The Early English Colonies

I. England and the New World Reasons for England’s late entry

Protracted religious strife Continuing struggle to subdue Ireland

Awakening of English attention to North America Early ventures

Humphrey Gilbert’s failed Newfoundland colony

Walter Raleigh’s failed Roanoke colony

I. England and the New World (cont’d)

Impetus for North American colonization National rivalry

Opposition to (Spanish) Catholicism

Spain’s attempted invasion of England

Desire to match Spanish and French presence in the New World

I. England and the New World (cont’d)

B. Awakening of English attention to North America2. Impetus for North American

colonizationb. Sense of divine mission

Image of Spanish brutality in the New World ( The Black Legend- Las Casa)

England’s self-conception as beacon of freedom

I. England and the New World (cont’d)

b.Material possibilities Prospects for trade-based empire

in North America Solution to English social crisis Chance for laboring classes to

attain economic independence

I. England and the New World (cont’d)

C. English social crisis of late sixteenth century Roots of

Population explosion Rural displacement

Elements of Urban overcrowding Falling wages Spread of poverty Social instability

I. England and the New World (cont’d)

Government answers to Punishment of dispossessed Dispatching of dispossessed to the

New World

II. Overview of seventeenth-century English settlement in North America Challenges of life in North America Magnitude of English emigration

Chesapeake New England Middle colonies

Indentured servitude Similarities to slavery Differences from slavery

II. Overview of seventeenth-century English settlement in North America

Significance of access to land As basis of English liberty As lure to settlement As resource for political patronage As source of wealth

II. Overview of seventeenth-century English settlement in North America (cont’d)E. Englishmen and Indians

Displacement of Indians Preference over subjugation or

assimilation Limits of constraints on settlers Recurring warfare between colonists

and Indians Trading Impact of trade and settlement on

Indian life

Joint Stock Company

A corporate venture to settle Virginia – The Virginia Company

Merchants formed the company for a profit, but the King also wanted to Christianize the natives

III. Settling of the Chesapeake

Virginia 1. Initial settlement at Jamestown 2. Rocky beginnings

High death rate Inadequate supplies Inadequate labor

III. Settling of the Chesapeake (cont’d)

3. Virginia Company measures to stabilize colony Forced labor Headright system

2 grants for colonist already there 1 grant per new male settler that paid

their own way “Charter of grants and liberties”

4. Indians and Jamestown settlers Initial cooperation and trade

III. Settling of the Chesapeake (cont’d)

a. Key figures in early Indian-settler relations

Powhatan John Smith Pocahontas

b. Sporadic conflictc. War of 1622

Opechancanough attack on settlers Settlers’ retaliation Aftermath

Settling of the Chesapeake (cont’d)

e. War of 1644 Defeat of Opechancanough rebellion Removal of surviving Indians to

reservations

f. Continuing encroachment on Indian land

III. Settling of the Chesapeake (cont’d)

5. Take-off of tobacco cultivation Introduction and spread Effects

Issuance of royal colonial charter Rise of tobacco planter elite Spread of settler agriculture Rising demand for land and labor

III. Settling of the Chesapeake (cont’d)

Virginia6. Emerging strata of white Virginia

Wealthy gentry Small farmers Poor laborers

Indentured servants Free

7. Women settlers Quest for Status of Hardships

Richard Frethorne An Indentured Servants letter Home

Richard Frethorne “My most humble duty remembered to you, hoping in

god of your good health, as I myself am at the making hereof. This is to let you understand that I you child am in a most heavy case by reason of the country, [which] is such that it causeth much sic kness, [such] as the scurvy and the bloody flux and diverse other diseases, which maketh the body very poor and weak. And when we are sick there is nothing to comfort us; for since I came out of the ship I never ate anything but peas, and loblollie (that is, water gruel). As for deer or venison I never saw any since I came into this land. “

Richard Frethorne “For we came but twenty for the merchants,

and they are half dead just; and we look every hour when two more should go. Yet there came some four other men yet to live with us, of which there is but one alive; and our Lieutenant is dead, and [also] his father and his brother. And there was some five or six of the last year’s twenty, of which there is but three left, so that we are fain to get other men to plant with us; and yet we are but 32 to fight against 3000 if they should come.”

Richard Frethorne “And I have nothing to comfort me, nor is there

nothing to be gotten here but sickness and death, except [in the event] that one had money to lay out in some things for profit. But I have nothing at all – no, not a shirt to my back but two rags (2), nor clothes but one poor suit, nor but one pair of shoes, but one pair of stockings, but one cap, [and] but two bands [collars]. My cloak is stolen by one of my fellows, and to his dying hour [he] would not tell me what he did with it; but some of my fel lows saw him have butter and beef out of a ship, which my cloak, I doubt [not], paid for. So that I have not a penny, nor a penny worth, to help me too either spice or sugar or strong waters, without the which one cannot live here.”

Richard Frethorne “Any eating meat will yield great profit. Oil a nd

vinegar is very good; but, father, there is great loss in leaking. But for God’s sake send beef and cheese and butter, or the more of one sort and none of another. But if you send cheese, it must be very old cheese; and at the cheesemonger’s you may bu y very food cheese for twopence farthing or halfpenny, that will be liked very well. I hope all my brothers and sisters are in good health, and as for my part I have set down my resolution that certainly will be; that is, that the answer of this letter will be life or death to me. Therefore, good father, send as soon as you can; and if you send me any thing let this be the mark.”

Richard Frethorne

What problems were Richard facing? What was his solution? Was the New World a promise land for

Frethorne?

III. Settling of the Chesapeake (cont’d)

B. Maryland Similarities to Virginia colony Distinctive features

Proprietary structure Cecilius Calvert Absolute power of proprietor vs. rights of

colonists Resulting conflict

Religious and political tensions Calvert’s Catholic leanings vs. settlers’

Protestant leanings Reverberations of English Civil War

IV. Settling of New England

Puritanism Emergence in England Variations within Common outlooks

Central importance of the sermon John Calvin’s ideas

The elect and the damned Salvation Worldly behavior

Zealousness

IV. Settling of New England (cont’d)

B. Puritan separatists Growth under Charles I Aims Conceptions of Freedom

Denunciation of “natural liberty” Embrace of “moral liberty”

IV. Settling of New England (cont’d)

B. Founding of Plymouth Colony The Pilgrims Arrival at Plymouth Mayflower Compact Rocky beginnings Help from Indians Thanksgiving

New England

Plymouth Colony 1620 Separatist – against the Church of

England Governed by Mayflower Compact 1st year lost half of the adults, most

children survived Easy going with land.

Plymouth Colony

Came as family units Here to stay Few Indian problems Government

Representative self government Broad political rights No government interference in religious

matters

The Great Migration Persecution in

England led to an exodus of 900 Puritans (wanted to purify the Church of England

Led by John Winthrop Massachusetts Bay

Colony – Boston –Build a “City on the Hill” A new Jerusalem.

IV. Settling of New England (cont’d)

E. Government and society in Puritan Massachusetts Attitudes toward individualism,

social unity

IV. Settling of New England (cont’d)

F. Government and society in Puritan Massachusetts2. Organization of towns

Self-government Civic Religious

Subdivision of land Institutions

3. Colonial government Emphasis on colonial autonomy Principle of consent “Visible Saints”

Settling of New England (cont’d)

G. New Englanders divided Prevailing Puritan values

Emphasis on conformity to communal norms

Intolerance of individualism, dissent

IV. Settling of New England (cont’d)

G.New Englanders divided2. Roger Williams

Critique of status quo Banishment Establishment of Rhode Island

Religious toleration Democratic governance

3. Other breakaway colonies Hartford New Haven

Settling of New England (cont’d)

4. Anne Hutchinson Challenge to Puritan leadership Challenge to gender norms Trial and banishment

IV. Settling of New England (cont’d)

H. Puritans and coastal Indians Balance of power

Settler’s numerical supremacy Indians’ lack of central political

structure Settlers’ views of Indians

As savages As dangerous temptation As object to be removed

Settling of New England (cont’d)

Rising frontier tensions Settler war with and extermination

of Pequots Aftereffects of Pequot War

Opening of Connecticut River valley to white settlement

Intimidation of other Indians Affirmation of Puritan sense of mission King Phillip's War

Changes to Indian Society

European Goods in exchange for fursDrinkWeaponsPots

Warfare

Iroquois allied with the British

The rest in the North sided with the French

Constant warfare Tribes from the Ohio River

area displaced to Wisconsin

Kickapoo’s – started in Ohio end up in Mexico through displacement.

IV. Settling of New England (cont’d)

I. New England economy Economic motives behind New

England settlement Aspiration for a “competency”

Land ownership Craft status

Aspiration for mercantile success Blending of religious and profit

motives

Settling of New England (cont’d)

Emerging New England economy Family-based agriculture

Chiefly subsistence orientation Broad distribution of land

Exports to other colonies and Europe Rise of Boston merchant elite

Ship building Lumber industry