Chapter 2

1. Chapter 2 The Planting of English America: 1500 - 1733

2. England’s Imperial Stirrings • England had too many internal issues during the 16th cent to be concerned with the Spanish Empire • In the first decades of the century, England was allied with Spain and took little interest in creating an overseas empire • Henry VIII’s break from the Catholic Church ended the alliance • 1558 – Elizabeth I taking the throne intensified the rivalry with Catholic Spain • Catholic Ireland sought the help of Spain in attempting to break from England • Help never amounted to much • Elizabeth crushed the Irish, confiscated lands and “planted” Scottish & English landlords on these lands • Many English soldiers developed a deep contempt for the natives, an attitude they carried with them to the New World

3. Elizabeth Energizes England • English buccaneers began swarming Atlantic shipping lanes • Technically at peace with Spain, Elizabeth promoted Protestantism and anything to weaken Spain • Most successful privateer was Sir Francis Drake, who was knighted, despite Spanish protest, on the deck of his own ship • 1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert planned the first English settlement in NA, but he died at sea and the plans collapsed • 1585 – Sir Walter Raleigh (Gilbert’s ½ brother) established Roanoke colony in of the coast of Virginia (the Lost Colony) • 1588 – English defeat of the Spanish Armada • Philip II sought to end his Protestant problem, but was soundly defeated by the English (and North Atlantic weather) • Marked the decline of Spanish power in Europe • Established English naval dominance in North Atlantic & put them on the verge of building a world empire • 1604 – James I signed a peace treaty with Spain

4. England on the Eve of Empire • Population grew 33% between 1550-1600 • An economic depression provided America w/ its first immigrants • Landlords were enclosing fields to allow grazing land for sheep, farmers were losing land and jobs • Laws of primogeniture (only eldest son inherits estates) caused ambitious younger sons (Raleigh, Gilbert, Drake) to seek fortunes elsewhere • Those “lone wolf” adventurers were plagued by misfortune • The joint-stock company was perfected in the early 1600s, allowing investors to pool their capital • Peace with Spain allowed for English colonization w/o fear of Spanish encroachment • Population supplied workers • Unemployment, desire for religious freedom & a desire for resources and markets provided the motives • Joint-stock companies provided the capital for ventures

5. England Plants Jamestown Seedling • 1606 - the Virginia Co. received a charter from King James I for settlement in the New World • Virginia Co was only meant to last a couple of years, then be liquidated by its investors • Charter important b/c it guaranteed the same rights of Englishmen as if they stayed at home • Ironically, 150 yrs later their insistence on “rights of Englishmen” fueled resentment of the crown • May 24, 1607 – the first permanent English settlement, Jamestown, is founded • Disease, malnutrition, starvation all caused hardships for the colonists • Settlers were unaccustomed to life in the wilderness, looking for gold instead of collecting provisions • Virginia was saved from collapse by John Smith • 1608 – enacted the rule “he who shall not work, shall not eat”

6. Smith had been kidnapped in Dec 1607 • Indians led by the chieftain Powhatan captured him and put him through a mock execution • His daughter, Pocahontas, became an intermediary between the English and Indians • A peace was upheld between the natives and colonists • Natives helped the colonists, but Englishmen still died in droves • Eating cats, dogs, & mice • Digging up the dead & killing and resorting to cannibalism • Of the 400 English that came to Jamestown by 1609, only 60 survived the winter of 1609-10 • Spring 1610 – remaining colonists boarded ships headed back to England, only to be met by the new governor, Lord De La Warr • De La Warr led through military force and broke the peace w/ the Indians • By 1625, only 1200 of 8000 colonists had survived

7. Cultural Clash in the Chesapeake • Powhatan dominated the native people of the James River area • Served as chieftain of a dozen tribes, referred to as Powhatan’s Confederacy • The English called all Indians in the area Powhatans • 1610 – when De La Warr arrived, he had orders from the Virginia Co. to take the fight to the natives • Introduced “Irish tactics” against Indians (raided villages, burned houses, confiscated provisions, & torched fields) • 1614 – the First Anglo-Powhatan War was ended with the marriage of Pocahontas to colonist John Rolfe • 1622 – Indian attacks left 347 settlers dead and called for an ongoing English response • 1644-46 – Second Anglo-Powhatan War: failed last attempt to push the English out of Chesapeake area • By 1685, the Powhatans were considered extinct due to 3Ds: disease, disorganization, & disposability

8. The Indians’ New World • European civilization disrupted life for Native Americans on a large scale • Introduction of the horse caused migration onto the Great Plains in the 18th cent • The Lakota Sioux were forest dwellers that transitioned to life as nomadic hunters on the open grassland • Disease wiped out cultures and created new ones • Tribal elders passed on culture and tradition orally • With the older generations gone, tribes had to reinvent themselves • Forced migration sometimes mixed remnants of tribes together, forming new nations (Catabwa) • European trade • Firearms intensified competition for hunting grounds and thus led to warfare • Indians farther off the coast had more time to prepare and strengthen themselves against European expansion

9. Virginia: Child of Tobacco • John Rolfe – husband of Pocahontas and father of the tobacco industry • Perfected method of raising and curing the plant • Saved the Virginia colony economically • European demand for tobacco was very high • As the colonists pushed west to expand farmland, they began encroaching on Indian territory • Tobacco is hard on soil, when planted in the same ground year after year • Affected quality of crops, thus creating a fluctuating market • Also promoted the plantation system and created a demand for physical laborers • 1619 – records indicate 20 Africans from a Dutch warship off the coast of Jamestown • By 1700, African slaves made up 14% of colonial population • 1624 – James I revokes Virginia’s charter & it becomes a royal colony

10. Maryland: Catholic Haven • 1634 - founded by Lord Baltimore, a prominent catholic • English law still heavily discriminated against Catholics • His plan was to grant large estates to his largely catholic family • Settlers were only willing to some if they had the opportunity to own their own land • Tensions arose between catholic land barons and the largely protestant planters • Like Virginia, Maryland depended on white indentured servants for labor • African slaves were not imported in large numbers until the end of the 17th century • Baltimore had permitted the freedom of worship from the beginning, but large numbers of protestant settlers threatened a situation similar to England for Catholics • 1649 – Act of Toleration – guaranteed religious toleration to all Christians, but promised the death penalty to non-Christians • Actually reduced level of toleration but provided comfort to the Catholic minority

11. The West Indies • While planting the first colonies in N.A., England was also busy colonizing the West Indies • Spain had loosened its grip on the Caribbean by the early 1600s • 1655 – England secured Jamaica, jewel of the sugar trade • Tobacco was a poor man’s crop, sugar cane was only for wealthy investors • Had to be planted over large area to produce viable quantities • Elaborate refining process at a sugar mill • Highly labor and capital intensive • Enormous numbers of African slaves brought to the Caribbean • 250,000 from 1640-1690 • 1700 – African slaves outnumbered white settlers 4 to 1 • To keep such a disproportionate slave population in check, legal codes were created like The Barbados Slave Code (1661) • Would serve as a model for similar codes on the mainland • Sugar plantations soon crowded out other forms of Caribbean agriculture & the islands became dependant on the mainland for food

12. Colonizing the Carolinas • The English Civil War (1642-1651) and subsequent restoration, halted colonization for a time • 1670 – Carolina (named after King Charles II) founded when the king gave an expanse of land south of Virginia, cutting across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, to 8 of his favorite nobles (the Lords Proprietors) • The initial plan was to grow foodstuffs for the sugar plantations in the Caribbean • Many initial settlers were displaced farmers from Barbados • Brought their slave system with them • A native slave trade developed despite the protests of the Lords Proprietors • Rice became the chief export, which caused plantation owners to pay a premium for West African slaves that knew how to harvest rice • Charles Town (Charleston, SC) became an aristocratic center and the busiest seaport of the south

13. Emergence of North Carolina • The aristocratic trappings of Virginia had caused poor outcasts & religious dissenters to drift south into the wilderness of Carolina • Had no legal right to the soil • Raised tobacco on small farms w/o need for slaves • Poor but hard-working, the inhabitants were viewed by snobbish neighbors north and south as outcasts • 1712 – officially separated from South Carolina and both promptly became royal colonies • North Carolina and Rhode Island shared several similarities • Most democratic, most independent-minded, & least aristocratic of the original 13 colonies • The Carolinas both had their share of bloody relations with Native Americans • By 1720, costal Indian tribes were all but wiped out but stronger inland tribes kept British settlement east of the Appalachian Mts for 50 yrs

14. Late-Coming Georgia: The Buffer Colony • Formally founded in 1733 • Last of the 13 original colonies • Slow growing & sparsely populated • Intended to serve as a buffer between SC, Spanish Florida, & French Louisiana • Named after King George II • Produced silk and wine & served as a haven for English imprisoned for debt • James Oglethorpe repelled Spanish attacks while personally saving the colony from collapse by mortgaging his own personal holdings • All Christians, except Catholics, were equally tolerated • Missionaries did flock to Georgia to work among the debtors and Indians (most prominent was John Wesley, founder of Methodism)

15. The Plantation Colonies • Certain characteristics were shared by all southern mainland colonies • All devoted in some degree to agricultural outposts • Profitable stable crops are the rule: tobacco and rice • Slavery in all plantation colonies, but not Georgia until 1750 • The scattered establishment of settlements and plantation farms made the establishment of churches and schools difficult and expensive • All plantation colonies permitted some form of religious toleration • All colonies were expansionary to some extent, • Soil depletion from tobacco farming drove settlers to push westward in search of land & invited further conflicts with Indians