The English Empire in America:
Setting the Stage
BRITISH IMPERIALISM
ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH
ENGLISH RELATIONS W/ SPAIN
ENGLISH CHARTERS TO NEW WORLD
SETTLERS RELATIONS W/ NATIVE POPULATION
New World at dawn of 17th C
 Spain’s Empire in America:
 Spanish stole Indian gold
 Infected local population w/ disease
 Enslaved native population
 Crafted a sprawling empire (largest in the world)
 Stretched from California to Florida to Central and South Am.
 Diffused laws, customs and language
 North America remained largely unexplored (1600)
 European crops found throughout N. America- along eastern seaboard
 Disease affected health of indigenous population
 Several hundred thousand African slaves worked on sugar plantations
(Caribbean and Brazil)
 Yet: most of North America still laid unclaimed
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Until…. The English
Major European Powers in N.America
 Three Euro powers set foot in N.Amer.- led to over
100 years of conflict
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Spanish at Santa Fe (1610)
French at Quebec (1608)
English at Jamestown (1607)
England in the 1500s
 1500s: England ruled by dysfunction; religious wars,
violence between Cath. & Protestants
 King Henry VIII broke from Catholic church;
Reformation sparked rivalries in England and
Ireland
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English crushed Catholic uprising in Ireland; took Irish lands
owned by Catholics; planted Protestant colonists in Ireland
“Many English soldiers developed in Ireland a sneering
contempt for the ‘savage’ natives, an attitude that they brought
w/ them to the New World” – pg 26, American Pageant
Elizabethan England
 Elizabeth I crowned Queen in 1533
 No friend of Catholic Spanish King- Philip II
 Encouraged the plunder of Spanish ships & settlements
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Brazen act of overt aggression; most famous ‘pirate’ was Francis
Drake
Philip II infuriated by thievery & demanded English ships be held
accountable
Spanish Armada defeated in 1588- left England as sea power
 Sir Walter Raleigh
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Organized an expedition that landed on Roanoke Island (1585)
The expedition searched American mainland, dubbed land ‘Virginia’
after Elizabeth
They spied on Spanish defenses in Caribbean & returned to England
Subsequent Explorations
 Colonists abandoned Roanoke
Island (1586); left for England
w/ Sir Francis Drake
 John White led expedition
(1587) leaving another group of
people
 Returned to England after
granddaughter was bornVirginia Dare (first English
child born in New World)
 White returned in 1590, found
no trace of colonists
 George Weymouth searched
(1605-1606) for suitable
territory for English Catholics
Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Francis Drake
Motivating Factors for English Emigration
 Desire for profit; mineral wealth & investment wealth
 Chance to start over- variety of opportunities & vast
amounts of land
 Religious freedom
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Elizabethan Settlement (provided more rights to Protestants than
Catholics)
English who wished Crown would purge/purify England of all
Catholicism known as Puritans
Separatists left the Anglican Church in frustration w/ Elizabethan
policies
 Separatists had no hope Church could be salvaged
 Migrated to Holland and later America- Pilgrims
Financing for Colonial Development
 Four types of financing methods (for exploration & colonization)
in 1500s
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Trading Company or Joint Stock Company: Used individual
investors to subsidize exploration; if something of value discovered it
made money on investments
Company charters enabled owners to sell stock or shares to private
investors
Covenant or Self-governing Colony: colonies created and governed
by settlers (Rhode Island, Connecticut, Plymouth)
Proprietary Colony: One individual or group given by Crown the
right to govern or settle a specified colony (Maryland)- gov’t formed
could be any type but colonists had to be guaranteed basic English
rights
Royal Colony: remained under Crown control- many of the colonies
lost their separate status and reverted to Royal colonies by 1776
Chesapeake Colonies
Settlement of Virginia
 London Company sent 3 ships to Chesapeake Bay who settled
around Jamestown (April, 1607)
 Plymouth Company landed 100 men in Maine (Aug, 1607)- later
abandoned
 Poor climate, famine, disease, antagonistic Indian population
decimated colony to 32
 Cpt. John Smith elected President (1608)
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Compulsory work program (“he who shall not work, shall not eat”)
Introduced self-sustaining agriculture
London Company turned company into Joint Stock company, with
permission from Crown
Jamestown under Company Control
 Several companies anxious to invest in Virginia
 No import or export duties charged on goods to New
World
 Settlers were promised land after working for the
company for up to seven years
 John Rolfe (1612): introduced cash crop - tobacco
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First shipment of crop to England (March, 1614)
Settlers w/ own land grew own tobacco; hurt Company financially
Smoking became popular in the King’s court (James I) & in England
Most profit from tobacco made from London merchants & investors
Chesapeake Bay and early Virginia
Colonies; Jamestown Settlement to
the right
From Company to Royal Colony
 Sir Edwin Sandys gained control of company in 1618
 Introduced harsh legal code that was repealed in 1619
 Rights of Englishmen and Representative Assembly was put in place
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General Assembly (Burgesses); Governor and Council met in Jamestown
Church (Aug, 1619)
 First legislature in the New World; representative gov’t
 1607-1619: 1,650 settlers left England for Virginia
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300 returned
Only 351 alive at the beginning of 1619
Next five years: 8,000 immigrants; pop. Jamestown- 1,132
 Problems faced by Company Colony:
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Financial problems; not enough profit
Virginia became first Royal Colony
Colonists retained rights of Englishmen
House of Burgesses continued to meet after 1629
Labor in Virginia
 To encourage settlements-
women were sent to colony
(about 125 lbs of tobacco paid for
a wife & passage)
 Dutch ship stopped at
Jamestown- left 20 black
“indentured servants”
 Labor shortages aided by
indentured servants:
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Person paying passage fee
received land (from Crown)while
one who migrated worked period
of years
Food & shelter given, no wages
At end of service, servant was to
receive cash or land or tools
Slavery in Virginia
 First Africans in Chesapeake (1619)- status unclear
 Slaves or indentured- the difference was blurred in early
16th C.
 # of slaves increased
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100000
White colonists reacted to threats; 80000
put down possible
60000
racial threats
40000
Slavery transformed from
economic way of life to economic &
20000
racial institution
0
By mid-1680s- blacks
1607
outnumbered white indentured servants
White
Black
1630
1650
1670
1690
Colonial Slave Codes
 Beginning in 1662:
 Made blacks (and children) property of white masters for life
 It became a crime to teach slaves to read or white
 Conversion to Christianity did not qualify slave for freedom
 Virginian Law, 1662: “Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children got by any
Englishmen upon a Negro shall be slave or Free, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this
present Grand assembly, that all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only
According to the condition of the mother."
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Virginian Law, 1667: Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children that are
slaves by birth [...] should by virtue of their baptism be made free, it is enacted that baptism does
not alter the condition to the person as to his bondage or freedom; masters freed from this doubt
may more carefully propagate Christianity by permitting slaves to be admitted to that sacrament.”
Atlantic Slave Trade
Powhatan Confederacy
 Powhatan dominated
few dozen tribes in
James River area
 English called these
Indians Powhatans
 Powhatan may have seen
English as ally first, in
desire to take control
over other tribes in area
Culture Clash in the Chesapeake
 1614-1622: Peace between
settlers & Powhatans
 1622-1644: periodic assaults
made by both settlers &
Powhatans
 1622: Indians attacked
English, killing 347
(including John Rolfe)
 Virginia Co. called for
perpetual war vs. Natives
 Raids reduced Native pop.
& drove them westward
Failures of Original Promoters of Colony
 Unrealistic goals:
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No valuable commodity traded w/ Indians; settlers wanted gold
 Survival Skills:
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Area full of game, berries, fish
‘Gentlemen’ who settled & sought only profit had no survival skills
 Health Practices:
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Settled in a marsh land
 No Incentives for artisans & skilled laborers:
 Profitable staple crops:
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Tobacco discovered too late; other maladies already took toll
 Relationship w/ Local Indians:
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Constant instability, uprisings of Indians
The Settlement of Maryland
 Royal charter granted to
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George Calvert (Lord
Baltimore)- 1632
Healthier location than
Jamestown- tobacco would be
main crop
Huge tracts of land granted to
Catholic relatives
Toleration Acts of 1649:
guaranteed rights of all
Christian religions; decreed
death to all those who denied
Christ divinity
Black slaves imported by late
1600s
Southern Colonies
 Maryland
 Virginia
 North Carolina
 South Carolina
 Georgia
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Indentured Servitude
Slavery to work lrg
plantations
Cotton, rice, tobacco
Fertile soil
Fewer urban areas:
Baltimore, Savannah,
Charleston
Settling the Carolinas
 Charles II provided large land
tracts to nobles who assisted
him after English Civil War
ended
 Charles Town formed in 1670
by English & planters from
Barbado
 Large rice growing production
using slave labor mirrored
that in Barbados
 Culture & economy resembled
that of Barbados, rather than
England
Culture and Location
Carolinas kept close ties to West
Indies- early settlers whites and
blacks from islands
Carolinas closer to Chesapeake, but
culturally closer to W. Indies
Democratic N. Carolina
 Small farmers from Va. And
NE established farms in N.
Carolina
 Few good harbors & poor
transportation
 Fewer large plantations &
fewer reliance on slavery
 By 18th century, colony earned
reputation as being
democratic in nature &
autonomous from Britain
Georgia
 Proprietary colony: only one to receive direct financing from
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London
Set up to:
 Defensive buffer
 Rid England’s overcrowded jails of debtors
Special Regulations:
 Ban on drinking rum
 Prohibition of slavery
Colony did not thrive for constant fear of
Spanish attack
Colony grew slowly:
 Adopted plantation system of Carolinas
 Dropped ban on slavery
Southern Colonies: Chart
Colony/Date
Person
Responsible
Why Founded
Governed/Owner
Virginia: 1607Jamestown
•Joint Stock Co.
•Virginia Co.
•Capt. John Smith
•John Rolfe
•Attract new settlers
•Search for wealth in
form of gold
•Representative
Gov’t
•House of Burgesses
•Royal Colony
Maryland: 1634
Lord Baltimore
•Religious toleration
•Allowed persecuted
Catholics to settle in
Maryland
•Representative gov’t
•Proprietary Colony
North/South
Carolina: 1663
John Locke
8 English Nobles
•Colony based on
social classes
•Failed- colony
divided into 2 parts
•Representative gov’t
•Royal Colony
Georgia: 1732
James Oglethorpe
•Provide a place for
debtors to start over
•Buffer against
Spanish Florida
•Royal Colony