Labor System in the colonies

• Tobacco cash crop economy in South created a demand for a reliable workforce

  • African slaves were too expensive, high mortality rates because of Middle Passage

  • Natives died too quickly on contact with whites because of disease

  • Whites couldn't work themselves because of the low birthrate

• Solution → indentured servants: poor whites from England who paid for transatlantic passage to the colonies in exchange for working 4-7 years under a master.

• masters also benefited from the headright system, which encouraged them to import indentured servants for 50 acres of land.

• Bacon's Rebellion: led by Nathaniel Bacon, disgruntled freed indentured servants were forced to move westward in search of work to no avail. Conflict w/ natives ensued no protection from Governor William Berkeley. Led to a SHIFT in labor from indentured servants to slavery.

• aided Royal African Company losing their monopoly on the slave trade. Middle passage continued to have high mortality rates. but not as high as before.

• harsh slave codes created distinctly different statuses for servants and slaves; slaves and children would be property for life. Not allowed to be educated, blatantly racist motives

Resistance and Religion

• Congregational Church: democratic Puritan churches without hierarchy characteristic of Anglican churches

• Waning religious zeal led to more lenient rules for church membership - more inclusive

• Jeremiad: a form of sermon that warned parishioners of their impending doom due to their loss of religious passion.

• Half-Way covenant: church gave partial membership rights to those who didn't consistently come to church. Soon, anyone could come to church, blurring lines between evervone and the "elect few "

• Salem Witch Trials: women accused of witchcraft were killed. Often came from families famous in Salem's growing market economy; accusers often associated with the poorer subsistence farmers shows widening wealth gap and fear that commercialism would eclipse religion in importance (women were the scapegoat).

• Leisler's Rebellion: conflict between aspiring merchants and New York elite. One of the many uprisings that occurred as some of the elite tried to replicate European hierarchy in the colonies-shows class tensions between rich and poor

A few things about the Northern way of life

• People came to the North as families, not just individuals

• MANY children (as many as 27) → North had a greater population over the South

• constantly changing weather allowed for a diversification of income (not just an agrarian society)