Colonial North America: Part I

1
Colonial North America

• Chapter 3
• Pages 52-67

2
Introduction.

• 1603 Queen Elizabeth dies.
• James of Scotland becomes James I of England.
• Determined to tap into the wealth of the merchant
  class.
• Create a British Empire in North America.

3
Introduction.

• Joint-Stock Company.
• Created to avoid excessive risk.
• Merchants were able to distribute risk.
• Accumulate money by selling shares.
• No single investor would suffer devastating loss.
• The shared profits could be very good.
• 1606 King James I granted royal charters to two
  groups of merchants and landowners.
• Encouraged them to create colonies in Virginia.
• Joint-Stock companies the financial machine
  that funded colonization during this time.

4
Introduction.

• The Chesapeake.
• Virginia
• Maryland
• New England.
• Plymouth
• Massachusetts

5
Jamestown.

• 1607
• Virginia Company.
• Chesapeake Bay.
• Fort named Jamestown.
• In honor of King James.
• Site selected
• Easy to defend.
• An unseen enemy
• Disease.
• Salt water.

6
Jamestown.

• 1607 cont
• Summer months
• Diseases (typhoid dysentery).
• Winter months
• Starvation.
• English Gentlemen
• Not accustom
• Cooperating.
• Taking orders.
• Worrying about shelter/food.
• Refused to clear fields or planting or build
  houses/stockades.

7
Jamestown.

• As a result of disease and unpreparedness the
  colonists were not ready for the winter of
  1607-1608.
• By January 1608
• Only 38 survived.
• Capt. John Smith.
• Skilled.
• Studied local natives (how they gathered food,
  etc).
• When things got tough, Smith took charge.
• Imposed military discipline.
• Forced the gentlemen to work (fish, oyster
  gathering, building, etc).

8
Jamestown.

• Fall 1608
• The deaths continued.
• 1609
• The Starving Time.
• Spring 1610
• Virginia Company sent more colonists.
• Only sixty survivors left to meet them.
• For six more years
• Virginia company had to keep replacing the dead
  at Jamestown.
• An investors nightmare.

9
Jamestown.

• The salvation of Jamestown
• Indian tobacco.
• Virginia tobacco too harsh for English tastes.
• John Rolfe
• Transplanted a milder West Indian tobacco.
• Rewarded
• Profit.
• Celebrity marriage (Pocahontas).
• Tobacco
• Difficult to grow.
• Exhausted the soil.
• Required constant care.
• By 1611 colonists planting/harvesting as much
  tobacco as they could.

10
Jamestown.

• Tobacco (Brown Gold)
• Dominated every aspect of life.
• Colonists spread themselves over large areas
  because they needed large tracts of land for
  tobacco.
• Improved the health situation.
• Made them less secure against Indian attacks.
• Could not save the Virginia Company.
• 1618 Sacrificed control of the colony.
• Head right system Any person who paid the cost
  of transporting and supplying a settler had the
  right to find, survey, and obtain a deed to 50
  acres per settler.

11
Jamestown.

• Civil government took hold in Jamestown.
• 1618
• Elected, representative lawmaking body.
• House of Burgesses.

12
Jamestown and the Powhatan

• Settler/Indian relations a major weakness of
  Jamestown.
• Governors chose confrontation over compromise or
  negotiation.
• Smiths cooperation with Chief Powhatan eroded by
  the growth of the English settlement and inland
  expansion.

13
Jamestown and the Powhatan

• Several years of armed Powhatan resistance
• Anglo-Powhatan Wars.
• Brutal retaliation by the settlers.
• Refusal to deal (in good faith) with Chief
  Opechancanough.
• Powhatan Uprising 1622.
• Good Friday.
• King James I revoked charter.
• Colony placed under royal control.

14
Jamestown The Royal Colony

• King James I
• Satisfied with first steps towards an American
  Empire.
• Understood tobacco would determine Virginias
  success/failure.
• Tobacco
• 1630 Exports skyrocketed to 1.5 million pounds.
• Profits remained high even when the price of
  tobacco fell.

15
Maryland

• 1632
• King Charles I (1625-1649).
• Granted land at the northern end of the
  Chesapeake Bay.
• Calvert Family.
• Important Catholic family.
• Supporters of the monarch.
• Maryland (Land of Mary) Virgin Mary.
• Actively encouraged settlement by English
  Catholics.
• Proprietary Colony
• The family held sole authority.
• Appoint civil officers.
• Tobacco
• Head right system.

16
Servitude in the Chesapeake

• Tobacco
• Land Intensive exhausts soil.
• Labor Intensive hard work.
• Indentured Servants.
• In exchange for the cost of transportation to the
  new world they were contracted to work for a
  farmer for a set period of time.
• Young males.
• Unskilled (some skilled artisans).
• Unmarried women,
• Orphans.
• Difficult life.
• Many died.
• Masters sometimes cruel.

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19
Servitude in the Chesapeake

• 1670s
• Planter aristocracy entrenched in Virginia.
• Governor carefully guarded their political/social
  interests.
• Nathaniel Bacon.
• Well educated.
• Planter.
• Unable to purchase the most desirable coastal
  lands.
• Forced to compete with poor men and freed white
  servants for land in the back country.

20
Bacons Rebellion

• Back country planters faced two constraints
• Indian resistance.
• Self-serving planter government.
• High taxes.
• 1676
• Anger erupts into violence between Indians and
  back country planters.
• Killed five Indians (Iroquois).
• Indians killed 500 colonists in retaliation.
• Planters demanded a military response.

21
Bacons Rebellion

• Virginia Governor Berkeley refused to provide
  protection for the colonists.
• Bacon led a large number of planters to
  Jamestown.
• Governor agreed to meet Bacons demands.
• After Bacon left, the Governor declared him to be
  a rebel and traitor.
• Bacon and his men head back to Jamestown.
• Jamestown residents flee.
• Bacons men loot the town.
• Headed home to fight the Indians.
• Bacon dies (fatal attack of lice and dysentery).
• Rebellion fell apart.
• Berkeley executed 23 rebels.

22
Bacons Rebellion

• Resistance to the old planter government
  continued until 1683.
• The last of Bacons men were pulled out of hiding
  by Royal troops.

23
New England Colonies

• The Church of England
• Protestant.
• Two groups not satisfied
• Separatists
• Believed the church to be too corrupt.
• Believed they must separate from the church.
• Puritans
• Believed the church was corrupt.
• Believed the church could be reformed.
• Sought to purify the church from within.
• James I persecuted both groups.

24
New England Colonies

• Charles I (1625-1649)
• Not popular with the Puritans.
• 1629
• Dismissed Parliament.
• Launched campaign of repression against the
  Puritans.
• Political unrest provides the context for the
  migration of English Puritans to the new world.

25
Plymouth Colony

• Separatists.
• The Pilgrims.
• 1609
• Left Scrooby, England.
• Moved to Holland.
• Religious freedom in Holland.
• Downsides
• Poverty (child labor).
• Children influenced by Dutch culture.
• Decided to leave Holland for America.

26
Plymouth Colony

• Backed by the Virginia Company of London they
  sailed for Virginia.
• Separatists (families).
• The strangers.
• Two ships
• The Mayflower.
• The Speedwell.
• Leaky bucket.
• Difficult trip.
• Storms.
• Sickness.

27
Plymouth Colony

• Arrived at Cape Cod
• Native village Pawtuxet.
• New Plimouth.
• Originally heading to Virginia.
• Weather pushed the ship north.
• Needed a governing document.
• The Mayflower Compact.
• First self governing document in America.

28
Plymouth Colony

• Winter 1620-1621.
• Very harsh.
• No starving time.
• Local natives (Wampanoag).
• Sachem (Chief) Massasoit (ruled from Pokanoket).
• Provided colony with food, supplies, and
  training.
• Plymouth supported themselves
• Farming.
• Used cod fishing to pay investors.

29
Plymouth Colony

• Despite the arrival of thousands more settlers
  things remained peaceful.
• 1675-1676
• King Philips War.
• Sachem Metacom.
• Angered by Puritan/English aggression.
• Revolted.
• Defeated.
• War impacted Native populations.

30
Massachusetts Bay Colony

• The Puritans.
• Political climate of England late 1620s.
• Convinced many Puritans they needed to leave.
• To protect their congregations and families.
• 1629
• Royal Charter granted to wealthy Puritans.
• The Massachusetts Bay Company.
• King Charles I approved the Company.
• 200 devout Puritans.
• Massachusetts City on a Hill.
• Model for Old England.
• Massachusetts Bay Colony
• Boston.

31
Massachusetts Bay Colony

• Massachusetts Bay Colony
• Boston.
• By 1640s
• Settlements spread 75 miles west.
• Connecticut River Valley.
• No lean/difficult beginnings.
• 1629
• Transferred company operations from England to
  Massachusetts.
• Within a few years, transformed the company into
  a working civil government.

32
Massachusetts Bay Colony

• The original Company Charter
• Established a General Court
• Governor (John Winthrop).
• His Deputy.
• A board of advisors.
• Members of the corporation (Freemen).
• 1632
• Governor Winthrop (and advisors).
• Gave freemen status to all white men
• Heads of families.
• Members of the church in good standing.
• 1634
• Freemen allowed to select delegates to represent
  the towns in drafting laws.
• Freemen and delegates later became the colonys
  two legislative houses.

33
Massachusetts Bay Colony

• Doctrinal disagreements lead to the establishment
  of new settlements.
• Thomas Hooker
• 1636.
• Objected to restricting male suffrage to church
  members.
• Led followers to the Connecticut River.
• Founded Hartford (Conn.).
• Roger Williams
• 1636.
• Banished.
• Advocating religious tolerance.
• Founded Providence (R.I.) in Narraganset
  territory.

34

• Not all dissenters were so lucky.
• The Bay Colony dealt harshly with non-Puritans.
• Persecuted Quakers.
• Flogged, beaten, imprisoned, branded with hot
  irons, hanged.
• Anne Hutchinson
• 1634.
• Daughter of clergyman.
• Wife of a successful merchant.
• Held beliefs the Colony would not tolerate.
• Taught her beliefs at house meetings.
• Popular among females and artisans and the
  merchant class.
• Critic of the Colony.
• Gods grace alone (not behavior or religious law)
  could save.
• 1637 Arrested, tried before the General Court,
  banished.
• Killed by Indians.

35
Life in New England.

• Puritans stressed
• The importance of well-ordered communities.
• Clustered homes in central village.
• Near meetinghouse (church civic center).
• Strong communities.
• Very different from Chesapeake colonies.
• Well ordered families.
• Importance of education
• 1647 Mass. General Court
• Towns of 50 - support a public school.
• Towns of 100 - support a grammar school (Latin
  Harvard, 1636).
• Literacy among men highest in America and
  England.
• Literacy among women remained very low.

36
Life in New England.

• Puritan society expected
• Women to be subordinate.
• Worked in home, garden, henhouse, dairy, etc.
• Marry (20s) and have children (about 8).
• Women who
• Remained single.
• Did not have children.
• Aroused suspicion among their neighbors.
• Witchcraft Scares displayed cultural distrust of
  women.
• 1600s 300 women accused of witchcraft (most of
  those charges were dropped).
• Single, widows, childless, or too assertive.

37
Life in New England.

• 1692
• Salem Witchcraft Scare.
• Salem, Mass.
• Girls claimed to have been bewitched by older
  women.
• Twenty (or so) women tried, convicted, executed.
• Massachusetts government brought an end to the
  trials.
• Social tensions lay at the heart of the scare.
• Insiders vs. Outsiders.
• Outsiders wealthy, single (without male
  supervision).
• Exposed the dark side of Puritan society.

38
The Proprietary Colonies

• Englands Lord Protector
• Oliver Cromwell died 1658.
• England restored the Monarchy.
• Charles II.
• Took active interest in America.
• Proprietary Colony
• Belonged to a person or persons.
• Granted by the English Monarchy to an individual
  or group of individuals.
• Became Lord Proprietor/s or owners of the
  colony.

39
The Proprietary Colonies

• The Carolinas.
• South Carolina.
• North Carolina.
• New York.
• New Jersey.
• Pennsylvania.
• Georgia (much later).

40
The Carolina Colonies

• 1663
• King Charles II
• Grants several million acres to eight
  proprietors.
• South of Virginia. From the Atlantic to the
  Pacific.
• Named Carolina.
• Used Headright system (Virginia, Maryland) to
  encourage settlement.

41
South Carolina.

• Attractive to settlers
• Good natural harbor.
• Charles Town (Charleston).
• Became the most important city in the colony.
• Short distance from the West Indies.
• Business in the Colony
• Experimented with
• Trade.
• Cash crops (sugar cane, tobacco, cotton, silk,
  olives).
• First successful business
• Cattle raising.
• Learned skill from African slaves (West Indies).
• 1680s Cattle money used to buy slaves and swamp
  land.

42
South Carolina.

• Rice Cultivation
• Brought by African slaves.
• Made Carolina planters the richest English
  colonists on the mainland.
• Leading rice planters Immigrants from Barbados.
• Brought slaves with them.
• Used trade connections in the West Indies.
• Made South Carolina a colony of slaves.
• 1708 Slaves outnumbered Europeans in rice
  region.
• Mid-1700s 10 slaves to 1 European.

43
South Carolina.

• 1719
• Charleston planter elite gained control of South
  Carolina.
• Dominated by small white elite.
• Controlled the lives of
• African slaves (men, women, and children).
• Tied to the land via slavery.
• South Carolina would become a Royal Colony.

44
North Carolina.

• Northern regions of Carolina
• Unpromising and isolated.
• Swamps in north and south.
• Barrier islands on the coast.
• Blocked access.
• No good natural harbor.
• Settlers moved in.
• Before Charles II granted the proprietorship.
• Poor farmers.
• Free white servants.
• Virginia seeking a new life.
• Grew tobacco produced naval stores from pine.

45
North Carolina.

• 1729
• Colonists overthrew proprietary rule.
• Officially separated from the southern part of
  the colony.
• North Carolina made a Royal Colony.

46
New York.

• 1651
• New Netherland.
• Dutch owned.
• English took without firing a shot in 1664.
• 1667 English control the entire colony.
• Charles II
• Issued a proprietary charter granting the former
  Dutch colony to his brother James, the Duke of
  York.
• 1665
• Communities of Delaware valley split off.
• New proprietary colony.
• New Jersey.

47
Pennsylvania.

• 1676
• Proprietary rights to western part of New Jersey.
• Sold to group of English dissenters.
• William Penn.
• Quaker.
• Wanted to create a colony to serve as a safe
  haven for religious toleration and pacifism.
• 1681
• King Charles II.
• Issued a proprietary grant west of the Delaware
  River.

48
Pennsylvania.

• Holy Experiment.
• Religious freedom.
• Civil liberties.
• Elected representation (republic).
• Deal fairly with Native Americans.
• Refused to move in until deal had been reached
  with the Delaware.
• Pennsylvania.
• First two decades rapid population growth.
• 1704 Penn approved formation of Delaware.
• Governance of the counties near the Delaware
  River.

49
Georgia The Last Colony.

• 1732
• James Oglethorpe (and friends).
• Received a charter for a new colony.
• Georgia.
• In honor of King George II.
• Not for-profit.
• Reform the lives of English debtors, imprisoned
  in England.
• New start in America.

50
Georgia The Last Colony.

• King George II.
• No interest in debtors.
• Protect rich rice colony (SC).
• Barrier between Spanish Florida and South
  Carolina.
• Required military service (males).
• Rules for life in Georgia
• Parental attitude towards colonists.
• Poverty a sign of moral weakness, addiction, or
  vice.
• No representative assembly.
• Small land grants.
• No buying/selling property.
• No slaves (or free blacks).

51
Georgia The Last Colony.

• Oglethorpes rules
• Few able to measure up.
• Georgia filled with settlers from South Carolina.
• Middle-class English.
• Colonists challenged rules.
• Gained right to buy/sell property.
• Introduced slavery (though remained officially
  banned).
• 1752
• Oglethorpe gave up Georgia.
• Georgia became a Royal Colony.