Objective:
Evaluate the importance of discovery, exploration, and settlement of America.
Chapter 3
Colonial America
Section 1
Early English Settlements
England in America
By the late 1500’s England
and Spain were heading
toward war.
During the summer of 1588
Spain sent an armada, or
war fleet, to invade
England.
The Spanish armada was
defeated by the English
navy led by Sir Francis
Drake.
This defeat ended Spanish
control of the seas and
cleared the way for England
and other nations to start
colonies in North America.
The Lost Colony of Roanoke
Prior to the defeat of the
Spanish armada England
had tried to establish a
colony in North America.
In 1583 Sir Humphrey
Gilbert claimed
Newfoundland for Queen
Elizabeth. He died at sea
before finding a site.
In 1587 Sir Walter Raleigh
sent about 117 men, women
and children to settle on an
island off the coast of North
Carolina called Roanoke
Island.
The Lost Colony of Roanoke cont.
John White, a
mapmaker and artist, led
the group.
When White returned to
Roanoke Island all the
settlers were gone. The
only clue to the settlers
disappearance was the
word Croatoan carved
on a gatepost. The
colonists were never
seen again.
Jamestown Settlement
In 1606 a group of merchants sought charters, or the
right to organize settlements in an area, from King
James I.
One group of merchants, The Virginia Company of
London, received a charter to settle in Virginia
colony.
The Virginia Company was a joint-stock company.
Investors bought shares, or part ownership, in the
company in return for a share of future profits.
In Dec. 1606 144 settlers in 3 ships set out to build a
settlement in Virginia.
Jamestown Settlement cont.
In April of 1607, the
3 ships entered the
Chesapeake Bay and
sailed up a wide river
that they will name
the James river and
establish the
settlement of
Jamestown.
Jamestown Settlement cont.
The Jamestown settlers
faced many hardships, most
of which they caused
themselves.
By the spring of 1608 only
38 settlers were still alive.
The settlement had survived
its first two years because of
the leadership of Capt. John
Smith.
Jamestown Settlement cont.
In August of 1609 400 new
settlers arrived and Smith
returned to England.
The winter of 1609-1610
became known as “the
starving time.” Only 60
settlers survived.
It took a few years before
the settlement began to
prosper.
In 1614 the first crop of
Virginia tobacco was sold in
England. It was planted by
John Rolfe. He later
married Pocahontas.
Jamestown Settlement cont.
To convince more settlers to move to Jamestown the
Virginia Company of London gave a land grant called
a headright of 50 acres to those who paid their own
way to Virginia.
In 1619 the company agreed to allow the Virginia
colony settlers to form their own government.
Each town would send two representatives or
burgesses to a lawmaking body called the House of
Burgesses. This assembly made local laws for
Virginia.
Section 2
New England Colonies
Religious Freedom
Unlike the Jamestown settlers, the next
wave of colonists would arrive in
search of religious freedom.
When England broke away from the
Catholic church in 1534 many people
dissented, or disagreed with the beliefs
and practices of the Anglicans.
English Catholics were often
persecuted, or treated harshly for their
dissent.
At the same time, some Protestants
wanted to change, or reform the
Anglican church, while others wanted
to break away altogether.
Those who wanted to reform (purify)
the church were called Puritans, while
those who wanted to leave or separate
were called Separatists.
The Pilgrim’s Journey
The Separatists considered
themselves Pilgrims because their
journey had a religious purpose.
In Sept. 1620, 102 passengers
boarded the Mayflower to begin
their voyage to the new world.
Only 35 were actually Pilgrims.
They planned to settle in Virginia
colony but landed well north near
Cape Cod in December 1620.
The Plymouth settlers would
name William Bradford as their
first governor.
The Pilgrim’s Journey cont.
The pilgrims landed outside
the territory of the Virginia
company and its laws.
Before going ashore, the
pilgrims drew up a formal
document called the
Mayflower Compact. The
pilgrims agreed to obey the
laws passed by the majority
and remain loyal to
England.
The Mayflower Compact
and the House of Burgesses
were the first attempts at
representative government
in America.
Help from the Native Americans
Almost half of the pilgrims
died that first winter.
That spring a few Native
Americans approached the
settlement. Two of them,
Squanto and Samoset,
befriended the colonists.
These two Indians helped
the pilgrims survive that
first year.
They also helped the
pilgrims sign a treaty with
the Wampanoag people.
Massasoit, a Wampanoag
leader, signed the treaty in
March, 1621.
New Settlements
In 1625 Charles I became
king of England. He greatly
disliked the puritans and
their objections to the
Anglican church.
Four years later a group of
Puritans formed the
Massachusetts Bay
Company and received a
charter to settle north of
Plymouth.
The company chose John
Winthrop to be the colony’s
governor.
In 1630 Winthrop lead 900
men, women, and children
to Massachusetts Bay. Most
of them settled in a place
they called Boston.
Growth and Government
During the 1630’s more than 15,000 puritans journeyed to
Massachusetts to escape religious persecution.
This movement of people became known as the Great
Migration.
The Puritans came to America to put their religious beliefs into
practice. However, they had little toleration -- they criticized
and persecuted people who held other religious views.
This lack of toleration led to the creation of new colonies.
Connecticut and Rhode Island
In 1636 a puritan minister
named Thomas Hooker led
his congregation to
Connecticut where they
founded the town of
Hartford.
Three years later Hartford
along with two other towns
formed Connecticut colony
and wrote a plan of
government called the
Fundamental Orders of
Connecticut.
This was the first written
constitution in America.
Connecticut and Rhode Island cont.
Unlike Connecticut, Rhode
Island colony was formed
by settlers who were forced
out of Massachusetts.
Roger Williams was the first
of these dissenters to be
forced out. He was
banished in 1635.
He believed that people
should not be persecuted for
their religious practices and
the government should not
force people to worship in a
certain way.
He will be the founder of
Providence and in 1644 he
will receive a charter to
form Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations
colony.
New Hampshire
In 1638 John
Wheelwright led a
group of dissidents from
Massachusetts to the
north.
They founded the town
of Exeter in New
Hampshire. New
Hampshire became a
colony in 1688
Section 3
Middle Colonies
England and the Colonies
In 1660 England had two
clusters of colonies in what
is now the United States.
The two clusters were
separated by lands the
Dutch controlled.
In 1621 a group of Dutch
merchants had formed the
Dutch West India Company
to trade in the Americas.
The colony that resulted was
called New Netherland. The
main settlement was New
Amsterdam on Manhattan
Island.
England and the Colonies cont.
The company gave a
large estate to anyone
who brought over at
least 50 families to work
the land.
The wealthy landowners
who acquired these
riverfront estates were
called patroons.
England Takes Over
The English wanted to
acquire the valuable Dutch
colony that lay between
New England and the
southern colonies.
In 1664 the English sent a
fleet to attack New
Amsterdam.
The Dutch governor Peter
Stuyvesant was unprepared
for this attack and
surrendered the colony.
England Takes Over cont.
King Charles II gave the
colony to his brother, the
Duke of York, who renamed
it New York.
New York was a proprietary
colony, a colony in which
the owner, or proprietor,
owned all the land and
controlled the government.
New Amsterdam will later
be called New York City
New Jersey
The Duke of York gave the
southern part of his colony
to Lord John Berkeley and
Sir George Carteret. They
named their colony New
Jersey.
Like New York, New Jersey
was a place of ethnic and
religious diversity.
Pennsylvania
In 1680 William Penn, a
wealthy English gentleman,
acquired a large tract
stretching inland from the
Delaware river.
This new colony will be
called Pennsylvania.
William Penn belonged to a
religious group called the
Society of Friends, or
Quakers.
Quakers were pacifists,
people who refuse to use
force or to fight in wars.
Section 4
Southern Colonies
Coming to America
Many different people came to America.
Some came as indentured servants. To pay for
their passage to America, they agreed to work
without pay for a certain period of time.
Establishing Maryland
Maryland arose from the
dream of Sir George
Calvert, Lord Baltimore.
He was a catholic.
Calvert wanted a place were
his fellow catholic's could
be safe from persecution
back in England.
In 1634 2 ships with 200
settlers reached the
Chesapeake bay and sailed
up the Potomac river.
Tobacco and many other
crops will be grown in
Maryland with Baltimore
becoming its port city in
1729.
Act of Toleration
To protect Catholics from any attempt to make
Maryland a Protestant colony, Baltimore
passed a law called the Act of Toleration in
1649. This law granted both Protestants and
Catholics the right to worship freely.
Virginia Expands
As Virginia continued to grow new settlers
were forced to push inland from the coast.
In the 1640’s, to avoid conflicts, Virginia’s
governor William Berkeley worked out a deal
with the Native Americans.
He agreed to keep settlers from pushing west
in exchange for a large piece of land.
Bacon’s Rebellion
Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy
young planter, was a leader
in the western part of
Virginia.
He and other westerners
opposed the colonial
government because it was
controlled by easterners and
they resented the governors
pledge to stay out of Native
American territory.
In 1676 Bacon lead angry
westerners in an attack on
Native American villages'
and the colonial
government.
Bacon’s Rebellion had
shown that the settlers were
not willing to be restricted
to the coast.
Settling the Carolinas
In 1663 King Charles II
created a large proprietary
colony south of Virginia. It
was called Carolina.
He gave this land to 8
members of his court for
helping him regain the
throne.
By 1680 they had carved out
large estates and founded a
city called Charles Town. It
was later named Charleston.
John Locke, an English
writer, wrote the
constitution, or plan of
government for Carolina.
Northern and Southern Carolina
In the 1740’s, an
Englishwomen named Eliza
Lucas developed a crop
called Indigo. Indigo is a
blue flowering plant used to
dye textiles.
Due to the nature of rice and
indigo cultivation a great
number of slaves were
brought in to work the
fields.
In 1729 Carolina became
two royal colonies—North
and South.
Georgia
Georgia was the last of the
British colonies to be
established. It was founded
in 1732 by James
Oglethorpe.
He wanted a colony to give
English debtors, those who
are unable to repay their
debt, a fresh start.
The British government also
wanted Georgia as a buffer
colony against the Spanish
in Florida.
He also founded a town
named Savannah.
New France
The British were not the
only Europeans
colonizing North
America.
The French and Spanish
also had built their own
settlements.
The French had founded
Quebec in 1608. This
will become the colony
of New France by 1663.
43
44
Down the Mississippi River
In the 1670’s two
Frenchmen---a fur trader,
Louis Joliet, and a priest,
Jacques Marquette --explored the Mississippi
River by canoe.
A few years later, Robert
Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle,
followed the Mississippi
River all the way to the Gulf
of Mexico.
In 1718 the French
Governor founded the port
of New Orleans.
Growth of New France
French settlement advanced very slowly.
Estate holders along the St. Lawrence River
received land in exchange for bringing settlers
to the colony. Known as tenant farmers, these
settlers paid their lord an annual rent and
worked for him a fixed number of days each
year.
New Spain
New Spain cont.
Spain was determined to keep other European
powers from threatening its empire in the
America’s.
In early 1610 Spain founded Santa Fe in
present day New Mexico. They will later
move on to present day Arizona and Texas.
Missions in California
Spanish priests built a string of missions along
the Pacific coast.
Missions are religious settlements to convert
people to a particular faith. These missions
enabled the Spanish to lay claim to California.
In 1769 Junipero Serra, a monk, founded a
mission at San Diego.
Over the next 15 years Father Serra set-up
eight more missions along the California coast.