The Planting of English America

Chapter 2/4AP U.S. History

England’s Imperial Stirrings• 1558 – Elizabeth I Queen – England

minor power• Competition with Spain

– Privateers from Mexico

• Two objectives in WH:– Find NW Passage (didn’t)

–Raid Spain’s fleets/ports (did!)

Spain and England – now deadly rivals!

Elizabeth Energizes England

• Sir Humphrey Gilbert/Sir Walter Raleigh – Roanoke• Realities from Roanoke:

– If unprepared, even a large-scale, well-financed colonizing effort can fail

– Colonists did not bring enough provisions for 1st winter and didn’t grow own food

– Colonizing efforts would need to self-financing– Conflict with Spain

• 1588 - Defeat of Spanish Armada – naval dominance over Atlantic

England on the Eve of Empire• Overpopulation, unemployment• Land practice (primogeniture) • Joint-Stock company – financial means

Beginnings of English Colonization

• 1603 – Elizabeth dies, James I now King• April 10, 1606 – James I – charter for land in

Virginia• 2 joint-stock companies – London and

Plymouth

Jamestown• VA Co. of London

– Guaranteed same rights– James River

• Crops? 38/105• GOLD!!!! No• Leadership?

– John Smith– Organization/rules/diplomat

• Powhatan

• 1609 – 1610 – “Starving Time”• 60 0f 400 survived• New immigrants/leadership• First Anglo-Powhatan War (1610-1614)

• Still small population = 1616 - 380

• Scientists find evidence of cannibalism at Jamestown settlement | Fox News

TOBACCO• Economic salvation - “Colony built

on smoke”• John Rolfe• VA company poured supplies/settlers• “headrights”

– Large tracts of land– mostly men

• House of Burgesses – 1619 – first colonial parliament

• By 1622 – 3 serious problems:– Debt– High death rate

• Malnutrition from?• Dysentery from?

– Indian relations

• Bankrupt/charter revoked in 1624

• Royal Colony!

Church in VA• Established church – Church of England• Taxpayers legally obliged to pay fixed rates• Few parishes• Few clergymen• So… 1662 10 ministers served Virginia’s 45

parishes

Maryland• Lord Baltimore• Proprietary Colony

• Safe Haven for Catholics• No Starving Time – why?• Protestant Majority

– Govt/chapel

• Act of Religious Tolerance– Liberty of worship– Did not protect…– Did not separate…

.

Tobacco Shapes a Way of Life

• Few Neighbors– 3 miles/20 people

• Future – Tobacco $$

• Rivers• Planters also controlled imports – stunted

growth of towns/merchant class

• More workers, more $$ - sharp demand for labor

• 1630 – 1700 – 110,000 English to the Chesapeake

• Indentured Servants– 80% males

Mortality, Gender, and Kinship

• Few women– Marriage late, women could negotiate favorable

marriages

• Death– 1600’s – 48 (men), 44 (women) - 20 years LESS

than New England!– Servants – 40% within 6 years

• Chesapeake women greater property rights• Low population

Tobacco Troubles• Importation of servants (b/c??) – gap between

rich/poor

• Servants – horrible life • Bleak future

– No pay/savings– No chance for land

Bacon’s Rebellion• 1676• Governor William Berkeley

– Fur trade monopoly– Not protecting frontier farmers

• Nathaniel Bacon– Indians – March on Jamestown

• WHY did this take place????• Social success in VA depended on??• This leads to…

Slavery• 1619 – Dutch• First phase – 1619 - 1640:

– Not every African sold was a slave for life• Anthony and Mary Johnson

• Second phase - 1640 – 1660:– Africans/Indians treated as slaves, children inherit

status

• Third phase – 1660 - :

– Regulated by law• MD – lifelong/inheritable

– Strict legal codes (1705)

• Replaced Indentured Servants b/c:– England’s population reduced, wages increased– Royal African Co lost monopoly

The Caribbean and Carolina• 1630 – 1642 – 60% of 75,000 English went to

the Caribbean• After 1660 – large # of these came to Carolina,

introducing habits learned• SUGAR CANE

– 3 times the labor

• Slaves from Dutch• Barbados – slave codes, lifelong bondage

• No need for white labor – Carolina

• 1663 – King Charles II

• Rice– Import work force

• 15% had cultivated rice in their homeland• Immunity to malaria

• 1729 – two royal colonies – North and South

Georgia• James Oglethorpe

• Buffer between Carolina/Spanish Florida/French Louisiana

• Savannah• Debtors

Questions• What did England and the English settlers really want

from colonization? Did they get what they wanted?• How did the reliance on plantation agriculture affect

the southern colonies?• What circumstances led to the introduction of

slavery into the colonies? How did economic, geographic and social factors encourage the growth of slavery as an important part of the economy of the southern colonies between 1607 and 1775