Chapter 2: The Planting of English America

By: Faris Mirza

England’s Imperial Stirrings

1607: Central and South America controlled by Spain or Portugal; North America mostly unclaimed

Spain had Santa Fe; France had Quebec; British had struggling Jamestown

Political/religious problems prevented England from colonizing

Henry VIII’s break from the Catholic Church Queen Elizabeth made Protestantism the main

religion; Spain became the Catholic enemy Catholic Ireland gave British problems

England Under Queen Elizabeth Francis Drake and

his “sea dogs”: specialized in pirating Spanish ships

First British attempts at colonization: Sir Walter Raleigh

established Roanoke Island Colony, later known as the Lost Colony

The Spanish Armada

1588: Spain decided to attack England but was defeated

BIG turning point in history: opened the door for Britain to cross Atlantic and establish colonies Sprung British to naval

prominence Lots of unity and national

pride in Britain Golden age of literature:

William Shakespeare

England on the Eve of the Empire

1500’s: England’s population was growing greatly

The Enclosure movement meant less land was available for the poor Poor wanted to come to

America Primogeniture: the

firstborn son inherits everything from father

Younger, landless sons wanted to leave

England on the Eve of the Empire

The concept of the joint stock company grew People invest money; investor makes

money as a share-owner

England’s Jamestown

1606: King James I gives Virginia Company a charter to establish a colony in America Charter gives the colonists all rights of

Englishmen Virginia Co. was a joint-stock company

looking for quick profit

England’s Jamestown

1607: 100 men settled in Jamestown: very bad situation No women 40 men died Sanitary issues Most men were looking for gold instead of preparing for survival

Captain John Smith took control in 1608 and enforced strong self-discipline among the men: “No work, no food” policy

Good relations with Chief Powhatan with the help of Pocahontas

Still, numbers of settlers died Lord De La Warr forced the return of some abandoning

settlers, bringing more discipline and supplies

Culture Clash in the Chesapeake Region

The colonists and the Powhatans wavered between good and bad relations

1614: First Anglo-Powhatan war ends; sealed by the marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas

1644-1646: Second Anglo-Powhatan war saw Indians defeated soundly Indians banned from Chesapeake Beginnings of reservations system Indians fell because of disease, disorganization,

and disposability

The Indians’ New World

Changes that Europeans brought Arrival of horses Disease devastated the Indian

population Indians obtained firearms, increasing

violence

Tobacco: The Revelation for Virginia

Tobacco became the cash crop and was sought by Europe; Jamestown now had the means to be successful Virginia’s economy built entirely on one product

Cultivating tobacco also wore out the land, causing producers to seek new land by moving inland

Created a demand for cheap labor, which was fulfilled by indentured servants in the 1600’s but more and more by slaves in the 1700’s

The Importance of 1619

The House of Burgesses was created in Virginia: first form of representative self-government in America A legislature to work out basic local

issues The first blacks were brought to

America, either as indentured servants or slaves

The first shipload of women arrived in Virginia

Maryland

Lord Baltimore founded Maryland in 1634; religious freedom was the main motivation

A haven for Catholics to avoid persecution from Protestants in Europe or America

Those who settled there Lord Baltimore gave huge land grants to

Catholic friends, while poor Protestants settled there too---tensions ensued

Flourished because of sale of tobacco

Maryland

Indentured servants bore most of the workload The same trend was later seen: slaves replaced

indentured servants as the 1700’s came along Reasons for this switch

Desire for a stable work force White indentures wanted their own lands

Maryland passes the Act of Toleration, guaranteeing religious toleration to all Christians

The West Indies

With the decline of Spain and Portugal, who had holdings in the West Indies, England looked to colonize there

Intensives sugar plantations worked by slaves Indians were used at slaves at first, but too many were

wiped out by disease Africans were then used

Slave codes were instituted because the white’s feared the large number of blacks Barbados Slave Code: designed to keep slaves in control

West African slaves were “seasoned” here, having ideas of revolt beaten out of them

Colonizing the Carolinas

England was in political turmoil Charles I was beheaded, Cromwell ruled for

10 years, then Charles II became king with The Restoration

This disrupted colonization Charles II made an effort to colonize; 1670

marked the start of the Carolinas’ colonization

Carolina had ties to the West Indies The Charleston port brought in slaves as well

as the slave codes

Colonizing the Carolinas

Rice and indigo became the cash crops in the Carolinas because tobacco could not be grown there Africans were sought after

because of their resistance to malaria and their knowledge of growing rice

South Carolina had an air of aristocracy among plantation owners, while North Carolina had more independent, yeoman farmers Eventual split between the two

in 1712

The Emergence of North Carolina

Many settlers came from Chesapeake because as lands for tobacco ran out, they just moved southward

Trouble with the Indians The Tuscaroras attacked in 1711, but

Carolinians protected themselves successfully

Defeated Indians travelled north, where some became the 6th nation of the Iroquois Confederacy

Others were sold into slavery

Georgia

Georgia was established with the purpose of acting as a buffer zone between Spanish Florida and the British colonies on the east coast

James Oglethorpe founded it in 1733, naming it after King George II

It became the colony where debtors could get a second chance and criminals were dumped-called the “charity colony”

All Christians except Catholics were allowed Missionaries such as John Wesley, founder of

Methodism tried to convert Indians to Christianity

The Plantation Colonies

Slavery was omnipresent Forests as well as social structure stunted

the growth of cities Rarely find schools and churches

Tobacco grown in Chesapeake (Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina

Indigo and rice grown in Georgia and SC In general, there was a great deal of

religious freedom because of a focus on profiting from plantations

Frequent clashes with American Indians

The Iroquois Confederacy Five tribes: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and the

Seneca Under leadership of Hiawatha Proved to be the strongest opposition against white colonization Eventually met defeat after disease, whiskey, and weapons Lived in “longhouses”; a sessile community Matriarchal-based society