Exploring America's Colonial History: The British Atlantic World (1660-1750)
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Introduction
Understanding America's colonial history is essential to grasp the foundation of modern society. The British Atlantic World (1660-1750) serves as a critical period in which the colonies developed into a significant component of the British Empire. This article delves into various aspects including proprietorship colonies, mercantilism, key rebellions, and the impact of slavery on American society.
Chapter Breakdown
Colonies to Empire: The Restoration Colonies (1660-1713)
In this era, the concept of a proprietorship became prominent. A proprietorship is a royal grant of land given to an individual by the English crown, allowing them significant autonomy within the law. Unlike charter colonies, where a group pooled resources, proprietorships are accountable to a single ruler.
Example: Pennsylvania
William Penn, a Quaker, received a royal charter to establish Pennsylvania. The Quakers advocate for peace and religious tolerance, treating Native Americans far better than other colonists. Penn's vision was a so-called "holy experiment", attracting diverse religious groups. Quakers also significantly endowed women with rights in church, which contrasted sharply with the situation in New England.
Plantation Economies and Racial Hierarchy
The Carolinas
In South Carolina, a strict racial hierarchy emerged primarily due to the plantation economy, which relied heavily on slave labor. The initial focus was on producing rice, a labor-intensive crop. The establishment of plantations in the South created a significant disparity between wealthy landowners and lower-class workers, setting the stage for future conflicts.
Mercantilism and Imperial Dominion
Understanding mercantilism is crucial to comprehend the economic relationship between England and its colonies. Under Navigation Acts, England enforced that all goods be carried on its or colonial ships, effectively limiting colonial trading options with foreign nations.
Smuggling and Resistance
However, many colonists engaged in smuggling to bypass these restrictions. This thriving black market for goods illustrated early American resilience against imperial controls. Hand in hand with these economic tensions were the formation of the Dominion of New England, combining several colonies under strict governance, led by the unpopular Sir Edmund Andros.
The Glorious Revolution and Colonial Rebellions
The Glorious Revolution of 1688, which resulted in King James II's overthrow, shifted power dynamics in England and, consequently, its colonies. In America, Jacob Leisler's Rebellion against the Dominion displayed colonists’ growing dissatisfaction. Such revolts highlighted tensions between colonial elites and commoners, especially regarding representation and governance.
Native American Relations and the South Atlantic System
Throughout this period, Native Americans faced intense pressure from colonists. They often aligned strategically with European powers, navigating the growing conflicts.
The South Atlantic System
The South Atlantic System created a trading network between the Caribbean, Brazil, and parts of Africa. Barbados became a significant sugar producer, which was extremely laborious, relying heavily on slave labor. This dominance in sugar cultivation was underpinned by brutal conditions endured by enslaved individuals.
The Growth of the Slave Trade
The influx of enslaved Africans transitioned America's demographic and societal structure. Slave labor was critical in sugar production, setting off a cycle of increasing demand for slaves. The Middle Passage represented the harrowing journey many took to the Americas, often under cruel conditions.
Life for Enslaved People
In the Chesapeake region and South Carolina, enslaved individuals worked under harrowing conditions, with their humanity often disregarded by laws designed to favor owners. Enslaved people devised forms of passive resistance, while significant uprisings like the Stono Rebellion further exacerbated the imposition of stricter slave laws.
The Rise of the Southern Gentry
Wealth and Power
Wealthy Southern gentry wielded considerable power and influence, often enacting laws to secure their dominance while mitigating challenges posed by class tensions. Efforts to lower taxes and grant voting rights to small farmers created divisions, foreboding future conflicts.
Economic Relationships: New England and the West Indies
In New England, growing trade networks emerged as colonies started exchanging goods with the West Indies. Sugar, molasses, and rum became staple commodities, fueling colonial economies. The shipbuilding industry thrived in New England, establishing it as a critical maritime power.
Social Structure
New England's society was characterized by a class of merchant elites who dominated trade. Artisans formed a large portion of the working class, while land ownership strictly defined social mobility, especially among white males.
Salutary Neglect and its Implications
During this period, Salutary Neglect became a defining policy of British colonial management, which allowed colonists to manage their affairs as long as they remained profitable. However, this hands-off approach ended post-1763 due to the financial strains from the Seven Years' War, leading to increased governance that ignited colonial dissent.
Returning to Loyalty and Trade Dynamics
The Molasses Act and subsequent Currency Acts placed additional burdens on the colonies, driving them closer to resistance and rebellion against perceived British overreach.
Conclusion
The period from 1660 to 1750 laid critical foundations for America's cultural, economic, and social landscapes. Through the examination of proprietorships, mercantilism, and the interwoven experiences of enslaved individuals and Native Americans, we gain insights into the complexities of the colonial era that would eventually lead to calls for independence. Understanding this history is essential for comprehending the evolution of American society and its values today.
hey what's going on AP people we have chapter three of America's history the eth Edition today again if you're using
another Edition it should match up pretty well for you and this one is on the British Atlantic World from 1660 to
1750 so let's get going in all right we're going to talk about colonies to Empire from 1660 to 17113 let's focus on
the restoration colonies and Imperial expansion um to understand colonies you need to understand what a proprietorship
is and this is a type of colony that is a royal Grant of land given to an individual by the English crown and they
could rule as they wish as long as it was within English law so unlike a charter in which groups of people pull
their money together a proprietorship is given to a single person and an example of a county that has a proprietorship is
Pennsylvania William Penn was given a royal Charter let's go to the Carolinas South Carolina established a strict
racial hierarchy and they did a lot of Plantation slavery there they focused on growing rice in the beginning let's go
back to William Penn in Pennsylvania he was a Quaker and Quakers believed that each person had an inner light they were
also pacifists which mean that they did not believe in fighting or Wars and they had no paid clergy they they really
believed in religious toleration as well they unlike many other English colonists paid Native Americans for their land
they treated Native Americans better than did most of their English counterparts and Penn sought to
establish what was called a holy experiment basically it's a place where many different religious groups could go
and he would also be able to make money out of it Quakers also believe that all people could attain salvation they did
not favor predestination as did the Puritans which was the idea created by John Kelvin and finally women had many
rights in church it's very important to know that women Quakers had more rights than other female colonists and they
could even become pre preachers and speak publicly in church services which is something that got Anne Hutchinson
into trouble in New England now let's talk about mercantilism to Imperial Dominion um let's understand the
Navigation Acts the Navigation Acts were laws that were passed by England that required all Goods to be carried on
English or Colonial ships so this idea that they could really only purchase English goods and purchase them from
Goods the Dominion of New England was established by England and this idea combined Massachusetts with the rest of
New England and later New Jersey and New York and this established essentially one colony and the leader was this guy
Sir Edmund Andros and assemblies were eliminated and a new governor was appointed this guy Sir Edmund Andros who
is very unpopular eventually the Dominion will end when the Glorious Revolution happens in England and Sir
nephew who are married by the way are instilled as joint rulers so William and Mary become joint rulers the Declaration
rights establish a constitutional monarchy that limited the power of the monarchy so the king is not quite as
powerful anymore after the Glorious Revolution and then in America at the same time we have wiler's Rebellion
which was a rebellion against the Dominion of England and eventually ller and his followers are crushed and ller
was eventually hanged and decapitated as a way to show people not to rebel and this demonstrated tensions between the
lower class and the wealthy because ller represented people of lower wealth STP on over to Native
Americans the Native Americans were forced to the demands of Europeans the iry Indians located in New York used the
French and English against each other they used them as training partners and they also kind of Allied themselves with
each of the groups and played off the European groups against each other they sought to remain neutral in conflicts
between the two Powers the South Atlantic system is a trading system that involved the Caribbean Brazil and Africa
and let's focus on England and the West Indies Barbados became a major sugar producer using slave labor the Caribbean
labor sugar was by far the most profitable crop in the Caribbean but it was very hard to grow it was very
arduous it took a long time and it was back breaking work and this is some of the worst areas for slaves to actually
be in would be the Caribbean growing sugar let's talk about the impact on Britain England gained tremendous wealth
through this South Atlantic trade system and the Navigation Act remember again colonist could only trade with England
so let's talk about the growth of the slave trade West Africa as we learned before in part due to Portugal and Spain
became a major player in the slave trade that's where Portugal in Spain first began to trade slaves 2third of the
slaves that were traded were men and as a result many African men in Africa then practice polygamy because
there was this gender gap between the two slaves would come over to the Americas on something called the middle
passage which is the voyage from Africa to the Americas it would last several weeks and these ships would be very
crowded and Incredibly unsanitary and just absolutely horrific conditions as many as one out of four one out of five
slaves died on these ships on the way over to the Americas slaves once they got to the Americas regularly work
10hour days in brutal heat again when I mentioned that sugar in the Caribbean was was so hard to produce and so back
break you think about the heat in the Caribbean versus say Maryland now they're both incredibly hot I wouldn't
want to work outside in either but the closer to the Equator you are the hotter it will be and many slaves suffer mental
and physical abuse as well as sexual exploitation you would see many slave owners having children with female
slaves all right slavery in Chesapeake at South Carolina in 1740 slaves made up 40% of the population in Chesapeake and
there was this drastic increase in slaves after SE 1676 do you remember what event happened in 1676 to increase
slaves Bacon's Rebellion is correct good job for getting that one right so slaves were defined by race and slave owners
could not be charged with a crime if they killed their slave so essentially slave owners could treat them as harshly
as they wanted and then there was nothing the law would do to protect slaves slavery was more arduous again as
I mentioned in the Caribbean raising sugar um often your your ankles would be in uh water or even Knee Deep Water
sometimes and there would be lots of bugs carrying diseases as well diseases were much more frequent in the West
Indies than they were in other areas in South Carolina again raised mostly rice and they were similar conditions to
Sugar plantations you had to work in water in rice patties it was very hot and very hard work in the Americas a
distinct African-American Community emerges um plantation owners purposely bought slaves from different areas of
Africa that did not speak the same language so it would be harder for these slaves to unite but they do build a
community Africans developed a unique blend of both African and American cultures You' see this in religion and
music and other areas as well and Afric and slaves absolutely did resist but it's not the open rebellions that people
tend to think it is slave resistance mostly took passive forms such as working slowly faking illness breaking
tools and running away it wasn't very common that you would see them actually an open Rebellion one example of a
rebellion though is the Stono Rebellion this is in South Carolina near Charleston about an hour drive from
Charleston today many slaves revolted and killed whites and they tried to flee to Spanish Florida where they would be
Rebellion net Turner's Rebellion Denmark VC's Rebellion any Rebellion we'll learn about this year
that deals with slavery after that slave laws become much more strict and for slaves that even slaves that had nothing
to do with the stone of rebellion their lives would will be more difficult after this because of more strict slave laws
so let's talk about the rise of the Southern Gentry or high social classes wealthy plantation owners had tremendous
power no matter where they were in the South and they hope to prevent another Bacon's Rebellion again that Rebellion
from 1676 by lowering taxes encouraging small farmers to own slaves so this was a way to kind of pit the lower class
whites against slaves and they even gave some small farmers the right to vote let's go back up to the north now
and trade increased contact and Reliance between New England and the West Indies New England which ship goods to the West
Indies and the West Indies would ship goods to New England the now when we're talking about more cities here molasses
from the West Indies was turned into rum in New England and then New England would then ship that rum elsewhere and
the New England fishing industry sold fish to Europe and did very well it was very profitable a major ship building
industry immersed in New England um basically in New England the the the two major professions will be fishing and
ship building and onethird of the British Fleet by the 17 7s was built in New England that's pretty impressive in
society we have the merchant Elites that control a sizable portion of trade in New England so a really small amount of
people are controlling a lot of the trade and Artisans made up 50% of society we did have slaves and indued
servants that worked on docks But as time went on you had fewer and fewer of them and often children were forced to
work for their families in order to help provide for their families especially those lower class families
when we're talking about Colonial assemblies really only white property owning males could vote so it's a very
small percentage of the population that had the ability to vote many assemblies limited the power of the royally
appointed Governor so we really have two conflicting views here we have a royally appointed Governor by the crown and then
we have assemblies which elected which are elected by the colonists and each one of them is going to have a differing
view Elite families dominated politics and you would see that many members of One family would serve on the same
legislator so you would have lots of family members on the legislatures and crowds would not hesitate though to
protest Colonial acts deemed unpopular and these legislators were responsive to these protests Great Britain instituted
a policy called salutary neglect and holy C you have to know this start Circle it underline highlight it
whatever you have to do make sure you guys understand salutary neglect this was coined by this guy philosopher
Edmund Burke and essentially what this did was was that England left the colonies alone as long as they were
profitable they kind of let them develop on their own as long as they weren't directly going against English law and
they were making money but this ends however in 1763 with the Seven Years War which is also known as the French and
India war and the reason this ends is because Britain needed to pay for its debt from the war Britain begins to
protect this mertile system this this trade system that they have one way they do this was by establishing a buffer
colony Georgia between South Carolina and the Spanish in Florida and here is an early picture of Savannah Georgia if
you've ever been there we have a war we have several Wars break out one of them was war of Jenkins ear over this guy
Jenkins having his ear mutilated this was fought over land disputes between the Spanish and the British guys anytime
you see a war during this time it is over land whether it's with the Native Americans whether it's with the Spanish
whether it's with the French in the in the French and Indian war wars are fought over land American colonists
began to control more and more of the Atlantic trade and this led to a large increase in wealth for colonies and they
felt more powerful in 1733 Britain passed the Molasses Act which placed a high tariff on French molasses but the
colonists get around this what do you think they do they smuggle and again although Britain
discour trade with other countries colonists routinely smuggled good so it's that is the true American Pastime
guys is smuggling it's not baseball it is smuggling it's been going on on forever the Currency Act of 1751 was the
first of two currency acts which stated that the colonist had to pay in gold or silver and couldn't produce their own
money and this is something that would upset the colonist very much later all right let's do a quick recap of this
chapter definitely no Pennsylvania Quakers founded by William pen and it was the holy experiment Navigation Acts
for bid trade with any other country besides England transatlantic trade increased the demand for both sugar and
then slaves to work their sugar plantations definitely be familiar and be able to explain comparing slavery in
the Chesapeake with South Carolina and the West Indies the idea that was much more backbreaking and arduous in South
Carolina and the West Indies the Stono Rebellion like any other slave rebellion led to more harsh slave law solitary
neglect was when the British left the colonist alone to develop on their own and most conflict between countries
during this time and Native Americans was over land and colonist avoided British acts like the Navigation Acts by
smuggling again that is America's pastime it's all about smuggling all right guys thank you very much for
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