Chesapeake & New England Colonial Regions — Comprehensive Study Notes

Virginia Company of London
- Joint-stock company chartered by King James I in $1606$ .
- Sought profit via discovery of gold, passage to Asia, and exploitation of natural resources.
- Financed by private investors buying shares; risk spread, quick returns expected.
Broader English Context
- Mercantilist competition with Spain and France.
- Surplus population and unemployment after the enclosure movement.
- Protestant nationalism: desire to plant English Protestantism abroad.

Jamestown, Virginia
- Founded $1607$ at a malarial, swampy site on James River.
- Chosen for defensibility against the Spanish, not for agriculture—major early error.
- Rough first years: "Starving Time" (winter $1609$ – $1610$ ) saw death of roughly
  3/4 of the $~500$ settlers.

Demographics
- Predominantly young, single men (gentlemen, laborers, indentured servants).
- Skewed sex ratio (about $6:1$ men-to-women by $1620s$ ).
Reasons for Coming
- Economic advancement: land ownership after indenture, potential gold.
- Escape from poverty and rigid class structure of England.
Lifestyle & Labor System
- Early communal storehouse replaced by private plots (John Smith’s "He that will not work shall not eat").
- Indentured servitude: contracts of $4$ – $7$ years; at peak $80\%$ of migrants.
- High mortality (disease, malnutrition) produced a “seasoning” period of $1$ – $2$ yrs.

John Smith
- Imposed military discipline $1608$ ; mapped Chesapeake; cultivated (tenuous) ties with Powhatan.
John Rolfe
- Perfected strain of sweet West Indian tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) in
  1612; married Pocahontas $1614$ , forging temporary peace.

Powhatan Confederacy (Algonquian-speaking, ~ $14,000$ people)
- Initially engaged in trade (corn for tools, copper).
- Cultural misunderstandings: land, leadership, gift-giving.
Anglo-Powhatan Wars
- First: $1609$ – $1614$ (ended with Rolfe-Pocahontas marriage).
- Second: $1622$ uprising led by Opechancanough; $~347$ colonists killed (≈ $1/3$ of pop.).
- Third: $1644$ – $1646$ ; Powhatans defeated, confined to reservations; signals shift to relentless land seizure.

Low salience initially—profit overshadowed piety.
Officially Church of England (Anglican); few clergy, irregular services.
Religion became more significant only with later influx of families and after
1660s.

House of Burgesses
- Established $1619$ —first representative assembly in British North America.
- White male property holders elected burgesses; governor & council could veto.
- Precedent for self-government, yet still under royal authority (became royal colony $1624$ ).

Tobacco monoculture
- European demand soared; by $1660s$ Virginia exporting $15$ million lbs/yr.
- Required large tracts ⇒ dispersed plantation pattern, weak towns, scattered parishes.
- Soil exhaustion pushed settlers inland, fueling Native conflict.
Labor transition: Indentured servants → enslaved Africans (first recorded arrival $1619$ ; dominant after
1680s due to Bacon’s Rebellion $1676$ & falling slave prices).

Creation of racial slavery embedded in law by Virginia slave codes
1705.
Tobacco’s boom-bust cycles tied Chesapeake to Atlantic mercantile credit networks; foreshadowed later debt crises.

Plymouth Colony
- Founded $1620$ at Patuxet harbor (abandoned Wampanoag village). Size remained small (≈ $7,000$ by $1691$ ).
Massachusetts Bay Colony
- Chartered $1629$ ; Boston founded $1630$ under Winthrop’s fleet of $11$ ships (“Great Migration”).
- Absorbed Plymouth $1691$ .

Demographics
- Families, balanced sex ratio; average age
  26; literacy rate >
  60\%—highest in Atlantic world.
Reasons for Coming
- Religious motive: escape perceived corruption of Anglican Church, build “City upon a Hill.”
- Secondary: economic opportunity (freehold farms, fishing grounds).
Lifestyle & Social Fabric
- Clustered towns centered on meetinghouse & common; subsistence farming (corn, beans, squash).
- Communal ethos: mutual watchfulness, moral regulation (blue laws).
- High longevity (average life expectancy into $60$ s) → multigenerational stability.

William Bradford
- Elected governor of Plymouth $30$ times; wrote "Of Plymouth Plantation" documenting providential history.
John Winthrop
- Massachusetts Bay’s first governor; sermon “A Model of Christian Charity” delivered aboard Arbella $1630$ .
- Coined “City upon a Hill” metaphor—missionary national exceptionalism.

Wampanoag Confederacy (led by Massasoit)
- March $1621$ treaty: mutual defense & trade.
First Thanksgiving
- Autumn $1621$ harvest feast; symbolic of cooperation but short-lived harmony.
Rising tension: land hunger & cultural imposition ⇒ Pequot War $1636$ – $1637$ and later King Philip’s War $1675$ – $1676$ (deadliest per capita colonial conflict).

Central pillar of life
- Pilgrims = Separatists; Puritans = non-Separating Congregationalists.
- Covenant theology: visible saints, conversion narratives.
Influence on Society & Government
- Church membership prerequisite for Massachusetts Bay freemanship until
  1664.
- Moral legislation: anti-idleness, Sabbath observance, tithing.
- Dissent punished (Roger Williams banished $1635$ ; Anne Hutchinson $1637$ ).

Mayflower Compact ( $1620$ )
- Civil body politic; majority rule; precedent for written constitutions.
Town Meetings & General Court
- Annual election of magistrates; direct participation by male property-holders.
- Early form of grassroots democracy influencing New England political culture.

Fur Trade
- Beaver pelts exchanged with Abenaki & others; vital early revenue.
Fishing & Ship-Building
- Grand Banks cod fisheries; by $1640$ exported $300,000$ fish/yr.
- Abundant timber, navigable rivers fueled shipyards (average $200$ tons per vessel by $18$ th c.).
Subsistence Mixed Farming
- Rocky soil limited cash crops; diversified self-reliance.
Triangular Trade Links
- Rum distillation (molasses from West Indies) → Africa for slaves → Caribbean.

Congregational autonomy fostered prototype of American religious pluralism.
Notion of covenant community shaped later revolutionary rhetoric.
Conflicts with Native peoples highlight tension between idealism and expansionism.

Climate & Health: colder climate curbed tropical diseases → longer lifespans.
Settlement pattern: towns vs. plantations; produced stronger local institutions in New England.
Labor: family labor vs. indentured/enslaved; slavery legal but marginal in New England (< $5\%$ of pop.).
Religious centrality: Puritan theocracy vs. Anglican laxity.