Chapter 1- New World Beginnings

33,000 b.c.e.1769 c.e

I. The shaping of North America

1. Earths continent took their positions slowly; they used to all be one giant mass-
continent.
Shifting caused mountain ranges to form
2. About 2 million years ago a great chill covered the planet beginning the Great Ice Age
When the glaciers receded and melted they scraped away topsoil and the great
lakes were formed and filled.
II. Peopling the Americas
1. The Great Ice Age did more than change the environment, it contributed to the origins
of the continents human history.
As the sea level dropped, it exposed a land bridge connecting Eurasia with North
America in the area of the present-day Bering Sea.
Across that bridge, probably following migratory herds of game, ventured small
bands of nomadic Asian hunters. They spread to all parts of America in over
2,000 years.
2. Incas in Peru, Mayans in Central America, and Aztecs in Mexico shaped stunningly
sophisticated civilizations.
III. The Earliest Americans
1. Corn growing helped the population grow and quickly became a staple crop.
2. Everywhere it was planted, corn began to transform nomadic hunting bands into settled
agricultural villagers.
Corn cultivation reached other parts of North America considerably later. The
Mound Builders of the Ohio River valley, the Mississippian culture of the lower
Midwest, and the desert-dwelling Anasazi peoples of the Southwest did sustain
some large settlements after the incorporation of corn planting.
But mysteriously, perhaps due to prolonged drought, all those ancient cultures
fell into decline by about 1300 c.e.
3. Maize, Beans and Squash made possible three-sister farming.
4. The Iroquois in the northeastern woodlands, inspired by a legendary leader named
Hiawatha, created in the sixteenth century perhaps the closest North American
approximation to the great empires of Mexico and Peru.
But for the most part, the native peoples of North America were living in small,
scattered, and impermanent settlements.
5. In more settled agricultural groups, women tended the crops while men hunted, fished,
gathered fuel, and cleared fields for planting.
The Native Americans had neither the desire nor the means to manipulate
nature aggressively. They revered the physical world and endowed nature with
spiritual properties.
IV. Indirect Discoverers of the New World
1. The Scandinavians were actually the first to encounter the continent of North America.
They landed near Newfoundland but since their governments werent looking to
expand or settle they lost the new settlements and America was forgotten
about except in song and stories.
2. Christian crusaders must rank high among Americas indirect discoverers.
Looking to expand their beliefs to Asia they eventually acquired a taste for the
foreign goods.
The expense of transporting items from Asia to Europe was so much that they
started to look for alternate ways.
V. Europeans Enter Africa
1. Marco Polos travels inspired Europeans to look for cheaper ways to get to desirable
goods.
2. Europeans had invented new ships-caravels- that could help them travel more and had
discovered new trade winds that would take them home easier.
3. The Portuguese were the first to travel to southern Africa.
They quickly set up trading posts for gold and slaves.
Slave trading became a big business
The seafaring Portuguese pushed still farther southward in search of the water
route to Asia. Bartholomeu Dias rounded the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488.
ten years later Vasco da Gama finally reached India.
4. Meanwhile, Spain was growing stringer and also wanted to reach new wealth and
discovery.
VI. Columbus Comes upon a New World
1. Spain was ready for new power and riches. The dawn of the Renaissance in the
fourteenth century nurtured an ambitious spirit of optimism and adventure.
2. Christopher Columbus persuaded the Spanish monarchs to outfit him with three tiny but
seaworthy ships.
Seeking a new water route to the fabled Indies, he in fact had bumped into an
enormous land barrier blocking the ocean pathway. He was so sure that he had
reached the Indies that he called the natives there Indians which stuck.
His discovery would join the four continents- Europe, Africa and the two
Americas.
3. For Europeans as well as for Africans and Native Americans, the world after 1492 would
never be the same, for better or worse.
VII. When Worlds Collide
1. New world plants such as tobacco, maize, beans, tomatoes, and especially the lowly
potato eventually revolutionized the international economy as well as the European
diet. In exchange the Europeans introduced Old World crops and animals to the
Americas.
 2. Unwittingly, the Europeans also brought other organisms in the dirt on their boots and
the dust on their clothes
Such as the seeds of Kentucky bluegrass, dandelions, and daisies.
3. Most ominous of all, in their bodies they carried the germs that caused smallpox, yellow
fever, and malaria.
The Natives didn have any antibodies against the diseases.
4. Enslavement and armed aggression took their toll, but the deadliest killers were
microbes.
VIII. The Spanish Conquistadores
1. The Europeans realized that there were riches in the Americas.
2. The Treaty of Tordesillas was established dividing the new world between Portugal and
Spain.
Lots of explorers then thirsted for riches and went forth to discover new things
and conquer people both in North and South America.
The New World gold helped transform the world economy.
3. The Europeans used techniques to subdue the natives; the most popular one was the
Encomienda system which was still slavery.
IX. The Conquest of Mexico
1. In about 1519, Hernan Cortes set sail from Cuba with men and horses. Along the way,
he picked up two translators - A Spanish prisoner of Mayan-speaking Indians, and an
Indian slave named Malinche.
2. The Spaniards arrived at Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital with the intention of stealing all
of the gold and other riches; superstitious Moctezuma- the Aztec ruler also believed
that Corts was the god Quetzalcoatl.
He allowed Cortez to come near the city unopposed.
3. Because of the Spanish treatment, the Indian population in Mexico went from 20 million
to 2 million in less than a century.
4. The invader brought more than conquest and death. He brought his crops and his
animals, laws and language.
X. The Spread of Spanish America
1. Spains colonial empire grew swiftly and impressively.
A lot of Spanish cities flourished and by this time other countries wanted in on
the wealth.
The Spanish began to fortify and settle their North American borderlands and to
block the entrance of the French and others.
2. The natives, tired of being forced into a different religion, launched a rebellion known
as Popes Rebellion, where they burned down churches and killed priests.
It took nearly half a century for the Spanish fully to reclaim New Mexico from
the insurrectionary Indians.
3. The Spaniards, who had more than a centurys head start over the English, were genuine
empire builders and cultural innovators in the New World.
 They eventually intermarried and mixed their culture with the indigenous
people instead of shunning them like the English did.
The Spanish invaders did indeed kill, enslave, and infect countless natives, but
they also erected a colossal empire and set the foundation for many Spanish-
speaking nations.

Chapter 2- The Planning of English America

Most of the new world had been changed profoundly as the seventeenth century dawned. North
America was largely unclaimed (the area over Mexico). And the Spanish had set up much of the
control in Central and South America.

I. Englands Imperial Stirrings

1. England didnt put in much effort to colonize as the Spanish did.

2. After King Henry VIII broke with Church he launched the English Protestant
reformation. At first England and Spain were allies but after the Protestant Elizabeth
ascended to the English throne a rivalry with Catholic Spanish intensified. Catholic
Ireland, originally under English rule sought help from Spain but they failed and England
put protestants there. Many English developed contempt for the savage Irish.

II. Elizabeth Energizes England

1. Elizabeth encouraged English raiding the Spanish. The most famous seadog was Sir
Francis Drake. Elizabeth knighted him, and that angered the Spanish.
2. When English attempted colonization they had many failures. The first one was Roanoke
Island which mysteriously vanished swallowed by the wilderness. The Spanish had
better luck colonizing.
3. King Philip II of Spain sent an armada to invade England but the English fought back.
The English inflicted heavy damage and a storm arose which scattered the crippled
Spanish.
The year 1588 marked the beginning of Spains downfall. Spanish Caribbean
slipped from Spain, and Holland got independence.
Englands victory dampened Spains fighting spirit and increased Englands
naval dominance. England was a strong, united nation under a popular monarch,
nationalism.
4. The Golden age of literature dawned with William Shakespeare. English had a thirst for
adventure & curiosity.
5. England and Spain finally signed a peace treaty in 1604.

III. England on the Eve of an Empire

1. Population was growing when economic depression hit the woolen trade and thousands
of farmers left.
2. Laws of primogeniture- Only the eldest sons were eligible to inherit estates.
3. In the early 1600s Joint Stock Companies let investors pool money and share
losses/profits.
4. New Enclosure policies (which means fencing in land) meant that there was less or no
land left over for the poor.
IV. England Plants the Jamestown Seedling
1. Virginia Company got a charter from King James I; they wanted gold and passages to
the Indies.
Stock holders wanted to form the company, get profit and then quickly sell it.
2. The charter of the Virginia Company was a significant document in American history
and guaranteed overseas settlers the same rights of Englishmen in Britain.
3. Settlers arrived on May 24, 1607 to Jamestown. It was an unhealthy and mosquito
infested place.
There were about 100 men who disembarked and 40 additional colonists perished
on the voyage.
On the shore they died of disease, malnutrition and starvation. They were
gentlemen who didnt want to do any work. Problems a) swampy site poor
drinking water mosquitoes causing malaria and yellow fever. B) men wasted
time looking for gold. C) There were 0 women. D) The supply ship that was
supposed to come was wreaked in the Bahamas in 1609.
The colonists were saved from collapse by John Smith he said he who shall not
work, shall not eat.
V. Maryland: Catholic Haven

1.Maryland was founded in 1634 by Lord Baltimore for religious diversity- It was the second
plantation colony and fourth overall colony to be formed.

2.It was to be a place for persecuted Catholics to find refuge of safe haven. Lord Baltimore
gave huge estates to his catholic relatives.

However, the poor people who were needed to settle there were mostly Protestant,
creating friction.
3. Maryland prospered with tobacco sales like Virginia.
It depended on labor = White indentured servants. In later years of the 17th century.
Black slaves started to be imported.
4. Catholics of Maryland passed the Act of Toleration in 1649 which grated toleration to
all Christians. Gave the death penalty to those who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ,
(The Jews & Atheists) actually made the colonies less tolerant, but the catholic were
protected.
VI. The West Indies: Way Station to Mainland America
1. As the British were colonizing Virginia they were also colonizing the West Indies
colonies that weakening Spain was letting go- along with Jamaica in 1655.
2. Sugar formed West Indian economy.
Tobacco was poor mans crop. Sugar was rich mans crop.
The rich grew lots of sugar on brutal plantations. Only the wealthy owners could
succeed in sugar.
They brought in African slaves. of a million slaves were brought in 50 years time.
3. Blacks were more abundant than whites 4 to 1, even today the regions population is
predominantly black.
4. To control slaves the English made codes that defined slaves legal statues.
The Barbados slave code of 1611 denied most fundamental rights to slaves and
gave masters control. West Indies depended on America for foodstuffs.
At first Indians were intended to be used as slaves but disease killed about 90 %
of all natives.
A group of English settlers from the West Indies brought enslaved Africans and
the model of slave code. Carolina adapted one like it in 1690.
VII. Colonizing the Carolinas
1. In England, King Charles I, had been beheaded. There was a civil war in the 1640s. 2.
2. Oliver Cromwell ruled for 10 very strict years.
3. Englishmen restored Charles II to the throne in the restoration of 1660.
4. Carolina was named for Charles II.
The king granted land to court families who hoped to grow foodstuffs.
5. Carolina prospered by developing close economic ties with English West Indies. Many
settlers came from Barbados and established a slave trade in Carolina. Native Indians
were looked for to be slaves.
Lord Proprietors in London protested against Indian slave trading. Indian slaves
were sent to the West Indies to work. Others were sent to new England.
In 1707 Savannah Indians ended allegiance with Carolinas and migrated back to
Maryland and Pennsylvania where a Quaker colony promised better relations
between Indians and Whites. Carolinians killed a lot of them before they left
though.
Rice emerged as the principal export crop. Africans knew how to grow it, and had
a relative immunity to malaria which made them ideal laborers on hot and
swampy rice plantations.
6. In Charlestown Jews and others were attracted by religious tolerance despite violence
with Spanish and Indians. Carolinas were too strong to be wiped out.
VIII. The emergence of North Carolina
 Newcomers to North Carolina were called squatters. They were people from Virginia
and owned no land.
North Carolinians regarded them as riff-raff. They were also hospitable to pirates,
and they developed resistance to authority. They existed in graphical isolation.
North Carolina separated from South Carolina in 1712.
Aristocratic and wealthier people were down south around plantations. The strong willed
and independent minded lived up north. North Carolina and Rhode Island were the most
independent and least aristocratic.
7. They had bloody relations with Indians. Aided by south Carolinians they crushed the
Indians in Tuscarora War, where they sold hundreds into slavery. South Carolina also
defeated Yamasee Indians. Virtually all Indian southern tribes had been devastated by
1720.
IX. Late-coming Georgia: The Buffer Colonies
1. Georgia- The last of 13 colonies was formed 126 years after the first colony and 52 years
after the 12th colony.
It was intended to be a buffer to protect the Carolinas from the in Spaniards in
Florida and buffer against French from Louisiana. They got money from the
British.
Georgia was named in honor of King George II. It was launched by
philanthropists made silk and wine, haven for wretched souls imprisoned for
debt, the founders wanted to keep slavery out of Georgia.
2. James Oglethorpe was the ablest of the founders and a dynamic soldier. He was a
statesman, repelled panish attacks and saved the charity colony by his energetic
leadership and by using his own fortune to help with the colony,.
3. Georgia was a melting pot community.
All Christian worshippers except Catholics enjoyed religious tolerance.
Many missionaries arrived in Savannah to work among debtors and Indians, they
tried to convert them. John Westley was one of them who later returned to
England and founded the Methodist church.
4. Georgia grew very slowly it was the least populous. It had an unhealthy climate, slavery
restrictions and Spanish attacks.

X. The plantation colonies

1. Slavery was found in all the plantation colonies devoted to exporting commercial
agriculture products and profitable staple crops.
Growth of cities was often stunted by forests. Wide scattering of plantations and
rivers slowed the development of cities as well. Rivers drove settlers west.
2. All plantation colonies permitted some religious toleration.
In the south crops were tobacco and rice. In south Carolina there was soil
butchery because of tobacco.
Chapter 3 Settling the Northern colonies 1619-1700

I. The Protestant Reformation Produces Puritanism

1. Martin Luther nailed his protests against Catholicism on the Wittenberg Cathedral in
1517.
Said that the bible only was Gods word and started Protestant Reformation.
2. John Calvin of Geneva believed in the Reformation so much he had ideas that affected
Americas future generations.
3. Calvinism was the main religion for New England.
Calvin wrote institutes of the Christian Religion (1536). It said God was good,
powerful and already predestines who was going to heaven (the elect) and hell
before they were born and said that humans were weak and evil.
4. Those who were sure to go had signs of conversion where god told them they were of
the elect and were then expected to live the life of a visible saint.
Calvinism swept through England in the 1530s where King Henry the 8th broke
the Roman Catholic Church.
5. The Puritans wanted to completely de-catholicize the church.
Devout Puritans thought that only visible saints belonged in the church but the
king let everyone in.
This mix angered a group called the separatists who broke away from the
church of England.
II. The Pilgrims end their Pilgrimage at Plymouth
1. They were unhappy and they wanted to move to a place where they could still keep
their English values.
They negotiated with the Virginia Company to get the Mayflower ship charter.
2. When reaching America the ship missed its mark and landed at Plymouth.
Fewer than half the people on the ship were separatists; before disembarking
41 adult males not including servants or seamen signed the Mayflower compact
a simple agreement to form a crude government and submit to the will of the
majority.
After the first winter (1620-1621) only 44/102 pilgrims survived. They werent
ready at all for it. The men who went considered themselves gentlemen and
didnt want to farm and make settlements. They were looking for gold.
In the autumn of 1621 they started to see improvements in harvest and
celebrated the first Thanksgiving.
Pilgrims were blessed with William Bradford who was elected governor 30 times
he was a great leader.
III. The Bay Colony Bible Commonwealth
1. In 1630 Massachusetts Bay colony was established by non-separating puritans, it soon
grew to be the largest and most influential of the colonies.
 2. The great migration started in 1630- 70000 refugees left England-not all of them were
puritans.
John Winthrop became Massachusetts 1st governor for 19 years.
The Puritan Bay colonists believed that they had a covenant with God, an
agreement to build a holy society that would be a model for all humankind.
IV. Building the Bay Colony
1. Nonbelievers as well as believers paid taxes for the government- this supported the
church.
A congregation had the right to hire and fire its ministers and set his
salary. Clergymen were also barred from holding formal political office.
They endorsed the idea of separating church and state. The freemen
annually elected the governor and his assistants and a representative
assembly called the General Court.
2. Winthrop didnt like democracy.
V. Trouble in the Bible Commonwealth
1. The Bay commonwealth enjoyed a high degree of social harmony.
The Quakers were persecuted with fines, floggings and banishment.
Antinomianism was the belief that the elect need not obey the laws of either
God or man; most notably promoted in the colonies by Anne Hutchinson.
She was banished and fled to Rhode Island, eventually killed by Indians.
2. Roger Williams, an extreme Separatist, was a popular Salem minister who also
challenged the Church. He was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
VI. The Rhode Island Sewer
1. Aided by friendly Indians, Roger Williams fled to Rhode Island in 1636. He built the first
Baptist church, and established complete freedom of religion even for Jews and
Catholics.
There were no taxes demanded for the church, no oaths had to be made for
religious beliefs.
2. Rhode Island became individualistic and stubbornly independent.
VII. New England Spreads Out
1. Hartford and Connecticut were founded in 1635.
2. In 1639 the settlers of the new Connecticut River colony drafted the Fundamental
orders.
3. 1638- New Haven was established in Connecticut, it was a community founded by
puritans.
In 1662 Charles II granted Connecticut a charter. In 1641, New Hampshire was
absorbed by the greedy Massachusetts Bay. The king took it back and made
New Hampshire a royal colony in 1679.
VIII. Puritans Versus Indians
1. Wampanoag Chieftain signed a treaty with the Plymouth Pilgrims and helped them
celebrate the first thanksgiving.
 2. Hostility arose between English settlers and Pequot tribe. The English and their
Narragansett Indian allies annihilated the Pequot tribe.
3. In 1675 King Philip, a Massasoit attacked colonist tribes, was defeated in 1676.
IX. Seeds of Colonial Unity and Independence
1. In 1643 four colonies banded together to form the New England Confederation.
2. During the English civil war there was armed conflict between the between royalists and
parliamentarians, resulting in the victory of pro-parliament forces and execution of
Charles I.
X. Andros Promotes the First American Revolution
1. Massachusetts suffered humiliation when the Dominion of New England was created by
royal authority. The leader of the Dominion was Lord Edmund Andros who was disliked
because of his harsh regulations. He was shipped back to England.
2. The glorious (bloodless) revolution occurred in England to dethrone king James II.
A period of salutary neglect where navigation laws were only weakly enforced-
started.
XI. Old Netherlands at New Netherlands
1. Netherlands revolted against Spain and got their independence in the late 16th century.
The 17th century was a golden age in Dutch history
2. The Dutch East India Company employed henry Hudson to search for riches.
3. The Dutch West India Company mostly raided other ships, most importantly bought
Manhattan Island for very little. New Amsterdam- later called New York was run by the
company. It attracted all kinds of people.
XII. Friction with English and Swedish Neighbors
1. New England wasnt happy about their Dutch neighbor growing.
2. Sweden also came into America to colonize in their golden years but their rule came to
an end when the Dutch sent a military dispatch over and New Sweden was absorbed by
new Netherlands.
XIII. Dutch Residues In New York
1. The English regarded the Dutch as invaders
Charles II granted the area to his brother the Duke of York, whom it was named
after.
They sent over troops to fight the Dutch and conquered the area. The
aristocratic atmosphere discouraged European immigrants from coming and
retarded the growth of the city.
The Dutch left many influences in New York such as street names, Santa Claus
and golf.
XIV. Penns Holy Experiment in Pennsylvania
1. The Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends were a group of dissenters who were
unconventional, they refused to sign oaths, or pay taxes to the Church of England.
They hated war and violence.
 2. William Penn was attracted to the Quaker faith; he was paid a monetary debt that was
owed to his father with a tract of land called Pennsylvania (Penns Woods).
It welcomed immigrants and it had fertile land.
XV. Quaker Pennsylvania and its Neighbors
1. He formally launched his colony in 1681; thousands of squatters lived here already.
Philadelphia- the city of brotherly love- was one of the best planned cities with
wide streets.
2. He had peaceful relations with Indians.
They went among each other without weapons and Quakers even used some as
babysitters.
Unfortunately non-Quakers who came on the Quaker land to settle provoked
bad feelings towards the Indians.
3. Pennsylvania had many liberal features such as, unrestricted immigration and paying
taxes for church was not mandatory.
Attracted a big mix of ethnicity.
4. Penn wasnt appreciated or liked because he was friends with King James II
5. Delaware and New Jersey also formed next to Pennsylvania.
XVI. The Middle Way in the Middle Colonies
1. The middle colonies- New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania- had fertile
soil, rivers and forests.
2. They were intermediate in size, held a higher degree of toleration, and had an
ethnically mixed group of people.
3. Benjamin Franklin, born in Boston, entered Philadelphia as a seventeen-year-old in
1720 and loved it.

Chapter 4 American Life in the Seventeenth Century

I. The Unhealthy Chesapeake

1. Malaria, dysentery and Typhoid took a cruel toll on the Chesapeake settlers, cutting ten
years off the life expectancy of newcomers from England.
The Great Majority of immigrants were single men in their late teens.
Most died after arrival.
Surviving males competed for the attentions of the extremely scarce women
which outnumbered them 6:1.
2. Yet despite hardships, the Chesapeake colonies struggled on.
The native-born in habitants eventually acquired immunity to killer diseases.
The presence of more women allowed more families to form.
II. The Tobacco Economy
1. The Chesapeake was hospitable to tobacco cultivation.
Relentless seeking of fresh fields to plant tobacco made settlers plunge even
father up river valleys provoking Indian attacks.
 1.5 million pounds of tobacco came out of the Chesapeake Bay.
2. Indentured servants were willing to be slaves for a couple years in order for someone to
pay their transatlantic trip.
At the end theyd receive their freedom dues which included food, some tools
and a small parcel of land.
3. Some states practiced the headright system which granted 50 acres of land to whoever
paid the passage of a labor to America.
Ravenous for labor and land the Chesapeake planters brought some 100,000
indentured servants to the region by 1700s.
As land became scarcer, permit less, poor, freed workers had to hire themselves
for pitiful wages back to their former masters.
III. Frustrated Freedmen and Bacons Rebellion
1. Virginias governor William Berkley had to deal with one thousands Virginians breaking
out of control in 1676.
The rioters were led by 29- year old Nathaniel Bacon.
They fiercely resented Berkleys friendly politics towards the Indians. Especially
when Berkley refused to retaliate against a series of brutal Indian attacks on
frontier settlements.
Bacon and his followers murdered the Indians, chased Berkley from Jamestown
and set fire to the capital.
Eventually Berkley hung 20 rebels and Bacon died of disease.
IV. Colonial Slavery
1. More than 7 million Africans were carried in Chains to the New World in the 3 centuries
following Columbuss landing.
In 1700 about 400,000 ended up in North America.
2. In 1680 the rising wages in England shrank the pool of penniless folk willing to gamble a
new life or an early death as an indentured servant in America.
3. In 1698 they Royal African Company lost its crown granted monopoly on carrying slaves
to the colonies.
Enterprising Americans, especially Rhode Islanders rushed in to cash in on the
lucrative slave trade and the supply of slaves rose steeply.
4. The captives, usually branded and bound, were herded aboard sweltering ships for the
tiresome middle passage.
Death rates ran as high as 20 percent.
Slaves were then sent to slave auctions in the new world ports, where a giant
slave market traded in human life and misery for a century.
5. Slave Codes made blacks and their children the property of their white masters for
life.
Some colonies made it a crime to teach a slave to read or write. Not even a
conversion to Christianity could qualify a slave for freedom.
V. Africans in America
 1. In the deepest south the climate was hostile to health and the labor was life-draining,
There were rice and indigo plantations in South Carolina with far distances in
between known for being lonely hells on earth.
Blacks in the tobacco-growing industry were somewhat better off because
tobacco was a less physically demanding crop.
2. Native born African Americans contributed to the growth of a stable and distinctive
slave culture- a mixture of African and American religion, speech and folkways.
Around South Carolina blacks evolved a unique language called Gullah (a mix of
English with African languages).
Some African words have even been passed into American speech- Goober
(peanut), gumbo (okra) and voodoo (witchcraft).
3. In 1712 there was a slave revolt where 21 were executed once the revolt was
controlled.
In 1739 there was another slave revolt where 50 blacks tried marching along to
Spanish Florida; they were stopped by the militia.
VI. Southern Society
1. The rich planters were at the top of society.
They had wealth, prestige and political power.
Beneath them were the small farmers who made up the largest social group.
Then came the ex-indentured slaves, then the people still serving out their
indenture.
The bottoms of the bottom were the black slaves and they slowly replaced the
indentured slaves.
2. Southern life revolved around the great plantations.
Waterways provided the principal means of transportation.
Roads were so wretched in bad weather that sometimes funeral parties
couldnt reach church burial grounds- an obstacle that accounted for
the development if family burial plots.
VII. The New England Family
1. Clean water and cool temperatures retarded the spread of killer microbes in the New
England area.
In contrast to the Chesapeake, New England settlers added ten years to their life spans
by migrating from the old world. The average life span was 70 years.
2. They also tended to migrate as families instead of lone men. So the population grew
more swiftly from natural reproduction.
Early marriage also encouraged the booming birthrates
A married woman could expect up to 10 pregnancies and rear as many as 8 surviving
children.
3. The fragility of Southern families advanced the economic security of the southern
women especially of womens property rights because southern men frequently died
young, leaving widows with small children to support.
 The southern colonies generally allowed married women to retain separate
properties and gave widows the right to inherit their husbands estates.
4. In the 17th century a rudimentary conception of womans rights as individuals was
beginning to appear.
Women still couldnt vote and popular attitude insisted that they were morally
weaker.
5. The laws of Puritan New England sought to defend the integrity of marriages. Divorce
was exceedingly rare and the authorities would order separated couples to reunite.
VIII. Life in the New England Towns
1. Proprietors were the sober-minded town fathers.
New towns were legally chartered by colonial authorities and the distribution of
land was entrusted to the laws of proprietors.
They would move themselves and their families to the designated place and lay
out their town.
The center usually consisted of a meetinghouse as a place of worship and a
townhall.
2. Towns of more than 50 families were required to provide elementary education. Half
the adults were literate.
In 1636- Harvard College was established in Massachusetts. And in 1693 the
William and Mary College in Virginia.
3. Puritans ran their church democratically and that lead to democratic government.
IX. The Half-way Covenant and the Salem Witch Trials
1. Jeremiad- Often fiery sermons lamenting the waning piety of parishioners.
2. There was a decline of conversions and in 1662 the half-way covenant was established.
It modified the covenant to admit baptism but not full communion of the
children of baptized but not yet converted existing members.
3. The half-way covenant weakened the distinction between the elect and others.
4. A group of adolescent girls in Salem, Massachusetts claimed to have been bewitched by
certain older women starting off The Salem Witch trials.
Lead to 19 individuals hanged, one pressed to death and two dogs killed.
The Trials ended in 1693 when the governor was alarmed by the accusations
against his wife. The term which hunting developed into a metaphor for the
dangerously irrational urge to find a scapegoat for social resentments
X. The New England way of Life
1. The Climate was uncomfortably hot is the summers and the winter was cruelly cold.
2. Rocky soil forced the new Englanders to work hard, be industrious and frugal.
They turned to the ports and fishing became the Gold mine of New England.
3. The Americans thought that the natives wasted land by not doing anything on it.
XI. The Early Settlers Days and Ways
1. Each member of the family did their jobs. Life was humble but comfortable and land
was cheap.
 Women, whether they were slaves or free or worked on southern plantations or
in the north had similar duties all over.
They wove, cooked, cleaned and cared for children.
The men cleared land, fenced planted and cropped it, cut firewood and
butchered livestock as needed.
The children helped with all these tasks while picking up as much schooling as
they could.
2. In New York the animosity between lordly landholders and aspiring merchants fueled
Leisters Rebellion from 1689-1691.