3.3 English Settlements in America
Learning objectives.
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Identify the first English settlements in America
- Describe the differences between the Chesapeake Bay colonies and the New England colonies
- Compare and contrast the wars between Native inhabitants and English colonists in both the Chesapeake Bay and New England colonies
- Explain the role of Bacon’s Rebellion in the rise of chattel slavery in Virginia
At the start of the seventeenth century, the English had not established a permanent settlement in the Americas. Over the next century, however, they outpaced their rivals. The English encouraged emigration far more than the Spanish, French, or Dutch. They established nearly a dozen colonies, sending swarms of immigrants to populate the land. England had experienced a dramatic rise in population in the sixteenth century, and the colonies appeared a welcoming place for those who faced overcrowding and grinding poverty at home. Thousands of English migrants arrived in the Chesapeake Bay colonies of Virginia and Maryland to work in the tobacco fields. Another stream, this one of pious Puritan families, sought to live as they believed scripture demanded and established the Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, New Haven, Connecticut, and Rhode Island colonies of New England ( Figure 3.8 ).
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THE DIVERGING CULTURES OF THE NEW ENGLAND AND CHESAPEAKE COLONIES
Promoters of English colonization in North America, many of whom never ventured across the Atlantic, wrote about the bounty the English would find there. These boosters of colonization hoped to turn a profit—whether by importing raw resources or providing new markets for English goods—and spread Protestantism. The English migrants who actually made the journey, however, had different goals. In Chesapeake Bay, English migrants established Virginia and Maryland with a decidedly commercial orientation. Though the early Virginians at Jamestown hoped to find gold, they and the settlers in Maryland quickly discovered that growing tobacco was the only sure means of making money. Thousands of unmarried, unemployed, and impatient young Englishmen, along with a few Englishwomen, pinned their hopes for a better life on the tobacco fields of these two colonies.
A very different group of English men and women flocked to the cold climate and rocky soil of New England, spurred by religious motives. Many of the Puritans crossing the Atlantic were people who brought families and children. Often they were following their ministers in a migration “beyond the seas,” envisioning a new English Israel where reformed Protestantism would grow and thrive, providing a model for the rest of the Christian world and a counter to what they saw as the Catholic menace. While the English in Virginia and Maryland worked on expanding their profitable tobacco fields, the English in New England built towns focused on the church, where each congregation decided what was best for itself. The Congregational Church is the result of the Puritan enterprise in America. Many historians believe the fault lines separating what later became the North and South in the United States originated in the profound differences between the Chesapeake and New England colonies.
The source of those differences lay in England’s domestic problems. Increasingly in the early 1600s, the English state church—the Church of England, established in the 1530s—demanded conformity, or compliance with its practices, but Puritans pushed for greater reforms. By the 1620s, the Church of England began to see leading Puritan ministers and their followers as outlaws, a national security threat because of their opposition to its power. As the noose of conformity tightened around them, many Puritans decided to remove to New England. By 1640, New England had a population of twenty-five thousand. Meanwhile, many loyal members of the Church of England, who ridiculed and mocked Puritans both at home and in New England, flocked to Virginia for economic opportunity.
The troubles in England escalated in the 1640s when civil war broke out, pitting Royalist supporters of King Charles I and the Church of England against Parliamentarians, the Puritan reformers and their supporters in Parliament. In 1649, the Parliamentarians gained the upper hand and, in an unprecedented move, executed Charles I. In the 1650s, therefore, England became a republic, a state without a king. English colonists in America closely followed these events. Indeed, many Puritans left New England and returned home to take part in the struggle against the king and the national church. Other English men and women in the Chesapeake colonies and elsewhere in the English Atlantic World looked on in horror at the mayhem the Parliamentarians, led by the Puritan insurgents, appeared to unleash in England. The turmoil in England made the administration and imperial oversight of the Chesapeake and New England colonies difficult, and the two regions developed divergent cultures.
THE CHESAPEAKE COLONIES: VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND
The Chesapeake colonies of Virginia and Maryland served a vital purpose in the developing seventeenth-century English empire by providing tobacco, a cash crop. However, the early history of Jamestown did not suggest the English outpost would survive. From the outset, its settlers struggled both with each other and with the Native inhabitants, the powerful Powhatan, who controlled the area. Jealousies and infighting among the English destabilized the colony. One member, John Smith, whose famous map begins this chapter, took control and exercised near-dictatorial powers, which furthered aggravated the squabbling. The settlers’ inability to grow their own food compounded this unstable situation. They were essentially employees of the Virginia Company of London, an English joint-stock company, in which investors provided the capital and assumed the risk in order to reap the profit, and they had to make a profit for their shareholders as well as for themselves. Most initially devoted themselves to finding gold and silver instead of finding ways to grow their own food.
Early Struggles and the Development of the Tobacco Economy
Poor health, lack of food, and fighting with Native peoples took the lives of many of the original Jamestown settlers. The winter of 1609–1610, which became known as “the starving time,” came close to annihilating the colony. By June 1610, the few remaining settlers had decided to abandon the area; only the last-minute arrival of a supply ship from England prevented another failed colonization effort. The supply ship brought new settlers, but only twelve hundred of the seventy-five hundred who came to Virginia between 1607 and 1624 survived.
George Percy on “The Starving Time”
Now all of us at James Town, beginning to feel that sharp prick of hunger which no man truly describe but he which has tasted the bitterness thereof, a world of miseries ensued as the sequel will express unto you, in so much that some to satisfy their hunger have robbed the store for the which I caused them to be executed. Then having fed upon horses and other beasts as long as they lasted, we were glad to make shift with vermin as dogs, cats, rats, and mice. All was fish that came to net to satisfy cruel hunger as to eat boots, shoes, or any other leather some could come by, and, those being spent and devoured, some were enforced to search the woods and to feed upon serpents and snakes and to dig the earth for wild and unknown roots, where many of our men were cut off of and slain by the savages. And now famine beginning to look ghastly and pale in every face that nothing was spared to maintain life and to do those things which seem incredible as to dig up dead corpses out of graves and to eat them, and some have licked up the blood which has fallen from their weak fellows. George Percy, the youngest son of an English nobleman, was in the first group of settlers at the Jamestown Colony. He kept a journal describing their experiences; in the excerpt below, he reports on the privations of the colonists’ third winter. —George Percy, “A True Relation of the Proceedings and Occurances of Moment which have happened in Virginia from the Time Sir Thomas Gates shipwrecked upon the Bermudes anno 1609 until my departure out of the Country which was in anno Domini 1612,” London 1624
What is your reaction to George Percy’s story? How do you think Jamestown managed to survive after such an experience? What do you think the Jamestown colonists learned?
By the 1620s, Virginia had weathered the worst and gained a degree of permanence. Political stability came slowly, but by 1619, the fledgling colony was operating under the leadership of a governor, a council, and a House of Burgesses. Economic stability came from the lucrative cultivation of tobacco. Smoking tobacco was a long-standing practice among native peoples, and English and other European consumers soon adopted it. In 1614, the Virginia colony began exporting tobacco back to England, which earned it a sizable profit and saved the colony from ruin. A second tobacco colony, Maryland, was formed in 1634, when King Charles I granted its charter to the Calvert family for their loyal service to England. Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, conceived of Maryland as a refuge for English Catholics.
Growing tobacco proved very labor-intensive ( Figure 3.9 ), and the Chesapeake colonists needed a steady workforce to do the hard work of clearing the land and caring for the tender young plants. The mature leaf of the plant then had to be cured (dried), which necessitated the construction of drying barns. Once cured, the tobacco had to be packaged in hogsheads (large wooden barrels) and loaded aboard ship, which also required considerable labor.
To meet these labor demands, early Virginians relied on indentured servants. An indenture is a labor contract that young, impoverished, and often illiterate Englishmen and occasionally Englishwomen signed in England, pledging to work for a number of years (usually between five and seven) growing tobacco in the Chesapeake colonies. In return, indentured servants received paid passage to America and food, clothing, and lodging. At the end of their indenture, servants received “freedom dues,” usually food and other provisions, including, in some cases, land provided by the colony. The promise of a new life in America was a strong attraction for members of England’s underclass, who had few if any options at home. In the 1600s, some 100,000 indentured servants traveled to the Chesapeake Bay. Most were poor young men in their early twenties.
Life in the colonies proved harsh, however. Indentured servants could not marry, and they were subject to the will of the tobacco planters who bought their labor contracts. Treated much like property, the contracted servants could be essentially sold or traded among those with means to purchase them. Some contract holders did not feed or house their servants well. If an indentured servant committed a crime or disobeyed those who held their contracts, they found their terms of service lengthened, often by several years. Female indentured servants faced special dangers in what was essentially a bachelor colony. Many were exploited by unscrupulous tobacco planters who seduced them with promises of marriage. If the women became pregnant, the planters would then sell them to other tobacco planters to avoid the costs of raising a child.
Nonetheless, those indentured servants who completed their term of service often began new lives as tobacco planters. To entice even more migrants to the New World, the Virginia Company also implemented the headright system , in which those who paid their own passage to Virginia received fifty acres plus an additional fifty for each servant or family member they brought with them. The headright system and the promise of a new life for servants acted as powerful incentives for English migrants to hazard the journey to the New World.
Click and Explore
Visit Virtual Jamestown to access a database of contracts of indentured servants. Search it by name to find an ancestor or browse by occupation, destination, or county of origin.
The Anglo-Powhatan Wars
By choosing to settle along the rivers on the banks of the Chesapeake, the English unknowingly placed themselves at the center of the Powhatan Empire, a powerful Algonquian confederacy of thirty native groups with perhaps as many as twenty-two thousand people. The territory of the equally impressive Susquehannock people also bordered English settlements at the north end of the Chesapeake Bay.
Tensions ran high between the English and the Powhatan, and near-constant war prevailed. The First Anglo-Powhatan War (1609–1614) resulted not only from the English colonists’ intrusion onto Powhatan land, but also from their refusal to follow cultural protocol by giving gifts. English actions infuriated and insulted the Powhatan. In 1613, the settlers captured Pocahontas (also called Matoaka), the daughter of a Powhatan headman named Wahunsonacook, and gave her in marriage to Englishman John Rolfe. Their union, and her choice to remain with the English, helped quell the war in 1614. Pocahontas converted to Christianity, changing her name to Rebecca, and sailed with her husband and several other Powhatan to England where she was introduced to King James I ( Figure 3.10 ). Promoters of colonization publicized Pocahontas as an example of the good work of converting the Powhatan to Christianity.
Explore the interactive exhibit Changing Images of Pocahontas on PBS’s website to see the many ways artists have portrayed Pocahontas over the centuries.
Peace in Virginia did not last long. The Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1620s) broke out because of the expansion of the English settlement nearly one hundred miles into the interior, and because of the continued insults and friction caused by English activities. The Powhatan attacked in 1622 and succeeded in killing almost 350 English, about a third of the settlers. The English responded by annihilating every Powhatan village around Jamestown and from then on became even more intolerant. The Third Anglo-Powhatan War (1644–1646) began with a surprise attack in which the Powhatan killed around five hundred English colonists. However, their ultimate defeat in this conflict forced the Powhatan to acknowledge King Charles I as their sovereign. The Anglo-Powhatan Wars, spanning nearly forty years, illustrate the degree of native resistance that resulted from English intrusion into the Powhatan confederacy.
The Rise of Slavery in the Chesapeake Bay Colonies
The transition from indentured servitude to slavery as the main labor source for some English colonies happened first in the West Indies. On the small island of Barbados, colonized in the 1620s, English planters first grew tobacco as their main export crop, but in the 1640s, they converted to sugarcane and began increasingly to rely on African enslaved people. In 1655, England wrestled control of Jamaica from the Spanish and quickly turned it into a lucrative sugar island, run on forced labor, for its expanding empire. While slavery was slower to take hold in the Chesapeake colonies, by the end of the seventeenth century, both Virginia and Maryland had also adopted chattel slavery—which legally defined Africans as property and not people—as the dominant form of labor to grow tobacco. Chesapeake colonists also enslaved Native people.
When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, slavery—which did not exist in England—had not yet become an institution in colonial America. Many Africans worked as servants and, like their White counterparts, could acquire land of their own. Some Africans who converted to Christianity became free landowners with White servants. The change in the status of Africans in the Chesapeake to that of enslaved people occurred in the last decades of the seventeenth century.
Bacon’s Rebellion, an uprising of both White people and Black people who believed that the Virginia government was impeding their access to land and wealth and seemed to do little to clear the land of Native Americans, hastened the transition to African slavery in the Chesapeake colonies. The rebellion takes its name from Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy young Englishman who arrived in Virginia in 1674. Despite an early friendship with Virginia’s royal governor, William Berkeley, Bacon found himself excluded from the governor’s circle of influential friends and councilors. He wanted land on the Virginia frontier, but the governor, fearing war with neighboring tribes, forbade further expansion. Bacon marshaled others, especially former indentured servants who believed the governor was limiting their economic opportunities and denying them the right to own tobacco farms. Bacon’s followers believed Berkeley’s frontier policy didn’t protect English settlers enough. Worse still in their eyes, Governor Berkeley tried to keep peace in Virginia by signing treaties with various local Native peoples. Bacon and his followers, who saw all Native peoples as an obstacle to their access to land, pursued a policy of extermination.
Tensions between the English and the Native peoples in the Chesapeake colonies led to open conflict. In 1675, war broke out when Susquehannock warriors attacked settlements on Virginia’s frontier, killing English planters and destroying English plantations, including one owned by Bacon. In 1676, Bacon and other Virginians attacked the Susquehannock without the governor’s approval. When Berkeley ordered Bacon’s arrest, Bacon led his followers to Jamestown, forced the governor to flee to the safety of Virginia’s eastern shore, and then burned the city. The civil war known as Bacon’s Rebellion, a vicious struggle between supporters of the governor and those who supported Bacon, ensued. Reports of the rebellion traveled back to England, leading Charles II to dispatch both royal troops and English commissioners to restore order in the tobacco colonies. By the end of 1676, Virginians loyal to the governor gained the upper hand, executing several leaders of the rebellion. Bacon escaped the hangman’s noose, instead dying of dysentery. The rebellion fizzled in 1676, but Virginians remained divided as supporters of Bacon continued to harbor grievances over access to Native land.
Bacon’s Rebellion helped to catalyze the creation of a system of racial slavery in the Chesapeake colonies. At the time of the rebellion, indentured servants made up the majority of laborers in the region. Wealthy White people worried over the presence of this large class of laborers and the relative freedom they enjoyed, as well as the alliance that Black and White servants had forged in the course of the rebellion. Replacing indentured servitude with Black slavery diminished these risks, alleviating the reliance on White indentured servants, who were often dissatisfied and troublesome, and creating a caste of racially defined laborers whose movements were strictly controlled. It also lessened the possibility of further alliances between Black and White workers. Racial slavery even served to heal some of the divisions between wealthy and poor White people, who could now unite as members of a “superior” racial group.
While colonial laws in the tobacco colonies had made slavery a legal institution before Bacon’s Rebellion, new laws passed in the wake of the rebellion severely curtailed Black freedom and laid the foundation for racial slavery. Virginia passed a law in 1680 prohibiting free Black people and enslaved people from bearing arms, banning Black people from congregating in large numbers, and establishing harsh punishments for enslaved people who assaulted Christians or sought freedom. Two years later, another Virginia law stipulated that all Africans brought to the colony would be enslaved for life. Thus, the increasing reliance on enslaved people in the tobacco colonies—and the draconian laws instituted to control them—not only helped planters meet labor demands, but also served to assuage English fears of further uprisings and alleviate class tensions between rich and poor White people.
Defining American
Robert beverley on servants and enslaved people.
Robert Beverley was a wealthy Jamestown planter and enslaver. This excerpt from his History and Present State of Virginia , published in 1705, clearly illustrates the contrast between White servants and enslaved Black people.
Their Servants, they distinguish by the Names of Slaves for Life, and Servants for a time. Slaves are the Negroes, and their Posterity, following the condition of the Mother, according to the Maxim, partus sequitur ventrem [status follows the womb]. They are call’d Slaves, in respect of the time of their Servitude, because it is for Life. Servants, are those which serve only for a few years, according to the time of their Indenture, or the Custom of the Country. The Custom of the Country takes place upon such as have no Indentures. The Law in this case is, that if such Servants be under Nineteen years of Age, they must be brought into Court, to have their Age adjudged; and from the Age they are judg’d to be of, they must serve until they reach four and twenty: But if they be adjudged upwards of Nineteen, they are then only to be Servants for the term of five Years. The Male-Servants, and Slaves of both Sexes, are employed together in Tilling and Manuring the Ground, in Sowing and Planting Tobacco, Corn, &c. Some Distinction indeed is made between them in their Cloaths, and Food; but the Work of both, is no other than what the Overseers, the Freemen, and the Planters themselves do. Sufficient Distinction is also made between the Female-Servants, and Slaves; for a White Woman is rarely or never put to work in the Ground, if she be good for any thing else: And to Discourage all Planters from using any Women so, their Law imposes the heaviest Taxes upon Female Servants working in the Ground, while it suffers all other White Women to be absolutely exempted: Whereas on the other hand, it is a common thing to work a Woman Slave out of Doors; nor does the Law make any Distinction in her Taxes, whether her Work be Abroad, or at Home.
According to Robert Beverley, what are the differences between the servants and the enslaved? What protections did servants have that enslaved people did not?
PURITAN NEW ENGLAND
The second major area to be colonized by the English in the first half of the seventeenth century, New England, differed markedly in its founding principles from the commercially oriented Chesapeake tobacco colonies. Settled largely by waves of Puritan families in the 1630s, New England had a religious orientation from the start. In England, reform-minded men and women had been calling for greater changes to the English national church since the 1580s. These reformers, who followed the teachings of John Calvin and other Protestant reformers, were called Puritans because of their insistence on “purifying” the Church of England of what they believed to be un-scriptural, especially Catholic elements that lingered in its institutions and practices.
Many who provided leadership in early New England were learned ministers who had studied at Cambridge or Oxford but who, because they had questioned the practices of the Church of England, had been deprived of careers by the king and his officials in an effort to silence all dissenting voices. Other Puritan leaders, such as the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop, came from the privileged class of English gentry. These well-to-do Puritans and many thousands more left their English homes not to establish a land of religious freedom, but to practice their own religion without persecution. Puritan New England offered them the opportunity to live as they believed the Bible demanded. In their “New” England, they set out to create a model of reformed Protestantism, a new English Israel.
The conflict generated by Puritanism had divided English society, because the Puritans demanded reforms that undermined the traditional festive culture. For example, they denounced popular pastimes like bear-baiting—letting dogs attack a chained bear—which were often conducted on Sundays when people had a few leisure hours. In the culture where William Shakespeare had produced his masterpieces, Puritans called for an end to the theater, censuring playhouses as places of decadence. Indeed, the Bible itself became part of the struggle between Puritans and James I, who headed the Church of England. Soon after ascending the throne, James commissioned a new version of the Bible in an effort to stifle Puritan reliance on the Geneva Bible, which followed the teachings of John Calvin and placed God’s authority above the monarch’s. The King James Version, published in 1611, instead emphasized the majesty of kings.
During the 1620s and 1630s, the conflict escalated to the point where the state church prohibited Puritan ministers from preaching. In the Church’s view, Puritans represented a national security threat, because their demands for cultural, social, and religious reforms undermined the king’s authority. Unwilling to conform to the Church of England, many Puritans found refuge in the New World. Yet those who emigrated to the Americas were not united. Some called for a complete break with the Church of England, while others remained committed to reforming the national church.
Plymouth: The First Puritan Colony
The first group of Puritans to make their way across the Atlantic was a small contingent known as the Pilgrims. Unlike other Puritans, they insisted on a complete separation from the Church of England and had first migrated to the Dutch Republic in Europe seeking religious freedom. Although they found they could worship without hindrance there, they grew concerned that they were losing their Englishness as they saw their children begin to learn the Dutch language and adopt Dutch ways. In addition, the English Pilgrims (and others in Europe) feared another attack on the Dutch Republic by Spain. Therefore, in 1620, they moved on to found the Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts. The governor of Plymouth, William Bradford, was a Separatist, a proponent of complete separation from the English state church. Bradford and the other Pilgrim Separatists represented a major challenge to the prevailing vision of a unified English national church and empire. On board the Mayflower , which was bound for Virginia but landed on the tip of Cape Cod, Bradford and forty other adult men signed the Mayflower Compact ( Figure 3.11 ), which presented a religious (rather than an economic) rationale for colonization. The compact expressed a community ideal of working together. When a larger exodus of Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s, the Pilgrims at Plymouth welcomed them and the two colonies cooperated with each other.
The Mayflower Compact and Its Religious Rationale
The Mayflower Compact, which forty-one Pilgrim men signed on board the Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, has been called the first American governing document, predating the U.S. Constitution by over 150 years. But was the Mayflower Compact a constitution? How much authority did it convey, and to whom?
In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc. Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620
Different labor systems also distinguished early Puritan New England from the Chesapeake colonies. Puritans expected young people to work diligently at their calling, and all members of their large families, including children, did the bulk of the work necessary to run homes, farms, and businesses. Very few migrants came to New England as laborers; in fact, New England towns protected their disciplined homegrown workforce by refusing to allow outsiders in, assuring their sons and daughters of steady employment. New England’s labor system produced remarkable results, notably a powerful maritime-based economy with scores of oceangoing ships and the crews necessary to sail them. New England mariners sailing New England–made ships transported Virginian tobacco and West Indian sugar throughout the Atlantic World.
“A City upon a Hill”
A much larger group of English Puritans left England in the 1630s, establishing the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the New Haven Colony, the Connecticut Colony, and Rhode Island. Unlike the exodus of young males to the Chesapeake colonies, these migrants were families with young children and their university-trained ministers. Their aim, according to John Winthrop ( Figure 3.12 ), the first governor of Massachusetts Bay, was to create a model of reformed Protestantism—a “city upon a hill,” a new English Israel. The idea of a “city upon a hill” made clear the religious orientation of the New England settlement, and the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony stated as a goal that the colony’s people “may be soe religiously, peaceablie, and civilly governed, as their good Life and orderlie Conversacon, maie wynn and incite the Natives of Country, to the Knowledg and Obedience of the onlie true God and Saulor of Mankinde, and the Christian Fayth.” To illustrate this, the seal of the Massachusetts Bay Company ( Figure 3.12 ) shows a Native American who entreats more of the English to “come over and help us.”
Puritan New England differed in many ways from both England and the rest of Europe. Protestants emphasized literacy so that everyone could read the Bible. This attitude was in stark contrast to that of Catholics, who refused to tolerate private ownership of Bibles in the vernacular. The Puritans, for their part, placed a special emphasis on reading scripture, and their commitment to literacy led to the establishment of the first printing press in English America in 1636. Four years later, in 1640, they published the first book in North America, the Bay Psalm Book. As Calvinists, Puritans adhered to the doctrine of predestination, whereby a few “elect” would be saved and all others damned. No one could be sure whether they were predestined for salvation, but through introspection, guided by scripture, Puritans hoped to find a glimmer of redemptive grace. Church membership was restricted to those Puritans who were willing to provide a conversion narrative telling how they came to understand their spiritual estate by hearing sermons and studying the Bible.
Although many people assume Puritans escaped England to establish religious freedom, they proved to be just as intolerant as the English state church. When dissenters, including Puritan minister Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, challenged Governor Winthrop in Massachusetts Bay in the 1630s, they were banished. Roger Williams questioned the Puritans’ taking of Native land. Williams also argued for a complete separation from the Church of England, a position other Puritans in Massachusetts rejected, as well as the idea that the state could not punish individuals for their beliefs. Although he did accept that nonbelievers were destined for eternal damnation, Williams did not think the state could compel true orthodoxy. Puritan authorities found him guilty of spreading dangerous ideas, but he went on to found Rhode Island as a colony that sheltered dissenting Puritans from their brethren in Massachusetts. In Rhode Island, Williams wrote favorably about native peoples, contrasting their virtues with Puritan New England’s intolerance.
Anne Hutchinson also ran afoul of Puritan authorities for her criticism of the evolving religious practices in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In particular, she held that Puritan ministers in New England taught a shallow version of Protestantism emphasizing hierarchy and actions—a “covenant of works” rather than a “covenant of grace.” Literate Puritan women like Hutchinson presented a challenge to the male ministers’ authority. Indeed, her major offense was her claim of direct religious revelation, a type of spiritual experience that negated the role of ministers. Because of Hutchinson’s beliefs and her defiance of authority in the colony, especially that of Governor Winthrop, Puritan authorities tried and convicted her of holding false beliefs. In 1638, she was excommunicated and banished from the colony. She went to Rhode Island and later, in 1642, sought safety among the Dutch in New Netherland. The following year, Algonquian warriors killed Hutchinson and her family. In Massachusetts, Governor Winthrop noted her death as the righteous judgment of God against a heretic.
Like many other Europeans, the Puritans believed in the supernatural. Every event appeared to be a sign of God’s mercy or judgment, and people believed that witches allied themselves with the Devil to carry out evil deeds and deliberate harm such as the sickness or death of children, the loss of cattle, and other catastrophes. Hundreds were accused of witchcraft in Puritan New England, including townspeople whose habits or appearance bothered their neighbors or who appeared threatening for any reason. Women, seen as more susceptible to the Devil because of their supposedly weaker constitutions, made up the vast majority of suspects and those who were executed. The most notorious cases occurred in Salem Village in 1692. Many of the accusers who prosecuted the suspected witches had been traumatized by the Native wars on the frontier and by unprecedented political and cultural changes in New England. Relying on their belief in witchcraft to help make sense of their changing world, Puritan authorities executed nineteen people and caused the deaths of several others.
Explore the Salem Witchcraft Trials to learn more about the prosecution of witchcraft in seventeenth-century New England.
Puritan Relationships with Native Peoples
Like their Spanish and French Catholic rivals, English Puritans in America took steps to convert native peoples to their version of Christianity. John Eliot, the leading Puritan missionary in New England, urged natives in Massachusetts to live in “praying towns” established by English authorities for converted Native Americans, and to adopt the Puritan emphasis on the centrality of the Bible. In keeping with the Protestant emphasis on reading scripture, he translated the Bible into the local Algonquian language and published his work in 1663. Eliot hoped that as a result of his efforts, some of New England’s native inhabitants would become preachers.
Tensions had existed from the beginning between the Puritans and the native people who controlled southern New England ( Figure 3.13 ). Relationships deteriorated as the Puritans continued to expand their settlements aggressively and as European ways increasingly disrupted native life. These strains led to King Philip’s War (1675–1676), a massive regional conflict that was nearly successful in pushing the English out of New England.
When the Puritans began to arrive in the 1620s and 1630s, local Algonquian peoples had viewed them as potential allies in the conflicts already simmering between rival Native groups. In 1621, the Wampanoag, led by Massasoit, concluded a peace treaty with the Pilgrims at Plymouth. In the 1630s, the Puritans in Massachusetts and Plymouth allied themselves with the Narragansett and Mohegan people against the Pequot, who had recently expanded their claims into southern New England. In May 1637, the Puritans attacked a large group of several hundred Pequot along the Mystic River in Connecticut. To the horror of their Native allies, the Puritans massacred all but a handful of the men, women, and children they found.
By the mid-seventeenth century, the Puritans had pushed their way further into the interior of New England, establishing outposts along the Connecticut River Valley. There seemed no end to their expansion. Wampanoag leader Metacom or Metacomet, also known as King Philip among the English, was determined to stop the encroachment. The Wampanoag, along with the Nipmuck, Pocumtuck, and Narragansett, took up arms to drive the English from the land. In the ensuing conflict, called King Philip’s War, Native forces succeeded in destroying half of the frontier Puritan towns; however, in the end, the English (aided by Mohegans and Christian Native Americans) prevailed and sold many captives into slavery in the West Indies. (The severed head of King Philip was publicly displayed in Plymouth.) The war also forever changed the English perception of Native peoples; from then on, Puritan writers took great pains to vilify the Native people as bloodthirsty savages. A new type of racial hatred became a defining feature of Native-English relationships in the Northeast.
Mary Rowlandson’s Captivity Narrative
Mary Rowlandson was a Puritan woman whom Native tribes captured and imprisoned for several weeks during King Philip’s War. After her release, she wrote The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson , which was published in 1682 ( Figure 3.14 ). The book was an immediate sensation that was reissued in multiple editions for over a century.
But now, the next morning, I must turn my back upon the town, and travel with them into the vast and desolate wilderness, I knew not whither. It is not my tongue, or pen, can express the sorrows of my heart, and bitterness of my spirit that I had at this departure: but God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit, that it did not quite fail. One of the Indians carried my poor wounded babe upon a horse; it went moaning all along, “I shall die, I shall die.” I went on foot after it, with sorrow that cannot be expressed. At length I took it off the horse, and carried it in my arms till my strength failed, and I fell down with it. Then they set me upon a horse with my wounded child in my lap, and there being no furniture upon the horse’s back, as we were going down a steep hill we both fell over the horse’s head, at which they, like inhumane creatures, laughed, and rejoiced to see it, though I thought we should there have ended our days, as overcome with so many difficulties. But the Lord renewed my strength still, and carried me along, that I might see more of His power; yea, so much that I could never have thought of, had I not experienced it.
What sustains Rowlandson her during her ordeal? How does she characterize her captors? What do you think made her narrative so compelling to readers?
Access the entire text of Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative at the Gutenberg Project.
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Video Clip: Relations with England
Description.
As part of author Lindsay Chervinsky's lecture on the United States' efforts to maintain its neutrality in the years after the Revolutionary War, she discussed the new country's relations with England. The Emerging Revolutionary War organization sponsored this event at The Lyceum in Alexandria, Virginia.
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First teaching 2016
Last exams 2025
Mary & Elizabeth I's Relationship, 1568-1569 ( Edexcel GCSE History )
Revision note.
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Did Elizabeth Make the Right Decision About Mary, Queen of Scots? - Summary
When Mary arrived in England in 1568, . Elizabeth could protect Mary and help her regain her Scottish throne. She could charge Mary with the murder of Lord Darnley and punish her. Each option available to Elizabeth presented different opportunities and challenges. Elizabeth had to consider the . Many English considered . Helping a Catholic monarch would cause outrage in the government and amongst . She also had to judge the . The punishment of Mary, Queen of Scots could trigger a . This could originate from the Pope or Catholic powers like Spain. An issue that complicated the situation further was . Some historians believe that Elizabeth refused to name Mary her heir because she was . Other historians argue that Elizabeth’s decision was political. Naming Mary the heir to the English throne would make . Mary potentially killed her husband, Lord Darnley. Elizabeth was unsure if Mary would use similar means to become Queen of England. Elizabeth wanted to avoid Catholics plotting to |
Elizabeth's Reaction to Mary's Arrival
Mary’s arrival in England in 1568 worried Elizabeth
She knew that Mary wanted her support to overthrow the rebellious nobles who had taken control of Scotland
She did not trust Mary. Elizabeth knew her intentions were to be named her heir
Mary’s damaged reputation worried Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s association with Mary could ruin her own reputation
Mary corresponded with Elizabeth by letter
Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots never met , despite Mary’s request for a meeting with Elizabeth
Mary wanted to explain to Elizabeth her innocence in the murder of Lord Darnley . Elizabeth was wary of discussing this because:
She was unsure if she could believe Mary’s version of events
Mary claimed she had not planned Darnley’s murder, despite being unhappy in the marriage
Mary, Queen of Scots claimed that Bothwell had kidnapped her and forced her into the marriage. These were serious allegations
An English court was about to hear Mary’s case . They would decide if she was guilty of Darnley’s murder
What Options Did Elizabeth I Have?
Elizabeth and her advisers considered multiple solutions to the ‘problem’ of Mary, Queen of Scots
What could Elizabeth choose to do with Mary, Queen of Scots?
|
|
|
Help Mary regain her Scottish throne | Mary would do anything to receive Elizabeth's help. She could insist that | If Elizabeth restored Mary as Queen of Scotland, . The Earls in the north of England would be happy to help Mary restore Catholicism in England |
Return Mary to the Scottish lords | If the , she could not take the English throne. Mary’s return to Scotland would make . They wanted to maintain a good relationship with the Protestant nobles in Scotland | The . She would worry that English nobles would think it was acceptable to treat a monarch in this way |
Allow Mary to go abroad | Mary would be safe from the Scottish nobles. She could live her | If Mary took |
Keep Mary in England | Elizabeth could keep Mary . Imprisonment in England would protect Mary from the Scottish nobles | Mary would remain a . Mary would receive letters from wanting to use her to overthrow Elizabeth |
Elizabeth's Decision About Mary
The English court lasted from October 1568 to January 1569
The Scottish nobles brought letters as evidence
These were called the ‘casket letters’ , alleged correspondence between Mary and the Earl of Bothwell
The content of the letters indicated that Mary had plotted with Bothwell to kill Darnley
Mary undermined the power of the court
She stated that, as an anointed monarch, only God could judge her
Mary refused to offer a plea unless Elizabeth could guarantee an innocent verdict . Elizabeth refused to promise this
Elizabeth could not allow the English court to make a decision about whether Mary was guilty of murdering Lord Darnley. An innocent or guilty verdict for Mary was dangerous for Elizabeth because:
If found guilty , Elizabeth would be responsible for overthrowing an anointed monarch. Her actions would validate that the people had the power to choose their monarch . This went against her belief in Divine Right
If found innocent , Mary could gain support from a Catholic country to overthrow Elizabeth
She decided to imprison Mary indefinitely
Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned for 19 years
She never saw her son James again
If an exam question asks you to explain why Elizabeth imprisoned Mary, you could argue that the choice satisfied the majority of Elizabeth’s subjects and foreign powers. The religious tension in England had improved but was not resolved. Elizabeth could not afford to upset her people or the European Catholic powers. Despite pressure from her government to decide what to do about Mary, Elizabeth avoided the issue for 19 years.
Worked Example
Describe one feature of Elizabeth’s decision-making about Mary, Queen of Scots in 1569
One feature of Elizabeth’s decision-making about Mary, Queen of Scots (MQoS) in 1569 was the need to avoid upsetting foreign powers (1) . Elizabeth knew that MQoS had the support of Catholic powers like Spain. If Elizabeth let MQoS go free, she could use Philip II of Spain to raise an army against Elizabeth (1) .
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Author: Zoe Wade
Zoe has worked in education for 10 years as a teaching assistant and a teacher. This has given her an in-depth perspective on how to support all learners to achieve to the best of their ability. She has been the Lead of Key Stage 4 History, showing her expertise in the Edexcel GCSE syllabus and how best to revise. Ever since she was a child, Zoe has been passionate about history. She believes now, more than ever, the study of history is vital to explaining the ever-changing world around us. Zoe’s focus is to create accessible content that breaks down key historical concepts and themes to achieve GCSE success.
Ch. 12 The Rise of Nation-States
Elizabeth i and english patriotism, learning objective.
- Identify some of the highlights from Queen Elizabeth I’s reign
- Elizabeth I (1533–1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 until her death in 1603. She succeeded her Roman Catholic half-sister, Mary to the throne. Elizabeth never married nor had children and thus was the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty.
- Mary’s marriage to Philip II of Spain contributed to the complex relations between England and Spain that after Mary’s death dominated Elizabeth’s reign in the realm of international relations.
- Elizabeth’s efforts led to the Religious Settlement, a legal process by which the Protestant Church of England was restored and the queen took the title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
- Elizabeth’s foreign policy was largely defensive. While she managed to establish diplomatic relations with some of the most powerful contemporary empires and supported Protestant struggles across Europe, her greatest foreign policy challenge was Catholic Spain and its Armada, over which England eventually triumphed.
- Establishing the Roanoke Colony and chartering the East India Company during Elizabeth’s reign was an onset of what would turn into the powerful British Empire.
- The Elizabethan age inspired national pride through classical ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over the Spanish.
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Spanish Armada
A Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed from A Coruña in August 1588 with the purpose of escorting an army from Flanders to invade England. The strategic aim was to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England and the Tudor establishment of Protestantism in England.
Religious Settlement
A legal process by which the Protestant Church of England was restored. It was made during the reign of Elizabeth I in response to the religious divisions in England. Described as “The Revolution of 1559,” it was set out in two acts of the Parliament of England. The Act of Supremacy of 1558 re-established the Church of England’s independence from Rome, while the Act of Uniformity of 1559 outlined what form the English Church should take.
French Catholic League
A major participant in the French Wars of Religion, formed by Henry I, Duke of Guise, in 1576. It intended the eradication of Protestants—also known as Calvinists or Huguenots—out of Catholic France during the Protestant Reformation, as well as the replacement of King Henry III. Pope Sixtus V, Philip II of Spain, and the Jesuits were all supporters of this Catholic party.
Anglo-Spanish War
An intermittent conflict (1585–1604) between the kingdoms of Spain and England that was never formally declared. The war was punctuated by widely separated battles, and began with England’s military expedition in 1585 to the Netherlands in support of the resistance of the States General to Spanish Habsburg rule.
Roanoke Colony
A colony established on Roanoke Island, in what is today’s Dare County, North Carolina, United States. It was a late 16th-century attempt by Queen Elizabeth I to establish a permanent English settlement. The colony was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh. The colonists disappeared during the Anglo-Spanish War, three years after the last shipment of supplies from England.
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I (1533–1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, who was executed two and a half years after Elizabeth’s birth. Anne’s marriage to Henry VIII was annulled and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. In 1558, Elizabeth succeeded her Roman Catholic half-sister, Mary. She never married nor had children and thus was the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty.
The “Darnley Portrait” of Elizabeth I of England, National Portrait Gallery (c. 1575). The portrait was named after a previous owner. Probably painted from life, it is the source of the face pattern called “The Mask of Youth,” which would be used for authorized portraits of Elizabeth for decades to come. Recent research has shown the colors have faded. The oranges and browns would have been crimson red in Elizabeth’s time.
Mary I and Philip II of Spain
In 1554, Queen Mary of England married Philip, who only two years later began to rule Spain as Philip II. Under the terms of the Act for the Marriage, Philip was to enjoy Mary I’s titles and honors for as long as their marriage should last, and was to co-reign with his wife. Although Elizabeth initially demonstrated solidarity with her sister, the two were sharply divided along religious lines. Mary, a devout Catholic, was determined to crush the Protestant faith, in which Elizabeth had been educated. After Mary married Philip, who saw the protection of Catholicism in Europe as his life’s mission, Mary’s popularity ebbed away, and many looked to Elizabeth as a focus for their opposition to Mary’s religious policies. In 1555, Elizabeth was recalled to court to attend the final stages of Mary’s apparent pregnancy. When it became clear that Mary was not pregnant, no one believed any longer that she could have a child. Elizabeth’s succession seemed assured.
King Philip acknowledged the new political reality and cultivated his sister-in-law. She was a better ally than the chief alternative, Mary, Queen of Scots, who had grown up in France and was betrothed to the Dauphin of France. When his wife fell ill in 1558, Philip consulted with Elizabeth. By October 1558, Elizabeth was making plans for her government. On November 6, Mary recognized Elizabeth as her heir. On November 17, Mary died and Elizabeth succeeded to the throne.
In terms of religious matters, Elizabeth was pragmatic. She and her advisers recognized the threat of a Catholic crusade against England. Elizabeth therefore sought a Protestant solution that would not offend Catholics too greatly while addressing the desires of English Protestants, but she would not tolerate the more radical Puritans, who were pushing for far-reaching reforms. As a result, the parliament of 1559 started to legislate for a church based on the Protestant settlement of Edward VI, with the monarch as its head, but with many Catholic elements. Eventually, Elizabeth was forced to accept the title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England rather than the more contentious title of Supreme Head, which many thought unacceptable for a woman to bear. The new Act of Supremacy became law in 1559. All public officials were to swear an oath of loyalty to the monarch as the supreme governor or risk disqualification from office. The heresy laws were repealed to avoid a repeat of the persecution of dissenters practiced by Mary. At the same time, a new Act of Uniformity was passed, which made attendance at church and the use of an adapted version of the 1552 Book of Common Prayer compulsory, though penalties for those who failed to conform were not extreme.
Foreign Policy
Elizabeth’s foreign policy was largely defensive. The exception was the English occupation of Le Havre from October 1562 to June 1563, which ended in failure when Elizabeth’s Huguenot (Protestant) allies joined with the Catholics to retake the port. After the occupation and loss of Le Havre, Elizabeth avoided military expeditions on the continent until 1585, when she sent an English army to aid the Protestant Dutch rebels against Philip II. In December 1584, an alliance between Philip II and the French Catholic League undermined the ability of Henry III of France to counter Spanish domination of the Netherlands. It also extended Spanish influence along the channel coast of France, where the Catholic League was strong, and exposed England to invasion. The siege of Antwerp in the summer of 1585 by the Duke of Parma necessitated some reaction on the part of the English and the Dutch. The outcome was the Treaty of Nonsuch of August 1585, in which Elizabeth promised military support to the Dutch. The treaty marked the beginning of the Anglo-Spanish War, which lasted until the Treaty of London in 1604.
After Mary’s death, Philip II of Spain had no wish to sever his ties with England, and sent a proposal of marriage to Elizabeth, but was denied. For many years, Philip maintained peace with England and even defended Elizabeth from the pope’s threat of excommunication. This was a measure taken to preserve a European balance of power. Ultimately, Elizabeth allied England with the Protestant rebels in the Netherlands (which at the time fought for independence from Spain). Further, English ships began a policy of piracy against Spanish trade and threatened to plunder the great Spanish treasure ships coming from the new world. However, the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587 ended Philip’s hopes of placing a Catholic on the English throne. He turned instead to more direct plans to invade England, with vague plans to return the country to Catholicism. In 1588 he sent a fleet, the Spanish Armada, across the English Channel. The Spanish were forced into a retreat, and the overwhelming majority of the Armada was destroyed by the harsh weather.
Elizabeth also continued to maintain the diplomatic relations with the Tsardom of Russia originally established by her deceased brother. During her rule, trade and diplomatic relations developed between England and the Barbary states as well. England established a trading relationship with Morocco in opposition to Spain, selling armor, ammunition, timber, and metal in exchange for Moroccan sugar, in spite of a papal ban. Diplomatic relations were also established with the Ottoman Empire with the chartering of the Levant Company and the dispatch of the first English ambassador to the Porte, William Harborne, in 1578.
The Onset of the British Empire
After the travels of Christopher Columbus electrified all of western Europe, England joined in the colonization of the New World. In 1562, Elizabeth sent privateers Hawkins and Drake to seize booty from Spanish and Portuguese ships off the coast of West Africa. Spain was well established in the Americas, while Portugal, in union with Spain from 1580, had an ambitious global empire in Africa, Asia, and South America; France was exploring North America. England was stimulated to create its own colonies, with an emphasis on the West Indies rather than in North America. From 1577 to 1580, Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe. Combined with his daring raids against the Spanish and his great victory over them at Cadiz in 1587, he became a famous hero, but England did not follow up on his claims. In 1583, Humphrey Gilbert sailed to Newfoundland, taking possession of the harbor of St. John’s together with all land within two hundred leagues to the north and south of it. In 1584, the queen granted Sir Walter Raleigh a charter for the colonization of Virginia; it was named in her honor. Raleigh sent others to found the Roanoke Colony (it remains a mystery why the settlers there all disappeared). In 1600, the queen chartered the East India Company. It established trading posts that in later centuries evolved into British India, on the coasts of what is now India and Bangladesh. Larger-scale colonization began shortly after Elizabeth’s death.
Nationalism
Elizabeth established an English church that helped shape a national identity and remains in place today. Though she followed a largely defensive foreign policy, her reign raised England’s status abroad. Under Elizabeth, the nation gained a new self-confidence and sense of sovereignty, as Christendom fragmented. She was the first Tudor to recognize that a monarch ruled by popular consent. She therefore always worked with parliament and advisers she could trust to tell her the truth—a style of government that her Stuart successors failed to follow.
The symbol of Britannia was first used in 1572, and often thereafter, to mark the Elizabethan age as a renaissance that inspired national pride through classical ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over the Spanish.
Britannia depicted on a half penny of 1936. Britannia was the Greek and Roman term for the geographical region of Great Britain that was inhabited by the Britons and is the name given to the female personification of the island. It was during the reign of Elizabeth I that “Britannia” came to be viewed as a personification of Britain.
- Boundless World History. Authored by : Boundless. Located at : https://www.boundless.com/world-history/textbooks/boundless-world-history-textbook/ . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Lesson 1: English-Indian Encounters
Introduction
This lesson plan explores the dynamics of English-Indian relations in Virginia during the first part of the seventeenth century. It can be used when teaching specifically about the founding of the first colony at Jamestown or as part of a more general unit on the discovery and settlement of the New World. The lesson asks students to analyze documents and drawings in order to investigate English perceptions of, and experiences with, the Indians who inhabited the Chesapeake region.
- To understand the preconceptions and expectations the English brought to their initial encounters with the Indians in Virginia.
- To examine the different ways in which the colonists and Indians interacted and the underlying tensions in these encounters.
- To explore why English settlers and American Indians were unable to form a lasting accommodation with one another in the Chesapeake region.
Pre-Class Preparation
Students will examine several documents of varying length drawn from different sources on the internet. Have your students read these documents prior to coming to class.
Part 1: English Objectives
This part of the lesson should be completed by students as a homework assignment.
The English hoped to realize a variety of benefits from the establishment of a permanent colony in North America. At the same time, they understood that any colonial venture would inevitably bring them into contact with some of the Native American tribes residing along the coast. Promoters and planners of colonization were not quite sure of the reception the first English settlers would receive at the hands of the Indians.
Activity: Have students read the following documents: Richard Hakluyt's "Discourse of Western Planting" (1584); "Instructions for the Virginia Colony" (1606); and "First Virginia Charter" (1606).
Assignment: Ask students to prepare brief written answers to the following questions: What were the specific goals behind English efforts to establish a permanent settlement in North America? What attention do these documents pay to the Native American inhabitants of the area selected for colonization? Based on your assessment of the English goals, what are some of the sources of conflict you can imagine arising between the colonists and Indians?
Part 2: European Impressions of the New World
Europeans recorded their impressions of the Native Americans in words and images. This part of the lesson looks at several different artistic representations of Indians. Google searches can locate the following images online:
- John White's 1585 drawing of Secoton, an Indian village on the coast of North Carolina, is one of the most valuable pictures of Native American life we have because White actually accompanied an expedition to the area and based his drawing on his firsthand observations.
- Maps of the region that date from the first half of the 1600s were drawn by European artists who probably based their renderings of the Indians on the written or verbal reports provided by some of the early colonists.
Activity: Look at the images twice. The first time tell students to focus on the information these images convey about their subjects. The second time, ask students to think about what these images reveal concerning the attitudes of the artists who created them.
Assignment: After students finish viewing the images the first time, ask them to respond to the following questions:
- What does this artwork tell you about how Indians lived in relation to the environment?
- What generalizations can you make about the social and political organization of the Indians depicted in these images?
After the second showing of the images, ask students to comment on the following questions:
- What generalizations can you make as to how the artists who created this work perceived their subjects?
- What aspects of Indian life or of Indian character do they appear most interested in portraying?
- Do all of these artists share the same "image" of Native Americans or do you see some of these pieces as presenting competing "images"?
Part 3: Early Encounters in Virginia
The final part of this lesson returns to written sources. The first English settlers in Virginia regarded the Indians with a mixture of emotions. Although the colonists were often suspicious, fearful, and not a little scornful of the Native Americans they encountered, they were curious and fascinated, too. The colonists' early dealings with the Indians were also marked by an acute appreciation of their own vulnerability. The English were truly strangers in a strange land, and they understood that the survival of their enterprise depended in part on establishing good relations with their Native American neighbors. By the second half of the 1600s, though, three wars along with frequent minor clashes had destroyed any sense of goodwill among the colonists towards the Indians.
Assignment: : Ask the students to refer to "Observations by Master George Percy, 1607" and the excerpt from John Smith's The Proceedings of the English Colony in Virginia (1612) . Both documents provide wonderfully detailed accounts of English dealings with the Indians during the early years of the colony, when relations between the two races were still fluid. Finally, refer your students to the excerpt from A Discourse and View of Virginia , written by the colony's royal governor William Berkeley in the 1660s. Berkeley mentions the Indians only in passing, but his few off-hand references offer telling evidence of how English attitudes had hardened over the decades.
Activity: Ask your students to respond to some or all of the following questions:
- How would you characterize the encounters between the English and the Indians as described by George Percy and John Smith in their accounts?
- What expectations did the English bring to these encounters?
- What can you deduce from these two documents about the Indians' policy towards the colonists?
- How does William Berkeley's opinion of the Indians differ from the perceptions of Percy and Smith?
Suggestions For Additional Activities
Most of the documents, drawings, and maps featured in this lesson plan came from Virtual Jamestown . This site contains an excellent selection of primary source material relating to the English experience at Jamestown. It also provides a number of very detailed and well-conceived suggestions for using the website in the classroom.
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England axe Bairstow, Ali for Australia white-ball series
Five uncapped players called up for Trescothick’s first assignment as interim coach
![assignment 1 relations with england Bairstow new](https://imagevars.gulfnews.com/2024/02/20/Bairstow-new_18dc71c2903_medium.jpg)
London: England have launched a new white-ball era after dropping Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali from their forthcoming clashes against Australia.
Bairstow and Ali have over 400 international appearances between them but the veteran pair have been deemed expendable as England revamp their limited overs line-up following disappointing ODI and T20 World Cup campaigns.
Matthew Mott was sacked as England’s limited over head coach last month and the changes continued with Monday’s squad announcement.
Five uncapped players have been called up for Marcus Trescothick’s first assignment as interim coach.
Left-arm seamer Josh Hull, all-rounder Jacob Bethell and pace bowler John Turner were selected in both formats, while Dan Mousley and Jordan Cox come into the T20 group.
Moeen had been an influential vice-captain to Jos Buttler but is now 37 and has acknowledged his international career was winding down.
His role as a spin bowling all-rounder will be covered by his Warwickshire teammates Bethell and Mousley.
Bairstow turns 35 next month but there is no such sense that he is ready to bring the curtain down on his England days.
He was an integral part of the white-ball revolution that carried the side to 50-over World Cup glory in 2019, scoring centuries against India and New Zealand in must-win games at that tournament.
Despite having around 14 months left on the two-year central contract he signed last October, Bairstow lost his Test spot earlier this year after winning his 100th cap over the winter.
Chris Jordan has also been axed, while Liam Livingstone has retained his T20 spot but misses out on the 50-over matches.
Durham seamer Brydon Carse was selected after completing a three-month ban for historical betting offences on Wednesday.
He has not played competitively since May 10 due to his suspension but has been offered an instant return by England’s selectors.
Jofra Archer, whose only cricket since the T20 World Cup has been in the Hundred, retains his place in both squads.
The three-match T20 series against Australia starts at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton the day after England’s third and final Test concludes against Sri Lanka.
Harry Brook, Gus Atkinson, Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith and Matthew Potts will take a short break before joining up with Trescothick’s ODI team for the five-match series.
Joe Root is not included in what is believed to be a case of workload management ahead of a busy winter.
Zak Crawley, Ben Stokes and Mark Wood are all out injured but fast bowler Saqib Mahmood returns after recovering from his own fitness issues.
England T20 squad to face Australia: Jos Butter (capt), Jofra Archer, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Jordan Cox, Sam Curran, Josh Hull, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Dan Mousley, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, John Turner.
England ODI squad to face Australia: Jos Buttler (capt), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Ben Duckett, Josh Hull, Will Jacks, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Jamie Smith, Reece Topley, John Turner.
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the cause of the Revolutionary war. Britians attitude. Reasons Britain did not enforce the Navigation Acts. - England was at war with France and wanted the colonies loyalty. - power struggle between the KIng of England and parliament were transposing. Acts that England passed. - Hat Act.
TRUE. The French and Indian War was the final colonial war between France and England. TRUE. From their beginning, the Navigation Acts were strictly enforced. FALSE. The shortage of money in the colonies forced the colonists to use a system of barter. True. The _____ permitted the English to search colonial homes.
A great distance separated England and the colonies; England was at war with France and wanted the loyalty of the colonies; a struggle was going on between the king of England and Parliament; growing trade with the colonies gave more profits to the British. How did the British Parliament respond to the colonists' opposition to the Stamp Act and ...
including England, to promote American colonies as sources of raw materials lumber, sugar, wool, tobacco, rice, and indigo raw materials were then used in England to produce manufactured goods for export A favorable trade balance resulted for England colonies were a ready market for the manufactured products produced in England
Introduction; 5.1 Confronting the National Debt: The Aftermath of the French and Indian War; 5.2 The Stamp Act and the Sons and Daughters of Liberty; 5.3 The Townshend Acts and Colonial Protest; 5.4 The Destruction of the Tea and the Coercive Acts; 5.5 Disaffection: The First Continental Congress and American Identity; Key Terms; Summary; Review Questions; Critical Thinking Questions
Cite. On the whole, the British and the American colonists had a good relationship prior to 1763. This was based on two circumstances: the need for military aid and the policy of "salutary neglect ...
Video Clip: Relations with England. Description. As part of author Lindsay Chervinsky's lecture on the United States' efforts to maintain its neutrality in the years after the Revolutionary War ...
Quiz 1: Foundation of the American Republic . 13. Quiz 3: Middle and Southern Colonies . 5. Colonization Begins in the New World 14. Special Project* 6. Project: Jamestown* 15. Test 7. Puritan Background and Plymouth Settlement 16. Alternate Test* 8. Puritan Migration and the Settlement of New England 17. Reference 9. Quiz 2: Colonization Begins
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer with US President Joe Biden. Relations between the United Kingdom and the United States have ranged from military opponents to close allies since 1776. The Thirteen Colonies seceded from the Kingdom of Great Britain and declared independence in 1776, fighting a successful revolutionary war.While Britain was fighting Napoleon, the two nations fought the stalemated ...
A Level Course overview including assessment objectives. 2-year teaching plan. OCR Unit 1 specification: 'Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest 1035-1107'. G rating table for whole unit - To be used through Yea. Exam/essay technique guidance (both styles of question). Past paper/ example essay questions. Super-curricular.
This was the final colonial war between France and England. This was never strictly enforced by the British. Intolerable Acts. This was held in 1774. This permitted the English to search colonial homes. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Albany Plan of Union, Barter, French and Indian and more.
Professor Woods assignment: read (covers sovereignty, authority and power) in scanned review book. type five informative bullet points summing up each of the ... International Relations And World Politics (POLI 150) 81 Documents. Students shared 81 documents in this course. Academic year: 2016/2017. ... Chapter 1 Outline - Summary World ...
Answers: One feature of Elizabeth's decision-making about Mary, Queen of Scots (MQoS) in 1569 was the need to avoid upsetting foreign powers (1). Elizabeth knew that MQoS had the support of Catholic powers like Spain. If Elizabeth let MQoS go free, she could use Philip II of Spain to raise an army against Elizabeth (1).
PART 1 ABSOLUTISM CHALLENGED: BRITAIN, 1603-16491 Monarchs and Parliaments, 1603-1629In this sec. ion, we will examine the nature of English government and society under the early Stuarts. This was a period of personal monarchy in which the character traits of individual rulers determined significant aspects of the political and religious ...
Key Points. Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 until her. death in 1603. She succeeded her Roman Catholic half-sister, Mary to the throne. Elizabeth never married nor had. children and thus was the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. Mary's marriage to Philip II of Spain contributed to the complex relations ...
Question 1 The difference between the Chesapeake and new England colonies are the New England had more of a diversified economy which included tons of shipping, timber and import/export of goods (foods). While the Chesapeake economy had only rooted on the production and import/export of tobacco and other crops.
E-International Relations www.E-IR.info Bristol, England 2017 ISBN 978-1-910814-19-2 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-910814-20-8 (e-book) This book is published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license. You are free to: • Share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format • Adapt - remix, transform, and build upon the material
Albany Plan of Union. Was proposed in order to strengthen the colonies against the French. Turquois tribe. Was allied with England. Stamp Act. Forced colonists to pay a tax on paper. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like First Navigation Act, Iron Act, Writs of Assistance and more.
Part 1: English Objectives. This part of the lesson should be completed by students as a homework assignment. The English hoped to realize a variety of benefits from the establishment of a permanent colony in North America. At the same time, they understood that any colonial venture would inevitably bring them into contact with some of the ...
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 - 24 March 1603) [a] was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last monarch of the House of Tudor.. Elizabeth was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn.When Elizabeth was two years old, her parents' marriage was annulled, her mother was executed, and Elizabeth was declared ...
17 of 20. Definition. - England was at war with France and wanted the colonies loyalty. - power struggle between the KIng of England and parliament were transposing. Reasons Britain did not enforce the Navigation Acts. French and Indian War. the cause of the Revolutionary war. Acts that England passed. 18 of 20.
Final answer: The British Parliament responded to the colonists' opposition by passing the Declaratory Act, dissolving the colonial legislatures, and drawing u…
Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like the United States President during World War I =, the Iron Chancellor of Germany =, an aggressive German kaiser, World War I = and more.
England axe Bairstow, Ali for Australia white-ball series. Five uncapped players called up for Trescothick's first assignment as interim coach. Published: August 26, 2024 22:04 AFP.