NM

Unit 2: Period 2: 1607 - 1754

Contextualizing Period 2

Early Settlements

  • Spanish and Portuguese settled in Central and South America
  • French, Dutch, and British settled on the Atlantic coast
  • Trade was the mainstay of Native and European contact

Sources of Labor

  • Europeans seized land from Native Americans as they looked for a source of labor to make the land profitable
  • Enslaving Natives failed due to disease and because they could escape easily
  • Indentured servitude became common in colonies but was insufficient
  • Slaves from Africa became a popular source of labor later as the Spanish and others were importing slaves too

Spanish Colonies

  • Florida → Juan Ponce de Loen claimed this land for Spain after strong resistance from Natives
  • New Mexico And Arizona → Spanish Colonists began arriving in 1598 with Sante Fe as the capital
  • Texas → Spanish est. settlements in Texas between Florida and New Mexico
  • California → Franciscan order and Father Junipero Serra est. mission along the California Coast

French Colonies

  • Motives: Christian missionaries, economic reasons, the fur trade
  • Quebec was the 1st settlement in America by Samuel de Champlain (1608)
  • Louisiana was explored by Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette
  • New Orleans became a prosperous trade port

Dutch Colonies

  • Henry Hudson sailed up the Hudson River with est. Dutch claims to the surrounding area
  • Dutch West Company made to control the region for economic gain

British Colonies

  • England’s population grew more rapidly than its economy
  • Joint-stock companies financed colonies
  • Motives: better life, religious freedom

The 13 Colonies and the British Empire

Types of British Colonies

  • Corporate colonies: operated by joint-stock companies, during the early years
  • Royal colonies: under the direct authority and rule of the King’s government
  • Proprietary colonies: under the authority of individuals granted charters of ownership by the king

Early English Settlements

  • England gained a reputation as a major naval power
  • England’s population was growing wildly
  • poor and landless people attracted to the Americas
  • Joint-stock companies grew
    • pooled savings of many investors → spread the risk

Jamestown

  • King James chartered the Virginia Company
  • Problems
    • Location in the swampy area resulted in disease outbreaks
    • Trades with American Indians were prominent but when conflicts came trade stopped and settlers went hungry
    • John Rolfe developed a variety of tobacco that became popular in Europe and profited
  • Transition to a royal colony
    • Virginia company made unwise decisions + debt
    • King James, I revoked the charter and it became England’s 1st royal colony

Plymouth + Massachusetts Bay

  • Religious motivation to move west
  • Settled by English protestants and + Anglican Church
  • The leader of the church was the monarch of England
  • Dissenters adopted Calvin’s doctrine of predestination
  • King James, I viewed religious dissenters as a threat to his religious and political authority + ordered them arrested and jailed

Plymouth Colony

  • Separatists (radical dissenters to the Church of England) wanted a separate church independent of royal control
  • Known as pilgrims they chose a colony in America operated by the Virginia Company of London
  • Set sail on the Mayflower and landed off the Massachusetts coast
  • Hardships
    • Harsh winters killed many
    • Able to adapt to the land by natives + celebrated Thanksgiving
  • Leaders: Captian Miles, Governor William Bradford

Massachusetts Bay Colony

  • Moderate dissenters believed the Church of England could be reformed/ purified → Puritans
  • Puritans gained a royal charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company
  • Puritans + John Winthrop sailed to MA → more settlers came (known as the great migration)

Political Instiutions

  • Representative Assembly in VA
    • Virginia Company encouraged settlement in Jamestown with the same rights as residents
    • Representation in lawmaking processes
    • Jamestown organized the 1st representative assembly in America → House of Burgesses
  • Representative Government in New England
    • Mayflower Compact → pledge them to make decisions by the will of the majority
    • All freemen (male) of the Puritan church had the right to participate in elections
  • Limits
    • Most colonists were excluded from the political process
    • Only white males could vote
    • The rest had limited rights

Chesapeake Colonies

  • King Charles chartered a new colony on either side of Chesapeake Bay and granted control of it to George Calvert
  • Religious Issues
    • Act of Toleration → act of parliament granting freedom of worship to nonconformists
    • Protestant revolt → religious reform movement that swept through Europe
  • Labor Shortages
    • Indentured servants → agreements between 2 parties about long-term work
    • Headright system → right to receive 50 acres per person or per head in Virginia
    • Slavery → Dutch ships brought black Americans to Virginia to serve plantation owners + permanent bondage
  • Economic Problems
    • Tobacco overproduction led to low prices
    • House of Burgesses attempted to raise prices
  • Conflict in Virginia
    • Bacon’s Rebellion → Bacon and his followers burn Jamestown, angry at the Virginia government that gave land to natives and the land aristocracy
    • Problems
    • Highlighted class differences
    • Colonial resistance to royal control

Development of New England

  • Rhode Island
    • Roger Williams fled southward to Narragansett Bay with followers
    • Anne Hutchinson believed in antinomianism and joined Roger
    • Roger granted a charter from the Parliament that joined Providence and Portsmouth into a single colony → Rhode Island that served as a refuge
  • Connecticut
    • Settlers unhappy with MA authorities were attracted to Connecticut
    • Reverend Thomas Hooker led a large group of Puritans to Hartford + drew up the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
    • Est. representative government of the legislature
    • New Haven Joined with Hartford settlers to form Connecticut
  • New Hampshire
    • Last New England colony that was originally part of Massachusettes Bay
    • King Charles II separated NH from the Bay colony and made it a royal colony
  • Halfway Covenant
    • Allowed partial membership rights to persons not yet converted to a Puritan church
  • New England Confederation
    • The joint military alliance between New England colonies of Plymouth, Connecticut, New Haven, and Massachusetts Bay against Natives, French, and Dutch
  • King Philip’s War
    • Wampanoag’s chief Metacom united many tribes against English settlers (encroaching on native land)
    • Colonial forces prevailed ending Native resistance in New England

Restoration Colonies

  • Colonies found in restoration time
  • Carolinas
    • Charles II granted a tract between Virginia and Spanish Florida to 8 nobles (lord proprietors of the Carolinas)
    • South Carolina
    • Colonists from England + planters from Barbados founded a town
    • Based on fur trading and providing food for West Indies + large rice-growing plantations
  • North Carolina
    • Virginia and New England farmers est. self-sufficient tobacco farms
    • Earned a reputation for democratic views and autonomy from British control
  • New York
    • The king granted the Duke of York lands between Connecticut and Delaware Bay.
    • James ordered new taxes, language, duties, rents, etc with no assembly
    • Taxation without representation et strong opposition made James yield by allowing the governor to grant broad civil + political rights
  • New Jersey
    • James split the New York colony into 2 making New Jersey
    • Attracted settlers by land offers + religious freedom + assembly
    • West New Jersey + East New Jersey → New Jersey
  • Pennsylvania + Delaware
    • Quakers
    • Believed that religious authority was found within each person’s soul and not the bible or any other source
    • Persecuted + jailed for their beliefs in England
    • William Penn
    • Young converted to the Quaker faith
    • Bequeathed Pennsylvania land as the royal family owed father large debt
    • The Holy Experiment
    • William Penn est Pennsylvania as a way to put into practice Quaker ideals
    • Penn hired agents and published notices throughout Europe that promised political and religious freedom and generous land terms
    • Delaware
    • Penn granted 3 lower counties of Pennsylvania their own assembly becoming another colony
  • Georgia
    • Britain wanted a defensive buffer to protect South Carolina from the Spanish threat
    • imprisoners in England could come here to escape debt + start over
    • Special regulations
    • James Oglethorpe founded Georgia’s first settlement + put in a plan to make the colony thrive
    • The constant threat of Spanish attack stopped the colony from prospering
    • Royal colony
    • Oglethorpe gave up their plan and Georgia became a royal colony
    • The colony grew slowly through the SC plantation system

Triangular trade

  • Merchant ships followed a 3-way route from North America to Europe to Africa.
  • Britain (textiles, rum, manufactures) , Africa(slaves), America (sugar, tobacco, cotton)

Mercantilism and the Empire

  • Mercantilism: nations’ wealth and power were best served by increased exports and reduced imports
  • Colonies were to provide raw materials to the parent country for growth
  • Acts of Trade and Navigation were England’s implemented mercantilist policy with Navigations acts
    • Trade only by English Ships
    • Imported goods only through England ports
    • Specific goods could only be exported to England (tobacco)
  • Impact on colonies
    • Caused New England shipbuilding to prosper + Chesapeake monopoly
    • Limited development of colonial manufacturing
    • Colonists resented regulatory laws by distant governments
  • Enforcement
    • British gov lax in enforcement
    • Massachusetts Bay Charter revoked
  • Dominion of New England
    • King James II determined to increase royal control over colonies through larger administrative units
    • NY, NJ, + others combined into the dominion of New England
    • This led to an uprising against him + separate charters for colonies

Institution of Slavery

  • Increased Demand for Slaves
    • Reasons
    • Reduced migration of immigrants into colonies
    • Slaves were a dependable workforce → Indentured servants were unsuitable as they kept revolting
    • Slaves were cheap labor → Tobacco prices fell, and rice and indigo became profitable so cheap was labor needed
  • Slave Laws
    • White colonists adopted laws to ensure African Americans would be held in bondage for life and slave status would be inherited
    • Triangular Trade
    • Britain (textiles, rum, manufactures) , Africa(slaves), America (sugar, tobacco, cotton)
    • Middle passage: slaves would be transported to the Americas directly from Africa

European Settlements

  • Motivations to colonize → raw materials, adventure, markets, overcrowding in England, and religious reformation
  • Spanish Settlements
    • Settled in Mexico
    • Spanish caste system (Europeans, Mixed, Natives)
    • Were there for missionary work
    • Enslaved Natives + Bartolome de las Cases outspoken against enslavement and encomienda
  • Dutch Settlements
    • Settled in middle colonies
    • No cohesive establishment + trade
    • Quakers
  • French Settlements
    • Settled in Canada + West of Britain
    • Immense fur trade with Natives
    • Missionary work
  • English Settlements
    • Settled away from Natives → Eastern Coast
    • Settlement and land were the main goals
    • Protestant + Catholic (refugees)
    • Disease wiped out natives

Colonial Society in the 18th Century

Population Growth

  • 250,000 → 2,500,000 complete population
  • Africans
    • largest non-English immigrant group
    • Africant population made up 20%

Structure of Colonial Society

  • General Characteristics
    • Self-Government → Representative assembly (RI & CT were elected)
    • Religious Toleration → practice of different religions
    • No Hereditary Aristocracy
    • Social Mobility → Opportunity to improve their standard (didn’t apply to Africans)
  • Family
    • Men - landowning + voting + jobs
    • Women - average typical household work
  • Economy
    • Mercantilism throughout colonies
    • New England - limited farming + more industrial manufacturing
    • Middle Colonies - rich soil + small manufacturing
    • Southern Colonies - large plantation economy
    • Monetary system - limit the use of money
    • Transportation - good by water, roads, trails, and small ships on water routes
  • Religion
    • Puritans, Anglicans, Quakers
    • Challenges
    • discrimination + persecution
    • absence of church leadership
    • Established Churches: protestant, Anglican, congregation church dominance
    • Great awakening
    • Religion/puritan influence DECREASES
    • Johnathan Edwards: sinners in the hands of an angry god”: Christians must depend on God’s grace
    • George Whitefield traveling sermons
      • Revitalized religion with emotionalism
      • New lights v old lights (orthodox)
    • congregations + Presbyterians split into methodists + baptists
      • Anglican + congregational (puritan) tax-supported churches dominate
      • Anglican/church of Eng ESP IN SOUTH
      • Founding of college & sense of Americanism
  • Cultural life
    • Colonial arts and sciences flourished
    • Architecture: Georgian-style buildings
    • Painting: itinerant artists
    • Literature: Poor Richard’s Almanac + more
    • Science: Ben Franklin
  • Education
    • Elementary
    • Emphasis on learning the bible
    • Tax-supported schools
    • Sponsored, private, tutors
    • Higher
    • Promoted doctrines of religious groups + only nobles could afford
    • Ministry → Cristian
    • Physicians → cures only made colonists worse
    • Lawyers → talkative troublemakers
  • Press
    • Newspapers → news spread + 5 newspapers dominant
    • Zenger Trial → 1st challenge with freedom of the press regarding
  • Enlightenment
    • Education in colonies
    • Brought by Ben Franklin
    • Reasoning: science and politics
    • Colonies more democratic than Europe
    • John Locke - natural rights basis for Declaration
  • Politics
    • Structure of government
    • 8 royal colonies and 3 proprietaries (MY, PN, DL)
    • Local government
      • The dominant form of local government was a town meeting
    • Voting
    • White men largely took the votes
    • Wealth men had the bigger say