The Early Chesapeake

Notes and Terms

1606 Charter

London Company

What did the London Company do?

Launched colonization, headed for Virginia

How many people headed to Virginia?

144 men, 3 ships, set sal to America in 1607

How many people survive the journey?

104 men

What was the first colony established?

Jamestown

What was the local disease at this time?

Malaria

What was focused on more than agriculture?

Gold

Why was there no community and family building?

No women

Who helped out the new settlers?

Neighboring Indians - Agriculture, canoes

Engish thought they were what to the Indians?

Superior

How many Virginia tribes were there?

3

Why were so many men gone?

Disease and famine

John Smith

World traveler, shaky relationship with natives

London/Virginia Company

Gained a new charter from the king, add them stronger and gave them larger territory

What did the companies do?

Provided free passage to Virginia to poor who agreed to serve the company for 7 years

How many vessels distributed in Jamestown? How many people?

9 vessels, 600 people (Women and children)

The starving time was…

Fever in winter, english a threat to natives, barricades created to keep English out. 

How many people survived the starving time?

600

English sailed for England, but…

Turned back to Jamestown

Why were the English thriving?

Supplies brought

Where did English now settle?

The river

What did the English discover?

Tobacco, which encouraged them to move farther inland

What did settlers organize, and what happened if you didn’t participate?

Working gangs, you were flogged or hung

Why didn’t the working gangs last?

Governor Dale said colonists should have incentives to work

Where did tobacco begin to migrate

Europe

Who did English purchase tobacco from?

Spaniards

Tobacco meant what for territory?

Expansion

What did English farmers develope?

Plantations, which eventually spread in Native Indian territory

1606 =

Land debt

Headright system

Fifty acre grants of land - Per person

What kind of acreage grants did people who already live in colony recieve

100 acre grants - Per person

What did the headright system encourage?

Family groups to migrate together

Quitrent

tax or rent

How much were women purchased for

120 pounds of tobacco

House of Burgesses

Where jamestown church delegates met to elect legislature within what was to become the U.S

What led Jamestown to be under control of the crown?

Powhatan Indian suppression

Suppression of the Powhatan Indians

Sir Thomas Dale assaulted Powhatans. Kidnapped Pocahontas, who later converted to Christianity and married John Rolfe. 

After Pocahontas’s death what resumed?

Resistance

1622 - How many colonists did Indians kill?

347 colonists, but English retaliate

1644 - Failed attempt where Powhatans cease resistance in…

Eastern Virginia

After the 1622 uprising, and years of losses the Virginia company went…

Bankrupt

1624, King James I revoked its charter which resulted in…

Virginia becoming a royal colony

English believed they were technologically superior 

Ships, weapons, tools

What kind of technique did English borrow from Natives?

Growing corn, clearing land, planting crops in curved rows. This allowed large successful farms 

Who was Marland and the Calverts founded by?

George Calvert

Maryland became a…

Proprietary Colony

No starving because early settlers…

Have good relations with Natives (Unlike Virginia)

Religious Toleration 1649 - Act concerning religion. What did this allow?

Allowed freedom of warship to all Christians

Catholic minorities

Proprietors

WHo did tension grow between?

Catholic Minority and protestants

Maryland adopted a …

Headright system (encouraged settlement with land grants)

Maryland developed into a what based economy?

Tobacco, just like Virginia. (relied on indentured servants and later African Slaves)

Virginia’s Turbulence

Pop growth = Demand for land, conflict with native

Governor William Berkeley

Maintained power by restricting voting rights, avoided conflict with natives, small farmers in Western Virginia resent him because of his strict control. 

Bacons Rebellion

Nathaniel Bacon, wealthy planter, led western settlers against Berkeley’s rule

Cause of Bacons Rebellion

Frustration with limited land and Native conflicts, high taxes, Bacon raised unauthorized militia, attacked natives, and later marched on Jamestow

What did they do to Jamestown?

Burned it to the ground

Aftermath of Bacons Rebellion…

Unstable indentured servants, planters turn to African Slaves, highlights division between east (elite) and west (poor farmers).

Mercantilism

Colonies exist to serve mother country (who made finished goods), England Expected Virginia and Maryland to provide raw supplies and buy English manufactured goods.

More exports than imports

Tied chesapeake colonies to England’s economy.

Protestant Reformation

Martin Luthers conflict with Catholic church, spread across Europe, increased religious rivalries and motivated migration to the new world for freedom. Puritans wanted to escape! 

English Reformation

church of England, sparked division, tension influenced who came to America (Puritans, catholics, dissenters).

Puritans

English protestants, thought the church of England was too catholic, many migrated to the new world (New England) seeking religious freedom

Spanish Armada

King Philip II of Spain

London company/joint stock company

Group of investors pooled money to fund Virginia colonies, founded Jamestown in 1607, wanted gold-not farming, faced disease, famine, conflict with Powhatans.

Indian Uprising = Money lost, bankrupt.

King James I revoked the charter and made Virginia a royal colony

Jamestown

First permanent English settlement in America, high death rates, focused on gold instead of farming, no women = weak community

Survival: John Smith’s leadership, powhatan food aid, tobacco cultivation ( John Rofle)

Starving Time

Harsh winters after bad harvest, Powhatans (Natives) cut food supplies from English (Threat), Colonists eat dogs, cats, rats

500 settlers - 60 survived by sprin

Tobacco

John Rolfe

Grew well in Virginia

First profitable cash crop

Demand in Europe - Helped colonists expand inland

Large labor required - Indentured servants - African Slaves

Plantation economy created and shaped the Chesapeake society

Headright System (Virginia and Maryland)

Encouraged migration and farming

offered 50 acres to settlers who paid for their own or another’s passage

wealthy planters used it to fill estates by sponsoring indentured servants, as they performed hard labor for them without reward

promoted family migration

spread settlements deeper into Indian territory

Indentured Servants

Europeans who signed contracts for 4-7 years to work in exchange for passage

Virginia and Maryland

Many didn’t survive, those who did remained poor

Servants demanded their land after their years of work which created tension

Shifted to African slavery

House of Burgesses 1619

First representative assembly in Virginia

Allowed landowning settlers to make local laws and taxes

Early step toward government in English America

Elites had major influence

slave Arrival 1619

Africans brought to Virginia by a Dutch ship

Over time, colonies created laws making slavery hereditary and race based

Powhatans

Confederation of native tribes around Jamestown leopard shift Powhatan

Traded food and help settlers survive

Tension grows, English expanded land for tobacco

Uprising, 16,22, 1644, lead by patterns brother killed many colonist, but ultimately failed

Powhatans, defeated and lost eastern Virginia

Bacons Rebellion

settlers, angry over a lack of land, Indian attacks, Governor Berkeley favouritism toward wealthy planters, high taxes, and no voice report formers

Nathanial, bacon, rebels attacked Indians and later burned James town

Collapse after bacon died

Tension between poor farmers, and will feel it showed instability of indentured servitude, which is when planters turned to African slavery as a more controllable workforce