Slide 1: The Settlement
of the
Chesapeake
Slide 2: Virginia
Slide 3: The Charter of the Virginia Company:
Guaranteed to colonists the same rights as Englishmen as if they had stayed in England.
This provision was incorporated into future colonists’ documents.
Colonists felt that, even in the Americas, they had the rights of Englishmen! English Colonization
Slide 4: Late 1606 VA Co. sends out 3 ships
Spring 1607 land at mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
Attacked by Indians and move on.
May 24, 1607 about 100 colonists [all men] land at Jamestown, along banks of James River
Easily defended, but swarming with disease-causing mosquitoes. England Plants the Jamestown “Seedling”
Slide 5: Jamestown Settlement, 1609
Slide 6: Chesapeake Bay Geographic/environmental problems??
Slide 7: Jamestown Fort & Settlement Map
Slide 8: Jamestown Fort & Settlement(Computer Generated)
Slide 9: Jamestown Housing
Slide 10: Jamestown Settlement
Slide 11: Jamestown Chapel, 1611
Slide 12: 1606-1607 40 people died on the voyage to the New World.
1609 another ship from England lost its leaders and supplies in a shipwreck off Bermuda.
Settlers died by the dozens!
“Gentlemen” colonists would not work themselves.
Game in forests & fish in river uncaught.
Settlers wasted time looking for gold instead of hunting or farming. The Jamestown Nightmare
Slide 13: Captain John Smith:The Right Man for the Job?? There was no talk…but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold…
Slide 14: Pocahontas A 1616 engraving Pocahontas “saves” Captain John Smith
Slide 15: English Migration: 1610-1660
Slide 16: River Settlement Pattern Large plantations [>100 acres].
Widely spread apart [>5 miles]. Social/EconomicPROBLEMS???
Slide 17: Jamestown Colonization Pattern:1620-1660
Slide 18: High Mortality Rates The “Starving Time”:
1607: 104 colonists
By spring, 1608: 38 survived
1609: 300 more immigrants
By spring, 1610: 60 survived
1610 – 1624: 10,000 immigrants
1624 population: 1,200
Adult life expectancy: 40 years
Death of children before age 5: 80%
Slide 19: “Widowarchy” High mortality among husbands and fathers left many women in the Chesapeake colonies with unusual autonomy and wealth!
Slide 20: Chief Powhatan Powhatan Confederacy
Powhatan dominated a few dozen small tribes in the James River area when the English arrived.
The English called allIndians in the areaPowhatans.
Powhatan probably sawthe English as allies in his struggles to control other Indian tribes in the region.
Slide 21: Powhatan Confederacy
Slide 22: PowhatanIndian Village
Slide 23: Indian Foods
Slide 24: Relations between Indians & settlers grew worse.
General mistrust because of different cultures & languages.
English raided Indian food supplies during the starving times.
1610-1614 First Anglo-Powhatan War
De La Warr had orders to make war on the Indians.
Raided villages, burned houses, took supplies, burned cornfields. Culture Clash in the Chesapeake
Slide 25: Smith’s Portrayal of Native Americans
Slide 26: 1614-1622 peace between Powhatans and the English.
1614 peace sealed by the marriage of Pocahontas to Englishman John Rolfe.
1622-1644 periodic attacks between Indians and settlers.
1622 Indians attacked the English, killing 347 [including John Rolfe].
Virginia Co. called for a “perpetual war” against the Native Americans.
Raids reduced native population and drove them further westward. Culture Clash in the Chesapeake
Slide 27: Powhatan Uprisingof 1622
Slide 28: 1644-1646 Second Anglo-Powhatan War
Last effort of natives to defeat English.
Indians defeated again.
Peace Treaty of 1646
Removed the Powhatans from their original land.
Formally separated Indian and English settlement areas! Culture Clash in the Chesapeake
Slide 29: John Rolfe What finally made the colony prosperous??
Slide 30: Tobacco Plant Virginia’s gold and silver. -- John Rolfe, 1612
Slide 31: Early Colonial Tobacco 1618 — Virginia produces 20,000 pounds of tobacco.
1622 — Despite losing nearly one-third of its colonists in an Indian attack, Virginia produces 60,000 pounds of tobacco.
1627 — Virginia produces 500,000 pounds of tobacco.
1629 — Virginia produces 1,500,000 pounds of tobacco.
Slide 32: Tobacco Prices: 1618-1710 Why did tobacco prices decline so precipitously?
Slide 33: Indentured Servitude HeadrightSystem
Slide 34: Indentured Servitude Headright System:
Each Virginian got 50 acres for each person whose passage they paid. Indenture Contract:
5-7 years.
Promised “freedom dues” [land, £]
Forbidden to marry.
1610-1614: only 1 in 10 outlived their indentured contracts!
Slide 35: Tobacco’s effect on Virginia’s economy:
Vital role in putting VA on a firm economic footing.
Ruinous to soil when continuously planted.
Chained VA’s economy to a single crop.
Tobacco promoted the use of the plantation system.
Need for cheap, abundant labor. Virginia: “Child of Tobacco”
Slide 36: Why was 1619 a pivotal year for the Chesapeake settlement?
Slide 37: VirginiaHouse of Burgesses
Slide 38: The House of Burgesses established in 1619 & began to assume the role of the House of Commons in England
Control over finances, militia, etc.
By the end of the 17c, H of B was able to initiate legislation.
A Council appointed by royal governor
Mainly leading planters.
Functions like House of Lords.
High death rates ensured rapid turnover of members. Growing Political Power
Slide 39: James I grew hostile to Virginia
He hated tobacco.
He distrusted the House of Burgesses which he called a seminary of sedition.
1624 he revoked the charter of the bankrupt VA Company.
Thus, VA became a royal colony, under the king’s direct control! Virginia Becomes a Royal Colony
Slide 40: English Tobacco Label First Africans arrived in Jamestown in 1619.
Their status was not clear perhaps slaves, perhaps indentured servants.
Slavery not that important until the end of the 17c.
Slide 41: 17c Populationin the Chesapeake WHY this large increase in black popul.??
Slide 42: The Atlantic Slave Trade
Slide 43: The “Middle Passage”
Slide 44: As the number of slaves increased, white colonists reacted to put down perceived racial threat.
Slavery transformed from economic to economic and racial institution.
Early 1600s differences between slave and servant were unclear.
By the mid-1680s, black slaves outnumbered white indentured servants. Colonial Slavery
Slide 45: Beginning in 1662 “Slave Codes”
Made blacks [and their children] property, or chattel for life of white masters.
In some colonies, it was a crime to teach a slave to read or write.
Conversion to Christianity did not qualify the slave for freedom. Colonial Slavery
Slide 46: Late 1600s large numbers of young, poor, discontented men in the Chesapeake area.
Little access to land or women for marriage.
1670 The Virginia Assembly disenfranchised most landless men! Frustrated Freemen
Slide 47: Led 1,000 Virginians in a rebellion against Governor Berkeley
Rebels resented Berkeley’s close relations with Indians.
Berkeley monopolized the fur trade with the Indians in the area.
Berkley refused to retaliate for Indian attacks on frontier settlements. Nathaniel Bacon’s Rebellion: 1676 Nathaniel Bacon GovernorWilliam Berkeley
Slide 48: Bacon’s Rebellion: 1676
Slide 49: Rebels attacked Indians, whether they were friendly or not to whites.
Governor Berkeley driven from Jamestown.
They burned the capital.
Rebels went on a rampage of plundering.
Bacon suddenly died of fever.
Berkeley brutally crushed the rebellion and hanged 20 rebels. Bacon’s Rebellion
Slide 50: Governor Berkeley’s“Fault Line”
Slide 51: It exposed resentments between inland frontiersmen and landless former servants against gentry on coastal plantations.
Socio-economic class differences/clashes between rural and urban communities would continue throughout American history.
Upper class planters searched for laborers less likely to rebel BLACK SLAVES!! Results of Bacon’s Rebellion
Slide 52: Maryland
Slide 53: A royal charter wasgranted to GeorgeCalvert, Lord Baltimore,in 1632.
A proprietary colony created in 1634.
A healthier locationthan Jamestown.
Tobacco would be the main crop.
His plan was to govern as an absentee proprietor in a feudal relationship.
Huge tracts of land granted to his Catholic relatives. The Settlement of Maryland
Slide 54: Colonization of Maryland
Slide 55: St Mary’s City (1634)
Slide 56: Currency in Early Maryland
Slide 57: Colonists only willing to come to MD if they received land.
Colonists who did come received modest farms dispersed around the Chesapeake area.
Catholic land barons surrounded by mostly Protestant small farmers.
Conflict between barons and farmers led to Baltimore losing proprietary rights at the end of the 17c.
In the late 1600s, black slaves began to be imported. A Haven for Catholics
Slide 58: Baltimore permitted high degree of freedom of worship in order to prevent repeat of persecution of Catholics by Protestants.
High number of Protestants threatened because of overwhelming rights given to Catholics.
Toleration Act of 1649
Supported by the Catholics in MD.
Guaranteed toleration to all CHRISTIANS.
Decreed death to those who denied the divinity of Jesus [like Jews, atheists, etc.].
In one way, it was less tolerant than before the law was passed!! A Haven for Catholics
Slide 59: MD Toleration Act, 1649
Slide 60: The Toleration Act of 1649 ...whatsoever person or persons shall from henceforth upon any occasion of offence otherwise in a reproachfull manner or way declare call or denominate any person or persons whatsoever inhabiting, residing, traficking, trading or comercing within this province or within any ports, harbours, creeks or havens to the same belonging, an Heretick, Schismatick, Idolator, Puritan, Independent Presbyterian, Antenomian, Barrowist, Roundhead, Separatist, Popish Priest, Jesuit, Jesuited Papist, Lutheran, Calvenist, Anabaptist, Brownist or any other name or term in a reproachful manner relating to matters of Religion shall for every such offence foreit and lose the sum of ten shillings Sterling or the value thereof to be levied on the goods and chattels of every such offender and offenders...
and if they could not pay, they were to be "publickly whipt and imprisoned without bail" until "he, she, or they shall satisfy the party so offended or grieved by such reproachful language...."