British North America
English colonization of the “New
World”
• Factors behind English colonization
– Must play “catch up” to Spain & France
– Motivated by a new economic theory:
mercantilism
• A nation is wealthy/powerful if it has gold and
silver in its treasury
• Three ways to get it…mine it, steal it, trade for it
• Favorable balance of trade: Exports > Imports
– Nationalism (pride)
• Defeat of the Spanish Armada
– Religion (Protestant Reformation)
English-style colonization
• Led by private companies, not gov’t
– Virginia Company
• = a joint stock company
• Investors have limited liability
• Given a “charter” from King James I to establish a
colony…all inhabitants will have the rights of
Englishmen
– Goals:
• Find gold and silver
• Find Northwest Passage
Early Attempts at Colonization
• Roanoke
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Island off NC coast
Sir Walter Raleigh
1585 / 1587 sends colonists to Roanoke
The “Lost Colony”
• Jamestown (1607)
– First permanent settlement for the English
– Established in Virginia, on the James River
Jamestown
• Problems
– Location
• good for defense, but not healthy)
– “Gold Fever”
• colonists more interested in finding gold than in building a
colony, cultivating food, etc.
• Capt. John Smith institutes martial law: “he that shall not
work shall not eat”
– Disease & Hunger
• 1607 – 150 settlers / only 38 survive
• 1609 – “the starving time” – 300 colonists; only 60 survive
the winter
– Natives
• Powhatan – uneasy truce with the English, but in 1609 cut off
food supplies…leading to the Starving Time
Jamestown
Jamestown
• Tobacco
– “brown gold”
– 1612: John Rolfe brings tobacco from the
Bahamas to Virginia
– By 1620, exporting 150 million pounds / yr
– Tobacco is land hungry and labor intensive
• Lead to conflicts with natives as colonists build
larger plantations
• Lead to the introduction of unfree labor in Va.
Jamestown
• Indentured Servants
– Primary form of labor until 1670s
– 4-7 years of labor in exchange for
transportation to Va & a plot of land after
their term expired.
– Almost all males, poor, some are criminals
– Status = white slavery with few rights
– Can be bought, sold, gambled away
– Most do NOT live long enough to get their
land
Jamestown
• Slavery
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First introduced in Va in 1619
14 Africans are brought to Jamestown
Status unclear  more like indentures
System of slavery evolves
By 1670, racial & hereditary slavery is common
• Slavery replaces indentured servitude
– Life expectancy goes up…
– Freed indentures are creating problems…
• BACON’S REBELLION in 1676
• Poor settlers on the frontier are being attacked by natives
• The Virginia gov’t (dominated wealthy planters from eastern Virginia) isn’t
helping out.
• Francis Bacon – creates an army and attacks the Indians
• When Va governor objects, Bacon turns his army on Jamestown…burn
Jamestown.
• Rebellion collapes when Bacon gets sick and dies.
• Maybe, having all these poor, unhappy, former indentures isn’t a good
thing….
– By 1700s fewer indentured servants; more slaves
Jamestown
• Native American Conflicts
– Powhatan Tribe
• Initially help the English survive, but in 1609 they
begin cutting off food supplies
• 1614 – John Rolfe and Pocahontas are married;
truce is reached with Chief Powhatan
• 1622 – Great Powhatan Uprising
– Chief Opechancanough fed up with English moving into
Powhatan lands
– Attack and kill 340 colonist = 1/3 of the settlement
– Leads the crown to take over the colony and send troops
and settlers to wipe out the indians.
Jamestown
• Slavery
Indentured Servitude