America: Past and Present

Chapter 2: England’s Colonial Experiments—The Seventeenth Century

LEAVING HOME

The chapter opens with * John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, wondering if the native raids on Virginia tobacco farmers were not simply God’s punishment upon them for their worldliness. When the natives later declared war against the New Englanders, Sir William Berkeley, royal governor of Virginia, declared the natives to be instruments of God. Perhaps two noteworthy points can be drawn from this exchange—natives were increasingly weary of European cultural influences and land pressures, and colonists suffered from regionalism as early as the mid-1600s. Wonder if we should consider this disunity or diversity?

• The different groups who fled England for different reasons created unique American colonial experiences that resulted in diversity and disunity.

• *English colonization in the 17th c. did NOT spring from a desire to build a centralized empire in the New World similar to that of Spain and France. The crown awarded charters to entrepreneurs, religious idealists, and aristocratic adventurers.

• *Migration helps to explain why colonial settlements had little in common with each other. At different times, different colonies appealed to different sorts of people.

• Economic, social, political and religious reasons for migration.

• [Think PERSIA]

• "PERSIA" is an acronym for

• Political,

• Economic,

• Religious,

• Social,

• Intellectual, and

• Artistic.

• It is a framework for organizing your thinking about history.

• BREAKING AWAY

• Reasons for colonization

1. *Land pressures were a problem in England also, but for different reasons. The population grew from 3.5 to 5 million in a 70-year period, and cities could not keep up with the demand for jobs or the need for improvements in public health conditions. Wandering poor represented a threat to good order. Use overseas colonies for getting rid of human offal.

• 2 *Combine these elements with the religious and political struggles of the era, and Pilgrims headed to Holland, kings losing their heads (Charles I—Stuart), eleven years under a Lord Protector named Cromwell, and the following restoration and Glorious Revolution (William and Mary). [ When James II lifted some of the restrictions governing Catholics, a Protestant nation rose up in what was called the Glorious Revolution. This altered the course of English political history and that of the American colonies. The crown was still a potent force but never again would an English monarch attempt to govern without Parliament.]

• Needless to say, in the 1590s life was hard for nonconformists, but ordinary people had choices to move to America.

• 3 * International trade was increasing especially with the discovery of Spanish metals which had a profound effect on world trade. Europe now a money economy

• As trade spread, colonizing ventures expanded- North Atlantic fishing increased in Labrador Newfoundland and Canada. Samuel de Champlain est. Quebec for France which worried the English in 1620s.

THE STUART MONARCHS

James I(r. 1603-1625)

Charles I(r. 1625-executed 1649)

[fighting with Parliament, & far-reaching religious reform led to English Civil War between Royalists v. Parliamentarians]

Oliver Cromwell(r. 1649-1660)

Charles II James II(r. 1660-1685) (r. 1685-deposed 1688)

Restoration Glorious Revolution

William III Mary AnnePrince of Orange m. (r. 1688-1695) (r. 1702-1714)

(r. 1688-1702)

*see notes on Glorious Revolution

• *During times of political turmoil, religious persecution, and economic insecurity, men and women thought more seriously about transferring to the New World than they did during periods of peace and prosperity

• THE CHESAPEAKE: DREAMS OF WEALTH

• Hakluyt’s promise of wealth, anti-Catholicism and hatred of Spain were a few factors that helped inspire folks to travel to Maryland and Virginia

• Entrepreneurs in Virginia• Joint-stock companies helped underwrite

expenses of colonial ventures• The crown will grant charters but not help with

finances• VA charter issued in 1606 by James I to the

London Company later to be called the Virginia Company.

• Vague boundaries.

• Jamestown founded at head of James River- Jamestown began continuous English presence in North America

• A marshy and disease-ridden location with drinking water contaminated with salt but…

• A defensible location against Spanish and Indians• English “shared labor” system did not work well in new

colony• Colonists hoped for instant wealth as in New Spain• May 6, 1607 Virginia Co sent 105 settlers- looked like a

Dark Age settlement but English est. foothold on continent but it lacked family units. Half died by 1608.

• The lack of clean water, • the fact that Jamestown was built on a swamp,

the lack of food, • and the men’s disinterest in agriculture all

contributed to a high death rate.• At the end of the first year, there were only 34

men still alive, and it looked like Jamestown might suffer the same fate as Roanoke.

• The colony survived, but only barely. • Over the next thirteen years, more than 6,000

people would emigrate to Jamestown, but only 1,300 would survive.

Order Out of Anarchy

John Smith to the rescue!

John Smith was a mercenary - a hired soldier-who had a seat on Jamestown’s council. He mapped the Chesapeake Bay and established friendly relations with Indians. When he retuned to the colony he had an idea of what to do and was elected pres of council-earliest example of popular democracy at work in America.

1608—took control of ruling council and established discipline

All worked, all lived. Able to get food from Indians

1609—new charter issued by King, new investors joined

• Smith injured and returned to England [other texts mention the new charter left him without legal status so that is why he returned,] while on a voyage he discovered Cape Cod and wrote A Description of New England-this is the first time this term was used to describe this area of the continent and it stuck.

• John Smith's map, published in 1616, from observations in 1614-15, is by many regarded as the oldest map of New England.

Supply ships grounded in Bermuda [think Shakespeare’s The Tempest]

Generally regarded as Shakespeare’s last play: 1611

• Performed for King James I and at the marriage festivities of his daughter Elizabeth

• Source: William Strachey’s account of the shipwreck of the Sea Venture in 1609

• A plan to abandon Jamestown (1610)Half of colonists dead -suspicion of cannibalism –the Indians had turned

hostile [In the midst of one of the most powerful Indian confederations east of the Mississippi R. w/ Powhatan as leader.]

Decided to give up but as they were going downriver 3 ships arrived under Lord De La Ware

New legal code Dales Code after marshal Thomas Dale- civil not martial law-but with Puritan tones. Promoted an elective representative assembly called the House of Burgesses.

Native conflicts and lack of profit were serious complications

• Arrival of

• De La Warr at Jamestown

Lord De La Warr • As a veteran of English campaigns against the Irish, De La Warr

employed "Irish tactics" against the Indians: troops raided villages, burned houses, torched cornfields, and stole provisions; these tactics,identical to those practiced by the Powhatans themselves, proved effective.

• He had been appointed governor-for-life (and captain-general) of Virginia.

• Lord De La Warr returned to England and published a book about Virginia, The Relation of the Right Honourable the Lord De-La-Warre, of the Colonie, Planted in Virginia, in 1611.

• He remained the nominal governor, and he had received complaints from the Virginia settlers about Argall's tyranny in governing them for him, so Lord De La Warr set sail for Virginia again in 1618, to investigate those charges.

• He died en route, and it was thought for many years that he had been buried in the Azores or at sea.

• In 2006, recent research had concluded that his body was brought to Jamestown for burial. A grave site thought by researchers to contain the remains of Captain Gosnold may instead contain those of Baron De La Warr.

“Stinking Weed”

Tobacco, not cedar trees…

John Rolfe married Pocahontas, planted tobacco and became wealthy

James I opposed sales at first, collected duties and changed his mind

Sir John Sandys encouraged investment through headrights

Colonists who paid for their voyage received headrights

50-acre lot that required a small annual rent

Additional headrights granted for each servant brought

Wealth and labor exploitation persisted through this system

This allowed prosperous planters to build huge estates.

Sandys suggested economic diversification and a lottery

Encouraged production of iron, tar, silk, glass, sugar, cotton

Sandys sent thousands of new settlers to the colony

• Rolfe was one of a number of businessmen who saw the opportunity to undercut Spanish imports by growing tobacco in England's new colony at Jamestown.

• Rolfe had somehow obtained seeds to take with him from a special popular strain then being grown in Trinidad and South America, even though Spain had declared a penalty of death to anyone selling such seeds to a non-Spaniard.

• In 1614 Rolfe married Pocahontas, daughter of the local leader Powhatan

• Pocahontas and Rolfe traveled to England in 1616 with their baby son, where the young woman was widely received as visiting royalty. However, just as they were preparing to return to Virginia, she became ill and died.

Time of Reckoning

Most new immigrants to VA were young men (20s)

Most came as indentured servants

Women were a “precious commodity”

Indentureds often died before their service ended

Most died of poor treatment or disease

Water supplies were contaminated by salt

Native killed some

Death omnipresent-one of the main reasons the Chesapeake colonies developed so differently from New England-sense of impermanence.

Drinking was a common practice here…

1619 important

1. 90 young women arrived

2. Colonist given rights of Englishmen first General Assembly (House of Burgesses) met in Jamestown Church Miniature parliament- nothing like it in any American colonies

3. Rolfe wrote of 20 slaves or were they indentured servants? It was hard to get labor so as tobacco grew so did slave population.

Two roads-representative institutions and slave labor

Scandal and Reform

Why had so many colonists died in a land so rich in potential?

Who was to blame?

1. VA company officials valued profit over good government

Did not provide for the common good.

Ignored poor defenses.

Had no sense of shared purpose.

This embarrassed the king so…

VA was declared a royal colony in 1624

King appointed governor and council

House of Burgesses remained an elected body

Divided into 8 counties in 1634

Appointed justices of the peace

*The county court was the most important institution of local government in VA serving as a center for social, political and commercial activities.

Planters ignored advice to diversify crops

Problems continued

Conflicts with natives continued

Plantations operated as isolated economic units

Schools, churches and sense of community did not develop

Original Virginia settlers were gentlemen, adventures, landless men, indentured servants who all wanted to do better financially

Maryland: A Troubled Refuge for Catholics

Maryland became a thriving tobacco colony

Colony founded by Sir George Calvert-Lord Baltimore

James I was the colony’s patron

Had served as James I secretary of state

Shocked everyone by declaring his Catholicism-forced to resign

Colony granted to Sir George’s son Cecilius

Son desired to create this refuge for Catholics

150 original settlers

New colonists swore allegiance to Lord Baltimore

Boundaries not settled until mid-18th c. when Charles

Mason and Jeremiah Dixon surveyed their famous line

between Pennsylvania and Maryland-Mason-Dixon Line

Baltimore owned 6 million acres

Cecilius brother Leonard, the colony’s governor,

instructed Roman Catholics to keep quiet about religion.

All colonists were assigned a place in the social order

Colonists swore allegiance not to the king but to L. Balt.

Lord of the manor purchased 6000+ acres

This feudal system never took root-25 years of

legislative squabbling-led to political instability

Religious civil war (England) caused similar conflicts in MD

Acts of religious toleration were passed• The Puritans revolted against the proprietary government and

set up a new government that outlawed both Catholicism and Anglicanism repealing the acts In 1650

• Settlers were driven out during the “plundering time”

• The Puritan revolutionary government persecuted Maryland Catholics during its reign. All of the original Catholic churches

of southern Maryland were burned down • Tobacco was the main cash crop-affected almost every aspect

of local culture-indentured servants later replaced by slaves

Large landowners prospered; laborers suffered

The Maryland Toleration Act, issued in 1649, was one of the first laws that explicitly defined tolerance

of varieties of religion

REINVENTING ENGLAND IN AMERICA

Pilgrims (Separatists) from Scrooby Manor moved from England to the Netherlands to the New World, hoping to separate from the Church of England and preserve their British culture.

The Mayflower Compact provided the governmental structure for this venture, and it took the group 20 years to repay their investors.

Squanto translated, Massasoit helped teach the Pilgrims more useful agricultural techniques, and the group eventually began to prosper. In 1691, its more prosperous neighbors in Massachusetts Bay absorbed Plymouth Colony.

• *Mayflower settlers were different. They were here to create God’s kingdom on earth. Zealots, idealists, utopians, and saints. They were energetic, persistent, courageous, with cerebral progeny, but they were also unbending and unyielding.

• Mayflower led by William Bradford (Wrote Of Plymouth Plantation-one of the first accounts of an early American settlement.) and William Brewster.

• The dissenter pilgrims with the captain Miles Standish, created a civil body politic to provide just laws in the Mayflower Compact.

• Founded upon church teaching and based on the covenant between God and the Israelites. This was a social contract with the head of households signing.

• It was not between servant and master, people and king, but a group of like-minded individuals.

• Formed Separatist congregations-commercial fishing and fur trade• Relied on mixed husbandry (The act or practice of cultivating crops

and breeding and raising livestock; agriculture), grain, and livestock.

“The Great Migration”

Puritans migrated, hoping to purifying the church and escape persecution

*Their beliefs and actions helped spark the English Civil War-which generated bold new thinking about republican gov’t and popular sovereignty.

Shared beliefs included

Moderation in their personal life

A Calvinist view of salvation

Removal of unscriptural elements in the church

Rejection of excess and extravagance

Predestination-looked for signs of being God’s “elect.”

More combative than Pilgrims.

To Puritans James I and Charles I-tolerated corruption,

gross public extravagance, appeased Catholic foreign powers, no interest in purifying Anglican Church.

William Laud, a bishop, defended church ceremonies, persecuted Puritan ministers. He was advanced by Charles and later became the archbishop of Canterbury. [The chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England.]

Massachusetts Bay Colony began with a royal charter

Attained by wealthier puritans

Looked like a typical joint-stock arrangement to Charles-just

another commercial venture

• Winthrop and 11 others signed the Cambridge Agreement-

• [Pledge made in Cambridge, England, in 1629 by Puritan stockholders of the Massachusetts Bay Co. to emigrate to New England if the colony's government could be transferred there. The company agreed and shifted control of the corporation to the signers of the agreement.]

• Hoped to prevent British interference in colonial gov’t

• “A City on a Hill”

• 2000 + joined Winthrop in the first year of the colony (1630)

• His diaries and letters are the most important documents about early American colonies.

• The US is first nation in human history whose most distant origins are fully recorded.

Grew to 16,000+ by early 1640s during the Great Migration

• Humans function best at outdoor temp. of mean average of 60-65 degrees Mental activities best at 38 degrees with seasonal changes

• Most originally from East Anglia (NE London)

• Had farming and manufacturing backgrounds-rainfall was satisfactory minerals and variety of crops possible=no famine

• Colonists brought livestock and plants-maize a godsend since it produced twice as much food as traditional English crops

• Settlers discovered chestnuts, walnuts, hickory, plums, cherries, pumpkins, squash, beans, rice

• Lots of wildlife, fur, fish, copper, lead, zinc, coal, iron and timber

• Moved as nuclear families, thus sustaining population growth

• Bound by common purpose and covenant• Wanted to stand as a beacon of light for

Christians• Group welfare was crucial for success• All were obliged to work• Patriarchal attitude toward Indians-primitive

compared to South Am• Small numbers, no domestic animals, villages

semi-permanent• Many tribes wiped out by small pox

Developed a Congregational form of church and community gov’t

[Each village church was independent of outside interference.]

Testimony was required for church membership

Church attendance was required for all colonial residents

Membership was not

Colonial unity was crucial

Franchise was extended to all adult male church members

By 1630s 40% of adult males could vote

Elected officials ruled in the name of the voters

With responsibility to God

No one favored democracy

Elected leaders were not under the authority of church leaders

Residents did have to pay taxes and serve in the militia

Taxes paid the minister’s salary

Towns became the center of public life not the county.

Defining the Limits of Dissent

Winthrop ruthless in dealing with dissent

The General Court (legislature) devised the Lawes and Liberties

Important in constitutional history-engendered public trust

Discouraged magistrates from arbitrary exercise of authority.

First alphabetized code of laws in English

Listed rights and responsibilities

Was not supportive of religious toleration

Colonists read Bible themselves-common tongue King James version

Roger Williams was expelled

For views of “extreme separatism”

Winthrop stood for authority-Williams for liberty

Thought colony should pay natives for land

Had originally intended to be Indian missionary, learned Algonquilian-unchristian to take Indian

land

Believed each individual had covenant with god so MUST have separation of church and state but majority rules

Williams a secularist Salem preacher

Thought civil punishment for “sin” was wrong

• Winthrop warned him of plans to send him back to England so he fled.

• Negotiated land purchases with Indians. Welcomed dissenters.

• Went back to Eng. for a charter. Avoided conflicts with Indians until King Philip’s War

• Established Providence, colony in RI

• After Charles II took reign went back to Eng to make sure he had a legal charter for Rhode Island.

• It stated:

• -“No person with in said colony at any time hereafter shall be in any risk punished.. for any difference in opinion in matters of religion…” a critical turning point-

religious competition - separation of church and state

Anne Hutchinson was expelled

Believed in divine inspiration apart from the Bible or clergy-her teachings could not be tested by Scripture-too subjective for leaders.

Believed in antinomianism

Salvation by faith alone

Rejection of the “work” of following moral law

Claimed to have had personal revelations

These beliefs could lead to anarchy or disunity

She left behind not a single letter- only documentation

her two trials.

Her house a resort for women in trouble. Sermons

discussed afterwards.

God’s gift not earned.

Individual did NOT need ministers.

Must abolish distinctions of gender. Women could receive the spirit and utter God’s teachings.

Winthrop believed she was being manipulated by the devil-a witch of sorts .

[The typical person accused of being a witch was a woman of middle age. She was married, had children, though widows and childless women were also suspected. Some of them were quite poor, but taken altogether they spanned the entire social spectrum. Often, accused witches were women who exhibited odd personal behavior, who were quarrelsome with their neighbors, were cantankerous, feisty, angry, and quick to take offense. Is it possible that the colonists disposed of social misfits by bringing such charges against them? And if the defendant was convicted of witchcraft, she was hanged].

• Winthrop had discovered Hutchinson had had a miscarriage, which he interpreted as a sign of God’s wrath. Her friend Mary Dyer had given birth to a stillborn, malformed infant which he had dug up and examined. Mary Dyer refused to leave the colony and was hanged in1660.

• • Was this a misogynist response?• Hutchinson moved to Rhode Island then to what is now NY where she

and he family with the exception of one daughter were killed by Indians in 1643. This was interpreted as providential with some calling her the ‘American Jezebel” [From a biblical and Christian point of view, a comparison to Jezebel would suggest that a person would be a pagan or an apostate masquerading as a servant of God, who by manipulation and/or seduction misleads the saints of God into sins of idolatry and sexual immorality, making them ineffective. It has also been used to refer to those who challenge evidence and belief in God.]

• Hutchinson’s vindication had to wait for the women’s movement of the

1960s.

Breaking Away

Four new colonies were created from the original Massachusetts Bay Connecticut

By Thomas Hooker

Liked the Connecticut River ValleyUnder the

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

These Fundamental Orders represent the framework for the first formal government written by a representative body in Connecticut.

New Haven

By Eaton and Davenport

Wanted a closer tie between church and state

Eventually absorbed by Connecticut

Rhode Island

By Roger Williams (and Anne Hutchinson)

For religious toleration

Obtained a royal charter in 1663

Colony wide government was hampered by dissent

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Masscolony.png

• In New England virtually everyone came from England and Wales.

• The religious exclusivity of the original settlements rarely lasted more than a decade or so, with dissenters being expelled.

• Wealth-gaps widened in the 2nd and 3rd generations.

• The social atmosphere became more secular and mercantile, and the Puritan merged into the Yankee, ‘a race whose typical member is eternally torn between a passion for righteousness and a desire to get on in the world.’

DIVERSITY IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES

NY, NJ, PA and DE developed for very different reasons and this led to a very heterogeneous society

Anglo-Dutch Rivalry on the Hudson

Holland had trading outposts on the Hudson for their vast commercial network –possessed the world’s largest merchant fleet.

Permanent settlement began in 1624 (Fort Orange and New Amsterdam)

Dutch rivalry with Spain responsible for the settlement. Excellent base from which to attack Spain’s colonies in New World.

Dutch West India Company sponsored two small outposts,

Fort Orange (Albany) and New Amsterdam (NYC)

Fort Orange

• Fort Orange was a small wooden structure, erected in 1624 by the Dutch West India Company as a fur trading post on the west bank of the Hudson River.

Wall $treet

• The wall was created, and strengthened over time, as a defense against attack from various Native American tribes. The wall was dismantled by the Government in 1699. The word "wall" in the name may have been adopted from an original Dutch name: in Dutch, too, the word wal means rampart or fortification.

• In the late 18th century, there was a buttonwood tree at the foot of Wall Street under which traders and speculators would gather to trade informally. In 1792, the traders formalized their association with the Buttonwood Agreement. This was the origin of the New York Stock Exchange.

New Netherland was small and lacked capable leadership

Greed and anarchy led to internal and external conflicts

Settlers had no loyalty to colony or country

Ethnic mix of English, Finns, Germans, and Swedes.

Petrus Stuyvesant tried in vain to protect from British attack

James, Duke of York was first British leader took over in 1664

No provision was made for elected government

Authority seemed arbitrary

Dukes Laws allowed for religious freedom and local gov’t-

These were drawn up by Governor Nicolls.

Dutch residents retained their own culture and language

• Governor Stuyvesant destroying

the summons to Surrender NY

• RICHARD NICOLLS, THE FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK, AFFIRMS AND GRANTS THE ASSIGNMENT OF A 1644 LAND PARCEL IN MANHATTAN HELD BY GROOTE (BIG) MANUEL, A FREE NEGRO, TO HIS WIFE FOLLOWING HIS DEATH. MANUEL WAS ONE OF THE FIRST ELEVEN BLACKS IN NEW YORK (1626), AND PARTICIPATED IN THE FIRST BLACK LEGAL PROTEST IN AMERICA (1644)

Confusion in New Jersey

Founded by Sir George Carteret and John, Lord Berkeley

Land given as a gift from the Duke of York

Governor Nicolls of NY was not impressed-he believed this belonged to NY

Who ruled what and received quitrents was a major concern

• [This was a kind of land tax that the Crown originally imposed and that was regulated by acts of Parliament. The basic English land laws under which the people of colonial Virginia gained title to their land required the owners to pay to the Crown a quitrent of two shillings for each hundred acres of land. If a landowner failed to pay the quitrent for a specified number of years, the Crown had the right to take back the land and grant it or sell it to another person. The money raised by this tax went into the royal treasury and was used to pay the expenses of the royal government in the colony.]

After much confusion, Berkeley sold all proprietary rights to some Quakers-the sale necessitated two separate gov’ts

Quakers of West Jersey issued a democratic plan of gov’t known as the Laws, Concessions, and Agreements -but still fought amongst themselves.

New Jersey’s population did not grow as fast as other colonies since it lacked a good deepwater harbor-not a commercial center

There was a diversity of settlers from almost every European nation and religious background

East and West Jersey became a unified royal colony in 1702

• QUAKERS IN AMERICA• These extreme

antinomians had a profound effect on the area. They were also called Friends or Professors of the Light. No need for learned ministry, since one person’s interpretation of Scripture was as valid as anyone else’s. (Perhaps the reason for so many problems in NJ.) Quakers were a product of the English Civil War.

Quaker Beliefs and Practices

Founded by George Fox• A poor man who believed in “Inner Light”-appealed to low

class• Could attain greater spiritual perfection on earth-Everyone

could be saved• Original sin and predestination were cast aside• Simple clothes and possession, pacifism and equality were

key tenets• Did not swear oaths or honor worldly titles, pacifists,

preached conversion• Quakers important in early history of NJ, RH, NC, and PA• Puritans executed a few “lost” Quakers in Massachusetts

Bay (Mary Dyer)• This only inspired Quakers to redouble their efforts

Penn’s “Holy Experiment”

William Penn upset his dad and became a “Friend”

Penn spent a few years in jail for his beliefs

Later was given a charter for Pennsylvania by Charles II

Penn based his government on the writings of James Harrington

Liberty of conscience, freedom from persecution,

no taxation without representation, and due process

Stressed equitable land distribution and voice in gov’t

Penn’s legislature was complex and ineffective

• (The frieze of the Rotunda of the United States Capitol contains a painted panorama depicting significant events in American history.)

• Apr. 23, 1701:William Penn signs a treaty of friendship at Philadelphia with representatives of the SUSQUAHANNA, SHAWNEE, GANAWESE, and the IROQUOIS. All parties agree to act peaceably with each other. The treaty became known as the "Articles of Agreement".

Settling Pennsylvania (Penn’s Woods)

Penn promoted the colony in England, Ireland and Germany

Only source of revenue in PA was the sale of land and quitrents

Colonists came from Barbados, Jamaica, NY and NJ and from Wales in which a large Welsh-speaking area kept its culture for generations.

Ethnic and religious diversity-quarrelsome politics

Penn only stayed for a few years beginning in 1682

8000+ arrived in 1685; most were not Quakers

prospered w/ agricultural products, esp. wheat

Penn was imprisoned in England for debts and died a “broken man”

Colony was an economic success despite dishonest dealings by colonial agents

Penn’s 1701 “Charter of Liberties” remained until the Revolution (unicameral legislature)

• Everything in Pa. was big from the start-diversity of population, Philadelphia built for high-class commerce with wide streets which were paved and curbed with sidewalks and spaced-out trees.

• Phil. soon became the cultural capital of America.

• The first independent black denomination the African Methodist Episcopal Church was housed here.

PLANTING THE CAROLINAS

“the southern colonies were never a cohesive section in the same way that New England was. The great diversity of population group…discouraged southern sectionalism.”

Proprietors of the Carolinas (named for King Charles)

Product of the Restoration of the Stuarts to the English throne.

Founded by Sir John Colleton and 7 other planters (Barbados)

A liberal headright system finally persuaded settlement

Carolina was divided into 3 distinct sections

Albemarle (Roanoke area—next to VA)

Cape Fear River

Port Royal River (now SC)

All settlements essentially failed at first

The Barbadian Connection

Anthony Ashley Cooper came to the rescue

Yes, he was later the Earl of Shaftesbury

Persuaded the few remaining Carolinians to invest in their future

Sent a group of settlers who eventually established Charles Town

[did not become Charleston until 1783]

With John Locke’s help, he devised the Fundamental Constitutions

Created a local aristocracy, a future landed elite

Both noble and small landowners had political rights

Half of the new immigrants also came from crowded Barbados

Wealthy immigrants brought slaves

Cattle and agriculture, and naval stores were economic staples

Not until the 1690s did rice become the colony’s main staple

Later proprietors were ineffective

NC and SC became separate royal colonies in 1729

THE FOUNDING OF GEORGIA

Yes, a bunch of prisoners (mostly debtors) were the original settlers

James Oglethorpe suggested this garrison colony as a buffer between

English and Spanish colonies

Slavery, rum and were prohibited

Land possession was limited to 500 acres-land passed to oldest son

*The method of inheritance prevented New England farmers from obtaining the economies of scale Southern farmers obtained. In New England the land was divided among a farmer's sons.

In the South, the oldest son inherited the land. So, average farm size steadily fell in New England. A small farm can be operated by a family. A large farm like a Southern plantation can efficiently employ additional workers

• Oglethorpe fought to preserve these restrictions

• Gave up after he failed to capture Spanish St. Augustine (1740)

• All restrictions removed by 1751• Few new settlers emigrated

RUGGED AND LABORIOUS BEGINNINGS

“With remarkable speed, in the first few decades, the fundamental dichotomy of America began to take shape, epitomized in Massachusetts and Carolina.

Here, is a North-South divide. The New England North had an all-class mobile, and fluctuating society, with an irresistible upward movement pushed by an ethic of hard work- It was religious, idealistic, and frugal to the core.

In the South there was, by contrast, a gentry-leisure class, with hereditary longing, sitting on the backs of indentured white laborers and a multitude of black slaves, with religion as a function of gentility and class, rather than an overpowering inward compulsion to live the godly life.

• But the emerging America of colonial times should not be seen as a simple structure of two parts., but a complex one of many parts, changing and growing more complex all the time.

• Compared with England, which was obliged to think small in many ways, already the colonies were a place which saw huge visions and thought big in numbers.” [PJ]