After successfully colonizing Ireland, England sought to expand its colonial holdings by establishing colonies along the North American coast, which they called Virginia in honor of Queen Elizabeth I. The first English families settled in Chesapeake Bay in 1587 and encountered about 24,000 Native Americans divided into various tribes. In the 1670s, English aristocrats established the colony of Carolina further south to grow rice and indigo and engage in the lucrative slave trade, recruiting Native Americans to capture runaway slaves in exchange for guns. By the 1750s, Carolina had become a wealthy plantation colony and leading producer of crops like rice, rivaling the colonies in the Chesapeake and West Indies.

1. English Colonies of North America HIST 140 Theme 4 Summer 2011 By: Le Thi My Ho

2. American Colonies 6 After successfully colonizing Ireland, English leaders extend their colonial conquering across the Atlantic to the region they called Virginia, named in honor of their queen, Elizabeth I, a supposed virgin 1580-1620 Entire mid-Atlantic coast between Florida and Acadia was called “Virginia” 1616 – The colonist discovered tobacco, which permitted an explosive growth in population, territory, and wealth After an immense cost in lives – natives and colonist – the English had secured a lucrative, dynamic, and expansive base on the North American continent

3. American Colonies 6 16 th Century England concentrated wealth and power at the narrow top of the steep social pyramid, in the hands of a monarch, an aristocracy, and a lesser aristocracy known as the gentry As the wealthiest and most populous kingdom, England dominated the whole, from the capital in London The realm included the distinct kingdoms of England, Wales, Ireland, and later Scotland After the war with Spain in 1585, Queen Elizabeth I lacked the means to finance and govern an overseas colony Subcontracted colonization by issuing licenses and monopolies to private risk taking adventurers

4. American Colonies 6 “ West Country Men” – Promoters: Sir Francis Drake, Sir Richard Grenville, Sir John Hawkins, Sir Walter Ralegh, and Sir Humphrey Gilbert – regarded colonial trade as the key to imperial power with goals: To Plant Christian Religion To Trafficke To Conquer In pleasing investors and the crown, the promoters addressed a pervasive anxiety over the proliferation of poverty, vagrancy, and crime in the 16 th century England

5. American Colonies 6 Chesapeake Bay 1587 – 94 colonists included 17 women and 9 children were the first English families to settle in the Americas Sustained about 24,000 Indians divided into 30 tribes but united by an Algonquian language and the rule of a paramount chief named Powhatan Lived by a mix of horticulture, fishing, hunting, and gathering Men – hunted, fished, cleared land for crops, and made dugout canoes Women – cultivated crops, gathered nuts and fruits, and tended the village or camp, putting up the lodges and preparing the skins to make clothing Shamans – tended temples, constructed houses

6. American Colonies 11 Carolina 1670s – West Indian Planters established a new colony on the Atlantic seaboard north of Florida but south of the Chesapeake and named it Carolina to honor King Charles II Carolina officially belonged to a set of English aristocrats, the Lords Proprietor – eight powerful political favorites of the king South Carolina featured a broad, fertile coastal plain meandered by many large, muddy rivers and broad swamps Making a plantation colony , the Carolinians feared that their African slaves might combine with defiant Indians to merge slave rebellion with frontier war which is fatal to the new colony

7. American Colonies 11 Carolina To secure Carolina, Loads Proprietor offered colonists the most alluring incentives : Religious Toleration Political Representation in an assembly with power over public taxation and expenditures Long exemption from quitrents Large grants of land Promised ambitious and wealthy men the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new colony Attracted farmers and artisans from both the Chesapeake and the West Indies Planters would enjoy “absolute Power and Authority over his Negro Slaves” but later frontier conditions obliged the planters to allow their slaves more autonomy than was common in either the West Indies or the Chesapeake Even the poor and servants were entitled to land, clothes, corn, tools and some freedom

8. American Colonies 11 Carolina Key to managing the local Indians was to recruit them as slave catchers by offering guns and ammunition as incentive The gun trade rendered the natives dependent upon weapons that they could neither make nor repair If deprived of ammunition, the natives would suffer in their hunting and fall prey to slave-raiding by better-armed Indians more favored by their colonial supplier By pushing the gun and slave trade, the Carolinians gained mastery over a network of native peoples, securing their own frontier and wreaking havoc on a widening array of Indians Although they traded with each other, the Indians and the Carolinians did not share the same economic views

9. American Colonies 11 Carolina Became the leading colonial producer of tar and preeminent cattle country in the English empire Became the empire’s great RICE colony, just as the Chesapeake specialized in tobacco and the West Indies in sugar 1750s Developed a second valuable plantation crop for export – INDIGO Carolina planters became the wealthiest colonial elite on the Atlantic seaboard, 2 nd only to the West Indians within the empire