THE COLONIAL

ECONOMY
CHAPTER 3, LECTURE 1
 NORTHERN COLONIAL ECONOMY

• Commerce-based economy
• Subsistence farming

• Most valuable resource: timber

• Industries: shipbuilding, rum, fishing &
whaling
 MIDDLE COLONIES

• Favorable climate allowed for longer

growing seasons
• Had surplus crops, especially grains

• Rivers deep enough for ships helped

stimulate trade & port cities
• Religious tolerance helped promote growth,
too
 SOUTHERN COLONIAL ECONOMIES

• Agricultural-based economy
• Produced cash crops – tobacco, rice, indigo
• Two types of farms
• Plantations – relied on slave labor
• Small independent farms
 ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

• Europe  Africa
• Rum
• Manufactured goods
(guns)
• Africa  Americas
• Slaves
• Americas Europe
• Sugar, raw materials
 GROWTH OF SLAVERY

• 1690-1807 approx. 400,000 slaves brought to U.S.

• Middle Passage – brought Africans across Atlantic

• 20% died on each journey

• Overall 12 million Africans were enslaved in the

Americas
• Only 5% came to modern U.S.

• Slave trade was outlawed in 1808

POLITICAL LIFE IN THE
COLONIES
CHAPTER 3, LECTURE 2
 MERCANTILISM

• A country’s power is directly related to its wealth

• Colonies send raw goods to England – must buy English
finished products
• Favorable balance of trade for ENGLAND

•Exports > Imports

ENGLISH CONTROL OVER THE COLONIES

• Navigation Acts – rules about how colonies can

trade:
• Certain products can only be sold to England
• Any good traded elsewhere must pass through
England first.

• Dominion of New England (1686-89)

• New England colonies combined into 1 super-colony
• Attempt to force colonist to follow the Navigation
Acts
 COLONIST BEGIN TO SELF-GOVERN

• 1688 – Glorious Revolution in England

• King James II replaced by William & Mary
• Power of Parliament increases & Dominion of NE
abolished
• Enforcement of the Nav. Acts is very lax

• Salutary neglect
• Colonies prosper! (trade freely)
• Colonial assemblies (local gov’ts) gain power
• Colonists get used to additional freedoms
AMERICA’S EMERGING
CULTURE
CHAPTER 3, LECTURE 3
 ENLIGHTENMENT (1650-1800)

• Movement stressed intellectual thinking w/

reason & science
• John Locke – key Enlightenment thinker
• 3 Rights: life, liberty, property
• Social Contract: gov’t only has power b/c of the people
& gov’ts job to protect the rights of the people

• Enlightenment in America
• Locke’s ideas of limited gov’t, divided powers
influenced Dec. of Indep. & Constitution
 THE GREAT AWAKENING

• Backlash reaction to Enlightenment &

materialism
• Led by Jonathan Edwards & George
Whitefield
• Brought more colonists into organized
Christianity
• Increased interest in higher education
• Colleges began as way to train Puritan
ministers
 “SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY
GOD”

“The use may be of awakening to unconverted persons in this

congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of
you that are out of Christ. That world of misery, that lake of burning
brimstone is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of
the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping
mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor anything to
take hold of: there is nothing between you and hell but the air; ‘tis
only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up…”
- Jonathan Edwards
 LIFE IN COLONIAL AMERICA

• Colonial Cities
• Modern advances – paved streets & lit sidewalks
• Libraries, concerts/plays, local markets

• Colonial Communications
• Newspapers, books, ads, political announcements
• Zenger Trial
• Accused of Libel for criticizing royal governor
• Innocent b/c what he printed was true
• Est. idea of freedom of the press
 STONO REBELLION

• Slaves practice various means of

resistance
• Sabotage
• Running away
• Rebellions

• Stono Rebellion
• South Carolina 1739
• 100 Slaves armed themselves & then killed
20-40 whites
• Harsher slave codes after rebellion
FRENCH AND INDIAN
WAR
CHAPTER 3, LECTURE 4
EUROPEAN
SETTLEMENTS
BEFORE THE
FRENCH AND
INDIAN WAR
 SCRAMBLE FOR TERRITORY

• Rivalry among European nations for control of N.

America
• French claimed land in the Midwest
• British moving further inland
• Natives claimed their ancestral land

• Cause of War:
• Competition over land

• Sides:
• British & Colonists vs. French & Native
Americans
 ALBANY CONGRESS

• Several colonies meet with the Iroquois League

& attempt to get their support in the War
• A powerful Native confederation in upstate
New York
• Eventually join British

• Albany Plan of Union

• Benjamin Franklin
• Colonial confederation
• First formal plan to unite the colonies
• Not successful
“JOIN OR DIE”
 THE WAR

• French win the majority of

early battles
• Turning Point
• King George III chose
William Pitt to lead
British military
• Emphasized colonial
troops – in return
England will pay most
of the cost
• British captured key
French cities (Montreal)
& forts
 TREATY OF PARIS, 1763

• France gave up all lands east of the Mississippi River

• Spain gives Florida to England in exchange for Cuba
 EFFECTS OF WAR

• Pontiac’s Rebellion
• Resisted British takeover in the Midwest
• Encouraged Native Americans to attack
British forts

• Proclamation of 1763
• reserved land west of Appalachian Mtns
for Indians

• England began increasing taxes on colonists

to help pay for war debt