British Colonization in North America

Overview

• Focus on the British colonies in North America.
• Key question: How and why did these colonies develop into distinct societies?

Chesapeake Colonies

• Jamestown (1607): First British colony, established with a joint stock company approach.
• Joint Stock Company: Investors pooled money to share financial risks.
• Initial focus on profit: Digging for gold/silver and building military forts.
• Challenges:
  • Famine killed nearly half of the colonists in the first two years.
  • Disease and cannibalism reported.
• Tobacco Cultivation (1612):
  • Saved the colony, introduced by John Rolfe.
  • Labor primarily by indentured servants (7-year contracts).
• Expansion leads to conflict:
  • Need for more land led to tensions with Native Americans.
  • Resulted in Bacon's Rebellion (Nathaniel Bacon): Angry farmers attacked Native Americans and Berkeley's plantations.
• Shift in labor source:
  • Elite planters sought enslaved labor to avoid future uprisings.

New England Colonies

• Settlement by Pilgrims (1620):
  • Influx of Puritan settlers seeking to escape Church of England.
  • Primary motivation: Economic reasons, not just religious freedom.
• Migration as family units:
  • Focus on creating a society rather than profit.
• Established a thriving agricultural and commercial economy post-initial hardships.

British West Indies and Southern Atlantic Coast

• Early Colonies (1620s): St. Christopher, Barbados, Nevis.
• Warm climate supports long growing seasons; tobacco as initial cash crop.
• Shift to Sugarcane (1630s):
  • Labor-intensive; increased demand for African enslaved people.
  • Harsh slave codes enacted in response to growing black population.
  • South Carolina modeled after West Indies practices.

Middle Colonies

• New York and New Jersey:
  • Export economy based on cereal crops.
  • Diverse population leading to social inequality (wealthy merchants vs. laborers).
• Pennsylvania:
  • Founded by William Penn (Quaker) promoting religious freedom.
  • Negotiated land expansion with Native Americans.

Governance Across Colonies

• Difficulty for Britain to govern colonies led to democratic self-governance.
• Examples:
  • Virginia: House of Burgesses, a representative assembly.
  • New England: Mayflower Compact and participatory town meetings.
  • Middle and Southern colonies had representative bodies dominated by elite.

Conclusion

• Distinct societies developed in British colonies but shared unusual democratic governance structures.
• Importance of understanding these differences in preparation for exams.