Chapter 3 Notes: Settlements, Alliances, and Resistance — English, French, and Spanish North America
ENGLAND’S SETTLE IN NORTH AMERICA (3.1)
Context: After Columbus, Europeans spent more time seeking Asia routes than paying attention to what would become the United States or Canada; Spain’s empire focused on Mexico, Peru, and the Caribbean, while North America was viewed as less rewarding (no obvious gold/silver) and sometimes icy in the north.
Early contact with North America:
European cod fish trade drove initial contact: fishermen from France, England, and the Basque region of Spain exploited Canadian and Maine waters, establishing temporary coastal stations (Newfoundland) but few wintered or established permanent colonies.
Native Americans found the fishermen intrusive; frictions arose over winter plunder and resources, but most interactions were limited and avoided.
Disease spread via occasional contact long before sustained settlement.
English interest grows: late 1500s–early 1600s
1585: Richard Hakluyt publishes Pamphlet for the Virginia Enterprise urging colonization to gain trade in furs and tobacco later; aims to create settlements, alliances, and resistance to English-Spanish power.
Virginia Company and the lure of furs and tobacco become economic motors for English colonization in the 1600s.
Jamestown and the initial English settlement (3.1)
Jamestown founded by the Virginia Company in 1607, with 105 men arriving to establish a foothold.
Immediate problems: dangerous James River site with tidal saltwater at high tide, poor water quality, drought years of 1607–1608, cold winter; disease and famine plagued the settlers; internal council disagreements and even executions (e.g., a councilor executed as a Spanish spy).
Powhatan’s Confederacy and Paspahegh people: English faced hostility and suspicion; Powhatan acted as a regional emperor-like leader over local Algonquian-speaking tribes (13,000–15,000 people).
John Smith’s leadership (1608): adopted by Powhatan after rescue during his capture; Smith’s policy of “he who does not work, does not eat” forced labor and fortification; Smith’s leadership kept Jamestown from failing like Roanoke.
Pocahontas is a notable figure associated with the Powhatan Confederacy and early interactions with the English settlers.
Smith’s departure in 1609 contributed to the “starving time” of 1609–1610 when starvation and disease nearly destroyed the settlement; Powhatan’s tribes withdrew food aid as trade declined.
1610: relief arrives with a fleet led by Lord de la Warr; colony rebuilt; London investors reframe their mission as a national Protestant mission, emphasizing conversion and a base against Spain.
1619: the Virginia Company’s reorganizing, plus a shift to tobacco as a cash crop; first African slaves sold in Jamestown in 1619, marking the beginning of a long arc toward enslaved labor in English North America.
Economic pivot: tobacco becomes the lifeblood of Virginia’s economy; tobacco requires labor, accelerating the shift from Indian trade-based survival to plantation agriculture.
Indentured servants were also a crucial labor source, working for a set number of years in exchange for passage to America.
Headright system: established in various colonies like Virginia and Maryland, it granted land to settlers who paid for their own or another’s passage, encouraging migration and labor.
1624: Virginia becomes a royal colony, which solidifies the Crown’s direct interest in governance and the colony’s development; tobacco’s profitability underpins English settlement.
1622 Openchancanough’s attack: Algonquian-speaking tribes under Powhatan’s successors attacked English settlements, killing about 300 of the 1200 settlers, signaling Indian resistance to encroachment.
1624–1640s: movement from indigenous trading partners to tobacco-based agriculture; Indian land becomes more valuable for English planters; disease and conquest drive a demographic shift; African slavery intensifies as labor needs grow.
The Massachusetts Bay–Plymouth cluster and Puritan settlement (3.1 continuation)
Puritans and Separatists (also known as Pilgrims) flee religious conflict in England; Plymouth founded by Separatist Pilgrims in 1620; Mayflower voyage (102 passengers; half “Separatists,” half “strangers”).
Mayflower Compact (1620): an early form of governance by consent in Plymouth; debated as a foundation for civil government and self-rule.
Plymouth’s winter of 1620–1621: severe hardship; Massasoit of the Wampanoag alliance with Squanto (a translator) helps the settlers survive; 54-year peace established through Massasoit’s alliance with Plymouth.
First Thanksgiving (1621): harvest festival with Wampanoags; Massasoit’s leadership and gifts of deer helped the Pilgrims survive.
The English economy and Puritan expansion (3.1 continuation)
The Puritans (Massachusetts Bay Company) relocate to New England (Spring 1630): 14 ships sail from England; John Winthrop becomes governor; over 1,000 people and 200 cattle arrive by summer; Great Migration lasts into the 1630s with ~20,000 additional settlers.
“City upon a hill”: Winthrop’s vision for Massachusetts Bay as a model religious commonwealth; literacy emphasis leads to early college (Harvard, established 1636) and widespread schooling (1647 town provision for schooling).
Connecticut and New Haven: 1637 Pequot War; 1639 Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (Hartford)—often cited as an early constitution.
Roger Williams (1631 Boston) argues for conscience and separation of church and state; banished in 1635; founded Providence (Rhode Island) and ensured land purchases from Native Americans; Rhode Island becomes a haven for dissenters.
Anne Hutchinson (1630s): challenged Puritan authority by advocating direct revelation; banished in 1637; goes to Rhode Island and then Dutch New Amsterdam; killed in 1643.
Puritan governance: church membership required for voting; later, Halfway Covenant (1662) expanded church membership to baptized but not yet converted; this preserved some religious influence while expanding participation.
Maryland: a Proprietary colony (1634) founded by Lord Baltimore to provide a haven for Catholics; later, 1649 freedom of worship for all Christians; tobacco as a cash crop; slavery codified: 1661 Virginia/Maryland laws define enslaved status as lifelong and inheritable; 1st laws formalizing slavery appear in early Maryland and Virginia.
The English colonies: continuation and growth (3.2)
The English wars and domestic tensions shaped colonial life: 1649–1658 Commonwealth; 1660 Restoration under Charles II.
King Philip’s War emerges in New England (1675–76): a brutal war between English colonists and Native peoples (Wampanoag, Narragansetts, and others); significant deaths on both sides; featured frontier sieges and massacres, such as the Great Swamp Fight (Dec. 1675) and the eventual defeat of Metacom (King Philip) in 1676; Metacom’s death ends a major independent Native polity in New England.
Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) in Virginia: Nathaniel Bacon leads a militia against Native American tribes and clashes with Governor Berkeley; the rebellion reflects class tensions, frontier pressure, and resistance to centralized colonial authority; Bacon dies in 1676, and uprising is crushed; rebellion accelerates shift toward slave labor and the marginalization of Native peoples in the colony.
Economic and social consequences: Bacon’s Rebellion accelerates shifts toward African slavery as a controllable labor force; Jamestown’s earlier reliance on indigenous labor and indentured servants transforms into a plantation economy increasingly dependent on enslaved Africans; frontier violence helps eliminate Native power in expanded English settlements.
ADDITIONAL THEMES AND CONNECTIONS
Economic shifts drive settlement: tobacco (Virginia), fur trade (New France), and later sugar (Caribbean) create powerful incentive structures for migration and political competition.
Slavery evolves in British North America
1619 Jamestown: first African slaves introduced; early mixed labor with indentured servants; race-based slavery intensifies in the late 17th century, particularly in the Chesapeake and South.
Early forms of slavery coexist with indentured servitude; by the late 1600s, laws codify lifelong and inheritable slavery (e.g., Maryland, 1661).
Native American diplomacy and conflict
Early alliances (Powhatan–Jamestown; Massasoit–Plymouth; Huron–Champlain) show the complexity of Indigenous-European relationships.
As settlements grow, pressures mount on Native lands, leading to wars (Pequot War, King Philip’s War, battles in Virginia) and displacement.
The English political context shapes colonies
Civil conflicts in England (Civil War, Commonwealth, Restoration) influence the spread and governance of colonies; royal charters, proprietary grants, and legislative experiments reflect England’s political shifts.
Cultural and religious motivations
Puritans built a theocratic commonwealth in Massachusetts with emphasis on literacy, church membership, and education (Harvard College founded 1636; literacy mandates 1647).
Rhode Island becomes a haven for religious dissenters; Maryland serves as a Catholic haven; Georgia emerges later as a frontier social experiment.
William Penn: A prominent Quaker who founded Pennsylvania, establishing a colony based on religious freedom, fair dealings with Native Americans, and a framework for self-governance.
Quakers: A religious group (also known as the Society of Friends) who advocated for principles of peace, equality, and religious tolerance, significantly influencing the development of Pennsylvania under William Penn.
Practical and ethical implications
The colonists’ interactions with Indigenous peoples include cooperation, trade, exploitation, and violence; the long-term consequences include loss of Indigenous sovereignty and demographic shifts.
The growth of slavery and race-based labor systems profoundly shapes American history and society, with legacies that persist beyond the colonial era.