The Birth of America

1. The Birthof America What factors helped to create a English empire in America?

2. Puritan new England • The Pilgrims were religious separatists who left the Church of England. • King James I threatened to drive the Puritans out of England and many chose to live among the Dutch Calvinists in Holland. • A small number of the exiles left for America led by William Bradford and joined by other immigrants from England.

3. Puritan new England • In 1620, the Pilgrims set sail on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth near Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts. • While the first winter saw the death of nearly half of the settlement, Plymouth continued to prosper afterwards.

4. Puritan new England • Back in England King Charles I disbanded Parliament after a disagreement with its Puritan leaders, which resulted in an exodus in 1630. • A well-educated country squire, John Winthrop, lead 900 migrants from England and became the Governor of Massachusetts. • Under the leadership of minister John Cotton, “New England” became a home to religious reformers.

5. Puritan new England • They created the Massachusetts Bay Colony headed by the city of Boston. • They transformed their joint-stock corporation, the General Court of Shareholders, into a representative political system with a governor, council, and assembly.

6. Puritan new England • Not long afterwards, the Massachusetts Bay magistrates purged their society of religious dissidents including Roger Williams the Puritan minister of Salem who opposed the establishment of an official religion in the colony. • Williams and his followers settled south near Portsmouth and Newport establishing the colony of Rhode Island in 1644.

7. Puritan new England • A second threat to the Massachusetts Bay magistrates was the wife of a merchant and mother of sevent, Anne Hutchinson. • Hutchinson help weekly prayer meetings for women and accused various Boston clergymen of placing undue emphasis on good behaviors over religious observance. • Hutchinson was banished and left for Rhode Island.

8. Puritan new England • Such coercive policies and a need for better farmland lead to more migration from Massachusetts into the Connecticut River Valley near Hartford. • This area would become the self-governed colony of Connecticut in 1660.

9. Puritan new England • Back in England Oliver Cromwell emerged as a dictator and after his death when King Charles II’s accession to the throne resulted in the end of Calvinism. • Instead of practicing their religion until it was safe to return to England as they had planned, the Puritan colonist where now faced with permanently remaining in America.

10. Witchcraft • Like Native Americans, Puritans believed that the physical world was full of supernatural forces. • The devout followers saw signs of G-d and Satan in natural phenomena. • This resulted in a rash of hysteria that culminated in witch-hunts and trials resulting in torture and death. • The most dramatic episode of this was in Salem in 1692 when 175 people were tried and 19 executed.

11. Witchcraft • Salem

12. Continued Growth • The late 17th century was marked by turmoil throughout the colonies as confrontations with Indians increased and tensions continued to increase between new and old colonies. • Imperial expansion and a rise in aristocratic power saw the addition of the Carolinas, the establishment of the Church of England, and introduction of the manorial system (a mass of serfs governed by a handful of powerful nobles).

13. Continued Growth • The late 17th century was marked by turmoil throughout the colonies as confrontations with Indians increased and tensions continued to increase between new and old colonies. • Imperial expansion and a rise in aristocratic power saw the addition of the Carolinas, the establishment of the Church of England, and introduction of the manorial system (a mass of serfs governed by a handful of powerful nobles).

14. Continued Growth • William Penn, a Quaker leader, and his fellow pacifists settled in Pennsylvania in the late seventeenth century to pursue a pacifist policy towards Native Americans. • Embracing Quaker beliefs in their politics, Pennsylvania quickly became a successful region.

15. Imperial Domain • As prosperity continued for much of the American colonies, English ministers wanted to produce more agricultural goods and finished products. • The Navigation Acts of 1651 attempted to keep colonial trade in English hands by excluding Dutch and French vessels from American ports. • The Act also required that all goods imported/exported be on English ships.

16. Imperial Domain • In 1686, after the ascension of King James II, the Lords in Parliament revoked the charters of the colonies in New England and placed them under royal rule as the “Dominion of New England.” • The Dominion brought the authoritarian model of rule recently imposed on Ireland to the American colonies.

17. The Glorious Revolution • After the recently converted Roman Catholic King James II’s male heir was born, Protestants in the Whig Party of Parliament lead a bloodless coup know as the Glorious Revolution with the backing of the country’s military and populace. • His Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William took the throne.

18. The Glorious Revolution • The politicians forced William & Mary to accept the Declaration of Rights creating a constitutional monarchy that enhanced the powers of the House of Commons. • The Whigs began to wield their new powers by levying new taxes to increase the wealth of the gentry, merchants, and property owners.

19. The Glorious Revolution • The members justified their coup based on the philosophical writings of John Lock who in his “Two Treatises on Government” (1690) rejected divine right to rule by monarchs. • Locke argued that the legitimacy of the government rests on the consent of the governed and that individuals have certain inalienable natural rights to life, liberty, and property.

20. The Glorious Revolution • The Glorious Revolution sparked rebellions by Protestant colonists in Massachusetts, Maryland, and New York. • In 1689, Puritan leaders and 2,000 militants seized the governor in Boston and shipped him back to England. • This resulted in the creation of new royal colony that also included Maine.

21. The Glorious Revolution • A series of rebellions took place in cities across the colonies. • This combined with Indian skirmishes and inter-tribal conflicts resulted in a period of political changes that would finish with stronger colonial governments and alliances in place.