Chapter 2 The Planting of English America

1. Chapter 2The Planting of English America

2. England’s Imperial Stirrings • Early 1500s – alliance with Spain created little interest in colonization, and England was currently busy with religious conflict (started by King Henry VIII, who launched the Protestant Reformation). • Ireland was the scene of much of the most intense battles between Protestants and Catholics in England. • The Protestant queen, Elizabeth I, ascended to the English throne in 1558.

3. Elizabeth Energizes England • Encouraged by their queen, English buccaneers promoted Protestantism and raided Spanish treasure ships. • One such “sea dog” was SirFrancis Drake. • Newfoundland – first attempt at English colonization. • Sir Walter Raleigh landed at Roanoke Island, North Carolina, in 1585. • King Philip II of Spain used his New World profits to build an “invincible armada” of ships. • Queen Elizabeth defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. • With this defeat came the assertion of English naval dominance in the Atlantic Ocean.

4. England on the Eve of Empire • By the early 1600s, England was ready to start colonizing. • In the early 1600s, the joint-stock company was perfected, enabling investors to pool their capital and launch colonization efforts. • Population surplus: there were 4 million people in England by 1600. • Land enclosing forces small farmers off the land, leaving them tenants or restless drifters. • Primogeniture: these laws stated that only eldest sons can inherit landed estates.

5. The Planting of Jamestown • 1606 – Virginia Company (joint-stock company) received a charter from King James I. • Jamestown had a ragged start: many colonists died because of starvation and disease. • May 24, 1607 – about 100 Englishmen disembark at Jamestown. • Virginia was saved by Captain John Smith, who took over in 1608. • He was subjected to a mock execution by Chief Powhatan and “saved” by the chief’s daughter, Pocahontas.

6. The Planting of Jamestown • Only 60 colonists survived the winter of 1609-1610. • The remaining colonists were heading home in the spring of 1610 when they encountered Lord De La Warr as well as about 8000 new arrivals. He ordered them back to Jamestown, and imposed a harsh new regime. • By 1625, Virginia contained 1200 survivors out of the 8,000 settlers who’d come.

7. Cultural Clashes in the Chesapeake • Chief Powhatan dominated the natives in the James River area. • Starving colonists raided Indian food supplies. • Lord De La Warr led the colonists in the First Anglo-Powhatan War – which ended in 1614 with the marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe. • 1622 – series of Indian attacks left 347 settlers dead. • 1644 – Second Anglo-Powhatan War, Indians again defeated. • The peace treaty of 1646 banished the Chesapeake Indians from the area. • The Powhatans served no economic function in English colonial society, and were “disposable”.

8. The Indians’ New World • Large-scale European colonization disrupted native life. • Indians died easily of Old World diseases, and were decimated by clashes with the settlers. • Trade created a new competition for hunting grounds and firearms. • Horses made migration onto the Great Plains possible. • Inland tribes actually managed to influence the colonists more than vice-versa (in the beginning). • (A British or French trader had to conform to the ways of inland tribes, usually taking an Indian wife).

9. Virginia: Child of Tobacco • Virginia’s economy was built on tobacco. • John Rolfe was the father of the tobacco industry. • 1619 – a Dutch warship sells 20 African slaves at Jamestown, planting the seeds of slavery in Virginia. • By the end of the century, blacks made up 14% of the population of Virginia. • 1619 – London authorizes settlers to summon an assembly – the House of Burgesses – the first elected legislature in North America. • 1624 – James I revokes Charter and makes Virginia a royal colony

10. Maryland: A Catholic Haven • Maryland sheltered more Roman Catholics than any other English colony in the New World. • Founded in 1634 by Lord Baltimore and his Catholic family. • Motives: financial benefits and Catholic haven/refuge. • Maryland prospered on tobacco and white indentured servants. • Act of Toleration: passed in 1649, guaranteed toleration to all Christians, but death penalty to all atheists and Jews (those who denied the divinity of Jesus).

11. The West Indies • Spain’s grip on the West Indies in the 1600s was weakened by its military failure (armada) and rebellious Dutch provinces. • Mid-17th century: England had secured claims in the West Indies. • English West Indian economy was built on sugar and African slaves. • By 1700, slaves outnumbered white settlers by 4 to 1.

12. The West Indies • Barbados Slave Code –1661, defined the slaves’ legal status, denied them fundamental rights, and let the masters treat them as they wished. • Small farmers in the English West Indies migrated to the colonies and brought the slave code ideas with them. • Barbados slave code was officially adopted in the Carolinas in 1696. • The English West Indies heavily influenced slavery in the American colonies.

13. Colonizing the Carolinas • Founded in 1670, named for Charles II • Many of the Carolina’s first settlers came from British Barbados, bringing the slave system with them. • Indian slaves became one of the colony’s major exports – this built the economy. • Rice emerges as the chief export/crop. • By 1710, African slaves with experience in rice cultivation were in high demand. • There was decent religious toleration in the Carolinas • Later economy supported by rice and African slave trade.

14. The Emergence of North Carolina • Squatters from Virginia worked small farms with no slaves in northern area of colony. • North Carolina, like Rhode Island, was very unaristocratic, but lodged between Two aristocratic strongholds (Virginia and Charleston (an emerging center of trade) • N.C. officially separated from S.C. in 1712; each became a royal colony. • In North Carolina, Tuscarora Indians attacked New Bern settlement in 1711, igniting Tuscarora War. • Indians were defeated. • The South Carolinians also defeated the Yamasee Indians four years later

15. Late-Coming Georgia: Buffer Colony • Founded in 1733, intended as a buffer to protect the valuable Carolinas. • Named for King George II, Georgia produced silk and wine, and was a haven for prisoners of debt. • One of the founders was James Oglethorpe, who was interested in prison reform after one of his friends died in a debtors’ prison. • All Christians except Catholics enjoyed religious toleration. • Smallest population of all the colonies by the end of the colonial era.

16. The Plantation Colonies • Most southern colonies were exporters of agricultural products – early on mostly tobacco and rice. • African-American slavery existed in all southern colonies by 1750 • All plantation colonies had some form of religious toleration. and there were not many churches and schools due to the distance between farms. • The church of England (Anglican) was supported in most southern colonies. • Soil depletion made these colonies expansionary (desiring more land)