Migration to Virginia and New
England
Early American Social History
Term 1 Week 4
After Roanoke
• 20 year wait for colonisation to restart
• Nothing possible until succession
decided, too much uncertainty
• James I (1603-25) ends war with Spain
1604. Ends profits from privateering
• Forces reconsideration of colonisation
• Importance of getting a charter, royal
sanction/support, sets out claims,
regardless of other powers
• 1606 charters given to Virginia Company
of London and Virginia Company of
Plymouth to settle between 34 and 45
degrees N latitude, (NC to Maine)
The Virginia Company (London)
• Basically made up of merchants, charter talks of
trade and bringing Xnty to natives.(c.f. Roanoke/
Hakluyt)
• Needs colonists as traders, potential soldiers to
defend vs Indians or Spanish
• Offers free land for settlers; gets 144 young men
to go on first voyage on board 3 ships
(Godspeed, Discovery and Susan Constant)
• Arrives Jamestown May 1607
James Fort
Migrants 1
• All migrants before 1618 = male, most young (under 25)
• Free land offered by Va Co obvious draw to poor, as well
as to younger sons of gentry, i.e. those with little
prospect of riches in Eng
• Main motivation = economic, seeking fortune and status,
many migrants see Va as temp home
• Imp of indentured labour, sold for number of years in
return for passage. Possibility of land at end of service.
• Problems of flight, seen as form of slavery, main source
of labour in Va before 1680
Migrants 2
• Campbell / Galenson debate over social status ‘middling people’ or ‘common sort’ ?
• Problem of source materials, mainly from 1650s,
incompleteness of data, need for interpretation.
• Va migrants probably broadly reflected Eng popn, i.e.
mainly poor (farmers, labourers, artisans), but not the
truly destitute, and few merchants, aristocrats, or wealthy
people (why would they leave riches in Eng?)
• Some suggestion that religion had a role in colonisation,
mentioned in charter, used in promotional literature as
recruitment tactic by Va Co, but little attention paid by
colonists once there.
Problems of Authority
• Authority derived from either
tradition (elders), law
(officials) or charisma
(dictators)
• Va has crisis of authority, first
two governors lose control
quickly, since can’t prevent a
high death toll amongst early
settlers, only 38 of 144
original migrants still alive in
Nov 1607.
• Only solved by John Smith,
elected Gov in Dec 1608,
introduced system of Martial
Law, moved colony inland,
learned survival techniques
from Indians, reduced death
rate.
‘The Starving Time’
• New fleet arrives June 1609, brings 900 new
settlers.
• Smith ousted, and returns to England.
• No effective leadership during harsh winter of
1609-10; lack of planning sees no food
stockpiled, widespread starvation, some
cannibalism.
• Spring 1610 only 60 survivors; decision to return
to England
• Prevented by arrival of new Governor Lord De
La Warre – Va on edge of extinction
Laws Divine, Moral and Martial
• De La Warre, formally introduces the
Laws DMM in 1611, similar to
Smith’s martial law
• Very strict, aims to control populace,
all to work collectively for survival of
colony
• Begins to deter potential colonists,
since widespread attachment to
‘rights of Englishmen’
• Response of Va Co, = House of
Burgesses, first elected body in
North America, July 1619.
• Va Co charter revoked 1624,
becomes royal colony
Economic Development
• No economic purpose to early settlement,
until planting of Trinidadian tobacco by
John Rolfe, 1612.
• Rapid growth of production, 2,000 lbs in
1615, 1.5m lbs 1629
• Vast wealth possible, high prices by 1620
meant single farmer with no extra labour
could make £200/yr profit.
• Also cause of instability.
Indians 1
• Problems with Indians major
factor in Va devt
• Powhatan confederacy more
powerful than English, 10,000
people in 1620
• Initial antagonism, disputes over
property, Smith’s role, situation
calmer in 1610s, Rolfe marries
Pocahontas
• Powhatan sees Eng as potential
allies vs interior tribes, never
imagines they would be threat to
him, trade for weapons etc
Indians 2
• Powhatan dies 1618, succeeded by brother
Openchancanough, more hostile to Eng, especially
encroachment on lands
• Role of tobacco in taking Indian lands, inability of Eng
authorities to prevent it
• Decision to attack on Good Friday (March 22) 1622;
achieves total surprise, kills 347 whites, out of popn of
1200.
• Opec. thought Eng would leave, but attack cements
negative image of Indians among Eng, and makes their
destruction easier to live with
• English manage to cling on
New England
• New England important because of religious origins, tale
of spiritual re-birth, attempt to create utopia
• New England known to have harsher climate than Va
• Marked differences between New England and earlier
settlements in Va
• 5 main areas of settlement in New England between
1620 and 1638.
–
–
–
–
–
Plymouth 1620
Massachusetts Bay 1630
Connecticut 1634
Rhode Island 1636
New Haven 1638.
Pilgrims 1
• 1608 persecuted Eng separatists left
Scrooby (Notts) for Leiden (Holland)
seeking religious freedoms
• 1620 same group fear resumption of
Spanish/Dutch war, and think the Dutch
too capitalist – seek to voyage to America.
• Unable to get own charter, purchase land
grant off Va Company (most = merchants,
i.e. have money)
Pilgrims 2
• Sept 1620, 102 settlers leave Plymouth on Mayflower, Nov 1620
sight Cape Cod, far north of original destination, but still within limits
of Va Co. charter.
Plymouth Plantation
•Move from Cape Cod to settlement they name Plymouth.
•Not all settlers = separatists, but all sign Mayflower Compact, agreeing to work
together for future of colony.
•Gov William Bradford, good Indian relations with Massasoit, enables
settlement to survive, though 50% die in first year.
•3 day feast of thanksgiving celebrated Nov 1621.
Gov
William
Bradford
Plymouth Colony by Adam Willaerts (1638)
Puritan Origins
• 1630 new settlement led by John Winthrop (b.1588 to
wealthy East Anglian family), of 700 non-separating
congregationalists.
• Most migrants from East Anglia, affected by decline in
cloth trade, but also lacked strong deferential traditions,
and radical protestant texts came into EA ports from
Germany.
• Disliked lingering Catholic practices in Anglicanism, eg
vestments, Bishops etc.
• Belief that separation of church and state was necessary
‘only the Godly should rule the Godly’
• Yet, committed to ideals of the C of E, therefore try to set
example of behaviour for others to follow
• Image = staid, boring, no fun – but really just trying not to
be sinful.
Puritans in England
• Each congregation independent (hence name),
chose own ministers etc.
• Refuse to accept authority of bishops or any civil
power over religion
• Tolerated, rather than accepted, until
appointment of William Laud as Abp of
Canterbury (1620) – high church, emphasis on
hierarchy, increased investigation and
persecution of dissenters, e.g. ministers banned
from pulpits, arrested etc
Getting the charter
• Va Co dead by 1624, new charter needed.
• Puritan merchants get charter of Massachusetts
Bay Company from King 1629
• Only migrants allowed to be shareholders, so
charter taken to America – prevents alteration at
later date.
• 4 ships set out for America in 1630, the Arbella,
the Talbot, the Ambrose and the Jewel.
Settlers
• Most migrants (70%) in family groups;
30% single males, but usually attached to
families as servants.
• Adults usually in 30s or 40s, brought
children with them, had more after arrival.
• Life exp v good, 70s when only 50s in
Eng, few problems with disease, no major
Indian problem (smallpox epidemic)
Why go?
• Seek religious freedoms –
worship without interference
• ‘To be as a city on a hill, the
eyes of the world shall be
upon us’ John Winthrop
• Prove that religious utopia
possible, and that it would be
the best type of society.
• Only persecution and econ
hardship remaining in Eng –
ec motives?
Great Migration
• 1620 - 1642 about 25,000
people migrated to New
England in 198 ships, by 1640
total popn = 40,000.
• Migration very low 1642-60, due
to Civil War, picks up after
1660.
• Unlike Chesapeake migration
not ongoing phenomenon,
society more settled stable
• Whole communities
transplanted across Atlantic,
renamed new settlements after
English ones eg Boston,
Dedham, Springfield, Sudbury
etc.
• By 1636 Harvard founded in
Cambridge, link to Emmanuel
College – 90 New England
ministers had been trained
there.
Conclusions
• Initial migrations to Va and NEng very
different in terms of demography and
motivations
• Two extremes of a long continuity of
settlement.