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Colonial America Lesson Plan 1

First two and half centuries rural society 90% lived in countryside
Included a number of bustling seaport cities Boston (north) to
Charleston (south) day laborers and craftsmen.
Northern Colonies more urban - industries diversified - small
industries besides farming included things such as fur trading,
blacksmithing, shipbuilding, and the manufacture of products such as
rum, molasses and textiles from raw materials from the Southern
United States
Southern Colonies agriculture food and cash crops (tobacco,
rice, cotton)
People self-employed independent farmers, artisans or host of
urban retail trades and professions.
Due to surplus of resources and heavy demand for labor - it became
difficult to keep wage earners on the job constantly moving on to
frontier communities where pay was higher or else they were taking up
land and becoming independent farmers.
17th Century -18th century - Satisfy rising demand of labor indentured
servants and slavery.
Three types of Labor
- Indentured
- Slave
- Free
Indentured
Initially slavery was not the dominants system of labor for the colonies.
It was indentured Servitude.
50-66% of white immigrants came to the colonies under these
contracts.
Three sources of indentured servitude:
Men, women and children whose articles of servitude were signed
before leaving the Old World.
The redeptioners so called free-willers- who agreed to reimburse
their passage money by selling their labor after coming to the colonies.
Convicts criminals convicted of capital crime in England could be
transported in lieu of a death sentence.

Young unskilled males usually had a contract that lasted 2-7


years.
Children who were indentured were expected to serve until they
turned 21.
Some workers were convicts or vagabonds sentenced to service
for up to 14 years by the English courts.

Conditions
Masters were expected to feed, clothe and house servants.
The reality, however, could be quite different.
Indentured servants were treated the same as, and in some
cases worse than, slaves.
Female servants were the victims of sexual exploitation.
2 out of 5 of indentured servants died before completing their
term.
Living and working conditions were horrible, and servants who
tried to escape could have their term of service extended.
Once servants completed his contract, s/he was freed they were
given land, tools, seed, and animals. However, they did not receive
voting rights. Some became farmers or artisans, other became
discontented rural class of poor whites or became casual labor in port
cities.
Slavery
Slavery was introduced by the Spanish into the West Indies after
Columbus discovery of the Americas
Spanish and Portuguese expanded African slavery into Central and
South American after enslaved Indians began dying off.
1619 the first recorded introduction of African slaves into the colonies
was in the settlement of Jamestown (20 slaves were purchased)
By 1800 10 to 15 million blacks had been transported as slaves to the
Americas.
It is estimated that Africa lost 50 million humans at the hands of slave
traders and plantation owners of modern Western Europe and
Americas.

Slaves resorted to revolts in the 13 colonies and later in the


southern U.S.

250 insurrections have been documented; between 1780 and


1864.
91 African-Americans were convicted of insurrection in Virginia
alone.

First revolt in what became the United States took place in 1526
at a Spanish settlement near the mouth of the Pee Dee River in
South Carolina.
Slave Revolts would lead plantation owners to develop a series of slave
laws/codes which restricted the movement of the slaves.
Slaves were not taught to read or write
Restricted to the plantation
Slaves could not congregate after dark
Slaves could not possess any type of firearm
A larger slave population than white in some states
Slave owners wanted to keep their slaves ignorant of the outside world
because learning about life beyond the plantation could lead to more
slave revolts and wanting to escape

Free Labor
Made up of immigrant artisans and mechanics who were able to pay
their own passage to the new world or of bound servants who have
served their time as indentured servitude.
Free labor carpenters, masons, shipwrights, sail-makers, tanners,
weaver, shoemakers, tailors, smiths, coopers (barrel makers), glazers
(glass makers) and printers.
Skilled crafts first applied their craft independently but as centers of
populations grew, master workmen set up small retail shops and
employed journeymen and apprentices who worked for wages.
Close to the 18th century journeymen began to form local trade
societies early formations of the first unions.
Labor/Class Laws
Because of high demand for labor wages were high
Tudor Industrial Code brought over from England. Behind these codes
was the idea low wages ensured continued productivity and decreased
the likelihood of immoral conduct.
Principles of code included:
1. Compulsory labor for all able-bodied persons;
2. To protect the workingmen and to check unemployment, it
restrained wrongful dismissal of employees.
3. It provided for the fixing of maximum wages by justice of the
peace according to the plenty or scarcity of the times
4. It declared illegal any combination of workmen to secure higher
wages (i.e., unions)
5. It provided that no workman was to depart before the end of his
agrees term, and then he was required to produce letters
testimonial to show that he was free to hire himself out.

6. To assure an adequate supply of skilled workmen and good


quality in the manufactured product it set a term of
apprenticeship of seven years; 18th century amendments to the
code further attempted to maintain the skilled labor supply by
restricting the emigration of artisans.
Every American colonies made some attempts to apply the principles
of the Tudor Industrial Code.
All colonies adopted the principle of compulsory labor. (early laws
punished idleness by whipping or fees)
1630 General Court of Massachusetts wage ceiling of two shillings a
day for carpenters, joiners, bricklayers, sawyers, thatchers and other
artisans; eighteen pence for all day laborers. Also created a provisions
that all workmen shall worke the whole day, alloweing convenient
tyme for food and rest. (sic).
1647 Rhode Island Labor Code Any artificer or laborer who agreed
to finish any specific task should not part from the same. Until it is
finished. Penalty was payment of five pounds
1661 Maryland law declared that all servants hired for wages
were liable to be taken up as runaways if found ten miles away from
home without permission from their master and provided a penalty of
ten days service for every day of absence.
Laws also defined a workday as ten hours a day.
The court further declared that anyone who gave wine or strong liquor
to any workingman, except in the case of emergency, would be fined
twenty shillings for each offense.
Sumptuary Laws - Banned people of lower class form dressing in
garbs of gentlemen
1634 - General Court of Massachusetts banned the poor from wearing
clothing that would dishonor God and was altogether unsuitable to
their poverty
- wearing gold or silver laces or buttons
- Woolen or silk or linen with any lace on it
- points at their knees new fashions from the old world
- Wear great boots
- Women silk or tiffany scarfs
Law became was no longer enforced by the 18th Century
Workers, Politics and Revolution

Workers lacked basic political rights right to vote was restricted to


property owners
The protest over the lack of basic rights combined with the opposition
of English-rule led many workers to sympathetic towards the
independence cause.
Small tradesmen, artisans and mechanics played an important role in
promoting the revolutionary cause in colonies like Massachusetts.
The popular party in Boston (led by Sam Adams) was largely made up
of warfinger (wharf operators), shipwrights, bricklayers, weavers and
tanners who were equally opposed to rule by the British or colonial
aristocrats.
The Sons of Liberty (Tea Party) and later the local Committees of
Correspondence were generally recruited from workers from the
docks and shipyards.
Workers, mechanics, artisans, and small tradesmen generally voiced
more radical demands in support of colonial liberties and increased the
level of agitation when merchants were usually more willing to
compromise.
Boston Massacre grew directly out of a dispute between colonial
workingmen and British troops
New government reflected more of the conservative rather than radical
views espoused by the workers.
Whittled away the democratic gains made during the struggle for
independence
Emphasized property interests rather than individual liberty
However with lure of foreign commerce, many were blinded by the
potential of new work and employment

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