Unit 1: Colonial Beginnings Flashcards
Richard Hakluyt: Particular Discourses on the Western Planting
1) Colonies so expensive that national government aid necessary
2) Colonies would aid suffering economy
3) Enhance England’s in’l position
4) English colonies would ensure no Catholic block in the New World
Colonial Generalization
1) Period studied as Colonial; for its own sake
2) Study of separate societies
3) Colonial societies were violent
4) Colonists came for a myriad of reasons
Two Major Themes of the Colonial Period
1) Influence of England and her tradition
2) Conditions in American forced changes in “re-creating” England
Distinction between England and the American Colonies
1) Land
2) Jobs and Wages
3) Social Status
1) Land
a. Scarce and expensive in England
b. Abundant and cheap in the colonies
2) Jobs and Wages
a. Overcrowding in England = Low wages
b. Scarcity in colonies = High wages
3) Social Status
a. Based on birth, lineage in England
b. Based on monetary wealth in colonies
Idealistic Impulses
Thomas More’s Utopia, 1516
Commericial Motivation
- Enclosure Movement: hard times
- Rise of the Charter Company
Monopoly of Trade
Theory of Mercantilism: Finite Amount of Trade Available
- Favorable trade, exchange of bullion = wealth
- Objective: Export more than import
- Colonies: Source of Raw Material, Labor and Consumers
Religious incentive: Reformation in Europe
A. Martin Luther’s Protestantism
B. John Calvin: Swiss theologian; Doctrine of Predestination
C. English Reformation: Protest/ants of the Catholic Church
A. Martin Luther’s Protestantism
1) Bible, not church, authentic voice of God
2) Salvation by faith, not works or church payments
B. John Calvin: Swiss theologian : Doctrine of Predestination
1) The “elect” pre-ordained for salvation
2) Leading a good life evidence of salvation
3) Incentive for Virtue
C. English Reformation: Protest/ants of the Catholic Church
1) Henry VIII breaks with pope over divorce issue
2) Names himself as the Head of the Church
3) Upon his death, daughter Mary goes back to Catholicism, persecutes Protestants
4) Elizabeth brings back Protestantism and the Church of the England (Anglican Church)
5) Her compromise irked both Protestants and Catholics
6) Puritans: Wanted to “purify” Anglican church of all Catholicism
Nationalistic Ventures
A. The English in Ireland
1) First experience with colonization shaped future action/attitudes in America
2) Viewed Irish as wild, to be subdued
3) Plantation Model: Transplanting of English society separate from natives
The Founding of Jamestown: Early Problems
1) Chose a Poor Site
2) Colonists were “adventure”
3) Malaria
4) Greed and Idleness
5) No English Women
The Arrival of John Smith, 1608
1) Imposed work and order on the colony
2) Organized raids of Native American villages to procure food
Reorganization of the London Company (Now the Virginia Co.)
- New efforts to colonize Jamestown
- The Starving Time
- Jamestown Survival
New Effort to Colonize Jamestown
a. Sold stock to investor and emigrees
b. Free passage for indentured servants
Jamestown Survived due to:
a. Order and Discipline: (De La Warr)
b. Assaults on Native American tribes for supplies
c. Arrival of Self-government : (House of Burgessess 1619)
d. Success of Tobacco
Tobacco as Cash Crop led to Expansion and Settlement Incentives
- Headright System: 50-acre grants of land
- Skilled craftmen transported free
- English women sent as wives
- Full Rights of Englishmen
- Shared in Self-government
- Expansion Due only to effective Suppression of local N/A tribes
Virginia Becomes a Royal Colony in 1624:
Gov. Bekerley
James I revokes charter and takes back
Control of the colony
Prohibited further westward settlement after negotiation with tribes
a. Unpopular, especially because of the re-doubling of the population
b. Led to frequent clashes between whites and Native American people
Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676
- Tension between east and west over tribal policy
- Bacon’s personal/political grudges
Significance of Bacon’s Rebellion
a. Potential for social upheaval
b. Colony turns more to slave trade
Pilgrims pre-dated Puritans, arriving in Plymouth in 1620
- Had emigrated first to Leyden, Holland from Scrooby, then to New World
- Mayflower Compact
Mayflower Compact
a. Established civil government
b. Proclaimed loyalty to the king
Profound Changes brought by the English in New England
- European Diseases decimated Native American tribes
- Demand for fur, meat, skin depleted animal population
- Brought new cops
- Brought a European pattern to landscape
The Great Migration of 1629
Arrival of the Puritans
Government of Mass-Bay Colony
- John Winthrop brings charter with him to transform venture from economic to political
- Elected governors and representative to a bicameral legislature
- The electorate: male church members
The City on a Hill Mission: Puritans were Non-Separating
- Errand into the Wilderness
- Strong missionary zeal: intensity
- Model of Congregationalism
Errand into the Wilderness
a. Erect a pure church as a model to the world
b. Remodel the entire society
c. Radical revolutionaries
Puritan Religious Beliefs: Cotton Mather
- Absolute Sovereignty of God
- Absolute Sinfulness of Man
- Doctrine of Predestination (Election)
- Conversion Experience
- The Convenant or Compact
The Convenant or Compact
a. Between Man and God
b. Between Leaders and the People
a. Between Man and God
Man relied on Christ, God granted Salvation
b. Between Leaders and the People
Unjust rulers could be removed by the people
Result of Puritan Religious Beliefs
- Striving after good works, wealth
- Puritanism as an Equalizer
- Final confidence in the Bible
- Strong belief in Intolerance
- Strong Sense of Mission
- Strong Sense of Community
- Theocracy: Union of Church and Government
Mass-Bay Colony Survived and Prospered Due to:
- Aid from neighboring Native American tribes
- Family groupings led to community
- Colony able to reproduce itself
- Strong religious/political hierarchy led to Social Stability
Relationship with N/A tribes: Pequot and King Philip’s War
- Rationalize “land grab” issue by declaring that land “not settled”
- Maintained surrounding tribes were subject to Puritan law
- Puritans and Native American tribes did not mix racially
- Important Interdependence grew up between races
Roger William and Rhode Island
- Separatist: Disavow Anglican affiliation
- Separation of Church and State
- Accused Puritans of stealing land from N/A tribes
- Accused Puritans of “idolatry”
- William Banished: Rhode Island Colony featured 3 traits
William Banished: Rhode Island Colony featured 3 traits
a. Complete freedom of conscience
b. Complete disassociation of church and state
c. Genuine political democracy
Anne Hutchinson and Antinomianism
- Claimed many clergy not the “elect”
- Challenged male-dominated society
- Claimed to directly commune with the Holy Spirit
Puritan Contribution in Retrospect
- Prosperous, thriving colony
- Tradition of the American “Mission”
- Clear set of Values: Puritan work ethic
Borderlands and Middle Grounds
A. Importance of the Caribbean Island
B. Connections to North American Colonies
Connections to North American Colonies
- Important part of the Atlantic trading world
- Main Source of African slaves
- Plantation system became model for the mainland
