1L E S S O N

Thinking on Your OwnRead the Focus Your Reading questions. Then make two columnsin your notebook. Label the first column What England Wanted.As you read, fill in that column with what England wanted to getfrom the colonies. Label the second column What the ColoniesProduced. Fill it in with what products the colonies provided.

Why were there noEnglish colonies in1582, wondered RichardHakluyt, an Englishgeographer? Hakluyt believedthat colonies would giveEngland access to Americasgold, slaves, fish, timber, furs,and sugar cane. Colonies wouldalso provide a market forEnglish goods. He urged thepeople of England to advancethe honor of our country bythe possessing of those landsnot yet controlled by Spain.

The Roanoke ColonyQueen Elizabeth I followed Richard Hakluyts advice. In 1584,she asked Sir Walter Raleigh to set up a colony in NorthAmerica. Three years later, he sent 113 colonists to RoanokeIsland. Roanoke Island is off the coast of present-day NorthCarolina. The ship that brought them went back to Englandfor supplies. Before the ship could return, a war broke out.

The Roanoke Colony was a victim of bad timing. In 1588,the Spanish Armada, a fleet of 130 ships, attacked England.The queen outfitted every available ship for war. Englanddefeated the armada, but it took Raleigh two years to findanother supply ship. By the time the supply ship finallyreached Roanoke in 1590, the settlers had vanished.

Why did England wantcolonies in North America?

Why did the Roanoke Colonyfail?

What did the Englishcolonies export to England?

Spanish Armada

defeated

joint-stock company

indigo

vocabulary

focus your reading

53The Engl ish Colonies

VocabularySpanish Armada-a large Spanish fleet that attacked English ships along the coast of England in 1588.

VocabularyDefeated-overcame or beat, often militarily.

VocabularyJoint-stock company-a company jointly owned by those who hold shares of stock.

VocabularyIndigo-a plant from which blue dye is made.

Tobacco was amajor crop of theSouthern Colonies.

CeciliusCalvert

PocahontasvisitedEngland.

persuaded her father to saveSmiths life. The remainingcolonists survived by trading withthe Powhatan for food.

In the end, it was tobacco andnot gold that made Virginia aprofitable colony. A colonistnamed John Rolfe learned how togrow this plant. Tobacco becamethe colonys main export. JohnRolfe later married Pocahontas.

Other SouthernColoniesOther English colonies wereestablished in what is now thesouthern part of the UnitedStates. In 1634, CeciliusCalvert, an English Catholic,founded the Maryland Colony.The town of St. Marys was itsfirst settlement. This colonyallowed settlers to have CatholicChurch services, a practice thatwas outlawed in England.

55

Success in VirginiaNearly twenty years later, King James I gave the VirginiaCompany the right to establish a colony in North America.This joint-stock company expected to make a profit from thecolony. The company was jointly owned by people who boughtshares, or parts, of the company. They were known asshareholders.

In May 1607, the company sent three ships with 104 menand boys to Virginia. There they founded the settlement ofJamestown. The company forced the settlers to look for goldand silver instead ofplanting crops. Thatsummer, almost halfof the people diedfrom malaria. Therest nearly starved.

The colony wassaved by CaptainJohn Smith. Heasked the PowhatanPeople for food.They captured himand threatened tokill him. The chiefsdaughter,Pocahontas,

54 Chapter 4

stop and think

Imagine a newspaper

headline announcing

that an archaeologist

has discovered a

Roanoke colonists

diary. Discuss the

living conditions in

that English colony

with a partner. Then

write an entry that

might have appeared

in the colonists diary.

The wordCroatoahwas all thatremained ofthe Roanokecolonists.

JamesOglethorpelanding inGeorgia

John Smith (15801631)In September 1607, the young colony at Jamestown was in trouble.Huddled inside a small fort, the settlers lived in constant fear of a NativeAmerican attack. No houses were built, no fields planted. Half the 104settlers already had died of malaria. The survivors were giving up hope.Then John Smith took charge.

John Smith was at his best in difficult times. He had been shipwreckedat sea, robbed by Frenchmen, and captured by Turks. In 1602, Smith hadjoined a Christian army that tried to drive the Muslim Turks out ofEurope. He killed three men in hand-to-hand combat, or so he claimed.When the Turks defeated the Christians, they captured Smith and soldhim into slavery. He escaped by killing his Muslim overseer and fleeingto Christian Russia. From there he made his way back to England.

To rescue the colony, Smith made contact with the Powhatan. Hebegan by trading hatchets and beads for food, which the colonistsdesperately needed. Then the Powhatan turned against the colonists,perhaps because they, too, were running out of food. They capturedSmith and took him to the Powhatan chief. As the chief prepared to killhim, Smith was saved by Pocahontas, the chiefs daughter. She went toJamestown to live and later married a colonist, John Rolfe. Her friendshipprobably saved Jamestown.

In 1609, John Smith returned to England, but not for long. In March1614, he again set sail for America, this time as an explorer. Thatsummer, he explored the coastline north of Virginia and traded furs withthe locals. He returned to England with the best map yet of that region,which he named New England.

John Smith spent the rest of his lifepromoting the settlement of NewEngland. He hoped to found his owncolony there, but he failed to get financialsupport. To advertise the region, hepublished his map as well as a bookentitled Description of New England. Healso published General History ofVirginia and True Travels, an account ofhis early travels. He died in 1631, stillyearning to return to New England.

57

In 1670, more colonists settled in Carolina. They settledCharles Townlater Charleston. They traded with the nativepeoples for furs and grew rice and indigo. Indigo is a plantused for making dye.

The last Southern colony was Georgia. James Oglethorpefounded Georgia in 1733 to give poor people in England a new

start in life. The colonyalso served to protect thecolonies from Spanishsettlements in Florida.

Putting It AllTogetherThe Roanoke Colonyvanished, but theJamestown Colonysurvived. Create a Venndiagram with twooverlapping circles. Labelone circle The RoanokeColony and the otherThe Jamestown Colony.Discuss with a partnerthe similarities anddifferences between thetwo colonies. List thedifferences in the outercircles and list thesimilarities in theoverlapping area.

56 Chapter 4

Tennessee R.

Ohio

R.

Cum

berla

nd R

.

Mis

siss

ippi

R.

L. Er

ie

L. Superior

L. M

ichi

gan

L. Huron

L. On

tario

St. L

awre

nce

R.

ChesapeakeBay

L E S S O N

A Letter from JamestownIn 1623, Richard Frethorne was a servant on a plantation nearJamestown. He described conditions there in this letter to his parents.

Loving and kind fat

her and

mother . . . This is to let

you

understand that I, your c

hild, am in

a most heavy case, by re

ason of

the nature of the countr

y. . . . For

since I came out of the s

hip, I

never ate anything but p

eas, and

loblollie (that is water gr

uel) [flour

mixed with water]. As fo

r deer or venison, I

never saw any since I ca

me into this land; there

is indeed some fowl, but w

e are not allowed to

go and get it, but must w

ork hard both early

and late for a mess of w

ater gruel, and a

mouthful of bread, and be

ef. . . . We

live in fear of the enemy

[Indians]

every hour, yet we have h

ad a

combat with them . . . and

took two

alive and make slaves of

them.Richard Freth

orne, Letter to His Father

and Mother, March 20, Apri

l 2 and 3,

1623, in Susan M. Kingsb

ury, ed., The

Records of the Virginia Compa

ny of London

(Vol. IV, Washington, D. C

. Government

Printing Office, 1935).

reading for understanding

What does Richard probably meanby being in a most heavy case?

What food does Richards masterallow him?

How well did the colonists getalong with the Native Americans?

58

Thinking on Your OwnMake a list of the vocabulary words. With a partner, guess whateach word means and write your definition next to the word.Check the Glossary to see how close you came. As you read eachword in the lesson, write a sentence that summarizes what theword tells you about the founding of the New England colonies.

In 1534, King Henry VIIIbroke away from theRoman Catholic Church. Heset up a Protestant churchcalled the Church of England.Some English Protestantsthought the English Churchwas still too Catholic. ThePuritans wanted to purify itby simplifying its ceremoniesand teachings. Separatistswanted to separate from italtogether. Both groupslooked to North America toachieve their goals.

The Plymouth ColonyIn 1620, William Bradford and a group ofSeparatists sailed on the Mayflower fromEngland. They wanted to get as far away aspossible from the Church of England. Whileon the ship, the Pilgrims signed theMayflower Compact. Pilgrims are people whotake a journey for a religious purpose. TheMayflower Compact is a written agreementthat set out the rules by which the Pilgrimswould govern themselves.

2

What was the MayflowerCompact?

Why did colonists settle inMassachusetts?

Why were other coloniesfounded in New England?

Puritans

Separatists

Pilgrims

Puritan commonwealth

vocabulary

focus your reading

Replica of theMayflower

59

VocabularyPuritan commonwealth-people whose government is based on the teachings of the bible.

VocabularyPilgrims-people who make a journey for a religious purpose.

VocabularySeparatists-English Protestants who separated from the Church of England to form their own church congregations.

VocabularyPuritans-English Protestants who wanted to simplify the ceremonies and teachings of the Church of England.

John Winthropand Puritansarrive inMassachusetts.

RogerWilliams

Pilgrimslanding atPlymouthRock

61The Engl ish Colonies60 Chapter 4

The Massachusetts Bay Colonygrew rapidly, attracting thousandsof English Puritans. It was aPuritan commonwealth, acommunity in which thegovernment enforced the Puritansreligious beliefs. Only churchmembers could vote. The Puritanleaders expelled, or sent away,anyone who disagreed with them.

Rhode Island,Connecticut,and New HampshireAmong those expelled by thePuritans was Roger Williams.Williams was a Separatist minister.He insisted that church and stateshould be separate. In 1636, hefounded Providence, the firstsettlement in the colony of RhodeIsland. It allowed freedom of religion.The Puritans also expelled AnneHutchinson for her religious views.She, too, settled in Rhode Island.

The Separatists founded the town of Plymouth along thecoast of Massachusetts. The first winter was difficult. Thecolonists ran out of food. The next spring, a Pawtucket namedSquanto showed them how to plant corn and where to fish.Despite its early hardships, the Plymouth settlement survived.

The Massachusetts Bay ColonyIn 1630, English Puritans sailed into Massachusetts Bay withseventeen ships and more than 1,000 people. They founded

seven towns. Thelargest was theseaport of Boston.They had decidedthat the best way topurify the Church ofEngland was to setup a church in NewEngland to serve as amodel. We shall beas a city upon a hill,said John Winthrop,the colonys leader.The eyes of thepeople are upon us.

stop and think

The Pilgrims made a

compact with each

other promising to live

according to certain

rules. Discuss with a

partner a compact

that you have made to

follow rules.The signing ofthe MayflowerCompact

Anne Hutchinsonwas expelled fromMassachusettsBay Colony.

The English takecontrol of NewNetherland.

3L E S S O N

Puritans who needed more farmland founded other NewEngland colonies. In 1635, people from the Massachusetts BayColony began to settle in the Connecticut River valley. Thesettlements joined together to become the colony ofConnecticut in 1662. Farmers who moved north fromMassachusetts settled in New Hampshire in 1638. It became aseparate colony in 1680.

Putting It All TogetherImagine that you are a dissatisfied Massachusetts Bay colonist.Write a letter to John Winthrop telling him why you are unhappywith life in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Explain alternatives tostaying in the colony.

62 Chapter 4

Thinking on Your OwnThink back to a time when you were not free to express yourself.As you read, write specific ways in which colonists in New York,New Jersey, and Pennsylvania were more free than people in theMassachusetts Bay Colony.

In 1624, the Netherlandsclaimed what is now NewYork, New Jersey, andPennsylvania. In 1638, theyadded the present-day state ofDelaware by expelling theSwedish settlers who livedthere. Many of the 8,000people who lived in NewNetherland were unhappywith Dutch rule. Thegovernment was unable toprotect them from repeated Native American attacks. Besidesthat, Governor Peter Stuyvesant was a harsh governor.

New York and New JerseyOn August 29, 1664, a fleet of English ships sailed into theharbor at New Amsterdam. Its commander, Colonel RichardNichols, demanded that the Dutch surrender. GovernorStuyvesant handedover the city withouta fight. He had littlechoice, as many ofthe settlers wereglad to see theBritish arrive.

focus your reading

How did New Netherlandbecome New York?

Why were New York andNew Jersey successfulcolonies?

Why did William Penn want acolony in North America?

proprietor Quakers

vocabulary

63

Minister HookerestablishedHartford on theConnecticutRiver in 1636.

VocabularyQuakers-members of the Society of Friends; their founder, George Fox, said they must tremble (quake) at the word of the Lord.

VocabularyProprietor-a person to whom the King of England gave a large grant of land along with the power to govern it.

The early settlementof Philadelphia

William Penn payingNative Americansfor the land used tofound Pennsylvania

65The Engl ish Colonies64 Chapter 4

they were called, refused to swear loyalty to the government orserve in the army. Thousands of Quakers had been thrown injail because of their beliefs. Penn wanted to set up a colonywhere Quakers could practice their religion freely. By givingPenn land, the king paid off his debt and found a way to movethe Quakers out of England. Later, he also gave Penn the areataken from the Dutch that became the colony of Delaware.

In 1681, William Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania.The king named it in honor of Penns father. The colony was agreat success from the beginning. Penn avoided problems withthe Native Americans by paying them for their land. Heoffered settlers farmland at prices they could afford. Since thecolony tolerated all Christian beliefs, settlers began to arrivefrom throughout Europe. Philadelphia, established in 1682,became a prosperous seaport city.

Putting It All TogetherThe Middle Colonies prospered and grew quickly. Make a two-column chart with Problems and Solutions as the headings. Listthe problems these colonies faced and the solutions the colonistsused to address them.

As the new governor, Nicholschanged the name of NewNetherland to New York, inhonor of the duke of York. Theduke, King Charles IIs brother,was the new proprietor, orowner, of the colony. The colonysmain city of New Amsterdambecame New York City.

The duke sold part of the areasouth of New York to two friends,Lord John Berkeley and SirGeorge Carteret. They becamethe proprietors of East and WestJersey, which later became thecolony of New Jersey.

The colonies of New York and New Jersey did well andgrew under English control. Both colonies were well governed.To avoid religious fights, the colonial governors grantedfreedom of religion to everyone. The rich soil of the regionattracted settlers. New York City served as the seaport forboth colonies.

Pennsylvania and DelawareKing Charles II gave William Penn part of what had beenNew Netherland. Penn was the son of an English admiral towhom the king owed money. He also was a member of areligious sect called the Society of Friends. The Quakers, as

stop and think

Imagine when Colonel

Richard Nichols was

sailing into New

Amsterdams harbor.

From what you have

read, how do you think

the people reacted to

Nichols? Why did they

react that way?

Describe the scene

in your notebook.

Include dialogue

between the residents.

Reading a TableTables present different kinds of information in a small space.The information most often is presented in columns and rows.

The table below presents information about the Englishcolonies in North America. It includes the names of the coloniesorganized by region (New England, Middle, Southern), whenthey were founded, and why they were founded.

Use the table to answer these questions:

1 In which region was the first colony founded?2 In which region were the colonies most often founded for

religious reasons?

3 What was the most common reason for English settlement?4 Which region did England take the longest period of time

to settle?

67The Engl ish Colonies

In 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh sent colonists to Roanoke Island.Although England defeated the Spanish Armada, a lack ofsupplies doomed the Roanoke Colony. Virginia was Englandsfirst successful colony. A joint-stock company expected tomake a profit from the colony. Maryland, Carolina, andGeorgia were other English colonies. The Southern Coloniesprospered by exporting tobacco, rice, and indigo.

The New England Colonies were founded by Separatistsand Puritans. In 1620, Separatists, also known as thePilgrims, began the Plymouth Colony. The Puritans in 1630founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony. That colony was aPuritan commonwealth, a community in which the settlersused the government to enforce their religious beliefs. Theyexpelled people who disagreed with them.

In August 1664, England took over the Dutch colony of NewNetherland. The English governor changed the name to NewYork. The colonys new proprietor sold part of the area topeople who founded the colony of New Jersey. King Charlesgave another part of New Netherland to William Penn, aQuaker who wanted to establish a colony where Quakers werefree to practice their religion.

Chapter Review1 Design a logo that represents the struggles and

accomplishments of the English colonists. Review thevocabulary in this chapter for ideas.

2 Choose an event, person, or place that you found mostinteresting. Write a bulleted list of facts about your choice.

3 Create a three-column chart with the labels SouthernColonies, New England Colonies, and Middle Colonies. Fillthe columns with words or phrases that best describe each.Use the information to write a short paragraph about theEnglish colonies.

66 Chapter 4