The document provides an overview of the early American colonies from Jamestown to Georgia. It discusses the founding of Jamestown in 1607 and its reliance on the headright system and tobacco agriculture. The New England colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay were founded by Puritans seeking religious freedom. Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams on the principle of separation of church and state. The colonies in the middle region including Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland were generally more religiously tolerant. The southern colonies focused on agriculture and the use of slave labor, with the Carolinas producing rice, tobacco and indigo and Georgia originally intended as a buffer against Spanish Florida.

1. American History Unit 1, Lecture
4
The American Colonies

2. Jamestown
• 1st Permanent English Settlement
(1607)
• Settled with Headright System – 50
acres for every paid passage
• Survive starving times with help of
John Smith
• John Rolfe as first tobacco magnate
• Bacon’s Rebellion
Graves at Jamestown
• Indentured Servants eventually
replaced with African Slaves

3. New England Colonies
Plymouth Colony
• Founded by group of
Puritans – People who
wanted to “Purify” the
Church of England
• 1620 – Pilgrims land at
Plymouth
• Mayflower Compact –
establishes democracy
in colony
•
•
•
•
Massachusetts Bay
Colony
Founded by Puritans in
1630 (eventually
absorbs Plymouth)
William Bradford as
leader
“A City on a Hill”
No freedom of religion
or separation of church
and state

4. Other New England Colonies
Rhode Island
Connecticut
Established by Puritan
dissenter, Roger Williams
Established by Thomas
Hooker
Separation of Church and
State, religious Freedom
More Religious Freedom
Anne Hutchinson
challenges Puritan
authority – flees to Rhode
Island
Fundamental Orders of
Connecticut – seen by
many as first written
constitution in American

5. 1

6. Native Resistance in New England
*Disputes over land mark
the key conflict between
Native Americans and
Whites throughout
American History!
• Pequot War – 1637 –
Connecticut conflict
where most members of
Pequot nation are wiped
out
• King Philip’s War – 1675Vicious war between
Wampanoag Indians and
Plymouth Colony – ended
Indian resistance in New
England

7. Middle Colonies
Pennsylvania
• Founded by William
Penn, a Quaker
• Tolerant of all people
• Good Indian Relations
• Early opposition to
slavery
New York/New Jersey
• Taken by English from
the Dutch
• NY becomes thriving,
diverse port city
Maryland
• Founded as a Catholic
haven by George
Calvert, Lord
Baltimore
• Toleration Act assured
religious freedom

8. Southern Colonies
Carolina
Georgia
• 1663 after Restoration of
Charles II
• Charleston as key port city –
founded in 1680
• North and South Carolina
split in 1712
• Slaves as key source of labor
• Rice production, tobacco,
indigo
• Buffer to Spanish Florida
• James Oglethorpe – 1733
• Originally founded as a
military colony with convicts

9. Other Colonies
Map of 13 Colonies
• New Hampshire,
Delaware.
2

10. 1. From http://www.ebay.com
2. From http://www.mrnussbaum.com