British Colonies

Sir Walter Raleigh (1585)

- Tries to settle in Roanoke
- Living conditions are harsh and he leaves

John White (1587)

- John White comes back after Raleigh failed, and successfully colonizes
- Runs out of supplies, goes back to England but is stuck there for 3 years, and upon returning, the colonizers have all disappeared

Jamestown (1607)

First permanent English settlement in the New World located in Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay/James River

Jamestown Funding

joint-stock companies
investors- Virginia company

Jamestown Problems

- hot & humid summer meant bugs, which then meant malaria
- goal for gold, so not many settlers with useful survival skills
- settled in the Native tribe's area

John Rolfe (1612)

- brings tobacco seeds to Jamestown, starting success
- Pocahontas' husband

Massachusetts

- Protestant English Settles (pilgrims, 1620)
- Plymouth Bay

Mayflower Compact

the first governing document of Plymouth Colony

William Bradford

Governor of Plymouth (Massachusetts) Colony

Squanto

Native American who helped the English colonists in Massachusetts develop agricultural techniques and served as an interpreter between the colonists and the Natives

Massachusetts Bay Colony (Boston)

- Puritans settlers; better equipped than pilgrims
- trading over farming, lots of wood

John Winthrope

- Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony
- Used a theocracy government (religion-based, ruled by priests)

Praying Towns

developed by the Puritans settlers in an effort to convert the local Native American tribes to Christianity

Mercantilism

Economic system where the colonies would produce raw resources, send them to England at a cheap price, then sold other useful goods at higher prices (colonists were NOT happy)

Navigation Acts

Trading laws with England and its colonies stating that the colonies could trade good only with England and in British ports

Native relations in Massachusetts

started out friendly towards Natives, leads to Pequot massacre (500+ natives wiped out because 2 colonist traders died), ends with Metacom's (native) head on a spike

Middle Colonies

- New York (1664)
- Pennsylvania (1681)

New York (1664)

- originally settled by Dutch and called New Amsterdam, had very diverse people (religion)

Pennsylvania (1681)

- proprietary colony (colony owned by an individual) owned by William Penn, after his brother gave him some land gifted to him by the kind
- safe haven for Quakers
- City of Brotherly Love (Philadelphia)
- trading over farming, but there was some farming done (not to a plantation extent)
- good relations with the Natives as they treated them nicely

Southern Colonies

- Maryland, Virginia, Carolinas, Georgia
- made money from farming (cash crops)
- Headright System
- money > religion
- rich slave owners and poor slaves on plantations (no middle class)

Maryland (1634)

- proprietary colony owned by Lord Baltimore after the king owed him land
- safe haven for Catholics
- Passes the Act of Tolerance

Act of Tolerance

Maryland law that forbade religious persecution and allowed religious freedom

Virginia (1607)

- House of Burgesses forms in 1619, the governing body for Virginia
- 1619 is also the year of the first ships arriving on America with slaves

Carolinas (1663)

- Proprietary colony owned by 6 guys who were all owed a favor by the King
- Splits into North and South parts in 1712 as a result of different geographies and colonizers

Georgia (1732)

- Founded by James Oglethorpe
- Colony for prisoners

Headright System

Headrights were parcels of land consisting of about 50 acres which were given to colonists who brought indentured servants into America.

Reasons for indentured servitude to shift to slaves

- increased wages in England
- labor shortage in England and colonies

Bacon's Rebellion

Nathaniel Bacon and other western Virginia settlers gather, burn the Natives villages, then Jamestown. The rebellion fails as Nathaniel Bacon dies of dysentery and it falls apart without a leader.