1Topic I.

Colonial America

2. America and the British Empire, 1650-1754

A. Chesapeake country, Virginia and Maryland, plantation economies, Tidewater
1. Virginia (see notes on Jamestown No. 1, C.1)
2. Maryland, 1634
a. motivation
1. founded by Lord Baltimore as a refuge for Roman
Catholics
2. financial profit
b. sponsor(s)
1. Lord Baltimore (absentee proprietor) gave his relatives
large tracts of land (feudal domain)
2. smaller backwoods settlements inhabited by Protestants
(poorer people) also grew up around estates and tensions
between groups grew
c. economy
1. tobacco main crop (like Virginia)
2. indentured servants main source of labor (like Virginia)
d. significance
1. religious toleration but Catholics outnumbered in 1649
agreed to Act of toleration (passed by local representative
assembly), which granted all Christians toleration (Jews
and atheists death penalty if denied divinity of Jesus Christ)
i.e. Act resulted in less toleration than previous measures.
3. General characteristics of the Chesapeake country
a. social - 17th century - characterized by disease, shortened life
span, absence of females, weak family ties, high out-of-wedlock
births, slow immigration from England, but by 18th century -
immunity to disease, growth by natural increase (Virginia largest
colony by 1700)
b. economy - based on tobacco but volatile prices since solution was
to plant more when prices dropped, therefore constant and great
need for labor (Indians dies, Africans too much money)
- white indentured servants until 1680 when African labor
used (3/4) of European) because whites were too rebellious
and unreliable and monopoly of Royal African Company
broken
- headright system led to growth of vast riverfront estates

B. Growth of new England

1. Plymouth, Massachusetts (see notes in No.1 C.2) merged with the
Massachusetts Bay Colony on 1691, still charterless, most important
leader, William Bradford, governor 30 years, moral and spiritual influence

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 2. Massachusetts Bay Colony 1630
a. motivation
1. well-equipped expedition of 1,000 moderate non-
Separatists, Puritans left England when Charles I dismissed
Parliament in 1629
2. Great Migration of 1630s (to 1642) brought 75,000 more
Puritans fleeing religious repression and economic
depression
3. establish Godly or Bible Commonwealth
4. find prosperity
b. sponsor(s)
1. - diverse group obtained royal charter to form
Massachusetts Bay Company. i.e. Gov. John Winthrop,
wealthy attorney who felt he had a calling for a “city on a
hill,” holy society for all to follow
c. economy
- fur trading, fishing, ship building helped elevate the
Massachusetts Bay Colony to most influential in all New
England
d. significance
1. Bible Commonwealth but clergy barred from holding
political office, so “separation of church and state”
2. Protestant Ethic i.e. serious commitment to work and
involvement in worldly affairs
3. Massachusetts Bay Colony “hub” of region from which
other colonies grew (Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
Haven, New Hampshire and grew into Plymouth, Maine,
New Hampshire)

C. Restoration Colonies, after Charles II restored to throne (1660)

1. Carolinas, named for Charles II, 1670
a. motivation
1. grow food stuffs to provision sugar plantations in Barbados
2. export non-English products (wine, silks, olive oil)
b. sponsor(s)
1. Charles II gave 8 aristocratic proprietors land all the
way to the Pacific Ocean
2. later (1712) north part of Carolinas develops it own
distinctive traits as squatter/outcasts from Virginia move
south and raise tobacco on small farms without the use of
slaves
c. economy
1. developed close economic ties with the British West Indies
2. exported Indian slaves to work in sugar cane fields and

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 mills or in New England
3. rice becomes principal crop in South Carolina
- promoted African slavery because of their skill
and immunity to malaria (by 1710 made up the
majority of the population of South Carolina)
4. busiest seaport in South (Charleston) inhabited by
aristocracy from England but also religiously tolerant;
known for slave trade
d. significance
1. North Carolina becomes known as a haven for irreligious,
spirit of resistance to authority
2. along with Rhode Island (Roger Williams) becomes most
democratic, independent, and least aristocratic of the 13
colonies
2. Pennsylvania
a. motivation
1. asylum for Quakers, who were being persecuted in
England.
2. place where experimentation with liberal ideas in
government could take place unhampered
3. financial profit
b. sponsor(s)
1. William Penn, wealthy Quaker, secured grant from king in
consideration for debt owed to his father (proprietary
colony)
2. advertised for settlers from all over Europe with promises
of toleration and land; it attracted Dutch, French, and
German immigrants
3. squatters already lived along the Delaware River, including
Dutch, Swedes, English and Welsh
c. economy
1. fertile soil, broad expanses of land led to successful growth
of grains - “Bread Colonies”
2. rivers tap fur trade and lure settlers into back country
3. little manufacturing but still lumbering and shipbuilding,
growth of seaports, commerce
d. significance
1. one of the most ethnically mixed colony in New World
because of liberal immigration and naturalization policy,
therefore economic and social democracy great
2. freedom of worship for all except Catholics and Jews who
could not vote or hold office; no tax-supported church
3. paid Indians for their land and treated them fairly therefore
no military defense needed

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 4. politically, representative assembly elected by landowners
D. Mercantilism, a general theory used to justify exploitation of American colonies
(used by all strong nations)
1. elements include
a. develop a strong, central government to direct the nation’s affairs
b. achieve economic and military self-sufficiency, usually exporting
more than importing
c. colonies exist for the benefit of the Mother country (not to achieve
economic independence or self-government)
2. American colonies’ relation to England
a. colonies were expected to provide ships, ships’ stores, and sailors
to build up the navy and merchant marine
b. colonists would serve as market for English manufactured goods,
therefore they were discouraged from trading with other countries
c. colonies would provide raw materials that might otherwise have to
be purchased from foreign nations, thereby keeping the wealth
within the empire
3. Parliament’s measures to enforce mercantilist policies
a. 1650 trade was restricted to and from colonies requiring that good
could only be carried on British vessels (kept Dutch traders out)
b. (see notes on American Revolution for other measures)
c. Dominion of New England, 1686, created by royal authority and
included all New England colonies plus New York and New Jersey
in order to
1. bolster colonial defense in event of Indian wars
2. administer Navigation Laws to bind the colonists more
tightly to the Mother country
3. headed by the hated Sir Edmund Andros, military man who
alienated colonists by
a. cracking down on smugglers
b. curbed town meetings, press, schools and courts
c. revoked land titles
d. taxed without consent

E. Origins of Slavery (first Africans to Jamestown, 1619, possibly as indentured

servants)
1. Of the 10 million Africans brought to the New World between 1492-1792,
only 400,000 were destined for North America, and most arrived after
1700; rest were taken to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in South
America or to various West Indies islands
2. White indentured servants filled most labor needs before 1700 but they
proved to be unreliable and dangerous
- as their expectations for “freedom dues” (land supplies, etc.) were unmet
and they lost hope of ever becoming economically independent,

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 insurrections became a real threat
- Bacon’s rebellion, 1670 was started by disenfranchised landless, former
servants in the Chesapeake region who were upset that government policy
towards Indians was friendly and that government monopolized the
lucrative fur trade
3. This, combined with the fact that the Royal African Company lost their
monopoly stimulated the move toward the importation of Africans to fill
the labor needs of the South, especially
- Africans also brought with them several advantages, such as
immunity to malaria and experience growing rice (which explains
why South Carolina where rice was grown, had the greatest
proportion of Africans to Whites)
4. Most Africans brought from West coast of Africa were captured by
African coastal tribes and sold to slave traders
a. traveled “middle passage” like animal stock and 20% mortality not
uncommon
b. most destined for Newport, Rhode Island, or Charleston, South
Carolina
5. Some Africans gain freedom (and even own slaves) but most become
chattel for life
6. Slave culture grows in the Chesapeake easier than further south because
tobacco cultivation was less labor intensive and the plantations were closer
together
- slave population perpetuates itself through natural increase
7. As time went on, restrictive laws (slave codes) were passed to keep the
African slaves from resisting
- what first started as a chiefly economic motive for adopting slave
labor, later became infused with racism - laws to suppress them
were based purely on race (rather than economic status or religion,
as was the custom in other area, such as voting or church
membership)