CHAPTER 3 COLONIAL AMERICA

Transcription

1 Name Date Block [Read p. 68, 69] CHAPTER 3 COLONIAL AMERICA THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE p.71 In 1584, Queen Elizabeth of England gave Sir Walter Raleigh the right to claim land in North America. When Raleigh sent scouts to look for a good place to settle, they returned with an enthusiastic report of Roanoke Island, off the coast of present day North Carolina. The first group of settlers who went to Roanoke spent a difficult winter there and decided to return to England. Two years later, Raleigh sent another group consisting of 91 men, 17 women and 9 children to Roanoke. John White, a mapmaker and artist led the group. Shortly after arriving on the island, White s daughter gave birth. Her daughter, Virginia Dare, was the first English child born in North America. The new settlers began building a colony. Supplies were needed and White sailed back to England to get them and more settlers to come back with him. Unfortunately, he was drafted into the army when war broke out with Spain and he didn t return for nearly 3 years. When he finally got back, he found the island deserted. The only clue was the word Croatoan carved on a gatepost. White thought the colonists must have gone to Croatoan Island, about 50 miles to the south. He never found them. Years later, though, Native Americans were found in that area with light brown hair and blue eyes. WHAT DO YOU THINK MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED TO THE SETTLERS? JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENT p.71 With the failure of Roanoke, others became discouraged from planning colonies in North America. However, in 1606, several groups of merchants asked King James I for charters, the right to organize settlements in North America. One company called the Virginia Company, received a charter to start a settlement in Virginia. Investors bought stock, or part ownership, in the company in return for a share in its profits. This was called a joint-stock company. The company consisting of 144 settlers in 3 ships arrived in North America in what is today Virginia. They sailed up a river which they named the James River and their new settlement they started, Jamestown after their king. They built their settlement on land where they could defend themselves against attack. Unfortunately, the land was swampy. It was full of mosquitoes that

2 carried diseases. There was no good farmland. They didn t like hard labor and wanted to spend their time looking for gold and silver instead of planting crops. After a long winter, only 38 of the settlers remained alive and they didn t look so good. The Virginia Company shareholders were unhappy with what was happening in Jamestown, so they sent Captain John Smith, an experienced soldier and explorer to whip them back into shape. He forced them to work and to be civil with the Native Americans. Captain Smith could speak the Powhatan language. The chief, Powhatan gave them corn to plant. Three months later, 400 new settlers arrived. An accident occurred and John Smith was wounded in the leg. He decided to return to England to get his leg treated. Without Smith around, the settlers lacked leadership and went back to their old ways. Once again, there wasn t enough food for the settlers. People starved. When new settlers arrived in the spring, they found only 60 people alive. Although the settlers never found gold or silver, one colonist discovered another way to make money. John Rolfe, learned to grow tobacco using seeds from the West Indies. They began to sell it to England and soon tobacco was growing everywhere including the land belonging to the Native Americans. Tobacco became the first cash crop in America. Chief Powhatan s daughter was a great help to the colonists. She learned English and was their translator when they needed to converse with the Indians. Her name was Pocahontas and John Rolfe married. They decided to go live in England where Pocahontas caught a disease and died at the age of 22. [photo p.72] In 1619, a Dutch ship arrived in Jamestown in need of supplies. In exchange for the supplies, they traded 20 Africans to the settlers. They were put to work in the tobacco fields. This appears to be the start of slavery in North America. At this time, there were still African laborers who were free and owned property. Some even owned slaves. Virginia law first recognized slavery in the 1660 s. WHY DO YOU THINK SETTLERS CAME TO JAMESTOWN? NEW ENGLAND COLONIES P.76 Read An American Story The next wave of colonists to arrive in America were in search of religious freedom. When King Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church and made England a Protestant country, many people were upset. They disagreed with the beliefs of the Anglican Church. Those who remained Catholic were often persecuted, or treated harshly. At the same time, some Protestants wanted to change or reform the Anglican Church, while others just wanted to break away from it completely. The Protestants who wanted to change it

3 were called Puritans. Those who wanted to leave and set up their own churches were called Separatists. The Separatists made a deal with the Virginia Company. They would be able to practice their religion freely in exchange for sharing any money they made with the Company. Since they considered their journey to America to be a religious one, they called themselves Pilgrims. Actually only 35 of the 102 passengers who boarded the Mayflower in 1620, were Pilgrims. The rest were common people servants, poor farmers, craftsmen who hoped to find a better life in America. Because Pilgrim beliefs shaped life in the Plymouth colony, the early settlers are generally called Pilgrims. Although the Pilgrims planned to settle in Virginia, the first land they saw was Cape Cod, north of their target. Because it was November and winter was approaching, they decided to drop anchor in Cape Cod Bay. They went ashore at a place called Plymouth. Before going ashore, they drew up a formal document called the Mayflower Compact. The compact pledged their loyalty to England and promised to obey the laws that were passed for the general good of the colony. The compact was a step in the development of representative government in America. In their first winter in America, almost half of the Pilgrims died of malnutrition, disease and cold. In the spring, a few Native Americans approached the colony. Two of them, Squanto and Samoset, befriended the colonists. Squanto spoke English. The two Native American s showed the Pilgrims how to grow corn, beans and pumpkins and where to hunt and fish. Without their help, the Pilgrims probably wouldn t have survived. They also helped them to sign a treaty with the Wampanoag tribe and the two groups lived in harmony. [Read The First Thanksgiving, p.78] WHY DO YOU THINK THE PILGRIMS INCLUDED NATIVE AMERICANS AT THEIR FEAST? NEW SETTLEMENTS p. 78 Charles I became the King of England. He didn t like the Puritans calls for change in the Anglican Church, so he increased the persecution of the Puritans. Some Puritans looked for a way to leave England. One group formed the Massachusetts Bay Company and received a royal charter to start a colony north of Plymouth. They were going to create a society based on the Bible. They came to America and settled in a place they called Boston.

4 More than 15,000 Puritans came to Massachusetts to escape religious persecution and economic hard times in England. The Puritans had no toleration for those who held other religious views. They persecuted people who thought differently than they did. There was good farm land in Connecticut and some colonists began to settle in this area. Others came to Connecticut because they disagreed with how the Boston colony was being run. Rhode Island was settled by colonists who were forced out of Massachusetts. One of these was Roger Williams, a minister. Williams felt that people should not be persecuted for their religious beliefs. He also thought it was wrong for settlers to take land away from the Native Americans. Rhode Island became a safe place for people of all faiths to worship as they wanted to. New Hampshire was formed in much the same way that Rhode Island was as a place to worship as you wanted. [Read People in History, Anne Hutchinson p.79] WHY WAS HUTCHINSON FORCED TO LEAVE MASSACHUSETTS? During all this time, the settlers were taking over Native American lands without permission or payment. Wars broke out between them. Hundreds of people were killed. It ended up with the Native Americans losing and the colonists expanding their settlements. TURN TO PAGE 81 READING A BAR GRAPH MIDDLE COLONIES P.82 [Read A European Story] In England, the Puritans who controlled Parliament, the governing body that makes the laws in England, led a civil war to overthrow King Charles I. King Charles ended up beheaded after he was found guilty of treason. A new government was established with Oliver Cromwell as the leader. With Cromwell in power, many English men and women who were loyal to the king went to royal colonies like Virginia. When Cromwell died, Parliament brought back the monarchy, but placed limits on the king s power. Charles II, son of Charles I became king. In America, besides the English colonies, there were Dutch colonies as well. The main settlement of the colony was New Amsterdam, located on Manhattan Island.

5 In 1626, the Dutch bought Manhattan from the Manhates people for some beads and other trinkets. Because of a good seaport, the city of New Amsterdam became a center of shipping to and from America. In order to get more people to move to New Amsterdam, the Dutch gave a large estate to anyone who brought at least 50 settlers over to work the land. The wealthy landowners who got these riverfront estates were called patroons. The patroons ruled like kings. They had their own courts and laws and made the settlers give them a share of their crops. The English wanted New Amsterdam because it lay between their New England and Southern colonies and had a valuable harbor. They decided to go to war with the Dutch. When the English ships sailed into the harbor, the Dutch weren t prepared for battle and immediately surrendered to the English. Charles II gave the colony to his brother, the Duke of York who immediately named it after himself, NEW YORK The Duke of York promised the colonists freedom of religion. People from many different countries moved there. The colony s population swelled to about 12,000 inhabitants. New York was allowed to elect a legislature. NEW JERSEY The Duke of York gave the southern part of his colony to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. They named their colony New Jersey after the island of Jersey in the English Channel where Carteret was born. To attract settlers, they offered large tracts of land, freedom of religion, trial by jury and a representative assembly that would make local laws and set tax rates. Because New Jersey didn t have a natural harbor, it didn t make money like New York did. The two men were unhappy and sold their shares of the colony. It went back to the king and became a royal colony. WHY DIDN T NEW JERSEY MAKE PROFITS LIKE NEW YORK DID? PENNSYLVANIA In 1680, an English gentleman by the name of William Penn, presented a plan to King Charles. The king owed Penn s father a lot of money. When his father died, the king then owed it to Penn. Penn asked instead for land in America. Excited that the debt would be paid, the king gave Penn a tract of land stretching inland from the Delaware River. Penn named it Pennsylvania. It was nearly as large as England.

6 William Penn belonged to a religious group called the Quakers. The Quakers believed that each person could experience religious truth directly which meant that going to church was unnecessary. Everyone was equal in God s sight. The Quakers were also tolerant of others views. Many people found the Quaker s views as a threat to established traditions. They were also pacifists, people who refuse to use force or fight in wars. Quakers were fined, jailed and even executed for their beliefs. William Penn saw Pennsylvania as a chance to put Quaker views of toleration and equality into practice. He designed Pennsylvania s first city, Philadelphia to be the city of brotherly love. He believed that the land belonged to the Native Americans and that settlers should pay for it. He negotiated treaties with the Native Americans. The colonists had the right to elect representatives to the legislative assembly. The southernmost part of Pennsylvania became known as Delaware. HOW DID THE QUAKER RELIGION DIFFER FROM THE PURITANS? SOUTHERN COLONIES P.86 [Read An American Story] Not all people who came to America came of their own free will. English criminals and Scottish and Irish prisoners of war were also shipped to the colonies. They could earn their release by working for a certain number of years usually seven. African rulers would enslave their prisoners of war and sell them to European slave traders who took them to the colonies. Many people came to the colonies as indentured servants. To pay for their passage to America, they agreed to work without pay for a certain period of time. Many worked the land or worked as house servants. If they lived through their indenture, they were sometimes given a small plot of land to farm. Most of these indentured servants were poor whites from Great Britain who were looking for a better life. Maryland Maryland was the dream of Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, who as a Catholic wanted to establish a safe place for his fellow Catholics who were being persecuted in England. He also hoped to become rich by starting his colony. Unfortunately, Lord Baltimore died before he got the grant. His son inherited the colony. It was named Maryland, either after the English queen Henrietta Maria or the Virgin Mary.

7 The son, now the new Lord Baltimore sent two of his brothers to run the colony. He gave large estates to his relatives and other English aristocrats. He created a wealthy and powerful class of landowners in Maryland. To bring settlers to the colony, Lord Baltimore promised land 100 acres to each male settler, another 100 for his wife, 100 for each servant and 50 for each of his children. As the number of plantations increased and additional workers were needed, the colony imported indentured servants and enslaved Africans. WHY DID GEORGE CALVERT ESTABLISH THE COLONY OF MARYLAND? Virginia Expands While the other colonies were being founded, Virginia continued to grow. Since the wealthy tobacco planters had the best land near the coast, the new settlers moved inland. This land was inhabited by the Native Americans. To avoid conflict, the governor of Virginia, William Berkeley made a deal with the Native Americans that in exchange for a large piece of land, the settlers wouldn t push farther into their lands. At this time, there was a wealthy young planter by the name of Nathaniel Bacon who was unhappy with the colonial government and didn t like the idea that Governor Berkeley had pledged to stay out of Native American lands. Some settlers had moved into this forbidden land and then blamed the Jamestown government for not protecting them when the Native Americans attacked. In 1676, Bacon led a group of colonists in attacks on Native American villages. Bacon s army marched to Jamestown, set fire to the capital, and drove Berkeley into exile. Only Bacon s sudden illness and death kept him from taking charge of Virginia. England sent troops to restore order. Bacon s Rebellion showed that settlers weren t willing to be restricted to the coast. They didn t care that the land belonged to Native American s. They wanted to settle on it. DO YOU THINK BACON WAS RIGHT IN WHAT HE DID? WHY? The Carolina s Charles II, decided to make the land just south of Virginia a proprietary colony which means that a person or persons were the owners of it (proprietors). He gave it to a group of 8 friends of his. These proprietors gave themselves large estates and hoped to make money selling and renting the rest of the land. Settlers began arriving and founded a city which they called Charles Town after the king. The name later became Charleston.

8 Unfortunately, things didn t go as planned and the people of northern and southern Carolina went their separate ways, creating 2 colonies. The northern part of Carolina was settled mostly by farmers. They grew tobacco. Since they didn t have a good harbor, they used Virginia s. The southern part of the Carolina s was much more prosperous due to fertile farmland and a good harbor in Charles Town. Planters discovered that rice grew well in the wet coastal lands and it became the colony s leading crop. In the 1740 s a young woman found that a crop called indigo could be used to dye textiles.south Carolina made a lot of money from indigo. Many of the settlers who ended up in South Carolina were from a British island in the Caribbean called Barbados. Here they used enslaved Africans to produce sugar. The colonists brought these workers with them. Many of the enslaved Africans worked in the rice fields. Growing rice required much labor so the demand for slaves increased. By 1708, more than half the people living in South Carolina were slaves. In the early 1700 s, Carolina s settlers became angry with the proprietors. They wanted a larger say in the colony s government. They seized control from the proprietors and it soon became two royal colonies North and South Carolina. A royal colony is one that is run by the king. WHAT IS A PROPRIETARY COLONY? WHAT IS A ROYAL COLONY? GEORGIA The last of the British colonies to be established in America was Georgia. A group led by General James Oglethorpe was given a charter to start a colony for English debtors and poor people. At that time, in England, if one couldn t pay his debts, he was sent to debtors prison where he had to stay until his family could earn enough money to pay his debts.georgia was established in hopes that these settlers could start a new life. Another reason that the British government had for starting this colony was because it could protect the other colonies from attack by Spanish Florida. England and Spain had been at war since the early 1700 s. Georgia could serve as a military barrier. Oglethorpe wanted the people of Georgia to be hardworking, independent and Protestant. He kept the size of the farms small and banned slavery, Catholics and rum. Few debtors came to Georgia. Poor people and religious refugees plus quite a few convicts ended up in the colony. Many of the people who came weren t from England.

9 Settlers complained about Oglethorpe s laws banning slavery and the size of landholdings. They said he was trying to be a dictator. He eventually lifted his bans and finally gave the colony back to the king. HOW DID GEORGIA SERVE AS A PROTECTION FOR THE ENGLISH COLONIES? [colony chart on p. 91] Did you know that the colonies were founded over a time span of 125 years?