Chapter 4

American Life in the Seventeenth Century,

1607–1692

I. The Unhealthy Chesapeake• Brutal living– Malaria, dysentery, typhoid– Short life span

• Pop. grew slowly through immigration – Single men, late teens-twenties– Outnumbered women 6-1 in 1650– Perished soon after arrival

• Hard to maintain family• Native-born eventually acquired immunity to

diseases.• Beginning of 18thC Va pop = 59,000

II. The Tobacco Economy• Enormous production depressed prices.

– More tobacco=more labor– Africans cost too much– Relied on overpop. of displaced workers from England

• Indentured servants – Migrants who, in exchange for transatlantic passage, bound themselves

to a colonial employer for a term of service, typically between four and seven years

• Va. & Md. Employed the headright system – Allowed an individual to acquire fifty acres of land if he paid for a

laborer’s passage to the colony

• At first indentured servants lived hopeful life– As land became scarce so did treatement

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III. Frustrated Freemen and Bacon’s Rebellion• Uprising of Va backcountry farmers and indentured

servants led by planter Nathaniel Bacon– Response to Gov. Berkeley’s refusal to protect backcountry

settlers from Indian attacks– Grew into broaders conflict between impoverished settlers

and planter elite– Battle of social classes

• Bacon died of diseases• Rebellion was crushed by Berkeley • Start to move away from indenture servants and on to

African slaves.

IV. Colonial Slavery• Planters grew weary of servants and mutinity

– Move to black slaves

• Mid 1680s black slaves outnumber white servants.• Royal African Company

– English joint-stock company that enjoyed a state granted monopoly on the colonial slave trade from 1672-1698

– 1698 charter revoked= sharp increase in African slaves

• Enterprising Americans rush to cash in on the slave trade– SC blacks outnumbered white 2-1

• Most slaves ventured the middle passage from West Africa • Few early African immigrants gained freedom

– End of 17th C, white colonist reacted at pop increase

• Slavery began for economic reasons, but by the end of the 17th C, racial discrimination molded the American slave system.

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V. Africans in America• Deep south slave life was severe

– Climate, life-draining labor– Only fresh imports could sustain slave pop

• Black in Chesapeake region– Easier labor– Increase in female life– One of the few slave societies to perpetuate itself by its own natural

production • Increase in slave culture

• Condemned to life under the lash, slave pined for freedom– NY slave revolt= uprising of 2 dozen slaves that resulted in deaths of

nine whites and the brutal execution of 21 participating blacks. – Stono Rebellion= more than 50 SC blacks tried to reach Spanish Fl. but

were stopped by SC militia http://youtu.be/eUt6DnSH9cU

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VI. Southern Society• South’s social structure widened with slavery • Great planter=top of the social class; aristocrats

– Ruled economy; monopolized political power– Hard working, businesslike

• Way beneath planter; Small farmers – Might own a slave or two – Largest social class

• Landless whites; former indentured servants• Still serving indentured servants • Oppressed black at bottom of the social class

• Few cities formed in colonial South– Revolved around great plantations

• Distant from each other• Hard to travel

VII. The New England Family• Clean water and cool temps= less diseases • Grew from natural reproduction–People were fertile, even if soil was not –Huge birthrate – Fear of pregnancy; death in childbirth and

survival of child

• Lifespan=family stability – “invent” grandparents

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X. The New England Way of Life

XI. The Early Settlers’ Days and Ways

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