Early Colonization

1. Spanish, French, English

   1. Spain

      1. Sought land (prestige), mineral wealth

      2. History of conquest - Moors

      3. Capture the greatest population areas, immediate wealth

      4. Numerous wars, constant rebellions

   2. France

      1. Primarily interested in trade (fur)

      2. Less history of conquest than Spain or England

      3. Establish themselves in thinly populated regions

      4. Establish alliances for trade networks

   3. England

      1. Initial efforts to duplicate Spanish disastrous

      2. Came to emphasize land, religious freedom

      3. History of conquest with Scottish and Irish

      4. But also a history of limited personal freedom and rights

      5. Mixed relations with Amerindians in earliest periods

2. Role of Religion in Early Colonies

   1. Spain

      1. Major effort by royal government to spread Catholicism

      2. Vital to producing pliant community, manageable workforce 

      3. Central to Spanish identity

   2. France

      1. Also Catholic, not quite as aggressive as Spanish

      2. Will use religion to cement alliances with Amerindians

   3. England

      1. Protestant - no major missionary framework like Catholic church

      2. Royal government does little to promote religion

      3. Not important for control of labor force, nor in developing alliances with Amerindians

   4. Catholic vs. Protestant

      1. Elaborate Catholic institutions enabled them to send highly trained missionaries

      2. Protestants did not always have best or brightest

      3. Jesuits the best missionaries; among Protestants, Quakers make an early serious effort.

      4. Protestants willing to translate Bible - Catholics wouldn't

      5. Spanish insisted on cultural conversion; French did not; English - mixed.

3. Early Colonial Strategies

   1. Mercantilism

      1. Based on idea that wealth could not be created, only collected (gold theory of wealth)

      2. England's economic goal was to extract as much wealth as possible from colonies with minimum investment

      3. Colonies were to provide raw materials to England in exchange for manufactured goods, insuring a trade surplus for England

      4. Colonies, by law, could only trade with England

   2. Join Stock Companies

      1. Since government did not want to invest in colonies, it fell to private investors

      2. Most colonies founded by joint stock companies, in which investors bought shares in exchange for share of profits

4. Early English colonies - the Chesapeake (Jamestown - 1607)

   1. Founded by Virginia Company of London, a joint stock company

   2. Goals

      1. Wealth -easy wealth

      2. Beat the Spanish

      3. Social advance

   3. Settlers

      1. 120 men - mostly lesser gentlemen (like Spanish)

      2. Also their servants and some skilled artisans

      3. No farmers - fatal flaw

   4. Failure

      1. Social baggage - hierarchy, religious intolerance, etc.

      2. Geography - Jamestown sight defensible, but a salty malarial swamp.

      3. 2/3 mortality rate

   5. Initially run as a dictatorship; fails, replaced with an incentive system

   6. Landownership system set up 1617 - 50 acres for each household member

   7. House of Burgesses 1619

5. Boom Times and the Stinking Weed (1619-1630)

   1. Tobacco exports began 1619

   2. Prices rose though 1630, then fell, never to fully recover

   3. Conflicts with Indians

      1. Mostly result of tobacco planters voracious need for more land

      2. Peace with the Powhatan Indians ended with death of chieftain (also called Powhatan)

      3. Opechancanough, the new leader, attacked in 1622; killed 347 settlers

      4. Forced royal government to step in and take direct control of the colony

      5. Increased hostility of settlers towards Indians

      6. John Donne said attacks justified a "perpetual enmity" against Indians

   4. Labor

      1. Colonists got 50 acres for each servant

      2. Encouraged importation of labor (indentured servants)

      3. 75% of these servants were men 

      4. Brides had to be imported (or found among Amerindians)

6. 1630-1660

   1. Fall in tobacco prices brings many changes

   2. Upward mobility biggest change

      1. Ease of landownership

      2. Freedmen become landowners and begin to rise socially

      3. Fall of tobacco means development of local trade and commerce

      4. Land pressure by 1660 means mobility less

   3. Chesapeake Society

      1. Sex ration not even until 1700

      2. Many never marry (mortality has a lot to do with this)

      3. Family size small compared to New England

      4. Under 10% of children still have both parents alive by age 21

7. George Calvert and the Founding of Maryland (1632)

   1. Virginia settlers had not been very concerned about religion

   2. George Calvert (Lord Baltimore) wanted to found a colony as a refuge for English Catholics

   3. He and his son (Cecilius) also tried to recreate the lord-and-manor aristocracy of England

   4. Colonists ignored this, created a colony of small and modest farms, with more Protestants than Catholics

8. New England and the Puritans

   1. Less cyclical than Chesapeake region

   2. Marked by steady erosion of original goals (ironically because of better health, opportunity)

   3. Pilgrims - original settlers in region (1620)

      1. Separatists - wanted to remove themselves from Church of England they believed was corrupt

      2. Mayflower Compact (limited self government)

      3. Not aggressive proselytizers - wanted only to be left alone

      4. Small farmers

      5. Modest success - Plymouth colony had 3000 by 1648

   4. Puritans

      1. Wanted to "purify" Church of England, pursued aggressive moral reform and evangelism

      2. Calvinists - belief in the "elect" and a that work was a form of worship

      3. Founded Massachusetts Bay colony (1630) -- 18,000 colonists arrived by 1642

      4. Led by John Winthrop, who wanted to create a "shining city on a hill"

      5. University educated ministers, merchants, free artisans and small farmers

      6. Economic success based on farming, fishing, furs, timber, trade with Indians

   5. Religious Conflicts

      1. Roger Williams

         1. argued for separation from Church of England

         2. opposed mandatory worship and government involvement in religion

         3. forced to flee Massachusetts in 1635, founded Rhode Island

      2. Anne Hutchinson

         1. believed Puritan preachers lacked the holy spirit in their preaching

         2. preached antinomianism - mystical nature of God's grace, salvation only as gift of God, not individual effort

         3. Became a central figure for discontent, symbolized a challenge to traditional subordinate role of women preached Puritan ministers

         4. Also forced to flee, joined Williams' colony in 1637

      3. Increasing indifference to religion

         1. Many non-Puritans came to Massachusetts

         2. Youth increasingly did not share religious fervor of their parents, the original colonists

         3. Half-Way Covenant

            1. a kind of solution to this problem

            2. Congregationalist ministers allowed youth to attend church even if they had not had a conversion experience, so long as the adhered to "forms of godliness"

      4. Salem Witch Trials (1692)

         1. There was precedent

            1. Witch trials had been sweeping over Europe; many thousands of victims

            2. A handful of people hung for witchcraft in colonies before Salem

         2.  14 women and six men put to death in Salem craze

         3. A group of girls became ill, displayed bizarre symptoms – blamed witchery

         4. Mass hysteria? A plot for attention?

            1. Tituba, a West African slave

            2. Sarah Good – a beggar and social misfit

            3. Sarah Osborne – old, quarrelsome, had stopped going to church

         5. Some confessed to avoid hanging

         6. A tavern owner who dared to challenge the trials was executed

         7. Over 200 people were arrested and two dogs executed before it was over.

   6. Conflict with the Indians - King Phillip's War

      1. Wampanoags and Naragansetts lived on border between Plymouth and Rhode Island

      2. Their land was coveted by English settlers

      3. Increasingly felt humiliated by settlers

      4. Under the Wampanoag chieftain Metacomet (also called King Phillip), they revolted in 1675

      5. Resulted in thousands of deaths on both sides before Metacomet was defeated and killed in 1676

      6. Settlers had been prepared, in part, by Winthrop's order that all men receive training in firearms

      7. Several towns and farms destroyed

9. The Society of Friends (Quakers)

   1. Founded in England, many fled to Pennsylvania during the religious persecutions of Charles II

   2. Rejected the Church of England as corrupt, but also rejected the Calvinism of Puritans and Pilgrims

   3. Rejected original sin, held that all people had a redemptive inner light

   4. This led them to reject much of the distinctions of social hierarchy, promoting a more egalitarian society

   5. Regarded as dangerous fanatics and a threat to social order by Calvinists and Church of England alike