Unit 2: Topic 3 - The Regions of British Colonies Flashcards
Which two colonies comprise the Chesapeake colonies?
Virginia and Maryland.
The Chesapeake colonies of Virginia and Maryland border the namesake Chesapeake Bay. The two colonies were founded separately and with different purposes. Virginia originated as a joint-stock company, a type of business that reduces risk through spreading it across a large number of people, called the Virginia Company, beginning with the colony of Jamestown founded in 1607. Maryland, however, was founded by Lord Baltimore in 1632 as a safe religious haven for Catholics, and, with the passage of the Maryland Act of Toleration in 1649, all Christian denominations.
What was the Maryland Act of Toleration?
The Maryland Act of Toleration in 1649 guaranteed religious tolerance for all Christians living in Maryland.
Maryland was a proprietary colony founded by Lord Baltimore in 1632. Originally intended as a safe haven for Catholics, given that most English colonists at the time were Protestants, the colony because religiously tolerant of all Christian denomonations with the Maryland Act of Toleration.
Who were indentured servants?
Indentured servants were laborers coming from Europe who would agree to work on a plantation for a period of time, called an indenture, usually between three and seven years, and then be given their own plot of land and the means to start their own plantation once their indenture was finished.
Indentured servants were initially the main source of labor in the Chesapeake colony plantations, but over time the Chesapeake colonies shifted further toward slavery as a source of labor. Indentured servants often died during their indenture due to the rampant tropical diseases in the Chesapeake region. Indentured servants were also almost always male, meaning that the Chesapeake colonies attracted nearly all male settlers.
What was the Headright System?
The Headright System said that each landowner would get 50 acres of land for each indentured servant brought to the colonies.
Indentured servants were laborers coming from Europe who would agree to work on a plantation for a period of time, usually between three and seven years, and then be given their own plot of land and the means to start their own plantation. Due to the hostile swamp environment of the Chesapeake region, most indentured servants died from disease before finishing their indentures. As a result of the Headright System, established planters were able to gain more land while continuing to have servants work their land. This led to a rigid class structure with wealthy land-owning planters on top and indentured servants on the bottom.
What cash crop drove Virginia’s development as a colony?
Tobacco
John Rolfe first realized that the marshy climate of the Chesapeake region was ideally suited for growing tobacco. Tobacco is an example of a cash crop, a crop grown for trade profit rather than for subsistence. Tobacco was a valuable commodity in Europe, but very labor-intensive to cultivate. As a result, the Chesapeake colonies sought more labor in the form of indentured servants and enslaved Africans.
In 1624, Virginia was producing over 200,000 pounds of tobacco per year. By the 1680s, the colony was producing over 30 million pounds per year, indicating a massive expansion of tobacco cultivation.
What was Bacon’s Rebellion?
After Native Americans had attacked frontier settlements in Virginia, with no response from the Virginia colonial government, a poor white farmer named Nathaniel Bacon gathered a small army of free and indentured farmers to make a counter-attack against the Native peoples who had attacked them.
This small army of free and indentured farmers was unique because it was a multi-racial group containing both Black and White people.
Bacon and his followers believed that Virginia’s government in Jamestown was too heavily influenced by wealthy landowners.
What were the major effects of Bacon’s Rebellion?
One major effect of Bacon’s Rebellion was the end of indentured servitude as a form of bondage, since it was viewed as too risky since White indentured servants would be willing to work with Black slaves to fight the wealthy.
Another major effect of Bacon’s Rebellion was the creation of laws that ensured slavery would be intergenerational and a good financial investment for White landowning elites.
This led colonists to look for a new labor force, which enslaved Africans would be forced to fill.
Who were the Separatists, and who were the Puritans?
Puritans were protestants, originally from England, influenced by religious reformers such as John Calvin. Puritans believed the Church of England was too close to the Catholic Church and wanted to “purify” it.
The Separatists wanted to separate themselves from the Church of England.
A group of Separatists called the pilgrims left England and ended up in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. The second wave of puritans came to Massachusetts in 1630, led by John Winthrop. Instead of separating from the Church of England, they aimed to form an ideal society and be “as a city on a hill”, a model of what their protestant society would look like to England.
What were the main economic activities in the New England colonies?
Small family farms, fishing, and trade.
The cold climate and rocky soil of New England meant that large-scale agriculture was not profitable. Due to the initial religious purpose of the establishment of the New England colonies, the people who arrived were usually families, often educated, and middle-class artisans, rather than indentured servants or enslaved Africans in the Chesapeake colonies.
The cold climate of New England also meant that disease was less prevalent compared to the Chesapeake colonies. Because of the lower death rate, the population of New England grew, and the higher population led to increased demand for locally-produced manufactured goods.
Who were Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson?
Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams were members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who were banished due to their religious beliefs.
Anne Hutchinson was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for her belief that salvation was based on faith, not good deeds. Hutchinson and her followers founded the colony of Portsmouth in 1638. Roger Williams was pushed out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for criticizing Puritanism. He founded the colony of Providence in 1636.
The colonies of Portsmouth and Providence joined to become Rhode Island in 1663.
Which colonies comprised the Middle Colonies?
Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware.
The Middle Colonies were proprietary colonies, meaning that they were owned and governed by a single person rather than by a company or by the English crown.
Why were the Middle Colonies called the “breadbasket” colonies?
The Middle Colonies had environments ideally suited for growing wheat and other cereal crops. These cereal crops were exported from the good natural harbors at cities like New York and Philadelphia, which would grow to be the largest cities in North America during the colonial period.
Who was William Penn?
William Penn was a Quaker from England who was given a tract of land in North America by the crown. Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania as a haven for Quakers, who were relatively tolerant and who were pacifists. The religious freedom in Pennsylvania attracted German-speaking migrants, among others from Europe, and opposed the institution of slavery.
What was the purpose of the foundation of the colony of Carolina?
The colony of Carolina, which was split into North Carolina and South Carolina in 1712, was founded in 1670 as a plantation colony for growing rice.
Carolina was named due to King Charles II. The colony was founded by English planters from the Caribbean colonies looking to start new plantations further to the north. The plantations used the labor of enslaved people from West Africa, whom the English planters sought especially due to their experience cultivating rice in West Africa.
Explain the significance of the Mayflower Compact.
The Mayflower Compact was a document written and signed by the initial settlers of Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. The compact presented a religious—rather than economic—rationale for colonization and advocated for a society of community and legal equality for white male colonists.
The Mayflower Compact establishes the ideals for the society of the initial New England colonies, particularly that of Plymouth, as religious communities working together as equals rather than enforcing a rigid class structure such as that in colonial Virginia.
The ideals expressed in the Mayflower Compact, however, did not entirely last, particularly with regard to religious freedom in the New England colonies. This can be seen, for example, with the foundation of Rhode Island by Roger Williams in 1636 as a colony of religious freedom for protestants.
