APUSH Unit 2 - Development of the Regions of the 13 Colonies

Jamestown - 1607

  • Virginia Company - starts as a joint-stock colony for profit

    • Virginia Company: a significant company established in 1606 that played a crucial role in the early English colonization of the Americas, particularly Virginia. Its efforts and challenges laid the foundation for the future expansion of English colonies in North America and set important precedents for governance and economic practices in the emerging colonies.

    • Joints stock colony: a type of colony funded by a group of investors who pull the resources to finance settlement and development in the New World.

  • Made up of gentlemen not accustomed to “manual labor”

  • John Smith brought “law and order”

    • John Smith: an English soldier, explorer an author, most notable for his role in the establishment and survival of the first permanent English settlement in America.

  • Headright system: a land distribution method used in the early colonial period. It’s purpose was to implement to incentivize colonization and increase the population in the colonies by granting land to settlers and planters.

  • John Rolfe introduced the saving cash crop

    • John Rolfe: an English settler and tobacco planter in the Virginia colony, best known for his role in establishing the tobacco industry in North America and his marriage Pocahontas, the daughter of the Powhatan chief.

  • Economically failed miserably and became a royal colony

    • Royal Colony: a colony that is directly controlled by the English king.

Plymouth - 1621

  • Pilgrims - Separatist Puritans - wanted to separate from the Church of England

  • William Bradford was the first governor and the Mayflower Compact was the first self-governing document of the colonies

    • Mayflower Compact: an agreement signed by the pilgrims before settling at Plymouth. It’s purpose was to create a basic government for the colony.

Colonial Social Life

  • Colonists not homogenous culture

  • Three regions - three distinct ways of life

    • They wanted English Transplantations BUT colonial society was different than “homeland” English because not all people were English, social class environment differed, there was slavery, and indirect rule

New England

  • Included Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire

Massachusetts Bay

  • Puritans - Non-Separatists - wanted to purify the Church of England from within

  • Founder John Winthrop wanted to create a “city upon a hill”

    • John Winthrop: the governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony in a major Puritan leader. He wanted to create a community based on Puritan, religious beliefs.

    • “City upon a hill”: Winthrope described Massachusetts, as an example of a godly society that others would look to.

  • Theocracy with a limited democracy (town meetings)

Connecticut - 1636

  • Thomas Hooker

    • Puritan who believed that more than church members should be able to vote

    • Settled Hartford and created first constitution: Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)

      • Fundamental Orders of Connecticut: created a written framework of government for the Connecticut colony. It established an elected representative government, it gave male property owners of role and choosing leaders, and created rules for how the government would operate.

Rights of the People

  • “The foundation of authority is laid, firstly, in the free consent of the people” -Hooker

    • Some historians argue that this is the first assertion that people have the right to choose the government AND have the authority to limit their powers

Providence Rhode Island

  • Safe haven for many Christians

  • Roger Williams

    • Exiled from Salem for his “dangerous opinions”

    • Advocate for Indian property rights

    • Father of separation of church and state

Economic, Geographic, and Political Feature of the New England Colonies

  • Thin, rocky soil, short growing season— created small family farms but need to diversify

  • Shipbuilding, fishing, lumbering, and mercantilist activities

  • Forerunners of industry

  • Limited democracies in Puritan “town meetings”

  • Growth of religious tolerance in Rhode Island

A Woman’s Life in New England

  • Patriarchal system

    • Lost legal identity— no property, file legal suit, participate in political life

  • Goal: bear and nurture children (6 to 8 kids— marry in early 20s) and be “husband helper”

  • Provided nearly all of the goods used by families (yarn, soap, butter, etc.)

Marriages

  • New England parents help heir children establish farms

  • Upon marriage gifts of land, equipment, etc.

  • Selected children’s partner BUT they can refuse an “unacceptable” match

The Mid-Atlantic Region

  • Included Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey

  • Was considered the “breadbasket” of the colonies— rich, fertile soil— grains, fruits and veggies

  • Most diverse - ethnic and religious

  • Fewer merchants than New England but more than the South

Pennsylvania - 1681

  • Quakers (Religious society of Friends): no paid clergy, no difference to authority, pacifists, “inner light”, all men equal in the eyes of God, against slavery

  • Well advertised (land, freedom of religion, and representative government)

  • Resulted in many immigrants— large German population

  • Bought land from Indians— excellent relations

  • No tax supported state church

  • By 1700, the fourth largest colony (Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland)

New York Colony

  • Originally Dutch and then surrendered to the English population

  • Characterized by diversity but also a history of patroonship

  • High levels of slaves imported, the highest during the 1690s

  • Last to add a colonial assembly in 1683

Mid-Atlantic - Land of Diversity

  • New England grew from natural increase and the Mid-Atlantic grew from immigration (Scots - Irish/Germans)

  • Ethnic customs influenced homes, furniture, woman’s lives (Germany)

The “Enlightened” Region

  • Ben Franklin - Philadelphia - author of Poor Richard’s Almanack

    • Merchant class received it well

  • Social reforms impulse in Penn (Penn Hospital 1751, first med school 1765, one of the first circulating libraries)

Virginia and Maryland

  • One crop economy of tobacco

  • Used the headright system

  • Indentured servants to slavery

Maryland Only

  • Founded as a Catholic safe haven by Lord Baltimore

  • Had the first act of religious toleration in 1649 for self protection

House of Burgesses - Virginia

  • 1619 in a church at Jamestown

  • Minimum price for tobacco

  • First representative body until it becomes a royal colony (restricted)

The Carolinas

  • Less aristocratic in the north— less plantations, slavery— more backcountry folks

  • Southern region adopt slavery practices in Barbados - slave codes, cruelty, cash crop (rice) to maximize profits

Georgia - 1732

  • The last of the colonies

  • James Oglethorpe - First governor/start over for criminal debaters/prohibition rum/slavery

  • Only colony to get direct financial support from the “mother” government

  • For England— a buffer state from Spanish Florida for South Carolina plantation

  • Threat from Spanish kept it from growing

  • Adopts South Carolina slavery policy, adds rum

  • Still poorest of 13 colonies