Virginia and the Middle Colonies

Virginia: Tobacco• By 1619: tobacco prices had

skyrocketed in Europe• 1629: prices fell by 97%, and

stabilized at 10% of highest price• Low prices led to plantations to cut

costs wherever possible:– Located on river for transportation,

and in flat “Tidewater” area east of mountains

– Used cheap labor: indentured servants and slaves

– Supplemented income with rent, lending for interest, and other crops

• As a result, plantation life:– Divided rich and poor, with tiny

exploitive landed class and huge poor landless class

– Diverted imports and exports to private riverside docks, forestalling growth of cities

Bacon’s Rebellion: 1676• Most Virginia landowners

struggled to avoid poverty; freedmen despaired at inability to prosper

• Nathaniel Bacon: young, wealthy recent immigrant landowner

• Frontier farmers feared and resented small Indian presence to west: skirmishes led to open war

• Governor Berkeley proposed string of forts; farmers wanted to exterminate Indians

• Assembly approved land seizure and enslavement of Indians, but Berkeley ordered attacks to cease

• Bacon turned his forces against Berkeley, but Bacon died of dysentery, ending the rebellion

Colonial Slavery• Need for cheap plantation

labor created market for slavery in South from 1619

• Phase 1: 1619-40 Enslaved Africans could earn freedom, but were seen as different from whites; children were not always enslaved

• Phase 2: 1640-1660 Black slavery became inherited, passing to children

• Phase 3: 1660 onward official recognition and legislation of inherited lifelong, racial slavery

• Slavery increasingly ended class animosity between whites

New Amsterdam• New Netherland established

1614 as a fur trading outpost after Henry Hudson claimed the Hudson River Valley (NY) for the Dutch

• New Amsterdam (NYC) quickly became a major trading port

• Diverse population w/ Dutch, Swedish, German, Norwegian, Finnish, French and African settlers

• No official church - included Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims

• 1664 seized by Britain in 1664

Carolinas• Established in 1663 after

restoration of monarch (Charles II) after English Civil War

• To draw settlers, land was given freely

• Initially, northern Carolina focused on tobacco, lumber and pitch southern Carolina raised livestock and exported deer skins At first, little need for African slaves

• By late 1600’s, a new cash crop, rice, gains prominence

• Rice cultivation increased use of African slaves: many familiar w/ rice, many developed resistance to malaria

• By 1700: first colony with majority black population

Pennsylvania Background• Quakers

– Emerged in English poorer classes

– Believed all individuals could access Inner Light or Holy Spirit through self-examination and discussion

– Refused to show deference to wealthier classes: recognize for spiritual not material accomplishments

– Refused to swear oaths of loyalty to the Crown; refused to bear arms

– Women considered spiritual equals to men

– Brutally persecuted in England and other colonies

• William Penn– Wealthy British aristocrat became a

Quaker

– Used royal grant in west NJ to create Pennsylvania as Quaker refuge & for profit

Early Pennsylvania• Unlike other proprietors, Penn

settled in colony himself• Indian land initially bought, not taken

(Penn wanted harmony)• Philadelphia: city planned by Penn • Settled by families: grew rapidly• Property meticulously divided among

settlers to avoid conflict • Gov't had strong executive, weak

legislature, to avoid dissention • Grain farming prospered due to rich

soil and long growing season Excess shipped to West Indies and

• Philadelphia became major port city• As non-Quaker immigrants arrived,

political tensions grew • Dutch and Swedes in south broke

away to create Delaware in 1704

Other Colonies• Maryland (1632)

– First established as Catholic refuge

– In reality, Catholics were minority

– Nearly feudal allocation of land

• Georgia– Established by James

Oglethorpe as haven for debtors

– Challenged Spain for southern control

– At first outlawed slavery, but then legalized it due to economic pressures of plantations

Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore