American History

week 2. Early British Colony and Slavery

(1600 ~ 1750, Brinkley. Ch.1~3)

Hyun Song Lee

hslee@ hufs.ac.kr

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1. The collision of cultures
• Many millions lived throughout the American continent until
the advent of Europeans, hunting, gathering and farming
since 11,000 years ago.

• Europeans came since late 15c. (Age of Discoveries).

/ three contributing factors:
growing population pressure in Europe,
strong monarchies emerged leaving behind feudalism,
navigation technology developed.
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• Columbus came to the West Indies, under the assistance of Spanish
king in 1492.

• Spanish empire was established in the central through south America.

/ after brutal suppression of native Indians.
/ more than 90% of natives died due to the diseases Europeans
brought.
/ Spanish colonists used Indians for working in the mines and plan-
tations.
/ they were mostly male and single. They married Indians to pro-
duce mixed race, Mestizo.
/ Spanish took hold at Florida and the Southwest region of North
America.
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- “Columbus exchange”:
the exchange of Europe and America in crop, animal and people.

from Europe to America: disease(measles, small pox), horse, cattle, pig, ram,…

from America to Europe: potato, corn, bean, tobacco, tomato, pepper, pump-
kin,…

• Why did American Indian civilization collapse against the Europe?

(by Jered Diamond, “Guns, Germs, and Steel”)
/ less development of farming
hard to learn farming along the North-South axis.
/ no pulling animals for drawing power
/ less exchange of ideas and people across regions
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• English colonists came since the early 1600.
/ contributing factors:
growing population and scarce land
Mercantilism
(accumulating national wealth by exporting and conquering)
religious motives: Puritans oppressed against the Church of England.

- French and Dutch came earlier than English in the North America.
/ they were larger in number than the British.
their trading boomed in their American colonies.

 after being defeated by the British in Europe, they retreated from their
American colonies.
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- English colonists retained a rigid separation from the native Indians differently from
the Spanish. Why?
more women, more family-unit move.
more seeking for farming land
(less chance to make big money quickly in the North America)

no silver or gold mines found in the North America

plantation farming was not favorable for the Northeast region

English experience of the colonization of Ireland: holding the principle that oppres-
sors keep separation from the oppressed.

 create different racial order in the US from the Latin America

/ either white or non-white, no mixed blood allowed legally vs.
rainbow from pure white to Indians and blacks.

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2. Transplantations and Borderlands
• British colony started at James Town in 1607 and 1619.
-> developed into Virginia

• 13 colonies were established on the Atlantic seaboard by ob-

taining the charter of colonization from the English King one
after another until late 17c.

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• A large number of Europeans moved to the colonies as ‘indentured
servants’.
/ a contract of obligatory working for 4~5 years in exchange for
travel cost and a promise of rewards at the end.

• the colonies were mostly self-governed by representatives of the

land lords.

• Conflicts emerged between the wealthy of costal regions and the

settlers on inland regions.
/ social tensions brewed when large number of indentured ser-
vants finished their contract with nothing
/ Bacon’s rebellion in 1675.
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• In the Southern regions from Virginia, large plantations emerged.
/ cash crops there were tobacco, rice, indigo, and later cotton.
/ indentured servants worked in the beginning,
/ but soon African slaves took the working mostly.

- African slaves in the North America were imported mostly through West Indies.

/ African slave trades flourished after the discovery of American continent.

/ needs of slave is larger in the South America than in the North.
// the sugar plantation boomed on slave labor in West Indies (Bahama,
Jamaica, Puerto Rico,…)
the mines boomed on slave labor in South America.
// the slave trade in the North America continued until early 1800s.

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• Growth of New England
/ Puritans, called ‘Pilgrims’, arrived on ‘Mayflower’ at Plymouth in 1620
/ they drew up “Mayflower Compact” to establish a government for
themselves.
/ 1,000 people arrived at Boston under the leadership of John Winthrop,
established Massachusetts,
who proclaimed to build holy commonwealth, called ‘city upon a hill’.
/ they build a religiously ruled society of theocracy.

- The defectors from Massachusetts’ strict religious rule gave birth to

neighboring colonies; Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine.
/ they are collectively called ‘New England’

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• Settlers in the New England lived by small self-owning farms
and commerce.
/ The soil and weather was not favorable for plantation in
the New England.
/ they didn’t use slave labor, instead, worked mostly on free
labor.

• New York became the English colony after being taken from
Dutch colony of New Netherland in 1673.
• Pennsylvania was established by Quakers in 1682.

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• The English government tried to regulate colonial trade by
the Navigation Act in 1660.
/ All trades to the colonies or between colonies should be
carried by English ships, paying custom duties to the English
government.

- The English government’s attempt to strengthen the control

of colonies was balked by the colonists in New England in the
1690s.
/ the Glorious Revolution of 1689 in England touched off
revolutions in several colonies, where representative assemblies
were established.

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- Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charles Town (later Charleston)
grew to substantial trading centers.

- English settlers clashed the Spanish in the south, and the French in
the north.
/ English settlers kept both fighting and living along with American
Indians until they were entirely subjugated in late 19c.

- By the middle of 18c, the power of England in the North America

eclipsed Spain and France.
/ since the mid 18c, the balance of power skewed in favor of Eng-
land in the North America as well as in Europe.

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3. Society and Culture in Provincial
America
• Population increased rapidly in British colonies.
/ Number of indentured servants whittled down.
/ Slaves surged in the South since mid 17c.
/ more birth and less death of children tells the stabilization of
colony’s lives. Life expectance increased.
/ sex ratio became balanced by dint of more women having arrived.

- More immigrants arrived with family members in New England than

in the South.
/ seeking for their own land for farming.
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• In the South, slave population increased, even outnumbering
whites in some regions.
/ Race-based social and economic system emerged gradually.
// all blacks fell into slave status except for small exceptions.
// whites and blacks were separated in living quarters and
social status.
// ideology justifying such distinction emerged.
/ slave built their own communities, having their own culture.

- European immigrants diversified from English to Scots, Scott-

Irish, Irish, Huguenot refugees, and Germans.

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• The South were concentrated in farming cash crops, while the
North diversified to craftsmanship and commerce, besides
small farming.
/ there were few large cities and harbors in the South,
which is due to plantation economy, slave society, and
unfavorable geography for sea ports.
/ merchant class emerged in the North by dint of interna-
tional and domestic trade.
/ triangular trade connecting West Indies, West Africa,
North America and West Europe.

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• In the New England, Puritans built tightly knit communities.
/ Puritan democracy: they held town meetings and ran town af-
fairs for themselves, electing representatives.

/ as the communities grew, tensions built

// due to increasing commercialization and population growth.
// as tight religious and social control loosened, defectors kept
emerging.

/ such tension broke out into Salem Witchcraft Trials in 1680~90s.

// social hysteria to blame the marginal people such as poor,
widow, no-conformers.
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Salem Witchcraft trial in 1680s~90s

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• North America was relatively free with respect to religious faith.
/ most colonies welcomed diverse sects of Christianity.
because they wanted to attract more immigrants from Europe.
/ Protestants prevailed, while Catholics were very small.

- The Great Awakening.

When settler societies were stabilized and loosened, powerful
evangelists from England spread the religious revival in 1730s.
/ catered to the people’s sense of uncertainty in the rapidly chang-
ing colonial societies.
/ led to the division of existing congregations between ‘New Light’
revivalists and ‘Old Light’ traditionalists
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• The Enlightenment movement of Europe spread in the colonies.

/ Enlightenment in 17c:
// resort to reason and being human-centered rather than
to God.
// heightened interest in education and secular politics and
government
// Bacon, Lock, Descartes,… in Europe.
/ great influence on the Founding fathers of the United States.
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, James
Madison.

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• Literacy rate among men was high: more than half.
/ prints flourished, such as Almanacs, and later, newspapers.

• Public school developed early in the colonies.

/ in Massachusetts, a law in 1647 required that every town
supports a school.
/ Harvard was founded by Puritans in 1636, …

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• to sum up, since the early colonies, the North and the South
diverged into different regions in industry, people’s composi-
tion, and social norms.

• colonies’ governments are mostly independent from the Eng-

land.

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