Protestant Reformation
 Led by Martin Luther
 Excommunicated by Catholic
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Church
Heads of state determined
“state” religion
Lutherans
 Germany, Scandinavia
Catholics
 Spain, Portugal, France, Italy,
Ireland, Germany, Poland
Calvinists
 Scotland, the Netherlands,
Germany
Anglicans
 England
Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
 Calvinism
 God is absolute
 He directs mankind to
His liking
 People are predestined
 Discipline was
demanded
 Luxury and merriment
prohibited
Protestant Reformation
 Anglicans (Church of England)
 Henry VIII broke with
Church over divorce
 King = head of state and
church
What options did you have?
England’s Voyages of Discovery
 John Cabot (Italian) paid by England to duplicate
Columbus
 Sailed further north (1498-99(
 Discovered eastern Canada and New England
Issues in England
GOOD
BAD
 Better health
 Price inflation
 Gentry increased wealth
 Nobility lost money (land
(short term land leases
adding in inflation)
 Yeoman increased wealth
(price increase of crops)
 Property owners gained
power in Parliament (House
of Commons)
leases fixed)
 Nobility lost political
influence (House of Lords)
 Peasants lost land to
landlords and merchants for
sheep production (enclosure)
Mercantilism
 Defined:
 State supported manufacturing and trade as a way to
increase national power and wealth
 In practice:
 Merchants bought wool from landowners, landless
peasants (cotters) spun the wool into cloth, merchants
sold cloth in England and foreign countries
 Crown provided charters for merchants
 Merchants allowed to fix wages (keep costs down)
 Import taxes made crown wealthy
 Domestic investment made merchants wealthy
 By mid to late 1500’s England an economic power
Colonization
 Colonies needed:
 Funding
 ships and supplies
 trained soldiers
 Willing settlers
 Few wanted to colonize (English economy booming)
 The Crown offered ‘charters’ to private investors
 The most likely groups
 religious dissenters – the Church of England was not
sufficiently “reformed”
 yeomen looking for new lands to farm
 Peasants looking for economic opportunity
Colonization
 Three types of Colonies
 Royal (Provincial)
 Granted by Crown
 Governed by commissions (working for King)
 Governor had power
 Virginia, New Hampshire, New York, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia
Colonization
 Three types of Colonies
 Charter
 Political in nature
 Grantees controlled the land
 Legislative government
 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut
Colonization
 Three types of Colonies
 Proprietary
 Granted by the Crown
 Proprietors of land chose governor
 Proprietors had general government control
(subject to the king)
 Pennsylvania and Delaware (William Penn), New
Jersey (Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkley),
Maryland (George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore)
First Colonies
 Sir Walter Raleigh &
Roanoke
 1585: fails
scarce food
 hostile relations with
natives
 returned to England
 1587:
 110 people
 Return 3 years later
 Everyone gone . . .

Virginia
Jamestown
 Corporate colony
 London Company – 56
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firms and 659 individuals
invested
Granted by King James I
North Carolina to New
York
Named Virginia after
Queen Elizabeth I
Jamestown settled 1607
Jamestown Fort & Settlement Map
Growth (near death) of Jamestown
 1607 – 104 men
 Unprepared “gentlemen”
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colonists
Settlers wasted time (gold)
Expected native support
38 survived winter
Gov. John Smith saved
colony
Difficult early years . . .
 By 1611 1,200 settlers arrived
 Half died, most due to famine
 Relations between Indians &
settlers worsened
 English stole from Indians
 1610-1614 -- First Anglo-
Powhatan War
 Gov. Thomas West (Lord De La
Warr) had orders to make war.
 Raided villages, burned houses,
took supplies, burned
cornfields.
 John Rolfe helped save colony
John Rolfe
 Introduced tobacco
 the leading export to
England – a “cash crop”
 Poor white workers sent
to cultivate it
 1619, 20 Africans bought
from Dutch – first slaves
 1614 Rolfe married
Pocahontas
Jamestown Housing
Jamestown Settlement
Jamestown Chapel
Culture Clash
 1614 to 1622 = peace
 Indian Uprising of 1622
Whites taking Indian lands
1/3 whites killed (including Rolfe)
Whites destroyed Indian food supply
End of coexistence
 1644-1646
 Second Anglo-Powhatan War
 Last effort of natives
 Indians defeated again
 Peace Treaty of 1646
 Removed Powhatans from original land
 Separation of Indians and English
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Battle For Land
Powhatan Confederacy
Jamestown Settlement
High Mortality Rates
 “Starving Time”:
 1607: 104 colonists
 By spring, 1608: 38 survived
 1609: 300 more immigrants
 By spring, 1610: 60 survived
 1610 – 1624: 10,000 immigrants
 1624 population: 1,200
 Adult life expectancy: 40 years
 Death of children before age 5: 80%
Government
The House of Burgesses

Established 1619

Could make laws and levy taxes
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Still subject to the governor and company, (not King)
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Made up of landowning men

1624 King James dissolved London Co. and made Virginia a
royal colony
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James opposed to tobacco

Distrusted House of Burgess as independent body

This meant . . .

House of Burgesses had to get laws approved by King’s Council

Church of England became official religion in Virginia
What was the
focus of the
Virginia Colony?
Maryland
The Settlement of Maryland
 royal charter granted to George
Calvert, Lord Baltimore (1632)
 A proprietary colony (1634)
 Tobacco main crop
 Absentee proprietor (feudal
relationship)
 Appointed brother Leonard
governor
A Haven for Catholics
 Catholic relatives received land
 Other colonists wanted land
 Modest farms around
Chesapeake
 Catholic land barons and
Protestant small farmers
 Gov. Calvert tried to prevent
representative democracy
 1638 Lord Baltimore allowed for
legislative body
A Haven for Catholics
 Baltimore allowed freedom of
worship
 Protestants felt threatened by
Catholics
 Led to uprising
 Toleration Act of 1649
 Supported by Catholics
 Guaranteed toleration to all
CHRISTIANS
 Decreed death to those who
denied the divinity of Jesus
(Jews, atheists, etc.)
Political Outcome
 By 1650 a bicameral
legislature in place
 Upper House
 Appointed
 Who would this be?
 Lower House
 Elected by freemen
 Who would this be?
What was the
focus of the
Maryland Colony?
Tobacco and
Rebellion
Tobacco Trade
 1618 — Virginia produces
20,000 pounds of tobacco.
 1622 — Despite losing nearly
one-third of its colonists,
Virginia produces 60,000
pounds of tobacco.
 1627 — Virginia produces
500,000 pounds of tobacco.
 1629 — Virginia produces
1,500,000 pounds of tobacco
Tobacco
 Allowed Chesapeake region
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to flourish
Needed labor source
Mosquito infested
Many men died from
malaria
Left women in unusual
position of wealth
Indentured Servitude
 Poor left England
seeking fortune
 Between 1640-1700
 80,000 came to Virginia
 20,000 came to
Maryland
Indentured Servitude
 Indenture Contract:
 5-7 years (up to age 21
for youth)
 Promised “freedom
dues” [land, money]
 Forbidden to marry
 Fed, clothed,
sheltered
 Headright System:
 Each Virginian got 50
acres for each person
whose passage they paid
 More indentured
servants = more land
Indentured Servitude
 Bad for Servants:
 Masters had total
control
 Could beat servants
 Could extend contracts
 Sometimes sexually
abused women
 Only about 25%
benefitted by end of
contract
 Good for Masters:
 High profit margin for
tobacco
 Could gain more land
 Due to lack of women in
colonies, men sometimes
married female servant
Frustrated Freemen
 By 1660 economy dropped
 Tobacco no longer
profitable
 Small group of large
landowners survived
 King raised taxes
 Many smaller farmers
became landless
 Farmers grew more (supply
 1670 Virginia Assembly
and demand)
 Farmers lost land
 Indentured servants had no
hope of buying land
disenfranchised most
landless men
 Social impact?
Navigation Acts
 1651 – Act of Trade and
Navigation
 Only English ships allowed in
American ports
 American merchants only
allowed to trade with English
 Lost trade with more
profitable countries
 Began drop in colonial
economy
Nathaniel Bacon’s Rebellion: 1676
 Governor William Berkeley
 Governor – 1642-1652
 Ended Indian Wars in 1644
(guaranteed Indian lands)
 Governor again in 1660
 Corrupt!

Gave land and offices to friends
and relatives
Nathaniel Bacon’s Rebellion: 1676
 Poorer whites were forced
farther west (Indian land)
 Berkeley monopolized fur trade
with Indians
 Berkley refused to retaliate for
Indian attacks on frontier
settlements.
 Led to war in 1675 –
Susquehannock chiefs
murdered
 Berkeley raised taxes to pay for
western forts
Nathaniel Bacon’s Rebellion: 1676
 Nathaniel Bacon
 Wealthy English settler in
western Virginia
 Attacked Indians (against
Berkeley)
 Supporters gained power in
House of Burgesses
 Led 1,000 Virginians in a
rebellion against Berkeley
 Berkeley driven from
Jamestown
Nathaniel Bacon’s Rebellion: 1676
 Bacon Manifesto
 Death or removal of all Indians
 End of rule of wealthy “parasites”
 What type of war is Bacon
waging?
 Bacon’s men burned capital
 Rebels went on a rampage
 Bacon suddenly died (dysentery)
 Berkeley brutally crushed the
rebellion; hanged 20 rebels
Results of Bacon’s Rebellion
 Exposed internal clashes
 Inland frontiersmen/
landless former servants vs.
gentry on coastal
plantations.
 rural vs. urban
 Led the upper class planters
(elite) to
 Share power
 Enslave Africans (less likely
to rebel)
 Why would the planter class
do this?