Chapter Three - The English Colonies 

Section 1: The Southern Colonies

The Settlement in Jamestown

• The king granted the request of a company to settle in a region called Virginia
• The new settlers formed a joint stock company called the London Company.
• These colonists founded Jamestown on May 14, 1607.
  • Jamestown: was located 40 miles up the James River in Virginia; it was the first permanent English settlement in North America.
• A lot of colonists lost their lives due to a lack of preparation. By the time winter arrived, 2/3 of the orginial colonists had died.

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Powhatan Confederacy

• John Smith took control of the colony in 1608 and Jamestown fared better under his control. He forced the colonists to work harder and to build better housing by creating rules which rewarded hard workers with food.
• Smith made an agreement with Powhatan Confederacy of Native Americans. The Powhatans brought food to the colonists and taught them how to plant food.
• Due to 400 more settlers arriving, the winter of 1609 was known as the Starving Time. By the spring, only 60 colonists were still alive.
• John Rolfe introduced a new type of tobacco that sold well in England.

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War in Virginia

• John Rolfe married Pocahontas. Their marriage brought peace between both side.
  • Pocahontas: was the daughter of the Powhatan leader.
• Pocahontas dies while vising England 3 years later. In response, colonists kill the Powhatan leader. The Powhatans respond with an attack on the Virginia settlers. They fought each other for 20 years.
• The London Company lost its charter because they could not protect their citizens. Due to this, Virginia became a royal colony and existed under the authority of a governor chosen by the king.

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Daily Life in Virginia

• Early on, people lived in scattered farms rather than towns.

The Headright System

• The Headright System was started by the London Company. Under this system, colonists who paid their own way to Virginia received 50 acres of land.

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Labor in Virginia

• The majority of workers were indentured servants.
  • Indentured servants: servants who signed a contract to work four to seven years for those who paid for their journey to America.

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Expansion of Slavery

• A Dutch ship brought the first Africans to America in 1619. Due to indentured servants, slave prices fell. Due to this, some colonists bought many slaves and put them in life-long slavery.

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Bacon’s Rebellion

• Nathaniel Bacon opposed the governor’s policies which promoted trade with the American Indians. He also though the colonists should be able to take the Indian’s land.
• When the government tried to stop him, Bacon and his followers attacked and burned Jamestown in an uprising called the Bacon’s Rebellion.

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Other Southern Colonies

• Many English colonists came to America to escape religious persecution.

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Maryland

• Maryland is located just North of Virginia. Cecilius Calvert, the second lord of Baltimore, intended the colony to be a refuge for English Catholics.
• Maryland was a proprietary colony. This meant that the colony’s proprietors, or owners controlled the government.
• Due to religious differences, the Toleration Act of 1649. This bill made it a crime to restrict the religious rights of Christians.

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The Carolinas and Georgia

• The Carolinas started as one colony but separated into North and South in 1712. The Crown then purchased North and South Carolina and made them royal colonies.
• Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe. Oglethorpe wanted little plantations and no slaves. But the colony was soon a royal colony and there were many plantations and many slaves.

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Economies of the Southern Colonies

• The economies of the Southern colonies depended on agriculture. Tobacco, rice, and indigo were the most important cash crops.
• Most of the Southern colonies passed slave code.
  • Slave code: laws to control slaves.
• Some colonies did not allow their colonists to free slaves.

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Section 2: The New England Colonies

Pilgrims vs. Puritans

• Puritans: were a protestant group who wanted to purify, or reform the Anglican Church.
• Pilgrims: were one Separatist group who left England to escape persecution.
  • The Pilgrims were immigrants.
  • Immigrants: people who have left the country of their birth to live in another country.
• On September 16, 1620, the ship called the Mayflower left England filled with over 100 colonists. Most of which were Pilgrims.

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The Mayflower Compact

• The Mayflower Compact was a legal contract in which the people agreed to have fair laws and to protect the general good.
• In late 1620, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in present-day Massachusetts. Nearly half the pilgrims died during the winter due to lack of food and freezing.

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Pilgrims and Native Americans

• Squanto and Samoset were two native Americans who helped the Pilgrims get settled and taught them how to fertilize soil with fish remains.
• Due to their friendship, they have a huge feast of wild turkeys and other great food. This feast became known as the first Thanksgiving. This event also marked the survival of the Pilgrims in the new colony.

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Pilgrim Community

• Parents taught their children how to read and write. They offered education. Families served as centers of religion, health care, and community well being.
• Women had more legal rights in the colonies.

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Puritans leave England

• The Puritans leave England due to persecution. They were led by John Winthrop. They landed in New England and founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It soon expanded to include Plymouth Colony too.

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Religion and Government in New England

• Massachusetts Bay Colony had to obey English laws.
• Anne Hutchinson publicly discussed religious ideas that some leaders thought were radical.
• The Salem Witch trials took place during this time, and 19 women were killed.

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New England Colony

• Included Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Their economy evolved around Merchants, Fishing, and Shipbuilding.
• The northern economy needed skilled craftspeople for shipbuilding and other needs.
• Education were important to them so the next generation would have good education. There was a public education and a Higher education. John Harvard created Harvard University. Harvard University is an example of Higher Education.

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Section 3: The Middle Colonies

New York and New Jersey

• Peter Stuyvesant led the colony beginning in 1647 of New York. George Carteret and John Barkley were the Dukes of New Jersey.
• Fur trade was important to the economies of both colonies.

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Penn’s Colony

• William Penn formed his colony of Quakers.
  • Quakers: one of the largest religious groups in New Jersey.
• The Capital of Penn’s colony was Philadelphia which means “the city of brotherly love.”

Economy of Middle Colonies

• The economy was a mix of Southern and Northern economies. It was agricultural with staple crops.
  • Staple Crops: crops that are always needed.
• Most colonial women worked at home. Married women managed households and raised children.

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Section 4: Life in the English Colonies

Colonial Governments

• In New England, the center of politics was the town meeting.
  • Town meetings: people talked about and decided on issues of local interest, like paying for schools.
• James II became king of England. In 1686, he united the northern colonies under one government called the Dominion of New England.
• In the eighteenth century, France and Britain were the two leading European powers. Both nations were actively involved in building overseas empires (meaning they built colonies throughout the world). Through these colonies, they hoped to increase their wealth and power. The intense rivalry between the two led to a series of wars.
  • The governor of Virginia sent a force under the leadership of George Washington to protect an unfinished fort at the site.
  • The French attacked, completed the fort, and named it Fort Duquesne. Learning of a larger French force nearby, Washington fell back and hastily constructed a stockade called Fort Necessity.
  • After an unsuccessful defense of the fort, Washington’s outnumbered men were forced to surrender. This fight on July 3, 1754 marked the beginning of the French and Indian War.
  • The French successfully drove the British from the Ohio Valley.
  • The first major British in the war was to attempt to capture Fort Duquesne. British General Edward Braddock marched from Virginia to the fort. He was the one who lead the attack on Fort Duqusne. The British were defeated and Braddock was mortally wounded.
  • William Pitt was the secretary of state for the British, and he replaced older generals with younger, more talented ones. British troops teamed with American colonials and began their assault on French strong holds. One by one, French posts began falling to the British.
  • General James Wolfe was a British general who besieged the city of Quebec. Marquis de Montcalm was a French commander that launched an immediate attack. The French surrendered in Quebec.
• The war ended and The Treaty of Paris was signed. France gave up its claim to all territory east of the Mississippi River, except New Orleans. Britain gained control of Canada and received Florida from Spain, which was a French ally.

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The French and Indian War was also known as the "Seven Year War" in Europe.

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Section 5: Conflict in the Colonies

• King issued the Proclamation of 1763, this forbade colonists to go west of the Appalachians.

• To defend its holdings, Britain left troops in America. Parliament passed the Quartering Act of 1765. The act required colonists to house British troops in barracks, stables, taverns, and empty buildings and provide them with firewood, salt, and drinks. (they were required to house British soldiers and meet their needs)

• Parliament passed the Sugar Act of 1764 to gain money to help pay for protecting the colonies. The Sugar Act placed duties (taxes on imported goods) on such items as sugar, molasses, coffee, silks, and indigo.

• The Stamp Act of 1765 required colonial businessmen and lawyers to purchase special stamps and place them on items that were taxed. Among these items taxed were legal documents, newspapers, calendars, and playing cards. (put taxes on all paper goods)

• A storm of controversy erupted in the colonies over the Stamp Act. "No taxation without representation" became a colonial rallying cry. They said this because they did not have representatives in the British Parliament.

• Throughout the colonies, groups called the Sons of Liberty organized and held rallies to protest the Stamp Acts. Peaceful protests arose from an assembly commonly known as the Stamp Act Congress. This colonial congress met at the urging of Massachusetts' Samuel Adams, who was perhaps the most famous leader of colonial opposition.

• (Result 1) In 1765, delegates from the nine colonies gathered in the New York. They sent a petition to King George II and affirmed their loyalty to him and asked to remove the restrictions.

• (Result 2) The king denied this request, so the colonists advocated a boycott.

• Parliament finally revoked the act in 1766, and trade was restored.

• There was distrust between the colonists and British soldiers that was especially evident in Boston. On March 5, 1770, a crowd of men and boys began taunting several soldiers by throwing snowballs and stones at them. After one soldier was knocked down, the troops fired into the mob, killing five people and wounding six others. People labeled the incident the Boston Massacre and praised the victims as Patriot "martyrs."

• Parliament repealed the duties on everything but tea, but this repeal only divided the colonists. Samuel Adams urged Boston to form a Committee of Correspondence which was a group organized to promote resistance to Britain. The Committee of Correspondence were important because they alerted the colonists to British threats on liberties throughout the colonies.

• Parliament passed the Tea Act of 1773 which gave the struggling British India Company a virtual monopoly on the tea trade. The act enabled the company to send tea to the colonies without paying a tax. As a result, the company could lower the price of tea in America. The act was a blow to American tea merchants, who could not compete with such low prices.

• On the night of December 16 a group of men dressed like Indians boarded the ships and threw the tea overboard. This came to be known as the Boston Tea Party. After the "Indians" threw out the last of the tea, they cleaned the ships' decks and left the ships without damaging them.

• News of the Boston Tea Party angered the British. The British retaliated in 1774 by passing several acts that the colonists called the Intolerable Acts. This was designed to punish Massachusetts for their actions. The Boston Port Act stated that the port of Boston would be closed until the destroyed tea was paid for. Parliament also changed Massachusetts' charter and gave British officials more control. The Quartering Act of 1774 gave governors power to demand supplies that were needed for British troops in the colonies.

• In 1774, Parliament also passed the Quebec Act. First, it allowed French law to be used in civil cases in Quebec. Second, it extended Quebec's borders south to the Ohio River, causing the colonists to fear that this extension would further shut off westward expansion. Third, Parliament recognized Roman Catholicism as the leading religion in Quebec, which threatened the Protestant colonies.

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