Unit 2: Colonial America (1607-1754)

Jamestown

Jamestown

• First permanent English settlement

• Many settlers died on the trip there, and those who survived fell to starvation or disease

• Settlers were not suited to life in the New World and were more interested in “gold”

Captain John Smith

• English explorer who helped found and govern Virginia

• Imposed a regime of forced labor; helped the colony get through its first winter (the “starving times”)

• Injured in a gunpowder accident and was forced to return → VA continued to suffer after

Headright System

• Established by the Virginia Company to attract new settlers and address labor shortages

• Granted 50 acres of land to colonists and any servants they brought if they paid for their passage to the Chesapeake

Indentured Servants

• Free passage to the New World in exchange for 7 years’ labor

• After gaining freedom, many were supplied with a small piece of property → opened a path to suffrage and land ownership

• Almost half didn’t fulfill their term, but a majority of men who migrated to the Chesapeake were indentured servants

House of Burgesses

• First elected assembly in colonial America, allowed any property-holding white male to vote

• All decisions still had to approved by the Virginia Company

Powhattan

• Algonkian chief

• Saw the Europeans as potential allies in his struggle against other Native groups

• Essentially saved the VA colony

Powhattan Confederacy

• Group of natives that initially supplied Jamestown with food, but stopped after John Smith was sent back to England

• Powhatan Wars → Earliest conflict over territorial disputes, first reservation lands

Opechancanough

• Powhattan’s brother → after his death, led an attack on the VA settlements in 1622

• Devastating massacre, led the VA Company to bankrupcy

• Forced Virginia to become a royal colony (i.e. under governance of the Crown)

Tobacco

• Economic salvation of the Virginia colony

• First planted by John Rolfe in 1611, then exported to England 6 years later

  • English demand grew steadily

• Labor: indentured servants (limited effectiveness) and slavery

• Success inspired further Chesapeake colonization

Maryland

• Founded by Cecilius Calvert (Lord Baltimore) as a haven colony for Catholics

  • Original intent was to govern autocratically, but eventuall modified to a legislative assembly

• Act of Toleration (1649) → protect religious freedom of most Christians

  • Didn’t stiop a bloody religious civil war from bubbling for the century

Bacon’s Rebellion

• 1676, Nathaniel Bacon

• Governer George Berkely refused to remove natives to open up land → led to series of attacks that turned into full rebellioin

• Basically a battle between the elite, but Bacon’s principles (removal of natives, reducing taxes, less power for elite) gained support from small farmers

  • • promised freedom and native lands to those who joined

• Bacon briefly became governor after destroying VA, but stopped after English warships came

  • After the rebellion ended and Bacon died, the government took large steps to consolidate their power

• Led to the promotion of race-based unity in order to consolidate poor white farmers

Slave Codes

• Slave population increased and more rebellions rose → more slave codes

• The implementation of a legal systemic order to limit slaves and free blacks’ rights

  • Restricted slaves’ movements and rights

  • No master was liable for a slave’s death due to punishment

  • Militias of common white planters promoted racial solidarity

  • Interratial marriage outlawed

• Allowed poor white farmers to be more privileged than blacks → racial solidarity among whites

Pilgrims

• Led by Willam Bradford

• Group of Separatists → Protestants who detached themselves from the Church of England and sought a safe haven in the New World

• Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 to Plymouth, where they established the first English settlement in New England

Mayflower Compact

• Signed when the Pilgrims were still aboard the Mayflower

• Document signed by the Pilgrims agreeing to majority-rule government

  • Consent of the governed, not God → different tone for social order in NE than VA

Puritans

• Sought to distance themselves from religious corruption in England

• Wanted to “purify” the Church of England of corruption and separatists

  • However, did not believe in religious freedom and punished dissenters

Squanto

• Tisquantum

• Previously captured as a slave and brought to Europe, where he learned English

• When the Pilgrims arrived, he became their interpreter

Massachusetts Bay Colony

• Established by the Puritans and John Winthrop in 1630

• Chartered by the Massachusettes Bay Company

• Had more resources and grew quicker than Plymout

  • Plymouth eventually absorbed into MA in 1691

• Religious and social vision often came at odds with settlers → leaders’ control conflicted with settlers’ desire to move into “freely available land”

City Upon a Hill

John Winthrop’s vision of MA → Puritans would be a model for others and spread righteousness throughout the world

Roger Williams

• Minister in the Salem Bay settlement in MA

• Separation of church and state (controversial) → banished by the Puritans

• Moved to Rhode Island and founded a new colony with freedom of religion in 1635

Thomas Hooker

• Led a group of followers away from MA and founded Connecticut in 1636

• Fundamental Orders → first written constitution in British North America

Anne Hutchinson

• Antinomanianism → God’s gifts were instilled mystically into each individual; Christians are not bound by moral law, rather by faith and God’s grace

• Started to attract a gathering, but was banished from MA to Rhode Island

Mary Dryer

• Followed Hutchinson to Rhode Island and converted to Quakerism

• When she returned to Boston in 1659 to preach Quakerism, she was publicly hanged

English Civil Wars

• King Charles I vs. Puritans

  • Puritan victory, England was ruled by Oliver Cromwell

• During Interrugnum (between wars), little motivation for Puritans to move to England, but resumed after

Pequot War

• People living in MA looked to move to CT, but it was already inhabited by Pequots

• Pequots attacked a settlement → Massachusetts Bay Colony responded by killing 400 peopl

  • Basically near destruction of the Pequots

• Made the same error as the Powhattans → saw the English as an ally

The Beaver Wars

• 1628-1701

• Iroquois Confederacy vs. French-backed Algonquian tribes over fur and fishing rights in the Great Lakes region

• Bloodiest in American history

Huron Confederacy

• 40,000 people, near Lake Ontaria

• Most died due to smallpox and then over conflicts for fur rights

• Allies with the French

Pueblo Revolt

• 1680

• Pueblo people in Mexico killed hundred of Spanish colonists and drove the rest out of the region

• Spanish eventually came back in 1692, but were much more accommodating

Chickasaw Wars

• 1721-1763

• Chickasaw (British) vs. Choctaw (French) over land around the Mississippi

• Had guns, only ended with the 1st Treaty of Paris

King Phillip’s Wa

• Americans intruded on Wampanoag territory, seeking to assimilate Native Americans to English culture → tribe leader Metacomet led attacks on settlements

• Destroyed many English settlements, but ran out of food + Metacomet died, so the alliance fell

• Marked the end of native prescence among NE colonists

Carolinas

• 1663 proprietary charter granted by Charles II

• Founders tried to establish their colony using the principles of feudalism (see Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina)

• South Carolina → majority slave population, rice crops which the slaves had experience growing in West Africa

• North Carolina → livestock, tobacco, lumber; less dependent on slave labor

• Split in 1701

Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina

• 1669, with the help of John Locke

• Outlined a complex government that limited political rights and land use

• 40% of land would always remain in the hands of a fereditary aristocracy

• Never became reality in America → settlers refused to accept the Fundamental Constitutions and the proprietors withdrew their power

Stono Uprising

• September 1739, South Carolina

• One of the most successful slave uprisings

• 20 slaves stole guns and ammunition, killed whites, and liberated other slaves → fled to Florida, but were caught and punished

• Increased white fear of slave rebellions

Georgia

• 1733, James Ogelthorpe, proprietary

• Proprietors tried to establish a utopian settlement, but the openness of conditions in American once again prevented it

• Initial: ban slavery and alcohol; economy revolves around silkworms

• 1750 → trustees abandoned the plan and left Georgia to develop on its own

Quakerism

• Began in England in the mid-1600s

• Believed the spirit of God was expressed through an “inner light,” rather than through an organized church

• Considered the Church of England corrupt, rejected social hierarchy, equality of man and woman, pacifists

William Penn

• Led a group of Quakers in 1674 to establish a settlement in West Jersey

  • Received a vast expanse of territory in 1681 → became Pennsylvania

• Utopian “peaceable kingdom” → religious freedom for Quakers and all religions; peaceable relations with Natives

• Attracted a number of immigrants, leading to harsher relations with natives

  • Multiethnic settlement

The Great Awakening

• Wave of religious revivalism in the colonies from 1730 to 1760

• Jonathann Edwards in MA

• George Whitefield → called peopled back to orthodox Calvinism

• Led to competition with different denominations → encouraged separation of Church and State

• Brought women into direct participation, founding of women’s colleges, egalitarian social outlook, first broadly American experience

Calvinism

• Most settlers of MA were strict Calvinists

• Belief in pre-destination, conversion, and god as the all-powerful and all-mighty

• “Protestant work ethic” → eventual development of a market economy

  • Set up the nation for the Civil War?

Mercantilism

• Economic life was direct competition for wealth against other nations

  • Most successful nation = the one with most exports and least imports

• Used colonies for their resources and as markets

• Government regulation of economy

Navigation Acts

• Established English control over colonial commerce

• 1660 → goods had to be shipped on a British-owned ship with a British captain and ¾ British soldiers

  • Items on an “enumerated list” (sugar, tobacco, cotton, indigo) could only be exported to British ports

• 1663 → goods sent to the colonies from Europe had to pass through a British port, where import and export duties could be levied

• 1673 → good leaving the colonies would be taxed  (unless on the enumerated list)

  • Customs officials put in place

• Mostly affected those living in New England who had dependence on ports and markets

  • Often resorted to smuggling

New York

• 1664 → England seized the port of New Amsterdam and the entirety of New Netherlands

Lords of Trade and Plantations

• Aka Board of Trade

• A board established by Parliament to oversee colonial affairs

• 1679 → overruled MA’s claims to New Hampshire, making New Hampshire a separate royal colony

  • Also revoked MA’s original charter and became a royal colony

Dominion of New England

• Formation of a megacolony under royally appointed rule (Sir Edmund Andros)

• Strengthened colonial defense and allowed the royal gov to establish firmer control over the colonies

  • Representative assemblies were abolished, town meetings were forbidden, and Navigation Acts strictly enforced

Glorious Revolution

• Overthrow of King James II by William of Orange and English aristocrats

  • James II and his son threatened Catholic succession

• Established Parliamentary supremacy, the birthright of Englishmen, and the King’s subject to the rule of law

• Immediately echoed in Boston and New York, where the Dominion of NY was disbanded

Leisler’s Rebellion

• A German merchant named Jacob Leisler overthrew the NY Dominion official and ruled the colony from 1689 to 1691

• Was tried for treason and executed in 1691 after falling victim to the elite in the city

• Revealed rifts in New York’s economy and society

Salem Witch Trials

• 100 citizens, mostly women, were imprisoned on charges of witchcraft → 19 executed

• The only way to avoid prosecution was to blame others → cycle of blame

• Weaving of anxiety, superstition, family, and religious hatred

Molasses Act

• 1732

• Put a tax on cheaper French molasses to protect British sugar growers in the West Indies

• Evaded by smuggling or bribing customs officials

Wool Act

• 1699

• Forbade the export of wool from American colonies and the import of wool from other British colonies

Salutary Neglect

• The first half of the 18th century

• Non-enforcement of trade regulations (eg Molasses Act) and looser control in the colonies

  • Profited without having to do much

New England Confederation

• Most prominent attempt to have a centralized government in the colonies

• No real power, but allowed colonists to meet and discuss mutual problems

Enlightenment

• European intellectual movement that emphasized rationalism over emotionalism or spirituality

Ben Franklin

• Typified Enlightenment ideals

• Self-made wealthy printer

• Pioneering work in the field of electricity

Life in the Colonies

• Rural areas → 90% of population, very patriarchal

• Cities → worse conditions than in the country, lots of immigrants

• Black people → mostly enslaved, lived in the south