Beginnings of America

1. Beginnings of America

2. European Settlements • Everyone looking to Asia • -European Settlements • Gain power and money, Christianity • -Spanish-- St. Augustine, Florida 1565 • SW, Florida, Texas • In search of gold, to protect land, convert natives to Christianity Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon, though extremely wealthy from sailing with Christopher Columbus, could not stop thinking about Indian rumors of a “fountain of youth” that made old people young again. Restless for more adventure, he set off to find the truth about these tales of everlasting youth. He landed on a sunny peninsula of North America in April of 1513. Because he sighted it on Easter Sunday, he called it La Florida, meaning “flowery.”

3. European Settlements • -French– Canada, Mississippi R. • Sent to find water route to Pacific, opened fur trade, claimed Canada • -English—East Coast • -Roanoke, NC (1585) – first attempt • Natives friendly, taught fishing • Ran low on supplies, went home • -Sir Walter Raleigh • Sent 1st expedition to Roanoke In 1534, France sent Jacques Cartier to explore the Atlantic coastline of America to find a Northwest Passage, an all-water route through North America to the Pacific Ocean. Such a passage would provide a shortcut for ships sailing west to Asia. Cartier did not find the passage, but he claimed the land we know today as Canada for France. Cartier also discovered something almost as valuable as Spanish gold—beaver fur. Beaver hats were a hot fashion item in Europe, and French hat makers were willing to pay high prices for beaver pelts.

4. European Settlements • Lost Colony • Colonists disappeared • John White • Leader of the 2nd group of colonists to NC; could not plant well • Sailed back to England to get supplies • Virginia Dare England’s first attempt to plant a colony in North America at what is now Roanoke Island remains shrouded in mystery. After one failed attempt in 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh dispatched a second expedition in 1587. Its captain, John White, sailed back to England for supplies. Upon his return to Roanoke in 1590, White found the settlement empty, the colonists vanished, and the word “CROATOAN” carved into a tree.

5. European settlements in America in the 16th and 17th centuries

6. Unlike the Spanish colonies, which were funded by Spanish rulers, English colonies were originally funded and maintained by joint-stock companies. Stock companies allowed several investors to pool their wealth in support of a colony that would, hopefully, make a profit. Once they obtained a charter, or official permit, a stock company accepted responsibility for maintaining the colony, in return for which they would be entitled to receive most of the profit the colony made. In 1606, King James I of England granted a charter to the (London)/Virginia Company, which hoped to found a colony along the eastern shores of North America in the territory explored by Sir Walter Raleigh. The Virginia Company lured investors by asking for a relatively small investment. Stockholders would be entitled to receive 4/5 of all the gold and silver found by the colonists. The King would receive the remaining fifth. The Virginia Company’s three ships—Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed—with nearly 150 passengers and crew members on board, reached Virginia in 1607. The colonists claimed the land as theirs, and they renamed it Jamestown.

7. Jamestown was located on a narrow peninsula bordered by the James River.  The leaders chose this site because the water near the shore was deep enough for ships to dock.  They also believed the site had plenty of fresh water and could be defended from attack by Indians in the region and by the Spanish.   

8. Virginia Company • -Joint stock company • Investors pooled wealth to begin a colony for a profit • Make money by colonists’ shipping back goods • Jamestown, 1607 • First permanent colony founded by Virginia Company • Wanted to look for gold • John Smith • Leader of Jamestown Disaster struck early in the Jamestown settlement. Disease from contaminated river water struck first. Hunger soon followed. The colonists, many of whom were unaccustomed to a life of labor, had refused to clear fields, plant crops, or even gather shellfish from the river’s edge. On a cold winter day in 1607, standing among the 38 colonists who remained alive, John Smith took control of the settlement. “You see that power now rests wholly with me,” he announced. “You must now obey this law,…he that will not work shall not eat.” Smith held the colony together by forcing the colonists to farm.

9. Virginia Company • “Starving Time” • Winter of 1609, John Smith left • No food, only 60 lived; told to leave • -more colonists: England sent 100 soldiers and 150 colonists • -1st democratic gov’t • Need government away from England • House of Burgesses– First government in Jamestown, Virginia—It was a form of representative democracy In the spring of 1609, about 600 new colonists arrived to Jamestown with the hopes of starting a new life in the colony. The Powhatan, the surrounding native tribe, by now alarmed at the growing number of settlers, began to kill the colonists’ livestock and destroy their farms. By the following winter, conditions in Jamestown had deteriorated to the point of famine. In what became known as the “starving time,” the colonists ate roots, rats, snakes, and even boiled shoe leather. Of those 600 new colonists, only 60 survived.

10. Jamestown • -tobaccoas acash crop(make money) • John Rolfe: found tobacco • Pocahontas: kidnapped; learned English and Christianity • Married, brought peace After the marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas (whom the colonists renamed “Rebecca”), the Jamestown colonists learned to plant the cash crop tobacco. Tobacco, or “brown gold,” became the cash crop that saved the Jamestown colony.

11. Jamestown • -headright system • 50 acres to each new colonist • Given to masters, increased the amount of land to farm on • -indentured servants: bought their way to America with promised labor (3-6 years) • -first slavesimported • From Africa/West Indies By the late 1620s, the colonists exported more than 1.5 million pounds of “brown gold to England each year. In order to grow tobacco, the Virginia Company needed a key ingredient that was missing from the colony—field laborers. In an effort to lure settlers to Jamestown, the Virginia Company introduced the headright system. Under this system, anyone who paid for their own or another’s passage to Virginia received 50 acres of land. Immigration to the colony jumped.

12. In Virginia, where tobacco served as currency in the early 1600s, an indentured servant could be purchased for 1,000 pounds of tobacco, while a slave might cost double or triple that amount. However, by the late 1600s, a decline in the indentured servant population, along with an increase in the colonies’ overall wealth, spurred the colonists to begin importing slaves in huge numbers. While the life of indentured servants was difficult, slaves endured far worse conditions. Servants could eventually become full members of society, but slaves were condemned to a life of harsh labor.

13. By the 1670s, many of the free white men in Virginia were former indentured servants who, although they had completed their servitude, had little money to buy land. Because they did not own land, they could not vote and therefore enjoyed almost no rights in colonial society. These poor colonists lived mainly on the western outskirts of Virginia, where they constantly fought with Native Americans for land. During the 1660s and 1670s, Virginia’s poor settlers felt oppressed and frustrated by the policies of the colony’s governor, Sir William Berkeley. More and more, Berkeley imposed high taxes, which were paid mostly by the poorer settlers who lived along Virginia’s western frontier. Moreover, the money collected by these taxes was used not for the public good but for the personal profit of the wealthy plantation farmers who settled along the eastern shores of Virginia. Many of these planters occupied positions in the government that they used to protect their own interests. As hostilities began to develop between the settlers along Virginia’s western frontier and the Native Americans who lived there, the settlers demanded to know why money collected in taxes and fines was not being used to build forts for their protection. The colonists pleaded to Governor Berkeley for support, but the governor, acting on the behalf of the wealthy planters, refused to finance a war to benefit the colony’s poor frontier settlers. One settler, Nathaniel Bacon, broke from his old friend Berkeley and raised an army to fight the natives. Governor Berkeley quickly declared Bacon’s army—one-third of which was made up of landless settlers and debtors—illegal. Hearing this news, Bacon marched on Jamestown in September of 1676 to confront the colonial leaders.

14. First Rebellion • -Indian dispute on the frontier • Freemen look for unclaimed land; natives attack them • -Colonists ask for protection from Virginia Gov’t, but were denied • Government fur trading with natives • -Bacon’s Rebellion • Nathaniel Bacon led the frontier colonists in a rebellion against the Virginia gov’t • Killed natives, chased government out, burned Jamestown (anarchy) • -showed signs of discontent with leadership The march turned violent. The rebels set fire to the town as Berkeley and numerous planters fled by ship. However, Bacon had little time to enjoy his victory because he died one month later. After Bacon’s death, Berkeley returned to Jamestown and easily subdued the leaderless rebels. King Charles then recalled the governor, who died on the passage back to England.

15. Conditions in England: The Tudors and Religion

16. Puritanism has its roots in the English Reformation. After King Henry VIII broke with Roman Catholicism in his quest to divorce his wife, his daughter, Elizabeth I formed the Anglican Church. This Church of England put the monarch in charge of the church, rather than the papacy in Rome. Although the Anglican Church was free from Catholic control, some members felt it kept too much Catholic ritual and tradition (particularly with its influence from the rich patrons). These people were called Puritans because they wanted to purify the Anglican church by eliminating all traces of Catholicism. The Puritans were not popular with the monarchs, and over time they found they had to flee England to practice religion freely.

17. Conditions in England: Religious Persecution

18. Pilgrims • -Pilgrims also called Separatists because they wanted to practice their own religion • Arrested in England for disobeying monarch’s religion • -Plymouth Mass. 1620 • -Mayflower Compact • -set updirect democracyfor thecolony (all would participate) • -leads to traditions of town meetings Although the Pilgrims aimed for Virginia, their ship, the Mayflower, strayed far off coast to Cape Cod. The Pilgrims knew that New England lay too far north for their colonial charter to be valid. They were also afraid that non-Pilgrim passengers would challenged their authority. Before departing the ship the Pilgrim men signed a compact, in which they created a civil government and pledged loyalty to the king. The Mayflower Compact stated that the purpose of their government would be to frame “just and equal laws…for the general good of the colony.” Laws approved by the majority would be binding on Pilgrims and non-Pilgrims alike.

19. Pilgrims • -colony struggled but received Indian help to grow crops • Thanksgiving—Squanto • Were friendly with the natives • -William Bradford • “Of Plymouth Plantation” • Pilgrim leader Plymouth's Thanksgiving began with a few colonists going out “fowling,” since they “in one day killed as much as…served the company almost a week.” 90 or so Wampanoag made a surprise appearance at the settlement's gate. The Wampanoag contributed venison to the feast, which included the fowl and probably fish, eels, shellfish, stews, vegetables, and beer. Most people ate outside while sitting on the ground or on barrels with plates on their laps. The men fired guns, ran races, and drank liquor, struggling to speak in broken English and Wampanoag. This sealed a treaty between the two groups that lasted until King Philip's War.

20. Life in Plymouth Colony

21. Meanwhile, other English Puritans who were discouraged about Anglican reform also turned their thoughts toward New England. In 1629, Puritan leader John Winthrop, and some of his well-connected friends, obtained a royal charter for a joint-stock enterprise, the Massachusetts Bay Company. In September of 1630, Winthrop and the other colonists established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The port town of Boston became their capital. Soon other towns were founded to accommodate the large number of settlers flocking to join the colony. In the first year, about 1,000 English Puritan and non-Puritan, arrived. Eventually, Plymouth Colony was incorporated into the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

22. Puritans • -Puritans • -wanted to rid the English church of Catholic traditions • Monarch wanted them to leave • Formed Massachusetts Bay Company • -John Winthrop • Founder/governor of Mass. Bay Colony • -City on a Hill • be an example to the world • Build a community based on the Bible • -connection between church and state • -strict adherence to Puritan rules • The government WAS the church, everyone was to worship the same way In the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the relationship between the government and the Puritan church was strong. Civic officials were members of the Puritan Church who believed that they were God’s “elect,” or chosen, and had a duty to carry out God’s will. Puritan laws criminalized such sins as drunkenness, swearing, theft, and idleness. “No person…shall spend his time idly or unprofitably, decreed the General Court in 1633, “under pain of such punishment as the court shall think appropriate to inflict.”

23. Colonies in America

24. Types of Colonies • Proprietary Colonies • -colonies that are owned by a joint-stock company or an individual • Virginia, Carolina, Massachusetts Bay • Royal Colony • -colonies that are owned and controlled by the King • Carolina, Virginia • Most start as proprietary and end up as royal • Need protection from King’s army

25. Massachusetts Because of tight community controls, some individuals began to offer dissenting opinions Not everyone liked Puritan rules -Roger Williams -Believed in the Separation of Church and State and was exiled from the colony and founded Providence, R.I. -Anne Hutchinson -Her belief in individual worship challenged Puritan leaders and she was banished in a famous trial and fled to R.I. In Bible readings at her home, Anne Hutchinson taught that “the Holy Spirit illumines the heart of every true believe.” In other words, worshipers needed neither the church nor its ministers to interpret the Bible for them. Puritan leaders banished Hutchinson from the colony in 1638. Along with a band of followers, she and her family trudged to Rhode Island.

26. New Netherlands • -Henry Hudson: Englishman sailing for Dutch; looking for NW passage • -Explored the Hudson River and Hudson Bay areas – claimed land for Nether. • -Dutch found colony at New Amsterdam • Many immigrants, religious freedom • -English take colony in 1664 • -renamed New York • Did not recognize Dutch claims, English king gave land away • -Part of the region divided into the colony of New Jersey To the English, New Netherland was a “Dutch wedge” separating its colonies. In 1664, King Charles II granted his brother James, the duke of York, permission to drive out the Dutch. When the duke’s fleet arrived in New Amsterdam’s harbor, Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor, raised a call to arms. The call was largely ignored. Stuyvesant surrendered to the English without anyone firing a shot. The duke of York, renamed it New York. He later gave a portion of this land to two of his friends, which named it New Jersey.

27. Rhode Island • -founded by Roger Williams • Religious dissent from Puritans • -land peaceably acquired from Indians • Bought from natives who helped him survive winter • -based on religious freedoms that Williams promoted • -taught church and the government should operate separate from one another • Individual worship • Became large slave-trading center

28. Connecticut • -founded by Thomas Hooker • Religious freedom from Puritans • -wanted more religious freedom than Massachusetts allowed • -disliked the requirement of citizens to be church members • -Fundamental Orders • first constitution in the nation • A written plan for government • Guaranteed right to vote to men who were members of the church • Eventually got charter from king Not all Puritans shared the same ideas. Thomas Hooker was a Puritan clergyman who lived in New Towne, a fast-growing community next to Boston. Hooker didn’t always agree with the laws and leadership in Massachusetts. When he heard about a fertile valley along a river to the west, he convinced his family and about 100 other people to move there with him. They established a settlement on the site of an old Dutch fort, where an earlier group of English colonists had settled. They called their community Hartford. In 1639, Hartford joined with two other settlements to form the colony of Connecticut.

29. Pennsylvania • -William Penn: got charter from King to get rid of Quakers • -Quakers—religious group who practiced worship without ministers and were pacifists(no fighting) • Refused to bow to king, pay taxes to Church, fight in wars • -Philadelphia • “City of Brotherly Love” • -fair treatment of Indians • All people treated equally • -thriving colony • Attracted settlers from all over world; grain farmers William Penn had frustrated his father, Admiral Sir William Penn. In 1677, at age 22, the younger Penn committed himself to the Society of Friends, or Quakers, a Protestant sect whose religious and social beliefs were radical for the time. Penn’s dream was to establish a haven for Quakers in America. King Charles II had owed Penn’s father money, which the younger Penn asked to be repaid with land in America. Charles agreed, and in 1681, he gave Penn a charter for Pennsylvania.

30. Penn saw his colony as a place without a land-owning aristocracy. He guaranteed every adult male settler 50 acres of land and the right to vote. He called for a representative assembly and freedom of religion. As a lasting symbol of his beliefs, he helped plan a capital called the “City of Brotherly Love,” or Philadelphia. To be sure that his colonists treated the natives fairly, he regulated trade and provided for a court composed of both colonists and natives. The natives respected Penn, and for more than 50 years, Pennsylvania had no major conflicts with the natives who lived in the colony.

31. In England, with its official Anglican church, Catholics were being treated harshly. George Calvert wanted to start a colony for religious freedom and to make his own family very wealthy. Unfortunately, Calvert died while bargaining with the King. However, King Charles I granted a charter to Calvert’s son, Cecil, the second Lord Baltimore, which he named “Maryland.” To make money from his colony, Cecil needed to attract both Protestant and Catholic settlers. As more and more settlers arrived, they could see that Catholics would soon be outnumbered in the colony. Maryland • -George Calvert • Lord Baltimore • Catholic granted charter from king for religious freedom • -established as safe haven for English Catholics • Attracted Catholic and Protestant settlers • -Catholics soon outnumbered • Afraid of intolerance • -Toleration Act–Law that created religious freedom in Maryland in 1649 (only for Christians)

32. Carolina • -royal colony named after King Charles • -eventually split into two colonies • Founded by Eight Lords’ Proprietors • Charles Town major port city Eight Lords Proprietors were given the Carolina land grant from King Charles as a gift to thank them for their support in regaining his kingship after the English Civil War. They considered it an investment: settlers would pay their own way over to the colony, then sell what they produced and trade for what they needed only by using businesses owned by the Lords Proprietors. As middlemen, the Proprietors would make money.

33. Other Colonies • -Georgia—James Olgethorpe • haven for debtorsand criminals • also was a buffer from Spanish areas • Florida natives continuously attacking settlers James Oglethorpe had a vision of making Georgia a place of refuge for the poor debtors he had seen during his committee work on English prisons. If a man owed money and could not pay it back, he was thrown into prison, which was a horrible place. While he was imprisoned, he could not earn money to pay back his debts and gain his freedom. Oglethorpe wanted to send the “industrious yet unfortunate poor” to Georgia, where they would work to settle the wilderness and earn money to pay back their debts. The King agreed, only to keep the Spanish out.

34. England’s Thirteen American Colonies