The English Colonies

In this chapter, students will learn about the English colonies in North America, starting in 1621, and the tensions that developed there over British tax policies after the French and Indian War ended in 1763.

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• • The Southern Colonies - Several European nations took part in the race to claim lands in the Americas. Their next step was to establish colonies in the lands they claimed. The first English colonies were started in the late 1500's, but failed. Even in successful colonies, colonists faced hardships and extreme challenges.

  • The New England Colonies - England's first successful colonial settlements were in Virginia. They were started mainly as business ventures. Other colonists in North America had many different reasons for leaving their homes and coming to America. Many, like the Pilgrims and Puritans, came to have freedom to practice their religious beliefs.

  • The Middle Colonies - The Middle section of the Atlantic coast offered good land and a moderate climate. Several prominent English people established colonies that promised religious and political freedom, as well as rich farmland.

  • Life in the English Colonies - In this section you will learn about colonial government, the slave trade, and conflicts that arose in the English colonies.

  • Conflict in the Colonies - Tensions developed as the British government placed tax after tax on the colonies.

  • The Middle Passage, and Slavery in Colonial America - In this block of instruction we will examine the conditions faced by African slaves during the Middle Passage, and the conditions of their existence in the English colonies in North America.

  • Colonial Slavery Fill in the Blank Activity and Take Home Quiz

Continue to Chapter 3

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• Britain in the New World - Most modern American citizens consider Great Britain to be their European "parent" country. However, by the time British arrived in the New World and established their first permanent settlement at Jamestown in 1607, much of the continent had already been claimed by other European nations. All of the modern Southwest, including Texas and California, had been peopled by Spanish settlers for about a century. The entire expanse of land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky Mountains had at one point been claimed by France. Many factors contributed to Britain's tardiness. England was not the most powerful European nation in the 16th century. Spain was most influential. Along with Portugal, Spain dominated New World exploration in the decades that followed Columbus. France, the Netherlands, and Sweden all showed greater interest in the Western Hemisphere than England did.

• Early Ventures Fail - What kind of investment was Queen Elizabeth making? As a finanical backer of English sea captain FRANCIS DRAKE, she supported a buccaneer who found it easier to plunder the gold of others than mine it himself. This philosophy of plunder motivated the sea dogs of Queen Elizabeth's time. Making a business of raiding Spanish ships, John Hawkins and Francis Drake gained riches for themselves and their investors. Once, after raiding ports in New Spain, Drake was faced with a difficult dilemma. Because the Spanish fleet would surely destroy him if he attempted a conventional return, he proceeded to circumnavigate the globe in his flight. Upon Drake's safe arrival in England, the Spanish demanded his arrest.

• Joint Stock Companies - Compared with other European nations in 1600, England was relatively poor. As new agricultural techniques made fewer farmers necessary, the poor multiplied in the streets of cities such as LONDON and Bristol. Much to the dismay of the wealthier classes, the impoverished were an increasingly burdensome presence and problem.

• Jamestown Settlement and the "Starving Time" - The first joint-stock company to launch a lasting venture to the New World was the VIRGINIA COMPANY OF LONDON. The investors had one goal in mind: gold. They hoped to repeat the success of Spaniards who found gold in South America.

• The Growth of the Tobacco Trade - Virginia's economic future did not lie with gold. There was too little gold to be found there. Looking for new ways to make its investments pay dividends, the Virginia Company of London began encouraging multiple ventures by 1618.

• War and Peace with Powhatan's People - The POWHATAN CONFEDERACY comprised 30 tribes living along Virginia's coastal plain. CHIEF WAHUNSONACOCK, called Powhatan by Captain John Smith, united the tribes to form the Powhatan Confederacy. At the time of Smith's appearance in Virginia, the Powhatans numbered about 12,000 people. Tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy are called Algonquian because their languages were based on a large Native American language group called Algonquin.

• The House of Burgesses - Although many differences separated Spain and France from England, perhaps the factor that contributed most to distinct paths of colonization was the form of their government. Spain and France had absolute monarchies, but Britain had a limited monarchy. In New France and New Spain, all authority flowed from the Crown to the settlers, with no input from below.

• The New England Colonies - The FOUNDERS of the New England colonies had an entirely different mission from the Jamestown settlers. Although economic prosperity was still a goal of the New England settlers, their true goal was spiritual. Fed up with the ceremonial Church of England, Pilgrims and Puritans sought to recreate society in the manner they believed God truly intended it to be designed.

• The Mayflower and Plymouth Colony - Not all the English Separatists set out for the New World. The first group to leave England actually headed for the Dutch Netherlands in 1608. They became uneasy in their new land as their children started speaking Dutch and abandoning English traditions. Even worse to the Separatists, the tolerance shown to them by the Dutch was shown to many different faiths. They became disgusted with the attention paid to worldly goods, and the presence of many "unholy" faiths. The great Separatist experiment in the Netherlands came to a quick end, as they began to look elsewhere for a purer place to build their society. Some headed for English islands in the Caribbean. Those who would be forever known to future Americans as the Pilgrims set their sights on the New World in late 1620.

• William Bradford and the First Thanksgiving - The major similarity between the first Jamestown settlers and the first Plymouth settlers was great human suffering. November was too late to plant crops. Many settlers died of scurvy and malnutrition during that horrible first winter. Of the 102 original Mayflower passengers, only 44 survived. Again like in Jamestown, the kindness of the local Native Americans saved them from a frosty death. The Pilgrims' remarkable courage was displayed the following spring. When the Mayflower returned to Europe, not a single Pilgrim deserted Plymouth.

• Massachusetts Bay — "The City Upon a Hill" - The passengers of the Arbella who left England in 1630 with their new charter had a great vision. They were to be an example for the rest of the world in rightful living. Future governor JOHN WINTHROP stated their purpose quite clearly: "We shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us." The Arbella was one of eleven ships carrying over a thousand Puritans to Massachusetts that year. It was the largest original venture ever attempted in the English New World. The passengers were determined to be a beacon for the rest of Europe, "A Modell of Christian Charity," in the words of the governor.

• Puritan Life - New England life seemed to burst with possibilities. The life expectancy of its citizens became longer than that of Old England, and much longer than the Southern English colonies. Children were born at nearly twice the rate in Maryland and Virginia. It is often said that New England invented grandparents, for it was here that people in great numbers first grew old enough to see their children bear children.

• Dissent in Massachusetts Bay - There was not too much room for religious disagreement in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Puritans defended their DOGMA with uncommon fury. Their devotion to principle was God's work; to ignore God's work was unfathomable. When free-thinkers speak their minds in such a society, conflict inevitably results. Such was the case in Massachusetts Bay when Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams spoke their minds.

• Reaching to Connecticut - Despite a few internal problems, Massachusetts Bay Colony was thriving by the mid-1630s. It would only be a matter of time before individuals within the colony would consider expansion. There were obstacles to consider. Establishing a new colony was never easy. Pequot Indian settlements west of the Connecticut River were an important consideration. Nevertheless, the Puritan experiment pushed forward, creating new colonies in the likeness of Massachusetts Bay.

• Witchcraft in Salem - Surely the Devil had come to SALEM in 1692. Young girls screaming and barking like a dog? Strange dances in the woods? This was behavior hardly becoming of virtuous teenage maidens. The town doctor was called onto the scene. After a thorough examination, he concluded quite simply — the girls were bewitched. Now the task was clear. Whomever was responsible for this outrage must be brought to justice.

• The Middle Colonies - Americans have often prided themselves on their rich diversity. Nowhere was that diversity more evident in pre-Revolutionary America than in the MIDDLE COLONIES of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. European ethnic groups as manifold as English, Swedes, Dutch, Germans, Scots-Irish and French lived in closer proximity than in any location on continental Europe. The middle colonies contained Native American tribes of Algonkian and Iroquois language groups as well as a sizable percentage of African slaves during the early years. Unlike solidly Puritan New England, the middle colonies presented an assortment of religions. The presence of Quakers, MENNONITES, LUTHERANS, DUTCH CALVINISTS, and PRESBYTERIANS made the dominance of one faith next to impossible.

• New Netherland to New York - England was not the first European power to settle the land known now as New York. That distinction belongs to the Dutch. Ironically, the English explorer HENRY HUDSON brought the region to the attention of the Netherlands in 1609 by sailing into New York Bay and up the river that would eventually bear his name. NEW NETHERLAND became a reality fourteen years later. The Dutch West India Company hoped to reap the profits of the area's fur trade.

• Quakers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey - WILLIAM PENN was a dreamer. He also had the king over a barrel. Charles II owed his father a huge debt. To repay the Penns, William was awarded an enormous tract of land in the New World. Immediately he saw possibilities. People of his faith, the Quakers, had suffered serious persecution in England. With some good advertising, he might be able to establish a religious refuge. He might even be able to turn a profit. Slowly, the wheels began to spin. In, 1681, his dream became a reality.

• City of Brotherly Love — Philadelphia - William Penn had a distaste for cities. His colony, Pennsylvania, would need a capital that would not bring the horrors of European urban life to the shores of his New World experiment. Penn determined to design and to administer the city himself to prevent such an occurrence. He looked with disdain on London's crowded conditions and sought to prevent this by designing a city plan with streets wider than any major thoroughfare in London. Five major squares dotted the cityscape, and Penn hoped that each dweller would have a family garden. He distributed land in large plots to encourage a low population density. This, he thought, would be the perfect combination of city and country. In 1681, he made it happen.

• The Ideas of Benjamin Franklin - Throughout the early years of the English colonies, most Europeans did not take Americans seriously. Most were seen as the chaff of English society, bound for America because they could not make it in England. Many viewed Americans as irrational religious fanatics or crude pioneers. American art literature, and science were snubbed by most cultured Europeans. Benjamin Franklin would help them take notice.

• The Southern Colonies - Virginia was the first successful southern colony. While Puritan zeal was fueling New England's mercantile development, and Penn's Quaker experiment was turning the middle colonies into America's bread basket, the South was turning to cash crops. Geography and motive rendered the development of these colonies distinct from those that lay to the North.

• Maryland — The Catholic Experiment - New England was not the only destination sought by those fleeing religious persecution. In 1632, CECELIUS CALVERT, known as LORD BALTIMORE, was granted possession of all land lying between the POTOMAC RIVER and the CHESAPEAKE BAY. Lord Baltimore saw this as an opportunity to grant religious freedom to the Catholics who remained in Anglican England. Although outright violence was more a part of the 1500s than the 1600s, Catholics were still a persecuted minority in the seventeenth century. For example, Catholics were not even permitted to be legally married by a Catholic priest. Baltimore thought that his New World possession could serve as a refuge. At the same time, he hoped to turn a financial profit from the venture.

• Indentured Servants - The growth of tobacco, rice, and indigo and the plantation economy created a tremendous need for labor in Southern English America. Without the aid of modern machinery, human sweat and blood was necessary for the planting, cultivation, and harvesting of these cash crops. While slaves existed in the English colonies throughout the 1600s, indentured servitude was the method of choice employed by many planters before the 1680s. This system provided incentives for both the master and servant to increase the working population of the Chesapeake colonies.

• Creating the Carolinas - While wayward English migrants worked to build the new American colonies, mother England experienced the greatest turmoil in her history in the middle of the 1600s. The Stuart King, Charles I, was beheaded as the result of a civil war in 1649. A dictatorship led by OLIVER CROMWELL ruled England until 1660. This represented the only break in the hereditary line dating from 1066 until the present day. Cromwell was a brutal leader, so the return of the English monarchy was well received by the public.

• Debtors in Georgia - The development of Georgia was unlike all the other British colonies. First of all, it was the last to be created. Georgia was founded in 1733, 126 years after Jamestown was successfully planted. England and Europe as a whole were in the midst of an intellectual revolution known as the ENLIGHTENMENT. Enlightened thinkers championed the causes of liberty and progress. Many believed in the innate goodness of human beings. They asserted that even the worst elements of society might prosper if given the right set of circumstances.

• Life in the Plantation South - PLANTATION life created a society with clear class divisions. A lucky few were at the top, with land holdings as far as the eyes could see. Most Southerners did not experience this degree of wealth. The contrast between rich and poor was greater in the South than in the other English colonies, because of the labor system necessary for its survival. Most Southerners were YEOMAN farmers, indentured servants, or slaves. The plantation system also created changes for women and family structures as well.

• African Americans in the British New World - Even before the Mayflower touched ground off Cape Cod, African Americans were living in British North America. Although slavery itself was not foreign to West Africans, the brutal nature of the TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE and the nature of COLONIAL SLAVERY was without parallel in African history. Millions of people deemed savages by their new "MASTERS" were uprooted from their ways of life and forced to adopt new ones.

• West African Society at the Point of European Contact - Powerful KINGDOMS, beautiful sculpture, complex trade, tremendous wealth, centers for advanced learning — all are hallmarks of AFRICAN CIVILIZATION on the eve of the age of exploration. Hardly living up to the "DARK CONTINENT" label given by European adventurers, Africa's cultural heritage runs deep. The empires of GHANA, MALI, and SONGHAY are some of the greatest the world has ever known. TIMBUKTU, arguably the world's oldest university, was the intellectual center of its age.

• "The Middle Passage" - Two by two the men and women were forced beneath deck into the bowels of the slave ship. The "packing" was done as efficiently as possible. The captives lay down on unfinished planking with virtually no room to move or breathe. Elbows and wrists will be scraped to the bone by the motion of the rough seas. Some will die of disease, some of starvation, and some simply of despair. This was the fate of millions of West Africans across three and a half centuries of the slave trade on the voyage known as the "middle passage."

• The Growth of Slavery - Africans were the immigrants to the British New World that had no choice in their destinations or destinies. The first African Americans that arrived in Jamestown in 1619 on a Dutch trading ship were not slaves, nor were they free. They served time as indentured servants until their obligations were complete. Although these lucky individuals lived out the remainder of their lives as free men, the passing decades would make this a rarity. Despite the complete lack of a slave tradition in mother England, slavery gradually replaced indentured servitude as the chief means for plantation labor in the Old South.

• Slave Life on the Farm and in the Town - What was it like to live in bondage? The experiences of slaves in captivity varied greatly. Indeed, Puritan merchants and Southern planters have as much in common as their slaves. The type of life slaves could expect to live depended first and foremost on whether they lived on farms or in towns.

• Free African Americans in the Colonial Era - When CRISPUS ATTUCKS earned his unfortunate claim to fame as a victim in the Boston Massacre, he was not a slave. He was one of the relatively few African Americans to achieve freedom in colonial America. Although freedom is clearly desirable in comparison to a life in chains, free African Americans were unfortunately rarely treated with the same respect of their white counterparts.

• "Slave Codes" - Slaves did not accept their fate without protest. Many instances of REBELLION were known to Americans, even in colonial times. These rebellions were not confined to the South. In fact, one of the earliest examples of a slave UPRISING was in 1712 in Manhattan. As African Americans in the colonies grew greater and greater in number, there was a justifiable paranoia on the part of the white settlers that a violent rebellion could occur in one's own neighborhood. It was this fear of rebellion that led each colony to pass a series of laws restricting slaves' behaviors. The laws were known as SLAVE CODES.

• A New African-American Culture - When immigrants reach a new land, their old ways die hard. This has been the case with most immigrant groups to the New World. The language, customs, values, religious beliefs, and artistic forms they bring across the Atlantic are reshaped by the new realities of America and, in turn, add to its fabric. The rich traditions of Africa combined with the British colonial experience created a new ethnicity — the African American.