Empire and Inequality

1. Empire and Inequality Crises in the Chesapeake and New England Colonies, 1676-1750

2. Hierarchies of Power • Break up into small groups. • Talk about and answer these questions: • Based on your readings, particularly in the documents, what hierarchies of power developed in the colonies.  • How were they similar or different than what the British were used to at home in Europe? • Were people happy with these developments?

3. Major Questions • What forces—political, economic, military, social, cultural—gave shape to the English empire? • What roles did the colonies play in the empire? • What were relations like between colonies and the mother country and how did they change over time? • How did changes within colonies affect the larger empire? • How did power, wealth, and class develop in the colonies? • What is a slave society, and how did Virginia become one? • How did imperial politics—in particular the contest between England and France and England's larger geopolitical objectives—affect the lives of ordinary men and women in the colonies?

4. The Plan of Empire: Benign Neglect? • Insignificance – “So long as the mainland colonies contributed little to the national wealth and cost the government less, the government was willing to exercise only the loosest of controls and permit each of the colonial societies to develop in its own way.” • Instability in England - “The result was a period of significant instability at the end of the seventeenth century, as local colonial governments struggled to control their own inhabitants, police their borders, and establish successful economies.” • Result? – Benign neglect of colonies – could do largely as they pleased for most of 17th-century

5. Turmoil in England • King Charles II (r. 1660-1685); King James II (r. 1685-1688) • “In the middle decades of the seventeenth century, the British government was thrown into turmoil as Parliament and the king struggled over the future direction of the nation.” • Two overlapping points of contention: religion and royal power • English Civil War (1642-1660) • Result: Colonial issues on the backburner, largely ignored and allowed to develop own institutions

6. Mercantilism • The Political Economy of Mercantilism: Goals and Realities • Theory of mercantilism: • Competition among nations for finite amount of wealth • Creation of colonies and empires to generate wealth for motherland • Dependent relationship – motherland’s wellbeing came first • Navigation Acts – all trade must go through motherland, only British ships, goods taxed to benefit crown • Colonies provide raw materials; motherland produced finished goods of higher value

7. GodAngelsMortals(diff. levels of humans)BirdsFishesMammalsPlants Great Chain of Being

8. Atlantic Triangle Trade

9. Effects of neglect on Colonial Economies? • How did benign neglect affect colonial development? • Colonial ideas about economy, society, and politics?

10. Crises in the Colonies: 1600s • Tobacco Economy – land and labor hungry • Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia and Maryland • Class conflict • Conflicts with Native Americans • New England – Puritan Problems • Religious dissenters • Economic growth and issues • Wars with Native Americans • Troubled relations with England

11. The Transformation of Virginia “At the same time that a newly invigorated England was planting new colonies, those established earlier were reshaped…[as a result of] political and sometimes social instability.”

12. The Transformation of Virginia • Problems of colonial development in the Chesapeake • Rising Inequality in Virginia (and Chesapeake) • Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676 • Virginia Became a Slave Society • Increase in freedom for whites in colonial America • Decrease in freedom for others

13. Growing Inequality In Virginia • Inequalities of wealth and power developed quickly in the Chesapeake in 17th-century • Reflected in land ownership patterns – wealthy snatched up best lands near water • Wealthy: more land, close to water, lower transport costs = more tobacco, more profits • Wealthy: political connections, offices, taxes • Indentured servants lacked wealth and power • Indentured servants mistreated, beaten, worked to death in hot, humid, backbreaking labor • Terms of service could be extended for minor infractions, pregnancy

14. Plantation = Symbol of wealth & Power

15. Tobacco Economy Dictated Land Use and Settlement Patterns

16. GodAngelsMortals(diff. levels of humans)BirdsFishesMammalsPlants Great Chain of Being

17. New Class Relations in America • Main question: How did American context affect class relations? • Paternal relations in England – the Great Chain of Being • Traditional class relations: royalty, aristocracy, peasantry – supposedly unchanging • But new wealth in America = new social classes • How did new economy affect class relations? • What conflicts and how were they worked out? • Who would have power in America if there was no settled aristocracy or king present?

18. Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676 • Causes? • Demands? • Effects?

19. Sir Nathaniel Bacon – member of the VA gentry

20. Bacon’s Rebellion and Slavery? • How do you think Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676 was related to the growth of slavery in the Chesapeake colonies?

21. Effects of Bacon’s Rebellion “Significantly, the rebels sought not to overthrow the social and political order but to secure economic opportunity and a legitimate government that protected that opportunity. In its aftermath, Virginia became a slave society.” Opportunity for whom? Lack of opportunity for whom?

22. Early Slaves in North America • Native Americans enslaved throughout North and South America – died from disease, escaped, not reliable source of labor • Portuguese slave colonies: plantation model • Dutch slaves – N.A. colonies, NY, Brazil, Caribbean, African slave trade • In 1680, only 7 percent of VA population was African of origin (some of those were servants, not slaves) • By 1700, 28% of pop. was African, 14% slave • What changed in two decades?

23. A “Society with Slaves” • Hard plantation labor performed by indentures (white and black) and slaves from 1620s to late 1600s • Not yet a “Slave Society” or slave-based economy • Some social mobility for first Africans in North America • Some bought and owned land and slaves in Chesapeake • Close living and relations between white and black servants • Same rights as other settlers - right to sue in court • Gradual institution of racial slavery – laws distinguished between whites (free) and black slaves • Eventually early black settlers lost rights and had to conform to new “slave society” • By late 17th-century, Chesapeake had become slave-based economy

24. First MD Slave Law • 1639 law guaranteed “all inhabitants of this Province being Christians (Slaves excepted)” all the rights and liberties of “any natural born subject of England.” • First mention of difference in application of law to slaves vs. free whites • Page 100 in textbook – timeline of legal definition of slavery over time

25. Plantation labor, formerly provided by indentured servants (white and black), was, by the 1700s, work only suited to African slaves

26. American Slave System • Slavery developed differently in English colonies: • diff. than other European colonies and other past societies with slaves • Hereditary, passed from mother to child • Rarity of manumissions – freeing – of slaves compared to other slave societies • African (or Indian) = slave; white = free • Freedom of whites compared to lack of freedom of slaves • No matter how poor, a white person was still free, solely based on skin color

27. Crises in New England • Problems in the “City Upon a Hill”? • Religious dissenters – problems of inclusion and exclusion, purity and tolerance • Land Hunger – conflicts with Native Americans • Economic problems • Relations with England/Crown • Questions: What issues or problems strengthened the Puritan covenant? Which weakened it?

28. Puritan Economic Angst George Henry Boughton, “The Early Puritans of New England Going to Church,” 1867

29. Economic Trends and Problems • Economic changes in 18th-century New England • How could Puritans maintain purity of religious purpose with economic change? • Increased Atlantic commerce: Triangle Trade based on wealth created by West Indies slave-grown and slave-produced sugar • Growth of N.E. shipping industry and ports, trade with England and other colonies • Puritans took part in consumer revolution - tea, household goods, ostentatious consumer goods, slaves • New England increased bonds of unity with England in this period • New class differences among Puritans, less cohesiveness

30. Atlantic Triangle Trade

31. Economic Issues and Conflicts • Problem of declension (decline) from religious focus and farming (competency) • Less land available – how will children get competency (enough to live upon)? • Opportunities for wealth through commerce • Belief in hierarchical society anyway, so justified differences in wealth and power • But commerce conflicted with P beliefs in community • Increased inequality, relationship of rich to poor • One solution: Wealthy started own churches so they wouldn’t have to feel bad • Questions: Did Puritans become the very thing they had left in England? What did economic change do to the covenant?

32. Problems with England • Benign neglect during 17th century - ignored • English Civil War in 1640s – Puritans (in England) took power and killed king • Throne restored, however (raised questions of what would happen to N.E. Puritans who had supported civil war in England) • 1664 Charles II granted New England, and New Netherlands to his brother James • James allowed New England to keep its own laws • Why was England’s neglect of N.E. important?

33. Puritans and Mercantilism • Mercantilist goals of England – force colonies to guide economic benefits to mother country • Raw materials from colonies • Colonies should then buy finished goods from England • Navigation Acts in 1660s to enforce mercantilism: English ships, sailors, goods to and from England • But N.E. didn’t have much raw materials or a plantation economy to send to England • Instead, N.E. had shipping which competed with British ships, got around laws, traded with competing nations • N.E. wanted more free trade, not mercantilism • Puritans not obeying Navigation Acts, so England taxed them and reorganized govt.

34. Atlantic Triangle Trade

35. Fight for Control • England unhappy w/ N.E. circumvention of Navigation Acts, so created new colony, Dominion of New England from Maine to NJ • Got rid of colonial assemblies and enforced religious toleration • During Glorious Revolution, 1688-89, Puritans retook colonies from Anglicans/Royalists • But with reinstatement of monarchy, English asserted tighter control, creating Royal Colony of MA, new navigation acts and taxes • Later in 1715 Parliament took control of colonies, virtual representation in Parliament • MA and other New England colonies had same structure, but actual representation • Outcome? Trajectory? Where was this headed?

36. Relations with England: Looking into the Future George Henry Boughton, “The Early Puritans of New England Going to Church,” 1867

37. New Colonies, New Patterns “As a rule, the most successful colonies offered the most opportunity to free white people and the greatest amount of religious toleration.” • New Netherland Became New York, 1664 - King Charles gave his younger brother James, the Duke of York, title to the land • With a large show of force, the British forced the Dutch colonists to surrender their land to British rule. • Diversity and Prosperity in Pennsylvania • William Penn was granted 1681 charter from Charles II • Diversity and prosperity were generated in both colonies

38. New Colonies, New Patterns • Indians and Africans in the Political Economy of Carolina • The Carolina constitution designed by Anthony Ashley Cooper (the Earl of Shaftesbury) combined democratic and feudal elements: • A representative government and toleration of religion • Hereditary rules, which placed an elite group of nobles at the top and hereditary serfs (and black slaves) at the bottom • “As might have been predicted…the only aristocracy that the Carolinas developed was one of wealth, supported by the labor of slaves.” • The Barbados Connection – English immigrants from Barbados brought slaves and harsh slave code to Carolinas • Carolinas developed staple crop, rice, and became slave-based society – majority slave in many areas

39. Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, 1669 • Main ideas? Goals?

40. Continuing Issues and Questions • What impact would the conflict between different empires have on colonial life? • What effects did imperial conflicts have on relations between the colonies and the mother country? • What role did Native Americans play in these conflicts? On whose side?