The Thirteen

Colonies
And the
British
Empire
(1607-1754)
Essential Question
Compare and contrast the
social, economic, and
political systems of each of
the following colonial
regions:
 New England
 Chesapeake
 South
Types of Colonial Charters
Corporate:
 Joint-stock: for-profit
Royal:
 Under direct authority of
the crown
Proprietary:
 Under individual authority,
granted ownership by crown
Early English
Settlements
Jamestown and Massachusett s Bay (1607-1632)
Jamestown
Virginia Company
Early Problems
 Settlers:
Young, single-men; Unaccustomed to work
 “Starving Time” (1609-1610)
Harsh winter

John Smith
 “He who shall not work, shall not eat.”
1st Anglo-Powhatan War (1609-1614)
 Lord de la Warr
John Rolfe
 “Father of Tobacco”
 Marriage to Pocahontas
2nd and 3rd Anglo-Powhatan Wars (1622-
1646)
Plymouth Plantation
Causes of Migration:
 Religion:
Calvinism: predestination
King James I: persecution
The Pilgrims
 “Dutchification”
 The Mayflower (1620)
Arrival at Plymouth Rock
Early Hardships
 Winter of 1620-1621
 Squanto & The Great Harvest of 1621
(“Thanksgiving”)
Leadership
 Governor William Bradford & Captain
Miles Standish
Massachusetts Bay Colony
Rise of the Puritans
 Charles I grants charter
for Massachusetts Bay
Company (1629)
John Winthrop, the
Arabella, & The “City
Upon a Hill” (1630)
 1,000  15,000 settlers
“Great Migration”
British Colonial Development
New England and the Chesapeake
Early Political Institutions
House of Burgesses (VA)
Virginia becomes Royal
Colony (1624)
House of Delegates (MD)
New England “Democracy”?
 Mayflower Compact
 Town Meetings
 Restrictions on Voting:
Freemen (land owning,
male, full church members
Maryland – The 2 Plantation Colony
nd

Cecil Calvert (Lord

Baltimore)
 Catholic
 1632 Charter for Maryland
1st Proprietary Colony
Act of Toleration (1649)
 Demand for Tobacco
plantations
 Protected Catholic minority
 Religious freedom for all
Christians
Labor Systems
Indentured Servitude
 4-7 year contracts
Headright System (VA)
 50 acres of land per
passage paid
Slavery
 1619 Dutch ship brings
first Africans
 Royal African Co. (1660)
Conflict in Virginia
Planter Aristocracy vs. Small
Farmers
 Support of Sir William Berkeley
Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)
 Nathaniel Bacon against
Jamestown
23 executed
 Results:
Highlighted class differences
Theme: colonial resistance to
royal control
Led to rise in slavery
 Development of New England
Continued religious persecution in
England
Rhode Island
 Roger Williams
Providence (1636)
 Recognized rights of American Indians
 Full religious toleration
 First Baptist church in America
 Anne Hutchinson
Antinomianism
Banished from Mass. Bay
 Charter granted to Williams (1644)
Connecticut (1665)
 Thomas Hooker (Hartford, 1636)
 Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)
New Hampshire (Royal, 1679)
Issues in New England
Weakening of the
Congregationalist Church
 Need for conversion
experience
 Halfway Covenant
Allowed for partial church
membership
New England Confederation
(1643)
 Military alliance
King Philip’s (Metacom) War
(1675-76)
The Restoration Colonies
The Carolinas and the Middle Colonies
The Carolinas
Restoration of the English
Crown (Charles II - 1660)
South Carolina (1670)
 Rice plantations, fur trade
 Barbados slave codes
 Extremely wealthy planter
aristocracy
 Charleston (major port)
North Carolina (1729)
 The “lesser”
Small farmers
More democratic, less loyal
The Middle Colonies
New York
 English seize New
Amsterdam from Peter
Stuyvesant (1664)
 Duke of York (James II)
 Extremely diverse trading
colony
New Jersey (Royal – 1702)
 Split from NY: West and
East New Jersey Combined
The Middle Colonies (continued)
Pennsylvania (1681)
 Quakers
 William Penn
 “The Holy Experiment”
Charter of Liberties (1701)
 Full freedom of religion and
unrestricted immigration
Anti-slavery
Delaware (1702)
 Penn grants separate
assembly
Georgia: The Last Colony
Established as buffer
w/Spanish Florida (1732)
James Oglethorpe
Savannah (1733)
Special Regulations:
 Slavery banned
 Drinking rum banned
Royal Colony (1752)
 Bans lifted, plantation
system ensues
The Colonial
Economy
Economic Characteristics of the
American Colonies
Mercantilism and the Empire
Mercantilism:
 Acquire gold & silver
 Export more than import
 Accumulation of wealth for the
country
Navigation Acts (1650-1673)
 Trade only w/England
 Regulated trade an prices
 Enforcement?
Salutary neglect*
Dominion of New England (1686)
 Edmond Andros
 Ended w/Glorious Revolution (1688)
The Institution of Slavery
Increased Demand:
 Reduced migration
 Dependable workforce
Impact of Bacon’s rebellion
Resistant to diseases
 Cheap labor
Large plantations
Slave Laws
 Colonial laws began to mimic
slave codes of the West
Indies
Triangular Trade
 The Middle Passage
Colonial Economies