English Settlement

1. English Settlement Chapter 1

2. Background to English Colonization • Population transfer • No centralized Empire • Experience in Ireland • Gave them model for planting settlements, transplanting their familiar way of life and subjugate the Indians as they had the Irish. • Only, where they settled was sparsely populated.

3. Jamestown, Virginia: May 6, 1607 • First Permanent English Settlement in North America • Virginia Company (Joint-Stock) • 104 men and boys (2 women arrived the next year) • Disastrous Beginning • Location = malaria • Mostly soldiers, townsmen, “gentlemen” adventurers, and servants • Little knowledge of how to exploit the area’s resources • Knew nothing about growing crops = malnutrition

4. Jamestown’s Problems • Captain John Smith helped keep the colony alive by establishing trade with the Indians (Algonquian-speaking tribes) and by imposing strict discipline. • “he that will not work shall not eat” • Smith was injured and returned to England in 1609. • The colony fell apart and suffered the “starving time” of the winter of 1609-1610. • Only 60 of 500 inhabitants survived the winter of 1609-1610 • One man by “dining on his wife” • Finally imposed martial law in 1611.

5. Reform and aBoom in Tobacco • John Rolfe and Tobacco • Married Pocahontas, the daughter of chief Powhatan. • Cultivated tobacco, which could be sold to Europe. • Virginia adopted the “headright” system for granting land to individuals. • Key Year – 1619 • House of Burgesses • A representative assembly to make laws for the colony. • 90 Young Women arrived and sold to likely husbands for the cost of transportation. • 20 Black Forced Laborers brought by the Dutch.

6. Tobacco Boom – 1620s • Between 130,000 and 150,000 immigrants came to the Chesapeake over the 17th century. • 3/4ths of all immigrants came as indentured servants. • An estimated 40 percent of servants did not survive to the end of their indentured terms. • Mortality rate—over 14,000 English arrived since 1607, but the population in 1624 was only 1,132. • As more land was cleared for tobacco, skirmishes with the Indians became more brutal and frequent. • In 1624, James I dissolved the Virginia Company and made it a royal colony.

7. Maryland (1632) • Maryland was founded by a single aristocratic family, the Calverts (Lord Baltimore). • 1st Proprietary Colony • The Calvert family was Catholic.

10. The Carolinas (1663) • North- Lacked good harbors and navigable rivers, thus had no way of marketing its produce. • South—Charles Town established in 1670. • First exports were furs, Indian slaves, and cattle. • Staple crop was found in the 1690s with the introduction of rice (cash crop). • Demand for rice in Europe made South Carolina the richest colony and South Carolina planters the richest people on the mainland of North America. • South Carolina became a separate royal colony in 1719.

11. Georgia (1732) • James Oglethorpe • Defensive buffer zone between British North America and Spanish Florida. • Recruited paupers from Europe. • Became a royal colony in 1753.

12. The Founding of New England • The Puritan Movement • James I, shortly after succeeding Elizabeth I in 1603 vowed to purge England of radical Protestant reformers. (Puritans) • The Pilgrims (or Separatists) • Always a minority within the Puritan movement. • Concluded that the Church of England was too corrupt. • Suffered persecution: fines, imprisonment, and in a few cases, execution. • Many fled to Holland because the Dutch government permitted complete freedom of religion.

13. PlymouthColony • Founded by Pilgrims • Voyage on the Mayflower (1620) • 101 men, women, and children • Led by William Bradford • Mayflower Compact - consensual government • Long winter • Had arrived too late to plant crops. • By the spring of 1621, half had died. • Samoset and Squanto showed them how to grow maize. • Thanksgiving

15. The Massachusetts Bay Colony • Plymouth was quickly overshadowed by another colony, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which absorbed it in 1691. • The Puritans • Non-Separating Congregationalists • Hoped the Church of England could be reformed • Founding – 1630 • Led by John Winthrop • “We shall be as a city on a hill.” • 17 ships and more than 1,000 colonists • Included merchants, landed gentlemen, and lawyers.

16. The Founding of New England • Beginning of the Great Migration • Some 21,000 came in a cluster between 1630 and 1642. • Most arrived in family groups. • Rapid settlement = Stability and Order • Common past of persecution and a strong desire to create an ordered society modeled on Scripture. • Lived to an average age of 70 • Twice as long as Virginians. • 10 years longer than in England. • By 1700, New England and the Chesapeake both had populations of approximately 100,000.

18. Puritanism (Puritans) • We have a false image. • Puritans, especially those of the upper class, wore colorful clothing, enjoyed secular music, and drank rum (but did not get drunk). • Moderation in all things except piety was the Puritan guideline • Separation of Church and State? • The Puritan was dedicated to seeking not the will of the people but the will of God. • Civil laws obliged everyone to attend worship services on the Sabbath and to pay taxes to support Congregationalist ministers.

19. Covenant Theology • Man and God have interacted through a succession of explicit agreements or contracts. • The idea of mutual obligation is fundamental. • Puritan’s practically do away with the conception of God as merely promising, and substitute a legal theory of God’s delivering to man a signed and sealed bond. • The contract between God and man, once entered into, is ever afterwards binding—a treaty of mutual obligation. • The covenant theology becomes the foundation for the state and the church in New England.

20. Mass. Becomes Staging Area for all of New England • Rhode Island (refuge for dissenters) • Roger Williams • He believed in complete separation of church and state (to protect the church). • He was banished and founded the town of Providence in 1636 – the first permanent settlement in America to legislate freedom of religion. • Anne Hutchison • Believed in direct revelations from the Holy Spirit. • Challenged the legitimacy of the ministerial community. • Banished in 1638 and went to Rhode Island. Later moved to Long Island and killed in an Indian attack.

21. Mass. Becomes Staging Area for all of New England • Connecticut (1637) • Founded by Mass. Puritans seeking better lands and access to the fur trade farther west. • Thomas Hooker organized the self-governing colony. • Government similar to Massachusetts except more democratic – voting was not limited to church members • Hooker and Connecticut becomes a blueprint for political democracy • New Hampshire and Maine (1622) • Slowly settled by Puritan immigrants. Consisted of scattered and small settlements. Maine splits off in 1629 but remains sparsely populated.

22. The Middle Colonies • New York (1664) • Originally the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, 1614 (New Amsterdam was capital in 1626). • Cultural differences hampered the prospects for a stable social and political life. • Captured by the English in1664 without firing a shot—King Charles II granted the region to James, the duke of York, later King James II. • New Jersey (1664) • Duke of York gave 5 million acres to two of his friends. • Became royal colony in 1702.

23. The League of the Iroquois • Composed of 6 different tribes welded together into a coherent political unit. • Actually gained greater strength from its contacts with whites. • The Indians of northern New York became important suppliers of furs to white traders. • As the favored clients of the English, they became opponents to the French.

24. The Middle Colonies: Pennsylvania • Quaker beliefs • Founded in 1647 by George Fox as the Society of Friends. • Named in ridicule: “tremble at the word of the Lord” • No original sin, no predestination, believe in goodness, equality, and the doctrine of individual spiritual inspiration and interpretation –the “inner light.” • They discarded all formal sacraments and formal ministry, refused deference to persons of rank, and embraced simple living and pacifism. • Their toleration extended to complete religious freedom for all and the equality of the sexes.

25. The Middle Colonies: Pennsylvania • Successful Settlement (1681) • William Penn, a converted Quaker, inherited a substantial estate and was given the proprietary rights for Pennsylvania by Charles II in 1681. • He recruited religious dissenters from England and the Continent—Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Moravians, Baptists • By 1700 its population stood at 21,000. • Delaware (1701) • At first was part of Pennsylvania. • After 1701 allowed to have own assembly but same governor as Penn. until American Revolution.

26. Conclusion • Although the English colonization efforts did not start off as well as the French and Spanish, they eventually became a greater success because the lack of centralized control gave free rein to a variety of human impulses. • The English preferred private investment. Not a single colony was begun by the crown. • Poor immigrants were more likely to obtain land in the English colonies and settlement was more concentrated.