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1609 the Dutch East India Company hire English sailor Henry Hudson to find a northeast passage to India. Unsuccessfully searched above Norway Turned his ship west "northwest passage”. Cape Cod sailed into the mouth of a large river Hudson River Made way as far as present-day Albany
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1609 the Dutch East India Company hire English sailor Henry Hudson to find a northeast passage to India
Unsuccessfully searched above Norway • Turned his ship west • "northwest passage”
Cape Cod • sailed into the mouth of a large river • Hudson River • Made way as far as present-day Albany • Claimed the entire Hudson River Valley for his Dutch employers
Numerous unsuccessful efforts at colonization • Dutch Parliament chartered the West India Company • joint stock company • 1624 30 families arrive • establishing a settlement on present-day Manhattan • Focus fur trade – purely business venture
1626, Director General Peter Minuit arrived in Manhattan • "purchased" Manhattan Island from Native American Indians for the now legendary price of 60 guilders • Formally established New Amsterdam • Strengthened fort up Hudson River, named Fort Orange.
1630s new Director General Wouter van Twiller claimed lands by the Connecticut River • Already claimed by English settlers • Twiller forced to back down • Dutch lost any claims to the Connecticut Valley
Dutch and Native Americans • Around Fort Orange needs of the profitable fur trade required a careful policy of appeasement with the Iroquois Confederacy • Lower Hudson Valley • Colonists setting up small farms • Native Americans viewed as obstacles • 1630s and early 1640s, the Dutch Director Generals carried on a brutal series of campaigns against the area's Native Americans
1640 marked a turning point • West India Company gave up monopoly • new economic activity • production of • Food • Timber • Tobacco • Slaves
Director General's preoccupation with • Native Americans and border conflicts with the English • greatly weakened other portions of colonial society • 1647 Director General Peter Stuyvesant arrived • New Netherland in disarray
3 English voyages to settle North America in 1580s Roanoke Island
After failure of Roanoke • no further English attempts at colonization until after the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603
THE REESTABLISHMENT OF VIRGINIA • First permanent English settlement in the New World • Jamestown Colony, Virginia, 1607. • The place where • John Smith met Pocahontas • The colonists discovered how to grow tobacco • The English allowed their colonists to practice self-government.
This is the Jamestown of American myth • Jamestown, in fact, was a notorious hellhole perched on the edge of a swamp • And • Properly speaking it was not a colony at all
It was a business enterprise The property of the Virginia a Company of London, made up of stockholders and a governing board of directors which answered directly to James I.
such people “as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God.” Far more important a return on their investment. “I am not so simple to think that any other motive than wealth will ever erect in Virginia a Commweale.” JS
How would the Virginia Company enrich its stockholders? • Gold and other minerals • Trade with the Indians • Production of pitch, tar, potash, etc • Development of a fishing industry • Northwest passage
After a year of planning Set sail for Virginia December 1606 144 on board 3 ships, under the command of Captain Christopher Newport.
The ships • Susan Constant 120 tons • 71 passengers and crew • Godspeed less than 60 tons • 52 people • Discovery 20 tons • 21 People
Fleet held up for 6 weeks due to a storm • Leadership of the ships was obvious but, • Company kept names of control in VA a secret • Led to problems on board and later
Rested several days in West Indies • Left April 10th • 11 days later, ran into huge storm • Lost sense of where they were • By luck ended up in Chesapeake bay on April 26th 1607 Settled on the newly named James River
Unable to exploit or utilize the native population, the Virginia settlers found the New World paradise far from utopian.
“A more damned crew hell never vomited,” • The original colonizers were • “unruly Sparks, packed off by the Friends, to escape worse Destinies at home . . . , poor Gentlemen, broken Tradesmen, Rakes and Libertines, Footmen, and such Others, as were much fitter to spoil or ruin a Commonwealth, than to help to raise or maintain one.”
Mix of elite and poor quality workers led to social tension • Clearly seen in the case of Captain John Smith.
Smiths • military experience • skill as a cartographer and • Contacts in London • ensured recruitment as a member of the first Jamestown expedition.
Little patience with men who claimed social origins excused them from manual labor • On the voyage • Clapped in irons on Feb 13, 1607 on the Susan Constant • West Indies gallows built for Smith
Secret orders opened upon arrival revealed Smith named a member of the Virginia governing council. • September 1608 Smith had out- lasted most of his enemies, and for a year he ruled the colony as president of the council.
During his time as leader Smith • instituted Martial Law • “If you don’t work you don’t eat” • Generally acted as a dictator • Left for England in 1609
The worst of the problems began several weeks after Newport left • 6th August 1607 began the terrible roll call • Aug 6 – “died John Ashbie of the bloudieFlixe” • Aug 9 – “died George Flowre of the Swelling” • Aug 10 – “died William Bruster, of a wound given by the Savages” • Aug 14 – “Jerome Alikok Ancient, died of a wound” • Aug 14 – “Edward Moris died suddenly”
Improved briefly while Smith was in charge • But didn’t drastically improve for several years • A new boatload of colonists and supplies sank off the coast of Bermuda on its way to help the hungry settlement. • Disease and hunger ravaged Jamestown. • Two desperate colonists were tied to posts and left to starve as punishment for raiding the colonies' stores. • One colonist even took to cannibalism, eating his own wife.
3 English voyages to settle North America in 1580s Roanoke Island
After failure of Roanoke • no further English attempts at colonization until after the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603
THE REESTABLISHMENT OF VIRGINIA • First permanent English settlement in the New World • Jamestown Colony, Virginia, 1607. • The place where • John Smith met Pocahontas • The colonists discovered how to grow tobacco • The English allowed their colonists to practice self-government.
This is the Jamestown of American myth • Jamestown, in fact, was a notorious hellhole perched on the edge of a swamp • And • Properly speaking it was not a colony at all
It was a business enterprise The property of the Virginia a Company of London, made up of stockholders and a governing board of directors which answered directly to James I.
such people “as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God.” Far more important a return on their investment. “I am not so simple to think that any other motive than wealth will ever erect in Virginia a Commweale.” JS
How would the Virginia Company enrich its stockholders? • Gold and other minerals • Trade with the Indians • Production of pitch, tar, potash, etc • Development of a fishing industry • Northwest passage
After a year of planning Set sail for Virginia December 1606 144 on board 3 ships, under the command of Captain Christopher Newport.
The ships • Susan Constant 120 tons • 71 passengers and crew • Godspeed less than 60 tons • 52 people • Discovery 20 tons • 21 People
Fleet held up for 6 weeks due to a storm • Leadership of the ships was obvious but, • Company kept names of control in VA a secret • Led to problems on board and later
Rested several days in West Indies • Left April 10th • 11 days later, ran into huge storm • Lost sense of where they were • By luck ended up in Chesapeake bay on April 26th 1607 Settled on the newly named James River
Unable to exploit or utilize the native population, the Virginia settlers found the New World paradise far from utopian.