English Colonization of North America

1
English Colonization of North America

• It all started in Virginia

2
Here come the English

• 1590 Roanoke, Virginia.
• War with Spain
• English more interested in permanent settlements

3
What did the English want?

• Needed a base
• Northwest Passage
• New markets
• Over population needed relief

4
Jamestown

• Businessmen got a charter to establish a new
  colony joint-stock company
• Virginia Company
• Other companies followed
• Hudson Bay Company (still exists)
• Jamestown
• What else was King James I famous for?

5
Settlers hardships

• Conflict with Native Americans
• Unrealistic expectations
• Location
• Starvation
• Poor leadership

6
Yet still they come

• Virginia is Paradise!
• Poor management
• King takes it over personally and makes Virginia
  a royal colony

7
Democracy born in Virginiasort of

• King appoints a royal governor
• Sets up a legislature (House of Burgesses)
• Burgesses were representatives of different parts
  of the colony
• First example of self-rule in the English colonies

8
Tobacco

• 1614 arrives in England
• Became wildly popular (and addictive!)
• In 1616 Virginia sent 2500 pounds
• By 1640 3 million pounds
• Plantations spread up the rivers from the coast,
  north of Jamestown

9
Land hungry

• 50 acres Headright system
• In England, cattle a bigger money maker
• Kicked farmers off the land
• Where to go?

10
Indentured servants

• Poor farmers
• How to get to Virginia from England?
• Had to work for years in Virginia to pay off the
  debt
• 150,000 were indentured servants in Virginia and
  Maryland in the 1600s
• First Africans in America - 1619

11
English had a bad attitude

• Ireland, for example
• English looked down on Irish
• Spanish took a different view
• English kept true to form conquer and enslave

12
Bacons rebellion

• Freed indentured servants rebel
• Local leader (Bacon) led armed farmers against
  Natives
• Virginia government unhappy
• Why?
• Bacon labeled a rebel
• Almost won
• Why does this matter? - POWER

13
And here come the French

• Focused on what is now Canada
• Verrazano
• Cartier
• Champlain
• And what did they want most?
• Fur trade, not conquering the natives
• New France
• Disease

14
Northern Colonies

• North, Middle, South
• Each had very different colonial experiences
• Not at all united viewed themselves as
  independent from one another
• Set the groundwork for conflict with England

15
Plymouth Colony

• French in Quebec
• English in Jamestown
• More English go north and settle what becomes
  known as New England
• Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New
  Hampshire, Vermont
• Plymouth, Massachusetts was first

16
Puritans

• Religious dissidents in England
• Even though England was no longer Catholic, some
  felt England was too liberal and wanted to
  leave
• Puritans called this because they wanted a purer
  form of Christianity
• North America beckons

17
Mayflower

• A bunch decide to set sail
• Mayflower Compact (p. 51)
• This set the tone for self-government in the
  colonies
• William Bradford was one of the writers
• Elected governor 30 times from 1621 to 1656
• Wrote History of Plimouth Plantation

18
Tough living in New England

• Like Jamestown, conditions were awful
• Native Americans helped feed colonists
• First Thanksgiving in 1621 celebrated the help
  from the Natives and the fact that colonists
  could feed themselves

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Massachusetts Bay Colony

• 1630 another group from England sets sail for
  North America, lands north of Plymouth
• By 1643, 20000 people lived in the colony
• All Puritans
• Converted some Natives
• Winthrop activity

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Not everything was perfect in Puritan-land

• Salem witch trials 1692
• 20 men and women executed after being found
  guilty of dealing with the devil
• Probably reflective of fears of change
• Revolution was happening back home in England and
  colonists feared it would come to New England

21
More problems

• Dissent
• Roger Williams leaves Mass Bay Colony to found
  Rhode Island
• Argued that land could only be purchased directly
  from Native Americans, not awarded by the King
• Also believed in true religious tolerance
• Anne Hutchinson also argued for religious freedom
  and was banished from Massachusetts
• Conflict with Native Americans over English
  desire to own land

22
Dutch in New York

• 1621 Dutch investors created the Dutch West India
  Company
• Similar to other companies (what were they?)
• 1625 New Amsterdam is founded on present-day
  Manhattan Island
• Less interested in colonies than in trade with
  Native Americans
• Immediately became a big trade center for all
  Europeans in the New World

23
England takes over

• English sent a fleet to New York to seize it in
  1664
• New Amsterdam surrenders immediately and is
  renamed New York
• All Dutch lands inland from New York become
  English
• Owned by the Duke of York, much like Virginia was
  controlled by the King

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Other middle colonies

• New Jersey becomes a united colony in 1702
• William Penn receives land in exchange for debt
  owed to his father by the King
• Penn wanted a colony of religious tolerance
• Pennsylvania (Penns Woods is founded)
• Settlers were mostly Quakers
• Quakers believed all men were truly created equal
• Delaware settled by Swedes
• New Sweden (1638 to 1682) taken by Dutch, then
  English, becomes Delaware in 1702

25
Southern colonies

• Virginia was first
• Maryland settled by Catholics who were
  persecuted in England in 1634
• Puritans settled there too, and outnumbered
  Catholics, forcing a law protecting all Christian
  groups (non-Christians could be put to death!)
• Like Virginia, tobacco was a popular and
  lucrative crop
• Any people who came to Maryland from Africa were
  automatically given the status of slaves

26
Southern colonies

• Carolina also tobacco oriented
• Split into North and South
• Thrived on trade with Native Americans
• Georgia run by trustees (as a business)
• Oglethorpe, the founder, wanted a home for
  debtors
• King wanted defenses against Spanish colony of
  Florida

27
Georgia

• Strict rules
• No alcohol
• No slaves
• No Catholics
• Laws relaxed and became a royal colony in 1752