Jamestown, Indentured Servants, Life on the Chesapeake

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Jamestown, Indentured Servants, Life on the
Chesapeake
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Objective 1

• Examine the community of Jamestown.

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Objective 2

• Examine the social, political, and economic
  development of the Chesapeake region.

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Objective 3

• Describe the cultural and social interaction
  between English settlers and Indians in Virginia.

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English Colonization begins

• Why 100 years behind Spain and Portugal?
• Hundred Years War with France
• Protestant Reformation (mid-16th c.)
• Exploration jump started with Queen Elizabeth
  (Protestant) coming to throne
• Intensified rivalry with Spain
• Increased production of wool in the 16th century
• Need more markets and resources

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Other Factors Influencing England

• Population growth
• 3 million in 1550, 4 million in 1600
• Poverty
• Depression in late 1500s dertimental to wool
  industry
• Religious persecution
• Primogeniture

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English Colonization

• Sir Walter Raleigh settled Roanoke in 1585.
• Rich people knew nothing about colonization.
• Disappeared in 1588.

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Spanish Armada Defeated (1588)

• English defeat of the Spanish Armada
• Dampened Spanish exploration/colonization
  movement
• Ensured English dominance in the North Atlantic.
• England also more unified under Elizabeth I
  (intense nationalism).
• 1600-1640 80,000 people would leave for New
  World

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English Colonization

• The Charter of the Virginia Company (1606)
• Guaranteed to colonists the same rights as
  Englishmen as if they had
  stayed in England.
• Gave Virginia Co. permission to settle and have
  monopoly of trade.
• Find gold and find passage for trade through
  Americas to the Indies.
• Spread Christianity to Natives.
  

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England Plants the Jamestown Seedling

• 1606-1607 ? 40 people died on the voyage to the
  New World.
• May 24, 1607 ? about 100 colonists all men land
  at Jamestown, along banks of James River
• Easily defended, but swarming with
  disease-causing mosquitoes.
• Many fell ill

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Chesapeake Bay
Geographic/environmental problems??
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The Jamestown Nightmare

• Settlers died by the dozens!
• Gentlemen colonists would not work themselves..
• Settlers wasted time looking for gold instead of
  hunting or farming.

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Captain John Smith
He who shall not work, shall not eat
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Pocahontas
Pocahontas saves Captain John Smith
A 1616 engraving
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Chief Powhatan

• Powhatan Confederacy
• Powhatan dominated a few dozen small tribes in
  the James River area when the English arrived.
• The English called allIndians in the
  areaPowhatans.
• Powhatan probably sawthe English as allies in
  his struggles to control other Indian tribes in
  the region.

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Powhatan Confederacy
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Culture Clash in the Chesapeake

• Powhatans brought supplies to Jamestown.
• Powhatans helped them learn to plant crops
  (tobacco and corn)
• Relations between Indians settlers grew worse.
• General mistrust because of different cultures
  languages.
• English raided Indian food supplies during the
  starving times.

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The Starving Time

• The Starving Time
• 1609 300 more immigrants arrive (approx. 400
  total)
• By spring, 1610 60 survived
• Cannibalism, rats, etc.
• Natives actually saved them again!

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Relations with Natives Grow Worse

• Lord De La Warr becomes leader of Virginia Co. in
  1610.
• 1610-1614 ? First Anglo-Powhatan War
• De La Warr had orders to make war on the Indians.
• Raided villages, burned houses, took supplies,
  burned cornfields.
• Increased number of settlements causing fear
  amongst Native Americans.

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Culture Clash in the Chesapeake

• 1614-1622 ?peace between Powhatans and the
  English.
• 1614 peace sealed by the marriage of Pocahontas
  to Englishman John Rolfe.
• 1622-1644 ? periodic attacks between Indians and
  settlers.
• Caused by the murder of Nemattanew, the Powhatan
  war captain
• 1622 ? Indians attacked the English, killing 347
  including John Rolfe.
• 1/4 of English killed
• Virginia Co. called for a perpetual war against
  the Native Americans.

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Powhatan Uprisingof 1622
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Culture Clash in the Chesapeake

• 1644-1646 ? Second Anglo-Powhatan War
• Last effort of natives to defeat English.
• Peace Treaty of 1646
• Removed the Powhatans from their original land.
• By 1669, only 2,000 remained in Va.
• Powhatan Confederacy destroyed.
• Formally separated Indian and English settlement
  areas!

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End of Virginia Co.

• Virginia Co. went bankrupt due to mismanagement
  in 1624.
• Virginia becomes a royal colony under James I.
• Crown wanted more control
• Wanted to take power from Virginias House of
  Burgesses (established in 1619)

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Indentured Servitude

• Headright System
• Each Virginian got 50 acres for each person whose
  passage they paid.
• 80 of immigrants came this way.

• Indenture Contract
• 5-7 years.
• Promised freedom dues land, money
• Forbidden to marry.

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Early Colonial Tobacco
1618 Virginia produces 20,000 pounds of
tobacco. 1622 - Virginia produces 60,000
pounds of tobacco. 1627 Virginia
produces 500,000 pounds of
tobacco. 1629 Virginia produces 1,500,000
pounds of tobacco. 1638 - Virginia
produces 3,000,000 pounds of tobacco.
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More Tobacco Means

• First Africans arrived in Jamestown in 1619.
• Their status was not clear ? perhaps slaves,
  perhaps indentured servants.
• Slavery not that important until the end of the
  17c.

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Maryland
Maryland
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The Settlement of Maryland

• A royal charter wasgranted to GeorgeCalvert,
  Lord Baltimore,in 1632.
• Proprietary Colony
• Catholic haven.
• Make money!
• Huge tracts of land granted to his Catholic
  relatives.

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A Haven for Catholics

• Wanted to duplicate VAs success with tobacco.
• Most colonists who came were given small farms
  and were Protestant.
• Conflict between Catholic large farm owners and
  Protestant small Protestant farmers

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A Haven for Catholics

• Baltimore permitted high degree of freedom of
  worship in order to prevent repeat of persecution
  of Catholics by growing number of Protestants.
• Toleration Act of 1649
• Supported by the Catholics in MD.
• Guaranteed toleration to all CHRISTIANS.
• First law granting religious freedom in colonies.
• Decreed death to those who denied the divinity of
  Jesus like Jews, atheists, etc..
• Repealed in 1692 and Catholics lost right to vote.