The Colonies

New England Colonies Jamestown settlers wanted wealth New England settlers wanted religious freedom. England had been a Protestant country since 1534 b/c King Henry VIII, broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and formed the Anglican Church. Many people dissented. Some remained Catholic. Protestants who wished to reform the Anglican Church were called Puritans. Those who sought to set up their own churches were known as Separatists.

Separatists were persecuted from England. Some fled to the Netherlands. There they found religious freedom, but no work. Worried their children were losing their religious values and their English way of life. In 1620 a group of Separatists decided to move to America. (the Pilgrims) A pilgrim is someone who undertakes a religious journey. Pilgrims got grants of land from the Virginia Company.  Ship named the Mayflower- to sail to Virginia

The Mayflower drifted off course, first land sighted was Cape Cod, north of their target. November and winter was fast approaching. They went ashore on a cold, bleak day in December at a place they called Plymouth. Plymouth was outside the territory of the Virginia Company and its laws. While they were still onboard ship, the Pilgrims signed a document they called the Mayflower Compact. This document set up an organized, orderly government. 

Each signer promised to obey the laws passed “for the general good of the colony." The Mayflower Compact was a key step in the development of representative, democratic government in America.

First winter in America, almost half the Pilgrims died. Illness, hunger, and cold to blame. Spring two Native Americans, Squanto and Samoset, befriended the colonists. They taught the Pilgrims to grow corn, beans, and pumpkins and showed the colonists where to hunt and fish. Without their help, the Pilgrims might not have survived.

They also helped make peace with the Wampanoag people who lived in the area. In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims included their new Wampanoag friends in a feast of thanksgiving. In 1629 a group of Puritans formed the Massachusetts Bay Company. Royal charter to establish a colony north of Plymouth. John Winthrop chosen as colony's governor. In 1630 Winthrop led about 900 men, women, and children to Massachusetts Bay. Settled in a place they called Boston.

1630s more than 15,000 Puritans journeyed to Massachusetts to escape religious persecution and economic hard times in England. (Known as the Great Migration) First, Winthrop made the colony's laws. 1634 settlers demanded a larger role in the government. Adult male church members were allowed to vote for the governor and for representatives to the government. Later, property ownership became a requirement for voting.

The Puritans came to America b/c of religious beliefs The Puritans came to America b/c of religious beliefs. They wanted religious freedom, but little patience for different beliefs. They criticized or persecuted people who did not agree with their views. Enforced their religious rules, which led people to form new colonies. West of Boston there was rich land better for farming. In the 1630s colonists began to settle this area.

Massachusetts minister Thomas Hooker did not like how Winthrop and other Puritan leaders ran the colony. In 1636 Hooker led his congregation to the Connecticut River Valley. There he founded the town of Hartford. Other nearby towns were soon established. Three years later these towns formed a colony called Connecticut. 1639 they adopted a plan of government called the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. 1st written constitution in America. Represented beliefs in democracy.

Minister Roger Williams founded the colony of Rhode Island. Williams felt that government should not force people to worship in a certain way. He also believed it was wrong for settlers to take land away from the Native Americans. Forced to leave Massachusetts, he found refuge with the Narragansett people. They later sold him land, he founded the town of Providence.

B/C of religious toleration policy, Rhode Island became a safe place for dissenters. It was the first place in America where people of all faiths could worship freely. In 1638 John Wheelwright led a group of dissidents from Massachusetts to found the town of Exeter in New Hampshire. New Hampshire became an independent colony in 1679.

Native Americans traded furs for settlers' goods. Conflicts arose btwn colonist and Wampanoags, Narragansett, and other groups. Usually settlers moved onto Native American lands without permission or payment. Settlers and Native Americans competed fiercely for land.

In 1675 Wampanoag leader Metacomet settlers called King Philip, waged war against the New England colonies. Metacomet enlisted the help of other Native American groups. King Philip's War raged for 14 months. In the end, the colonists defeated Metacomet. The war destroyed the power of the Native Americans in New England. Colonial settlement expanded.

The Middle Colonies By 1660, England had two groups of colonies in North America, the New England colonies, in the south was Virginia, and also the colony of Maryland, which was settled in 1634. Between these two groups of colonies were lands under Dutch control. This area was called New Netherland.

Main settlement, New Amsterdam, on Manhattan Island. Good seaport with access to the Hudson River The river served as a major transportation link to a rich land of farms, forests, and furs. New Amsterdam became a center of shipping to and from the Americas. The Dutch West India Company controlled New Netherland and wanted to increase the colony's population. Offered large grants of land to anyone who could bring at least 50 settlers to work the land. The patroons ruled like kings. They had their own courts and laws. Settlers owed the patroons labor and a share of their crops.

The English wanted to gain control of the valuable Dutch colony. England insisted it had a right to the land based on John Cabot's explorations. In 1664 the English sent a fleet to attack New Amsterdam. Peter Stuyvesant, governor of the colony, surrendered it to the English forces without a fight. England's King Charles gave the colony to his brother, the Duke of York, who renamed it New York. New York was a proprietary colony. This was a colony in which an owner, or proprietor, owned all the land and controlled the government. 1691 citizens of New York allowed to elect their legislature.

It had a diverse population made up of Dutch, German, Swedish, and Native American people. First Jewish settlers. In 1664 New York had about 8,000 residents, including at least 300 enslaved Africans. 1683 the population had swelled to about 12,000 people. It was one of the fastest-growing places in the colonies.

The Duke of York decided to divide his colony The Duke of York decided to divide his colony. The land between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers given to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. The two proprietors named their colony New Jersey. To attract settlers, the proprietors offered large tracts of land and also promised freedom of religion, trial by jury, and a representative assembly. New Jersey had a diverse population.

No harbors so they made few profits. Both eventually sold their shares in the colony. By 1702, New Jersey had become a royal colony. However, the colonists continued to make local laws. In 1680 William Penn, a wealthy English Quaker, received the land in payment for a debt King Charles owed Penn's father. Pennsylvania, or “Penn's Woods," stretched inland from the Delaware River. The new colony was nearly as large as England.

A Holy Experiment The Quakers, or Society of Friends, believed that everyone was equal. People could follow their own “inner light" rather than the teachings of a religious leader. Quakers were also pacifists. Philadelphia, a name that means “city of brotherly love." Penn designed the city himself. He also wrote Pennsylvania's first constitution.

Negotiated treaties with Natives- it was their land. 1683 more than 3,000 English, Welsh, Irish, Dutch, and German settlers had arrived. In 1701, in the Charter of Privileges, Penn granted colonists the right to elect representatives to the legislature. Philadelphia quickly became America's most prosperous city and its most popular port. People from Sweden settled south of Pennsylvania. Area known as Delaware. Functioned under Pennsylvania government.