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chapterfour
SETTLING
ENGLISH AMERICA
What factors led to the successful
English colonization of America?
SELECTED
VOCABULARY
Parliament
Protestant
Reformation
Spanish Armada
Charter
Indentured servants
Slaves
Virginia House of
Burgesses
Proprietary colony
Puritans
Patent
Eight Lords
Proprietors
OVERVIEW
England had the greatest influence of any nation on the history
of the United States. England
grew into a strong Protestant
nation under the Tudor kings and
queens. John Cabot made the
first English voyage to America in
1497. The first permanent
English settlements were
made in the Chesapeake area
and in New England.
In 1629, Sir Robert Heath
received the first charter for
the land that now includes
South Carolina. But not
until after the English Civil
War, in 1663, did the Lords
Proprietors get a charter
from Charles II for
Carolina. A group of
planters from Barbados
settled at Cape Fear and
explored the coast.
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TIMELINE
UNITED STATES
SOUTH CAROLINA
1497
John Cabot reached
Newfoundland
1529
Parliament declared
Reformation
1584
First Roanoke Island
settlement
1587
Second Roanoke settlement
1588
Defeat of Spanish Armada
1607
Jamestown settled
1620
Plymouth settled
1629
Heath Patent for Carolana
1630
Massachusetts Bay settled
1634
Maryland settled
1662
Connecticut royal charter
1660
Charles II
1663
First Carolina charter
William Hilton explored
coast
1665
Second Carolina charter
I. THE RISE OF THE ENGLISH NATION
How did new political institutions and events
help make England the most powerful nation in
Europe?
The future of the United States lay not with the
Spanish or the French, but with the English.
Eventually, English ideas and institutions shaped the
new nation.
The modern English nation came into being after
1485. That year the Tudor family came to the throne
and ended a long war among the nobles that nearly
tore the country apart. The first Tudor king, Henry VII,
was a skillful political leader. He ruled with the aid of
his closest advisors, the members of the Privy Council.
He and the Privy Council worked very closely with the
members of Parliament, the English legislative assembly. Parliament was made up of two houses. The
House of Lords contained the nobles and the bishops
and archbishops of the Church. The House of
Commons had members from every county and town
in the kingdom. Parliament had the power to pass
laws and raise taxes. The king could not rule without
Parliament, and he knew it.
The Protestant Reformation could have divided
the leaders of the nation once more. It came to
England during the reign of Henry’s son, Henry VIII.
At first, the Tudors were loyal Catholics. But when the
pope would not annul the marriage of Henry VIII,
Parliament gave him an annulment in 1529 and then
declared Henry “the only head on earth of the Church
of England.” During the long reign of Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth I, Spain tried to destroy England. Spain
was a strong Catholic nation and a rival of England for
power in Europe. Philip II of Spain built a huge navy,
which he called “the Invincible Armada.” In 1588 the
Spanish Armada attacked England. The English
sailors were more skillful than the Spanish, and they
defeated Philip’s fleet. England became the most powerful nation in Europe.
II. EARLY ENGLISH CLAIMS TO AMERICA
What were England’s early attempts to colonize
North America?
Shortly after Columbus returned from America, an
Italian sailor, John Cabot, came to England and persuaded Henry VII to send him on a voyage across the
Atlantic. In 1497, Cabot reached Newfoundland. The
next year he set out on a second voyage and never
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returned. But his two trips gave England her claim to North America.
Not until after the Reformation and the war with Spain did England begin
to plant colonies in the New World. At first the English did not succeed. Two of
Queen Elizabeth’s favorite courtiers, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and his half-brother
Sir Walter Raleigh, asked her to grant permission for a voyage to America. In
1583 Gilbert landed at Newfoundland, but he was later lost at sea. The next year
Raleigh sent out an expedition to find a suitable place for an English colony. The
leaders chose Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina. They named the
land Virginia in honor of the unmarried Elizabeth, who was known as the Virgin
Queen. Raleigh sent out two groups to settle the land. The first group left
Virginia after learning that the Spanish planned to attack them. The second
group landed at Roanoke in 1587, but the settlers later disappeared with no trace.
Ever since they have been known as the Lost Colony.
III. THE VIRGINIA COLONY ON CHESAPEAKE BAY
What factors made the Virginia Colony successful?
Queen Elizabeth I, the last of the Tudors, died in 1603. She was succeeded by
her cousin, James I, a member of the Stuart family. Under the Stuarts the English
at last entered the Age of Empire. They made successful settlements not only in
North America but in Northern Ireland, the Caribbean,
and South America.
The first English settlements were not made by the
government but by private corporations. These corporations obtained charters from the king. Businessmen
bought shares of stock in the corporations to fund the
colonies. They hoped to make a profit on their investments if the colonies became successful.
On April 10, 1606, King James I granted a charter to
two groups of merchants—one in London and one in
Plymouth. The charter called the new venture the
Virginia Company. The two groups were to settle separate colonies on the Atlantic coast between Maine and
the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. The Plymouth
group settled a colony in Maine, but it failed. The
London group was better financed. In April 1607, three
ships landed at Jamestown in Virginia. That colony
might have failed, too, had it not been for the strong leadership of an English adventurer, Captain John Smith.
The weather was very dry, and crops were hard to grow.
When many of the colonists refused to plant or harvest
the crops, Smith seized control of the settlement and
threatened those who would not work with starvation
and exile.
In 1609 the company asked the king for a new charter, which would allow them to reorganize the colony.
More stock was sold, and new colonists were recruited.
For the first time the Virginia Company allowed settlers
in America to own land. The colonists began to grow
tobacco. In 1612 the first shipment of tobacco was sent
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to market in London; it was sold for a profit. Soon there were tobacco plantations
all over Virginia. At first labor was provided by indentured servants from
Europe. They worked on the plantations for a set number of years until they paid
for their passage across the Atlantic. In 1619 the first shipload of African servants
arrived in Virginia to work on the plantations. Within twenty years, however,
these black servants, unlike the white indentured servants, became slaves for life.
Black slavery soon became a way of life in the American colonies. The same year
the first Africans arrived, in 1619, the governor called a meeting of representatives
from the colony to assist him in making local laws. The House of Burgesses was
the first legislative assembly in America.
In spite of the fact that the colony was becoming successful, the leaders of the
Virginia Company in England could not agree on how the colony should be governed. So in 1624 the king revoked the Virginia charter. He transformed the colony
into a royal colony, or province, under the direct control of the Privy Council.
Queen Elizabeth I was the last
English ruler of the Tudor family.
During her reign the first English
settlements were made in
North America.
The Granger Collection
Where were they made?
The Pilgrims were an English
Separatist group who had lived
in Holland for many years. Before
they sailed to New England, they
prayed for God’s guidance.
U.S. Capitol
Why did the Pilgrims go to
Holland? Go to New England?
34 | Chapter 4
IV. MARYLAND AND THE BALTIMORE FAMILY
As a proprietary colony, how was Maryland different?
In 1634, ten years after Virginia became a royal colony, Cecilius Calvert, Lord
Baltimore, founded the colony of Maryland, just north of Virginia. His father,
George Calvert, had become a Roman Catholic in 1625 and wished to establish a
colony where English Catholics could live under the English flag and worship
freely. Catholics did not have freedom of worship in England. Under the royal
charter Lord Baltimore became proprietor of the colony. In a proprietary colony
the king granted ownership of the colony to an individual or a group of individuals with powers almost as great as those of the king himself. But Lord
Baltimore’s dream of a Catholic colony was not to be. Maryland soon had a
majority of Protestant landowners. Becoming wealthy tobacco planters, the settlers of Maryland began to challenge the authority of the Baltimore family.
V. THE PURITANS SETTLE NEW ENGLAND
Why did religious differences lead to the settlement of New England?
During the reign of Elizabeth I, a group of Protestants within the Church of
England became dissatisfied with the English Reformation. They wanted to purify
the church of practices they thought were still Catholic. They
also preferred the religious views of John Calvin to the moderate
beliefs of the English church leaders. They opposed bishops’
governing the church and wanted the church controlled by
councils of ministers and church members. These reformers
called themselves Puritans.
In 1620 a small group of Puritans who wanted to separate
themselves entirely from the Church of England secured permission from the Virginia Company to settle in North America.
They had left England and were living in Holland. But they
wanted their children to grow up as English, not Dutch. These
Separatists, or Pilgrims, crossed the Atlantic in the ship
Mayflower and settled in New England at Plymouth. In the fall
of 1621 the Plymouth colony held a harvest festival to cele-
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brate its first crop. Americans trace their Thanksgiving Day
to the Plymouth harvest festival.
Nearly ten years later, in 1629, a group of Puritans who
wanted to reform the church but not separate from it, gained
control of the Massachusetts Bay Company. This company
had a charter to establish a fishing colony in New England.
Under the leadership of John Winthrop, these non-separating Congregationalists enlisted 700 settlers and eleven
ships. In March 1630, they sailed from England to establish
a haven for their own religious ideas. They called it a Bible
commonwealth, or “a city set on a hill.” The city of Boston
became the center of their colony.
So that the colony could govern itself, the Puritans took the
charter to Boston. They adopted a law that voters in
Massachusetts Bay had to be members of non-separating Congregational Churches.
They punished or executed members of other Puritan groups, such as Quakers or
Baptists, who insisted on practicing their own religions in the colony. Finally one
of their number, Roger Williams, who became a Separatist, fled the colony before
the leaders could arrest him and send him back to England. He founded a colony
in nearby Rhode Island. It became a place where people of different religious views
could live without fear. Finally, in 1691, the king revoked the Massachusetts Bay
charter and forced the Puritans to live under the laws of England.
Other residents of Massachusetts began to establish colonies in New England. In
1633 settlers from Plymouth moved west to the Connecticut River. In 1636 Thomas
Hooker led three other groups to sites along the same river. Not until 1662 did these
and several other towns receive a royal charter as the Province of Connecticut.
The land north of Massachusetts was divided into New Hampshire and Maine
in 1629, but Massachusetts tried to gain control of both colonies. The Privy
Council in England recognized New Hampshire as a separate province, but the
Massachusetts charter of 1691 made Maine a part of Massachusetts.
VI. THE HEATH PATENT FOR CAROLANA
What was the Heath Patent?
The English made their first
permanent settlement in North
America at Jamestown in
Virginia. In 1957 a model of the
first settlement was built.
When did the English first
arrive at Jamestown?
In 1620 the Pilgrims settled at
Plymouth. This photograph shows
a man dressed like a
settler at Plimouth Plantation, a
modern reconstruction of the
early village.
In what state is Plymouth
located? What national holiday
had its beginnings in the
Plymouth Colony?
The English first attempted to settle what
is now North and South Carolina in 1629.
Charles I was king, and his attorney general, Sir Robert Heath, applied for a grant of
land between Virginia and Spanish Florida.
The royal charter granted him the land,
which they called Carolana. The next year
Heath enlisted a group of Huguenots living
in England to settle in Carolana. In 1633
forty settlers arrived in Virginia, but they got
no farther. Then Heath gave his patent to a
young nobleman, Lord Maltravers. But he,
too, failed to settle Carolana. For the
moment English settlers were more interested in living in a successful colony like
Virginia or Massachusetts.
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VII. CIVIL WAR AND A NEW BEGINNING
In 1642, England was torn apart by civil war. The Stuart kings were not skillful political leaders like the Tudors. For years the Stuarts had proclaimed their
right to rule without Parliament. But Parliament insisted that the king was not
above the law. The House of Commons was led by Puritans, who wanted to
reform the Church of England and turn England itself into a Bible commonwealth. Charles I responded by declaring war on the House of Commons.
Unfortunately for King Charles, he was captured, tried by Parliament, and put to
death. Until 1660, England was ruled by the House of Commons and an executive known as the Lord Protector.
But the rule of Parliament failed. The leaders of England wanted a king instead.
They asked the son of Charles I, who was living in exile in Holland, to return. In
May 1660, he was crowned King Charles II. At his side were three loyal advisors—
John, Lord Berkeley; Edward Hyde, who became the Earl of Clarendon; and
George Monck, who became the Duke of Albemarle. Less well known was a
young supporter of the king, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper. These four men and four
of their friends soon became involved in the permanent settlement of Carolina.
Roger Williams was a Puritan
minister in Massachusetts Bay.
Corbis
Why did he establish
Rhode island?
After the English Civil War, Charles
II returned to England in 1660 to
become king.
National Portrait Gallery, London
What is his name in Latin?
36 | Chapter 4
VIII. THE CAROLINA CHARTER
What did the charter granted to the eight Lords Proprietors create?
Many of the king’s supporters had left England during the Civil War. In 1660
they returned. Among them was John Colleton. After serving in the royal army,
he immigrated to the island of Barbados in the West Indies and bought a sugar
plantation there. Colleton became a wealthy planter. But land was scarce in
Barbados. The English had not yet settled the land in North America south of
Virginia. Perhaps the king would grant that land for a colony.
Colleton, back in England and now Sir John, suggested the idea to Lord
Berkeley. Soon Clarendon, Albemarle, and Ashley Cooper joined them. Berkeley’s
brother Sir William Berkeley, Sir George Carteret, and William, Lord Craven, also
became interested. They proposed the grant to their friend Charles II. On March
24, 1663, the Privy Council issued a royal charter to the eight Lords Proprietors
for the land south of Virginia to Florida and from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Ocean. The charter gave them almost unlimited power over the land. It now bore
the name Carolina. Carolus was the king’s name in Latin. Because the Heath
Patent had not been revoked, the proprietors received a second charter in 1665
which extended the limits of their land north and south.
The land was so vast the proprietors planned to divide it into four counties—
Albemarle (wholly in North Carolina), Craven, Clarendon, and Colleton. Later
Granville was added on the Savannah River. They agreed to settle the land by luring colonists already in the New World, rather than sending inexperienced people from England. Sir John Colleton had a number of friends in Barbados who
were interested in going to Carolina.
In fact, in 1663—the same year the Carolina charter was first granted—a group
of Barbadians sent William Hilton, captain of the ship the Adventure, to explore the
coast. He sailed past Hilton Head Island into Port Royal Sound, where the Spanish
and the French had once settled. Hilton Head Island was later named for the captain. He wrote a glowing report of his findings that encouraged a group of
Barbadians to settle on the Cape Fear River in present-day North Carolina in 1665.
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The next year a member of the Cape Fear colony, Robert Sandford, sailed down
the coast as far south as Port Royal in search of more places for settlement. On
board his ship was a young English surgeon who had previously settled in
Virginia, Dr. Henry Woodward. At Port Royal, Dr. Woodward volunteered to live
with the Indians until a permanent settlement was made there.
These ambitious plans failed. The Barbadians at Cape Fear returned to the
West Indies. In England the leadership of the Lords Proprietors changed. Sir
John Colleton died, and the Duke of Albemarle became ill and retired. The Earl
of Clarendon fell out of favor with the king. The other proprietors lost interest,
except for one—Anthony Ashley Cooper.
Sir George Carteret
NJ Historical Society
2/25/06
MCS Oliphant Collection
Edward Hyde,
Earl of Clarendon
John, Lord Berkeley
MCS Oliphant Collection
William, Lord Craven
Anthony Ashley Cooper,
Earl of Shaftesbury
MCS Oliphant Collection
MCS Oliphant Collection
National Portrait Gallery, London
The Lords Proprietors of Carolina
Sir William Berkeley
MCS Oliphant Collection
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George Monck,
Duke of Albemarle
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EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY:
Captain William Hilton’s Relation of a Discovery, 1664
In 1663 a group of planters from Barbados, eager to settle in Carolina, sent William Hilton, captain of the ship
Adventure, to explore the coast of the new colony. He sailed
along the coast of South Carolina and found a group of
Englishmen who had been shipwrecked. Hilton’s account of
the voyage was sent to the Lords Proprietors in London. They
published it in 1664, hoping that Hilton’s description would
encourage other settlers. This is Hilton’s account of the
coast between the Edisto River and Port Royal Sound.
Now our understanding of the Land of Port-Royal, River
Jordan [Combahee], River Grandie, or Edistow, is as followeth: The Lands
are laden with large tall Oaks, Walnut and Bayes, except facing on the Sea,
it is most Pines tall and good: The Land generally, except where the Pines
grow, is a good Soyl [soil], covered with black Mold, in some places a foot,
in some places half a foot, deep; in other places lesse, with Clay underneath
mixed with Sand; and we think may produce anything as well as most parts
of the Indies that we have seen. The Indians plant in the worst Land, because
they cannot cut down the Timber in the best, and yet have plenty of Corn,
Pompions [pumpkins], Water-Mellons, Musk-mellons: although the Land be
overgrown with weeds through their lazinesse, yet they have two or three
crops of Corn a year, as the Indians themselves inform us. The Country
abounds with Grapes, large Figs, and Peaches; the Woods with Deer, Conies
[rabbits], Turkeys, Quails, Curlues, Plovers, Teile [teal], Herons; and as the
Indians say, in Winter with Swans, Geese, Cranes, Duck and
Mallard, and innumerable other water-Fowls, whose names
Questions for Reflection:
we know not, which lie in the Rivers, Marshes, and on the
Sands: Oysters in abundance, with a great store of Muscles
1. What did Hilton find on the South
[mussels]; A sort of fair Crabs, and a round of Shel-fish called
Carolina coast in 1663?
Horse-feet [clams]. The Rivers are plentifully stored with Fish
that we saw play and leap. There are great Marshes, but most
2. What differences are there today
as far as we saw of little worth, except for a Root that grows
on the coast?
in them the Indians make good Bread of. The Land we sup3. What was a major crop planted by
pose is healthful, for the English that were cast away on that
Native Americans?
coast in July last, were there most part of that time of year
that is sickly in Virginia; and notwithstanding hard usage,
4. Why did the native people “plant
and lying on the ground naked, yet had their perfect healths
in the worst land”?
all the time. The Natives are very healthful; we saw very
5. Why did Hilton believe the land
many very aged amongst them. The Ayr [air] is clear and
was healthy?
sweet, the Countrey very pleasant and delightful: And we
could wish that all they that want a happy settlement, of our
6. Why did Hilton’s account make
English Nation, were well transported thither, etc.
others want to settle in Carolina?
?
7. Why does this primary source help
us understand Carolina before
English settlement?
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William Hilton, A Relation of a Discovery (1664),
reprinted in Alexander S. Salley, Jr.,
Narratives of Early Carolina, 1650-1708. New York, 1911,
rep. 1967, pp. 44-45.
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Recalling wha
t you read
I. The Rise of the English Nation
1. Who was the first Tudor king?
2. How was the government organized under the king?
3. Why did the Tudors’ loyalty to the Catholics change?
II. Early English Claims to America
1. Whose expeditions gave England the claim to North America?
2. Who were the Englishmen to whom Queen Elizabeth gave permission for
a voyage to America?
3. What happened to the colonies they established?
III. The Virginia Colony on Chesapeake Bay
FOR
THOUGHT
1. Why did the defeat
of the Spanish
Armada in 1588
lead to English colonization in North
America?
2. Why did private
ownership of
property help save
Jamestown and
make it prosper?
3. Why did the end of
the English Civil
War lead to the
creation of the
Carolina colony?
1. What groups were responsible for the first English settlements?
2. Why were they interested in providing funds for colonies to settle in
America?
3. How did the Jamestown colony come about and who provided the leadership to make it succeed?
4. What was the first crop grown in America and shipped to London where it
was sold for a profit?
5. Who were the first laborers on the plantations?
6. What was important about the year 1619?
7.
What was the name of the first legislative assembly in America?
8. What did the king do in 1624 to change the way the colony was governed?
IV. Maryland and the Baltimore Family
1. Who founded the colony of Maryland?
2. Why was it established?
3. What happened in the colony that ruined its founder’s dream of a
Catholic colony?
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Recalling wha
t you read
V. The Puritans Settle New England
1. What did the Puritans dislike about the Church of England?
2. How did the Puritans separate themselves from the Church of England?
3. What happened in the fall of 1621 that we still celebrate today?
4. What religious group settled the city of Boston? Who was their leader?
5. Who was Roger Williams? Which colony did he establish? Why?
6. How was the Province of Connecticut established?
7. How was New Hampshire established?
VI. The Heath Patent for Carolana
1. What happened to Sir Robert Heath’s efforts to settle Carolana?
2. Who was Lord Maltravers? Why was he unsuccessful in getting people
to settle Carolana?
VII. Civil War and a New Beginning
1. What happened to King Charles I? Why?
2. How and why did Charles II get to be king?
3. Who were the king’s advisors who became involved in the permanent settlement of South Carolina?
VIII. The Carolina Charter
1. Name the eight original Lords Proprietors.
2. For what lands did the Privy Council issue them a charter?
3. What was Colleton’s idea for populating the colony?
Was his plan successful?
40 | Chapter 4