Brinkley, Chapter 2 Notes

The Founding of Jamestown

Brinkley 3 ships set sail for Virginia in 1607. They reached the American coast in the spring of
1607, sailed into Chesapeake Bay and up a river they named the James

The colony was swampy and

Chapter 2 bordered the land of local
Powhatan Indians.

Early colonists were susceptible

to malaria. Futile energy was
Transplantations and Borderlands spent searching for GOLD rather
than building a permanent
settlement. No women were sent.

Within one year of landing, only

38 of the 104 settlers survived.

Jamestown survived largely as a result of Captain John Smith. Smith united the
divided colony, and imposed work and order. He organized raids on Indian villages to
steal food and kidnap natives. By the summer of 1609, the colony was showing
promise of survival.

Exchanges of Agricultural Technology Reorganization and Expansion

Jamestown's survival was largely a result of As Jamestown struggled to survive, the London Company (renamed the Virginia
agricultural technologies developed by the Company) obtained a new charter in the spring of 1609 from the king, which
Indians and borrowed by the English. increased its power, territory, and population.

Many who reached Jamestown died

before winter. The winter of 1609-1610
became known as the “starving time”. The
local Indians killed off the livestock in the
woods and kept the colonists barricaded
Indians grew beans, pumpkins, and maize. The English within their colony. The colonists lived off
quickly recognized the value of corn, which was easier to what they could find.
cultivate and produced larger yields than any English
grains. They also learned the advantages of growing beans
alongside corn to enrich the soil.
When help arrived the colonists tried to flee back to England. As they proceeded down
the James, they met an English ship coming up the river with the colony's first governor,
Indians also introduced the canoe to colonists which was much better at navigating Lord De La Warr. The departing settlers agreed to return to Jamestown. The effort to
the rivers and streams than large English vessls. turn a profit in Jamestown resumed.

The Powhatans Indian War of 1622

The influx of land hungry migrants and conversion-minded ministers sparked conflict
with the Indians. Relations had been relatively calm between the groups since the
marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe in 1614.
Led by Chief Powhatan Opechancanough -
Brother of Powhatan By 1618, upon the death of Chief Powhatan, relations soured. Opechancanough, began
Saved! to secretly plan the elimination of the English. In 1622, tribesmen called on the colonists
Pocahontas - as if to offer goods for sale - then they suddenly attacked.
Daughter
Took Captain John Smith 347 colonists died but ultimately, the Indians had to retreat. Wars would continue for
Saw English as potential allies. Provided captive. years between the two groups. In 1624, shocked by the Indian surprise, King James I
them with corn. In return wanted revoked the VA Co's charter and made it a royal colony.
Arranged
marriage to hatchets, bells, beads, copper, and "two
John Rolfe to great guns." He did not get the tribute. The king and his ministers appointed the governor and a small advisory council. The
ensure peace House of Burgesses remained, but all legislation had to be approved by the King's Privy
with English. Council (group of political advisors). The king also decreed the legal establishment of
Bore a son, the Church of England. Therefore, Virginians had to pay taxes to support the clergy.
Thomas. Died Powhatan realized the English did not come to trade
when she was but "to invade my people and possess my country"
VA became a model for future royal colonies in America.
21 in England. when John Rolfe began to plant tobacco.

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Brinkley, Chapter 2 Notes

Tobacco in Virginia
Tobacco in Virginia
Under the leadership of its first governors, VA survived and expanded. New settlements To entice new workers to VA, the VA Co. established the "headright system."
emerged. The colonists had military protection against the Indians and discovered a new, Headrights were 50 acre grants of land. Each new settler received a single headright
marketable crop: tobacco. for himself or herself.
1612 - John Rolfe cultivated tobacco in VA
Tobacco planting quickly expanded. Needed large This encouraged families to migrate
areas of land to grow b/c it exhausted the soil quickly. together. More people = more land for
Demand for land increased rapidly. Colonists the family. The VA Co also transported
established plantations deeper into the interior, ironworkers and other skilled craftsmen
isolating themselves from Jamestown and pushing into to VA to diversify the economy.
Indian territory.

1619 - VA Co. sent 100 Englishwomen to VA to become wives. It promised male

colonists full rights of Englishmen, an end to arbitrary rule, and even a share in self-
government. By the end of July, delegates from various communities in VA met as
the House of Burgesses - the first elected legislature in the colonies.

First Africans Arrive Bacon's Rebellion

Late August 1619 - a Dutch ship brought in "20 and odd Negroes." Colonists 1st Falling tobacco prices signaled an imbalanced market
thought of them as indentured servants. Initially, the use of black labor was limited.
Falling prices also reflected the British Parliament's passage of the Navigation Acts of
Planters preferred European indentured servants until the 1670s.
1651, 1660, and 1663. Acts allowed only British or colonial ships to enter American
ports. This excluded Dutch merchants who paid the highest price for tobacco.
Africans who labored did so for wealthy plantation owners as indentured servants.
They were not legally enslaved. The English Constitution did not recognize chattel Acts required colonists to ship tobacco, sugar, and other "enumerated articles" only to
slavery - the ownership of human beings as property. England, where monarchs continually raised import duties, stifiling market demand.
Colonists were forced to find a way to reduce their costs to produce tobacco.
Boom and Bust Cycle
Africans were generally socially mobile
until the price of tobacco collapsed in the
1660s. Planters had to find a way to
produce tobacco cheaper - African slavery.

The other event that ushered in the use

of African slaves was Bacon's Rebellion.

Seeds of Rebellion Berkeley and the Indians

Despite low prices, Virginians continued to plant tobacco In 1607 there were 35,000 Indians in the land called Virginia.
because there was no other cash crop. Poor planters could By 1675, there were 3,500 Indians left living on the fringes of
not afford their own land and became indentures or tenant the Virginia territory.
farmers.
Poor landless servants demanded that Berkeley expel or
A planter-merchant aristocracy formed as a result. They exterminate the Indians. Aristocratic planters objected because
secured grants from the royal governors, particularly from they wanted to prevent those poor farmers from gaining their own
Sir William Berkeley. Berkeley bestowed large land land - they wanted the cheap labor. Berkeley agreed with the
grants on members of his council. The councilors aristocracy.
promptly exempted these lands from taxation and
appointed friends as local justices of the peace and county Fighting broke out late in 1675, when a small VA militia murdered 30 Occaneechee
judges. Indians. Then, 1,000 militiamen surrounded a fortified Susquehannock (Iroquois) village
and killed 5 chiefs. The Indians retaliated by attacking outlying plantations and killing
To win support in the House of Burgesses, Berkeley bought off legislators with 300 colonists.
land grants and lucrative appointments as sheriffs and tax collectors. Social
Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy landowner living on the frontier, asked governor Berkeley to
unrest erupted when Berkeley took voting rights away from landless freemen,
grant him a military commission. Berkeley refused. As a result, Bacon mobilized his
who constituted 1/2 of adult white men. By 1670 political representation
neighbors and attacked any Indians he could find.
declined to where only free property owners could vote.

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Brinkley, Chapter 2 Notes

Bacon and the Indians Impact of Bacon's Rebellion

Nathaniel Bacon emerged as the leader of the rebels. Bacon
had a position on the governor's council, but he owned a After Bacon's Rebellion, wealthy planters retained
frontier estate, & differed with Berkeley on Indian policy. their dominance by curbing corruption and
appointing ambitious young farmers to public office.
After Bacon mobilized his neighbors and attacked
They appeased these yeoman and tenants by cutting
Indians, Berkeley expelled Bacon from the council and
taxes and expelling the Susquehannocks,
had him arrested. But Bacon's army forced the governor
Piscataways, and other Indian peoples from the
to release Bacon and hold legislative elections.
region.
The newly elected House of Burgesses enacted far-reaching political reforms that
not only curbed the powers of the governor and council but also restored voting
rights to landless freemen. The reforms though, came too late.
Most important, wealthy planters
Backed by over 400 men, Bacon issued a "Manifesto and Declaration of the forestalled another rebellion by poor
People" that demanded the death or removal of the Indians and an end to the rule of whites by cutting the use of
wealthy planters. indentured servants and instead
Bacon moved his army to Jamestown and burned the plantations of Berkeley's allies. importing thousands of African
Bacon then died suddenly of dysentery in 1676 and Berkeley took revenge. He dispersed laborers; the Burgesses explicitly
the militia, seized the estates of wealthy men in the militia, and hanged 23 men. legalized chattel slavery in 1705.

Tobacco in Maryland
The Founding of Maryland
Like VA, tobacco quickly became the main crop. Europeans
A 2nd growing tobacco colony developed in Maryland.
began to crave the nicotine in tobacco.
King Charles I, successor of James I, was secretly European demand for tobacco set off a 40 year economic
sympathetic to Catholics. In 1632 he granted the land boom in the Chesapeake. Exports rose from 3 million pounds
known as Maryland to Catholic aristocrat Cecilius in 1640 to 10 million pounds in 1660.
Calvert, who carried the title Lord Baltimore. Initially, most plantations were small freeholds, owned and
farmed by families. After 1650, wealthy migrants from gentry
As the territorial lord (or proprietor) of Maryland, Calvert could sell, lease, or give away
or noble families established large estates along the rivers.
the land as he pleased. He also had the authority to appoint public officials and to found Indentured servants and eventually African slave labor were
churches. used to cultivate the crop.
Lord Baltimore wanted Maryland to become a refuge for Catholics. Led by Leonard Life in the Chesapeake
Calvert, the founders of Maryland established a colony at St. Mary's City at the point
where the Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay. For both the rich and poor, life was harsh. The scarcity of towns deprived settlers of
community.
Quickly after settling, the colonists demanded a representative government. To prevent
rebellion, a legislative assembly was created, which passed the Toleration Act of 1649. There were few women and marriages often ended quickly by the death of the child
bearing mother.
This was designed to minimize religious confrontations as it allowed all Christians the
right to follow their beliefs and hold church services.

The Pilgrims The Puritans

Pilgrims - Separatists who broke from the Church of England. Puritans - English Protestants who believed the English Reformation did not go
They felt the Church of England was beyond reform. They far enough - there was too much Catholic presence left in the Anglican Church.
demanded the formation of new, separate church congregations. Because they opposed the Church, they also opposed the King.
In 1630, they set sail for America. Their goal
Pilgrims sailed to America in 1620 on the Mayflower, led by
was to use the Anglican Church values as the
William Bradford. They settled in Plymouth, near Cape Cod in
basis of their Protestant religion in America, but
southern MA. Only half of the Pilgrims who landed survived
they were going to reform the church further.
the first winter. Thereafter, the colony thrived. Religious
discipline encouraged a strong work ethic. They believed they were liberated by God from
oppression & bound to him by a covenant. They
They faced few threats from the Wampanoag Indians as believed God chose them to fulfill a special role - to
small pox killed many of them. They built solid houses establish a new, pure Christian Commonwealth. A
and planted ample crops. They set sail on the "City Upon a Hill."
To ensure political stability, they issued a written legal Arabella, led by John
code (Mayflower Compact) providing for representative Winthrop. They established
self-government, broad political rights, property the Massachusetts Bay
ownership, and religious freedom of conscience. Colony in a town they
named Boston.

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Brinkley, Chapter 2 Notes

Massachusetts Bay Colony Roger Williams

MA Bay officials purged their society of religious dissidents. Roger Williams, a
John Winthrop became the 1st governor of the MA Bay Colony.
minister in Salem, opposed the decision to establish Congregationalism as the official
"We must consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill. The
religion and praised the Pilgrims' separation of church and state.
eyes of all people are upon us."
If they created a genuinely "New" England, they could inspire He advocated toleration, arguing that
religious reform throughout Christendom. political magistrates had authority over only
the outward lives of men - not their spiritual
Winthrop and his associates (shareholders) transformed their
lives. He also questioned the Puritans'
joint-stock corporation into a representative political system with
seizure of Indian lands.
a governor, council, and assembly.
To ensure rule by the godly, the Puritans limited the right to vote and hold office to The magistrates banished him from the
men who were church members. colony in 1636. Williams and his followers
settled south of Boston, founding the town
Rejected Plymouth colony's policy of religious toleration. Established
of Providence on land purchased from the
Puritanism as the state-supported religion. Bible was the legal guide. THEOCRACY
Narragansett Indians.
Placed power in the congregation of members - hence the name
Congregationalist for their churches. In 1644 they obtained a corporate charter from Parliament for a new colony called
Faith was the key to salvation. The spiritual health and welfare of a community as a Rhode Island. They had full authority to rule themselves. There was no legally
whole was paramount. The integrity of the community demanded religious established church and individuals could worship God as they pleased.
conformity.

Anne Hutchinson Thomas Hooker

The MA Bay magistrates saw a second threat to their authority in Strict religious policies led others to leave the MA Bay
Anne Hutchinson. Hutchinson held weekly prayer meetings for colony. Thomas Hooker and his congregation established the
women and accused various clergymen of placing undue emphasis town of Hartford.
on good behavior.
In 1660, they secured a charter from King Charles II for
She believed in antinomianism - She denied that salvation could the self-governing colony of Connecticut.
be earned only through good deeds. She believed God revealed
divine truth directly to individual believers. She insisted that
faith alone was enough to achieve salvation. Like MA, Connecticut had a
legally established church and
Puritan magistrates denounced her as heretical upon trial and banished her to Rhode an elected governor and
Island. assembly. However, it granted
voting rights to most property-
Hutchinson moved often after settling in Rhode Island due to constant threats from owing men, not just to church
the MA Bay Colony. Her final settlement was in New Netherland. She and her members.
family were massacred by Siwanoy Indians (Narranganset) in Kieft's War in August
1646.

Puritans and Witchcraft The Puritans and the Pequot Indians

Puritans believed that they physical world was full of Believing they were God's chosen people, the Puritans often treated Native
supernatural forces. Americans with a brutality equal to that of the Spanish conquistadors and Nathaniel
Devout Puritans saw signs of God and Satan's power in stars, Bacon's frontiersmen.
birth defects, and other unusual events. These unexplained events
When Pequot warriors resisted English
often led to accusations of witchcraft.
encroachment onto their Connecticut River Valley
The most dramatic episode of witch-hunting occurred in lands in 1636, a Puritan militia attacked a Pequot
Salem, MA in 1692. Several girls who had experienced Village and massacred 500 people.
strange seizures accused neighbors of bewitching them.
When judges at the accused witches' trial used "spectral"
evidence - visions of evil beings and marks seen only by
the girls - the accusations spun out of control. English Puritans saw the Indians as
"savages" who were culturally, though not
MA Bay officials tried 175 people for witchcraft and racially, inferior. Some Puritans tried to
executed 19 of them. As a result of the number of deaths, convert the Indians to Christianity. Very
government officials now discouraged legal prosecutions few Indians converted.
for witchcraft. Moreover, many influential people
embraced the outlook of the European Enlightenment.

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Brinkley, Chapter 2 Notes

Metacom's War The Carolinas

The Wampanoag Indians could never gain favor with the Puritans. To the Wampanoag
Chief, Metacom, prospects for coexistence looked dim. King Charles II initiated new outposts in America by
authorizing 8 loyal noblemen to settle Carolina, an area
When the Indians copied English ways, raised hogs and sold the pork in Boston, they that had long been claimed by Spain and populated by
were accused of undercutting prices and restricted their trade. When Indians killed thousands of Indians.
wandering hogs that devastated their cornfields, Puritan authorities prosecuted them for
violating English property rights. Subsequently, he awarded the just-conquered Dutch
colony of New Netherland to his brother James, the
As a result, Metacom concluded that the Europeans had to be expelled. In 1675,
Duke of York (who renamed the colony New York).
Metacom forged a military alliance with the Narragansetts and Nipmucks and attacked
white settlements throughout New England.

Bitter fighting continued into 1676 as the Indians exploited their strategic control of The Restoration colonies (Carolinas, NY, NJ, PA) were proprietorships. Proprietary
large tracts of territory and most of the rivers. It ended only when the Indian warriors ran colonies were lands granted by the monarchy to one or more proprietors who had full
short of gunpowder and the MA Bay government hired Mohegan and Mohawk warriors governing rights.
who killed Metacom.
The Duke of York and his fellow aristocrats in Carolina owned all the land and could
Metacom's War (King Philip's War) was deadly. The Indians destroyed 1/5 of the English rule their colonies as they wished, provided that their laws conformed broadly to those
towns in MA and RI and killed 1,000 settlers. But the natives' losses - from famine and of England. The Carolina proprietors envisioned a traditional European society.
disease, death in battle, and sale into slavery - were much larger. About 4,500 died.

The Carolinas Pennsylvania

The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (1669) legally established the Church of The Quakers who settled Pennsylvania were pacifists & sought
England and prescribed a manorial system, with a mass of serfs governed by a handful peace with the Indians. The colony quickly prospered.
of nobles.
1681, Charles II bestowed PA on William Penn as payment for a
It was a disaster. North Carolina settlers were a mix of poor families and runaway large debt owed to Penn's father. Penn, wealthy but also a
servants from Virginia and English Quakers who saw no difference between a Quaker (condemned excessive wealth), designed PA as a refuge
"gentlemen and a laborer" for fellow persecuted Quakers.

By resisting a series of governors, they forced the proprietors to abandon their dreams of Quakers sought to restore Christianity to its early simple spirituality. They rejected the
a feudal society. Puritans' pessimistic Calvinist doctrines, restricting salvation to a small elect. Quakers
believed God infused both men and women with an inner light of grace or
In South Carolina, the colonists also went their own way. The leading white settlers there understanding. Quakers did not believe in gender inequality.
were migrants from the overcrowded sugar-producing island of Barbados, and wanted to Women could serve as ministers. Penn ensured religious freedom by prohibiting a
re-create that island's hierarchical slave society. legally established church & promoted political equality by allowing all property-
owing men to vote and hold office.
They used enslaved workers - both Africans and Indians - to raise cattle and food crops
for export to the West Indies. Carolina merchants opened a lucrative trade in deerskins To attract European Protestants, Penn published pamphlets in Germany promising cheap
with neighboring Indian peoples. In exchange for rum and guns, the Carolinians' Indian land and religious toleration. Ethnic diversity, pacifism, and freedom of conscience
trading partners also provided slaves - captives from other Native American peoples. made PA the most open and democratic of the Restoration Colonies.

The Navigation Acts

Dominion of New England
England wanted the colonies to produce agricultural goods and raw materials for English
merchants to carry to England. Some products would be exported to Europe and others The Puritans' troubles worsened with the ascension of
would be manufactured into finished products in England and exported. James II to the throne. He was aggressive and inflexible.
He imposed strict royal control on the colonies.
The Nav. Act, 1651 tried to keep colonial
trade in English hands by excluding
In 1686, he revoked the corporate charters of CT &
Dutch and French ships from
RI and merged them with MA Bay and Plymouth
American ports. The Act also required
colonies to to form a new royal province, the
that goods be carried only on ships owned
Dominion of New England. He appointed Sir
by the English or colonial merchants.
Edmund Andros as governor of the Dominion.
New acts in 1660 & 1663
strengthened the ban on foreign The Dominion extended to America the authoritarian
traders, requiring colonists to export model of colonial rule that the English government
sugar and tobacco only to England, imposed on Catholic Ireland. James ordered Andros to
and mandating that colonists import abolish any existing legislative assemblies.
European goods only through
England. In MA, Andros banned town meetings, angering villagers who prized local self-rule;
Many colonists ignored the and advocated worship in the Church of England, offending Puritan
mercantilist laws and traded with the Outraged, England denied the claim of MA Congregationalists.
Dutch. They also imported sugar and Bay to New Hampshire and eventually
molasses from the French West Indies. established a separate royal colony there.

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Brinkley, Chapter 2 Notes

The Glorious Revolution Rebellions in America

James II also angered English political leaders. The king revoked the charters of The Glorious Revolution sparked rebellions by
English towns, rejected the advice of Parliament, and aroused popular opposition by Protestant colonists in MA, MD, and NY.
openly practicing Roman Catholicism.
When news of the coup reached Boston in April
In 1688, James' wife gave birth to a son, raising the prospect of a Catholic heir to the
1689, Puritan leaders and 2,000 militiamen seized
throne. To forestall that outcome, Protestant bishops and parliamentary leaders in the
Governor Andros, accused him of Catholic
Whig Party led a quick bloodless coup known as the Glorious Revolution.
sympathies, and shipped him back to England.
The bishops and Whigs forced James into exile and in 1689 enthroned Mary, his
Protestant daughter by his first wife, and her Dutch Protestant husband, William of The new monarchs dissolved The Glorious Revolution of
Orange. Whig politicians forced King William and Queen Mary to accept the the Dominion. However, 1688-1689 began a new, non-
Declaration of Rights, creating a constitutional monarchy that enhanced the powers of they refused to restore the authoritarian political era in
the House of Commons at the expense of the crown. old Puritan-dominated both England and America.
government of MA Bay,
The Whigs wanted political power, especially the power to levy taxes. To justify their England imposed only a few laws
instead creating in 1692 a
coup, the members of Parliament relied on political philosopher John Locke. In his Two and taxes on the North American
new royal colony, which
Treatises on Government (1690), Locke rejected divine right, arguing that the legitimacy settlements, allowed rule by local
included Plymouth and
of government rests on the consent of the governed and that individuals have inalienable elites, and encouraged English
Maine.
natural rights to life, liberty, and property. merchants to develop them as
sources of trade.

The Imperial Slave Economy

Rebellions in America
The South Atlantic System had its center Between 1520-1650, the Portuguese
In NY, Jacob Leisler led the rebellion against the Dominion in Brazil and the West Indies, and sugar dominated the slave trade, then the Dutch
was its primary product. until 1700 and the British until 1800.
of New England. Leisler was the leader of the Dutch
Protestant artisans in New York City, who welcomed the Sugar transformed Barbados and other
succession of Queen Mary and her Dutch husband. Caribbean islands into slave-based
plantation societies.
Led by Leisler, the Dutch militia ousted Lieutenant Governor By 1680, an elite group of planters
Nicholson, an Andros appointee and an alleged Catholic dominated the Barbados's economy. They
sympathizer. Initially, Leisler had vast support. However, owned more than 1/2 of the island and 1/2
Leisler's denunciations of political rivals alienated many of the 50,000 slaves. As social inequality
English speaking New Yorkers. and racial conflict increased, hundreds of
English farmers fled to South Carolina.
When Leisler imprisoned 40 of his politcal opponents, imposed new taxes, and The South Atlantic System brought wealth to
championed the artisans' cause, the prominent Dutch merchants who had Sugar was a rich man's crop b/c it
the entire European economy and helped
traditionally controlled the city's government condemned his rule. was produced most efficiently on
Europeans achieve world economic leadership.
large plantations. Slaves planted and
The Navigation Acts kept the British sugar trade
The newly appointed governor Colonel Henry Sloughter had Leisler arrested and cut the sugarcane, which was then
in the hands of British merchants, who exported
tried for treason. He was convicted and hanged. processed by expensive equipment
it to foreign markets. Enormous profits also
into raw sugar, molasses, and rum.
flowed into Britain from the slave trade.

Africans and the Slave Trade Slavery in the Chesapeake and South Carolina
Hundreds of thousands of young Africans died and millions more endured a brutal
After Bacon's rebellion, wealthy planters took advantage of the expansion of Britain's
life in the Americas.
slave trade and bought more Africans putting these slaves to work on even larger
Torn from their villages, they were marched in plantations.
chains to coastal ports, their first passage in
slavery. Then, they endured the perilous "Middle By 1720, Africans made up 20% of the Chesapeake population. Slavery had become a
Passage" to the New World in hideously core institution, no longer just one of several forms of unfree labor. Moreover, slavery
overcrowded ships. The captives had little to eat or was now defined in racial terms. The VA legislators defined virtually all resident
drink and some died from from dehydration. Africans as slaves.
About 14% died from illness or
starvation on the passage. Life on Slaves in the Chesapeake had much better conditions that those in the West Indies.
the sugar plantations in Brazil and Tobacco was less labor intensive than sugar, the climate was more temperate, diseases
the West Indies was one of did not spread as rapid, and profits from tobacco were less than sugar and slaves were
relentless exploitation. With sugar not treated as harsh as a result.
prices high & cost of slaves low,
Slaves in SC labored under more oppressive conditions. The colony grew slowly until
many planters simply worked their
planters began to grow rice. Most rice plantations lay in inland swamps, and cultivation
slaves to death & then bought more.
was dangerous and exhausting. Mosquitos transmitted diseases. Many died from the
spread of disease and exhaustion.

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Brinkley, Chapter 2 Notes

Resistance and Accommodation Stono Rebellion

Most slaves were denied opportunities to gain an education, accumulate material SC witnessed the largest slave uprising to 1739. The Catholic governor of Florida
possessions, or create associations. instigated the revolt by promising freedom to fugitive slaves.

By February, 1739, at least 70 slaves escaped to St. Augustine and rumors circulated
Slaves who challenged these boundaries did so at that a conspiracy of slaves were to rise and flee to Florida.
their own peril. The extent of white violence often
depended on the size and density of the slave When war between England and Spain broke out in September 1739, 75 Africans
population. The larger the labor force, the more rose in revolt & killed many whites near the Stono river. They then marched to FL.
cruel the master was.
White militia killed many of the Stono rebels, preventing a general uprising. After this,
Slaves were prohibited from leaving the frightened whites cut slave imports and tightened plantation discipline.
plantation without special passes. Masters
called on poor whites to patrol the area at night.

Slaves often passively resisted by working slowly or stealing small items from the
owner. Rarely did revolts occur but when they did, they sent a shockwave through the
white community.

Rise of the Southern Gentry Rise of the Southern Gentry

Wealthy elite plantation owners were never accepted into the English aristocracy As time passed, planters began to model themselves after the English aristocracy - to
Feeling inferior, they used their wealth to rule over white yeomen families and tenant act like a gentlemen.
farmers but also relied on violence to exploit slaves. To prevent uprisings like Bacon's Cultivating gentility - a refined but elaborate lifestyle - they replaced their wooden
Rebellion, the Chesapeake gentry found ways to assist middling and poor whites. houses with mansions of brick and mortar. They filled their homes with furniture and
rugs.
They gradually lowered taxes and encouraged small
landowners to improve their lot by using slave labor. They educated their sons in London as lawyers and gentlemen. They expected their sons
By 1770, 60% of English families in the Chesapeake to return to America, marry local heiresses, and assume their fathers' roles: managing
owned at least one slave. plantations, socializing with fellow gentry, and running the political system.

Planters now allowed poor yeomen and some tenants to Wealthy southern women likewise emulated the English elite. They read English
vote. The strategy of the leading wealthy families was to newspapers and fashion magazines, wore the finest English clothes, dined in English
bribe these voters with rum, money, and the promise of fashions, and drank elaborate afternoon tea.
minor offices in county governments. To enhance their daughters' gentility and improve their marriage prospects, parents hired
English tutors. Once married, planter women deferred to their husbands, reared pious
In return, they expected the yeomen and the tenants to elect them to office and defer children, and maintained elaborate social networks, in time creating a new ideal: the
to their rule. This solidified the power of the planter elite, which used its control of southern gentlewoman. Using the profits of slave labor, wealthy planters formed an
the House of Burgesses to limit the power of the royal governor. increasingly well-educated, refined, and stable ruling class.

The Northern Maritime Economy Rise of Colonial Assemblies

The sugar economy linked Britain's entire Atlantic empire. In return for the sugar they sent to After the Glorious Revolution in England of 1688-1689 representative assemblies
England, West Indian planters received credit - in the form of bills of exchange - from London in America copied the English Whigs and limited the powers of crown officials.
merchants.
The planters used the bills to buy slaves from
Africa & to pay North American farmers and
merchants for their provisions and shipping The legislatures gradually took control taxation
services. The mainland colonists then and appointments. Leading the assemblies were
exchanged the bills for British manufactures,
the colonial elite. Although most property-
primarily textiles and iron goods.
owing white men could vote, only men of
West Indian trade created the first wealth and status stood for election.
American merchant fortunes and the first
urban industries. Merchants in Boston,
Philadelphia, and New York invested their
profits in new ships; some set up Merchants in Salem and other small ports built a Yet, purposeful crowd actions were a fact of colonial life. Mobs closed
manufacturing enterprises, including major fishing industry by selling salted mackerel prostitution houses and ran people with infectious diseases out of town. Popular
refineries that produced raw sugar into and cod to the sugar islands and to southern Europe. discontent combined with growing authority of the colonial assemblies created a
finished loaves. Some distilleries turned Sawmills in New Hampshire provided low-cost political system that was broadly responsive to popular pressure and increasingly
molasses into rum. wood for homes, warehouses, and shipbuilding. resistant to British control.

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Brinkley, Chapter 2 Notes

Salutary Neglect

British colonial policy during the reigns of King George I (1714-1727) and
George II (1727-1760) allowed the rise of American self-government.

Royal bureaucrats, pleased by growing trade and

import duties, relaxed their supervision of internal
colonial affairs.

In 1775, British political philosopher Edmund Burke

would praise this strategy as salutary neglect.

By allowing the colonists to have a larger stake in political, social, and economic
matters, the British system of mercantilism, and the British empire as a whole was
becoming weakened.

The seeds of revolution were being planted.