📚Study Guide: Period 2: 1607-1754
Unit 2: Period 2 (1607–1754)
This period examines the maturation of British colonies in North America, the development of distinct regional economies and societies, the emergence of racialized slavery as a foundational labor system, and the increasing integration of the colonies into the British imperial economy through mercantilist policies. Between 1607 and 1754, the original precarious settlements evolved into thriving, diverse societies. The Chesapeake colonies of Virginia and Maryland developed tobacco-based plantation economies increasingly reliant on indentured servitude and later African slavery. New England, settled by Puritans and other religious dissenters, developed a society centered on town meetings, fishing, and small-scale farming. The Middle Colonies became the "breadbasket" of the colonies, known for ethnic and religious diversity. The southern colonies of the Carolinas and Georgia developed rice and indigo plantation economies that deepened dependence on enslaved labor. Simultaneously, Native American societies faced displacement and adaptation as European settlement expanded. The period also witnessed the rise of the transatlantic slave trade, the codification of racial slavery through slave codes, and the development of an Atlantic world connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas through commerce, migration, and forced labor. By 1754, the colonies were prosperous but also increasingly distinct from Britain in their economic interests and political expectations, setting the stage for imperial conflict.
Key Concepts
- Regional Colonial Development: The emergence of distinct colonial regions—New England (Puritanism, town meetings, mixed farming), Middle Colonies (diversity, grain production), Chesapeake (tobacco, Anglicanism), and Lower South (rice, indigo, slavery)—shaped by geography, motives for settlement, and labor systems.
- Transition from Indentured Servitude to Slavery: As tobacco and rice economies expanded, colonial elites shifted from indentured European servants to enslaved Africans, driven by Bacon's Rebellion (1676), declining servant availability, and the profitability of lifetime hereditary bondage.
- Racialization of Slavery: Virginia slave codes (1700s) legally defined slavery as a lifelong, hereditary status based on race, creating a rigid racial hierarchy that distinguished British colonial societies from other New World labor systems.
- Great Awakening: A religious revival (1730s–1740s) challenging established churches, promoting individual spiritual experience, and unintentionally undermining traditional authority while fostering ideas of equality that would later influence revolutionary thought.
- Salutary Neglect: British policy of loosely enforcing trade regulations, allowing colonial assemblies to gain power and colonial merchants to flourish through smuggling and extra-legal trade.
- Colonial Assemblies: Elected legislative bodies that increasingly asserted control over taxation and governance, laying groundwork for colonial claims of self-governance.
- Triangular Trade: The Atlantic commercial network linking Europe (manufactured goods), Africa (enslaved people), and the Americas (raw materials), generating enormous wealth while entrenching human bondage.
Vocabulary
- Headright System: A land grant program offering 50 acres per immigrant to encourage settlement in Virginia, benefiting wealthy sponsors more than individual servants.
- Bacon's Rebellion (1676): An armed uprising by Virginia frontier settlers against Governor Berkeley over Native American policy and political corruption; accelerated the shift toward African slavery as a more controllable labor force.
- Stono Rebellion (1739): The largest slave uprising in colonial America, occurring in South Carolina, leading to stricter slave codes and reduced African importations temporarily.
- Middle Passage: The brutal sea voyage endured by enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, characterized by overcrowding, disease, and high mortality rates.
- House of Burgesses: The first elected legislative assembly in America, established in Virginia in 1619, representing an early form of representative government.
- Mayflower Compact (1620): An agreement by Plymouth colonists to establish a "civil body politic" based on majority rule, an early expression of self-government.
- Navigation Acts: British laws requiring colonial goods to be shipped on English vessels and traded through English ports, enforcing mercantilist economic control.
Historical Cause-Effect Relationships
- Cause: Bacon's Rebellion united white indentured servants and free men across class lines against the elite. Effect: Colonial elites deliberately promoted racial divisions and shifted to enslaved African labor to prevent future interracial class solidarity.
- Cause: The profitability of tobacco cultivation in the Chesapeake. Effect: Intensive land use leading to soil exhaustion, western expansion, and increased conflict with Native American tribes over territory.
- Cause: Salutary neglect allowed colonial legislatures to manage local affairs with minimal interference. Effect: Colonists developed traditions of self-governance and resistance to external taxation that would fuel revolutionary sentiment after 1763.
- Cause: The Enlightenment and Great Awakening spread ideas about individual rights and spiritual equality. Effect: Seeds of revolutionary ideology were planted, even as many colonists continued to defend slavery and social hierarchies.
Common Mistakes
- Referring to all colonies as "English" without distinguishing the significant regional, economic, and cultural differences among New England, Middle, Chesapeake, and Southern colonies.
- Attributing the growth of slavery solely to racism rather than understanding the economic motivations (labor demands, plantation agriculture) that drove the institutionalization of racial slavery.
- Forgetting that colonial societies were part of a broader Atlantic World; events in Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean directly shaped colonial development.
- Misdating the transition to slavery; indentured servitude remained significant through much of the 17th century, and slavery became dominant gradually, not immediately upon settlement.
AP Exam Strategies
- DBQ Tip: When analyzing documents on colonial labor systems, group by economic motive, racial ideology, and legal framework to show complexity.
- SAQ Strategy: If asked about colonial diversity, explicitly name colonies and their characteristics (e.g., Pennsylvania's Quaker tolerance, Massachusetts' Puritan conformity) rather than generalizing.
- LEQ Formula: For causation essays on the development of slavery, argue: "The shift to African slavery in the British colonies resulted primarily from economic demands for a permanent labor force, yet it was justified and maintained through the construction of racial hierarchies codified in law."
- Compare/Contrast: Use a direct comparison structure: "Unlike New England's religiously homogeneous town-centered society, the Chesapeake developed a plantation economy characterized by dispersed settlement and growing racial stratification."
Comparisons and Continuities/Changes
- Comparison: New England and Chesapeake societies differed fundamentally in their economic bases (subsistence/mixed farming vs. tobacco plantations), labor systems (family labor vs. slavery), and religious organization (Puritan congregations vs. Anglican parish system).
- Continuity and Change: While colonial economies grew more diversified and interdependent over time, the institution of slavery expanded and became more rigidly racialized, reversing earlier possibilities for indentured servant solidarity across racial lines.
- Comparison: The Spanish mission system in Florida and the Southwest sought to convert and assimilate Native Americans into colonial society, whereas British colonists more frequently sought to displace indigenous populations to acquire agricultural land.