In this chapter, you will learn about three groups that came to America from England. These people made the dangerous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in order to create small communities, or settlements. You will learn about the challenges and hardships they faced.
The Lost Settlement of Roanoke
In the 1500s, Spain was one of the world’s most powerful nations. Spanish ships ruled the ocean and brought gold and silver from Spain’s colonies in the Americas.
In England, Sir Walter Raleigh believed that colonies in North America could make his country richer and more powerful. In 1584, he sent two ships to explore the coast of North America.
The ships landed on an island near present-day
North Carolina. The sailors named the island Roanoke, after the Native Americans who lived there, the Roanokes. When they returned to England, they told Raleigh that the island had fish, animals, fruits and vegetables, and friendly people.
The next year, Raleigh sent a group of men to start a colony. Few of the settlers were farmers. Supplies ran short because they were unable to raise food. When fighting broke out between the English and the Roanokes, the settlers gave up and returned to England.
In 1587, Raleigh sent about 115 new settlers to Roanoke, including farmers and skilled workers. The settlers realized that the Roanokes would not give them food. So, they sent Captain John White back to England for supplies.
Unfortunately, England was fighting a war with Spain, and
White’s ships could not leave England again.
Three years later, White finally returned to Roanoke.
There was no sign of the settlers. Even their houses were gone.
The letters CROATOAN were carved on the gatepost of a ruined fort. White thought that the settlers had moved to the island of Croatoan. Before he could find out, the weather turned bad, and he could not search the area. While there are many

theories as to what happened to the settlers, no one has ever discovered what happened to the colony. Did the colonists leave to go live with other Native American tribes? Were they attacked by natives? Did the Spanish, the longtime enemies of
England, attack the fort and take the colonists as prisoners? Did the colonists attempt to go overland to Chesapeake to live?
All of these are theories of what may have occurred but to this day it is an unsolved mystery!!
In 1606, King James gave permission to a group of wealthy men to start a colony in North America. The group sent settlers to Virginia, hoping to make money from the colony.
In April 1607, 105 settlers arrived in Virginia. Most of them hoped to become wealthy by finding natural riches like gold. They picked a spot near a wide river and built a settlement. In honor of King James, they called it
Unfortunately, the settlers built Jamestown on a marsh. A marsh is a
. low area of wet land that is sometimes unhealthy for people. The water around
Jamestown was dirty and salty. The land was not good for farming. Also, mosquitoes carried a deadly disease called malaria. Within 8 months, disease killed most of the settlers. By January 1608, only 38 of them were still alive.
In late 1607, one of the settlers, Captain John Smith, was captured by some Native Americans. They took Smith to their chief, a man named Powhatan
(pow-uh-TAN). Powhatan ordered Smith to kneel and lay his head between two stones. Several men raised their clubs in the air. Smith believed that he was about to be killed.
At that moment, Powhatan’s young daughter, Pocohantas, laid her head on Smith’s. Smith believed that she saved his life. Historians, though, think that Smith may have misunderstood a Native
American ceremony.
Later, Pocohontas visited Jamestown several times, bringing food to the settlers.
Powhatan’s people also taught the settlers to hunt, plant crops, and fish.
Meanwhile, more settlers kept arriving from England. In 1608, John Smith was elected president of the colony. Many of the settlers were “gentlemen” who were used to having servants do all the work. Smith knew that the settlement needed everyone’s help in order to survive. He said firmly that any man who would not work, would not eat. Smith’s leadership helped to save the colony. That winter, only 18 colonists died.
The next year, Smith returned to England after being badly burned by an explosion of gun powder. The colonists had lost a strong leader, and Powhatan was no longer helping them. The winter of 1609-1610 was known as the “Starving Time”.
Many settlers had to eat horses and dogs. Hundreds of them died. Only about 60 settlers survived.

The Jamestown settlers never found any gold. They needed a way to support their colony in order to stay in America.
Then, a man named John Rolfe found a way to grow a sweet-tasting kind of tobacco. People in England loved the new Virginia tobacco. Now settlers had something they could trade for money and supplies. Tobacco had become Virginia’s version of GOLD!
By 1619, Jamestown was growing. Each settler was given 50 acres of land to farm. A ship brought about 200 women to Virginia so that settlers could marry and raise families. That year, settlers also elected representatives to make laws for the colony. They called this group the House of Burgesses (Burgesses was an English word for elected representatives).
Only wealthy men could be elected into this group. Even so, Virginia now had a more democratic government than England.
Meanwhile, Powhatan’s people worried about so many settlers coming to their land. In 1614, John Rolfe married
Pocahontas, and for the first time the settlers and the Native Americans were at peace. Pocahontas even went to England and met King James. Unfortunately in 1617, she became ill and died before she could return home. Soon after Powhatan died, and his brother became chief. In 1622, the new chief and his followers attacked Jamestown and killed 347 colonists. Luckily,
Jamestown survived and became the first successful, permanent English settlement in North America.
The third English settlement in North America was started by the people who were looking for religious freedom. King James demanded that everyone in England had to belong to the Church of England. Some people refused. Among them were people called
Separatists. The Separatists wanted to have a separate, or different, church.
The Separatists did not want to follow King James’ orders so they decided to move to a place where they could be free to have their own religion. In time, they came to be known as the Pilgrims.
In September 1620, the Pilgrims sailed from England on a ship called the Mayflower. After more than two months at sea, they landed on the tip of Cape Cod in what is now Massachusetts. Before going ashore, the Pilgrims drew up a plan of government to help them live together peacefully. Most of the men signed the agreement, which is known as the Mayflower Compact (compact means agreement). Then they elected a governor.
After exploring the area, the Pilgrims decided to sail the
Mayflower across the bay and land at a place they named Plymouth.
In late December, they starting building houses and a meeting hall, called the Common House.

The first winter was very hard. The
Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts which has very cold winters and they landed too late in the year to plant crops. Nearly half of the
102 Pilgrims died before spring. Only 6 or 7 of them were strong enough to help care for the others.
In March 1621, a Native American named Squanto, from the nearby Wampanoags
(wam-puh-No-ags), visited the Pilgrims.
Sailors had taken Squanto to England, where he learned English. Squanto stayed with the
Pilgrims and taught them how to plant corn, catch fish, and get sweet syrup from maple trees. The Pilgrims were so grateful that they thought Squanto had been sent by
God. Squanto also told the Pilgrims about the many Native Americans who had died from a disease that they caught from
English and French fishermen. Squanto’s entire tribe had died while he was overseas. (Remember: This was the worst outcome of the Columbian Exchange)
Another Native American who visited the Pilgrims was Massasoit (MAS-uh-soit), the chief of the Wampanoag people.
Squanto helped to arrange a peace treaty, or agreement, between the Massasoit and the Pilgrims. The Wampanoags and the
Pilgrims promised not to attack each other. They also said that they would help protect each other against attacks by other
Native Americans.
The Pilgrims’ corn ripened during the summer. In the fall, they decided to celebrate their harvest (the food they collected from the plants they had grown). They invited Massasoit to come to a feast of thanksgiving. The Wampanoags brought deer to cook and eat. The Pilgrims had goose, wild turkey, lobster, and corn bread. The feast of thanksgiving lasted
3 days. Today, Americans still celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November.
In 1621, William Bradford was elected governor of the colony. He served as governor for more than 30 years. In the next few years, ships brought more and more settlers to Plymouth. In time, other groups would join the Pilgrims in the area we now call New England.
The New England colonies were a group of the northernmost colonies. They included what we now call the states of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts
(during the colonial times Maine & Massachusetts BOTH made up the Massachusetts colony).
These colonies had long, cold winters. The rocky soil made it difficult to grow food, so many did

not make a profit from farming. Instead settlers used trees from the region’s forests for shipbuilding. People in New England used the Atlantic Ocean for fishing, hunting whales, and trading.
Religion was important to all people in the colonies but in New England, religion was the center of life. Most of the people were Puritans whose families came from England. The Puritans believed that God rewarded people who worked hard. In most towns, they built meeting houses where they held Sunday services and town meetings. Some of the problems that were discussed at the town meetings included how much should the school master be paid and which roads needed to be repaired. All men who were church members and property owners could speak and vote at these meetings. Town meetings helped build a democracy in America because they gave a large group of people a voice in their government.
New England became the leader in the development of public schools because the Puritans believed everyone should be able to read the Bible. In 1647 Massachusetts passed America’s first public school law. The law required towns with more than 50 families to hire a teacher for the town’s children. Towns with more than 100 families had to start a grammar school for boys. These grammar schools, the first public ones in America, were small, one-room schools. They were for both rich and poor boys, and tax money supported the schools. Girls often went to dame schools, which women ran in their own homes. The first colleges in the colonies were started as school to train ministers. In 1636 the Puritans started Harvard College, the first college in the colonies.
The region to the south of New England held the Middle Colonies. The Middle Colonies included New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
These colonies had a milder climate and better soil. They experienced summer and winters similar to ours (since we live in
New York), warm summers and cold winters. The Middle Colonies had settlers who came from many nations in Europe, including Germany, Sweden, France and Scotland. Most people living in the Middle colonies earned their living through farming. These colonies were called the
“breadbasket colonies” because they grew large amounts of wheat and grains as cash crops.
Farmers used the area’s three main rivers to ship their products to Philadelphia and New
York City. These busy port cities became the largest cities of the Middle colonies. Besides trade, manufacturing was important too. Many factories were based in the Middle colonies.
These factories were also part of their economy. The factories manufactured, or produced, goods such as iron, glass, paper and cloth.
There was little public education in the Middle Colonies. Most schools in the Middle Colonies were private schools and charged fees. Only families that could afford these fees would send their children to school. At the age of 12, many middle and lower class children became an apprentice. An apprentice lived and worked with a master craftsman such as a printer,

shoemaker, glassmaker, silversmith or other craftsman. After about 7 years, the apprentice could work on his own as a journeyman. Later, when he was experienced, he was considered a master craftsman who could then have his own apprentices.
Maryland, North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia are the states that made up the
Southern colonies.
In the Southern colonies, the climate was warmer than in the other two regions (because these colonies were the southernmost colonies, closest to the equator).
The warm climate made it possible to grow crops throughout the year. Also there was a larger area of flat land with good soil for farming. In these colonies, people grew tobacco and rice on large plantations (enormous farms). These cash crops were sold to other colonies and to
England.
Almost everything a planter, or plantation owner, and his family needed was made on a plantation. The planter lived in a large house with his family. The owner’s wife ran the house and often managed the slaves that worked in the house. The southern colonies depended on slaves to do most of the field work. Laws called “slave codes” were passed to control the slaves. According to these laws, slaves were the property of their owners and had no rights at all. Teaching slaves to read and write was against the law. Although there were some African slaves in the Middle colonies and fewer in the New England, MOST were located in the Southern colonies. By 1775 slaves were one fifth of the population in the 13 colonies.
Unlike the Middle colonies, most people in the Southern colonies came from England. And unlike the New England colonies, most people belonged to the Church of England. Laws in Virginia required all people to pay taxes to the church.
Most southerners owned small farms. Wealthy planters controlled businesses, slaves, and government.
There was little public education in the Southern Colonies. In the Southern Colonies, wealthy children were taught at home by a tutor.
The family was the most important social group in the colonies. The father was the head of the house, and he expected his family to obey him. Women had few rights in the 13 colonies. A woman could NOT vote or work in the colonial government. In order to own land, start a business, or sign a contract, a woman had to have permission from her husband or father!
All women were expected to do many kinds of work for their families, but wealthy women had servants to help them. Women had to feed their families, so they grew vegetable gardens that provided some

of their food. Women cooked meals in large pots over a fire in a fireplace. Pies filled with meat and vegetables were very popular.
Women took care of all children who lived in their homes. Women made soap, candles and clothing by hand. By working quickly, a woman might make 200 candles in one day. To make clothes, women had to spin thread, weave it into cloth and sew the cloth into clothing.
Finally most women worked with their husbands on their farms or in their shops or businesses. A few women managed their own plantations. Eliza Lucas Pinckney became famous for managing her father’s plantation. She turned important cash crop in South Carolina.
into an
Social classes were important in the colonies. The highest social class was the UPPER CLASS. The upper class included the wealthy and the well educated. Ministers, lawyers, southern planters, and rich merchants were part of the upper class. Only upper class women could afford to wear fancy silk dresses. Upper class men often wore fancy white wigs. The largest class of people in the colonies was the middle class. Small farmers, shopkeepers, and skilled workers were part of the middle class.
Farm workers and servants were in the lower class. Slaves were the lowest level of society and had the least rights.
New England, a leader in shipbuilding sent trading ships to England and to English colonies in all parts of the world. Colonial products such as lumber and fish were traded in England for manufactured items like furniture and fine clothing. Much trading took place among the 13 colonies. New England merchants shipped fish and lumber to the other colonies. The Southern colonies sent rice and tobacco to New England. Grain and flour from the Middle Colonies went to the Southern Colonies and also to New
England.
In order to trade with countries other than England, the colonies developed triangular trade routes. To trade with
European merchants, the colonial merchants shipped their products to European ports. There they traded for goods that were not available in England, such as fruits and wine. Next, the fruits and wine were traded in England for manufactured goods.
Finally the manufactured goods from England were sold in the colonies.
Another triangular trade route brought African slaves to America. First, colonists traded their products for sugar and molasses in the West Indies. Ships carried sugar and molasses back to the colonies where they were made into rum. In the next step, ships carried rum and guns to Africa. In
Africa, these were exchanged for slaves.

Then African slaves were shipped to the West Indies or to the colonists.
Trade helped the port cities in the colonies grow larger. By 1770 Boston was the busiest port, and Philadelphia was the largest city in the colonies. Cities grew larger and larger each year, but most colonists continued to live on farms and in towns. By 1760 there were almost 2 million people living in the 13 colonies. About half of the colonists came from European nations other than England. They spoke many different languages, belonged to many different religions, and earned their livings in many different ways. They thought of themselves as Virginians, New Yorkers, or members of other colonies.