APUSH (Unit 1, #4) Date _____________ Pd ____
17th Century English Colonies: Opportunity and Oppression in Colonial Society
I. Colonial Society in the 17th Century
A. New England 1. NE was more stable than other colonies due to families, access to marriage, longer life expectancy 2. Education was valued in NE: led to high literacy rate & Harvard (1638) 3. “Golden Age” for NE women? Important contributions but controlled no property 4. Social Hierarchy in New England: gentry, yeoman farmers, laborers/poor B. The Chesapeake 1. “Normal” family life was impossible in Virginia due to scarcity of women/families & high death rate 2. Women in Chesapeake Society had bargaining power but were vulnerable 3. Social Hierarchy in Chesapeake: plantation gentry, yeoman farmers, indentured servants, slaves 4. Social mobility was very limited due to emergence of American-born plantation aristocracy C. African Slaves 1. Slaves imported due to a “need” for labor 2. Originally Africans were treated as indentured servants; But by 1700, slavery was a racial norm 3. By 1720, the American slave population became self-sustaining 4. Resistance by the 18th Century such as the Stono Rebellion (1739), NYC riots (1741), & runaways
II. Colonial Economy in the 17th Century A. Diverse economies: Chesapeake/South (cash crops), Middle (shipping, professions), NE (subsistence, fish) B. Salutary neglect until 1650s meant the colonies were not state-funded or state-protected C. Charles II initiated mercantilism to increase royal profits from the colonies: 1. Navigation Acts of 1660 & 1663 restricted colonial trade 2. These acts created a Board of Trade & provided a stable trade partner which benefited colonists
III. Colonial Factions Spark Political Revolt, 1676-1691 A. In the late 17th Century,