Chapter 2: England's Seventeeth Century Colonies

Early Settlement of the Colonies

• a complex process of adjustment and survival that produced not “one empire” but a variety of regional subcultures and incredible population diversity

Diversity in the Colonies

• most people go to Pennsylvania, especially Germans

• English settle on the coast

• Scot-Irish settle more inland, infringing on Native lands

Extraordinary Disunity in the Colonies

• English crown awarded colonial charters to entrepreneurs, religious idealists, and aristocratic adventurers

• Migration helps explain striking competition and diversity

• All part of the British Empire BUT created for different reasons, spoke different languages, established themselves in different ways, had their OWN colonial charters & legislatures

Causes of UNITY in the Colonies

• intercostal trade: Boston to New Jersey

• land trade: back country with cities

• print culture

• First Great Awakening has priest touring the back country & liberalized Christianity unites people

Conditions in England

• rapid population grown between 1580 and 1650 (3.5 million to 5 million), potato introduction via Columbian Exchange

• population strained agrarian economy, competition for food & land drove prices up

• Violent political & religious controversy: Protestants, Puritans & Catholics over rival’s notions of constitutional & representative government

• Civil War

Lost Colony of Roanoke

• 1580s: Sir Walter Raleigh funds & sends two groups of men, women and children

• First group leaves

• by 1590, second group vanishes

• only clue: Croaton

• failed attempt by English to settle in America

England’s First American Colonies

• first promoters: wealthy gentlemen who wanted to advance their fortunes and increase the power & wealth of England (“Gold & Glory”)

• Colonies would solve problems in England: growing population & increased poverty due to stagnant economy

• Roanoke colony fails in 1580s

• Virginia Company sends more colonists: Jamestown, founded in 1607, becomes 1st permanent English settlement in North America, part of Virginia Colony

• by 1732, more SOUTHERN colonies for England: Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia

• Chesapeake: Virginia + Maryland, part of Southern colonies but focus on tobacco production

The Virginia Company

• a corporation of great merchants (joint-stock company) based in London

• led the settlement of Jamestown on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia

• sent colonists who established Jamestown in 1607, 1st permanent English settlement in North America

England’s Motives for Establishing Colonies

• Gold & Silver

• Water Route to Far East

• Challenge Spain (trading & religious rival)

• Raw Materials & Trade

Powhatan

• Powerful Chief who united 24,000 Natives from 30 tribes in “Powhatan Confederacy”

• wanted to contain & trade with colonists BUT colonists wanted Native land

Jamestown Hardships

• too many gentlemen (wouldn’t work), too few workers = wrong labor system

• too much emphasis on GOLD, not enough on FARMING or FAMILIES

• swampy area with mosquitos, unclean drinking water, malaria, dysentery & Natives ➔ within 1st seven months, 2/3 died from disease, malnutrition & Native raids

• 1607-1622: Virginia Company transported 10,000 people to colony BUT only 20% alive in 1622 because people wouldn’t grow food in the beginning, found tobacco & only grew tobacco to make money

Captain John Smith

• Leader of Jamestown from 1607-1609

• traded with the Natives for food

• mapped Chesapeake Bay

• seized control of ruling council of Jamestown

• instituted military discipline: don’t work, don’t eat

Virginia Colony

• Starving Time: Winter of 1609-10 where only 60 of 500 settlers survived

• Tobacco saved the colony & John Rolfe led to its cultivation

• Headright System: Free land (50 acres) for every passenger brought over, increasing immigration & favoring wealthy colonists who could pay for passages in exchange for plantation land

• Virginia Company allowed settles to form House of Burgesses (1st representative body in colonial America) which had the power to make laws & raise taxes

Powhatan Massacre of Jamestown, 1622

• also known as Skyfall

• Opechancanough led a surprise attack, burning plantations & killing nearly 1/3 of colonists

• 624 colonists killed

• Powhatan was losing land & 80% of his population

• what made England make Jamestown a Royal Colony

Important Developments in 1619 Virginia

• introduction of broad-based property ownership (Headright System: every person brought, 50 more acres to person who paid for their passage)

• introduction of self-government: House of Burgesses (origin of democracy)

• beginning of African slave labor in America: worked hard labor in tobacco cultivation

Important Development in 1624 Virginia

The Crown took over Virginia, making it the 1st royal colony in English America.

Maryland (1634)

• proprietary colony (royal grant) founded by the Lords Baltimore as a sanctuary for English Catholics

• Lord Baltimore tried to impose a social hierarchy BUT rejected by the people

• Second Lord Baltimore insisted on religious toleration (“Act concerning Religion”)

• English Civil War spilled over: divisions between Puritans & Catholics (“Plundering Time” 1644-46)

Puritans & the Church of England

• Puritans sought to reform or purify the Anglican Church VS others, known as Separatists, began their own churches

• challenged the Anglican Church because believed its hierarchy & services were “too Catholic”

• followed strict teachings of John Calvin (“predestination”), believing they could best prepare for God’s saving grace by:

  • leading moral lives

  • praying devoutly

  • reading the Bible

  • heeding their minister’s sermons

• believed their salvation depended on the will of God rather than good behavior

Separatists (Pilgrims)

• sought refuge in New England because persecuted in England

• granted a patent to settle in Virginia, but navigational error led them to Plymouth

• believed in forming own church OUTSIDE Church of England

• before leaving, 100 settlers signed the Mayflower Compact, an agreement to prevent anarchy & “combine themselves in a body politic”

  • Agreed to form a government & obey its laws

  • Mayflower Compact established the concept of self-government in the New World

• only about 50% of Plymouth group survived the 1st winter (1620-21) due to harsh winter conditions & food shortage

  • thanks in part to Native American aid, others survived

Geographical Overview of Massachusetts Bay Colony

• dense forests

• rolling hills

• short growing season

• rocky soil

• clean, moving water

Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Great Migration

• 1630: John Winthrop led much larger group (2000) of Puritans to America

• by 1640s, 16,000 Puritans had arrived during the Great Migration

• In Massachusetts, settlers established a republic where Puritans elected their governor, deputy governor & Assembly ➔ most radical government in the colonies

• Laws and Liberties (1648): first alphabetized code of law that explained rights & responsibilities to citizens

Dissent in Massachusetts Bay Colony

• most Puritan came to New England to realize their own ideal society, not champion religious toleration

• Religious Radicals: angered authorities by arguing Mass Bay had not done enough to break from Anglican ways

• religious radicals were purged or banished

• dissenters were given “free liberty to keep away from us”

Two Most Notable Religious Radicals in Massachusetts Bay Colony

1. Roger Williams: founded Rhode Island, establishing religious freedom & separation of Church & state

2. Anne Hutchinson: a double threat to Puritan leaders, a woman who led Bible readings in her own home & preached God’s grace alone was the key to salvation

Salem Witch Trials (1692)

• Puritans prosecuted suspected witches

• led to the trials & executions of 19 people

• ended when accusations reacher members of prominent families (even the governor’s wife!)

Conflict between Native Americans & Massachusetts Bay Colony: Differing Ways of Life

• Puritans saw Natives as lazy savages

• Puritans remade land to resemble England

Conflict between Native Americans & Massachusetts Bay Colony: Pequot War

• rivalry over fur trade between Puritans & Natives

• Native opposition to English territorial expansion

• Carnage, 1638 Treaty of Hartford virtually eliminated Pequot nation

Conflict between Native Americans & Massachusetts Bay Colony: Praying Towns

• post Pequot War, Puritans worked to convert Natives to English Christians

• by 1674, Mass Bay had 14 praying towns

• only a minority of Natives agreed to convert

Conflict between Native Americans & Massachusetts Bay Colony: King Philip’s War

• 1675: massive Native rebellion erupted

• Metacom was the perceived Native leader, but villages fought under their own leaders

• Devastating: war killed about 1,000 English colonists & 3,000 Natives

• Defeated Natives lost most of their remaining lands in Southern New England

• 1700 New England: 92,000 colonists to 9,000 Natives