Early English Settlement

By Claireszc
  • Period: 1497 to

    Exploration 15-17th Century

    1497, King Henry 8 financed John Cabot in order to claim Newfoundland for the English Crown.
    Explorations are promoted in order to project national power and do a profitable business (ex: fishing, etc)
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    Colonies during the 17th Century

    Chesapeake colonies (1607)
    New England colonies (1620)
    - Symbol of the origin of US culture
    - Religious idealism
    - Business interest

  • Jamestown - Chesapeake colonies : Virginia & Maryland

    First permanent English colony
    Early plan = business goals ( gold, silver & copper mines) but London investors are blinded by wealth and have poor leadership, colonists are ill-equipped and the colony is located on a swamp.
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    Alliance between Powhatan and Colonist

    • Friendly relationship
    • Exchange of gifts: colonists (steel, knives, tools, and guns) and Indians (corn, cloak)
    • Alliance Powhatan and colonist vs other Indian tribes But at some point, their relation degraded.

  • Jamestown's decline

    Dissension, famine, and diseases are present in Jamestown.
    In January 1608: only 38 of the 104 original colonists alive

  • Winter of 1609-1610 : the starving time

    Colonists had to practice cannibalism in order to survive this winter.

  • John Smith sent back to England

  • Prosperity

    John Rolfe (Pocahontas' future husband) grew tobacco and exported it to Europe

  • Pocahontas kidnapped

    Pocahontas has been kidnapped by Samuel Argall, during her imprisonment, Alexandre Whitaker a priest taught her Christianity and helped her improving her English

  • Pocahontas Marriage

    Pocahontas married John Rolfe who was in love with her, it brought peace during 8 years.
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    Peace between Colonist and tribes

    Thanks to Pocahontas' marriage

  • Pocahontas die

  • Pocahontas' father Powhatan die

    So new leader of the tribe, who is hostile to the colonists
    => 347 colonists died

  • Africans slaves

    First Africans in Chesapeake in 1619
    End of the 17th Century: the black code = legal status of slaves
    Slaves are considered as real estate
    1690 = more black slaves than indentured servants in Chesapeake colonies

  • Pilgrim Fathers trip

    100 people, 30 Separatists (Puritans) from Plymouth in England led by William Bradford, their ship is called Mayflower, their trip took 2 months, they established the colony of Plymouth.
    The colony has a governor Bradford and an Assembly composed of landowning male settlers elected representative
    The local Indian tribes ( the Pokanokets) are peaceful, grow corn and raise turkey, they participated in the Pequot war in 1636.
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    Foundation of the New England colonies

    New England = religious reasons (Puritans, life-based on the bible)
    - Pilgrim Fathers: the first group in New England, they immigrated because of their differences with the Church of England, they first migrated to Holland and wanted to colonize the northern part of Virginia

  • End of royal colony

    • James I ended Virginia company and the royal colony
    • Headright attract settlers
    • Political autonomy : legislature elected by universal white male suffrage
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    Slaves and servants

    Tobacco culture needed labor, colonists tried to enslave Indian but they resisted.
    They used Indentured servants (works on plantations for 7 years for passage to America in exchange for a promise of land), 80% of labor during the 17th Century are indentured servants and 40% died before freedom (in Chesapeake region)

  • Rhode Island

    Rhode Island was founded

  • Pequot war

    The war between English settlers in Massachusetts bay and Pequot tribe
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    Expansion of the colonies

    South: 1636 Connecticut
    North: 1679 Maine & New Hampshire
    They are self-governing, they survive thanks to fishing (cods) and agriculture (hogs and cattle, corn and wheat)
    Triangular trade: Rum from New England to African coast, Slaves from Africa to West Indies, and Sugar from West Indies to New England.

  • The Half-Way Covenant

    Plymouth accepts more people (baptized without conversion)
    The town assemblies include all property owners
    The general court in Boston = colonial legislative body

  • Foundation of the colony The Carolinas

    Split in 1729 = North Carolina & South Carolina

  • Foundation of the colony New Jersey

  • Foundation of the colony New York

  • Foundation of the colonies of Pennsylvania & Delaware

  • Plymouth absorbed by Massachusetts

    Plymouth colony integrated the Province of Massachusetts Bay

  • Persecution orchestrated by Plymouth

    Salem witches = irrational fear of women/devil
    Tension between religion & rationality