The Big Picture: For more than 100 years, England’s colonies in America grew steadily. Over time, the colonies developed their own economies, political systems, traditions of local government, and sense of self-reliance. But as time wore on, serious strains between the colonists and Britain began to appear.

CHAPTER 3: COLONIAL LIFE

Main Idea: British mercantilist policies and political issues helped shape the development of the American colonies.

CHAPTER 3 SECTION 1: POLITICAL LIFE IN THE COLONIES

Mercantilism• Mercantilism: a nation’s power is directly related to its wealth

and its ability to maintain a favorable balance a trade (exports exceed imports)• the purpose of colonies was to advance mercantilism through

supplying raw materials cheaply and serving as a market for the mother country• Navigation Acts: series laws to control colonial trade • Only certain goods could be sold in England

• ships had to be British with British crew

• all goods had to pass through England to be taxed

• merchants had to pay taxes to tax collectors

• The laws did increase revenue for England, but cost quite a bit to enforce• Colonists resented English interference with trade and began

smuggling with other nations that offered them better prices and goods

The Glorious Revolution and the English Bill of RightsThe Dominion of New England• Under the Restoration, many Puritans

in the New England colonies refused to recognized Charles II as their king

• New England was also more likely to engage in smuggling and competition in industries like ironworks

• To exert more control, the crown took over New Hampshire and then made Massachusetts a royal colony in 1684

• When Charles II died, his brother James II came to the throne and created the Dominion of New England, a colony that included New Jersey, New England, and New York

• Sir Edmund Andros was appointed governor; he treated the colonists like children

Glorious Revolution & Reaction• Catholic James II was unpopular in

England too; 1688- Parliament invited his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William to rule England

• Power transferred peacefully (known as the Glorious Revolution)

• Before being crowned, William and Mary signed the English Bill of Rights placing limits on the power of the monarch and giving Parliament free speech and the power of taxation

• In the colonies, Andros was arrested and sent back to England

• The Dominion of New England was ended; Massachusetts remained a royal colony, but it and New York gained an elected assembly

Government in the ColoniesSteps to Self-Rule• Some colonists claimed the English Bill of Rights applied to them too, but that

was not true

• Some colonies like Massachusetts took small steps towards self-rule by coining its own money

• 1643:New England Federation was formed in which each member controlled its own internal affairs, but cooperated in other matters like defense

Neglect By England• Power shifted from the crown to Parliament with the Glorious Revolution; they

focused on domestic issues and largely ignored the colonies (called salutary neglect)

• There was a Board of Trade that handled colonial affairs, but they largely let colonial assemblies and governors take care of day-to-day governance

Colonial governments in the 1700s• New England used town meetings to handle colonial issues

• Other colonies had a county or parish government; most colonists saw these local governments as a basic right

• Most colonial assemblies were bicameral with an elected lower house and the governor’s council as the upper house (they were appointed like the governor)

Main Idea: A commerce-based economy developed in the northern colonies, while the southern colonies developed an agricultural economy.

CHAPTER 3 SECTION 2: THE COLONIAL ECONOMY

Northern Colonial ColoniesFarming and Natural Resources• Soil in New England was thin and

rocky with short growing seasons

• Most colonists practiced subsistence farming: producing enough to feed their family only

• Farming was more successful in the middle colonies where they focused on grain and livestock production

• Major natural resource was timber used in the shipbuilding industry (major part of NC: where the nickname ‘Tarheel State’ comes from)

• Shipbuilding was the singly largest workforce

• Whaling and fishing were also big industries

Industry, trade, and commerce• Colonial industry was not supposed

to compete with English goods, but they were expensive, so colonists began making their own goods but industry remained small

• Trade was more lucrative with ports in Boson, NYC and Philadelphia flourishing

• Most famous trade route was the triangular trade between Africa (slaves), American islands (molasses), and England (rum)

• Middle Passage: journey made by slaves transported from West Africa to the West Indies

• Trade was more complex than the simple ‘triangle’ with many markets and goods being shipped across the Atlantic

Triangular Trade and Middle Passage

Southern Colonial EconomiesThe Plantation System• Southern colonies focused on

cash crops: products grown to be sold; they included tobacco, indigo, and rice

• NC in particular focused on tobacco and naval stores (rope, tar, turpentine)

• As tobacco grew in importance, it led to the development of the plantation system in VA and MD (large farm focused on one crop with a large unskilled workforce- usually slave)

• Most farms had workforces of less than 30 (plantations were rare)

Rice, Indigo, and small farms• Rice and indigo flourished in SC

• Cultivating rice was done in swampy fields, which made it difficult and dangerous (mosquito-born illness)

• It was done almost exclusively with slave labor, especially rice cultivation had been done in West Africa

• Indigo was a blue dye used in military uniforms and men’s coats

• Plantations formed the basis of the Southern economy but most Southerners were small famers called yeoman who grew smaller scale crops (tobacco, corn, wheat, vegetables) and may own 1-2 slaves

The Impact of SlaveryThe African Slave Trade• By the 1600s, attempts to enslave

Native Americans and the use of indentured servants were abandoned to focus on African slavery

• Most slaves were sent to the Caribbean and South America (only 5% came to North America)

• Conditions on slave ships were horrific (people were packed into tight spaces with no food, water, or bathroom)

• Most increase in slave numbers in America came through birth (1760: 250,000 slave in America)

• In the North, numbers were small and concentrated in cities

• In the South, numbers were larger and concentrated on plantations (actually outnumbered whites in SC by mid 1700s)

Continuing and Resisting Slavery• Most American colonists felt they

were superior to Africans and slavery was seen to be life-long; children born to slaves were automatically slaves

• Some were able to earn money to buy their freedom, but this was rare (usually only an option for skilled workers)

• Slavery was cheaper than hiring servants and was justified through the existence of slavery in Africa

• Slaves were portrayed as happy servants but often engaged in revolt and sabotage

• Largest slave revolt of the colonial era was the Stono Rebellion: 1739, 100 slaves in SC seized weapons and killed several before being captured

Main Idea: Enlightenment ideas and the Great Awakening brought new ways of thinking to the colonists, and a unique American culture developed.

CHAPTER 3 SECTION 3: AMERICA’S EMERGING CULTURE

The Enlightenment and the American ColoniesEnlightenment and the Scientific Revolution• Enlightenment: philosophical

movement than focused on a search for knowledge and the use of reason

• Scientific Revolution: use of the scientific method to observe and experiment with the natural world

• Newton discovers several laws of gravity and Linnaeus develops a method for classifying plants and animals

• Thinkers wanted to transfer the scientific method approach to other aspects of life like society, law and government

• John Locke writes Two Treatises of Government (1690) arguing that all people have natural rights that a government is bound to protect (life, liberty, property)

The Enlightenment in Europe & America• He claimed that people entered

a social contract with their government and that if the government did not protect their rights, the people had the right to revolution

• Montesquieu proposed dividing government into branches to prevent abuse of power

• Thomas Jefferson was deeply influenced by Locke

• many of his ideas were used in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution

The Great AwakeningChanges in Religious Attitudes• Many Enlightenment thinkers were deists: they believed in God but not

traditional Christianity

• Christianity taught that humans were basically sinful, but Enlightenment argued that people were basically good

• Puritans became concerned at a decline in religious participation and fervor and an increased focus on material wealth

A revival of religion• To bring people back to the church, clergy launched the Great

Awakening in the 1720s and 30s in New England

• Jonathan Edwards- revival preacher who used reason and rational thought to emphasize a personal relationship with God and the coming suffering for those who did not accept Christ (‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’)

• George Whitfield- itinerant preachers who held open-air meetings to appeal to emotion and emphasizing God’s love

• Church membership increased, linked colonies together and encouraged the creation of Princeton, Brown, Rutgers, and Dartmouth Colleges

The Colonies Become More DiverseNon-English Colonists• New York and Pennsylvania were very diverse

• Early 1700s, Scots and Scots-Irish emigrated to the middle colonies and the Carolinas (tended to be Presbyterian and distrust the English government)

• Religious unrest led to large numbers of German, Jewish, and Huguenot (from France) immigrants

• Many German immigrants were skilled artisans who settled in cities and ran farms

The New American• Crevecoeur claimed in Letters from an American Farmer that

coming to America made immigrants new people, not merely Europeans living in America

Life in Colonial AmericaCities and Popular Culture• Cities were centers of culture

with libraries, plays, concerts, and mail services

• Life was easier for women in cities than in rural areas (usually ran homes and had more time for writing letters and reading)

• Work was done in social setting (quilting bees, barn raisings)

• Visiting neighbors for music, dancing and talk was common in all of the colonies

Communications and African-American Culture• Printers served as publishers for

newspapers, books, and pamphlets

• Benjamin Franklin improved the mail system to encourage the flow of printed ideas

• Newspapers were the most popular and common way to spread ideas and news throughout the colonies

• many were careful not to disagree with royal officials, but some were bolder

• John Peter Zenger: (1764) was arrested for criticizing the governor of NY in his paper

• won his case in a big victory for freedom of the press

• Enslaved Africans developed their own culture, especially on plantations

• Culture was based on oral tradition and Christian beliefs

Main Idea: The French and Indian War established British dominance in North America but put a strain on the relationship with the colonists.

CHAPTER 3 SECTION 4: THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR

France in North America/Spain and England ClashFrance in North America• 1st permanent settlers from France were fur traders in Quebec

• They also claimed the Mississippi River basin and named it Louisiana after King Louis XIV

• France developed alliances with the Algonquians and Hurons and helped fight their enemy, the Iroquois Mohawks

• They had forts and outposts throughout the interior

• France and England fight for control of the interior

Spain and England Clash• Spain and England clash over control of La Florida (includes

modern GA and parts of SC)

• English settlers push further south expanding plantations

• By 1700, Spanish control was centered around St. Augustine and Pensacola

The French and Indian WarIroquois League• Lasted from 1754-1763

between France and Britain over control of North America (part of the larger Seven Years’ War in Europe)• Native Americans fought on

both sides; the Iroquois League sided with the British (6 united tribes centered around New York)

The Albany Plan• Fighting breaks out over

control of Fort Duquesne; George Washington and his militia are unable to take the fort

• Later representatives from New England, NY, PA, and MD meet in Albany to gain support from the Iroquois and achieve unity

• Benjamin Franklin’s Albany Plan of Union was the first attempt to unite the colonies (was not approved)

• Would have dealt with military and Native American issues

The War Continues• Early war goes badly for the British• Washington becomes a hero despite few wins• William Pitt becomes British secretary of state in 1757 and

takes control of directing the war• British force colonials to fight, seized supplies, and put

soldiers in civilian homes• Many colonists resented their treatment by the government• Eventually the British were able to prevail in the war• Treaty of Paris (1763) ends both wars; Britain gets all

French land east of the Mississippi, including Canada; they also get Florida from Spain

• Spain gets control of Louisiana and its port at New Orleans

Effects of the WarColonial Benefits/Costs• Colonists experience economic boom

from producing war supplies• Colonists learn to work together• War was very expensive; King George

III takes the throne in 1760; he and his Prime Minister Grenville decide colonists should help pay the debt

Pontiac’s Rebellion• Natives resisted British take over of the

Great Lakes region• 1762 tribes united under Pontiac

attempted to take over British forts and settlements to drive the British out but it failed when the French refused to help

• The rebellion ended in 1766

The Proclamation of 1763• Americans began flooding

into the Ohio Valley after the war

• To avoid conflicts with Native Americans, the British government drew a line down the Appalachian Mountains and forbid settlement west of them in the Proclamation of 1763

Effects on Native Americans• Native Americans on both

sides of the conflict suffered and lost land

• The British felt their allies hadn’t helped enough and did little to help them after the war