The West Indies and the Southern colonies

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The West Indies and the Southern colonies

[Instructor] When we think of British colonies in the Americas before 1776 we tend to think of the 13 colonies.

Those colonies that were located along the eastern seaboard of North America and which rebelled as a group in the American Revolution.

But if you were standing in London say 1770, and you were thinking about British colonies in the New World.

It's more likely that your thoughts would have turned to the Caribbean what they called the West Indies and the sugar islands of Jamaica or Barbados than say the colony of New Jersey.

Because even though this was quite a gigantic swath of territory these tiny little islands in the Caribbean were incredibly profitable for English investors.

Because sugar was a commodity that fetched very high prices in the Colonial Era.

In this video I want to focus on the southern colonies and the British colonies in the Caribbean which although they were somewhat separated in land.

Got them next to each other here but kinda imagine that this is the tip of Florida.

So that belongs down here and all these little islands in the Caribbean are far to the south of mainland North America.

So what united these colonies even though they were divided in geography is that they were plantation colonies.

They were in southern or tropical regions which meant that they had long growing seasons that made them ideal for planting cash crops.

That is crops that are specifically grown to be sold.

Now we've already talked a little bit about the crops of Virginia, which would be tobacco but in this video I want to talk a little bit more about two other crops.

Sugar, which was grown in the Caribbean and rice, which was grown in the Carolinas.

Growing these cash crops for export was the main focus of these colonies and their social structures were organized around producing those cash crops.

So let's talk bout sugar.

Now we hardly think about consuming sugar in our tea or coffee today but in the Colonial Era it was an incredible luxury and it commanded very high prices.

One of the reasons for this is because sugar was extremely labor intensive to make.

The sugarcane plant is actually indigenous to Asia but Europeans brought it to the New World with the hopes of turning it into a cash crop.

They planted it in the tropical areas of the Caribbean and then they imported enslaved Africans to work on their sugar plantations.

Now you can see a little bit in these two prints of what sugar processing was like.

You would have to grow the cane stalks press the juice from them boil the juice until it created crystals.

Sugar processing happened 24/7, and unlike tobacco you really had to be very wealthy to grow sugar because it required a huge capital investment upfront.

You had to buy a lot of land and grow a lot of sugarcane and get a lot of machinery if you hoped to produce enough to make a profit.

So a handful of very wealthy plantation owners who mostly stayed in England because the tropical diseases of the Caribbean were too likely to kill them off.

These sugar barons had unimaginable wealth.

The tobacco planters of Virginia were nothing compared to them.

And they were ruthless about turning a profit.

In fact they thought that it would be more profitable in the event of the deaths of enslaved people from overwork or disease or some kind of accident in sugar processing to just replace enslaved workers rather than make their work less dangerous.

Growing sugar was so profitable that the Caribbean islands which were so small, couldn't even spare room to grow food.

They imported all their food from elsewhere so that every square inch of arable land in the Caribbean could be used to grow sugar.

Now with so many enslaved people coming into the Caribbean by the mid 1600s, enslaved Africans in the Caribbean far outnumbered white people.

And consequently the white slave owners became increasingly fearful of slave uprisings.

So plantation owners who were of course, in control of the colonial government began to crack down on enslaved people codifying the racial status of enslaved Africans.

In 1661, Barbados passed a slave code that was incredibly harsh.

I won't go into all of it here but the gist of it was that the lives of enslaved Africans were to be very closely monitored.

They would require passes to travel.

They had no legal rights.

And if a slave owner maimed or killed an enslaved person there would be no repercussions for that violence or death.

We will see aspects of the Barbados Slave Act in the statutes passed in the southern mainland colonies and later southern states in the United states.

And although we tend to think of plantation slavery generally looking like the slavery.

We would see later in Georgia or South Carolina large cotton plantations for the vast majority of enslaved Africans.

Their experience would have been much more like what we saw in the Caribbean.

In fact, 90 percent of all enslaved people were sent to the Caribbean or South America.

Only a little over 300,000 would be sent to mainland North America.

So if you're looking for the most typical experience of slavery from the point of view of the people who lived it life on the sugar plantation was a much more likely prospect than life on a cotton plantation.

In fact it was English planters in the Caribbean who decided that they might strike north to create a new plantation colony which they called Carolina after the English King Charles.

Now Carolina was founded as one big colony in 1670, but by 1712 it was separated into two colonies North Carolina and South Carolina.

And the wealthy plantation owners who founded Charles Town also named after King Charles brought most of the aspects of plantation slavery they had picked up in the Caribbean with them.

The Pass System, the lack of legal rights the lack of repercussions for whites.

One main difference, however was that in the Carolinas rice cultivation took the place of sugar cultivation as the main cash crop.

Plantation owners quickly discovered that many West Africans had worked on their own rice farms before enslavement.

And so they particularly wished to purchase West Africans to work on rice plantations.

This is an image here of a rice plantation.

Obviously, this a photograph so it would be from a couple hundred years after the settlement of the Carolinas but I think it gives you a sense of what rice cultivation looked like.

I want to finish by just briefly talking about the colonies of Maryland and Georgia which were also plantation colonies.

But I've grouped them together because they were both founded for altruistic reasons.

They were proprietary colonies originally like Pennsylvania, for example meaning that they were the possessions of one person rather than a company or the crown.

Maryland was founded in 1632 by an English catholic named Lord Baltimore who wanted to create a haven of religious freedom for Catholics in North America.

In 1649, Maryland passed the law concerning religion also known as the Maryland Act of Toleration which extended religious toleration to everyone who believed in Jesus.

So all Protestants, all Catholics but on the flip side it prescribed death for anyone who did not believe in Jesus like Jews or Atheists.

Georgia was founded a century later in 1732 by an English humanitarian named James Oglethorpe.

And Oglethorpe was trying to reform prisons.

In England people who couldn't pay their debts were thrown into debtors' prison which was kind of silly because when they were in prison they didn't have the opportunity to try to make money to pay back their debts.

So Oglethorpe founded the colony of Georgia with the idea that people who were suffering from debt could go to this new colony and work it off.

And for that reason he also outlawed slavery in the early years of Georgia's existence but by about 1750 the pressure to include slaves in the Georgia economy so that it could keep up with South Carolina, for example, grew too great.

And so slavery was permitted.

So although the colonies of the West Indies and the southern part of North America were in different places.

And sometimes founded for different reasons they were all united by the fact that they relied on slavery.

And in many cases had a much larger enslaved African population than white population.

And they focused for their economies on plantation agriculture.

Now you'll notice that in this video I haven't spent much time talking about the experiences of enslaved African people.

And that's because I want to devote another video to that.

So check out our video on Atlantic slavery.

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The West Indies and the Southern colonies발음듣기

[Instructor] When we think of British colonies in the Americas before 1776 we tend to think of the 13 colonies.발음듣기

Those colonies that were located along the eastern seaboard of North America and which rebelled as a group in the American Revolution.발음듣기

But if you were standing in London say 1770, and you were thinking about British colonies in the New World.발음듣기

It's more likely that your thoughts would have turned to the Caribbean what they called the West Indies and the sugar islands of Jamaica or Barbados than say the colony of New Jersey.발음듣기

Because even though this was quite a gigantic swath of territory these tiny little islands in the Caribbean were incredibly profitable for English investors.발음듣기

Because sugar was a commodity that fetched very high prices in the Colonial Era.발음듣기

In this video I want to focus on the southern colonies and the British colonies in the Caribbean which although they were somewhat separated in land.발음듣기

Got them next to each other here but kinda imagine that this is the tip of Florida.발음듣기

So that belongs down here and all these little islands in the Caribbean are far to the south of mainland North America.발음듣기

So what united these colonies even though they were divided in geography is that they were plantation colonies.발음듣기

They were in southern or tropical regions which meant that they had long growing seasons that made them ideal for planting cash crops.발음듣기

That is crops that are specifically grown to be sold.발음듣기

Now we've already talked a little bit about the crops of Virginia, which would be tobacco but in this video I want to talk a little bit more about two other crops.발음듣기

Sugar, which was grown in the Caribbean and rice, which was grown in the Carolinas.발음듣기

Growing these cash crops for export was the main focus of these colonies and their social structures were organized around producing those cash crops.발음듣기

So let's talk bout sugar.발음듣기

Now we hardly think about consuming sugar in our tea or coffee today but in the Colonial Era it was an incredible luxury and it commanded very high prices.발음듣기

One of the reasons for this is because sugar was extremely labor intensive to make.발음듣기

The sugarcane plant is actually indigenous to Asia but Europeans brought it to the New World with the hopes of turning it into a cash crop.발음듣기

They planted it in the tropical areas of the Caribbean and then they imported enslaved Africans to work on their sugar plantations.발음듣기

Now you can see a little bit in these two prints of what sugar processing was like.발음듣기

You would have to grow the cane stalks press the juice from them boil the juice until it created crystals.발음듣기

Sugar processing happened 24/7, and unlike tobacco you really had to be very wealthy to grow sugar because it required a huge capital investment upfront.발음듣기

You had to buy a lot of land and grow a lot of sugarcane and get a lot of machinery if you hoped to produce enough to make a profit.발음듣기

So a handful of very wealthy plantation owners who mostly stayed in England because the tropical diseases of the Caribbean were too likely to kill them off.발음듣기

These sugar barons had unimaginable wealth.발음듣기

The tobacco planters of Virginia were nothing compared to them.발음듣기

And they were ruthless about turning a profit.발음듣기

In fact they thought that it would be more profitable in the event of the deaths of enslaved people from overwork or disease or some kind of accident in sugar processing to just replace enslaved workers rather than make their work less dangerous.발음듣기

Growing sugar was so profitable that the Caribbean islands which were so small, couldn't even spare room to grow food.발음듣기

They imported all their food from elsewhere so that every square inch of arable land in the Caribbean could be used to grow sugar.발음듣기

Now with so many enslaved people coming into the Caribbean by the mid 1600s, enslaved Africans in the Caribbean far outnumbered white people.발음듣기

And consequently the white slave owners became increasingly fearful of slave uprisings.발음듣기

So plantation owners who were of course, in control of the colonial government began to crack down on enslaved people codifying the racial status of enslaved Africans.발음듣기

In 1661, Barbados passed a slave code that was incredibly harsh.발음듣기

I won't go into all of it here but the gist of it was that the lives of enslaved Africans were to be very closely monitored.발음듣기

They would require passes to travel.발음듣기

They had no legal rights.발음듣기

And if a slave owner maimed or killed an enslaved person there would be no repercussions for that violence or death.발음듣기

We will see aspects of the Barbados Slave Act in the statutes passed in the southern mainland colonies and later southern states in the United states.발음듣기

And although we tend to think of plantation slavery generally looking like the slavery.발음듣기

We would see later in Georgia or South Carolina large cotton plantations for the vast majority of enslaved Africans.발음듣기

Their experience would have been much more like what we saw in the Caribbean.발음듣기

In fact, 90 percent of all enslaved people were sent to the Caribbean or South America.발음듣기

Only a little over 300,000 would be sent to mainland North America.발음듣기

So if you're looking for the most typical experience of slavery from the point of view of the people who lived it life on the sugar plantation was a much more likely prospect than life on a cotton plantation.발음듣기

In fact it was English planters in the Caribbean who decided that they might strike north to create a new plantation colony which they called Carolina after the English King Charles.발음듣기

Now Carolina was founded as one big colony in 1670, but by 1712 it was separated into two colonies North Carolina and South Carolina.발음듣기

And the wealthy plantation owners who founded Charles Town also named after King Charles brought most of the aspects of plantation slavery they had picked up in the Caribbean with them.발음듣기

The Pass System, the lack of legal rights the lack of repercussions for whites.발음듣기

One main difference, however was that in the Carolinas rice cultivation took the place of sugar cultivation as the main cash crop.발음듣기

Plantation owners quickly discovered that many West Africans had worked on their own rice farms before enslavement.발음듣기

And so they particularly wished to purchase West Africans to work on rice plantations.발음듣기

This is an image here of a rice plantation.발음듣기

Obviously, this a photograph so it would be from a couple hundred years after the settlement of the Carolinas but I think it gives you a sense of what rice cultivation looked like.발음듣기

I want to finish by just briefly talking about the colonies of Maryland and Georgia which were also plantation colonies.발음듣기

But I've grouped them together because they were both founded for altruistic reasons.발음듣기

They were proprietary colonies originally like Pennsylvania, for example meaning that they were the possessions of one person rather than a company or the crown.발음듣기

Maryland was founded in 1632 by an English catholic named Lord Baltimore who wanted to create a haven of religious freedom for Catholics in North America.발음듣기

In 1649, Maryland passed the law concerning religion also known as the Maryland Act of Toleration which extended religious toleration to everyone who believed in Jesus.발음듣기

So all Protestants, all Catholics but on the flip side it prescribed death for anyone who did not believe in Jesus like Jews or Atheists.발음듣기

Georgia was founded a century later in 1732 by an English humanitarian named James Oglethorpe.발음듣기

And Oglethorpe was trying to reform prisons.발음듣기

In England people who couldn't pay their debts were thrown into debtors' prison which was kind of silly because when they were in prison they didn't have the opportunity to try to make money to pay back their debts.발음듣기

So Oglethorpe founded the colony of Georgia with the idea that people who were suffering from debt could go to this new colony and work it off.발음듣기

And for that reason he also outlawed slavery in the early years of Georgia's existence but by about 1750 the pressure to include slaves in the Georgia economy so that it could keep up with South Carolina, for example, grew too great.발음듣기

And so slavery was permitted.발음듣기

So although the colonies of the West Indies and the southern part of North America were in different places.발음듣기

And sometimes founded for different reasons they were all united by the fact that they relied on slavery.발음듣기

And in many cases had a much larger enslaved African population than white population.발음듣기

And they focused for their economies on plantation agriculture.발음듣기

Now you'll notice that in this video I haven't spent much time talking about the experiences of enslaved African people.발음듣기

And that's because I want to devote another video to that.발음듣기

So check out our video on Atlantic slavery.발음듣기

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