Chapter 2 student outline USH

Sixteenth Century England

  • Second rate power with internal disunity

  • Henry VII - unified kingdom after civil war

  • Henry VIII - initiated the protestant reformation: established the anglican church

  • Edward VI (age 10) - His regency persecuted catholics

  • Mary - Temporarily restored Catholicism; executed Protestants

  • Elizabeth I - restored the protestant ascendancy; executed catholic priests

  • Extra notes - Henry VIII established anglican church after pope refused his marriage. The protestant reformation came because people did not like the pope. The soldiers working under Edward VI persecuted Protestants

England and Ireland

  • Irelands catholic population was seen as a threat to protestants in england

  • The english government attempted to conquer Ireland through military conquest, killing citizens, and taking land

  • Indicative of how Native americans will be treated

  • Extra notes - English introduced their economic practice and excluded the ireland population instead of absorbing their culture. They referred to people from ireland as animals and barbaric

England and North America

  • In 1582, Newfoundland was established but was short-lived

  • In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh founded roanoke

  • - good pirating location

  • - conflict with natives (livestock ruining crops, taking land)

  • - abandoned by 1586 (natives surrounded roanoke and killed english, made them assimilate, or english ran away.)

  • In 1586, a second attempt to settle in roanoke was made

  • - abandoned in 1590

  • - called croaton, and people assume it was a native american tribe the europeans joined, or everyone could have died

Spreading Protestantism

  • The reformation defined catholic spain as the enemy and brutal conquers

  • English portrayed themselves as liberators spreading protestantism

  • Richard Hakluyt (1584)

  • - provided reasons to support the establishment of colonies, weaken spains empire, and spread protestantism into america

  • National power and glory played into colonization efforts

  • England wanted to be a first world power

Social Crisis

  • Englands population grew from 3 million to 4 million in the late 16th century

  • Thousands were displaced through the enclosure movement

  • Many left without work

  • Henry VIII punished those without jobs

  • During elizabeths reign, justices assigned jobs to the unemployed

  • Poor were encouraged to settle in america

  • Extra notes - Introduced more productive farming practices like crop rotation, evicted poor farmers, and fenced off land to force people to move to america. Left many searching for jobs, and made england look poor.

Utopia

  • only those who controlled their own labor were considered to be free

  • Under this ideology if you work a low wage job you have less freedom then self employed people

  • Utopia by Thomas More (1516)

  • - Established America as a land of economic freedom and abundant opportunities (including the chance to own land)

  • Belief of economic freedom attracted many english colonists to the americas

English Emigrants

  • 17th century north america experienced warfare, disease, and starvation

  • continual immigration was needed to sustain settlements

  • More than half a millon colonists left england between 1600-1700 for Ireland, the west indies, and american colonies.

  • Poor economic conditions in england fueled emigration

  • Extra notes - colonists found tobacco, produced sugar, and other farming practices due to poor conditions in england.

Indentured servants

  • Free persons - paid their own passage to America

  • Indentured servants - could not afford passage and labored under contract for 5-7 years in return for passage to America

  • - Bought and sold

  • - Marriage required owners permission

  • - physical punishments

  • - Women who got pregnant couldnt work, so their contract would be extended the pregnancy months

  • - Freedom dues

  • Hoped to become economically independent after servitude, but faced high death rates and inadequate freedom dues

The Native Atlantic Coast

  • Land = liberty

  • English aimed to settle on native islands, not interact with them

  • Natives sought beneficial trade and alliances with English

  • Growing number of English emigrants and land claims in North America led to conflict

  • - Fenced land, roaming livestock, forest depletion, and recurrent warfare

  • Landowners turned to enslaved labor to manage large estates

  • Extra notes - Natives are mad because english takes more land then agreed on, fences off land for community use, and livestock from english that destroy their crops

Jamestown Colony (16070

  • First permanent settlement

  • Sponsored by the Virginia Company

  • 104 males with inadequate supplies, seeking gold and resources

  • Constantly changing leadership, high death rate, few farmers/workers and disease

  • By 1608, the population fell by half

  • In 1609, new arrivals bring population up to 400

  • Extra Notes - Did not expect to be a permanent colony, so brought inadequete supplies. There was a swamp the colonists dumped waste into, which brought disease into the settlement.

“Starving Time”

  • Winter of 1609-1610

  • Drought, severely low supplies, and harsh relations with Powhatans people led to starvation

  • Settlers ate shoe leather, horses, dogs, cats, and mice

  • Suspected cannibalism - some dug up corpses or ate those who starved

  • 65 settlers survived the starving time

From Company to Society

  • Survival strategy: abandon search for gold, grow food, and find marketable commodities

  • Headright system (1618): Virginia Company gave 50 acres of land to those who paid for his own or anothers passage to america

  • House of burgesses (1619) - First elected assembly in colonial America

  • First enslaved Africans arrive in Virginia in 1619

  • Lays the foundation for a society led by slave-owning planters

  • Extra notes - headright system worked if you paid for slaves to come to america.

Powhatan

  • ruled over the area surrounding Jamestown

  • Controlled about 100 subordinate towns, known as powhatans

  • virginia company aimed to treat the powhatans fairly and convert them to christianity

  • virginia settlers depended on powhatans to survive

Pocahontas

  • Powhatans daughter

  • Disney version: Rebellious teenager defies her father by saving John Smith from execution

  • Reality : Ceremony to assert power over the colonists and incorporate them through the adoption of John Smith

  • Becomes intermediary between settlers and Powhatans since she can speak both languages

First Anglo-Powhatan War (1610-1614)

  • Growing tensions over land; worsened by tobacco demands

  • Powhatans killed settlers for corn theft; english killing powhatans, attacking towns, and forcing Powhatans to feed settlers; Pocahontas captured

  • Resolution involved Pocahontas converting to Christianity and marrying John Rolfe (showed a major symbol of native american culture converting to christianity and assimilating into english culture)

  • Pocahontas symbolized anglo-indian peace and successful conversion efforts

Second Anglo Powhatan War (1622-1626)

  • Opechancanough’’s (Powhatans brother and successor) surprise attack killed a quarter of Virginias settlers

  • Colonists formed military bands; massacred and devastated Powhattan towns

Third Anglo-Powhatan War (1644-1646)

  • Opechancanough launched another attack to resist european encroachment

  • 500 colonists killed; Powhatan population declined due to war, disease, and desertion.

  • War ends with Opechancanough’s death

  • Forced treaty relocated Powhatans to reservations

Tobacco

  • Substitute for Gold

  • Production soared by late 17th century

  • Creates a dispersed society with a “get rich quick” mindset

  • Large estate owners became elites

  • High demand for field labor

  • Filled by young, male, indentured servants

  • Would soon turn to enslaved labor

  • Extra notes - John rolfe brings a sweeter strain of tobacco to be mass produced in america

  • The english settlements fence off land and use massive amounts of land to produce tobacco, not worried about communities and being friends

Englishmen and Africans

  • English defined outsiders as savage, uncivilized, and animalistic

  • “Race” and “racism” not fully developed concepts in the 17th century

  • Instead, civilization v barbarism and Christianity v heathenism

  • Africans were seen as so different from the english that they could be enslaved

Why enslaved african labor

  • Constant need for workers

  • Lacked legal protections

  • Terms of service did not expire

  • Children could be enslaved

  • Skin color hindered escape efforts

  • Accustomed to agricultural work

  • Less susceptible to epidemics

Slavery in the Americas

  • Plantation: agricultural estate using unfree labor for crop cultivation

  • Slaves often outnumbered whites, causing constant concern over resistance

  • Owners expressed high control and policing to suppress resistance

  • Labor was harsh: high death rates

  • Slavery became linked with race over time

  • Extra notes - One person brings five indentured servants, they get 150 acres. The person with 10 slaves get 500 acres. Slave to owner ratio of 15/2

Slavery in the west indies

  • Many countries cultivated sugar in west indian islands

  • Slaves imported for harsh labor

  • Sugar = first mass marketed crop in Europe

  • - Ex: Barbados

  • Sugar was aimed at all consumers, unlike gold and silver

1619

  • First enslaved Africans purchased in Virginia

  • Captured by the Portuguese, forced to march 100 miles, then were packed into slave ships

  • British pirates attacked the ships and took about 60 slaves (traded some for food)

  • 20-30 slaves were brought back to Virginia on the White Lion ship, and later pursued work on tobacco plantations, farms, and households.

  • Slavery was a slow development due to high costs and high death rates

Women and the Family

  • Men outnumbered women in the Chesapeake

  • Virginia Company sought women to sustain colony growth

  • “Tobacco Brides” - virginia company paid women’s passage and arrange marriages to Jamestown men

  • Women often immigrated as indentured servants

  • Feme solo: widows and unmarried women who enjoyed more freedoms.

The Rise of Puritanism

  • Late 16th century

  • Puritans believed the Church of England was too catholic

  • Believed the Church of England and England itself were not metting their ideals

  • Followed John Calvin who believed in predestination

  • Predestination - no matter what you do in life, its already determined if you go to heaven of hell. If you are wealthy and own lots of land, you go to heaven and if you are poor you go to hell.

A City on a Hill

  • Separatists - Puritans who left the Church of England for independent churches

  • Emigrate to Plymouth due to the Church’s catholic traits

  • Separatists sought to escape religious and worldly corruption

  • In plymouth, they established self-governance and religious freedom

  • John Winthrop - Governor of Plymouth Colony

  • - Believed that freedom depended on the submission to authority, religiousy and secularly

The Pilgrims at Plymouth (1620)

  • Pilgrims - puritan seperatists on the mayflower that founded the plymouth colony

  • Mayflower Compact - agreement by 41 men to obey laws chosen by representatives

  • Arrived six weeks before winter with no food or animals

  • Depended on local indians, especially the patuxet tribe of the wampanoag

The First Thanksgiving

  • Tisquantum (squanto): patuxet indian who helped plymouth settlers survive

  • He learned english while enslaved in London

  • Squanto taught settlers fishing, corn planting, and acted as a interpreter

  • Alliance - Wampanoags agreed to help feed and defend plymouth if the pilgrims agreed to help fight the wampanoags enemies - the Narragansetts

  • 1621 - the celebration and renewal of this alliance is known as the first thansgiving

Great Migration (1642)

  • Massachusetts Bay Company sought trade, to spread puritanism, and establish relations with Natives

  • 1630 - John Winthrop establishes the massachusetts bay colony

  • Great Migration: about 21000 puritans emigrated to the colony

  • Most arrived with their families, unlike in virginia

  • First colony to achieve stability and growth due to balanced gender ratio and healthier cimate

Native Nations and New England

  • Wampanoags assumed regional dominance

  • Wampanoags became intermediaries between the english and other native societies

  • New england colonists did not actively convert native americans

  • - Feared that colonists would prefer native lifestyles

  • - In 1642, a penalty was established for colonists who pursued Native lifestyles

The Pequot War

  • Pequot Indians exerted dominance over other tribes, forcing tribute and control of trade

  • 1637 - Narragansetts, Mohegans, and Massachusetts Bay Colony attack the Pequot

  • Pequot villages burnt; 500 pequot killed

  • Surviving pequots enslaved, sold, or absorbed into other tribes

  • First demonstration of english power to New England Natives

The New England Economy

  • Exporting fish and timber

  • Small Family Farms

  • Few slaves and indentured servants during the 17th century

  • Labor rested on the members of the family

  • - Women in the home

  • - Children in the field

  • Sons looking to obtain own land and marry

Why did english colonists leave england?

  • unemployed due to the enclosure movement

  • beaten by henryVIII if they didnt have a job or were sent to military

  • promise of land and a new future in america

  • belief from the Utopia that being self employed was the ultimate freedom

Why was land important to english colonists and how does it differ from native americans?

  • Land symbolized status for english colonists

  • Economy was based on cash crops like sugar and tobacco, which needed land to grow.

  • Native americans believed land should be shared and not just used for profits

  • English colonists fenced off their land, preventing community between english and natives and blocking tribe connections

What were some of the hardships jamestown settlers faced?

  • Disease from the swamp they left their junk in

  • Lack of food due to under preparation

  • Unstable leadership because they kept changing leaders

  • Lack of farmers and workers

  • Harsh relationships with Powhatans leading to starvation