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Chapter 2
The Planting of English America (1500-1733)

 Intro
o Changes in the New World
 European crops and livestock changed landscape
 Disease and armed conquest killed natives
 Several hundred thousand African slaves forced to work
 Central America dominated by Spanish
NORTH AMERICA  unclaimed land  European outposts:
 Spain – Santa Fe in 1610
 French – Quebec in 1608
 English – Jamestown, Virginia in 1607

 England’s Imperial Stirrings

o Religious conflict in 1530s (Protestant vs. Catholic)  English Protestant
Reformation
 Rivalry with Catholic Spain  settling the New World
o English took over Catholic Irish lands; was a powerful nation

 Elizabeth Energizes England

o National pride
 Protestantism
 Seize Spanish ships, raid treasure
 Colonization
 Newfoundland attempt in 1583 by Sir Humphrey Gilbert
 North Carolina Roanoke Island in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh
(successful at first, later failed)
 Competiton with Spain
 Spain was more successful in colonization
o Catholic Philip II sent an armada in 1588 to invade England
 English won using faster, better ships
o Beginning of end of Spanish imperial dreams
 Holland independent
 Spanish Caribbean lost

 Beginning of English domination

 Showed Spain’s characteristics from previous century
o Unified country
o Popular monarch
o Religious unity
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o Nationalism
 Cultural advancement
o Literature’s golden age (infl. by Shakespeare)
o Thirst for adventure
o Patriotism

 England on the Eve of Empire

o Social change
 Population mushrooming
 3 million in 1550  4 million in 1600
 Small farmers in country sent away
o SOURCE OF IMMIGRANTS TO AMERICAS
 Religious reasons
 SOURCE OF IMMIGRANTS
o Economic change
 Depression of woolen trade in late 1500s  farmers w/out homes
 SOURCE OF IMMIGRANTS
 Early 1600s: joint-stock companies perfected
 Modern corporation, w/ investors that combined capital
 $$$ INVESTMENT IN EXPLORATION
o Legal change
 Only eldest sons could inherit estates
 SOURCE OF IMMIGRANTS

o Population growth + lack of religious freedom + unemployment + money

opportunities + legal changes = OFF TO THE AMERICAS
o Peace treaty signed with Spain in 1604

 England Plants the Jamestown Seedling

o 1606: Joint-stock company called Virginia Company of London
 Receives charter from King James I to settle New World
 Motivations
o Gold
o Passage to Asia
 Intended temporary stay
 Rights
o Same as Englishmen
o 1607: Jamestown founded
 100 English settlers, all men
 Deaths
 Initial voyage 1606-1607: 40
 Expedition 1609: shipwreck
 On Virginia: disease, malnutrition, starvation
 Too busy looking for nonexistent gold to make a living
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o 1608: Jamestown saved by John Smith

 “He who shall not work shall not eat.”
 Saved by Pocahontas
 Link of peace between Virginians and Indians
o 1609-1610: Only 60 survived the winter
o 1610: New governor, Lord De La Warr
 Ordered settlers back to Jamestown
 Beginning of harsh military regime
o 1624: 1200/8000 survivors remained

 Cultural Clash in the Chesapeake

o 1607: Powhatans dominated the James River Area, “Powhatan’s Confederacy”
o 1610: Tougher relationships
 Lord De La Warr  Virginia Company  Decl. of war against Indians
o 1615: First Anglo-Powhatan War ended
 John Rolfe + Pocahontas = First known interracial union in VA
o 1622: Indians strike back
 John Rolfe killed
 Virginia Company calls for war
o 1644: Second Anglo-Powhatan War
 Indians again defeated
o 1646: Banished Chesapeake Indians, separated from whites
o 1669: Official census
 Only 10% of original Indians (1607) remained

o Three Ds
 Disease
 Weak to European-borne diseases
 Disorganization
 Lacked effective unification
 Disposability
 No economic functions
o No labor
o No valuables
o No knowledge new to Vas
o EUROPEANS WANTED LAND

 The Indians’ New World

o Adaptations not possible
 Large-scale colonization too dramatic
o Good changes
 Horses
 Transportation! Lifestyle changes!
o Lakotas (Sioux)
 Sedentary forest dwellers  nomadic hunters
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o Bad changes
 Disease
 Cultural changes
o Elders died  oral traditions, wisdom gone
 Trade
 Firearms
o Hunting ground competition
 Indian-on-Indian violence
 Economy
 Could not adapt well enough so often were left out
o INDIANS WHO SUCCEEDED (ALGONQUIANS) WERE POWERFUL IN
THEIR AREAS
 French/English traders had to adapt to Indian ways
 Interracial marriage
 Relative peace and collaboration…
 until MORE EUROPEANS CAME

 Virginia: Child of Tobacco

o 1612: John Rolfe perfected agricultural method of raising tobacco
 Tobacco rush spread over VA
 LAND COMPETITION. NOT FOOD COMPETITION.
 Effects
 Ruined soil after a few years
 Fortunes depended on a single crop
 Promoted labor system
o 1619: Dutch warship sold Africans
o SLAVE SYSTEM BEGINS

o 1619: Representative self-government born

 London Company  House of Burgesses formed
o 1624: Deteriorating ties w/ England
 James I
 Hated tobacco
 Distrusted House of Burgesses
 REVOKED CHARTER
o VA became royal colony under his control

 Maryland: Catholic Haven

o Second plantation colony, fourth English colony
 Founded by Lord Baltimore, a Catholic high-ranking Englishman
 Purpose
o Financial profits
o Refuge for Catholics in Protestant England
 Religious freedom for all, initially
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o Catholic + Protestant conflicts

 1649: Act of Toleration
 All Christians okay
 Jews, atheists = death penalty
o Successful
 Tobacco
 Labor
o White indentured servants
o End of 17th century = slavery

 The West Indies: Way Station to Mainland America

o Early 1600s: Spain relaxed grip in Caribbean
o 1655: England claimed Jamaica and other islands
 Sugar
 Rich man’s crop
 Extensive planting, hard work and clearing
 Slaves
o 1661: BARBADOS SLAVE CODE
o Masters = complete control over slaves
o Denied basic rights
 Tobacco
 Poor man’s crop
o Population distribution
 Poor farmers moved to southern colonies
 1696: Carolina adopts slave code
 Caribbean islands acted as test grounds for slavery

 Colonizing the Carolinas

o Unhappy in the Mother Country
 1640s: Civil War in England
 1641: Charles I dismissed Parliament
 1649: Charles beheaded
 Cromwell ruled for a decade
 1660: Charles II’s reign

o NO COLONIZATION DURING ENGLISH TURMOIL

 Higher intensity after
 1670: Carolina created
o Economic ties with sugar islands of West Indies
o Slave system from Barbados
 Rulers protested but lost
 Indians now slaves
 1707: Savannah Indians desert
o Migrate to Maryland and Pennsylvania
 Promised better relations
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o Carolinians killed Indians by 1710

o Rice became major export
 African slaves who were expert rice farmers bought and used
o Charleston
 Busiest seaport
 Sons of aristocratic English families

 The Emergence of North Carolina

o Impoverished and religious outcasts moved to North Carolina
 “Riffraff”
o 1712: North and South separated; became royal colonies
o RI + NC characteristics
 Democratic
 Independent-minded
 Least aristocratic of 13 colonies
o Not proponents of slavery initially
 1711: Tuscarora Indians captured and sold
o 1720: Most coastal tribes eliminated except
 Cherokees
 Creeks
 Iroquois

 Late-Coming Georgia: The Buffer Colony

o 1733: Formally founded
o Last of 13 colonies
o Buffer
 Separate Carolinas from Spanish Florida, French Louisiana
 Received $$$ from England
o Philanthropists’ Purpose
 Protect northern colonies
 Produce silk and wine
 Haven for people in debt
 James Oglethorpe
o Repelled Spanish attacks
o Saved “Charity Colony” by mortgaging fortune
 Keep slavery out of Georgia
o Melting-pot community
 German Lutherans, Scots Highlanders
 All Christians but Catholics had religious toleration
 John Wesley
 Founded Methodist Church
o Slow growth

 The Plantation Colonies

o Distinctive features of southern mainland colonies
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 Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia

 Exported commercial agricultural products
 Staple crops
o Tobacco and rice
 Slavery
o Georgia in 1750
 Strong aristocratic atmosphere
o Except N. Carolina and debtor-full Georgia
 Slow growth
o Scattering of plantations and farms
o Establ. of churches and schools difficult and expensive
 Some religious toleration
o Tax-supported Church of England = dominant faith
 Expansionary
o Tobacco growers expanded for better soil
o Conflict with Native Americans