NEW WORLD

EXPERIMENTS:
ENGLANDS
America: Past and Present
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY
Chapter 2
COLONIES

Breaking Away
Rapid

social change in seventeenthcentury England

English population mobile
Different motives for migration

religious versus economic

personal: to escape bad marriages, jail
terms, or lifelong poverty

The Stuart Monarchs

Four Colonial Subcultures

The

Chesapeake
New England
Middle Colonies
The Carolinas

The Chesapeake: Dreams of

Wealth
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
Joint-stock

companies provide financing

English stockholders in Virginia Company
expect instant profits
Jamestown settled 1607
Colonys location in a swamp unhealthy
Competition from expansive Powhattans
Colonists

do not work for common good

Chesapeake Colonies, 1640

Spinning Out of Control

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

1622natives attempt to drive out English
1644second attempt to drive out English;
Powhattan empire destroyed

Stinking Weed
1610--John

Rolfe introduces tobacco

1618-- Headrights instituted to
encourage development of tobacco
plantations

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
Population

increase prevented by
imbalanced sex ratio
3,570 colonists to Virginia 1619-1622
Men outnumber women 6:1 after 1619

Contagious

disease kills settlers

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

1624--King

James I dissolves London

Company
Virginia becomes a royal colony
House of Burgesses continues to meet

Maryland: A Troubled Refuge

for Catholics
Initiated

by Sir George Calvert (Lord

Baltimore) as refuge for English
Catholics
1632--Calverts son Cecilius (2nd Lord
Baltimore) gains charter to Maryland
Requires toleration among Catholics
and Protestants

Maryland: A Troubled Refuge

for Catholics (2)
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
Pilgrims

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

Puritans

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
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)

Puritans

establish Congregationalism

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)

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
An

extreme Separatist
Questioned the validity of the colonys
charter
Champions liberty of conscience
Williams expelled to Rhode Island,
1636

Limits of Dissent:
Anne Hutchinson
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

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
New

York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Delaware

Middle Colonies, 1685

Anglo-Dutch Rivalry on the

Hudson
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)
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

Colony

sold by Duke of York to Lord

Berkeley and Sir George Carteret
Settlers refuse to pay rents

grounds: New York governor had

promised representative assembly

Berkeley

splits colony by selling out to

Quaker group

Confusion in New Jersey (2)

West

Jersey becomes Quakers colony

Democratic system of government
introduced
Diverse, contentious
Neither Jersey prospers, reunited by
the crown in 1702

Quakers in America
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

Founder:

George Fox (1624-1691)

Believed in Inner Light

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"

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
Immigrants

recruited from England,

Wales, Ireland, and Germany
Quaker population racked by contention
Non-Quaker population does not share
Penns ideals
1701--Penn grants self-rule to
Pennsylvania colonists, independence to
Delaware

Planting the Carolinas

Reliance

on slave labor produced

superficial similarity to Chesapeake
Diversity of settlers, environment
produced great divergence from
Chesapeake

Proprietors of the Carolinas

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
Few

inhabitants in first years

The Barbadian Connection

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
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

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