The Thirteen Colonies
1. What was the Virginia Company?
 a joint stock company chartered to colonize North America between the 34th and 35th parallels
 two headquarters
o Plymouth, England (tried Maine, but gave up)
o London, England (Chesapeake Bay, founded Jamestown)
 investors hoped to find gold, silver, northwest passage, cure for syphilis
2. What was the FIRST permanent English colony?
 In late 1606 the Virginia Company sends out three ships
 May 14, 1607 about 100 colonists (all men) land at Jamestown, along the banks of the James River
3. What problems did Jamestown encounter?
 dysentery and typhoid fever (swampy area)
 too many gentlemen and specialized craftsmen – not enough farmers
 lack of leadership
 caught in Indian wars
4. What changes were instituted in Jamestown after 1612 that made it more successful?
 imported mild strain of tobacco that made the colony profitable
 common law replaced martial law
o House of Burgesses – FIRST legislative body in the colonies
 head-right system
o colonists received 50 acres for each person whose passage to Virginia he financed
5. What was family life like in the Chesapeake region?
 lower life expectancy than in England
 most women who could produce children stayed unwed until after childbearing years – WHY???
 typical ages at marriage: groom 30s, bride 20-22
 husbands typically died before wives
 weak patriarchy
 focus on kin
6. Did slavery develop immediately in Virginia?
 NO, NO, NO
 slavery developed only as labor shortage intensified (tobacco)
 3 sources of labor
o indentured servants
o slaves
o head-right system
7. What sorts of problems did Virginia eventually have in the late 1600s?
 growing divisions between farmers and wealthy landowners (rulers) of tidewater
 RESULT – Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)
o Bacon, who supported the farmers said…
 tidewater elite had too much economic and political power
 elite not protecting farmers against Indians
o the revolt
 Bacon & farmers massacred Indians, defeated governor’s forces, and burned Jamestown
 stopped when Bacon died of dysentery and the rebel army collapsed
8. What 2 steps did Lord Baltimore take that showed greater religious tolerance in Maryland?
 conceded a bicameral legislature to the colony, knowing that Protestants would dominate the elected
assembly and Catholics would control the appointed posts (ie: RELIGIOUS COMPROMISE)
 Toleration Act of 1649
o granted freedom of worship to ALL Christians (but not Jews)
o established idea of religious toleration in colonies
9. What was the major difference between Virginia and Maryland colonies?
Virginia
Maryland
10. Who were the Pilgrims, and why did they come to Plymouth?
 Pilgrims are also known as Separatists and they came for purely religious reasons (not economic)
 Pilgrims were English Protestants who wanted to separate from the Church of England (it was NOT
Protestant enough) because they believed it could not be reformed
o BUT: two-thirds of those on the Mayflower were NOT Separatists – many of them DID come for
economic reasons
o THEREFORE: they all agreed to the Mayflower Compact – to abide by decisions of the majority
11. What did the Puritans mean by “City Upon a Hill”?
 they wanted to form a model city for all people around the world to follow
12. When did the Puritans come to the Massachusetts Bay? How many were there? How did they make their living?
 1629-1630
 founded Boston
 about 1,000
 made their living doing English things
o raising livestock
o growing English wheat
o growing corn
o around 1650, started trading with West Indies
13. How did the health of settlers in New England compare to that of the Chesapeake Bay settlers?
New England
Chesapeake Bay
14. Why did some people leave Plymouth & the Massachusetts Bay colony to settle new colonies in New England?
 Puritan leaders tended to be intolerant of those who questioned them
 Puritan leaders believed in merging of Church and State
 Puritan leaders would banish dissidents
o Roger Williams (Providence); Anne Hutchinson (Portsmouth); united to found Rhode Island with
religious toleration
o Thomas Hooker (Hartford) drew up Fundamental Orders of Connecticut; first constitution in the
colonies; joined New Haven to form Connecticut colony in 1665
15. What was the Half-Way covenant? Why was it created?
 created to address the problem of too many second generation Puritans drifting away from the church’s
influence (secularization of New England society)
o required baptism
o those who accepted
 could become church members (therefore saved)
 did not have to devote themselves to strict principles of the church
 could not vote on church issues
16. What were the Restoration colonies?
 founded during the English Restoration (of Charles II in 1660)
 all were proprietary (owned by someone)
 all tried to attract colonists from older colonies because importing them from Europe was too expensive
 how did they attract people?
o made it easy to acquire land
o offered strong guarantees of political and religious liberties (toleration or full religious liberty)
 they foreshadowed the diversity that characterized the US after 1790
17. What cash crop did South Carolina eventually rely on?
 rice
18. What portion of the South Carolina population were African slaves?
 by 1730, about 66%, or two-thirds of the population
19. What cash crop did North Carolina eventually rely on?
 tobacco
 result: NC’s economy was less dependent on slavery, because the tobacco farms tended to be smaller
20. Did New York become entirely English in its population after 1660?
 NO, NO, NO
 most Dutch people stayed after the English took over in the 1660s
 the English were tolerant, assured them religious toleration, allowed them to keep property and language
21. Who originally settled Pennsylvania?
 William Penn
o received land grant in Americas because English king owed his dad a huge debt
o founded Philadelphia
 The Quakers
o pacifists
o denounced oath taking
o uncomfortable with slavery
o no clergy: anyone allowed to speak in Church
22. How did Quakers view their children?
 innocent in whom the Light would shine if only they could be protected from worldly corruption
 NOT tiny sinners whose wills had to be broken with severe discipline – like the Puritans
 families more affectionate
 tried to acquire land for all their children
 tried to limit family size so as to give more love to their children
23. What elements contributed to Pennsylvania’s success?
 it was a planned community
 Penn was very cooperative with Indians (called Miquon, which meant “Quill”, which was used as a pen)
 freedom of worship for all – including JEWS
24. What was the last colony, and why was it founded?
 Georgia, 1732
 led by James Oglethorpe, founded Savannah; proprietary colony
o no rum
o no slavery
o 1752 – became royal colony; more prosperity when rum and slavery bans were lifted
 founded for 2 main reasons
o defensive BUFFER against invasion from Spanish in Florida (threat to South Carolina)
o to relieve overcrowding in English debtor prisons
FRQ’s
1. Analyze the origins and development of slavery in Britain’s North American colonies in the period 1607 to 1776.
2. Compare and contrast the British, French, and Spanish imperial goals in North America between 1580 and 1763.
3. Evaluate the influence of religion on the development of colonial society in TWO of the following regions.
a. The Spanish Southwest
b. New England
c. New France
4. Early encounters between American Indians and European colonists led to a variety of relationships among the
different cultures. Analyze how the actions taken by BOTH American Indians and European colonists shaped
those relationships in TWO of the following regions. Confine your answer to the 1600s.
a. New England
b. Chesapeake
c. Spanish Southwest
d. New York and New France
5. Compare and contrast the ways in which economic development affected politics in Massachusetts and Virginia
in the period from 1607 to 1750.
6. Compare the ways in which TWO of the following reflected tensions in colonial society.
a. Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)
b. Pueblo Revolt (1680)
c. Salem witchcraft trials (1692)
d. Stono Rebellion (1739)
7. Why did slavery in the colonies grow more rapidly in the last decades of the 17th century than in the earlier
decades?