Lecture 2The development of British North America

Methods of colonizationJoint stock companies or individualsPermission from CrownProprietary colony Maryland Earl of

Baltimore Pennsylvania, William Penn Charter colony: Plymouth, Massachusetts

Renewal of Colonization

1607 May 6 JamestownEstablished by the London CompanyLeading figure: Captain John Smith

adventurer, amateur geographer, historian, populizer of America

The History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles

Pocahontas episode, return to England after a gunpowder explosion

The development of JamestownHard time for colonists until planting

tobacco, first tobacco yield 16161619: Virginia House of Burgesses first

legislative bodyArrival of Africans as indentured workers on

a Dutch man o’war1622: March 22 Jamestown Massacre, 1624: Royal charter revoked

PlymouthEstablished by Separatists in 1620Leader: William BradfordMayflower CompactA mission for the glory of God, for the

advancement of Christian faith, and the honor of king and country

1621: Wampanoag Indians help settlers, the first Thanksgiving

Main historical source: Of Plymouth Plantation1691: Becomes part of Massachusetts

Massachussetts 1630MassachusettsCongregationalistsJohn Winthrop’s sermon A Model of

Christian Charity“we shall be a city upon a hill”Puritan mission concept

The development of MassachussettsLeading body: the General CourtSemi-theocracyChallenges: Roger Williams a SeparatistAnne Hutchinson: against Puritan patriarchy,Rejects covenant of works: good conduct

would give salvation, banished from colony

New York 1664New NetherlandsDutch East India company hired Henry

Hudson searching for the passage to the Orient

1609: He discovered Delaware Bay, and the river named after him

1614: Dutch establish fur trading posts on Manhattan Island

The development of New York1626: Governor Peter Minuit purchases

Manhattan from the IndiansNew Amsterdam will become capital of New

NetherlandsJames, Duke of York drives out Dutch in 1664

The influence of the DutchBredeweghe Broadway, Wall Street (original

wall to protect against Indians)Family names: Roosevelt, Van Buren,

RensselaerTraditions, customs: Santa Claus, Rip van

Winkle, Vocabulary: boss, crib, stoop

Pennsylvania 1681William Penn,Quaker, follower of George FoxReligious tolerance, equality of sexes,

rejection of war and violence, rejection of rank

Society of FriendsSettlement of Non-conformists, Mennonites,

Amish, Baptists, Moravians

Georgia 1732Settling prisoners, buffer colony1733: Savannah founded by OglethorpeGermans, but also Scottish Highlanders,

Portuguese Jews, Welsh provide a cosmopolitan character

1753: Charter expired, colony reverted to the crown

British North AmericaNew England: Southern N.E. Rhode Island,

Connecticut, MassachusettsNorthern N.E. Vermont, Maine, New

HampshireMid-Atlantic colonies New York, New Jersey,

Pennsylvania DelawareSouth: Virginia, Carolinas (South Carolina,

North Carolina,) Georgia,  

Reasons for successful colonizationColonies as business venturesAllowing the settlement of Non-conformistsContiguous settlementNot hostile terrain

New EnglandCommerce, later industryLimited agricultureParticipation in triangular tradeNew England to Slave Coast rum, exchange

for slavesMiddle Passage to Bahamas, exchange for

molassesMolasses to N.E. rum is made again

Culture and society in New EnglandElements of Puritan perspective:Chosenness predestinationPuritan work ethicMission conceptManichean world view Good v. EvilModeration

The SouthPlantation economyLand intensive large lands are neededEconomy of scale only large scale production

is profitableTidewater plantations located close to rivers

flowing into the Atlantic OceanStaple cropsTobacco, cotton, rice