Life and Death in 17th Century British North America

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Life and Death in 17th Century British North
America

• How did birth and death rates influence the
  development of British colonies?

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I. Stable Societies The New England Colonies
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A. The Numbers

• Nuclear families came in tact across the Atlantic
• Key to population increase was longevity, not
  fertility
• One of the first western societies in recorded
  history where one could count on knowing ones
  grandchildren
• Average woman marrying in early twenties bore
  eight children

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B. Family Life

• Family central unit of social stability
• Goal godly family ruled by the patriarch
• Young people generally picked their own mates,
  usually neighbors

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B. Family Life (cont.)

• At first, married children continued to live in
  the same towns with their parents
• Romantic Puritans and the practice of bundling
• Burst of illegitimacy during the first half of
  1700s

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B. Family Life (cont.)

• Puritans were much more secular than often
  recognized
• The place of work was the household and
  children were the source of extra laborers

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B. Family Life (cont.)

• Churches were built on the foundation of family
  life
• -- Half-Way Covenant (1662)
• Significant rates of literacy characterized New
  England
• --Ye Olde Deluder Satan Act (1647)

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B. Family Life (cont.)

• Cambridge has a printing press by 1639
• --The Day of Doom
• First Bible printed in America (1663)
• --Algonquian, produced by John Eliot
• First newspaper to endure in the colonies
  Boston Newsletter (1704)
• Harvard established (1636)

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C. Womens roles and Class Status

• A Proverbs 31 Woman
• Distinct duties in the household
• Women joined church more than men
• Little political and legal rights
• Women seen as weaker vessels with feebler minds
• Less class inequality than in Europe or in the
  Chesapeake
• -- yeoman farmers

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C. Womens roles and Class Status (cont.)

• Wealth, not bloodlines nor religion, becomes the
  key determinant of social ranking
• Pressure on the land brought tension due to the
  creation of new towns and the move into
  alternative occupations
• Not uncommon for northern colonists to be
  servants at one time or another

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II. Life on the Edge Southern Plantation
Societies
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A. The Numbers

• Much lower life expectancy than in New England
• People married later due to indenture contracts
• Greater informal power for women
• Only one of three marriages survived a
  decadelots of blended families

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B. Family Life

• 70-85 of immigrants came as single indentured
  servants with many more men than women
  immigratingso fewer stable nuclear families as a
  foundation
• Wealthy fathers sent their sons to England for
  school and no printing press until 1671
• Sex ratio finally nearly even by 1690

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C. Class Status

• A Tobacco Economy produced class inequity
• Indentured servants more economical than African
  slaves until the death rate drops
• Third generation of planters come to dominate
  society and politics

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C. Class Status (cont.)

• Freed indentures and indentured servants
  represented an increasing problem with land
  becoming increasingly difficult to obtain
• Alternatives Middle Colonies, Backcountry, or
  just wandering about

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III. The African-American Experience
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A. Some Freedom before the 1670s

• Approximately 12 million Africans brought to the
  Americasmost to the Caribbean
• Experience on board for African slaves
• Sullivans Island in Charleston Harbor the
  African Ellis Island

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A. Some Freedom (cont.)

• Gender imbalance 21 in favor of males
• Christian conversion benefit for loss of
  freedom
• Status of African-Americans fluid until death
  rate drops

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Escalation of Slavery after 1670s

• Formation of Royal African Company in 1672
• Increase of Black codes during the last quarter
  of the 17th century
• --1660 first recognition of slavery in Va. Law
• --1661 comprehensive code in Barbados
• --1670 recognized as life-long, inherited
  status
• --1696 S.C. adopts Barbados-style slave code
• --1705 Va. adopts Barbados-style slave code

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C. Colonial African-American Culture

• Cultural identity protected by the size and
  density of population
• Typical slave lived on a plantation having a work
  force of ten or more
• Arrival time creates barriers between
  African-Americans

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C. Colonial African-American Culture (cont.)

• Early decades of 18th century turning point
  for African-American family life
• Number of rebellions small, but fear of them
  occurring was great
• --Stono Rebellion (1732)

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IV. Social and Political Instability 1675-1700

• Pressure on the land north and south
• Bacons Rebellion (1676)
• Glorious Revolutions in America (1688-1691)
• --Massachusetts, New York and Maryland
• The Salem Witch Trials (1692)
• -- Spectral Evidence