W. W. Norton & Company | Inventing America, 2 ed.

Chapter 3: Empires

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Mary Rowlandson captivity narrative excerpt

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- Mary Rowlandson captivity narrative

Mary Rowlandson spent three months in captivity during King Philip's War (1675). Several years later, in 1682, she published a description of her experience, and the book met with great success in Britain, as well as the colonies. Captivity narratives became a very popular genre in the century that followed. Early narratives, like Rowlandson's, emphasized the maintenance of religious faith in the face of adversity. Rowlandson's full narrative mentions kindnesses she is shown during her captivity; for example, she is offered the Bible by one Native American. She alternates between recognizing this humanity and commenting with horror on what she sees as savage behavior. Later narratives, such as that of Mary Jemison, portrayed Native Americans in a positive fashion; many captives, especially those taken as children, refused to be returned to their former families when offered the chance to do so. In 1753, Benjamin Franklin remarked on this tendency: "When an Indian Child has been brought up among us, taught our language, and habituated to our Customs, yet if he goes to see his relations . . . there is no persuading him ever to return. When white persons of either sex have been taken prisoners young by the Indians . . . tho' ransomed by their Friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness to prevail with them to stay among the English, yet in a Short time they become disgusted with our manner of life . . . and take the first good Opportunity of escaping again into the woods, from whence there is no reclaiming them." The practice of waging "mourning wars," that were designed to take captives to replace dead members of the tribe provides some explanation; in these conflicts, the very purpose was to integrate captives, mostly children, into Native American culture. Rowlandson's narrative also reveals the practice of selling captives as slaves, a course of action used by the British colonists as well. At the end of King Philip's war, New Englanders sent Native Americans who had surrendered to the West Indies as slaves. Is there anything that surprises you about Rowlandson's experience?
2. Pedro Naranjo, Pueblo Indian's description of Pueblo Revolt of 1680

- The Pueblo Revolt of 1680

Pedro Naranjo, a captured Native American who participated in Pope's Rebellion, also known as the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, provides an explanation for why the revolt occurred. What similarities does this conflict between Spanish colonists and Native Americans in the Southwest have with King Phillip's War, a conflict between the British and Native Americans
Plymouth Court Documents Dealing with Indian Relations

- Plymouth Court Document

Native Americans in southern New England attempted to drive out British settlers in 1675 in a fourteen-month conflict known as "King Phillip's War." Named for Metacom, a chief whom the British named "King Phillip," the war involved several bands of Native Americans – the Wampanoag, the Pocumtucks, the Nipmucks, and the Narragansetts. Other Native Americans -- the Pequot, the Massachusetts, the Nauset, and the Mohegan – allied with the British in this particular fight. Cases from the Plymouth Court between 1658 and 1675 illustrate one source of resentment; the colonists forced Native Americans to recognize their laws and sovereignty. Also revealed is the close manner in which Native Americans and colonists lived in this period. What do these cases tell you about the way colonists viewed Native Americans?
Chrestien Le Clercq (1676),"The French have so little cleverness"

- Micmac Chief to Chrestien Le Clerq

In 1676, the missionary Chrestien Le Clercq recorded the thoughts of a Micmac chief upholding his tribe's customs and way of life. The Micmac lived in the Eastern part of Canada, including Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and the eastern half of New Brunswick. As the passage indicates, French missionaries brought pressure on Native Americans to adopt Catholicism and European habits. Like the British, the French combined with various Native American tribes in order to fight other tribes. The French primarily opposed the Iroquois Five Nations, which posed a threat to control over the beaver trade. So tightly bound were the Micmac and the French that the tribe made forays into New England against the British and lost much of their population as a result. What does this passage tell you about the contrast between French and Micmac ways?
Colonial money illustration

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- Colonial money illustration Worksheet

In Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative, she exchanges her sewing for food. Throughout the seventeenth century, most trade in the colonies was accomplished through this type of barter. Colonists suffered from the lack of coin and currency. This paper, worth 20 shillings and issued in 1690 by the Massachusetts Colony, is the first authorized paper currency made in British North America. "Tobacco notes," paper certifying the quality and quantity of tobacco deposited in public warehouses, provided another early form of paper money. Furs and Native American "wampum" served as a means of exchange as well. What impact would the shortage of currency have upon the overall economy in the colonies? How was this shortage a result of Britain's imperial goals?
Capital Laws of Massachusetts

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- Capital Laws of Massachusetts Worksheet
Religion and civil law were intertwined in Massachusetts, as the Capital Laws indicate. Topping the list of capital crimes was the “worship of any other God but the Lord God.” Adultery and sodomy were also punishable by death, although in practice courts rarely imposed that sentence. Instead, offenders were fined, publicly whipped, branded, or placed in stocks. Banishment also served as an alternative to execution. How might laws in other colonies have differed from that of Massachusetts?
Map of Salem

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- Map of Salem Worksheet
Debating the cause of the 1692 Salem witchcraft accusations has long occupied historians. One theory suggests that social and economic tensions existing between Salem Village and Salem Town led to the hysteria. This map of Salem indicates the geographic divisions that existed. What types of day-to-day conflicts emerged between Town and Village people?
City Structure

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$Philadelphia\'s city plans$ $Charles Town\'s city plans$
- Philadelphia's and Charles Town's city plans Worksheet
- Map of London Worksheet

Compared to a seventeenth-century map of London, Philadelphia and Charleston appear rigidly organized. Laid out on a grid and divided into parallel lots, new towns in America lent themselves to real estate speculation and profit, as William Penn attested in his comments on real estate investment in Philadelphia. Both Philadelphia and Charleston were established in the early 1680’s. Penn planned large lots with houses and garden, and he situated a greenbelt around the city in hopes of minimizing the dangers of disease and fire, both prevalent in large European cities, such as London. The largest cities in seventeenth-century America were small towns by today’s standards. All of them seaports, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia served as early colonial urban centers, along with Newport and Charleston. Boston numbered 6,000 people by 1690, while New York had only 4,500 inhabitants at that time. Even smaller, Philadelphia contained only 2,200 at the turn of the century. Why were most of these cities in the North?
Standard form of indenture for an Apprentice, Virginia, 1659

- Standard form of Indenture for a male Apprentice, Virginia, 1659 and for a female apprentice, 1686.

In New England as well as the Chesapeake region, children were indentured as a means of teaching them a trade or as a means of seeing to their food and lodging if their parents were poor. In many cases, children were sent to other families to live, even if their own families had means. Some historians have argued that Puritans were afraid of spoiling their children and therefore did not trust themselves to have the children remain in their home. In some cases, a young person might end up indentured after signing a contract to finance a journey from England to North America. Some children also found themselves kidnapped in Britain and taken across the Atlantic to be sold. A lack of freedom and autonomy characterized the lives of most migrants to the southern colonies, where two-thirds disembarked as indentured servants, slaves, or convict laborers. What impact do you think the experience of indenture had upon the character of young people?
Harvard Laws and Statutes 1642 and 1700

- Harvard Laws and Statutes 1642 and 1700

Harvard, the first college in North America, was established in 1636. As the College Laws illustrate, a religious emphasis prevailed. Students who attended Harvard in its first years were expected to go into the ministry. In the seventeenth century, most children received their first instruction in their families, especially in the South, where dispersed settlement made town schools impractical. Using a primer or a Bible, fathers and mothers taught reading and scripture. Reading and writing was key to faith and religious observance; it was so important that, in 1647, the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed an act requiring towns of fifty households to hire a teacher and towns of more than one hundred households to create a grammar school. By the time of the Revolution, nine colleges existed in North America that served less than 1000 students. Only one college was in the South -- the College of William and Mary in Virginia, founded in 1693. How did Harvard’s rules change between 1642 and 1700? What do these changes say about the culture existing in both periods?
Cotton Mather on Education

- The Education of Children

As Cotton Mather’s exhortation on the education of children illustrates, Puritans were concerned that the next generation might “sink apace; into a Degenerate and Contemptible Condition, and at last become horribly Barbarous.” Puritans were convinced a pious education was the path to a good society. Even before a second generation had come of age, the Massachusetts General Court addressed a fear that fathers were not adequately disciplining and educating children. In 1648, the Court ordered that fathers provide the catechism for their children and servants at least once a week, and the Connecticut Court did the same in 1650. Church membership began to decline in the late seventeenth century, a fact that led to the preaching of “jeremiads,” long lamentations on the next generation. As new generations came of age in New England, movement to the frontier or to new seaports drew children away from parental control. Fearful of this loss of authority, new statutes were evoked, such as a 1672 Massachusetts law forbidding young men and women to “uncivilly” walk in streets and fields on Saturday and Sunday nights. What would have been the differences between life as a youth in Virginia and life as a youth in Massachusetts?