Chapter Three Lecture

Chapter Three Lecture Chapter Three – Southern Colonies

I. Social Conflict in the Southern Colonies A. Native Americans vs.

Jamestown Settlers

(Not Mentioned) whites steal land owned by Native Americans Tribes Retaliate

"Indian" Wars

Powhatan makes peace, Feeds starving colonists

English settlers burn out crops, villages and women

Native Americans refused to work as slaves They are replaced by Indentured Servants B. Gentlemen vs.

Indentured Servants

Pays 5 pound passage to New World (One year's wages for common laborer)1

1700s, 80% of immigrants are Indentured Servants2

Get 4-10 years of unpaid labor One year of labor pays all of the costs

Coercion:

Rest is profit

Three extra years for running away for six months.

However, half become sick and die Extra year for killing three hogs Two extra years and fine for becoming pregnant3 Poor complain, rich politicians do not represent them; They favor the rich 1

James L. Roark, Emory University, Michael P Johnson, Johns Hopkins University, Patricia Cline Cohen, University of California, Santa Barbara, Sarah Stage, Arizona State University, Alan Lawson, Boston College, and Susan M. Hartmann, Ohio State University, The American Promise: A Compact History Third Edition Volume I: To 1877 (Boston, Massachusetts: St. Martin's, 2007), 62. 2 Roark, The American Promise, 62. 3 Roark, The American Promise, 63.

1

C. British empire vs.

Southern Colonies

Colonialism: Import raw materials

Willing to ship raw materials, like tobacco to England and buy horse carriages.

Export manufactured goods Mercantilism: Tax imports from Colony and exports to Colony

Free Trade: no taxes or custom's duties on trade goods

Custom's Duties: Taxes protect domestic industry from cheaper foreign competitors British Shipping Monopoly

Transportation: rivers and ports

Enforce Treaties with Native Americans

Land Hunger, Revenge and Greed

D. Tidewater Aristocrats vs.

Common Men

Tara Plantation

1670 Virginia passes property law qualifications to vote4

The underclass accept that the best people rule

Algonquian uprising, 1622

Nathaniel Bacon: Bacon's Rebellion, 16765

Kills 500 Virginians

Mobilizes small farmers against Elite planter politicians take bribes and protect those savage Indians

4 5

Roark, The American Promise, 66 Roark, The American Promise, 67.

2

Troops put down rebellion

Bacon dies of dysentery

Government allows settlers to trample on Native lands

Resistance, Resentment, and class conflict lead to indentured servants being replaced by slaves

Local Taxes cut 75% in 16606

E. Planters vs.

Slaves

Shelby Foote

Rich control government, laws, society and slaves

Unpaid workers Less social and political power Weak position to complain

The colonists considered themselves English people who happened to live in North America. They claimed the same rights and privileges as English men and women while they denied those rights and privileges to Native Americans and African slaves.7 II. Interpretation. The Southern Colonies and America in general exemplify the tension between individual greed, democracy and morality.

6 7

Capitalism: Adam Smith's Invisible Hand

Democracy

Religion / Philosophy / Morality

Individual Initiative

Common Good

Virtue

Greed

Common Man

Eternal Truth

According to the law of supply and demand, people will buy only those products they want and pay only what

Government is the servant of the people; the

Social Justice: Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my

Roark, The American Promise, 68. James L. Roark, The American Promise, 72.

3

they are willing to pay. Thus people are not industrialists must manufacture servants of the products for which there is a demand government and must charge just enough to make a fair profit. Wages are regulated in a similar way. If workers are not paid enough, they will work for another employer. If they are paid too much, their employer will not make a profit. Thus, as Adam Smith explained, everyone gains from this system. Industrialists make a fair profit. Workers receive a fair wage. Products are manufactured as efficiently as possible and sold at fair prices. All receive benefits through the "invisible hand" that regulates capitalism.8

brethren, ye have done it unto me. Holy Bible: Matthew 25:40. A society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable members. Mahatma Gandhi, 1922(?).

Capitalism's Invisible Hand's formula of Private greed leads to public good Refers only to the production of widgets It does not necessarily lead to altruism, social justice or enlightened social policy for the society as a whole. For that we need democracy and morality, which generally run a handicapped race against private greed.

8

Richard M. Hodgetts, Florida International University, Terry L. Smart, Trinity University, San Antonio, Economics (Menlo Park, New Jersey: Addison Wesley, 1993), 9.

4

Conflict Chart a. Parties

Settlers

Native Americans

b. Conflict

Greed and developing the land

Land Living in Harmony with Nature Living in harmony with each other

A. Parties

Gentlemen

Indentured Servants

B. Conflict

Get rich from another's labor

Liberty: Supply and Demand, wages

a. Parties

Southern Colonies

British Empire

b. Conflict

Land hunger

Keeping your word: Treaties with Native American allies and opponents

A. Parties

Aristocrats

Common Men

B. Conflict

Rule of the Privileged Few

Democracy

a. Parties

Planters

Slave Owners

b. Conflict

Profit from unpaid labor

It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, 1865.

5