beginning in 1608. "He who will
not work
shall not eat."
a. Smith
kidnapped in Dec. 1607 by Powhatans led by Chief Powhatan who
subjected Smith to a what may have been a mock execution.
b. Smith
perhaps "saved" by Pocahantas, Powatan's daughter, when she
was
only 12-years old
4. Pocahantas
eventually a central figure in preserving peace in early Jamestown
a. Provided foodstuffs to settlers.
b. Became hostage of colonists in 1613 during military
conflicts.
c. Later married John Rolfe & taught him Indian
way of curing tobacco.
-- Died of small pox at age 22
5. John Rolfe and tobacco crop
economy -- "Colony built on smoke"
a. Rolfe introduced new tough strain of tobacco
b. Tobacco industry became cornerstone of Virginia's economy.
c. Plantation system emerged
6. House of Burgesses (a
legislative assembly) created in 1619.
a. 1st
colonial parliament in the British American colonies.
b.
Representative self-government
i. However, most representatives
were substantial property owners
ii. Created to attract settlers to Virginia (by offering more liberty)
7.Virginia Charter revoked by James
I in 1624
a. King
believed assembly to seditious but he also loathed tobacco.
b. Virginia
became a royal colony directly under his control
B. Maryland
1. Charles I gave Sir
George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, a portion
of Virginia for Catholic haven and profit.
2. Eventually,
growth of Protestants meant Catholics become a minority;
Catholics feared loss of religions freedom.
3. Act of
Toleration (1649)
a. Guaranteed toleration to all Christians but instituted
death penalty
for anyone denying the
divinity of Jesus (e.g. Jews & atheists)
b. Motive: Catholics sought to protect their faith by
granting certain
degree
of religious freedom.
c. Maryland became largest haven for Catholics in British
American colonies
C. Life in the Chesapeake
1. Disease devastating early on (10
yrs off life exp.): Malaria, dysentery, typhoid
a. Half of
all born in early Virginia and Maryland did not live past age 20.
b. Less than
25% of men lived to see 50 -- women only 40
2. Most immigrants single men in
late teens/early 20's; most died soon after arriving
a. Surviving
males competed for extremely scarce women; women married early
b. Most men
could not find mates.
3. Region stabilized eventually due
to increased immunities to disease and rising
influx of
women
a. By 1700, Virginia was most populous colony (about 50,000
colonists)
b. By 1700, Maryland third most populous colony (about 30,000
inhabitants)
D. The Tobacco Plantation Economy
1. First
Africans arrived in 1619; largely indentured servants in early 17th c.
-- White indentured servants more predominant until late 17th
century.
2.
"Headright" System
a. A person who paid for the passage of a white indentured
servant
received 50 acres of land.
b. Some planters used the system to acquire enormous tracts
of land.
c. Indentured servants (English yeoman) agreed to years
of servitude in
exchange for transatlantic passage (term of servitude usually 5-7 years)
d. Early 17th c., after contract expired the
servant was often given some
money,
maybe some land, and other supplies to start their own farms.
-- Later, former indentured servants given little; could not succeed.
e.
By 1700, planters brought in about 100,000 indentured servants,
about 75% of all European immigrants to Virginia and Maryland.
E. Bacon's Rebellion (1676)
1. By late 17th c., large numbers of frustrated former
indentured servants
(freedmen) existed
a. Most lived in western Virginia; resented planter
aristocrats from the east.
b. Many too poor to own land; could not find wives (men still
greatly
outnumbered women)
c. Freedmen did not gain access to large land grants in the
east; forced to
squat for lands in western part of the colony.
d. Indians resisted white expansion in western Virginia.
Freedmen angry
that
gov't of Virginia didn't protect white settlers from Indian attacks.
i. Governor Berkeley was generally friendly toward Indians who traded
with the colony.
ii. House of Burgesses did not usually order attacks on Indians that
cooperated with gov't.
2. Nathaniel Bacon, an
aristocrat in western Virginia and member of House
of Burgesses
began mobilizing a militia to protect whites from Indians.
a. In 1676, Bacon's militia massacred Indians and set fire to
Jamestown, chasing
Governor Berkeley out of the city.
b. Rebels opposed to aristocrats and Indians.
c. Bacon subsequently died of disease and Berkeley crushed
the rebellion
d. Significance of Bacon's Rebellion
i. Planters saw white indentured servants as too difficult to
control and
significantly increased importation of black slaves while reducing number
of
indentured servants.
e.
Planter elite increasingly played the "race card": encouraged poor
whites to
discriminate against blacks. Planters feared blacks and poor whites could form
an alliance again in the future.
-- Planters effectively controlled poor whites psychologically by emphasizing
that poor whites,
despite poverty, would always be "superior" to blacks.
III. The Carolinas
A. Impact of the British West Indies
1. West Indies, especially Barbados, developed sugar
plantation economy.
2. Slaves in British West Indies outnumbered whites 4 to 1.
3. Slave codes adopted in Barbados to control slaves.
4. West Indies increasingly relied on mainland British
America for foodstuffs.
5. As sugar plantations began to crowd out small farmers,
many came to
Carolina
with their slaves to farm.
6. Carolina
adopted slave code in 1696
B. American colonization interrupted
during English Civil War (1640s) and
Cromwell's
Protectorate (1650s)
1. New
colonies not founded until restoration of Charles II (1660-1685)
2. New restoration
colonies included the Carolinas, New York and
Pennsylvania
C. Carolina created in 1670 after
restoration and named after Charles II.
1. Goals: grow foodstuffs for sugar plantations in Barbados
and export
non-English products like
wine, silk, and olive oil.
2. Exported Indians as slaves to West Indies and New England
colonies
(perhaps
as many as 100,000).
3. Rice became main cash crop in Carolina for
export; by 1710 blacks
outnumbered
whites.
4.
Charles Town (Charleston) became most active seaport in the South.
a. Became a center for aristocratic younger brothers of English
aristocrats (who inherited father's fortune due to primogeniture laws)
b. Religious toleration existed.
5. Indians and Spanish soldiers attacked southern Carolina
settlements as they
opposed
British settlement.
D. North Carolina created
officially in 1712 as a refuge for poor whites
and
religious dissenters from Carolina and Virginia.
1. Became most democratic, independent and least aristocratic
of
original 13 colonies (similar toRhode Island).
2. Yet, treated Indians ruthlessly and sold many into
slavery.
IV. Georgia became last British American colony
founded (1733).
A. Founded by James
Oglethorp
B. Founded as a
haven for debtors as well as a buffer state against Spanish and
Indian incursions from
the South.
C. Savannah
emerged into a diverse community (included German Lutherans &
Scottish Highlanders; but no Catholics)
V. Colonial Slavery
A. Most slaves came from West African coast (Senegal
to Angola)
1. Originally captured
by African coastal tribes who traded them to European
and American buyers.
-- About 40% of slaves captured by Africans in interior died en route to coast.
2. About 50 million
Africans died or became slaves during 17th & 18th c.
B. Of about 10-15 million Africans sent into
slavery in New World, 400,000 came to
North America. (Majority
sent to Spanish & Portuguese colonies in New World)
1. Between 20% to 1/3 of slaves died during the “Middle
Passage”
2. Horrific conditions:
i. Slaves often chained by neck and extremities to deck floor.
ii. Packed into spaces about the size of a coffin; lay in own excrement
iii. In some cases, next deck only 18” above deck floor; slaves could
not turn over; lay on their back the entire voyage.
3. Survivors
eventually sold at auction blocks at ports like Newport, RI,
or Charleston, SC (giant slave market)
4. Most slaves
came after 1700
a. Some came to Jamestown as early as 1619 but only 2,000 in Virginia in 1670
-- Accounted for about 7% of southern plantation population in mid 17th c.
b. Rising wages in England in 1680's reduced immigration to America.
-- By 1680's, black slaves outnumbered white servants.
c. 1698, Royal African Co. lost its monopoly on the slave trade.
i. Some Americans, esp. from RI, took advantage of lucrative slave trade
ii. Numbers of slaves in America dramatically increased.
-- Accounted for more than 1/2 Virginia population by 1750
-- In SC, outnumbered whites 2 to 1.
5. A few slaves gained
their freedom & some even became slaveowners.
-- However, this fact should not be overexaggerated! They were minuscule
in
number relative to entire slave population.
C. Slave Codes
1. As Africans grew in
numbers, threatened whites passed laws to severely
control the slave population.
2. Most common codes
stated:
a. blacks and their children were property for life of white masters.
b. it was a crime to teach literacy to slaves.
c. conversion to Christianity was not grounds for freedom.
3. S. Carolina’s
inherited Barbados slave codes influenced codes in other colonies.
D. Slavery became the root of racism in America as
a distinct color line was drawn.
-- The notion of
inferiority based on skin color imbedded in U.S. law until 1960s!
E. Slave Life
1. Slavery harshest in lower
South (esp. SC); least harsh in middle colonies.
a. Brutal & isolated conditions in rice and indigo farming led to many
deaths
b. Fresh import of slavery needed to sustain productivity
2. Tobacco-growing in middle
south less deadly
a. Plantations larger and closer together
-- Afforded slaves more contact with friends and relatives
b. Increase of female slave populations made family life more possible by 1720.
i. Slave pop. increased through
higher birthrate.
ii. America became one of few slave societies in history to grow by natural
reproduction.
F. Slave culture became a mixture of American and
African folkways
1. Gullah
language evolved on islands off South Carolina coast.
-- Blended English with several African languages: Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa
2.
Banjo and bongo drum imported to America from Africa
3.
Ringshout dance contributed to development of Jazz.
4.
Religion a combination of Christianity and African rituals
-- A free afterlife became a beacon of hope; story of Exodus very appealing
G. Slave rebellions show that slaves
were not always docile. About 250 revolts
-- Stono Rebellion (1739): largest slave revolt in history of the 13
colonies
i. SC slaves tried to march to Spanish Florida
after Spanish authorities
offered freedom to any slave who reached Florida.
ii. Stopped by militia after 25 whites killed;
eventually scores of slave
rebels killed by militia and settlers.
iii. Significance: slave system became more strictly
controlled.
VI. Southern Society -- 18th century
A. Southern class structure (from most powerful to
least powerful)
1. Plantation owners at
top of social ladder
--Ruled region's economy and monopolized political power.
2. Small farmers
comprised largest social group.
a. Considered far below the prestige and power of the planter class.
b. Most lived meager existences; some owned 1 or 2 slaves
c. Modest sized plots
3. Landless Whites --
most were former indentured servants
4. Indentured Servants
(lowest of whites)
a. Decreased as black slavery increased (after Bacon's Rebellion)
b. Only black slaves were lower in the class structure
5. Constituted about 20%
of colonial population by 1775
B. South remained underdeveloped
1. Few cities emerged
2. Life revolved around
southern plantations.
3. Poor transportation
-- waterways provided principal means of transportation
C. Why did the colonies differ from England? (Edmund
S. Morgan)
1.
Demand for labor of indentured servants in the South (indentured servants)
2.
Women came in much smaller numbers
3.
Importation of slaves from Africa
Big Ideas:
1. Contrast the Chesapeake and Carolina regions. Were there
actually two Souths?
2. Trace the development of indentured servitude and black
slavery in the 17th and
18th centuries.
3. To what extent was 18th century southern society different
from 17th century
southern society? (see chapter on 18th
century colonies to complete this theme)
4. What characteristics did all of the Southern colonies
share?
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