13 BRITISH COLONIES

P E R I O D 2 : 1 6 0 7 – 1 7 5 4

KEY CONCEPT 2.1

• II. In the 17th century, early British colonies

developed along the Atlantic coast, with

regional differences that reflected various

environmental, economic, cultural, and

demographic factors.

13 COLONIES

CHESAPEAKE & NORTH CAROLINA

• Jamestown is the 1st permanent

British settlement – 1607

• Challenges – famine, disease, lack of

leadership & Native raids

• “Starving Time” – John Smith

restores order

• Seeking gold tobacco instead

– John Rolfe

– Labor intensive

• Headright system – attracts new

settlers (indentured servants)

• Few towns b/c tobacco required

large plots of land

• Impact of tobacco

– Destroys the land expansion

– Expansion Native conflicts

– Labor intensive slavery

– No diversification in economy

• Social classes develop w/ wealthy

planters at the top

• Little focus on schools, those who

were rich sent their kids to England

NEW ENGLAND

• Pilgrims (Separatists) settle in

Plymouth

– Mayflower Compact: self-gov’t

• Puritans – Mass. Bay Colony

– John Winthrop

– “City upon a Hill”

• Close knit communities centered

around the church

• Voting based on church membership

• Theocracy

• Stressed education & literacy

• Not religiously tolerant

• Climate not conducive for large-scale

agriculture

– Shipbuilding

– Fishing

– Farmed corn and beans

MIDDLE COLONIES

• Originally settled by the Dutch

– New Amsterdam (NYC)

• Most diverse & tolerant – culturally &

religiously

• Pennsylvania – haven for Quakers (Society of

Friends)

• Fair treatment of Natives

• Scots-Irish & Germans settle in PA

• Huge trading center w/ port cities

• Cultivated wheat

– “Bread basket”

SOUTHERNMOST COLONIES & CARIBBEAN

• Large-scale agriculture of rice &

indigo, later cotton

• The differences in the northern &

southern parts of Carolina led to a

split

• Planters from Caribbean settled in

SC & some in GA

• Caribbean – sugar plantations

($$$)

• African slavery

• Majority of slaves went to South

America & Caribbean

• Often made up the majority of the

population control very

important

• Africans merged their traditional

culture w/ Christianity

– Voodoo

– Santeria – worship of saints

SALUTARY NEGLECT & SELF-GOV’T

• Salutary neglect – colonies were

left alone by the crown

– Distance b/t England & colonies

– England was preoccupied

• House of Burgesses (VA) – 1st

representative body in the colonies

– Model for other colonies

– Right to tax

• MA – voting was based on church

membership; other colonies were

based on land ownership

• New Eng – town meetings (direct

democracy)

• Elite planters in the south required

property to vote

• White males

MASSACHUSETTS

• Separatists AKA Pilgrims – Plymouth

– 1620

– William Bradford

– 100 settlers; remains small on the

outskirts of MA

– Mayflower

• Puritans – Massachusetts Bay

– 1630

– John Winthrop

– Model of Christian Charity

• “City upon a hill”

• MA Bay Colony (MBC)

• 1640 – Great Migration

– 20,000 settlers came to MBC

• Mostly families as opposed to

Jamestown

• Want to est permanent settlements

& willing to work

• Extremely religious

• Centered around a church & a school

DISSENTERS IN MBC

• Religiously intense & rigid

conformity problems

• Roger Williams

– Disagreed w/ Puritan Church over

their treatment of Natives

– Mingling of church & state

– Banished from the colony

– Founded Rhode Island 1636

• No official religion

• Separation of church & state

• Anne Hutchinson

– Held religious meetings in her

home

– Argued that you don’t need to

ministers to communicate with

God

– Settled in Rhode Island

• Thomas Hooker

– Disagreed w/ how new members

are admitted to the church

– Founded Connecticut 1639

DECLINE OF THE CHURCH

• By mid 1600s, membership was

declining

– New generations less interested

– Literacy allowed to be more

worldly

– Economic success pulls people

away

• Halfway Covenant (1662)

– Partial church membership for

children of church members

• Salem Witch Trials (1692)

– Every event has an explanation

– Bad things could be the work of the

Satan (working through a witch)

– Reveals the division within the

colony

ENLIGHTENMENT – 1700S

• Emphasis on reason & logic to understand yourself & the world

• Challenged answers about the world

– Given by religious leaders

• Explanations based on science instead of chance or miracles

• John Locke – natural rights: life, liberty & property

– State exists to provide for the security of people

– Rationality, harmony & order

GREAT AWAKENING – 1730S & 40S

Jonathan Edwards

– Starts the G.A.

– “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry

God”

– Intense & emotional sermons

– Undermines Puritan clergy

– Rejects predestination

– Personal relationship with God

– Renewed interest in religion

George Whitefield

• Great orator

– “the reason why congregations have been

so dead, is because dead men preach to

them”

• Old light (anti) & New light (pro)

– Harvard & Yale – Old light

– Princeton & Dartmouth – New light

• Appeals to a wide range of people

throughout the colonies

• New denominations – Baptist &

Methodist

Enlightenment- Emphasis on reason &

logic to solve questions

about man, govt, religion,

etc.

- Natural Rights

Great Awakening- Emotional expression

- No more

predestination

- Salvation by repenting

- Increased religious

diversity

- Clergy not essential to

understand God

Both

- Challenge authority

- Stressed importance

of the individual

- Leads to American

Revolution

NATIVES & COLONISTS

• Relatively peaceful w/ Pilgrims

• Disputes/Problems:

– Land w/ expansion of colonists

– Colonists livestock trampling on

Native crops

– Hunting in Native territory

– Alcohol as a form of payment

– Dishonest traders

– No intertribal unity

PEQUOT WAR 1634 - 1638

• Pequot was the dominate Native group

• English form alliances w/ rival Native tribes of

the Pequot

• Colonists are killed & Pequot are blamed

• Colonists & Native allies surround a Pequot

village along the Mystic River

– “Mystic Massacre”

– Set fire to the village

• Temporary peace in the region…but more

settlers continue to arrive

PEQUOT WAR

KING PHILIP’S WAR 1675• Puritans try to convert Natives in “Praying

Towns”

• Not as forceful as the Spanish but had to be a

full conversion

• METACOM (aka King Philip)

– Chief of Wampanoag

– Forms alliance w/ other tribes

• “Praying Native” warns the English

– Gets killed!

• Colonists hang 3 Wampanoag Natives the

spark to war!

KING PHILIP’S WAR 1675

• Natives are successful initially

– Natives have European weapons

– Formed alliances

• New England Confederation –

military & political alliance of NE

colonies

• Natives efforts decline

– Lack of supplies

– Breakdown of alliance & some join

colonists side

• Metacom is beheaded

• SIGNIFICANCE!!!

– Up to 600 colonists killed

– Around 3000 Natives killed

– Last major Native uprising in NE

– Wampanoag continue to launch

small-scale attack on villages

• Salem Witch Trials