Week 1:  Colonial Encounters  
 
1: Background to European Settlement  

1) Native Americans before Contact with Europeans

3) European Exploration and Settlements:  

2: American Diversity

New England

1) ‘Pilgrim’ settlers adopt Mayflower Compact and principle of majority governance before settlement of Plimoth Plantation (1620).

2) Collaboration with Indians and adoption of local crops and planting techniques enable farms to produce surplus harvests by 1830s.

3) Puritan experiment in “covenant theology”: effort to achieve “godly society” and “city on a hill” through rule by the “godly elect” chosen by adult male church members.

4) Puritan migration in family units; settlements centered in self-governing towns: 13,000 settlers by early 1640s.

5) Mortality far lower than Chesapeake; demographic stability by mid-17^th century.

6) Tensions escalate with non-church members; expulsion of dissenters such as Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams; founding of Rhode Island.

The Middle Colonies:

1) British-Dutch commercial rivalry in America; British fleet seizes New Amsterdam in 1664 but allows Dutch settlers to remain.

2) New York, a religiously and ethnically diverse colony, recognizes local governments and guarantees religious toleration.

3) Quakers, led by William Penn, settle Pennsylvania; Quaker pacifism and disregard of gender and class in church organization very unpopular in England; colony attracts settlers from across Europe.

4) Penn grants Charter of Liberties establishing a representative assembly in 1701.  

The Southern Colonies

1) Joint stock company settles Jamestown; “adventurers” seek quick economic gain; decimated by malaria and failure to plant crops. Lack of women prevents emergence of family-centered society.

2) Prevalence of “unfreedom”— ¾ of Chesapeake immigrants in 17^th century are indentured servants. Indenture relieves labor shortage and regularly injects freed individuals into the population.

3) High mortality rate and shortage of women impedes emergence of traditional patriarchal family and give women more freedom than in other colonies.

4) Conflict in Maryland between Catholic proprietary government and Protestant majority leads to decades of violence and instability.

5) Increased life expectancy, decline in indentured servitude and equalization of sex ratio supports patriarchal family structure by 18^th century.   

6) Expansion of free white population seeking land escalates bloody conflict with Indians (Bacon’s Rebellion). Slavery legally recognized by the second half of 17^th century.

7) Growth of large plantations stimulates demand for slave labor.

8) Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (1669) proposes idealized aristocratic order; instead colony becomes dependent on rice plantations and slave labor; 2/3 of population African slaves by 1730.

9) Oglethorpe’s social experiment to relocate Britain’s “sturdy beggars” fails; Georgia lifts ban on slavery (1750); proliferation of rice plantations and slave labor.

3: European Relations with Native Americans:

1) Trade and exchange of farming and fishing techniques, food, utensils and tools; Indians teach vital survival skills and trade relations develop.

2) Common European illnesses lead to virgin-soil epidemics; 50-95% of Indians (varying by region) die in first generations after European settlements.

3) Initial fascination with the ‘noble savage’ gives way to belief that Indians are heathens to be ‘civilized’ and Christianized. 

4) Increase in immigrants and those completing indentures leads to escalating conflict over Indian lands and hunting areas as frontier moves inland.

5) Violence breaks out across the colonies: Pequot War (1637), King Philip’s War (1675) and Bacon’s Rebellion (1676). Indian population in New England drops by 90% by 1675.

6) French and English form rival military alliances with Indian tribes.

7) France and Spain create missions to convert Indians across North and South America.

4: American Exceptionalism?  The Status and Role of Women and African Slavery  in Early America  

Women

1) Puritan family-centered society; Puritan child rearing rooted in belief in inherent sinfulness of children and the “breaking of the will”.

2) Puritan patriarchal authority tempered by importance of women in the economy; female literacy much higher than Europe; wife-beating outlawed in Massachusetts (1641)

3) Women 25% of indentured servants in early Chesapeake but early female autonomy declines as families stabilize;

4) Women largely confined to domestic world by 18^th century.

5) Quaker belief in divinely-inspired “inner light” supports notion of family as a union of equal partners; Quaker families, despite some gender hierarchy, egalitarian by 18^th century standards.

6) Women preach at Quaker meetings and achieve higher status and limited public involvement.  

African Slavery in Early America 

1) African immigrants to the Americas outnumber European newcomers until late 18^th century: 5% go to British colonies in North America and 95% to South America and the Caribbean.

2) Ambiguous status of first blacks in North America: some blacks initially treated much like white servants but freedom and indenture give way to indenture for life and slavery (including heirs).

3) Emergence of laws defining inferior legal status and harsher punishment based on color and race; slave codes appear by early 18^th century.

4) Quakers first to endorse abolition of slavery

5) Southern staple crops (rice and indigo) promote sharp increases in the importation of slaves; early black majority in South Carolina.

6) 250,000 Africans in British American colonies by 1760: about 20% in New England and Middle Atlantic and great majority in South.

7) African cultures and folkways survive transplantation to America; widespread conversions blend Christianity with African religious traditions.  

8) African cultural components transmuted and fused to European elements; powerful reciprocal influence (especially in language).  

9) The Stono Rebellion (1739) and the New York slave conspiracy hysteria (1741) reveal increasing racial tensions.