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British settlement in North America, 1713 to 41

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Britain's American colonies grew fast on trade, tobacco and slavery. Pirates, slave resistance and smuggling challenged British control.

Colonial society and trade

Settlement spread as the population grew, causing tension over land with Indigenous peoples.
The colonies traded with Britain and the West Indies. Tobacco from Virginia and Maryland was the most valuable export.
Pirates such as Blackbeard attacked shipping. King George I's Proclamation (September 1717) offered a pardon to pirates who surrendered within a year. Parliament's Piracy Act (1717), passed in March 1718, was mainly a law for transporting convicts to America, but it also set out how pirates should be put on trial. Pirates found guilty could be hanged.
Governor Spotswood of Virginia sent a force that killed Blackbeard in November 1718.

Slavery

The transatlantic slave trade formed part of the Atlantic trade triangle: goods from Britain to Africa, enslaved Africans across the Atlantic (the Middle Passage), and colonial produce back to Britain.
Plantations growing tobacco and rice depended on enslaved labour. Colonies passed harsh slave codes, and people who escaped were hunted and punished.

Problems in the colonies

Stono Rebellion (1739): enslaved people in South Carolina rose up and marched towards Spanish Florida, where Spain offered freedom. It was crushed, and stricter laws followed.
New York Conspiracy (1741): after a series of fires, authorities claimed a plot by enslaved people and poor white people. Many were executed.
Smuggling was widespread, for example of molasses from French islands, and Britain struggled to collect customs revenue.
Worked example

Explain why the Stono Rebellion (1739) was significant.

  1. It was the largest rising by enslaved people in the British colonies at that time.
  2. Rebels headed for Spanish Florida, showing the threat of Spain offering freedom.
  3. It led South Carolina to pass much stricter controls on enslaved people.

Answer: It showed fear of revolt and Spanish influence, and led to harsher laws.

Key idea

Growth, trade with Britain and the West Indies, tobacco. Pirates: Blackbeard; George I's Proclamation (pardon) and the Piracy Act (1717); Spotswood's force killed Blackbeard in 1718. Atlantic trade triangle, Middle Passage, plantations, slave codes. Stono 1739; New York Conspiracy 1741; smuggling.

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