Settling of the Colonies

1. with slides from Ms. Susan M. Pojer

2. Virginia

3. The Charter of the Virginia Company:
 Guaranteed to
colonists the same
rights as Englishmen
as if they had stayed
in England.
 This provision was
incorporated into
future colonists’
documents.
 Colonists felt that, even in the Americas, they had
the rights of Englishmen!

4. Late 1606  VA Co. sends 3 ships
Spring 1607  land at mouth of
Chesapeake Bay.
 Attacked by Indians and move on.
May 24, 1607  about 100 colonists
[all men] land at Jamestown, along
banks of James River
 Easily defended, but swarming with
disease-causing mosquitoes.
England Plants the
Jamestown “Seedling”

6. http://www.historyisfun.org/jamestown/jamestown.cfm

7. Godspeed

8. Susan Constant

9. Discovery

10. Jamestown

12. http://www.apva.org/history/jsmith.html
http://disney.go.com/vault/archives/characters/pocahontas/pocahontas.html

13. 1606-1607  40 people died on the voyage to
the New World.
1609  another ship from England lost its
leaders and supplies in a shipwreck off
Bermuda.
Settlers died by the dozens!
“Gentlemen” colonists would not work
themselves.
 Game in forests & fish in river uncaught.
Settlers wasted time looking for gold instead
of hunting or farming.
The Jamestown Nightmare

14. High Mortality Rates
The “Starving Time”:
1607: 104 colonists
By spring, 1608: 38 survived
1609: 300 more immigrants
By spring, 1610: 60 survived
1610 – 1624: 10,000
immigrants
1624 population: 1,200
Adult life expectancy: 40 years
Death of children before age 5: 80%

15. Tobacco Plant
Virginia’s gold and silver.
-- John Rolfe, 1612

16. Early Colonial Tobacco
1618 — Virginia produces 20,000 pounds of
tobacco.
1622 — Despite losing nearly one-third of
its colonists in an Indian attack,
Virginia produces 60,000 pounds of
tobacco.
1627 — Virginia produces
500,000 pounds
of tobacco.
1629 — Virginia produces
1,500,000 pounds
of tobacco.

17. Tobacco Prices: 1618-1710
Why did tobacco prices decline so dramatically?

18. Tobacco’s effect on Virginia’s economy:
 Vital role in putting VA on a firm economic
footing.
 Ruinous to soil when continuously planted.
 Chained VA’s economy to a single crop.
Tobacco promoted the use of the plantation
system.
 Need for cheap, abundant labor.
Virginia: “Child of Tobacco”

19. Why was 1619 a
pivotal year for
the Chesapeake
settlement?

20. Virginia
House of Burgesses

21. English Tobacco Label
First Africans arrived in Jamestown in
1619.
 Their status was not clear  perhaps
slaves, perhaps indentured servants.
 Slavery not that important until the end of
the 17c.

22. James I grew hostile to Virginia
 He hated tobacco.
 He distrusted the House of Burgesses which
he called a seminary of sedition.
1624  he revoked the charter of the
bankrupt VA Company.
 Thus, VA became a royal colony, under the
king’s direct control!
Virginia Becomes a Royal Colony

23. Maryland

24. Royal charter granted to George
Calvert, Lord Baltimore, in 1632.
A proprietary colony
created in 1634.
A healthier location
than Jamestown.
 Tobacco would be the
main crop.
His plan was to govern as an absentee proprietor in a
feudal relationship.
 Huge tracts of land granted to his Catholic
relatives.
The Settlement of Maryland

26. St Mary’s City (1634)

27. Colonists only willing to come to MD if they
received land.
Colonists who did come received modest
farms dispersed around the Chesapeake
area.
 Catholic land barons surrounded by
mostly Protestant small farmers.
 Conflict between barons and farmers
led to Baltimore losing proprietary
rights at the end of the 17c.
A Haven for Catholics

28. Baltimore permitted high degree of
freedom of worship in order to prevent
repeat of persecution of Catholics by
Protestants.
 High number of Protestants threatened
because of overwhelming rights given to
Catholics.
Maryland Toleration Act of 1649
 Supported by the Catholics in MD.
 Guaranteed toleration to all CHRISTIANS.
 Decreed death to those who denied the
divinity of Jesus [like Jews, atheists, etc.].
 In one way, it was less tolerant than before
the law was passed!!
A Haven for Catholics

29. Caribbean

30.  Sugar, Sugar, Sugar
 Plantations required huge numbers of workers (slaves)
 Increasingly reliant on North America for foodstuffs
The Economy of the Caribbean

32. The Carolinas

33.  Charles I is beheaded, England
ruled by Oliver Cromwell
 1660 the son, Charles II is
restored to the throne
 Carolina is awarded to eight
Lords Proprietors
Backstory

34.  Closely tied with the Caribbean
 Reliance (mainly in south) on
slaves
 Slaves – exported Indian
- Imported Africans
 Rice becomes chief crop
Economy
http://www.mansfieldplantation.com/history_rice.html

35.  Northern Carolina was sparsely settled initially
 Those in north were VA’s outcasts and poor
 1712 separation into NC and SC
Separation
http://www.tngenweb.org/cessions/colonial.html

36. Georgia

37.  Last of colonies
 Buffer between Spanish Florida and SC and French
Louisiana
 Founded by James Oglethorpe as a refuge for
debtors
http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/colamer.html

38. SETTLING THE NORTH
With slides from Ms. Susan M. Pojer

39. Separatists
vs.
Puritans

40. Puritanism
Calvinism  Predestination.
• Good works could not save those
predestined for hell.
• No one could be certain of their spiritual
status.
• Gnawing doubts led to constantly seeking
signs of “conversion.”
Puritans:
 Want to totally reform [purify] the Church
of England.
 Grew impatient with the slow process of
Protestant Reformation back in England.

41. Separatist Beliefs:
 Puritans who believed only “visible saints” [those who
could demonstrate in front of their fellow Puritans
their elect status] should be admitted to church
membership.
 Because the Church of England enrolled all the king’s
subjects, Separatists felt they had to share
churches with the “damned.”
 Therefore, they believed in a total break from the
Church of England.
Separatists

42. 1620  a group of 102 (40 Separatists]
 Negotiated with the Virginia
Company to settle in VA
 Got lost, low on supplies
 “We could not now take time for
further search or consideration,
our victuals being much spent, especially our beer.”
Plymouth Bay way
outside the domain of the Virginia Company.
 Became squatters without legal right to land &
specific authority to establish a govt.
The Mayflower

43. The Mayflower Compact
November 11, 1620

44. "In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten,
the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by
the Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender
of the Faith, e&. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and
Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King
and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern
parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in
the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine
ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering
and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by
Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal
Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to
time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the
General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due
submission and obedience. In Witness whereof we have hereunto
subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in
the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France
and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno

45. The Mayflower Compact
November 11, 1620
Written and signed before the Pilgrims
disembarked from the ship.
Not a constitution, but an agreement to form a
crude gov. and submit to majority rule.
 Signed by 41 adult males.
Led to adult male settlers meeting in assemblies
to make laws in town meetings.

47. That First Year….
Winter of 1620-1621
 Only 44 out of the original 102 survived.
None chose to leave in 1621 when the Mayflower left
Fall of 1621  First “Thanksgiving.”
 Colony survived with fur, fish, and lumber.
Plymouth stayed small and economically unimportant.
 1691  only 7,000 people
 Merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony.

48. The MA Bay Colony
1629  non-Separatists got a royal charter
 They didn’t want to leave the Church,
just its “impurities.”
1630  1,000 people set off in 11 well-
stocked ships
 Established a colony with Boston
as its hub.
“Great Migration” of the 1630s
 Turmoil in England sent about 70,000
Puritans to America.
 Not all Puritans  20,000 came to MA.

49. Characteristics of New England
Settlements
Low mortality  average life expectancy
was 70 years of age.
Many extended families.
Average 6 children per family.
Average age at marriage:
 Women – 22 years old
 Men – 27 years old.

50. Puritan “Rebels”
Young, popular minister in Salem
 Argued for a full break
with the Anglican Church.
 Condemned MA Bay Charter
• Did give fair
compensation to Indians.
 Denied authority of civil gov. to
regulate religious behavior.
1635  found guilty of preaching “newe & dangerous
opinions “ and was exiled.
Roger Williams

51. 1636  Roger Williams fled there.
 Remarkable political freedom in Providence, RI
• Universal manhood suffrage  later restricted
by a property qualification.
• Opposed to special privilege of any kind 
freedom of opportunity for all.
RI becomes known as the “Sewer” because it is seen
by the Puritans as a dumping ground for unbelievers
and religious dissenters  More liberal than any other
colony!
Rhode Island

52. Intelligent, strong-willed, well-spoken
Threatened patriarchal control
Holy life was no sure sign of salvation.
Truly saved didn’t need to obey the
law of either God or man.
Puritan “Rebels”
Anne
Hutchinson

53. 1638  she confounded the Puritan leaders for days.
Eventually bragged that she had received her beliefs
DIRECTLY from God.
Puritan leaders banished her  she & her family
traveled to RI and later to NY.
 She and all but one member of her family were
killed in an Indian attack in Westchester County.
 John Winthrop saw God’s hand in this!
Anne Hutchinson’s Trial

54. New England Spreads Out

57. New England Colonies, 1650

58. Indians especially weak in New England  epidemics
wiped out ¾ of the native popul.
Wampanoags [near Plymouth] befriended the settlers.
 Cooperation between the two
helped by Squanto.
1621  Chief Massasoit signed
treaty with the settlers.
 Autumn, 1621  both groups
celebrated the First Thanksgiving.
Puritans vs. Native Americans

59. Only hope for Native Americans
to resist white settlers was to
UNITE.
Metacom [King Philip to settlers]
 Massasoit’s son united Indians
and staged coordinated attacks
on white settlements throughout
New England.
 Frontier settlements forced to retreat to Boston.
King Philip’s War (1675-1676}

60. The war ended in failure for the Indians
 Metacom beheaded, drawn and quartered.
 His son and wife sold into slavery.
 Never a serious threat in NE again

61. Population Comparisons:
New England v. the Chesapeake

62. SALUTARY NEGLECT / BENIGN NEGLECT
 Because of political issues, civil wars, etc
England paid little early attention to colonies
 Good? Bad?
 Colonies are semi-autonomous
(New England Confederation)
 Charles II returns, wants more control
(Dominion of New England)
 Potential problems?

63.  Netherlands young
(1588) but powerful
country
 Like Portuguese, Dutch
explored mainly in East
(China, India)
 Early 17th century:
Dutch East India Co.,
est. on Hudson River
 New Netherlands—
farm plantations, slave
trade
NEW PLAYERS: THE DUTCH
http://www.common-place.org/vol-03/no-04/new-york/

64.  Est. as Quaker refuge
 Paid Delaware Indians
£1200 for land
 Religious freedom, liberal
franchise & penal code
 French, German
immigrants welcomed
 “Best Poor Man’s
Country”
 Philadelphia biggest city
by 18th century
The Treaty Elm, 1683
Pennsylvania