Colonial America
Seventeenth Century and Early Eighteenth Centuries…
Colonial America- Jamestown
Colonies established primarily for economic and/ or
religious reasons.
 1607 England’s 2nd attempt at settling in North AmericaJamestown for economic reasons.
*joint stock company;Virginia Company.
*many came searching for gold. “not available- fool’s gold”.
*settlers typically not “equipped” (physically and literally).
*helped by Native Americans of the Powhatan Confederacy.
*Jamestown only survived because ships kept arriving with
new colonists.
*John Smith- “he who will not work shall not eat”.
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Continued
Winter 1609-1610 ; Starving Time
 John Rolfe
*Married Pocahontas
*Tobacco pioneer (eventually leads settlement projection in
Virginia as well as plantation slavery – cause and effect, prior
knowledge!)
*Brings in new settlements around Jamestown  Chesapeake
colonies (Virginia and Maryland)
*those who migrated did so for financial reasons
*indentured servitude (75% out of 130,000)
*headright system (1618) ; 50 acres in land grants and basis of
“power in the hands of a small & wealthy group.
*House of Burgesses (1619) first REPRESENTATIVE government
in America. Granted suffrage to property owning white males
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The French in North America (relevant side
note)….
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1608; Quebec
French Jesuit priests attempted to convert natives to Roman
Catholicism
More likely to spread diseases
Tried to colonize as much land as possible
Find Asia
Mostly single men who intermarried with natives
Stayed on the move coureurs du bois (runners in the wood)
Fur Trade
Relevance: French Indian War aka 7 Years War (1754-1763)…
stay tuned! (cause and effect- prior knowledge)
Colonial America- Massachusetts Bay
Colony; The Pilgrims
(16th Century) Puritanism in England  persecution look
for a place to practice their faith  New World!
 Separatists; completely abandoned the Church of England
 (Mayflower. 1620) Set sail for Virginia but accidently land in
Plymouth, Massachusetts.
 Travelers – Pilgrims sign the Mayflower Compact
*government’s power comes from the CONSENT of the
governed, not from God.
*Absolutists
 Also received help from Native Americans- Squanto
 (1629) Massachusetts Bay colony established
*Congregationalists
* (1629-1642) Great Puritan Migration
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Massachusetts Bay Colony, Continued…
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Governor John Winthrop
* Calvinist ideals/ principles
* City upon a hill
* Puritan ideals
*Government was to be a covenant among people,
work must serve a communal ideal and Puritan ideals
should always be followed and the church served.
*Ironically, no room for religious tolerance
*Religious intolerance actually led to the founding of
other colonies…(Cause and effect)
Continued. Religious Intolerance (effect)
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Salem Bay minister Roger Williams- challenged Puritan’s
authority. (Separation of Church and State)
*Williams banished.
* Starts Rhode Island
Anne Hutchinson – questioned/ challenged religious
authority (heresy). God’s grace would be enough to earn
a place among the elect (not legalism).
* Tried and convicted
* banished….to Rhode Island
Continued… *Puritan Immigration to New England
*Chesapeake v New England
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Comes to a standstill (1649-1660)
*Oliver Cromwell’s rule in England
*English Civil Wars
*Death of Cromwell (1658)
*Stuarts reign again (1660)
*Republican Ideals (cause and effect)
New England: families, longer life-span, community, more
religious (meetinghouses)
Chesapeake: single men, tobacco/climate- shorter life
span, lonelier, less religious.
Other Colonies
Proprietorships
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Population in Massachusetts grows, start looking for new
places to settle.
Connecticut Valley Pequot War
Many colonies were proprietorships (gifts from the King
hence owned by one person). Eventually leads to
rebellion. Revolution ideologies? (cause & effect, prior
knowledge)
Connecticut (1635) Fundamental Orders
Maryland (Lord Baltimore)  haven for Catholics
profit from tobacco  religious tolerance (Protestants
vs Catholics Act of Toleration (1649)
Continued...
New York- gift from the King to his brother, James
*1664 Charles II wages ware on the Dutch (original
populates but posed economic threat to G.B)
* James becomes Duke of York
* (1685) becomes King  N.Y a royal colony.
 New Jersey – sold off to Quaker investors.
 Pennsylvania (Quaker’s own colony)
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*William Penn (Quaker)
• Good friends with Charles II Charles II saw Quakers as radicals.
• Liberal Policies regarding religion (tolerance)
• Better treatment toward Native Americans
• One of the fastest growing colonies
• Backlash
• Penn’s deal with the Natives.
* Proprietary Continued…
* Slavery
Carolinas
 (1729) Split – N & S Carolina
 North Carolina- (Virginia)
 South Carolina- (Englishmen- Barbados- African Slavery)
----------------------------------------------- African American Slavery (cause)
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Native American slaves- difficult
African Americans did not know the land
Language barriers
Easier to identify
(1790) 750,000 blacks enslaved
Middle Passage- Triangular Trade Route (conditions) Transatlantic Slave
Trade (1808) (cause and effect/ prior knowledge)
Thrived in the South- Labor intensive work (tobacco & rice)
North- Farms (NY & NJ), house servants
Salutary Neglect &
Regulation of Colonial Trade
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G.B did not quite interfere with colonist affairs
Autonomy rhetoric (self rule) Road to Revolution? (cause &
effect, prior knowledge)
 America develops it’s own culture
 Period lasts until French Indian War (1750)
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English Regulation on Colonial Trade
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Mercantilism – Specie
Encouraged manufacturing in England  protective tariff
Navigation Acts (1651-1673)- smuggling
Attempts to strengthen act: vice-admiralty courts (no jury)
Entirely dependent on England, no uprising.
Colonial Government
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Large self-government rhetoric/ ideology
Every colony had a governor
Legislature
Highly dependent on the cooperation o f the colonist.
Efforts to centralize government (by the colonists): New
England Confederation (typically dealt with small issues,
settled disputes).
Notable Events
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Bacon’s Rebellion (1676): Class resentment.
Nathanial Bacon vs. Governor Berkeley
 Western settlers facing Native American attacks
 Jamestown didn’t want to risk full scale war
 Lashed out at Natives anyway
 Burn down Jamestown
 Ends with Bacon’s death
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King Phillip’s War
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Wampanoags led by “King Phillip”
End of Native American presence New England.
Notable Events, Continued…
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Stono Uprising (1739)- first, one of the most successful
slave uprisings.
Restrictive laws to govern slave behavior.
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Salem Witch Trials (1692)
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Over 130 “Witches” executed or sent to jail
Reasons: some say it was a “battle of the classes”
Or paranoia may have been a result of recent attempts of
absolute rule. (Dominion of New England)
Glorious Revolution  suffrage to all Protestants (Puritans
paranoid would weaken their religion).  Halfway Covenant
Great Awakening (1730s-1740s)
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Religion dies down in colonies early 1700s
Attempt to rekindle spirit of Puritanism
If we could make religious decisions on our own, we can also make
political decisions on our own!
Jonathan Edwards & George Whitefield
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Edwards:
Influenced by Enlightenment (Ben Franklin- Poor Man’s Almanack)
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”.
Very graphic depictions of hell
Damnation of those not “awakened” to true religion (Calvanism)
Whitefield:
Evangelical (traveled the colonies)
Former actor with great speaking skills; Attracted over 6,000
Based on Emotionalism and Spiritualism
Life in the Colonies
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Rate of growth; 1700= 250,000 & 1750= 1,250,000
Populations extend beyond English European
Scotch-Irish, Scots, Germans, Blacks
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90% lived in rural areas
Labor divided among gender
 Socializing
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Conditions in cities
 Much
worse than countryside
 Sanitary conditions, population, epidemics
 Positive: contact with more people, progress and education.
* Education
* Differences
Education was rare. Not strange to find a hand few of
colonists with only a mediocre education, if any.
 Work first, education secondary
 Colleges existed solely to train in in ministry.
------------------------------------------------------------ Various colonial regions differed considerably.
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Assessment!
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Pg. 91 