Society and Culture of Colonies

Founding of Georgia

• Problems between Northern Spanish territory in Florida and South Carolina

• James Oglethorpe:– Military hero and member of parliament– Founded Georgia as buffer between Spanish and

English colonies.– Brought prisoners from England to serve as

Farmer-Soldiers to defend the colony.

Georgia Transformed

• Oglethorpe assumed complete control– No Africans, free or slave, for fear they would

defect to the Spanish– Restricted trade with Natives to avoid insurrection– No Catholics, too much in common with Spanish

• His authority led to class conflict similar to South Carolina, King resumed control of colony and repealed restrictions.– Even still, Georgia developed slower than other

colonies.

Navigation Acts

• Under Cromwell England used navy to prevent Dutch ships from trading

• Charles II Navigation Acts took this a step further– 1. Colonial trade only with British ships– 2. All colonial goods shipped elsewhere in Europe

had to go through England, so it could be taxed– 3. Appointed customs officials to enforce the first

two acts since colonists constantly evaded them

Glorious Revolution/ Enlightenment• William and Mary overthrew James II to take

control of England.– The established the English Bill of Rights which

extended to the colonists under British rule.• Enlightenment:– New ideas concerning medicine, education, and

philosophy eventually spread to colonies, changing New England in particular

– Massachusetts passed law requiring every town to provide public school.

– Harvard was first American college.

Cultural development in Colonies• Life in New England– Cooler climate free of many diseases caused life

expectancy to be much longer (into the 70s)– More family oriented from beginning, caused a closer

gender ratio.– Marriage: • Married young, started families earlier, more children

survived to maturity.• Since men lived longer, often women remained in

subordinate roles • Fathers, brothers, and other male relatives had to give

consent to marriage, dowries were often required.

Cultural Development in Colonies

• Life in Chesapeake and Southward– Male dominated from the start– Mortality rates and disease much higher than anywhere

else in the world (40 yr. life expectancy)– Higher death rate meant only 1/3 of marriages lasted

longer than 10 years.– Women, comparatively lower, were expected to marry as

soon as possible, average was 20 yrs. But much younger in many cases.

Life in South Cont.• Fewer men = less fatherly control, and indentured

servants weren’t allowed to marry before release• Much higher premarital sex and pregnancy rates. • Nearly 1/3 of marriages already pregnant.• Women were pregnant every 2 yrs. Bearing an

average of 8 children.–Women typically had more opportunity to select

husbands –Generally gained more power within family since

they became widowed much earlier.

Economic Development• New England / Mid-Atlantic Colonies:– Colder climate and rocky soil prevented large scale

farming like in southern colonies.– Craftsmen such as blacksmiths, cobblers, silversmiths,

printers, carpenters, riflemakers, lumberjacks, etc…– Technology such as water power was developed to run

mills and large scale shipbuilding operations.– Eventually wealthy merchant classes were more

common in Northern cities such as Philadelphia, Boston, and New York as they expanded.

New England / Mid-Atlantic Cont.• Most northern colonists were far from self sufficient

and depended heavily on bartering and commerce for survival

• The Town was the central social unit where most citizens lived.– Farmlands were divided around the outskirts– As families expanded and sons inherited land they

eventually spread further from security of the town.

Economic Development• Southern Colonies– Tobacco – initial cash crop caused large demand and

land development.– Warmer, longer growing season, and impact on soil

caused large planter economy to develop.– South Carolina eventually developed damns within the

tidal waters to build large rice plantations.• Later found that indigo production rotated crops nicely with

rice.

– Later development of cotton and sugar cane became popular.

– Most trade of such crops went through England or northern cities. – Wealthy planter Aristocrat Society

Southern Colonies Cont.• Large Planters dominated southern society• Plantations became the centers of trade and

supplies.– Were relatively self sufficient – Most plantations were actually rather small and usually

included roughly 30 servants who worked closely with owners.

• A majority; however, were small farmers who worked and lived closely with servants, no splendor.– They still depended upon the larger plantations for

credit or marketing for their crops.

Slavery• Cash crops were labor intensive, began with the

expansion of tobacco production.• Initially most slaves went to Caribbean and Brazil

for the sugar plantations, only 5 percent came to English colonies.– As trade increased and price of slaves declined they

became more predominant, most slave codes and extreme expansion wouldn’t occur until 18th century

• Most plantation owners were land rich but poor of cash, inter racial relations were quite common.

Slavery Cont.• To maintain control slave codes prohibited the

education of slaves and empowered owners to break up families through trade.

• In response, slaves developed elaborate kinship with extended family and surrogate “relatives”

• Gullah– Form of language that combined African tongues and

English – Slaves could continue to communicate free from

owners

Witchcraft In New England• Began with crisis in Salem, Mass.– Eventually 19 people executed as result, accusers later

recanted their claims.• The accused were typically– Middle aged, widowed women with few or no children

and large land holdings– Lower social status women involved with domestic

conflicts– Women of bad repute or abrasive to neighbors

• Still, the belief in the power of Satan was very real in Puritan society and fear of witchcraft went beyond mere superstition in New England society.