Chapter 5: British Chesapeake & New Netherland

What motivated the English to colonize America?

1. Rivalry between England and Spain
2. As a Protestant Country, England believed they could colonize and live among the NA better.
3. Richard Hakluyt promoted overseas expansion by writing about Iberian explorers.

How did the Pocahontas-John Smith romance (true or not) symbolize a broader truth about the early Chesapeake?

1. Miscommunication between Europeans + NA’s for obvious reasons
2. Were capable of having relationships
3. Europeans could have been wiped out by Native Americans but needed each other in a way.

What economic development saved the colony and why did that create a need for cheap labor? 

Describe how Jamestown’s early struggles led to the beginning of self-rule in colonial America.

The import of tobacco from South America (from John Wolfe) created a lot of money; The problem was tobacco was dangerous to work with so cheap labor was needed.

Britain set up a mini-parliament in Virginia called the Virginia Gentry.

How did Bacon’s Rebellion inadvertently help expand white democracy in colonial Virginia? 

What was the long-term impact of this dynamic?

Bacon’s Rebellion was a bi-racial rebellion involving poor white indentured servants and black people brought from Africa. To drive the wedge between poor white people and enslaved Africans, Virginia gentry gave poor white people better land, authority as slave patrols/security, and the right to vote, and permanently made all Africans in America slaves.

Generations of slavery, civil war, and future post-civil war groups (KKK)

How was Virginia influential among the early colonies?

Virginia was constantly in search of more land to find more land for tobacco. When more colonies began to develop, they mimicked Virginia. Sugar, jamaica, and chocolate were all grown from colonies trying to mimick Virginia.

How and why did Dutch New Netherland become English New York?

Control over that area went to the English after the Dutch went temporarily broke.

When was Bacon’s rebellion?

1676