The Virginia colony -M1

The Virginia Company considered a marketing campaign based upon the colony's brief history, and came up with:

"Go to Virginia and Die" That didn't do well with foCus groups, so the Company tried something else: Incentives

An English observer summed up life in the early Virginia colony as:

"solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" Not to mention lonely - As late as 1700 - nearly a century after the colony was founded - there was a 4:1 sex ratio for the English in Virginia (4 men for every woman) - The sex ratio for Africans was even worse

Nathaniel Bacon (1647-1676)

(1647-1676) left England for Virginia in 1674 and, though a member of the planter elite and Governor Berkeley's cousin by marriage, sympathized with the freedmen

Fates of the Indentured Servants

- Half of all English indentured servants died before completing their contract - they never became free. - Half of those who were freed died penniless -as poor as the day they arrived

• In May 1607, 144 English soldiers landed in a swamp on a river they called the James, to honor King James I

- The colony itself was named in honor of the recently deceased Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen - The ships and their crews then returned to England - 104 English remained to explore and find a source of wealth for the company

A settlement in Virginia on the James River

- This was the Jamestown Colony

Goal of the Virginia Company Exploit the resources of the New World by establishing colonies that would:

1. Make a profit for the investors 2. Make England rich and powerful

The International Slave Trade

1500s, an international slave trade had been kidnapping men, women, and children in West Africa and transporting them across the Atlantic Ocean to be sold as slaves in the European colonies in the Caribbean, Central America, South America, and, by the early 160os, in North America

English soldiers landed in Virginia and founded a settlement at Jamestown in what year?

1607

War between the Powhatan confederacy and English colonists happened in.

1622. 1/3rdof the English died (347 out of a population of 1,240) An unknown number of Native Americans died. The Powhatan Confederacy was defeated, and English expansion continued

Jamestown Excavation archeologist William Kelso found it in what year?

1994

Land via Headrights, 1618

50 acres of land to each new settler. The 50 acres went to the person who paid the settler's transportation to the colony. -not to the person who actually went to Virginia This means: If somebody else paid your way to Virginia, you didn't get the land - the person who paid for your ticket did

The Virginia Company's investors included:

56 commercial firms 659 individuals

Settlers of the Virginia Colony, 1607

6 Councillors 29 Gentlemen 6 Carpenters 2 Bricklayers 1 each: Preacher, Blacksmith, Sailor, Barber, Mason, Tailor, Drummer [not the musical kind someone who makes barrels] 13 Laborers 4 Boys Soldiers and "divers others"

The Virginia Company Tried a 2-Prong Approach

A settlement in Maine on the Kennebec River. A settlement in Virginia on the James River.

The societies of North America were smaller, less densely populated, and far less wealthy (as the English defined it)

Also unlike Spain's experience, the English didn't find gold or silver in Virginia - though they wasted a lot of time looking for it

Fates of the Virginia Colonists, 1625-1640

And it wasn't just indentured servants who died early and often in the Virginia Colony • Analyze the data in the chart- what conclusions do you reach?

Planters needed a labor forces not that indentured servant's we're free

And so the rights of English indentured servants were preserved by destroying the rights of Africans And because slavery did not exist in English law, the Virginia colonists had to create it

Significance of Bacon's Rebellion

Bacon's Rebellion was a warning to the Virginia colony's political and planter elite of the dangers posed by the landless freedmen

Why the single-minded focus? Why so little economic diversity and development?

Because the recipe for success was simple: Control Land + Control Labor = $$$

Before and after slavery. What years did it start?

Before 1661, Virginia law did not distinguish between a servant and a slave From 1661 to 1705, the House of Burgesses passed laws that distinguished between English servants and African slaves By 1700, Virginia was a slave society based on race, where black meant slave and white meant free

Another Complication English assumptions about the New World had been shaped by Spain's experiences in Central and South America

But the Native American societies of North America were very different than those of Central and South America

Disaster at Jamestown

By the spring of 1608, only 38 of the original 104 English at Jamestown were still alive.

NOT the Goal of the Virginia Company

Create a new nation in the New World this would develop, but much later.

Why did the English at Jamestown have such difficulty simply surviving?

Drought = food is less plentiful. Evidence found in trees. Disease = especially malaria.

When that happened in 1676, the result

Englishman of high social rank joined the angry freedmen rebellion Bacon's Rebellion

Where to get the land?

From the Virginia Company (by headright or by purchase) From the Native Americans (by force) From earlier settlers (by purchase, if one had $s)

Where to get the labor?

From yourself. From your family (if you have one, though probably you don't) From English indentured servants

Africans in Early Colonial Virginia

In 1619, an English warship, the White Lion, arrived Jamestown with at least 20 Africans who had been taken from a Portuguese slave ship

The history of the United States began in 1607 with the settling of the first successful British colony in North America

It was called "Virginia" and was founded by the Virginia Company

Self-Government: House of Burgesses, 1619

It was the first representative assembly in the New World - Part legislature, part court, it helped to govern the colony, settle disputes, and levy taxes. The Burgesses had to be large land owners ("planters")

English Indentured Servants

Known "bound labor," was neither entirely free nor entirely unfree. They had to do what their master or mistress said. They received no wages because they'd already been paid in some form

The Virginia companies incentives

Land ownership. "Headrights" Self-rule. House of Burgesses.

How to get to Virginia?

Many people in England couldn't afford the cost of a ticket for the trans-Atlantic voyage. Take out a mortgage-on yourself

Reasons for the Early Reliance on English Indentured Servants

Reason #1 Indentured servants from England were easy to get - most volunteered! - and were much cheaper than slaves from Africa Reason. #2 English servants and English masters shared a common language, religion, and culture. Reason #3 Because in the colony's early years half of all indentured servants died in servitude, which meant a master already owned the servant's labor for the rest of his or her natural life

3 Reasons Planters Liked Indentured Servants

Reason #1 Planters made so much money selling the tobacco the indentured servants produced that the cost of a servant's contract was repaid 500 times in the first year Reason #2 Indentured servants were relatively cheap to buy, cheaper to support, and easily replaced if they died Reason #3 Indenture contracts could be sold, swapped, and used as collateral for debts, setting the precedent of treating people like property-as one planter noted, "Servants were sold up and down [the colony] like horses."

• The colony would have failed completely had the Virginia Company not sent fresh supplies of people and food from London:

Spring 1609: 500 more men and 100 women arrived. Spring 1610: % of the English were dead. Spring 1610: 300 more English arrived.

The Virginia Company

The Virginia Company of London was just that - a business, a joint stock company and was organized in 1606

What does this list of the 1607 settlers reveal about the colony's initial purpose and goal?

There was no women and no farmers.

A settlement in Maine on the Kennebec River

This was the Popham or Sagadahoc Colony. it only lasted a year

What was the cast crop and when was it founded?

Tobacco. 1612

The Virginia colonists quickly focused on growing and selling:

Tobacco. Profit in London.

After -1640...

Virginia colony's death rate began to decline, which meant more English indentured servants were completing their contracts - and becoming free More Options other colonies were founded,

when and why should we expect to see the planters' preference for English indentured servants change?

When the historical conditions that caused the initial preference changed- and that started to happen after 1640

The Powhatan Confederacy was

an alliance of the Chesapeake tribes, and was named after Powhatan, the leader of the Pamunkey Indians. By 1620, the Powhatan Confederacy was concerned about the number of English moving onto and claiming their land

September, 1676, Bacon and the freedmen marched on Jamestown

and burned the House of Burgesses to the ground, Bacon then led his followers to the frontier to wage war against the Native Americans

Who were Indentured Servants?

formed the backbone of the labor force in the early Virginia colony

Who were Indentured Servants?

formed the backbone of the labor force in the early Virginia colony 75% were male; 25% were female Most were under 21; almost all were under 30 Most were lower middle-class or middle class Many were literate

Who are the Freedman?

former indentured servants, were young, single, lonely, frequently armed, and often drunk. labored for years hope of one day getting land and growing tobacco themselves. Finally free, they found Virginia had a land shortage

Governor Berkeley, for example, had not called for elections to the House of Burgesses in

fourteen years

Indentured servants were often

poorly fed, barely clothed, and badly housed. Conditions depended entirely upon the character and morality of the individual master

English Expansion, 1607-1700

produce as much tobacco as possible to make as much money as possible. English to spread out large farms they called "plantations" focused on growing tobacco they built few towns or permanent structures

Indentured Servants If you had no money you could

sign a labor contract, known as "Articles of Indenture," with someone who would pay the ticket for you: a London tobacco merchant, a ship's captain, a planter in Virginia. In exchange for your ticket to the colony, you would work for 5 to 7 years for whoever owned your contract

By the late 16oos, indentured servants from England had given way to a different form of unfree labor:

slaves from Africa

Bacon's Rebellion, 1676

the largest uprising in the colonies prior to the American Revolution

Bacon's Rebellion, 1676 In the summer of 1676, freedmen began moving onto Native American land,

the resulting violence claimed the lives of both colonists and Indians. Governor Berkeley's attempt to mediate ended in the murder of friendly Indian leaders and a demand by the English colonists for a war against all Indians