Chapter 4

Vocabulary:

• Subsistence farming• Triangular trade• Middle Passage• Diversity• Cash crop• Tidewater• Backcountry• Overseer

In the 1700s the population of rose dramatically. . .

Europeans:1700 = 250,000 1775 = 2.5 million

Africans:1700 = 28,0001775 = 500,000

Most lived in well organized towns

Farming = main economic activity

New England farms smaller than southern colonies

subsistence farming:Produced just

enough to meet the needs of their family

• Whole family worked on the farms: spinning yarn, preserving fruit, milking cows, fencing fields, sowing and harvesting crops, etc…

Small businesses: lumber mills, blacksmiths, shoemakers, furniture makers, gunsmiths, metal smiths, and printers

Shipbuilding

Fishing

Colonies trade with West Indies:Fish, grain, meat,

lumber – sugar, molasses, and fruit

Colonist used molasses to make rum. . .

Ship rum and manufactures goods to West Africa in return for enslaved Africans

Enslaves Africans shipped back to the West Indies (and eventually the colonies) to work on plantations

Middle Passage = shipping enslaved Africans to the West Indies

Equiano, an enslaved African, described the passage as such:

“I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such. . .[an odor] in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life. . .The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. . .The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror.”

4feet by 18 inchesCh6 2.25 ish describe journey Ch 10 .08 slave shipCh 12 1.40

Had more fertile soil and a milder climate than New England

Cultivated larger plots of land and produced bigger harvests

Grew cash crops, like wheat, that could be sold in markets both in the colonies and abroad

New York and Philadelphia (both important port cities) became the largest cities in the colonies

New Jersey and Pennsylvania = big industry

Iron mills (later steel production)

Commercial industries such as lumbering, mining, manufacturing

Most of the 100,000 Germans who came to colonial America settled

in Pennsylvania

Brought over European farming methods = successful

The German immigrants along with the Dutch, Swedes, and other non-English immigrants gave the Middle Colonies diversity ( or variety)not found in New England

With diversity comes tolerance!

Rich soil and warm climate = perfect for large cash crop farming

Because the Southern Colonies had a very successful agricultural industry they had no need to develop commerce and industry

(this separates them economically from the North)

Tobacco = cash crop of Maryland and VirginiaRequired a great deal of laborOriginally used indentured servants but when

they became scarce and expensive planters began using enslaved Africans

Large plantation owners become VERY wealthyRice = cash crop of South Carolina and

GeorgiaBecause harvesting rice was so labor intensive

planters relied on slave laborRice = more profitable than tobaccoSouth Carolina and Georgia had fastest

growing economies in the colonies

Most large Southern plantations were located in the Tidewater, or the region of flat low-lying plains along the sea coastPlantations were often located along rivers for

better shipping accessWest of the Tidewater lay the backcountry, a

region of hills and forest leading up to the Appalachian MountainsGrew corn and tobacco on smaller farmsRelied little on slave labor

(this will be important when we study the Civil War!)

Backcountry farmers out number plantation owners.

But. . .Plantation owners have

more wealth and influencePlantation owners

control the political and economic spheres of Southern colonial life

(this is important!)

Most enslaved Africans worked on plantations either working in the house or in the fields

Hired overseers, or field bosses, to keep the slaves working hard

Often used fear and violenceAll Southern Colonies had slave codes governing

the behavior and punishment of slavesCould not leave plantation without permissionCould not be taught to read and writeWhipped for minor offensesHung or burned for serious crimes--Resulted in a race based society

Families torn apart by slavery

Found strength in their African traditions

Developed a unique culture based on the languages, customs, and religions of the West African homelands mixed with the English way of life

Some enslaved Africans were able to learn a trade and buy their freedom

Not all colonists believed in slavery

Many Puritans and Quakers refused to own slaves

Began abolitionist movement

The debate over slavery would eventually be one of the main causes for a bloody civil war –North vs. South