Chapter 4: Life In the Seventeen Century

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Chapter 4 Life In the Seventeen Century
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Sec. 1 The Unhealthy Chesapeake

• Throughout the 17th century regional difference
  would arise the most noticeable was the rigidity
  of Puritanism.
• Unhealthy, most didnt survive, men outnumbered
  women 6 to 1 any single woman who arrived
  married right away, high death rates were common
  so families were few and fragile.
• But as more immigrants came including women, some
  families began to develop but slowly.

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Sec. 2 Tobacco Economy

• Needed more and more land because tobacco ruined
  the land
• Virginia was the most prosperous.
• More labor force was needed, this problem as
  solved by the introduction of indentured
  servitude because African slaves cost too much,
  families procreated too slowly, N.A. were
  unreliable work force because they died in large
  s

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Tobacco

• Head right system- giving the right to acquire
  50 acres of land to the person paying for a
  laborer to America.
• This allows men of modes to acquire vast holding
  in real estate.
• 100,000 indentured brought to the Chesapeake
  region- white slaves.
• Life for them grew harsher, after gaining
  freedom, they were penniless so they had to hire
  themselves out for low wages.

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Sec. 3 Frustrated Freedmen and Bacons Rebellion

• Chesapeake region had large of impoverished
  freemen.
• In 1676, 1,000 Virginians, led by Nathaniel
  Bacon, (supported by men frustrated by their
  inability to acquire land) retaliated against the
  policies of Governor William Berkeley, by burning
  the capital and chasing Bacon out.
• Chaos resulted as the men went on a rampage of
  plundering and pilfering.
• Bacon gets sick and dies, Berkeley returns and
  crushes the rebellion. As a result, the planters
  began to look for less troublesome laborers.

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Sec. 4 Colonial Slavery

• Majority of African slaves came from the western
  part of Africa and were sent to South America and
  West Indies.
• After 1680, colonies depended more on slave labor
  because
• Americans began to rush to cash in on the slave
  trade.
• Higher wages in England reduced the of landless
  freemen in colonies.
• Planters began to fear the growing of landless
  freemen in colonies.
• British Royal African Co. lost its monopoly on
  the slave trade in colonial America.

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Sec. 4 Cont

• Slavery began in the Americas for economic
  reasons, but as time passed it became clear that
  racial discrimination also powerfully molded the
  American slave system.

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Sec. 5 Africans in America

• Life in the South was very bad for slaves,
  climate work was life draining.
• Slaves in Chesapeake had it better female
  slaves, population grew, family life began to
  rise and slave population began to increase.
• Native born African Americans contributed to the
  growth of a stable and distinctive slave culture.
• Contributions were jazz music, the banjo, bongo,
  drums, and a variety of words.

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Sec. 6 Southern Society

• As slavery increased the gaps in the social
  structure widened.
• At the top of southern society was a small group
  of planters who ruled the regions economy
  monopolized political power they were hard
  working and business like.
• Next came the small farmers-largest social group
• Then were the landless white luckless
  indentured servants

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Sec. 7 The New England Family

• New England colonists were healthier and lived
  longer.
• Family life remained the center of their
  lifestyle taught children high morals very
  stable
• Women married early and had many children,
  despite the fact that they feared dying in
  childbirth.
• In the southern colonies allowed married women to
  retain separate title to their property b/c
  southern men frequently died young.
• Puritans worried that such rights would
• undercut the unity of married people.

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Life in the N.E. Towns

• As NE expanded, society proceeded to grow in an
  orderly fashion a meeting house was built,
  schools built in town of 50 or more, a land grant
  was given by the legislature, a village green was
  also laid out.
• The Puritan system of congregation church govt
  logically led to democracy in political govt
• T.J. once observed that the best school of
  political liberty the world ever saw was the New
  England town meeting.
• In NE towns the merchant planters reaped the
  greatest benefit from the land policies of the
  headright system.

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The Half-Way Covenant

• The Half-Way Covenant admitted to baptism but not
  full membership, the unconverted children of
  existing members.

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Salem Witch Trials

• The Salem witchcraft trials were the result of
  unsettled social and religious conditions in
  rapidly evolving Mass.
• During the trials, most of the accused as witches
  were from families associated with Salems
  growing market economy.
• The Salem witch hunt in 1692 was opposed by the
  more responsible members of the clergy.

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The New England Way of Life

• As a result of poor soil, the following
  conditions existed in N.E. 1) colonists hard
  work was required to make a living 2) the area
  was less ethnically mixed than its southern
  neighbors 3) frugality became essential to
  economic survival and 4) diversification in ag
  and industry was encouraged.
• Economy depended heavily on fishing,
  shipbuilding, and commerce therefore had a very
  diversified economy.
• England justified the taking of lands from the
  Indians because they wasted the earth by
  underutilizing its bounty.

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New England Way of Life

• The impact of N.E. on the rest of the nation was
  an extremely important one.
• And the fabled New England Conscience, born of
  the steadfast Puritan heritage, left a legacy of
  high idealism in the national character and
  inspired many later reformers.
• The climate, soil and Calvinist religion resulted
  in high energy level, resourcefulness,
  self-reliance and stubbornness in its citizens.

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The Early Settlers Days and Ways

• Compared to most 17th century Europeans,
  Americans lived in affluent abundance.
• Most of the colonists were farmers who lived the
  cycle of planting and harvesting.
• Class distinctions were not overtly apparent.