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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?
I. Stable Societies: The New England Colonies
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 one’s grandchildren
• Average woman marrying in early twenties bore eight children
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
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 1700’s
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
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)
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)
C. Women’s 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
C. Women’s 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
II. “Life on the Edge”: Southern Plantation Societies
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 decade—lots of blended families
B. Family Life
• 70-85% of immigrants came as single indentured servants with many more men than women immigrating—so 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
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
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
III. The African-American Experience
A. Some Freedom before the 1670’s
• Approximately 12 million Africans brought to the Americas—most to the Caribbean
• Experience on board for African slaves
• Sullivan’s Island in Charleston Harbor = the African “Ellis Island”
A. Some Freedom (cont.)
• Gender imbalance 2:1 in favor of males
• Christian conversion = “benefit” for loss of freedom
• Status of African-Americans fluid until death rate drops
B. Escalation of Slavery after 1670’s
• 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
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
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)
IV. Social and Political Instability: 1675-1700
• Pressure on the land north and south
• Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)
• “Glorious Revolutions” in America (1688-1691)
--Massachusetts, New York and Maryland
• The Salem Witch Trials (1692)
-- “Spectral Evidence”