The 13 English Colonies Name: Class: Today, you live in the United States of America which is a country located on the continent of North America. The people who first lived in what is today the United States of America are called Native Americans (Indians). Unless you are 100% Native American, you have ancestors that came to this land from another country. What country or countries did your ancestors come from? Other countries sent people to live in America and they set up colonies. These are settlements made in another land by a company or country. Is the United States of America and America the same thing? Explain your answer. In the 1600s and early 1700s, the English, people from England / Great Britain, established thirteen colonies along the Atlantic coast of North America. People came to the American colonies for various reasons including the pursuit of wealth, land, or religious freedom. Settlers brought their values and beliefs with them, including the idea of selfgovernment. Some colonies welcomed people of different backgrounds, making America a land of diversity from its earliest beginnings. What are three reasons why people came to America? o wealth o land o religious freedom What does diversity mean? In what ways is your school or community diverse?
English Settlers in Virginia The English established their first permanent settlement in America in 1607. There were settlements before that time but they all failed. One of these settlements is Roanoke. Roanoke Queen Elizabeth of England gave Sir Walter Raleigh permission to start a colony so a small group of men sailed from England to the Americas in 1585. They landed on Roanoke Island near the present-day coast of North Carolina. In less than a year, they ran short of food and were glad when an English ship just showed up one day. They all boarded the ship and sailed back to England leaving Roanoke behind. Sir Walter Raleigh tried again in 1587, sending 91 men, 17 women, and 2 children under the leadership of John White back to Roanoke. Shortly after arriving, one of the women gave birth to Virginia Dare, the first American-born child of English parents. John White went back to England to get more supplies but England and Spain were fighting each other. England needed all of their ships to fight Spain which prevented White from being able to go back to Roanoke for three years. When White made it back to the settlement he found Roanoke was completely deserted. They found some books with their covers torn off, maps ruined by rain, and weapons covered with rust. John White found the letters CRO carved on a nearby tree and the word CROATOAN carved on a wooden post. Nothing was ever found of the people of Roanoke Island (including Virginia Dare). Many people believe they went to live with the Croatoan Indians but we are still not sure what happened to the settlers of Roanoke. Who started Roanoke? What happened the first time they tried to settle Roanoke? Who is Virginia Dare? What did John White find when he went back to Roanoke the last time?
Suppose you were given the opportunity to invest all of your money into a space shuttle that was going to go to the planet Sable and start a colony. Your only option is to invest all of your money or not invest at all. The planet Sable has beautiful space rocks called pinklets that the colonists hope to sell to the people on Earth and become very rich. The problem is that the atmosphere on Sable consists of a poisonous gas. If one single leak occurs in the space shuttle then all of the colonists will die and you will lose every single penny you ve ever earned. Explain if you are going to invest all your money into the space colony or not. Why did you make the decision that you did? The Virginia Companies America had many resources that could make people a lot of money. Some of these are land, crops, furs, wood, fish, silver, and gold. However England s king, King James I, could not afford to send ships and supplies to America and wealthy English nobles didn t want to invest all of their money because they were afraid they d lose it all. Wealthy merchants, or businessmen, figured out how they could start colonies without having to risk all of their money. They formed a joint-stock company in which each investor contributed a small amount of the cost. If the company s project succeeded, the investors shared the profits. If it failed, they lost only as much money as they had put in. They formed two companies, the Virginia Company of Plymouth and the Virginia Company of London. What resources did America have that could help make someone a lot of money? How is investing money in a joint-stock company less risky than investing all the money?
Jamestown In December of 1606, the London Company sent three ships with 144 men (no women) to start a colony in America. More than 40 men died at sea on the trip to America. They sailed into Chesapeake Bay and travelled up a river for 60 miles and established their settlement. They named this river the James River and their settlement Jamestown. How do you think they came up with the name for the river and their settlement? Jamestown s location had serious problems. o The land was very swampy. o It was filled with mosquitoes. o The drinking water was bad. o Colonists died from malaria or typhoid fever. Jamestown s colonists had serious problems. o The colonists knew nothing about living in a wilderness. o Many colonists only came for gold and adventure. o They did not want to cut wood, build homes, or plant crops By September 1607, about half the colonists died and by the next January only 38 out of the original 144 were still alive. Captain John Smith took charge and ordered the people to o build houses. o build fortifications. o dig wells. o clear fields. o plant crops.
John Smith stated that he that will not work shall not eat. o Do you feel this is fair or not? Explain why you feel that way. John Smith claimed to have been captured by the Powhatan Indians but the chief s daughter, Pocahontas, begged for his life. She eventually married one of the colonists named John Rolfe. The leadership of John Smith improved the conditions in Jamestown. About 500 new settlers, including women, came from England to join the colony. Smith was injured in a gunpowder explosion and had to return to England for medical treatment. The winter of 1609-1610 became known as the starving time. People fought over roots, acorns, and even insects. Only about 60 settlers survived the winter. What did they call the winter of 1609-1610? Remember that Jamestown was started by investors in the Virginia Company of London and those investors wanted to make money. John Rolfe had seen Native Americans smoking tobacco in pipes and decided to start growing it. The colonists shipped thousands of pounds of tobacco back to England and earned huge profits. The habit of smoking rapidly spread throughout Europe even though King James I said it was a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs. Tobacco growing changed farming in Virginia. Planters set up large farms, or plantations, along the coastal rivers. Growing tobacco was hard, backbreaking work. Virginia hired indentured servants, people who agreed to work a certain number of years usually 3 to 7 in exchange for having their passage to America paid for them. Eventually the Native Americans became mad at the colonists because of the amount of land they were taking and this led to violence. Native Americans led surprise attacks on colonists and killed nearly 350 people. Colonists attacked Native American villages and burned their crops. After many battles, the English gained control of the area. What crop did the colonists of Jamestown begin planting which made their investors a lot of money?
The London Company controlled the colony and named a council to run it. Settlers worked for the company, which owned the land. The company sent a governor to rule Jamestown, but it also gave colonists a voice in running the colony government. This is the first form of representative government in the English colonies in America. What is a representative government? Adult freemen could elect representatives, or burgesses, to a lawmaking body called the House of Burgesses. This assembly could make laws to govern the colony. Eventually, King James I was unhappy with the way officials were running the Virginia colony and the lack of profits. He decided to take Jamestown and Virginia over and made it a royal colony, a colony controlled by the king. King James I Pretend you are a colonist at Jamestown and you are getting ready to go to bed for the night. Write a paragraph in your journal or diary describing what life is like in Jamestown by telling what you did that day. Make sure you use the information provided to you.