Chapter 3 Summary
The Colonies Come of Age

England and Its Colonies

England established colonies to increase its empire and wealth; laws and regulations would favor the mother country; colonists would receive no representation in Parliament which eventually proves to be a major error --"no taxation without representation"

European nations competed with each other, colonies played an important role in adding to their power and wealth, in a system called mercantilism; one goal was to add to the national treasury as much gold as possible

Colonies provided raw materials for England and became a market for the manufactured goods of English manufacturers

Parliament passed the Navigation Acts regulating and restricting trade of the colonies beginning in 1651

These acts required that colonial goods be shipped in colonial or English ships, vessels must be manned by at least 3/4 colonial or English crews, certain products such as tobacco and sugar (later rice, molasses and furs) be shipped only to England, all goods regardless of their final destination must be unloaded in an English port (creating English jobs and providing for tax revenues)

Smugglers attempted to evade the trade laws, selling their commodities to Spain, France, the Netherlands because they could receive higher prices than in England and avoid taxes

Massachusetts, the "Puritan Utopia," openly defied the English government on everything from trade to religious toleration, would have its charter revoked in 1684

King James II consolidated the northern colonies and put them under a single ruler based in Boston, forming the Dominion of New England in 1687

King James II, a Catholic, would be forced to flee to France during the Glorious Revolution, and his daughter Mary (a Protestant) and her husband, William of Orange, to rule in his place, though much power was now in the hands of Parliament

The colonists in America rebelled and Parliament reestablished the colonial governments, though the Puritan governments would have to provide for religious toleration for groups such as the Anglicans and Quakers

England would turn its attention to France, its chief rival, and a policy of salutary neglect towards the colonies occurred even though it moved trials of smugglers to England (admiralty courts) and created a Board of Trade which had powers to monitor trade

Colonial governors were appointed by the Crown but legislatures, elected by voters (white males with property) usually controlled the purse strings (the power to tax and allocate government monies)
 

The Agricultural South

Planters in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina raised tobacco as a cash crop; in Georgia planters raised rice and indigo

The South developed as a rural and self-sufficient society with limited investments in infrastructure such as roads, canals, education, etc

As the price of tobacco increased and exports tripled from 1713 to 1774 many farmers and merchants prospered

Women, everywhere in the colonies were strictly second class citizens: no right to vote, preach or own property; most spent their time cooking, tending the garden, sewing, washing, etc.

Indentured servants may have consisted of 1/3 to 2/3 of the immigrants arriving in the colonies in the 17th century though their numbers dropped by 1700 as word reached laborers in Europe about the harsh conditions found in the colonies

An alternative source of labor: Africans would become central to satisfy labor needs in the South as it became clear that indentured servants and Native Americans would be insufficient (stories of the high death rates surely played a part)

1690: 13,000 slaves 1750: 200,000 slaves in America

Sugar plantations in Jamaica and Barbados had used large numbers of slaves throughout the 17th century

Slaves resisted their condition both passively and aggressively, Stono Rebellion of 1739 in South Carolina sent shock waves throughout the South

Slavery in the northern colonies was not as firmly entrenched because their economies were based more on commerce than labor intensive agriculture
 
The Commercial North

Economic growth in the colonies from 1650 to 1750 exceed the English growth rate

Farming was limited in New England because of poor, rocky soil and cold climate

Farming in the middle colonies was diverse, including wheat, corn, cattle and hogs; much of their surplus was sold to the West Indies because sugar planters were reluctant to grow food crops

Grinding wheat, harvesting fish, and lumber & timber were important in the northern colonies

Ship building became important, with 1/3 of British ships built in the colonies by the 1770s

More iron production would occur in the colonies than in Britain

In the 1700s about half a million Europeans immigrated to the colonies; after 1755 more than a 1/3 were from somewhere else besides Britain, with Germans and Scots-Irish being the largest groups

New York City, formerly known as New Amsterdam, would emerge as an important port because of its location on the Atlantic Coast with a fine harbor and the Hudson River extending deep into upstate New York

Many came for religious freedom, economic opportunity, to flee wars, or to simply start a new life in the colonies

Slavery existed in all of the colonies though it was not as extensive as in the southern colonies; racial prejudice was universal; slaves in New England however enjoyed more legal rights than in the South

Repression and harsh living conditions were common, a slave revolt in New York in 1712 resulted in the execution of over 20 slaves; in 1741 mysterious fires were blamed on Africans and at least 32 were executed

Puritan religious belief expressed that women lived under the rule of their husbands

Salem Witch Trials in Salem in 1692--fear and violence resulting from the perpetual conflicts with Native Americans resulted in one of the most bizarre episodes in American history; young women accused a slave woman of practicing black magic, others were accused as well, and the event snowballed. Innocent people lost their lives in a wave of hysteria. Two other factors played into the event: accusers were often poorer than the accused, and the accused were often women who may have been considered too independent. When the governor's wife was accused the court was closed--19 people had been hanged, one crushed to death, 4 died in jail, and over 150 had been sentenced to jail.

The Renaissance had influenced philosophers and scientists to use reasoning and the scientific method to obtain knowledge.

The Enlightenment, characterized by Copernicus, Galileo, and Isaac Newton determined that mathematical laws could explain phenomena such as the earth revolving around the sun. Enlightenment ideas spread across the Atlantic, to Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Political ideas also came across, in books and pamphlets, where half of the white males were literate (compared to 1/3 in England).

Individuals had natural rights which governments must respect. The authority of the monarchy would be questioned by many colonists after the French & Indian War.

Meanwhile there was concern in Puritan New England in the early 18th century that Puritan values and membership was declining. Jonathan Edwards hoped to revive the puritan spirit of sinfulness ("the God that holds you over the pit of hell")

The Great Awakening, a revival of religious spirit takes hold as preachers traveled the countryside to crowds of thousands beginning in the 1730s; many were brought into organized Christianity for the first time, new independent churches, the Baptists and Methodists, grew as many abandoned the state supported Puritan and Anglican churches

New colleges were formed to train ministers, including Princeton, Brown, Columbia and Dartmouth

The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening both caused many to challenge traditional authority and to emphasize the importance of the individual

This would affect how many colonists would view the colonies relationship with the British government
 

The French and Indian War

France was Britain's chief rival in North America, claiming much of Canada, the Ohio River Valley and the Mississippi River Valley

Quebec had been founded on the St Lawrence River in 1608 as a trading post and military fort and to prevent the British from using the river in their attempts to colonize Canada

French explorers such as Cartier (1534) and Champlain (1608) had explored the area for France, as well as LaSalle, Marquette and Jolliet

However by 1760 only about 80,000 lived in New France compared to over 1 million British colonists in the 13 colonies

While the British colonists established towns and created farming communities centered around family life the French were mainly boys and men engaged in fur trading

The Native Americans viewed the French as much less of a threat to their social and cultural lives, and benefited from the trading relationships while the English were seen as constantly taking more and more land used by the Indians for hunting and farming

France and Britain had fought three previous wars during the 50 year period prior to the French and Indian War (1754-1763)

The war began as colonists, led by a young Virginia militia colonel, George Washington, fought with the French in present day Ohio, at Ft Necessity, and Washington and his men were forced to surrender

The British were determined to drive the French out of the Ohio River Valley; early in the war the British were outfought because of the tactics used by the French and their Indian allies (using trees and other objects for cover, rather than standing in rows out in the open)

King George II in 1757 would select new leaders to run his government and conduct the war, including William Pitt, who would send 50,000 well-equipped soldiers to North America

British units began winning battles and took Quebec in 1759 in a daring raid, scaling steep cliffs

The Treaty of Paris officially ended the war in 1763 with France withdrawing from North America, keeping only some islands in the Caribbean

Native American leader Pontiac aligned with the French; smallpox infested blankets were used to spread disease among the Indians by the British

After the war the British government attempted to stop colonial frontiersmen from moving onto Indian land west of the Appalachian Mountains with the Proclamation of 1763; largely ineffective; angered Americans on the frontier because they had hoped to settle on the land once controlled by the French

Because of the cost of the war the British government attempted to raise additional revenues from the colonies with new taxes and duties--Britain was nearly bankrupt and the cost of maintaining 10,000 soldiers in the expanded empire was expensive

Government actions against smugglers became more aggressive and general search warrants were used to inspect any ship or building for smuggled goods

Sugar Act passed by Parliament in 1764 moved cases against smugglers from colonial courts (with sympathetic juries) to vice-admiralty courts, more likely to convict

Colonial leaders complained that taxation without representation in Parliament violated their rights as British citizens

Increasing numbers of colonists became disenchanted with British rule over the colonies and eventually a full-scale rebellion would break out