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The American Colonies (1607-1753)

The first English attempt to establish a colony in what is now the United States took place in 1585. Sir Walter Raleigh sent settlers to Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina. But this attempt at colonization failed (see Lost Colony).

In 1607, a band of about 100 English colonists reached the coast near Chesapeake Bay. They founded Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America (see Jamestown). During the next 150 years, a steady stream of colonists arrived and settled near the coast. Most were British, but they also included people from France, Germany, Ireland, and other countries. Many were Africans who were kidnapped from their homes and brought to the colonies as slaves.

The earliest colonists faced great hardship and danger. They suffered from lack of food and from disease. Sometimes, the colonists maintained peace and trade with the Indians. Other times, they fought fierce wars with them. Soon, however, the colonies prospered. They established small family farms and large slave-labor plantations; built towns, roads, and churches; and began many small industries. Their populations grew, and their wealth increased.

The colonists developed political practices and social beliefs that have had a major influence on the history of the United States. Some established democratic governments. Most placed a high value on individual liberty and respected hard work as a means of getting ahead. Many had the unsupported belief that white Europeans were superior to Indians and Africans. As a result, they felt they had the right to take Indian land by violence and to force African labor through slavery.

In the early 1600's, the English king began granting charters, documents bestowing the right to establish colonies in America. The charters went to companies of merchants and to individuals called proprietors. The merchant companies and proprietors were responsible for recruiting people to settle in America and, at first, for governing them. By the mid-1700's, most of the settlements had been formed into 13 colonies. Each had a governor and a legislature, but was under the ultimate control of the British government.

The Thirteen Colonies stretched from what is now Maine in the north to Georgia in the south. They included the New England Colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire; the Middle Colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware; and the Southern Colonies of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. (Some historians classify Virginia and Maryland, which lie along Chesapeake Bay, as Chesapeake Colonies.)

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Virginia and Maryland were among the earliest British colonies. They were established for different reasons, but they developed in much the same way.

Virginia was the largest of the Thirteen Colonies. It began with the Jamestown settlement of 1607. The Virginia Company of London (later shortened to Virginia Company), an organization of English merchants, sent settlers to America hoping they would find gold and other riches. But the settlers found no riches and faced great hardships. Captain John Smith played a major role in helping the colony survive its early days, mainly by forcing the colonists to grow food. In 1612, some Jamestown colonists began growing tobacco, which the Virginia Company sold in Europe. Virginia prospered as tobacco production increased in response to rising European demand. English settlers came in droves and established new farms and settlements.

Maryland was founded by the Calverts, a family of wealthy Roman Catholics. Catholics were persecuted in England, and the Calverts wanted a place where they could have religious freedom. In 1632, Cecilius Calvert became proprietor of the Maryland area. Colonists, led by Cecilius’s brother, Leonard Calvert, established the first Maryland settlement in 1634. The Maryland settlers also raised tobacco. As production increased, their colony prospered.

The settlers of Virginia and Maryland made important strides toward self-government and individual rights. The Virginians appealed to the Virginia Company for a voice in their local government. The company wanted to attract newcomers to its colony, and so it agreed. In 1619, it established the House of Burgesses, the first representative legislature in America. Maryland attracted both Catholic and Protestant settlers. In 1649, the Calverts granted religious freedom to people of both faiths. This grant was the first law in North America calling for religious toleration.

Virginia and Maryland also began a practice that violated individual rights—slavery. By the 1680's, planters in both colonies had begun to buy African slaves and force the Africans to work on their lands.

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New England. Puritans, originally financed by English merchants, founded the New England Colonies. Puritans were English Protestants who faced persecution because of their opposition to the Church of England, their homeland's official church. See Puritans.

In 1620, a group of Separatists (Puritans who had separated from the Church of England) and other colonists settled in New England. Called Pilgrims, they founded Plymouth Colony, the second permanent English settlement in North America. Between 1628 and 1630, Puritans founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony at what are now Salem and Boston. Plymouth became part of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691. See Plymouth Colony; Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Settlers spreading out from Massachusetts founded the other New England Colonies. Connecticut was first settled in 1633 and became a colony in 1636. Colonists took up residence in Rhode Island in 1636, and Rhode Island became a colony in 1647. New Hampshire, first settled in 1623, became a colony in 1680. Important Puritan leaders included governors William Bradford of Plymouth and John Winthrop of Massachusetts, and Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island.

Life in New England centered on towns organized around churches. Each family farmed its own plot of land, but they all lived close together in a town so they could walk to church. Most of the New England colonists farmed for a living. But they also developed a thriving shipping business and started many small industries, including fishing, lumbering, and crafts. There were few African slaves in New England.

The Puritans of New England did not tolerate religious dissent, but they made important contributions to democracy in America. In 1620, the Pilgrims established the Mayflower Compact, an agreement among the adult males to provide "just and equal laws" for all (see Mayflower Compact). The Puritans created a democratic political system in which all officials were elected. At town meetings, most male adults could participate in decisions.

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The Middle Colonies. Soon after English settlement began, the Dutch founded New Netherland, a trading post and colony that included what are now New York and northern New Jersey. They started a settlement in New York in 1624 and in New Jersey in 1660. In 1638, the Swedes established New Sweden, a settlement in present-day Delaware and southern New Jersey. The Dutch claimed New Sweden in 1655. In 1664, the English took over New Netherland and New Sweden.

King Charles II of England gave the New York and New Jersey territory to his brother, James, Duke of York. Friends of the duke founded huge farming estates in New York along the Hudson River. New York City developed from the Dutch city of New Amsterdam. It became a shipping and trading center. The Duke of York gave New Jersey to two of his friends. They allowed much political and religious freedom, and New Jersey attracted many settlers.

Swedes established a small settlement in what is now Pennsylvania in 1643. In 1681, a wealthy Englishman named William Penn received a charter that made him the proprietor of Pennsylvania. Penn was a member of the Quakers, a religious group that was persecuted in many countries (see Quakers). At Penn's urging, Quakers and other settlers who sought freedom flocked to Pennsylvania. Penn carefully planned settlements in his colony, and Pennsylvania thrived. Philadelphia became the largest city in colonial America. Penn also became proprietor of the Delaware region.

Most settlers in the Middle Colonies were farmers, whose main crop was wheat. The colonies developed thriving commerce and small industries. They had more slaves than New England had, but far fewer than the South. The Middle Colonies contributed to democracy and religious freedom in America. Adult white males could vote for most officials. Most colonists were Protestants but belonged to many different churches.

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North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. About 1650, colonists from Virginia established a settlement in northern Carolina, the land between Virginia and Florida. In 1663, King Charles II gave Carolina to eight of his nobles. He called them lords proprietors (ruling landlords). Carolina soon attracted English settlers, French Protestants called Huguenots, and Americans from other colonies. In 1712, the northern two-thirds of the region was divided into two colonies, North Carolina and South Carolina. Much of North Carolina consisted of small farms. Many African slaves also labored in the colony on tobacco plantations and in forest industries. In South Carolina, wealthy landowners purchased slaves to work the large plantations where they grew rice and indigo. Indigo is a plant that produces blue dye for coloring textiles. South Carolina was the only colony that had more blacks than whites.

Few European settlers came to the southern one-third of Carolina until 1733. Then James Oglethorpe, a British social reformer, founded Georgia there. Oglethorpe hoped Georgia would become a colony of small farms. The colony's charter banned the importation of Africans so that neither slavery nor plantations would develop. But Georgia later changed the law to allow settlers to bring in slaves, and plantations flourished.

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Life in colonial America. Reports of the economic success and religious and political freedom of the early colonists attracted a steady flow of settlers. Through immigration and natural increase, as well as the slave trade from Africa, the colonial population rose to 1 ¹/3 million. The colonies drew newcomers from almost every country of western Europe. Despite the varied backgrounds of the early settlers, the white Americans of the mid-1700's had, as one writer said, "melted into a new race of men." The slave trade brought in so many Africans that, by the 1750's, blacks made up one-fifth of the population.

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Why the colonists came. A person who came to America faced hardship and danger. But the New World also offered the opportunity for a fresh start. As a result, many people were eager to become colonists. Some Europeans came seeking religious freedom. In addition to Puritans, Catholics, Quakers, and Huguenots, they included Jews and members of German Protestant sects.

Many Europeans became colonists for economic reasons. Some were well-to-do but saw America as a place where they could become rich. Many poor Europeans came to America as indentured servants. An indentured servant agreed to work for another person, called a master. In return, the master paid for the servant's transportation across the Atlantic and provided food, clothing, and shelter. Most agreements between servants and masters lasted from four to seven years, after which the servants were freed.

Others who came to America had no choice in the matter. A few were convicts from overcrowded English jails. Most were Africans captured in intertribal warfare or kidnapped, and then sold to European traders. The convicts and slaves were sold into service in America.

At first, black slaves had the same legal status as white indentured servants. But by about 1660, colonies began to enact laws that became known as slave codes, which stripped the Africans of basic human rights. All the American Colonies had slaves, but slavery became more common in the South than in the North. The South had plantations that required enormous labor, and their owners found it profitable to buy slaves to do the work. By the 1750's, African American slaves accounted for 2 percent of the population in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, 40 percent in Virginia, and 60 percent in South Carolina.

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Economic and social opportunity. The earliest colonists struggled to produce enough food to stay alive. But before long, America had a thriving economy. Planters and their slaves grew large crops of tobacco, rice, and indigo. Small farmers raised livestock and such crops as wheat and corn. Many colonists fished and hunted. Some cut lumber from forests to make barrels, ships, and other products. The colonists used part of what they produced, but they exported large quantities of goods. They traded chiefly with Britain and the British colonies of the West Indies. The colonies exported tobacco, wheat, lumber, fish, rice, and indigo. They imported manufactured goods, especially clothing, furniture, and metal utensils from Britain. Their other major imports were sugar, tea, and African slaves. The colonies traded with the French, Dutch, and Spanish as well.

Colonial America, like Europe, had both wealthy upper-class and poor lower-class people. But in Europe, traditions designed to keep wealth concentrated among the upper classes made it difficult for anyone to achieve economic and social advancement. America had few such traditions. New waves of immigrants arrived all the time, and advancement was possible for most people. Land became more plentiful and easy to obtain as settlers took more of it from the Indians. There were also many opportunities to start businesses. Many indentured servants acquired land or worked in a trade after their period of service ended. Some former servants or their sons became well-to-do merchants or landowners.

The colonies had a great need for professional people, such as lawyers, doctors, schoolteachers, and members of the clergy. Women were excluded from these careers and many other jobs. However, the professions were open to most white men because they required less specialized training than they do today.

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Colonial government. The colonists lived under British rule. Voters elected their own colonial legislatures, but the British king appointed governors and other top officials in most colonies. The British also passed many laws to regulate trade in ways that helped Britain and only sometimes helped the colonies. But the colonists often ignored British laws they disliked. The British found it hard to enforce laws across the Atlantic Ocean. The tightening of British control over the colonists after they had grown self-reliant led to a clash between the Americans and the British in the late 1700's. For more information on life in the American Colonies, see Colonial life in America.

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