The English Begin to Colonize North

America

Key Terms

charter: legal document giving rights to a person or company (example: to colonize land).

joint-stock company: a private trading company that sold shares to investors - made money off of found goods (example: Virginia Company)

capital: money for investment

House of Burgesses: representative government, established in Virginia.

Colony: a group of people who settle in a distant land who are ruled by the government of their native land.

Queen Elizabeth I

EnglishLast to colonize because they were still seeking a Northwest Passage

**Summary**The English began to colonize later than other European countries. At first they came seeking wealth from the New World - they did not find this in gold as they had expected, but rather in crops like tobacco. Eventually other English groups came seeking religious freedom.

John WhiteThe Roanoke Island colony

(Not Successful)

Area Explored:·Roanoke Island - off the coast of North CarolinaMotivation:·Wanted to build a colony for England for profit.Impact:·In his first year they ran out of supplies. - White returned to England to get supplies. He left behind 117 settlers with instructions to carve a message in a tree if they moved or a cross if they were attacked. White did not return for 3 years. When he did, he found the colony abandoned, and the letters CROATOAN carved in a tree.

What do you think happened to the Roanoke

Colony?

Nobody really knows... its one of history's mysteries!!

Captain John SmithThe Jamestown

ColonyArea Explored:·Jamestown, Virginia 1607. He was granted a charter to settle between the Potomac River and North Carolina -now called Virginia.Motivation:·He was trying to make money for investors in the Virginia Company (A joint-stock company).Impact:·The Jamestown colony almost failed in the first year because of the fact that the land was swampy, mosquitos spread disease, and too many people were trying to run the colony.

(The Virginia Company sent too many upper class gentlemen and not enough laborers and farmers)

Captain John SmithThe Jamestown

ColonyImpact: (continued)·Captain John Smith rescued the colony by forming a relationship with the Powhatan Indians who taught them to grow corn and tobacco. Smith also required settlers to work in order to eat. ·The profit from tobacco and the establishment of the House of Burgesses in 1619 made this a very successful colony.

House of Burgesses: representative government established in Virginia

The PilgrimsPlymouth, Massachusetts

Area Explored:·Plymouth, MassachusettsMotivation:·Were seeking "religious freedom" because they were not allowed to worship freely in England.Impact:·The Pilgrims were also financed by a joint stock company- but their main motivation was not wealth but instead "religious freedom". (In actuality, they wanted to be away from the Church of England... everyone in the colony had to be a strict Puritan. There was not freedom of religion)

Mayflower Compact

The PilgrimsPlymouth, Massachusetts

Impact: (Continued)·They nearly failed in their first winter but were rescued by the Native Americans Samoset & Squanto.·The Mayflower Compact also helped them. In this document the settlers agreed to work for the good of each other and of the colony (for the "common good").

Providence??

Providence: the Puritan belief that God punishes sinners and rewards the holy.

·Many Puritans followed the Pilgrims to the New World·Wanted to leave "sinful" London and start a "holy community" in the New World·The Great Fire in London of 1666 was a warning sign to "GET AWAY"