The document summarizes the economy and way of life in British North America, including the practice of mercantilism where colonies exported raw materials to Britain and imported British manufactured goods. It describes the triangular trade route that involved New England colonies trading rum to Britain for slaves from West Africa, who were then brought to the Caribbean and traded for sugar. The Middle Passage involved the forced transport of over 10 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, with high mortality rates. Slavery became the dominant labor system in the Southern colonies by the early 1700s. The Great Awakening religious revival movement undermined traditional authority and some Baptist preachers condemned slavery.

1. THE ECONOMY AND WAY OF LIFE
OF BRITISH NORTH AMERICA

2. Mercantilism
 Practice of selling more goods than buying
(export more than you import)
 Mercantilists believed each country must
have own raw materials.
 Mother country would buy goods from
colony, then turn and sell the colony the
manufactured goods.

3. Mercantilism
Pros Cons
 Be self sufficient
 Gave them a reliable
market to sell their goods
 Prevented colonists from
selling goods to other
countries
 If the colony did not produce
what mother country needed,
they didn’t get $$ (New
England)

4. Trans-Atlantic Trade
 Colonists could only buy English goods they wanted by selling
their goods to others
 NE would trade rum to Britain
 Britain trade rum toWest Africa for slaves
 Britain would then bring the enslaved Africans to Caribbean
and traded for sugar from NE
( other forms of triangular trade occurred)

5. Triangular trade

6. The Middle Passage
 Known as the journey
enslaved Africans took
across the Atlantic
 10-12 million were
transported
 Approx. 2 million died
on voyage
 “At last, when the ship we were in
had got in all her cargo,…we were
all put under deck…The closeness
of the place, and heat of the
climate, added to the number in
the ship, which was so crowded
that each had scarcely room to
turn himself, almost suffocated
us…[This] brought on a sickness
among the slaves, of which many
died…The shrieks of the women,
and the groans of the dying,
rendered the whole a scene of
horror almost inconceivable…”
 Olauda Equiano

7. Middle Passage

8. African Americans
 8-10 million reached America
 3.5m to Brazil
 1.5m to Spanish colonies
 4m to Carribean islands
 500k to N America

9. Culture
 Some first Africans got
freedom by becoming
Christian
 New laws in 1660s inVA and
MD lowered status of
Africans regardless of
religion
 1705 –VA slave codes
defines boundary between
whites and slaves (very
strict)

10. Culture
Could not
 Own land
 Testify against whites
 Meet in large #s
 By early 1700s slavery
became accepted , esp in
Southern colonies
 Africans played a vital role
in growth of plantation
economy

11. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
 Grew up modestly
 Loved to read and
write
 Moved to Phila, PA and
became successful
writer, printer,
scientist, philosopher.
 Age 42- retired and
became public servant

12. Franklin
 Diplomat during Revolution- helped get
French help
 Seen as symbol in social mobility because of
hard work, developing foundation of
American values and spirit
 One of the most influential Americans in
history

13. Great Awakening
 Many colonists
embraced pietism and
a union with God
 Revivals were held
throughout colonies
 Jonathan Edwards help
launch GA, very fiery
minister, George
Whitefield another
minister

14. Great Awakening
 Peaked around 1740
 Caused many churches to split (Old and New
Lights)
 Baptists in South welcomed Africans to
revivals and condemned slavery
 Attempts to break up meetings happened,
but still 1000s of slaves became Baptists
 The G.A. undermined allegiance to traditional
authority