Political considerations influ- they chose a site about 60 kilometers
enced many people to move to up the James River from the bay .
America . In the 1630s, arbitrary rule
Made up of townsmen and ad-
by England’s Charles I gave impetus venturers more interested in finding
to the migration . The subsequent re- gold than farming, the group was
volt and triumph of Charles’ oppo- unequipped by temperament or abil-
nents under Oliver Cromwell in the ity to embark upon a completely new
1640s led many cavaliers — “king’s life in the wilderness . Among them,
men” — to cast their lot in Virginia . Captain John Smith emerged as the
In the German-speaking regions of dominant figure . Despite quarrels,
Europe, the oppressive policies of starvation, and Native-American
various petty princes — particularly attacks, his ability to enforce disci-
with regard to religion — and the pline held the little colony together
devastation caused by a long series through its first year .
of wars helped swell the movement
In 1609 Smith returned to Eng-
to America in the late 17th and 18th land, and in his absence, the colony
centuries .
descended into anarchy . During the
The journey entailed careful winter of 1609-1610, the majority of
planning and management, as well the colonists succumbed to disease .
as considerable expense and risk . Only 60 of the original 300 settlers
Settlers had to be transported nearly were still alive by May 1610 . That
5,000 kilometers across the sea . They same year, the town of Henrico (now
needed utensils, clothing, seed, tools, Richmond) was established farther
building materials, livestock, arms, up the James River .
and ammunition . In contrast to the
It was not long, however, before
colonization policies of other coun- a development occurred that revo-
tries and other periods, the emigra- lutionized Virginia’s economy . In
tion from England was not directly 1612 John Rolfe began cross-breed-
sponsored by the government but by ing imported tobacco seed from the
private groups of individuals whose West Indies with native plants and
chief motive was profit .
produced a new variety that was
pleasing to European taste . The first
JAMESTOWN
shipment of this tobacco reached
T
London in 1614 . Within a decade it
he first of the British colonies had become Virginia’s chief source
to take hold in North America was of revenue .
Jamestown . On the basis of a char-
Prosperity did not come quickly,
ter which King James I granted to however, and the death rate from
the Virginia (or London) Company, disease and Indian attacks remained
a group of about 100 men set out for extraordinarily high . Between 1607
the Chesapeake Bay in 1607 . Seeking and 1624 approximately 14,000 peo-
to avoid conflict with the Spanish, ple migrated to the colony, yet only
12
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
1,132 were living there in 1624 . On nized government, the men drafted
recommendation of a royal commis- a formal agreement to abide by “just
sion, the king dissolved the Virginia and equal laws” drafted by leaders
Company, and made it a royal colony of their own choosing . This was the
that year .
Mayflower Compact .
In December the Mayflower
MASSACHUSETTS
reached Plymouth harbor; the Pil-
D
grims began to build their settle-
uring the religious upheavals ment during the winter . Nearly half
of the 16th century, a body of men the colonists died of exposure and
and women called Puritans sought disease, but neighboring Wampa-
to reform the Established Church of noag Indians provided the informa-
England from within . Essentially, tion that would sustain them: how
they demanded that the rituals and to grow maize . By the next fall, the
structures associated with Roman Pilgrims had a plentiful crop of corn,
Catholicism be replaced by simpler and a growing trade based on furs
Calvinist Protestant forms of faith and lumber .
and worship . Their reformist ideas,
A new wave of immigrants ar-
by destroying the unity of the state rived on the shores of Massachusetts
church, threatened to divide the Bay in 1630 bearing a grant from
people and to undermine royal
King Charles I to establish a colony .
authority .
Many of them were Puritans whose
In 1607 a small group of Sepa- religious practices were increasingly
ratists — a radical sect of Puritans prohibited in England . Their leader,
who did not believe the Established John Winthrop, urged them to cre-
Church could ever be reformed — ate a “city upon a hill” in the New
departed for Leyden, Holland, where World — a place where they would
the Dutch granted them asylum . live in strict accordance with their
However, the Calvinist Dutch re- religious beliefs and set an example
stricted them mainly to low-paid la- for all of Christendom .
boring jobs . Some members of the
The Massachusetts Bay Colony
congregation grew dissatisfied with was to play a significant role in the
this discrimination and resolved to development of the entire New Eng-
emigrate to the New World .
land region, in part because Win-
In 1620, a group of Leyden Puri- throp and his Puritan colleagues
tans secured a land patent from the were able to bring their charter with
Virginia Company . Numbering 101, them . Thus the authority for the col-
they set out for Virginia on the May- ony’s government resided in Massa-flower . A storm sent them far north chusetts, not in England .
and they landed in New England
Under the charter’s provisions,
on Cape Cod . Believing themselves power rested with the General
outside the jurisdiction of any orga- Court, which was made up of “free-
13