Chapter 4AMERICAN LIFE IN THE 17TH CENTURY

American wilderness Brutal Disease

Malaria, dysentery, typhoid

Life expectancy declined

Men outnumbered women 6 to 1 Men could not find mates

CHESAPEAKE

Planted tobacco to sell before planting corn to eat

Exhausted soil

Demand for new land Went further up rivers and pushed west

More tobacco = More labor Indentured servants

TOBACCO

Head-right System Servant Workers Paid passage = 50 acres of land

100,000 Indentured servants = 1700 Virginia/ Maryland

CONT.

Freemen = looking for land / Women

Governor Berkeley Friendly policies with Native Americans

Nathaniel Bacon Looking for untamed land 1,000 broke out of control = 1676 Plundering and Pilfering Civil War in Virginia

BACON’S REBELLION

7 million slaves to New World

COLONIAL SLAVERY

1680’s Black slaves outnumbered whites in plantations colonies

Royal African Company = Charter lost

Rhode Islanders = Cash in on slave trade

1750 ½ population = Virginia Outnumbered 2 to 1 = S. Carolina

CONT.

Middle Passage Journey from Africa to the West Indies

Passage was extremely diffi cult20% of the slaves died on the trip

COLONIAL SLAVERY

Slave life severe in deep SouthLife drainingRice/Indigo

Tobacco = less demandingPlantations closer together

More contact with other slaves

CultureGullah (Language) Jazz

AFRICANS IN AMERICA

New York Slave Revolt – 1712 9 whites died 21 slaves executed = burned at the stake

South Carolina Slave Revolt – 1739 50 slaves Stono River = Spanish Florida

CONT.

Plantation owners ran the South’s economy Monopolized political

power Families = Fitzhughs,

Lees, Washingtons

Dominated House of Burgesses

Hard working, businesslike, long hours

Small Farmers Largest group Hand to Mouth 1-2 slaves

Landless whites Former indentured

servants

SOUTHERN SOCIETY

Southern families = economic security for women

Men died young

Women retain separate title to their property

Widows right to inherit

CONT.

Few cities sproutedLife revolved around plantations

Waterways = transportation

CONT.

Clean Water, Cool Temperatures

Added 10 yrs to life

Migrated as families Early marriages Birth Rate increased

10 pregnancies / 8 children

Parents / Grandparents

NEW ENGLAND

Women gave up property when married

Lawmakers = protect / defend marriages Divorce rare

Midwifery Childbirth Female monopoly

CONT.

Tight knit society

Puritans = unity of purpose Moral health

Distribution of land in hands of proprietors Woodlot, tract

(crops), pasture

50 plus = schools

Massachusetts Harvard – 1636

Virginians William and Mary –

1693

Congregational Church Government

NEW ENGLAND TOWNS

Jeremiad Doom-saying Scolded parishioners Decline in conversions

Half Way Covenant - 1662 Admit to baptism – not full communion

Doors to Puritan church swung open

CONT.

Salem Witch Trials – 1692 Massachusetts Witch hunt 20 individuals Gossip

Superstitions Property owning Widows

Ended in 1693

CONT.

Less ethically mixed

Stony soil /Extreme weather

Expert shipbuilders / commerce

Codfish “fishy goldmines of New England”

Huge impact on the rest of the nation

NEW ENGLAND

Most were farmers Sun up to sun down

Women managed the home (plantation)

Distinction amongst classes Leisler’s Rebellion – 1689

Lordly landowners against Merchants Gentlemen / dividing class Laws passed to keep them in their place

EARLY SETTLERS