Chapter 2
The Planting of English
America
1500–1733
I. England’s Imperial Stirrings
• In the 1500s England made feeble efforts to
develop overseas colonies.
• In the 1530s Henry VIII broke with the
Roman Catholic Church, launching the
English Protestant Reformation.
• In 1558 Henry’s daughter, the Protestant
Elizabeth I, became queen and established
Protestantism in England.
p26
II. Elizabeth Energizes England
• In 1577 English semipiratical “sea dogs”
under Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the
globe.
• The first English attempt at colonization was
off the coast of Newfoundland.
• In 1585 Sir Walter Raleigh landed on North
Carolina’s Roanoke Island.
• Virginia was named in honor of Elizabeth, the
“Virgin Queen.”
II. Elizabeth Energizes England
(cont.)
• In 1588 England defeated the Spanish
Armada, marking the end of Spain’s imperial
dreams.
• After victory, the English started to become
masters of the world oceans—with
important consequences for the American
people.
• England had strong national characteristics.
III. England on the Eve of Empire
• England experienced strong economic and
social changes and a “surplus population.”
• Laws of primogeniture meant that only
eldest sons were eligible to inherit landed
estates.
• By the early 1600s, the joint-stock company
was perfected.
• Peace with Spain provided the opportunity
for English colonization.
p28
IV. England Plants the Jamestown
Seedling
• 1603: James I became king of England.
• 1606: Virginia Company of London received
a charter to settle in the New World.
• This charter is significant; guaranteed
settlers the same rights as Englishmen.
• On May 24, 1607, the Virginia colony of
Jamestown was founded (see Map 2.1).
• John Smith was key to the colony’s survival.
Map 2.1 p29
V. Cultural Clashes in the Chesapeake
• In 1607 Chieftain Powhatan dominated the
James River area.
• In 1610 Lord De La Warr arrived from
England with orders to deal with the Indians.
• In 1614 the First Anglo-Powhatan War
ended, sealed by Pocahontas’s marriage to
colonist John Rolfe—the first known
interracial union in Virginia.
V. Cultural Clashes in the
Chesapeake (cont.)
• Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1644) was
Indians’ last attempt to dislodge Virginians.
• The Powhatans’ misfortune was the three
Ds: disease, disorganization, and
disposability.
• “Powhatan’s Confederacy” lacked unity to
oppose the disciplined whites.
• The Powhatans served no economic function
for colonists.
p30
VI. The Indians’ New World
• Indigenous people’s destinies had changed.
• The shock of large-scale European
colonization disrupted Native American life.
• Horses, diseases, trade, and the expanding
Atlantic economy transformed Indian life.
• A new middle ground compelled both
Europeans and Native Americans to
accommodate each other.
VII. Virginia: Child of Tobacco
• In 1612 John Rolfe perfected tobacco culture.
• Virginia’s prosperity was built on this
“bewitching weed,” but King Nicotine
depleted the soil.
• Besides land, tobacco required lots of labor.
• In 1619 a Dutch warship landed at
Jamestown and sold some twenty Africans,
planting the seeds of North American
slavery.
p32
VII. Virginia: Child of Tobacco
(cont.)
• In 1619 representative self-government was
born in primitive Virginia.
• The House of Burgesses was an assembly or
miniature parliament in the New World.
• James I grew increasingly hostile to Virginia.
• In 1624 he revoked the company’s charter
and Virginia became a royal colony.
VIII. Maryland: Catholic Haven
• 1634: Maryland, 2nd plantation colony, was
founded by Lord Baltimore partly as a refuge
for Catholics.
• Resentment between Catholics and
Protestants flared into open rebellion.
• The Baltimore family for a time lost its
proprietary rights, but the colony prospered.
• As in Virginia, indentured servants initially
provided labor for the tobacco economy.
VIII. Maryland: Catholic Haven
(cont.)
• Lord Baltimore permitted unusual freedom
of worship at the outset.
• In 1649 the local assembly passed the famed
Act of Toleration guaranteeing toleration to
all Christians.
• However, it decreed the death penalty for
Jews and atheists, who denied the divinity of
Jesus.
IX. The West Indies: Way Station
to Mainland America
• England secured claims to several West
Indian islands, including Jamaica in 1655.
• Their economy was based on sugar.
• Had different requirements than tobacco.
• Many enslaved Africans were imported to
work the sugar plantations.
• Black slaves eventually outnumbered white
settlers.
p34
IX. The West Indies: Way Station
to Mainland America (cont.)
• 1661: Barbados slave code defined slaves’
legal status and their masters’ prerogatives.
• Profitable sugar plantations crowded out
most other forms of Caribbean agriculture.
• 1670: Displaced settlers from Barbados
arrived in Carolina with their slaves.
• 1696: Carolina adopted the Barbados slave
code, which eventually shaped slave laws
throughout the mainland.
X. Colonizing the Carolinas
• In the 1640s civil war convulsed England.
• After 1660 empire building resumed during
the Restoration period (see Table 2.2).
• In 1670 Carolina was created, and it formed
close links with the English West Indies.
• Rice emerged as its principal export crop.
• Charles Town was busiest seaport in South;
Carolina survived Spanish and Indian attacks.
XI. The Emergence of North Carolina
• North Carolina has been called “the
quintessence of Virginia’s discontent.”
• “Squatters” (newcomers without legal rights
to the soil) raised crops on small farms.
• Distinctive traits developed.
• In 1712 North Carolina officially separated
from South Carolina (see Map 2.2).
Map 2.2 p36
XI. The Emergence of North
Carolina (cont.)
• North Carolina shared with tiny Rhode Island
several distinctions:
– Most democratic
– Most independent-minded
– Least aristocratic of original thirteen English
colonies
XI. The Emergence of North
Carolina (cont.)
• Relations between Indians and Europeans
were bloody
• But tribes in the interior remained strong.
XII. Late-Coming Georgia:
The Buffer Colony
• In 1733 Georgia was founded as a buffer to
protect the Carolinas.
• It was named in honor of King George II of
England.
• Launched by a group of philanthropists, it
would also serve as a haven for debtors.
• Georgia was called “the Charity Colony.”
XII. Late-Coming Georgia:
The Buffer Colony (cont.)
• Georgia founders wanted no slavery.
• James Oglethorpe, a key founder, helped
ensure the colony’s survival.
• Savannah, like Charleston, became a meltingpot community.
• John Wesley served as a missionary.
• Georgia grew more slowly than other
colonies.
XIII. The Plantation Colonies
• England’s southern mainland colonies
shared:
– Devotion to exporting agricultural products,
mainly tobacco and rice
– Slavery
– Slow growth of cities
– Religious toleration
– A tendency to expand
Map 2.3 p38
p39
Which of the following did NOT influence the
dramatic rise of England’s colonization efforts
in the early 1600s?
1. Population growth in
England
2. English land shortages
3. Peace between Britain &
Spain
4. Promised rewards for
explorers from the crown
5. Desire for religious
freedom
20%
1
20%
20%
2
3
20%
4
20%
5
The struggling Virginia economy was
ultimately saved by:
1. Peace treaties with local 20%
Native American nations
2. The slave trade
3. Rice cultivation
4. An influx of large
numbers of new settlers
5. The development of
tobacco
1
20%
20%
2
3
20%
4
20%
5
The primary labor source for the early
development of the plantation colonies of
Virginia & Maryland was:
1. Families who settled
in the area
2. Indentured servants
3. Slaves brought from
Africa
4. Prisoners
5. Second and third
sons of English lords
20%
1
20%
20%
2
3
20%
4
20%
5
Following questions refer to the excerpt below.
• “English expectations of the New World and its inhabitants
died hard. America was supposed to be a land of
abundance, peopled by natives who would not only share
that abundance with the English but increase it under
English direction. Englishmen simply did not envisage a
need to work for the mere purpose of staying alive. The
problem of survival as they saw it was at best political and at
worst military.
• “Although Englishmen long remained under the illusion that
the Indians would eventually become useful English
subjects, it became apparent fairly early that Indian labor
was not going to sustain the founders of Jamestown
[Virginia].”
• — Edmund S. Morgan, historian, “The Labor Problem at
Jamestown, 1607–18,” published in 1971
In the first half of the 1600s, American Indians in
Virginia and Maryland most typically responded to the
English colonization described in the excerpt by:
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A. The rapid growth of familycentered towns & villages
B. The prioritizing of trade and
shipbuilding over agricultural
production
C. The rise of the plantation
system and the use of African
slaves
D. The removal of Spanish and
French military threats to
regional control