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CHAPTER 3 Creating Anglo-America, 1660–1750
Opening with the crisis of King Philip’s War, this chapter concentrates on the reasons behind colonial crises as well
as the unifying experience of a uniquely Anglo-American understanding of liberty. The chapter begins with a
description of the growth of the English commercial empire in North America through mercantilism, slavery, and
the establishment of colonies in New York, Carolina, and William Penn’s Pennsylvania, whose “holy experiment”
offered many liberties for its residents. However, the inhabitants of these new colonies included many African
slaves, indentured servants, and non-English European immigrants, who had varying views on the freedoms offered
in the new lands. A section on the origins of American slavery discusses the sometimes-ambiguous line between
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Introduction
A. In 1675, King Philip and his forces attacked nearly forty-five New England towns.
B. The settlers counterattacked in 1676, breaking the Indians’ power once and for all.
II. Global Competition and the Expansion of England’s Empire
A. The Mercantilist System
1. England attempted to regulate its economy to ensure wealth and national power.
2. The Navigation Acts required colonial products to be transported in English ships and sold at English
ports.
a. These acts stimulated New England’s shipbuilding industry.
B. The Conquest of New Netherland
1. The restoration of the English monarchy came in 1660, and the government chartered new trading
ventures such as the Royal African Company.
2. In 1664, during an Anglo-Dutch war, New Netherland was surrendered by the Dutch without a fight in
order to retain their holdings in Africa, Asia, and South America.
C. New York and the Rights of Englishmen and Englishwomen
D. New York and the Indians
1. The English briefly maintained an alliance with the Five Nations known as the Covenant Chain, but by
the end of the century the Five Nations had adopted a policy of neutrality.
E. The Charter of Liberties
1. New York colonists demanded more liberties, especially the right to consent for taxation.
2. The English of New York got an elected assembly, which drafted a Charter of Liberties and Privileges
in 1683.
F. The Founding of Carolina
Indians as slaves.
4. From 1670 until 1720, Carolina engaged in a slave trade that sold captured Indians to other mainland
colonies and to the West Indies.
G. The Holy Experiment
1. Pennsylvania was the last seventeenth-century colony to be established and was given to proprietor
William Penn.
2. A Quaker, Penn envisioned a colony of peaceful harmony between colonists and Indians and a haven
for spiritual freedom.
H. Quaker Liberty
1. Quakers believed that liberty was a universal entitlement.
a. Liberty extended to women, blacks, and Indians.
2. Religious freedom was a fundamental principle.
a. Quakers upheld a strict moral code.
I. Land in Pennsylvania
1. Penn established an assembly elected by male taxpayers and “freemen,” which meant that a majority of
the male population could vote.
III. Origins of American Slavery
A. Englishmen and Africans
1. The spread of tobacco led settlers to turn to slavery, which offered many advantages over the use of
indentured servants.
2. In the seventeenth century, the concepts of race and racism had not fully developed.
3. Africans were seen as alien in their color, religion, and social practices.
B. Slavery in History
1. Although slavery has a long history, slavery in North America was markedly different.
2. Slavery developed slowly in the New World because slaves were expensive and their death rate was
high in the seventeenth century.
3. Slavery came to be associated with race, drawing a permanent line between whites and blacks.
C. Slavery in the West Indies
1. By 1600, huge sugar plantations worked by slaves from Africa were well established in Brazil and the
West Indies.
2. Prior to 1600, Indians and white indentured servants had done the labor; by the first few decades of the
sixteenth century, disease had killed off the Indians and white indentured servants were no longer
willing to do the backbreaking work required on sugar plantations.
D. Slavery and the Law
1. On paper, slaves in Spain’s American empire had more legal rights than slaves in the English American
empire.
2. The line between slavery and freedom was more permeable in the seventeenth century than it would
become later.
a. Some free blacks were allowed to sue and testify in court.
b. Anthony Johnson arrived as a slave but gained his freedom and then eventually owned slaves and
several hundred acres of land.
E. The Rise of Chesapeake Slavery
1. It was not until the 1660s that the laws of Virginia and Maryland explicitly referred to slavery.
2. A Virginia law of 1662 provided that in the case of a child born to one free parent and one slave parent,
the status of the offspring followed that of the mother.
F. Bacon’s Rebellion: Land and Labor in Virginia
1. Virginia’s shift from white indentured servants to African slaves as the main plantation labor force was
accelerated by Bacon’s Rebellion.
4. Nathaniel Bacon, an elite planter, called for the removal of all Indians, lower taxes, and an end to rule
by “grandees.” His campaign gained support from small farmers, indentured servants, landless men, and
even some Africans.
5. In some ways, Bacon’s Rebellion was a clash between two different elite groups.
G. The End of the Rebellion, and Its Consequences
1. Bacon promised freedom (including access to Indian lands) to all who joined his ranks.
2. The rebellion’s aftermath left Virginia’s planter elite to consolidate their power and improve their
image.
H. A Slave Society
1. By the end of the seventeenth century, several factors had made slave labor very attractive to English
settlers; slavery began to supplant indentured servitude between 1680 and 1700.
2. By the early eighteenth century, Virginia had transformed from a society with slaves to a slave society.
a. In 1705, the House of Burgesses enacted strict slave codes.
I. Voices of Freedom (Primary Source document feature)
J. Notions of Freedom
1. From the start of American slavery, blacks ran away and desired freedom.
2. Settlers were well aware that the desire for freedom could ignite the slaves to rebel.
IV. Colonies in Crisis
A. The Glorious Revolution
1. The Glorious Revolution in 1688 established parliamentary supremacy and secured the Protestant
succession to the throne.
2. Rather than risk a Catholic succession through James II, a group of English aristocrats invited the Dutch
Protestant William of Orange to assume the throne.
3. The overthrow of James II entrenched the notion that liberty was the birthright of all Englishmen.
B. The Glorious Revolution in America
1. In 1675, England established the Lords of Trade to oversee colonial affairs, but the colonies were not
interested in obeying London.
2. To create wealth, between 1686 and 1685 James II created a “super-colony,” the Dominion of New
England.
a. The new colony threatened liberties.
C. The Maryland Uprising
1. News in America of the Glorious Revolution in England resulted in a reestablishment of former colonial
governments.
2. Lord Baltimore was overthrown in Maryland.
D. Leisler’s Rebellion
1. Jacob Leisler, a Calvinist, took control of New York.
2. New York was divided along ethnic and economic lines.
3. Leisler was hanged, and New York politics remained polarized for years afterward.
E. Changes in New England
1. In New England, Plymouth was absorbed into Massachusetts, and the political structure of
Massachusetts was transformed.
F. The Prosecution of Witches
1. Witchcraft was widely believed in and punishable by execution.
2. Most accused were women.
G. The Salem Witch Trials
4. Increase Mather published Cases of Conscience concerning Evil Spirits, which advised people not to
take accusations of witchcraft seriously.
V. The Growth of Colonial America
A. A Diverse Population
1. In the eighteenth century, African and non-English European arrivals skyrocketed.
2. As England’s economy improved, large-scale migration was draining labor from the mother country.
a. Efforts began to stop emigration.
B. Attracting Settlers
1. London believed colonial development bolstered the nation’s power and wealth.
a. Fifty thousand convicts were sent to the Chesapeake to work in the tobacco fields.
2. One hundred forty-five thousand Scottish and Scots-Irish immigrants came to North America.
C. The German Migration
D. Religious Diversity
1. Eighteenth-century British America was not a “melting pot”; ethnic groups lived and worshipped in
homogeneous communities.
2. Eighteenth-century British America was very diverse, a host to many religions.
3. Most colonies did not adhere to separation of church and state.
a. Taxes were levied to pay for ministers.
4. Other liberties also attracted settlers:
a. Availability of land
b. Lack of a military draft
c. Absence of restraints on economic opportunity
E. Who Is an American? (Primary Source document feature)
1. Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind (1751)
a. A letter from Benjamin Franklin that emphasizes the ethnic and religious diversity of American
colonists
F. Indian Life in Transition
F. Regional Diversity
1. The backcountry was the most rapidly growing region in North America.
2. Farmers in the older portions of the Middle Colonies enjoyed a standard of living unimaginable in
Europe.
a. Pennsylvania was known as “the best poor man’s country.”
G. The Consumer Revolution
H. Colonial Cities
1. Spanish colonial cities such as Mexico City were much more populated than British North American
cities.
2. Although relatively small and few in number, port cities like Philadelphia were important.
3. Cities served mainly as gathering places for agricultural goods and for imported items to be distributed
to the countryside.
I. Colonial Artisans
1. The city was home to a large population of artisans.
a. Myer Myers was a Jewish silversmith from New York whose career reflected the opportunities open
to men of diverse backgrounds in colonial cities.
2. Despite the influx of British goods, American craftsmen benefited from the expanding consumer
market.
J. An Atlantic World
1. Trade unified the British empire and connected it to other parts of the world.
2. Membership in the empire had many advantages for the colonists.
a. Colonists did not complain about British regulations of trade.
VI. Social Classes in the Colonies
A. The Colonial Elite
1. Expanding trade allowed for the emergence of a powerful upper class of merchants.
4. By 1770, nearly all upper-class Virginians had inherited their wealth.
B. Anglicization
1. Colonial elites began to think of themselves as more and more English.
2. Desperate to follow an aristocratic lifestyle, many planters fell into debt.
C. New World Cultures
1. Before the American Revolution there was no real “American” identity.
2. Many European immigrants maintained traditions from their home countries.
D. The South Carolina Aristocracy
1. The richest group of mainland colonists was South Carolina planters.
2. The tie that held the elite together was the belief that freedom from labor was the mark of the
gentleman.
E. Poverty in the Colonies
1. Although poverty was not as widespread in the colonies as it was in England, many colonists had to
work as tenants or wage laborers because access to land had diminished.
3. The better-off in society tended to view the poor as lazy and responsible for their own plight.
a. Communities had policies to ward off undesirables.
F. The Middle Ranks
1. Many in the nonplantation South owned some land.
2. By the eighteenth century, colonial farm families viewed land ownership almost as a right: the social
precondition of freedom.
G. Women and the Household Economy
1. The family was the center of economic life, and all members contributed to the family’s livelihood.
2. The work of farmers’ wives and daughters often spelled the difference between a family’s self-
sufficiency and poverty.
3. As the population grew and the death rate declined, family life stabilized and marriages became lifetime
commitments.
4. With growing colonial structure, opportunities for women decreased.
a. The division of labor along gender lines solidified.
H. North America at Mid-Century
1. As compared to Europe, colonies were diverse, prosperous, and offered many liberties.
SUGGESTED DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
• Dutch and French societies in North America differed in many ways from those established by the English.
Using as evidence material from Chapters 1–3, discuss some of those differences, particularly regarding labor
systems, attitudes toward Indians, trade relationships, settlement, and notions of freedom.
• In the Chesapeake region during the mid-seventeenth century, how similar was the experience of an indentured
servant to that of an enslaved person? Be as specific as possible in your response.
• Eric Foner writes that “the freedoms Pennsylvania offered to European immigrants contributed to the
deterioration of freedom for others.” What examples can you cite that prove that statement?
• Why did the English government create the Dominion of New England? How did the colonists in the region
react, and why? Why did the dominion fail?
• What commonalities exist between Bacon’s Rebellion and King Philip’s War? How did the two events reveal
tensions in colonial society? How did the colonists in each case use the language of liberty?
SUPPLEMENTAL WEB AND VISUAL RESOURCES
A Midwife’s Tale
A Midwife’s Tale, a PBS American Experience film, re-creates the life of Martha Ballard, a midwife from colonial New
1450–1750.”
Slavery and the Making of America
www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/
This PBS miniseries provides an overview on the development of slavery in the United States. Part 1, “The Downward Spiral,”
focuses on the rise of slavery on the Eastern Seaboard.
Bacon’s Rebellion
www.virginiaplaces.org/military/bacon.html
Although this page offers only a brief overview of the rebellion, the links near the end of the page provide additional useful
resources.
Indentured Servants
www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/212_indenturedfeature.html
This website is for the PBS show History Detectives.
www.virtualjamestown.org/indlink.html
This website, Virtual Jamestown, shows various statutes pertaining to indentured servants.
SUPPLEMENTAL PRINT RESOURCES
Breen, T. H. “Baubles of Britain: The American and Consumer Revolutions of the Eighteenth Century.” In Diversity and Unity in
Early North America, edited by Philip Morgan. London: Routledge, 1993, 227–256.
Brewer, John. The Sinews of Power: War, Money and the English State, 1688–1783. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
1988.
Brown, Kathleen. Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race and Power in Colonial Virginia. Chapel
Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Davis, David Brion. “Constructing Race: A Reflection.” William and Mary Quarterly 54, no. 1 (1997): 7–18.
Development, edited by Stanley Katz and John Murrin. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983, 447–483.
Nicholson, Bradley. “Legal Borrowing and the Origins of Slave Law in the British Colonies.” American Journal of Legal History
38, no. 1 (1994): 38–51.
Parent, Anthony S., Jr. Foul Means: The Formation of a Slave Society in Virginia, 1660–1740. Chapel Hill, NC: University of
North Carolina Press, 2002.
Rice, James D. Tales from a Revolution: Bacon’s Rebellion and the Transformation of Early America. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2013.
Shuffleton, Frank. A Mixed Race: Ethnicity in Early America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Taylor, Alan. American Colonies: The Settling of North America. New York: Penguin Books, 2001.
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650–1750. New
York: Vintage Books, 1980.
Webb, Stephen Saunders. 1676: The End of American Independence. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995.
INTERACTIVE INSTRUCTOR ACTIVITIES
1. Salem Witch Trials
Go to the Salem Witch Trials website by the University of Virginia and investigate the court evidence (warrants and trial
transcripts) presented against some of the accused. Examine and choose cases from the twenty people executed and from some
that were not executed.
http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html
A. Group Activity:
some confess and others proclaim innocence right up to their execution?
B. Discussion Activity:
Offer the students various scholarly theories of why the trials and executions occurred on a massive scale in 1692. Then
have students discuss the following theories and determine which seem the most plausible:
1. Superstition
2. Political tension due to the Glorious Revolution, poor leadership of Sir Edmund Andros, and raids by French and
Indians
3. Mischievous prank by young girls
2. Group Primary Source Analysis
Bring into class a copy of the primary document letter from Chapter 3 written by an indentured servant girl to her father back in
England. Have several students take turns reading portions of the document. Design several questions regarding the letter and break
the class into groups to collectively answer each question based on the document. Then reconvene the class and ask each group to
provide an oral report on their findings. Questions to consider:
• What challenges did indentured servants face in the American colonies?
• Why does Elizabeth Springs compare her condition unfavorably to that of blacks?
• What relief does she ask of her father?
3. After the Mayflower
After watching the documentary “After the Mayflower” (We Shall Remain series), divide the class in half to represent the
