WEBVTT NOTE 65. The Colonies in the First Decade of the Eighteenth Century 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.040 Volume 1, Chapter 65, The Colonies in the First Decade of the Eighteenth Century 2 00:00:08.040 --> 00:00:13.640 We have seen that the colonies in the first decade of the eighteenth century were again 3 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:20.440 embroiled in projects for invasions of New France. Indeed, England had only four years 4 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:29.700 of respite from war with France after the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697. In 1701, England 5 00:00:29.700 --> 00:00:36.340 and the other powers of Europe became involved in the War of the Spanish Succession, largely 6 00:00:36.340 --> 00:00:43.340 against the ambitions of Louis XIV. The war was marked by a series of expensive but futile 7 00:00:44.060 --> 00:00:51.060 attempts to invade Canada. Early expeditions failed to conquer Acadia, but a large expedition 8 00:00:51.980 --> 00:00:58.980 in 1709, having failed to mount an attack on Quebec, consoled itself by seizing Port 9 00:00:58.980 --> 00:01:05.540 in Port Royal and the Rest of Acadia. Another huge expedition was mounted against Quebec 10 00:01:05.540 --> 00:01:13.500 in 1711, but the invasion was so badly bungled that some ships were wrecked in a storm and 11 00:01:13.500 --> 00:01:22.300 the rest hastily returned. Peace between England and France came in 1713 with the Peace of 12 00:01:22.300 --> 00:01:29.660 of Utrecht. Essentially beaten in the European War, France agreed to turn over Acadia, now 13 00:01:29.660 --> 00:01:36.980 Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Hudson's Bay permanently to the English and to recognize 14 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:43.400 the Iroquois, among whom French Jesuits had made considerable headway, as being under 15 00:01:43.400 --> 00:01:50.500 English jurisdiction. By the first decade of the 18th century, the previously highly 16 00:01:50.500 --> 00:01:57.020 Disparate Colonies had become far more uniform. The political structures of the colonies in 17 00:01:57.020 --> 00:02:04.020 particular were now more alike. By 1710 the great liberal revolutions of the 1670s and 18 00:02:04.780 --> 00:02:11.300 80s had made their attempt and failed, but their failure at least succeeded in gaining 19 00:02:11.300 --> 00:02:18.300 a few crucial concessions from the ruling power. In each of the colonies by 1710 a royal 20 00:02:18.300 --> 00:02:25.540 A royal or proprietary governor ruled the territory. He appointed the council and the lesser administrative 21 00:02:25.540 --> 00:02:32.740 and judicial bureaucracies, and ruled in alliance with a colonial oligarchy largely 22 00:02:32.740 --> 00:02:39.660 created by English rule, as well as with a bureaucracy of royal officialdom. The oligarchy 23 00:02:39.660 --> 00:02:45.860 received all manner of subsidies and privileges by virtue of its share in the control of the 24 00:02:45.860 --> 00:02:53.400 Apparatus. Conspicuous among these privileges were arbitrary large land grants to favored 25 00:02:53.400 --> 00:03:01.000 individuals and groups. In each of the colonies an elected assembly had emerged as the representative 26 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:07.640 of the popular liberal forces in continuing battle against the power of the royal officials 27 00:03:07.640 --> 00:03:14.600 and their appointed upper house. Most of the provinces were now royal colonies and even 28 00:03:14.600 --> 00:03:20.120 Even the proprietors were not the proud independent rulers of yore. 29 00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:26.280 Once feisty and independent Massachusetts had now been brought under the royal heel. 30 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:33.400 New York, formerly a proprietary colony lacking any elected assembly, was now a royal colony 31 00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:40.360 similar to the others, with an elected assembly possessing the taxing power partially offsetting 32 00:03:40.360 --> 00:03:42.980 the royal appointees. 33 00:03:42.980 --> 00:03:48.080 The proprietary New Jerseys were now a single royal colony. 34 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:53.340 New Hampshire, too, was finally established as a royal colony. 35 00:03:53.340 --> 00:04:00.380 Of the five proprietary colonies remaining in the first decade of the 18th century, two, 36 00:04:00.380 --> 00:04:06.580 the Carolinas, were soon to be forcibly transformed into royal provinces. 37 00:04:06.580 --> 00:04:12.900 Furthermore, the previously remarkable religious freedom and separation of church and state 38 00:04:12.900 --> 00:04:20.940 in the Carolinas was now replaced by an Anglican establishment serving a small minority, particularly 39 00:04:20.940 --> 00:04:28.380 in North Carolina. In Maryland, Lord Baltimore had been deprived of his proprietary, and though 40 00:04:28.380 --> 00:04:35.740 it was soon to be returned to the Baltimore family, it was returned as an Anglican colony. 41 00:04:35.740 --> 00:04:42.540 Gone was Maryland as a haven for Catholics from religious persecution. In short, the 42 00:04:42.540 --> 00:04:50.260 The former uniqueness of the various proprietary and self-governing colonies had now disappeared, 43 00:04:50.260 --> 00:04:56.540 and there was little to distinguish the royal from the remaining proprietary colonies. 44 00:04:56.540 --> 00:05:02.580 The same was true for originally pacifist and anarchistic Pennsylvania. 45 00:05:02.580 --> 00:05:08.340 Pennsylvania and its sister, proprietary Delaware, had been made royal colonies. 46 00:05:08.340 --> 00:05:14.100 William Penn received them back only on the condition that he would mold his colonies into 47 00:05:14.100 --> 00:05:21.020 what had become the standard North American pattern. Of the original self-governing colonies 48 00:05:21.020 --> 00:05:28.500 of New England, only Connecticut and Rhode Island remained as anomalies, still in the 49 00:05:28.500 --> 00:05:34.620 seventeenth century framework. A proprietary always meant that there would be annoying 50 00:05:34.620 --> 00:05:41.620 The Crown, too, tried to impose quit-rents, but they proved, despite continuing efforts by the governors, to be virtually impossible to collect. 51 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:50.620 The dissolution of the quit-rent threat meant that true feudal tenure could not take hold in America, since the proprietary could not enforce its claims to feudal tribute. 52 00:05:50.620 --> 00:05:54.620 Even less could such plans be put in place. 53 00:05:54.620 --> 00:06:00.820 could not take hold in America, since the proprietary could not enforce its claims to 54 00:06:00.820 --> 00:06:07.500 feudal tribute. Even less could such plans as Maryland's consciously created feudal 55 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:16.500 hierarchy of land claims persist under American conditions of abundant, cheap land and individual 56 00:06:16.500 --> 00:06:23.140 independence. Of course, such feudalistic institutions as servitude and Negro slavery 57 00:06:23.140 --> 00:06:30.440 greatly increased the privileged ownership of large tracts of land. Fortunately, although 58 00:06:30.440 --> 00:06:36.700 the tobacco country of southern colonies and isolated areas such as near Gansett country 59 00:06:36.700 --> 00:06:46.340 and west New Jersey had large plantations, no permanent land-lord-tenancy relations prevailed, 60 00:06:46.340 --> 00:06:53.120 even where arbitrary and privileged land grants had been extensive. For speculative land monopolists 61 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:58.200 The first, perhaps wanting nothing better than to be feudal lords over host of servants 62 00:06:58.200 --> 00:07:04.640 and sub-tenants, invariably decided to take their wealth quickly and reap speculative 63 00:07:04.640 --> 00:07:09.420 gains without suffering the risk of land ownership. 64 00:07:09.420 --> 00:07:17.420 The one crucial exception was New York, where receivers of huge land grants, the manors, 65 00:07:17.420 --> 00:07:23.820 Following after the patron ships of the Dutch, decided to continue as landlords exacting 66 00:07:23.820 --> 00:07:26.820 rents from their tenants. 67 00:07:26.820 --> 00:07:33.540 Deciding to rent out and not to sell, the New York landlords thereby made the fateful 68 00:07:33.540 --> 00:07:40.420 decision to freeze land monopoly in existing huge tracts. 69 00:07:40.420 --> 00:07:45.580 Except for the master-slave relation, all major aspects of feudalism in the colonies 70 00:07:45.580 --> 00:07:53.020 disappeared rather quickly upon their introduction. New York of course accepted. Here essentially 71 00:07:53.020 --> 00:07:58.780 feudal land-holding continued for at least a century. As a result, New York's growth 72 00:07:58.780 --> 00:08:05.280 compared with that of the other colonies was retarded. Negro slaves were becoming an increasingly 73 00:08:05.280 --> 00:08:10.780 large part of the coerced labor force. They were used everywhere in the colonies, but 74 00:08:10.780 --> 00:08:25.820 The following tabulation is the estimated population of the American colonies in 1710 and 1680, 75 00:08:25.820 --> 00:08:33.740 the figures in parentheses being the estimated number of Negroes overwhelmingly slave. 76 00:08:33.740 --> 00:08:51.740 In Population, 1710 and 1680, in thousands Colony, New Hampshire, 1710, 6,000, 0,000 77 00:09:21.740 --> 00:09:48.500 1680, 17,000, Rhode Island, 1710, 8, 0, 1680, 3, New York, 1710, 22, 3, 1680, 10, New Jersey, 78 00:09:48.500 --> 00:10:15.500 1710, 20, 1, 1680, 3, Pennsylvania, 1710, 24, 2, 1680, 1, Delaware, 1710, 4, 0.5, 1680, 79 00:10:15.500 --> 00:10:43.820 1. Maryland 1710 43 8 1680 18 Virginia 1710 78,000 23,000 slaves 1680 44 North Carolina 80 00:10:43.820 --> 00:11:02.300 South Carolina, 1710, 15, 1, 1680, 5. South Carolina, 1710, 11, 4, 1680, 1. Total for 81 00:11:02.300 --> 00:11:21.300 For the Colonies, in 1710, 332,000 population, slave population, 44,500, 1680, 151,000. 82 00:11:21.300 --> 00:11:27.860 The table reveals the comparatively slow growth of New York, the phenomenal growth of Pennsylvania 83 00:11:27.860 --> 00:11:33.780 and the High Proportion of Negro Slaves in Virginia and South Carolina. 84 00:11:33.780 --> 00:11:41.020 The religious structure of the colonies was also becoming uniform, in a sense, by 1710. 85 00:11:41.020 --> 00:11:47.340 Whereas in the 17th century religious persecution in behalf of the dominant sect had been the 86 00:11:47.340 --> 00:11:55.300 norm except in such maverick colonies as Rhode Island and North Carolina, by the 18th century 87 00:11:55.300 --> 00:12:01.460 Religious freedom generally prevailed, but only partially since many colonies had their 88 00:12:01.460 --> 00:12:07.980 established church, for example the Puritan in Massachusetts, the Presbyterian in Connecticut 89 00:12:07.980 --> 00:12:14.340 and the Anglican in the southern colonies. The noted historian Carl Becker once raised 90 00:12:14.340 --> 00:12:19.460 the question about the extent to which the American Revolution was a battle for home 91 00:12:19.460 --> 00:12:26.340 Home Rule of the Colonies vis-à-vis England as opposed to a battle about who should rule 92 00:12:26.340 --> 00:12:34.060 at home within the colonies. In short, to what degree was the revolution internal and 93 00:12:34.060 --> 00:12:39.820 to what degree external? We are now able to frame a judgment about this issue for the 94 00:12:39.820 --> 00:12:45.500 earlier revolutions of the late seventeenth century and for their aftermath. We have seen 95 00:12:45.500 --> 00:12:55.140 Imagine how revolution in the 1670s and especially after 1688 swept almost every colony in America. 96 00:12:55.140 --> 00:13:01.340 From Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia, to Leisler's in New York, to the continuing state of revolution 97 00:13:01.340 --> 00:13:09.460 in the two New Jerseys, all of these revolutions may be classified as liberal and popular, 98 00:13:09.460 --> 00:13:16.060 In short, as essentially mass movements in behalf of libertarian objectives and in opposition 99 00:13:16.060 --> 00:13:24.260 to the tyranny, high taxes, monopolies and restrictions imposed by the various governments. 100 00:13:24.260 --> 00:13:30.580 Separating the strands of home rule and rule at home is an artificial and misleading way 101 00:13:30.580 --> 00:13:35.820 of treating the problem, for the revolutionaries were battling against the oppressions of the 102 00:13:35.820 --> 00:13:38.100 state apparatus. 103 00:13:38.100 --> 00:13:43.900 This apparatus was certainly dominated by the external element, that is, the colonial 104 00:13:43.900 --> 00:13:48.900 governors appointed by the royal or proprietary rulers. 105 00:13:48.900 --> 00:13:55.740 But these governors created and then allied themselves with a domestic oligarchy. 106 00:13:55.740 --> 00:14:04.740 Through subsidies, taxes, privileges, monopolies, land grants and so forth, the royal or proprietary 107 00:14:04.740 --> 00:14:12.140 The governor and his council formed an allied oligarchy against which the people and their 108 00:14:12.140 --> 00:14:18.320 representatives in the lower house rebelled. The colonies, especially New England, had 109 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:26.140 been almost totally independent during most of the 17th century and deeply resented later 110 00:14:26.140 --> 00:14:32.620 English interference. But when these colonies rebelled, they did so not against England, 111 00:14:32.620 --> 00:14:49.620 and the fact that the sudden weakening of English authority during the Glorious Revolution touched off these revolts in no sense negates this conclusion. 112 00:14:49.620 --> 00:15:00.620 The liberal revolutions of the 1680s and 90s failed largely because the domestic oligarchs were propped up and reimposed by the English power. 113 00:15:00.620 --> 00:15:07.620 of Power, the Berkleys and their successors, the Dudleys, the Androses, and the Hamiltons 114 00:15:07.620 --> 00:15:14.560 remained. But the revolutions were not a complete failure by any means. The populace was left 115 00:15:14.560 --> 00:15:22.060 with lower houses, assemblies, willing to fight continually against oligarchic oppression, 116 00:15:22.060 --> 00:15:28.700 and they had a great tradition of revolution to look back upon and from which to gain inspiration. 117 00:15:28.700 --> 00:15:34.060 By the turn of the 18th century, the English state had come to play a much greater and 118 00:15:34.060 --> 00:15:42.460 more direct role in the overall sum of governmental burdens on the American colonist. For by 1696, 119 00:15:42.460 --> 00:15:49.760 the structure of the Navigation Acts restricting colonial trade was complete, and a royal bureaucracy 120 00:15:49.760 --> 00:15:58.180 replete with customs collectors and vice admiralty courts began to impose itself on the colonies. 121 00:15:58.180 --> 00:16:04.500 The increasing weight of English imperial rule began to draw the brunt of popular, liberal 122 00:16:04.500 --> 00:16:10.940 opposition. Hence, by the turn of the eighteenth century, the revolutions of the late seventeenth 123 00:16:10.940 --> 00:16:18.980 century behind, the increasingly uniform American colonies had settled down to a period of uneasy 124 00:16:18.980 --> 00:16:25.500 balance. It was a balance filled with inner tension and conflict, but for most of the 125 00:16:25.500 --> 00:16:34.500 In the coming century, this conflict would no longer erupt into open confrontation or result in radical change. 126 00:16:34.500 --> 00:16:42.500 But when the eruption eventually occurred, it was to be an explosion that would change the face of the globe.