The First English Settlements

England Seeks Colonies Like most of Europe in the Age of Exploration, England was a monarchy and looking for new lands, the difference was that the power of the king/queen was limited by a law making body called Parliament England began to establish colonies in the New World in the late 1500’s, both colonies were set up an island in present day North Carolina The 1st colony at Roanoke Island was created in 1585 and had to be abandoned a year later, the 2nd colony on the same island was built in 1587 and vanished without a trace, to this day we still do not know exactly what happened – most evidence would suggest that the English colonists moved inland with the present day Lumbee Tribe south of Fayetteville

Founding Jamestown In 1607, a group of wealthy people made a new attempt to establish an English colony in the New World. Eager to wealth in the New World, they created the Virginia Company of London, some hoped to find gold and silver, some hoped to trade furs with the natives, and others wanted lumber to ship back to England King James I backed the expedition and granted the VCL a charter to establish “Virginia” in the name of England Jamestown barely survived it’s 1st year due to disease, harsh climate, and lack of farming skills, The colonists found no gold and had to rely on a local Indian Chief named Powhatan for survival As condition continued to worsen in Jamestown, John Smith was sent by the king to establish order, secure the land and ensure the survival of the colonists, he quickly enforced laws such as “He who works not, eats not” Under Smith’s firm leadership, Jamestown began to thrive, new colonists were arriving by the hundreds bringing badly needed European supplies with them

Jamestown Prospers After John Smith returns to England, Jamestown goes through a long era of regression, starvation and lawlessness Colonists are overly lazy and see themselves as above having to do manual labor, Jamestown appears to on the verge of collapse when a new crop – tobacco – is found in 1612, by 1620 Jamestown is the most successful and wealthiest colony for any European country Jamestown is doing so well that the colony developed a ruling body in Virginia away from London “The House of Burgesses” With the success of tobacco farming and money now flowing through Virginia, the Dutch begin to arrive with ships filled with African Slaves for sale

The Plymouth Colony During the 1500’s, England allowed for the punishment of it’s people based on Religion In 1530, Henry VIII became King of England and required all citizens to follow the Anglican Church or face death, those who did not follow the Anglicans were called separatists and fled to other European nations for survival. By 1610, many English separatists had settled in Holland and while they were allowed to practice their views on Christianity as they wanted, over time new laws threatened to punish anyone in Holland who did not follow their new views on religion Fearing for their lives, many of those separatists living in Holland decided to leave for the new Virginia Colony in 1620, they became known as “The Pilgrims”

The Plymouth Colony In September of 1620, about 100 pilgrims sailed for Virginia, however severe storms took them off course by hundreds of miles to the north in what is present day Massachusetts They called their new home Plymouth after the city in England where they originally left home Because they landed out of Virginia the Pilgrims did not believe they had to obey Virginia Company Laws and decided to govern themselves with the “Mayflower Pact” The first year in Plymouth was extremely difficult, food ran out, disease was widespread and isolation from other humans took a mental toll, ½ of all Pilgrims died the first year alone Luckily a local native tribe took pity on the Pilgrims and offered them food, shelter and training on how to farm the land, the most famous native to help was Squanto who brought seeds to sustain the group another year on their own After the 1st successful year, the Pilgrims decided to set aside one day a year to give thanks for their survival, this became the Thanksgiving Holiday celebrated in America every November