Chesapeake Colonies: Virginia and Maryland

Chesapeake Colonies

• Virginia and Maryland
• 1st English colony in North America- Jamestown 1607
• Set up under Virginia Stock Company
• Starving period- many died of diseases and starvation until John Smith came
• John Smith set up military discipline and saved the colony. "You don't work, you don't eat" policy
• John Rolfe introduced cultivation of tobacco in Virginia.

What was life like?

• Tobacco was the colony's cash crop and led to the rise of the plantation system.
• Because of this, they needed a cheap labor supply.
• Indentured Servant= Early labor force in Virginia. They worked for 7 years in return for a paid trip to the colony.
• To encourage this, the Headright System in introduced: Those who paid for an indentured servant's passage were rewarded with land. The rich end up getting richer. Many indentured servants died and did not outlive their contract.
• Government structure such as House of Burgesses (1619) were developed. = Form of earl representative government. Spanish and French did not have this type of government so this was unique to this British colonies. House of Burgesses was largely made up of the wealthy planters.

Problems Began to Develop:

• Tobacco was destroying the land
• Demand for labor and land went up
• Because of this, people were moving further and further west into the frontier, increasing tensions with the natives.
• This lead to the relationship with Native Americans and the development of slavery.

Relations with the Natives:

• Hostile relationship between colonists and Powhatan tribe.
• All tribes in area were lumped together under chief Powhatan.
• Anglo-Powhatan wars: Series of wars broke out between the years 1610-1646
• Wars:
• 1st war ended in 1614 because of the marriage between John Rolfe and Pocahontas.
• 2nd war began with the massacre of 1622. Powhatan's confederacy attacks because their land was continuously taken and European diseases decreasing their population. Over 300 colonists are killed. (About 1/3 of the population)
• By 1624 Jamestown becomes a royal colony.
• Powhatan Confederacy largely defeated by 1624 due to their disorganization, disposability, and disease.

Transition to Slavery:

• First Africans arrive to colony in 1619
• Bacon's Rebellion 1676
• lack of land because Governor Berkley did not allow settlers to move too far west to avoid clashes with Natives.
• frustrations with lack of political power. many formal indentured servants had to political opportunities.
• colonists wanted government to do something about native attacks. Gov. Berkley did not want to because he was benefitting from fur trades with them.
• Nathaniel Bacon led a rebellion against the Indians and burned Jamestown.
• Bacon suddenly dies of dissenters and the rebellion collapses and the rebels are hung, bringing peace to the colony.
• The rebellion led to the transition into slavery because indentured servants were making demands.
• Also created tensions between poor and wealthy.

Maryland

• Another Chesapeake colony. (Proprietorship- Lord Baltimore was given land by the king)
• Tobacco plantations in maryland much like virginia
• not only are they there to make money, also there for religious reasons
• Act of Toleration 1649- Religious freedom for christians. (intended to protect catholics who were seeking refuge from hostility of england.)
• ^One of first laws granting religious freedom to all christians. Promised death to anyone denying Jesus.

Southern Colonies

• North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia
• South Carolina: cash crop - rice - plantation economy, wealthy aristocratic elite, African slave labor.
• North Carolina: small tobacco farmers, less reliance on slavery.
• (British also had colonies in the Caribbean) Barbados and Jamaica: Sugar cane cash crop, strict slave labor from the start.
• Georgia: last colony to be established, buffer colony against spanish and french threats in florida. Original was a penal colony for debtors to bring them over into new world for them to start over and initially banned slavery. James Oglethorpe successfully defends colony against the spanish. Problem: no one was coming because of these restrictions so they were dropped and Georgia becomes a royal colony, and eventually has slavery on plantations.

New England Colonies: Chapter 3

• Anyone going to new england colonies are going to a religious motive. (tight knit communities)
• Plymouth Colony: Result of religious conflict in Europe. Protestant Reformation led to the rise of Puritanism. Puritans wanted to purify the church. Many were arrested and harassed, the king thought they were a threat. They believed God already chose who was saved before even being born.
• Pilgrims/Separatists: Wanted to breakaway from Anglican church. They tried to get to Virginia but became lost and landed in Plymouth in 1620/
• Before Pilgrims even get to the colony, they sign the Mayflower compact: An agreement for a government based upon basic majority rule- basis of self government.
• Governor was William Bradford.
• They struggled but not as much as in Jamestown. They get help from local native american leader, Squanto. He helps them survive by teaching them how to farm and hunt. Eventually, they have the first Thanksgiving.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

• Established by Puritans.
• Puritans wanted to reform the church they don't want to breakaway.
• They received a charter from king to establish the Mass. Bay Colony.
• Land in 1630 in today's Boston
• John Wintrhop wanted them to be "City upon a Hill" - believed they had a service from God to establish a city that would serve as a model for rest of the world.
• Education was required and religion was very important.
• Religious freedom was reserved only for Puritans.
• Church membership was a requirement for participation in politics.
• Town Hall Meeting: Important part of direct democracy- all church going males could participate.
• Mixed economy of agriculture and commerce.

Religious Dissent

• Roger Willams questioned Puritan leadership. He called for compete separation from church and state and criticized their treatment of Native Americans. He thought cosines should pay native americans for their land.
• Roger was banished from the colony. He goes off to form his own colony, Providence, Rhode Island: first colony with religious freedom
• Anne Hutchinson openly spoke out against church leaders about women's rights. She is also kicked out.

Conflict with Native Americans

• Pequot War- New England wipes out Pequot tribe with Massacre.
• New England Confederation: Military alliance of all NE colonies except Rhode Island. Intended to defend NE colonies against potential threats from natives, dutch, and the french in the west.
• England is in a civil war, colonies are left to fend for themselves.
• King Phillip's War: Metacom (Phillip) was leader of Wampanoag tribe which was defeated by the colonists. HE tries to form an alliance between native tribes to remove Puritan settlement from his territory. Unlike Pequot war, King phillip has weapons. Phillip ended up being killed and defeated.
• Significance: Last of native resistance to the NE colonies.

Middle Colonies: Breadbasket

• Dutch colony New Amsterdam (New York)
• Dutch did not have a firm grasp on their colony. Charles II sends a military expedition over and grants area to his brother, James to Duke of York.
• Pennsylvania: founded by William Penn as a refuge for quakers to create a "Holy Experiment" Quakers were pasifists who were treated very poorly in England. Crown granted william a block of land. (propriotiership)
• very liberal colony- representative assembly
• treated natives fairly by buying land from them instead of taking it
• religious toleration and freedom
• extended rights to women
• Middle colonies were religiously, ethnically, and demographically diverse.
• They produced wheat, corn, and trading.

Chesapeake VS. New England

• Chesapeake:
• New England:
• Pilgrims or Puritans coming over for religious motives. They are not tolerant of other religions.
• Close knit society with houses settled around towns.
• Longer life expectancy
• More stable society
• Importance of religion, school, and family. Education is required
• Town hall meetings with male church members.
• Received large number of immigrants
• Mixed economy

Slavery in Colonial America:

• Triangular trade route: Slaves and goods moving from Africa, the Caribbean, and the colonies.
• Middle passage: slaves brought over from Africa to western hemisphere
• Place cultures; Blend of african and american cultures.
• Variety of tribes being brought over from parts of Africa. Vast majority going to caribbean islands and brazil.
• Stono Uprising 1739, South Carolina: Slaves along stone river tried to get to Spanish florida where they were promised freedom. Rebellion was defeated and caused stricter laws and conditions on slavery to be made. "slave codes"
• However, there were forms of resistance to slavery: work slowdowns, running away, faking illness to disrupt the slave system.

Religion in the Colonies: