British America - Early British Colonization of North America

Eurpoean motives for colonization

• Age of geographical explorations• New ways of life• Conversion of natives to Christianity• Hope of wealth

British motives for colonization

• Social changes in Britain– Over-population (or the myth behind it)

• Colonization as a commercial enterprise• Significance of mercantilism• Religious freedom

First British Attempts at Colonizing America

• Sir Walter Raleigh• Roanoke Colony (1585-1587)• Virginia Dare (1587)

Chesapeake Bay Colonies (Upper South) and Lower South

Colonies

Southern Colonies

• Province of Maryland, later Maryland• Colony and Dominion of Virginia, later

Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia• Province of North Carolina, later North

Carolina and Tennessee• Province of South Carolina, later South

Carolina• Province of Georgia, later Georgia

Virginia Company

• London Company and Plymouth Company

1607 – Jamestown

• Joint-stock companies provide financing• English stockholders in Virginia Company expect

instant profits• Jamestown settled 1607• Colony’s location in a swamp unhealthy• John Smith• Colonists not equipped or skilled for the

settlement, fail to work for common good• "eight Dutchmen and Poles"

1607 – Jamestown• Winter of 1609–10. Only 60 of 214 English colonists

survive.

• By 1610 100 survive of the total of 500 colonists

• "When you send againe I entreat you rather send but thirty Carpenters, husbandmen, gardiners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons and diggers up of trees, roots, well provided; than a thousand of such awe have: for except wee be able both to lodge them and feed them, the most will consume with want of necessaries before they can be made good for anything." John Smith

• Contacts with the natives– Powhatan / Powhatan Confederation– Pocahontas

Jamestown and Upper South Colonies

• Significance of tobacco• John Rolffe• By 1650 - approx 30.000 colonists• Indentured servitude• 1619 - First African indentured servants in

Jamestown• After the fall of the Virginia company - Virginia

becomes a royal colony• 1654 - Introduction of slavery (Anthony Johnson)• 1676 - Bacon's Rebellion

New England Colonies

New England Colonies

• Province of New Hampshire, later New Hampshire

• Province of Massachusetts Bay, later Massachusetts and Maine

• Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, later Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

• Connecticut Colony, later Connecticut

Puritans and the Pilgirms

• 1620 – Plymouth Plantation• Mayflower Compact• William Bradford• Contacts with Indians

– First Thanksgiving• 1623 – Massachussets Bay Colony

Mayflower Compact 1620 In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini 1620.

Mayflower Compact

• signed by 41 colonists• many of them 'Strangers'

Middle Colonies

Middle Colonies

• Province of New York, later New York and Vermont

• Province of New Jersey, later New Jersey• Province of Pennsylvania, later

Pennsylvania• Delaware Colony (before 1776, the Lower

Counties on Delaware), later Delaware

Middle Colonies (Bread Colonies)

• each with connected yet distinct histories• 1664 - taken over from the Dutch - created from

New Netherland• most ethnically diverse• religious freedom and tolerance• production of wheat and grain - hence Bread

Colonies• important harbours (New York, Philadelphia)• significant industry (shipbuilding, lumbering,

papermaking)

Middle Colonies• New York - propriatory colony given by Charles II to his

brother, Duke of York, James (James II - New York becomes a Royal colony - a provincial colony)

• New Jersey - part of the royal grant to Duke of York that he gave to his loyal friends as a propriatory colony

• Pennsylvania - grant from Charles II to William Penn for debts. Penn, himself a Quaker (member of the Society of Friends) writes up a tolerant contitution for Pennsylvania

• Delaware - part of Pennsylvania that Penn agreed should be governed separately due to its ethnic diversity (the Dutch, the Swedish)

British Colonies in America – Recap

Different economies– South

• Rural settlements and the "plantation system"• tobacco, rice, later cotton • nearly no harbours• 1750 – slaves make up 40% of the population

– New England:• trade• shipmaking• artisanry• farming• townships• growing industry, harbours (Boston)

– Middle Colonies• farming• trade in crops, lumber, livestock, iron, • significant industry, harbours

British Colonies in America – recap Different types of ownership

– Provincial colonies• New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, North

Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia– Proprietary colonies

• Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland

– Charter colonies• Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Providence

Plantation, and Connecticut

Different Governments

• The provincial government– governed by commissions created by the monarch– A governor and council with general executive powers,

and authorized to call an assembly consisting of two houses

– the assembly made up of representatives of the freeholders and planters of the province.

– The governor had the power of absolute veto, and could prorogue (ie, delay) and dissolve the assembly.

– The assembly could make all local laws and ordinances that were not inconsistent with the laws of England.

Different governments

• Proprietary governments– patents for territory to one or more persons

from the monarch– subject to the control of the monarch.– The proprietaries appointed the governor and

the legislature was organized and called at his (or their) pleasure.

– Executive authority was held by the proprietary or his governor.

Different governments

• Charter governments– political corporations created by patent giving

the grantees control of the land and the powers of legislative government.

– The charters provided a fundamental constitution and divided powers among legislative, executive, and judicial functions, with those powers being vested in officials.