The New World: Early

Colonial History

Jamestown

Joint-Stock Company

Group of investors bought the right to

establish New World plantations from the

king

Established in 1606 by the British Virginia Company

Jamestown

•Ill-suited for the New World…

English Gentlemen

•Imposed HARSHmartial law

Captain John Smith

•Some resorted to cannibalism

Starving period (1609

& 1610)

Powhatan Confederacy

Taught the English:

•What crops to plant

•How to plant them

1614: Pocahontas

•Daughter of the chief

•Married planter John Rolfe

English forgot their debt

•As soon as they needed more land

•Powhatan Confederacy destroyed by 1644

Crushing your childhood memories…

• “Lady Rebecca”

• Dies in England

The Rise of Tobacco

Natives & John Rolfe

Significance?

• Tobacco’s success largely determined the fate of the Virginias

• Cash Crop

• Leads to…?

Why Emigrate??

Overpopulation in England…

• Famine, disease, poverty

Opportunity provided by indentured servitude (7-10 Years)

• Property + freedom

• Enabling them (1) to survive, and (2) to vote

1619: Virginia established the House of Burgesses

• Any property-holding, white male could vote

Pilgrims &

Massachusetts Bay Co.

Puritanism in England

Protestant Movement

Wanted to purify the corrupt

Anglican Church

Puritan group called Separatists

Left England and went to Holland

In 1620 they set sail for Virginia

On the….

Mayflower!!

Went off course

• Landed in modern-day Massachusetts

Mayflower Compact:

• Created a legal authority and an assembly

• Asserted that the government's power derives from the consent of the governed

Pilgrims received…

• Life-saving assistance from local Native Americans (Squanto)

Congregationalists

1629: Founded Massachusetts Bay

• Larger and more powerful colony

Did not tolerate religious freedom

• Even though both had fled religious persecution

Puritans who wanted to reform the

Anglican church from within

Religious Intolerance

Roger Williams

• Teacher in the Salem Bay settlement

• Taught that church and state should be separate

Puritans Response?

• Banished Williams

Williams moved to modern-day Rhode Island

• Founded a new colony (for a time the only place for true religious freedom)

What Else??

Anne Hutchinson

• Proponent of antinomianism “to be hostile to the law”

…. What?

• Faith and God's grace suffice to earn one a place among the "elect.”

Result?

• She was tried for heresy, convicted, and banished

Were all colonies like this??

• English settlers in New England & Chesapeake differed considerably…..

• New England was VERY religious

Other Early

Colonies

Connecticut Valley

• Fertile region with lots of access to the sea

• Competition for the area

Pequots attacked

• Settlement in Wakefield & killed nine colonists

Mass. Bay Colony retaliated

• Burned the main Pequot village

• Killed 400

• Many of them women and children

This was the “Pequot War”

Rebellions & RevolutionsSocial Unrest in the Early Colonial Period

Bacon’s Rebellion

• 1676/Backcountry, VAYear(s)/Location(s):

• Farmers wanted more native land protected by treaty (Berkley & fur trade)

Causes:

• Nathaniel Bacon

• Gov. William Berkley Key Players:

• Bacon led rebellion of mostly landless farmers-forced natives to sign treaty

What Happened?:

• Defined boundaries

• East vs West property owners (eventually unified against landless)

• Revised Increased slave trade

Significance:

King Philip’s War

• 1675/MAYear(s)/Location(s):

• Land conflictCauses:

• King Philip (Metacomet) & Wampanoags

• Mohawks (allied with English)Key Players:

• Natives terrorized towns

• English retaliated (help from Mohawks)What Happened?:

• Ended Wampanoags presence

• Heavy casualties (natives & flintlock rifle)Significance:

Slave Revolts

• 1660s/CaribbeanYear(s)/Location(s):

• Slave populations outnumber whitesCauses:

• XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXKey Players:

• 7 slave revoltsWhat Happened?:

• Harsh treatment of slaves

• White superioritySignificance:

Southeast

• 1660s/SEYear(s)/Location(s):

• Competition for dominanceCauses:

• Spanish & EnglishKey Players:

• English used natives against missions

• Spanish promised slaves freedomWhat Happened?:

• English eventually prevailedSignificance:

Glorious Revolution

• 1688Year(s)/Location(s):

• Dissatisfaction with James II (politics & Catholicism)

Causes:

• James II

• William & MaryKey Players:

• James II & Catholicism in England

• Overthrown by daughterWhat Happened?:

• Protestantism in England

• Spilled over to colonies-overthrow of Andros (MA) & Baltimore (Catholic Maryland)

• Revived representative govs in colonies

Significance:

ProprietorshipsOwned by one person, who usually received

the land as a gift from the king o Example?

Maryland

• Granted to Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore

• Haven of religious tolerance

• First major Catholic enclave in the New World

Other Proprietary Colonies

New York

•Began as Dutch settlement called New Netherland

Pennsylvania

•William Penn, a Quaker, was a close friend of King Charles II

Other Proprietary Colonies

North Carolina

•Settled by Virginians, developed into a Virginia-like colony

South Carolina

•Settled by the descendants of Englishmen who had colonized Barbados

Carolina: ultimately split in two…

Triangular TradeThe English’s arrival truly marked the beginning of the

slave era in the colonies and established the

Triangular trade routes

Proprietaries → Royal Colonies

Why would this

happen???

England as a Colonial Power

• Navigation Acts

o Required the colonists to buy

goods only from England

o Prohibited the colonies from

manufacturing a number of

goods that England already

produced

• But in reality……o Too busy with other problems to

keep close rein on colonies

The Age of Salutary Neglect

(1650 – 1750)• Aka:“Benign Neglect”

• American colonies were seen primarily as markets for

British and West Indian goodso Thus, they attempted to regulate trade

• Mercantilists believed that economic power

was rooted in a favorable balance of trade

Goods

Money

Colonial Life…

Population (90% in rural areas)

• 1700 = 250,000

• 1750 = 1,250,000

Slaves developed extended-

kinship ties to cope with separation

Married women were not

allowed to vote, own property, draft a will, or testify in court

Children's education had to be fit in around

their work schedules

Focus of Colonies...

New England

→ tradeBoston--

major port city

The middle colonies

→ farmingNew York,

Pennsylvania, New Jersey

The lower South

(Carolinas)

→ cash crops (tobacco &

rice)

Majority did NOT own

slaves

Chesapeake → combined

features Middle +

lower South

Thus… the colonies were

hardly a unified whole as

they approached the events

that led them to rebel

Major Events of the Period

• Consult your

notes, that is why

you ARE an AP

student