Colonial America
Discovery:
-Christopher Colombus:
-born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451
-left Spain, with three ships (Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria), in August 1492 with 90 sailors
-October 12, 1492: Colombus went ashore in the Bahamas, at San Salvador and claimed it for Spain
-believing he had reached the East Indies he called the native people Indians
-April 1493: Colombus returned to Spain
-was given the titles ˝Admiral of the ocean Sea˝ and ˝Viceroy and Governor of the Indies.˝
-Amerigo Vespucci:
-1499: (Portuguese expeditor) he sailed along the coast of South America
-concluded that the land he had explored was a vast new continent – a New World
-1504: Vespucci´s sensational account, which he purposely redated 1497, was published, and he erroneously received credit for reaching the mainland of the New World before Colombus
-German mapmakers named the New World ˝America˝
Southern Colonies:
1.) Virginia
-1578: Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh tried to plant a permanent English colony in North America
-1587: Raleigh sent 117 people to settle on Roanoke Island -> named the land ˝Virginia˝ in honor of the ˝Virgin Queen,˝ Elizabeth I
-1588: English ships returned to Roanoke, found none of the settlers, the only clue left behind was a word – Croatoan (name of nearby Indians)
-the fate of the ˝Lost Colony˝ remains a mistery.
-1606: King James I created the Virginia Company (from two separate groups of merchants) -> two divisions: Virginia Company of London, Virginia Company of Plymouth
-1607: London Company sought a more secure place for settlement -> along the James River they founded Jamestown (naming both the river and the town for their king)
-Captain John Smith:
-led the colony through the ˝starving time,˝ the winter of 1609 to 1610
-injured in a gunpowder explosion, had return to England in 1609
-1624: London Company lost its charter -> King James I dissolved the company and took control of the colony
-settlers learnt to raise new crops: corn, bean, squash, and tobacco
-tobacco:
-introduced by the Indians, became popular in England
-King James I wrote: ˝a custom Loathsome to the eye, hateful to the Nose, harmfulle to the Braine, daungerous to the Lungs.˝
-promise of free farmland attracted many people -> those who could not pay their own way became indentured servants (working from four to seven years) -> payed off their passage across the Atlantic -> after period of indenture, they were free to farm their own farms
-1619: a Dutch warship brought 20 enslaved Africans to Jamestown
-1661: slavery was first recognized in Virginia law
-1662: Virginia law declared -> the status of a newborn child depended on the status of the mother
-African slavery expanded rapidly in Virginia after 1670
-until 1619: Virginia had been strictly ruled by a council and an appointed governor (absolute power) -> 1619: London Company permitted the first representative assembly, the House of Burgesses -> burgesses and a council (appointed by the governor) together had power to make laws
Other Southern Colonies:
2.) Maryland
-1632: King Charles I gave George Calvert (Lord Baltimore) land north of Virginia
-Calvert became proprietor of the colony
-1634: Cecil Calvert named it after his Catholic Queen, Henrietta Maria
-the Calverts intended Maryland to be a refuge for Catholics
-soon more Protestants than Catholics were arriving -> to protect Catholics from persecution, Cecil offered religious freedom to all Christian settlers
-1649: Religious Toleration Act: the legislative assembly of Maryland affirmed this freedom (first of its kind in America)
-Maryland also grew tobacco
3.),4.) North and South Carolina
-1663: eight nobles received from Charles II a grant to settle Carolina
-North Carolina: principal exports became naval stores – tar, pitch, and turpentine – products of its pine forests that are used in ship-building.
-1669, Southern Carolina: first English colonists came from Barbados to found the only major city in the South, Charles Town (present-day Charleston)
-sugar plantations, rice-growing, enslaved Africans
-Eliza Lucas: introduced the growing of indigo, a plant that produced a blue dye -> indigo became a cash crop grown for export
-Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper: proprietor -> persuaded John Locke (English political philosopher) to write a framework of government for South Carolina -> result: The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
-1729: the king made both Carolinas royal colonies.
5.) Georgia
-last of the 13 English colonies -> named after King George II
-James Oglethorpe: proprietor (a wealthy philanthropist and soldier)
-first settlement, founded in 1733, was Savannah
-Oglethorpe governed with strict controls -> forbade slavery and rum, controlled land sales
-colonists were given an elected assembly -> Georgia failed to prosper
-control was returned to the king in 1752.
New England:
6.) Massachusetts
-some Anglicans, called Puritans, believed that the Church of England had not done enough ˝to purify˝ itself of all symbols of Catholic worship -> most Puritans wanted to reform the Church of England
-Separatists believed: it was better to separate themselves entirely and to form their own church
-1607: a group of separatists (to be known as Pilgrims) left England to escape persecution -> settled in Holland
-1619: the Pilgrims secured a grant of land in Virginia from the London Company
-September 1620: 102 people set sail on the Mayflower from Plymouth, England
-November: the ship landed at Cape Cod on the Massachusetts coast
-they had no charter for an area outside the control of the London Company -> the Pilgrims drew up and signed the Mayflower Compact (an agreement to live under the laws of the community)
-December 25: they began to build the first large house for common use, at Plymouth -> they also had their ˝starving time˝
-March 16, 1621: Samoset and Squanto (an Abnaki Indian) walked into the Plymouth settlement and called out ˝welcome˝ in English
-settlers would not have survived without their help: they taught the settlers which plants were poisonous, and which had medicinal powers, how to plant Indian corn, and to plant other crops with the corn
-Pilgrims had much to celebrate: had raised enough crops to keep them alive during the long coming winter, were at peace with their Indian neighbors
-Pilgrim Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native Americans
-1817: New York State had adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom
-1863: President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of Thanksgiving -> fourth Thursday of each November
-1621: survivors elected Bradford governor
-1691: became part of the larger Massachusetts Bay Colony
-1625: beginnig of the great Puritan migration
-first governor of Massachusetts: John Winthorp -> transformed the Massachusetts Bay Company from a trading company into a commonwealth (self-governing political unit) -> made up the General Court
-1631: a law gave all Puritan men (church members) admission to the General Court as freemen
7.), 8.), 9.) Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut
-Roger Williams: 1636 -> started the colony of Rhode Island on land purchased from the Native Americans -> new colony (chartered in 1644) welcomed Jews as well as Christians -> religious freedom
-1637: Reverend John Wheelwright -> expelled from Massachusetts for criticizing Puritan teaching -> settled in New Hampshire -> created and signed the Exeter Compact -> set up a civil government
-1636: Thomas Hooker (Puritan minister) settled the valley of the Connecticut River
-1639: Fundamental Orders of Connecticut <- first written constitution
The Middle Colonies:
10.) New York
-1664: King Charles II granted James, the Duke of York, the land west and south of New England, from the connecticut River to the Delaware River, called New Netherland
-1664: Duke of York sent a fleet to capture the settlement of New Amsterdam
-Peter Stuyvesant: Dutch governor of New Netherland, tried to defend the colony -> was forced to surrender New Netherland
-Duke of York did not hesitate to change the colony´s name to New York.
-1685: Duke of York became King James II, made New York a royal colony
11.) New Jersey
-1664: James II gave New Jersey to John Lord Berkeley and to George Carteret -> offered religious freedom, large land grants, and the right for landowners to elect a legislative assembly
-1738: was given its own governor.
12.), 13.) Pennsylvania and Delaware
-William Penn: wanted to start a colony in America that would serve as a refuge for persecuted Quakers (Quakers were considered religious radicals in England because they believed that paid clergy were unnecessary and that every person could know God´s will through his or her ˝inner light˝. They also refused to perform military service, or to swear oaths. They were detested in England and persecuted as anarchists in America.)
-Penn became the proprietor of ˝Penn´s Woods˝ (Pennsylvania)
-1682: a plan for a ˝city of brotherly love˝ was worked out -> Philadelphia
-Mason and Dixon line: became famous as the dividing line between slave states and nonslave states
-1682 William Penn bought the three counties south of Pennsylvania -> Delaware -> until the American Revolution, the governor of Pennsylvania also served as the governor of Delaware.
Colonial Social Classes:
-upper class: socially superior by law or custom
-New England: merchants, shipowners, clergy
-South: great landowners
-only upper-class men could wear silver buttons and upper-class women and girls could wear silk dresses
-social rank was indicated on marriage certificates, tombstones
-bottom of society: indentured servants
-1740s: Great Awakening -> Puritan ministers began to preach sermons that warned of the impending dangers of hell (influenced by Jonathan Edwards of Northampton)
Schooling & Press:
-1647: Massachusetts General School Act -> stated two principles of education: local communities have a duty to set up schools, and this duty is enforced by law
-Harvard College: founded in 1636 in Massachusetts by John Harvard
-College of William and Mary: established in Virginia
-Collegiate School of Connecticut (Yale College), College of New Jersey, King´s College (Columbia University, NY), Queen´s College (Rutgers, NJ)
-expensive paper and type -> small reading public in America -> books came from Britain
-1704: first successful newspaper
-Peter Zenger: -> New York Weekly Journal (1733)
-1735: he accused the governor of corruption -> was brought to trial on a charge of libel -> was acquitted
-first landmark in the developement of free press in America.
The Road to Revolution:
-series of laws (beginning in 1651): Trade and Navigation Acts
-Navigation Act of 1651: all goods shipped between England and the colonies had to be carried on ships built either in England or in the colonies
-Molasses Act of 1733: put a heavy tax on the importation of sugar and molasses from any other place
-Woolen act of 1699: forbade the colonies to export woolen goods
-Hat Act of 1732: made it illegal for hatmakers in the colonies to sell their goods outside the colonies
-Iron act of 1750: restricted the manufacture of iron goods in the colonies
-Proclamation Act of 1763: forbade settlements west of the Allegheny Mountains ( Appalachians )
-1765: Satmp Act -> direct tax (tax paid directly to the government rather than being included in the price of goods) -> required that stamps be placed on many kinds of articles -> boycotts
-As a response -> 1773: Boston Tea Party -> thousands of pounds of tea were thrown into the Boston Harbor
-Parliament´s response: Coercive Acts (˝Intolerable Acts˝)
-Colonists´ response: First Continental Congress (1774, Philadelphia) -> second Continental Congress (1775, Philadelphia)
-July 4, 1776: Declaration of Independence -> free and independent states are officially called the United States of America
