EARLY AMERICAN RELATIONSHIPS 4-2.4

Who Was All in America?  The Native Americans  The Africans  The Europeans  The French  The British

What Was the Relationship? During the colonial period, there were a number of different relationships. Some of them were positive, but others resulted in conflict for various reasons.

The French and Native Americans Africans (Slaves) The British

The Native Americans and the French Initially, the French had a very good reputation with the Native Americans. The French worked with them, and partnered with them in their fur trading industry. This partnership helped to build long and lasting bonds.

Native Americans and the French Eventually, however, the British colonists began to want to expand into the French territories. Neither the French nor the Native Americans liked this, as in the French already did not have a good reputation with the British. Eventually, the expansion sparked the beginning of the Seven Years War, or as we call it, The French and Indian War.

The French and Indian War It was the goal of the French and the Native Americans in this war to limit the British Colonial expansion to the Appalachian Mountains. Despite their efforts, the French and the Native Americans lost the war. Much of their loss was out of the fact that they were outnumbered by the British, as not nearly as many settlers came over from France as came for the British. In the end, this loss started a long and downward spiral for the French colonial expansion in the Americas.

The French and Indian War In addition to the British having larger numbers on their side, several major Native American tribes helped the British to win. They were the Iroquois Confederation, the Catawba, and the Cherokees.

The British Colonists Aside from being enemies with the French in this day and age, the British also built up a reputation with the Africans, the slaves, that were brought over. As we have already discussed, some of the slaves had better owners than others. And in the North, slaves were sometimes allowed to work a second job to purchase their freedom. But ultimately, the slaves were considered to be their owners property. In short, the reputation that the British had with the Africans could be described as muddy.

The British Colonists Even though there were some “good” slave owners, not everyone was so nice. In many cases, there were owners that used fear and intimidation tactics to oppress the Africans. These tactics were meant to get the slaves to behave a certain way, or prevent them from acting another. But these tactics could only work for so long.

The British Colonists Eventually fear and intimidation tactics would fail, at least in many locations, and the slaves that were not treated as well would revolt. Furthermore, there was a fast growing population of African slaves in the colonies, and the land owners were beginning to fear larger uprisings. As a result, the Slave Codes were enacted. These codes severely limited the rights of slaves, including their rights to education, to what they could purchase, and even how they could behave.

Africans As a result, many African slaves rebelled, especially those who were oppressed. Many slaves devised tactics to get out of work, including feign illness, breaking their tools, and even running away from their captors. Throughout the colonies, there were a number of slave rebellions, but perhaps the largest of all of them was the Stono Rebellion.

Africans and Native Americans As the Africans escaped, many of them went north, but some went south. As slaves made it to the south, they were either accepted into a Native American tribe as if he/she was one of their own, or they were put back into slavery, as there were several Native American tribes who began to incorporate the practice of slavery.