Unit 1: Three Worlds Meet

United States HistorySSUSH1, SSUSH2

1600-1740

• European settlement in North America during the 17th century.

• A. The first permanent English colony was settled in Virginia in 1607. It was called Jamestown. This colony was founded by the Virginia Company, which was a joint-stock (investors) company. This colony is helped by Native Americans like the Powhatan Confederation. Tobacco cultivation was the way this colony made money and survived. John Rolfe was credited with a new curing method for tobacco.

• B. The Virginia Colony was the first to have a representative form of government. In order to govern themselves, Virginia created a legislative assembly called The House of Burgesses.

• C. Bacon’s Rebellion erupted in western Virginia (1676) when settlers/backcountry farmers wanted protection from Native American attacks.

• D. Slavery began very early in the colonies, the first slaves arrived in 1619 (from Dutch traders). Indentured servants had been used in the south but planters found that slavery worked better for them. The South’s agriculturally based economy (rice and indigo in addition to tobacco) also caused slavery to flourish.

• The Settlement of New England (mostly families).

• A. The New England Colonies were mostly founded by people seeking religious freedom. These colonists had been persecuted in their home countries for religious reasons and now they came to the New World seeking tolerance.

• B. In the beginning relations with the Native Americans were friendly, but as more settlers arrived taking more land, The Native Americans rose to fight such as King’s Phillip’s War. A Native American chief named Metacomet created a confederation of tribes to fight the colonists, thousands died on each side, but Native American resistance ended in New England (few remained in the area).

• C. Town meetings developed in New England as a form of democratic representation. Eventually legislatures were created in the colonies to help govern the people.

• D. Religious tensions started to grow and some colonists were forced to move from Massachusetts. They founded a new colony called Rhode Island. This colony was led by Roger Williams and he called for religious toleration in the New World.

• E. In the 1660’s religious leaders tried to get their members to commit to the church and they created The Half-Way Covenant. It allowed for partial church membership for children/grandchildren of the original Puritans.

• The Salem Witch Trials took place in Massachusetts. This was a wave of frenzy and superstition where some children accused their friends and neighbors of being witches.

• In 1684 the government in England revoked the charter for Massachusetts. The charter was revoked because the colony had “violated all acts of trade and navigation”. The colonists were evading The Navigation Acts which the King had put in place to tax the colonies. The acts made England the most dominant in trade.

• The Mid-Atlantic (or “Middle”) Colonies developed a little differently than either the New England or Southern colonies.

• A. The Mid- Atlantic colonies were originally settled by non English colonists. The Dutch settled in New Amsterdam, which later became New York when the British defeated the Dutch and took their colony.

• B. Pennsylvania was originally settled under the leadership of William Penn. He obtained a charter in order to found a place for people of the Quaker religion. Later on other groups of people, such as the Dutch and Germans, moved in.

• The French had come to the New World to settle Canada. Canada was rich in many products including furs and timber. The city of Quebec was set up as a trading center and military fort. The British and French developed a bitter commercial rivalry over the Ohio River Valley and The Great Lakes regions.

• The development of the British North American economy.

• A. Mercantilism was a system of trade that developed with the growing colonial empires of Britain, France, and Spain. In this system the colonies existed only to profit the parent country. The ultimate goal was to accumulate gold and silver.

• B. The trans-Atlantic trade system was an exchange of goods between the New and the Old World. Products like furs, tobacco, indigo, and rum went to Europe from the colonies. Europe sent manufactured goods and Africa sent slaves to the New World.• Columbian Exchange – between Europe and New World• Triangular trade: between Europe, Africa, and Americas

• Leg of the trip between Africa and Caribbean= Middle Passage

• A. The Middle Passage was the voyage slaves took to the West Indies. It was a horrible ordeal, 20-30% of the people would not survive the trip.

• B. The demand for slaves increased as more land came into cultivation in the South and West Indies. The African-American population grew quickly from a few thousand in 1670 to hundreds of thousands in the 1730’s. By 1750 about half of Virginia’s population was slave.

• C. African-American culture: blended languages, music, religion, etc.

• Benjamin Franklin was a symbol of social mobility and individualism.

• A. Franklin was born a poor boy and as a young man he was apprenticed to a printer. He read all the books he could and also he became a master printer. He became a very wealthy man.

• B. He was an inventor, a philosopher, a scientist, and a diplomat. Benjamin Franklin was the most admired American by Europeans.

• The Great Awakening was an effort on the part of religious leaders to reconfirm their Puritan roots. The movement was led by Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield. This awakening had a profound impact on American religion. It stressed dependence on God and gained popularity among farmers, workers, and enslaved people.