M2
Setting up colonies
After the Spanish had started to explore the
New World, the English followed soon after.
Some tried to make a fortune as pirates or
traders, whereas others left England altogether
to establish new colonies overseas. Unlike
other countries with heavily invested1
colonization policies2, the English government
did not sponsor the establishment of colonies
in North America to a great extent. Thus,
especially rich men, whose chief motive3 was
profit, invested in setting up the English
colonies. They hoped to make profits by
shipping supplies (clothes, tools, building
material, seed, guns etc.) the settlers needed
overseas. The investors made additional profit
by selling goods manufactured by settlers back
in England.
Not all colonists had enough money to
pay the expenses4 of transportation and maintenance5 necessary for making a start in the
New World. In this case agencies like the Virginia Company and the Massachusetts Bay
Company paid the settlers’ costs. Besides those kinds of colonizing companies, proprietors6
and individual families also made contracts
with potential settlers. In exchange, the settlers
had to work for the agencies or a contract
holder7 as contract workers for a fixed period
of time which usually lasted four to seven
years. During this period, the masters provided
food and shelter for their servants. After the
servants had completed their contractual
obligations8 they received a payment known as
“freedom dues”. The freedom dues usually
included small pieces of land, supplies or
money and helped the settlers to set up their
own homestead9.
The colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts were established by chartered companies
which were provided with a royal charter. This
was a royal document confirming that the companies were allowed to colonize pieces of land
in North America. The funds10 of the companies, provided by diverse investors, were used
for the colonists’ equipment, transportation and
maintenance. Other colonies such as New
Hampshire, New Jersey or Pennsylvania initially belonged to proprietors who were members of the English gentry11 or nobility12. One
exception to this is the New Haven colony
which was settled by colonists who were rich
enough to pay the costs of their families’ and
servants’ transportation and equipment themselves.
Historians estimate that half the
settlers, especially from the Southern Colon-
ies, came to Colonial America under the system of indentured servitude. Many of the indentured servants became subject to violence
at the hand of their contract-holders. Moreover,
given the high death rate, many servants did
not live to the end of their terms. Indentured
servitude was a major element of colonial labour economics. After the America Revolution
the numbers of indentured servants dropped to
a minimum.
Annotations
1
heavily invested: gezielte
2
colonization policies: Kolonialpolitik
3
chief motive: Hauptmotivation
4
expense: Ausgaben
5 maintenance:
6 proprietor:
Unterhalt, Versorgung
Besitzer
7
contract holder: Vertragspartner
8
contractual obligations: Vertragsbedingungen
9
homestead: Gehöft
10
funds: Gelder
11
gentry: niederer Adel
12
nobility: höherer Adel
Text information based on: From Revolution to Reconstruction (University of Groningen), 21.5.2012
segu von C.Pallaske steht unter einer Creative Commons Namensnennung-Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 3.0 Unported Lizenz