Jamestown/Virginia & Maryland

First English Attempts 1585/1587 –2 attempts at Roanoke Colony –2 nd – “Lost Colony”

Jamestown—1607 Virginia Company Joint stock company Middle class investors included Shared speculation

Early Jamestown John Smith Aristocrats – primogeniture “Starving Time” ( ) Powhatan –Pocahontas

Beginnings of prosperity John Rolfe – tobacco (1614) Plantation system –Headright system –Indentured servitude

Virginia changes House of Burgesses (1619) Royal colony (1624)

Maryland (1634) Proprietary colony –George Calvert, Lord Baltimore Act of Toleration (1649)

17 th C Chesapeake Society Agricultural – few towns Anglican church –Few clergy High death rates Mostly men (at first) –Weaker kinship bonds Tidewater aristocracy control

Battles between Virginians Voting restrictions Regressive taxation Rich vs. poor East (tidewater) vs. west (hills)

Bacon’s Rebellion-1676 Causes –Frontier expansion –No frontier protection –Rich vs. poor –Tidewater v. backcountry

Nathaniel Bacon Wealthy coastal planter Raised army to fight Indians in west w/o Berkeley’s consent Army marched on Jamestown

Bacon’s Rebellion-1676 Effects –Berkeley replaced –Tobacco export tax –Colonists realized reliance on world mkt –More reliance on African labor