Vocabulary:
proprietary colony
joint-stock company
indentured servant
slave code
Subsistence farming
civilization
Pilgrim
Earliest Americans
• 15-30 thousand years ago: 1st people arrived
• Transferred from nomadic to agrarian
• Complex civilizations emerge
–Civilization = highly organized society w/ advanced knowledge of trade, gov’t, arts, science
• 1st civilization: Olmec people in Mexico
• Around the same time, North American cultures were developing.
European Exploration
-After the Middle Ages, Europeans tried to find new ways to get there. This led to the discovery of a new continent
-Portugal led the drive towards Asia in the 1400’s, but it was Spain that first profited from the “new world”
Christopher Columbus
-Funded by Spain; thought you could get east by sailing west
-1492 – set off, landed on San Salvador Island
-Was he the first? NO: the Vikings landed in Canada in 1000 AD
-Why is he important?
Launched a wave of European exploration
Claimed the Caribbean and parts of Central & South America for Spain
Led the way for other explorers to take control of Florida and parts of the south
Cultural Changes
What the Europeans got from native Americans:
- New crops & farming methods
What the Native Americans got from Europeans:
- New crops, firearms, metalworking, shipbuilding, a variety of diseases, loss of lands and traditions
French Settlements
1608 – de Champlain founded Quebec
- Traded fur for $
- Became the capital of New France
Late 1600’s – expansion down the Mississippi to the Gulf Coast
- This area became Louisiana
- Grew sugar, rice, and tobacco
- Imported enslaved Africans to farm/ do field work
English Settlements
Jamestown – 1st lasting English settlement
- Funded by a group of investors who had control of the colony
- Settlers prospered with the help of natives
- Main crop: tobacco
When Virginia was flooded w/settlers, the native Americans attacked, and King James took control of the colony
Plymouth Colony
Puritan Separatists: religious group persecuted by King James
1620 – Separatists head to Jamestown to escape religious persecution
- Landed in Cape Cod, Mass, and set up own gov’t
- Mayflower Compact
Their success paved the way for other persecuted people to head to the new world
New England
1st controlled by Puritans (Massachusetts), who didn’t tolerate other religions
- This lead to the creation of new colonies
Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut: separation of church and state; religious freedom
- Believed in self-governing
Bad soil = subsistence farming (growing enough food 4 your family)
- Big $ in fishing, whaling, and timber
Relations with native Americans:
- Colonies wanted NA’s to follow their laws and customs
- Led to war; most wiped out
Middle Colonies
First settled by the Dutch – New Netherlands
- Capital: New Amsterdam
1660 – 70’s – England attacks, takes the land, renames it New York
the rest becomes New Jersey
Pennsylvania –started by Quakers seeking religious freedom
Fertile land; main crop = wheat
- Also glass & pottery
Southern Colonies
Virginia – tobacco is major crop
Maryland – a proprietary colony (owned by an individual)
North Carolina – mostly tobacco farming, hard to reach by ship
South Carolina – major city = Charleston
- Grew rice & imported deerskins
Georgia – created for 2 reasons: 1) provide a barrier between other colonies and Spanish Florida and 2) make a place for the poor could start over
Indentured servant: people who signed contracts agreeing to work for a certain # of years in return for the trip, food, clothing, and shelter
- Like a slave, but these people got their freedom eventually
- Solved the unemployment problem in England
Growing Dependence on Slavery
- As indentured servants were freed, they asked for land, and this led governments to fight the Native Americans for more land.
- After Bacon’s rebellion, slavery became more appealing because slaves were never freed, never required land, and could be used as collateral to borrow money
- Slave code: laws that kept Africans from owning property, getting an education, moving freely, or meeting in large groups
- King Charles made a deal to acquire slaves and send them to the colonies without going through the Dutch or Portuguese
Colonial Hierarchy
1. Wealthy merchants who controlled trade
2. Skilled workers, innkeepers, business owners
3. People without skills or property
-This often included immigrants from Germany, Scotland, and Ireland, and Jews
4. Indentured servants and enslaved Africans
Before the 1700’s, married women couldn’t own property or have a say in the running of their families. Single women & widows could own businesses and property, so they could be more productive members of society
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