Life in the Colonies

The English, Spanish, Dutch, French, Swedish, German, Irish and Scotch colonists encountered a number of Nations already living on the American Continent. Reactions of the Indians to the Europeans and visa versa varied from fear and anger to curiosity and friendly cooperation. Early contact with American Indians by traders and adventurers proved to be of great value to the pilgrims. Indians taught the pilgrims how to survive their first New England winter.

Superstitions of various kinds came to America early. Columbus' sailors didn't like sailing on Fridays and they blamed goblins for torn sails and snarled running gear. Finding knives crossed on a table was bad luck and so was spilling salt. Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were deadly serious about their superstitions especially when it came to demons, devils, wizards and witches. In 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts they publicly hanged 14 women and 5 men for witchcraft on the testimony of 5 adolescent girls. Settlers were also superstitious about colors. Red for sin; green for fertility, etc.

The first shipment of tobacco from VA to England was sent by John Rolf in 1613. As demands for workers on the tobacco plantations increased more people sold themselves into temporary bondage to pay for passage to America. Bound to serve from 3-7 years they were often auctioned off to the highest bidder. Indentured servants had few rights and runaways were treated harshly. By 1625 40 percent of the people in Virginia, excluding Indians, were indentured servants.

Pennsylvania was the most cosmopolitan of the colonies, open to all religions. Pennsylvania assimilated religious groups rejected by the other colonies. The Germans had strong feelings about the separation of Church and State and many of them settled in PA. German farmers familiar with fertilization, produced high yields exporting their surplus crops to the southern colonies and the West Indies.

Many English people came to America unwillingly as punishment for crimes.

All able bodied men of the colonies were expected to take up arms when danger threatened. Soldiers in the militia were responsible for providing their own weapons, horses, and clothing.

Many immigrants in the Chesapeake colonies [Maryland and Virginia] died before age 40. Many children of the 17th century were orphaned before age 11. Boys inherited land, girls inherited personal property.

Many were indentured servants, contracted to work for someone else for several years in exchange for passage to America.

Immigrant women of the Chesapeake found gender roles more ambiguous than women of other colonial regions.

Chesapeake society was a male world. Six men to one woman early on and 3 to one by 1680. The reason was the region's obsession with tobacco. Between 1630-1680 1/2 to 3/4 of the 75,000 indentured servants transported to the region were young males, ideal farm labor.

Most immigrant women were not legally free to marry until their mid to late 20's because of their terms of indenture. From there on their lives were consumed by childbirth, field and household labor and usually an early death. Difficult field work and disease produced a demographic disaster. 25 percent of all indentured servants died before their terms expired. 1/4 of all children who survived birth died in their first year. 40-50 percent of all white children born in the Chesapeake region died before age 20. The Anglo-Chesapeake population couldn't even reproduce itself through the 1690's. The problems of early death were so great that Maryland and Virginia both supported orphan's courts to oversee the care and placement of parentless minors.

Women were pregnant every 2 years until they died or until menopause. Colonists born in the Chesapeake settlements [rather than immigrants to the region] married as soon as physical maturation permitted - age 16 and 17. They usually married older men and became mothers almost immediately. Pre-bridal pregnancy ran 20 percent. Marrying earlier, they birthed 9 - 11 children.

New Englanders were practical, resourceful pioneers. Puritan culture left behind an introspection that Chesapeake settlers lacked. New Englanders left meticulous records.

New England offered little opportunity for large-scale farming or a cash crop speculation.

In New England being a servant sped women's and men's entrance into marriage. Average age for females was 23, servants 20. They gave birth to an average of 7 children.

Those who survived to adulthood lived longer than survivors of the tobacco colonies.

17th Century New England Society replicated the patriarchal family structure of Old England.

This region includes what became Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware and was made up of Quakers, Swedes, Dutch and Germans.

The middle colonies were the breadbasket of the British Empire with their grain economy.

In Ireland in 1690, William of Orange defeated James II and Ireland's fortune took a turn for the worse. Irish Catholics were subjected to penal law denying their right to buy land, to educate their children, to bear arms or to vote. Scotch Irish Presbyterians were also subject to religious discrimination although not as severe as that against Catholics. These conditions prompted a large migration of Irish people to America during the 18th Century as freemen and as indentured servants.

In much of colonial America the independent, self sufficient, hard working Americans didn't have much use for royalty.

By the beginning of the 18th Century the complexion of the plantation worker in America was changing from white indentured servant to black slave. For the next 150 years millions of Africans would be forcibly removed from Africa and brought to America. They came from the west coast of Africa and villages in the interior. West Africa had entered the Iron Age well ahead of northern Europe.

Some of the first Africans in North America were brought to the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina.

Much of the weather of New England came from the sea. Massachusetts was the ship building center and by the end of the colonial period, 1/3 of all Britain's merchant ships had been built in America. American ships and seamen were among the best in the world. Boston and Salem were the merchant centers. Gloucester and Cape Anne was the fishing center. Rhode Island was the slaving center. Newburry Port was the sugar and rum center and southern Massachusetts was the whaling center.

The American colonists viewed the presence of British troops in America with favor as long as the threat of French or Indian attack remained. After the French and Indian Wars, Americans saw no need of continued British military presence. From the British point of view, the need was increasing. There was no organized government west of the Alleganies and there was a need for the Americans to share in the increased cost of governing the colonies. The British closed the west to settlement, levied taxes and duties, enforced the collection of these taxes and stationed troops in New York and Boston. The presence of these troops was distasteful to the Americans who were more interested in freedom than gaining independence from England.

Tension between British soldiers and Boston civilians increased. An incident in which some little boys threw snowballs at a sentry, escalated into an angry mob. British troops fired on the citizens killing three and wounding eight. After the Boston Massacre, which the incident was called, British troops were confined to quarters on Castle Island.

The Tea Act of 1773 made it impossible for the British East India Co. to sell its tea in America at prices well below those of American tea merchants, added fuel to the fire. Angry colonists threw the British East India tea into Boston Harbor and similar tea parties took place up and down the coast.

In September of 1781, while the French fleet held off the British fleet, General Washington closed in on the British troops at Yorktown. With his supplies cut off and escape by sea impossible, Cornwallis surrendered.

The war ended with the Treaty of Paris on April 19, 1783.

In the years between the Revolution and the War of 1812 a number of battles were fought in the Northwest Territory between the US and the Indians.

Many Americans were convinced the British were supporting the Indian resistance and found British guns on the battlefield after the Battle of Tippaconoe. They began openly advocating driving the British from Canada. Britain and France continued to wage war against each other and the US was profiting as American ships carried goods to both countries. Then both the British and French set up blockades and the profits ceased. Tensions increased when British ships began stopping American ships on the seas searching for British deserters. These tensions and the desire for territorial expansion on the part of southerners and westerners led to war against Britain on June 18, 1812.

The land war went poorly for the US. In 1812 US forces invaded Canada. Canadian forces drove the Americans back. The war at sea was one sided. The British Navy had nearly 1000 fighting ships. The American Navy had 17.

The French and Indian war diminished Indian power in the Northeast, the final stand against white encroachment was made when Chief Tecumseh joined with the British. The presence of the British fleet in the Chesapeake Bay aroused the people in Philadelphia. Local citizens volunteered to fortify the city.

After Napoleon's defeat in 1814 the British sent 18,000 troops to Canada ending American hopes of conquest there. Dec. 24, 1814 Britain signed the peace treaty in Belgium.

The greatest battle of the war took place at New Orleans 15 days after the peace treaty was signed. Britain invaded New Orleans with an army of 8,000 men and encountered Andrew Jackson and his army of sharp shooters from Kentucky and Tennessee. The British lost 2,000 men; Jackson lost thirteen.

The War of 1812 was filled with irony. One of the major causes of the war, interference with American shipping, was created by the British orders and council. These orders were repealed in England 2 days before the US declared war, but news didn't reach American until after the war had begun. When the war ended, both sides claimed victory and all land captured by either side was given up. The war did stimulate a rapid increase in American manufacturing and helped solidify a strong national feeling. With colonialism and two wars with Britain behind her, the new nation was ready to challenge the West.

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