13 BRITISH COLONIES
P E R I O D 2 : 1 6 0 7 – 1 7 5 4
KEY CONCEPT 2.1
• II. In the 17th century, early British colonies
developed along the Atlantic coast, with
regional differences that reflected various
environmental, economic, cultural, and
demographic factors.
13 COLONIES
CHESAPEAKE & NORTH CAROLINA
• Jamestown is the 1st permanent
British settlement – 1607
• Challenges – famine, disease, lack of
leadership & Native raids
• “Starving Time” – John Smith
restores order
• Seeking gold tobacco instead
– John Rolfe
– Labor intensive
• Headright system – attracts new
settlers (indentured servants)
• Few towns b/c tobacco required
large plots of land
• Impact of tobacco
– Destroys the land expansion
– Expansion Native conflicts
– Labor intensive slavery
– No diversification in economy
• Social classes develop w/ wealthy
planters at the top
• Little focus on schools, those who
were rich sent their kids to England
NEW ENGLAND
• Pilgrims (Separatists) settle in
Plymouth
– Mayflower Compact: self-gov’t
• Puritans – Mass. Bay Colony
– John Winthrop
– “City upon a Hill”
• Close knit communities centered
around the church
• Voting based on church membership
• Theocracy
• Stressed education & literacy
• Not religiously tolerant
• Climate not conducive for large-scale
agriculture
– Shipbuilding
– Fishing
– Farmed corn and beans
MIDDLE COLONIES
• Originally settled by the Dutch
– New Amsterdam (NYC)
• Most diverse & tolerant – culturally &
religiously
• Pennsylvania – haven for Quakers (Society of
Friends)
• Fair treatment of Natives
• Scots-Irish & Germans settle in PA
• Huge trading center w/ port cities
• Cultivated wheat
– “Bread basket”
SOUTHERNMOST COLONIES & CARIBBEAN
• Large-scale agriculture of rice &
indigo, later cotton
• The differences in the northern &
southern parts of Carolina led to a
split
• Planters from Caribbean settled in
SC & some in GA
• Caribbean – sugar plantations
($$$)
• African slavery
• Majority of slaves went to South
America & Caribbean
• Often made up the majority of the
population control very
important
• Africans merged their traditional
culture w/ Christianity
– Voodoo
– Santeria – worship of saints
SALUTARY NEGLECT & SELF-GOV’T
• Salutary neglect – colonies were
left alone by the crown
– Distance b/t England & colonies
– England was preoccupied
• House of Burgesses (VA) – 1st
representative body in the colonies
– Model for other colonies
– Right to tax
• MA – voting was based on church
membership; other colonies were
based on land ownership
• New Eng – town meetings (direct
democracy)
• Elite planters in the south required
property to vote
• White males
MASSACHUSETTS
• Separatists AKA Pilgrims – Plymouth
– 1620
– William Bradford
– 100 settlers; remains small on the
outskirts of MA
– Mayflower
• Puritans – Massachusetts Bay
– 1630
– John Winthrop
– Model of Christian Charity
• “City upon a hill”
• MA Bay Colony (MBC)
• 1640 – Great Migration
– 20,000 settlers came to MBC
• Mostly families as opposed to
Jamestown
• Want to est permanent settlements
& willing to work
• Extremely religious
• Centered around a church & a school
DISSENTERS IN MBC
• Religiously intense & rigid
conformity problems
• Roger Williams
– Disagreed w/ Puritan Church over
their treatment of Natives
– Mingling of church & state
– Banished from the colony
– Founded Rhode Island 1636
• No official religion
• Separation of church & state
• Anne Hutchinson
– Held religious meetings in her
home
– Argued that you don’t need to
ministers to communicate with
God
– Settled in Rhode Island
• Thomas Hooker
– Disagreed w/ how new members
are admitted to the church
– Founded Connecticut 1639
DECLINE OF THE CHURCH
• By mid 1600s, membership was
declining
– New generations less interested
– Literacy allowed to be more
worldly
– Economic success pulls people
away
• Halfway Covenant (1662)
– Partial church membership for
children of church members
• Salem Witch Trials (1692)
– Every event has an explanation
– Bad things could be the work of the
Satan (working through a witch)
– Reveals the division within the
colony
ENLIGHTENMENT – 1700S
• Emphasis on reason & logic to understand yourself & the world
• Challenged answers about the world
– Given by religious leaders
• Explanations based on science instead of chance or miracles
• John Locke – natural rights: life, liberty & property
– State exists to provide for the security of people
– Rationality, harmony & order
GREAT AWAKENING – 1730S & 40S
Jonathan Edwards
– Starts the G.A.
– “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God”
– Intense & emotional sermons
– Undermines Puritan clergy
– Rejects predestination
– Personal relationship with God
– Renewed interest in religion
George Whitefield
• Great orator
– “the reason why congregations have been
so dead, is because dead men preach to
them”
• Old light (anti) & New light (pro)
– Harvard & Yale – Old light
– Princeton & Dartmouth – New light
• Appeals to a wide range of people
throughout the colonies
• New denominations – Baptist &
Methodist
Enlightenment- Emphasis on reason &
logic to solve questions
about man, govt, religion,
etc.
- Natural Rights
Great Awakening- Emotional expression
- No more
predestination
- Salvation by repenting
- Increased religious
diversity
- Clergy not essential to
understand God
Both
- Challenge authority
- Stressed importance
of the individual
- Leads to American
Revolution
NATIVES & COLONISTS
• Relatively peaceful w/ Pilgrims
• Disputes/Problems:
– Land w/ expansion of colonists
– Colonists livestock trampling on
Native crops
– Hunting in Native territory
– Alcohol as a form of payment
– Dishonest traders
– No intertribal unity
PEQUOT WAR 1634 - 1638
• Pequot was the dominate Native group
• English form alliances w/ rival Native tribes of
the Pequot
• Colonists are killed & Pequot are blamed
• Colonists & Native allies surround a Pequot
village along the Mystic River
– “Mystic Massacre”
– Set fire to the village
• Temporary peace in the region…but more
settlers continue to arrive
PEQUOT WAR
KING PHILIP’S WAR 1675• Puritans try to convert Natives in “Praying
Towns”
• Not as forceful as the Spanish but had to be a
full conversion
• METACOM (aka King Philip)
– Chief of Wampanoag
– Forms alliance w/ other tribes
• “Praying Native” warns the English
– Gets killed!
• Colonists hang 3 Wampanoag Natives the
spark to war!
KING PHILIP’S WAR 1675
• Natives are successful initially
– Natives have European weapons
– Formed alliances
• New England Confederation –
military & political alliance of NE
colonies
• Natives efforts decline
– Lack of supplies
– Breakdown of alliance & some join
colonists side
• Metacom is beheaded
• SIGNIFICANCE!!!
– Up to 600 colonists killed
– Around 3000 Natives killed
– Last major Native uprising in NE
– Wampanoag continue to launch
small-scale attack on villages
• Salem Witch Trials