AP US History: Chapter 1

Chapter 7 in the Princeton Review Book

The 17th and Early 18th Centuries

NATIVE AMERICANS
Before Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World - Precolumbian era
Native Americans - descendants of Asian migrants who traveled across the Bering Strait 20,000 to 40,000 years ago. The Native Americans respected nature and lived off their environment. They lived in independent tribes so they competed for natural resources. Because of the various tribes' rivalries, they were slow to unify against European settlers. They were mistakenly called "Indians".

SPAIN
Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. However some have arrived to the New world before him including... the Norse who arrived in Canada in around 1000. However, they didn't have the technology and resources to establish colonies from home while Spain did. SO...Columbus opened the door to European expansion/colonialism. Spain became the colonial power. They had advanced weaponry and the conquistadors were ruthless. They also had a strong navy called the Spanish Armada. Coastal towns exported much of America's wealth. Natives were enslaved and their culture and the Spanish attempted to erase their culture and replace it with Catholicism. Many also died from smallpox. However, the Armada was defeated by the English in 1588 and french/english colonization was much easier.

THE ENGLISH ARRIVE
England tried to settle in N America in 1587. Sir Walter Raleigh sponsered a settlement on Roanoke Island (N Carolina). In 1590, the colony disappeared so it became known as the lost colony. In 1606, they settled Jamestown which was funded by a joint-stock company called the Virginia company who bought the right to establish plantations from the King. The only reason the colony survived was because Captain John smith imposed harsh martial law stating that, "He who will not work shall not eat." The starving time was during 1609 - 1610. The colony received helped from the Powhatan Confederacy who taught the English about crops. In 1614, Pocahontas married John Rolfe, easing tensions between the natives and the settlers. However, the English needed more land (to grow tobacco) and destroyed the Powhatan Confederacy in 1644.
John Rolfe introduced tobacco and was a huge success in England. Because it needed a lot of land / depleted soil quickly, there was rapid expansion. New settlements sprang up and the area became known as the Chesapeake Bay Area composing of Virginia and maryland.
Many came due to financial reasons. Overpopulation in England = famine, disease, and poverty. So, many were attracted to the New World by indentured servitude. It was when servants promised 7 years' labor for freedom and free passage. They also received property w/ their land so that they could survive and vote. HOWEVER, half of the indentured servants died. In 1619, Virginia also established the House of Burgesses in which any white male could vote. That year was the beginning of democracy and slavery.

THE PILGRIMS AND THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY
Puritanism arose during the 16th century. They wanted to "purify" the corrupt Anglican church. They were persecuted and wanted to practice their faith somewhere else. One group of Puritans, Separatists, left England and set sail for the New World in 1620 on the Mayflower. They arrived in Massachusetts during the winter and decided to settle there calling it Plymouth.
The Pilgrims signed an agreement that established a "body politic" that was a basic legal system for the colony. It was called, THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT. It created legal authority and an assembly and also was important because it asserted that the gov't's power came from the consent of the governed and not from God as monarchists and Absolutists believed.
The Pilgrims receieved assistance from Native Americans including Squanto who spoke English who taught them about crops. In 1629, Massachusetts Bay was established by Congregationalists, puritans who wanted to reform the Anglican church from within. This was known as the "Great Puritan Migration" lasting from 1629 to 1642. It was led by Governor John Winthrop and Massachusetts bay developed along Puritan ideals who believed that they had a convenant with God that said that the government was to be a convenant among the ppl and work was to serve a communal ideal and a true church was always served. This is why they were intolerant of others' beliefs/
ROGER WILLIAMS, lived in Salem Bay and taught that church and state should be separate. He was banished and moved to present-day Rhode Island where he found a new colony that allowed free exercise of religion and did not require voters to be church members.
Anne Hutchinson believed in antinomianism that faith was God's grace opposed to observance of moral law and performance of good deeds. She challenged puritan beliefs. The fact that she was a woman also turned many against her. She was tried for heresy and banished.
Puritan emigration came to a halt between 1649 and 1660. During Oliver Cromwell's reign, there was a culmination of ENGLISH CIVIL WARs, in which the puritans won. He ruled England as a republic complete with a constitution. His death resulted in the INTERREGNUM in which the puritans had little motive to move to the New World because everything they wanted was available to them. After the restoration of the stuarts, emigration began again and they brought w/ them republican ideals of the revolution.
Chesapeake/New England were different. Families emigrated to NewENgland while single males emigrated to Chesapeake. The climate in new england was also more hospitable so they lived longer and had larger families. Stronger sense of community/absence of cash crop = larger settlements while the Chesapeake lived in smaller, more spread-out communities. New englanders were more religious.

OTHER EARLY COLONIES
The conneticut valley was fertile and bordered the sea was already inhabited by the pequots who resisted english incursions. They attacked a settlement in Wakefield and killed 9 colonists and the massachusetts bay colony retaliated killing more than 400 people during the PEQUOT WAR.
Other colonies were proprietorships, owned by 1 person and received from the king as a gift. Connecticut received its charter in 1635 and Maryland was another granted to Cecilius Calvert who declared Maryland a haven of religious tolerance for Christians and became a major Catholic enclave.
New York was a gift to James, the king's brother. It was already inhabited by the Dutch in New Netherland but it was unimportant to the Dutch. When the English arrived, they surrendered without a fight. The king also gave New Jersey to some friends, many of whom were Quakers.
The Quakers recieved their own colony. William Penn, a quaker, was a friend of king charles II and was granted Pennsylvania. Even though Quakers and Anglicans were enemies, their friendship along with his desire to export Quakers from England prevailed. Penn established liberal policies toward religious freedom and civil liberties in his colony. So Pennsylvania was one of the fastest growing of the early colonies. Native Americans were also treated more fairly but his attitude attracted tribes and european settlers who bullied tribes off their land.
Carolina was split in two. South Carolina people from the Caribbean settled in Barbados- sugar. There was widespread slavery here.

SLAVERY
Before = indentured servants. However tobacco and rice farming became more widespread. Bacon's Rebellion also showed landowners that it was not their best interest to have indentured servants. Enslaving natives was difficult because they knew the land SO they turned to african slaves. They did not the land and were therefore less likely to escape. They were removed from their land and were unable to communicate w/ one another because they were from different regions of africa. English also considered dark skin an inferiority so this rationalized their enslavement.
shipping route that brought slaves to the americas was called the Middle Passage because it was the middle leg of the TRIANGULAR TRADE ROUTE. Many died of sickness on board.
Slavery flourished in the South because of labor intensive crops such as tobacco, rice and indigo. Plantation owners brought slaves for this work and their treatment was vicious and sadistic. In the north they were used as domestic servants.