Early Colonial America

Planting Colonies in
North America, 1588-1701

Prof. S. Levy
Northampton Community College
Focus Questions
 How were European colonies established in
North America?
 What approaches distinguished the Spanish,
Dutch, French, and English from each other?
 How did contact change both indigenous and
European cultures?

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
The Spanish Colonies
 Spanish settle in Florida 1565
 Catholic priests converted natives. Pueblos
said “You Christians are crazy.” Why?
 Why didn’t the Spanish try harder to settle
North America?

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
New Netherland / The Dutch
 What is the economic theory of
Mercantilism?
 Trading and Economic Super Power
 1st Stock Exchange
 Dutch East / West India Company
 In present-day New York, (Henry Hudson, 1609)
 Iroquois important middlemen of the fur trade
with the Dutch.
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Prof S. Levy
The English Settlements
in
North America
The “Lost Colony”
Roanoke, North Carolina 1585
 Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Raleigh
 Queen Elizabeth “The Virgin Queen”
 “Croatoan”
 Theories

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Prof S. Levy
The Early Chesapeake

 First Permanent Settlement

 The Founding of Jamestown, 1607
 King James I
 Virginia Company

Early sketch of Jamestown by

Spanish Ambassador, 1609
(Library of Congress)

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Prof S. Levy
 John Smith
 24,000 Algonquian
 Chief Powhatan

Captain John Smith

(Portrait Gallery)

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Prof S. Levy
 The Early Chesapeake    
 Reorganization and Expansion
 The “Starving Time” 1609-1610
 Why isn’t this the first “Thanksgiving?”

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
 The Early Chesapeake    
 Reorganization and Expansion
 The “Starving Time”
 The Tobacco Economy

The Growth of
the Chesapeake,
1607-1750

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
 The Early Chesapeake    
 Reorganization and
Expansion
 The “Starving Time”
 The Tobacco Economy
 The “Headright System”

The Non-Indian Population of

the Chesapeake, 1607-1700
Northampton Community College
Prof S. Levy
 The Early Chesapeake    
 Reorganization and Expansion
 The “Starving Time”
 The Tobacco Economy
 The “Headright System”
 Birth of American Slavery 1619

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
Pocahontas “The True Story”
What messages do these conflicting images convey to you?

Chiefs daughter is
captured and held
hostage
Learns English
Converts to
Christianity
Marries John
Rolfe
Dies of disease in
England Her European Portrait
Hollywood Image

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
Maryland
 In 1632, King Charles I granted a colony to
the Calvert family, the Lords Baltimore.

 The Calverts were Catholics and encouraged

others Catholics to migrate there.

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
The New England
Colonies
Protestant Reformation
 Protestant Reformation
 John Huss (Bohemia, Indulgences, Crusades)
 Martin Luther (Indulgences, Bible, 95 Thesis)
 John Calvin (Predestination)
 They wanted to purify and reform the English
church.
 King Henry VIII (His six wives)

 Persecution of the Puritans and disputes between the

kings of England and Parliament provided context
for migration of Puritans to New England.

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
Plymouth Colony and the
Mayflower Compact
 Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims.
 In 1620, they sailed for America and signed the
Mayflower Compact, the first document of self-
government in America, before landing at Plymouth.
 With help from the Indians, the Plymouth colony
eventually established a community of self-sufficient
farms.
 This is the event we celebrate as Thanksgiving

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
The Massachusetts Bay Colony
 In 1629 a group of wealthy Puritans found the
Massachusetts Bay Colony.
 Led by John Winthrop
 Between 1629 and 1643, approximately 20,000
people relocated to Massachusetts.
 Massachusetts was governed locally by a
governor and elected representatives.

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
“Transplantations and Borderlands”

“For we must Consider that we

shall be as a City upon a Hill, the
eyes of all people are upon us.”

- John Winthrop

Analyze the historical documents “A

Model of Christian Charity” 1630

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
Anne Hutchinson

Women who
challenged the
status quo on
women as
teachers and
preachers.

What was her crime?

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
“Transplantations and Borderlands”

 The Growth of New England    

 Settlers and Natives 

The Non-Indian
Population of
New England,
1620-1700

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
 The Salem Witch Trials, 1692
(chapter 3)
 Salem, Massachusetts
 Samuel Parris, Reverend and village minister
 Accusers came from families supporting Parris
 Accused were old women opposed to Parris
 Indian wars on frontier
 19 hanged (women and some men)
 Trials: last gasp of Puritan rule

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
 Artist’s depiction Profof Salem witch trials
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S. Levy
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
 Cotton Mather’s Wonders of the
Invisible World added to the
hysteria surrounding the witch
trials
(Increase Mather, his father, was
the President of Harvard and
helped to bring trials to an end.)

Northampton Community College

Prof S. Levy
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
The Founding of Pennsylvania
 In 1681, King Charles II repaid a debt
to William Penn's father by granting
the younger Penn a huge territory west
of the Delaware River.
 Penn was a Quaker and established his
colony as a "holy experiment."
 Penn purchased the land from the
Algonquians, dealing fairly with the
Indians.
Northampton Community College
Prof S. Levy
The Walking Purchase, 1737
 Penn’s descendents fraudulently claimed that
the Lenape Indian ancestors had signed a
treaty selling all the land a man would walk in
a day and a half.
 Hired 3 runners who traveled a marked trail.
 Swindled the Indians out of 70 miles, over a
million acres that include Pike, Monroe,
Carbon, Schuylkill, Northampton, Lehigh,
and Bucks counties.
Northampton Community College
Prof S. Levy
 Metacom’s (or King Philip’s) War
 New England settlers vs. Indians
 Wampanoags
 Metacom (King Philip)
 Firearms and iron forges
 Great Swamp Fight (1675)
 Indian allies of Egnlish
 Mohawks, Mohegans, Iroquois Confederacy
(often fought other Indians)
Northampton Community College
Prof S. Levy
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676
 Nathaniel Bacon, former indentured servant
 Attacks Indians to expand territory
 Resents the House of Burgesses
 Drives Gov. Berkeley from Virginia
 Died of dysentery, his rebellion collapsed.
 Planters feared former servants would remain
disruptive and turned to African slave labor.
THE END
Northampton Community College
Prof S. Levy