British North America

English colonization of the “New World”

• Factors behind English colonization– Must play “catch up” to Spain & France– Motivated by a new economic theory:

mercantilism• A nation is wealthy/powerful if it has gold and

silver in its treasury • Three ways to get it…mine it, steal it, trade for

it• Favorable balance of trade: Exports > Imports

– Nationalism (pride)• Defeat of the Spanish Armada

– Religion (Protestant Reformation)

English-style colonization

• Led by private companies, not gov’t– Virginia Company

• = a joint stock company• Investors have limited liability• Given a “charter” from King James I to

establish a colony…all inhabitants will have the rights of Englishmen

– Goals:• Find gold and silver• Find Northwest Passage

Early Attempts at Colonization

• Roanoke– Island off NC coast– Sir Walter Raleigh– 1585 / 1587 sends colonists to Roanoke– The “Lost Colony”

• Jamestown (1607)– First permanent settlement for the

English– Established in Virginia, on the James River

Jamestown• Problems

– Location• good for defense, but not healthy)

– “Gold Fever” • colonists more interested in finding gold than in

building a colony, cultivating food, etc. • Capt. John Smith institutes martial law: “he that

shall not work shall not eat”

– Disease & Hunger• 1607 – 150 settlers / only 38 survive• 1609 – “the starving time” – 300 colonists; only 60

survive the winter

– Natives• Powhatan – uneasy truce with the English, but in

1609 cut off food supplies…leading to the Starving Time

Jamestown

Jamestown• Tobacco

– “brown gold”– 1612: John Rolfe brings tobacco from

the Bahamas to Virginia– By 1620, exporting 150 million pounds /

yr– Tobacco is land hungry and labor

intensive• Lead to conflicts with natives as colonists

build larger plantations• Lead to the introduction of unfree labor in Va.

Jamestown• Indentured Servants

– Primary form of labor until 1670s– 4-7 years of labor in exchange for

transportation to Va & a plot of land after their term expired.

– Almost all males, poor, some are criminals

– Status = white slavery with few rights – Can be bought, sold, gambled away– Most do NOT live long enough to get

their land

Jamestown• Slavery

– First introduced in Va in 1619– 14 Africans are brought to Jamestown– Status unclear more like indentures– System of slavery evolves– By 1670, racial & hereditary slavery is common

• Slavery replaces indentured servitude– Life expectancy goes up…– Freed indentures are creating problems…

• BACON’S REBELLION in 1676• Poor settlers on the frontier are being attacked by natives• The Virginia gov’t (dominated wealthy planters from eastern

Virginia) isn’t helping out.• Francis Bacon – creates an army and attacks the Indians• When Va governor objects, Bacon turns his army on Jamestown…

burn Jamestown.• Rebellion collapes when Bacon gets sick and dies.• Maybe, having all these poor, unhappy, former indentures isn’t a

good thing….– By 1700s fewer indentured servants; more slaves

Jamestown• Native American Conflicts

– Powhatan Tribe• Initially help the English survive, but in 1609

they begin cutting off food supplies• 1614 – John Rolfe and Pocahontas are

married; truce is reached with Chief Powhatan• 1622 – Great Powhatan Uprising

– Chief Opechancanough fed up with English moving into Powhatan lands

– Attack and kill 340 colonist = 1/3 of the settlement– Leads the crown to take over the colony and send

troops and settlers to wipe out the indians.

Jamestown• Slavery

Indentured Servitude