English Colonies Lecture Notes

English Colonies Lecture Notes

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I. England in America

A. Francis Drakewas the most famous English sea dog or pirate. He attacked Spanish settlements in South America and brought the riches back to England. He also became the second man to sail around the world. King Phillip of Spain demanded that Queen Elizabeth arrest and turn him over to the Spanish. Instead she knighted him as SirFrancis Drake. This prompted Phillip to send the Spanish Armada to attack England. The English defeat of the Spanish Armada ended Spanish control of the seas. Englandand other European nations could begin colonies in North America because it wasnow safe to sail the waters.

B. Sir Walter Raleigh sent about 100 men to settle on Roanoke Island off the coast of present-day North Carolina in 1585. After the difficult winter there, the colonists returned to England.

C. A second group of settlers led by John White came two years later. This group of Roanoke colonists deserted the island and disappeared. During this time period the first English born child in the New World was born and her name was Virginia Dare. No clues to their fate were left except the word Croatoancarved on a gatepost.

II. Jamestown Settlement (Pages 71–73)

A. King James I granted a charter or the right to establish a settlement. In April 1607, settlers sent by the Virginia Company in London entered ChesapeakeBay and founded Jamestown. The Virginia Company was a joint stock company;investors bought stock in the companyin return for a share of the profits. They faced many hardships. For example, many died of diseases such as malaria, and they found no gold nor did they establish the fish or fur trading expected of them by the Virginia Company investors. The number of colonists dwindled.

B. Captain John Smith arrived in 1608 to govern the colonists. He tried to open trade with Indians but the chiefPowhaton arrested him. Pocohontas, the chief’s daughter, saved his life. Smith opened trade with the Indians making him an instant hero. The Virginia Company installed yet another leader to govern them after Smith was injuredand returned to England. A harsh winter and more trouble continued to plague the colonists.

C. When the colonists discovered how to grow tobacco(brought in by John Rolfe), the colony began to prosper. Relations with the Powhatan, the Native Americans living nearby, also improved when John Rolfe married Pocahontas.

D. The Virginia Company allowed a representative government in which men electedrepresentatives, or burgesses, to an assembly. The assembly made local laws.

E. The House of Burgesses met for the first time on July 30, 1619and was the first representative government in the New World.

F. In 1619 ninety women were sent to Jamestown so that families could form and thepopulation could increase.

G. In 1619 twenty Africans came to Jamestown. They were sold to Virginia planters towork in the tobacco fields. They may have come as servants, not as slaves.

H. Until 1640 some Africans were free and some owned property. In the years that followed, however, Africans came as enslaved passengers or were sold as slaves uponarrival. Slavery became legal in the 1660s.

I. Because of the financial problems the Virginia Company faced, King James of Englandcanceled its charter and made Jamestown England’s first royal colony(under the supervision of the King) in America.

New England Colonies

I. Religious Freedom

A. Divided Church

1. Martin Luther brought about changes in Europe in the 1500s with his opposition to Catholicism. He posted the 95 Thesis on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany. His protests began the Protestant Reformation.

2. For personal reasons, King Henry VIII established England as a Protestant nation.

3. When Europeans settled in America, they brought with them their religious beliefs of either Catholicism or Protestantism.

B. There were two groups of Protestants in England. Those who wanted to reform the

Anglican Church were Puritans. Those who wanted to leave and set up their ownchurch were Separatists.

C. Some Separatists fled to the Netherlands for religious freedom. Some of these

Separatists were given a guarantee by the Virginia Company to be able to practicetheir religion freely if they settled in Virginia. In return they had to share their profitswith the Virginia Company. These people called themselves Pilgrims.

D. The Mayflowercarried Pilgrims to settle the Virginia colony. They landed north, however, at Plymouth, Massachusetts, due to the oncoming winter. Plymouth was not part of the Virginia Company territory and its laws did not apply. So the Pilgrims drew up the Mayflower Compact to provide laws to live by. It was the beginning of a democratic government in America. Forty-one Pilgrims signed the compact and pledged to work together to make the colony succeed. The leader of the Pilgrims was William Bradford.

E. The Pilgrims received help from the Native Americans in learning to plant crops and

in hunting and fishing. Without them the Pilgrims may not have survived. Squanto and Samoset were two Native Americans who helped the Pilgrims. They showed them how to plant corns, beans and pumpkins. Massasoit was chief of the Wampanoag Indians and he signed a peace treaty with the Pilgrims in March 1621. A great feast was held in honor of the Indians in November which is now Thanksgiving.

II. New Settlements (Pages 78–80)

A. More hard times beset the Puritans in England. In 1629 a group received a royal charter and formed the Massachusetts Bay Colony located north of Plymouth. The group settled in Boston with John Winthropas their governor.

B. During the Great Migration in the 1630s, more than 15,000 Puritans came toMassachusetts to escape religious persecution and economic difficulties in England.

C. An elected group called the General Court ran the colony. The Massachusetts Bay

Colony created a colonial legislature when settlers wanted a larger role in government.

Every adult male property owner and was a church membercould vote forgovernor and representatives to the General Court.

D. Although the Puritans left England for religious freedom in America, they criticized orpersecuted people who held religious beliefs other than theirs. This led to the formationof new colonies in America. (Read excerpts of Puritan life)

E. In 1636 Thomas Hookerfounded Hartford. Three years later, Hartford and two neighboring towns adopted the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. This was the firstwritten constitution in America.

F. Roger Williams, a minister, established Rhode Island, where religious tolerationexisted. People of all faiths could worship as they pleased.

G. In 1638 John Wheelwright founded the colony of New Hampshire. It became independent of Massachusetts in 1679.

H. In 1675war broke out between the colonists in Massachusetts and the WampanoagIndians. The leader of the Indians was Metacomet, he was called King Phillip by the colonists. The English declared war on the Indians and it became known as King Phillip’s War. The war destroyed the power of the Native Americans in New England leaving the colonists free to expand their settlements.

III. Growth of New England Colonies

A. Immigrationwas an important factor to the growth of the colonies. Between 1607 and 1790, almost a million people came to live in the colonies. Immigrants cross an international border to get to their new country. The colonies also grew as parents hadlarger families, more babies survived childhood diseases, and people began living longer.

B. Most New Englanders lived in towns. Each town had a meetinghouse that was used for both town meetings and church services.

C. The soil in New England made farming difficult. Farming produced just enough to meet the needs of families. This was called “subsistence farming.” The farms in New England were also smaller than in the South.

D. Small businesses thrived. Skilled craftspeople, such as blacksmiths, furniture makers, and printers, started businesses. Women often produced extra candles, garments, and soap to sell or trade.

E. Shipbuilding and fishing were important industries. Trade with Europe, Northern and Southern Colonies and with the West Indies centered in New England. For example, manufactured goods from Europe were traded for fish, furs, and fruit from New England.
Middle Colonies

I. New York and New Jersey

A. England wanted to gain control of the Dutch-controlled land in between their twogroups of colonies because of its harbor and river trade.

B. The Dutch colony was New Netherland. Its main settlement of New Amsterdam on

Manhattan Island was a center of shipping to and from the Americas. The Dutch West

India Company gave new settlers who brought at least 50 settlers with them a largeestate. These landowners gained riverfront estates and ruled like kings. They werecalled patroons.

C. In 1644 the English sent a fleet to attack New Amsterdam. The governor of New

Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant(Old Silver Nails), was unprepared for a battle, so he surrendered the colony.

D. The Duke of York gained control of the colony and named it New York. He promisedthe colonists freedom of religion and allowed them to hold on to their land.

E. The population of New York grew to about 8,000 in 1664. New Amsterdam, nowcalled New York City, became one of the fastest-growing locations in the colony.

F. The southern part of New York between the Hudson and the Delaware Rivers became

New Jersey. The Duke of York gave the southern counties to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Its inhabitants were diverse in ethnicity and religion, like those from New York. Without a major port or city, however, it did not make the money the landowners expected.

II. Pennsylvania and Delaware

A. William Penn received a large tract of land in America from the king as a repaymentof a debt. The colony was Pennsylvania.

B. Penn, a Quaker, saw Pennsylvania as a chance to put the Quaker ideas of toleranceand equality into practice. Quakers believed everyone was equalin God’s eyes and that church officials were unnecessary. The Quakers were pacifists, people who refuse to use force or to fight in wars. He designed the city of Philadelphia(city of Brotherly Love) and wrote the first constitution.

C. His government was known as the Frame ofGovernment. Under the Frame of Government, Penn appointed a governor and a Council of Advisors to make the laws. An elected assembly accepted or rejected these laws. Slavery was strictly forbidden and the Quakers believed the Native Americans should be paid for any land taken from them.

D. To encourage settlers to Pennsylvania, he advertised the colony throughout Europe inseveral languages. By 1683 more than 3,000 English, Welsh, Irish, Dutch, and Germanpeople settled there.

E. In 1701, in the Charter of Liberty, Penn granted the colonists the right to elect representatives to a legislative assembly.

F. In 1703 Three Lower Counties formed their own legislature and became the colony of Delaware. Delaware functioned as a separate colony but was supervised by Pennsylvania’sgovernor.

III. Diversity of the Middle Colonies

A. Farms in these colonies were larger than in New England. As a result, they produced greater quantities of cash crops_.

B. The port cities of _New York_and _Philadelphiabecame busy with the goods that were shipped from them.

C. Lumbering, mining, small-scale manufacturing, and home-based crafts were major industries of the region.

D. Religious and cultural differences existed here. Immigrants from Germany, Holland, Sweden, and other non-English countries provided a cultural diversity or many different cultures or ways of life not found in New England.

Southern Colonies

I. Coming to America

A. The colonies needed people to grow and prosper. Settlers came voluntarily. Otherscame because they were

1.criminals or prisoners of war from England and Scotland and could earn theirrelease if they worked for a period of time (seven years).

2. seized and brought as slaves from Africa.

3. indentured servants who worked without pay for a certain period(4-7 years) of time in exchange for their passage.

B. Maryland became a proprietary colony in 1632. King Charles I gave Sir GeorgeCalvert, called Lord Baltimore, a colony north of Virginia. Lord Baltimore wanted toestablish a safe place or haven for Catholics, and he also hoped that the colony would make him rich.

C. Maryland tobacco farmers also produced wheat, fruit, vegetables, and livestock sothat they would not be dependent upon one cash crop. Wealthy landowners becamepowerful. As plantations grew in number, indentured servants and enslaved Africanswere used to work the plantations.

D. Baltimore became the largest settlement, founded in 1729.

E. Because the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania was disputed, the Britishastronomers, Mason and Dixon, were hired to resolve the issue and establish aboundary. (Mason-Dixon Line)

F. A conflict between Catholics and Protestants, who outnumbered them, resulted in thepassage of the Act of Toleration in 1649. It stated that both groups had the right toworship freely. The colony’s Protestant majority repealed this act in 1692.

II. Virginia Expands

A. As Virginia grew, settlers moved inland to open up the backcountry. Native

Americans lived on these lands. The governor, Sir William Berkeley, worked out anarrangement in 1644 that kept settlers from moving farther into Native American land.

The settlers received a large piece of land, and conflicts were diminished.

B. Many Virginia westerners resented Berkeley’s pledge to the Native Americans and settled in the lands anyway. As a result, Native Americans raided these settlements.

C. Nathaniel Bacon opposed colonial government because it was made of easterners. Heled attacks called Bacon’s Rebellion on Native American villages, set fire to the capital, marched into Jamestown, and drove Berkeley into exile. British troops helped restore order to end the rebellion. Bacon was killed.

III. Settling the Carolinas

A. King Charles II founded the colony of Carolina. The proprietors took large estates for themselves and hoped to sell and rent land to new settlers. In 1670 English settlersarrived, and by 1680 they founded Charleston.

B. The English philosopher John Locke wrote their constitution.

C. Northern Carolina was settled by small farmers. Because this northern region did nothave a good harbor, settlers relied on Virginia’s ports.

D. Southern Carolina was more prosperous due to the fertile farmland and its harbor city, Charleston. Rice became the leading crop, and indigo, a blue flowering plant, becamethe “blue gold” of Carolina.

E. Most of the settlers of southern Carolina came from the English colony of Barbados in the West Indies. They brought with them enslaved Africans to work in the rice fields.

Because so much labor was needed to grow rice, the demand for slaves increased. By

1700 more than half of Charleston’s new settlers were enslaved Africans.

F. Due to the tension between the wealthy southerners and the small farm colonists in the north, Carolina was formally divided into two colonies—North Carolina andSouth Carolina—in 1729.

IV. Georgia

A. James Oglethorpe founded the colony of Georgia in 1733. It was the last British colony to be founded in the Americas. Great Britain created Georgia for several reasons:

1. as a place where British debtors and poor people could make a fresh start

2. as a military barrier to protect the other British colonies from Spain due to its locationbetween Spanish Florida and South Carolina

B. Georgia did receive poor people but few debtors. Religious refugees also settled there.

C. The town of Savannah was created in 1733.

D. Oglethorpe banned slavery, Catholics, and rum in the colony and limited the size of farms. As settlers came, they objected to the laws, so he lifted all the bans except onslavery. In 1751, he turned the colony back to the king.

V. The Southern Colonies

A. The economies of the Southern Colonies were dependent upon tobacco in Maryland and Virginia and North Carolina and onrice in South Carolina and Georgia. As a result, commerce or industry was slow to develop in the South.

B. Growing tobacco and rice was dependent upon slave labor. Rice was even more profitable than tobacco. London merchants, rather than the local merchants, managed this southern trade.

C. Tobacco and rice were grown on plantations. A plantation, or large farm, was often on a river so crops could be shipped easily by boat. A plantation could be as large as 10-20 sections of land ( a section is one square mile or 640 acres) Each plantation was a community consisting of a main house, kitchens, slave cabins, barns, stables, and outbuildings, and perhaps a chapel and a school. They were in the Tidewater region, or the area along the seacoast, of the South.

D. Some people in the South settled in the backcountry region, toward the Appalachian Mountains. Small farms grew corn and tobacco. The independent small farmers outnumbered the large plantation owners. Yet the plantation owners controlled the economic and political life of the region.