Jamestown (Chesapeake region) & Plymouth (New England region Englands debate over freedom TEXT, pp Beginnings of N. American slavery TEXT, pp Founding & development of middle colonies Salem witch trials New England Middle colonies Southern colonies --Chesapeake --Carolinas --Georgia About a century after Spanish discovery of the Americas, the English monarch (Queen Elizabeth I) had consolidated her authority and power well enough to challenge Spain in the New World as well as in Europe. (Defeat of Spanish Armada 1588) (Two attempts to found Roanoke 1585 90) After the failure of Raleighs attempt to start a colony, and after he lost favor at court and was imprisoned, efforts to start colonies in the New World languished. But early in the first decade of the 17 th century, several London businessmen decided to launch a private colonization venture for their own profit = JAMESTOWN. Jamestown (1607) had a rough start. Men sent by the Virginia Company wasted time trying to find gold and precious resources. They did not plan well and lived through several harsh years in which more than 70% died. None might have survived without the strong leadership of Captain John Smith. POWHATANS VIRGINIA COMPANY JOHN SMITH Eventually a way was found to make the colonial experiment in Virginia pay its way. The smoking of tobacco, which the Indians introduced to the Europeans, caught on rapidly and huge market sprang up in Europe for this commodity. This crop was labor-intensive. At first wealthy landowners hired young men with few resources (indentured servants) to work in their fields. TOBACCO COLONY INDENTURED SERVANTS By the middle of the 17 th century (1650s), expanding opportunities in England made it harder to recruit enough white indentured servants. Planters turned more frequently to using the labor of Africans, who were first brought in (unwillingly) to the colony as another type of indentured servant. By the 1660s 1680s, however, the colonial legal system began to define them as lifelong slaves. CHESAPEAKE SLAVERY Meanwhile, another group of Englishmen and women migrated to the Atlantic seaboard in a ship called The Mayflower in hopes of establishing a permanent settlement where they could worship as they chose. PILGRIMS They called themselves Pilgrims and treated the Indians fairly as they worked to establish themselves in a small settlement near present-day Cape Cod. Soon, however, their numbers were over- whelmed by a larger number of religious freedom-seekers, the Puritans, who came to the area both for freedom of worship and also to establish a successful and profitable colony. JOHN WINTHROP THE GREAT MIGRATION PURITANS The Puritans who settled in Massachusetts Bay, like the Pilgrims, came to the colony in large family groups. They pursued an agricultural lifestyle similar to what they had done in England, and quickly built a successful society in the new land. BODY OF LIBERTIES Over time, many of the new immigrants to Massachusetts grew restive under the theocracy of the Puritans. Some left to found prosperous farms in the Connecticut River valley. Some were forced to leave because their ideas collided with Puritan orthodoxy and among them, Roger Williams founded a new colony in Rhode Island. A few preferred to live the less restrictive lifestyle found among the local Indians. ROGER WILLIAMS ANNE HUTCHINSON CAPTIVITY NARRATIVES Relations with the native Americans in the area now called New England worsened as the number of settlers increased and encroached on Indian lands. THE PEQUOT WAR Also, new generations of Puritans were not as religiously-oriented as their forefathers who started the colony. They did not want to publicly confess their conversions. A way had to be found to keep them in the body politic since only churchgoers could vote. THE HALF- WAY COVENANT Within 60 years of the initial settlement, Puritan society was showing signs of stress and strain. One indication of the stresses in society were the events surrounding the Salem witch trials. SALEM WITCH TRIALS Most historians now think that the outbreak of accusations of witchcraft (still common in England) were the results of growing economic and social inequality in the Massachusetts colony. MEANWHILE, BACK IN ENGLAND ENGLISH CIVIL WAR During this century (17 th ) the country had undergone the upheaval and turmoil of conflict between King Charles I and Parliament, resulting in the English Civil War. Political upheavals often give rise to new ideas. Certain groups in England began to bring forth radical new notions about liberty and freedom. These ideas also migrated to the colonies. LEVELLERS DIGGERS When Cromwell (leader of Parliament) died, the English people were weary of non-royal dictators and requested that Charles II (son of the beheaded king) return to the throne of England which had been vacant since his fathers death. Charles returned to the throne in CHARLES II THE RESTORATION In order to reward those nobles who had remained loyal to him and to the Crown, he granted several more charters for colonies in North America. THE RESTORATION COLONIES THE NEW YORK COLONY WILLIAM PENN QUAKERS THE FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONS of CAROLINA WEST INDIES SLAVERY Charles II had no legitimate children, so his brother James II succeeded to the throne when he died. James was like his father Charles I and did not deal well with a powerful Parliament. His conversion to Catholicism during his reign gave the leaders of Parliament the excuse they were looking for to get rid of him as a monarch. Parliament invited William of Orange who had married James daughter Mary to raise an army and come to England to depose James II and become king in his place. James II fled from England before any fighting began, leaving the way clear for Parliament to establish William and Mary of Orange as the English monarchs. THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION MEANWHILE, back in the North American colonies Trouble had been brewing in the large, rapidly developing colony of Virginia. White indentured servants, when they finished their term of service, tended to settle on western frontier lands which the Indians still regarded as their territory. Naturally this provoked Indians to attack the frontier settlements. The whites demanded protection from the governor and militia of the colony. The governor refused to send his soldiers into the frontier region. He argued that settlers were causing their own problems. Nathaniel Bacon (a recent immigrant and relative of the governor) took the side of the frontier settlers. In 1676 he organized an armed rebellion in which the settlers marched on the colonial capital of Williamsburg to overthrow the governor and legislature and set up their own new government. BACONS REBELLION They were successful in setting fire to the House of Burgesses and governors mansion, but did not capture the governor. Bacon died suddenly and the revolt died with him. FINALLY About 50 years later (1733) the final colony was founded, as a haven for debtors and as a buffer zone against the Spanish who ruled Florida. JAMES OGELTHORPE Now all thirteen colonies were in existence. THE END of UNIT 2 GEORGIA