The American Colonies

Colonial Regions

New England — colonies that eventually became states (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island)

Middle Atlantic — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware

The Chesapeake — Maryland & Virginia

Southern Colonies — North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia

Who Colonized?

The settlement of the New World was much more than simply the establishment of the British Colonies ; it involved various European powers, including Spain, France, and the Netherlands, each establishing their own territories and influences.

Trade

Increase in economic & scientific exchange and interaction among the colonies and European powers.

Voracious appetite for trade with the far East ( a period of overseas expansion)

Columbian Exchange

Horrific impact on the native tribes (live stock & disease had the biggest impacts + communities wiped down by 90%)

Genocide in effect, not in intent?

Spain

Reaped great financial rewards - richest nation in Europe in 1500s

French

By late 16th century, the french settled present day Canada - fur trade (trap & kill animals for their furs esp. beavers with native americans)

Alienated the Iroquois confederacy (massive and violent outbreaks) - traded w/ the Dutch in NY

Why Travel to America?

Increased English population: 1580-1650 —> population from 3.5 to 5 million people

Some wanted purer form of worship

Dreamed of owning land and of bettering their social position

General Features of English Colonies - 4 Major Features

1. Business enterprises

2. tied indirectly to king/queen

3. tried to isolate themselves from natives

4. nothing worked out as planned

JAMESTOWN

• FIRST permanent English settlement in America in 1607 by the Virginia Company in Virginia

• Encountered problems within their arrival — couldn’t survive wilderness/ disease (desentyra and malaria)/ setting

• 38/104 men were alive after 9 months

• Virginia sent 10k colonists in 1607-1622 — 2k survived

• POOR relationship with Powhatan Indians

• British endeavor was primarily commercial & the natives were an obstacle that they needed to remove

Tobacco

JOHN ROLFE introduced a profitable cash crop — tobacco and saved Jamestown’s extinction in 1616

Planters relied on indentured servants to work the fields

Tobacco growth led to a rural society

Bacon’s Rebellion

Problem of freedom indentured slaves

Resulted because the colonial leaders in Jamestown were slow to respond to the crisis in 1676.

Resulted in moving away from indentured slaves and onto African slavery.

MARYLAND

founded in 1613 by Lord Baltimore

Followed Virginia’s economic model — tobacco plantations

NEW ENGLAND

• Settled by a religious group called puritans

• Governon John Winthrop called it a “city upon him”

• Settlers were granted land in groups which established towns

THANKSGIVING

Pilgrims celebrated harvest with the wampanoag

Day of thanksgiving (prayer & fasting)

Not made a holiday until 1812

In England

RELIGION in NEW ENGLAND

Religion was key

church was the center of town

widespread book ownership - bible (by law towns needed churches)

ministers were trained in Massachusetts and founded Harvard college in 1636

Puritan Intolerance

No tolerance to those with differing views

Roger Williams founded Rhode Island

Anne Hutchinson banished for speaking out as a woman

Persecution of witches in Salem in 1692 (18 hung for being a witch)

The CAROLINAS

Settled by planters from the West Indians

• rice and indigo plantations (dye for clothes)

• stone rebellion - 1739 SLAVE REBELLION

Georgia was created as a buffer to protect South Carolina from Spanish attacks

Northern Carolina was settled by colonists from Virginia looking for new lands to grow tobacco (Southern Colonies)

MIDDLE ATLANTIC

NEW YORK was initially founded by the Dutch “New Ampsterdam” in 1620s

Couldn’t compete with the increasing British Colonies

Competition over commerce

Navigation Acts where the British sought to regulate colonial trade

British seized New Amsterdam in 1664

SOUTH OF NY

QUAKERS — became a haven for a radical Christian sect known as QUAKERS (society of friends) OPPOSED to slavery and war

New Jersey accepted Quakers

Pennsylvania founded by William Penn (home to thousands of quakers and promoted Penns. “holy experiment: where anyone could prosper)

By 1750, 120k people lived in pennsylvania & quakers only made 26% of the population

DIVERSITY distinguished the Middle Atlantic Region