- The Unhealthy Chesapeake
- Life in the American wilderness was harsh.
- Diseases like malaria, dysentery, and typhoid killed many.
- Few people lived to 40 or 50 years.
- In the early days of colonies, women were so scarce that men fought over all of them.
- Few people knew any grandparents.
- A third of all brides in one Maryland county were already pregnant before the wedding (scandalous).
- Virginia, with 59,000 people, became the most populous colony.
- Life in the American wilderness was harsh.
- The Tobacco Economy
- The Chesapeake was very good for tobacco cultivation.
- Chesapeake Bay exported 1.5 million pounds of tobacco yearly in the 1630s, and by 1700, that number had risen to 40 million pounds a year.
- More availability led to falling prices, and farmers still grew more
- Early on, most of the laborers were indentured servants.
- Life for them was hard, but there was hope at the end of seven years for freedom.
- Conditions were brutal, and in the later years, owners unwilling to free their servants extended their contracts by years for small mistakes.
- Frustrated Freemen and Bacon’s Rebellion
- By the late 1600s, there were lots of free, poor, landless, single men frustrated by the lack of money, land, work, and women (that’s nicely put).
- In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon led a few thousand of these men in a rebellion against the hostile conditions.
- These people wanted land and were resentful of Virginia governor William Berkeley’s friendly policies toward the Indians.
- Bacon’s men murderously attacked Indian settlements after Berkeley refused to retaliate for a series of savage Indian attacks on the frontier.
- Then, in the middle of his rebellion, Bacon suddenly died of disease, and Berkeley went on the crush the uprising.
- Still, Bacon’s legacy lived on, giving frustrated poor folks ideas to rebel, and so a bit of paranoia went on for some time afterwards.
- Colonial Survey
- In the 300 years following Columbus’ discovery of America, only about 400,000 of a total of 10 million African slaves were brought over to the United States.
- By 1680, though, many landowners were afraid of possibly mutinous white servants, by the mid 1680s, for the first time, black slaves outnumbered white servants among the plantation colonies’ new arrivals.
- After 1700, more and more slaves were imported, and in 1750, Blacks accounted for nearly half of the Virginian population.
- Most of the slaves were from West Africa, from places like Senegal and Angola.
- Some of the earliest Black slaves gained their freedom and some became slaveholders themselves.
- Eventually, to clear up issues on slave ownership, it was made so that slaves and their children would remain slaves to their masters for life, unless they were voluntarily freed.
- Some laws made teaching slaves to read a crime, and not even conversion to Christianity might qualify a slave for freedom.
- Africans in America
- Slave life in the deep South was very tough, as rice growing was much harder than tobacco growing.
- Many Blacks in America evolved their own languages, blending their native tongues with English.
- Blacks also contributed to music with instruments like the banjo and bongo drum.
- A few of the slaves became skilled artisans (i.e. carpenters, bricklayers and tanners), but most were relegated to sweaty work like clearing swamps and grubbing out trees.
- Revolts did occur.
- In 1712, a slave revolt in New York City cost the lives of a dozen Whites and 21 Blacks were executed.
- In 1739, South Carolina blacks along the Stono River revolted and tried to march to Spanish Florida, but failed.
- Slave life in the deep South was very tough, as rice growing was much harder than tobacco growing.
- Southern Society
- A social gap appeared and began to widen.
- In Virginia, a clutch of extended clans (i.e. the Fitzhughs, the Lees, and the Washingtons) owned tracts and tracts of real estate and just about dominated the House of Burgesses.
- They came to be known as the First Families of Virginia (FFV).
- In Virginia, a clutch of extended clans (i.e. the Fitzhughs, the Lees, and the Washingtons) owned tracts and tracts of real estate and just about dominated the House of Burgesses.
- In Virginia, there was often a problem with drunkenness.
- The largest social group was the farmers.
- Few cities sprouted in the in the South, so schools and churches were slow to develop.
- A social gap appeared and began to widen.
- The New England Family
- In New England, there was clean water and cool temperatures, so disease was not as predominant as in the South.
- The first New England Puritans had an average life expectancy of 70 years.
- In contrast to the Chesapeake, the New Englanders tended to migrate as a family, instead of individually.
- Women usually married in their early twenties and gave birth every two years until menopause.
- A typical woman could expect to have ten babies and raise about eight of them.
- Death in labor for women was not rare, so that wasn’t exactly something to look forward to as an event.
- In the South, women usually had more power, since the Southern men typically died young and women could inherit the money, but in New England, the opposite was true.
- In New England men didn’t have absolute power over their wives (as evidenced by the punishments of unruly husbands) but they did have much power over women.
- New England law was very severe and strict.
- For example, adulterous women had to wear the letter “A” on their bosoms if they were caught (ala The Scarlet Letter)
- Life in the New England Towns
- Life in New England was organized.
- New towns were legally chartered by colonial authorities.
- A town usually had a meetinghouse surrounded by houses and a village green.
- Towns of more than 50 families had to provide primary education.
- Towns of more than 100 had to provide secondary education.
- In 1636, Massachusetts Puritans established Harvard College to train boys to become ministers.
- (Note: in 1693, Virginia established their first college, William and Mary.)
- Puritans ran their own churches, and democracy in Congregational church government led logically to democracy in political government.
- Life in New England was organized.
- The Half-Way Covenant and the Salem Witch Trials]
- As Puritans began to worry about their children and whether or not they would be as loyal and faithful, and new type of sermon came about called “jeremiads.”
- Earnest preachers scolded parishioners for their waning piety in hope to improve faith.
- Troubled ministers announced a new formula for church membership in 1662, calling it the “Half-Way Covenant.”
- Jeremiads continued to thunder from the pulpits.
- All people could come, whether or not they were converted (with the exception of a few extremely hated groups).
- In the 1690s, a group of Salem girls claimed to have been bewitched by certain older women.
- What followed was a hysterical witch-hunt that led to the executions of 20 people (19 of which were hung) and two dogs.
- Back in Europe, larger scale witch-hunts were already occurring.
- Witchcraft hysteria eventually ended in 1693.
- As Puritans began to worry about their children and whether or not they would be as loyal and faithful, and new type of sermon came about called “jeremiads.”
- The New England Way of Life
- Due to the hard New England soil (or lack thereof), New Englanders became great traders.
- New England was also less ethnically mixed than its neighbors.
- The climate of New England encouraged diversified agriculture and industry.
- Black slavery was attempted but didn’t work.
- Rivers were short and rapid.
- The Europeans in New England chastised the Indians for “wasting” the land, and felt a need to clear as much land for use as possible.
- Fishing became a very popular industry.
- The Early Settlers’ Days and Ways
- Early farmers usually rose at dawn and went to bed at dusk.
- Few events were done during the night unless they were “worth the candle.”
- Life was humble but comfortable, at least in accordance to the surroundings.
- The people who emigrated from Europe to America were most usually lower middle class citizens looking to have a better future in the New World.
- Because of the general sameness of class in America, laws against extravagances were sometimes passed, but as time passed, America grew.
- Makers of America: From African to African-American
- Africans’ arrival into the New World brought new languages, music, and cuisines to America.
- Africans working on the rice fields of North Carolina produced lots of rice.
- The first slaves were men; some eventually gained freedom.
- By 1740, large groups of African slaves lived together on plantations, where female slaves were expected to perform backbreaking labor and spin, weave, and sew.
- Most slaves became Christians, though many adopted elements from their native religions.
- Many African dances led to modern dances (i.e. the Charleston).
- Christian songs could also be code for the announcement of the arrival of a guide to freedom.
- Jazz is the most famous example of slave music entering mainstream culture.