Chapter 2: The Planting of English America

By: Faris Mirza Chapter 2: The Planting of English America

England’s Imperial Stirrings • 1607: Central and South America controlled by Spain or Portugal; North America mostly unclaimed • Spain had Santa Fe; France had Quebec; British had struggling Jamestown • Political/religious problems prevented England from colonizing • Henry VIII’s break from the Catholic Church • Queen Elizabeth made Protestantism the main religion; Spain became the Catholic enemy • Catholic Ireland gave British problems

England Under Queen Elizabeth • Francis Drake and his “sea dogs”: specialized in pirating Spanish ships • First British attempts at colonization: • Sir Walter Raleigh established Roanoke Island Colony, later known as the Lost Colony

The Spanish Armada • 1588: Spain decided to attack England but was defeated • BIG turning point in history: opened the door for Britain to cross Atlantic and establish colonies • Sprung British to naval prominence • Lots of unity and national pride in Britain • Golden age of literature: William Shakespeare

England on the Eve of the Empire • 1500’s: England’s population was growing greatly • The Enclosure movement meant less land was available for the poor • Poor wanted to come to America • Primogeniture: the firstborn son inherits everything from father • Younger, landless sons wanted to leave

England on the Eve of the Empire • The concept of the joint stock company grew • People invest money; investor makes money as a share-owner

England’s Jamestown • 1606: King James I gives Virginia Company a charter to establish a colony in America • Charter gives the colonists all rights of Englishmen • Virginia Co. was a joint-stock company looking for quick profit

England’s Jamestown • 1607: 100 men settled in Jamestown: very bad situation • No women • 40 men died • Sanitary issues • Most men were looking for gold instead of preparing for survival • Captain John Smith took control in 1608 and enforced strong self-discipline among the men: “No work, no food” policy • Good relations with Chief Powhatan with the help of Pocahontas • Still, numbers of settlers died • Lord De La Warr forced the return of some abandoning settlers, bringing more discipline and supplies

Culture Clash in the Chesapeake Region • The colonists and the Powhatans wavered between good and bad relations • 1614: First Anglo-Powhatan war ends; sealed by the marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas • 1644-1646: Second Anglo-Powhatan war saw Indians defeated soundly • Indians banned from Chesapeake • Beginnings of reservations system • Indians fell because of disease, disorganization, and disposability

The Indians’ New World • Changes that Europeans brought • Arrival of horses • Disease devastated the Indian population • Indians obtained firearms, increasing violence

Tobacco: The Revelation for Virginia • Tobacco became the cash crop and was sought by Europe; Jamestown now had the means to be successful • Virginia’s economy built entirely on one product • Cultivating tobacco also wore out the land, causing producers to seek new land by moving inland • Created a demand for cheap labor, which was fulfilled by indentured servants in the 1600’s but more and more by slaves in the 1700’s

The Importance of 1619 • The House of Burgesses was created in Virginia: first form of representative self-government in America • A legislature to work out basic local issues • The first blacks were brought to America, either as indentured servants or slaves • The first shipload of women arrived in Virginia

Maryland • Lord Baltimore founded Maryland in 1634; religious freedom was the main motivation • A haven for Catholics to avoid persecution from Protestants in Europe or America • Those who settled there • Lord Baltimore gave huge land grants to Catholic friends, while poor Protestants settled there too---tensions ensued • Flourished because of sale of tobacco

Maryland • Indentured servants bore most of the workload • The same trend was later seen: slaves replaced indentured servants as the 1700’s came along • Reasons for this switch • Desire for a stable work force • White indentures wanted their own lands • Maryland passes the Act of Toleration, guaranteeing religious toleration to all Christians

The West Indies • With the decline of Spain and Portugal, who had holdings in the West Indies, England looked to colonize there • Intensives sugar plantations worked by slaves • Indians were used at slaves at first, but too many were wiped out by disease • Africans were then used • Slave codes were instituted because the white’s feared the large number of blacks • Barbados Slave Code: designed to keep slaves in control • West African slaves were “seasoned” here, having ideas of revolt beaten out of them

Colonizing the Carolinas • England was in political turmoil • Charles I was beheaded, Cromwell ruled for 10 years, then Charles II became king with The Restoration • This disrupted colonization • Charles II made an effort to colonize; 1670 marked the start of the Carolinas’ colonization • Carolina had ties to the West Indies • The Charleston port brought in slaves as well as the slave codes

Colonizing the Carolinas • Rice and indigo became the cash crops in the Carolinas because tobacco could not be grown there • Africans were sought after because of their resistance to malaria and their knowledge of growing rice • South Carolina had an air of aristocracy among plantation owners, while North Carolina had more independent, yeoman farmers • Eventual split between the two in 1712

The Emergence of North Carolina • Many settlers came from Chesapeake because as lands for tobacco ran out, they just moved southward • Trouble with the Indians • The Tuscaroras attacked in 1711, but Carolinians protected themselves successfully • Defeated Indians travelled north, where some became the 6th nation of the Iroquois Confederacy • Others were sold into slavery

Georgia • Georgia was established with the purpose of acting as a buffer zone between Spanish Florida and the British colonies on the east coast • James Oglethorpe founded it in 1733, naming it after King George II • It became the colony where debtors could get a second chance and criminals were dumped-called the “charity colony” • All Christians except Catholics were allowed • Missionaries such as John Wesley, founder of Methodism tried to convert Indians to Christianity

The Plantation Colonies • Slavery was omnipresent • Forests as well as social structure stunted the growth of cities • Rarely find schools and churches • Tobacco grown in Chesapeake (Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina • Indigo and rice grown in Georgia and SC • In general, there was a great deal of religious freedom because of a focus on profiting from plantations • Frequent clashes with American Indians

The Iroquois Confederacy • Five tribes: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and the Seneca • Under leadership of Hiawatha • Proved to be the strongest opposition against white colonization • Eventually met defeat after disease, whiskey, and weapons • Lived in “longhouses”; a sessile community • Matriarchal-based society

Chapter 2: The Planting of English America