Chapter 2: European Colonies and Native Nations, 1600–1660

Spread Protestantism; oppose Catholic Spain’s dominance; create English power through American empire.
Economic shifts in England: enclosure movement, sheep farming, poverty, and land access pushing people to emigrate; settlers seek land and economic freedom.
Colonies as outlets for poor and indebted, and as religious refuges or experiments.

Jamestown (Virginia): dispersed settlements; governed by a governor; emphasis on quick profit (gold), discipline, and military leadership. Early leadership: do work or you don’t eat (Smith).
Massachusetts Bay Colony: self-governing towns; Puritans; strong church influence; Mayflower Compact legacy; later governance by company shareholders and elected bodies; voting often tied to church membership (Massachusetts).
Pax and governance differences reflect broader religious and economic aims of each group.

Maryland (proprietary): Lord Baltimore; feudal-like land grants; assembly limited; aims for religious toleration for Catholics; English liberties granted but power centralized in proprietor.
Rhode Island: Roger Williams (1636 charter) established religious freedom; no established church; no requirement to attend church; early democracy with town meetings; Haven for dissenters and Jews.
Connecticut: Hartford (1636) founded on different religious governance; New Haven (1638) with tighter church-state relations; 1662 merger into Connecticut Colony; Fundamental Orders (1639) allowed male landowners to elect leaders.
Puritan settlements along the Hudson and along Narragansett Bay shaped by trade and land acquisition; New Netherland activity (Dutch) influenced regional dynamics.

Puritans sought to reform the Church of England but remained in its structure; opposition to Catholic practices under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
Division within Puritanism: Separatists (Pilgrims) seeking to separate from the Church of England; non-Separatists remained within, seeking reform from within.
Winthrop’s vision: Massachusetts as a “City upon a hill” (moral community and example).
Great Migration (early 1630s–1640s) brought thousands to Massachusetts Bay; mass movement shaped colony demographics.
Roger Williams (1636) argued for church–state separation and religious liberty; banished to Rhode Island; Rhode Island chartered as a religious liberty haven (1636).
Anne Hutchinson (trial 1637): challenged ministers’ authority; banished to Rhode Island; highlighted tensions over religious authority, gender, and dissent.
Half-Wa y Covenant (1662) and other adjustments reflected concerns about church membership and the vitality of Puritan faith.

Powhatan Confederacy (Virginia) and balance with English settlers; initial peaceful trade and intermarriage (Pocahontas) but tensions over land and sovereignty.
1622 attack by Powhatan’s faction; English responses shifted toward subjugation and land seizure; 1644 conflict led to a treaty restricting Native land rights.
Puritans in Massachusetts aligned with some tribes but pursued expansionist land goals; Pequot War (1636–1637) destroyed much of the Pequot power and reshaped regional power dynamics; uneasy peace followed.
Pilgrims’ alliance with Wampanoags and Narragansetts aided early survival and Plymouth’s defense; later, Puritan expansion restricted Native autonomy and land access.

Indentured servitude as the predominant pathway for many English to access land; terms of servitude could be extended for pregnancy, misbehavior, etc.; freedom dues offered land or goods, though often limited.
By mid-17th century, Africans increasingly present as enslaved laborers; first Africans in Virginia in 1619; initial status mixed with indentured servitude.
Slavery expands due to economic factors: sugar economies in the Caribbean, brutal plantation labor, and the transatlantic slave trade.
Transatlantic Slave Trade: vast flows to the Caribbean and Brazil; smaller shares to North America initially but rising over time.
Asientos and European involvement in the slave trade: Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Britain, France; numbers grow dramatically in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Caribbean slavery becomes especially brutal on sugar plantations; American mainland slavery also grows but starts earlier with a smaller share.
By 1860, millions enslaved in the United States; Caribbean slave populations faced higher death rates and harsher conditions, influencing regional demographics and labor practices.

Civil War in England (mid-1600s): Parliament vs Charles I; execution of Charles I in 1649; Cromwell’s Commonwealth; restoration of Charles II in 1660.
Weakening of central political and church authority during civil war leads to new religious sects seeking toleration (Quakers, Levellers, Diggers).
Some radicals and dissenters migrate to the colonies, bringing ideas about rights, governance, and religious freedom.
Maryland’s crisis during the English Civil War: Protestant Assembly opposes Baltimore’s plan; Protestant governor installed; Maryland Tol eration Act granting free exercise to all Christians; non-Christians excluded from certain rights.

Headright system: 50-acre land grants used to attract settlers and encourage land ownership; tied to land expansion and colonial growth.
Mayflower Compact: early self-government in Plymouth; social contract among settlers.
Company town governance vs proprietary governance: differences in voting rights, land ownership, and church influence.
Half-Way Covenant (1662): attempt to expand church membership while maintaining religious discipline.
Fundamental Orders (1639): Connecticut’s early framework for governance and popular election of leaders.
Puritan City on a Hill: Massachusetts Bay’s moral and civic aspiration; interplay between religion and governance.
Pequot War: pivotal 1636–1637 conflict reshaping regional power and colonial-Native relations.
Indentured servitude vs slavery: shifting labor systems in early Virginia and Maryland; legal distinctions and long-term implications.
Transatlantic slave trade: destination patterns, scale, and the brutal economics of Atlantic slavery.

Plymouth Colony founded: $1620$
Massachusetts Bay Colony significant migration: $1630$ onward
Hartford (Connecticut) established: $1636$ ; New Haven: $1638$ ; Connecticut formed by merger: $1662$
Pequot War: $1636{-}1637$
Puritan leadership and colonial development discussed in the 1630s–1640s; English Civil War: $1642{-}1651$ ; Restoration: $1660$
First African slaves in Virginia: $1619$
Maryland Tol eration Act (religious toleration) discussed during the Civil War period in the colonies: mid-1650s to 1660s

New England: strong church governance, town meetings, and mixed economy; higher emphasis on religious conformity and education.
Chesapeake and Southern colonies: tobacco and later sugar economies; gradual shift from indentured servitude to racial slavery; more dispersed and plantation-based settlements.
Native relations: often conflict over land; varying alliances with tribes; attempts at trade, coercive expansion, and periodic violence.
Religion and politics: enduring conflict between crown authority and colonial self-government; evolving conceptions of liberty, rights, and religious toleration.