I.  Roanoke

• Before 1580s, England's interest in New World only in extracting wealth, not colonization
• In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh (with the backing of Elizabeth I) financed an exploratory voyage that landed on Roanoke Island--along Outer Banks of NC
• Landing was only temporary
• Explorers decided island was sufficiently fertile to support a settlement
• Three years later, John White landed with 117 settlers (including men, women and children)
• A month later, White returned to England for supplies
• War with Spain broke out
• When White finally returned in 1590, he found the colony abandoned
• No trace of the colonists ever found

• The Virginia Company
• Joint stock company chartered by King James I
• Investors expected gold and products such as wine, citrus, olive oil, pitch, tar, and naval stores -- also possibly a NW passage
• First settlement at Jamestown
• In 1607, three ships with about 100 men reached the Chesapeake and went 40 miles up a river (the James) and settled.
• Jamestown consisted of a fort, thatched huts, a storehouse, and a church
• All the settlers were male, most either townsmen or "gentlemen," neither group could or would farm (they came to find gold, not farm)
• Only firm leadership (by John Smith--a solider of fortune) and trade with the Indians allowed them to survive
• Indians of region consisted of 30 tribes loosely organized under leadership of Powhatan
• Powhatan adopted a wait and see attitude toward colonists
• He hoped for trade and alliances with the newcomers which might aid him in his efforts to control other tribes
• Smith imposed strict discipline on the colonists
• He forced all to labor--no work, no food
• Bargained with the Indians for extra supplies
• When he suffered a gunpowder burn in 1609, he was forced to return to England
• The "Starving Time"
• When Smith left, discipline in colony disintegrated
• Many colonists suffered during the winter of 1609-10
• Became known as the starving time
• When relief came the following spring, they found only about 60 men still alive--all poultry and livestock (including horses) had been eaten
• one survivor reported they were forced to eat "dogs, cats, rats, and mice . . . even corpses dug from graves"
• another told how "one member of our colony murdered his wife, ripped the child out of her womb and threw it into the river, and after chopped the mother in pieces and salted her for his food"
• The new governor, Thomas Gates, came to Virginia with instructions that the Indians should be forced to labor for the colonists and make yearly payments of corn and skins
• the colonists moved quickly to see these ordered carried out
• one Indian town was put to the torch, and when another resisted, the queen and her children were put to death by throwing them in the river and "shooting out their brains in the water"
• Colony slowly began to prosper with the growing of tobacco -- by 1616 it had become a major staple crop of colony
• The colony survives
• In 1618, the Virginia Company officials changed policy regarding the colony
• Headright policy -- anyone who could pay their way across got 50 acres of land, 50 more for each servant they could bring
• Colonists get a new legal code, guaranteeing them the rights of Englishmen, including an assembly
• The following year, a ship arrived with 90 "young maidens," who were to be sold to likely husbands of their own choice
• Later that year, a Dutch ship brought 20 blacks, the first to reach British North America
• Colony still had problems
• In 1622, Powhatan's brother led an uprising that killed 347 settlers -- Indians attacked again in 1644, but the response was so fierce that no more uprisings were tried
• 14,000 people had come to the colony since 1607, but the population was only 1,100 in 1624.
• In 1624, the king dissolved the Virginia company and Virginia became a royal colony

•  In 1634, a neighboring settlement to Virginia was built on the northern shores of the Chesapeake Bay
• Colony founded as a refuge for English Catholics, subject to discrimination at home
• Maryland, like Virginia soon began to depend on tobacco as the main crop

• What were the Chesapeake colonies
• Virginia
• Maryland
• northeastern part of Carolina (along the sounds)
• Chesapeake Society
• Leading families
• following the initial gentry who had led Virginia during its early years came a group of middle-class merchants--their influence came mostly from memories of their corruption and grabs for power
• around 1660 (the Restoration), a new group of leaders came to the colony
• these leaders came form the wealthier merchant families of England, and quickly became planters and leaders of the Virginia government
• These men built dynasties that would continue to control Virginia for generations--Byrd, Carter, Harrison, Lee, Randolph, and Taylor (one of every five U.S. presidents would come from these families)
• Localized control
• Colonial government
• by 1650, Virginia had established a legislature to assist the royal governor in running the colony
• the legislature had two house (bicameral)--House of Burgesses and the Governor's Council (whose members served for life)
• main purpose for forming the legislature was to enact taxes
• Local government
• most Virginia residents had little contact with the colonial government, and even fewer could participate (must be white, male landholder)
• the basic unit of local government was the county court
• county court not only held trials, but also established the various duties people owed to the government--taxes, militia service, work on roads, bridges, and other public buildings, and aid to the church
• Church
• the Church of England (Anglican) was established as the official church of Virginia (Catholic church in Maryland)
• most people had little to do with the church, either from a shortage of ministers or from the fact that there were no churches in their area
• the Anglican church exercised little control over everyday lives of most colonists
• Daily life
• Solitude
• farms some distance apart
• population scarce
• church and court day major social events
• Tobacco
• most important crop, served as basis for Virginia's economy
• everyone becomes involved in growing tobacco, few grow food
• tobacco becomes cash with shortage of specie (gold and silver coins)
• Domestic relations
• few women--high demand
• almost no unmarried women
• widows quickly remarry
• women have more legal and economic power in Virginia than in England because scarcity makes them more valuable
• Death a common place event
• Population growth slow in comparison to New England due to difference in gender rate
• Servitude
• indentured
• who
• English poor
• "Irish Slave Trade"
• Germans
• Europeans who come over often seen as the "surplus inhabitants" of Europe
• African-Americans
• few in number at first--only about 300 by 1640
• treated similar to other indentured servants
• before 1675, 75% of labor force in Virginia came from indentured servants
• how long (3-7 years, depending on age and time period)
• Why were some working-class people eager to go to America?
• Possibility of wealth
• overcrowded conditions in Europe
• population boom
• declining number of farms and jobs
• Conditions
• harsh living and working conditions
• most came alone, without families
• Richard Frethorne's letter to his parents in England (1623)
• living conditions for indentured servants--"This is to let you understand that I, your child, am in a most heavy case by reasons of the nature of the country.  It is such that it causeth much sickness, such as the scurvy and the blood flux (dysentery), and diverse other diseases, which maketh the body very poor and weak.  When we are sick there is nothing to comfort us; for since I came off of the ship, I never had any thing but peas and loblollies (that is watery gruel).  As far as deer or venison, I never saw any since I came into this land.  There is indeed some fowl (birds), but we are not allowed to go and get it, but must work hard both early and late for a mess of water gruel and a mouthful of bread and beef.  A mouthful of bread for a penny loaf must serve for four men which is most pitiful if you did not know as much as I... People cry out day and night 'Oh, that they were in England without their limbs.'  They would not care to lose any limb to be in England again."
• frequency of death--"There came some four other men to live with us, of which there is but one alive.  Our lieutenant is dead, and his father, and his brother.  There were some 5 or 6 of last year's 20, of which there are but 3 left.  We are eager to get other men to plant with us, and yet we are but 32 to fight against 3,000 if they (Indians) should come.  The nearest help that we have is ten miles of us.  When the rogues overcame this place last (1622), they slew 80 persons.  How then shall we do for we lie even in their teeth.  They would easily take us, but that God is merciful."
• Richard's plea for help--"A friend much marveled that you would send me [to be] a servant to the company.  He said that I would have been better knocked on the head.  And indeed, so I find it now to my great grief and misery--and say that if you love me you will redeem me suddenly, for which I do entreat and beg.  If you cannot get a merchant to redeem me for some little money, then for God's sake get a gathering or entreat some good folks to lay out some little sum of money... I beg [you to send] the profit (money) to redeem me.  If I die before it come, I have entreated Goodman Jackson to send you the worth of it, who hath promised he will... The answer of this letter will be the life or death to me, therefor good father, send as soon as you can."
• attempts to escape and punishment
• numerous indentured servants tried to escape their bondage, but most found it difficult
• punishment upon capture usually severe--whipping, branding, and extra time common
• what indentured servants received upon completion of indenture
• slavery
• beginnings
• attempts to enslave Indians--until around 1640, made up the bulk of slaves in Chesapeake
• African slaves slowly increase in number
• why was slavery limited to non-Europeans
• English saw themselves as white, Africans (and to lesser degree, Indians) as black--explain good vs. evil
• non-Europeans were savage or uncivilized--i.e. different from European customs
• non-Europeans were heathens--not Christians
• changed gradually in nature
• change begins sometime around 1640
• more Africans brought in as slaves from start
• notion of perpetual slavery becomes more popular
• few slaves early

• Took place 1675-76 in Virginia
• What and who did it involve -- discuss readings
• How did Bacon's Rebellion begin?
• Indian attacks on white settlers
• What prompted these attacks?
• How did white settlers respond?
• Governor Berkeley's reaction
• Who was Nathaniel Bacon?  What did he want?
• What did Bacon's followers do?
• against Indians
• in the Tidewater area
• How did government respond?
• Treason or protecting one's rights?
• What happened to those who supported the government?
• Impact of Bacon's Rebellion on race relations
• Wealthy looked for something other than indentured servitude to satisfy their labor needs
• Turned to African slavery
• fewer English persons willing to become indentured servants--standard of living increasing at home
• price of slaves going down--dropped by more than 1/3d between 1650 and 1675--and life expectancy in Virginia on the rise.  This makes owning slaves practical economically.