Topic 2.3 The Regions of British Colonies

charter

• describes the relationship between the colony and the crown

• three types of charters & three types of colonies developed

corporate colonies

• operated by joint-stock companies

• example is Jamestown

royal colonies

• under the direct authority and rule of the king’s government

• example is Virginia after 1624

proprietary colonies

• under the authority of individuals granted charters of ownership by the king

• examples are Maryland and Pennsylvania

Virginia Company

• chartered by England’s King James I

• a joint-stock company that founded the first permanent English colony in America at Jamestown in 1607

Jamestown

• founded by the Virginia Company

• first settlers suffered greatly — the settlement’s location in a swampy area along the James River caused fatal outbreaks of dysentery and malaria

  • also were unaccustomed to physical work/gold hunters who didn’t farm or hunt

• survived the first five years under Captain John Smith

• economy relied on tobacco

• was a failing colony before its transition to a royal colony because death from disease & conflicts w/ American Indians caused the population to drop from 5k to 1k

• Virginia Company was nearly bankrupt too so King James I revoked the company charter, took direct control, and the colony became Virginia as England’s first royal colony

Captain John Smith

• led Jamestown and allowed the colony to survive its first five years

John Rolfe & Pocahontas

• married couple who developed a variety of tobacco that became popular in Europe and a profitable crop

headright

• 50 acres of land Virginia gave to recruit White settlers

• helped many Europeans move to Virginia, but mainly aided landowners who added to their holdings by sponsoring indentured servants

Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay

Plymouth Colony

• established by Pilgrims, and helped by American Indians to adapt to the land

• led by leaders like Captain Miles Standish, and Governor William Bradford

• economy depended on fish, furs, and lumber

Separatists

• radical dissenters who wanted to organize a completely separate church that was independent of royal control

Pilgrims

• separatists who left England for Holland (in the Netherlands) in search of religious freedom

• b/c of economic hardship and cultural differences with the Dutch, many Pilgrims left to seek another haven for their religion in the Americas

Mayflower

• an English sailing ship that the Pilgrims went aboard on to set sail for Virginia

Massachusetts Bay Colony

• established by Puritans who wanted to seek religious freedom — gained a royal charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629

• religious and political conflict in England drove about 15,000 settlers here (aka Great Migration)

• contained mixtures of small towns and family farms that relied on a blend of commerce and agriculture

Puritans

• a group of more moderate dissenters who believed that the Church of England could be reformed or purified

• persecution of Puritans increased when King Charles I took the throne in 1625

John Winthrop

• led a thousand Puritans and sailed for Massachusetts — they founded Boston

Great Migration

• a movement due to religious and political conflict in England in the 1630s that drove around 15,000 settlers to the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Maryland

• created when King Charles I split off part of Virginia to create a new colony in 1632

• gave control of Maryland to George Calvert

• the first proprietary colony

George Calvert (Lord Baltimore)

• a Catholic noble who was granted control of Maryland

• died and passed Maryland to his son

Cecil Calvert (Second Lord Baltimore)

• set about implementing his father’s plan in 1634 to provide a haven for his fellow Catholics who faced persecution from Protestants in Britain

• persuaded Maryland’s assembly to adopt the Act of Toleration

Act of Toleration

• the first colonial statue granting religious freedom to all Christians

• called for the death of anyone who denied the divinity of Jesus

Protestant Revolt

• Protestants angered by a Catholic proprietor started a civil war

  • repealed the Act of Toleration

• ultimately Catholics lost the right to vote in elections for the assembly

Rhode Island

• joined Providence and Portsmouth into a single colony in 1644 when Roger Williams was granted a charter from the Parliament

• tolerated diverse beliefs, serving as a refuge for many

Roger Williams

• a well-respected Puritan minister who moved from England to Boston in 1631

• believed that the individual’s conscience was beyond the control of any civil or church authority

• his teachings placed him in conflict with other Puritan leaders who ordered his banishment

  • he left Boston to Narragansett Bay & founded the community of Providence

Providence

• founded in 1636 in Narragansett Bay by Roger Williams and a few of his followers

• place where Williams started ne of the first Baptist churches in America

• government allowed Catholics, Quakers, and Jews to worship freely

• recognized the right of American Indians and paid them for the use of their land

Anne Hutchinson

• a dissident who believed in antinomianism and was banished from the Bay Colony

• founded Portsmouth in 1638 with her and her followers

• killed in an American Indian conflict

antinomianism

• the idea that since individuals receive salvation through their faith alone, they were not required to follow traditional moral laws

Connecticut

• formed when New Haven joined with Hartford in 1665

• the royal charter for Connecticut granted it a limited degree of self-government, including electing of the governor

Reverend Thomas Hooker

• led a large group of Boston Puritans into the valley and founded Hartford in 1636

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1636)

• the first written constitution in American history by Hartford settlers

• established a representative government with a legislature elected by popular vote and a governor chosen by that legislature

John Davenport

• founded New Haven in 1637, a second settlement in the Connecticut Valley south of Hartford

New Hampshire

• the last colony to be founded in New England

• hoping to increase royal control over the colonies, King Charles II separated New Hampshire from Massachusetts Bay colony in 1679

halfway covenant

• offered by some clergy to maintain the church’s influence and membership, and so that people could become partial members even if they had not felt a conversion

Restoration

• a period of the restoration of the monarchy under King Charles II in 1660 following a brief period of republican rule under a Puritan leader, Oliver Cromwell

South Carolina

• economy was initially based on trading furs and providing food for the West Indies

  • later based on large rice-growing plantations

North Carolina

• had few good harbors and poor transportation

• developed few large plantations and little reliance on slavery

• attracted farmers from Virginia and New England who established small, self-sufficient tobacco farms

• earned a reputation for democratic views and autonomy from British control

the Middle Colonies

• the four colonies between New England and Virginia

  • New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware

New York

• formed as Charles II wished to consolidate the holdings along the Atlantic coast and close the gap between New England and the Chesapeake colonies

• Charles granted his brother, the Duke of York, the lands lying between Connecticut and Delaware Bay

  • renamed to New York, told to treat Dutch settlers well by allowing them the freedom to worship freely

New Jersey

• formed when New York was split by James II who believed the territory of New York was too large in 1664

• attracted land settlers by making generous land offers and allowing religious freedom and an assembly

Pennsylvania

• land given by the royal family to a William Penn, a military and political leader, in payment for a debt

Quakers

• a group of Christians who called themselves the Religious Society of Friends

• considered radical by most people in Britain and the colonies

• they believed that religious authority was found within each person and not in the Bible nor in any outside source

William Penn

• the son of William Penn who was given the land of Pennsylvania when his father died

• was a Quaker and wanted his colony to provide a religious refuge for Quakers

• enacted the Frame of Government (1682-1683) and the Charter of Liberties (1701)

Frame of Government (1682-1683)

• guaranteed a representative assembly elected by landowners, and a written constitution

Charter of Liberties (1701)

• guaranteed freedom of worship for all and unrestricted immigration

Georgia

• the 13th and final British colony started to

• 1) create a defensive buffer to protect South Carolina plantations from Spanish Florida

• 2) wanted a place to send the thousands of people in England imprisoned for debt — would relieve the overcrowded jails and provide a chance for people to start life over

• 1752 - Georgia was ultimately taken over by the British government and became a royal colony

James Ogelthorpe

• founded Savannah in 1733 and was the colony’s first governor

House of Burgesses

• the first representative assembly in America organized by Virginia’s colonists in 1619

Mayflower Compact

• a document the Pilgrims drew up and signed in which they pledged to make decisions by the will of the majority

• example of an early form of self-government and a rudimentary written constitution