Colonization, Revolution, and the New Republic: Beginnings to 1860

Description

Written in engaging and accessible prose by experts in the field, this reference introduces readers to the "hidden" history of women in America from its beginnings to 1860, bringing their achievements to light and helping them gain the recognition they deserve. 

Chapters include:

• Arts and Literature


• Business


• Education


• Entertainment


• Family


• Health


• Politics


• Science and Medicine


• Society.

Sujets

• 19th Century
• Histoire
• Women
• América
• New Republic
• History of the United States
• Woman
• The Women
• American
• The New Republic
• United States
• History
• American History
• Colonization

Informations

• Publié par: Infobase Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 février 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438183213
• Langue: English

Extrait

Colonization, Revolution, and the New Republic: Beginnings to 1860
Copyright © 2020 by Infobase
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information, contact:
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ISBN 978-1-4381-8321-3
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Contents Chapters Women in American History during the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras Women in Society during the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras Women s Health during the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras Women s Education during the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras Women in Politics during the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras Women in Science and Medicine during the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras Women in the Arts and Literature during the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras Women in Business during the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras Women in Entertainment during the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras Women and Family during the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras
Chapters
Women in American History during the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras

Many of the the earliest peoples who arrived in North America came across a land bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska around 40,000 B.C.E. and spread throughout the continent and into South America. They were hunter/gatherers who gradually settled down and developed regional cultures and languages before European contact. North America featured smaller, less complex Native-American civilizations than those of Central and South America. The Norsemen (Scandinavians) were the first Europeans to reach North America, attempting a settlement known as Vinland around 1000 C.E. By the mid-14th century, European advances in navigation and shipbuilding, the invention of gunpowder, the revival of trade with the Indies, and the rise of the nation-state renewed European interest in exploration and discovery. Spain hired Christopher Columbus to find an overseas trade route to the Indies, and Columbus believed he had succeeded in 1492 when he landed in the Bahamas, naming the native inhabitants "Indians."
Colonial settlement followed a number of other early explorers and included the Dutch in New Netherland, the French in New France (Canada) and Louisiana, and the Spanish in Florida. The Spanish city of St. Augustine, Florida, was the first permanent European settlement in the present-day United States. The 13 original British colonies in mainland North America formed the core of the later United States. European colonial powers viewed colonies as valuable sources of raw materials and markets for goods, a theory known as mercantilism. Both male and female colonists were young and searching for wealth, land, opportunity, and a haven from religious persecution. The merging of two worlds, the European and the Native American, resulted in the transfer of plants, animals, and diseases called the Columbian Exchange.
Women are largely absent from the historical record of early America. Until recent times, women's history in the period was denied a place in history books. In colonial historical records women often appear in church records as the "wife of," without first names or any reference to their family origin. However, that women were not included in historical records did not mean that they were not active and decisive participants in both the Native-American settlement and later European colonization of North America.
The British Colonies in the 17th Century
The British colonies were grouped into three main regions: New England (the northern colonies), the mid-Atlantic (the middle colonies), and the south (the southern colonies). The New England region included Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maine. The mid-Atlantic region included Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. The southern region included Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Sir Walter Raleigh founded the first British settlement in North America at Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina in 1587, but the settlement had mysteriously vanished by the time Raleigh sent a re-supplying expedition the following year. The south was also the site of the first permanent settlement.
The joint stock London Company of Virginia founded the first permanent British settlement at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. Jamestown experienced numerous difficulties, including the idleness of gentlemen colonists, a lack of female settlers, a swampy location that led to illness, harsh winters such as the "starving time" of 1609–10, and sometimes difficult relations with the Powhatan Indians, including a 1622 attack led by Opechancanough that left hundreds dead. Strong leaders such as Captain John Smith, and John Rolfe's discovery of a form of tobacco that proved popular in Europe, helped ensure the colony's survival. Other key early events included the 1619 establishment of the House of Burgesses, the first colonial legislature, and the colony's transfer to royal control in 1624.
Jamestown Women
The first settlers of Jamestown were aristocrats, soldiers, merchants, and artisans, but no woman took part in the expedition. The absence of women in the early years of the Jamestown colony made it necessary that women be "imported." If the Virginia Company were to set up a proper colony, leaders realized that they needed to promote the addition of women to the colony. Promotional tracts and pamphlets encouraging settlers to the area were specifically written with a female audience in mind to lure women into the colony. Advertisements published in Great Britain encouraging women to immigrate to Jamestown promised good marriage prospects in contrast to their situations at home. One such advertisement read that "if any Maid or single Woman have a desire to go over, they will think themselves in the Golden Age, when Men paid a Dowry for their Wives; for if they be but civil, and under fifty years of Age, some honest Man or other will purchase them for their Wives." When the first women arrived in Jamestown, there were already around 200 men in the colony. In the early years of the colony, men outnumbered women six to one; among the newcomers, one out of three were women, most of whom were indentured servants. The scarcity and desirability of women thus prompted immediate marriages between newly arrived women and colonists.
In contrast to the rigid gender division that arose in the New England area, in Virginia and the other southern colonies the need to concentrate on sheer survival diminished the enforcement of laws and moral rules about gender division and gender moral propriety. The high mortality rates making it likely that a father might die and not be around to control his family's affairs, along with the imbalanced sex ratio, contributed to preventing the rapid establishment of a patriarchal system in the Chesapeake region.
Whereas their Puritan counterparts were denied a voice in local politics, women played an important role in southern politics. During Bacon's Rebellion in 1675–76 against the governor of the colony, women contributed to the war effort by serving as members of war and strategy planning councils. Additionally, in a time characterized by scarce or non-existent communication methods, women spread the word about military progress, keeping citizens and armies informed of the development of the fight.
The South
The Carolinas colony began with the establishment of Charles Towne and was later divided into North and South Carolina. General James Oglethorpe founded Georgia as a debtors' refuge in 1732. The south consisted of mostly isolated farms and plantations. There were few cities, although Williamsburg, Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina, among others, gained prominence. Diseases and high death rates had kept population growth low in the 17th-century south, but reduced death rates led to the 18th-century development of a native-born population and a more equal balance between men and women. Key crops included tobacco, rice, and indigo. Key industries included the production of naval stores, tar, pitch, resin, and turpentine.
As the southern colonies expanded, tensions between established eastern communities and the newer western frontier settlements developed over Native-American policy and other issues. In Virginia, these tensions erupted into Bacon's Rebellion as frontier leader Nathaniel Bacon clashed with Governor William Berkeley. Jamestown was burned before Bacon died and the rebellion disintegrated. Agricultural development of cash crops led to a need for a large labor force, first met by indentured servants and redemptioners who worked for set terms in order to pay for passage to the New World. The use of African slaves began with the arrival of a Dutch slaving ship in Jamestown in 1619, although the considerable expense of slaves coupled with high death rates meant that the institution would not become widespread until the late 17th century.
New England
The New England region was the next to be settled, primarily for religious reasons. After the Protestant Reformation of the 1520s, British King Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church. The Anglican Church (Church of England) was formed shortly thereafter. Two groups of people who felt the Anglican Church held too many Catholic remnants were the Puritans, who wished to purify the church from within, and the Separatists, who renounced the church. A Separatist group known as the Pilgrims fled religious persecution, first settling in the Netherlands, and then sailing to America aboard the Mayflower . After creating a civil government known as the Mayflower Compact, the Pilgrims established Plymouth colony in 1620 under Governor William Bradford. Friendl