Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Early American Culture Slides
Early American Culture Slides
New World
One gain from the Crusades in the late Middle Ages was
the “recovery” of copies of the writings of Aristotle,
Plutarch, and other ancient writers. The dissemination of
these encouraged new forms of learning.
Marco Polo
In the 1300s, a manuscript account
of a journey to China, written by
Marco Polo (left) was read by many
scholars and merchants in Europe.
While some are still uncertain that
Polo ever actually traveled to China,
many were excited by his
descriptions of the great wealth of
the Chinese cities and the cities of
the Middle East. Ships from the
Italian port cities now began to
engage in trade with ports on the
eastern Mediterranean, purchasing
goods and information from Asia
and the ‘silk road’ trade.
New Trade and Trade Routes
Some early explorers, like Walter Raleigh (right) and his half
brother Humphrey Gilbert thought the New World offered a
chance to create a new society free of the Old World’s vices.
Promoting Colonies
Early attempts by England to establish
colonies failed. A colony at “Roanoke”
on the Carolina coast failed when most
of the settlers returned to England after a
difficult winter. The group left behind
simply disappeared. Plans for other
attempts collapsed for want of funds.
Richard Hakluyt, an English promoter of
colonies, collected accounts of English
explorations and published these in the
1580s in an attempt to maintain
momentum for a colony supported by
the government.
How Colonies Began
A successful colony required funding, ships and supplies,
trained soldiers for protection and a willing group of settlers.
The English economy was growing in the late 1500s was
growing so few wanted to colonize for economic reasons.
War with Spain also slowed the colonization plans.
The Crown did not wish to pay for colonies, so instead
offered ‘charters’ (legal and economic privileges) to private
investors who would establish a colony.
The most likely groups for finding colonists were religious
dissenters – Protestants who felt the Church of England
(Anglican Church) was not sufficiently “reformed” from
Catholicism. Dissenters found a ‘new world’ to be a chance
for creating a new religious community.
British Society
• British society in 1600 was highly structured, with very
distinct social classes.
•The earliest settlers (at Jamestown in 1607) were
“gentlemen,” members of the British gentry class. A few
brought servants with them, and the rest of the group were
primarily soldiers, hired to provide protection.
•At Jamestown, may of the gentlemen hired Native
Americans to do their heavy labor.
•Later Jamestown settlers were made up of a wider range of
social types – laborers, farmers, artisans, merchants, and
more gentry. Most others treated the gentry with deference
(respect and politeness).
Pilgrims-Puritans
Two groups of potential
colonists were the Pilgrims
and the Puritans. The
Pilgrims were a Protestant
group who had emigrated
to Holland, but were
considering a further move
to American because they
found the Dutch culture too
“liberal.”
The Puritans were a much larger group. Their leaders were
largely gentlemen with some wealth and influence in English
society. They believed the Church of England was “too Popish.”
Neither the Puritans nor the Pilgrims believed in the tolerance of
other faiths (or each other).
Jamestown
Archaeologists have
found much evidence at
Jamestown to indicate
the importance of
defense – remains of
pikes (left) and a bullet
mold (right) that suggest
that John Smith, one of
the military leaders was
right when he wrote that
fear of the Natives was a
prime concern.
Starvation