1. American
Colonies
History 140:
History/Americas thru 1800
Dr. Arguello
Patricia Fonseca
November 20, 2011

2. Chapter 13
Pirates 1685-1730
 For a time, England had used piracy as a means to attack
the Spanish empire. By 1700, piracy was viewed as a liability
to a successful empire.
 Piracy offered the ability to eat, drink, dance, gamble, and whore with
abandon. It invited offended sailors to retaliate against the owners of
merchant ships. Once pirates captured a vessel, the merchant captain was
tried. Punishment ranged from severe whippings to execution.
 Pirates operated by a written term of agreement and each member signed
the contract. Everyone received an equal share of the loot and the captain
took a double share. They did, however, give wounded and crippled men
extra amounts of the loot.
 Pirates greatly appreciated the ability to exploit others and defined freedom
as the opportunity to prey on others. They loved the fact that piracy afforded
them the opportunity to dish out violence rather than suffer violence.
 England decided to constrain piracy during 1697-1701. This was due to their
attempt to control and defend colonial commerce, as well as to compel
colonial merchants, legislators, and governors to acknowledge and
cooperate with imperial authority.
 Parliament prosecuted any colonial merchants and governors that harbored
or supplied pirates.

3. Chapter 13
Commerce and Empire
 The British became more powerful with the triumphs of war,
establishing peace treaties, in creating the British Union, and in
suppressing piracy.
 The Dutch accepted British military assistance in two massive wars.
As the Dutch exhausted their taxpayers, ships, and commerce, they
accepted an unequal alliance with England that left the Dutch as a
second-rate power.
 Britain established a navy fleet larger than the size of France and
Spain combined. The allocated major financial resources to naval
experience which other countries failed to match. This provided the
British colonies with a more secure method of shipping.
 Two-thirds of the British revenue was generated by taxes on
commerce and the liquid capital of merchants primarily supplied the
national loans. Commerce became extremely important to
maintaining British power. American colonies became more
important. As the British and their colonies became more successful
in trade and war, the empire proved that Protestant Succession, the
British Union, the common law, and individual liberties combined to
create national wealth, imperial power, and individual happiness.

4. Chapter 14
Poverty
 In 1750-1760’s, the colonists experienced a rise in the
number of their poor. Winter was especially hard when the
ice prevented shipping and the employment rate slumped.
The unemployed battled against starvation. Many had to
enter the city maintained almshouse.
 Poverty was linked to wars as numerous men were killed,
incapacitated, or turned alcoholic. Emigration brought a
swarm of poor newcomers which lowered wages and
increased unemployment all around. Colonists were
extended loans from British creditors who were able to call
in the payment of those debts at any given time.
 Colonists faced the problem of the growing population
against the limited supply of available land taken from the
Indians. Their choices were to look for work in the city,
move west and fight the Indians for more land, or rent land
in the east.

5. Chapter 14
Goods
 By 1770, many British and Asian goods had increased in
value. The colonists experienced a shift in the trade
market. They were paying stable prices for English
manufactures as their produce increased in price.
 British competitors started extending credit to colonists
which increased the colonist’s buying power.
 Approximately 90% of economic production remained
within a colony for home consumption or local trade while
only 10% was exported. Farmers did need to sell produce
to be able to buy imported goods that they were unable to
produce themselves.
 To increase status and credit, colonists expansive,
ornamental homes with spacious grounds and fine
furniture. They started to refine their manners and
conversation. Common farmers were looked down on.
 Women asserted themselves as the leading consumers.
Buying goods instead of making them greatly reduced the
amount of tedious chores they performed.

6. Chapter 15
Revivals
 Revivals are periodical surges in fervor and new members
within a religious congregation.
 Reverend Solomon Stoddard was a particularly vigorous
minister and his congregations experienced revivals larger
than congregations with less powerful ministers.
 Revivals were based on the emotional process of
conversion that transformed sinners into saints who earned
eternal salvation. The colonists held to a Calvinist theology,
only diverting in the sense that they believed in the need to
seek out evangelical preaching while reforming their
behavior. They did not believe that behaving well would
earn their salvation.
 Evangelical preachers delivered fearful sermons dedicated
to soul-searching while painting a beautiful picture of what
heaven will be.
 Evangelical preaching led listeners through despair to an
ecstatic state of divine grace.
 Some listeners failed to advance to the state of divine
grace and committed suicide instead. These suicides
slowed down revivals until they stopped altogether.

7. Chapter 15
Radicals
 Evangelicals were subdivided into two groups: moderates
and radicals. The major difference between the two
groups was in their views of church and state institutions.
 Moderates believed church institutions belonged to this
world and had to accommodate to its inequalities in
wealth, status, and learning. Radicals believed in
otherworldly churches that brought heaven to earth during
worship that dissolved social distinctions.
 Moderates were between Old Lights and the radicals. They
believed in revivals as God’s work but didn’t agree with
emotional outbursts and self-righteousness.
 Radicals believed in free choice that justified separations
and itinerants but did not believe in individualism. They
created demanding communities within their
congregations and referred to each other as “brother” and
“sister. Their preachers tended to be poorly educated but
charismatic. Worshipers gathered in open fields, private
homes, and barns. They didn’t acknowledge social class,
gender, or race during worship.