The English Empire in America

1. The English Empire in America • First English settlements were disasters! • Roanoke Island – 2 attempts failed (1587 colony lost) • VA. Co.  Jamestown – 1607 • Of 144 who arrived first – 38 survived the first year • Of 6000 arriving before 1620 only 1200 survived • Brackish water • No farming skills • No resources to exploit • Powhatan Wars • As late as 1642, only 8000 lived in VA, “none but those of the meanest quality and corruptest [sic] lives went there.” • But in English colonies by 1700 – 300,000; by 1775 – 2.5 million!!! • Why

2. Factors contributing to the English colonization of America • Strategic interests of England • Rivalry with Spain. Spain, naval power based on gold and silver from Americas, threat to Protestant England • Sea dogs, Spanish armada, undermine Spanish • Naval stores •  terrible Jamestown location, Georgia, mercantilism

3. Economic Distress Chesapeake, Southern and also middle colonies. In the end even New England Puritans became concerned with the number of those seeking economic gain. • “surplus population” - Enclosure Act, closing of monasteries, movement to cities, unemployment, fear of disorder • Opportunity in the New World for indentured servants • Capitalists • Individual ventures failed (Roanoke) • Joint stock companies (Virginia Co.)  Jamestown; atypical colony • Headright system – Land + servants (75% of VA prior to 1670) = wealth

4. Religious Motivations • Puritans (NE) • Great Migration (20K by 1640) – City on a Hill (model communities to provide example for reform, Errand in the Wilderness • Separatists (Plymouth) – escape sinful England • Quakers – (PA), (23K) by 1715 - religious opportunity • Catholics – Maryland, smaller numbers • OVER TIME ECONOMIC FACTORS FOR MIGRATION OVERWHELMED RELIGIOUS REASONS (“we came for fish” in MA)

5. American Coloniesdifferent regions very different cultures! No unity! Beginnings of localism and sectionalism! Southern Chesapeake (VA, MD) Carolinas Georgia New England MA Bay, CT, NH RI Middle New York, PA (NJ, DE)

6. Virginia – – not much till Berkeley • Large scattered plantations on rivers • Tobacco became basis of economy (Rolfe) • A disaster until 1641

7. Tobacco  • Need for labor • Indentured servants • ¾ of VA immigrants 1640 – 1675 • Problems of a single crop economy – falling prices • Soil butchery  • Expansion • Problems with Indians

8. The House of Burgesses - first legislature in English colonies (1619) – to attract settlers • Mostly representative of the leading families of VA

9. Cavalier Virginia – William Berkeley (1641) (think self centered liberty) – goal recreate aristocratic England • Displaced cavaliers – younger siblings and refugees from English civil war (Puritans winning!) • Very aristocratic • 25 leading families controlled best land and politics • Church of England • Scattered estates on which planters were free • Sexual predators (Byrd, October 6, December 26, 27, September 12, 13, 26 (rogering but no prayers) • Bending not breaking wills • Dependence on indentured servants “my people” • Goal to live idly (as lords - over time most whites took this belief as a way to distinguish themselves from Africans) (idleness encouraged in the south) • Abusive (December 3, November 30, December 16, • Opposition to education for all but the elite. “ I thank god there are no free schools nor printing.” • Growing number of poor – HUGE PROBLEM!

10. First Africans arrived (1619) • status not clear  perhaps slaves, perhaps indentured servants. But some owned land and slaves, sued in courts, intermarriage and sex with whites, freed children and Christians? • Slavery not that important until the end of the 17th century

11. Nathaniel Bacon’s Rebellion: 1676 • 1,000 piedmont Virginians in a rebellion against Governor Berkeley • Freed indentured servants’ concerns = high taxes, Berkeley’s unwillingness to exterminate Indians • In the end rebellion failed but… Nathaniel Bacon GovernorWilliam Berkeley

12. …. resentments between inland frontiersmen and landless former servants against elites on coastal plantations exposed. • Socio-economic class differences/clashes between east and west would continue throughout American history. • Upper class planters searched for laborers less likely to rebel and a way to lessen class differences BLACK SLAVES!!

13. __________ – George Calvert - 1634 • Chesapeake Colony - tobacco • Established by Lord Baltimore – a refuge for________ •  increasing number of Protestants and to protect Catholics…. • Toleration Act of 1649 • Guaranteed toleration to Christians • Eventually Anglican became established church

14. Carolinas – Lord Proprietors - 1663 • _______ Carolina • Large number of settlers from __________ • aristocratic colony • Dependent on furs and slave (Indians) exports at first • _____ became staple crop – some ______ • Majority slave population; slave codes from _________ • African culture more preserved • __________ Carolina • Squatters and pirates • “a vale of humility between two mounts of conceit”

15. Georgia - James __________ ( 1732) • Last colony • Philanthropic experiment – for debtors • Buffer between SC and Spanish Florida • At first no slaves for philanthropic and security reasons

16. The “Middle Passage”

17. 17c Populationin the Chesapeake WHY this large increase in black popul.??

18. Puritans and Their Impact • Puritan legacy very important • The errand in the wilderness and city on a hill still significant ideas • Great Migration (1630 – 1642) – 20K before 1640, population of 100,000 by 1700 • Congregational Church dominated NE • One of the dominant cultures of the American colonies • Rapid population growth and migration westward • Shaped education for generation – New England colleges and universities, authors – Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne,

20. Reformers of COE • Calvinism • Predestination. • Good works could not save those predestined for hell. • constantly seeking signs of “conversion.” visible saints or the elect. Inner grace reflected in countenance and actions • Puritans: • Want to radically reform [purify] the corrupt Church of England and society • Desire to recreate autonomous villages not threatened by absolute king and bishops • Disapproved of hierarchy or finery that might separate the individual from his relationship with God • Separatists: • believed in a total break from the Church of England.

21. Puritans and Covenant Theology • “Covenant of Grace”: • between Puritan communities and God. A responsibility to God • “Social Covenant”: • Between members of Puritan communities with each other. • Social reciprocity • Required mutual watchfulness. • No toleration of deviance or disorder.

22. Massachusetts – John Winthrop and Puritans (1630) • City on a Hill, missionary vision • Great Migration of Puritans – errand in the wilderness • Transplanted families, villages • Bible Commonwealth – theocracy (not ministers), elect vote (not wealth) • Community! Watchfulness, just prices, charity, gross disparities of wealth avoided tension with individualism • hiving out as individualism became more important • ORDER! (not freedom) • Government by consensus • Community liberty • Hierarchical – deference to the visible saints (visible due to wealth and character) • Importance of education and work ethic • Harvard – 1636 • Old Deluder Law - 1647 • Town meetings. Limited power to the colonial government; they were fleeing a strong central government • Healthy conditions, large families, growing population • Intolerance • Hutchinson, Williams, Quakers, witches

23. Rhode Island – Roger Williams - 1636 • Williams: repudiated the CoE entirely, separation of church and state, and freedom of religion, • ___________ – antinomianism, challenged hierarchy of MA BAY (1637) • refuge for dissenters, most democratic and free (like NC) , first Jewish community • Dependent on trade

24. Coming Apart – The End of the Puritan Experiment • Loss of enthusiasm • Fewer second generation Puritans willing to undergo conversion process. Halfway covenant • Jeremiads unsuccessful • Betrayed by God? King Philips War (1676), witches(1692), loss of English Civil War and Restoration (1660), loss of charter, “unredeemed captives” • ****Individualism. Tension between community and individual • Hiving out. No longer as dependent on each other. • New emphasis on wealth, “Sir, You are mistaken… our main end was to catch fish.”

26. Pennsylvania – William _____ - 1681 • Society of _______ (Quakers) • Belief in equality and brotherhood; every individual had an “_________.” pacifists. • Advertised  Germans. Already scattering of English, Dutch and Swedish settlers  diversity • City of Brotherly love, Holy Experiment • Cordial relations with Indians until colony overwhelmed by other Scotch Irish • No established church • All landowners voted

27. New York – Duke of York - 1664 • New Amsterdam – Dutch colony (1614) , run by stockholders, absolute control, cosmopolitan, aristocratic - patroonships on the Hudson, fur trade with Indians • Duke of York given territory - a royal colony by English King

29. Becoming American… NOT English! • What then is the American, this new man?...He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. …Here individuals of all races are melted into a new race of man, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. (from "Letter III," 1782) Crevecoeur

30. Environmental Factors • Greater self-sufficiency • Presence of Hostile Spanish, French and ….. Native Americans! • Culture clashes with NAs in spite of early intentions • Exclusionary frontier • NA’s did not “use” the land – no fences, farms, permanency • NA’s mostly rejected Christianity • “whosoever thererfore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation”

31. Ethnic Diversity and Economic Diversity • By 1775 the percentage of English was only 52% • Most diverse region: • Least diverse region: • ___________Largest non-English ethnic group • Two other significant groups of immigrants:__________

32. Germans • Located: • Economically prosperous • Scots Irish • Located: • Economic status: • Mindset: • Dutch • Significant presence in ________

33. Class structure • No landed gentry ( in spite of VA efforts) • Growing economic stratification – resulting from wars • A wealthier free population in comparison to Europe

34. Economics • 90% farmed mostly subsistence • Emphasis on cash crops in the southern and middle colonies • New England: shipbuilding, trade – not manufacturing • Naval stores and timber? !

35. Navigation Acts BUT!!! Salutary Neglect • Mercantilism: colonies exist for benefit of the empire • A closed economic system! • Navigation Acts (1650s) imposed by Restoration government • Ships must be English or colonial • Imports must be shipped from England • Enumerated goods – only sold to England

36. Triangular trade developed in response to mercantile policies • Trade promoted • urban growth - PHILADELPHIA – new york , boston • exchange of new ideas and nationalism • a new and more stratified class system – greater wealth • Consumer revolution • However, • colonists desire cheaper French goods and Dutch slaves • Smuggling • Dominion of New England established by James II – 1686 -88 • Resistance to Dominion and arrest of Andros following Glorious Revolution in England 1688 • Reestablishment of salutary neglect

37. Anglicanization of the Elites • As a result of trade – closer relations • GW British coat of arms; desire to be British General

38. Religion – Not just the COE! • Not as important – 75% churched, in the South a minority churched • New England – established church – Congregational – even following the War for Independence – less frequent intolerance over time • Middle Colonies • PA – Society of Friends but tolerance of all, • No established church in PA • Southern Colonies • Anglican Church established • No bishops – less control • Freedom • At first only PA and RI offered toleration for all • MD Act of Toleration in 1649 but by 1654 Catholics persecuted • As diversity increased tolerance increased • By 1691 even in MA non-churched could vote

39. The Great Awakening – A Turning Point – 1730s – 1740s • Movement to reinvigorate the people who were slipping away by making them emotionally aware of sinfulness • response to growing movement from calvinism of the churches and DEISM! • response to enlightenment ideals of science and reason • Maybe 1/15 of families churched south of NE • Importance of itinerants (eg Whitfield) also established clergy such as Jonathan Edwards

40. New colleges • Divided communities (old lights and new lights) • *****Challenge to the clergy! An anti-authority movement • *****An American movement that broke down many barriers

41. New Ideas of Government = Whig Ideology (power should be limited to prevent corruption) • Ideas of Natural Rights from Enlightenment!! • Salutary neglect and founding ideas  • Localism! – the desire for local control of government, limited government powers especially on issues of taxes • Nominally, King was authority – governors represented their authority • Execute laws and veto • Chosen by king or proprietors in all states but CT and RI • Colonial legislatures – POWER OF THE PURSE TO CONTROL GOVERNORS • bicameral • Not democratic – belief in republicanism • Acceptance of deference! • Landowners voted, the Glorious Revolution  new charter in MA which gave vote to all landowners not just church members • Only landowners had “virtue” and independence • Politics mostly ignored in pre-market economy

42. Virginia • destruction and theft of Indian resources • Powhatan (looking for allies and trade – “Why will you destroy us who supply you with food” • By 1614 disease and warfare (Irish tactics) Pocahontas to Jamestown to sue for peace

43. Increasing pressure on Indians  1622 uprising  “perpetual war without peace or truce.”  “Peace of 1646 – Indians removed • “ we who hithertoo have had no more ground than their waste…. May now by right of war and law of nations invade the country and destroy them…” • By 1685 most Indians in VA dead

44. Massachusetts • Land seen as a vacuum • Attempts to move Indians into praying villages • 1637 Pequot War • 1676 King Philip’s War • 600 colonists killed • 52 of 90 Puritan villages attacked • Indian population reduced to 40% • Greater hiving out