The National Experience: A History of the United States Outline

Chapter 3: The First American Way of Life

• Americans always dealt with how to live for themselves, for the outside world and with each other

                        1. Tobacco, rice, fur, fish; 2. The Navigation Acts

• For the third, some, such as William Blackstone, were hermits and lived alone

 

Patterns of Existence

• Each generation lived differently, but the first was the most radical
• Toward the end of the colonies there were 4 different ways of life

                        Southern plantation, New England town, individual farm, city

The Plantation

• Plantations became colonies centered on 1 crop for income

                        VA/MD: tobacco; SC: rice/indigo; West Indies: sugar

• The word plantation eventually became to imply land where slaves worked

• Slavery, virtually unknown in England, started in the US in Virginia, where it was the settlers’ most original, effective and oppressive idea for living in the Americas

 

• Slavery started when Virginians first needed labor in the 1620s
• Most gathered indentured servants because their lifespan was less than the maximum 7 years in service, and they were cheaper than slaves from Africa

• The death rate, mostly of men, was comparable Europe’s during the plague

 

• Tobacco prices fell in the 1640s and ‘50s, though Virginians kept importing them as they were cheap, and people started living longer, making them more profit

• The South became full of plantations, and slaves, as masters became wealthier and freedmen, or ex-servant, themselves went into business

 

• This cycle of opportunity and profit ceased turning after 1660
• More labor meant more tobacco, which became in higher supply than demand when the N. Acts restricted its market, thus lowering its price
• Production became more expensive when the best land, on the exterior with rivers to transport good, were taken up by the 1670s

• VA and MD became full of wandering freedmen, mostly young, single and armed
• Gov. William Berkeley distrusted these men and in 1673 was worried they would betray him when fighting the Dutch to get better land if it re-aligned to Holland

 

• Nathaniel Bacon led Bacon’s Rebellion, the largest before the Revolution in 1676 in Jamestown, with servants, slaves and freedmen participating

• Although the rebellion died down shortly after Bacon and the remainders persecuted to prevent more, the causes, and wandering freedmen, remained

 

• As the death rate declined, slaves became more popular, profitable and were considered less dangerous than servants, as no rebellion of theirs reached Bacon’s

• Slaves were completely overpowered

                        No rights, harsh punishments, unarmed, revealed by race

• As slaves became more popular, there were less angry servants who would start their own plantations with their own slaves

 

• English thought slavery was the most personal form of degradation yet were very tolerant of it put on Indians or blacks, more so than other Europeans

• White’s enslavement of other races was their most common relationship and their superiority was legally recognized

 

• Slaves in the South were worked to death less and their numbers increased naturally by raising children under better circumstances than in the West Indies

• Although children were considered property that could be sold and bought, slave families could spend time together as a family

                        Had alone time, gardens for food and free time after finishing tasks

• As more slaves spoke a common language, English, they gained more power and could escape longer
• Masters started treating them better to make their slaves more cooperative

 

• The US received a small percentage of imported slaves, but those slaves produced many children, many with non-Africans

• The strain of blacks-whites relationship depended on the environment

                        Tobacco plantations with maximum 100 slaves, rice with 30

• The plantation itself was like a community, especially when by a river
• The master’s manor would be surrounded by attendant buildings and slave barns

 

• Slaves worked in the field or house, making the plantation largely self-sufficient

                        White or black artisans, carpenters, blacksmiths, tailor, cobbler

• The river connected the plantation with others and London, making it very social

• The wealthiest planter often directed and helped out smaller farmers, who in turn would usually vote for him in the assembly out of respect

 

• These men were active in the community and learned how to deal with people
• Everyone started to value their own freedom as more learned of slavery

The New England Town

• The New England town was built by Puritanism and past experience in England

                        Boroughs, villages and parishes

• Boroughs were allowed to send 2 to Parliament, elected by freemen/burgesses, in addition to a mayor and council of alderman for local affairs-often very powerful

 

• Villages were a cluster of houses who shared the land and farming duties in an open field system, later giving way to individual farms

                       

• Parishes incorporated everyone and were originally an area served by a single church but became a small government of itself
• There were 10-20 vestrymen or 2-3 church wardens who held the power

                        Took care of church, poor, children, taxes and was sometimes a jury

• New England towns combined all 3 communities but modified them as they liked
• Puritans got together at Church like a town and covered the same amount of land
• Notably, the Church and officials had no political power and focused on religion

 

• The towns were created by the colony’s General Court, or legislature
• They would give proprietor’s land that was run like a village, with some land reserved for buildings, and each man receiving scattered parcels of land
• Most land was undistributed-called commons-and controlled by the proprietors to sell or grant to the anticipated new settlers, or became private property

• Proprietors control of the commons did not guarantee control in the government
• Town meetings met to discuss town and citizen affairs, elect officials and representatives for the colonial assembly
• For the most part, voting was done by freemen-church members and other free males approved by the freemen, though they could not vote for the representatives

 

• At first, there were no conflicts of interest between the proprietors, since most members were proprietors, and everyone felt a strong sense of community

• Conflicts arose by the early 1700s, when many left to find more land, the remaining commons were argued over and religious problems started

 

• New, less closely knit towns were being formed with the govt. more interested in real estate, proprietors in private profit and settlers in consolidated land

• Despite these issues, the towns remained friendly and citizens good-natured
• Everyone attended Church, though few were “members” (and became increasingly female), and had a say in the minister (who’s salary was their taxes)

 

• Men also met to train for the militia, very important in new frontier towns susceptible to Indians, while in older towns men met at the tavern for a drink

• New Englanders were close with each other, yet independent enough to be satisfied there

 

The Farm

• Most colonists south of New England cultivated land like Europeans but were more distanced from each other

 

• American farms were larger and took longer to cultivate, which isolated farmers

                        Plot would be cleared, planted until infertile, abandoned while the farmers                                   moved on, and would eventually reforest

• This technique got the most crop for the least labor, but Europeans disliked it

 

• Many farms became tenants
• Speculators would buy land when it was cheap in the back country then sell it or rent it out for a higher price to profit from the increasing population

• New England’s population grew, despite many diseases, from families arriving, more children and living longer
• The South’s population only soared in the 1700s when more women, immigrants and slaves came and the death rare lowered

 

• While most southern immigrants were slaves, middle colonies got a lot of immigrants from North Ireland and Germany who would become farmers

• Farmers met at taverns to buy goods and became wealthier, yet had almost not organized community
• Anglican churches attempted parishes but people were too sparse and many were not Anglican, as branches such as Baptists and Presbyterians sent missionaries

 

• Colonial farmers would rely on the county court to meet with each other, which was the most crucial form of govt. and found everywhere

 

• Family life was very important as what couldn’t be found in the community had to be found at home

                        School, hospital, church

• Many homes were populated with grandparents, parents and many children, though most would leave for their own farms

• The farmer’s self-sufficiency was the typical American way of life in the 1700s, though many eventually migrated to similar places

 

The City

• Cities were dramatically different from the farms and for many farmers were just temptation and extravagance

 

• Merchants were essential
• They traded corn, cattle, etc. for molasses to make rum from the West Indies, sometimes slaves, and furs and skins for masts, wool and hardware from England

• Ship makers, instrument makers, retail traders, millers and coopers relied on them

 

• Many other jobs relied solely on other people nearby, like teachers or craftsmen

• Problems unique to the city included theft, vice, filth, traffic, fires and poverty, which would rise when trade was bad because so many jobs depended on it

 

• In Boston, NY and Newport they controlled officials responsible for them but had no say in Charleston or Philadelphia, and relied on volunteers anyway for help

• Cities grew larger than English ones, except London
• Boston was first at the top for shipping in the NE but declined from competition

 

• NY served farmers in the Hudson Valley, NJ and CT while Philadelphia became one of the largest English speaking cities, serving PA, DE and the south
• When wheat farmers needed an outlet and sold grain to merchants in the 1760s and ‘70s, Charleston and Norfolk and other southern cities sprung up

• City goers were well in touch with England and the world, and despite making up a small percentage, they were the most influential and informed Americans

 

The Emerging American Mind

• Until the mid-1700s, most thought of America simply as a place

 

• Most Americans thought of themselves as English/British, though they adapted that heritage differently for each region
• Some ideas became unique in America, paving the way for American nationalism

Responsible Representative Government

• English representative govt. came to America and changed once there, starting in the Middle Ages with the House of Common

 

• The House’s problems started when virtually abandoned boroughs still sent reps. while newer more populous towns would not
• Few were allowed to vote, and even then they were mainly meaningless since reps. would be predetermined by themselves, until these elite were divided

• The House defended this by saying each member reps. the country, not 1 area

 

• Colonial assemblies were more representative since more could vote, although some still did not, and had a better time keeping up with expansion than England

• American assemblymen represented the people who chose him and put them first

 

• They were watched much more closely than in England

Clergy and Laity

• Americans wanted the clergymen to serve, not rule them like the Anglican Church

 

• Raising taxes to support itself in some states was the most political power the Church would have

• Ministers were highly respected but had no secular power for Puritans

 

• Anglican Americans never got a bishop, so while the North constantly asked for them, clergymen in the South came and went as no bishop authorizes their status

• The Anglican church didn’t send a bishop probably because Anglicans were in the minority of a diverse group of sects, making it harder to one dominate the others

 

The Great Awakening

• In the 1740s, George Whitefield combined Calvinism with entertainment, acting out Hell and scaring people into conversion, creating the Great Awakening

 

• This technique of dramatization for conversion was imitated by many

                        Gilbert Tennant, John Davenport

• It affected all classes, particularly from Jonathan Edwards, who made it academic
• He emphasized the emotional aspect of God with a stricter Calvinist doctrine

 

• Many ministers disapproved of this movement, while people would oust their old ministers for this who preached more extreme beliefs and were more exclusive

• When the hype died down, all denominations, esp. Calvinists-split
• Old Lights were against the revival and questioned the Calvinist doctrine, making the road for Unitarianism, Universalism and deism

 

• New Lights decided their minister had to be saved himself, but often kicked them out when many decided their religious intellect to be a bad thing

• Eventually, the Awakening became the New Divinity when Edwards’ beliefs were examined closely and twisted in ways only the clergy could understand

 

• Americans abandoned these clergymen, deciding they weren’t serving them, and shopped around for a denomination that suited them in the variety in America

Education

• Americans were better educated and less in awe of govt./church than Europeans

 

• Most Protestants in NE felt obligated to read the Bible and to teach children to do so, thus having a higher literacy rate,
• Most rates, amongst free males, not including slaves, were higher than England

• By the mid-1700s, almost every colony had a printing press, used actively for newspapers for abroad and other colonies, essays, literature, pamphlets, etc.

 

• Harvard was founded in 1636 and included the liberal arts along with theology

• Many other, similar colleges (Yale) were founded and attended by men of all different backgrounds-wealthy and farmers

 

• The witchcraft hysteria started not due to lack of education but because most educated people believed it, and was less so than in Europe

The Enlightenment

• During the 15/1600s, people like Galileo and Newton started reexamining the universe and decided reason was the key to understanding it, convincing many

 

• In doing so, they began seeing God as reasonable and passive, who created the universe and let it run by itself

• The 1700s were called the Age of Reason
• John Locke’s An Essay Concerning the Human Understanding concluded that knowledge came from opening the human mind to the world

 

• Locke believed God gave humans sets of rules, but they had to enforce them
• The govt. should be condemned if it did not protect people’s natural rights:

                        Life, liberty, property

• Locke diminished absolute govt. and supported free trade, speech and thought
• With reason, people thought the world would start to make sense and cease its mysteries and sins

 

• The Enlightenment, another name, had profound impacts on Americans and was welcomed by many, from students to high society
• Many became scientists themselves, recording American wildlife and astronomy and setting land marks in discovery

                        Mather and Boylston inoculated against smallpox, Rittenhouse replicated                                    solar system

• The Enlightenment meant more to Americans than Europeans as they always had new situations which could be solved by reason

 

• Benjamin Franklin best represented the Enlightenment as a typical American who was successful in all endeavors from printing to inventing to experimenting

• Franklin’s insistence on finding results was as strong as Americans insisting their govts. And churches did what they expected

 

Social Structure

• By the mid-1700s, status was less impressive in America than Europe
• Franklin himself warned Americans looked more at skills than status

 

• Europeans felt God made people unequal and the wealthy were given dignity and political power

• American aristocrats had to fight to stay on top of the class system, and could lose their govt. power if they did not please the people

 

• Both ends of the ladder had fewer rights than in Europe, as slavery was virtually nonexistent in Europe, and American slaves had no way of moving up

• The average American was still better off, enjoying political/economic independence, from land ownership, and were armed to give themselves a muscle

 

• In the 1700s, Americans started differing from English/Europeans and became more alike
• In general (unless slaves), they were better educated, had more control over the authorities and lives and used various tools to get what they wanted