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4. What were the results of England's first efforts to explore and settle North America?

Critical Thinking

5. How did the Spanish explorers succeed in achieving their main goals and how did they fail?

SECTION 3

The English Colonists Arrive

GLOSSARY TERMS: joint-stock companies, charter, headright system, indentured servants, burgesses, Puritans, Pilgrims, Mayflower Compact, proprietary colonies

England's first' attempts to establish colonies in North America were made by individuals. In the 'J 1600's joint-stock companies provided another means of financing colonization. A joint-stock company was a group of people, each of whom put up a certain amount of capital in return for a stated number of shares. If there were one hundred shares and a person bought ten shares, that person would

get 10 percent of the profits. If there were a loss, v.: the person would be responsible for only 10 percent

of it. The first successful English colonies in

e America were founded by joint-stock companies.

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The Virginia Colony Finally Succeeds

In 1606 two groups of merchants and adventurers from the ports of London and Plymouth asked James I for permission to form a joint-stock company to found colonies in America. The King was interested. After all, the expedition would cost him nothing and might return a profit. According to custom, on such ventures the ruler got one-fifth of all gold and silver that was found. So James issued a charter, or official permit.

The charter was the nearest thing to a written constitution for the proposed colony. It gave the two Virginia Companies-the London Company and the Plymouth Company-permission to settle along the Atlantic coast of North America and to have a monopoly on trade. The London Company was given the right to settle the land from the Potomac south to what is now South Carolina. The Plymouth Company was given permission to settle in the region between present-day Maine and New

Migrants to a New Land 21

Map Skills Place Which land grant company had the land with the most natural harbors?

Location Which had land the farthest north?

York. The charter also declared that the colonists would have the same rights and privileges that the English people had in England. Among these rights were the right to trial by jury and the right to own land.

The Jamestown Settlement. On December 20, 1606, the Virginia Company sent out 140 men and

22 CHAPTER 1

four boys in three tiny vessels. Contrary winds slowed their progress, but finally, on April 26, 1607, they saw low on the horizon the green coast of Virginia. You can imagine their joy and excitement. As the land came into view more clearly, they must have gazed at it with the same awe and wonderment that astronauts in the 1960's felt when they looked upon the surface of the moon from a hovering spacecraft.

The English sailed slowly up a wide and beautiful river until, on a small peninsula, they located what seemed like a good spot to build a fort. They named the place Jamestown and the river the James, in honor of their King.

Jamestown was a fine choice for defense purposes. The land was flat and nearly surrounded by water. In other ways, however, it was disastrous. Much of the land was swampy, and there were swarms of mosquitoes. At that time, no one knew that mosquitoes carried deadly malaria.

Early Miseries. After about two months, on June 22, two of the ships sailed for England, leaving 105 people at Jamestown. Things went bad quickly.

People fell ill as the summer deepened. In his diary one man wrote, "There died John Asbie of a bloody flux [hemorrhage]. The ninth day died George Flower of the swelling." Some nights, three or four people died, then "in the morning, their bodies [were] trailed out of their cabins like dogs to be buried." In seven months, all but thirty-two were dead. The Indians saved those who were left. The diarist noted, "It pleased God to move the Indians to bring us com . . . when we rather expected they would destroy us." The Indians also brought bread, fish, and meat in great quantity.

John Smith Takes Charge. In addition to their other difficulties, the men quarreled over leadership. After a year of drifting, a forceful ex-soldier named John Smith, twenty-seven years old, simply took charge. By sheer force of strength and personality, he got the men to clear the land and to cultivate it. The men resisted at first. Most of them were "gentlemen," and in England gentlemen did not work with their hands. Smith, however, made it clear that if they did not work, they would not eat.

They worked. .

Smith established a friendship with Pocahontas, the daughter of an Indian chief. According to

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The Starving Time. In 1609 Smith was injured in a gunpowder explosion, and he soon left the colony for good. By then more supplies and some four hundred additional settlers, including young women and widows, had arrived. Still, conditions in the colony went from bad to worse. During that winter, there was famine and even cannibalism. This was the so-called starving time. People lived on roots and rats, and one man even murdered his wife and salted her away like salt pork.

By spring only sixty people remained alive.

They decided to abandon the colony and return to England. They were actually sailing down the James River when they met an incoming ship. Aboard was the new governor, Baron De La Warr (from whom Delaware got its name), with more settlers and supplies. Reluctantly, the colonists returned to Jamestown. The first permanent Eng-

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Picturing History Pocahontas, daughter of Indian chief Powhatan, is pictured in English clothes in the oil painting above. In the statue of Pocahontas at Jamestown, Virginia (right), the sculptor, William Ordway Patridge, has depicted the Indian princess in her traditional tribal dress.

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legend, it was Pocahontas who rescued Smith when he was captured by her people. Pocahontas married a settler named John Rolfe, had a son, and later traveled to England.

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Saved by Smoke. What finally got Jamestown off to economic health was something as insubstantial as smoke. At first there was no intention of growing tobacco. It was an American plant, unknown in Europe before the time of Columbus. Also, the kind of tobacco the Indians in Virginia grew and smoked tasted bitter to Europeans. Then in 1612 John Rolfe introduced a different type of tobacco from the Caribbean islands. It was much milder and suited European tastes. The plants grew well in Virginia, and cultivation did not require skilled labor. Settlers were soon busily growing the new crop.

King James opposed tobacco on. the grounds that

it was unhealthy. He called it a "stinking weed." However, tobacco quickly became so popular in Europe that he permitted it to be brought into England, where it was handsomely taxed. The 'r Virginia colonists had at last found a profitable crop.

The Headright System and Indentured Servants.

In 1618 the Virginia Company introduced the headright system. Under it, any man who paid his way to Virginia would get fifty acres of land for himself and another fifty acres for every person he v, brought with him. Immigration increased.

Map Skills Place How wide was the James River at Jamestown? Location What direction from Point Comfort was Jamestown?

Migrants to a New Land 23

Most of the new immigrants, however, came as indentured servants. This meant that in return for their passage they agreed to work for someone for a specified number of years, usually seven, after which they were free. This practice eased unemployment in England. It also cleared English jails, for judges sent political prisoners and debtors to Virginia as indentured servants.

Two Important Events. In 1619 two things happened that had great impact on the future of the English colonies. On July30, in the little church in Jamestown, Governor Yeardley and his council of twenty-two burgesses, or representatives, met to make laws for the colony. Statutes were enacted based on English common law. From this time on, Virginians jealously guarded the privilege of holding their own legislative assembly.

The second event was the arrival of a Dutch ship. In its hold were twenty "Negars" who were sold to the English settlers. They were listed as servants, and most historians believe they were treated as indentured servants who happened to be black. After a time, they received land and their freedom.

Virginia Becomes a Royal Colony. By 1624 some six thousand English people had gone to Virginia, but the total English population there was only twelve hundred. Almost five out of six had either returned home or lay under the forests of Virginia. They had died from disease, from malnutrition, or, in the case of women, in childbirth. Many were also killed in 1622 by a large-scale Indian attack. Still, the colony was growing richer as tobacco became its major crop.

Complaints of fraud against Virginia Company officials and the company's bankruptcy due to the cost of war with the Indians alarmed James I. So in 1624 the King disbanded the company and appointed a royal governor to manage the colony. However, the House of Burgesses, as Virginia's legislative assembly had come to be called, remained in existence. The settlers continued their practice of obeying laws and paying taxes only if their elected representatives authorized it.

The Puritans Arrive in Massachusetts

It was a cold, snowy day that November 15, 1620, when five Indians and a dog were out hunting along the sandy shores of Cape Cod. Suddenly, they saw in the distance an extraordinary

24 CHAPTER 1

sight: a group of sixteen bearded white men. The men wore heavy clothes and uttered strange cries, while the one who seemed to be their leader waved. This was the first known encounter between the North Americans and the Puritans.

Puritan Beliefs. The Puritans wanted to purify the Anglican church, England's official Protestant church. To Puritans, the rituals of this church seemed too much like those of the Roman Catholic service, which Henry VIII had abolished in the 1500's. In general, Puritans followed the teachings of John Calvin. Here are some of Calvin's and the Puritans' most important beliefs.

Puritans believed in original sin. The first book of the Bible tells about the sin of Adam and Eve, the parents of all people, who disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit. Puritans believed that all humans inherited the same sinful character. Since sinful people deserved to be damned to hell after death, it was a sign of God's mercy that He had decided to save anyone at all.

Puritans also believed in predestination, that is, that God had decided the destiny of all men and women before they were born. Each person was going either to heaven or to hell. Nothing they did could alter that fact.

Nevertheless, Puritans believed that each person was responsible for leading a moral life. Although good behavior could not earn salvation, it indicated that a person already had God's favor. As a consequence, Puritans were constantly examining their own behavior. They also examined the behavior of everyone else in their communities. They kept a sharp eye out for such sins as drunkenness, swearing, theft, and idleness. When they discovered such sins, they punished the sinners severely.

Why did the Puritans include idleness in their catalog of sins? They believed that God "called" people to their jobs. The job might be that of a minister, farmer, mother, servant, or carpenter. Whatever the job one was called to, God required men and women to work long and hard at it.

Puritans also believed in the importance of the Bible, which they regarded as the Word of God. All men and women had to know how to read so they could consult the Bible themselves. Puritan ministers were highly educated men with great reputations and influence. However, they did not rule their churches the way Anglican bishops did. Puritan ministers were hired-and could be firedby the individual church congregations.

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Picturing History This painting of Edward Winslow, governor of Plymouth, is the only known portrait of a Mayflower passenger.

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The Separatists. The Puritans agreed on what was wrong with the Church of England, but they disagreed on what should be done about it. Some thought they should remain in the church and try to reform it from within. Others did not think that was possible, so they formed independent congregations withtheir own ministers. The Separatists, as they were called, had to meet in secret because James I was determined to punish those who did not follow the Anglican form of worship.

In 1608 one congregation of Separatists decided to flee from England to Holland, where the authorities were very tolerant in religious matters. After several years, however, they became discouraged, mostly because some of their young people were drifting away from the Puritan faith. So they decided to risk migrating to America, where they felt they could live successfully as an independent religious congregation. They obtained financial backing and a grant of land in the northern part of Virginia.

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The Voyage of the Mayflower. Late in the summer of 1620, a small group of families set sail in two ships from the English port of Plymouth.

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Almost immediately, one of the ships, the Speedwell, began leaking so badly that the tiny expedition had to turn back. The group then crowded aboard the sturdier Mayflower and once again raised anchor.

These people called themselves Pilgrims, from the story in the Bible in which Abraham and the Hebrews are sent by God "as strangers and Pilgrims" into a strange land so as to better worship the Lord. Not all Pilgrims were Separatists, though, and some were not even Puritans. They, were adventurers eager to improve their lives by settling in a new land.

The Mayflower aimed for the northern coast of Virginia. It missed badly. Nine weeks later, when the ship's people sighted land, they saw rolling sand dunes with tall, waving grass. They debated about sailing south but decided to search the coast

in front of them, for a safe harbor and place for settlement. They found a spot on the inner shore of 'J Cape Cod Bay and named it for the town from which they had sailed-Plymouth.

The Mayflower Compact. The Puritans knew that New England lay too far north for their charter

to be valid. They were also afraid that the other passengers, who were strangers, would challenge v.: their authority. While still on board the Mayflower, forty-one men gathered in the main cabin and signed their, names to a compact, or agreement. They stated that the purpose of their government would be to frame' 'just and equal laws .. , for the general good of the colony." Laws approved by the majority would be binding on Puritans and nonPuritans alike. These lines suggest that political authority rests on the will of the people. The Mayflower Compact was thus an important landmark in the development of the American system

of government.

The signers of the compact were the colony's free men. They selected John Carver as their first governor. When he died a few months later, they chose William Bradford and they reelected him nearly every year from 1621 until his death in 1657,

Help from the Indians. The Pilgrims' prospects were not encouraging. The soil appeared sandy and unpromising, Even worse, December had arrived, and the Pilgrims felt the first bite of a New England winter, which was far worse than any English winter. The result was a repetition of what had

Migrants to a New Land 25

happened in Jamestown. Bradford wrote,

I In two or three months' time, half of their company died, being the depth of winter and wanting houses an.d other comforts . . . being infected with scurvy and other diseases.

In spring the surviving Pilgrims took advantage of some abandoned Indian cornfields and planted squash and beans. Then one day an Indian came up and dumbfounded the Pilgrims by speaking in English. He said his name was Samoset and that he had learned the language from some English fishermen. He introduced the Pilgrims to his friend Tisquantum and to the local chief, Massasoit.

Tisquantum-or Squanto, as the Pilgrims called him-had actually spent several years in England. He spoke English very well and became the Pilgrims' guide and interpreter. Indeed, the Indians' aid saved the settlers' lives in New England just as it had saved them in Virginia. Tisquantum and his friends showed the Pilgrims what corn was and how to grow and cook it. The Indians also taught the settlers how to gather and cook clams and where to catch the fattest fish.

Picturing History The title page above is from the Bible used by William Bradford. It is believed to be the same Bible he brought to Plymouth in 1620.

26 CHAPTER I

Thanksgiving. In November 1621, one year after their arrival, the Pilgrims gathered their first harvest. Then they invited Massasoit and some ninety of his braves to a three-day feast, which included squash, beans, corn, wild turkeys, ducks, geese, and four deer that the Indians brought. It was a time of Thanksgiving to God.

By 1642 the Pilgrims were able to repay their financial backers in London with shipments of lumber and furs. Gradually, their tiny settlement expanded. The Pilgrims then set up a governmental system whereby the men of each town elected representatives to pass laws for the entire colony. Only males who were church members could vote. Even so, a far higher proportion of men could vote in the Plymouth Colony than in England.

A New Colony on the Bay. Meanwhile, other English Puritans were turning their thoughts toward New England. They were not Separatists, but they were becoming discouraged about Anglican reform. So they began to think about establishing a holy community of their own in America.

One of these Puritans was a lawyer named John Winthrop. He and several friends obtained a charter for a new joint-stock enterprise, the Massachusetts Bay Company. The charter included a land grant and provisions for a government but failed to say where the company's headquarters should be. Winthrop and his friends took advantage of this omission and boldly transferred both the charter and the company's headquarters to New England. This meant that when Winthrop and other Puritans migrated, they took with them authority for an independent government.

The year 1630 saw the first really well-planned and sizable migration of English people to America. Winthrop had been named governing officer of the Massachusetts Bay Company. He and other Puritan leaders recruited between eight hundred and a thousand other Puritans for the expedition. Few of the migrants were wealthy, but they were by no means as poor as those who had gone to Virginia and to Plymouth. They had little difficulty in buying adequate supplies and a fleet of ships.

There was no starving time in the new colony.

Over the next ten years, supplies kept coming. So did nearly twenty thousand people, most of whom survived. The port town of Boston became the colony's thriving capital. Settlers established other towns nearby and eventually incorporated the Plymouth Colony into the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

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Other New England Colonies. Three New England colonies were set up by Puritans from Massachusetts. They were New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Rhode Island, however, was unique among the colonies because of certain provisions in its charter.

Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams, a Separatist minister who arrived in Massachusetts

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Picturing History John Winthrop was the first goverJ)or of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This portrait reveats; the air of authority with which he took control of affairs;

Different Settlements Begin

As you can see from the chart on page 29, eleven additional colonies were established on the eastern shore of what became the United States. Some were established under a joint-stock company charter, whereas others were proprietary colonies. This means that the persons receiving the charter were the proprietors, or owners, of the colony and could collect rents from settlers. Most proprietary colonies were later taken over by the crown. However, no matter what kind of charter an English colony had, it had a representative assembly. By the mid-1600's such assemblies were regarded as essential features of English colonial governments.

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in 1631. Most people respected him, but the colony's government felt threatened by two of his opinions. Williams declared that the English settlers had no rightful claim to the land unless they purchased it from the Indians. He also declared that government officials should devote themselves only to government business and should leave religious matters alone. To the Puritan leaders, the first idea was ridiculous, and the second was heresy, or a belief opposed to established views or doctrines. So in 1636 they banished Williams from the holy community of Massachusetts.

Williams tramped southward to the headwaters of Narragansett Bay, where he was joined by sympathizers from Massachusetts. There he established the town of Providence, which became the center of the new colony. When Rhode Island received its charter in 1644, it provided for the

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Map Skills Location The Mayflower first put in at the site of what town? Location How far was it from the site of Plymouth?

Migrants to a New Land 27

separation of church and state. All Christian groups were given freedom of worship, and even men who did not belong to any church were allowed to vote.

It was in Rhode Island that Anne Hutchinson found refuge when she was banned from Boston for leading religious discussions in her home. In 1642 she moved to New York, where she was killed by Indians. When the Puritans learned of her death, they interpreted it as another example of God's work in the world.

. The Dutch Wedge. While English Puritans were establishing colonies in New England, the Dutch were founding one to the south. As early as 1609, Henry Hudson-an Englishman employed by the Dutch-explored the Hudson River as far as present-day 'Albany, New York. In 1626 the Dutch bought Manhattan Island, at the mouth of the Hudson, from the Indians for trade goods worth about twenty-four dollars. They built a little town there that they named New Amsterdam, after the most important city in Holland.

By the 1630's the Dutch had built a number of enormous estates along both sides of the Hudson River. Dutch explorers also ventured as far south as the Delaware River, where they took over a tiny colony of Swedish and Finnish settlers. However,

Picturing History Anne Hutchinson was banned from Boston for leading religious discussions such as this one in her home.

28 CHAPTER I

Map Skills Location What modern city is on the site of Fort Orange? Location On what river was New Sweden?

the Dutch never migrated in large numbers to their American colony as the English did to theirs. Also, the Dutch lost a series of sea battles with the English in the middle of the century and were unable to defend their holdings in North America. In 1664 New Amsterdam was taken over by the English, who renamed it New York for the King's younger brother, the Duke of York. In fact, they named the entire Dutch area New York. The duke .. later gave a portion of this land to two of his friends, and it was named New Jersey for the British island of Jersey.

Maryland. When James I died, his son, Charles I, married a Roman Catholic. One of the major figures at his court, Sir George Calvert, was also a Catholic. Calvert had ambitions to found a

colony in America. He hoped to profit financially from such a venture;. and he also wanted to establish a haven for English Catholics, who were an unhappy minority in Protestant England.

Charles I responded by giving Calvert the part of Virginia that surrounded Chesapeake Bay. Calvert gratefully named the colony Maryland in honor of Charles's Catholic Queen, Henrietta Maria. Calvert died while the charter was still being processed by royal bureaucrats. His son, Lord Baltimore, organized the expedition that left for Chesapeake Bay in 1633. There was no starving time because the Mary land settlers had learned from the sad experiences at Jamestown. They brought plenty of provisions with them and soon discovered that tobacco grew as well in Maryland as in Virginia. '

The Calvert-Baltimore family had no desire to persecute Protestants in Maryland. As large numbers of Protestants settled in the colony, however, Lord Baltimore began to fear that the Catholics might become victims of religious persecution themselves. So in 1649 he requested that the Maryland legislature pass the Toleration Act, which provided for freedom of worship. After antagonism grew, the act was repealed in 1654.

The Carolinas, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. From 1642 to 1649, England was tom apart by its

great civil war between loyalists to the King and those who were loyal to Parliament, many of whom were Puritans. The armies of Parliament were victorious, and Charles I was executed in 1649. For a while, England became a commonwealth, or republic, headed first by Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan, and then by his son Richard. However, the English grew weary of the rather grim and sober Puritan rule, and in 1660 Charles II was restored to the throne of his father. Since Charles II owed political debts to his prominent supporters, he gave several of them proprietary rights to American land.

The first permanent settlement in Carolinafrom the Latin for "land of Charles"-was begun in 1670. Charles Town, which later became Charleston, was the capital and chief port of the colony. The weather proved too warm for tobacco but not for rice, which became Carolina's major crop. Later the colony-split in two, and the King made both South Carolina and North Carolina royal colonies.

Pennsylvania was a gift to William Penn, whose late father had supported the King's return to power. Penn was a Quaker. The Quakers were a radical religious and social group of Protestants. They believed that a person's love of God could best be shown by brotherly love for every human being. They dressed plainly and would not raise

30 CHAPTER 1

Picturing History William Penn (above right) made peace with the Indians in 1682. Benjamin West idealized this event in this early-nineteenthcentury painting.

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their hats to nobles or even to the King. They used the terms "thee" and "thou" in a time when most people used the plural "you" when speaking to intimates. Lastly, the Quakers were pacifists, who disapproved of war and refused to serve in the army.

More than any other proprietor, Penn was inter-

Map Skills Region Which were the Middle Colonies? Movement Did the area of settlement reach the Ohio River in 1750?

ested in establishing a good and fair society. He did not want Pennsylvania to have a land-owning aristocracy. He wanted it to be a "holy experiment" in living. So he guaranteed every male settler fifty acres of land, which had to be purchased from the local Indians. He gave the right to vote to all adult males. Penn also helped plan the city of Philadelphia, which he called the City of Brotherly Love.

Penn's constitution also provided for a separate assembly for the three southern counties along Delaware Bay. Delaware thereby gained a somewhat separate existence. However, it continued to have the same governor as Pennsylvania.

Georgia. The last of the English colonies to be founded was Georgia, named after George II. It had a dual purpose. Its founder, a social reformer named James Oglethorpe, wanted to establish a refuge for people who had been imprisoned for " nonpayment of debts. The English government wanted a military defense against the Spanish in Florida.

SECTION 3 REVIEW --------

Key Terms and People

Explain the significance of: joint-stock company, charter, John Smith, headright system, indentured servants, burgesses, Puritans, Separatists, Pilgrims, Mayflower Compact, John Winthrop, proprietary colonies, Roger

Williams, Anne Hutchinson, Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, Toleration Act, William Penn, Quaker, James Oglethorpe

Main Ideas

1. How did joint-stock companies help to colonize America?

2. How did the colonists of Jamestown meet the goal of its founders?

3. What were the main Puritan religious beliefs?

4. How were the goals of the founders of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies similar?

5. How did the Rhode Island, Maryland, and Pennsylvania colonies attempt to promote religious tolerance?

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Critical Thinking

6. In what ways did colonial rule promote governments independent of England?

Migrants to a New Land 31