English Colonize the Americas

Joint Stock Company

King of England doesn’t want to pay people to go to the Americas

1606 grants a charter Rich people can invest in sending people to the

Americas in the hopes of finding gold When they find gold they keep a small portion,

give some to the joint stock company owners, who give a portion to the king

Virginia Company

1607 sends 3 ships with 144 men to the Americas

Land on a peninsula and call it Jamestown after King James the King of England

John Smith sees they are focused more on finding gold than how they are going to survive there

Jamestown, 1607

Replica of one of the ships that brought the Jamestown colonists

144 Settlers depart England

Three Ships: Susan Constant, Godspeed, Discovery

James Fort

Map of Jamestown, 1609.

The fifteenth of June we had built and finished our Fort, which was triangle wise, having three Bulwarkes, at every corner, like a halfe Moone, and foure or five pieces of Artillerie mounted in them." We had made our selves sufficiently strong for these Savages.

George Percy, June 15, 1607

Realities of Jamestown

15,000-24,000 Members 30 Tribes A Kinship Network

Ritual Adoption Annual hunts

1607 Powhatan Confederacy

1st Settlers at Jamestown

1607 144 men Want gold and only gold – 38 survive the winter John Smith “he that will not work shall not eat” Powhatan people help the settlers John Smith is burned from a stray spark that lit

his gun powder on fire – went back to England

“A more damned crew hell never vomited.”

105 colonists arrived in Jamestown in 1607 38 were still alive after nine months

WHY? Native Americans Disease “Gentlemen Colonists”

The Starving Time (Percy)

Early Interactions with Powhatan Confederacy

December 1607 John Smith Captured

Powhatan “adopts” the English into the Powhatan Confederacy. Enacted in the ritual involving Pocahontas.

From Powhatan’s perspective, John Smith becomes a werowance, or subordinate chief.

Pocahontas and John Smith?

A) Pocahontas loved John Smith and rescued him from certain death.

B) Pocahontas played a role in a ritual adoption of John Smith directed by Powhatan.

C) Pocahontas played no significant role in the capture and subsequent release of John Smith.

Early Relations between the English and the Native Americans

Attacks on both sides

Defined by local skirmishes/conflict and trade

2nd round:Jamestown settlement

1609 600 Men women and children 1st settlement was disorganized and the

Powhatans had killed move the livestock and harassed colonists while they hunted

WHY? Because the colonists weren’t leaving

Winter 1609

Famine Known as the starving time Ate roots, rats, snakes, and boiled shoe

leather 60 made it through the winter

Starvation Time 1609

You tube Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO-vmHFD-9g

Pocahantas images over time

1616 to 1793

1840s and early 1850s

Why do you think the images changed?

Brown Gold=Tobacco

1612 John Rolfe experimented with tobacco

seeds from South America Citizens of England would buy the tobacco

produced in the Americas 1.5 million pounds shipped yearly to

England by 1620

Key Changes after 1615

Private Property replaces Company-owned land Headright system instituted

Representative Government replaces Martial Law

Heavy Recruiting of New Colonists: 3750 between 1616-1622

Life Expectancies

Tobacco = laborers

Headright system – each new colonist got 50 acres and another 50 acres for each family member who migrated

Indentured servant – in exchange for the planter (farm owner) paying for their trip from England to the Americas the new colonist would work for the planter for 4-7 then gain their freedom

Africans to the Americas

1619 – first Africans to Virginia Came on a Dutch ship As indentured servants Few years most of the Africans received

freedom and land

Land Pressures Increase

March 22, 1622: Attack by the Powhatan Confederacy 347 colonists killed

May 1623: Colonists strike back

Population 1607 24,000 1669 2,000.

(English population in 1670 was 41, 000)

So when did slavery start

Indentured servants cost 1000 pounds of tobacco

Slave cost 2000-3000 pounds of tobacco Less people came as indentured servants mid-late 1600’s Africans began being

transported as slaves to work on tobacco plantations

English and the Natives can’t get along

English colonization pushed people they defeated off the land

Powhatan tribe grew more hostile England demanded the Natives work on colonial

farms and pay tributes in corn Soldiers began kidnapping and taking hostages

from the Powhatans 1614 John Rolfe married Pocahontas

establishing a weak peace

Jamestown becomes a royal colony

1622 Powhatan raiding parties killed over 340 colonists

Virginia company could not afford to provide security to the colonists

King was making money from the sale of tobacco and didn’t want to the lose the colony

1624 – King James revoked the charter and took over Virginia as a royal colony

Growing split between the colonists

Former Indentured servants made up ¼ of the population of Virginia

Had little money So they couldn’t afford land If you didn’t own property you couldn’t

vote Therefore ¼ of the population had no

rights in Virginia and they were not happy