British Colonies in America

British America - Early

British Colonization of

North America

Eurpoean motives for

colonization

• Age of geographical explorations
• New ways of life
• Conversion of natives to Christianity
• Hope of wealth

British motives for

colonization

• Social changes in Britain

– Over-population (or the myth behind it)

• Colonization as a commercial

enterprise

• Significance of mercantilism
• Religious freedom

First British Attempts at

Colonizing America

• Sir Walter Raleigh
• Roanoke Colony (1585-1587)
• Virginia Dare (1587)

Chesapeake Bay Colonies

(Upper South) and Lower

South Colonies

Southern Colonies

• Province of Maryland, later Maryland

• Colony and Dominion of Virginia, later

Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia

• Province of North Carolina, later North

Carolina and Tennessee

• Province of South Carolina, later South

Carolina

• Province of Georgia, later Georgia

Virginia Company

• London Company and Plymouth

Company

1607 – Jamestown

• Joint-stock companies provide financing
• English stockholders in Virginia Company

expect instant profits

• Jamestown settled 1607
• Colony’s location in a swamp unhealthy
• John Smith
• Colonists not equipped or skilled for the

settlement, fail to work for common good

• "eight Dutchmen and Poles"

1607 – Jamestown

• Winter of 1609–10. Only 60 of 214 English

colonists survive.

• By 1610 100 survive of the total of 500 colonists

• "When you send againe I entreat you rather send

but thirty Carpenters, husbandmen, gardiners,

fishermen, blacksmiths, masons and diggers up of

trees, roots, well provided; than a thousand of

such awe have: for except wee be able both to

lodge them and feed them, the most will consume

with want of necessaries before they can be made

good for anything." John Smith

• Contacts with the natives

– Powhatan / Powhatan Confederation

– Pocahontas

Jamestown and Upper South

Colonies

• Significance of tobacco

• John Rolffe

• By 1650 - approx 30.000 colonists

• Indentured servitude

• 1619 - First African indentured servants in

Jamestown

• After the fall of the Virginia company -

Virginia becomes a royal colony

• 1654 - Introduction of slavery (Anthony

Johnson)

• 1676 - Bacon's Rebellion

New England Colonies

• Province of New Hampshire, later New

Hampshire

• Province of Massachusetts Bay, later

Massachusetts and Maine

• Colony of Rhode Island and Providence

Plantations, later Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations

• Connecticut Colony, later Connecticut

Puritans and the Pilgirms

• 1620 – Plymouth Plantation
• Mayflower Compact
• William Bradford
• Contacts with Indians

– First Thanksgiving

• 1623 – Massachussets Bay Colony

Mayflower Compact 1620

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the
loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of
God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith,
etc.

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the
Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant
the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these
presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of
another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil
Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and
furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact,
constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts,
Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought
most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony,
unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In
witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape
Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign
Lord King James, of England, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of
Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini 1620.

Middle Colonies

• Province of New York, later New York

and Vermont

• Province of New Jersey, later New

Jersey

• Province of Pennsylvania, later

Pennsylvania

• Delaware Colony (before 1776, the

Lower Counties on Delaware), later
Delaware

Middle Colonies (Bread

Colonies)

• each with connected yet distinct histories
• 1664 - taken over from the Dutch - created

from New Netherland

• most ethnically diverse
• religious freedom and tolerance
• production of wheat and grain - hence

Bread Colonies

• important harbours (New York, Philadelphia)
• significant industry (shipbuilding,

lumbering, papermaking)

Middle Colonies

• New York - propriatory colony given by Charles II to

his brother, Duke of York, James (James II - New York

becomes a Royal colony - a provincial colony)

• New Jersey - part of the royal grant to Duke of York

that he gave to his loyal friends as a propriatory

colony

• Pennsylvania - grant from Charles II to William Penn

for debts. Penn, himself a Quaker (member of the

Society of Friends) writes up a tolerant contitution

for Pennsylvania

• Delaware - part of Pennsylvania that Penn agreed

should be governed separately due to its ethnic

diversity (the Dutch, the Swedish)

British Colonies in America –

Recap

Different economies

– South

• Rural settlements and the "plantation system"

• tobacco, rice, later cotton

• nearly no harbours

• 1750 – slaves make up 40% of the population

– New England:

• trade

• shipmaking

• artisanry

• farming

• townships

• growing industry, harbours (Boston)

– Middle Colonies

• farming

• trade in crops, lumber, livestock, iron,

• significant industry, harbours

British Colonies in America –

recap Different types of

ownership

– Provincial colonies

• New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, North

Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia

– Proprietary colonies

• Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and

Maryland

– Charter colonies

• Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Providence

Plantation, and Connecticut

Different Governments

• The provincial government

– governed by commissions created by the monarch
– A governor and council with general executive

powers, and authorized to call an assembly
consisting of two houses

– the assembly made up of representatives of the

freeholders and planters of the province.

– The governor had the power of absolute veto, and

could prorogue (ie, delay) and dissolve the
assembly.

– The assembly could make all local laws and

ordinances that were not inconsistent with the
laws of England.

Different governments

• Proprietary governments

– patents for territory to one or more

persons from the monarch

– subject to the control of the monarch.
– The proprietaries appointed the governor

and the legislature was organized and
called at his (or their) pleasure.

– Executive authority was held by the

proprietary or his governor.

Different governments

• Charter governments

– political corporations created by patent

giving the grantees control of the land
and the powers of legislative
government.

– The charters provided a fundamental

constitution and divided powers among
legislative, executive, and judicial
functions, with those powers being
vested in officials.

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