The Early Chesapeake

Colonists and Natives

==Early Problems==

• Jamestown was created by a surviving 104 out of 144 men in the Chesapeake
• The location of the colony was terrible because they had no fresh water and were not immune to the local diseases
• The colony solely survived on the help of natives, but the English still looked at them as uncivilized savages

Reorganizing and Expansion

@@The Starving Period@@

• A Virginia bound ship got lost at sea, natives didn’t let the colonizers further inland, and the English hadn’t properly prepared for the winter
• The colonists had to eat whatever they could find, and when the Virginia ship finally came, only 60 colonizers were still alive
• The colonists later managed to cultivate tobacco, which was very helpful to the economy

$De La Warr’s Harsh Discipline$

• De La Warr established a strict system to govern the colonies
• People were in work gangs and offenders were punished with death
• Later, Sir Thomas Dale decided to let people own and cultivate the land themselves if they gave part time to the company

Tobacco

%%The Emergence of the Tobacco Company%%

• John Rolfe found tobacco that local Natives had been growing and experimented with it
• Tobacco helped as a trading crop with England and also helped with the expansion of colonies

Expansion

^^The Headright System^^

• A headright was 50 acres of land given to settlers for a multitude of reasons
• The headright a colonist received was divided into one shilling and each shilling was given to the company
• Delegates met at the House of Burgesses, making this the first elected legislature of the United States
• The increasing demand for help for farming tobacco caused people to want to bring slaves in from Africa

==Suppression of the Powhatan Indians==

• The suppression of the Powhatan Indians helped the English expand
• Indians fought their hardest to defend their land, but ended up losing to the English

@@Demise of the Virginia Company@@

• The Indian wars caused the Virginia Company to go bankrupt and end up under the control of the crown

Exchanges in Agricultural Technology

$Indian Agricultural Technologies$

• Using the Indian’s agricultural technologies helped the colony survive
• Not all techniques were adopted by the English

Maryland and the Calverts

%%Proprietary Rule%%

• Maryland was created to be a safe haven for English Catholics
• Lord Baltimore and Leonard Calvert ran the creation of this colony
• Unlike Jamestown, the Indians and English in Maryland lived in peace at the beginning of the colony

^^Religious Tolerance^^

• Since the colony was going to be a combination of Protestant and Catholic, acts for religious tolerance were placed
• Even so, the Catholics were still oppressed and faced violence
• Maryland also had an economy based on tobacco, and they also ended up using slaves from Africa for labor

Turbulent Virginia

==Virginia’s Westwards Expansion==

• The economy and population of Virginia were increasing along with the Indian conflict
• Berkley was a governer who helped settle disputes by negotiating territory with Indians
• However, the growing population caused them to break the deal causing conflict

@@Berkley’s Autocratic Rule@@

• All countries had two representatives in the Burgesses
• However, the backcountry wasn’t well represented, and indentured servants were left without jobs

Bacon’s Rebellion

$Backcountry Grievances$

• People in the backcountry were at risk of being attacked by Indians
• Once the Indians started attacking, Bacon and the other colonists decided to not listen to Berkeley and attacked the Natives back
• He managed to get away with it the first time, but the second time ended up with Berkeley having to flee the colony until Bacon died allowing him to regain control

%%Significance of Bacons Rebellion%%

• Bacon’s Rebellion shows how the English didn’t care about their previous agreements with the Indians and how unstable the colony can potentially get