1. Theme 4Theme 4
English Colonies of NorthEnglish Colonies of North
AmericaAmerica
Kristi BeriaKristi Beria

2. American Colonies 6American Colonies 6
Virginia-RoanokeVirginia-Roanoke
► In 1585, Sir Walter Ralegh sent 100
colonists, all men, to settle on a small
island on the coast of North Carolina.
► The soil was not fertile and capable of
producing crops, but the colonists
expected the Algonquin Indians that lived
in the area.
► At first the Indians provided food, but soon
tired of the demanding settlers.
► In the spring of 1586 Wingina, the local
chief, refused to give more food.
► Wingina and his deputy chiefs were killed
in a surprise attack hoping to intimidate
the rest of the Indians into providing more
food.
► Instead, this caused the surviving Indians
to flee.
► When English ships stopped by, the
starving settlers quickly abandoned the
colony.
► Ralegh tried again in 1587 sending more
colonists, including the first English
families to settle in the Americas.
► The settlers were supposed to be taken
north to the Chesapeake Bay, but instead
they were dropped off Roanoke.
► The colony was found mysteriously
abandoned in 1590 by a relief expedition
sent by England.
► There were no signs of attack by Indians
or Spanish.
► The colonists were assumed to have
moved on to Croatoan, a nearby island.
► There were reports that some white
refugees had taken shelter in and Indian
village, but had been killed by Powhatan,
a powerful chief.

3. American Colonies 6American Colonies 6
Virginia-JamestownVirginia-Jamestown
► On April 26, 1607, English ships reached
Chesapeake Bay.
► They established a settlement beside the
James River and called it Jamestown.
► The colonists died in large numbers due to
disease and hunger.
► Nine months later, only 38 out of the
original 104 were still living.
► New colonists were continually sent to
Jamestown to keep up the numbers, but
people continued to die.
► Between 1607 and 1622 10,000 people
were sent to Jamestown but only 20% were
still alive in 1622.
► The colonists were exposed to malaria and
salt poisoning in the summer.
► Most of the colony consisted of vagrants
that had been sent forcibly or adventurers
looking to get rich quick.
► Neither group of men was used to the
manual labor that was needed in order to
produce enough food to survive.
► In there quest to find precious metals, the
colonists gathered mica to load a ship to
send to England, only to find out that it was
worthless.
► The colony was not equipped from the
beginning to produce hardworking people or
exportable crops.

4. American Colonies 6American Colonies 6
Virginia-TobaccoVirginia-Tobacco
► In 1616 the colonists learned to raise
tobacco.
► The tobacco plants grew best in hot and
humid conditions, it thrived in Virginia.
► As the demand for tobacco grew, so did
the need for land, which the colonists took
at the expense of the natives.
► The chief of the local Indians,
Opechancanough, convinced the colonists
that he was willing to convert to
Christianity and to settle any land not in
use by Indians.
► In 1622, a surprise attack by the Indians
killed 347 people, the settlers livestock,
and burned the plantations.
► The Virginians vowed to exterminate the
Indians.
► The colonists waited until right before the
harvest to destroy the Indian villages and
crops.
► In 1623, the starving Indians were tricked
into attending peace talks where they
were poisoned.
► The colonists were attacked again in
1644, and the colonists waged
counterattacks and destroyed most of the
surrounding Indian villages.
► The colonists numbers and prosperity
grew during the mid 1600’s due to the
export of tobacco.
► During the 1660’s tobacco accounted for
25 percents of the revenues by the
English Crown.

5. American Colonies 8American Colonies 8
New England-The Great MigrationNew England-The Great Migration
► Puritans were seeking a place were they
could practice their religion and get away
from the “sinners” that plagued most of
England.
► The first Puritan emigrants crossed the
Atlantic Ocean in the Mayflower and landed
in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620.
► The first settlement consisted of 102
colonists.
► By 1630, 1,500 people lived in the Plymouth
colony.
► The colonists had an easier time getting
themselves into a place where food was
adequate than those that settled in other
English colonies.
► The Puritans started having disagreements
over rules and how to run the colony.
► During the 1630’s and 1640’s the colonists
started to expand into the interior and
started forming new colonies.
► Southeastern New England became home
to radical Puritan’s who felt that the rules
had become too strict.
► Puritan’s that found Massachusetts too
easy on the rules founded Connecticut and
New Haven.
► Most of the Puritans were of the middle
class who were hard workers who hoped to
purify their church and bring about law and
order with rules from the bible.

6. American Colonies 8American Colonies 8
New England-Family LifeNew England-Family Life
► The English expected all adults to marry
and divide the various duties into male and
female responsibilities.
► The men did the hardest work-clearing
lands, construction, tending to the crops-
while women kept the home running-
gardening, childrearing, preserving food.
► The New English had a better
understanding of marriage than back in the
home country.
► People were allowed to court and then ask
their parents to approve to their marriage.
► Parents didn’t dictate who their children
should marry, but they did have the power
to veto if they felt that it wasn’t a good
arrangement.
► In New England as in England, women
were weren’t able to own land, vote, or
hold office (unless an unmarried widow)
► New English law expected the men to be
kind and generous to their partner.
► Compared to the old country women could
obtain a divorce easier.
► Puritanism considered men and women to
be equal in spirituality, with women enjoying
a little superiority to men.
► The men weren’t allowed to be in the birthing
chamber with their wives-instead the
neighboring women and friends were there
to help.
► Women had an informal influence on the
reputations of men in the community, with
women often being called to testify in court.

7. American Colonies 8American Colonies 8
New England-Bible CommonwealthNew England-Bible Commonwealth
► The Puritans believed that it was their duty
to build a model society in America that
properly worshipped God.
► Any struggle was considered to be a
punishment from God for somehow
disappointing him.
► They stressed that all people were literate
and therefore were able to read the bible
and other religious texts.
► In 1650, there was one minister to every
415 persons compared to one per every
3,239 in Virginia.
► In order to educate orthodox Puritan
ministers, Harvard College was founded in
Massachusetts in 1636.
► The Puritans felt that it was the job of the
government to punish sinners.
► Unfortunately, they were not able to keep
their community free from “sinners” that
came from the outside.
► Religious heretics were convicted and
exiled.
► Colonists started to have disagreements
over the interpretation of the bible and the
way New England should be run.
► The Puritans continued to prosecute
witches past 1650 when the practice had
mostly stopped in England.
► Up until 1692, New England prosecuted 92
people of witchcraft and executed sixteen.
► The Salem Witch Trials in 1692 saw the
accusation of hundreds of people and the
execution of 19 people.

8. American Colonies 9American Colonies 9
Puritans and Indians-PropertyPuritans and Indians-Property
► The colonists were shocked about the
amount of land and food supply in New
England.
► They felt like God had given them this land
as a reward for their pious behavior.
► The New English felt that it was their duty
to punish the “lazy” natives.
► They decided that it was their right to
decide the amount of land that the Indians
needed, which got smaller in every passing
year.
► The colonists offered goods in trade for
tracts of land from the Indians…the
colonists felt they then owned the land, the
natives thought they were sharing the land.
► The colonists often punished the natives
for trespassing.
► When the Indians retaliated, the colonists
felt that they were the victims.
► The natives couldn’t believe how fast the
colonists cleared the land to provide
area for their livestock.
► The livestock often ate the crops of the
Indians.
► As the colonists built permanent
buildings, they made it less recognizable
to the Indians.
► The habitat for the wild animals and
plants became smaller and smaller.

9. American Colonies 9American Colonies 9
Puritans and Indians-Pequot WarPuritans and Indians-Pequot War
► The first skirmish that occurred between
the Puritans and Indians happened in
1636.
► Colonials leaders told the Pequot they had
to pay a tribute in wampum, give up
several kids as hostages, and surrender
captured colonists.
► The Pequot’s refused, which caused the
colonies of Connecticut, Plymouth, and
Massachusetts to declare war.
► The colonies were able to persuade the
tribes of Narragansett and Mohegan to
fight against the Pequot also.
► In May of 1637 a Pequot village in the
Mystic River Valley was attacked.
► The village contained mostly women,
children, and old men which the colonists
and other Indians set on fire, killing all but
five of the 400 inhabitants.
► The Indian allies of the colonists were
shocked at the brutality of the attack.
► The New English felt justified in the
killings despite criticism from Puritans in
England.
► The victory was seen as proof that God
had found them worthy.
► The rest of 1637 saw the killing or capture
of the rest of the Pequot tribe.
► An attempt at uniting all of the area tribes
by chief of the Narragansett failed and
ended in his capture and death.

10. American Colonies 9American Colonies 9
Puritans and Indians-King Philip’s WarPuritans and Indians-King Philip’s War
► The bloodiest war between the Indians
and Puritans happened in 1675.
► It was named after the Wampanoag chief
known to the New English as King Philip.
► The Wampanoag attacked the colonists
after the executions of three Indians that
had killed a praying town Indian.
► The Indian victories over small colonial
homesteads caused other bands of
Indians with their own problems with the
colonists to attack.
► The Puritans then attacked neutral bands,
such as the Narragansett, who were the
largest and most powerful Indians in the
regions.
► Both sides used muskets as the primary
weapons.
► Using the lessons the natives had learned
from the Puritans, they decimated entire
families and completely destroyed all
symbols of the English civilization.
► The colonists felt it was their duty to God
to kill all Indians, including ones that
converted and lived in praying towns.
► The colonists were able to ally with the
Pequot and Mohegan making this a civil
war.
► The allied Indians turned the tide in the
war, teaching the colonists how to attack
on the Indians terms.
► In 1676, the rebellion collapsed as a
result of starvation and lack of
ammunition on the Indians part.
► The war devastated both the settlements
and Indian villages.
► The English lost about 1,000 colonists,
while the Indians lost 3,000 people,
almost a third of their population.