AP United States History
Mr. M. Pecot
Bailey, Chapter 4: American Life in the 17th Century, 1607-1692
I. The Chesapeake Region
a) Sickness and Mortality
1. Life expectancy for Chesapeake settlers is -10 of English norm
§ Malaria, dysentery, typhoid
§ 50% of American-born Va or Md residents are dead by 20.
§ most do not survive to live 40 or 50 yrs.
2. Growth of colony is the result of emigration alone in the early years
§ primarily unmarried males in their teens or early twenties
b) Strains on family life
1. Males outnumber females 6:1 in 1650
§ most males are unmarrried, women don't remain single long
§ Most marriages experience the death of a partner within seven years
- many parentless children
§ Pregnancy rates among unmarried females are high
- up to 1/3 of all brides are already pregnant
c) Emergence of a stable population
1. Factors encouraging growth
§ By 1700, immunities help stave off the death rate
§ Presence of more women allows for stable families
§ Tobacco continues to lure settlers
2. Population in 1690s grows as a result of natural increase, not just immigration
§ 59,000 in Va (most populous colony in British N. America)
§ 30,000 in Md (3rd)
d) Tobacco Economy
1. Production increases throughout the 17th c.
§ introduced in 1612
§ Chesapeake exports:
- 1630s: 1.5 million pounds/yr
- 1690s: 40 million pounds/yr
§ Increased production = lower prices; lower prices encourage farmers to plant more
2. Indentured servants
§ headright system & merchant-planters
- 100,000 indentured servants brought to the Chesapeake by 1700
- leads to emergence of wealthy "merchant-planters" dominating eastern lands
§ 3/4 of all immigrants are indentured servants
- land grants are less and less part of dues
- freed indentures wind up landless freemen or take lands on frontier
e) Class strife in the Chesapeake
1. 1676 Bacon's Rebellion
§ Nathaniel Bacon leads a revolt of discontented freemen
- frustrated over disenfranchisement in 1670
- angered by Indian attacks (and the lack of response to these by the eastern government in Jamestown:
- WEST-EAST…POOR-WEALTHY…LANDLESS-LANDED…DEBTOR-CREDITOR
§ Bacon's death by disease marks the end of the Rebellion
- Gov. William Berkeley hangs 20
II. Slavery in the Colonies
a) Distribution of Slaves in the Colonies
1. c. 10 million to New World 1492-1803
§ 400,000 to N. America (primarily 1700-1807)
§ most to Spanish/Portugese plantations in S.America and West Indies
b) The Rise of Slavery in America
1. Indentured servants preferred to slaves prior to 1680s
§ only 2000 slaves in Va in 1670
2. Factors leading to rise of slavery
§ rising wages in England make indentures less appealing to workers
§ fear of mutinous white servants and freemen (the lessons of Bacon's revolt)
§ 1698 Royal African Co. loses monopoly over British slave trade
3. The experience of slavery
§ West Africans
§ "middle passage" & slave markets
§ "slave codes"
- distinguish between slaves and servants
- solidifies the characteristics of American slavery as "racial, hereditary, and chattel"
c) Slavery in the Colonies
1. Deep South
§ Rice and Indigo plantations
- task system
- male oriented
- harsh labor environment
2. Upper South
§ Tobacco cultivation
- plantations are smaller and closer to each other -- more contact
- some semblance of family life by 1720s
- population grows by natural increase in the Chesapeake
- don't romanticize this, though…
3. Slave Culture
§ Sea Islands of SC
- Gullah
§ West African religious traditions (often blended with Christianity)
- ringshout
§ Music and art
- percussion and improvisational music
- instruments (banjo and bongos)
- weaving
4. Early colonial slave revolts
§ NYC -- 1712
§ SC - 1739: Stono Rebellion
5. Slavery and Southern Society
§ Slavery widens the gap between the classes
§ Southern hierarchy
- Merchant Planters (FFV's)
- large slaveholders with massive estates
- dominate political power
- Small farmers
- largest social group
- modest landholdings; possibly own one or two slaves, but work alongside them
- Landless whites and indentures
- slaves (largest single group by the early 17th c.)
§ Plantation economy retards growth of the cities and urban professionals
- isolated, poor roads
III. 17th c. New England
a) Sickness and Mortality
1. Life expectancy is 10 years higher than in England
§ 20 years higher than in the Chesapeake!
§ "A sip of New England's air is better than a whole draft of Old England's ale."
- a result of clean water, cool temps, and a diet consisting of plenty of meat and fish
§ Many live to 70
b) Family Life
1. Migrants came as families, not individuals
2. Strong family structures and early marriages = a booming population
§ Women married by their early 20s; reproduce every 2 years
- avg. 10 pregnancies and 8 surviving children
- childbirth takes toll on lives of some women
3. Long lives = family stability
c) Women in New England
1. Generally confined to the domestic sphere
§ childrearing a full time and life long occupation
2. Not allowed to inherit title to land
§ contrasts with southern women
d) Society organization
1. Tightly knit communities
§ Common religious aims
§ hemmed in by Indians to the West, the Dutch to the South, and the French to the North
2. Town-based
§ Towns chartered by the colonial authorities and planned out
- Meeting house & village green surrounded by houses
- land for firewood, pasture, and crops was distributed among the residents
3. Education
§ 1647 Massachusetts School Law
§ 1636 Harvard College est.
4. Early experiments in Democracy
§ Congregational Church
§ Town meetings
e) Disruptions in New England Society
1. Declining religious zeal in New England
§ 1650s "Jeremiads"
- response to growing commercialism and decline in conversions
§ Half-Way Covenant (1662)
- allows partial membership in the Church to those not yet converted
- erases the distinctions between the "elect" and the "damned"
2. Salem Witch Trials (1692)
§ Outbreak of hysteria
- Adolescent girls claim to have been bewitched by an older woman
- 20 executions (19 hanged, 1 pressed to death)
§ Causes
- a result of upset social and economic conditions in Salem
- generally wealthy members of "Salem Town" accused by poorer members of "Salem Village"
- also reflects anxieties of religious traditionalists
f) The New England Way of Life
1. Poor soil puts a premium on thrift and industry
§ also leads to less ethnic diversity (no real attraction to immigrants)
2. Climate encourages diversification of agriculture and economy
§ variety of crops for different weather
§ fishing and shipbuilding
3. Duty to improve the land (they see Indians as merely "wasting it")
§ clear forests for pastureland
- pigs, horses, sheep, and cattle
IV. Generalizations about 17th c. Colonial Americans
a) Agriculturally-oriented
b) Humble but comfortable conditions
1. standard of living generally higher than in Europe
§ land is cheaper and easier to acquire
§ wages are good
2. Class distinctions become more apparent as the century progresses
§ Laws to limit the "meaner sort"
§ Resentments of class pretensions flare up:
- 1676 Bacon's Rebellion (VA)
- 1689 Leisler's Rebellion (NY)