NEW WORLD
EXPERIMENTS:
ENGLAND’S
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY
COLONIES
America: Past and Present
Chapter 2
Breaking Away
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Rapid social change in seventeenthcentury England
English population mobile
Different motives for migration
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religious versus economic
personal: to escape bad marriages, jail
terms, or lifelong poverty
The Stuart Monarchs
Four Colonial Subcultures
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The Chesapeake
New England
Middle Colonies
The Carolinas
The Chesapeake: Dreams of
Wealth
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Richard Hakluyt and other visionaries
keep alive the dream of English
colonies
Anti-Catholicism prompts English
people to challenge Spanish claims in
New World
Entrepreneurs in Virginia
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Joint-stock companies provide financing
English stockholders in Virginia Company
expect instant profits
Jamestown settled 1607
Colony’s location in a swamp unhealthy
Competition from expansive Powhattans
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Colonists do not work for common good
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Chesapeake Colonies, 1640
Spinning Out of Control
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1608-1609--John Smith imposes order
1609--London Company reorganizes
colonial government
1610-- “Starving Time” ended by arrival of
Lord De La Warr, fresh settlers
Conflict with Powhattans
• Contributes to “starving time”
• 1622—natives attempt to drive out English
• 1644—second attempt to drive out English;
Powhattan empire destroyed
“Stinking Weed”
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1610--John Rolfe introduces tobacco
1618-- “Headrights” instituted to
encourage development of tobacco
plantations
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Headright: 50-acre lot granted to each
colonist who pays his own
transportation, or for each servant
brought into the colony
Allows development of huge estates
1618--House of Burgesses instituted
for Virginia self-government
Time of Reckoning
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Population increase prevented by
imbalanced sex ratio
• 3,570 colonists to Virginia 1619-1622
• Men outnumber women 6:1 after 1619
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Contagious disease kills settlers
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1618: Virginia population numbers 700
1618-1622: 3,000 immigrate
1622: Virginia population numbers 1,240
1622--Powhattan attack kills 347 settlers
Corruption and Reform
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1624--King James I dissolves London
Company
Virginia becomes a royal colony
House of Burgesses continues to
meet
Maryland: A Troubled Refuge
for Catholics
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Initiated by Sir George Calvert (Lord
Baltimore) as refuge for English
Catholics
1632--Calvert’s son Cecilius (2nd Lord
Baltimore) gains charter to Maryland
Requires toleration among Catholics
and Protestants
Maryland: A Troubled Refuge for
Catholics (2)
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Wealthy Catholics unwilling to
relocate in America
Common settlers demand greater
voice in Maryland government
Protestants refuse to tolerate
Catholics
Protestants seize control in 1655
Scattered riverfront settlements of
poor tobacco planters
Reforming England in America
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Pilgrims
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Separatists who refused to worship in
the Church of England, fled
Escape persecution in Holland
1620--Plymouth founded
Plymouth a society of small farming
villages bound together by mutual
consent
1691--absorbed into Massachusetts
Bay
“The Great Migration”
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Puritans
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Wish to remain within the Church of
England, work to eliminate all remaining
vestiges of the Roman Catholic past
1629--Puritans despair as King
Charles I begins Personal Rule
1630--John Winthrop leads Puritan
group to Massachusetts, brings
Company Charter
“A City on a Hill”
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1630-1640--16,000 immigrated
Settlers usually came as family units
Area generally healthy
Puritans sacrifice self-interest for the
good of the community
“A City on a Hill” (2)
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Puritans establish Congregationalism
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a state-supported ecclesiastical system
in which each congregation is
independently governed by local church
members
Puritan civil government permits
voting by all adult male church
members
Elected officials not to concern
themselves with voters’ wishes
“A City on a Hill” (3)
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Local, town governments
autonomous
Most participated in public life at
town level
Townships commercial properties,
shares of which could be bought and
sold
Village life intensely communal
Laws and Liberties passed in 1648 to
protect rights, ensure civil order
Limits of Dissent:
Roger Williams
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An extreme Separatist
Questioned the validity of the
colony’s charter
Champions “liberty of conscience”
Williams expelled to Rhode Island,
1636
Limits of Dissent:
Anne Hutchinson
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Believed herself directly inspired by
the Holy Spirit
Believed “converted” persons could
live without the Moral Law
Charged that Congregational
ministers preached a “covenant of
works”
Banished to Rhode Island by General
Court
Mobility and Division
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New Hampshire--insignificant until
eighteenth century
Rhode Island--received dissenters
from Massachusetts
Connecticut--founded by Thomas
Hooker
New Haven--absorbed into
Connecticut
New England Colonies, 1650
Diversity in the Middle Colonies
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New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Delaware
Middle Colonies, 1685
Anglo-Dutch Rivalry on the
Hudson
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Location: Hudson River
New Netherlands originally property
of Dutch West Indies Company
Population included Finns, Swedes,
Germans, Africans, as well as Dutch
1664--English fleet captured colony
Anglo-Dutch Rivalry on the
Hudson (2)
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New York made personal property of
James, Duke of York
Property included New Jersey,
Delaware, Maine, and various islands
Inhabitants had no political voice
beyond the local level
James derived little profit from the
colony.
Confusion in New Jersey
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Colony sold by Duke of York to Lord
Berkeley and Sir George Carteret
Settlers refuse to pay rents
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grounds: New York governor had
promised representative assembly
Berkeley splits colony by selling out
to Quaker group
Confusion in New Jersey (2)
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West Jersey becomes Quakers’
colony
Democratic system of government
introduced
Diverse, contentious
Neither Jersey prospers, reunited by
the crown in 1702
Quakers in America
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Pennsylvania founding inseparable
from Quakers
“Quaker” a derogatory term for those
who “tremble at the word of the
Lord”
Members call sect “Society of
Friends”
Quaker Belief and Practice
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Founder: George Fox (1624-1691)
Believed in “Inner Light”
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Rejected idea of original sin,
predestination
Each may communicate directly with
God
Each has responsibility to cultivate Inner
Light
Persecuted as dangerous anarchists
Penn's "Holy Experiment"
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Aristocrat William Penn converts to
the Society of Friends
Obtains a charter for Pennsylvania
"Holy Experiment"--a society run on
Quaker principles
Promotes religious toleration
Protects rights of property-less
Settling Pennsylvania
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Immigrants recruited from England,
Wales, Ireland, and Germany
Quaker population racked by
contention
Non-Quaker population does not
share Penn’s ideals
1701--Penn grants self-rule to
Pennsylvania colonists, independence
to Delaware
Planting the Carolinas
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Reliance on slave labor produced
superficial similarity to Chesapeake
Diversity of settlers, environment
produced great divergence from
Chesapeake
Proprietors of the Carolinas
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Granted by Charles II in 1663 to
eight “Proprietors” to reward loyalty
Tried to recruit settlers from
established American colonies
• they were not easily persuaded
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Few inhabitants in first years
The Barbadian Connection
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Anthony Ashley Cooper encourages
settlement by planters from Barbados
Barbadians settle around Charleston
“Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina”
drawn up by John Locke
Barbadians reject Fundamental
Constitutions for greater self-government
French Huguenot settlers oppose
1729--Strife prompts Crown to take over,
divide Carolina
Founding of Georgia
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Georgia founded in 1732
Strategic purpose: buffer between
Carolinas and Spanish Florida
Charitable purpose: refuge for
imprisoned debtors from England
By 1751 a small slave colony
The Carolinas and Georgia
Living with Diversity
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All colonies faced early struggle to
survive
Distinct regional differences
intensified and persisted throughout
the colonial period
Colonists eventually saw themselves
as a distinct people