Ch.3, Sec.1 – Early Colonies Have Mixed Success

The English Plan Colonies

- after the English defeated the Spanish Armada in A.D. 1588, England begins building colonies in North America

- England wanted to gain access to more gold and use mercantilism to increase its wealth from the colonies

- England also wanted to spread Protestant Christianity

- many people left England to gain their fortunes and escape religious persecution

Ch.3, Sec.1 – Early Colonies Have Mixed Success

Two Early Colonies Fail

- the first English colony in the New World was on Roanoke Island, North Carolina in A.D. 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh

- by A.D. 1587, the Roanoke Colony had collapsed and all the colonists had disappeared

Ch.3, Sec.1 – Early Colonies Have Mixed Success

- the second English colony in the New World was at Sagadahoc, Maine

- by the end of A.D. 1607, most of the colonists had returned to England because of food shortages

Ch.3, Sec.1 – Early Colonies Have Mixed Success

Financing A Colony

- because Raleigh lost all his money from investing in the Roanoke Colony, England realized joint ownership was more effective for funding colonies

joint-stock company: a business in which investors pool their wealth in order to turn a profit

- King James I granted charters (written contracts) to companies to help establish American colonies

Ch.3, Sec.1 – Early Colonies Have Mixed Success

Jamestown Is Founded In A.D. 1607

- the first permanent English settlement was founded in Jamestown, Virginia in A.D. 1607

- the weather was very harsh and many died from malaria and exposure (many were too obsessed with finding gold)

Ch.3, Sec.1 – Early Colonies Have Mixed Success

Ch.3, Sec.1 – Early Colonies Have Mixed Success

Jamestown Grows

- by January of A.D. 1608, only 38 colonists remained alive!

- a soldier, John Smith, took control and made all colonists work, built a wall around the colony, & helped establish trade with the Powhatan tribe

- the Powhatan tribe eventually attacked the colony and the people remained in the fort until A.D. 1610

Ch.3, Sec.1 – Early Colonies Have Mixed Success

Ch.3, Sec.1 – Early Colonies Have Mixed Success

- eventually, tobacco would be grown in Jamestown and became a highly profitable crop for England

- England took the majority of the profits, but the colonists wanted a share of the profits

- land grants were given to the colonists if they could afford to pay for the land

- African slaves arrived in Jamestown in A.D. 1619

- population grew to 2,000 people by A.D. 1621!

Ch.3, Sec.1 – Early Colonies Have Mixed Success

- those who could not afford the passage to America became indentured servants until their debt was paid off

- the House of Burgesses was created in A.D. 1619 to allow colonists to elect representatives to provide more local control

Ch.3, Sec.1 – Early Colonies Have Mixed Success

Jamestown Video

Ch.3, Sec.1 – Early Colonies Have Mixed Success

Conflicts with the Powhatan

- Pocahontas (Chief Powhatan’s daughter) saved John Smith’s life twice and eventually married a colonist named John Rolfe

- the colonists learned how to farm from the Powhatan tribe, but their patience with the colonists for stealing their land boiled over in A.D. 1622 (they killed hundreds of colonists)

Ch.3, Sec.1 – Early Colonies Have Mixed Success

Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676

- Nathaniel Bacon demanded Governor William Berkeley declare war on the Native Americans to seize their land for tobacco use

- Berkeley’s refusal sparked Bacon’s Rebellion where Jamestown was burned to the ground & the House of Burgesses passed laws to prevent governors from assuming a lot of power