The English Arrive

• Unlike other European colonizers, the English sent large numbers of people to the agriculturally fertile areas of North America

• Relationships between the English and local Native Americans were strained, so intermarriage between the two was very rare = to no new ethnic groups and rigid & hierarchal social classes

• In 1587, England’s first attempt to settle North America, Sir Walter Raleigh sponsored a settlement on Roanoke Island (in North Carolina now), but is known as the Lost Colony since the colony disappeared by 1590.

• 1607, the second attempt, settled Jamestown funded by a joint-stock company (where investors bought the right to establish plantations in the New World from the king) called “Virginia Company,” named after the Virgin Queen (Elizabeth I)

  • Many settlers were more interested in searching for gold (could only find iron pyrite aka fool’s gold) than planting crops so many soon died of starvation or disease

    • Jamestown only survived because of new ships constantly arriving from England with new colonists, and after Captain John Smith (overseeing work and food balance) got injured, the people of the Powhatan Confederacy stopped supplying Jamestown with food.

      • The Winter of 1609-1610 became known as the “starving time”, survivors abandoned the colony but encountered an English ship with supplies and settlers a short distance away

• John Rolfe (a survivor of the “starving time”), he…

  • Married Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahantas, briefly easing tensions btw natives and settlers

  • Pioneered the practice of growing tobacco (done by Native Americans), as a cash crop and sent it back to England where it was a huge success, which brightened prospects for English settlement in Virginia

  • Tobacco (needs a lot of lands, and depletes soil nutrients quickly), so it resulted in rapid expansion due to success in Virginia’s economy

  • Led to the development of plantation slavery

• The area around Jamestown is known as Chesapeake, named after the bay

  • People migrated to Chesapeake for financial reasons

    • Overpopulation in Europe = famine, disease, poverty

    • New World held the opportunity of indentured servitude

      • Indentured servitude- Free passage to New World, servants typically promised 7 years of labor, after which they would receive their freedom, a small piece of property (for survival and the right to vote, normally not available to working-class men in Europe)

    • But, indenture was extremely difficult and nearly 1/2 of them didn’t survive their terms of service

• 1618, The Virginia Company introduced the headright system to attract new settlers and workers because of the emerging popularity of tobacco farming.

  • Headright= land, usually around 50 acres granted to colonists and potential settlers

• 1619, Virginia established the House of Burgesses- in which any property-holding white male could vote

  • Any decision made by the House of Burgesses had to be approved by the Virginia Company

  • 1619 = Year of the Introduction of slavery to the English colonies

French Colonialization of North America

• 1608, the French colonized modern-day Quebec City

  • French Jesuit priests were trying to convert people to Roman Catholicism

  • Tried to explore as much land as possible in hopes of finding natural resources, and a shortcut to Asia

  • French colonists had a much lighter impact on the native peoples, very few settlers (mainly single men), some of whom intermarried with women native to the area

  • Tended to stay on the move especially if they were coureurs du bois (runners in the woods), in the fur trade trending in Europe

• Eventually plays a huge role in the French and Indian war (1754-1763), but a slim chance of shaping the region known as British North America, faded with the Edict of Nantes in 1598

In summary…

The Pilgrims and the Massachusetts Bay Company

• 16th century, English Calvinists led a Protestant movement called Puritanism in England, to purify the Anglican church of Roman Catholic practices, but were persecuted and so they began to look for a new place

• One group called the Separatists (abandoned the church because they believed there was no hope of reform), left England, went to the Netherlands, but decided to go to the New World after

  • In 1620, they set for Virginia on the Mayflower, ended up in Massachusetts, and settled where they landed (called Plymouth)

  • The travelers were called Pilgrims and led by William Bradford, they established and signed an agreement for a “body pilgrim”, called the Mayflower Compact

    • The Mayflower Compact created legal authority and assembly but also determined that the government’s power is from the consent of being governed, not from God

• The Pilgrims received life-saving assistance from local Native Americans, especially a man named Tisquantum (aka Squanto), who became their interpreter and teacher on how to plant crops in the New World

• 1629, a larger and more powerful colony called the Massachusetts Bay was established by the Congregationalists (Puritans who wanted to reform the church), which began The Great Puritan Migration (1629-1642), led by Governor John Winthrop.

• Governor John Winthrop ensured the development along with Puritan ideals and encouraged them to be a “city upon a hill” role model.

• Puritans believed they had a covenant with God, and work was a communal idea, while the government was meant to be a covenant among the people, so the Puritan church was always to be served.

• Both the Congregationalists and the Separatists didn’t tolerate religious freedom, despite being the targets of religious persecution before.