Study guide: English Settlement and Colonial Life

📋 Course Outline

1. European Arrival and Colonial Rule
2. Virginia and Maryland Settlements
3. New England Puritan Colonies
4. Middle Colonies and Diversity
5. Southern Plantations and Slavery
6. New England Institutions and Voting

📅 Key Dates

1. 1492Europeans arrived in the already inhabited Americas and treated the land as empty and available.
2. 1606James I authorized settlers to colonize Virginia and chartered land to the Virginia Companies of London and Plymouth.
3. 1607English settlers established Jamestown, the first English settlement in North America.
4. 1620Pilgrims and Puritans arrived at Plymouth Bay aboard the Mayflower and founded Plymouth Colony.
5. 1621Plymouth settlers held a harvest celebration associated with the beginning of Thanksgiving.
6. 1624James I revoked the Virginia Company's charter, and Virginia became a royal colony.
7. 1628Puritans obtained a charter to colonize Massachusetts Bay and established a self-governing colony under Governor John Winthrop.
8. 1664England seized the former Dutch territory around New Amsterdam.
9. 1733James Oglethorpe founded Georgia with the initial intention of prohibiting slavery.

📖 1. European Arrival and Colonial Rule

★ Must-know

• European colonization brought Native peoples hardship, including disease, and began the colonization of the American continent.

📌 English colonies could be royal colonies, charter colonies, or proprietary colonies; New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania are given as examples, respectively.

📌 Under British mercantilism, colonies were forbidden to trade with foreign countries or establish industries, restrictions that contributed to a desire for independence.

Further detail

• The first people to reach the Americas are believed to have migrated from northern Asia, and many Native Americans descended from them.

• Each colony had a governor appointed by the King or by settlers and an elected assembly or legislature.

💡 Memory Hook

European colonization → disease and growing hardship for Native peoples

📖 2. Virginia and Maryland Settlements

★ Must-know

• Poor English migrants could become indentured servants and work without pay for up to 7 years.

Further detail

• Early Jamestown settlers struggled to grow crops and fish, and many died; the arrival of recruits better able to survive improved the colony's situation.

📌 Under the Virginia Company's land-grant arrangement, people who paid for another person's passage to America received a piece of land.

💡 Memory Hook

Jamestown settlement → land incentives → royal colony

📖 3. New England Puritan Colonies

★ Must-know

• The Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact before landing to establish how they would organize their lives in Plymouth.

Further detail

• Plymouth settlers faced harsh conditions, and the Wampanoags helped the survivors learn to grow corn.

• Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies merged, and the course reports that 15,000 colonists lived in Massachusetts by 1642.

💡 Memory Hook

Pilgrim self-government at Plymouth; Puritan rule in Massachusetts Bay

📖 4. Middle Colonies and Diversity

★ Must-know

• The Middle Colonies included:

  • New York
  • New Jersey
  • Delaware
  • Pennsylvania

• The Quaker William Penn established Pennsylvania, named Philadelphia the city of brotherly love, and prospered through abundant crops.

Further detail

• The Middle Colonies included Dutch, French, African, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim communities, as well as both free and enslaved Africans.

• The Duke of York gave his name to New York, while New Jersey was named after the island of Jersey.

💡 Memory Hook

A diverse port city bringing Dutch, English, African, and other communities together

📖 5. Southern Plantations and Slavery

★ Must-know

• The expansion of the Carolinas was driven by plantation agriculture that relied on enslaved labor.

• Rice became a profitable crop in the Carolinas, and its cultivation increased reliance on enslaved labor.

Further detail

• Small landowners in the Carolinas raised livestock and produced:

  • tobacco
  • lumber
  • pitch

• Georgia later permitted slavery, and its location was intended to help protect the colonies from Spanish attacks from Florida.

💡 Memory Hook

Rice cultivation → plantation expansion → increased reliance on enslaved labor

📖 6. New England Institutions and Voting

★ Must-know

• The Mayflower Compact contributed to a tradition of direct democracy in New England, but participation was not universal.

• New England towns held regular meetings to address local problems.

📌 In some colonies, only men who owned land could vote.

📌 Puritans opposed theocracy, but religion remained central to their lives, and all adults were required to attend church and pay church fees.

Further detail

• Connecticut ensured that each town had an elected representative.

• Roger Williams is identified in the course as a dissenter who voiced opposition.

💡 Memory Hook

Town meetings offered local participation, while landownership limited voting in some colonies