Chapter 3: Planting Colonies
Logan Greene
AP United States History
West Blocton High School
Chapter Objectives
• What role did the fur trade and fur traders play in the
success of French colonies?
• How did the English colonies in and around Jamestown
of the early seventeenth century differ from those in New
England later in that same century?
• Why was tobacco so important to the economies of the
Southern colonies?
• How were the Dutch able to successfully establish New
Netherland along the eastern seaboard of America?
• How were the societies of the West Indies and Carolina
different from societies in other parts of North America?
The French
• Despite the early failures in exploration the
French brought back furs which
drastically expanded demand in Europe
• Colonies that farmed were needed to set up
outposts for fur traders
– Quebec (1608): Started by Champlain
– Montreal (1642): Started by Jesuits
• By 1700 New France had about 15000
settlers (only about 7% of English colonies)
The Fur Trade
• The entire idea of New France was based around
fur
• The French did not hunt, trap, or prepare the
furs they simply traded with the Indians for the
furs
• Indians saw this as a greater alliance between
themselves and the French
• New France was consistently ruled by royal
appointed governors although they sometimes
disobeyed royal orders
• Courers de bois (“woods runners”) were
independent French fur traders
The English and Jamestown
• After the failure at Roanoke a group of investors
convinced King James I to allow them to attempt
colonization
• They formed a joint-stock company where
investors bought shares of the company
expecting a return
• In 1607 this company landed 104 men in present
day Virginia and they founded Jamestown
• Hoping to find gold the settlers only found
disease and death in the swamp they called
home. By 1608 only 38 were still alive
Jamestown
• With total failure on the horizon 28 year
old John Smith took over the colony and
instilled strict discipline
• “He that will not worke shall not eate”
revitalized the colony
• Without Smith the colony again suffered
• By 1610 only sixty of 500 new colonists
survived
Headright System
• Having difficulty bringing people to their
colony of death (my term) the governors
devised the headright system
• This gave each 50 acres of land to anyone
who paid their way to Virginia and another
50 to them if they paid for others
1619
• Three important developments occurred in
1619
– 1) Females came to Virginia
– 2) First African slaves arrive in Virginia
– 3) House of Burgesses founded which was the
first legislative body in the new world
Indian Relations
• The increasing populations pushed by the
headright system strained relations with the
Native Americans
• War broke out quickly but the marriage of John
Rolfe and Pocahontas helped keep the peace for a
time
• With Pocahontas’ death in 1617 and the new
chief Opechancanough ruling the Natives
violence intensified
• By 1624 the situation had degenerated so badly
that the colony came under royal control
Tobacco
• In 1617 the first shipment of Virginia tobacco
arrived in England
• Tobacco exploded in Virginia as the colony
became single mindedly based on the product
• A large labor force was necessary as the crop
took 9 months of work
• Indentured servants filled the void, these were
workers who agreed to work for a set number of
years in exchange for passage
• Most died in poverty or of disease/mistreatment
• Despite the success of tobacco most Virginians
lived very hard lives during the 17th century
Maryland
• Due to Virginia’s success (finally) King
Charles I granted a huge parcel of land to
Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore
– This made the colony a proprietary colony
which meant Calvert owned, administered,
and had total control
• Maryland was established specifically to be
a haven for Catholics
• However, Cecilius died before settlement
began and once people did come to the
Colony they were mostly Protestant.
Maryland
• By the 1650’s the Calverts were losing
control of their colony due to the
unhappiness of the Protestants
• In response in 1649 Maryland approved
the Act for Religious Toleration, the first
act in the New World guaranteeing
religious freedom for all Christians
• By 1660 Maryland went from a haven for
Catholics to basically a clone of Virginia
built upon Tobacco
Pilgrims and Plymouth
• The Plymouth colony was founded in 1620 in
present day Massachusetts
• Founded by religious separatists who felt the
Church of England was not pure enough,
therefore they were know as Puritans
• By the end of the first winter half the settlers
died of starvation and disease
• The area Native Americans, including Squanto
and Samoset, helped the Pilgrims survive. In
1621 they gathered for a celebratory feast we
now commemorate as Thanksgiving
• Plymouth remained small, weak, and poor
Massachusetts Bay
• In 1629 a group of Puritans obtained a
royal charter and a joint stock company,
the Massachusetts Bay Colony
• In 1630 a 1000 men women and children
lead by John Winthrop arrived in
Massachusetts
• The Puritans believed in a covenant with
God and watching each other constantly to
insure everyone was behaving
• This created a very stable but ordered
society
Massachusetts Bay Colony
• Massachusetts Bay grew quickly and
peacefully until the first major incident in
the New World: The Pequot War
• As the Massachusetts settlers expanded
westward they came into conflict with the
Pequot tribe of natives
• The war erupted over trade with the Dutch
and the loss of Pequot authority
• The war was brutal including a massacre
by the English of a native village of women
and children
Connecticut
• As more settlers moved in following the
Pequot war the Connecticut River Valley
became populated, eventually splitting off
into its own colony
• The colony published The Fundamental
Orders of Connecticut and was granted
royal charter status in 1662
Rhode Island
• The constant control of Massachusetts
angered some Puritans
• Roger Williams was a charismatic leader in
Massachusetts who preached again the
constant control
• Williams escaped and purchased the land
for Rhode Island from Natives
• Rhode Island became a home for
dissenting peoples against the Puritans
Anne Hutchison
• Anne Hutchison began holding religious
meetings in her Boston house in 1634
• Many prominent puritan leaders believed
her to be a threat and she was put on trial
• She was found guilty and banished from
the colony
• Hutchison eventually made her way to
Roger Williams’ Rhode Island colony
Early New England
• As opposed to the sprawling plantations
and farms New Englanders were centered
around towns
• Religion was paramount among the mostly
puritan settlers
• Farming was difficult due to the soil so
they focused on livestock and achieving
modest prosperity
The Carolinas
• A proprietary colony founded by supporters of
King Charles II in 1663
• Founded on the premise of the Fundamental
Constitutions of Carolina which balanced
property wealth and political power
• The plan never happened as Virginians moved in
and settled wherever they pleased
• Eventually North Carolina separated and became
a tobacco colony and South Carolina became a
rice colony with some of the harshest slave codes
in the world and some of the wealthiest planters
in the New World.
Pennsylvania
• Founded in 1681 by William Penn, a Quaker, as
repayment of a debt owed to him by the King
• Penn called Pennsylvania his “Holy Experiment”
as he wished it to be a place of tolerance
• Eventually infighting and squabbling among
colonists destroyed Penn’s idea of a tolerant
perfect society
• However, Pennsylvania became one of the most
profitable and successful of all English colonies
The Dutch
• The Dutch Republic was the leading merchant
country in Europe
• The most important Dutch New World outpost
was New Netherland on Manhattan Island which
they established by making strong ties with the
Iroquois
• New Netherland never grew to a large colony and
thus had problems when it angered Native
Americans
• By 1650 the investment was starting to turn
sour for the Dutch
New York
• In 1664 the English essentially took over New
Netherland without a fight and renamed it New
York
• The colony quickly grew and the English
encouraged the Dutch traders to stay and carry
on business
• By 1700 the colony had a population of 20,000
Chapter Objectives
• What role did the fur trade and fur traders play in the
success of French colonies?
• How did the English colonies in and around Jamestown
of the early seventeenth century differ from those in New
England later in that same century?
• Why was tobacco so important to the economies of the
Southern colonies?
• How were the Dutch able to successfully establish New
Netherland along the eastern seaboard of America?
• How were the societies of the West Indies and Carolina
different from societies in other parts of North America?