Lindsey Momberg
Mrs. Zipp
United States History
2/3/2015
Maturing Colonies
The Maturing Colonies began in the 18th century. The population effected the country and the men took care of the land while immigrants brought many skills to the economy. The property law was in effect and
The population effected the country as a whole. The larger families are what expanded most of the population, and the life expectancy grew. Benjamin Franklin1 was the 10th child in his family. John Marshall, who was to become the greatest Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, had 14 brothers and sisters. The life expectancy of people who lived in the northern colonies was higher than those in the southern colonies. Diseases killed many but those who survived lived a long life. Men were likely to live longer than married women. This was because of the many dangers of childbirth. The puerperal fever as going around and no one expected it to hit them. It was caused by not washing the germs off your hands and staying sanitary. Most of the Indian slaves passed directly after going to work on the plantation. No growth occurred in the black population because of this. Many famous people were a part of the population.
The property was owned by the men and they took care of the land unless they had slaves. The farmers owned one or a few black “servants.” Dutch wives owned the property jointly with their husbands. If the wife passed, she would inherited the land. Others had a coverture where the eldest man in the house was the head of the household. Only in some cases were the women head of the household. Virginia, Maryland, and South Carolina carried the laws that the oldest son would inherit the land, unless there was no sons and in that case the eldest daughter would get the land. This law was called the primogeniture and it only took place if the head of the household passed without leaving a will. Wealthy people took the time to write their will’s and leave different things to different people. Many violent crimes were committed. Rape was a common crime but hardly anyone was convicted because they usually went unreported. When they were reported, no one was ever convicted. The age of consent was 10 but was upped to no higher than 14 by the colonial assemblies. In the meantime, husbands were severely punished for beating their wives. A woman could sue her husband for divorce if he committed adultery, incest, or if he was absent for 7 years or more. A major crime with women was infanticide. Twenty women were accused and charged with murdering their infants. Only one of those twenty women were convicted of this crime. The most well-known case of infanticide was after the independence. The member of the top Randolph family had to demand to be charged, or so he thought he did, and clear his name. But even after he was cleared, he and the mother were never to live down the mistrust of them. Most child births happened illegally. Even one third of the children were in the mother’s womb when the mother was getting married.
The colonial population explosion was fed by immigration. Many enslaved Africans were imported with numbers increasing up to 20,000 a year. 8 percent of slaves were the population of Pennsylvania. 3 percent of slaves were the population of Massachusetts. Slavery grew in the colonies. The number of blacks grew from 4000 to 42,000 in 43 years. Rhode Island was the capital of the slave trade and 900 different ships of Great Britain’s Royal African Company were involved in it. About 400,000 Europeans came as indentured servants to the mainland colonies between 1700 and 1776. It cost about a year’s income for a common laborer to pay for the ticket to pay their way. For others with more prudent jobs, it was harder and almost impossible to pay their way. Rebellions occurred and many blacks were convicted of crimes they didn’t commit. In 1741, many fires occurred and the New York authorities took it out on a group of slaves, free blacks, and deprived whites. Most of the 18th century German immigrants were Lutherans, although there was a Catholic smaller amount them. When it comes to immigrants, they brought many skills to the colonies. Many came to farm while others were shopkeepers and skilled artisans. They brought different foods to the colonies. The Scotch-Irish came to America and headed west to the frontier. Their accent was called “hillbilly.” The lowland Scots were Presbyterians that King James I had brought to Northern Ireland. They attracted them by giving them land that was stolen from the native Irish. The native Irish were mainly Catholics. After joining the British war, the difficulties brought them to North America where they became hostile. Few immigrants were shunned and in result, a Presbyterian church that the Scotch-Irish were building, was burned down by a mob of angry people. This was because Cotton Mather criticized them as “formidable attempts of Satan and his sons to unsettle us.” He was New England’s most valued minister and so everyone assumed everything he said was true. Everything was done by the immigrants.