KS+Chapter+4+Notes

Chapter 4 · The settlements in Chesapeake were diseased. Most perished in their thirties, and the population from man to woman was six to one. So women who were single didn’t stay single for a while. There were hardly any grandparents. · The tobacco industry in Chesapeake was very popular, and they even planted the tobacco before the corn. They would haul 1.5 million pounds of tobacco out of Chesapeake in the 1630’s. · The laborers were displaced farmers that were desperate for employment. These “whit slaves” were more than three quarters of all European immigrants to Virginia and Maryland. · An estimated 10 million Africans were sent to the New World as slaves. Only 400,000 of them ended up in North America were the rest went to the Caribbean and South America. · Most of the slaves that ended up in North America were from the West coast of Africa. · A few of the earliest slaves gained their freedom, and some even became slave owners themselves. · The difference between a slave and a servant was unclear earlier on, but it turned out that it was a racial difference, so blacks were slaves, and whites were servants. · In the deep South, the slave life was very hostile. The climate was horrible for the health, and the labor was life draining. · Blacks in the tobacco growing business in Chesapeake had it somewhat easier. Tobacco was less physically demanding as a crop, and the plantations were larger and closer to one another than the rice. · A few slaves became skilled artisans, carpenters, bricklayers, and tanners. · New Englanders tended to migrate not as individuals, but as families. The population shot up very quickly in New England, and early marriage just encouraged the booming birthrate. · The dread of death in the birthing bed haunted many women, and some of them came to fear pregnancy. A married woman could experience up to ten pregnancies, and raising her children would have been her full-time occupation. · Women didn’t have many rights back then, but if the husband was abusive, then he could and would be restrained. · Divorce in Puritan New England was extremely rare and separated couples were often told to reunite. · Convicted adulterers if convicted were whipped in public, especially women. · <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In the “witch hunt” where supposedly older women bewitched a girl, twenty women were hung, and two dogs were also hung. · <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">New England was more largely mixed ethically than the South. · <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The New Englanders condemned the Indians for “wasting” the Earth by underutilizing its bounty and used this logic to justify their own expropriation of the land from the native people. · <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">New England changed greatly by the introduction of livestock. They cut down the forest so the livestock could eat, and the stomping of hooves compacted the ground and made it more susceptible to flooding.