1. The Planting of English America
Chapter 2
The Planting of English America
1500–1733

2. I. England’s Imperial Stirrings
In the 1500s England made feeble efforts to develop overseas colonies.
In the 1530s Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church, launching the English Protestant Reformation.
In 1558 Henry’s daughter, the Protestant Elizabeth I, became queen and established Protestantism in England.

3. Elizabeth I (1533–1603), by
George Gower, ca. 1588
In this “Armada Portrait” of
Queen Elizabeth I, the artist
proclaims her the Empress of
the World. She was accused of
being vain, fickle, prejudiced,
and miserly, but Elizabeth
proved to be an unusually
successful ruler. She never
married (hence, the “Virgin
Queen”), although many
romances were rumored and
royal matches schemed.
p26

4. II. Elizabeth Energizes England
In 1577 English semipiratical “sea dogs” under Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe.
The first English attempt at colonization was off the coast of Newfoundland.
In 1585 Sir Walter Raleigh landed on North Carolina’s Roanoke Island.
Virginia was named in honor of Elizabeth, the “Virgin Queen.”

5. II. Elizabeth Energizes England (cont.)
In 1588 England defeated the Spanish Armada, marking the end of Spain’s imperial dreams.
After victory, the English started to become masters of the world oceans—with important consequences for the American people.
England had strong national characteristics.

6. III. England on the Eve of Empire
England experienced strong economic and social changes and a “surplus population.”
Laws of primogeniture meant that only eldest sons were eligible to inherit landed estates.
By the early 1600s, the joint-stock company was perfected.
Peace with Spain provided the opportunity for English colonization.

7. Sir Walter Ralegh (Raleigh) (ca. 1552–1618), 1588 A
dashing courtier who was one of Queen Elizabeth’s
favorites for his wit, good looks, and courtly manners, he
launched important colonizing failures in the New World.
For this portrait, Raleigh presented himself as the queen’s
devoted servant, wearing her colors of black and white
and her emblem of a pearl in his left ear. After seducing
(and secretly marrying) one of Queen Elizabeth’s maids
of honor, he fell out of favor but continued his colonial
ventures in the hopes of challenging Catholic Spain’s
dominance in the Americas. He was ultimately beheaded
for treason.
p28

8. IV. England Plants the Jamestown Seedling
1603: James I became king of England.
1606: Virginia Company of London received a charter to settle in the New World.
This charter is significant; guaranteed settlers the same rights as Englishmen.
On May 24, 1607, the Virginia colony of Jamestown was founded (see Map 2.1).
John Smith was key to the colony’s survival.

9. Map 2.1 Early Maryland and Virginia
Map 2.1 p29

10. V. Cultural Clashes in the Chesapeake
In 1607 Chieftain Powhatan dominated the James River area.
In 1610 Lord De La Warr arrived from England with orders to deal with the Indians.
In 1614 the First Anglo-Powhatan War ended, sealed by Pocahontas’s marriage to colonist John Rolfe—the first known interracial union in Virginia.

11. V. Cultural Clashes in the Chesapeake (cont.)
Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1644) was Indians’ last attempt to dislodge Virginians.
The Powhatans’ misfortune was the three Ds: disease, disorganization, and disposability.
“Powhatan’s Confederacy” lacked unity to oppose the disciplined whites.
The Powhatans served no economic function for colonists.

12. A Carolina Indian Woman and Child, by John
White The artist was a member of the Raleigh
expedition of Notice that the Indian girl
carries a European doll, illustrating the mingling
of cultures that had already begun.
p30

13. VI. The Indians’ New World
Indigenous people’s destinies had changed.
The shock of large-scale European colonization disrupted Native American life.
Horses, diseases, trade, and the expanding Atlantic economy transformed Indian life.
A new middle ground compelled both Europeans and Native Americans to accommodate each other.

14. VII. Virginia: Child of Tobacco
In 1612 John Rolfe perfected tobacco culture.
Virginia’s prosperity was built on this “bewitching weed,” but King Nicotine depleted the soil.
Besides land, tobacco required lots of labor.
In 1619 a Dutch warship landed at Jamestown and sold some twenty Africans, planting the seeds of North American slavery.

15. Advertisement for a Voyage to America, 1609
p32

16. VII. Virginia: Child of Tobacco (cont.)
In 1619 representative self-government was born in primitive Virginia.
The House of Burgesses was an assembly or miniature parliament in the New World.
James I grew increasingly hostile to Virginia.
In 1624 he revoked the company’s charter and Virginia became a royal colony.

17. VIII. Maryland: Catholic Haven
1634: Maryland, 2nd plantation colony, was founded by Lord Baltimore partly as a refuge for Catholics.
Resentment between Catholics and Protestants flared into open rebellion.
The Baltimore family for a time lost its proprietary rights, but the colony prospered.
As in Virginia, indentured servants initially provided labor for the tobacco economy.

18. VIII. Maryland: Catholic Haven (cont.)
Lord Baltimore permitted unusual freedom of worship at the outset.
In 1649 the local assembly passed the famed Act of Toleration guaranteeing toleration to all Christians.
However, it decreed the death penalty for Jews and atheists, who denied the divinity of Jesus.

19. IX. The West Indies: Way Station to Mainland America
England secured claims to several West Indian islands, including Jamaica in 1655.
Their economy was based on sugar.
Had different requirements than tobacco.
Many enslaved Africans were imported to work the sugar plantations.
Black slaves eventually outnumbered white settlers.

20. (above) Sugar Mill in Brazil, by Frans Post, ca. 1640;
(left) Saccharum Officinarum (sugar cane)
p34

21. IX. The West Indies: Way Station to Mainland America (cont.)
1661: Barbados slave code defined slaves’ legal status and their masters’ prerogatives.
Profitable sugar plantations crowded out most other forms of Caribbean agriculture.
1670: Displaced settlers from Barbados arrived in Carolina with their slaves.
1696: Carolina adopted the Barbados slave code, which eventually shaped slave laws throughout the mainland.

22. X. Colonizing the Carolinas
In the 1640s civil war convulsed England.
After 1660 empire building resumed during the Restoration period (see Table 2.2).
In 1670 Carolina was created, and it formed close links with the English West Indies.
Rice emerged as its principal export crop.
Charles Town was busiest seaport in South; Carolina survived Spanish and Indian attacks.

23. XI. The Emergence of North Carolina
North Carolina has been called “the quintessence of Virginia’s discontent.”
“Squatters” (newcomers without legal rights to the soil) raised crops on small farms.
Distinctive traits developed.
In 1712 North Carolina officially separated from South Carolina (see Map 2.2).

24. Map 2.2 Early Carolina and Georgia Settlements
Map 2.2 p36

25. XI. The Emergence of North Carolina (cont.)
North Carolina shared with tiny Rhode Island several distinctions:
Most democratic
Most independent-minded
Least aristocratic of original thirteen English colonies

26. XI. The Emergence of North Carolina (cont.)
Relations between Indians and Europeans were bloody
But tribes in the interior remained strong.

27. XII. Late-Coming Georgia: The Buffer Colony
In 1733 Georgia was founded as a buffer to protect the Carolinas.
It was named in honor of King George II of England.
Launched by a group of philanthropists, it would also serve as a haven for debtors.
Georgia was called “the Charity Colony.”

28. XII. Late-Coming Georgia: The Buffer Colony (cont.)
Georgia founders wanted no slavery.
James Oglethorpe, a key founder, helped ensure the colony’s survival.
Savannah, like Charleston, became a melting-pot community.
John Wesley served as a missionary.
Georgia grew more slowly than other colonies.

29. XIII. The Plantation Colonies
England’s southern mainland colonies shared:
Devotion to exporting agricultural products, mainly tobacco and rice
Slavery
Slow growth of cities
Religious toleration
A tendency to expand

30. Map 2.3 Iroquois Lands and European Trade Centers,
ca. 1590–1650
Map 2.3 p38

31. The Longhouse (Reconstruction) This photo shows a modern-day reconstruction of an Iroquois
Indian longhouse typical of the kind built by many tribes in the northeastern United States and parts of
Canada. Bent saplings and sheets of elm bark made for sturdy, weather-tight shelters. Longhouses were
typically furnished with deerskin-covered bunks and shelves for storing baskets, pots, fur pelts, and corn.
p39

32. Which of the following did NOT influence the dramatic rise of England’s colonization efforts in the early 1600s?
Population growth in England
English land shortages
Peace between Britain & Spain
Promised rewards for explorers from the crown
Desire for religious freedom

33. The struggling Virginia economy was ultimately saved by:
Peace treaties with local Native American nations
The slave trade
Rice cultivation
An influx of large numbers of new settlers
The development of tobacco

34. The primary labor source for the early development of the plantation colonies of Virginia & Maryland was:
Families who settled in the area
Indentured servants
Slaves brought from Africa
Prisoners
Second and third sons of English lords

35. Following questions refer to the excerpt below.
“English expectations of the New World and its inhabitants died hard. America was supposed to be a land of abundance, peopled by natives who would not only share that abundance with the English but increase it under English direction. Englishmen simply did not envisage a need to work for the mere purpose of staying alive. The problem of survival as they saw it was at best political and at worst military.
“Although Englishmen long remained under the illusion that the Indians would eventually become useful English subjects, it became apparent fairly early that Indian labor was not going to sustain the founders of Jamestown [Virginia].”
— Edmund S. Morgan, historian, “The Labor Problem at Jamestown, 1607–18,” published in 1971

36. In the first half of the 1600s, American Indians in Virginia and Maryland most typically responded to the English colonization described in the excerpt by:
Organizing communities to adopt English customs
Defending their territory against the English
Voluntarily moving farther west, away from the English
Allying with the French to counter English encroachment

37. Which of the following was a long-term result of the situation in Jamestown described in the excerpt?
The rapid growth of family-centered towns & villages
The prioritizing of trade and shipbuilding over agricultural production
The rise of the plantation system and the use of African slaves
The removal of Spanish and French military threats to regional control