First Settlers and Colonies

in North America

Gadzhieva A.
 THE NEW WORLD
Europeans called the Americas
“the New World.”

But for the millions of Native Americans

they encountered, it was anything but.
Humans have lived in the Americas for
over ten thousand years.

Dynamic and diverse, they spoke

hundreds of languages and created
thousands of distinct cultures.
 Christopher Columbus

An Italian adventurer named

Christopher Columbus set sail
from Spain to find a new way from
Europe to Asia. His aim was to
open up a shorter trade route
between the two continents.
On the morning of October
12,1492, he stepped ashore on
the beach of a low sandy island.
He named the island San
Salvador.

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 CLICK HERE
Columbus believed that he had landed in
the Indies. For this reason he called the
friendly, brown-skinned people who
greeted him Indians

Columbus was not near India. He

reached a new continent. Europeans
would soon name the new continent
America, but for many years they went
on calling its inhabitants Indians

Only recently have these first Americans

been described more accurately as
« native Americans» or Amerindians.
The first English settlers
England was the first country to compete with Spain for claims in the New World.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert led the first

English settlement efforts, but he did not
establish any lasting settlement. He died as
he was returning to England.
Gilbert's half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh,
sent a number of ships to explore the east
coast of North America.
He named the land Virginia in honor of
Queen Elizabeth, who never married and
was known as "the Virgin Queen."
The English founded the first permanent
settlement in America in 1607.

The first successful colony to be

established was Jamestown, situated in
today’s Virginia.

The colony was named after

the English king, James I.

The first colonists hoped to find gold in

the New World and to get rich quickly
 Twenty Negroes were brought to Jamestown in 1619 and sold to
the tobacco planters. This was the beginning of slavery in America.
The settlers had many problems during
the first winters and hardly managed to
survive.

The Indians gave them food. They

taught them how to live in the forest.
And the Powhatan Indians showed the
settlers how to plant new crops and
how to clear the land for building.

The settlers accepted the Indians'

help. Then, however, the settlers took
whatever else they wanted by force.
In sixteen twenty-two, the local
Indians attacked the settlers for
interfering with Indian land. Three
hundred forty settlers died. The
colonists answered the attack by
destroying the native tribes living
along Virginia's coast.
The other early English
settlements in North America were
much to the north, in what is
today the state of Massachusetts.
The people who settled there left
England for reasons different from
those who settled in Jamestown.
The Virginia settlers were looking
for ways to earn money for English
businesses.
The settlers in Massachusetts
were seeking religious freedom.
King Henry the Eighth of
England had separated from the
Roman Catholic Church. His
daughter, Queen Elizabeth,
established the Protestant faith
in England. It was called the
Church of England, or the
Anglican Church. The Anglican
Church, however, was similar to
the Roman Catholic Church.
King Henry the Eighth of England had
separated from the Roman Catholic
Church. His daughter, Queen Elizabeth,
established the Protestant faith in
England. It was called the Church of
England, or the Anglican Church. The
Anglican Church, however, was similar to
the Roman Catholic Church.

Not all Protestants liked this idea. Some

wanted to leave the Anglican Church and
form religious groups of their own. In
sixteen six, members of one group in the
town of Scrooby did separate from the
Anglican Church. About one hundred
twenty-five people left England for
Holland. They found problems there too,
so they decided to move again -- to the
New World.
These people were called pilgrims.
Pilgrams are people who
travel for religious reasons
About thirty-five pilgrims were
among the one hundred and two
passengers and crew on a ship
called the Mayflower in sixteen
twenty.
The Mayflower set sail
from England, headed for
Virginia. But the ship never
reached Virginia. It was blown
far off its planned course.
Instead, it reached land far to
the north, on Cape Cod Bay.
The group decided to stay there
instead of trying to find
Jamestown, far to the south in
Virginia.
They settled what would
become the Massachusetts
Bay Colony, They called
the colony Plymouth,
naming it after the harbor
in England, from which
they departed on their
voyage to the New World.
The pilgrims and the others
aboard the Mayflower
believed they were not under
English control since they did
not land in Virginia. They saw
the need for rules that would
help them live together
peacefully. They wrote a plan
of government, which they
called the Mayflower

Compact. It was the first

such plan ever developed in
the New World.
They elected William
Bradford as the first
governor of the Plymouth
Colony. We know about the
first thirty years of the colony
as William Bradford
described it in his book,
"Of Plymouth
Plantation."
It is also sometimes referred
to as “William Bradford’s
Journal.”
As happened in Jamestown, about half
the settlers in Plymouth died during the
first winter. The survivors were surprised
to find an Indian who spoke English. His
name was Squanto.
The Pilgrims believed God had sent
them Squanto. He made it possible for
them to communicate with the native
people.
He showed them the best places to fish,
what kind of crops to plant and how to
grow them. He provided them with all
kinds of information they needed to
survive.
The settlers invited the Indians to a feast
in the month of November to celebrate
their successes and to thank Squanto
for his help.
Americans remember this feast when
they celebrate the holiday of

Thanksgiving Day in
November.
Other English settlers began arriving in the area
now called New England. One large group was

the Puritans
Like the pilgrims, the Puritans disagreed with
the Anglican Church. But they did not want to
leave the church. The Puritans wanted to
change it to make it more holy in their view.
Their desire for this change made them
unwelcome in England.
The Puritans began leaving England
in large groups. Between sixteen
thirty and sixteen forty, twenty
thousand sailed for New England.

They risked their lives on the

dangerous trip. They wanted to live
among people who believed as they
did.
Because of its diffuse nature, when Puritanism began
to decline in America is difficult to say. Some would
hold that it lost its influence in New England by the
early 18th century, but Jonathan Edwards and his
able disciple Samuel Hopkins revived Puritan thought
and kept it alive until 1800.

During the whole colonial period Puritanism had direct impact

on both religious thought and cultural patterns in America.
● Virginia - First American Colony founded in 1607
● New York - Second American Colony founded in 1626
● Massachusetts - Third American Colony founded in 1630
● Maryland - Fourth American Colony founded in 1633
● Rhode Island - Fifth American Colony founded in 1636
● Connecticut - Sixth American Colony founded in 1636
● New Hampshire - Seventh American Colony founded in 163
8
● Delaware - Eighth American Colony founded in 1638
● North Carolina - Ninth American Colony founded in 1653
● South Carolina - Tenth American Colony founded in 1663
● New Jersey - Eleventh American Colony founded in 1664
● Pennsylvania - Twelfth American Colony founded in 1682
● Georgia - Thirteenth American Colony founded in 1732

The Plymouth Colony is not included as one of the original 13

American colonies as it was de-established 1691.
Where were the original 13
American Colonies situated?

The English settlements of the

original 13 American Colonies
were located on the Atlantic
coast of North America.

The original 13 American

Colonies were divided into three
geographic areas or regions
consisting of the New England
colonies, the Middle colonies,
and the Southern colonies, the
New England colonies are
sometimes referred to as the
North Colonies.
 the New England Colonies

Government in the New England

Colonies:

● Royal Government: The Royal

Colonies were ruled directly by the
English monarchy
● Charter Government: The Charter
Colonies were generally self-
governed, and their charters were
granted to the colonists.

Religion in the New England

Colonies

The religion practised in New England was

strictly Puritan and they did not tolerate any
other religions - refer to Pilgrims and Puritans
and Religion in the Colonies.
The Province of New Hampshire
was an English colony in North America
that existed from 1638 until 1776, when it
joined the other 12 of the 13 colonies in
rebellion against Great Britain and became
the U.S. state of New Hampshire.

Colony was founded in 1638 by Captain

John Mason and John Wheelwright and other
colonists.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony
Up the coast from Plymouth, the
Massachusetts Bay Colony was
founded 1628. The colony was
organized and financed by the
Massachusetts Bay Company.
It initially only established two small
settlements, at Salem and Boston
(Present day New England)

The colony was soon flourishing, and in the

1630s 20,000 new settlers arrived.

The Puritan leadership of the colony

was intolerant of other religious groups,
such as Anglicans, Baptists and
Quakers
And soon dissensions soon arose on
matters of belief and practice.
As a result, dissenters from the colony
moved out to settle nearby New Haven
(later the nucleus of the colony of
Connecticut) and Rhode Island, both
As the Massachusetts settlements
expanded, they generated new colonies in
New England. Puritans who thought that
Massachusetts was not pious enough
formed the colonies of Connecticut and
New Haven (the two combined in 1665).
Meanwhile, Puritans who thought that
Massachusetts was too restrictive formed
the colony of Rhode Island, where
everyone–including Jews–enjoyed complete
“liberty in religious concernments.” To the
north of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a
handful of adventurous settlers formed the
colony of New Hampshire.
The Middle Colonies
Middle Colonies Government:

● Royal Government: The Royal

Colonies were ruled directly by
the English monarchy
● Propriety Government: The
King granted land to people in
North America, who then
formed Proprietary Colonies

Middle Colonies Religion

The Middle Colonies were not

dominated by a single religion.
There were Quakers,
Catholics, Lutherans, Jews and
others in the Middle regions
and colonies.
The Province of New York
was an English colony in North
America that existed from 1626 until
1776, when it joined the other 12 of
the 13 colonies in rebellion against
Great Britain and became the U.S.
state of New York.

The New York Colony was founded in 1626 by

the Duke of York and other colonists on
Manhattan Island.
The Province of New Jersey was
an English colony in North America that
existed from 1664 until 1776, when it joined
the other 12 of the 13 colonies in rebellion
against Great Britain and became the U.S.
state of New Jersey.

The New Jersey Colony was founded in

1664 by Lord Berkeley and Sir George
Carteret.

The Delaware Colony

was founded in 1638 by Peter Minuit
and New Sweden Company

In 1680, the king granted 45,000 square

miles of land west of the Delaware River
to William Penn, a Quaker who owned
large swaths of land in Ireland. Penn’s
North American holdings became the
colony of “Penn’s Woods,” or

Pennsylvania.
The Southern Colonies
Southern Colonies Government:

All of the systems of government in the

Southern Colonies elected their own
legislature, they were all democratic,
they all had a governor, governor's
court, and a court system. The systems
of Government in the Southern Colonies
were either Royal or Proprietary.

Southern Colonies Religion

The Southern Colonies were not dominated by

a single religion which gave way to more liberal
attitudes and some religious freedom. There
were predominantly Anglicans and Baptists in
the Southern region and Colonies.
By contrast, the Carolina colony,
a territory that stretched south from
Virginia to Florida and west to the
Pacific Ocean, was much less
cosmopolitan. In its northern half,
hardscrabble farmers eked out a living.
In its southern half, planters presided
over vast estates that produced corn,
lumber, beef and pork, and–starting in
the 1690s–rice. These Carolinians had
close ties to the English planter colony
on the Caribbean island of Barbados,
which relied heavily on African slave
labor, and many were involved in the
slave trade themselves. As a result,
slavery played an important role in the
development of the Carolina colony. (It
split into North Carolina and
South Carolina in 1729.)
 In 1732, inspired by the need to build a buffer
between South Carolina and the Spanish
settlements in Florida, the Englishman James

Oglethorpe established the Georgia

colony. In many ways, Georgia’s development
mirrored South Carolina’s.

The Province of Maryland

was an English colony in North America that
existed from 1633 until 1776, when it joined the
other 12 of the 13 colonies in rebellion against
Great Britain and became the U.S. state of
Maryland.

The Maryland Colony was founded in 1633 by

George Calvert, Lord Baltimore and other colonists, at
Baltimore.
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