APUSH Chapter 2: European Colonies and Native Nations
1584: Manteo & Wanchese: Ossomocomuck → London
Met with members of Parliament & Queen' Elizabeth’s court
London’s surging pop. contrasted w/ spread out farms of ossomocomuck
stayed in Sir Walter Raleigh’s manion
talked with Thomas Hariot
taught him some of Algonquin language + learned English
Hundreds of Natives travelled to Europe (late 15th-19th centuries)
Interest in colonization was spurred by national and religious rivalries + the growth of a merchant class
Roanoke X → Jamestown :)
Only English Atlantic coast efforts would draw large numbers of colonists
English North America (17th century)
Entrepreneurs sought to make fortunes
religious minorities → worship w/o gov. interference
aristocrats → re-create feudalism
expected to reproduce English social structure
women and lower class would still beo opressed
average man liked emigration offered an escape from deprivation + inequality
Virginia Company (1606 charter)
private business org.
shareholders included merchants, aristocrats, and parliament members
English male settlers had more rights than colonists of other empires
could choose elected assemblies
protected by common law (trial by jury)
access to land
Women had no rights (less than other colonies)
Settlers success depended on Native land and African enslavement
England and the Americas
unifying the english nation
John Cabot (england 1497)
1st European (since vikings) to encounter Noth American coninent
During the 16th century → england 2nd rater power (political disunity)
Henry VIII → reformation (established Anglican Church)
England + Ireland
England’s struggle to conquer Ireland absorbed money an energy
Ireland’s catholic population deemed threat
England’s gov. used military conquest, slaughter of civilians, seizure of land, and the dispatch of many settlers
England excluded native irish population from territory of settlement (Paie)
England would use methods used on Irish on Native Americans
England + North America
Elizabeth I → English turned attention to North America
sailors showed more interest in raiding spanish treasure fleets
Gov. granted charters → Sir Humphrey Gilbert + Sir Walter Relgih
authorized to establish North American Colonies (at own expense)
ventures failed
Gilbert (brutal in irish was) → newfoundland (1582)
Raleigh → 5 ships → roanoke island
Ossomocomuch fishing village
thought good location for raiding spanish ships
colonists angered natives (trapped them, no food)
english abandoned
100 settles (families) disappeared
moved to live with croatians
Spreading Protestantism
national glory and profit and religious mission
England expressed an obligation to liberate the Americas from the tryanny of the pope
by late 16th century anti-catholicism was deeply ingrained in english pop culture
Black legend enabled english to describe their own imperial ambitions in the language of freedom
a discourse concerning western planting (1584) → protestant minister + scholar richard Hakluyt listed reasons Queen Elizabeth I should support establishment of colonies
english settlements would strike spain’s’ empire + free the americas from catholicism
English believed empire + freedom would go hand in hand (didn’t)
thought the minor power of England could gain wealth and standing
The Social Crisis
america could be refuge for England’s surplus population
late 16th century a time of sical crisis
economic growth unable to keep pace w/ needs of pop.
3 mil (1550) → 4 mil (1600)
landlords sought profits from raising sheep for wool and using crop rotation
evicted small farmers and fenced off “commons”
enclosure movement ^
uprooted thousands → went to cities → wages fell→ prices rose (from gold + silver from americas)
½ pop. lived at or below poverty line
poor relief fell on local communities
under Henry VIII → unemployed were whipped, branded, forced into army, or hanged
under elizabeth, the law had justices of peace put unemployed to work
Masterless Men
Utopia (1516) → thomas More
America was a place where settlers could escape economic inequalities
unemployed → “masterless men"
danger to society for authorities
popular attitudes viewed economic dependence as lack of freedom
control your own labor = truly free
Americas = opportunity
economic independence
2nd chance for crimilnals
Early English Exploration + Colonization
English Emigrants
warfare, disease, and starvation killed many colonists
indentured servants
settlers who could pay for their own passage arrived as free persons
quickly acquired land
In 17th century, 2/3 English settlesr → indentured servants
5-7 years
could not marry w/o permission
bought + sold
subject to physical punishment
afer years would receive “freedom dues” and be free
not guaranteed route to economic autonomy
american life less appealing than anticipated
Land and Liberty
land was basis for liverty
gave men control over own labor + (usually) right to vote
way for king to reward relative and allies
source of wealth + power for colonial officials + favorites
gotta turn to slavery
The Native Atlantic Coast
high population colonie put greater pressure on Native neighbors
settlers 1st, but did enjoy trade (??? what does this sentence even say bro)
began to make products specifically for Native market
glass beads (wampum)
English let pigs and cattle roam free, trampling Native cornfields
Depleted forests
warfare
The Jamestown colony
April 26, 1607 → 3 ships → chesapeake bay → 60 miles inland (to protect from spanish ships) → established jamestown (named for king of england), colony of virginia (named after elizabeth I, “virgin queen”)
sponsored by the virginia company
104 settlers (men) remained in virginia
searching for gold
1st permanent English settlement in U.S. area
leadership changed repeatedly
high death rate
inadequate supplies from england
no riches like there were in mexico
1st settlers would rather starve than work
lay beside malaria mosquito infested swamp
garbage dumped in river caused dysentery and typhoid fever
end of year 1, population fallen by ½
1610 → 65 settlers left
abandoned but intercepted by new governor, 250 colonists, and suppliest
no work, no food
From Company to Society
virginia company realized it must abandon gold search
instead, grow food, find marketable commodity, and attract settlers
announced new policies (1618)
introduced headright system
awarded 50 acres to any colonist who paid for is own or another’s passage (bring many servants = earn large estate)
charter of grants and liberties issues
including establishment of House of Burgesses
1619: first elected assembly in colonial america
only freemen could vote
company had the right to nullify any body adopted measure
1619: first enslaved africans arrived in virginia
Powhatan and Pocahontas
Jamestown area originally inhabited by 15000-25000 Algonquian-speaking people living in agricultural towns
most acknowledged the rule of Wahunsonacock (powhatan [title])
consolidated his authority over 100 sub towns (collectively Powhatans)
quickly realized advantages of trade
Virginia company instructed colonists to treat Powhatans fairly
1st two years of jamestown → peaceful relations
Pocahontas movie story designed by Powhatan to demonstrate power
pocahontas becamse intermidary
married fellow Powhatan + stopped (tenions grew)
2st anglo-powhatan war (1610)
Powhatan killed englishman who stole corn; englishman killed powhatan to scare into feeding colony
Pocahontas captured and held hostage
converted to christianity and married Englishman John Rolfe (1614)
went to england and caused sensation in court James I (symbol of missionary success)
got sick and died in 1617
Powhatan died 1618
2nd and 3rd Anglo-Powhatan wars
Peace: 1614-1622
1622: powhatan's brother and successor, Opechancanough led surprise attack that killed 1/4 of 1200 settler population in 1 day
colonists organized into military bands and massacred
English victory in second War began the shift balance of power
settlers died but more kept coming
3rd war (1644) -> 500 colonists died
still outnumbered powhatans
ended in 1646 -> Opechancanough’s death
Virginia Forest treaty (subordination and move reservations)
destruction by 1st and 2nd Wars doomed Virginia Company
investors never turned a profit
1624: company surrendered its charter and became the 1st royal colony (Governor appointed by Crown)
Elite grew rapidly in wealth -> tobacco
A tobacco colony
King James I said it was dangerous
increasing numbers of Europeans thought it had health benefits
became Virginia's substitute for gold
crown profited with Customs
1624: 200,000 pounds of tobacco was grown
30 million pounds by 1680s
farming produced few towns with little social unity
inspired get-rich-quick attitude
led to increased demand for field labor
3/4 of 120,000 immigrants came as servants
Origins of American slavery
Englishman + Africans
English described all strangers as savage, pagan, and uncivilized
race not fully developed concept (racism also not)
main division that of civilization versus barbarism or Christianity versus Hedonism
Africans still seen as alien and enslavable (also Native Americans)
Slavery in history
in Americas, slavery was based on the plantation
magnified the possibility of slave resistance
encouraged the sharp boundary between slavery and freedom
labor was far more demanding and death rates far higher
eventually became associated with race
Slavery in the West Indies
By 1600 sugar plantations appeared in Brazil (colony of Portugal)
relied on enslaved Africans
1645: Barbados = 11,000 white farmers, 5,000 slaves
1660: 40,000 = 1/2 white 1/2 African
1670: slave pop. 82,000 (750 sugar plantations)
sugar was the 1st crop to be mass-marketed to Europeans
Saint Domingue (Haiti): Jewel of French Empire
1619
white Virginians bought enslaved Africans for the first time
seized from Portuguese ship (from Angola)
sent them to work on Tobacco plantations and Farms
slavery developed slowly in North America
more expensive than indentured servants
Woman in the family
Virginia's white society came to resemble that of England
1700: white population -> 90,000
lacked stable family life
promoted immigration of women
“tobacco brides” for ranged marriages 1620-1621
men outnumbered 4 or 5 to 1
most women came as indentured servants
didn't form families till their mid-20s lots of single men, widows, and orphans
traditional authority in practice was weakened
women possessed certain rights before the law
dower rights (1/.3 of husban’s property if he died before her)
widows + few never married women: legal status feme sole (women alone) could make contracts and conduct business
Margaret acquired land and managed own plantation and was larger
female indentured servants sexually abused
The Maryland Experiment
followed development of virginia
tobacco!!!
established 1632 as a proprietary coloy (one person)
Cecil calvert, Lord Balitmore (son of a fav. of king charles I)