1600's And 1700's

Social

African slavery in the American colonies first began in the 1670's and 1680's, particularly in the Chesapeake region. However, it wasn't until the 1700's that slavery became a full blown business. Events causing the need for slaves were: the lack of English settlers willing to become indentured servants, the ability of prospective immigrants to migrate somewhere else in the United States, and the lack of open land which turned away potential settlers. The need of the Chesapeake tobacco farmers to have some kind of dependable workforce, almost ANY dependable workforce, led for them to look for "employees" in the Caribbean sugar islands. Since 1640, French, Dutch, English, and Spanish immigrants in the Caribbean had been employing slaves as a workforce. In the European mainland, slavery had been practiced for centuries. It was customary for conquered heathen peoples to be captured and enslaved so that by their bonds they would be converted. However, African slavery truly began when Portuguese sailors encountered non-Christian societies holding slaves in Northern Africa. From there, the sailors purchased these bonded people and took them to the Iberian peninsula where by the 1500's one-tenth of the population of Lisbon and Seville were said slaves. From there, slaves were sent to the Americas to do the hard labor unwilling European settlers refused to do. Before African slavery in the Americas, the majority of African peoples were "Atlantic creoles." Either free, indentured, or enslaved. The term Christian was used to mean a "free person" however, the House of Burgesses declared that "the blessed sacrament of baptism" could not release the enslaved from their bonds. In 1682, Virginia passed a document which declared all "Negroes, Moors, Mollatoes or Indians" arriving "by sea or land" could be enslaved if they were not Christian. By 1775, 260,000 slaves were imported into the U.S. Between the late 1600's and the early 1700's the conditions of slavery in America severely worsened. By 1710 those of African descent consisted of one-fifth of the population of the regions population. Slaves were kept together 10 to 15 in a single living quarters, each was expected to cultivate two acres a year, overworked and alone these men were expected to work 6 days a week. Slaves cost more than twice an indentured servant but were worth the expense in labor power. The transition from indentured to enslaved labor increased the social and economic gaps already experienced in this time period. Those who could afford the workers generated more income than those who couldn't. Also, the increased population of ethnic peoples altered the lifestyle of many local people, transportation was done by African canoe, African fishing nets were used over less efficient European ones, baskets and gourds became widely used, and the African cattle herding techniques were applied to American culture. Shifting towards Indian enslavement, in 1711 the Tuscaroras attacked New Bern, North Carolina. The South Carolinians crushed the natives and enslaved thousands of them. More and more Indian tribes fought back against the encroaching Europeans and all but a few were defeated and enslaved.

Military

Between the 1670's and the 1700's many conflicts between the settlers and natives arose. One such conflict was the Beaver Wars, wars between the Hurons and other Indian tribes in which the Iroquois fought to control the fur trade, and, instead of capturing and killing their own animals for fur, they resorted to raiding other native villages in search of pelts. In turn, they traded these pelts to the settlers for commodities (blankets, knives, guns, alcohol, etc.) In the mid-1670's, however, the French grew wary of Iroquois dominance and elected to halt their expansion. Over the next 20 years the conflict between the French and Iroquois raged on, eventually ending in a formal agreement issued in 1701 declaring both parties neutral. In the need for France to expand their territory they decided to purchase land on the western front of the Spanish and English colonies to halt westward expansion for both nations. Using the Mississippi river the French were able to send supplies from Canada to Louisiana fairly easily. At many of the outposts along the way, was a small military garrison and a lone priest, typically these outposts were in native but friendly territory. Due to brutality by the Spanish missionaries, the native Pueblo peoples initiated a revolt in 1680 and successfully removed Spaniard rule from New Mexico. One of the more key events of this time period was King Philip's War, fought between a large alliance of native peoples and the European settlers. Before the end of the conflict the natives had destroyed 27 of 92 settlements and raided 40 more. One outcome of the war was one-tenth of the able-bodies male population was killed or wounded. Following King Philip's war was Bacon's rebellion, a conflict between former indentured servants searching for land and the wealthy land owners. After burning down Jamestown in September of 1676, Bacon died of dysentery the following month, but his death was not in vain, the rebellion was successful and opened much disputed territory to settlement. Later this time period more conflicts arose, the Glorious Revolution which was rather easily settled, King William's War, and the 1692 Witchcraft Crisis. The Glorious Revolution was