APUSH Chapter 2: The Planting of English America

Chapter Summary
Jamestown, VA was founded with the initial goal of making money via gold. They found no gold, but did find a cash crop in tobacco. Other southern colonies sprouted up due to the desire for more tobacco land as with North Carolina, the desire for religious freedom as with Maryland, the natural extension of a natural port in South Carolina, and the desire for a “second chance” colony as with Georgia.

Chapter Outline

 * King Henry VIII launched the Protestant Reformation and, after Elizabeth I became queen, England became basically Protestant, which intensified their rivalry with Spain
 * Irish Catholics sought Spain's help in a revolt, but England crushed them
 * Elizabeth I knighted Francis Drake for pirating Spanish ships, and so the Spanish sought revenge
 * Sir Walter Raleigh attempted the Roanoke Island Colony but failed
 * Spain attacked Britain but lost in the Spanish Armada
 * This victory allowed Britain to cross over the Atlantic, strengthened their government, created more religious unity, upsurged nationalism, brought the golden age of literature, and began Britain's naval dominance
 * Britain's population was increasing, enclosure lessened land for the poor, and many workers lost jobs
 * Primogeniture gave all land to the first born son, so younger sons tried their luck in America
 * In 1606, the Virginia company received a charter from King James I to settle in America, and the same English rights were guaranteed to these colonists
 * On May 24, 1607, about 100 settlers founded Jamestown
 * Problems included Jamestown's swampy site which caused malaria and yellow fever, men wasted time looking for gold rather than being productive, and there were no women
 * Their supply ship had been shipwrecked in the Bahamas two years later
 * In 1608, Captain John Smith whipped the colonists into shape with his "no work, no food" policy
 * John Smith was kidnapped by local indians, but cheif Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas, saved him as an act of peace
 * In 1610, Lord De La Warr arrived to help the suffering
 * Powhatan hoped to become allied with the colonists, but war occurred when they raided Indian food supplies
 * The first Anglo-Powhatan War ended peacefully in 1614 when Pocahontas married John Rolfe
 * In 1622, the Indians struck again and killed 347 colonists
 * The second Anglo-Powhatan War ended in 1646, banishing Chesapeake Indians from their ancestral land as they were now useless (colonists learned to grow their own food)
 * Jamestown's gold was tobacco, which created a greed for land, since it depleted the soil and ruined the land
 * In 1619, settlers created the House of Burgesses to work out local issues
 * In 1634, Lord Baltimore founded Maryland as a safe haven for Catholics, though there were many Protestants as well, causing friction
 * The Act of Toleration guaranteed religious toleration to all Christians
 * In the mid-1660s, the British were also settling in and claiming serveral West Indies islands, including Jamaica
 * They grew lots of sugar, which required thousands of African slaves to operate sugar plantations
 * The Restoration of Charles II to the throne had interrupted colonization
 * In 1670, Carolina was created, flourishing through its close economic ties with the West Indies
 * Rice emerged as the principle crop in Carolina, causing a need for African slaves to work on rice plantations because of their resistance to malaria and their familiarity with rice
 * South Carolina rice and indigo plantations were more aristocratic and wealthy, wheras North Carolina tobacco farms were more strong-willed and independent
 * In 1711, Tuscarora Indians attacked North Carolina, to which the Carolinians crushed them and sold hundreds to slavery
 * Georgia, founded by a group of philantropists, was intended to be a buffer between British colonies and Spanish/French enemies, and also to be a second chance site for debtors
 * James Oglethorpe repelled Spanish attacks
 * All Christians, except Catholics, enjoyed religious toleration, and many missionaries, such as John Wesley, tried to convert Indians
 * Georgia grew very slowly
 * Slavery was found in all plantation colonies
 * Forests often stunted the growth of cities
 * Establishing schools and churches was difficult due to the widespread population
 * All plantation colonies permitted some religious toleration
 * Confrontations with Indians happened often
 * The Iroquois Confederacy defeated neighboring Indians
 * Most allied with the British in the American Revolution, and once the Americans won, they were forced to reservations