Post on 31-Dec-2021
The New World: Early
Colonial History
Jamestown
Joint-Stock Company
Group of investors bought the right to
establish New World plantations from the
king
Established in 1606 by the British Virginia Company
Jamestown
•Ill-suited for the New World…
English Gentlemen
•Imposed HARSHmartial law
Captain John Smith
•Some resorted to cannibalism
Starving period (1609
& 1610)
Powhatan Confederacy
Taught the English:
•What crops to plant
•How to plant them
1614: Pocahontas
•Daughter of the chief
•Married planter John Rolfe
English forgot their debt
•As soon as they needed more land
•Powhatan Confederacy destroyed by 1644
Crushing your childhood memories…
• “Lady Rebecca”
• Dies in England
The Rise of Tobacco
Natives & John Rolfe
Significance?
• Tobacco’s success largely determined the fate of the Virginias
• Cash Crop
• Leads to…?
Why Emigrate??
Overpopulation in England…
• Famine, disease, poverty
Opportunity provided by indentured servitude (7-10 Years)
• Property + freedom
• Enabling them (1) to survive, and (2) to vote
1619: Virginia established the House of Burgesses
• Any property-holding, white male could vote
Pilgrims &
Massachusetts Bay Co.
Puritanism in England
Protestant Movement
Wanted to purify the corrupt
Anglican Church
Puritan group called Separatists
Left England and went to Holland
In 1620 they set sail for Virginia
On the….
Mayflower!!
Went off course
• Landed in modern-day Massachusetts
Mayflower Compact:
• Created a legal authority and an assembly
• Asserted that the government's power derives from the consent of the governed
Pilgrims received…
• Life-saving assistance from local Native Americans (Squanto)
Congregationalists
1629: Founded Massachusetts Bay
• Larger and more powerful colony
Did not tolerate religious freedom
• Even though both had fled religious persecution
Puritans who wanted to reform the
Anglican church from within
Religious Intolerance
Roger Williams
• Teacher in the Salem Bay settlement
• Taught that church and state should be separate
Puritans Response?
• Banished Williams
Williams moved to modern-day Rhode Island
• Founded a new colony (for a time the only place for true religious freedom)
What Else??
Anne Hutchinson
• Proponent of antinomianism “to be hostile to the law”
…. What?
• Faith and God's grace suffice to earn one a place among the "elect.”
Result?
• She was tried for heresy, convicted, and banished
Were all colonies like this??
• English settlers in New England & Chesapeake differed considerably…..
• New England was VERY religious
Other Early
Colonies
Connecticut Valley
• Fertile region with lots of access to the sea
• Competition for the area
Pequots attacked
• Settlement in Wakefield & killed nine colonists
Mass. Bay Colony retaliated
• Burned the main Pequot village
• Killed 400
• Many of them women and children
This was the “Pequot War”
Rebellions & RevolutionsSocial Unrest in the Early Colonial Period
Bacon’s Rebellion
• 1676/Backcountry, VAYear(s)/Location(s):
• Farmers wanted more native land protected by treaty (Berkley & fur trade)
Causes:
• Nathaniel Bacon
• Gov. William Berkley Key Players:
• Bacon led rebellion of mostly landless farmers-forced natives to sign treaty
What Happened?:
• Defined boundaries
• East vs West property owners (eventually unified against landless)
• Revised Increased slave trade
Significance:
King Philip’s War
• 1675/MAYear(s)/Location(s):
• Land conflictCauses:
• King Philip (Metacomet) & Wampanoags
• Mohawks (allied with English)Key Players:
• Natives terrorized towns
• English retaliated (help from Mohawks)What Happened?:
• Ended Wampanoags presence
• Heavy casualties (natives & flintlock rifle)Significance:
Slave Revolts
• 1660s/CaribbeanYear(s)/Location(s):
• Slave populations outnumber whitesCauses:
• XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXKey Players:
• 7 slave revoltsWhat Happened?:
• Harsh treatment of slaves
• White superioritySignificance:
Southeast
• 1660s/SEYear(s)/Location(s):
• Competition for dominanceCauses:
• Spanish & EnglishKey Players:
• English used natives against missions
• Spanish promised slaves freedomWhat Happened?:
• English eventually prevailedSignificance:
Glorious Revolution
• 1688Year(s)/Location(s):
• Dissatisfaction with James II (politics & Catholicism)
Causes:
• James II
• William & MaryKey Players:
• James II & Catholicism in England
• Overthrown by daughterWhat Happened?:
• Protestantism in England
• Spilled over to colonies-overthrow of Andros (MA) & Baltimore (Catholic Maryland)
• Revived representative govs in colonies
Significance:
ProprietorshipsOwned by one person, who usually received
the land as a gift from the king o Example?
Maryland
• Granted to Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore
• Haven of religious tolerance
• First major Catholic enclave in the New World
Other Proprietary Colonies
New York
•Began as Dutch settlement called New Netherland
Pennsylvania
•William Penn, a Quaker, was a close friend of King Charles II
Other Proprietary Colonies
North Carolina
•Settled by Virginians, developed into a Virginia-like colony
South Carolina
•Settled by the descendants of Englishmen who had colonized Barbados
Carolina: ultimately split in two…
Triangular TradeThe English’s arrival truly marked the beginning of the
slave era in the colonies and established the
Triangular trade routes
Proprietaries → Royal Colonies
Why would this
happen???
England as a Colonial Power
• Navigation Acts
o Required the colonists to buy
goods only from England
o Prohibited the colonies from
manufacturing a number of
goods that England already
produced
• But in reality……o Too busy with other problems to
keep close rein on colonies
The Age of Salutary Neglect
(1650 – 1750)• Aka:“Benign Neglect”
• American colonies were seen primarily as markets for
British and West Indian goodso Thus, they attempted to regulate trade
• Mercantilists believed that economic power
was rooted in a favorable balance of trade
Goods
Money
Colonial Life…
Population (90% in rural areas)
• 1700 = 250,000
• 1750 = 1,250,000
Slaves developed extended-
kinship ties to cope with separation
Married women were not
allowed to vote, own property, draft a will, or testify in court
Children's education had to be fit in around
their work schedules
Focus of Colonies...
New England
→ tradeBoston--
major port city
The middle colonies
→ farmingNew York,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey
The lower South
(Carolinas)
→ cash crops (tobacco &
rice)
Majority did NOT own
slaves
Chesapeake → combined
features Middle +
lower South
Thus… the colonies were
hardly a unified whole as
they approached the events
that led them to rebel
Major Events of the Period
• Consult your
notes, that is why
you ARE an AP
student