2. Colonists of the Chesapeake grudgingly accepted
callous rulers for a chance at independence.
Because tobacco plantations were so spread apart
along the rivers the Chesapeake only had two
towns: Jamestown and St. Mary’s City.
Colonists relied on counties for local government.
In theory, the colonists lived with four tiers of
political hierarchy:
King and Parliament
Governor, council, and assembly meeting
County court and parish vestry
Family household known as little
commonwealth
Men greatly outnumbered women which deprived
the Chesapeake colonies of little commonwealth.
3. English servants composed three-quarters of
the emigrants to the Chesapeake in the 17th
century.
Chesapeake emigrants were a subset of many
poor people moving around England in
search of food and work.
Many emigrants died due to the different
climate and intense labor of tobacco
cultivation.
Masters bought and sold contracts of servants
and some were used to pay gambling debts.
The courts almost always sided with masters
when there were accusations of denying food
or brutal punishments to the slaves by their
masters.
The colonists in the Chesapeake sacrificed
comfort and life expectancy for an improved
diet and a pride and autonomy of owning
land.
4. Tobacco prices plummeted in the 1660s and 1670s which led
the wealthy planters to ride out the hard times and buy land
while the lower class became more impoverished.
New regulations prohibiting the Dutch from the tobacco
trade hurt colonial planter by reducing shipments and
saturating the English market with tobacco.
Meanwhile, Governor William Berkeley and his cronies
monopolized the public offices and abused power.
Settlers moved further into the frontier to obtain land where they came
into conflict with the native Indians.
Berkeley denied the settlers requests to exterminate the
natives when Nathaniel Bacon ignored the governor’s
advice and launched attacks on the Indians.
In 1676, after being charged with treason, Bacon rallied
planters and servants and forced the governor and his
supporters out of Jamestown.
After investigating the planters uprising, the English
crown sent an army to denounce Berkeley and restore
order.
5. The leading Virginians dramatically lowered taxes
at the end of the 17th century which led to
improved morale among planters.
With a decline of indentured servants emigrating
Chesapeake planters turned to African slaves who
were a better investment.
Early in the 17th century some blacks were freed
and bought land and even married white women.
Later in the century Chesapeake officials enacted
new laws restricting blacks.
Masters became convinced only pain and fear
could motivate their African slaves.
Free blacks lost rights to bear arms, hold office,
vote, and employ white servants.
Common and great planters shared in the
psychology of race that held every white man
superior to every black.
6. In 1670 West Indian planters established a new
colony called Carolina to honor King Charles II.
Carolina officially belonged to eight English
aristocrats known as the Lords Proprietor.
Charles Town was founded at the mouth of the
Ashley River in 1670.
The Lords Proprietor offered incentives to English settlers of
late 17th century, most notably – religious toleration.
Carolina primarily attracted farmers and artisans of modest
means.
Male servants were able to acquire land once they were freed,
a prospect that was denied to them in England, the
Chesapeake, and Barbados.
7. Former West Indians known as the Goose Creek Men dominated the
assembly and council of Carolina.
In 1702 the Goose Creek Men barred non-Anglicans from political
office and establish the Church of England as the colony’s official,
tax-supported church.
The Carolina elite, displeased with the Lords Proprietor, convinced
the crown to buy out seven of the eight lords.
The transfer consolidated the political power of the planter elite.
Native Indians relied on the gun trade and
even raided other Indians for captives to sell
as slaves.
Carolina traders sought deerskins in exchange
for their cloth, knives, rum, and guns.
Indians depended on trade and killed double
the amount of deer following the advent of trade.
8. The colonists favored the more powerful Indian tribes
which put the weaker ones in jeopardy of raids.
The Carolinians justified the enslavement of Indians
as beneficial by sparing them execution and exposing
them to Christian civilization.
In the early 18th century an army of Carolinians and
allied Indians raided and destroyed most of the
villages and missions of the of the Apalachee and
Timucua Indians.
The Yamasee came to regret their alliance with Carolina and
rebelled with help from Catawba and
Lower Creek Indians.
The rebels ran low on guns and gun-
powder and eventually had to make
peace with Carolina.
The Carolina Indians dwindled from a
combination of disease, rum consumption,
and slave raiding.
9. With the help of slave labor, the cultivation of
rice thrived and became the empire’s great rice
colony.
Suffering from a fear that the African slaves
would rise in rebellion, planters resorted to
harsh punishments and intimidation.
After a rebellion in 1739, the planters thought
of themselves as the innocent victims of
vicious blacks.
In the late 1720s Carolina officials and British
imperialists founded the colony of Georgia.
Georgia was the first and only British colony
to reject the slave system.
Until they could own slaves, the white
Georgians considered themselves unfree.
In 1751 the trustees reversed their decision
and permitted slavery.
