AP US History Colonial Times Notes

9/7/12

I.               Three Themes of the Colonial Period

A.             Intermingling of Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans

1.             Violent conflicts between whites and indigenous people

a)             Native Americans did not believe in ownership of land, which the whites did

2.             Spread of European diseases to Native Americans

3.             Traffic in American Slave Trade and development of slave labor

a)             African tribe leaders sold their members into slavery (often tricked into doing so)

4.             Africans and Native Americans were important in creating colonial society

a)             Customs, traditions, food

B.             Political and Religious institutions and values

1.             Roots of representative government and how they turned into true political institutions

2.             What is Democracy?

a)             Government run by the people for the people

b)             Fair elections

c)             Civil liberties

d)             Equality of opportunity (on paper, but not really true in practice)

3.             Foundations of religious freedom

a)             Freedom, not just toleration

C.            Economic Development- through agriculture and commerce

Why did people come to America? Gold, G-d, and glory.  There were also indentured servants, who sold themselves to someone who would pay for their passage to the New World and in exchange the indentured servant agreed to work for the person (usually to learn a trade) until the debt was paid off (usually 7 years).  Afterwards, the sponsor was supposed to give the servant tools to start on his own, and if the servant was a woman, the sponsor was supposed to find her a husband.

9/11/12

II.              English Colonies

A.             Puritans (North- Massachusetts)

1.             Unhappy in England

a)             King was constantly changing national religion à unhappy Puritans

(1)           Those who were not part of the national religion did not get good economic opportunities

2.             Mayflower à Massachusetts (not Virginia, which was where they intended to go)

a)             Massachusetts was not under any European jurisdiction à Mayflower Compact

b)             Mayflower Compact

(1)           Considered the first democratic constitution of the new world

(a)           At the time, this was extraordinarily Democratic, because it gave power to the people

(b)           However, only the Puritanical white men had power, and not women, blacks, or non-Puritans

(2)           Created a government for the new colony (though they were still loyal to the king)

3.             Puritan Values (handout) and beliefs

a)             Men were responsible for themselves and their neighbors

b)             Success corresponded to moral superiority

c)             The Bible is the codification of religious authority and Law

d)             The Puritans were a chosen people who G-d brought to a promised land

e)             Man was born bad

f)               Court

(1)           Theocracy

(a)           Religious sins were brought to court for decision (but could be paid off)

(b)           Stealing was not as bad as other sins (premarital sex, profaning the Sabbath)

(2)           Men made the decisions, not women

(3)           Didn’t care about the Native Americans

(4)           Blacks were not given the option to pay off their sins

g)             Did well economically- no matter what you do it is good work, because even the lowest jobs are G-d’s work

h)             Man is born bad, and struggles to be good

4.             Witchcraft

a)             The Puritans believed that life was a struggle between good and evil, G-d and the devil (like Calvinism, which Puritanism stemmed from)

b)             Believed that the devil could get into anyone’s body, and use that body to do bad work

c)             Claimed witches were generally female, old, widows, poor à more vulnerable

d)             Witch claims began in small neighborhoods because of conflicts between neighbors

(1)           It was an easy way to get rid of someone you didn’t like

(2)           Became an easy accusation, so it was hard to determine who was telling the truth and who wasn’t

e)             Salem Jan 1692 - May 1693

(1)           Many convictions, hangings, and confessions of witchcraft

(2)           Once they started going after big members of the community, they realized the whole witch thing had gone too far

5.             Roger Williams

a)             Believed in separation of Church and State (very radical notion at the time)

b)             à He was kicked out of Massachusetts and founded Rhode Island, which granted religious freedom to everyone

6.             Ann Hutchinson

a)             Also spoke out against the Puritans

b)             She suggested that women could think and have an opinion (very radical at the time)

c)             She was asked to leave and was partially responsible for the founding of Connecticut and New Hampshire.

B.             Pennsylvania (middle colony)

1.             Founded as a refuge for the Quakers

a)             Quakers believed that everyone has an inner light, and that inner light allows you to communicate directly with G-d, and therefore you did not need a minister to communicate with G-d

2.             Pacifists

3.             Did not believe in showing deference (respect) to those who considered themselves to be superior

4.             William Penn got the land from Charles II in payment of a debt owed to Penn’s father

a)             Penn advertised his colony and guaranteed a representative assembly and full religious freedom.  Also, the land was very fertile, which attracted settlers

C.            Virginia (Chesapeake colony)

1.             Roanoke

a)             First English attempt at colonization in the New World

b)             Ships left the colony to go back to England for supplies, and when they returned to the colony absolutely nothing was there

(1)           The word “Croatan” was found carved into a tree trunk, but no one knows what this means

(2)           Theories

(a)           Indian raid

(b)           Pestilence

(c)           However, we still do not know what happened

2.             Jamestown

a)             Not successful at first

(1)           Many settlers came to find gold, and were not interested in building a colony for the long term

b)             Starving time à John Smith took over

(1)           People realized that they had to pitch in and help to eat

c)             John Rolfe

(1)           Discovered that tobacco would grow well in Virginia

(2)           à Tobacco became the cash crop in Virginia and saved the colony, which then began to thrive

3.             Bacon’s Rebellion

a)             Berkley was a corrupt politician in Virginia who was accused of running the colony to benefit himself and his friends

b)             Nathaniel Bacon was against Berkley, they and an argument, and Bacon burned down Jamestown, and many of the rebels were hanged

4.             By the end of the 17^th c. the Chesapeake colonies began to stabilize

5.             House of Burgesses- the first representative assembly in the English colonies

6.             Headright system- settlers were given grants of land for themselves and each member of their family to populate the colony and promote cultivation.  Encouraged settlers to come here permanently and with their families

D.            Southern colonies

1.             Social classes

a)             Upper class- Planters (planted tobacco, cotton, rice, indigo)

b)             Middle class- Farmers (planted food produce for personal consumption) and some shopkeepers

c)             Lower class- black slaves

(1)           By the start of the 18^th century, there were more blacks in South Carolina than whites

2.             Georgia

a)             Founded as a buffer colony between South Carolina and Spanish Florida and also as a penal colony

b)             Initially, not many people came, but as the colony prospered, more people came and settled

E.             Back in England…

1.             Mercantilism

a)             There is a fixed amount of wealth, so one country’s gain is another’s loss

(1)           à fight for colonies, because colonies were wealth

b)             Export more than import

2.             Navigation Acts (British attempt to keep control of the colonies)

a)             Trade with the colonies was the be carried on only in ships made in Britain (there was shipbuilding competition between England and Holland) or America, and 75% of the crew had to be British or American.

b)             Any goods going between the colonies and another country had to stop at another American or British port

c)             Results

(1)           Hurt Holland because the colonies could no  longer buy ships from Holland, whose big industry was shipbuilding

(2)           Helped New England because shipbuilding became a big new industry there

(3)           Southern colonies suffered because stopping at more ports slowed the shipping process, and so the tobacco was on the ships longer, and since it was a plant, it would die, and therefore wouldn’t sell well

F.             Black slavery

1.             Everyone who came to American came free for new opportunities, except for the blacks, who were sold into slavery and coming to America

2.             (Document packet)

G.            Differences between the north and the south began with the colonies

1.             Northern colonies

a)             Generally stable

b)             Small farms, merchants, water industry

c)             Did not have slavery because it was not worth it economically

2.             Southern colonies

a)             Started off unstable

b)             Men outnumbered women

c)             As they stabilized, the southern colonies developed a society with an elite- white rich men.  The middle class was very small, and at the bottom were black slaves

9/20/12

III.             Halfway covenant (in the Puritan church)

A.             By the end of the 17^th c., people were pulling away from religion (when times are good, people usually pull away from religion)

1.             Ministers were nervous because they got paid when people went to church, and if people weren’t going to church they were not getting money

B.             Halfway Covenant

1.             If your parents were members of the church, you could be a member even if you did not profess all the sacraments

2.             Two sides

a)             Many ministers were opposed to the covenant and were angry about it because they felt that people can’t be only partially religious

b)             Supporters believed that partial religion and being entered into the church could lead to full religious involvement

3.             Worked sporadically, but did not have the desired effects

IV.            Enlightenment

A.             Rationalism

1.             Anything could be solved logically

2.             Contradicted the Church

B.             John Locke

1.             Enlightenment philosopher that affected the colonists the most

2.             Government is necessary, but the government is responsible to the people, and if the government abuses that power, the people have the right to overthrow the government (even an absolute monarch)

C.            Glorious Revolution

1.             Charles I was beheaded à  Cromwell, but the people realized they liked having a king à brought back Charles II

2.             Took James as king even though he was Catholic because he had two protestant daughters who were next in line to be king, but then he married a catholic and had a catholic son who became first in line for the throne à James abdicated and William and Mary came in to rule

3.             This fit in with Locke’s theory of the ability to overthrow a non-complying government.  It was actually put into practice that if a people do not like the government, they have the ability to overthrow it and create a new one

D.            Benjamin Franklin was considered the greatest American Enlightenment thinker

V.             Great Awakening

A.             Halfway Covenant did not work out well so the ministers had to come up with something new

1.             The ministers would be in various tents, and people would go from tent to tent hearing different ministers

2.             It was an attempt to democratize religion and encourage people into religion

3.             Blacks and women were welcome

4.             Encouraged prayer directly with G-d without a middleman (the church)

B.             Jonathan Edwards

1.             Sinners in the Hands of an Angry G-d

2.             Good speakers, drew people in

C.            Controversy

1.             Old Light ministers

a)             Unhappy with Great Awakening

b)             Don’t make religion user friendly- it should be based on faith and belief and not based on the fact that it’s easy

c)             Felt that religion was being watered down

2.             New Light ministers

a)             Supported the Great Awakening

b)             You have to change with the times

D.            Founded colleges to train the new ministers

1.             Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Kings College (Columbia)

VI.            King Philip’s War

A.             Immigration

1.             Immigration was democratic because there were no immigration restrictions, so anyone could come

2.             As immigrants came, they wanted more land, and took Native American lands

B.             Wampanoag Chief, called King Philip by the English, decided that he was going to unite several tribes to get rid of the whites

1.             Reasons

a)             Did not like being converted to Puritanism

b)             Immigrants were taking their land

2.             Wampanoag killed 2,000 settlers before he was killed

9/24/12

VII.          Social Democracy (2 sheets)

A.             Deals with peoples’ statuses within a community

B.             America does not have an aristocracy based on bloodline

1.             The aristocracy in America is based on wealth (and not blood)

2.             It does not matter how you were born here to achieve high social standing- the aristocracy is based on social mobility

C.            People from different countries and backgrounds were intermarrying and blending

D.            Religion

1.             There was no religion big and strong enough to dominate and make a state religion

2.             Policies were different for each colony

a)             The Rhode Island Charter- complete free religion

b)             Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges- toleration for all monotheists

c)             Maryland Toleration Act- toleration for all Christians

E.             Literature

1.             American authors began writing their own style, but many still followed European style and did not develop our own style until the 1830s

2.             Almanacs

3.             Newspapers

a)             Zenger Case

(1)           Zenger ran a newspaper and he published something about the governor

(2)           Put on trial, and the verdict was that if it’s true, it’s not libel

(3)           Freedom of speech, however, is not absolute

9/27/12

VIII.         French-Indian War

Culmination of a series of European wars that spilled over into America from 1689-1783

A.             King William’s War (America), War of the League of Augsburg (Europe) 1689-1697

1.             Colonial empire was mostly very little involved, except for some French allied Native Americans attacking some colonies

2.             Ended with a treaty that made no changes

B.             Queen Anne’s War (America), War of Spanish Succession (Europe) 1702-1713

1.             12 Years of sporadic fighting in America

2.             It was mainly the colonies (British) fighting between France and Spain over control of the New World

3.             Britain gained territory and trade rights

C.            King George’s War (America), War of Austrian Succession (Europe) 1739-1745

1.             This time the Americans played a major role

2.             Mainly France and England were doing to fighting

3.             Americans captured Louisburg (but the Americas didn’t have a real army, it was a militia)

a)             The British gave it back to the French in exchange for lands in India

D.            French and Indian War (America), Seven Years War (Europe) 1748-1760’s

1.             Land speculation (see if it is the next big thing, so buy it cheap, because when it becomes popular you sell it for a nice sum of money) in the Ohio region

2.             George Washington asked the French to leave the Ohio Region

3.            

4.             While the fighting was going on, Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan for an inter-colonial government called the Albany Plan of Union

a)             Franklin proposed that the colonists should join together to fight the French

b)             The issue was who is going to be in charge

c)             Each colony already had a bit of power with its colonial government and so they felt they would lose all their power

5.             Join or Die Picture suggested they could at some future, work together if they had to

6.             British won the war à Treaty of Paris

a)             Britain gained all of Canada from France

b)             Gained all the territory west of the Mississippi river and France lost all of its American holdings

10/11/12

IX.            “Degrees of Unfreedom” (sheet)

A.             Indentured servants

1.             Newcomers would sell themselves for a few years to work to pay for their passage to the New World

2.             Kids ages 5-10 and 10-15 had to work until they were 21

3.             Adults with children under 5 had to sell their children away

4.             Work was hard

5.             Many blacks started as indentured servants

B.             Black Slavery

1.             Origins of slavery- race or economics?

2.             Black slaves were brought to the New World unwillingly, and were sold into slavery for life

3.             They followed polytheistic African religions, but many were forced to convert

4.             Rules governing what slaves could and could not do

C.             

X.