9/14/07 Class Notes

• New England (1970s)

-No real boundaries between colonial settlements and Indian territory

- Most Indian tribes on coastal areas were devastated by European diseases so the tribes

needed captives which led to fighting between the tribes

- Many settlers tried to preserve the peace with the Indians- limited trade and contact with

the Indians led to frequent clashes

• Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay

-Tried to convert Indians to Protestant style Puritanism which caused the Indians to resist

-English hunger for Indian land led Indians to know their lives are in danger

• Metacom's (King Phillip's) War

-Breaks out in 1675 after the Plymouth colony executed three Indians for the murder of a

Harvard graduated minister

- The Indians won most of the battles until the Massachusetts Bay Colony and

Connecticut helped out

• After Metacom's War

- English wanted all Indians annihilated, even the converted ones

- New England is nearly broken apart

- The Puritan clergy breaks apart - they can't decided upon which side to take- some say

god is punishing them, others say he is testing them

• Virginia Problems

- Caused by envious whites of Indian lands

- No real lines defining territory (like New England)

- Couldn't distinguish between friendly and hostile Indians

-1670- dispute breaks between a planter and an Indian near Potomac River- results in

the death of an Indian and a planter- the Indians were then chased into Maryland and

the Virginia militia murders both groups of Indians they stumble upon - Virginia and

Maryland militia combine to not them go and don't give them any food, some months

30 Virginians are killed

- Governor Berkeley- represents the crown- wants to do a defensive strategy and builds

a Fall Line -forts on the major rivers- which keeps Indians west/north west of the forts

- He wants to distinguish between friendly and hostile Indians- the frontiersmen

disagree because they want to fight- to reduce contact the governor bans fur trade

but allows his friends to continue with it

- Nathaniel Bacon ignores Berkeley and with a band of whites marches against the

Indians- he arranges for the friendly Indians to wipe out the hostile Indians and then

kills the friendly ones- he is outlawed by Berkeley but comes back when elected for

the House of Burgesses

- Bacon is forced into giving a public apology to Berkeley- he retaliates by putting

Berkeley to gunpoint and forcing him to commission him to general and allow him to

fight the Indians

- Berkley retreats to the eastern shore- Bacon confiscates Berkley's lands- he finds

followers and government is collapsing- when Berkley returns to Jamestown Bacon

burns it down before troops could come to Virginia- he then dies from dysentery and

Berkley returns to England and dies there

9/10/07 Class Notes

Jamestown

• Captain John Smith saves the day by forcing the settlers to work in order to get fed

- befriended by Pocahontas

- gained food by being friendly with the Indians

• John Smith returns to England, leadership fails, and settlers start starving again and raid Indian supplies
• Settlers in the process of abandoning Jamestown when De La Warr arrives with 300 new settlers in 1610
• Under De La Warr the English begin aggressively attacking the Indians
• Peace comes in 1614 with the marriage of John Rolf and Pocahontas
• By 1616 John Rolf perfected tobacco growing in Virginia

- There is a large market for tobacco in Europe and tobacco becomes a major cash

crop and saves Virginia

• 1619

-King allows establishment of the House of Burgesses

- Headright system

- Africans land at Jamestown from a Dutch ship

• 1622

- Indians led by Opechancanogh attempt to drive whites out but fail and are forced

off their homelands

• Indentured servants are the major source of labor in Virginia prior to 1700 when slavery grows dramatically
• 1644, Opechancanogh tries again to drive out the whites. He fails and in the resulting peace treaty the Indians give up their ancestral lands and must leave.

Slavery

• Slaves first arrive in 1619 in Jamestown and they worked by being indentured servants
• 1670- about 2,000 Africans resided in Virginia
• 1680- laws were in place and Africans were to be treated like slaves and serve for life
• White tobacco growers didn't have the money to pay for slaves and most slaves died quickly so indentured servants were more preferred
• When the supply of indentured servants ran out the start of the slave trade began to grow
• In the first half of the 1700s the number of slaves grew by the thousands. Slaves came from the West African coast.
• Slaves were transferred on a journey called the Middle Passage and the conditions were bad- 1 out of every 5 died.
• In the early 1600s laws were not set in place for slaves but in the 1700s laws were set. Slave codes stated that slaves and their children were property of their master

Colonies

• Chesapeake-cash crop was tobacco- had better conditions than South Carolina - cash crop was rice- which had a higher death rate
• Jamestown was not the only place colonists settled
• 1620 the Pilgrims landed and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

- Pilgrims were Separatists who broke away form the English church.

- Sailed to North America in the Mayflower. Before they went ashore they made rules,

called the Mayflower Compact, and created a government that followed the will of the

majority.

-Adult males made the laws in open town meetings

• A larger colony in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, started spreading and establishing small colonies in the Connecticut area.
• Puritans reside here- they want to purify the Church of England so they stay in it
• God guides their life- religion is the most important thing.
• Men that could vote were free, church members (meaning they were a saint)
• The clergy decided who was in the church- giving them a powerful position
• Everybody pays taxes. Everybody pays for church expenses (paid by the government)
• Clergy are paid by local congregation- puts a limit on their power
• They are a tight knit society- the church and state rule together- are very religious- have a family structure.
• Living conditions- not swampy and mosquito ridden as Virginia
• Whole/ strong family structure
• Not tolerant of religious freedom- Anne Hutchinson was banished from Massachusetts because of extreme purism and moved to Rhode Island which was established by Roger Williams.
• The land in New England was nicer than in the Chesapeake- it is rocky, but more arable- they don't have any cash crops on a large scale- initially they grow tobacco and receive food from other sources- they made just enough food to feed their families.
• Colonists from New Haven, Connecticut and become the New England Confederation.