SD

Planting of English America (1500–1733): Comprehensive Study Notes

European Backdrop (c. 1500–1600)

  • Hundred years after Columbus, New World south of Hudson Bay already deeply altered
    • European crops/livestock → long-term ecological revolution
    • Native societies south of Florida–New Mexico deeply disrupted by disease & conquest
    • Several hundred k enslaved Africans laboring on Caribbean/Brazilian sugar plantations
    • Spain still dominant from Florida southward; North America (1600) largely unexplored & “unclaimed.”
  • 3 rival outposts foreshadow northern contest (within 3 yrs.)
    • 1608 French at Quebec
    • 1607 English at Jamestown (most consequential for future U.S.)
    • 1610 Spanish at Santa Fe

England’s Imperial Stirrings (1500s)

  • Early 1500s: allied with Spain → no colonial urgency
  • English Protestant Reformation (1530s): Henry VIII breaks w/ Rome
    • 1558: Elizabeth I on throne → Protestantism dominant, rivalry w/ Catholic Spain intensifies
  • Ireland as testing ground
    • 1570s–80s: brutal suppression of Catholic Irish; confiscated lands “planted” w/ Protestant landlords (roots of modern Irish conflict)
    • English veterans develop contempt for “savage” Irish → attitude later exported to America

Sea-Dogs & Early Failures

  • Elizabeth sanctions semipiratical raids to promote “Protestantism & plunder.”
    • Sir Francis Drake (circumnavigation 1577–1580): 4{,}600\% ROI; secretly backed by queen; knighted despite Spanish protests
  • First English colonization attempts:
    • 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert → Newfoundland (dies at sea)
    • 1585 Sir Walter Raleigh → Roanoke Island (disappears)
  • Contrast: Spanish Empire flush w/ bullion, funding Philip II’s “Invincible Armada.”

Spanish Armada (1588) & Consequences

  • 130 ships enter Channel; English craft swifter, better-manned; “Protestant wind” (storm) finishes rout
  • Marks beginning of Spanish decline; England gains naval supremacy in N. Atlantic
  • After 1604 peace treaty, England poised to plant own empire; nationalistic “golden age” (Shakespeare); sense of destiny

England on Eve of Empire

  • Population boom: \approx 3\,\text{million} \to 4\,\text{million} (1550–1600)
  • Enclosure Movement: landlords convert cropland → sheep pasture; small farmers displaced → mobile, jobless “surplus population.”
  • Primogeniture laws: only eldest sons inherit estates → younger sons (e.g., Gilbert, Raleigh, Drake) seek fortunes overseas
  • Joint-stock company (early 1600s): pooled capital, limited lifespan; ideal for quick-profit colonies

Jamestown & Virginia Company (1606–1624)

  • 1606: Virginia Company of London receives royal charter (King James I)
    • Goals: gold & NW passage to Indies
    • Charter guarantees colonists same “rights of Englishmen.” (later fuels Revolution)
  • May 24 1607: ~100 male settlers found Jamestown on malaria-ridden James River
  • Early disasters
    • 40 die en route; 1609 convoy wrecked off Bermuda
    • Gentlemen hunt nonexistent gold; starvation despite abundant game/fish
    • Winter 1609–10 “Starving Time”: 400 → 60 survivors; cannibalism recorded
  • Captain John Smith (1608): “He who shall not work shall not eat.”
    • Captured by Powhatan; saved in mock execution by Pocahontas (symbolic diplomacy)
  • 1610: Governor Lord De La Warr imposes martial law; introduces “Irish tactics” vs. Indians
  • By 1625: only 1,200 of ~8,000 colonists alive

Anglo-Powhatan Wars

  • First War (1610–1614): De La Warr’s raids; ends w/ Pocahontas–John Rolfe marriage (1st interracial union VA)
  • 1622 Indian uprising kills 347 (incl. Rolfe) → VA Company calls for “perpetual war”
  • Second War (1644–1646): Indians’ last effort; treaty banishes Chesapeake tribes → beginnings of reservation concept
  • Powhatan downfall: 3 D’s
    • Disease (smallpox, measles)
    • Disorganization (loose confederacy)
    • Disposability (no labor or trade value once colonists grew food)

Native American Transformations

  • Disease destroys populations & oral traditions; tribes reforming (e.g., Catawba from remnants)
  • Trade pressures: firearms escalate inter-tribal wars for hunting grounds; example of Virginia canoe fleet doomed by storm trying to bypass British middlemen
  • Inland tribes (Algonquians of Great Lakes) exploit “middle ground” → force Europeans to adapt, intermarry

Tobacco: “Bewitching Weed”

  • John Rolfe (1612) perfects sweet strain → tobacco rush; planted in streets & graveyards
  • Impacts:
    • \rightarrow Soil exhaustion → constant land hunger → conflict w/ Indians
    • Single-crop economy tied to price swings
    • Spurs plantation system & labor demand
  • 1619 milestones
    • Dutch ship sells ~20 Africans → seeds of North American slavery (only 300 blacks in VA by 1650; \approx14\% by 1700)
    • First House of Burgesses (mini-Parliament, precedent of self-gov.)
  • 1624: James I revokes charter; Virginia becomes royal colony (dislikes tobacco & Burgesses = “seminary of sedition”)

Maryland (1634): Catholic Haven & Proprietary Venture

  • Founded by Lord Baltimore (Cecil Calvert) for profit & refuge for Catholics
    • Large manors hoped for, but Protestant small farmers dominate hinterland; tensions → late-century rebellions, proprietary rights briefly lost
  • Economy: tobacco + white indentured servants → later black slaves
  • Act of Toleration (1649):
    • Guarantees freedom to all Christians; death penalty for Jews, atheists denying Jesus’ divinity
    • Ensures Catholic minority protection; colony ends era w/ largest Catholic pop. in English America

West Indies: Sugar “Rich Man’s Crop”

  • England seizes islands incl. Jamaica 1655; Spain distracted
  • Sugar economics
    • Requires capital-intensive land & mills; unlike “poor man’s” tobacco
  • Labor: >250{,}000 Africans imported 1640–1690; by 1700 blacks = 4 : 1 majority
  • Barbados Slave Code 1661:
    • Denies fundamental rights; masters get total control & brutal punishments
  • Smaller white farmers pushed out → migrate to Carolina, bringing slave system & code template (Carolina adopts 1696)

Restoration Colonies & Carolinas

  • English Civil War (1640s) pauses colonization; 1660 Restoration of Charles II revives empire
  • Carolina charter 1663/colony 1670 to 8 Lords Proprietors; purpose: supply West Indies & export non-English goods (wine, silk, olive oil)
  • Early settlers from Barbados; start Indian slave-raiding with Savannah Indians (10 k natives exported)
    • 1707 Savannahs seek to leave; Carolinians annihilate them by 1710
  • Rice becomes staple; Africans prized for expertise & malaria resistance → majority by 1710
  • Charleston: aristocratic, diverse, religious toleration; constant Spanish/Indian threats

North Carolina (separated 1712)

  • Populated by impoverished “riffraff,” dissenters & squatters from Virginia; small tobacco farms, few slaves
  • Earns rep. for irreligion, pirate hospitality, resistance to authority (“vale of humility between two mountains of conceit”)
  • Indian wars
    • Tuscarora War 1711–1713: colony (aided by SC) crushes Tuscaroras → survivors become 6th Iroquois nation
    • Yamasee War 1715–1716: SC defeats coastal Yamasee

Georgia (1733): Buffer & “Charity Colony”

  • Last of 13; founded to protect Carolinas from Spanish FL & French LA, produce silk/wine, & haven for debtors
  • Financial subsidies from Crown (only colony so aided)
  • James Oglethorpe: military defense vs. Spain, prison-reform-minded, invests own fortune
  • Savannah: multi-ethnic (German Lutherans, Scots Highlanders); all Christians except Catholics tolerated
    • Missionary John Wesley (future Methodist founder) works here
  • Early bans on slavery, unhealthy climate & attacks slow growth → least populous colony by 1775; slavery allowed after 1750

Common Threads: Southern Plantation Colonies

  • Colonies: Virginia, Maryland, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Georgia
  • Shared traits
    • Broad-acre, export-oriented cash crops (tobacco, rice, later indigo)
    • Slavery present (after 1750 in GA)
    • Aristocratic landholding (except more egalitarian N.C. & partly GA)
    • Sparse urbanization; rivers = highways; schools & churches slow/expensive (Governor Berkeley VA 1671: thankful for no free schools or presses)
    • Religious toleration to varying degrees; Anglican Church tax-supported (weakest in N.C.)
    • Expansionary: “soil butchery” pushes frontier westward → recurring native conflict

The Iroquois Confederacy ("League of the Iroquois")

  • 5 nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca (later Tuscarora = 6th)
  • Founded late 1500s by Deganawidah & Hiawatha; aimed to end internal wars & dominate fur trade
  • Longhouse society: matrilineal clans in 25 × 8-200 ft structures; oldest woman = matriarch
  • Roles: Mohawks (Eastern Fire) trade middlemen; Senecas (Western Fire) suppliers
  • "Mourning wars" to absorb captives & rebuild numbers
  • Played French vs. English; split during American Revolution → confederacy shattered
  • Post-war despair & reservations; Handsome Lake (1799 vision) sparks “Longhouse religion” revival, temperance, family renewal

Representative Chronology (select)

  • 1558 Elizabeth I crowned
  • 1580 Drake returns w/ loot
  • 1585 Roanoke founded
  • 1588 Spanish Armada defeated
  • 1607 Jamestown founded
  • 1608 Quebec founded (Fr.)
  • 1612 Rolfe’s tobacco strain
  • 1614 First Anglo-Powhatan War ends
  • 1619 African arrival & House of Burgesses
  • 1624 Virginia royal colony
  • 1634 Maryland founded
  • 1649 MD Act of Toleration; Charles I executed
  • 1661 Barbados slave code
  • 1670 Carolina founded; Charleston est.
  • 1712 N.C. formally separate
  • 1733 Georgia founded