APUSH AMSCO Topic 2.3 Study NotesAPUSH AMSCO Topic 2.3 Study Notes

A P U S H I S T O R Y · UNIT2

The Regions of British Colonies

AMSCO Topic 2.3

Learning Objective: Explain how and why environmental and other factors shaped the development and expansion of various British colonies from 1607 to 1754.

Study notes built from the AMSCO text only. No outside sources are added.

Big Picture

Thirteen British colonies developed from Jamestown (1607) to Georgia (1733). Topography, resources, climate, and the background of settlers created regional differences. Distance from Britain, plus British distraction at home, let self-government begin early.

Three Types of Colonies

Every colony operated under a charter from the monarch describing its relationship to the crown. Corporate: run by joint-stock companies, at least early on (Jamestown).

Royal: under the direct authority of the king's government (Virginia after 1624).

Proprietary: under individuals granted ownership by the king (Maryland, Pennsylvania).

The English prided themselves on free farmers and a tradition of representative government, unlike the French and Spanish.

Virginia: Jamestown

1607: King James I chartered the Virginia Company (joint-stock), which founded Jamestown, the first permanent English colony.

Early problems: swampy site on the James River caused dysentery and malaria; settlers included gentlemen and gold hunters who would not hunt or farm; trade with American Indians broke down into conflict and settlers starved.

Survival: Captain John Smith's leadership carried the colony through five years. John Rolfe (and his wife Pocahontas) developed a tobacco variety that sold well in Europe.

Headright system: 50 acres to any settler or anyone who paid a settler's passage. It mostly helped landowners add indentured servants. Planters used mostly White laborers at first but relied on enslaved Africans by the end of the 1600s.

1624: more than 5,000 people had come but only 1,300 were alive and the company was nearly bankrupt. The king revoked the charter, making Virginia England's first royal colony.

New England: Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay

Settlers here were driven by religious motivation (many also sought economic opportunity). They were Protestants who dissented from the Church of England, which had broken with Rome in 1534 but kept most Catholic rituals and structure. Dissenters, influenced by John Calvin, wanted a complete break. James I saw them as a threat and had them arrested.

Plymouth Massachusetts Bay

Who Separatists, who wanted a separate church; known as

Pilgrims after living in Holland

Puritans, more moderate; wanted to reform or purify the

Church of England

Founding 1620 on the Mayflower; fewer than half of 100

passengers were Separatists; landed 600 miles north of

Virginia

Royal charter for Mass. Bay Company (1629); John

Winthrop led 1,000 Puritans and founded Boston in 1630

Key facts Half died the first winter; Indians helped survivors; first

Thanksgiving 1621; leaders Miles Standish and William

Bradford; fish, furs, lumber

Persecution rose under Charles I (1625); about 15,000 came

in the Great Migration; small towns and family farms

mixing commerce and agriculture

Maryland: Religious Issues

1632: Charles I split Maryland from Virginia and gave it to Catholic noble George Calvert (Lord Baltimore). It was the first proprietary colony.

His son Cecil Calvert (second Lord Baltimore) set it up in 1634 as a haven for persecuted Catholics. Catholics were soon outnumbered by Protestant farmers. In 1649 the assembly passed the Act of Toleration, the first colonial law granting religious freedom to all Christians (but death for anyone denying the divinity of Jesus).

Late 1600s: a Protestant revolt repealed the Act, and Catholics lost the right to vote. By the 18th century Maryland resembled Virginia, with more Protestant diversity.

Development of New England

Puritan leaders banished dissenters, who formed the settlements that became Rhode Island and Connecticut. Rhode Island: Roger Williams believed conscience was beyond civil or church control; banished, he founded Providence (1636) and one of the first Baptist churches. Catholics, Quakers, and Jews could worship freely and Indians were paid for land. Anne Hutchinson preached antinomianism (salvation by faith alone, so traditional moral laws were not required); banished, she founded Portsmouth (1638) and was later killed in an Indian uprising on Long Island. A 1644 Parliament charter joined Providence and Portsmouth as Rhode Island, a refuge for many.

Connecticut: Thomas Hooker led Boston Puritans to found Hartford (1636). The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639) were the first written constitution in American history: a legislature elected by popular vote and a governor chosen by the legislature. John Davenport founded New Haven (1637); it joined Hartford in 1665.

New Hampshire: Charles II separated it from Mass. Bay in 1679 to make it a royal colony and increase royal control.

Halfway Covenant: full church membership required a conversion experience, but fewer of the native-born generation had one. Some clergy offered partial membership; strict Puritan practices weakened over time. Restoration Colonies (after 1660)

Named for the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 after the brief republican rule of Oliver Cromwell. The Carolinas: Charles II rewarded eight nobles with land between Virginia and Spanish Florida (lord proprietors, 1663). Split into two royal colonies in 1729.

South Carolina: Charleston (1670), settled by English colonists and planters from Barbados. Early economy: furs and food for the West Indies. By the mid-1700s: large rice plantations worked by enslaved Africans, resembling the West Indies.

North Carolina: few good harbors and poor transportation, so few large plantations and little slavery. Small, self-sufficient tobacco farms; reputation for democratic views and independence from British control. The Middle Colonies