Reasons for European
Migrations to the
Americas in the 17c
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
May 24, 1607  about 100 colonists [all
men] land at Jamestown, along banks of
James River
 Easily defended, but swarming with
disease-causing mosquitoes.
Chesapeake Bay
Geographic/environmental problems??
Jamestown Fort &
Settlement Map
Problems in Jamestown
1606-1607  40 people died on the
voyage to the New World.
“Gentlemen” colonists would not work
themselves.
 Game in forests & fish in river uncaught.
Settlers wasted time looking for gold
instead of hunting or farming.
There was no talk…but dig gold, wash
gold, refine gold, load gold…
Captain John Smith:
The Right Man for the Job??
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%
The Starving Time
“And one amongst the rest did kill
his wife, powdered [salted] her,
and had eaten part of her before
it was knowne, for which hee was
executed, as hee well deserved;
now whether shee was better
roasted, boyled or carbonado'd
[grilled], I know not, but of such a
dish as powdered wife I never
heard of.” – John Smith
“Widowarchy”
High mortality
among husbands
and fathers left
many women
in the Chesapeake
colonies with
unusual autonomy
and wealth!
Chief Powhatan
Powhatan Confederacy
 Powhatan dominated a
few dozen 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.
Pocahontas
Pocahontas “saves”
Captain John Smith
A 1616
engraving
Powhatan Confederacy
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.
Smith’s
Portrayal
of
Native
Americans
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.
Powhatan Uprising
of 1622
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!
John Rolfe
What finally made the colony prosperous??
Tobacco Plant
Virginia’s gold and silver.
-- John Rolfe, 1612
Early Colonial Tobacco
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.
1629 — Virginia produces
1,500,000 pounds
of tobacco.
Indentured
Servitude
Headright
System
Indentured Contract, 1746
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 each other.
 1610-1614: only 1 in 10 outlived their
indentured contracts!
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.
Virginia
House of Burgesses
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.
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!
English Tobacco Label
First Africans arrived in Jamestown in
1619.
 Their status was not clear  perhaps
slaves, perhaps indentured servants.
 Slavery not that important until the end of
the 17c.
The Atlantic Slave Trade
The “Middle Passage”
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.
Nathaniel Bacon’s
Rebellion: 1676
Led 1,000 Virginians in
a rebellion against
Governor Berkeley
Nathaniel
Bacon
Governor
William
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.
Separatists
vs.
Puritans
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.
 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 was 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
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 a town
hall meeting style.
Covenant Theology
“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.
Colonizing New England
First Seal of MA Bay
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 wellstocked 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.
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 deputy-governor
for 19 years.
..we shall be as a
“City on a hill". The
eyes of all people are
upon us.
Characteristics of New England
Settlements
Low mortality  average life
expectancy was 70 years of age.
Many extended families.
Average 6 children per family.
Average age at marriage:
 Women – 22 years old
 Men – 27 years old.
Patriarchy
Authoritarian male father figures
controlled each household.
Patriarchal ministers and magistrates
controlled
church
congregations
and household
patriarchs.
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.
Roger Williams
1635  found guilty of preaching new &
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, wellspoken woman.
Eventually bragged that she
had received her beliefs
DIRECTLY from God.
Puritan leaders banished her
 she & her family traveled to
RI and later to NY.
 She and all but one member of
her family were killed in an
Indian attack in Westchester
County.
 John Winthrop saw God’s hand
in this!
Anne
Hutchinson
New England Spreads Out
New England Colonies, 1650
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 whites]
 Massasoit’s son united
Indians and staged
coordinated attacks
on white settlements throughout New England.
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!!