British Colonial America1600 - 1776

Chapter 5 – 17th century

Chapter 6 – 18th century

England – The Great Migration• Slow beginning (little activity prior to 1600)

– Cabots: Find Northwest Passage– Martin Frobisher – 3 voyages in 1570s– Elizabethan Sea Dogs (1558 – 1603)

Map of sea voyages

Early English Migration Map

England – The Great Migration

• Slow beginning (little activity prior to 1600)– Cabots: Find Northwest Passage– Martin Frobisher – 3 voyages in 1570s– Elizabethan Sea Dogs (1558 – 1603)

• Yet, by 1650 – 50,000 english migrants– Caribbean– Chesapeake Bay (Jamestown)– New England

• Why?

Reasons for migration:

1. England is overpopulated

2. Expand to new markets – e.g., wool

3. Precious metals – gold!!

4. New source of olive oil, wine, etc??

5. Route to the Indies

6. Protestant Zeal– These were motives all the way; thru 1770s

English Colonial System

• French/Spanish – centralized; governed from New World capitals

• England – 13 separate colonies– Great differences– Many disputes – e.g., boundaries

Chapter 5 – Colonial Origins of Anglo America: Europeanization

(1700 – 250,000 population)

Chapter 6 – Colonial America in 18th Century: Americanization

(1776 – 2,500,000 population)

EpicentersVirginia -

Chesapeake Bay Plymouth Rock

Colonial Organization (1606)

• Royal Charter – by King James

• Council – politicians and merchants who would recruit and define governmental structure

• Two bodies given the charge– Virginia Company of Plymouth (41 – 45 degrees)– Virginia Company of London (34 – 38 degrees)– Latitude between – either one

Map of Virginia Companies latitude of influence

Conditions of the Charters

• Inland for 100 miles• All rights of trade with natives• Exploitation of precious metals (1/5 to crown)• Consideration to the Natives

– Offered true religion– Offered peaceful governance– All their lands passed to the two companies

• (Note: ignored claims of France and Spain)

Jamestown

April, 16073 ships James River (50 miles)

Jamestown - early history(London Group)

• Bad site – low and swampy

• Death and misery

• Trading post– Male population– Working for the company

• 1616-1624: change to permanent colony– Profitable product– System of landholding

National Geog Exhibit

Factor #1 - King Tobacco

• Indigenous to new world

• Indies better variety –John Rolfe

• Ubiquitous! • Ugh!

– One-crop economy– Dependent on

England for supplies– Soil depletion– Labor intensive

Not everybody liked it!!

• "Smoking is a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black,

stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." -- James I of England, "A

Counterblaste to Tobacco."

Factor # 2 – Private PropertyHeadright system

50 acres/headCapt. Adam Throughgood – this guy accumulated 1105 headrights over 20 years!!

Result Plantation economy – large and dispersed; NOT towns

1650 – Jamestown had 30 houses

• Today

Factor #3 – Sex!

• 1620 – very few women; active program to “import” unmarried women

• Etc.

• Etc.

• Etc.

• Etc.

• Etc.

Plantation Economy

• Rivers as far as navigable – fall line

• Landings for ocean-going vessels

• All planters had direct line to England

• In Between – forest primeval and the “hill country”

Jamestown Population

• Mixed population – reflected classes of English society

• 30% - rural middle class; paid their own way

• Majority – poor tenants, laborers, and un-employed artisans: Redundant Population

Map - Atlantic Slave Trade

Slavery

• Tobacco culture – labor intensive and large land-holding

• Indentured labor unreliable, lacked permanence, also thirsted for their own land; flow from England reduced

• Virginia and Maryland population growth in 1660-1700 (35,000 to 88,000)

• African Slaves• 1670-1700: 12,000 slaves to Chesapeake

1700 – your text

• By the end of the century (1700) there was distinct evidence of regional homogeneity within the Chesapeake. The commitment to a tobacco plantation and slave system, with its consequent class structure, was widespread. Life was overwhelmingly rural, agrarian, dispersed, and decentralized.

Map – Chesapeake Growth