Colonization

Colonization 1607-1763      

Southern Colonies: VA, MD, NC, SC, GA
Purpose: Making money, agriculture (tobacco), first slaves in 1619
Government: House of Burgesses (1st rep. democracy in N.A.)
Economy: Agriculture (tobacco, cotton, rice, indigo) end of Middle Passage
Rebellions: Bacon’s: poor farmers attack Jamestown b/c gov’t won’t protect from Indians
Native American Relations: Pocahontas played peacekeeper, frequent attacks by Powhatan tribe

New England Colonies: MA, RI, CT, NH
Purpose: Escape religious persecution (Puritans and Pilgrims (Separatists)), Roger Williams banned over religious dissension
Government: town hall meetings (everyone’s involved)
Economy: Fishing, ship-building, trade
Rebellions: Salem Witch trials (religious insanity)
Native American Relations: Good at first (Thanksgiving), then King Philip’s War (vs. natives over land)

Mid-Atlantic Colonies: NY, PA, NJ, DE
Purpose: Commerce (NY,NJ) Religious freedom/ Diversity (PA, DE)
Government: Colonial assemblies 1st Congress in PA
Economy: Trading, farming, fishing, Etc.
Rebellions: English takeover of New Amsterdam
Native American Relations: Positive (Penn’s Society of Friends)Worse after Penn’s death

Canadian Colonies: Montreal, Quebec
Purpose: Making money, French hoped to establish fur-trading posts along Great Lakes, Ohio River Valley, and Mississippi River Valley
Government: Organized and led by traders and trappers
Economy: Fur-trading, either trapping or trading
Rebellions: Pontiac’s Rebellion (angry natives) Occasional English invasion
Native American Relations: Good for trade, occasional skirmish

Virginia’s Development

The first permanent English colony in North America was Jamestown, Virginia founded in 1607. It was a business venture of the Virginia Company of London, an English firm that planned to make money by sending people to America to find gold and other valuable natural resources and then ship the resources back to England. Initially, the colony suffered from a lack of leadership and profitable enterprises which resulted in starvation and near failure of the colony. In order to induce Englishmen to come to the Virginia Colony, the company instituted a series of changes that helped the colony grow. The company’s monopoly on land was lessened which allowed the colonists to acquire land for themselves. English common law was imposed and eventually a measure of self-government was allowed. At this point, more women and families began to come to come to Virginia.

Tobacco Cultivation Changed Virginia

There was no gold in the Jamestown colony, but John Rolf successfully crossbred native strains of tobacco with West Indian tobacco. Tobacco quickly became a major cash crop and an important source of wealth in Virginia. Tobacco cultivation was labor-intensive. People known as indentured servants were sent from England to work for the Virginia Company. Indentured servants worked for a land owner in exchange for their passage to the New World in hopes of eventually claiming their own land. More tobacco cultivation required more indentured servants. Tensions began to develop over the continual need to supply land to newly freed indentured servants. African slaves were introduced to the Virginia Colony in 1619. Eventually, plantation owners came to rely on African slaves as a more profitable and renewable source of labor. As a result, Virginia’s colonial economy became highly dependent on slavery.

House of Burgesses

The Virginia Company established a legislative assembly that was similar to England’s Parliament, called the House of Burgesses. The House of Burgesses was the first European-style legislative body in the New World. The representatives were both appointed by the company’s governor and elected by land-owning males of Virginia. Laws enacted were subject to approval by the governor and the London board of directors, but it was the first self-government in the colonies. However, all the colonists did not own land and therefore lacked representation. In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon led a revolt of former indentured servants who wanted harsher action against the Native Americans in retaliation for their attacks on outlying settlements. Bacon’s Rebellion was put down; however, the rebellion had the effect of further weakening the indenture system while strengthening the reliance on slavery.

Relations with Native Americans

Relations between the colonists and Native Americans in Virginia went from wariness to assistance to all-out war. At the time of Jamestown’s founding, a strong confederacy of Native-American tribes, led by Powhatan, existed in the Virginia region. Initially wary of the colonists, ultimately a trade relationship developed between the local Native Americans and the English. However, as the colony began to expand, especially with the development of tobacco culture, Native Americans were increasingly in conflict with the colony. After unsuccessful attempts by the Powhatan Confederacy to drive the colonists out, many Native Americans fled the region and sought new places to live.

Settlement of New England

Calvinists in England (including the Pilgrims and Puritans) faced increased persecution for their desire to reform the Anglican Church and their opposition to the growing power of the English monarchy. Using their influence and wealth, the Puritan leadership was able to acquire a majority share in a trading company. Using the trading company as a front, the Puritan leadership moved the headquarters of the London Company of Plymouth to Massachusetts. Afterwards, many Puritans and their families immigrated to the American colonies in order to escape persecution. Thus, the New England colonies were established by Pilgrims at Plymouth and the Puritans settled around present-day Boston. Like their fellow colonists in Virginia, the settlements had similar problems acclimating to their new environment and suffered substantial losses in its early years.

Relations with Native Americans

Initially, relations with the Native Americans living in the coastal regions of New England were cordial. Each side engaged in a profitable exchange of trade goods, but, as the English colony grew in size, so did the tension between the Puritans and Native Americans. King Phillip’s War (1675–1676) was an early and bloody conflict between English and regional Native American tribal groups. King Phillip, or Metacom, was the regional leader of the Native Americans. The conflict originated as the Puritan community spread out from Boston and took more and more Native American land. Additionally, some tribal members had converted to Christianity disrupting traditional political and cultural ties among the region’s tribes. Many colonists died in the war, but it also caused a heavy loss of life among the Native American population. As a result, large areas of southern New England were opened to English settlement.

A New Type of Governance

The Puritans held a tight control over the political and social structure of the community. Communities were run using town meetings. Voting rights were limited to men who belonged to the church, and church membership was tightly controlled by each minister and congregation. Towns were run as direct democracies with each voting member having a direct role in the administration of government. Additionally, the Massachusetts colonial charter provided for the creation of a broader form of government. The charter allowed for a colonial government consisting of a governor and deputy governor, a council of assistants, and a general court of shareholders, known as freemen, that would create the laws. Contrary to the charter, the Council of Assistance had taken much of the political power. In 1634, the freemen demanded that the charter be enforced to the letter which resulted in the creation of a more representative government. Participation in the political process became a problem as more children were born in America. Puritans leaders believed that many of those born in America lacked a personal covenant (relationship) with God, the central feature of Puritanism. Since church membership was a requirement for voting, Puritan ministers encouraged a “Half-way Covenant” to allow partial church membership for the children and grandchildren of the original Puritans, who had not experienced a conversion experience. As a result, these “half way” church members were allowed the opportunity to participate in the governance of the colony.

Opposition to Puritan Rule

As a result of their strict religious beliefs, the Puritans were not tolerant of religious beliefs that differed from their own. Frequently, those who disagreed with Puritan ideology and practices were banished from the colony. One such banished dissident, Roger Williams, worked with like-minded individuals to found the colony of Rhode Island. As a result, Rhode Island would come to be known as a colony more tolerant of different religious beliefs. In England, the monarchy was restored to power in 1660. The Crown decided to assert control over semi-independent Massachusetts. In 1686, the British King Charles II canceled the Massachusetts Charter. To get more control over trade with the colonies, James II (who followed Charles II as King of England) combined British colonies throughout New England into a single territory, the Dominion of New England. James appointed his own governor, Sir Edmund Andros. The reformed colonial structure governed as a royal colony. The colonists in this territory greatly disliked this centralized authority and overthrew the royal governor. Events in England led to the dissolution of the Dominion of New England, but Massachusetts remained a royal colony. Political turmoil may have been one of the factors in one of the most notorious incidents in colonial American History. In 1692, the infamous Salem Witch Trials took place. The incident began when three girls, ill with symptoms including convulsions and “fits”, accused several local residents of using witchcraft to cause the illness. The accusations spread and led to over 150 Massachusetts colonists being accused of witchcraft. Of the 150 accused, 29 were convicted and 19 hanged. At least six more people died in prison. Contributing causes of the Salem Witch Trials included extreme religious faith, stress from a growing population, deteriorating relations with Native Americans, and the narrow opportunities for women and girls to participate in Puritan society.

Development of the Mid-Atlantic Colonies—New York

The Dutch founded the colony of New Amsterdam in 1614. The colony comprised all or parts of the present day states of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Founded as a private money-making venture, the colony quickly became profitable. The colony was noted for its diverse population and its tolerance. As a result of winning the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1664, the British seized control of the colony. The region was divided with the largest portion renamed New York. Dutch colonists remained in the new English colony and contributed greatly to its continued prosperity.

Development of the Mid-Atlantic Colonies—Pennsylvania

In 1681, King Charles II granted William Penn a land charter as re-payment of a loan made by Penn’s father to the king. The land charter subsequently became known as Pennsylvania. Using his charter, Penn created a colony that became a place of refuge for English Quakers who faced persecution for their beliefs in Great Britain and in the English colonies of North America. Penn’s philosophy of religious tolerance attracted other immigrants such as Germans and Scots-Irish. Originally, French explorers sought a northwest passage around North America for a shorter trade route to Asian markets. Failure to find such a route led the French to establish a trading post to acquire the area’s valuable natural resources and export them to Europe. Quebec was the first permanent French settlement in North America.

The Southern colonies were noted for their rich soils in the coastal regions and along the river valleys. In addition to good soil, a long growing season meant that southern farmers could often produce two crops each year. Deep rivers and the distance of the Fall Line from the coast meant that inland farmers were able to ship tobacco, indigo, corn, and rice directly from their farms to European markets. The economic development of the southern colonies reflected this geological line. North of the Fall Line tended to be populated by subsistence family farms. These farms grew primarily what was needed to live along with a cash crop used to purchase or barter for trade goods such as salt, gunpowder, lead, and iron tools. South of the Fall Line, commercial farms developed that grew primarily labor intensive cash crops such as rice, tobacco, and indigo. As a result, slave labor was more common south of the Fall Line while less common north of the same line.

In The Middle Colonies, harbor and river systems significantly shaped their development. The Hudson and Delaware Rivers provided highways to the interior of North America. Furs from the Native Americans were transported toward the coast then exchanged for European goods, such as iron tools and firearms. Later, the region’s farmers were able to use the rivers to ship wheat and other agricultural goods to markets in other colonies and Europe, as well as to import manufactured goods from markets abroad. Harbors in cities such as Philadelphia and New York City allowed the Middle Colonies to grow into major commercial hubs for all of the British American colonies.

The New England Colonies were marked by poor, thin, rocky soils and a relatively short growing season that made farming difficult. However, plentiful forests and proximity of the sea led New Englanders to develop a thriving shipbuilding industry. Fishing, whaling, and commercial trade from harbors such as Boston became important economic engines for the region. New Englanders became the merchants of the colonies and New England-based ships were the carriers of colonial goods in the Trans-Atlantic trade.

Vocabulary

Bartolomé de Las Casas

Christopher Columbus
Conquistadores
Don Juan de Oñate
Encomienda system
Francisco Coronado
Giovanni da Verranzo
Henry Hudson
Hernando de Soto
Hiawatha
John Cabot
Joint stock companies
Mestizos
Mound Builders
peninsular
Ponce de León
Puebloans
Robert de La Salle
Sir Walter Raleigh
Treaty of Tordesillas

British
European settlement
Virginia Company
tobacco
Slavery
New England
French
King Phillip’s War
Rhode Island
Salem Witch Trials
New Amsterdam
Pennsylvania
Quebec
British North America
mercantilism
trans-Atlantic trade
French and Indian War

Act of Toleration
Anne Hutchinson
Bacon’s Rebellion
Benjamin Franklin
Calvinism
Catawba Nation
Corporate Charter
Covenant
Dominion of New England
Freemen
Fundamental Orders
General Court
George Whitefield
Great Awakening
Halfway Covenant
Headright system
House of Burgesses
Huguenots
Indentured Servitude
Iroquois Confederacy
James Oglethorpe
Jeremiads
John Peter Zenger
John Rolfe
John S. Copley
John Smith
John Winthrop
Jonathan Edwards
Leisler’s Rebellion
Longhouse
Lord Baltimore
Lord De la Warr
Massachusetts Bay Colony
Mayflower Compact
Michel-Guillaume de Crevecour
Middle Passage
Molasses Act
Navigation Acts
New England Confederation
Patroonship
Paxton Boys
Peter Stuyvesant
Phillis Wheatley
Pocahontas
Powhatan
Predestination
Primogeniture
Proprietary Charter
Proprietor
Protestant Ethic
Protestant Reformation
Puritans
Quakers
Regulator Movement
Roger Williams
Royal Charter
Scots-Irish
Separatists
Slave Codes
Slavery
Squatter
Starving Time
Thomas Hooker
Triangular trade
Virginia Company
William Berkeley
William Bradford
William Penn
Yeoman