axes, weapons, cooking utensils,
The steady influx of settlers into
fishhooks, and a host of other goods . the backwoods regions of the Eastern
Those Indians who traded initial- colonies disrupted Native-American
ly had significant advantage over life . As more and more game was
rivals who did not . In response to killed off, tribes were faced with the
European demand, tribes such as the difficult choice of going hungry, go-
Iroquois began to devote more at- ing to war, or moving and coming
tention to fur trapping during the into conflict with other tribes to the
17th century . Furs and pelts pro- west .
vided tribes the means to purchase
The Iroquois, who inhabited the
colonial goods until late into the area below lakes Ontario and Erie
18th century .
in northern New York and Pennsyl-
Early colonial-Native-American vania, were more successful in re-
relations were an uneasy mix of co- sisting European advances . In 1570
operation and conflict . On the one five tribes joined to form the most
hand, there were the exemplary rela- complex Native-American nation
tions that prevailed during the first of its time, the “Ho-De-No-Sau-
half century of Pennsylvania’s exis- Nee,” or League of the Iroquois . The
tence . On the other were a long series league was run by a council made
of setbacks, skirmishes, and wars, up of 50 representatives from each of
which almost invariably resulted in the five member tribes . The council
an Indian defeat and further loss of dealt with matters common to all the
land .
tribes, but it had no say in how the
The first of the important Native- free and equal tribes ran their day-
American uprisings occurred in Vir- to-day affairs . No tribe was allowed
ginia in 1622, when some 347 whites to make war by itself . The council
were killed, including a number of passed laws to deal with crimes such
missionaries who had just recently as murder .
come to Jamestown .
The Iroquois League was a strong
White settlement of the Con- power in the 1600s and 1700s . It
necticut River region touched off the traded furs with the British and
Pequot War in 1637 . In 1675 King sided with them against the French
Philip, the son of the native chief in the war for the dominance of
who had made the original peace America between 1754 and 1763 .
with the Pilgrims in 1621, attempted The British might not have won that
to unite the tribes of southern New war otherwise .
England against further Europe-
The Iroquois League stayed
an encroachment of their lands . In strong until the American Revolu-
the struggle, however, Philip lost tion . Then, for the first time, the
his life and many Indians were sold council could not reach a unani-
into servitude .
mous decision on whom to support .
Member tribes made their own de-
16
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
cisions, some fighting with the Brit- established in the Carolinas and the
ish, some with the colonists, some Dutch driven out of New Nether-
remaining neutral . As a result, ev- land . New proprietary colonies were
eryone fought against the Iroquois . established in New York, New Jersey,
Their losses were great and the Delaware, and Pennsylvania .
league never recovered .
The Dutch settlements had been
ruled by autocratic governors ap-
SECOND GENERATION OF
pointed in Europe . Over the years,
BRITISH COLONIES
the local population had become
T
estranged from them . As a result,
he religious and civil conflict in when the British colonists began en-
England in the mid-17th century croaching on Dutch claims in Long
limited immigration, as well as the Island and Manhattan, the unpopu-
attention the mother country paid lar governor was unable to rally the
the fledgling American colonies .
population to their defense . New
In part to provide for the defense Netherland fell in 1664 . The terms
measures England was neglect- of the capitulation, however, were
ing, the Massachusetts Bay, Plym- mild: The Dutch settlers were able to
outh, Connecticut, and New Haven retain their property and worship as
colonies formed the New England they pleased .
Confederation in 1643 . It was the
As early as the 1650s, the Albe-
European colonists’ first attempt at marle Sound region off the coast of
regional unity .
what is now northern North Caroli-
The early history of the British na was inhabited by settlers trickling
settlers reveals a good deal of con- down from Virginia . The first pro-
tention — religious and political — prietary governor arrived in 1664 .
as groups vied for power and posi- The first town in Albemarle, a re-
tion among themselves and their mote area even today, was not estab-
neighbors . Maryland, in particular, lished until the arrival of a group of
suffered from the bitter religious ri- French Huguenots in 1704 .
valries that afflicted England during
In 1670 the first settlers, drawn
the era of Oliver Cromwell . One of from New England and the Carib-
the casualties was the state’s Tolera- bean island of Barbados, arrived
tion Act, which was revoked in the in what is now Charleston, South
1650s . It was soon reinstated, howev- Carolina . An elaborate system of
er, along with the religious freedom government, to which the British
it guaranteed .
philosopher John Locke contribut-
With the restoration of King ed, was prepared for the new colony .
Charles II in 1660, the British once One of its prominent features was a
again turned their attention to failed attempt to create a hereditary
North America . Within a brief span, nobility . One of the colony’s least ap-
the first European settlements were pealing aspects was the early trade in
17