English Settlement Chapter 1

Background to English Colonization  Population transfer  No centralized Empire  Experience in Ireland  Gave them model for planting settlements, transplanting their familiar way of life and subjugate the Indians as they had the Irish.  Only, where they settled was sparsely populated.

Jamestown, Virginia: May 6, 1607  First Permanent English Settlement in North America  Virginia Company (Joint-Stock)  104 men and boys (2 women arrived the next year)  Disastrous Beginning  Location = malaria  Mostly soldiers, townsmen, “gentlemen” adventurers, and servants  Little knowledge of how to exploit the area’s resources  Knew nothing about growing crops = malnutrition

Jamestown’s Problems  Captain John Smith helped keep the colony alive by establishing trade with the Indians (Algonquian-speaking tribes) and by imposing strict discipline.  “he that will not work shall not eat”  Smith was injured and returned to England in  The colony fell apart and suffered the “starving time” of the winter of  Only 60 of 500 inhabitants survived the winter of  One man by “dining on his wife”  Finally imposed martial law in 1611.

Reform and a Boom in Tobacco  John Rolfe and Tobacco  Married Pocahontas, the daughter of chief Powhatan.  Cultivated tobacco, which could be sold to Europe.  Virginia adopted the “headright” system for granting land to individuals.  Key Year – 1619  House of Burgesses  A representative assembly to make laws for the colony.  90 Young Women arrived and sold to likely husbands for the cost of transportation.  20 Black Forced Laborers brought by the Dutch.

Tobacco Boom – 1620s  Between 130,000 and 150,000 immigrants came to the Chesapeake over the 17 th century.  3/4ths of all immigrants came as indentured servants.  An estimated 40 percent of servants did not survive to the end of their indentured terms.  Mortality rate—over 14,000 English arrived since 1607, but the population in 1624 was only 1,132.  As more land was cleared for tobacco, skirmishes with the Indians became more brutal and frequent.  In 1624, James I dissolved the Virginia Company and made it a royal colony.

Maryland (1632)  Maryland was founded by a single aristocratic family, the Calverts (Lord Baltimore).  1 st Proprietary Colony  The Calvert family was Catholic.

The Carolinas (1663)  North- Lacked good harbors and navigable rivers, thus had no way of marketing its produce.  South—Charles Town established in  First exports were furs, Indian slaves, and cattle.  Staple crop was found in the 1690s with the introduction of rice (cash crop).  Demand for rice in Europe made South Carolina the richest colony and South Carolina planters the richest people on the mainland of North America.  South Carolina became a separate royal colony in 1719.

Georgia (1732)  James Oglethorpe  Defensive buffer zone between British North America and Spanish Florida.  Recruited paupers from Europe.  Became a royal colony in 1753.

The Founding of New England  The Puritan Movement  James I, shortly after succeeding Elizabeth I in 1603 vowed to purge England of radical Protestant reformers. (Puritans)  The Pilgrims (or Separatists)  Always a minority within the Puritan movement.  Concluded that the Church of England was too corrupt.  Suffered persecution: fines, imprisonment, and in a few cases, execution.  Many fled to Holland because the Dutch government permitted complete freedom of religion.

Plymouth Colony  Founded by Pilgrims  Voyage on the Mayflower (1620)  101 men, women, and children  Led by William Bradford  Mayflower Compact - consensual government  Long winter  Had arrived too late to plant crops.  By the spring of 1621, half had died.  Samoset and Squanto showed them how to grow maize.  Thanksgiving

The Massachusetts Bay Colony  Plymouth was quickly overshadowed by another colony, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which absorbed it in  The Puritans  Non-Separating Congregationalists  Hoped the Church of England could be reformed  Founding – 1630  Led by John Winthrop  “We shall be as a city on a hill.”  17 ships and more than 1,000 colonists  Included merchants, landed gentlemen, and lawyers.

The Founding of New England  Beginning of the Great Migration  Some 21,000 came in a cluster between 1630 and  Most arrived in family groups.  Rapid settlement = Stability and Order  Common past of persecution and a strong desire to create an ordered society modeled on Scripture.  Lived to an average age of 70  Twice as long as Virginians.  10 years longer than in England.  By 1700, New England and the Chesapeake both had populations of approximately 100,000.

Puritanism (Puritans)  We have a false image.  Puritans, especially those of the upper class, wore colorful clothing, enjoyed secular music, and drank rum (but did not get drunk).  Moderation in all things except piety was the Puritan guideline  Separation of Church and State?  The Puritan was dedicated to seeking not the will of the people but the will of God.  Civil laws obliged everyone to attend worship services on the Sabbath and to pay taxes to support Congregationalist ministers.

Covenant Theology  Man and God have interacted through a succession of explicit agreements or contracts.  The idea of mutual obligation is fundamental.  Puritan’s practically do away with the conception of God as merely promising, and substitute a legal theory of God’s delivering to man a signed and sealed bond.  The contract between God and man, once entered into, is ever afterwards binding—a treaty of mutual obligation.  The covenant theology becomes the foundation for the state and the church in New England.

Mass. Becomes Staging Area for all of New England  Rhode Island (refuge for dissenters)  Roger Williams  He believed in complete separation of church and state (to protect the church).  He was banished and founded the town of Providence in 1636 – the first permanent settlement in America to legislate freedom of religion.  Anne Hutchison  Believed in direct revelations from the Holy Spirit.  Challenged the legitimacy of the ministerial community.  Banished in 1638 and went to Rhode Island. Later moved to Long Island and killed in an Indian attack.

Mass. Becomes Staging Area for all of New England  Connecticut (1637)  Founded by Mass. Puritans seeking better lands and access to the fur trade farther west.  Thomas Hooker organized the self-governing colony.  Government similar to Massachusetts except more democratic – voting was not limited to church members  Hooker and Connecticut becomes a blueprint for political democracy  New Hampshire and Maine (1622)  Slowly settled by Puritan immigrants. Consisted of scattered and small settlements. Maine splits off in 1629 but remains sparsely populated.

The Middle Colonies  New York (1664)  Originally the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, 1614 (New Amsterdam was capital in 1626).  Cultural differences hampered the prospects for a stable social and political life.  Captured by the English in1664 without firing a shot—King Charles II granted the region to James, the duke of York, later King James II.  New Jersey (1664)  Duke of York gave 5 million acres to two of his friends.  Became royal colony in 1702.

The League of the Iroquois  Composed of 6 different tribes welded together into a coherent political unit.  Actually gained greater strength from its contacts with whites.  The Indians of northern New York became important suppliers of furs to white traders.  As the favored clients of the English, they became opponents to the French.

The Middle Colonies: Pennsylvania  Quaker beliefs  Founded in 1647 by George Fox as the Society of Friends.  Named in ridicule: “tremble at the word of the Lord”  No original sin, no predestination, believe in goodness, equality, and the doctrine of individual spiritual inspiration and interpretation –the “inner light.”  They discarded all formal sacraments and formal ministry, refused deference to persons of rank, and embraced simple living and pacifism.  Their toleration extended to complete religious freedom for all and the equality of the sexes.

The Middle Colonies: Pennsylvania  Successful Settlement (1681)  William Penn, a converted Quaker, inherited a substantial estate and was given the proprietary rights for Pennsylvania by Charles II in  He recruited religious dissenters from England and the Continent—Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Moravians, Baptists  By 1700 its population stood at 21,000.  Delaware (1701)  At first was part of Pennsylvania.  After 1701 allowed to have own assembly but same governor as Penn. until American Revolution.

Conclusion  Although the English colonization efforts did not start off as well as the French and Spanish, they eventually became a greater success because the lack of centralized control gave free rein to a variety of human impulses.  The English preferred private investment. Not a single colony was begun by the crown.  Poor immigrants were more likely to obtain land in the English colonies and settlement was more concentrated.