Ms. Susan M. Pojer Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY

1. The Settlement of the Chesapeake Ms. Susan M. PojerHorace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY

2. Virginia

3. English Colonization • The Charter of the Virginia Company: • Guaranteed to colonists the same rights as Englishmen as if they had stayed in England. • This provision was incorporated into future colonists’ documents. • Colonists felt that, even in the Americas, they had the rights of Englishmen!

4. The Mercantilist Impulse: Mercantilism called for the state to regulate and protect industry and commerce. The primary objective was to enrich the nation by fostering a favorable balance of trade. Once the value of exports exceeded the cost of imports, gold and silver would flow into home ports. The whole concept was based on the notion that a nation’s power was based on its possession of gold and silver.

5. Colonies would produce raw materials for the mother country and would enhance the self-sufficiency of the mother country. A thriving trade would lead to more taxes and customs duties that would fill royal coffers. James I lent his approval to a private venture a joint stock company known as the Virginia Company.

6. England Plants the Jamestown “Seedling” • Late 1606  VA Co. sends out 3 ships • Spring 1607  land at mouth of Chesapeake Bay. • Attacked by Indians and move on. • May 24, 1607  about 100 colonists [all men] land at Jamestown, along banks of James River • Easily defended, but swarming with disease-causing mosquitoes.

7. Jamestown Settlement, 1609

8. Chesapeake Bay Geographic/environmental problems??

9. Jamestown Fort & Settlement Map

10. Jamestown Fort & Settlement(Computer Generated)

11. Jamestown Housing

12. Jamestown Settlement

13. Jamestown Chapel, 1611

14. Chief Powhatan • Powhatan Confederacy • Powhatan dominated a few dozen small tribes in the James River area when the English arrived. • The English called allIndians in the areaPowhatans. • Powhatan probably sawthe English as allies in his struggles to control other Indian tribes in the region.

15. Powhatan Confederacy

16. PowhatanIndian Village

17. Indian Foods

18. Smith’s Portrayal of Native Americans

20. The Jamestown Nightmare • 1606-1607  40 people died on the voyage to the New World. • 1609  another ship from England lost its leaders and supplies in a shipwreck off Bermuda. • Settlers died by the dozens! • “Gentlemen” colonists would not work themselves. • Game in forests & fish in river uncaught. • Settlers wasted time looking for gold instead of hunting or farming.

21. Captain John Smith:The Right Man for the Job?? There was no talk…but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold… Countrymen, the long experience of our late miseries I hope is sufficient to persuade everyone to a present correction of himself, And think not that either my pains nor the adventurers' purses will ever maintain you in idleness and sloth... ...the greater part must be more industrious, or starve... You must obey this now for a law, that he that will not work shall not eat (except by sickness he be disabled). For the labors of thirty or forty honest and industrious men shall not be consumed to maintain a hundred and fifty idle loiterers.[5]1609

22. Culture Clash in the Chesapeake • Relations between Indians & settlers grew worse. • General mistrust because of different cultures & languages. • English raided Indian food supplies during the starving times. • 1610-1614  First Anglo-Powhatan War • De La Warr had orders to make war on the Indians. • Raided villages, burned houses, took supplies, burned cornfields.

23. High Mortality Rates • The “Starving Time”: • 1607: 104 colonists • By spring, 1608: 38 survived • 1609: 300 more immigrants • By spring, 1610: 60 survived • 1610 – 1624: 10,000 immigrants

25. Pocahontas Pocahontas “saves” Captain John Smith A 1616 engraving Her marriage to Rolfe in 1614 led to a period of peace with the Indians.

26. Pocahontas

27. Pocahontas

28. John Rolfe What finally made the colony prosperous??

29. Tobacco Plant Virginia’s gold and silver. -- John Rolfe, 1612

30. Early Colonial Tobacco 1618 — Virginia produces 20,000 pounds of tobacco. 1622 — Despite losing nearly one-third of its colonists in an Indian attack, Virginia produces 60,000 pounds of tobacco. 1627 — Virginia produces 500,000 pounds of tobacco. 1629 — Virginia produces 1,500,000 pounds of tobacco.

31. English Migration: 1610-1660

32. River Settlement Pattern Large plantations [>100 acres]. Widely spread apart [>5 miles]. Social/EconomicPROBLEMS???

33. Jamestown Colonization Pattern:1620-1660

34. Reform and Boom in Tobacco Key reforms in 1618: 1) Company established the “headright system” to attract more settlers. New settlers received 50 acres and anyone who paid the passage of others to Virginia received 50 acres per head. 2) the Company abolished martial law and allowed the planters to elect a representative assembly -- the House of Burgesses. It first met in 1619, beginning the strong tradition of representative assemblies in theBritish colonies. 3) Immigrants flocked into the country. -Ordinary English working people -Young (15-24) and male; 3/4 came as indentured servants.

35. Tobacco Prices: 1618-1710 Why did tobacco prices decline so precipitously?

36. Indentured Servitude HeadrightSystem

37. Indentured Servitude • Headright System: • Each Virginian got 50 acres for each person whose passage they paid. • Indenture Contract: • 5-7 years. • Promised “freedom dues” [land, £] • Forbidden to marry. • 1610-1614: only 1 in 10 outlived their indentured contracts!

38. Mortality Rates Remained High • 1624 population: 1,200 despite more than 3500 immigrants in the years between 1619 and 1624 • Adult life expectancy: 40 years • Death of children before age 5: 80%

39. “Widowarchy” High mortality among husbands and fathers left many women in the Chesapeake colonies with unusual autonomy and wealth!

40. Richard Frethorne’s1623 Letter • In-Class Activity: • Identify the FACTS presented in your section of the document. • Be skepticalIs there any obvious bias/POV? • What conclusions can you draw from the facts presented? • Anticipate a problem/future issue? • See any historical relationships between past events or future ones?

41. Virginia: “Child of Tobacco” • Example of a “monoculture.” • Tobacco’s effect on Virginia’s economy: • Vital role in putting VA on a firm economic footing. • Ruinous to soil when continuously planted. • Chained VA’s economy to a single crop. • Tobacco promoted the use of the plantation system. • Need for cheap, abundant labor. War with the Native Americans

42. Why was 1619 a pivotal year for the Chesapeake settlement? The American Paradox: Freedom and Slavery

43. VirginiaHouse of Burgesses

44. Growing Political Power • The House of Burgesses established in 1619 & began to assume the role of the House of Commons in England • “Power of the Purse”: Control over taxation and appropriation of funds. • By the end of the 17c, H of B was able to initiate legislation. • A Council appointed by royal governor • Mainly leading planters. • Functions like House of Lords. • High death rates ensured rapid turnover of members.

45. English Tobacco Label • First Africans arrived in Jamestown in 1619. • Their status was not clear  perhaps slaves, perhaps indentured servants. • Slavery not that important until the end of the 17c.

46. Culture Clash in the Chesapeake • 1614-1622 peace between Powhatans and the English. • 1614 peace sealed by the marriage of Pocahontas to Englishman John Rolfe. • 1622-1644  periodic attacks between Indians and settlers. • 1622  Indians attacked the English, killing 347 [including John Rolfe]. • Virginia Co. called for a “perpetual war” against the Native Americans. • Raids reduced native population and drove them further westward.

47. Powhatan Uprisingof 1622

48. Results of the Massacre of 1622 1) Coordinated, sweeping attacks killed one-fifth of the white population. 2) Swift English retaliation wiped out whole tribes and cut down an entire generation of young Indian men. 3) News jolted English investors into determining the condition of the Virginia Company. The investigation revealed that a) Despite the tobacco boom, the Company was plunging toward bankruptcy. B) Over 3,000 immigrants had not survived the brutal conditions of the Chesapeake. 4) In 1624, King James I dissolved the Company and made the Virginia a royal colony.

49. Culture Clash in the Chesapeake • 1644-1646  Second Anglo-Powhatan War • Last effort of natives to defeat English. • Indians defeated again. • Peace Treaty of 1646 • Removed the Powhatans from their original land. • Formally separated Indian and English settlement areas!

50. Virginia Becomes a Royal Colony • James I grew hostile to Virginia • He distrusted the House of Burgesses which he called a seminary of sedition. • The Commission report on the condition of indentured servants alarmed him. • He hated tobacco. • He was furious when he learned that officials of the Virginia Company had been involved in the seizure of a Spanish slave ship by two English vessels masquerading as Dutch, and the subsequent transportation of the Africans to Jamestown • 1624  he revoked the charter of the bankrupt VA Company. • Thus, VA became a royal colony, under the king’s direct control!