British North America

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British North America
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English colonization of the New World

• Factors behind English colonization
• Must play catch up to Spain France
• Motivated by a new economic theory mercantilism
• A nation is wealthy/powerful if it has gold and
  silver in its treasury
• Three ways to get itmine it, steal it, trade for
  it
• Favorable balance of trade Exports gt Imports
• Nationalism (pride)
• Defeat of the Spanish Armada
• Religion (Protestant Reformation)

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English-style colonization

• Led by private companies, not govt
• Virginia Company
• a joint stock company
• Investors have limited liability
• Given a charter from King James I to establish
  a colonyall inhabitants will have the rights of
  Englishmen
• Goals
• Find gold and silver
• Find Northwest Passage

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Early Attempts at Colonization

• Roanoke
• Island off NC coast
• Sir Walter Raleigh
• 1585 / 1587 sends colonists to Roanoke
• The Lost Colony
• Jamestown (1607)
• First permanent settlement for the English
• Established in Virginia, on the James River

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Jamestown

• Problems
• Location
• good for defense, but not healthy)
• Gold Fever
• colonists more interested in finding gold than in
  building a colony, cultivating food, etc.
• Capt. John Smith institutes martial law he
  that shall not work shall not eat
• Disease Hunger
• 1607 150 settlers / only 38 survive
• 1609 the starving time 300 colonists only
  60 survive the winter
• Natives
• Powhatan uneasy truce with the English, but in
  1609 cut off food suppliesleading to the
  Starving Time

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Jamestown
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Jamestown

• Tobacco
• brown gold
• 1612 John Rolfe brings tobacco from the
  Bahamas to Virginia
• By 1620, exporting 150 million pounds / yr
• Tobacco is land hungry and labor intensive
• Lead to conflicts with natives as colonists build
  larger plantations
• Lead to the introduction of unfree labor in Va.

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Jamestown

• Indentured Servants
• Primary form of labor until 1670s
• 4-7 years of labor in exchange for transportation
  to Va a plot of land after their term expired.
• Almost all males, poor, some are criminals
• Status white slavery with few rights
• Can be bought, sold, gambled away
• Most do NOT live long enough to get their land

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Jamestown

• Slavery
• First introduced in Va in 1619
• 14 Africans are brought to Jamestown
• Status unclear ? more like indentures
• System of slavery evolves
• By 1670, racial hereditary slavery is common
• Slavery replaces indentured servitude
• Life expectancy goes up
• Freed indentures are creating problems
• BACONS REBELLION in 1676
• Poor settlers on the frontier are being attacked
  by natives
• The Virginia govt (dominated wealthy planters
  from eastern Virginia) isnt helping out.
• Francis Bacon creates an army and attacks the
  Indians
• When Va governor objects, Bacon turns his army on
  Jamestownburn Jamestown.
• Rebellion collapes when Bacon gets sick and dies.
• Maybe, having all these poor, unhappy, former
  indentures isnt a good thing.
• By 1700s fewer indentured servants more slaves
  

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Jamestown

• Native American Conflicts
• Powhatan Tribe
• Initially help the English survive, but in 1609
  they begin cutting off food supplies
• 1614 John Rolfe and Pocahontas are married
  truce is reached with Chief Powhatan
• 1622 Great Powhatan Uprising
• Chief Opechancanough fed up with English moving
  into Powhatan lands
• Attack and kill 340 colonist 1/3 of the
  settlement
• Leads the crown to take over the colony and send
  troops and settlers to wipe out the indians.

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Jamestown

• Slavery

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Indentured Servitude