Chapter 3: North America in the Atlantic World

 Civil war between supporters of King Charles I (Anglican Church) and

Parliament (Puritans)
o 1642-1646
o Parliament triumphs; king is executed in 1649
o Ruled by Oliver Cromwell, parliament’s army leader
 After Cromwell’s death, Parliament reinstates the kingship
 Certain restrictions are placed on the kingship
 Charles II, the new king, rewards nobles and supporters in the war with huge
amounts of land in North America
o Will form 6/13 of the original colonies: New York, New Jersey, PA
(Delaware later breaks off from this), and the Carolinas
o Known as “Restoration colonies” (created by restored Stuart monarchy)
 New York
o Charles II gives his brother James, the Duke of York, New York
(completely ignoring the fact that New Netherland is there)
 New Netherland formally cedes the colony in 1674
 Mixed ethnicities
 Duke’s Laws, legal code 1665
 Maintained Dutch practices, gave general religious
(Christian, that is) freedom
 Did not agree to a legislative body until 1683, what with
James generally distrusting them
 The takeover has little short-term effect on the colony
 New Jersey
o James, given this land too, gives it to his friends Sir George Carteret and
John Lord Berkely
 West and East Jersey, respectively, upon formation
 Generous land grants promised for those who would settle there
 Within 20 years, both men sold their interests in the colonies to
investors
 Many of these people were Quakers, who were persecuted
elsewhere for their non-hostile, non-sexist, friendly beliefs
 Pennsylvania (“Penn’s Woods”)
o Given to William Penn, a prominent Quaker
 Penn promised religious freedom, though only Christians were
“given the vote”
 Publicized the readily available land in PA to non-English people
 Influx of people come over to enjoy religious freedom
 Philadelphia became a huge city, easily navigable due to
being on the river
 Penn learns the Native’s language so he can be peaceful
towards them
 Carolinas
o Given to multiple proprietors
  Quickly split into two, in 1729
 North Carolina was similar to England; strong ties with
Virginia due to lack of exclusive port and relying on VA’s
 South Carolina resembled plantation agriculture such as in
the West Indies
o Sugar would not grow, so they found other crops
 Chesapeake
o Civil war caused clashes in Maryland and Virginia
o Afterwards, large numbers of indentured servants came over as well as
more plantation holders.
o Not concerned about Indians because of the Powhatan Confederacy’s
defeat in 1646
 New England
o Migration nearly ceased at the beginning of the English Civil War
 Population still grew dramatically due to natural causes
 By the 1670s, New England’s population tripled
 Many people had to move farther inside the colonies or
migrate to different states
 Others abandoned farming and took up trades to support
themselves (like blacksmith, etc.)
o Salem Witchcraft Trials
 People were accused of being witches, then “tested” unfairly and
sometimes executed
 Political Structure in colonies
o Well-established political structure by this time
o Leaders, appointed or elected
o Council, advising governor and served as upper house of legislature
o Judiciary; local justices of the peace, county courts
o Local political institution
 Elected town governers or town meetings in N.E.
 Chesapeake and Carolina, magistrates
 Pennsylvania, elected county officials
 New York, local elections
 Indian and European relations
o New France
 Mid 1670s, Louis de Buade de Frontenac, the gov.-general of
Canada, decides to expand New France
 Encourages explorations in the Great lake and Mississippi region
 Attempting to find a trade route to Mexico and control the fur trade
 Conflict with Iroquois
o Iroquois Confederacy
 Consists of five Indian nations (in 1722. Tuscaroras, added)
 Mohawks
 Oneidas
 Onondagas
  Cayugas
 Senecas
 Unique defensive alliance forged early in the sixteenth century
 Representative council made decisions for the Confederacy
 Attempted to dominate fur trade by stealing pelts from other
Indians; “Beaver Wars”
o French launched repeated attacks on Iroquois villages (Indians were
getting too strong)
o New York and Iroquois
 Covenant Chain, 1677 – formal alliance between the two
o French preferred smaller settlements with less people and do not try to
subjugate Indians or take away a lot of land
 Founded New Orleans in 1718
 Countered English from east and Spanish from west
o Pueblos revolt against Spain (led by Popé, a shaman)
 They are successful, and Spaniards are driven out of New Mexico
 Spain tries to expand elsewhere instead
 King Philip’s war
o English needed more land and were taking it away from Indians
o King Philip, the local (Wampanoag) chief, was troubled about this loss
and the impact of the Europeans on their culture
 Led his warriors in attacks on the Europeans, joined by other
Indian tribes
 Destroyed about 27 towns in 1676 inclding those such as
Providence and Plymouth
 Suddenly, the Indians found themselves without important
supplies, and their efforts fell apart
 Mohawk tribe turned against the Indians and destroyed
towns
 Surviving Indians were sold into slavery after Philip died
 About 1/10 of the settlers were killed in this war, which was
devastating at the time
 Bacon’s rebellion
o Governor William Berkeley of Virginia resists war with Indians
 Settlers want to attack Indians for land which was given to them by
early treaties
 They use the pretext of a slave killed by Doeg tribe
 Susquehennas fight back
o Some colonists are dissatisfied with the lack of war (greedy b**tards)
 Example, Nathaniel Bacon, who had arrived and wanted land
 Indentured Servants who, after their tenure, wanted land, as
well as others, rallied behind him
 Bacon held members of the House of Burgesses hostages
 He also battled Indians and the supporters of Berkeley, who
ends up fleeing
  Burns Jamestown, but dies soon after
 They end up getting what they want after Bacon’s death (in 1676)
 In 1677, a treaty is signed that gives the English most of the
land they wanted
o This rebellion impacted the relationships between Indians and English as
well as was the start of major African slave purchasing
 African Slavery
o Fewer people especially in Chesapeake want to indenture themselves
o Tobacco field owners need workers, they turn to slaves
 They justified it religiously: they could convert slaves
 Portugal imported large numbers of slaves starting in 1440s
 Established slavery in Caribbean
o Colonies had trouble defining slavery for some time
 Finally started using racial terminology “Negroes, Indians, etc” as
well as religious justification; not very moral
o For some time, more Africans came to America than Europeans
 Most went to the Caribbean but a lot also came to the colonies
 Triangular Trade
o Chesapeake tobacco and Caribbean/Brazilian sugar  Europe
o European manufactured goods and slaves  America
o African slaves  Europe
o New England traded food, which was cheap in that region, to Caribbean
people, where food was not cheap
 Also relied heavily on selling/trading wood
o America (Rum)Africa (Slaves) West indies (Molasses for rum)Am.
 10-20% slaves died en route, another 20% died shortly after arrival
 Their captors also died at a high rate due to disease from sanitation
issues
o Many slaves came from the West Coast; rice, grain, ivory coasts
 Some coastal rulers served as middlemen, supplying ships with
large populations of slaves
 Helped create powerful kingdoms in Africa
o European countries fought to control Slave Trade
 Portuguese, then Dutch, then English
o Mercantilism
 Series of assumptions about the economics of the world
 Europeans based their commercial policy on this
 Navigation Acts between 1651 and 1673: three ideas
 1. Only English or colonial merchants could trade in
colonies
 2. Certain American products could only be sold to
England (ex. Tobacco, sugar, wool, indigo, rice)
 3. All foreign goods destined for sale in colonies had to be
shipped via England
  Later, fourth: colonies could not export products that
English also produced
 Aimed at forcing American trade to center on England

 Enslavement of Africans and Indians

o The number of Africans in the New World increased dramatically after
Bacon’s rebellion
 Not such great conditions; few spoke the same language and they
were worked rather hard
 Allowed a day off on Sunday, many grew their own small gardens
or fished or hunted to get food
 Scarcity of women meant rare to form families
o Slaves usually cost about 2.5 times indentured servants, but they tended to
repay the investment if they survived
 Many planters could not afford slaves
 Increased the boundary between poor and rich
 Some plantation owners from Barbados came to South
Carolina
o Africans had some helpful skills such as
advancements in technology and skills
o In SC, they retained these skills and also some of
the African culture such as language
o Africans helped introduce rice and indigo which
were strong demands in Europe at the time
o Indians that had been captured during wartime were also enslaved
 Some Indians captured enemy tribes and traded them for goods
o New Spain (Florida) offered refuge for slaves
o Louisiana had a very small number of slaves
o Few northern colonists owned slaves, though some did
 Many were domestic
 Some worked in factories or as unskilled laborers
 Certain northerners relied extensively on slave labor, and
unlike most others wanted to keep it
 Imperial reorganization and the Witchcraft Crisis
o Colonial autonomy was challenged
 James II sent officials to rule the colonies
 Colonies disliked, as they were used to ruling themselves
 They revolted around the time of the “glorious revolution”,
where James II was succeeded by Mary
 New England hoped they’d not be ruled autocratically, but
they still were
o King William’s war
 War with the French and their Algonquian allies
 1692, major witchcraft thing. Stuff about that later ‘kay?
 Somehow trying to keep war with natives at bay
 Finally a year later courts stopped listening to claims of
witches and such
o 1696- England created Board of Trade and Plantations, chief organ of
government concerned with colonies
 Did not have any direct powers of enforcement of laws
o Queen Anne’s war from 1702 to 1713
 Those allied with government got offices and land grants
 Opposition was in defense of colonies and disliked English rule