SSUSH1 – English Settlement & Colonization (17th Century)

Standard SSUSH1 Focus

• Compare & contrast English settlement/colonization patterns in $17^{th}$-century North America
• Emphasis: regional geography, economics, religion, politics across Southern, Mid-Atlantic, New England colonies
• Thread tying all colonies to England = mercantilism & trans-Atlantic (triangular) trade, enforced by Navigation Acts

Atlantic World Context

• Atlantic World = convergence of N. American, S. American, European & African peoples
• Mix of conquest, trade, religious mission among Spanish, French, English empires
• English objectives: extract resources & out-compete rivals while colonists increasingly sought autonomy

Mercantilism & Trans-Atlantic / Triangular Trade

• Mercantilism: reduce imports, expand exports ➔ maximize national wealth/power
  • Colonies = sources of raw materials (lumber, sugar, wool, tobacco, rice, indigo)
  • England produced manufactured goods for re-export to Europe & back to colonies
• Navigation Acts (mid-$1600s$)
  • All colonial cargo on English ships
  • European goods for colonies must first enter an English port
  • “Enumerated” colonial commodities can be shipped only to England
  • Effects: limited colonial profits, slowed manufacturing, raised consumer prices; positives = stimulated New England ship-building; drove smuggling
• Triangular Trade pattern
  1. English rum/cloth ➔ Africa; exchanged for enslaved Africans
  2. Middle Passage: slaves ➔ Americas as forced labor
  3. American raw materials ➔ England for manufacturing
• Labor evolution
  • Early: indentured servants (4–7-yr contracts, land afterward)
  • Tension over land for freed servants ➔ shift to renewable African slavery (introduced $1619$)

Southern Colonies (Virginia, Maryland, Carolina, Georgia)

• Geography: fertile soil, long growing season; deep rivers bypass fall line (easy shipping)
• Economic zones
  • North of fall line: subsistence family farms, limited slavery
  • South of fall line: commercial plantations (tobacco, rice, indigo), intensive slave labor
• Native relations: initially barter/coexistence ➔ land competition & violence as cash-crop profits rose

Virginia

• Jamestown $1607$: joint-stock venture (Virginia Company); charter from King James I
• Early crises: malaria, dysentery, famine, Powhatan attacks; leadership vacuum until Capt. John Smith (“He that will not work will not eat”)
• John Rolfe introduces profitable Caribbean tobacco seed; marries/detains Pocahontas
• Powhatan’s death & Opechancanough’s attacks escalate war

Maryland

• Proprietary grant $1632$ to Lord Baltimore; refuge for Catholics
• $1649$ Act of Toleration → religious freedom for all Christians
• Ultimately tobacco economy dominates; Catholics out-numbered by Protestants

Carolina

• Granted $1663$ to eight Lord Proprietors after Restoration
• South Carolina: rice & indigo plantations, Charleston export hub; heavy slavery
• North Carolina: smaller tobacco farms
• Colony split $1712$; SC royal $1719$, NC royal $1729$

Georgia

• Created $1732$ as buffer vs. Spanish Florida & debtor resettlement
• Oglethorpe + 20 trustees; strict rules: land-size caps, slavery & alcohol banned
• Settler resistance ➔ by $1740s$ bans relaxed; demand for elected assembly

New England Colonies (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire)

• Physical setting: thin rocky soils, short growing season, dense forests, good harbors
• Economics: ship-building, fishing, whaling, mercantile trade; New England vessels dominate Atlantic shipping
• Religious drivers: Calvinist dissenters (Puritans) leaving Anglican persecution
  • Two strains: Separatists (Pilgrims) & non-Separatists (Puritans)
• Native relations: trade in early years, later wars (Pequot War $1637$ Mystic Fort massacre; King Philip’s War $1675$–$1676$)

Plymouth (Separatist Pilgrims)

• Mayflower blown north; Mayflower Compact (self-gov’t via majority rule) $1620$

Massachusetts Bay (Puritans)

• John Winthrop $1630$ “Model of Christian Charity” – “city upon a hill,” communal work ethic
• Governance: town meetings; voting for male church members; tight church-state link
• Dominion of New England $1686$-$1689$ under Sir Edmund Andros after charter revoked; colonist rebellion restores separate colony but now royal
• Social strain ➔ Salem Witch Trials $1692$ (150 accused, 29 convicted, 19 hanged)

Rhode Island

• Roger Williams (separation of church & conscience) banished $1636$; founds Providence
• Policies: paid natives for land; full religious toleration
• Anne Hutchinson likewise expelled, joins RI

Connecticut

• Thomas Hooker leads dissenters $1636$; Fundamental Orders of Connecticut $1639$ = first written constitution with elected legislature & governor
• Site of Pequot War

New Hampshire

• Breaks from Massachusetts $1679$; more religiously mixed

Mid-Atlantic Colonies (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware)

• Origin: Dutch New Netherland ($1614$) focusing on profit; seized by England $1664$
• Geographic assets: Hudson & Delaware Rivers = interior highways; fertile soil (“bread colonies”); excellent harbors (NYC, Philadelphia)
• Economy: hybrid—commercial trade + grain farming; cultural & religious diversity
• Native relations largely trade-oriented; William Penn compensates tribes

New York

• Proprietary grant to Duke of York; Dutch allowed to keep language & worship
• Colonial NYC layout: Wall Street (defensive wall), Broad Way; retains Dutch street plan south of Wall St

New Jersey

• Duke of York gifts portion to Berkeley & Carteret; low-price land sales lure settlers

Pennsylvania

• Granted to William Penn $1682$; Quaker “inner light,” equality incl. women, pacifism
• Advertised across Europe; >$1000$ settlers first year; Philadelphia booms as port
• Toleration & fair Indian dealings create model diversity

Delaware

• Roots: New Sweden ➔ Dutch ➔ Duke of York ➔ transferred to Penn $1682$; separate assembly $1704$

Key Individuals

• Richard Hakluyt: “Discourse of Western Planting” $1584$ justifying colonization
• Capt. John Smith; John Rolfe & Pocahontas; Chief Powhatan / Opechancanough
• Lord Baltimore; eight Lord Proprietors; James Oglethorpe
• Pilgrim leaders, John Winthrop, Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, Thomas Hooker
• William Penn; Peter Stuyvesant; Duke of York

Foundational Documents & Laws

• Virginia Charter $1606$
• Mayflower Compact $1620$
• Maryland Act of Toleration $1649$
• Fundamental Orders of Connecticut $1639$
• Navigation Acts (series $1650s$-$1696$)
• “Bloudy Tenet” (Williams) influencing later First Amendment

Comparative Highlights

• Southern: plantation cash crops, Anglican elite, slavery central, county gov’t
• New England: subsistence + trade/ship-building, Puritan religious commonwealths, town meetings, emphasis on literacy (Bible)
• Mid-Atlantic: mixed agriculture/commerce, pluralistic religions (Quaker, Dutch Reformed, Anglican, etc.), proprietary beginnings, tolerant policies

Ethical & Philosophical Implications

• Mercantilism spurred exploitation & colonial resentment ➔ seeds of Revolution
• Forced labor systems (indenture ➔ slavery) shaped racial stratification
• Religious dissent & experimentation laid groundwork for U.S. ideals of toleration, self-gov’t, written constitutions

Statistics & Numerical References

• Jamestown initial settlers: $104$
• Indentured term: $4\text{–}7$ years
• Mayflower passengers ≈ $100$
• Salem Witch Trial numbers: $150$ accused, $29$ convicted, $19$ executed
• First Pennsylvania immigration wave >$1000$ settlers (year 1)

Classroom / Enrichment Resources

• Gilder Lehrman Institute Era “Colonization & Settlement, $1585\text{–}1763$”
• University of Houston Digital History modules
• Federal Reserve simulation “From Raw Materials to Riches”
• Historic Jamestown, LOC primary sets (Jamestown & Georgia)
• Massachusetts Historical Society; Pilgrim Hall; Salem Witch Trials archive
• New Amsterdam History Center

Connections Forward

• Navigation Acts + mercantilist restraints ➔ colonial smuggling culture, later resistance to taxes (Sugar, Stamp Acts)
• Labor transition to African slavery lays foundation for social/economic order challenged in SSUSH3-4
• Town-meeting direct democracy & Fundamental Orders prefigure colonial assemblies & U.S. Constitution
• Religious freedom experiments (RI, PA, MD) anticipate First Amendment protections