Colonization and Early “American” History

1. Colonization and Early “American” History

2. Earliest Americans • Native American cultures were sophisticated • Based on agriculture • Revered the natural world

3. The Spanish Arrive • The kingdom of Spain had united and expelled the “infidels” • Wanted to “best” their Portuguese rivals • Turned West • Columbus’ discovery merged four continents • Europe provides capital, markets, technology • Africa provided labor • New World offered raw materials

4. Spanish Colonization • Spanish invaders killed, enslaved, and infected natives with disease • Erected a colossal empire • From Florida to California to Argentina • They grafted their culture, laws, religion, and language into native society • Rather than shunning and isolating the Indians like the English

5. English Colonization • Early efforts to compete with the Spanish were feeble • Religious conflict had disrupted England • King Henry broke with the Catholic Church in 1530s • Launched the English Reformation • Catholics battled Protestants • 1570s-1580s conflict in Ireland • Queen Elizabeth and the defeat of the Spanish armada set the stage for empire

6. English on the Eve of Empire • Population grew by one million in 50 years • Landlords began practice “enclosure” • Forced small farmers off the land • Primogeniture • Economic depression • Thirst for new markets • Desire for religious freedom

7. English Colonization • The Charter of the Virginia Company: • Guaranteed to colonists the same rights as Englishmen as if they had stayed in England. • This provision was incorporated into future colonists’ documents. • Colonists felt that, even in the Americas, they had the rights of Englishmen!

8. England Plants the Jamestown “Seedling” • Late 1606  VA Co. sends out 3 ships • Spring 1607  land at mouth of Chesapeake Bay. • Attacked by Indians and move on. • May 24, 1607  about 100 colonists [all men] land at Jamestown, along banks of James River • Easily defended, but swarming with disease-causing mosquitoes.

9. The Jamestown Nightmare • 1606-1607  40 people died on the voyage to the New World. • 1609  another ship from England lost its leaders and supplies in a shipwreck off Bermuda. • Settlers died by the dozens! • “Gentlemen” colonists would not work themselves. • Game in forests & fish in river uncaught. • Settlers wasted time looking for gold instead of hunting or farming.

10. High Mortality Rates • The “Starving Time”: • 1607: 104 colonists • By spring, 1608: 38 survived • 1609: 300 more immigrants • By spring, 1610: 60 survived • 1610 – 1624: 10,000 immigrants • 1624 population: 1,200 • Adult life expectancy: 40 years • Death of children before age 5: 80%

11. English Migration: 1610-1660

12. Chief Powhatan • Powhatan Confederacy • Powhatan dominated a few dozen small tribes in the James River area when the English arrived. • The English called allIndians in the areaPowhatans. • Powhatan probably sawthe English as allies in his struggles to control other Indian tribes in the region.

13. Culture Clash in the Chesapeake • Relations between Indians & settlers grew worse. • General mistrust because of different cultures & languages. • English raided Indian food supplies during the starving times. • 1610-1614  First Anglo-Powhatan War • De La Warr had orders to make war on the Indians. • Raided villages, burned houses, took supplies, burned cornfields.

14. Culture Clash in the Chesapeake • 1614-1622  peace between Powhatans and the English. • 1614 peace sealed by the marriage of Pocahontas to Englishman John Rolfe. • 1622-1644  periodic attacks between Indians and settlers. • 1622  Indians attacked the English, killing 347 [including John Rolfe]. • Virginia Co. called for a “perpetual war” against the Native Americans. • Raids reduced native population and drove them further westward.

15. Engraving of 1622 Attack

16. Culture Clash in the Chesapeake • 1644-1646  Second Anglo-Powhatan War • Last effort of natives to defeat English. • Indians defeated again. • Peace Treaty of 1646 • Removed the Powhatans from their original land. • Formally separated Indian and English settlement areas!

17. 1618 — Virginia produces 20,000 pounds of tobacco. 1622 — Despite losing nearly one-third of its colonists in an Indian attack, Virginia produces 60,000 pounds of tobacco. 1627 — Virginia produces 500,000 pounds of tobacco. 1629 — Virginia produces 1,500,000 pounds of tobacco. Tobacco Plant Virginia’s gold and silver. -- John Rolfe, 1612

18. Virginia: “Child of Tobacco” • Tobacco’s effect on Virginia’s economy: • Vital role in putting VA on a firm economic footing. • Ruinous to soil when continuously planted. • Chained VA’s economy to a single crop. • Tobacco promoted the use of the plantation system. • Need for cheap, abundant labor.

19. Indentured Servitude • Headright System: • Each Virginian got 50 acres for each person whose passage they paid. • Indenture Contract: • 5-7 years. • Promised “freedom dues” [land, £] • Forbidden to marry. • 1610-1614: only 1 in 10 outlived their indentured contracts!

20. The Atlantic Slave Trade

21. Colonial Slavery • As the number of slaves increased, white colonists reacted to put down perceived racial threat. • Slavery transformed from economic to economic and racial institution. • Early 1600s  differences between slave and servant were unclear. • By the mid-1680s, black slaves outnumbered white indentured servants.

22. Colonial Slavery • Beginning in 1662  “Slave Codes” • Made blacks [and their children] property, or chattel for life of white masters. • In some colonies, it was a crime to teach a slave to read or write. • Conversion to Christianity did not qualify the slave for freedom.

23. Growing Political Power • The House of Burgesses established in 1619 & began to assume the role of the House of Commons in England • Control over finances, militia, etc. • By the end of the 17c, H of B was able to initiate legislation. • A Council appointed by royal governor • Mainly leading planters. • Functions like House of Lords. • High death rates ensured rapid turnover of members.

24. Virginia Becomes a Royal Colony • James I grew hostile to Virginia • He hated tobacco. • He distrusted the House of Burgesses which he called a seminary of sedition. • 1624  he revoked the charter of the bankrupt VA Company. • Thus, VA became a royal colony, under the king’s direct control!

25. Frustrated Freemen • Late 1600s  large numbers of young, poor, discontented men in the Chesapeake area. • Little access to land or women for marriage. • 1670  The Virginia Assembly disenfranchised most landless men! • Leads to Bacon’s Rebellion • Led 1,000 Virginians in a rebellion against Governor Berkeley • Rebels resented Berkeley’s close relations with Indians. • Berkeley monopolized the fur trade with the Indians in the area. • Berkley refused to retaliate for Indian attacks on frontier settlements.

26. Bacon’s Rebellion • Rebels attacked Indians, whether they were friendly or not to whites. • Governor Berkeley driven from Jamestown. • They burned the capital. • Rebels went on a rampage of plundering. • Bacon suddenly died of fever. • Berkeley brutally crushed the rebellion and hanged 20 rebels.

27. Results of Bacon’s Rebellion • It exposed resentments between inland frontiersmen and landless former servants against gentry on coastal plantations. • Socio-economic class differences/clashes between rural and urban communities would continue throughout American history. • Upper class planters searched for laborers less likely to rebel  BLACK SLAVES!!

28. The Settlement of Maryland • A royal charter was granted to GeorgeCalvert, Lord Baltimore, in 1632. • A proprietary colony created in 1634. • A healthier location than Jamestown. • Tobacco would be the main crop. • His plan was to govern as an absentee proprietor in a feudal relationship. • Huge tracts of land granted to his Catholic relatives.

29. A Haven for Catholics • Baltimore permitted high degree of freedom of worship in order to prevent repeat of persecution of Catholics by Protestants. • High number of Protestants threatened because of overwhelming rights given to Catholics. • Toleration Act of 1649 • Supported by the Catholics in MD. • Guaranteed toleration to all CHRISTIANS. • Decreed death to those who denied the divinity of Jesus [like Jews, atheists, etc.]. • In one way, it was less tolerant than before the law was passed!!

30. Settlement of New England Colonies

31. Puritanism • Calvinism Institutes of the Christian Religion • Predestination. • Good works could not save those predestined for hell. • No one could be certain of their spiritual status. • Gnawing doubts led to constantly seeking signs of “conversion.” • Puritans: • Want to totally reform [purify] the Church of England. • Believed it was too hierarchical • Grew impatient with the slow process of Protestant Reformation back in England.

32. Separatists • Separatist Beliefs: • Puritans who believed only “visible saints” [those who could demonstrate in front of their fellow Puritans their elect status] should be admitted to church membership. • Because the Church of England enrolled all the king’s subjects, Separatists felt they had to share churches with the “damned.” • Therefore, they believed in a total break from the Church of England.

33. The Mayflower • 1620  a group of 102 people [half Separatists] • Negotiated with theVirginia Company to settle in its jurisdiction. • Non-Separatists included Captain Myles Standish. • Plymouth Bay way outside the domain of the Virginia Company. • Became squatters without legal right to land & specific authority to establish a govt.

34. The Mayflower CompactNovember 11, 1620 • Written and signed before the Pilgrims disembarked from the ship. • Not a constitution, but an agreement to form a crude govt. and submit to majority rule. • Signed by 41 adult males. • Led to adult male settlers meeting in assemblies to make laws in town meetings.

35. Covenant Theology • “Covenant of Grace”: • between Puritan communities and God. • “Social Covenant”: • Between members of Puritan communities with each other. • Required mutual watchfulness. • No toleration of deviance or disorder. • No privacy.

36. That First Year…. • Winter of 1620-1621 • Only 44 out of the original 102 survived. • None chose to leave in 1621 when the Mayflower sailed back. • Fall of 1621  First “Thanksgiving.” • Colony survived with fur [especially beaver], fish, and lumber. • Plymouth stayed small and economically unimportant. • 1691  only 7,000 people • Merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony.

37. William Bradford Self-taught scholar. Chosen governor of Plymouth 30 times in yearly elections. Worried about settlements of non-Puritans springing up nearby and corrupting Puritan society. A Model of Christian Charity

38. The MA Bay Colony • 1629  non-Separatists got a royal charter to form the MA Bay Co. • Wanted to escape attacks by conservatives in the Church of England. • They didn’t want to leave the Church, just its “impurities.” • 1630  1,000 people set off in 11 well-stocked ships • Established a colony with Boston as its hub. • “Great Migration” of the 1630s • Turmoil in England [leading to the English Civil War] sent about 70,000 Puritans to America. • Not all Puritans  20,000 came to MA.

39. John Winthrop • Well-off attorney and manor lord in England. • Became 1st governor of Massachusetts. • Believed that he had a “calling” from God to lead there. • Served as governor or deputy-governor for 19 years. • “city of a hill” – beacon to humanity We shall be as a city on a hill..

40. Puritan “Rebels” • Young, popular minister in Salem. • Argued for a full break with the Anglican Church. • Condemned MA Bay Charter. • Did not give fair compensation to Indians. • Denied authority of civil govt. to regulate religious behavior. • 1635  found guilty of preaching newe & dangerous opinions and was exiled. Roger Williams

41. Rhode Island • 1636  Roger Williams fled there. • MA Bay Puritans had wanted to exile him to England to prevent him from founding a competing colony. • Remarkable political freedom in Providence, RI • Universal manhood suffrage  later restricted by a property qualification. • Opposed to special privilege of any kind  freedom of opportunity for all. • RI becomes known as the “Sewer” because it is seen by the Puritans as a dumping ground for unbelievers and religious dissenters  More liberal than any other colony!

42. Puritan “Rebels” • Intelligent, strong-willed,well-spoken woman. • Threatened patriarchal control. • Antinomialism [direct revelation] • Means “against the law.” • Carried to logical extremes Puritan doctrine of predestination. • Holy life was no sure sign of salvation. • Truly saved didn’t need to obey the law of either God or man. AnneHutchinson

43. Puritans vs. Native Americans • Indians especially weak in New England  epidemics wiped out ¾ of the native popul. • Wampanoags [near Plymouth] befriended the settlers. • Cooperation between the two helped by Squanto. • 1621  Chief Massasoit signedtreaty with the settlers. • Autumn, 1621  both groups celebrated the First Thanksgiving.

44. The Pequot Wars: 1636-1637 • Pequots  verypowerful tribein CT river valley. • 1637  PequotWar • Whites, withNarragansettIndian allies,attacked Pequotvillage on Mystic River. • Whites set fire to homes & shot fleeing survivors! • Pequot tribe virtually annihilated an uneasy peace lasted for 40 years.

45. King Philip’s War (1675-1676} • Only hope for Native Americans to resist white settlers was to UNITE. • Metacom [King Philip to white settlers] • Massasoit’s son united Indians and staged coordinated attacks on white settlements throughout New England. • Frontier settlements forced to retreat to Boston. • The war ended in failure for the Indians • Metacom beheaded and drawn and quartered. • His son and wife sold into slavery. • Never a serious threat in New England again!!

46. The Middle Colonies

47. New Netherlands • New Netherlands  founded in the Hudson River area (1623-1624) • Established by Dutch West India Company for quick-profit fur trade. • Company wouldn’t pay much attention to the colony. • Manhattan [New Amsterdam] • Purchased by Company for pennies per (22,000) acre.

48. New Amsterdam, 1660 • Characteristics of New Amsterdam: • Aristocratic  patroonships [feudal estates granted to promoters who would settle 50 people on them]. • Cosmopolitan  diverse population with many different languages.

49. New Netherlands Becomes a British Royal Colony • Charles II granted New Netherland’s land to his brother, the Duke of York, [before he controlled the area!] • 1664  English soldiers arrived. • Dutch had little ammunition and poor defenses. • Stuyvesant forced to surrender without firing a shot. • Renamed “New York” • England gained strategic harbor between her northern & southern colonies. • England now controlled the Atlantic coast!

50. William Penn • Aristocratic Englishman. • 1660 – attracted to the Quaker faith. • Embraced Quakerismafter military service. • 1681  he received a grant from king toestablish a colony. • This settled a debt the king owed his father. • Named Pennsylvania [“Penn’s Woodland”]. • He sent out paid agents and advertised for settlers  his pamphlets were pretty honest. • Liberal land policy attracted many immigrants.