Jamestown/Virginia

& Maryland

First English Attempts

• 1585/1587

–2 attempts at Roanoke Colony

–2nd – “Lost Colony”

Jamestown—1607

• Virginia Company• Joint stock company• Middle class investors included

• Shared speculation

Early Jamestown

• John Smith• Aristocrats – primogeniture• “Starving Time” (1609-1610)• Powhatan

–Pocahontas

Beginnings of prosperity

• John Rolfe – tobacco (1614)• Plantation system

–Headright system–Indentured servitude

Virginia changes

• House of Burgesses (1619)

• Royal colony (1624)

Maryland (1634)• Proprietary colony

–George Calvert, Lord Baltimore

• Act of Toleration (1649)

17th C Chesapeake Society

• Agricultural – few towns• Anglican church

–Few clergy• High death rates• Mostly men (at first)

–Weaker kinship bonds• Tidewater aristocracy control

Battles between Virginians

• Voting restrictions• Regressive taxation• Rich vs. poor• East (tidewater) vs. west (hills)

Bacon’s Rebellion-1676

• Causes–Frontier expansion–No frontier protection

–Rich vs. poor–Tidewater v. backcountry

Nathaniel Bacon

• Wealthy coastal planter• Raised army to fight Indians in

west w/o Berkeley’s consent• Army marched on Jamestown

Bacon’s Rebellion-1676

• Effects–Berkeley replaced–Tobacco export tax–Colonists realized reliance on world

mkt–More reliance on African labor