The Colonial Period: 1607-1750s
Characteristics of English North America
England: Prior to Expansion into North America
• Key Turning Points
• The Reformation divides Europe
• The Reformation changes Europe
• Economic changes in England
The Puritans and Separatists- The Debate
Christian Access to God
•Catholic & conservative Protestants: Traditions of Church
•Puritans: Corruption of Church for centuries
Goals of the Puritans- 1630 Boston- to purify the Church
•Broke with traditions
•Individual congregation- began with covenant, election of ministers
•Conduct represented salvation
•Knowledge of redemption
Goals of the Separatists (Pilgrims, 1620 Plymouth Colony)
•Questioned legitimacy of Church of England
•Paul: “Come out among them and be separate.”
Economic Model of Colonies:
Mercantilism, Corporations, Capitalism
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Mercantilism
Merchants: relationship with King
Chartered Companies: Corporations
Corporate Colonies: Ventures in Capitalism
By 1732: Three distinct colonial governments
• Royal
• Proprietary
• Corporate
Slow to Enter the “New World”…
Early Explorations:
• Queen Elizabeth
• 1576 Martin Frobisher (3 ships)
Beginnings: 1607- (after Spanish and French)
Reasons for English Colonization
• Establish markets for their goods- wool
• Access to raw materials
• Growing rivalry with Spain (Privateers)
• Social Crisis- economic needs/population influx
• Religious: Spreading Protestantism
• Economic inequality- Masterless men
English Explorations and the First Settlement
Early Attempts
•Gilbert and Raleigh- Elizabeth I/ charter
– Two attempts that failed
– Half-brother- named the land Virginia
•Roanoke- Failure
– First voyage 1585
– Second voyage in 1587
– Governor White: war in England
– Empty houses and the letters “CRO”
The Coming of the English
English Emigrants
• Lower ranks of society
• 1600s- indentured servants
Land and Liberty
• Basis for liberty- control of land and vote
The Indigenous
• English wanted land
• Resentment towards English
• Alcohol: common and disruptive
• Landscape changes: fencing, new crops, livestock, depletion of
forest
Settling the Chesapeake: Jamestown and Maryland
Founding of Jamestown 1607
•Virginia Company
•Early Troubles
– The “Starving Time,” 1609-1610
•Finding new “settlers.”
• Uprising of 1622
•Tobacco: Cross-breed strains
• King James and the “evil weed.”
Founding of Maryland 1632
•Proprietary colony of Cecilius Calvert (feudal domain)
•Refuge for persecuted Catholics
The New England Way
The Rise of Puritanism
• Shaped early New England
• Congregationalists
Moral Liberty
• John Winthrop
• Rejection of natural liberty for moral liberty
The Pilgrims at Plymouth
• 1620-private investors Netherlands
• The Mayflower- Cape Cod
• The Mayflower Compact
– No women signed document
The Great Migration
• 1629 Massachusetts Bay Company (London Merchants)
• 1642 21,000 Puritans
New England Divided
Dissenters in the Puritan World
• Roger Williams (Rhode Island)
• Puritans and the Indigenous
• The Pequot War
Economic and Social Inequality
• The New England economy
• The Merchant Elite
• The Half-Way Covenant
The 13 Colonies
New England: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
Hampshire
Southern Colonies- Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina,
Georgia
Middle Colonies- New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware
Distinctions of Southern Colonies
Governance: Corporate, Royal, Proprietary
• Plantation Elite
Economy: Single crop economics
• Tobacco & Rice
Social Structure
•Stratified. English Law
•Plantations
•Biracial society- Black and White
•English traditions: viewpoints about politics, religion, economy
Indigenous Communities
•Bacon’s Rebellion- Several Causes
•Scapegoat: Indigenous
Religion
• Anglican- minor role in politics and economy*
Distinctions of the New England Colonies
Governance: Early years/ under control of Crown/ Central & Local Gov.
• Religious leaders through small town meetings
Economy: Family-run farms and household manufacturing
• Craftsmen and Merchants
Social System: Clustered settlements
• Indentured Servants
• Cultural traditions: Diverse culture, economic, political, social
Religion:
•Strictly Calvinist faith- dictated political, social, economic
Indigenous Societies: Europeans used concept of “divide and rule”
Pequot War and Metacomet’s War
•1676
Distinctions of the Middle Colonies
Governance: Diverse settlement
• Unchartered- Delaware
• Democratic: Pennsylvania
• Small town governments
Economy: Dutch-strong commercial economy- Hudson River Valley
Social System: Multicultural
• Small towns encouraged country governments
• Separatist ideologies
Religion:
• Religious tolerance
Indigenous Societies: Iroquois League (1451)
Women in the Colonial Era
Western Christianity and the Proper Place of Women
• Original sin of Eve= untrustworthy
• Proper place for women
• Paul- “Women should keep silence in the churches.”
• Patriarchal hierarchical family= basic unit of English society
Gendered English Law:
•No vote or participate in politics
•“English law made to fit”- standards of acceptable behavior in colonies
•Feme Sole: single women
•Feme Covert: “taking the identity of husband”
John Winthrop and the “True Wife” VS. Brabbling Women
•Subjection to religious and familial authority
•Outspoken in public
Anne Hutchinson & the charges of heresy
•Questioned teachings, Claimed direct revelations
•Banished 1638
Witches and Witch Hunts
•Reflection of societal stresses
•Salem, Massachusetts 1691-1692