Chapter 2, The American Pageant

Planting Colonies in the New World

Reasons to Leave England for the New

World• *With the defeat of Spain, England was no longer at threat and could more easily travel.

• *A new policy of enclosure meant there was less or no land for the poor to hunt upon to supplement their diet of mostly vegetables and bread because the rich landowner had fenced it in.

• *Tradition of primogeniture = 1st born son inherits all the property.

• * The joint-stock company was perfected (investors put money into the company with hopes for a good return), so there was enough money to fund a colony.

Maryland

• *Maryland was founded in 1634 by Lord Baltimore as a place for persecuted Catholics.

• *Tobacco is its cash crop.

• *Used indentured servants.

• *The Act of Toleration gave religious toleration to all Christians but gave the death penalty to Jews, atheists and others who did not believe in Jesus Christ’s divinity.

Sugar Plantation Life

•*90% of Indians died from disease or hard work

•*African slaves were then used

•*Most slaves died after 10 years of labor

•*Harsh slave laws or codes were passed to control and punish slaves who tried to escape or better themselves

English Civil War

•*King Charles I had been beheaded.

•*Oliver Cromwell had ruled for ten very strict years before Englishmen restored the King.

•*Charles II became a new king in “The Restoration.”

•*The effect of the Civil War on the colonies was that colonists became more independent by ruling themselves

Carolina

• Carolina traded a lot with the Bahamas

• Many original Carolina settlers had come from Barbados and brought in the strict “Slave Codes” for ruling slaves.

• Rice emerged as the principle crop in Carolina.

• Many newcomers to Carolina were “squatters,” people who owned no land, usually down from Virginia.

North Carolina

•North Carolinians developed a strong resistance to authority, due to geographic isolation from neighbors.

•Two “flavors” of Carolinians developed: (a) aristocratic and wealthier down south around Charleston and rice & indigoplantations, and (b) strong-willed and independent-minded up north onsmall tobacco farms

•In 1712, North and South Carolina were officially separated.

Georgia

•Georgia was intended to be a buffer between the British colonies and the hostile Spanish settlements in Florida (Spanish, Indians, runaway slaves) and the enemy French in Louisiana.

•James Oglethorpe stopped Spanish attacks.

•Nicknamed “the Charity Colony” because many homeless people and prisoners were settled there

That Plantation Life

•Slavery was found in all the plantation colonies.

•The growth of cities was often stunted by forests.

•The establishment of schools and churches was difficult due to people being spread out.

•Crops were tobacco and rice, and some indigo in the tidewater region of SC.

•Some religious toleration.

•Confrontations with Native Americans were common.