1. Culture, Conflict, and Economic Growth
18th Century America
Culture, Conflict, and Economic Growth

2. SLAVERY AND EMPIRE Atlantic Trade Africa and the Slave Trade
A series of trade routes crisscrossed the Atlantic.
Colonial merchants profited from the slave trade.
Slavery became connected with the color black, and liberty with the color white.
Africa and the Slave Trade
With the exception of the king of Benin, most African rulers took part in the slave trade.
The slave trade was concentrated in western Africa, greatly disrupting its society and economy.

3. SLAVERY AND EMPIRE The Middle Passage
The Middle Passage was the voyage across the Atlantic for slaves.
Slaves were crammed aboard ships for maximum profit.
Slave traders took the vast majority of slaves to Brazil and to the West Indies, where death rates were high.
Less than 5 percent of African slaves went to what became the United States, but the slave population there increased steadily through natural reproduction.

4. SLAVERY AND EMPIRE Chesapeake Slavery
Three distinct slave systems were well entrenched in Britain's mainland colonies:
Tobacco-based plantation slavery in the Chesapeake
Rice-based plantation slavery in South Carolina and Georgia
Non-plantation societies of New England and the Middle Colonies
Slavery transformed Chesapeake society into an elaborate hierarchy of degrees of freedom:
Large planters
Yeomen farmers
Indentured servants and tenant farmers
Slaves
With the consolidation of a slave society, planters enacted laws to protect their power over the slaves.

5. SLAVERY AND EMPIRE The Rice Kingdom The Georgia Experiment
South Carolinian and Georgian slavery rested on rice.
Rice and indigo required large-scale cultivation (which was done by slaves).
Under the task system, individual slaves did daily jobs, the completion of which allowed time for leisure or cultivation of their own crops.
By 1770, the number of South Carolina slaves had reached 100,000-well over half the colony's population.
The Georgia Experiment
Georgia was established by a group of philanthropists led by James Oglethorpe in 1733.
Oglethorpe had banned liquor and slaves, but the settlers demanded their right of self-government and repealed the bans by the early 1750s.

6. SLAVERY AND EMPIRE Slavery in the North
Since the economics of New England and the Middle Colonies were based on small farms, slavery was far less important.
Given that slaves were few and posed no threat to the white majority, laws were less harsh than in the South.
Slaves did represent a sizable percentage of urban laborers, particularly in New York and in Philadelphia.

7. Slave Cultures and Slave Resistance
Becoming African-American
The common link among Africans in America was not kinship, language, or even "race," but slavery itself.
For most of the eighteenth century, the majority of American slaves were African by birth.
African-American Cultures
In the Chesapeake, slaves learned English, participated in the Great Awakening, and were exposed to white culture.
In South Carolina and Georgia, two very different black societies emerged:
Communities on rice plantations retained significant African cultural elements (e.g., housing styles, child naming practices, language).
Slaves in the cities of Charleston and Savannah assimilated more quickly into Euro-American culture.
In the northern colonies, a distinctive African-American culture developed more slowly, and African-Americans enjoyed more access to the mainstream of life.

8. Slave Cultures and Slave Resistance
Resistance to Slavery
A common thread among African-Americans was the desire for freedom.
Many plantation slaves in South Carolina and Georgia ran away to Florida or to cities.
The first eighteenth-century slave uprising occurred in New York City in 1712.
The Stono Rebellion of 1739 in South Carolina led to the tightening of the slave code.
A panic in 1741 swept New York City after a series of fires broke out that were rumored to have been part of a slave conspiracy to attack whites.

9. VI. IMPERIAL RIVALRIES

10. Spanish America Texas Catholic Missions California Missions from 1690
Buffer against French settlement along Mississippi
River
Catholic Missions
Cornerstone of Spanish settlement in North America
California
Buffer to Russian settlement in Pacific Northwest
1768 – first permanent Spanish settlements

11. New Mexico Most Successful Spanish colony in North America
Conflict with Indians
1730s – Comanche becomes antagonistic tribe
Constant attacks on New Mexico in 18th century
Peace with Comanche
1786, peace treaty
Population explosion
Emergence of New Mexican culture

12. New France Mostly fur traders, still not many colonists
St. Lawrence River – Quebec City and Montreal
75,000 colonists
“Upper Country,” Great lakes region
growth of fur trade and relationships with Indians
growing tensions with England

13. French Louisiana Pierred Le Moyne D’Iberville
Founded New Orleans, 1718
Indian attacks and political corruption
Growth of African Slavery in New Orleans
Natchez Revolt, 1729
Indian attack near modern day Natchez, MS
African Slaves who fought in French militia are freed – growth of free black population in Louisiana

14. British North America Diverse and Fragmented Population growth
Natural Increase (especially New England)
Immigration
Frontier
Western PA, Southern frontiers, 1720s

16. Growth of Cities All major colonial cities were seaports
Philadelphia becomes most important city in British colonies by 1840s-1850s
Port of Philadelphia lets out into the Delaware River
Class structure emerges in larger cities

17. Enlightenment in America
The Enlightenment (c. 1650s-1780s)
Intellectual movement which stressed power of human reason and progress through understanding of laws which governed nature and science.

18. Benjamin Franklin ( )
Most famous American Enlightenment thinker
First American to become internationally famous
Known before Revolution as scientist and inventor
Printer, writer, politician, post master, firefighter, kite flyer, wit, public intellectual

20. Religion in British America
The First Great Awakening – series of religious revivals beginning in New England during the 1730s
Jonathan Edwards ( )
Led initial revivals in Northampton, MA
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” 1741
George Whitfield ( )
Preaching tour of America,
Extremely popular, toured NH to GA

21. Great Awakening Revivals crossed economic, ethnic, and racial lines
Women were active participants
Religious divisions
Congregationalists led revivals
Anglicans ignored them
Baptists and Methodists churches grew the fastest
One of the first events to effect all British Colonies.

22. Colonial Class Structure
Merchants
Shipping cash crops
Import trade
Crafts people
Blacksmiths, butchers, distillers, coopers,
candlestick makers
Free and bound labor
Stevedores, farmers, skilled slaves

23. Imperial System before 1760
English Government
Widespread corruption
Increasing centralized power of monarchy
Run by nobles and upper classes, aristocratic
Colonial Government
Royal governor appointed by crown
Bicameral legislatures – lower house elected (House of Burgesses)
Governor could veto laws, but only legislature could levy taxes

24. Anglo American Culture
Unique culture began developing during first half of 18th century
Colonies stilled identified themselves as Englishmen and part of the British Empire
Coming conflicts would reveal how fragile the relationship between England and North America had become.