Colonization and Early
“American” History
Earliest Americans
• Native American cultures were
sophisticated
– Based on agriculture
– Revered the natural world
The Spanish Arrive
• The kingdom of Spain had united and
expelled the “infidels”
• Wanted to “best” their Portuguese rivals
– Turned West
• Columbus’ discovery merged four
continents
– Europe provides capital, markets, technology
– Africa provided labor
– New World offered raw materials
Spanish Colonization
• Spanish invaders killed, enslaved, and
infected natives with disease
• Erected a colossal empire
– From Florida to California to Argentina
• They grafted their culture, laws, religion,
and language into native society
– Rather than shunning and isolating the
Indians like the English
English Colonization
• Early efforts to compete with the Spanish were
feeble
• Religious conflict had disrupted England
– King Henry broke with the Catholic Church in
1530s
– Launched the English Reformation
– Catholics battled Protestants
– 1570s-1580s conflict in Ireland
• Queen Elizabeth and the defeat of the
Spanish armada set the stage for empire
English on the Eve of Empire
• Population grew by one million in 50 years
• Landlords began practice “enclosure”
– Forced small farmers off the land
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Primogeniture
Economic depression
Thirst for new markets
Desire for religious freedom
English Colonization
The Charter of the Virginia Company:
 Guaranteed to
colonists the same
rights as Englishmen
as if they had stayed
in England.
 This provision was
incorporated into
future colonists’
documents.
 Colonists felt that, even in the Americas, they had
the rights of Englishmen!
England Plants the Jamestown
“Seedling”
Late 1606  VA Co. sends out 3 ships
Spring 1607  land at mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
 Attacked by Indians and move on.
May 24, 1607  about 100 colonists [all men] land at
Jamestown, along banks of James River
 Easily defended, but swarming with disease-causing
mosquitoes.
The Jamestown Nightmare
1606-1607  40 people died on the voyage to the
New World.
1609  another ship from England lost its leaders
and supplies in a shipwreck off Bermuda.
Settlers died by the dozens!
“Gentlemen” colonists would not work themselves.
 Game in forests & fish in river uncaught.
Settlers wasted time looking for gold instead of
hunting or farming.
High Mortality Rates
The “Starving Time”:
1607: 104 colonists
By spring, 1608: 38 survived
1609: 300 more immigrants
By spring, 1610: 60 survived
1610 – 1624: 10,000 immigrants
1624 population: 1,200
Adult life expectancy: 40 years
Death of children before age 5: 80%
English Migration: 1610-1660
Chief Powhatan
Powhatan Confederacy
 Powhatan dominated a
few dozen small tribes
in the James River
area when the English
arrived.
 The English called all
Indians in the area
Powhatans.
 Powhatan probably saw
the English as allies in his struggles to control other
Indian tribes in the region.
Culture Clash in the
Chesapeake
Relations between Indians & settlers grew worse.
 General mistrust because of different cultures &
languages.
 English raided Indian food supplies during the
starving times.
1610-1614  First Anglo-Powhatan War
 De La Warr had orders to make war on the Indians.
 Raided villages, burned houses, took supplies, burned
cornfields.
Culture Clash in the
Chesapeake
1614-1622  peace between Powhatans and the
English.
 1614 peace sealed by the marriage of Pocahontas to
Englishman John Rolfe.
1622-1644  periodic attacks between Indians and
settlers.
 1622  Indians attacked the English, killing 347
[including John Rolfe].
 Virginia Co. called for a “perpetual war” against the
Native Americans.
 Raids reduced native population and drove them further
westward.
Engraving of 1622 Attack
Culture Clash in the Chesapeake
1644-1646  Second Anglo-Powhatan War
 Last effort of natives to defeat English.
 Indians defeated again.
Peace Treaty of 1646
 Removed the Powhatans from their original land.
 Formally separated Indian and English settlement
areas!
Tobacco Plant
• 1618 — Virginia produces
20,000 pounds of tobacco.
• 1622 — Despite losing nearly
one-third of its colonists in an
Indian attack, Virginia produces
60,000 pounds of tobacco.
• 1627 — Virginia produces
500,000 pounds of tobacco.
Virginia’s gold and silver.
-- John Rolfe, 1612
• 1629 — Virginia produces
1,500,000 pounds of tobacco.
Virginia: “Child of Tobacco”
Tobacco’s effect on Virginia’s economy:
 Vital role in putting VA on a firm economic
footing.
 Ruinous to soil when continuously planted.
 Chained VA’s economy to a single crop.
Tobacco promoted the use of the plantation
system.
 Need for cheap, abundant labor.
Indentured Servitude
Headright System:
 Each Virginian got 50 acres for each person
whose passage they paid.
Indenture Contract:
 5-7 years.
 Promised “freedom dues” [land, £]
 Forbidden to marry.
 1610-1614: only 1 in 10 outlived their
indentured contracts!
The Atlantic Slave Trade
Colonial Slavery
As the number of slaves increased, white
colonists reacted to put down perceived racial
threat.
 Slavery transformed from economic to economic
and racial institution.
 Early 1600s  differences between slave and
servant were unclear.
By the mid-1680s, black slaves outnumbered white
indentured servants.
Colonial Slavery
Beginning in 1662  “Slave Codes”
 Made blacks [and their children]
property, or chattel for life of white
masters.
 In some colonies, it was a crime to teach
a slave to read or write.
 Conversion to
Christianity did
not qualify the
slave for
freedom.
Growing Political Power
The House of Burgesses established in 1619 &
began to assume the role of the House of
Commons in England
 Control over finances, militia, etc.
By the end of the 17c, H of B was able to initiate
legislation.
A Council appointed by royal governor
 Mainly leading planters.
 Functions like House of Lords.
 High death rates ensured rapid turnover of
members.
Virginia Becomes a Royal Colony
James I grew hostile to Virginia
 He hated tobacco.
 He distrusted the House of Burgesses which he
called a seminary of sedition.
1624  he revoked the charter of the
bankrupt VA Company.
 Thus, VA became a royal colony, under the king’s
direct control!
Frustrated Freemen
Late 1600s  large numbers of young, poor,
discontented men in the Chesapeake area.
 Little access to land or women for marriage.
1670  The Virginia Assembly disenfranchised most
landless men!
Leads to Bacon’s Rebellion
Led 1,000 Virginians in a rebellion against Governor
Berkeley
Rebels resented Berkeley’s close relations with Indians.
Berkeley monopolized the fur trade with the Indians in the area.
Berkley refused to retaliate for Indian attacks on frontier
settlements.
Bacon’s Rebellion
Rebels attacked Indians, whether
they were friendly or not to whites.
Governor Berkeley driven from
Jamestown.
They burned the capital.
 Rebels went on a rampage of
plundering.
Bacon suddenly died of fever.
Berkeley brutally crushed the rebellion
and hanged 20 rebels.
Results of Bacon’s Rebellion
It exposed resentments between inland
frontiersmen and landless former servants
against gentry on coastal plantations.
 Socio-economic class differences/clashes between
rural and urban communities would continue
throughout American history.
Upper class planters searched for laborers less
likely to rebel  BLACK SLAVES!!
The Settlement of Maryland
A royal charter was granted to George
Calvert, Lord Baltimore, in 1632.
A proprietary colony created in 1634.
A healthier location than Jamestown.
 Tobacco would be the main crop.
His plan was to govern as an absentee proprietor in a feudal
relationship.
 Huge tracts of land granted to his Catholic relatives.
A Haven for Catholics
Baltimore permitted high degree of freedom of
worship in order to prevent repeat of persecution of
Catholics by Protestants.
 High number of Protestants threatened because of
overwhelming rights given to Catholics.
Toleration Act of 1649
 Supported by the Catholics in MD.
 Guaranteed toleration to all CHRISTIANS.
 Decreed death to those who denied the divinity of Jesus
[like Jews, atheists, etc.].
 In one way, it was less tolerant than before the law was
passed!!
Settlement of New England
Colonies
Puritanism
Calvinism  Institutes of the Christian Religion
 Predestination.
• Good works could not save those predestined for hell.
• No one could be certain of their spiritual status.
• Gnawing doubts led to constantly seeking signs of
“conversion.”
Puritans:
 Want to totally reform [purify] the Church of England.
 Believed it was too hierarchical
 Grew impatient with the slow process of Protestant
Reformation back in England.
Separatists
Separatist Beliefs:
 Puritans who believed only “visible saints” [those
who could demonstrate in front of their fellow
Puritans their elect status] should be admitted to
church membership.
 Because the Church of England enrolled all the
king’s subjects, Separatists felt they had to share
churches with the “damned.”
 Therefore, they believed in a total break from the
Church of England.
The Mayflower
1620  a group of 102
people [half Separatists]
 Negotiated with the
Virginia Company to
settle in its
jurisdiction.
 Non-Separatists
included Captain Myles
Standish.
Plymouth Bay way
outside the domain of the Virginia Company.
 Became squatters without legal right to land & specific
authority to establish a govt.
The Mayflower Compact
November 11, 1620
Written and signed before the Pilgrims
disembarked from the ship.
Not a constitution, but an agreement to form
a crude govt. and submit to majority rule.
 Signed by 41 adult males.
Led to adult male settlers meeting in
assemblies to make laws in town meetings.
Covenant Theology
“Covenant of Grace”:
 between Puritan communities and God.
“Social Covenant”:
 Between members of Puritan communities with
each other.
 Required mutual watchfulness.
 No toleration of deviance or disorder.
 No privacy.
That First Year….
Winter of 1620-1621
 Only 44 out of the original 102 survived.
None chose to leave in 1621 when the Mayflower
sailed back.
Fall of 1621  First “Thanksgiving.”
 Colony survived with fur [especially beaver], fish, and
lumber.
Plymouth stayed small and economically
unimportant.
 1691  only 7,000 people
 Merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony.
William Bradford
Self-taught scholar.
Chosen governor of
Plymouth 30 times in
yearly elections.
Worried about
settlements of
non-Puritans springing
up nearby and
corrupting Puritan
society.
A Model of Christian
Charity
The MA Bay Colony
1629  non-Separatists got a royal charter to form the
MA Bay Co.
 Wanted to escape attacks by conservatives in the Church
of England.
 They didn’t want to leave the Church, just
its “impurities.”
1630  1,000 people set off in 11 well-stocked ships
 Established a colony with Boston as its hub.
“Great Migration” of the 1630s
 Turmoil in England [leading to the English Civil War] sent
about 70,000 Puritans to America.
 Not all Puritans  20,000 came to MA.
John Winthrop
Well-off attorney and manor
lord in England.
Became 1st governor of
Massachusetts.
 Believed that he had a “calling”
from God to lead there.
 Served as governor or deputygovernor for 19 years.
 “city of a hill” – beacon to humanity
We shall be as a
city on a hill..
Puritan “Rebels”
Young, popular minister in Salem.
 Argued for a full break
with the Anglican Church.
 Condemned MA Bay
Charter.
•
Did not give fair compensation to Indians.
 Denied authority of civil
govt. to regulate religious
behavior.
Roger Williams
1635  found guilty of preaching newe & dangerous
opinions and was exiled.
Rhode Island
1636  Roger Williams fled there.
 MA Bay Puritans had wanted to exile him to England to
prevent him from founding a competing colony.
 Remarkable political freedom in Providence, RI
• Universal manhood suffrage  later restricted by a
property qualification.
•
Opposed to special privilege of any kind  freedom of
opportunity for all.
RI becomes known as the “Sewer” because it is seen
by the Puritans as a dumping ground for unbelievers
and religious dissenters  More liberal than any
other colony!
Puritan “Rebels”
Intelligent, strong-willed,
well-spoken woman.
Threatened patriarchal control.
Antinomialism [direct
revelation]
 Means “against the law.”
 Carried to logical extremes
Puritan doctrine of predestination.
 Holy life was no sure sign of salvation.
Anne
Hutchinson
 Truly saved didn’t need to obey the law of either God or
man.
Puritans vs. Native Americans
Indians especially weak in New England 
epidemics wiped out ¾ of the native popul.
Wampanoags [near Plymouth] befriended the
settlers.
 Cooperation between the two
helped by Squanto.
1621  Chief Massasoit signed
treaty with the settlers.
 Autumn, 1621  both groups
celebrated the First Thanksgiving.
The Pequot Wars: 1636-1637
Pequots  very
powerful tribe
in CT river valley.
1637  Pequot
War
 Whites, with
Narragansett
Indian allies,
attacked Pequot
village on Mystic
River.
 Whites set fire
to homes & shot fleeing survivors!
 Pequot tribe virtually annihilated an uneasy peace lasted
for 40 years.
King Philip’s War (1675-1676}
Only hope for Native Americans to resist
white settlers was to UNITE.
Metacom [King Philip to
white settlers]
 Massasoit’s son united Indians and staged
coordinated attacks on white
settlements throughout New England.
 Frontier settlements forced to retreat to Boston.
The war ended in failure for the Indians
 Metacom beheaded and drawn and quartered.
 His son and wife sold into slavery.
 Never a serious threat in New England again!!
The Middle Colonies
New Netherlands
New Netherlands  founded in the Hudson
River area (1623-1624)
 Established by Dutch West India Company for
quick-profit fur trade.
 Company wouldn’t pay much attention to the
colony.
 Manhattan [New Amsterdam]
 Purchased by Company for pennies per (22,000)
acre.
New Amsterdam, 1660
Characteristics of New Amsterdam:
 Aristocratic  patroonships [feudal estates granted to
promoters who would settle 50 people on them].
 Cosmopolitan  diverse population with many different
languages.
New Netherlands Becomes a British Royal
Colony
Charles II granted New Netherland’s land to his
brother, the Duke of York, [before he controlled the
area!]
1664  English soldiers arrived.
 Dutch had little ammunition and poor defenses.
 Stuyvesant forced to surrender without firing a shot.
Renamed “New York”
 England gained strategic harbor between her northern &
southern colonies.
 England now controlled the Atlantic coast!
William Penn
Aristocratic Englishman.
1660 – attracted to the Quaker faith.
Embraced Quakerism
after military service.
1681  he received a grant from king to
establish a colony.
 This settled a debt the king owed his father.
 Named Pennsylvania [“Penn’s Woodland”].
He sent out paid agents and advertised for settlers  his
pamphlets were pretty honest.
 Liberal land policy attracted many immigrants.
The Quakers
Called Quakers because they “quaked” during intense
religious practices.
They offended religious & secular leaders in England.
 Refused to pay taxes to support the Church
of England.
 They met without paid clergy
 Believed all were children of God refused
to treat the upper classes with deference.
 Keep hats on.
 Addressed them as commoners  ”thees”/“thous.”
 Wouldn’t take oaths.
 Pacifists.
Penn & Native Americans
Bought [didn’t simply take] land from
Indians.
Quakers went among the Indians unarmed.
BUT…….. non-Quaker Europeans flooded PA
 Treated native peoples poorly.
 This undermined the actions of the Quakers!
Government of
Pennsylvania
Representative assembly elected by landowners.
No tax-supported church.
Freedom of worship guaranteed to all.
Forced to deny right to vote & hold office to
Catholics & Jews by English govt.
Death penalty only for treason & murder.
 Compared to 200 capital crimes in England!
The West Indies  Way Station to Mainland
America
1670  a group of small English farmers from the
West Indies arrived in Carolina.
 Were squeezed out by sugar barons.
 Brought a few black slaves and a model of the Barbados
slave code with them.
Named for King Charles II.
The King granted Carolina to 8 supporters [Lord
Proprietors].
 They hoped to use Carolina to supply their plantations in
Barbados with food and export wine, silk, and olive oil to
Europe.
Colonizing the Carolinas
Carolina developed close economic ties to the West
Indies.
 Many Carolinian settlers were originally from the West
Indies.
 They used local Savannah Indians to enslave other Indians
[about 10,000] and send them to the West Indies [and
some to New England].
1707  Savannah Indians decided to migrate to PA.
 PA promised better relations with whites.
 Carolinians decided to “thin” the Savannahs before they
could leave  bloody raids killed most of them by 1710.
Port of Charles Town, SC
Also named for King Charles II
of England.
Became the busiest port in the
South.
City with aristocratic feel.
Religious toleration attracted
diverse inhabitants.
Crops of the
Carolinas: Rice
The primary export.
Rice was still an exotic
food in England.
 Was grown in Africa,
so planters imported
West African slaves.
 These slaves had a
genetic trait that
made them immune to
malaria.
American Long
Grain Rice
By 1710  black slaves were a majority in Carolina.
Crops of the
Carolinas: Indigo
In colonial times, the
main use for indigo was
as a dye for spun cotton
threads that were woven
into cloth for clothes.
Today in the US, the
main use for indigo is a
dye for cotton work
clothes & blue jeans.
The Emergence of North Carolina
Northern part of Carolina shared a border with VA
 VA dominated by aristocratic planters who were
generally Church of England members.
 Dissenters from VA moved south to northern Carolina.
 Poor farmers with little need for slaves.
 Religious dissenters.
Distinctive traits of North Carolinians
 Irreligious & hospitable to pirates.
 Strong spirit of resistance to authority.
1712  NC officially separated from SC.
Late-Coming Georgia
Founded in 1733.
Last of the 13 colonies.
Named in honor of King
George II.
Founded by James
Oglethorpe.
Georgia--The “Buffer” Colony
Chief Purpose of Creating Georgia:
 As a “buffer” between the valuable Carolinas & Spanish
Florida & French Louisiana.
 Received subsidies from British govt. to offset costs
of defense.
 Export silk and wine.
 A haven for debtors
thrown in to prison.
Determined to keep
slavery out!
 Slavery found in GA
by 1750.