Chapter Three - The English Colonies (1605 - 1735)

Section One - The Virginia Colony

Settlement in Jamestown

• Jamestown, VA started by 105 male colonists who were poorly prepared to start a colony
• Men tended to be unskilled and lazy
• Jamestown was created in a swampy area with water too salty to drink
• 2/3's of men died the first year
• John Smith takes control and forces men to work "no work, no eat" policy works for a while

The Powhatan Confederacy

• Powhatan Indians show colonists how to grow corn and bring food
• Colonists sometime take Powhatan food by force - relations are not always peaceful
• In 1609, 400 more men come
• John Smith returns to England, leaving no strong leader
• Winter is called "starving time," as only 60 men total are alive in spring of 1610
• John Rolfe finds out how to grow tobacco in Virginia
• Tobacco becomes a cash crop and saves Jamestown for doom

War in Virginia

• John Rolfe marries Pocahontas, helping relations with Native Americans, but Pocahonotas dies in England soon after
• As colony grows, they begin to push on Indian lands
• Colonists kill Powhatan leader.
• Powhatan respond by killing 350 men, women, and children in 1622
• Fighting continues for 20 years

Daily Life in Virginia

• People lived in scattered farms rather than towns
• Colonists were promised 50 acres for each person they brought to Virginia
• Diseases like malaria were a tough issue to solve
• Men outnumbered women 7 to 1
• Most goods were made by hand and the colony was self sufficient, providing for all of its own needs
• No schools and few churches, so parents taught kids at home

Labor in Virginia

• Life was hard and dangerous
• Indentured Servants - signed a contract to work 4 to 7 years in exchange for ship fare to America
• Of early colonists, 75% of people in Virginia were indentured servants
• Africans arrive in 1619 as indentured servants, but others were slaves
• Planters - wealthy farmers to used slave labor

Bacon's Rebellion

• Nathaniel Bacon and others attack peaceful Native Americans on the frontier
• Frontier - areas on the edge of wilderness, end of settlement
• Bacon then attacks Jamestown, the captial of Virginia
• Bacon dies of fever, and colony hangs 23 of his followers
• Native Americans learn not to trust whites

Section Two - The Pilgrim's Experience

Puritans and Pilgrims

• Puritans - seek to reform the Church of England but were punished by English leaders
• Pilgrims - a groups of Puritans who decide to leave England and go to the Netherlands to get relgious freedom
• Pilgrims fear kids becomeing Dutch, and decide to head to Virginia instead

The Founding of Plymouth

• Pilgrims blown off course and land in Massachusetts
• Mayflower Compact - laws created for the colony - first constitution in English colonies
• 50% of Pilgrims die during the first winter

Pilgrims and American Indians

• Some Native Americans in the area had learned English from those on English fishing boats
• Native Americans taught Pilgrims to grow crops such as corn, beans, and squash
• Conditions begin to imporve in the colony
• Pilgrims invite 90 Indians to the first Thanksgiving Feast

The Pilgrim Community

• Farmland was poor, as was hunting and fishing
• Families were common, unlike in Virginia - provide stability in the community
• Pilgrims taught kids and indentured servants to read
• Family was the center of religious life and the community
• Women cooked, sewed, wove wool, made soap and butter
• Men tened to farm animals and fields, maintaining buildings

Section Three - The New England Colonies

The Massachusetts Bay Colony

• 1620 - King Charles I punishes Puritans because the disagreed with him
• Great Migration (1630 - 1640) - tens of thousands move to Caribbean and New England
• Massachusetts Bay Company gets a charter to start a colony under John Winthrop
• Puritans were well prepared to start a colony, bringing skilled people, tools, and livestock
• Settled in a healthy area
• By 1630, 1000 men, women, and children joined the colony of Massachusetts

Church and State in New England

• Colonists were subject England's laws, but could create own government
• Politics and religion were closely linked in Puritan New England
• Only male church members could vote
• Thomas Hooker - founds Connecticut in 1636
• Connecticut is also Puritan, but allowed non-church members to vote

Daily Life and Customs

• New England colonists' lives centered around religion, family, and public work
• Commmunity life more stable than in Virginia
• Most people have same amount of money - comfortable amount
• Grew food for own use rather than for profit
• Little need for indentured servants or slaves
• Large families provide farm workers
• Many marriages were arranged by parents
• Education is important to teach kids to read the Bible
• Harvard started in Boston in 1636
• By 1700, 70% of men and 45% of women could read and write

DIssent in Massachusetts

• Roger Williams - Kicked out of Massachusetts. Starts colony of Rhode Island
• Rhode Island - offers religous freedom for all

Salem Witch Trials

• 19 people put to death for being wtches in early 1690s
• Colony later apologized

Section Four - The Southern and Middle Colonies

Tolerant Maryland

• English Catholics look to escape religious persecution
• Toleration - acceptance of others, especially regarding religion
• Cecilius Calvery (Lord Baltimore) - starts colony of Maryland for Catholics, later opens it up to all Christians

The Carolinas

• South Carolina - started by eight wealthy English nobles who raised tobacco, rice, and indigo for profit
• By 1730, 20,000 slaves worked in South Carolina
• Charleston - large wealthy city on the coast that served as a trading port with England
• North Carolina - founded by poor tobacco farmers moving south from Virginia
• At first, North Carolina had small farms with few slaves because they couldn't afford them

Diversity in New York and New Jersey

• New Netherlands founded on the Hudson River for trading furs
• Largest city is New Amsterdam (now New York City)
• Peter Stuyvesant - ruled colony as a dictator and hated by citizens
• England takes over New Netherlands without gunfire in 1664
• Renamed New York

The Pennsylvania Experiment

• Quakers - Believed in non-violence and religious toleration for all people
• William Penn - Quaker who started the colony of Pennsylvania
• Tried to create a government fair to all people

The Ideal Georgia

• James Oglethorpe - Starts Georgia
• Founded for two reasons - debtor's prison for those in England and as a buffer zone betweeen Spainish Florida and South Carolina
• Georgia grew rice and tobacco serviced by thousands of slaves