Transplantations and Borderlands
Renewed Interest in America in 17th Century
Largely Private Ventures
Little Planning or direction from English government
Small, Fragile settlements
Unprepared for hardships encountered in the New World
First settlements established by business enterprises
Financed by private companies
Few efforts to blend cultures (Ireland)
English “transportations” of society
Settlement in the New World (British America)
Developed own unique habits and institutions
Geography, Demographics, Reasons for settlement
Political orientation (Proximity to crown)
North
Few cities (New York, Philadelphia, Boston)
Poor agricultural prospects
Merchants
South
Primarily Agricultural
Plantation System
Cash Crops and Indentured Labor (Later slavery)
Tobacco, Rice, Cotton
Early Chesapeake (Southern Colony)
James I issued two charters in 1606
London Company and Plymouth Company
Jamestown (1607)
Chosen for defensibility
Swampy, Humid, Malaria infested, heavily forested (hard to cultivate)
Powerful Pothatan Indians
No prior experience, immunity
Little actual work or profit
Most search for gold (futile)
Growing food took low priority (Profit driven)
Entirely male settlement (No sense of community)
No means of self-support (only 38 of 144 survive)
John Smith
Sent in 1608 to organize colony
Imposed work and order on settlers
Organized raids on Powhatan to steal food
Reorganization
Granted new charter from James I in 1609 (Virginia Company)
Extended power over settlers, granted more land
Offered stock to investors in England
Offered stock to planters who migrated to Jamestown
Offered free passage to poor settlers willing to work for 7 years
Indentured servitude
“Starving Time” - Winter 1609-1610
Lack of food, disease, raid by Native American tribes
Eat dogs, cats, rats, leather even corpses
60 survive (of 500 inhabitants)
Arrival of Lord De La Warr (Governor)
Harsh and rigid discipline
Work gangs
Many avoided work despite punishment
Lord Thomas Dale
Private ownership (repaid with labor or crops)
Military assaults on Native Americans
Introduction of tobacco
John Rolfe (1612)
High demand in England
Less reliance on Spanish
Expansion
Need for more land to cultivate tobacco
“Headright” System
Attract settlement, encourage ownership
100 acres to existing colonists
50 acres to new settlers
Families migrate together (more land)
50 acres to anyone who paid the passage of new settler
Women, craftsmen imported
Self-sufficient, Community oriented
Promise of full English citizenship
Self –government (House of Burgesses)
Elected Legislature
Africans arrive
Dutch ship (1619)
Indentured, not slaves
Beginning of African slavery
Indentured servants become scarce and expensive
Mounting attacks on Powhatan Indians
Capture Chief Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas (1614)
Converts to Christianity and marries John Rolfe
Opechancanough resumes attacks to ward off encroachment
Cost of colony too much for Virginia Company (defunct)
James I revoked charter and establishes Royal Colony
Ultimate success of Jamestown rested on Agricultural technology gained from natives
Better techniques, crops, land usage
Western Expansion
Demand for tobacco increases, demand for land increases
Population increases
Conflict with Native Americans increases
Governor Sir William Berkeley (1642)
Appointed by Charles I
Defeated Native tribes in Western Virginia (1644)
Established treaty to protect Native lands from further encroachments
Autocrat – (elections rare and only open to land owners)
Made unpopular
Bacon’s Rebellion
“Backcountry” residents upset over treaties with Natives
Unhappy with under representation in House of Burgesses
Conflicts with Eastern land owners
Nathaniel Bacon represented “new” backcountry gentry
Attack on plantations increase as encroachment grows (both sides raid)
Governor Berkeley refuses to send troops to quell natives
Bacon dismissed from government (labeled a rebel)
Attack on Natives goes unchallenged
Bacon attacks Jamestown twice (burning it down 2nd time)
Bacon dies of dysentery
Berkeley regains control (British troops arrive)
New treaty with Native Americans signed ceding more land to Virginia
Significance
Demonstrates growing tension with Native Americans as expansion continues
Reluctance of White Settlers to abide by treaties
Unwillingness of Native Americans to tolerate further encroachment
Reveals rivalry between established gentry in East and new gentry in West
Reveals potential for instability and unrest among landless population
Bulk of Bacon’s constituency
Led to greater cooperation among gentry to prevent social unrest from below (Fear from below) …. Zinn anyone?
Leads to greater acceptance of African slaves for labor (more control)
Maryland (Middle Colony)
Lord Baltimore Lord Calvert
Real Estate venture, Haven for displaced Catholics
Proprietary Charter (1634)
Complete control, only paid annual fee to crown
Established good relations with Native tribes (no conflicts)
Need for additional settlers (land purchases)
Invited Protestants
Outnumbered Catholics
Cause of tensions
Religious Toleration
Toleration Act Concerning Religion (1648)
Freedom of worship to all Christians
Headright System (1640)
Plantation system evolves (tobacco)
Indentured servants (16th Cent) , Slavery (17th Cent)
Civil War (1655)
Protestants unseat proprietary government
Repealed Toleration Act
Barred political participation by Catholics
New England (Northern Colony)
Puritan Separatists leave England (1620)
Establish colony to worship freely
Received permission from Virginia Company to settle in Virginia
King assured he would not molest colonists
Early precedent that led to other dissenter groups coming to colonies
Pilgrims – Religious pilgrimage
Landed on Cape Cod (renamed Plymouth Rock)
Outside jurisdiction of London Company
Wrote own laws Plymouth Compact
First Winter – disease, malnutrition, exposure
Profound changes to landscape
Small Pox
Eliminated any native threat
Depleted wild game
Brought livestock to replace
Cultivated European crops (wheat, barley, oats)
Imposed English pattern of settlement on landscape
Cleared land, fenced in pastures, orchards, fields
Pilgrims were less actively hostile toward Native Americans
Needed assistance (Squanto, Samoset)
Alliance with Wampanoags (First Thanksgiving 1621)
Governor William Bradford
Paid off Charter (Fur trade)
Private ownership of land to families
Model for industrious and pious living
Massachusetts Bay Company
Charles I (1625, James I son)
Tries to restore Roman Catholicism to England
English Civil War (1640s)
Social and Political Turmoil
Puritan merchants establish Mass Bay Company
Economic purposes
Massachusetts and New Hampshire
Many wanted to emigrate to create new society of Puritans
Governor John Winthrop
Family Groups
Carried Charter to New World (not responsible to Company)
Mass. Bay Company adopts colonial government
Electors made up of all freemen
Colony based on teachings of the Protestant Church
Hard Work and Thrift = Evidence of God’s favor
Governed by congregations
“City Upon a Hill”
Model for the rest of the World
Need to be Pious
Theology - Secular direction from clergy
No Religious Freedom
Taxes supported church
Church attendance mandatory
Only Church members could vote
Families led to greater commitment to community and colony success
Order was most important aspect
Strong religious and political hierarchy ensured social stability (Conformity)
Expansion and Dissent of New England
Settlers looking for greater political and religious freedom
Dissidents
Connecticut (1635)
Thomas Hooker
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
Constitution ensuring religious freedom
Rhode Island (1636)
Roger Williams
Complete separation of Church and State
Complete religious freedom
Anne Hutchinson
Question of moral authority of clergy
Question of woman’s role in society
Challenge to prevailing order
New Hampshire (1639)
John Wheelwright
Follower of Hutchinson
Native American Relations in New England
Weakened populations
Early reliance on Natives
Food, fur trade
Encroachment by domestic animals
Demand for more land
Spread disease
Destroy native crops
Puritan attitudes
Savages
Not part of the “City on the Hill”
Displacement vs. conversion
Pequot War (1637)
Conflict over land and Dutch trade
Village destroyed by fire
Survivors sold as slaves
King Philip’s War (1675)
Metacomet
Fight encroachment on land and imposition of English Law on natives
Settlers aided by Mohawk tribe (precedent)
French and Dutch Competition
French alliance with Algonquins
Flintlock Muskets
Construction of Forts
English proved too many and too strong for Native populations
The Restoration Colonies
By 1630s English had established 6 colonies
Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire
English Civil War
James I –Widespread Opposition
Charles I (James’ Son)
Dissolved Parliament
Cavaliers versus Roundheads
Oliver Cromwell
Defeat and Behead King
Charles II – Reclaims throne
Reward loyal supporters with land in colonies
Charters for four new colonies (Carolina, NY, NJ, and Penn)
Proprietary Colonies
Land sales not resources were main goal
Attract settlers
Carolina
Headright System, Religious Freedom, Representative Gov.
Charleston settled as capital
Northern settlers (Back country farmers)
Southern settlers (Plantation gentry & African slavery)
Social and political animosity
Divided in 1729 into North and South Carolina
New York
Grant to Charles’ brother James (Duke of York)
Dutch presence in region (New Amsterdam)
Commercial rivalry
English fleet extract surrender
Articles of Capitulation
Dutch patrons retain ownership of land
Diverse Population – English, Dutch, French, English, Scandinavians, Germans, Native Americans
Divide Colony North=New York, South=New Jersey
Pennsylvania
William Penn
Established home for Quakers (Sought refuge)
Protestants – Democratic, egalitarian
Disregarded gender and class dist.
Contained more mineral and soil wealth than any colony
Holy Experiment
Philadelphia “City of Brotherly Love”
Charter of Liberties
Representative Government
Split of Southern counties (Delaware 1703)
Borderlands and Middle Grounds
Spanish to the South and Southwest
Larger and stronger empire
French to North and Midwest
Better relations with Native Americans
Caribbean Islands
British colonies in Bahamas
Economy based on sugar plantations and trade with No Colonies
Need for large number of laborers
Indigenous population wiped out
Indentured Servants slowly disappearing
African Slaves
Outnumber English 4 to 1
Fear of Revolts (7 total)
Establish local codes to regulate slaves
Pattern of settlement (Plantation) later copied by mainland colonies
Lacked Community, Church, and Family
Unlike No. American colonies
Trade Connections – Sugar, Manufactured Goods, Slaves
Triangle of Trade (Mercantilism)
Spanish and French did not displace Native Populations
Settlements were unlike English – Not enduring societies
Florida
Threat to English ambitions
Spanish built forts along borders
Constant Fighting (Both sides employ Native tribes)
Eventually English prevail (Seven Years War 1763)
Georgia
James Oglethrope
Military and philanthropic motives
Buffer between Spanish and So. Carolina
Queen Anne’s War (1701)
Homeland for impoverished English
Restrictive laws stifle development
No slaves
No individual landholding
No representative government
Later control reverts to king –lessens restrictions
Middle Grounds
Western Frontier of colonies
French, British, Native Americans live precarious existence
Conflicts – Trade – Mutual reliance
Eventually balance of power shifts (post 1776)
Evolution of British Empire
Need for more uniform structure in Empire
Imperial Reorganization
Mercantile System, Increased imperial control
Navigation Acts
Closed colonies to all trade except that carried in English ships (1660)
All goods from colonies to Europe had to pass through England (1663)
Imposition of duties on inter-coastal trade and appointment of customs officials to enforce Navigation Acts (1673)
Helped develop American economy
Shipbuilding, subsidized production
Revoking of Charters
Royal Colonies versus Proprietary
Dominion of New England
Central government under the crown
Glorious Revolution
James II becomes king (1685)
Exercised autocratic control over Parliament
Two Daughters (Mary and Anne – Protestant)
Son Edward – Catholic
Parliament offers crown to Mary and Husband William of Orange
Ruler of Netherlands and Protestant Champion of Europe
Overthrow James without a fight
Reaction in colonies
Abolition of Dominion of New England
Separate charters for colonies
Massachusetts – Religious tolerance, Crown appointed governor
New York – Jacob Leister led rebellion of tradesmen
Overthrow government
Later hanged and crown regains authority
Maryland- John Coode rebels against Lord Baltimore
Royal charter established
Effect-Colonies remain separate and establish own representative governments with permission from the crown.
Establish precedent that colonists had rights within the empire
More consideration given to future policies regarding colonies