The Spectrum of Settlement
The Diversity of British Colonization
of North America
I. Diverse Motives for Migration
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Purer form of worship
Acquiring wealth, land, and better social status
Escape jail, bad marriage or life-long poverty
Sense of adventure
No single motivation adds to diversity of British
colonization
• Diversity of environmental factors encountered by
colonists creates American subcultures from the
outset
II. The Chesapeake
A. Virginia
• Settlement at Jamestown in
1607
• Initially, no cooperation and no
planting
• Colony saved by the leadership
of Captain John Smith
• Land offered after 7 years of
labor = indentured servanthood
• The winter of 1609-1610 =
“starving time”
• John Rolfe experiments with
tobacco in 1612
A. Virginia (cont.)
• Reorganization of the colony in
1618
--economic diversification
urged
--House of Burgesses created
--headright system introduced
• Significant arrivals in 1619:
women and slaves
• Many more men than women at
first
• Lots of death in the early days
• Native American uprisings in
1622 and 1644
A. Virginia (cont.)
• No shared sense of purpose in
early days and Company
officials were embezzling funds
and exploiting indentures
• Virginia becomes a royal
colony in 1624
• Isolation becomes a fact of life
for these colonists due to
geography, land policy and
tobacco economy
• Leads to importance of county
government
• Isolation retarded the growth of
cities, schools, and churches
B. Maryland
• Founder (Proprietor) =
Second Lord Baltimore
• Meant to stop Dutch
influence to the north in
New Netherlands
• Large estates imagined by
proprietor for colonists
who would become lords
of their manor—headright
system adopted instead
B. Maryland (cont)
• Meant to be a refuge for
Catholics offering some
measure of religious
toleration—Act for
Religious Toleration
(1649)
• Great political instability
• Built around a tobacco
economy
III. New England
A. Pilgrims and Plymouth
Plantation
• Separatists
• First fled to Holland (16081609)
• Traveled to America on the
Mayflower (1620)
--Led by William Bradford
-- “Mayflower Compact”
• Significance of Squanto and
Samoset
• Limited economic opportunities
• Absorbed by Massachusetts
Bay colony in 1691
B. Puritans and Massachusetts
Bay
• Desire to reform English
(Anglican) Church, not separate
from it
• Sparked the English Civil War
in 1642
• Political and religious crisis in
1629 led to Puritan exodus to
America
• John Winthrop leads Puritans to
the Boston area in 1630
• “ The Great Migration”: 16301642
B. Massachusetts (cont.)
• Believed in predestination and
the covenant of grace
• Unified vision and holy
mission: “city on a hill”
• Entire community included in
God’s covenant
• Disorder was considered very
sinful
• The significance of the
“conversion relation”
• Congregational form of church
government
• Conflict between ministers and
laity
B. Massachusetts (cont.)
• Came as nuclear families
• Much less death than the
Chesapeake colonies
• Fairly wide franchise for era
• Town = center of public life
with the meeting house at its
center
• Compact villages enhanced
church attendance and spiritual
surveillance
• Agricultural practices
• Villagers paid taxes to support
minister and participated in the
local militia
B. Massachusetts (cont.)
• Harmony, unity and rule of law
were emphasized
• Certain individuals challenged
this order
--Roger Williams
--Anne Hutchinson
--Quakers like Mary Dyer
• Puritans established four other
colonies: New Hampshire,
Connecticut, New Haven and
Rhode Island
IV. Middle Colonies
A. New York
• First settled by the Dutch in
1624
• Great ethnic diversity—most
heterogeneous colony in North
America
• Colony was easily conquered
by the English in 1664 and
given by the King to his
brother, James, Duke of York
• Somewhat of a royal attempt to
surround the Puritans
• Closest thing to manorialism
evolves here along the Hudson
River– New York Patroons
B. New Jersey
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Also carved out of New
Netherlands—awarded to a group
of proprietors by Duke of York
Great ethnic diversity
Tremendous religious diversity:
Quakers, Anglicans, Puritans,
Scottish Presbyterians, Dutch
Calvinists and Swedish
Lutherans—leads to real political
instability
Colony splits in two temporarily
Becomes a royal colony in 1702
No major ports and limited
economic advantages
C. Pennsylvania
• Established as a refuge for
Quakers
• Founder = William Penn
• Relations with Native
Americans were good
• Penn bought the 3 lower
counties of New York from the
Duke of York in 1682—
becomes Delaware
• Penn granted colonists religious
toleration and no taxation
without representation
• Philadelphia = one of the first
planned American cities
C. Pennsylvania (cont.)
• Penn promoted his colony with
great success throughout
Europe—leads to tremendous
ethnic diversity in Pennsylvania
• Penn’s stay in America was
short and unhappy
--Mason-Dixon Line
• Colony prospers agriculturally
(wheat) but suffers political
instability
• Delaware becomes separate
colony in 1704
• Penn dies in 1718—broken and
in prison for debt
V. Carolina
• No “Solid South” even in
the colonial era
• Carolinas = political plum
given to Stuart faithful
following the English
Civil War
• Generous land policy,
representative assembly
and religious toleration
offered
--John Locke’s
Fundamental Constitution
V. Carolina (cont)
• Another failed attempt to
create a conservative
American pseudofeudalism
• Poor land, poor climate
and no good harbor
discouraged settlement
• Key proprietor in the
ultimate success of this
colony = Ashley Cooper
V. Carolina (cont.)
• Search for a money-making
crop consumed the early history
of this region
• Half of the population before
1680 came from an
overpopulated Barbados—so
this colony is more like the
West Indies than any other
mainland colony
• Colonists engaged in Native
American slave trade
• Only British colony with a
Black majority
V. Carolina (cont.)
• Key city = Charles Town
• Proprietary government
overthrown in 1719
• Area divided and two
royal colonies were
created in 1729: South
Carolina and North
Carolina
• Carolinas were fairly
tolerant religiously