Chapter 4

Life for the earliest Chesapeake settlers was harsh and short, with diseases like malaria, dysentery, and typhoid cutting ten years off their life expectancy. Half of those born in early Virginia and Maryland didn't survive past their twentieth birthdays, and families were few and fragile due to the high mortality rate.

Immigrants to the Chesapeake were mostly single young men, and many perished soon after arrival. This resulted in a severe shortage of women, leading to fierce competition among men for their affections. Despite these challenges, the colonies persevered, and eventually, the native-born inhabitants developed immunity to the deadly diseases.

The presence of more women allowed more families to form, and by the end of the seventeenth century, the white population of the Chesapeake was growing on the basis of its own birthrate. As the eighteenth century opened, Virginia, with some fifty-nine thousand people, was the most populous colony. Maryland, with about thirty thousand, was the third largest after Massachusetts.

The Chesapeake region proved immensely hospitable to tobacco cultivation, with profit-hungry settlers prioritizing its planting over food crops like corn. However, intensive tobacco cultivation quickly depleted the soil, leading to a constant need for new land. Seeking fresh fields, commercial growers moved farther up the river valleys, causing tensions with Native American tribes.

The massive production of tobacco led to depressed prices, but instead of reducing production, colonial Chesapeake growers responded by planting even more acres and bringing more product to market. This required more labor, and while families and Native American labor were insufficient, England had a surplus of displaced farmers eager for employment. Many of them became indentured servants, exchanging several years of labor for transatlantic passage and eventual "freedom dues," which included land, corn, and clothes.

Both Virginia and Maryland used the "headright" system to encourage servant immigration, allowing whoever paid a laborer's passage to acquire fifty acres of land. This led to the rise of great merchant-planters who amassed vast estates and dominated the southern colonies' agriculture and commerce. By 1700, around 100,000 indentured servants had been brought to the Chesapeake, representing the majority of European immigrants to the region in the seventeenth century.

Initially, indentured servants hoped for a better life after completing their terms, but as prime land became scarce, masters resisted granting land in "freedom dues." As a result, servants' conditions grew harsher, and even after gaining formal freedom, many faced poverty and low-wage labor in the region.

An accumulating mass of footloose, impoverished freemen was drifting discontentedly about the Chesapeake region by the late seventeenth century. Mostly single young men, frustrated by broken hopes of acquiring land and the lack of eligible women to marry, rattled the established planters. The Virginia assembly disfranchised many landless individuals, leading to unrest.

Governor William Berkeley lamented the plight of governing a population filled with discontent and armed individuals. In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon led a rebellion against Berkeley's friendly policies towards Indians. Although suppressed, the rebellion exposed tensions between frontiersmen and tidewater planters.

This led planters to seek a less troublesome labor force, turning their eyes to Africa and the use of African slaves for the tobacco industry's growing demands.

In the centuries after Columbus's landing, around 10 million Africans were enslaved and brought to the New World. However, only about 400,000 ended up in North America, with the majority arriving after 1700. Early African arrivals were taken to Spanish and Portuguese South America or the sugar-rich West Indies.

In North America, African slaves were scarce until the 1680s, with white servants being more common. Rising wages in England and fear of uprisings among former white servants led to a shift in favor of black slaves. By the mid-1680s, black slaves outnumbered white servants among new arrivals.

The majority of African slaves came from the west coast of Africa, captured by coastal tribes and sold to European and American slave traders. The "middle passage" to America was a gruesome journey, resulting in death rates as high as 20 percent. Once in America, slaves were auctioned and traded in markets like Newport, Rhode Island, and Charleston, South Carolina.

As the number of African slaves increased, white colonists enacted harsh "slave codes" that formally decreed slavery for blacks, making them property for life and denying them basic rights. Racial discrimination became a powerful force shaping the American slave system by the end of the seventeenth century.

In the deep South, slave life was harsh due to a hostile climate and draining labor on rice and indigo plantations. Fresh imports were required to sustain the slave population.

Blacks in the Chesapeake region had a relatively easier life due to less physically demanding tobacco crops and more frequent contact with family and friends. The Chesapeake slave population began to grow through natural reproduction, creating a distinctive slave culture.

Slaves contributed to American culture with their language, music, and skills. They performed arduous labor in building the country but also yearned for freedom, leading to occasional revolts and uprisings such as the Stono rebellion.

Despite the challenges, slaves in the South were more manageable than white indentured servants, and no slave uprising matched the scale of Bacon's Rebellion.

As slavery spread, the South's social structure became more defined. A small group of powerful planters owned vast land and slaves, dominating the economy and politics. Beneath them were small farmers, followed by landless whites and former indentured servants. Black slaves remained at the bottom of society.

The great planters were hard-working and businesslike, dealing with unruly servants and managing their plantations. Cities were scarce, and Southern life revolved around isolated plantations connected by waterways due to poor roads.

The pioneer New Englanders enjoyed a more favorable environment than their southern counterparts, with clean water and cool temperatures that slowed the spread of diseases. Their life spans were extended by migrating to the New World. Family migration was common, and the family remained at the center of New England life.

Early marriage and high birth rates contributed to the population growth through natural increase. Women married early and had children about every two years until menopause. While childbearing was draining, many families had several children surviving into adulthood.

New England women often had large families, and child-rearing became their primary occupation.

The sturdy New Englanders developed a tightly knit society based on small villages and farms, influenced by geography and the need to defend against various threats. Puritanism played a role in fostering unity and a concern for the community's moral health.

Unlike the more random expansion of settlement in the Chesapeake, New England towns were legally chartered by colonial authorities. The distribution of land was carefully planned by town proprietors, and each family received specific parcels of land for different purposes.

Education was a priority in New England, with towns of over fifty families required to provide elementary education. The majority of adults knew how to read and write. The Puritans ran their own churches, which led to democracy in both religious and political government. Town meetings allowed adult males to gather, vote, and discuss important matters, making it a showcase for democracy.

As the population grew in New England, Puritans moved to outlying farms, away from the tight-knit communities. The fervent religious zeal of the first generation began to wane, leading to the rise of the "jeremiad" sermons scolding the people for their declining piety.

In 1662, the Half-Way Covenant was introduced, allowing unconverted children of church members to be baptized but not granted full communion. This diluted the spiritual purity of the original settlers' community, as church membership became more inclusive.

Women played a significant role in the Salem witch trials, where a group of girls claimed to be bewitched by certain women. The hysteria that followed led to the legal lynching of twenty individuals, reflecting the social and religious tensions of the rapidly evolving Massachusetts village.

The witchcraft hysteria eventually ended, but it left a lasting impact on American history, becoming a metaphor for irrational scapegoating of social resentments.

The story of New England was shaped by its rocky soil and harsh climate. The Puritans' hard work and frugality, born out of necessity, became a defining characteristic of the region. Unlike the South, New England had fewer European immigrants due to its challenging environment and sulfurous sermons.

Though the land was less fertile, it led to diversified agriculture and industry. The English settlers' view of exclusive land ownership clashed with the Native Americans' communal approach, resulting in the Europeans taking over the land.

Repelled by the rocks, the New Englanders turned to their natural harbors, excelling in shipbuilding and commerce. The combination of Calvinism, soil, and climate bred energy, self-reliance, and resourcefulness in the region's people.

New England's impact on the rest of the nation was significant, with its settlers spreading to other states and embodying traits like "Yankee ingenuity" and the "New England conscience."

The earliest American colonists, both men and women, followed the cycles of the seasons and the sun. The majority were farmers, and life revolved around planting, tending crops, and harvesting. They lived comfortably compared to most seventeenth-century Europeans.

Women, whether free or enslaved, had domestic duties, while men cleared land and tended to farming tasks. Children helped with chores and received some schooling.

White migrants to colonial America mostly came from neither the aristocracy nor the poorest strata of European society, with the exception of impoverished indentured servants. Class distinctions were less pronounced in the colonies, but some settlers tried to recreate a modified social structure they knew from the Old World, which faced opposition from more democratic forces.