American Stories
THIRD EDITION
By: Brands •
Chapter
2
England’s New World
Experiments
1607‒1732
England’s New World Experiments,
1607‒1732
2.1
Breaking Away: Decisions to Move to
America
Why did the Chesapeake colonies not
prosper during the earliest years of their
settlement?
2.2
A “New” England in America
How did differences in religion affect the
founding of the New England colonies?
England’s New World Experiments,
1607‒1732
2.3
Diversity in the Middle Colonies
How did ethnic diversity shape the
development of the Middle Colonies?
2.4
Planting the Southern Colonies
How was the founding of the Carolinas
different from the founding of Georgia?
Video Series:
Key Topics in U.S. History
1. Beginnings of English Colonial
Societies: 1607‒1660
2. The Chesapeake
3. New England
4. Jamestown
Home
Profit and Piety: Competing Visions for
English Settlement
• Native American attacks on settlements
showed disunity
• Seen differently by Chesapeake and
Puritan leaders
• Causes of competition and diversity
• Different types of settlers
Home
Breaking Away: Decisions to
Move to America
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The Chesapeake: Dreams of Wealth
Entrepreneurs in Virginia
Threat of Anarchy
Tobacco Saves Virginia
Time of Reckoning
Maryland: A Catholic Refuge
Home
Breaking Away: Decisions to
Move to America
• Different motives for immigration
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Religious
Economic
Personal
England in turmoil
Breaking Away: Decisions to
Move to America
The Chesapeake: Dreams
of Wealth
• Richard Hakluyt
• Colonies make great profit for investors
• Free England from dependence on rival
powers for valuable commodities
• Anti-Catholicism prompted English
people to challenge Spanish claims in
New World
• Patriotic
Breaking Away: Decisions to
Move to America
Entrepreneurs in Virginia
• Joint-stock company
• Reduced risk for individuals by sharing
costs
• Virginia Company
• 1606 – King James issued first Virginia
charter
• Jamestown settled in 1607
• Search for instant wealth
• Disease and starvation
Breaking Away: Decisions to
Move to America
Threat of Anarchy
• John Smith imposed order
• Background
• Leadership role
• Seized control of ruling council - 1608
• London Company reorganized
• Had received no returns on investment
• 1609 - new charter
Breaking Away: Decisions to
Move to America
Threat of Anarchy (continued)
• Continued failure for Virginia Company
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New settlers and supplies run aground
1609‒1610 - the “starving time”
Conflict with Powhatan
By 1616, still no profit for investors
Breaking Away: Decisions to
Move to America
Tobacco Saves Virginia
• John Rolfe introduced tobacco
• Milder than grown in West Indies
• Profitable
• 1618 - Reforms of Edwin Sandys
• House of Burgesses
• Headright system
• Urged diversification of economy
Breaking Away: Decisions to
Move to America
Time of Reckoning
• Population did not increase
• Imbalanced sex ratio
• Contagious disease killed settlers
• Indentured servants
• Corrupted system
• Treated poorly
• Who to blame?
• Virginia Company
Breaking Away: Decisions to
Move to America
Maryland: A Catholic Refuge
• Catholic beginnings
• Sir George Calvert – Lord Baltimore
• Created sanctuary for English Catholics
• Set up aristocracy social system
• Ruling class
• Not successful
• Protestants seized control in 1655
• “Act concerning Religion”
• Did not tolerate Catholics
Breaking Away: Decisions to
Move to America
Breaking Away: Decisions to
Move to America
Discussion Question
• Why did the Chesapeake colonies not
prosper during the earliest years of
settlement?
Breaking Away: Decisions to
Move to America
A “New” England in America
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The Puritan Migration to Massachusetts
“A City on a Hill”
Competing Truths in New England
Mobility and Division
Home
A “New” England in America
• Pilgrims
• Separatists who refused to worship in the
Church of England
• 1620 ‒ Plymouth founded
• Mayflower Compact
• William Bradford and Squanto
• 1691 – absorbed into Massachusetts Bay
A “New” England in America
The Puritan Migration to
Massachusetts
• Puritans
• Worked within the Church of England
• Wanted to eliminate remaining vestiges of
Catholicism
• John Winthrop
• Future governor
• Felt time for reform running out
A “New” England in America
How Did English Colonization
Transform Eastern North America?
• Where did English settlers expand—and
Native Americans suffer territorial
losses—in North American during this
period?
• In what ways did English expansion
face competition form its European
rivals?
• How did the Iroquois Confederacy
change over this time?
A “New” England in America
A “New” England in America
“A City on a Hill”
• 1630 - Puritans settled in Massachusetts
• Great Migration – 1630s
• Characteristics of settlers
• Common sense of purpose
• Covenant with God
• Congregationalism
• Town was center of Puritan life
A “New” England in America
A “New” England in America
A “New” England in America
Competing Truths in New England
• General Court
• Colonial legislature
• Lawes and Liberties - 1648
• Puritans lacked religious toleration
• Supported own form of worship only
• Roger William - extreme separatism
• Anne Hutchinson - antinomianism
A “New” England in America
Mobility and Division
• New Hampshire - 1677
• Separated from Massachusetts Bay
• Connecticut - 1636
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Early settlements
Thomas Hooker
Fundamental Orders
1662 - king granted a charter
A “New” England in America
Mobility and Division (continued)
• New Haven - 1638
• Led by Theophilus Eaton and Reverend
John Davenport
• Did not prosper - absorbed by Connecticut
• Rhode Island - 1636
• Roger Williams - Providence
• Toleration, but much infighting
• 1663 - king granted a charter
A “New” England in America
A “New” England in America
Discussion Question
• What role did differences in religion
play in the founding of the New
England colonies?
A “New” England in America
Diversity in the Middle Colonies
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Anglo-Dutch Rivalry on the Hudson
Confusion in New Jersey
Quakers in America
Penn’s “Holy Experiment
Home
Diversity in the Middle Colonies
• Middle colonies settled for different
reasons
• New York – economic for Duke of York
• Pennsylvania – Quaker sanctuary
• New Jersey and Delaware
• Common characteristics
• Heterogeneous population
• Diversity impacted institutions
Diversity in the Middle
Colonies
Anglo-Dutch Rivalry on
the Hudson
• Dutch most aggressive European
traders
• Largest merchant fleet
• Rivalry with Spain led to New World interest
• New Netherlands
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Two settlements
First settlers were employees
Diverse and not united
1664 - English took colony
Diversity in the Middle
Colonies
Diversity in the Middle
Colonies
Diversity in the Middle
Colonies
Confusion in New Jersey
• New Jersey split off from New York
• Given to Lord Berkeley and Sir George
Carteret
• Berkeley split colony
• Reunited in 1702 as single royal colony
Diversity in the Middle
Colonies
Quakers in America
• Quakers
• Derogatory term – “tremble at the word of
the Lord”
• Members called sect “Society of Friends”
• No need for a formal ministry
• Practiced humility in daily lives
• Spread “truth”
Diversity in the Middle
Colonies
Penn’s “Holy Experiment”
• William Penn – charter for Pennsylvania
• Bought Delaware from New Jersey
proprietors
• “Holy Experiment”
• Society run on Quaker principles
• Balance of power between rich and poor
• Charter of Liberties
• Promoted colony
• Land sales and taxes
• People poured in
Diversity in the Middle
Colonies
Diversity in the Middle
Colonies
Discussion Question
• How did ethnic diversity shape the
development of the Middle Colonies?
Diversity in the Middle
Colonies
Planting the Southern Colonies
• Founding the Carolinas
• Founding of Georgia
Home
Planting the Southern Colonies
• Reliance on slave labor produced
superficial similarity to Chesapeake
• Diversity of settlers and environment
produced great divergence from
Chesapeake
Planting the Southern Colonies
Founding the Carolinas
• Charter for Carolinas
• Granted by Charles II in 1663
• Settlement
• 1670 - first settlers arrived
• Charles Town established
• Political problems
• Planters
• Former Barbados residents
• Needed profitable crop
Planting the Southern Colonies
Planting the Southern Colonies
Planting the Southern Colonies
Founding of Georgia
• 1732 - Georgia founded
• James Oglethorpe’s ideas
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Strategic purpose - buffer zone
Charitable purpose
Originally rum and slaves prohibited
Landowning capped initially
• 1751 - became royal colony
Planting the Southern Colonies
Table 2.1 England’s Principal
Mainland Colonies
Planting the Southern Colonies
Discussion Question
• How was the founding of the Carolinas
different from that of Georgia?
Planting the Southern Colonies
Conclusion: Living with Diversity
• All colonies faced early struggle to
survive
• Often hostile environment
• Interactions with Native Americans
• Distinct regional differences intensified
and persisted throughout the colonial
period
• Economic and religious motives
• Diversity of settlers