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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
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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
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.
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
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
