Unit 1
Roots of American History
Chapter 4: The 13 English Colonies
I. The New England Colonies
A. Puritans in Massachusetts – John Winthrop and his followers were part of a religious group known as Puritans.
1. The Puritans wanted to reform the Church of England.
2. Reasons for leaving England – King Charles I disliked their religious ideas.
a) He closed their businesses.
b) Had Puritans expelled from universities.
c) A few were even jailed.
3. In 1629, they got a charter to form the Massachusetts Bay Company.
a) The new society would be based on the laws of God as they appeared in the Bible.
b) Some people joined the colonists for economic reasons.
4. Winthrop was chosen as the first governor.
a) He set a good example for others by working hard to build a home, clear land, and plant crops.
5. Voters elect an assembly called the general court.
a) Only male church members could vote.
6. The Massachusetts Bay Colony grew and prospered.
a) Great Migration- Between 1629 and 1640, more than 20,000 settlers arrived in Massachusetts Bay.
b) Boston became the colony’s largest town.
B. Settling Connecticut – In 1636, about 100 settlers, led by a Puritan minister named Thomas Hooker, left Massachusetts Bay. When they reached the Connecticut River, they built a town called Hartford.
1. They left Massachusetts because they believed the governor and other officials had too much power.
a) Fundamental Orders of Connecticut –
gave the vote to all men who were property owners and limited the governor’s power.
2. By 1662, 15 towns were thriving along the Connecticut River.
a) Connecticut becomes a separate colony.
b) King gave them their own charter.
C. Toleration in Rhode Island- Another Puritan, Minister Roger Williams, believed the church had too much power.
1. He believed that church and state should be separate. Williams also believed in religious toleration.
a) Toleration- the willingness to let others practice their own beliefs (example: The 1st Jewish synagogue was in R.I.).
b) In 1635, the court ordered him to leave the colony.
2. Indians sold him land for a new settlement, which a few years later became the colony of Rhode Island.
D. New Hampshire
1. Massachusetts controlled the trading and fishing villages along the coast north of Boston.
a) 1680 – the king of England made these settlements into a separate colony called New Hampshire.
E. Relations with Native Americans
1. Settlers fanned out across New England.
a) As more colonists settled in New England, more Native Americans were pushed off of their land.
b) Fighting often broke out between English settlers and the Indians.
2. King Phillips War - In 1675 the Wampanoag Indians attacked colonial villages throughout New England.
a) Other Indian groups joined them in their fight.
b) Fighting lasted 15 months.
c) In the end the Wampanoag chief, Metacom (called King Phillip by the English), was captured and killed.
d) The English sold his family and about a 1,000 other Indians into slavery into the West Indies.
3. The pattern of English expansion and war was repeated for many years.
F. A Life of Hard Work - Settling New England was not easy for the colonists.
1. Farms - New England's rocky soil was poor for farming.
a) Settlers learned to grow Native American crops such as corn, beans, squash and pumpkins.
2. Forests- full of riches.
a) Hunted wild turkey, deer, and hogs.
b) Collected sap from sugar maple trees.
c) Cut down trees - used for construction of ships.
3. Seas - Other New Englanders fished the coastal waters for cod and halibut.
a) Had a lot of large shellfish (lobsters over 5 feet!).
b) In the 1700 and 1800s, whaling grew into a large business.
4. Tightly knit towns and villages - Puritans believed that people should worship and take care of local matters as a community.
a) On Sundays, no one was allowed to play games or visit taverns to joke, talk, and drink.
b) The law required all citizens to attend church services.
c) At town meetings, settlers discussed and voted on many issues.
d) Laws were strict and punishment was severe.
e) Stocks - wooden frames with holes for arms and legs. They were used to punish people guilty of crimes such as drunkenness and swearing.
f) In 1692, Puritans executed 20 men and women as witches in Salem, Massachusetts.
5. Home and Family- The Puritans saw children as a blessing from god.
a) Average family had seven or eight children.
b) People lived long lives.
c) Although women had little rights, they worked as an equal partner with their husbands to provide for their families.
6. During the 1700s, the Puritan tradition declined.
a) Fewer families left England for religious reasons.
b) Ministers had less influence on the way colonies were governed.
II. The Middle Colonies
A. New Netherland Becomes New York
1. Huge Land Grants- Dutch officials granted large parcels of land to a few rich families.
a) Patroons - owners of these huge estates.
b) Patroons promised to settle at least 50 European farm families on their land but few farmers wanted to work for them.
2. The Governor, Peter Stuyvesant, had almost absolute power.
a) he carried on costly wars with the Indians.
b) he taxed goods to pay for his wars.
c) he ignored colonist’s demands for a voice in government.
3. England takes over - English warships entered New Amsterdam harbor and took over the city.
a) King Charles II gave the colony to his brother the Duke of York.
B. Founding New Jersey
1. The Duke of York had more land than he could handle so he gave some to his friends, who set up a propriety colony called New Jersey.
a) Propriety colony-the king gave the land to one or more people, called proprietors.
b) Proprietors divided the land and rented to others.
c) 1702 New Jersey became a royal colony under the control of the English crown.
C. Pennsylvania is founded by William Penn, a Quaker.
1. Quaker beliefs
a) Protestant reformers
b) believed that all people - men, women, nobles and commoners, are all equal in God’s sight.
c) Spoke out against war and refused to serve in the army.
d) In England, they were arrested, fined, jailed or hanged for their beliefs.
2. Penn's "holy experiment"
a) Religious freedom, peace, and Christian living.
b) Penn respected Native Americans-many years of peace.
c) Pennsylvania Dutch- German speaking Protestants.
d) Representative government.
e) called the capital of the colony Philadelphia.
3. Delaware- The Duke of York gave Penn an area called the lower counties because Philadelphia had no outlet on the coast.
a) Settlers in the lower counties did not like this change.
b) They complained that they had to send representatives all the way to Philadelphia.
c) 1701- Penn gave them their own assembly. The new colony was called Delaware.
D. The Middle Colonies are “A Land of Plenty” (fertile soil).
1. Food to spare- farmers produced surpluses of wheat, barley and rye.
a) cash crops- crops that are sold for money on the world market.
B) The Middle Colonies produced so much grain, they became known as the "Bread Basket."
c) Also herded cattle and pig.
2. A center for manufacturing and crafts
a) Had large supplies of iron ore.
b) Made, hardware, locks, nails, guns, glass, stoneware, and paper.
E. Town and Country
1. Building homes-
a) Swedes-log cabins
b) Dutch- red brick houses
c) Germans developed wood burning stoves that worked better than fireplaces.
2. The backcountry- the area of land along the eastern slopes of the Appalachian Mountains.
a) Great Wagon Road - settlers followed an old Iroquois road.
III. Southern Colonies
A. Mason Dixon Line
1. A 244-mile boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland.
a) Divided the Middle Colonies from the Southern Colonies.
b) In 1763, Charles Mason and Jeremaih Dixon surveyed the boundary.
B. Lord Baltimore's Maryland
1. George Calvert planned to build a colony, Maryland, where Catholics could practice their religion freely. When he died his son Cecil, Lord Baltimore continued the project.
2. Settling the colony - Colonists landed in upper Chesapeake Bay, across from England's first colony, Virginia.
a) Land of plenty - full of fish, oysters, and crabs.
b) Many wanted to grow tobacco like they did in Virginia.
c) Lord Baltimore appointed a governor, council of advisors, and created an elected assembly.
3. Women set up plantations - Margaret and Mary Brent set up 2 plantations, which grew to 1000 acres each.
4. Religious toleration - welcomed Protestants as well as Catholics.
a) Act of Toleration- welcomed Protestants as well as Catholics. This freedom was not extended to Jews.
C. The Virginia Frontier - Wealthy Tobacco planters quickly took the best lands near the coast. Newcomers pushed inland.
1. Conflict with the Indians - Conflict over land led to fighting.
a) Governor refused to take action against Native Americans. He was profiting from the Fur trade with the Indians.
2. Bacon's Rebellion- In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon, a planter, led an attack on Native American villages.
a) He led followers to Jamestown and burned the capital. When he died suddenly the revolt fell apart.
b) Governor hanged 23 of Bacon's followers. This did not stop settlers from moving into Indian lands.
D. The Carolinas - Two separate settlements south of Virginia.
1. Northern settlement mostly made up of poor tobacco farmers.
2. Southern settlement - A group of 8 English nobles acted as proprietors. They received a grant of land from King Charles II in 1663.
3. Carolina Rice - Rice grew well in the swampy lowlands along the coast.
a) Became a valuable crop.
b) Needed a large number of workers.
c) Used African Slaves.
4. The difference between the two settlements led to the division of the colony into North Carolina and South Carolina in 1732.
E. Georgia. A Haven for Debtors.
1. James Oglethorpe, a respected noble and reformer, founded Georgia in 1732.
a) People jailed for debt in England could get a new start.
2. Early Years- In 1733, Oglethorpe and 120 colonists built the colonies first settlement at Savannah.
3. Spanish and Indian Neighbors - Spain and England both claimed the land between South Carolina and Florida.
a) The Spanish and their Indian allies (Creek) tried to force the English settlers out.
b) The English held their ground.
F. Plantation Life
1. Southern colonies enjoyed warmer weather and a longer growing season than the colonies of the north.
a) Tobacco and rice grown on large plantations.
b) These plantations had anywhere from 20 to 100 slaves who did most of the work.
2. Geography affected where southerners built their plantations.
a) Tidewater- an area of lowland that stretched like fingers among broad rivers and creeks.
b) Tidewaters offered rich farmland.
c) Inland, farmers settled along rivers.
d) Plantations had their own docks; goods could be shipped directly to and from plantations.
3. Planters set the style of life in the south.
G. Backcountry
1. Backcountry was more democratic than the tidewater.
a) Life was not easy.
b) Families worked together.
c) Farmed and hunted.
H. Growth of Slavery
1. African had good farming skills.
a) They showed settlers how to grow rice and Indigo.
b) Slave Codes - set rules for slave's behavior and denied them their basic rights.
c) Slaves seen as property.
2. Attitudes toward slavery - colonists believed Africans were inferior.
a) Racism - the belief that one race is superior to another.
b) Some colonists saw the evils of slavery (Quakers).
H. The Slave Trade
1. By the 1720s, between 2,000 and 3,000 Africans were arriving each year in North America.
a) Middle Passage - trip from Africa to America.
b) Slaves were crammed into small passages below deck.
c) Records show that 10% of all Africans did not survive the trip.
IV. Ruling the Colonies
A. England Regulates Trade - As trade increased, England began to take a new interest in its colonies.
1. England believed that the purpose of colonies was to benefit the home country.
a) Mercantilism - economic theory that a nation became strong by building up its gold supply and expanding its trade.
b) Imports - goods brought into a country.
c) Exports- goods sent to markets outside a country.
d) Mercantilists thought that a country should export more than it imports.
2. New Laws - In the 1650s, Parliament passed laws to regulate trade between England and its colonies. These laws were known as Navigation Acts.
a) These laws ensured that only England benefited from trade with the colonies.
b) Only colonial or English ships could carry goods to and from the colonies.
c) Also listed certain products, such as tobacco and cotton that colonial merchants could only ship to England.
3. Colonists react - Navigation laws encouraged colonists to build their own ships. Still many colonists resented the laws.
a) Laws favored the English.
b) Many colonists ignored the laws or found ways around them.
B. Molasses, Rum, Slaves.
1. The colonies produced a wide variety of goods.
a) Colonies traded with each other.
b) New England dominated colonist's trade. They became known as Yankees.
2. Colonial merchants developed many trade routes.
a) Triangular trade -Three legs of the route formed a triangle. 1st - Left New England with fish, lumber, and other goods- to West Indies to buy sugar and molasses- back to New England to make rum. 2nd- Ships carried rum, guns, gunpowder, cloth, and tools to West Africa to buy slaves. 3rd- Ships carried enslaved Africans to the West Indies, bought more molasses.
b) Many disobeyed Navigation acts by buying molasses from Dutch, French, and Spanish in the West Indies.
C. Travel and Communication
1. In the 1600s and early 1700s travel in the colonies was slow and difficult.
a) Rough roads and few bridges.
b) Colonists set up a postal system but it was slow.
2. Slowly roads and mail service improved.
a) Families built taverns on main roads where people could stop and rest.
3. By 1750s, most colonies published at least one newspaper.
D. Rights of English Citizens
1. Each colony had developed its own form of government. Still they were very similar. In each colony, a governor, who was appointed by the king or proprietor, directed the colonies affairs and enforced laws.
a) Rhode Island and Connecticut elected their own governor.
2. Colonial Assemblies - Each colony had a legislature.
a) Legislature - a group of people who have the power to make laws. In most colonies the legislature had an upper house and a lower house.
b) Upper house - advisors appointed by the governor.
c) Lower House - elected assembly.
3. The right to vote - Each colony had its own rules about who could vote. By the1720s, all colonies had laws that restricted the right to vote to white Christian men over the age of 21.