taken of the acts of navigation . . . all nations having full liberty to come into their ports and vend their commodities."

A valuable trade, in which the French competed, was that with the Indian tribes of the interior. In time of peace, the traders circulated through the frontiers both north and south with their pack horses loaded with blankets, powder and ball, guns, red cloth, hatchets, knives, scissors, kettles, paints, looking-glasses, tobacco, beads, and "brandy, which the Indians value above all other goods that can be brought them."

76. Privateers and pirates

Several dangers hovered over the colonial seafarer. In time of maritime war, especially after 1700, the cruisers and privateers of the enemy picked up many merchant vessels. On the other hand, the colonies furnished several fleets to attack the French; and their little merchantmen were easily converted into privateers to prey on the commerce of the enemy. It was an exciting kind of gambling, for the privateer was about as likely to be taken as to take; but a successful cruise brought home plenty of captured cargoes for the owner and prize money for the crew.

Pirates abounded in all the seas, and especially in the West Indies, where they had several stations. The methods were very simple: peaceful merchantmen often turned pirates with or without the consent of the master of the ship; the boldest man was captain until some of his sailors killed him; ships were impartially plundered, the crew sometimes allowed to escape, but the passengers frequently compelled "to walk the plank." A pirate ship could live for many months at sea on its captures.

After all, piracy was a poor barbarous trade of murder and rapine, leading to a bad end. In 1718 Colonel Rhett of South Carolina sailed out and overwhelmed Captain Bonnet and his force of cutthroats. In the same year Teach, or Blackbeard, a ruffian who blackened his face and colored his beard, was visited without invitation by two cruisers sent out by Governor

Spotswood of Virginia, which brought home Teach's head stuck on a bowsprit. Governor Fletcher of New York gave commissions to pirates visiting the city and sold protection to individual pirates at a hundred dollars apiece; but his pirate friend Captain Kidd was at last hanged in chains in London.

77. Summary

Land

The thing most important to remember about the English colonists is that down to about 1700 they looked upon themselves simply as a body of English people living across the sea; but that the new conditions made their life very different from that of their brethren across the water. was cheap, and therefore there were no hard and fast distinctions like those in England between the aristocratic landowner, the middle-class farmer, and the lower-class laborer. Food and material for plain clothing abounded, and therefore there was no grinding poverty like that of England. Rude labor was much needed, and therefore slaves were introduced into the colonies at the time when slavery died out in England. Population was scattered, and the colonists were distant from the intellectual and literary life of the home country, and hence their literature was limited and commonplace.

Commercial life was active and eager; the colonists were good shipbuilders, bold sailors, and successful merchants. Down to 1700 the English restrictions on trade were slight, and after that time they were evaded. In general, the colonies were happy, progressive, and prosperous little communities.

TOPICS

(1) Growth of colonial population from 1607 to 1763. Suggestive (2) List of contemporary writers who described colonial industries topics and life from 1607 to 1689. (3) Colonial writers of verse. (4) Treatment of supposed witches outside of New England. (5) Introduction of slaves into New England. (6) Phips's discovery of treasure. (7) What goods were "enumerated"? (8) Why did the colonists smuggle? (9) Witchcraft at Salem.

Search topics

Geography Secondary authorities

Sources

Illustrative works

Pictures

(10) French Huguenots in the English colonies. (11) Ladies' dress in the colonies. (12) Life in some colonial college before 1750. (13) The tithing master in church. (14) Slave life in Virginia, 1619-1750. (15) A pirate's life. (16) Instances of smuggling. (17) Schools in the South. (18) List of colonial churches built before 1700 and still standing. (19) Studies and school books in early colonial times. (20) A New England Sabbath.

REFERENCES

Semple, Geographic Conditions, 114–132.

Thwaites, Colonies, §§ 23, 40-45, 75-80, 91-96; Fisher, Colonial Era, 56-61, 74, 164–176, 207–211, 313-320; Lodge, English Colonies, chs. ii. iv. vi. viii. x. xiii. xvii. xxii.; Fiske, Old Virginia, II. 1– 30, 116-130, 174-269, 308-369, — Dutch and Quaker Colonies, II. 62-98, 222-235, 258-293, 317-356; Doyle, English in America, I. 381-395, II. 1-10, III. 1-8, 14-97, 323-337, 377-395; Bruce, Virginia, I. 189-634, II.; Weeden, New England, I. 47-314, 330-378, 387-447, II. 449-472, 492-606; Stockton, Buccaneers and Pirates; McCrady, South Carolina, I. 251-263, 341-363, 564-567, 586-623, II. 376–540; Tyler, American Literature (Colonial); Locke, Antislavery, 9-45; Wendell, Cotton Mather, 88–307.

Hart, Contemporaries, I. §§ 85-89, 137-149, 168, 172, II. §§ 16-18, 25, 28, 32, 34, 35, 45, 46, 80-87, 90-108, Source Book, §§ 11, 12, 28-35, 41, 43-47, — Source Readers, I. §§ 14-17, 22, 24, 39, 50-54, 66-83, II. 1-23, 55; MacDonald, Select Charters, nos. 22, 23, 25, 28, 34, 43, 50; American History Leaflets, no. 19; Caldwell, Survey, 13-22, 126-132; Samuel Sewall, Diary. See N. Eng. Hist. Teachers' Ass'n, Syllabus, 313-315, Historical Sources, § 74. Longfellow, Giles Corey; Whittier, Mabel Martin, - Prophecy of Samuel Sewall, Witch of Wenham; A. M. Earle, Home Life in Colonial Days, Child Life in Colonial Days, Colonial Dames, - Sabbath in Puritan New England, — Customs and Fashions in Old New England, Stage-Coach and Tavern Days, Two Centuries of Costume, Curious Punishments; J. de F. Shelton, Salt-Box House, 1-149; C. G. DuBois, Martha Corey (witchcraft); Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter, Old News, pt. i. ; Cooper, Satanstoe (N.Y.); P. H. Meyers, Young Patroon (N.Y.); Marion Harland, His Great Self (Col. Byrd); Stockton, Kate Bonnet (pirates); Stevenson, Treasure Island (pirates); J. H. Ingraham, Captain Kyd; J. E. Cooke, Youth of Jefferson (college life). Mrs. Earle's books mentioned above; Sparks, Expansion ; Wilson, American People, I. II.; Edward Eggleston in The Century, 1884, 1885.

CHAPTER VII.

INTERNAL DEVELOPMENT, 1689-1740

78. Reor

ganization nies (1689

of the colo

ONE of the tasks of King William's government was to reorganize the colonies. He gave Massachusetts Bay a new charter (October 7, 1691) by which Maine was retained, Plymouth was annexed, and the governor was appointed by the king: all Christian worship except the Catholic was to be tolerated; New Hampshire, which had reunited itself to Massachusetts, was again separated. Connecticut and Rhode Island went back to their former liberal charters, and were the only colonies allowed to elect their governors.

1729)

PHILADELPHIA ABOUT 1740. (From an old print.)

In the middle colonies the proprietary charter of New York had been surrendered (1685) when the proprietor became king, and that of the combined Jerseys was yielded in 1702. Penn was deprived of his proprietorship of Pennsylvania for a year (1693-1694), and came near selling his patent to the crown in 1712. Delaware was separated from Pennsylvania in 1703, though the two still had the same governor appointed by the proprietor.

The same policy of harassing the proprietary governments was followed in the South. Maryland in 1691 was for a time made a province, or royal colony, but the proprietorship was restored to the Baltimores later. The people of the Carolinas formed an association to oppose the proprietors, who in 1729 gave way, and sold their claims to the crown; and the British government (p. 126) thereupon organized the two separate colonies of North Carolina and South Carolina.

Between South Carolina and Florida in 1732 was set up the new chartered colony of Georgia, extending from the Savannah 79. Settle- River to the Altamaha; and from the sources of those ment of rivers westward to the South Sea. The leader of the Georgia (1732-1752) enterprise was James Oglethorpe, a man of high philanthropic spirit, whose announced purpose was to form a Christian commonwealth. The first settlement was made at Savannah (1733); besides colonists from England, Protestant exiles came over from the principality of Salzburg in the Austrian Alps; and German Moravians, Protestant Scotch Highlanders, and Jews soon moved in.

The three fundamental principles of the new colony were that slavery should not be permitted, that rum should be excluded, and that there should be complete religious toleration. The trustees tried to start silk culture and wine making, but the crop which was most cultivated on the coast was rice, for which the planters insisted that they must have slaves; and at last, in order to compete with South Carolina, the trustees gave way. Still the colony was not prosperous; and the trustees, disappointed in both moral and pecuniary return for their investment, surrendered their proprietorship to the home government (1752).

80. Bound

The boundaries between the colonies were in many cases in controversy. Virginia and North Carolina ran their "Dividing Line" the present boundary in 1728. The question, which branch of the upper Potomac separated

ary contro- viding Line"

versies