Download The First Americans

Chapter 2 Sec 2
English Colonies in America
North American Exploration
English Exploration
 John Cabot
 May 1497
 Nova Scotia
 Disappeared 2nd
voyage
 No colonization for
80 years



Lack of $
No real reason
Allied w/Spain
against France
What drove people from
England to America?
I. Religion

Protestant Reformation-1517


Martin Luther
John Calvin**
 (congregations choose own elders and ministers)
 Impacted England and later America

King Henry VIII had just created the Anglican
Church (broke from Catholic Church)
Differing views on the
Anglican Church
 Puritans
 Wanted to purify the
church
 Influenced by Calvin
 Clashed with James I

who did not want
changes
What drove people from
England to America?
II. The economy

The Enclosure Movement



Wool demand increased
English landowners could make more money
raising sheep than renting out land
Converted their lands to sheep farms
 Many tenant farmers homeless and jobless

Better chance at life by leaving England
Economy Cont’d

Wool supply outgrew demand1550


Looking for new markets
Formed Joint-stock companies
 Pooled money of investors
 Raised more $ for big projects
 Eng merchants could trade with
& colonize other parts of world
independently of government
What drove people from
England to America?
III. Politics
 Growing rivalry with Spain

England leading Protestant power


Netherlands(Dutch)-Protestant
Spanish tried to suppress Protestants in Nether.
 Queen Eliz sent privateers to attach Spanish ships -

Spain leading Catholic power
 England needed outposts to support naval
operations against Spain
Roanoke Mystery
 Sr. Walter Raleigh
set up the first Eng.
colony in the
Americas



Near current NC/VA
Roanoke
He named the land
“Virginia” in honor of
the “Virgin Queen”
Elizabeth
Roanoke Mystery Cont’d
 1585 1st group
 Raleigh sent 100
men
 Hard winter-left
 1587 2nd group
 91 men, 17 women,
9 children
 Gov.John White ret’d
to England for
supplies-return
delayed

Eng/Spain war
Roanoke Mystery Cont’d
 Gov White returns
1590
 Colony is gone



No bodies
Empty houses
“CRO” carved on
post
 Still a mystery

http://www.schooltube.com/video/89
c920dac3962b0ae572/
Jamestown
 Settled1606
 by a charter from
King James 1




The Virginia
Company
John Smith leader
3 ships & 144 men
Settled on banks of
river

James River &
Jamestown
 Named after king

Swampy/mosquitoes
Jamestown Troubles
 Environment

Swampy/mosquitoes/disease
 Lack of survival knowledge


Did not know about living in woods and how to
fish and raise livestock
Lack of food
 Politics



Upperclass “gentleman” refused to work
Arguing in government
Lawlessness
Jamestown Troubles Cont’d
 200 new settlers in 1608

53 still alive by end of year
 John Smith/Chief Powhatan heroes


Smith traded with Powhatan Confederacy
(Native Americans)
Kept settlers alive
 1609 400 more settlers in August


Not enough food before winter
Stole from N. Americans who attacked
Jamestown Troubles Cont’d
 “The Starving
Time”



Winter 1609-1610
Ate dogs, rats,
snakes, toadstools,
horsehides
A few-cannibalism

Dug up graves & at
people
 Jamestown never
thrived
Tobacco Saves the Colony
 The colony lasted,
mostly thanks to
John Rolfe and his
cultivation of
tobacco
 Rolfe developed
new curing method
The First Assembly
 Virginia governed by
House of Burgesses
1st representative
government in the
colonies
 Representatives
called burgesses
 After an attack by N.
Americans in 1622 on
Jamestown, James I
revoked Charter-Royal
Colony (Gov. appt by
King)

Patrick Henry before the House of Burgesses
in an 1851 painting by Peter F. Rothermel
Settling the Land
 Settlers lured by
“headrights”

Bought share in
company or paid for
passage – got 50
acres of land
 First Africans arrive
 1619
 Settlers purchased
20 Africans as
“Christian servants”
Other Colonies and Their
Founders
 1. Virginia – (see previous notes)
 2.Maryland – Lord Baltimore, for Catholics to
have freedom to worship
 3.Massachusetts – John Winthrop, a refuge
for Puritans
 4.Rhode Island – Roger Williams, for
government with no authority in religious
matters, he was a separatist
Other Colonies Cont’d
 5.Connecticut – Thomas Hooker, they
adopted the Fundamental Orders of
Connecticut, the first written constitution in
the colonies
 6.New Hampshire – was started by a royal
charter due to overcrowding in
Massachusetts. Maine was as well but later
was bought back by Massachusetts
Other Colonies Cont’d
 7&8. New York and New Jersey – originally
founded by Henry Hudson for the Dutch but
King Charles sent his brother James to take it
for England
 9&10Pennsylvania and Delaware– William
Penn, refuge for Quakers, love and pacifism
for all
Other Colonies Cont’d
 11&12. North and South Carolina – King
Charles gave this land to his political allies,
mostly for farming
 13.Georgia – James Oglethorpe, a place for
poor English debtors to start over