America and the British Empire, 1650 - 1754

Unit 1: Transatlantic Encounters and Colonial Beginnings to 1754

APUSHMrs. Baker

England FINALLY Begins Colonization By the early 1600s, England was finally in the

position to colonize in North America.

Resulted from:• After defeating the Spanish Armada, Britain was known as a

major naval power.

• England’s population was growing rapidly while the economy was depressed. Gave rise to a large number of poor and landless people who were

attracted by the economic opportunities of North America.

• Practical method for financing the founding of new colonies.

The Business of Colonization

Joint-stock companies: business in which investors pool their wealth in support of a colony, that would, hopefully, create a profit.• Obtain a charter• Accept responsibility for maintaining colony• In return the investors will receive back most of the

companies profits.

Results:• Attracted large numbers of English settlers.

VirginiaChesapeake Region

Creating the First Colony The Charter of the

Virginia Company:• Guaranteed to colonists the

same rights as Englishmen as if they had stayed in England.

• This provision was incorporated into future colonists’ documents.

• Colonists felt that, even in the Americas, they had the rights of Englishmen.

Jamestown: 1607 Late 1606 VA Co. sends out 3 ships Spring 1607 land at mouth of Chesapeake

Bay.• Attacked by Indians and move on.

May 24, 1607 about 100 colonists [all men] land at Jamestown, along banks of James River

• Easily defended, but swarming with disease-causing mosquitoes.

Arriving in the New World

Chesapeake BayGeographical and environmental problems?

Jamestown Fort and Settlement Map

Early Problems The early hardships of Jamestown settlers included…

• Poor land selection James River was surrounded by swamp land

• Disease Water surrounding the colony was contaminated Resulted in outbreaks of malaria and dysentery.

Diseases were fatal for many.

• “Starving Time” Resulted from colonists unaccustomed to manual labor

Refused to clear fields, plant crops, or gather shellfish Refused to hunt because they were busy seeking gold

Led to famine in the colony

• Poor relations with Natives

“The Starving Time”• 1607: 104 colonists• By spring, 1608: 38 survived• 1609: 300 more immigrants• By spring, 1610: 60 survived• 1610 – 1624: 10,000 immigrants• 1624 population: 1,200• Adult life expectancy: 40 years• Death of children before age 5: 80%

Jamestown Survives

Jamestown Colonization Patter:1620 - 1660

From Disaster to Survival Through the forceful

leadership of Captain John Smith and the establishment of the tobacco industry by John Rolfe, the colony survived.• Rolfe and his Indian wife,

Pocahontas, developed a new variety of tobacco Became very popular in

Europe and brought financial prosperity to the colony.

Early Colonial Tobacco 1618 — Virginia produces 20,000 pounds of

tobacco.

1622 — Despite losing nearly one-third of its colonists in an Indian attack, Virginia produces 60,000 pounds of tobacco.

1627 — Virginia produces 500,000 pounds of tobacco.

1629 — Virginia produces 1,500,000 pounds of tobacco.

Tobacco Prices, 1618 - 1710

Labor in the Chesapeake Headright system

• 50 acres of land was granted to anyone who paid their own way or another’s passage to Virginia.

• Introduction of plantations on North America

Indentured servants• Hired to work on the plantations• In exchange for passage, food and shelter

Individual agreed to work for a specific term Usually 5 to 7 years. Not allowed to marry

1610-1614: only 1 in 10 outlived their indentured contracts!

Cultural Clashes in the Chesapeake

Settlers and the Powhatan Confederacy

Powhatan Confederacy

Culture Clashes Relations between Indians & settlers grew worse.

• General mistrust because of different cultures & languages.

• English raided Indian food supplies during the starving times.

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.

Culture Clashes 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.

• 1622 Indians attacked the English, killing 347 [including John Rolfe].

• Virginia Co. called for a “perpetual war” against the Native Americans.

Raids reduced native population and drove them further westward.

Powhatan Uprising, 1622

The New England Colonies

•Plymouth•Massachusetts Bay

Reasons for Migration

Both were settled by English Protestants who were influenced by John Calvin’s teaching

RELIGIOUS MOTIVATION

Separatists

Puritans

vs.

John Winthrop

The 1st Thanksgiving

Puritanism Calvinism Institutes of the Christian

Religion• Predestination

Good works could not save those predestined for hell No one could be certain of their spiritual status Gnawing doubts led to constantly seeking signs of

“conversion”

• Puritans: Want to totally reform [purify] the Church of England Grew impatient with the slow process of Protestant

Reformation back in England.

Separatists Separatists Belief:

• Puritans who believed only “visible saints” [those who could demonstrate in front of their fellow Puritans their elect status] should be admitted to church membership.

• Because the Church of England enrolled all the king’s subjects, Separatists felt they had to share churches with the “damned.”

• Therefore, they believed in a total break from the Church of England.

The Colony at Plymouth

Coming to North America:The Mayflower

1620 a group of 102 people [half Separatists]

• Negotiated with theVirginia Company to settle in its jurisdiction.

• Non-Separatists included Captain Myles Standish.

Plymouth Bay outside the domain of the Virginia Company.

• Became squatters without legal right to land & specific authority to establish a govt.

The Mayflower Compact:November 11, 1620

The Mayflower Compact:November 11, 1620

Written and signed before the Pilgrims disembarked from the ship.

Not a constitution, but an agreement to form a crude government and submit to majority rule.

• Signed by 41 adult males. Led to adult male settlers meeting in

assemblies to make laws in town meetings.1st form of representative

government in North America

The First Year Winter of 1620-1621

• Only 44 out of the original 102 survived. None chose to leave in 1621 when the Mayflower

sailed back. Fall of 1621 First “Thanksgiving.”

• Colony survived with fur [especially beaver], fish, and lumber.

Plymouth stayed small and economically unimportant.

• 1691 only 7,000 people• Merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony

William Bradford Self-taught scholar

Chosen governor of Plymouth 30 times in yearly elections.

Worried about settlements of non-Puritans springing up nearby and corrupting Puritan society.

Massachusetts Bay

The MA Bay Colony 1629 non-Separatists got a royal charter to form the

MA Bay Co.• Wanted to escape attacks by conservatives in the Church

of England.• They didn’t want to leave the Church, just

its “impurities.” 1630 1,000 people set off in 11 well-stocked ships

• Established a colony with Boston as its hub. “Great Migration” of the 1630s

• Turmoil in England [leading to the English Civil War] sent about 70,000 Puritans to America.

• Not all Puritans 20,000 came to MA.

John Winthrop Well-off attorney and

manor lord in England.

Became 1st governor of Massachusetts.• Believed that he had

a “calling” from God to lead there.

• Served as governor or deputy-governor for 19 years.

“We shall be as a city upon a hill…”

Characteristics of New England Colonies

Low mortality average life expectancy was 70 years of age.

Many extended families. Average 6 children per family. Average age at marriage:

• Women – 22 years old• Men – 27 years old.

Patriarchy Authoritarian male father figures controlled each household. Patriarchal ministers and magistrates controlled church

congregations and household patriarchs.

Puritan “Rebels” Young, popular minister in Salem.

• Argued for a full break with the Anglican Church

• Condemned MA Bay Charter Did not give fair compensation to Indians

• Denied authority of civil government to regulate religious behavior

1635• Found guilty of preaching newe &

dangerous opinions and was excited.Roger Williams

Rhode Island 1636 – Roger Williams fled there

• MA Bay Puritans had wanted to exile him to England to prevent him from founding a competing colony.

• Remarkable political freedom in Providence, RI Universal manhood suffrage privilege of any kind

Freedom of opportunity for all

RI became known as the “Sewer”• Seen by the Puritans as the dumping ground for

unbelievers and religious dissenters More liberal than any other colony

Puritan “Rebels” Intelligent, strong-willed, well-spoken

woman.

Threatened patriarchal control

Antinomianism [direct revelation]• Means “against the law.”

• Carried to logical extremes Puritan doctrine of predestination

• Holy life was no sure sign of salvation

• Truly saved did not need to obey the law of either God or man

Anne Hutchinson

Anne Hutchinson’s Trial 1638

• She confounded the Puritan leaders for days.

Eventually bragged that she had received her beliefs DIRECTLY from God.

Direct revelation was even more serious than the heresy of antinomianism.• WHY???

Puritan leaders banished her • She and her family traveled to RI and later to NY.

She and all but one of her family members were killed in an Indian attack in Westchester County

John Winthrop saw God’s hand in this!

New England Spreads Out

New England Colonies, 1650

Puritans vs. Native Americans

Indians especially work in New England• Epidemics wiped out 1/3 of the native population

Wampanoags [near Plymouth] befriended the settlers• Cooperation between the two helped by Squanto

1621 – Chief Massasoit signed treaty with the settlers.• Autumn, 1621

Both groups celebrated the First Thanksgiving

The Pequot Wars: 1636 - 1637

Pequots• Very powerful tribe in CT river valley

1637 – Pequot War• Whites with Narragansett Indian allies,

attacked Pequot village in Mystic River• Whites set fire to homes & shot fleeing

survivors!• Pequot tribe virtually annihilated

An uneasy peace last for 40 years.

King Philip’s War 1675 - 1676

Only hope for Native Americans to resist white settlers was to UNITE.

Metacom [King Philip to white settlers]• Massasoit’s son united Indians and stages

coordinated attacks on white settlements throughout New England

• Frontier settlements forced to retreat to Boston.

King Philip’s War The war ended in failure for the Indians

• Metacom beheaded and drawn out and quartered• His son and wife were sold into slavery• Never a serious threat to New England again!!

Population of the New England Colonies

Population Comparisons:New England vs. Chesapeake