British Colonization in North America
Chesapeake Colonies
First North American colony established by the British.
Jamestown
Founded in 1607.
Financed by a joint stock company:
An economic model where a group of investors pool their money together and share the financial risk to fund exploration.
The purpose of the colony was profit.
Colonists spent their time:
Digging for gold and silver.
Constructing a military fort.
Famine killed nearly half of them in the first two years, and they resorted to cannibalism.
In 1612, John Rolfe began to cultivate tobacco, which became a miracle crop.
Most labor was done by indentured servants:
People who couldn't afford passage across the Atlantic and signed a seven-year labor contract to pay off their settlement fees.
Tensions and Bacon's Rebellion
Increased demand for tobacco led to farmers encroaching on Native American land.
Natives retaliated violently and raided the farmer's settlements.
Governor William Berkeley decided that their cause was not worth his effort, leading to Bacon's Rebellion.
Nathaniel Bacon led poor farmers and indentured servants in an attack on the Indians and plantations owned by Berkeley.
The rebellion was squashed, but elite planters feared more uprisings.
The planters began to seek a new source of labor and turned to enslaved people from Africa.
New England Colonies
The New England Colonies contrast starkly with the Chesapeake colonies.
Settlement
Settled by Pilgrims in 1620, followed by an influx of Puritan settlers.
Puritans:
Protestants who were unhappy with the theology and strictures of the Church of England.
Migrated largely as family groups to establish a society and create family economies.
The first couple of years were rough; fever and disease killed nearly half of the original settlers.
They established a thriving society and economy centered on agriculture and commerce.
British West Indies and Southern Atlantic Coast
British colonies established in the Caribbean and their influence on the Southern Atlantic coast.
British West Indies
First permanent colonies were established in the 1620s on islands like Saint Christopher, Barbados, and Nevis.
Warm climate with long growing seasons.
Tobacco was the primary cash crop, but by the 1630s, sugarcane became more profitable.
The growth and production of sugar is very labor intensive, creating a spike in demand for African enslaved people.
By 1660, the majority of the population on Barbados was black.
Planter elites enacted harsh slave codes, which strictly regulated their behavior and formally defined enslaved people as chattel.
Southern Atlantic Coast
South Carolina colonists were inspired by practices in the British West Indies and tried to replicate such a society on the mainland.
Middle Colonies
The Middle Colonies featured a diverse population and economy.
New York and New Jersey
Located by the sea with many rivers and streams.
Developed an export economy based on cereal crops.
Diverse population that became increasingly unequal over time due to an emerging elite class.
Society Structure:
Wealthy urban merchants
Middle-class artisans and shopkeepers
Unskilled laborers, orphans, widows, and the unemployed
Enslaved Africans
Pennsylvania
Founded by William Penn, a Quaker and pacifist.
Religious freedom was recognized for all.
They mostly negotiated with the Indians who held land when they sought to expand their land holdings.
Democratic Systems of Governance
Despite their differences, all the British colonies had unusually democratic systems of governance.
Due to the distance from Britain, the colonies were allowed to figure out their own systems of governance.
These systems were largely models of democratic self-governance.
Examples:
Virginia: The House of Burgesses, a representative assembly that could levy taxes on the population and pass laws.
New England: The Pilgrims signed and bound.