Early Settlement of Colonial America

The English Settlements

Jamestown

• Founded in 1607• Created by the Virginia

Company, a joint-stock company.

• The goal of the Virginia Company and Jamestown was to make money

• 1st Permanent English Settlement in the New World

Jamestown

• Jamestown was not chosen because it was the perfect place to settle, it was chosen because it was close to the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic but easily defended against the Spanish.

• The first settlers had many problems.• They were not used to work and thought they

would find gold and did not think about food

Jamestown

• The area was also not very hospitable with poor soil and no fresh water.

• The closest water supply was swamp water which means it is brackish and not good for drinking.

• They would also have problems with mosquitoes and that meant disease

• Most died from starvation (harsh winter), disease (malaria and dysentery) and little food.

Jamestown

MosquitoSwampland

Jamestown

• The first winter the colonists survived because of the Native Americans (Powhatan) who shared food with them.

• When they did not plant food for themselves and a bad winter came upon them, they faced what is known as “Starving Time”

Jamestown

• Captain John Smith took charge and was able to save Jamestown.

• “No Work, No Food” was Smith’s motto for the colonists.

• The colonists did not like Smith, but the Native Americans did because he was a warrior and treated them with respect when trading with them.

Jamestown

• Powhatan Tribe led by Chief Powhatan.– Provided food for the

early settlers– Became angry when the

stole their food and land– His daughter was

Pocahontas

Jamestown

• Matoaka – this is the Indian name for Pocahontas

• She would help save Jamestown and marry a planter named John Rolfe

• They visited England where she died and is buried.

Jamestown

• John Rolfe came from the Caribbean with Spanish tobacco seeds

• He mixed them with the Virginia tobacco and made the plant better.

• He turned tobacco into “Virginia Gold”

• Plantations - large farms– Cash crop economy

Jamestown

• The plantation owners could participate in the Headright system:– If they paid membership in the Virginia Company

and paid for passage for any member of their family, including servants, they would get 50 acres of land for each person over the age of 15.

– The more land they owned, the more tobacco they could plant and thus make more money

– More land=More money

Jamestown

• During the early 1600s many people in England were in debtors prisons because of the loss of jobs.

• The Enclosure Movement occurred when the price of wool went up and the owners of land in England placed fences around their property to keep sheep and they kicked the tenant farmers off.

• The displaced farmers then went into the towns looking for work.

Jamestown

• With not enough jobs to go around, the farmers had no money to pay their bills and ended up in debtors prisons.

• When plantation owners needed workers, they would go to the debtor prisons and sign agreements with the prisoners to come work for them for a certain amount of time in exchange for paying their debts and paying for their voyage to the New World.

• Not all indentured servants were prisoners. Anyone who wanted a chance to improve their lives could sign a contract.

Jamestown

• Indentured Servants– 5-7 year service

agreement– Voyage to the New

World is paid for– Food and shelter is

provided– At the end of the

contract the indentured servants would be given land, tools, and seeds.

Jamestown

• House of Burgesses:– 1st elected legislative

body in the colonies– Run by the wealthy

plantation owners– Created laws for the

Virginia colonists– Today it is known as the

Virginia General Assembly

Expansion Problems

• Poor farmers (backcountry farmers) want more land (these are the indentured servants)

• They can only expand westward and that is Indian territory

• They ask the wealthy land owners (gov’t) for help and they refuse because they do not want the Native Americans to attack them and maybe burn their plantations.

• The poor farmers turn on the rich farmers

Bacon’s Rebellion

• Nathaniel Bacon is the nephew of Governor Berkley of Virginia.

• He agrees with the poor farmers and leads them against the Native Americans.

• They win and then go after Berkley and chase him out of Jamestown then burn it.

• Berkley comes back and chases Bacon and his men into the swamp where Bacon dies.

Bacon’s Rebellion

• This rebellion scares the rich landowners and so they decide that the problem was the indentured servants.

• They want to avoid this problem in the future and so instead of getting indentured servants, whom they have to purchase and then let go after their contract expires and purchase more, they switch to slave labor.

• Bacon’s Rebellion led to the use of slaves for plantation work.

Bacon before and after Rebellion

Review

• What problems were faced by the settlers in the New World?

• Native Americans, disease, harsh winter, little food (bad conditions)

• Who was the colonist that saved the colonists from starvation?

• John Smith• What crop saved the Virginia Company?• Tobacco

Review

• What were the big farms called? • Plantations.• Who worked on the farms?• First indentured servants and later slaves• Name of the 1st legislative body in the English

colonies?• House of Burgesses

Southern Colonies

• Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, Georgia

Maryland

• Proprietary Colony: Private land grant

• Founded: Lord Baltimore (George Calvert)

Maryland

• Purpose: Safe place (haven) for Catholics

• Significance: Toleration Act– Protected religious

freedom for all Christians

Carolinas

• Royal Colony: King controlled the government in the colony

• Purpose was to grow food for the West Indies• Charleston (Charles Town) was the major city;

largest city in the south• South Carolina grown wealthy through trade • Rice and Indigo were her cash crops• North Carolina lacked a good port• Tobacco was her cash crop

Carolinas

North Carolina South Carolina

Georgia

• Last of the original colonies

• Founded by James Oglethorpe

• Purpose:– Buffer colony

• Protect S.C. from Spanish Florida

– Debtor Colony: A place to start over.

Life in the South

• Politically: the government is run by the rich plantation owners– White males who owned

land were the only ones allowed to vote

• Virginia’s House of Burgesses – first legislative body in English colonies.

Life in the South

• Economically: Plantation (cash-crop) economy– Tobacco, Rice, Indigo

• Few towns• Charleston: Largest city

in the south.

Southern Economies• The economy of colonial Virginia and the other

Southern colonies in the eastern coastal lowlands was based on “cash crops” such as tobacco, rice, and indigo.

• These cash crops were grown on large plantations and exported to Europe.

• Farther inland, in the mountains and valleys of the Appalachian foothills, the economy was based on small-scale subsistence farming, hunting, and trading.

Southern Social Structure• Social structure based on family status and the

ownership of land.• Large landowners in the eastern lowlands

dominated colonial government and society and maintained an allegiance to the Church of England and closer social ties to England than did those in the other colonies.

• Society further inland, was characterized by small-scale subsistence farmers, hunters, and traders of Scots-Irish and English descent.

Slavery

• Plantation labor needs came to be satisfied by the forcible importation of Africans.

• Some worked as indentured servants, earned their freedom, and lived as free citizens during the Colonial Era.

• Over time, larger and larger numbers of enslaved Africans were forcibly brought to the Southern colonies.

• First Blacks came to America in 1619 and worked as indentured servants because they were Christian.

Slavery• Slaves replace

indentured servants• Middle Passage: Journey

from Africa to America– Part of the Triangular

Trade • Slave Codes: Harsh laws

against slaves• Slave Response: – Suicide, vandalism,

revolts

Slavery

• You will need to know the story of slavery, from its beginning to how and why it came to be so strong in the Southern colonies.

• Sounds like it may be a question on a test, doesn’t it????

• Now, listen to my long and drawn out story of slavery, take notes as you feel you need to and ask questions if you have them.

Middle Colonies• Pennsylvania, New

York, New Jersey, and Delaware

• Colonial Breadbasket

• Rich Economy: Farming & Industry

Middle Colonies

• Home to multiple religious groups that generally believed in religious tolerance, including Quakers in Pennsylvania, Huguenots and Jews in New York, and Presbyterians in New Jersey.

• These colonies began to develop a middle class of skilled artisans, entrepreneurs (business owners), and small farmers.

Pennsylvania

• Pennsylvania: Proprietary Colony

• Founded By: William Penn• Purpose: Home for Quakers– Pacifist religious group

• Philadelphia: “City of Brotherly Love”

New York

• Originally owned by the Dutch and called New Netherland

• English, in 1664, took over and renamed it New York, after the Duke of York, brother of King Charles I

New Jersey

• Named after the Island of Jersey off the coast of France

• George Carteret was given title to the land and he was originally from Island of Jersey

Delaware

• Named after Baron De La Warr, first colonial governor of Virginia

• 2nd smallest state after RI

• Known as the first colony to ratify the Constitution

New England

• Northern area of English colonies.• Made up of people seeking religious freedom

(sort of!!!)• Plymouth Bay Colony (PBC), Massachusetts

Bay Colony (MBC), Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire

Massachusetts

Pilgrims Puritans

Two groups of settlers:

Created for religious purposes

Pilgrims

1620: Arrive @ Plymouth

Separatists: Believed Church of England was corrupt. Never to return to England.

William Bradford: Pilgrim leader

Pilgrims

• Mayflower Compact: Legal document that established democracy in Plymouth Bay Colony

• The source for a “Covenant New England Society”

Pilgrims

Squanto: Indian who taught Pilgrims how to grow food, fish, and trade with the natives.

Thanksgiving: Celebration of Indian – Colonist relationship and the good harvest

Puritans

Established the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Non-Separatist: Goal is to be an example for all to follow and reform the church

Puritans

John Winthrop: Puritan leaderGoal: create a “City on the hill”

Covenant Community: All citizens working for God.

New England

• New England’s colonial society was based on religious standing.

• The Puritans grew increasingly intolerant of dissenters who challenged the Puritans’ belief in the connection between religion and government.

• New England colonies used town meetings in the operation of government

Religious Freedom

Puritans did not allow other faiths in Massachusetts

Dissenters: People who opposed Puritan control

Dissenters

Roger Williams:Founder of Rhode Island.

Kicked out of Massachusetts for preaching “liberty of conscience”

Liberty of conscience = separation of:

Church

State

Anne Hutchinson

Kicked out of MBC for disagreeing with ministers

Moved to Rhode Island

Connecticut

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut: 1st written Constitution in colonies

Founded by Puritans seeking greater freedoms and land. Led by Thomas Hooker who thought everyone should be allowed to vote, not just church members.

Life in the NorthNew England: “Cod and God”

Rocky soil and long winters: Bad for farming, mountains, forests, rivers, and natural harbors

New England Economy

Shipbuilding:

Fishing: CodLumbering:

Subsistence Farming: you farm to sustain your life

Life in the North

Religion dominated all aspects of life

All people must learn how to read the Bible.

Life in the North

Education: Elementary schools required to be built in all towns > 50 families

Harvard College (1636): 1st college in America

Life in the North

As MBC grows religious faith begins to decline.

Salem Witch Trials (1692): An attempt to scare people back to church by claiming Satan was corrupting society.

Life in the North

• Many American colonists in the 1700s turned to a religious movement called pietism, which stressed an individual’s devoutness and emotional union with God

• Ministers spread pietism through, revivals, large public meetings for preaching and prayer.

• This revival of religious feelings became known as the Great Awakening.

Life in the NorthGreat Awakening: A revival in the churchBrings passion and energy to church services.

Led by two men: Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield

Fire and Brimstone sermons

Life in the North

• Effects of the Great Awakening:– More people go to church– New churches created• Baptist• Methodist

– New Colleges created– People question authority

The Enlightenment• The Enlightenment was a European cultural

movement. It challenged the authority of the church in science and philosophy and elevated the power of human reason.

• This emphasis on logic and reasoning was known as rationalism.

• John Locke was an influential Enlightenment writer. He argued that all people had rights, and that society can be improved.

Review Questions

• What was the 1st English group to arrive in New England?

• Pilgrims• John Winthrop was the leader of this group of

people? What kind of city did he hope to create?

• Puritans/ a city on the hill

Review Questions

• What is the difference between a separatist and a non-separatist?

• Separatist believed the Church of England was corrupt and so they left England and did not return, the Non-Separatist goal was to be an example for all to follow. They wanted to reform the church from within.

• What were the two most important things to colonial New Englanders?

• Cod and God

Review Questions

• How did the geography of New England affect the lives of the people there?

• Rocky soil and long winters made it bad for farming, but they developed a fishing industry and a lumbering industry because of the fall line (waterfalls) which gave them water power to turn their saw mills.

• What was the 1st college created in America?• Harvard

Review Questions

• What two events can be linked to a decline in religious faith?

• The Great Awakening and the Enlightenment• What was the difference between the

Enlightenment and the Great Awakening?

Review Question

• The Enlightenment was a movement that challenged religious authority and stressed the power of reason, whereas the Great Awakening was a religious movement that was a response to a declining religious fervor among people

Using the maps on pages 49,54,59 &

67 of your textbook label your colonies map with all 13 colonies.

&shade in the New England, Middle and

Southern regions using 3 different colors