Editing Unit One: The Colonial Period (Class Notes)

Pre Colonial Civilization- 9/ 13/ 10
USA Geography

- Mountains: Rockies in the W, Appalachians in the East

- Rivers: Rio Grande at the USA- Mexico border, St. Lawrence River from Canada into the Great Lakes Region and Mississippi River which is fed by the Ohio River (traditions N-S border) from the E and Missouri River from the W

- Pre-colonial Civilizations

- Cahokia civilization: mound builders (as in religious structures), were polytheistic and fell possibly due to spreading small pox before they were met by the Europeans, located near St. Louis

- Anasazi: lived in the cliffs of the mountains of New Mexico, not too far from the Aztecs to trade

- The population of the eastern woodland areas of the USA were only sparsely populated

Non English Colonialism- 9/14/10
- French Colonialism had a long reach (ex: Louisiana, St. Louis on the Mississippi River, Louisville (in Kentucky, on the Ohio) Baton Rouge (Missouri), Des Moines (Iowa), Pierre (S. Dakota), Boise (Idaho), Detroit (Michigan), Illinois, St. Lawrence and Quebec in Canada), mostly made up of Catholic settlers b/c Louis the 14th, the absolutist, Catholic monarch was in charge

- They had control over the waterways, the major rivers and Great Lakes

- Were in N. America for the beaver fur trade (used for felt in hats) and to convert people (done by Jesuits)

- Had Native American allies

Spanish Colonialsim

- Spanish: Had a 100 yr head start b/c of the treaty of Torsedillas (the Papal Bull dividing the world between Spanish and Portuguese), had control over most of S. USA (ex: California, Texas, Florida, Colorado in cities like San Francisco, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Diego, Albuquerque)

- Created 1st settlement in the USA, St. Augustine

- Did try to convert people (ex: Franciscan missionaries) to Catholicism

- Used ecomienda system (feudalism-like system)

- Sometimes dealt w/ rebellions like the Pueblo Rebellion in Santa Fe led by Popé, they held the city for 20 yrs until it was reconquested

- Spanish presence was mostly in S. America, Central America and Mexico

- Dutch: 1st country w/ a revolution leading to a parliamentary system, largely protestant, supported freedom of religion (has many ideals like USA today)

- Settled in New Amsterdam after Henry Hudson discovered the river (1609)

- Also settled Fort Orange (Albany today), Harlem and Brooklyn

- Minuet bought Manhattan from the Native American (who didn't understand they were selling the land), Peter Stuyvesant became governor of New Amsterdam, he is known for edu reforms, giving out patronages (land grants), having Wall Street built (literally once a wall to keep slaves in and the Native Americans or other powers out), he also was religiously intolerant but due to the Dutch gov was brought to trial and had to let people live there (Ex. Jews from Brazil)

- The Dutch had once control over part of Brazil

- Many other cultures, not only the English had influence on the USA

Chesapeake Bay- 9/16/10
Colonization

- 1500s: Spanish

- 1600s: Dutch and French move in

- 1650s: Dutch, English, French and Spanish all have colonies

- Many settled near harbors like on Boston, Rhode Island, New Haven, New York and Chesapeake Bay

- For example Sir Walter Raleigh headed the failed settlement @ Roanoke but it failed probably due to hostile relationships with natives, lack of supplies and poor farming (the necessity to work would allow the USA to develop differently than Latin America, the Spanish could use natives for labor but, the English couldn't effectively)

Virginia

- Used slaves,, had more settlers, before New England

- 1st English settlement was in Jamestown led by John Smith, he is known for spreading the legend that Pocahontas, the chief's daughter saved him from the Powhatan Confederacy (really a loose organization of tribes with kinship ties), mainly to help attract more settlers

- John Rolfe married Pocahontas and brought her to England for the same reason, he also experimented with tobacco from Guyana to produce a cash crop

Other ways they attempted to attract settlers

- Head right policy: You get 50 acres for each person you bring, including indentured servants if you pay for your voyage, servants were often promised the 50 acres for themselves after the work but many died before it happened also there were fees for having the land surveyed for use which many people didn't have, few servants go land

- To pay off debt

- Freedom of religion

- Were somewhat democratic, House of Burgesses was created, the governors were elected by stockholders in the company, this was available to the English but Poles sued for the right and received it (beginning of democracy here)

Georgia

- Was a military buffer between the other colonies and Spanish held Florida, was supposed to be place where criminals could reform themselves (James Oglethorpe founded it for this but people ignored the laws)

N. Carolina

- John Locke wrote the constitution for this colony but expected the rights to be mostly for those of his own demographic, this is expanded on as time goes by

Puritan New England- 9/17/10
Puritans VS Pilgrims

-Puritans: wanted a church w/o the rituals of the English Church, lived by "sacred covenant", many arrived in the 1630s and the Great Migrations, the 1st were led by John Winthrop

- Pilgrims (and the Plymouth colony): were 1st and a smaller group, had gone from England to the Netherlands but wanted better opportunities, in the early 1600s they led by William Bradford (who wrote Plymouth Plantations) landed in Plymouth, there colony was to become a part of Massachusetts Bay, a joint stock company, they are known for making the Mayflower Compact an agreement for self gov since they were outside of European jurisdiction by all adult male churchgoers

Massachusetts Bay Colony

- Massachusetts Bay Colony: (jointstock) Since the contract did not specify from where the colony was to be governed the settlers drew up the Cambridge Agreement where they decided to have the government in the colonies, they were Congregationalists (meetings in the church), also wanted to be a theocracy until the king reasserted control over the colony, they executed the 4 martyrs of Boston including Ann Dyer

Ann Hutchinson

- Hutchinson was prosecuted due to her controversial beliefs including antinomianism (belief she received revelation) and the fact that she accused the majority of the clergy of being fakes and was a protesting female

- This is somewhat true since Puritans prosecuted those with other beliefs like they were in England

- After being kicked out she had a stillborn and later she was killed by hostile Native Americans along with her children in Rhode Island, leaders she was against attributed this to god

The Wampanoag and Manhasset

- Are the tribe known for the 1st Thanksgiving, many killed by smallpox, Metacom (aka Phillip, son of Manhasset) attacked the colonists after unifying the Native Americans, this King Phillip's war was the 1st major war w/ the largest % of deaths

Roger Williams

- Disliked current Native American treatment, believed that the state would corrupt the church so he wanted separation, disliked forced worship and allowed religious freedom, he founded a colony in Rhode Island

Thomas Hooker

- Wanted voting rights for more people, not just churchgoers, extended membership to 1/2 way covenant, in Connecticut, helped found its constitution, the 1st to help the colony succeed (had to have unity or fall apart in the wilderness)

Ann Bradstreet

- A wealthy poet who wrote religious poetry

New England Confederation

- An alliance system between Puritan colonies

Mid- Atlantic Colonies- 9/20/10
- Virginia is pro-king cavalier founded while Massachusetts is pro-parliament (both were corporations/ joint stock)

- The Mid-Atlantic colonies in between were proprietary colonies

- Why? The English were doing well after the Glorious Revolution where they brought back a limited monarchy, they won against the Dutch (though Mary and James, Queen and King were from the Dutch royalty) they rewarded supporters, they are founded during reform

Pennsylvania

- William Penn Sr., an admiral, was rewarded both a land grant in Ireland and in the Americas, he sent William Penn Jr. to the colony after he managed to get himself arrested for preaching sect religion, as he was a Quaker, although the jury wanted to let him go due to eloquence and charisma the judge wanted him and the jury in jail so he left and recruits sectarian groups to come for his "Holy Experiment" including ideas of pacifism (reason why many Quakers left gov posts during French-Indian War), advisory, prison reform, religious freedom, edu, and fair-jury trials, they were also capitalists and Penn gave land to other Quakers

- Penn puts someone else in charge of his estate where he signs away his land, he is blackmailed into giving the rent of his Irish holdings to him to remain the "face" of the colony and attract people, the king finds out about it and gives the power back to Penn after the man's widow after his death tries to continue the blackmail

Maryland

- Lord Baltimore (the Calvert family) pass the Maryland Act of Toleration, religious tolerance but only for Trinitarians (as in belief in the Trinity) to get settlers

Leisler's Rebellion

- A rebellion in NY for democratic reform like those occurring in England, is anti-large landowners, worked b/c of the time period (during reformation)

Delaware

- Not founded by Quaker but by the Dutch who lost and gave England this colony and New York which would keep many of the laws associated w/ it, for some time it was part of Pennsylvania

S. Carolina - Know for large slave population

Bacon's Rebellion- 9/21/10
- Overall as time went on colonists and Native Americans generally had bad relationships

- Ex: Penn (Pennsylvania) had a policy of treating Natives well w/o exploiting them his heirs didn't as in the Walking Treaty w/ the Lenape, he had a deal where they could take as much land as a man can walk in a day and a half, but before hand cleared a path for their best runners who got 70 miles, they swindled the natives

Bacon's Rebellion

- Nathaniel Bacon was a rich planter but many of his followers were not, they were former indentured servants who were given land in the frontiers where they often encountered native raids, they wanted to fight war against the natives but Gov Berkeley did not want this b/c he had a good fur trade deals with them

- Also wanted voted extended, House of Burgesses Reform (this is Virginia) and said Berkeley was corrupt

- After Bacon's rebellion it appears that the government tried to institute racism to satisfy the poor colonists (this along with greater demand for crops like Tobbacco and later others including rice starts the transition to slavery), as during the rebellion both African indentured servants and European indentured servants fought against the ruling class and almost won, if it weren't for Bacon's death by dysentery they may have been more successful

9/22/10
- Phillis Wheatley (1754-1784): African American slave that was taught to read and write, she was a successful poet

- Stono Rebellion: In S. Carolina, by slaves from Congo, many knew Portuguese and had Catholicism in common however they couldn't rebel successfully b/c overall there was no language, unity, the USA was large and there wasn't a large willing to help free African American population, slaves were killed, some tried to escape by going to Spanish controlled Florida due to their shared religion

Salem Witch Trials- 9/23/10
- In 1692, Puritan Massachusett

- After the 4 martyrs of Boston and the persecution of other dissenting groups the English Crown thought the Puritans had overstepped their bounds, this was also a time of political problems and conflicts with the Native Americans, like King Phillip's and King William's Wars, disease was also taking lives

- Cotton Mather supported the trials

- These trials started when teenage girls were told by a Caribbean slave folklore, they accuse her of witchcraft after showing odd symptoms, Tituba (a 1/2 Carrib 1/2 African slave in the N) then accuses other people, to become a resource and delay her death

- Around 5 men and 15 women were killed out of the 150 accused, and stopped when the governor's wife was accused

- Most of the accused were women who had property because they had no living immediate male family ( no brothers, fathers or sons)

- Causes: include the mistreatment of women, they weren't equals and people wanted their land, problems exacerbated looking for the Devil in the real world as the Native American land and forests were considered the Devil's land, mob mentality and boredom

- Then in the 18th century, the Great' 'Awakening began, it was attempt to combine the rational and religion born out of the Enlightenment, ministers called New Lights were trained to use rational thought in colleges, it caused an increase in both religious fervor and allowed religious diversity, two important New lights were Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield who went around preaching causing the movement to spread across the colonies

Mercantilism- 9/24/10
- 16th Century: colonies are settled

- 18th Century: conflict between the colonists vs. the British, which rose especially after the French- Indian War

- Pre-1750: Great Awakening and Enlightenment

- After 1750: Revolution begins mainly out of anger against mercantilism

- Mercantilism: A colony is exploited by laws that favor the economy of the mother country, it includes trading only with the mother country and not being able to manufacture goods but only create raw materials

-Rules for the colonies include: King's Lumber, where the tallest and largest trees belonged immediately to the King of England, however, due to the great cost of manufacturing ships by sending lumber back to Britain ships were eventually made in the colonies (an exception to the rule) and the Navigation Acts that required all trade done in the colonies had to go through Britain, it steadily got stricter until the ship and crew had to be British, and goods must be loaded and then reloaded, they also couldn't print their own money (Currency Acts)

- Since the colonies could only sell raw materials and to Britain only while only letting them buy from Britain a deficit would be created in the colonies, however, colonist reacted by breaking the rules by trading and selling elsewhere which the British pretty much allowed (Salutary Neglect) to keep away the possibility of deficit in the colonies before the French- Indian War

- Then after the war Britain starts to enforce the law through writs of assistance (officers must start to crack down) where people caught smuggling were tried in Admiral Courts (Naval Courts)

- Smuggling and other trading really made the triangle trade very complex (more than 1 triangle)

- The Mercantile System hurts the N. colonies more b/c they were not often planters (b/c of colonies' climate) and were more militant in the rebellion, planters in the S. would support the rebellion so they could sell their produce to other countries

- Another country using the Mercantile system before was China pre- Opium Wars, their intake of specie (hard currency, silver or gold) was so much that they had rampart inflation

French Indian War- 9/27/10
- Causes: Mainly b/c of competition between the English and French, not just in the Americas but worldwide (The French chose Guadeloupe and Martinique over land E. of the Mississippi and the Spanish chose Cuba over Florida b/c these areas could be used for sugar and were easier to defend), they also fought to get Native American allies

- Afterwards was Pontiac's Rebellion (named for an Ottawa leader), they fought against the British b/c they disliked their policies especially that of Gen. Amherst, this war is famous for soldiers @ Fort Pitt giving smallpox infected blankets to natives

The Iroquois aka People of the Longhouse

- Were significant b/c they were a unified group of 5 then 6 tribes (including the Seneca, Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga and then Tuscarora) who had an oral constitution

- Lived on the New England side of the St. Lawrence River, but most often sided w/ the French except for 1 of their leaders that sided w/ the English

Spark for the French- Indian War

- The Virginian Militia including Gen. George Washington went through the Appalachians hoping to create the Ohio colony however, the French Fort Duquesne was already there ( Near modern-day Pittsburgh at the intersection of the Ohio, Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers), the Virginians wanted to survey and control the land (especially Washington who was the son of a planter's 2nd family and did not inherit land so he became a military officer, though he eventually had control over land in the Shenandoah Valley)

- The Militia and their Native American allies shoot @ French forces killing their Gen. he is forced to sign a letter blaming him for the Gen.'s death, it is used to start war

- This is part of the reason why the American colonies were taxed

Outcomes

- Salutary neglect ends to pay off British debt

- Britain gets control over Great Lakes and a large # of Francophone Catholics, which many of move to Louisiana which has influence today

- When Britain takes Florida most of the Catholic Spanish move to colonies S

- Added to the colonies is Trans Appalachian West

Taxation without Representation- 9/28/10
Outcomes cont'd

- The Virginians did want to settle the Trans-Appalachian West but, the British did not allow this using the Proclamation of 1763 (cannot cross and settle into an invisible like across the Appalachian peaks) as the British did not want to finance the skirmishes the colonists would likely have with natives

- Colonists don't obey this law

- Pennsylvanians called the Paxton Boys, a vigilante group who lived near the frontier attacked Native American (for the sake of land), people E. of this wanted peace w/ the natives (b/c they have no reason to want the land from them) there was no common goal between people living on the coast and in the western frontier until taxation w/o representation

- An example of their disunity can be seen in the failure of Ben Franklin's Albany Plan of Union, that called for a united colonial federal effort that some colonies didn't even bother attending, however it is the 1st of its kind (1760s)

Taxes (Under Grenville)

- A newer tax that was put into place was the Sugar Act that actually lowered taxes on sugar to help tropical colonies like Barbados and Jamaica sell their sugar to the N. however, after it laws against smuggling (like this one by promoting trade inside colonies) were enforced strictly to pay for the French- Indian War, it was different from the Molasses Act in which there were high tariffs (protective tariffs) against foreign products

- Stamp Act: All printed materials including cards and dice need to pay to have for a stamp to allow distribution, this anger the educated colonists, who after holding the Stamp Act Congress boycott the usage of stamps, tax agents were threatened and killed and their offices were often burned down, this tax was a internal tax, that was paid locally unlike the Sugar Act an external tax that would be paid @ the port

Taxes under Townshend (Townshend Acts)

- Everything that was manufactured had to be bought from England, as the American colonies lacked factories, Townshend had it all taxed, the colonists react by instituting non-importation, they manufactured their own clothes (well mostly women did) and used other products they could make

- Britain repeals most of these acts and puts into place the Declaratory Act which parliament reasserts that it has control over the colonies and leaves the Tea Act, they also argue that the colonists have "virtual representation" they are like other countrymen who don't really have say in the politics, and its best for the county (BS)

- To protest the colonists plan the Boston Tea Party and act on it leading to British action

Beginnings of the Revolution- 9/29/10
Boston Tea Party

- Colonial merchants disliked the Tea Act because since it was cheaper than their smuggled tea (Britain had close to a monopoly of tea during this time) it would cut into their profits (and it was getting riskier to smuggle tea) so they dressed up as Mohawk Native Americans to bring a crowd and dumped the tea

British Response to the Boston Tea Party (Lord North takes over after Grenville)

- The Coercive (aka Intolerable/ Repressive) Acts which includes the Boston Port Act which shut down Boston as a port, the Massachusetts government act that dissolved their assembly and replaced Gov. Hutchinson w/ General Gage, military rule, the Quartering Act which colonies had to give British soldiers housing and the Quebec Act where the Francophone Catholics were given the land that the French- Indian War started over, the Ohio river valley

Colonial Response

- Colonist boycotted them once again but others took more radical measures like Samuel Adams who helped create the Sons of Liberty, a loosely organized group that planned against the British, they would kill and burn the British tax agents and their property like in the Gaspee incident where the crew of a schooner looking for smugglers when taken off board and their ship the Gaspee was burned (so much for the enlightenment)

Patrick Henry

- Famous for "Give me liberty or give me death"

- Was a Virginian (like Washington or Jefferson) who had the Virginia Resolves passed while loyalists were away w/ a minimal amount of votes, he wanted taxes to be put into place by the colony but that was refused after their return, it was among the 1st threats to British power in the colonies b/c Henry also compared himself and the assembly to Cromwell and Charles I to George III

Other organized responses

- The Albany Plan of Union that failed, the Stamp Act Congress that did get people to boycott the Stamp Act, the 1st Continental Congress that decided to settle issues w/ the king through a petition for grievances, the 2nd Continental Congress did the same in the Olive Branch Petition which after it doesn't work out begins plans for independence

- At 1st they aren't very radical

The Boston Massacre

- Before the Revolution there are other skirmishes, poor dock workers (like Crispus Attucks ) strike, poor British soldiers try to cross the strikers and take their jobs as rope makers, dock workers throw snowballs and clam shells @ them until the soldiers read the Riot Act and tell them to stand down, they don't and are fired upon killed Crispus Attucks 1st and then others

- Tensions and revolutionary ideas also rise w/ John Dickinson's Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania and the acquittal by a jury of John Peter Zenger for his paper which criticized the British gov, and Thomas Paine's Common Sense

- These events and propaganda show other colonists that they are not fairly represented though it is mainly the merchants (colonial vs. British) that are being hit the hardest by these acts