Chapter Two: England Plants a Variety of Colonial Seeds in America
Summary takeaways:
England’s colonial venture was driven by a mix of political, economic, social, and religious motives, and funded by private capital via joint stock companies.
Jamestown faced harsh realities, including disease, famine, and conflict with Indigenous peoples, but tobacco transformed the colony into a profitable, expansionist community.
The headright system and indentured servitude created a labor base and land expansion, laying groundwork for the Southern planter system and early American economic development.
Quick reference notes (for exam review):
144 colonists sailed in 1607 on three ships to Jamestown; voyage duration 2-6 months; death rate about one-third during voyage.
Headright: 50 acres per paying passenger; additional headrights awarded for each additional passenger financed.
Power politics: Powhatan Confederacy; Pocahontas (Rebecca) marriage to John Rolfe in 1614; peace for expansion.
1613-1614: tobacco export becomes a cash crop; tobacco drives colonial economy and growth.
Indentured servitude: typical term 7 years; labor-intensive tobacco farming; eventual freedom.
Geography: tidewater rivers, visualized as five miles between river plantations; trade via riverfront piers and London merchants.
Notable terms to remember:
Joint Stock Company: a private corporation funded by shareholders, sharing profits and risks
Headright system: 50 acres per paying passenger; additional headrights for each person financed
Cash crop: crop grown for sale rather than for the farmer’s use
Commercial farming vs subsistence farming
Indentured servant: labor contract for a fixed term; not slavery; eventual freedom after term
Tidewater and river plantation: plantations along navigable rivers with piers and ships for export
Mercantilism: economic policy linking colonial wealth to national power through trade and resource extraction
Final takeaways:
The Jamestown story illustrates how initial failures, environmental challenges, and Indigenous relations were overcome by a strategic economic pivot (tobacco) backed by private capital and labor arrangements, setting patterns for later American colonial development and global trade networks.
Chapter Two: England Plants a Variety of Colonial Seeds in America
Overview: England pursued colonization for political, economic, social, and religious reasons after Roanoke failures.
Political: counter France and Spain’s overseas power.
Economic: mercantilism; overseas possessions could enrich England; colonies would provide a market for English goods and a source of raw materials (timber, furs).
Social: overpopulation, crime, poverty; a destination to ship criminals and the poor.
Religious: plant Protestantism; remove religious troublemakers from the homeland.
Capitalism enters colonization: private investors funded ventures via Joint Stock Companies (private corporations).
Early capitalism: private investment and ownership, risk-bearing, profit-sharing, and profit-driven colonization.
England’s colonies would be seeded by capitalist investment from inception.
Governing charters and early American constitutions:
James I issued charters (patents) for two joint stock companies: the Virginia Company of London (London Company) and the Virginia Company of Plymouth (Plymouth Company).
Charters delineated settlement areas and granted legal authority; considered early American constitutions.
Territorial rules: Both companies could occupy the overlapped area between their charters but not within 100 miles of each other.
Jamestown, Virginia (London Company):
The London Company moved first and sent colonists to Jamestown, a swampy southern Virginia site named after King James.
The company sold shares to investors to raise money and promised profits to shareholders.
Recruitment literature exaggerated riches to entice settlers to leave England for the New World.
Wealth attracted a specific demographic: the very poor, street toughs, and bankrupts seeking quick wealth, i.e., the needy and petty criminals.
In 1607, 144 individuals embarked on three cramped, leaky boats to Virginia, seeking wealth and personal gain rather than founding a stable settlement.
Voyage and perilous crossing:
Atlantic crossing time: 2 to 6 months, depending on weather, winds, currents, map accuracy, and ship condition.
Voyage mortality: about a third of passengers (one out of three) died during the four-month voyage to Jamestown.
Onboard conditions included smells, seasickness, fever, dysentery, heat, and scurvy; one passenger described extreme distress aboard ship.
A dramatic example: a woman about to give birth was pushed through a porthole into the sea during a great storm.
Upon arrival, survivors faced post-embarkation diseases (yellow fever, malaria, other parasitic diseases from swamp mosquitoes).
Survival prospects in the first five years: about a 50% chance of surviving, or one out of two, a half probability.
Early survival challenges and Indian relations:
Initial colonists cared more for personal gain than building shelter or growing food, leading to food theft from Indians and fellow colonists.
The James River region hosted approximately 30,000 Algonquians, divided into 40 tribes. About 30 tribes were part of a Powhatan-led confederacy.
Tensions escalated as settlers seized Indian food stocks; Powhatan retaliated by cutting off supplies, forcing colonists to rely on frogs, snakes, and even decaying corpses.
The worst period was the “starving times.”
Captain John Smith imposed the motto: "Work or Starve" and forced colonists to plant crops and build a fort with rough wooden huts.
Smith forged a relationship with Chief Powhatan and his eleven-year-old daughter Pocahontas, aiding survival.
Smith’s departure and the colony’s precarious future:
In 1609, Smith returned to England after a gunpowder accident wounded him.
The London Company continued to send recruits, but the colony’s survival remained uncertain.
Tobacco as salvation and social changes:
The colony’s fortunes shifted with the late adoption of tobacco cultivation as a cash crop.
John Rolfe, using seeds from the Caribbean, developed Virginia’s first lucrative export of tobacco to England.
Rolfe also married Pocahontas. In 1613, Pocahontas was kidnapped and used as a bargaining chip for English prisoners and weapons.
Pocahontas converted to Christianity and took the name Rebecca; she and Rolfe married in 1614, bringing a period of peace sufficient for expansion.
Tobacco production created economic stability and a new social structure based on cash crops.
The demand in England for sweeter Virginia tobacco reinforced colonial growth and prosperity.
Concepts of farming: cash crops vs subsistence farming
Cash cropping: growing crops (notably tobacco) for sale to markets rather than for household consumption; maximizes profit but requires labor and capital.
Subsistence farming: producing just enough food to feed the farmer and family; generally associated with poverty in this context.
Tobacco became the colony’s economic backbone, enabling sustained growth and trade with England.
The tobacco economy and the Southern planter system:
The colony’s navigable river network, fertile soils, and capacity to produce large tobacco quantities fostered a distinct Southern planter culture.
The possibility of expanding cultivated land increased production and profits for those who financed their passage to Virginia.
The Joint Stock Company offered free land through the “headright system” to incentivize settlement.
Headright system and land distribution:
Definition: a grant of land to settlers who paid their own way to Virginia or who financed the passage of others.
Mechanism: A Headright was 50 acres per paying passenger.
Additional headrights: planters could receive an extra 50 acres for each additional person they paid passage for, effectively expanding land ownership.
Purpose: to recruit labor for tobacco cultivation and to secure land for expanding plantations.
The system encouraged large landholdings and labor demands, exacerbating the need for workers.
Indentured servitude as labor supply:
Many English struggled to afford passage; those who could not pay sailed at another’s expense and became indentured servants.
Typical contract: around 7 years of service in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, and shelter.
The laborer was usually a young, single English male in his late teens or early twenties.
Legal status: indentured servants could be bought, sold, or leased; could be beaten for disobedience or attempting to run away.
End of term: unlike slaves, indentured servants were freed after completing their contract; this created a transient but important labor force for tobacco fields.
Many planters accumulated numerous indentured servants and large tracts of land, enabling the spread of tobacco plantations.
River plantations and networked trade:
Riverfront plantations were typically five miles apart and located along the James River; settlements relied on tidal currents and river access.
Plantations built wooden piers to dock ships for loading tobacco.
English merchants in London kept ledgers and maintained credit accounts with planters.
Merchants could advance funds or purchase English goods (luxury items like rugs, chandeliers, and musical instruments) for shipment back to the colony.
If sales revenue was insufficient to cover expenses, merchants would loan the difference until the next shipment.
Tobacco exports funded the colony’s growth and connected it to England’s markets.
The economic cycle and mercantilist linkages:
Tobacco export revenue created economic stability and growth in Jamestown.
Trade flowed between the colony and the mother country; the merchant-mason relationship evolved into a robust exchange of tobacco for goods and credit.
The system reinforced mercantilist ideas: colonies provided raw materials to the mother country, while England offered manufactured goods and capital.
Cultural and ethical implications:
The colonists’ early pursuit of wealth over settlement contributed to violent conflicts with Indigenous peoples and the deterioration of Indian relations.
The kidnapping of Pocahontas, her conversion, and arranged marriage highlight the coercive and coercive intercultural dynamics of the era.
The indentured servitude system, while not slavery, established a labor framework that perpetuated social stratification and laid groundwork for later labor systems.
Key dates and milestones to remember:
1607: Jamestown settlement established by the London Company; 144 passengers sail on 3 ships; initial attempt at colonization.
1609: Smith returns to England after injury; continued recruitment but precarious survival.
1613: Pocahontas kidnapped; tobacco export begins to gain profitability; later that year Pocahontas converts to Christianity and takes the name Rebecca.
1614: Pocahontas marries John Rolfe; marriage contributes to a temporary peace.
1613: Rolfe’s tobacco experiments lead to the colony’s first profitable export to England.
1613-1614: The tobacco economy expands, enabling rapid settlement growth and land expansion under the headright system.
Connections to broader themes and real-world relevance:
Early capitalism: private investment, risk-taking, and profit-driven colonial ventures foreshadow modern capitalist expansion.
Mercantilism: colonies as suppliers of raw materials and markets for manufactured goods; tobacco as a cash crop illustrates how resources shaped economic policy.
Labor systems: indentured servitude provided essential labor before the widespread enslavement of Africans; this transition had lasting social and economic implications.
Intercultural relations: Powhatan Confederacy, Pocahontas, and English settlers demonstrate the complexities, negotiations, and conflicts inherent in colonization.
**Geographic