American History

Q: How did the English colonies meet their incessant demand for labor from 1607 to the early 1700s? Be certain to explain the similarities and differences between indentured servitude and African/African-American slavery, the reasons colonists switched from servants to slaves, as well as the process of enslavement in Africa and the development of African American culture.

The Colonial Period

For the foreign visitor, the United States has always given the impression of being not a culture but a mixture of different cultures. In colonial times, this mixture of contrasting traditions was already taking shape. The narrow idealism of Massachusetts coexisted with a more tolerant of Rhode Island, the ethnic diversity of Pennsylvania agriculture and commercial practice in Virginia. Most settlers worked on small farms. In the southern colonies of Virginia, North Carolina dei and South Carolina, landowners created large snuff and rice plantations in the fertile river basins (Van Engen). These plantations were worked by blacks under the slave system (which had grown slowly since 1619) or free English that they agreed to work without pay for several years in exchange for their journey to America.

For 1770 had already been several small urban centers but in the process of expansion, and each of them had newspapers, shops, merchants and craftsmen. Philadelphia, with 28,000 inhabitants, was the largest city, followed by New York, Boston and Charleston. Unlike most other nations, America never had a feudal aristocracy (Cohen). In the colonial era, land was plentiful and labor scarce, and every free man had the opportunity to achieve, if not prosperity, at least economic independence.

All colonies shared the tradition of representative government (Edwards). The British monarch appointed many of the colonial governors, but they all should rule together with an elected assembly. The vote was restricted to white male landowners, but the majority of white men had property enough to vote (Nord). England could not exercise direct control over their American colonies. London was too far, and the colonists had a very independent spirit.

For 1733, the British had occupied 13 colonies along the Atlantic coast, from New Hampshire in the north to Georgia in the south. The French controlled Canada and Louisiana, which included the entire watershed of the Mississippi, a vast empire with few inhabitants. Between 1689 and 1815, France and Great Britain held several wars, and North America was involved in each (Hatfield). In 1756 France and England were engaged in the Seven Years War, known in America as the French and Indian War. The British Prime Minister William Pitt, soldiers and money invested in North America and won an empire. British forces took the Canadian strongholds of Louisbourg (1758), Quebec (1759) and Montreal (1760). The Peace of Paris, signed in 1763, Britain gave the rights to Canada and throughout North America east of the Mississippi River (Lippy).

 

Q: What steps did the English government use to establish meaningful control over its North American mainland colonies from 1650 to 1765?

Ans:

In 1606, King Jacques founded the company in Virginia to colonize the territories claimed by ...