The English Would Have 2 Colonies: Jamestown and Plymouth

Colonization

After the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588), the British only had to compete with France

The English would have 2 colonies: Jamestown and Plymouth

Reasons for Colonization:

a) Population pressure in England

b) The lack of available farmland - primogeniture

c)Religious freedom

d)Adventure

English interest in exploration focused on finding a Northwest Passage to Asia

The first attempt at colonization was by Humphrey Gilbert – this failed

Walter Raleigh established a colony on Roanoke Island under the leadership of John White – this colony disappeared and became the “Lost Colony”

Jamestown:

In 1606, the Virginia Company (a joint-stock company) received a charter from King James I of England

The plan was to make a quick profit from gold, minerals, and wine
The English system differed from the autocratic Spanish system because of their experiences in Ireland

The charter guaranteed settlers the same rights as Englishmen

In 1607, about a 100 English settlers founded Jamestown.

In mosquito-ridden Virginia, disease was rampant, most people died within a year

Fortunately the Indian population along the Atlantic seaboard was sparse

Most settlers were single men in their twenties – there were very few women

Because many were gentlemen they refused to do manual labor

They did learn from the Indians how to grow maize

In 1608, Captain John Smith took over control and whipped the colonists into shape with strict discipline

In 1609 Smith had to return to England

1609-1610 was known as the “starving time”
In 1612 John Rolfe began experimenting with different types of tobacco

The First Anglo-Powhatan War ended when Rolfe married Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan, an Indian chief

In 1618 the Virginia Company started the “headright” policy

Most of the settlers were indentured servants

Tobacco created a greed for land, since it heavily depleted soil and ruined the land.

In 1619: First representative self-government the House of Burgesses

First slaves arrived

A ship full of young women arrived

In 1622, the Indians attacked and killed 347 settlers, including John Rolfe

Virginia became a royal colony in 1624

In 1642 Sir William Berkeley became governor

The Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1644 –1646) effectively banished the Chesapeake Indians from their lands

As indentured servants completed their work they wanted land and became competitors

With more production the price of tobacco dropped – the colonists responded by growing more

In 1676 Nathaniel Bacon and a group of vigilantes started attacking the local Indians in an attempt to get their land

Governor Berkeley ordered him to stop – Bacon thought Berkeley wanted to maintain the monopoly on good land

Bacon attacked Jamestown, but fell ill and died of fever – Berkeley regained control

This was seen as the first struggle between to landless and the aristocrats

Maryland:

Founded in 1634 by Lord Baltimore as a refuge for Catholics
Most of the gentlemen were Catholics but most of the servants were Protestants

Maryland prospered because of tobacco.

The main source of labor was indentured servants

Only after Bacon’s Rebellion did slavery become popular.

In 1649 the colony passed the Maryland Toleration Act, which granted religious freedom to all Christians, but the death penalty for Jews and atheists

Plymouth:

The Pilgrims that settled Plymouth belonged were Separatists

Separatists vowed to break away from the Church of England

King James I, harassed the Separatists out of England and so they went to Holland

Unhappy in Holland they wanted to maintain their own identity and enjoy freedom of worship

They negotiated with the Virginia Company and a 101 Pilgrims led by William Bradford sailed on the Mayflower (1620)

They landed at Provincetown, which was out of the jurisdiction of any government

The Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact, a set of rules by which to obey.

It was not a constitution, but it did set the standard for later constitutions

Almost half died during the first winter

In 1621 helped by Squanto the Pilgrims enjoyed a bountiful harvests

William Bradford, chosen governor of Plymouth 30 times

Political decisions were made at town meetings and later by the General Court

In 1691, Plymouth merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Massachusetts Bay:

In 1629, Charles I granted a charter to some Puritans to settle in the New World.

They wanted to purify the Church of England and establish a holy commonwealth

Led by John Winthrop they sailed to Massachusetts to establish a “city upon a hill”

Boston became the capital

Winthrop was elected governor or deputy governor for 19 years

Adult male church members elected the General Court and they elected the governor

The colony thrived because it emphasized the Protestant work ethic

The government was not a democracy.

Religious leaders controlled admission to the church, so they also controlled the politics

The Great Migration:

Roughly between 1630 and 1640

The number of migrants depended upon events in England

Connecticut:

In 1635, Reverend Thomas Hooker who took his congregation from Massachusetts founded Connecticut

In 1637 they claimed independence from the General Court and established the self-governing colony of Connecticut

In 1639, wrote the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

It was basically a modern constitution - voting was not limited to church members

Rhode Island:

In 1635 Roger Williams preached about a separation of Church and state

He also proposed treating the Indians with respect

He was banished in 1636, and went to the Rhode Island

Anne Hutchinson claimed the Holy Spirit had visited her and she criticized the Puritan preachers

Brought to trial before the General Court in 1637, Anne boasted that her beliefs were directly from God and she could quote Biblical references to support her opinions

She was banished from the colony and eventually made her way to Rhode Island.

Rhode Island was the most religiously and politically tolerant colony

It finally secured a charter in 1644

Maine and New Hampshire:

In 1622 the Council for New England gave a huge land grant to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason

In 1629 the region was divided

Mason received New Hampshire; Gorges received Maine

In 1679 New Hampshire became a royal colony

In 1691 Maine was absorbed by Massachusetts

New York:

In 1609 Henry Hudson, sailing for the Dutch and looking for a Northwest Passage sailed along the north coast of America

The Dutch established a trading post on Manhattan Island in 1614 and another at Fort Orange (later Albany)

In 1626 Governor Minuit purchased Manhattan from the Indians and started to develop the village of New Amsterdam

In 1638 the Swedes established Fort Christina

In 1655 the Dutch forced the greatly outnumbered Swedes to concede their land to the Dutch

In 1664 the British fleet arrived and the Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, surrendered

New Amsterdam became New York

New Jersey:

In 1664 the Duke of York gave a large tract of land between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers to Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley

The land was named Jersey

In 1676 the colony was split into East and West Jersey

In 1702 both parts were reunited again as a royal colony

Pennsylvania:

In 1681, Charles II gave William Penn some land near New Jersey

The land was named was named after Penn’s father – Pennsylvania

William encouraged all settlers and had good terms with the Indians

Penn was a Quaker and hoped to create a ‘Holy Experiment’ and a refuge for religious dissenters

The Quakers were pacifists and refused to fight in wars, they purchased land from the Indians, they accepted religious toleration

The center of the colony was Philadelphia

The Carolinas:

Carolina was named after Charles II, created in 1670

Carolina was closely tied with the West Indies and many original Carolina settlers had come from Barbados

Rice emerged as the principle crop in Carolina

African slaves were used to work on rice fields, due to their immunity to malaria and their familiarity with rice

North Carolina:

Many newcomers to Carolina were “squatters,” people who owned no land.

North Carolinians developed a strong resistant to authority, due to geographic isolation from neighbors.

In 1712, North and South Carolina were officially separated

Georgia:

Georgia was intended to be a buffer between the British colonies and the hostile Spanish in Florida and the French in Louisiana.

Founded in 1733 by a high-minded group of philanthropists, it was the last colony founded.

Named after King George II of England, Georgia was also meant to be a haven for debtors

The leader of the colony was General James Oglethorpe

All Christians except Catholics enjoyed religious toleration, and many missionaries, including John Wesley came to try to convert the Indians

Indians:

The original colonists did not find the gold or minerals they expected

Many Indian tribes worked with the colonists, other died from disease, other fought change

The French needed the Indians to help them develop the fur trade

The British needed land for farms and so they had little interest in working with the Indians

In 1636, settlers in Massachusetts accused a Pequot Indian of murdering a white man

Other colonies joined the aggression; in the Pequot War the colonists massacred hundreds of Pequot in Connecticut

Many of the surviving Pequot were sold into slavery

The Treaty of Hartford (1638) declared an end to the Pequot nation

In 1675, Metacom (called King Philip by the English) united neighboring Indians in a last-ditched attack that failed

Thousands died on both sides but eventually the Indians ran out of supplies and manpower

Metacom was killed in 1676

The King Philip’s War slowed the movement west, but it signaled the end of Indian resistance in the East

Colonial Unity:

In 1643, four colonies (Massachusetts bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven) formed the New England Confederation for protection

In 1684, Massachusetts’ charter was revoked

In 1686, the Dominion of New England was created to bolster the colonial defense against Indians and tying the colonies closer to Britain by enforcing the hated Navigation Acts.

a)The acts forbade American trade with countries other than Britain.

b)Smuggling became common.

c)Head of the Dominion was Sir Edmund Andros; who was hated by the colonists

Andros: a) stopped town meetings, b) restricting the courts and the press, c) revoked all land titles, d) he taxed the people without their consent – violated the rights as Englishmen

The Dominion of New England collapsed because of the Glorious Revolution in England.

Massachusetts got a new charter in 1691, but this charter allowed all landowners to vote, as opposed to the previous law of voting only by church members