Contextualizing Period 2

Early Settlements

• Spanish and Portuguese settled in Central and South America

• French, Dutch, and British settled on the Atlantic coast

• Trade was the mainstay of Native and European contact

Sources of Labor

• Europeans seized land from Native Americans as they looked for a source of labor to make the land profitable

• Enslaving Natives failed due to disease and because they could escape easily

• Indentured servitude became common in colonies but was insufficient

• Slaves from Africa became a popular source of labor later as the Spanish and others were importing slaves too

Spanish Colonies

• Florida → Juan Ponce de Loen claimed this land for Spain after strong resistance from Natives

• New Mexico And Arizona → Spanish Colonists began arriving in 1598 with Sante Fe as the capital

• Texas → Spanish est. settlements in Texas between Florida and New Mexico

• California → Franciscan order and Father Junipero Serra est. mission along the California Coast

French Colonies

• Motives: Christian missionaries, economic reasons, the fur trade

• Quebec was the 1st settlement in America by Samuel de Champlain (1608)

• Louisiana was explored by Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette

• New Orleans became a prosperous trade port

Dutch Colonies

• Henry Hudson sailed up the Hudson River with est. Dutch claims to the surrounding area

• Dutch West Company made to control the region for economic gain

British Colonies

• England’s population grew more rapidly than its economy

• Joint-stock companies financed colonies

• Motives: better life, religious freedom

The 13 Colonies and the British Empire

Types of British Colonies

• Corporate colonies: operated by joint-stock companies, during the early years

• Royal colonies: under the direct authority and rule of the King’s government

• Proprietary colonies: under the authority of individuals granted charters of ownership by the king

Early English Settlements

• England gained a reputation as a major naval power

• England’s population was growing wildly

• poor and landless people attracted to the Americas

• Joint-stock companies grew

  • pooled savings of many investors → spread the risk

Jamestown

• King James chartered the Virginia Company

• Problems

  • Location in the swampy area resulted in disease outbreaks

  • Trades with American Indians were prominent but when conflicts came trade stopped and settlers went hungry

  • John Rolfe developed a variety of tobacco that became popular in Europe and profited

• Transition to a royal colony

  • Virginia company made unwise decisions + debt

  • King James, I revoked the charter and it became England’s 1st royal colony

Plymouth + Massachusetts Bay

• Religious motivation to move west

• Settled by English protestants and + Anglican Church

• The leader of the church was the monarch of England

• Dissenters adopted Calvin’s doctrine of predestination

• King James, I viewed religious dissenters as a threat to his religious and political authority + ordered them arrested and jailed

Plymouth Colony

• Separatists (radical dissenters to the Church of England) wanted a separate church independent of royal control

• Known as pilgrims they chose a colony in America operated by the Virginia Company of London

• Set sail on the Mayflower and landed off the Massachusetts coast

• Hardships

  • Harsh winters killed many

  • Able to adapt to the land by natives + celebrated Thanksgiving

• Leaders: Captian Miles, Governor William Bradford

Massachusetts Bay Colony

• Moderate dissenters believed the Church of England could be reformed/ purified → Puritans

• Puritans gained a royal charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company

• Puritans + John Winthrop sailed to MA → more settlers came (known as the great migration)

Political Instiutions

• Representative Assembly in VA

  • Virginia Company encouraged settlement in Jamestown with the same rights as residents

  • Representation in lawmaking processes

  • Jamestown organized the 1st representative assembly in America → House of Burgesses

• Representative Government in New England

  • Mayflower Compact → pledge them to make decisions by the will of the majority

  • All freemen (male) of the Puritan church had the right to participate in elections

• Limits

  • Most colonists were excluded from the political process

  • Only white males could vote

  • The rest had limited rights

Chesapeake Colonies

• King Charles chartered a new colony on either side of Chesapeake Bay and granted control of it to George Calvert

• Religious Issues

  • Act of Toleration → act of parliament granting freedom of worship to nonconformists

  • Protestant revolt → religious reform movement that swept through Europe

• Labor Shortages

  • Indentured servants → agreements between 2 parties about long-term work

  • Headright system → right to receive 50 acres per person or per head in Virginia

  • Slavery → Dutch ships brought black Americans to Virginia to serve plantation owners + permanent bondage

• Economic Problems

  • Tobacco overproduction led to low prices

  • House of Burgesses attempted to raise prices

• Conflict in Virginia

  • Bacon’s Rebellion → Bacon and his followers burn Jamestown, angry at the Virginia government that gave land to natives and the land aristocracy

  • Problems

    • Highlighted class differences

    • Colonial resistance to royal control

Development of New England

• Rhode Island

  • Roger Williams fled southward to Narragansett Bay with followers

  • Anne Hutchinson believed in antinomianism and joined Roger

  • Roger granted a charter from the Parliament that joined Providence and Portsmouth into a single colony → Rhode Island that served as a refuge

• Connecticut

  • Settlers unhappy with MA authorities were attracted to Connecticut

  • Reverend Thomas Hooker led a large group of Puritans to Hartford + drew up the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

    • Est. representative government of the legislature

  • New Haven Joined with Hartford settlers to form Connecticut

• New Hampshire

  • Last New England colony that was originally part of Massachusettes Bay

  • King Charles II separated NH from the Bay colony and made it a royal colony

• Halfway Covenant

  • Allowed partial membership rights to persons not yet converted to a Puritan church

• New England Confederation

  • The joint military alliance between New England colonies of Plymouth, Connecticut, New Haven, and Massachusetts Bay against Natives, French, and Dutch

• King Philip’s War

  • Wampanoag’s chief Metacom united many tribes against English settlers (encroaching on native land)

  • Colonial forces prevailed ending Native resistance in New England

Restoration Colonies

• Colonies found in restoration time

• Carolinas

  • Charles II granted a tract between Virginia and Spanish Florida to 8 nobles (lord proprietors of the Carolinas)

  • South Carolina

    • Colonists from England + planters from Barbados founded a town

    • Based on fur trading and providing food for West Indies + large rice-growing plantations

• North Carolina

  • Virginia and New England farmers est. self-sufficient tobacco farms

  • Earned a reputation for democratic views and autonomy from British control

• New York

  • The king granted the Duke of York lands between Connecticut and Delaware Bay.

  • James ordered new taxes, language, duties, rents, etc with no assembly

  • Taxation without representation et strong opposition made James yield by allowing the governor to grant broad civil + political rights

• New Jersey

  • James split the New York colony into 2 making New Jersey

  • Attracted settlers by land offers + religious freedom + assembly

  • West New Jersey + East New Jersey → New Jersey

• Pennsylvania + Delaware

  • Quakers

    • Believed that religious authority was found within each person’s soul and not the bible or any other source

    • Persecuted + jailed for their beliefs in England

  • William Penn

    • Young converted to the Quaker faith

    • Bequeathed Pennsylvania land as the royal family owed father large debt

  • The Holy Experiment

    • William Penn est Pennsylvania as a way to put into practice Quaker ideals

    • Penn hired agents and published notices throughout Europe that promised political and religious freedom and generous land terms

  • Delaware

    • Penn granted 3 lower counties of Pennsylvania their own assembly becoming another colony

• Georgia

  • Britain wanted a defensive buffer to protect South Carolina from the Spanish threat

  • imprisoners in England could come here to escape debt + start over

  • Special regulations

    • James Oglethorpe founded Georgia’s first settlement + put in a plan to make the colony thrive

    • The constant threat of Spanish attack stopped the colony from prospering

  • Royal colony

    • Oglethorpe gave up their plan and Georgia became a royal colony

    • The colony grew slowly through the SC plantation system

Triangular trade

• Merchant ships followed a 3-way route from North America to Europe to Africa.

• Britain (textiles, rum, manufactures) , Africa(slaves), America (sugar, tobacco, cotton)

Mercantilism and the Empire

• Mercantilism: nations’ wealth and power were best served by increased exports and reduced imports

• Colonies were to provide raw materials to the parent country for growth

• Acts of Trade and Navigation were England’s implemented mercantilist policy with Navigations acts

  • Trade only by English Ships

  • Imported goods only through England ports

  • Specific goods could only be exported to England (tobacco)

• Impact on colonies

  • Caused New England shipbuilding to prosper + Chesapeake monopoly

  • Limited development of colonial manufacturing

  • Colonists resented regulatory laws by distant governments

• Enforcement

  • British gov lax in enforcement

  • Massachusetts Bay Charter revoked

• Dominion of New England

  • King James II determined to increase royal control over colonies through larger administrative units

  • NY, NJ, + others combined into the dominion of New England

  • This led to an uprising against him + separate charters for colonies

Institution of Slavery

• Increased Demand for Slaves

  • Reasons

    • Reduced migration of immigrants into colonies

    • Slaves were a dependable workforce → Indentured servants were unsuitable as they kept revolting

    • Slaves were cheap labor → Tobacco prices fell, and rice and indigo became profitable so cheap was labor needed

• Slave Laws

  • White colonists adopted laws to ensure African Americans would be held in bondage for life and slave status would be inherited

  • Triangular Trade

    • Britain (textiles, rum, manufactures) , Africa(slaves), America (sugar, tobacco, cotton)

    • Middle passage: slaves would be transported to the Americas directly from Africa

European Settlements

• Motivations to colonize → raw materials, adventure, markets, overcrowding in England, and religious reformation

• Spanish Settlements

  • Settled in Mexico

  • Spanish caste system (Europeans, Mixed, Natives)

  • Were there for missionary work

  • Enslaved Natives + Bartolome de las Cases outspoken against enslavement and encomienda

• Dutch Settlements

  • Settled in middle colonies

  • No cohesive establishment + trade

  • Quakers

• French Settlements

  • Settled in Canada + West of Britain

  • Immense fur trade with Natives

  • Missionary work

• English Settlements

  • Settled away from Natives → Eastern Coast

  • Settlement and land were the main goals

  • Protestant + Catholic (refugees)

  • Disease wiped out natives

Colonial Society in the 18th Century

Population Growth

• 250,000 → 2,500,000 complete population

• Africans

  • largest non-English immigrant group

  • Africant population made up 20%

Structure of Colonial Society

• General Characteristics

  • Self-Government → Representative assembly (RI & CT were elected)

  • Religious Toleration → practice of different religions

  • No Hereditary Aristocracy

  • Social Mobility → Opportunity to improve their standard (didn’t apply to Africans)

• Family

  • Men - landowning + voting + jobs

  • Women - average typical household work

• Economy

  • Mercantilism throughout colonies

  • New England - limited farming + more industrial manufacturing

  • Middle Colonies - rich soil + small manufacturing

  • Southern Colonies - large plantation economy

  • Monetary system - limit the use of money

  • Transportation - good by water, roads, trails, and small ships on water routes

• Religion

  • Puritans, Anglicans, Quakers

  • Challenges

    • discrimination + persecution

    • absence of church leadership

  • Established Churches: protestant, Anglican, congregation church dominance

  • Great awakening

    • Religion/puritan influence DECREASES

    • Johnathan Edwards: sinners in the hands of an angry god”: Christians must depend on God’s grace

    • George Whitefield traveling sermons

      • Revitalized religion with emotionalism

      • New lights v old lights (orthodox)

    • congregations + Presbyterians split into methodists + baptists

      • Anglican + congregational (puritan) tax-supported churches dominate

      • Anglican/church of Eng ESP IN SOUTH

      • Founding of college & sense of Americanism

• Cultural life

  • Colonial arts and sciences flourished

  • Architecture: Georgian-style buildings

  • Painting: itinerant artists

  • Literature: Poor Richard’s Almanac + more

  • Science: Ben Franklin

• Education

  • Elementary

    • Emphasis on learning the bible

    • Tax-supported schools

    • Sponsored, private, tutors

  • Higher

    • Promoted doctrines of religious groups + only nobles could afford

  • Ministry → Cristian

  • Physicians → cures only made colonists worse

  • Lawyers → talkative troublemakers

• Press

  • Newspapers → news spread + 5 newspapers dominant

  • Zenger Trial → 1st challenge with freedom of the press regarding

• Enlightenment

  • Education in colonies

  • Brought by Ben Franklin

    • Reasoning: science and politics

  • Colonies more democratic than Europe

  • John Locke - natural rights basis for Declaration

• Politics

  • Structure of government

    • 8 royal colonies and 3 proprietaries (MY, PN, DL)

    • Local government

      • The dominant form of local government was a town meeting

  • Voting

    • White men largely took the votes

    • Wealth men had the bigger say