unit 2 Flashcards
(39 cards)
Types of Colonies in the New World
- In a charter colony, colonists were essentially members of a corporation, and electors among the colonists controlled the government based on an agreed-upon charter
- A royal colony had a governor selected by England’s king; the governor served in the leadership role and chose additional, lower-ranking officers
- Proprietary colonies were owned by individuals with direct responsibility to the king; each proprietor selected a governor, who served as the authority figure for the colony
1600s
English Puritanism
- Movement by those who wished to reform the Church of England to be more in line with their ideology
- Though King Henry VIII had set out to separate his own Church of England from papal authority, many Roman Catholic traditions and practices remained
- Puritans rejected these roman Catholic holdovers and sought to make the English Church “pure”
- Puritans held Calvinist beliefs, such as predestination and the authority of Scripture over papal authority
- Puritanism echoes throughout American culture in the ideas of self-reliance, moral fortitude, and an emphasis on intellectualism
1500s and 1600s
Joint-Stock Company
- A type of business structure used by some colonial explorers to raise money for their expeditions
- These private trading companies sold shares to investors who provided start-up funding
- In return for taking on the risk of the investment, investors were paid based on the profits of the expedition
- Many modern business structures, such as the American corporation, are founded on principles of the joint-stock company
Popularized in the 1600s
Dutch West India Company
- The joint-stock company that ran the colonies in Fort Orange and in New Amsterdam, which later became New York
- Carried on a profitable fur trade with the Native American Iroquois
- Instituted the patroon system, in which large estates were given to wealthy men who transported at least fifty families to New Netherland to tend the land (few seized the opportunity)
1500s and 1600s
Sir Walter Raleigh
- Selected Roanoke Island as a site for the first English settlement
- Returned to England to secure additional supplies, but he found the colony deserted upon his return; it is not known what became of the Roanoke settlers
- Raleigh abandoned his attempts to colonize Virginia after the failure at Roanoke
- Held back by a lack of financial resources and the war with Spain, English colonization in America was impeded for fifteen years
1587
St. Augustine, Florida
- French Protestants (Huguenots) went to the New World to freely practice their religion, and they formed a colony near modern-day St. Augustine, Florida
- Spain, which oversaw Florida reacted violently to the Huguenots because they were trespassers and because they were viewed as heretics by the Catholic Church
- Spain sent a force to the settlement and massacred the fort’s inhabitants
- The settlement at St. Augustine, Florida, is considered to be the first permanent European settlement in what would become the United States
1598
Jamestown
- Named for James I (1566-1625), Queen Elizabeth’s successor in England
- James I granted charters for charter colonies in the New World
- In 1607, the Virginia Company of London settled Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement
- Swampy location led to disease and contaminated water sources
- Despite its location and hostile relations with Native Americans, John Smith’s harsh, charismatic leadership of the colony helped keep it from collapsing
- In 1619, African slaves arrived at Jamestown, becoming the first group of slaves to reach a British settlement
Established 1607
“The Starving Time”
- A period of starvation endured by the Jamestown colonists
- The colonists depended upon trade with the local Native Americans for their food supplies
- A series of conflicts between the colonists and the Native Americans limited the colonists’ ability to trade for supplies and to farm their own food
- A large number of colonists died and others tried to flee to England; however, boats arrived with supplies from England intercepted the colonists and forced them to return to Jamestown
- Additional support from England, the development of new industries, and the creation of new trade partnerships helped ensure the settlement’s long-term survival
1609-1610
Indentured Servitude
- Poor workers, convicted criminals, and debtors received immigration passage and fees in return for a number of years at labor on behalf of a planter or company
- Servants entered into their contracts voluntarily and kept some legal rights
- However, servants had little control over the conditions of their work and living arrangements, and the system led to harsh and brutal treatment
- It remained the predominant system of labor until the 1670s; Bacon’s Rebellion made the practice seem more risky to planters and owners, and improving economic conditions in England decreased the supply of servants
- Many owners relied on slave labor instead
1600s
John Rolfe
- English colonist in Jamestown, Virginia
- Married Pocahontas
- Created process for curing tobacco, ensuring economic success for Jamestown
1585-1622
House of Burgesses
- Representative assembly in Virginia
- Election to a seat was limited to voting members of the charter colony, which at first was all free men; later rules required that a man own at least fifty acres of land to vote
- First representative house in America
- Instituted the private ownership of land but maintained the rights of colonists
1619
Headright System
- System used by the Virginia Company to attract colonists
- It promised them parcels of land(roughly fifty acres) to immigrate to America
- Also gave nearly fifty acres for each servant that a colonist brought, allowing the wealthy to obtain large tracts of land
- The system solidified the use of indentured servitude for the time being
Introduced in 1618
The Separatists and Plymouth
- Separatists were Puritans who believed the Church of England was beyond saving and felt that they must break away from it
- One group of Separatists that suffered harassment from the government fled to Holland and then to America
- Members of this group traveled on the Mayflower and became known as the Pilgrims, a term used for voyagers seeking to fulfill a religious mission
- The Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England, in September 1620 and landed in Provincetown Harbor, settling in what became Plymouth, Massachusetts
- Before landing in the New World, the Pilgrims formed the Mayflower Compact, which provided for a government guided by the majority
- William Bradford (1590-1657) served as the Plymouth Colony’s first governor
1620
Massachusetts Bay Colony
- Joint-stock company charted by a group of Puritans escaping King James I
- Led by John Winthrop, who taught that the new colony should be a model of Christian society
- These Puritans carefully organized their venture and upon arriving in Massachusetts, did not undergo the “starving time” that had often plagued other first-year colonies
- The government of Massachusetts developed to include a governor and a representative assembly
1629
Delaware
- Dutch patroons established the first settlement in Delaware
- That settlement was destroyed by Native American attacks
- The Dutch West India Company and Dutchmen, including Peter Minuit, began to trade and settle in Delaware during the mid-to-late 1630s
- Between 1664 and 1674, Delaware switched between Dutch and English ownership, ending with English ownership in 1674
1631
Maryland
- Maryland became the first proprietary colony to serve as a refuge for English Catholics
- George Calvert (Lord Baltimore) applied for the charter to create the Province of Maryland
- Calvert’s son, Caecilius, helped establish a representative assembly
- Maryland passed its Act of Toleration in 1649, guaranteeing religious freedom to all Christians in the colony; this set an important precedent for later characterization of the United States and its Constitution
1632
Anne Hutchinson
- Claimed to have had special revelations from God that superseded the Bible, contrary to Puritan doctrine
- The leadership of New England accused her of antinomian teachings (antinomianism is the belief that salvation is attained through faith and divine grace and not through strict adherence to rules or moral laws)
- Hutchinson was tried and banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony
- With her followers, she founded Portsmouth in the Aquidneck region (1638) in what is now known as Rhode Island
1638
Roger Williams and Rhode Island
- Williams was a Puritan preacher who fled Massachusetts after his views on religious observance became too extreme for the colonists
- Williams bought land from the Native Americans and founded Providence in 1636, and it was soon populated by his many followers
- Rhode Island formed as a combination of Providence, Portsmouth, and other settlements that had sprung up in the area
- Through Roger Williams, the colony granted complete religious toleration
- It tended to be populated by exiles and troublemakers and was sometimes called “Rogue’s Island”
- The colony suffered constant political turmoil
Williams (1603-1683); Rhode Island was established in 1644
English Civil War
- Conflict was based in the struggle between King Charles I (son of King James I) and the English Parliament
- Charles claimed to rule by divine right; Parliament argues that its membership had rights that were separate from those granted to the king
- Parliament’s members were mostly Puritan and had the backing of the merchant class and lesser land owners
- Wealthy nobles tended to support Charles I, who opposed Puritans on questions of religion
- Led to outright conflict between Royalist military forces and forces opposing Charles I
- Parliament’s victory in 1651 resulted in the trial and execution of Charles I and the exile of his son Charles II
- The English monarchy was replaced with the Commonwealth of England (1649-1653) and then with a Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell’s rule (1653-1659)
1641-1651
Connecticut
- Thomas Hooker led a large group of Puritans to settle in the Connecticut River Valley after they had slight religious disagreements with the leadership of Massachusetts
- The major colonies in the Connecticut River Valley agreed to unite as the Connecticut Colony
- In 1639, the colony formed a set of laws known as the Fundamental Orders; these laws provided for representative government by those who were permitted to vote
- When the corporate colony was established and recognized by England, its charter was founded on the Fundamental Orders
- The Fundamental Orders are an important example of the growth of political democracy
Corporate colony established in 1662
The Carolinas
- King Charles II rewarded loyal noblemen with these lands after the twenty-year Puritan revolution in England
- In hopes of attracting settlers, the proprietors planned for a hierarchical society
- They experimented with silk manufacturing and with crops such as rice and indigo, but this provided unworkable and the Carolinas grew slowly as a result
- Large groups of colonists in the Carolinas came from Barbados; form of slavery that this group employed proved to be very harsh
- While North Carolina became a separate colony in 1712, the same proprietors retained ownership
- Rebellion against the proprietors in 1719 led to royal intervention, and both North and South Carolina became royal colonies in 1729
Granted in 1663
New York and New Jersey
- Last Dutch governor of New York was Peter Stuyvesant
- After the British conquered the Dutch lands in America, English King Charles II gave the title to the lands between New England and Maryland to his brother, James, Duke of York
- James was adamantly opposed to representative assemblies
- Residents continued to call for self-government until James relented, only to break this promise when he became James II, King of England
- The region that would become New Jersey was ruled as a separate proprietary colony; it eventually became a royal colony
Established 1664
Quakers
- Quakers believed human religious institutions were largely unnecessary
- They thought they could receive revelation directly from God and placed little importance on the Bible
- They were pacifists and declined to show customary deference to their alleged social superiors
- Quakers’ aggressiveness in denouncing established institutions brought them trouble in both Britain and America
- They opposed slavery and favored decent treatment of Native Americans
- Elements of this culture would play a role in shaping the characterization of a United States that values independence and social equality
Around 1680
William Penn
- Founded Pennsylvania as a refuge for his fellow Quakers
- Penn advertised his colony widely in Europe and offered generous terms on land
- Guaranteed a representative assembly and full religious freedom
- Settlers flocked to Pennsylvania from all over Europe
1644-1718