Jamestown, Plymouth, and Pennsylvania as Important Spots in Colonoal Era
The colonial era ignited an eagerness among European countries to dominate the new world. Spain and Portugal were the first to colonize and instill their own cultural values into indigenous Americans, while England seemed far behind. Remarkably, England quickly caught up in the rush to colonize North America. Some of England’s first colonies are an important foundation for the fate of New England during the 1600s. Jamestown, Plymouth, and Pennsylvania all had a purpose for their establishments, different economic successes and failure, and social temperaments towards social conflict or peace.
In 1606, King James I granted the Virginia Company a charter to settle the land between present-day New York and North Carolina. The merchants settled in an area by the James River because its structure made the land easily defensible. However, the land was swampy, making agriculture difficult. Another disadvantage for the settlers was that the powerful Powhatan Confederacy lived nearby. Relations with the indigenous population was fragile and complicated, but were it not for the Natives, the colonists would not have survived and built a successful economy from tobacco.
Jamestown had its financial upstart from the Virginia Company selling seven-year joint-stock options. People who could not afford cash investments would sign an agreement to indenture servitude with the promise of a hundred acres after their contract was over. This attracted about five hundred people to Jamestown. However, the winter of 1609 caused a shortage of food and disease was rampant, leaving about sixty survivors. All seemed lost until three new English ships arrived with more supply and a larger population. The new settlers helped the colony from completely collapsing by being more violent towards the Natives and demanding they supply food and labor. Though, tobacco was the main savior of the colony.
Orinoco tobacco proved to be popular back in England, so Virginia colonist John Rolfe sought to profit off of it. Under the supervision of Rolfe, people started growing tobacco in Jamestown in 1612, causing an increase in investments, labor, and profit. The colony went from producing 2.000 pounds of tobacco in 1615 to 1.5 million pounds in 1629. Though profitable, there was another price to pay.
Tobacco cultivation made tensions worse with the Natives. Farmers wanted more land to grow the cash crop, but that meant stealing more land from the Powhatan Confederacy. Chief Powhatan attempted to forge an alliance with the English by allowing his daughter, Pocahontas, to marry John Rolfe, but land disputes continued. Powhatan died and his younger brother, Opechancanough, became chief. Opechancanough launched several attacks against the English, but they retaliated. During one of his surprise attacks in 1644, Opechancanough was captured and killed. The English population was too large to continue fighting, so the Natives finally submitted under pressure. English relations with the Natives were always rocky and volatile, but they do owe credit to them for their survival.
Plymouth was similar to Jamestown in that its relations with the Natives were unstable, but it was far more successful and had different reasons for its establishment. The Protestant Reformation had a large influence on the foundation of Plymouth. The Pilgrims’ goals was to establish a religious community separate from the Church of England. They felt that the reformation, failure of harvests back in England, and famine were all punishments for the nation’s sins. They envisioned New England as a new safe haven. They landed on the Massachusetts coast in 1620 and established the settlement of Plymouth.
Just like Jamestown, the Pilgrims had a rough first winter. By Spring of 1621, only half of the population had survived. The remaining survivors got assistance from the Massasoit tribe and formed an alliance. By 1623, a group of wealthy Puritans obtained a royal charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company. About one-third of English Puritans migrated to New England. They were better supplied, had a larger population, and were more prosperous than any other previous colony. The Puritan settlers had brought with them more women to tend to families and there was little spread of disease due to the cold weather. Additionally, Plymouth did not rely on a cash crop to economically flourish. By 1640, the colony thrived with its exports of codfish, lumber, rain, pork and cheese to England.
Along with their success in prosperity, the Puritans in Plymouth were semi-successful with the nearby Native Americans. Most Pilgrims hoped to convert the Natives, but their leaders remained defensive and cautious toward hostile tribes. Among these tribes were the Massachusetts. In 1623, Captain Miles Standish led an attack on the Massachusetts’ village after killing their chief and his younger brother. This ensured that the Natives would no longer be hostile towards the Plymouth colony. However, Puritans sought more friendly relations with the Massachusetts. It seems that the Puritans preferred being more civil to maintain their prosperity and peace.
Another group of settlers known for keeping the peace were Quakers. In 1681, Charles II granted land to William Penn, which he subsequently named Pennsylvania. Penn was a Quaker, so the colony was meant to be a safe haven for them. Quakers were often disliked for their extremely tolerable attitudes toward other religions and Native Americans. This made Penn so peaceful, that he asked the Natives of that land permission to build the colony of Philadelphia, something that had never been done before in the English colonies. When New Amsterdam became New York under British rule, the social norms shifted to be more restrictive. Women lost a lot of economic freedom that they had under Dutch rule and free black people lost their jobs. Quakers that lived here resented the English rule, so they decided to move to Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania not only attracted Quakers, but it received a flood of German-speaking immigrants and people from other religions because of the religious freedom there. This booming population ensured a large workforce of artisanal craftsmen and farmers. Their economy relied on staple crops such as wheat and corn. Pennsylvania was a relatively peaceful and tolerable colony compared to so many others, which is why it was successful economically and socially.
The English colonies differed vastly from those of the French or Spanish. These colonies have left behind a footprint that would pave the way to the formation of the independent American government. Each had varying reasons for their founding, levels of success, and ways they handled conflict and peace. Though they differed in many ways, these colonies remain today as modern cities, far from what they used to be.
