CHAPTER 4 & 5

Colonial Era
& French & Indian War
 Colonial Society
•Regions
•New England
•rocky, inhospitable terrain and climate
•discouraged agriculture, subsistence
farming only.
Colonial Society
•economy
•lumber
•ship building
•whaling
•fishing (cod and
mackerel)
•trans Atlantic
Trade
 Colonial Society

•Middle Colonies: “Bread Colonies”

•fertile land and favorable climate
•family farms produce wheat, corn and
oats for exports.
Colonial Society
• Rivers; Hudson,
Susquehanna and
Delaware – Fur
Trade with the
Indians
• Harbors allow for
trade.
• *Textbook, “best
balanced
economies”. They
did not depend on a
single crop.
 Colonial Society

• Southern Colonies
• forests enabled ship building.
• fertile soil: warm climate
• plantation society, indigo, rice and tobacco
• led to imitation of English aristocrats and society.
• small farmers – frontier dwellers
 Colonial Life
•Family – “foundation of colonial society”
•Nuclear family – Extended Nuclear Family
 Colonial Life
•Children
• How children were
viewed?
• Why have children?
• Childhood
• Adolescence did not exist,
• High infant mortality rates
made emotional
relationships pointless
Colonial Life
•Great Awakening
(1730’s – 1740’s)
•Religious revival
among colonists
•Beliefs??
Colonial Life
• George Whitefield (1714-1770)
• Influenced by Methodism
• English preacher
• toured colonies seven times
• in New England preached in the
fields when denied the use of a
church
• subjected listeners to the certainty
of hellfire and eternal damnation
unless repentance was immediate
and complete
• many wept and he impressed
Franklin
• led to a split in many churches
George
Whitefield
Sermons
Colonial Life
•Jonathan Edwards
(1703-1758)
•most famous sermon -
“Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God”
•distrusted the idea of
simple conversion
•repentance had to be
deep and sustained
 Colonial Life
• Culture
• Literature, Almanacs and the Press
• Library Company of Philadelphia
•founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1731
•first subscription library society
•early libraries belong to the wealthy
•book were expensive,
•limited to clergy and lawyers, men of
enlightened minds
 Colonial Life
• Almanacs – “Poor Richards Almanac” (1732)
• published by Benjamin Franklin
• most regularly printed work
• forecast weather, recap past year,
general information
• filled with aphorisms,
• “Early to bed, Early to rise . . .
Makes a man, Healthy, wealthy,
and wise."
 Colonial Life
•Press:
•Boston News-Letter, first colonial newspaper
(1704)
•Most newspapers were for advertisements, a
listed departure time of ships.
•Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette (1729),
covered news and cultural affairs
Colonial Life
•Freedom of the Press
•The Trial of John Peter Zenger (1734 –
1735)
•Zenger was arrested for libel
(1734-1735)
•wrote articles in New York Weekly
Journal
•critical of New York Governor, William
Cosby
Colonial Life
• lawyer, Andrew
Hamilton, admitted
Zenger wrote articles,
proved allegations
were true thus not
libel.
• acquitted in ten
minutes by jury of
peers
• established the
foundations for
Freedom of Press
Colonial Life
• Benjamin Franklin many useful
experiments,
• lighting rod
• bifocals
• swim fins
• a glass armonica
• watertight bulkheads for ships
• an odometer
• the wood stove
(called the Franklin stove).
Slavery • Slavery
• Indentured Servants
• First African “Slaves”
• Early Slaves
• treated the same as
Indentured servants
• racial attitudes were
not as prominent
• Some could enjoy a
measure of freedom,
own property and sue
in court.
• African Indentured
Servants served for 28
years
 Slavery
• History of Slavery
• developed throughout world history
• slavery was very common in Africa:
• labor shortages led to a booming trade in slaves
• warfare most common method for gaining slaves, the losing
army was enslaved.
• trade in slaves to North Africa, trans – Saharan
• estimated 8 – 10 million traded
 Slavery

•Atlantic Slave Trade (1440 – 1880)

• Demand for labor led to need for workers, slaves:
• plantations spread throughout the Americas
• demand for sugar in Europe, begun in 11th
century
 Slavery
• Middle Passage – voyage from Africa to the
Americas
• was part of the Triangle Trade
 Slavery

• Stages
• capture
• tied together with rope around neck
• branded
• shipped to the Americas
• Journey across the Atlantic was traumatic.
Slavery
• Slavery in the American Colonies
• Family
• stable family relationships
were inhibited
• slave codes did not recognize
slave marriages
• families could be torn apart at
any moment
• change to matrilineal
• children tended to stay with
mothers
• developed kinship networks
 Slavery

• Labor
• most were employed in field work
• some were trained as carpenters, coopers, smiths
and tanners
• House servants and overseers
• the working day lasted dawn to sunset
• after work they were free to do as they please
Slavery
•Social & Cultural Life
•very little of their
African heritage
survived into the
second generation
•spoke hundreds of
different languages
•were not converted
to Christianity
 Slavery
• Slave Codes
• 17th Century
• legal status not clearly defined
• some gained freedom.
• 18th Century – laws passed defining status of slaves
• English children born to slaves - slave status
• Baptism could not change slave status
• owners could not be charged if slave died as a result of
punishment
• Blacks could not purchase “Christian servants”
• law creating “perpetual slavery”
• gradually racism became the official policy of the colonial
gov’t
Bacon’s Rebellion -1676
•Nathaniel Bacon
•Aristocrat
•led army of lower
class whites and
blacks in Virginia
Bacon’s Rebellion -1676
•war against Natives
and government
•rebellion eventually
failed
•led to the passage
of codes to divide
and weaken lower
classes
 Bacon’s Rebellion
•Why the codes were changed
•fear of future uprisings – control slaves
•S. Carolina 60% Blacks
•morally justify slavery
 Colonial Governments
• Colonial Governments
• “Salutary Neglect” –
Edmond Burke, political
philosopher
• “helpful neglect”
• allows self government
in colonies
• Must not evade or
ignore mercantilist
laws
 Colonial Governments
•Democratic Institutions
• House of Burgesses (1619) – Virginia
• Mayflower Compact (1620) – Plymouth
• Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)
• Town Meetings – New England
 Attempts to Control the Colonies
• Navigation Acts (1651 – 1696)
• restricted trade to ships registered in
England, India and America.
• banned foreign shipping
• required European exports to come through
England
• colonial exports to England only
• custom agents
• required governors to enforce trade
Struggle For the Colonial Empire
• Early Wars between England
and France
• Causes
• control of North America’s
inhabitants and territory.
• English colonies westward
expansion that encroached
on Native American and
French territory.
• Religion – Catholic France v.
Anglican England
• world dominance
 French & Indian War

• The French & Indian War (1754-1763)

• French, Canadians and Natives vs. British,
Americans and Natives
• Issues
• Indian Alliances
• control of territory and trade
 French & Indian War
• Dispute over land in the Ohio Valley
• Major Battles & Events
• Battle of Great Meadows (1754)
• Colonel George Washington
• southeast of Fort Duquesne (near Pittsburgh),
begins the French & Indian War.
• sent by Gov. Robert Dinwiddie to remove
French
• defeated French, est. Ft. Necessity
• later defeated and returned to Virginia
 French & Indian War
•Albany Plan of Union (1754)
•plan by Benjamin Franklin
•failed attempt to unify colonies
•reinforced alliance with Iroquois
 French & Indian War
• Ft. Duquesne (1755) – Battle of the Wilderness
• Major General Edward Braddock killed in an
attempt to take Fort
• ambushed and defeated British take Nova Scotia,
deport Acadians
French & Indian War
• Battle of Lake George
(1755)
• won by British and
American
• led by Sir William
Johnson
• 1756-war officially
declared between the
French and British in
Europe.
French & Indian War
• Fort William Henry
(1757)
• French capture Ft.
William Henry
• The French threaten
Albany.
• William Pitt becomes
Prime Minister of Great
Britain at end of 1757.
 French & Indian War
•Fort Frontenac (1758)
•captured by Lt. Colonel John Bradstreet
•Split the French forces and cut off French
communications with Montreal.
 French & Indian War
•Forts Ticonderoga (1759)
•captured by Major General Jeffrey Amherst.
French & Indian War
• Quebec (September, 1759)
• captured by General
James Wolfe
• defeated French Army
under Marquis de
Montcalm
• Both Marquis de Montcalm
and Wolfe are mortally
wounded
• British take the St.
Lawrence River
 French & Indian War
• Montreal (1760)
• captured by General Amherst
• Major Robert Rogers and his Rangers take Fort
Detroit
• The British victory over the French in North
America is complete.
 French & Indian War
• Treaty of Paris (February 10, 1763)
• Results
• eliminates France as colonial power
• Native Americans in the west remain hostile to
the British.
• Indian Power broken in Ohio Valley
• Pontiacs Rebellion (1763), unable to take Ft.
Detroit
• led to change in policy of salutary neglect