HIST 1301 Part One

2: England’s Colonial Experiments

In the Seventeenth Century

Jamestown, Virginia

The First Permanent English Colony

In 1603, Elizabeth I died childless.

She was succeeded by James VI

of Scotland (the son of Mary,

Queen of Scots), who became

James I of England.

In 1606 King James I chartered the Virginia Company

The Virginia Company Seal

The Virginia Company Charter Its purpose was to make money

for its investors.

The “London Company” was to

settle the southern portion of

Virginia and the “Plymouth

Company” the northern portion.

In December 1606 the Susan Constant, the Discovery

and the Godspeed set sail from Blackwall, London.

The expedition was led by Capt. Christopher Newport.

Virginia Monument, London, England

May 1607: Jamestown is established by 105 men and boys.

Between 1608 and 1609 six

hundred new colonists arrive,

including several women.

The colonists were employees of the London branch of the Virginia Company,

bound to service for seven years in return for transportation, food, and shelter.

Most of these “indentured servants” were young, single people.

The colony was supposed to be administered by a council.

Gosnold Smith

Newport

Wingfield Martin

Percy Kendall Ratcliffe

Died in 1607.

Deposed and sent back

to England, 1607.

Returned to England,

1608.

Executed, 1608. Returned to England,

1607. Frequently ill. Tortured and killed

by Indians, 1609.

Although the colony was supposed to be administered by a council of seven men,

Capt. John Smith was the colony’s de facto leader during its first two years.

Smith managed to keep peace with otherwise hostile Indians.

Many historians believe that Smith’s story about Pocahontas

saving him from execution was made-up.

“Having feasted him after their best barbarous manner they could, a long

consultation was held, but the conclusion was, two great stones were brought

before Powhatan: then as many as could laid hands on him, dragged him to

them, and thereon laid his head, and being ready with their clubs to beat out his

brains, Pocahontas, the king's dearest daughter, when no entreaty could prevail,

got his head in her arms, and laid her own upon his to save his from death:

whereat the emperor was contented he should live.”

In 1609, an accident forced

Smith to leave Jamestown and

return to England.

“Sleeping in his Boate, accidentallie, one

fired his powder-bag, which tore the flesh

from his body and thighes, nine or ten

inches square in a most pittifull manner;

but to quench the tormenting fire, frying

him in his cloaths he leaped overboord

into the deepe river, where ere they could

recover him he was neere drowned.” --John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New

England & the Summer Isles (1624)

After Smith’s departure, the Indians

resolved to get rid of the English.

“The palisades [were] torn down, the

ports open, the gates from off the hinges,

and the empty houses rent up and burnt,

rather than the dwellers would step into

the woods a stone's cast off from them to

fetch other firewood. And it is true, the

Indians killed as fast without, if our men

stirred but beyond the bounds of their

blockhouse.” --William Strachey, The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia

Britannia, 1612

The Winter of 1609-1610 was called “The

Starving Time.” All but 60 colonists died.

“And one amongst the rest did kill his wife, powdered her, and had eaten part of her

before it was knowne, for which hee was executed, as hee well deserved…This was that

time, which still to this day we called the starving time; it were too vile to say, and

scarce to be beleeved, what we endured.” --William Simmons quoted in The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England & The Summer Isles (1624)

June 1610: Just as the survivors headed out to sea, the

new governor, Lord De La Warr, arrived with 3 ships

carrying supplies and 150 new colonists.

“Lord la Ware…then Governour of the

Countrie, met them with…ships

exceedingly well furnished with all

necessaries fitting, who againe returned

them to the abandoned James towne.” --William Simmons quoted in The Generall Historie

of Virginia, New England & The Summer Isles (1624)

3 min. 45 sec.

How Virginia Prospered

John Rolfe Finds a Way

In 1565 Sir John Hawkins introduced

tobacco smoking in England and Sir

Walter Raleigh helped popularize it.

Sir John Hawkins

So in 1612, when

colonist John Rolfe

successfully grew

West Indian

tobacco in Virginia,

there was already a

market for it.

6 min. 21 sec.

By 1675, annual exports of Virginia tobacco to England

totaled 10 million pounds, on which taxes totaling £100,000

were paid to the English government.

The Later Years (1614-1624)

From Corporate to Royal Colony

In 1614 Pocahontas became a Christian and then, renamed “Rebecca,”

she married John Rolfe. Their marriage resulted in eight years of peace

between the English colonists and the Powhatan Indians.

In 1617, less than two years after Pocahontas went to England

with her husband, she died and was buried at Gravesend.

1619: Slavery and Democracy take root in Virginia

Nineteen Africans arrive

on a English warship, the

White Lion. It’s unclear

whether they were slaves

or indentured servants.

The House of Burgesses

(colonial legislature) meets for

first time in Jamestown.

In 1622 Indians killed 350 Virginia settlers.

In 1624 King James I revoked the

Virginia Company’s charter and made

Virginia a royal colony.

Society in Colonial Virginia

By the end of the 1600s Virginia had a

small ruling elite that owned large tobacco

plantations with thousands of acres and

hundreds of slaves or indentured servants.

William Byrd II

But most Virginians were small farmers who grew tobacco on 50-acre “headrights,“

given to any person who transported himself or another person to the colony.

Throughout the colonial period the

Anglican Church was the established tax-

supported church of Virginia. Failure to

attend services could result in a fine.

The First New England Colonies

Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay

The people we called “Pilgrims” were

Separatists who thought the Church of

England had not gone far enough in

ridding itself of the vestiges of Roman

Catholicism so they “separated” from it.

Failure to attend C. of E. services was an

offense punishable by a fine. Holding non-

conformist services was a crime punishable

by imprisonment. In 1593 two separatist

leaders were executed for sedition.

1620: 102 English “Pilgrims” travel to America aboard the

Mayflower. About half are Separatists who previously spent

several years living in the Netherlands.

The Pilgrims intended to settle in

Virginia but a storm blew the ship

off course and they ended up in New

England instead.

November 21, 1620: While anchored off Cape

Cod, the “Pilgrims” sign the “Mayflower

Compact” establishing a “civil body politick.”

They name their settlement

“New Plymouth”

Plymouth Rock

Half the colonists died during the first winter.

Spring 1621: The arrival of Samoset and Squanto

“About the 6th of March a certain

Indian came boldly among them, and

spoke to them in broken English, which

they could well understand, but were

astonished at it.” --William Bradford, Governor

Samoset and Squanto also introduced the Pilgrims to

their chief, Massasoit, who was likewise friendly.

The Indians also helped the

“Pilgrims” by showing them where

to hunt and fish and how to plant

corn and other food crops.

“Afterwards they (as many as were able) began to plant ther

corne, in which servise Squanto stood them in great stead,

showing them both the manar how to set it, and after how to

dress and tend it. Also he tould them excepte they gott fish

and set with it (in these old grounds) it would come to

nothing, and he showed them …wher to get other provissions

necessary for them; all which they found true by triall and

experience.” –Governor William Bradford

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on

fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice

together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors…Many

of the Indians coming amongst us, [including] their…King

Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we

entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five

deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on

our governor, and upon the captain and others."

–-Edward Winslow, Colonist

Fall 1621: The first “Thanksgiving”

5 min. 39 sec.

Plymouth Colony existed from 1620 to

1691, when it was merged with the

Massachusetts Bay Colony.

By 1690, the population of Plymouth

colony had increased from the original

50 survivors of the winter of 1620-’21 to

about 3,000.

The English Colonies

Massachusetts Bay

Puritans, who wanted to change the

Church of England from within,

established the Massachusetts Bay colony.

In 1603 Puritans presented King James I

with the Millenary Petition, listing the

changes they wished to make to the

Church of England.

King James I: “I will make them

conform themselves, or I will

harry them out of the land!”

The Puritans rejected the following ceremonies:

• The signing of the cross during baptism

• Confirmation

• The administration of baptism by lay people (It was

common in some areas that mid-wives would baptize

children.)

• Use of the ring in marriage

• Bowing at the name of Jesus

• The requirement of the surplice and cap

• The practice of giving men multiple ecclesiastical

positions, receiving pay for each

They also disliked the terms Priest and Absolution (terms

they perceived as Roman Catholic), and wanted a stricter

observance of the Sabbath.

King James saw the Puritans as

troublemakers.

The “Great Migration” of English Puritans

began in 1629, during the reign of Charles I. By

the end of 1630, about 2,000 people had arrived

in Massachusetts Bay Colony.

By 1640, about 20,000 Puritans had

immigrated to “New England.”

“Hee shall make us a prayse and glory, that men shall

say of succeeding plantacions: the lord make it like

that of New England: for wee must Consider that wee

shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people

are uppon us; soe that if wee shall deale falsely with

our god in this worke wee have undertaken and soe

cause him to withdrawe his present help from us, wee

shall be made a story and a byword through the

world.”

--John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony

In America, their churches were

called “Congregationalist” and

their style of worship was called

“The New England Way.”

6 min. 46 sec.

The government of Massachusetts Bay was a

theocracy in which civil law was based on the

Bible and everyone was required to conform to

Puritan beliefs. Dissenters were punished,

oftentimes severely. Only freemen who were

also church members could vote or hold office.

“A democracy is ... accounted the

meanest and worst of all forms of

government.” –John Winthrop

“If we should change from a mixed aristocracy

to mere democracy, first we should have no

warrant in scripture for it: for there was no

such government in Israel ... A democracy is,

amongst civil nations, accounted the meanest

and worst of all forms of government. [To

allow it would be] a manifest breach of the 5th

Commandment.” R.C. Winthrop, Life and Letters of John Winthrop (Boston,

1869), vol. ii, p. 430.

Most farms were family farms

with few, if any, indentured

servants or slaves.

Owing to a short growing season

and thin, rocky soil, most New

Englanders became “middling”

farmers. Others made a living in

fishing and trade.

Religious Liberty for All

The Founding of Rhode Island

1636: Puritan dissenter Roger Williams founds

“Providence Plantations” in present-day Rhode Island.

“God requireth not an uniformity of Religion to be inacted and inforced in any civill

state…true civility and Christianity may both flourish in a state or Kingdome,

notwithstanding the permission of divers and contrary consciences, either of Jew or

Gentile.” --Roger Williams, The Bloody Tenet

1637: Puritan heretic Anne Hutchinson is also banished from

Massachusetts. She and her followers settle on Rhode Island in

Narragansett Bay.

6 min. 02 sec.

1644: Roger Williams goes to England and comes back with

charter for Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

During the Colonial era, Rhode Island was the only colony to allow

complete religious liberty for Christians and non-Christians alike. In 1658

a Jewish congregation began openly meeting in Newport, Rhode Island

and in 1763 they built Touro Synagogue.

2 min. 25 sec.

The First Middle Colony

From New Netherland to New York

1609: Englishman Henry Hudson explores what is now the coast of

New York and New Jersey for the Dutch West India Company.

1614: The Dutch West India

Company establishes New

Netherland. In 1624 the first

colonists arrived.

1626: Dutch governor Pieter Minuit buys

Manahatta (Manhattan) Island from the

Indians for 60 guilders worth of trade

goods (less than $600).

New Amsterdam was the capital of New Netherland.

New Amsterdam was situated on the

southern tip of Manhattan Island.

New Amsterdam,

was an important

center of trade

where Slaves,

beaver skins, and

other commodities

were bought and

sold .

“Peg Leg” Pieter Stuyvesant was the last

Governor of New Netherland (1647-1664).

1664: Charles II grants land in America

to brother, the Duke of York (future

King James II).

The Duke’s land grant includes

New Netherland!

August 27, 1664: Four English warships

sail into New Amsterdam’s harbor.

The Dutch surrender without firing a shot!

English governor Richard Nicolls renames

city and colony “New York.”

Dutch who swear allegiance to King Charles II

are allowed to remain in New York.

12 min. 53 sec.

Catholics and Quakers

The founding of Maryland and

Pennsylvania

In 1634, Cecil Calvert (son of

George Calvert), Lord

Baltimore, established Maryland

as a haven for Roman Catholics

(although the colony’s charter

did not specifically say so).

A proprietary colony, Maryland was named

for Henrietta Maria, the French Roman

Catholic Queen Consort of King Charles I.

In 1649 the Maryland colonial legislature passed an “Act of Toleration,”

granting religious liberty to all Christians. In 1692 the law was changed to

Protestants only. In 1702 the Church of England became the official church.

In 1647, Englishman George Fox established The Religious Society of

Friends or “Quakers,” who were considered “heretics” by the established

church and also by Puritans. During the reign of Charles I and the years of the

Puritan Republic (1649-1660), Quakers met in secret to avoid persecution.

• Equality for Women

• Pacifism

• Anti-slavery

• Refused to swear oaths

• No paid ministers

When the monarchy was restored in

1660, King Charles II issued a

declaration of religious toleration.

“Because the passion and

uncharitableness of the times have

produced several opinions in religion,

by which men are engaged in parties

and animosities against each other

(which, when they shall hereafter unite

in a freedom of conversation, will be

composed or better understood), we do

declare a liberty to tender consciences,

and that no man shall be disquieted or

called in question for differences of

opinion in matters of religion, which do

not disturb the peace of the kingdom ;

and that we shall be ready to consent to

such an Act of Parliament, as, upon

mature deliberation, shall be offered to

us, for the full granting that

indulgence.”

Because Parliament refused its assent,

the status of Quakers in England became

uncertain.

In 1681, in order to settle a £16,000 debt, Charles II

granted land between New York and Maryland to a

prominent Quaker named William Penn.

The colony was named “Pennsylvania” and

in 1682 the city of Philadelphia was founded.

Unlike many English leaders, Penn treated the

Indians fairly and paid them for their land. He also

permitted religious liberty for all Christians,

assuring that the colony became not only a haven

for Quakers but also any other “dissenters.”

The Rest of the English Colonies

1662: The Royal Colony of Connecticut is founded

by Puritans from Massachusetts Bay.

1663: Charles II grants the Carolinas to Eight “Lords

Proprietors.” In 1712, North and South Carolina are divided..

Some of the earliest inhabitants come from the island of Barbados.

1664: The Duke of York conveys East and West Jersey to two

friends, Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley.

In 1702, East and West Jersey

combine to become royal

colony of “New Jersey.”

In 1679, New Hampshire

separates from

Massachusetts Bay to form

a new colony

In 1691 Plymouth Colony was merged

into the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Delaware is part of Penn’s grant until

1703 when it becomes a separate colony.

Georgia is founded in 1733 by James Oglethorpe, as a refuge for English poor.

By the early 1700s, there were 13 English colonies in North America.

NEW ENGLAND:

Massachusetts,

Connecticut, Rhode

Island, and New

Hampshire.

MIDDLE

COLONIES: New

York, New Jersey,

Pennsylvania, and

Delaware.

SOUTHERN COLONIES:

Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina,

South Carolina, and Georgia.