Chapter 2

AmericanBeginnings,1607–1650

Norton Media Library

Eric Foner

I. Jamestown

II. The Coming of the English

A. English Colonists 1. Sustained immigration was vital for the settlement’s survival 2. Between 1607 and 1700, a little over half-a-million persons left

England a. They settled in Ireland, the West Indies, and North America b. The majority in North America were young, single men from the

bottom rungs of English society

B. Indentured Servants 1. Two-thirds of English settlers came to North America as

indentured servants 2. Indentured servants did not enjoy any liberties while under

contract

II. The Coming of the English (con’t)

C. Land and Liberty 1. Land was the basis of liberty

D. Englishmen and Indians 1. The English were chiefly interested in displacing the Indians

and settling on their land 2. Most colonial authorities in practice recognized Indians’ title to

land based on occupancy 3. The seventeenth century was marked by recurrent warfare

between colonists and Indians a. Wars gave the English a heightened sense of superiority

II. The Coming of the English (con’t)

E. Changes in Indian Life 1. English goods were eagerly integrated into Indian life 2. Over time, those European goods changed Indian

farming, hunting, and cooking practices a. Exchanges with Europeans stimulated warfare among

Indian tribes

3. As the English sought to reshape Indian society and culture, their practices only undermined traditional Indian society

III. Settling the Chesapeake A. The Jamestown Colony

1. Settlement and survival were questionable in the colony’s early history because of high death rates, frequent changes in leadership, inadequate supplies from England, and placing gold before farming

2. By 1616, about 80 percent of the immigrants who had arrived in the first decade were dead

3. John Smith began to get the colony on its feet and new policies were adopted in 1618 so that the colony could survive:

a. headright system b. a charter of grants and liberties c. slavery; the first slaves arrived in 1619

III. Settling the Chesapeake (con’t)

B. Powhatan’s World 1. Powhatan, the leader of thirty tribes near Jamestown, eagerly traded

with the English 2. English-Indian relations were mostly peaceful initially

a. Pocahontas married John Rolfe in 1614, symbolizing Anglo-Indian harmony

C. The Uprising of 1622 1. Once the English decided on a permanent colony instead of merely a

trading post, conflict was inevitable a. Opechancanough led an attack on Virginia’s settlers in 1622

2. The English forced the Indians to recognize their subordination to the government at Jamestown and moved them onto reservations

3. The Virginia Company surrendered its charter to the crown in 1624

III. Settling the Chesapeake (con’t)

D. A Tobacco Colony 1. Tobacco was Virginia’s “gold” and its production

reached 30 million pounds by the 1680s 2. The expansion of tobacco led to an increased demand

for field labor

E. Women and the Family 1. Virginian societies lacked a stable family life 2. Social conditions opened the door to roles women

rarely assumed in England

III. Settling the Chesapeake (con’t)

F. The Maryland Experiment 1. Maryland was established in 1632 as a proprietary colony under

Cecilius Calvert 2. Calvert imagined Maryland as a feudal domain, but one that

would act as a place of refuge for persecuted Catholics 3. Although Maryland had a high death rate, it seemed to have

offered servants greater opportunity for land ownership than Virginia

4. Religious and political battles emerged and Maryland was on the verge of total anarchy in the 1640s

5. In 1649, the Act Concerning Religion was adopted, a milestone in the history of religious freedom in colonial America

IV. Origins of American Slavery A. Englishmen and Africans

1. The spread of tobacco led settlers to turn to slavery, which offered many advantages over indentured servants

2. In the early to mid seventeenth century, the concepts of race and racism had not fully developed

3. Africans were seen as alien in their color, religion, and social practices

B. Slavery in History 1. Although slavery has a long history, slavery in the North America

was markedly different 2. Slavery developed slowly in the New World because slaves were

expensive and their death rate was high in the seventeenth century

IV. Origins of American Slavery (con’t)

C. Slavery and the Law 1. The line between slavery and freedom was more permeable in

the seventeenth century than it would later become a. Some free blacks were allowed to sue and testify in court b. Anthony Johnson arrived as a slave but became a slave-owning

plantation owner

2. It was not until the 1660s that the laws of Virginia and Maryland explicitly referred to slavery

3. A Virginia law of 1662 provided that in the case of a child who had one free and one enslaved parent, the status of the offspring followed that of the mother

4. In 1667 the Virginia House of Burgesses decreed that religious conversion did not release a slave from bondage

IV. Origins of American Slavery (con’t)

D. A Slave Society 1. A number of factors made slave labor very attractive to English

settlers by the end of the seventeenth century, and slavery began to supplant indentured servitude between 1680 and 1700

2. By the early eighteenth century, Virginia had transformed from a society with slaves to a slave society

a. In 1705, the House of Burgesses enacted strict slave codes

E. Notions of Freedom 1. From the start of American slavery, blacks ran away and desired

freedom 2. Settlers were well aware that the desire for freedom could ignite

the slaves to rebel

V. The New England Way A. The Rise of Puritanism

1. Puritanism emerged from the Protestant Reformation in England

a. Puritans believed that the Church of England retained too many elements of Catholicism

2. Puritans considered religious belief a complex and demanding matter, urging believers to seek the truth by reading the Bible and listening to sermons

a. Puritans followed the teachings of John Calvin

3. Many Puritans immigrated to the New World in hopes of establishing a Bible Commonwealth that would eventually influence England

4. Puritans were governed by a “moral liberty”

V. The New England Way (con’t)

B. The Pilgrims at Plymouth 1. Pilgrims sailed in 1620 to Cape Cod aboard

the Mayflower a. Adult men signed the Mayflower Compact before

going ashore

2. Squanto provided valuable help to the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621

V. The New England Way (con’t)

C. The Great Migration 1. The Massachusetts Bay Company was charted in

1629 by London merchants wanting to further the Puritan cause and to turn a profit from trade with the Indians

2. New England settlement was very different compared to the Chesapeake colonies

a. New England had a more equal balance of men and women b. New England enjoyed a longer life expectancy c. New England had more families d. New England enjoyed a healthier climate

V. The New England Way (con’t)

D. The Puritan Family 1. Puritans reproduced the family structure of England

with men at the head of the household

2. Women were allowed full church membership and divorce was legal, but a woman was expected to obey her husband fully

3. Puritans believed that a woman achieved genuine freedom by fulfilling her prescribed social role and embracing subjection to her husband’s authority

V. The New England Way (con’t)

E. Government and Society in Massachusetts 1. Massachusetts was organized into self-governing

towns a. Each town had a Congregational church and a school b. To train an educated ministry, Harvard College was

established in 1636

2. The freemen of Massachusetts elected their governor 3. Church government was decentralized

a. Full church membership was required to vote in colony-wide elections

b. Church and colonial government were intricately linked

V. The New England Way (con’t)

F. Puritan Liberties 1. Puritans defined liberties by social rank,

producing a rigid hierarchical society justified by God’s will

2. The Body of Liberties affirmed the rights of free speech and assembly and equal protection for all

VI. New England Divided A. Roger Williams

1. A young Puritan minister, Williams preached that any citizen ought to be free to practice whatever form of religion he chose

2. Williams believed that it was essential to separate church and state

3. Williams was banished from Massachusetts in 1636 and he established Rhode Island

4. Rhode Island was truly a beacon of religious freedom and democratic government

5. Other former members of Massachusetts included New Haven and Hartford, which joined to become the colony of Connecticut in 1662

VI. New England Divided (con’t)

B. The Trials of Anne Hutchinson 1. Hutchinson was a well-educated, articulate woman

who charged that nearly all the ministers in Massachusetts were guilt of faulty preaching

2. Hutchinson was placed on trial in 1637 for sedition a. On trial she spoke of divine revelations b. She and her followers were banished

3. As seen with Williams and Hutchinson, Puritan New England was a place of religious persecution

a. Quakers were hanged in Massachusetts b. Religious tolerance violated “moral liberty”

VI. New England Divided (con’t)

C. Puritans and Indians 1. Colonial leaders had differing opinions about the

English right to claim Indian land 2. To New England’s leaders, the Indians represented

both savagery and temptation a. The Connecticut General court set a penalty for anyone

who chose to live with the Indians b. No real attempt to convert the Indians was made by the

Puritans in the first two decades

3. Colonists warred against the Pequots in 1637, exterminating the tribe

VII. The New England Economy

A. Merchants 1. Most migrants were textile craftsmen and

farmers 2. Fishing and timber were exported, but the

economy centered on family farms 3. Per capita wealth was equally distributed

compared to the Chesapeake 4. A powerful merchant class rose up, which

occasionally clashed with the church

VII. The New England Economy (con’t)

B. The Half-Way Covenant 1. By 1650, the church had to deal with the third

generation of the Great Migration

2. In 1662, the Half-Way Covenant was a compromise for the grandchildren of the Great Migration, granting half-way membership into the church

European Settlement in the Chesapeake,

ca. 1650

European Settlementin New England,

ca. 1640

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This concludes the Norton Media LibrarySlide Set for Chapter 2

Give Me Liberty!An American History

byEric Foner