Essential Question
Why did the English establish colonies in North America?
English Colonies in America
Southern Colonies
Sir Walter Raleigh
Colony chartered by Queen Elizabeth
Sailed to the Outer Banks, NC
Landed on the island of Roanoke
Jamestown1606 – charter granted for the Virginia Company
Arrived in Virginia in 1607, established the settlement of Jamestown
Problems at JamestownColonists were townspeople
No farming, livestock experience
Upper class refused to work, hoped to get rich
Only 38 of the colonists made it through the first winter
Quote, Jamestown Survivor
“When our people were fed out of the common store and labored jointly . . . Glad was the man that could slip from his labor . . . Presuming that howsoever the harvest prospered, the general store must maintain them, by which means we reaped not so much corn for the labors of 30 men, as three men have done for themselves.”
John SmithEmerged as Jamestown’s leader
Began trading with local Indians, the Powhatan Confederacy
Helped colonists make it through the winter
Tobacco
John Rolfe brought seeds of tobacco from the Caribbean
Became the primary cash crop of Virginia
Virginia House of Burgesses
First representative government for the colonists
Right to elect an assembly and make own laws
Virginia River Plantations, 1640
GeorgiaJames Oglethorpe – asked the king for a colony for the poor
in debtor’s prison buffer between the
Carolinas and Spanish Florida
Savannah
New England Settlements
Puritans
Desired to purify the Anglican Church
Faced persecution by King James I
MassachusettsRoyal charter in 1629 granted to the Massachusetts Bay company
John Winthrop – led a group to Massachusetts in 1630 due to increased Puritan persecution in England
The MayflowerSet sail September 1620 – 102 passengers
Storm blew the ship off course and it arrived off the coast of Cape Cod
Decided to land at Plymouth
Quote, John Winthrop
“The Lord will make our name a praise and glory, so that men shall say of succeeding plantations: ‘The Lord make it like that of New England.’ For we must consider that we shall be like a City upon a Hill; the eyes of all people are on us.”
Religious Dissent
Puritans only allowed male Puritan church members to vote and participate in the governing of Mass. All residents were also forced to attend church services- regardless of church affiliationThis angered some church members These members left and founded two other
colonies
Founding of Rhode Island
Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson challenged leadership of Massachusetts
Williams believed in religious tolerance
Hutchinson believed that womenhad a place in church leadership
Rhode IslandThey were forced to leave Mass and settle elsewhere
Established colony for religious reasons
Connecticut1636 – Thomas Hooker moved his congregation from Mass. to the Connecticut River ValleyWanted all men, not Puritan church members to be able to vote
The Middle Colonies
New Netherland/New YorkOriginally was called New Netherland 1609– Dutch sent
explorer Henry Hudson
He discovered the Hudson River Valley
Economy based on trade
New Amsterdam
Major settlement of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island
Other immigrants arrived as well
New York
1664 – King Charles II decided to seize New Netherland
Wanted it for trade income
Fur trade, wheat, rye
Pennsylvania
King Charles II granted William Penn land to pay off a debt
Penn was a Quaker, part of a persecuted religious group
PennsylvaniaPenn desired political and religious freedom
Legislative assembly elected by voters
Called his colony “The Holy Experiment”
Pennsylvania
Quaker settlersGermansScots-Irish
Lower counties purchased by Penn became Delaware
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