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Title: The Colonies 1492-1750
Author: Reuben Gold Thwaites
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Language: English
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Illustration:
EPOCH MAP I
PHYSICAL FEATURES
OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BASED UPON GOVERNMENT MAPS
_Dark buff represents 2,000 ft. and over._
_Epochs of American History_
THE COLONIES
1492-1750
BY
REUBEN GOLD THWAITES, LL.D.
EDITOR OF "JESUIT RELATIONS," "EARLY WESTERN TRAVELS,"
"ORIGINAL JOURNALS OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITIONS,"
ETC. AUTHOR OF "FRANCE IN AMERICA," "FATHER
MARQUETTE," "DANIEL BOONE," "ROCKY
MOUNTAIN EXPLORATION," "HISTORIC
WATERWAYS," "WISCONSIN," ETC.
WITH FOUR MAPS AND
NUMEROUS BIBLIOGRAPHIES
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK
LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
_Copyright, 1890_,
BY CHARLES J. MILLS.
_Copyright, 1897_,
BY LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
_Copyright, 1910_,
BY LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
_All rights reserved._
First Edition, December, 1890.
Reprinted, September, 1891, February, 1892, (Revised), January and August,
1893, December, 1893, (Revised), August, 1894, October, 1895, July, 1896,
August, 1897, (Revised), November, 1897, July, 1898, July, 1899, April,
1900, January, 1901, October, 1901, August, 1902, November, 1902, October,
1904, September, 1906, May, 1908, June, 1910, (Revised), October, 1911.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
In offering to the public a new HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES,--for such the
three volumes of the EPOCHS OF AMERICAN HISTORY, taken together, are
designed to form,--the aim is not to assemble all the important facts, or
to discuss all the important questions that have arisen. There seems to be
a place for a series of brief works which shall show the main causes for
the foundation of the colonies, for the formation of the Union, and for the
triumph of that Union over disintegrating tendencies. To make clear the
development of ideas and institutions from epoch to epoch,--this is the aim
of the authors and the editor.
Detail has therefore been sacrificed to a more thorough treatment of the
broad outlines: events are considered as evidences of tendencies and
principles. Recognizing the fact that many readers will wish to go more
carefully into narrative and social history, each chapter throughout the
Series will be provided with a bibliography, intended to lead, first to the
more common and easily accessible books, afterward, through the lists of
bibliographies by other hands, to special works and monographs. The reader
or teacher will find a select list of books in the Suggestions a few pages
below.
The historical geography of the United States has been a much-neglected
subject. In this Series, therefore, both physical and political geography
will receive special attention. I have prepared four maps for the first
volume, and a like number will appear in each subsequent volume. Colonial
grants were confused and uncertain; the principle adopted has been to
accept the later interpretation of the grants by the English government as
settling earlier questions.
To my colleague, Professor Edward Channing, I beg to offer especial thanks
for many generous suggestions, both as to the scope of the work and as to
details.
ALBERT BUSHNELL HART.
CAMBRIDGE, December 1, 1890.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
Upon no epoch of American history has so much been written, from every
point of view, as upon the Thirteen Colonies. There has, nevertheless, been
lacking a book devoted especially to it, compact in form, yet sufficiently
comprehensive in scope at once to serve as a text-book for class use and
for general reading and reference. The present work is intended to meet
that want.
In this book American colonization is considered in the light of general
colonization as a phase of history. Englishmen in planting colonies in
America brought with them the institutions with which they had been
familiar at home: it is shown what these institutions were, and how, in
adapting themselves to new conditions of growth, they differed from English
models. As prominent among the changed conditions, the physical geography
of America and its aboriginal inhabitants receive somewhat extended
treatment; and it is sought to explain the important effect these had upon
the character of the settlers and the development of the country. The
social and economic condition of the people is described, and attention is
paid to the political characteristics of the several colonies both in the
conduct of their local affairs and in their relations with each other and
the mother-country. It is shown that the causes of the Revolution were
deep-seated in colonial history. Attention is also called to the fact,
generally overlooked, that the thirteen mainland colonies which revolted in
1776 were not all of the English colonial establishments in America.
From Dr. Frederick J. Turner, of the University of Wisconsin, I have had
much advice and assistance throughout the prosecution of the work; Dr.
Edward Channing, of Harvard College, has kindly revised the proof-sheets
and made many valuable suggestions; while Dr. Samuel A. Green, librarian of
the Massachusetts Historical Society, has generously done similar service
on the chapters referring to New England. To all of these gentlemen, each
professionally expert in certain branches of the subject, I tender most
cordial thanks.
REUBEN GOLD THWAITES.
MADISON, WIS., December 1, 1890.
PREFACE TO TWENTY-SECOND EDITION.
From time to time there have been several revisions of the text, so that it
has been kept fairly abreast of current investigation. The bibliographies,
however, have remained untouched since the tenth edition (August, 1897).
The principal change in the present, therefore, consists in the
introduction of new and carefully prepared references, which will render
the book of greater service to the student than it has been at any time
within the past ten years. In this revision, I have had the valuable
assistance of Miss Annie A. Nunns.
R. G. THWAITES.
MADISON, WIS., June 1, 1910.
SUGGESTIONS.
While this volume is intended to be complete in itself, compression has
been necessary in order to make it conform to the series in which it
appears. It really is but an outline of the subject, a centre from which to
start upon a study of the American colonies. The reader, especially the
teacher, who would acquire a fairly complete knowledge of this interesting
period of our history, will need to examine many other volumes; from them
gaining not only further information, but the point of view of other
authors than the present--only in this manner may an historical perspective
be obtained. The classified bibliographies, given by the author at the head
of each chapter, have been prepared with much care. While perhaps few will
desire to follow the topics to the lengths there suggested, it is urged
that as many of the other volumes as possible be consulted, particularly
those containing source material.
* * * * *
Following is a list of books which, even for a brief study, would be
desirable for reference and comparison, or for the preparation of topics:
1-5. JOHN ANDREW DOYLE: _English Colonies in America_. 5 vols. New York: H.
Holt & Co., 1882-1907.--An analytical study, in much detail, by an English
author.
6-13. JOHN FISKE: _Beginnings of New England; The Discovery of America_, 2
vols.; _Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America_, 2 vols.; _New France and
New England; Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, 2 vols. Boston: Houghton,
Mifflin & Co., 1897-1902.--The best popular accounts; but while eminently
readable and inspiring, not sufficiently thorough at all points, to serve
as authoritative studies.
14. HENRY CABOT LODGE: _Short History of the English Colonies in America_.
New York: Harper Brothers Co., 1881.--Concise and readable.
15-17. HERBERT LEVI OSGOOD: _American Colonies in the 17th Century_. 3
vols. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1904-1907.--The most elaborate treatment
of this period, from the American point of view.
If a detailed study is intended, the following volumes should be added to
the foregoing:
A. Bibliography.
1. EDWARD CHANNING and ALBERT BUSHNELL HART: _A Guide to the Study of
American History_. Boston: Ginn & Co., 1896.--A well-arranged manual for
both students and general readers.
2. JOSEPHUS NELSON LARNED: _Literature of American History_. Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1902.--More detailed than the foregoing. Contains
critical estimates of many of the works cited, by experts in the several
subjects.
B. General.
3-5. ELROY MCKENDREE AVERY: _A History of the United States and its People
from their Earliest Records to the Present Time_. 15 vols. Cleveland:
Burrows Brothers Co., 1904+.--Volumes I.-III. cover the colonial period.
Especially notable for its illustrations--for the most part, reproductions
of contemporary views, maps, portraits, and articles of historical
interest. The bibliographies are quite full.
6, 7. EDWARD CHANNING: _A History of the United States_. 8 vols. New York:
The Macmillan Co., 1905+.--A calm, philosophical treatise, written with
care and erudition.
8-13. Albert Bushnell Hart, Editor: _The American Nation_. New York: Harper
Brothers Co., 1904-1907.--The latest co-operative history of the United
States. Each volume is by an author who specializes in the topic treated.
Vols. II.-VII. are concerned with the colonial period. The bibliographical
chapters are very useful.
14, 15. WOODROW WILSON: _A History of the American People_. 5 vols. New
York: Harper Brothers Co., 1902.--Popular and readable, often brilliant.
Only vols. I. and II. cover the colonial period.
16-20. JUSTIN WINSOR: _Narrative and Critical History of America_. 8 vols.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1889.--A co-operative enterprise, the
chapters being by different hands, for the most part specialists. There is
a wealth of illustrations, notes, and bibliographical references. But much
of the work has been superseded by later publications. Vols. I.-V. cover
the colonial period.
C. Special Histories.
21, 22. PHILIP ALEXANDER BRUCE: _Economic History of Virginia in the 17th
Century_. 2 vols. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1896.--A careful, detailed
study.
23. PHILIP ALEXANDER BRUCE: _Social Life of Virginia in the 17th Century_.
Richmond: Whittet & Shepperson, 1907.--Thorough and clear.
24, 25. SYDNEY GEORGE FISHER: _Men, Women, and Manners in Colonial Times_.
2 vols. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1898.--A readable and useful
survey.
26. FREDERICK WEBB HODGE: _Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico_.
Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1907.--The author, a member of the
Ethnological Bureau, is an authority on this subject.
27-38. FRANCIS PARKMAN: _France and England in North America_. 12 vols.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1851-1892. The titles of volumes comprising
this series are: Pioneers of France in the New World; The Jesuits in North
America; La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West; The Old Régime in
Canada; Count Frontenac and New France; A Half-Century of Conflict, 2
vols.; Montcalm and Wolfe, 2 vols.; The Conspiracy of Pontiac, 2 vols.--In
spite of its age, this work remains the principal authority for the
thrilling story of New France. A first-hand study, written in fascinating
style.
39. ELLEN CHURCHILL SEMPLE: _American History and its Geographic
Conditions_. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1903.--Of first importance in
understanding the causes and effects of the movements of population.
40. CYRUS THOMAS: _The Indians of North America in Historic Times_.
Philadelphia: G. Barrie & Sons, 1903.--The latest compendious treatment;
somewhat repellent in style, but useful for reference. The author is a
well-known authority.
41, 42. WILLIAM BABCOCK WEEDEN: _Economic and Social History of New
England, 1620-1789_. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1890.--An
admirably executed work.
D. Sources.
43, 44. ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, Editor: _American History Told by
Contemporaries_. 4 vols. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1897, 1898.--Very
useful for purposes of illustration. Vols. I., II., are devoted to colonial
material.
45-64. JOHN FRANKLIN JAMESON, Editor: _Original Narratives of Early
American History_. 20 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1906+.--Carefully edited, and indispensable for first-hand study.
65. WILLIAM MACDONALD, Editor: _Documentary Source Book of American
History, 1606-1898_. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1908.--Useful reprints of
material otherwise difficult to obtain.
In addition to the above, the publications of colonial and town record
commissions and state and local historical and antiquarian societies
contain material of the utmost value in the study of our colonial history.
Among them may especially be mentioned the volumes issued by the Prince
Society, Gorges Society, American Antiquarian Society, and the state
historical societies of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and
Virginia; also the colonial records of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New
York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North
and South Carolina.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE LAND AND THE NATIVE RACES.
PAGES
1. References, p. 1.--2. Physical characteristics of North
America, p. 2.--3. The native races, p. 7.--4. Characteristics
of the Indian, p. 13.--5. Relations of the Indians and
colonists, p. 17 1-19
CHAPTER II.
DISCOVERIES AND EARLY SETTLEMENTS (1492-1606).
6. References, p. 20.--7. Pre-Columbian discoveries, p. 21.--8.
Early European discoveries (1492-1512), p. 23.--9. Spanish
exploration of the interior (1513-1542), p. 27.--10. Spanish
colonies (1492-1687), p. 31.--11. The French in North America
(1524-1550), p. 32.--12. French attempts to colonize Florida
(1562-1568), p. 33.--13. The French in Canada (1589-1608), p.
35.--14. English exploration (1498-1584), p. 36.--15. English
attempts to colonize (1584-1606), p. 38.--16. The experience
of the sixteenth century (1492-1606), p. 42 20-44
CHAPTER III.
COLONIZATION AND THE COLONISTS.
17. References, p. 45.--18. Colonial policy of European states,
p. 45.--19. Spanish and Portuguese policy, p. 47.--20.
French policy, p. 48.--21. Dutch and Swedish policy, p.
50.--22. English policy, p. 51.--23. Character of English
emigrants, p. 53.--24. Local government in the colonies, p.
55.--25. Colonial governments, p. 58.--26. Privileges of
the colonists, p. 61 45-63
CHAPTER IV.
THE COLONIZATION OF THE SOUTH (1606-1700).
27. References, p. 64.--28. Reasons for final English colonization,
p. 65.--29. The charter of 1606, p. 66.--30. The settlement
of Virginia (1607-1624), p. 69.--31. Virginia during the
English revolution (1624-1660), p. 75.--32. Development of
Virginia (1660-1700), p. 78.--33. Settlement of Maryland
(1632-1635), p. 81.--34. Maryland during the English
revolution (1642-1660), p. 84.--35. Development of Maryland
(1660-1715), p. 86.--36. Early settlers in the Carolinas
(1542-1665), p. 87.--37. Proprietorship of the Carolinas
(1663-1671), p. 89.--38. The two settlements of Carolina
(1671-1700), p. 92 64-95
CHAPTER V.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN THE SOUTH IN 1700.
39. References, p. 96.--40. Land and People in the South, p.
96.--41. Slavery and servants, p. 98.--42. Middle and upper
classes, p. 100.--43. Occupations, p. 102.--44. Navigation
Acts, p. 104.--45. Social life, p. 106.--46. Political
life, and conclusions, p. 109 96-111
CHAPTER VI.
THE COLONIZATION OF NEW ENGLAND (1620-1643).
47. References, p. 112.--48. The New England colonists,
p. 113.--49. Plymouth colonized (1620-1621), p. 116.--50.
Development of Plymouth (1621-1691), p. 120.--51.
Massachusetts founded (1630), p. 124.--52. Government of
Massachusetts (1630-1634), p. 127.--53. Internal
dissensions in Massachusetts (1634-1637), p. 129.--54.
Religious troubles in Massachusetts (1636-1638), p.
132.--55. Indian wars (1635-1637), p. 136.--56. Laws and
characteristics of Massachusetts (1637-1643), p. 137.--57.
Connecticut founded (1633-1639), p. 140.--58. The
Connecticut government (1639-1643), p. 142.--59. New Haven
founded (1637-1644), p. 144.--60. Rhode Island founded
(1636-1654), p. 146.--61. Maine founded (1622-1658), p.
150.--62. New Hampshire founded (1620-1685), p. 152 112-153
CHAPTER VII.
NEW ENGLAND FROM 1643 TO 1700.
63. References, p. 154.--64. New England confederation formed
(1637-1643), p. 154.--65. Workings of the confederation
(1643-1660), p. 157.--66. Disturbances in Rhode Island
(1641-1647), p. 159.--67. Policy of the confederation
(1646-1660), p. 161.--68. Repression of the Quakers
(1656-1660), p. 165.--69. Royal commission (1660-1664), p.
166.--70. Indian wars (1660-1678), p. 170.--71. Territorial
disputes (1649-1685), p. 173.--72. Revocation of the
charters (1679-1687), p. 174.--73. Restoration of the
charters (1689-1692), p. 176 154-177
CHAPTER VIII.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN NEW ENGLAND IN 1700.
74. References, p. 178.--75. Land and people, p. 179.--76.
Social classes and professions, p. 181.--77. Occupations,
p. 184.--78. Social conditions, p. 186.--79. Moral and
religious conditions, p. 188.--80. The witchcraft delusion,
p. 190.--81. Political conditions, p. 192 178-194
CHAPTER IX.
THE COLONIZATION OF THE MIDDLE COLONIES (1609-1700).
82. References, p. 195.--83. Dutch settlement (1609-1625),
p. 196.--84. Progress of New Netherland (1626-1664), p.
198.--85. Conquest of New Netherland (1664), p. 202.--86.
Development of New York (1664-1700), p. 203.--87. Delaware
(1623-1700), p. 207.--88. New Jersey (1664-1738), p.
210.--89. Pennsylvania (1681-1718), p. 215 195-217
CHAPTER X.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES IN 1700.
90. References, p. 218.--91. Geographical conditions in the
middle colonies, p. 218.--92. People of the middle
colonies, p. 220.--93. Social classes, p. 222.--94.
Occupations, p. 224.--95. Social life, p. 226.--96.
Intellectual and moral conditions, p. 229.--97. Political
conditions, and conclusion, p. 231 218-232
CHAPTER XI.
OTHER ENGLISH NORTH AMERICAN COLONIES (1605-1750).
98. References, p. 233.--99. Outlying English colonies,
p. 234.--100. Windward and Leeward Islands (1605-1814), p.
236.--101. Bermudas (1609-1750) and Bahamas (1522-1783), p.
238.--102. Jamaica (1655-1750), p. 240.--103. British
Honduras (1600-1798), p. 241.--104. Newfoundland
(1497-1783), p. 241.--105. Nova Scotia, Acadia (1497-1755),
p. 242.--106. Hudson's Bay Company, p. 243 233-244
CHAPTER XII.
THE COLONIZATION OF NEW FRANCE (1608-1750).
107. References, p. 245.--108. Settlement of Canada (1608-1629),
p. 246.--109. Exploration of the Northwest (1629-1699), p.
247.--110. Social and political conditions, p. 249.--111.
Intercolonial wars (1628-1697), p. 252.--112. Frontier wars
(1702-1748), p. 254.--113. Territorial claims, p.
255.--114. Effect of French colonization, p. 257 245-257
CHAPTER XIII.
THE COLONIZATION OF GEORGIA (1732-1755).
115. References, p. 258.--116. Settlement of Georgia
(1732-1735), p. 258.--117. Slow development of Georgia
(1735-1755), p. 261 258-263
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CONTINENTAL COLONIES FROM 1700 TO 1750.
118. References, p. 264.--119. Population (1700-1750),
p 265.--120. Attacks on the charters (1701-1749), p.
266.--121. Settlement and boundaries (1700-1750), p.
267.--122. Schemes of colonial union (1690-1754), p.
269.--123. Quarrels with royal governors (1700-1750), p.
271.--124. Governors of southern colonies, p. 272.--125.
Governors of middle colonies, p. 273.--126. Governors of
New England colonies, p. 275.--127. Effect of the French
wars (1700-1750), p. 277.--128. Economic conditions, p.
278.--129. Political and social conditions (1700-1750), p.
280.--130. Results of the half-century (1700-1750), p. 282 264-284
INDEX 285
LIST OF MAPS.
1. Physical Features of the United States _Frontispiece_.
2. North America, 1650 _End of volume_.
3. English Colonies in North America, 1700 _End of volume_.
4. North America, 1750 _End of volume_.
EPOCHS OF AMERICAN HISTORY
THE COLONIES.
1492-1750.
CHAPTER I.
THE LAND AND THE NATIVE RACES.
1. References.
Bibliographies.--L. Farrand, _Basis of American History_, ch. xviii.; J.
Larned, _Literature of American History_, 21-50; J. Winsor, _Narrative and
Critical History_, I., II.; Channing and Hart, _Guide_, §§ 21, 77-80; C.
Lummis, _Reading List on Indians_.
Historical Maps.--No. 1, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, No. 1); T. MacCoun,
_Historical Geography of United States_; school histories of Channing,
Elson, Gordy, James and Sanford, Mace, McLaughlin, McMaster, and
Montgomery.
General Accounts.--Historical significance of geography of the United
States: H. Mill, _International Geography_, ch. xxxix.; F. Ratzel,
_Vereinigte Staaten_, I. ch. ii.; B. Hinsdale, _How to Study and Teach
History_, ch. xiv.; E. Bogart, _Economic History of United States_,
introduction; E. Semple, _American History and its Geographic Conditions_;
A. Brigham, _Geographic Influences in American History_; W. Scaife,
_America: its Geographical History_.--Topographical descriptions of the
country: J. Whitney, _United States_, I. pt. i.; N. Shaler, _United
States_, I., and _Nature and Man in America_; Mill, as above; E. Reclus,
_North America_, III.; Hinsdale, as above, ch. xv.--Prehistoric Man in
America: L. Morgan, _Ancient Society_; J. Nadaillac, _Prehistoric America_;
J. Foster, _Prehistoric Races_; Winsor, as above, I. ch. vi.; E. Avery,
_United States and its People_, I. chs. i., ii.; Farrand, as above, ch.
v.--The Indians (or Amerinds): D. Brinton, _American Race_; C. Thomas,
_Indians in Historic Times_; F. Hodge, _Handbook of American Indians_;
Farrand, as above, chs. vi.-xviii.; Avery, as above, I. ch. xxii.; F.
Dellenbaugh, _North Americans of Yesterday_; S. Drake, _Aboriginal Races of
America_; G. Ellis, _Red Man and White Man in North America_; G. Grinnell,
_Story of the Indian_. The introduction to F. Parkman, _Jesuits in North
America_, and his _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, I. ch. i., are admirable general
surveys. Briefer, also excellent, is J. Fiske's _Discovery of America_, I.
ch. i. The mound-builders have now been identified as Indians. L. Carr,
_Mounds of the Mississippi Valley Historically Considered_ is the best
exposition of this subject. C. Thomas, _Catalogue of Prehistoric Works East
of the Rocky Mountains_ is useful.
Special Histories.--Larned, _History for Ready Reference_, I. 83-115, gives
brief account and bibliographies of tribes; Farrand, as above, 279-286,
does the same by geographical groups. Especially notable are L. Morgan,
_League of the Iroquois_, and C. Colden, _Five Indian Nations_. For
detailed treatment of the aborigines of that section, consult H. Bancroft,
_Native Races of the Pacific Coast_, II., and _Mexico_, I.; J. Palfrey,
_New England_, I. chs. i., ii., describes the Indians in that region; T.
Roosevelt, _Winning of the West_, I. chs. iii., iv., the Southern tribes;
and Parkman, _Pontiac_, the old Northwest tribes. There are numerous
biographies of chiefs, and a considerable literature on border warfare.
2. Physical Characteristics of North America.
Sidenote: Origin of the native races, a mere matter of conjecture.
Whence came the native races of America? Doubtless the chain of Aleutian
islands served as stepping-stones for straggling bands of Asiatics to cross
over into continental Alaska many centuries ago; others may have traversed
the ice-bridge of Bering's Strait; possibly prehistoric vessels from China,
Japan, or the Malay peninsula were blown upon our shores by westerly
hurricanes, or drifted hither upon the ocean currents of the Pacific. There
are striking similarities between the flora on each shore of the North
Pacific; and the Eskimos of North America, like the West-Slope Indians of
South America, have been thought to exhibit physical resemblances to the
Mongols and Malays. On the other hand, some archæologists hold that men as
far advanced as the present Eskimos followed the retreating ice-cap of the
last glacial epoch. In the absence of positive historical evidence, the
origin of the native peoples of America is a mere matter of conjecture.
Sidenote: Difficulties of colonization from the west.
North America could not, in a primitive stage of the mechanic arts, have
been developed by colonization on any considerable scale from the west,
except in the face of difficulties almost insuperable. The Pacific coast of
the country is dangerous to approach; steep precipices frequently come down
to the shore, and the land everywhere rises rapidly from the sea, until not
far inland the broad and mighty wall of the Cordilleran mountain system
extends from north to south. That formidable barrier was not scaled by
civilized men until modern times, when European settlement had already
reached the Mississippi from the east, and science had stepped in to assist
the explorers. At San Diego and San Francisco are the only natural harbors,
although Puget Sound can be entered from the extreme north, and skilful
improvements have in our day made a good harbor at the mouth of Columbia
River. The rivers of the Pacific Slope for the most part come noisily
tumbling down to the sea over great cliffs and through deep chasms, and
cannot be utilized for progress far into the interior.
Sidenotes: The Atlantic seaboard the natural approach to North America.
The river system.
The Appalachian valley system.
The Atlantic seaboard, upon the other hand, is broad and inviting. The
Appalachian range lies for the most part nearly a hundred miles inland. The
gently sloping coast abounds in indentations,--safe harbors and generous
land-locked bays, into which flow numerous rivers of considerable breadth
and depth, by means of which the land can be explored for long distances
from tide-water. By ascending the St. Lawrence and the chain of the Great
Lakes, the interior of the continent is readily reached. Dragging his craft
over any one of a half-dozen easy portages in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana,
or Ohio, the canoe traveller can emerge into the Mississippi basin, by
means of whose far-stretching waters he is enabled to explore the heart of
the New World, from the Alleghanies to the Rockies, from the Great Lakes to
the Gulf of Mexico. A carrying trail, at the headwaters of the Missouri,
will lead him over to tributaries of the Columbia, whereby he gains access
to the Pacific slope; while by another portage of a few miles in length,
from Pigeon River to Rainy River, he is given command of the vast basin of
Hudson Bay,--a labyrinth of waterways extending northward to the Arctic
Ocean, and connected by still other portages with the Pacific. The Hudson
River and Lakes George and Champlain form a natural highway from the St.
Lawrence southward to the ocean. By the Mohawk and a short carrying-place,
the Hudson was from early times connected with the Great Lakes. The
Potomac, the Susquehanna, the Roanoke, and other Southern rivers can be
traced northwestward to their sources in the mountains; and hard by are the
headwaters of west-flowing feeders of the Mississippi. The Appalachian
mountains run for the most part in parallel ridges northeast and southwest;
and their valley system, opening out through the Cumberland Gap upon the
Kentucky prairies and the valleys of the Ohio basin, also affords a
comparatively easy highway from the Atlantic sea-coast to the interior.
Sidenote: An inviting field for Aryan colonization.
Thus with the entrance of North America facing the east, and with Europe
lying but little more than one half the distance from Boston that Asia lies
from San Francisco, it was in the order of things that from the east should
have come the people who were to settle and civilize the New World.
Colonists could on this side of the continent found new commonwealths, yet
at the same time easily maintain their connection with the fatherland. The
march of Aryan emigration has ever been on lines little diverging from due
east or west. It is fortunate that the geographical conditions of North
America were such as to make her an inviting field for the further
migration of the race.
Sidenotes: Geographical characteristics of New England and of the South.
Three grand natural divisions of the Atlantic slope.
Extractive industries.
Soil.
Climate.
The Atlantic border may be considered as the threshold of the continent. It
was among its dense, gloomy forests of hard wood and pine that European
nations planted their colonies; here those colonies grew into States, which
were the nucleus of the American Union. The Appalachians are not high
enough seriously to affect the climate or landscape of the region. Their
flanks slope gradually down to the sea, furrowed by rivers which from the
first gave character to the colonies. In New England, where there is an
abundance of good harbors, the coast is narrow and the streams are short
and rapid, with stretches of navigable water between the waterfalls which
turn the wheels of industry for a busy, ingenious, and thrifty people. The
long, broad rivers of the South, flowing lazily through a wide base-plain,
the coast of which furnishes but little safe anchorage, served as avenues
of traffic for the large, isolated colonial estates strung along their
banks; the autocratic planters taking pleasure in having ports of entry at
their doors. The Hudson and the Potomac lead far inland,--paths to the
water ways of the interior,--and divide the Atlantic slope into three grand
natural divisions, the New England, the Middle, and the Southern, in which
grew up distinct groups of colonies, having quite a different origin, and
for a time but few interests in common. The Appalachian mountains and their
foot-hills abound in many places in iron and coal; works for the smelting
of the former were erected near Jamestown, Virginia, as early as 1620, and
early in the eighteenth century the industry began to be of considerable
importance in parts of New England, New York, and New Jersey; but the
mining of anthracite coal was not commenced until 1820. The soil of the
Atlantic border varies greatly, being much less fertile in the North than
in the South; but nearly everywhere it yields good returns for a proper
expenditure of labor. The climate is subject to frequent and extreme
changes. At about 30° latitude the mean temperature is similar to that on
the opposite side of the Atlantic; but farther north the American climate,
owing to the divergence of the Gulf Stream and the influence of the great
continent to the west, is much colder than at corresponding points in
Europe. The rainfall along the coast is everywhere sufficient.
Sidenotes: The Mississippi basin.
The Pacific slope.
Beyond the Appalachian mountain wall, the once heavily forested land dips
gently to the Mississippi; then the land rises again, in a long, treeless
swell, up to the foot of the giant and picturesque Cordilleras. The
isothermal lines in this great central basin are nearly identical with
those of the Atlantic coast. The soil east of the 105th meridian west from
Greenwich is generally rich, sometimes extremely fertile; and it is now
agreed that nearly all the vast arid plains to the west of that meridian,
formerly set down as desert, needs only irrigation to blossom as the rose.
The Pacific slope, narrow and abrupt, abounds in fertile, pent-up valleys,
with some of the finest scenery on the continent and a climate everywhere
nearly equal at the same elevation; the isothermal lines here run north and
south, the lofty mountain range materially influencing both climate and
vegetation.
Sidenote: Summary.
There is no fairer land for the building of a great nation. The region
occupied by the United States is particularly available for such a purpose.
It offers a wide range of diversity in climate and products, yet is
traversed by noble rivers which intimately connect the North with the
South, and have been made to bind the East with the West. It possesses in
the Mississippi basin vast plains unsurpassed for health, fertility, and
the capacity to support an enormous population, yet easily defended; for
the great outlying mountain ranges, while readily penetrated by bands of
adventurous pioneers, and though climbed by railway trains, might easily be
made serious obstacles to invading armies. The natural resources of North
America are apparently exhaustless; we command nearly every North American
seaport on both oceans, and withal are so isolated that there appears to be
no necessity for "entangling alliances" with transatlantic powers. The
United States seems permitted by Nature to work out her own destiny
unhampered by foreign influence, secure in her position, rich in
capabilities. Her land is doubtless destined to become the greatest
stronghold of the Aryan race.
3. The Native Races.
Sidenotes: The aborigines.
Divisible into two divisions.
When Europeans first set foot upon the shores of America it was found not
only that a New World had been discovered, but that it was peopled by a
race of men theretofore unknown to civilized experience. The various
branches of the race differed greatly from each other in general appearance
and in degrees of civilization, and to some extent were settled in
latitudinal strata; thus the reports concerning them made by early
navigators who touched at different points along the coast, led to much
confusion in European estimates of the aborigines. We now know that but one
race occupied the land from Hudson Bay to Patagonia. Leaving out of account
the Carib race of the West Indies, the portion resident in North and
Central America may be roughly grouped into two grand divisions:--
Sidenote: Mexicans, Peruvians, Pueblos, Cliff-Dwellers, and Indians of
the lower Mississippi valley.
I. The semi-civilized peoples represented by the sun-worshipping Mexicans
and Peruvians, who had attained particular efficiency in architecture,
road-making, and fortification, acquired some knowledge of astronomy, were
facile if not elegant in sculpture, practised many handicrafts, but appear
to have exhibited little capacity for further progress. Their government
was paternal to a degree nowhere else observed, and the people, exercising
neither political power nor individual judgment in the conduct of many of
the common affairs of life, were helpless when deprived of their native
rulers by the Spanish conquerors, Cortez and Pizarro. Closely upon the
border of this division, both geographically and in point of mental status,
were the Pueblos and Cliff-Dwellers of New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern
California,--the occupants of the country around the headwaters of the Rio
Grande and Gila rivers, and of the foot-hills of the Desert Range. These
people, like the Mexicans, lived in great communal dwellings of stone or
sun-dried brick, and were also sun-worshippers. They made crude cloth and
pottery, and irrigated and cultivated large tracts of arid land, but were
inferior as fighters, and occupied a mental plane considerably below the
Mexicans. Allied in race and similar in acquirements were the tribes
inhabiting the lower Mississippi valley, the Natchez and perhaps other
tribes lying farther to the east.
Sidenote: The Red Indians of North America.
II. The natives of North America, called Red Indians,--a name which
perpetuates the geographical error of Columbus, and has given rise to an
erroneous opinion as to their color--occupied a still lower plane of
civilization. Yet one must be cautious in accepting any hard-and-fast
classification. The North Americans presented a considerable variety of
types, ranging from the Southern Indians, some of whose tribes were rather
above the Caribs in material advancement, and quite superior to them in
mental calibre, down to the Diggers, the savage root-eaters of the
Cordilleran region.
Sidenote: Philological divisions of Red Indian tribes.
The migrations of some of the Red Indian tribes were frequent, and they
occupied overlapping territories, so that it is impossible to fix the
tribal boundaries with any degree of exactness. Again, the tribes were so
merged by intermarriage, by affiliation, by consolidation, by the fact that
there were numerous polyglot villages of renegades, by similarities in
manner, habits, and appearance, that it is difficult even to separate the
savages into families. It is only on philological grounds that these
divisions can be made at all. In a general way we may say that between the
Atlantic and the Rockies, Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, there were
four Indian languages in vogue, with great varieties of local dialect.
Sidenote: The Algonquians.
I. The Algonquians were the most numerous, holding the greater portion of
the country from the unoccupied "debatable land" of Kentucky northward to
Hudson Bay, and from the Atlantic westward to the Mississippi. Among their
tribes were the Narragansetts and Mohicans. These savages were rude in life
and manners, were intensely warlike, depended for subsistence chiefly on
hunting and fishing, lived in rude wigwams covered with bark, skins, or
matted reeds, practised agriculture in a crude fashion, and were less
stable in their habitations than the Southern Indians. They have made a
larger figure in our history than any other family, because through their
lands came the heaviest and most aggressive movement of white population.
Estimates of early Indian populations necessarily differ, in the absence of
accurate knowledge, but it is now known that the numbers were never so
great as was at first estimated. The colonists on the Atlantic seaboard
found a native population much larger than elsewhere existed, for the
Indians had a superstitious, almost a romantic, attachment to the seaside;
and fish-food abounded there. Back from the waterfalls on the Atlantic
slope,--in the mountains and beyond,--there were large areas destitute of
inhabitants; and even in the nominally occupied territory the villages were
generally small and far apart. A careful modern estimate is that the
Algonkins at no time numbered over ninety thousand souls, and possibly not
over fifty thousand.
Sidenote: The Iroquois.
II. In the heart of this Algonquian land was planted an ethnic group called
the Iroquois, with its several distinct branches, often at war with each
other. The craftiest, most daring, and most intelligent of Red Indians, yet
still in the savage hunter state, the Iroquois were the terror of every
native band east of the Mississippi, and eventually pitted themselves
against their white neighbors. The five principal tribes of this
family--Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, all stationed in
pallisaded villages south and east of Lakes Erie and Ontario--formed a
loose confederacy, styled by themselves "The Long House," and by the whites
"The Five Nations," which firmly held the waterways connecting the Hudson
River and the Great Lakes. The population of the entire group was not over
seventeen thousand,--a remarkably small number, considering the active part
they played in American history, and the control which they exercised over
wide tracts of Algonquian territory. Later they were joined by the
Tuscaroras from North Carolina, and the confederacy was thereafter known as
"The Six Nations."
Sidenote: The Southern Indians.
III. The Southern Indians occupied the country between the Tennessee River
and the Gulf, the Appalachian ranges and the Mississippi. They were divided
into five lax confederacies,--the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks,
and Seminoles. Of a milder disposition than their Northern cousins, they
were rather in a barbarous than a savage state. The Creeks, in particular,
had good intellects, were fair agriculturists, and quickly adopted many
mechanic and rural arts from their white neighbors; so that by the time of
the Revolution they were not far behind the small white proprietors in
industrial or domestic methods. In the Indian Territory of to-day the
descendants of some of these Southern Indians are good farmers and
herdsmen, with a capacity for self-government and shrewd business dealing.
It is not thought that the Southern tribes ever numbered above fifty
thousand persons.
Sidenote: The Dakotahs.
IV. The Dakotah, or Sioux, family occupied for the most part the country
beyond the Mississippi. They were and are a fierce, high-strung people, are
genuine nomads, and war appears to have been their chief occupation. Before
the advent of the Spaniards they were foot-wanderers; but runaway horses
came to them from Mexico and from the exploring expeditions of Narvaez,
Coronado, and De Soto, and very early in the historic period the Indians of
the far western plains became expert horsemen, attaining a degree of
equestrian skill equal to that of the desert-dwelling Arabs. Outlying bands
of the Dakotahs once occupied the greater part of Wisconsin and northern
Illinois, and were, it is believed by competent investigators, one of the
various tribes of mound-builders. Upon withdrawing to the west of the
Mississippi, they left behind them one of their tribes,--the
Winnebagoes,--whom Nicolet found (1634) resident on and about Green Bay of
Lake Michigan, at peace and in confederacy with the Algonquians, who hedged
them about. Other trans-Mississippi nations there are, but they are neither
as large nor of such historical importance as the Dakotahs.
Sidenote: Other tribes.
The above enumeration, covering the territory south of Hudson Bay and east
of the Rocky Mountains, embraces those savage nations with which the white
colonists of North America have longest been in contact. North and west of
these limits were and are other aboriginal tribes of the same race, but
materially differing from those to whom allusion has been made, as well as
from each other, in speech, stature, feature, and custom. These, too, lie,
generally speaking, in ethnological zones. North of British Columbia are
the fish-eating and filthy Hyperboreans, including the Eskimos and the
tribes of Alaska and the British Northwest. South of these dwell the
Columbians,--the aborigines of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia,--a
somewhat higher type than the Hyperboreans, but much degenerated from
contact with whites. The Californians are settled not only in what is now
termed California, but stretch back irregularly into the mountains of
Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah.
4. Characteristics of the Indian.
But of all the North American tribes, our interest in this book is with the
traditional Red Indian,--the savage of eastern North America, the crafty
forest warrior whom our fathers met on landing, and whose presence so
materially shaped the fortunes of the colonies.
Sidenote: The Indian as a hunter and fisher.
First of all, the Indian was a hunter and fisherman. As such, his life was
a struggle for existence. Enemies were to be driven from the tribe's
hunting-grounds, but the game-preserves of other tribes were invaded when
convenient, and this led to endless feuds. War was not only a pastime, but
a necessity in the competition for food. Villages were as a consequence
almost invariably built at vantage points,--at inlets of the sea, at
waterfalls, on commanding banks of lakes and rivers, on portage paths
between the headwaters of streams, and at river junctions. Hence we find
that many, if not most, of the early white towns, built before railways
were introduced, are on sites originally occupied by Indian villages.
Sidenote: Political organization.
The political organization of the Indians was weak. The villages were
little democracies, where one warrior held himself as good as another,
except for the deference naturally due to headmen of the several clans, or
to those of reputed wisdom or oratorical ability. There was a sachem, or
peace-chief, hereditary in the female line, whose authority was but slight,
unless aided by natural gifts which commanded respect. In times of war the
fighting men ranged themselves as volunteers under some popular
leader,--perhaps a permanent chief; sometimes a warrior without titular
distinction. Much which appears in the early writings about the power and
authority of "nobles," "kings," and "emperors" among the red men was
fanciful, the authors falling into the error of judging Indian institutions
by Old World standards. Around the village council-fires all warriors had a
right to be heard; but the talking was chiefly done by the privileged
classes of headmen, old men, wise men, and orators, who were also selected
as the representatives of villages in the occasional deliberative
assemblies of the tribe or confederacy. The judgment of such a council
could not bind the entire village, tribe, or confederacy; any one might
refuse to obey if it pleased him. It was seldom that an entire tribe united
in an important enterprise, still more unusual for several tribes to stand
by each other in adversity. It was this weakness in organization,--inherent
in a pure democracy,--combined with their lack of self-control and
steadfastness of purpose, and with the ever-prevailing tribal jealousies,
which caused Indians to yield before the whites, who better understood the
value of adherence in the face of a common foe. Here and there in our
history we shall note some formidable Indian conspiracies for entirely
dispossessing the whites,--such as the Virginia scheme (1622), King
Philip's uprising (1675), and the Pontiac War (1763). They were the work of
native men of genius who had the gift of organization highly developed, but
who could not find material equal to their skill; hence these uprisings
were short-lived.
Sidenote: The Indian as a fighter.
The strength of the Indian as a fighter lay in his capacity for stratagem,
in his ability to thread the tangled thicket as silently and easily as he
would an open plain, in his powers of secrecy, and in his habit of making
rapid, unexpected sallies for robbery and murder, and then gliding back
into the dark and almost impenetrable forest. The child of impulse, he soon
tired of protracted military operations; and in a siege or in the open
usually yielded to stoutly sustained resistance on the part of an enemy
inferior in numbers. But the colonists were obliged to learn and adopt the
Indian's skulking method of warfare before they could successfully cope
with him in the forest.
Sidenote: Social characteristics.
The Indian was lord of his own wigwam and of the squaws, whom he purchased
of their fathers, kept as his slaves, and could divorce at his caprice.
Families were not large, chiefly owing to the lack of food and to heavy
infant mortality. The wigwams, or huts,--each tribe having peculiarities in
its domestic architecture,--were foully kept, and the bodies of their dirty
inhabitants swarmed with vermin. Kind and hospitable to friends and
unsuspected strangers, the Indian was merciless to his enemies, no cruelty
being too severe for a captive. Yet prisoners were often snatched from the
stake or the hands of a vindictive captor to be adopted into the family of
the rescuer, taking the place of some one slaughtered by the enemy. In
council and when among strangers, the Indian was dignified and reserved,
too proud to exhibit curiosity or emotion; but around his own fire he was
often a jolly clown, much given to verbosity, and fond of comic tales of
doubtful morality. Improvidence was one of his besetting sins.
Sidenotes: Dress.
Religion.
Medicine.
The summer dress of the men was generally a short apron made of the pelt of
a wild animal, the women being clothed in skins from neck to knees; in
winter both sexes wrapped themselves in large robes of similar material.
Indian oratory was highly ornate; it abounded in metaphors drawn from a
minute observance of nature and from a picturesque mythology. A belief in
the efficacy of religious observances was deep seated. Long fastings,
penances, and sacrifices were frequent. The elements were peopled with
spirits good and bad. Every animal, every plant, had its manitou, or
incarnate spirit. Fancy ran riot in superstition. Even the dances practised
by the aborigines had a certain religious significance, being pantomimes,
and in some features resembling the mediæval miracle-plays of Europe. The
art of healing was tinctured with necromancy, although there was
considerable virtue in their decoctions of barks, roots, and herbs, and
their vapor-baths, which came in time to be borrowed from them by the
whites.
Sidenote: Intellectual status.
In intellectual activity the red man did not occupy so low a scale as has
often been assigned him. He was barbarous in his habits, but was so from
choice: it suited his wild, untrammelled nature. He understood the arts of
politeness when he chose to exercise them. He could plan, he was an
incomparable tactician and a fair strategist; he was a natural logician;
his tools and implements were admirably adapted to the purpose designed; he
fashioned boats that have not been surpassed in their kind; he was
remarkably quick in learning the use of firearms, and soon equalled the
best white hunters as a marksman. A rude sense of honor was highly
developed in the Indian; he had a nice perception of public propriety; he
bowed his will to the force of custom,--these characteristics doing much to
counteract the anarchical tendency of his extreme democracy. He understood
the value of form and color, as witness his rock-carvings, his rude
paintings, the decorations on his finely tanned leather, and his often
graceful body markings. It was because the savage saw little in civilized
ideas to attract him, that he either remained obdurate in the face of
missionary endeavors, or simulated an interest he could not feel.
5. Relations of the Indians and Colonists.
Sidenotes: The Indians and the colonists.
Indians as foes.
The colonists from Europe met the Red Indian in a threefold capacity,--as a
neighbor, as a customer and trader, and as a foe opposed to encroachments
upon his hunting grounds. At first the whites were regarded by the
aborigines as of supernatural origin, and hospitality, veneration, and
confidence were displayed toward the new-comers. But the morality of the
Europeans was soon made painfully evident to them. When the early
Spaniards, and afterwards the English, kidnapped tribesmen to sell them
into slavery or to use them as captive guides for future expeditions, or
even murdered the natives on slight provocation, distrust and hatred
naturally succeeded the sentiment of awe. Like many savage races, like the
earlier Romans, the Indian looked upon the member of every tribe with which
he had not made a formal peace as a public enemy; hence he felt justified
in wreaking his vengeance on the race whenever he failed to find individual
offenders. He was exceptionally cruel, his mode of warfare was skulking, he
could not easily be got at in the forest fastnesses which he alone knew
well, and his strokes fell heaviest on women and children; so that whites
came to fear and unspeakably to loathe the savage, and often added greatly
to the bitterness of the struggle by retaliation in kind. The white
borderers themselves were frequently brutal, reckless, and lawless; and
under such conditions clashing was inevitable.
Sidenote: The fur-trade, and inter-tribal barter.
But the love of trade was strong among the Indians, and caused them to some
extent to overcome or to conceal their antipathies. There had always
existed a system of inter-tribal barter, so widespread that the first
whites landing on the Atlantic coast saw Indians with copper ornaments and
tools which came from the Lake Superior mines; and by the middle of the
seventeenth century many articles of European make had passed inland, by
means of these forest exchanges, as far as the Mississippi, in advance of
the earliest white explorers. The trade with the Indians was one of the
incentives to colonization. The introduction of European blankets at once
revolutionized the dress of the coast tribes; and it is surprising how
quickly the art of using firearms was acquired among them, and barbaric
implements and utensils abandoned for those of civilized make. So rapid was
this change that it was not long before the Indians became dependent on the
whites for nearly every article of dress and ornament, and for tools and
weapons. The white traders, who travelled through the woods visiting the
tribes, exchanging these goods for furs, often cheated and robbed the
Indian, taught him the use of intoxicants, bullied and browbeat him,
appropriated his women, and in general introduced serious demoralization
into the native camps. Trouble frequently grew out of this wretched
condition of affairs. The bulk of the whites doubtless intended to treat
the Indian honorably; but the forest traders were beyond the pale of law,
and news of the details of their transactions seldom reached the coast
settlements.
Sidenotes: The Indian as a neighbor.
The inevitable struggle for mastery.
As a neighbor the Indian was difficult to deal with, whether in the
negotiation of treaties of amity, or in the purchase of lands. Having but a
loose system of government, there was no really responsible head, and no
compact was secure from the interference of malcontents who would not be
bound by treaties made by the chiefs. The English felt that the red-men
were not putting the land to its full use, that much of the territory was
growing up as a waste, that they were best entitled to it who could make it
the most productive. On the other hand, the earlier cessions of land were
made under a total misconception: the Indians supposed that the new-comers
would, after a few years of occupancy, pass on and leave the tract again
to the natives. There was no compromise possible between races with
precisely opposite views of property in land. The struggle was
inevitable,--civilization against savagery. No sentimental notions could
prevent it. It was in the nature of things that the weaker must give way.
For a long time it was not certain that a combined effort might not drive
the whites into the sea and undo the work of colonization; but in the end
the savage went to the wall.
Sidenote: Good effect of Indian opposition on the colonists.
Taking a general view of the growth of the American nation, it is now easy
to see that it was fortunate that Englishmen met in the Indian so
formidable an antagonist: such fierce and untamed savages could never be
held long as slaves; and thus were the American colonists of the North--the
bone and sinew of the nation--saved from the temptations and the moral
danger which come from contact with a numerous servile race. Again, every
step of progress into the wilderness being stubbornly contested, the spirit
of hardihood and bravery--so essential an element in nation-building--was
fostered among the borderers; and as settlement moved westward slowly, only
so fast as the pressure of population on the seaboard impelled it, the
Americans were prevented from planting scattered colonies in the interior,
and thus were able to present a solid front to the mother-country when, in
due course of time, fostering care changed to a spirit of commercial
control, and commercial control to jealous interference and menace.
CHAPTER II.
DISCOVERIES AND EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
(1492-1606.)
6. References.
Bibliographies.--Winsor, _Columbus_, and _Narrative and Critical History_,
I. xix-xxxvii, 33-58, 76-132, 369-444, II. 153-179, 205, III. 7-58, 78-84,
97-104, 121, 126, 184-218; Larned, _Literature of American History_, 50-68,
and _History for Ready Reference_, I. 54-79; Avery, _United States_, I.
376-403; Channing and Hart, _Guide_, §§ 81-96; also bibliographical
chapters in Bourne, Cheney, and Tyler, below.
Historical Maps.--No. 1, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, No. I); MacCoun;
Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, I., II.; H. Harrisse, _Discovery
of North America_, and _Découverte et Evolution Cartographique de
Terre-Neuve_; E. L. Stevenson, _Maps illustrating Early Discovery and
Exploration in America_; maps in _American Nation_ series (Bourne, Cheney,
and Tyler).
General Accounts.--On geographical knowledge of ancients, and pre-Columbian
discoveries: Winsor, _Narrative and Critical_, I. chs. i., ii.,; W. Wilson,
_American People_, I. ch. i.; Avery, I. chs. iii.-vi.; E. Cheney, _European
Background of American History_, chs. i.-v.--On discovery and settlement,
from Columbus to Jamestown: M. Creighton, _Age of Elizabeth_ (Epochs of
Modern History); R. Hildreth, _United States_, I. chs. i., iii.; G.
Bancroft, _United States_, I. chs. i.-v.; Winsor, _Narrative and Critical_,
II. chs. i.-vii., III. chs. i.-iv., and _Columbus_; Avery, I. chs.
vii.--xxi.; E. Channing, _United States_, I. chs. i.-v.; J. Doyle, _English
Colonies in America_, I. ch. iv.
Special Histories.--E. Bourne, _Spain in America_; Parkman, _Pioneers of
France in the New World_, 28-233, 296-309; Winsor, _Cartier to Frontenac_,
chs. i.-iii.; C. Baird, _Huguenot Emigration to America_; L. Tyler,
_England in America_, chs. i., ii. For lives of explorers, consult
bibliographies, above.
Contemporary Accounts.--Hakluyt, _Voyages_; Camden Society, _Publications_,
lxxxvii.; _Relation of Captain Gosnold's Voyage_ (1602); Breton, _Brief and
True Relation_ (1602); Pring, _Voyage for Discovery of North Part of
Virginia_ (1603); Rosier, _True Relation_ (1605); Amerigo Vespuccius,
_Letters._--Reprints: Prince Society, _Publications; American History told
by Contemporaries_, I. part ii.; J. Jameson, _Original Narratives of Early
American History; American History Leaflets_, 1, 3, 9, 13.
7. Pre-Columbian Discoveries.
Sidenote: The Scandinavian claim.
The Basques, Normans, Welsh, Irish, and Scandinavians are the principal
claimants for the honor of discovering America before Columbus; and there
are also believers in early African migrations to the western continent,
chiefly influenced by supposed ethnological and botanical evidences found
in South America. The Scandinavians make out the strongest case. Iceland,
so tradition runs, was first conquered by the Britons in the sixth century.
Then followed a succession of Danish and Irish settlements. But the Celts
were driven out by Ingolf, who led a colony of Norwegians thither in 875
and founded Reikjavik.
The ancient Norse sagas--oral traditions, none of which were fixed in
writing until the twelfth century, and most of them not until the
fourteenth--mention voyages to the west from Iceland, and the discovery of
new lands in that quarter as early as 876. In 985 Eric the Red is said to
have led colonies to this western land,--by this time called Greenland. The
following year (986) Bjarni Herjulfson claimed to have been driven by
contrary winds to a strange shore nine days' sail southwest from
Greenland,--"to a land flat and covered with trees." Then comes the
familiar story, that in the year 1000 Leif, son of Eric the Red, having
come from Norway and introduced Christianity into both Iceland and
Greenland, sailed away to the southwest with thirty-five companions, intent
on visiting the country which Bjarni had discovered before him. They
wintered, so the saga reads, "at a place where a river flowed out from a
lake," called the region Vinland because of wild grapes growing there,
"erected large buildings," and then set out for Greenland with a cargo of
timber,--a commodity much needed in the fishing colonies of the
less-favored North. It is related that other explorations succeeded this,
and that in 1007 a temporary settlement was formed in sunny Vinland, where
the colonists, nearly one hundred in number, "had all the good things of
the country, both of grapes and of all sorts of game and other things."
Trading voyages to the new country now became frequent, say the sagas, and
considerable shipments of timber were made from Vinland to Greenland. Eric
Upsi, a Greenland bishop, is alleged, on doubtful authority, to have gone
to Vinland in 1121; and in 1347 there is mention of a Greenland ship
sailing out there for a cargo of timber,--but this is the very last
reference to Vinland by the Norwegian bards.
Sidenote: It is shadowy, but not improbable.
An enormous mass of literature has been the outgrowth of these geographical
puzzles in the sagas, and many writers have ventured to identify every
headland and other natural object mentioned in them. The common theory
among the advocates of the Scandinavian claim is, that Vinland was
somewhere on the coast south of Labrador; but as to the exact locality,
there is much diversity of opinion. There may easily have been early
voyages to the American mainland south of Davis Straits by the hardy Norse
seamen colonized in Iceland and Greenland, and it is probable that there
were numerous adventures of that sort.
The sagas, like the Homeric tales, were oral narrations for centuries
before they were committed to writing, and as such were subject to
distortion and patriotic and romantic embellishment. It is now difficult to
separate in them the true from the false; yet we have other contemporaneous
evidence (Adam of Bremen, 1076) that the Danes regarded Vinland as a
reality. Pretended monuments of the early visits of Northmen to our shores
have been exhibited,--notably the old mill at Newport and the Dighton Rock;
but modern scholarship has determined that these are not relics of the
vikings, and had a much less romantic origin. It is now safe to say that
nowhere in America, south of undisputed traces in Greenland, are there any
convincing archæological proofs of these alleged centuries of Norse
occupation in America.
8. Early European Discoveries (1492-1512).
Sidenotes: American development begun with Columbus.
The race for India.
The idea of sailing westward to reach India not original with Columbus.
But even granting the possibility, and indeed the probability, of
pre-Columbian discoveries, they bore no lasting fruit, and are merely the
antiquarian puzzles and curiosities of American history. The development of
the New World began with the landing (Oct. 12, 1492) on an island in the
Bahamas, of Christopher Columbus, the agent of Spain. It was an age of
daring maritime adventure. India, whence Europe obtained her gold and
silks, her spices, perfumes, and precious stones, was the common goal. For
many centuries the great trade route had been by caravans from India
overland through Central Asia and the Balkan peninsula to Italy, the Rhine
country, the Netherlands, and beyond; but the raids of the fierce desert
tribes and the capture of Constantinople (1453) had closed this path, and
now the trade passed through Egypt. With improvements in the art of
navigation there arose a general desire to reach India by sea. Three
centuries before Christ, Aristotle had taught that the earth was a sphere,
and that the waters which laved Europe on the west washed the eastern
shores of Asia. Here and there through the centuries others advanced the
same opinion, and the map which the great Italian astronomer Toscanelli
sent to Columbus (1474) showed China to be but fifty-two degrees west of
Europe. The idea that by sailing west India could be reached, was therefore
quite familiar to the contemporaries of Columbus, although he stands in the
front as the one man who put his faith to the test. The mistake lay in the
current calculations regarding the size of the earth. Instead of being only
three thousand miles to the west, Asia was twelve thousand, and the
continent of America blocked the way. It is probable that Columbus went to
his grave still firm in the belief that he had reached the confines of
India,--indeed, the names he gave to the islands and to the strange people
who inhabited them stand as enduring evidence of his geographical error.
Sidenote: Pope Alexander's bull.
The Portuguese, on the other hand, sought India by the southeast passage,
around the continent of Africa, and had been creeping southward along the
African coast for several years before Spain sent Columbus to reach Asia by
the west. Thus in the race for India and the discovery of intermediate
lands, the Portuguese and the Spanish had adopted opposite routes. Pope
Alexander VI. now issued his famous bull (May 4, 1493), partitioning the
un-Christian world into two parts,--Spain to have lands west of an
imaginary meridian 100 leagues west of Cape de Verde islands, and Portugal
those to the east--a simple arrangement, on paper. Next year, by agreement,
the line was moved to 270 leagues westward, but it was still supposed to be
in mid-ocean. By this change, however, the eastern part of what is now
Brazil fell to Portugal.
Sidenote: England sends out John Cabot.
England, although still Catholic, was not disposed to allow Spain and
Portugal to monopolize between them those portions of the earth which
Europeans had not yet seen; and we are told that there was grievous
disappointment at the court of London because Spain had been the
path-breaker to the west. In 1497 John Cabot set sail from England armed
with a trading charter, to endeavor to reach Asia by way of the northwest.
He had knowledge of the exploit of Columbus, and may well have heard of the
Scandinavian discovery of Vinland. Early in the morning of the 24th of June
he sighted the gloomy headlands of Cape Breton,--the first known European
to make this important discovery. It is on record that "great honors" were
heaped upon the adventurous mariner upon his return to England, and that
the generous king gave "£10 to him that found the new isle"--the equivalent
of $700 or $800 of our money.
Sidenotes: Portugal reaches India by the southeast.
Sebastian Cabot's voyage.
The year 1498 was one of the most notable in the long and splendid history
of maritime discovery. Young Vasco da Gama, of Portugal, turned the Cape of
Good Hope, and gayly sailed his little fleet into the harbor of Calicut
(May 20). At last India had been discovered by the southeast passage:
Portugal had first reached the goal. In May, also, Columbus set forth upon
his third voyage, during which he first discovered the mainland of South
America; and in the same month John Cabot's second son, Sebastian, left
Bristol in the hope of finding the northwest passage, which his father had
failed to reach, and which was undiscovered until our own times (1850).
Icebergs turned Sebastian southward, and he explored the American shores
down to the vicinity of Chesapeake Bay. From this voyage sprang the claim
under which the English colonies in North America were founded.
Sidenote: Newfoundland as a colonial nucleus.
Three years later (1501) a Portuguese mariner, Gaspar Cortereal, explored
the American coast south of the Gulf of St. Lawrence for a long distance.
By 1504 we know that fishermen from Brittany and Normandy were at
Newfoundland, and from that time forward there appear to have been more or
less permanent colonies of fishermen there,~-French, Portuguese, Spanish,
and English,--with their little huts and drying scaffolds clustered along
the shores. Newfoundland proved valuable as a supply and repair station for
future explorers and colonizers. It was the nucleus of both French and
English settlement in America. By 1578 there were no less than one hundred
and fifty French vessels alone employed in the Newfoundland fisheries, and
a good trade with the Indians had been established.
Sidenote: Searching for a short cut through America.
The idea that America was but a projection of Asia possessed all the early
explorers; and indeed it was a century and a half later (1728) before
Bering sailed from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic and proved that America
was insulated. There was another geographical error, which took even a
longer time to explode,--the notion that a waterway somewhere extended
through the American continent, uniting the Atlantic and the Pacific. John
Smith and other English colonists thought that by ascending the James, the
York, the Potomac, the Roanoke, or the Hudson, they could emerge with ease
upon waters flowing to the ocean of the west. Champlain sent (1634) the
fur-trader Nicolet up the Ottawa River and the Great Lakes into Wisconsin,
which he thought to be Asia; and Jolliet and Marquette (1673) imagined they
had found the highway thither when their birch-bark canoes glided into the
upper Mississippi at Prairie du Chien.
One hundred and seven years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock,
Balboa scaled the continental backbone at Darien (1513), and in the name of
Spain claimed dominion over the waters of the Pacific. With undaunted zeal
did Spanish explorers then beat up and down the western shore of the Gulf
of Mexico, vainly seeking for a passage through by water. A great stimulus
had now been given to the general desire to reach India by sea; for the
Turks were overrunning Egypt (1512-1520) and despoiling the caravans from
the East, so that the manufactures and trade of western Europe were sadly
crippled. But thus far Portugal alone held the key to the sea-route to
India.
9. Spanish Exploration of the Interior (1513-1542).
Sidenote: Ponce de Leon in Florida.
This same year (1513) was notable also for the first visit made by
Spaniards to the mainland of North America. Ponce de Leon, a valiant
soldier worn out in long service, and who had been serving as governor of
Porto Rico, went to the Florida mainland, where a popular legend said there
was a fountain giving forth waters capable of recuperating life. The
country was ablaze with brilliant flowers, but the elixir of life was not
there, and he returned disappointed.
Sidenote: Vasquez in South Carolina.
In 1519 Pineda, another Spaniard, explored the northern shore of the Gulf
of Mexico. The following year (1520) a slave-hunting expedition, under
Vasquez, visited the coast of South Carolina, which the commander styled
Chicora. The brilliant conquest of Mexico by Cortez (1519-1521) had made
that hardy adventurer the hero of Christendom; and in the hope of rivalling
his splendid achievement, Vasquez returned to Chicora in 1525, commissioned
by Charles V. as governor of the country. But Chicora was not Mexico, and
the Red Indians were of a different temper from the Aztecs. The expedition
met with disaster. While Vasquez was fighting the embittered savages in
South Carolina, Gomez, also in behalf of Spain, was ranging along the
Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to New Jersey, and instituting a
successful trade with the natives.
Sidenote: Narvaez in the Florida wilds.
In April, 1528, Narvaez, with three hundred enthusiastic young nobles and
gentlemen from Spain, landed at Tampa Bay and renewed his sovereign's claim
to Florida and its supposed wealth of mines and precious stones. Led by the
fables of the wily native guides, who were careful to tell what their
Spanish tormentors wished most to hear, they floundered hither and thither
through the great swamps and forests, continually wasted by fatigue,
famine, disease, and frequent assaults of savages. At last, after many
distressing adventures, but four men were left out of this brilliant
company,--Cabeza de Vaca, treasurer of the expedition, and three
companions. For eight years did these four bruised and ragged Spaniards
wearily roam through the region now divided into Texas, Indian Territory,
New Mexico, and Arizona,--through entangled forests, across broad rivers
and desert stretches beset with wild beasts and wilder men, but ever
spurred on by vague reports of a colony of their countrymen in the far
southwest. At last (May, 1536), the miserable wanderers reached Culiacan,
on the Gulf of California, whence they were borne in triumph to the city of
Mexico as the guests of the province.
Sidenote: Spaniards reaching northward from Mexico.
Their coming revived the shadowy native tales of gold mines and wealthy
cities to the north, which had for some years been exciting the cupidity of
the conquerors of Mexico. In response to these rumors there had been
frequent reachings out northward. In 1528 Cortez had despatched Maldonado
up along the Pacific coast for three hundred miles. Two years later (1530)
Guzman penetrated to the mouth of the Gulf of California and established
the town of Culiacan. Cortez again had vessels on the Pacific in 1532, and
by 1535 his lieutenants were claiming for him the Lower California
peninsula. It is possible that Spanish vessels coasted northward beyond the
Columbia; but no news of their discoveries reached the geographers in
Europe.
Sidenote: The "Seven Cities of Cibola."
It was in 1530 that specific reports first came, through native slaves, of
seven great cities of stone-built houses a few hundred miles north of the
capital of the Aztecs, where the inhabitants had such a profusion of gold
and silver that their household utensils were made of those metals. The
search for "the seven cities of Cibola," as these alleged communities came
to be called by the Spaniards, was at once begun. Guzman, just then at the
head of affairs in New Spain, led northward a considerable expedition of
Spanish soldiers and Indians, which suffered great hardships, but failed to
discover Cibola.
Sidenote: Coronado's march.
Cabeza de Vaca and his fellow-adventurers claimed, upon their arrival, to
have themselves seen the seven cities; and they enlarged on the previous
stories. Coronado, governor of the northern province of New Gallicia, was
accordingly sent to conquer this wonderful country which Guzman had failed
to find. Early in 1540 he set out with a well-equipped following of three
hundred Spaniards and eight hundred Indians. The Cibola cities were found
to be but pueblos in Arizona or New Mexico, like the communal dwellings of
the Hopis and Zuñis, with the aspect of which we are so familiar to-day;
while the mild inhabitants destitute of wealth, peacefully practising their
crude industries and tilling their irrigated fields, were foemen hardly
worthy of Castilian steel. Disappointed, but still hoping to find the
country of gold, Coronado's gallant little army, frequently thinned by
death and desertion, beat for three years up and down the southwestern
wilderness,--now thirsting in the deserts, now penned up in gloomy cañons,
now crawling over pathless mountains, suffering the horrors of starvation
and of despair, but following this will-o'-the-wisp with a melancholy
perseverance seldom seen in man save when searching for some mysterious
treasure. Coronado apparently crossed the State of Kansas twice; "through
mighty plains and sandy heaths, smooth and wearisome and bare of wood....
All that way the plains are as full of crookback oxen as the mountain
Serena in Spain is of sheep.... They were a great succor for the hunger and
want of bread which our people stood in. One day it rained in that plain a
great shower of hail as big as oranges, which caused many tears,
weaknesses, and vows." The wanderer ventured as far as the Missouri, and
would have gone still farther eastward but for his inability to cross the
swollen river. Co-operating parties explored the upper valleys of the Rio
Grande and Gila, ascended the Colorado for two hundred and forty miles
above its mouth, and visited the Grand Cañon of the same river. Coronado at
last returned, satisfied that he had been made the victim of travellers'
idle tales. He was rewarded with contumely and lost his place as governor
of New Gallicia; but his romantic march stands in history as one of the
most remarkable exploring expeditions of modern times.
Sidenote: De Soto follows Narvaez.
Early in the summer of 1539 Hernando de Soto, the favorite of Pizarro in
the conquest of Peru (1532), anchored his fleet in the bay of Espiritu
Santo, Florida, determined to gain independent renown as the conqueror of
the North American wilds. His was a much larger and better-equipped party
than had subjugated either Mexico or Peru. But he met the fate of Narvaez.
False Indian guides led him hither and thither through the swamps and
moss-grown jungles of the Gulf region, and the survivors formed a sorry
company indeed when the Mississippi River was reached (April,
1541),--probably at the lowest Chickasaw Bluff,--after two years of
fruitless wandering. The next winter, still betrayed by his savage guides
and harassed by attacks from other natives, he spent upon the Washita, but
despairing of reaching Mexico by land, he returned to the Mississippi,
where he died of swamp-fever (May 21, 1542). The great river he had
discovered was his tomb. His wretched followers, by this time much reduced
in numbers, descended the stream, and after great hardships finally reached
the Mexican coast-settlements in September.
10. Spanish Colonies (1492-1687).
Sidenotes: Spanish friars in the southwest.
Spain's American possessions at close of sixteenth century.
A half century had now passed since the advent of Columbus in the Bahamas;
yet upon the mainland to the north, Spain as yet held neither harbor, fort,
nor settlement. In the southwest, the proximity of Mexico and the milder
character of the natives made it easier to maintain a settlement in what is
now United States territory. In 1582, forty years after Coronado's march,
Franciscan friars opened missions in the valleys of the Rio Grande and the
Gila,--the Cibola of old. Sixteen years later (1598) Santa Fé was
established as the seat of Spanish power in the north; by 1630 this power
was at its highest in New Mexico and Arizona, fifty missions administering
religious instruction to ninety Pueblo towns. In 1687 the chain of missions
had reached the Gulf of California, and then slowly extended northward
along the Pacific coast till San Francisco, with its system of Indian
vassalage, was established in 1776. In Florida, after the extermination of
the French Huguenot colony in 1564, Spain made wholesale claims to all that
region; but De Gourgues dealt her settlements a staggering blow, and she
seemed thereafter incapable of further colonizing the province. At the
close of the sixteenth century Spain held but few points in what is now the
United States,--Santa Fé in New Mexico, a few scattering missions along the
Gila and Rio Grande, and St. Augustine in Florida.
11. The French in North America (1524-1550).
Sidenotes: The French enter the field.
Cartier at Montreal; and Quebec.
The French were not far behind the Spanish in their attempts to colonize
North America. In 1524 John Verrazano, a Florentine in the employ of
Francis I., while seeking the supposed water passage through America to
China, explored the coast from about Wilmington, N. C., to Newfoundland.
Ten years later (1534) Jacques Cartier, a St. Malo seaman, sailed up the
north shore of the estuary of the St. Lawrence "until land could be seen on
either side." The next year he was back again, and ascended to the first
rapids at La Chine, naming the island mountain there, Mont-Réal. Having
spent the winter in this inhospitable region, his reports were such as to
discourage for a time further attempts at colonization in America by the
French, who were just now engaged at home in serious difficulties with
Spain.
A truce being at last declared between France and Spain, Cartier was made
captain-general and chief pilot of an American colonizing expedition which
Francis allowed the lord of Roberval to undertake. But this conflict of
authority was distasteful to both Cartier and Roberval, and the former
started off before his chief in May, 1541. He built a fort near Quebec, but
a year later returned to France, just before Roberval arrived with
reinforcements for the colony. The latter remained for a year in America
before returning home, and it is thought that he visited Massachusetts Bay
in his voyages alongshore. France was now ablaze with civil war, and the
Huguenots, with their independent notions, were engaging all the resources
of the royal power, so that further American discoveries were for the time
postponed. The Newfoundland industry, however, grew apace, for the Church
prescribed a fish diet on certain days and at certain seasons, and the
consumption of salted fish in Europe had grown to be enormous. Breton
vessels were from the first prominent in the traffic.
12. French Attempts to colonize Florida (1562-1568).
Sidenote: Coligny's colony at Port Royal.
Admiral Coligny, the great Huguenot leader, was ambitious to establish a
colony of French Protestants in America which should be a refuge for his
persecuted countrymen whenever it became desirable for them to seek new
seats. Jean Ribaut went out under his auspices in 1562, discovered St.
John's River in Florida, went up Broad River, named the country Carolina,
after the boy-king, Charles IX., and left twenty-six colonists at Port
Royal, on Lemon Island. But the settlers soon tired of their enterprise,
and the following year set out for home. An English cruiser captured the
party on the high sea when it was reduced to the last extremity for want of
food. The more exhausted of the company were landed in France; the rest
were taken to England.
Sidenote: Laudonnière in Florida.
The succeeding season (1564), another colonizing expedition, made up of
Protestants, headed by René Goulaine de Laudonnière, and aided by the king,
sought Carolina. Avoiding Port Royal as ill-omened, they established
themselves on St. John's River. The emigrants were a dissolute set, as
emigrants were apt to be in an age when the sweepings of European jails and
gutters were thought to furnish good colonizing material for America.
Laudonnière hung some of his followers for piracy against Spanish vessels;
others were captured in the act by the Spaniards, and sold into slavery in
the West Indies. What remained of the colony soon lost, through dishonesty
and severity, the respect of the Indians, who had at first received the
intruders kindly. When, in August, 1565, Sir John Hawkins, the noted slaver
and navigator, appeared with his fleet, he was able to render the now
half-starved settlers most needed help. Ribaut soon came also, with
recruits, provisions, seeds, domestic animals, and farming implements,
greatly to the joy of the little colony.
Sidenote: The Spanish massacre.
But this happiness was not of long duration. The attention of Philip II. of
Spain was at length called to this colony of French heretics which was
gaining a foothold upon his domain of Florida. In August, 1565, his agent,
Pedro Melendez de Aviles, appeared on the scene and announced his purpose
to "gibbet and behead all the Protestants in these regions." Melendez
established St. Augustine, which is thus the oldest town in the United
States east of the Mississippi, and then with blood-thirsty deliberateness
proceeded to wipe the French settlement out of existence. French writers
claim that nine hundred persons were cruelly massacred; and the Spanish
estimate is not far below that number.
Sidenote: The Huguenots avenged.
A Gascon soldier, Dominic de Gourgues, soon came over (1567) to avenge the
wrong done his fellow-Huguenots. He captured all the Spanish establishments
left by Melendez, except St. Augustine. When he found, the following year,
that he could not hold his prizes, he hung the Spanish prisoners to trees
and hastened back to France. His king, however, being under the influence
of Spain, disavowed this act of reprisal, and relinquished all further
claim to Florida.
13. The French in Canada (1589-1608).
Sidenote: De la Roche's ill-fated venture.
The colonial policy of Henri IV. (1589-1610) was more progressive and
enlightened than that of his immediate predecessors on the throne of
France. But he had not yet learned what succeeding generations were to
discover to their cost,--that criminals and paupers do not make good
colonists. In 1598 the familiar error was repeated, when the Marquis de la
Roche took out a company of forty jail-birds, liberated for the purpose,
and landed them on the dreary, storm-washed Isle of Sable, off the Nova
Scotia coast, where, eighty years earlier (1518), the Baron de Léry had
made a vain attempt to start a colony. La Roche, beggared on his return
home, was unable to succor his colonists, who on their inhospitable sands
lived more like beasts than men. Five years later the twelve skin-clad
survivors were picked up by a chance vessel and taken back to France, to
tell a tale of almost matchless horror.
Sidenotes: Champlain's first voyage.
De Monts' colony.
Quebec established.
It was an age of licensed commercial monopolies, as well as of other
economic experiments. In the year 1600 Chauvin obtained the exclusive right
to prosecute the fur-trade in the New Land to the west, and united with him
a St. Malo merchant, Pontgravé. They made two lucrative voyages, but
established no settlement. Samuel de Champlain, in Pontgravé's company,
went out in 1603, ascending the St. Lawrence as far as Montreal. Later
(this same year) De Monts, a Calvinist, was given the viceroyalty and the
fur-trade monopoly of Acadia,--between the fortieth and sixtieth degrees of
latitude,--and religious freedom was granted there for Huguenots, though
the Indians were to be instructed in the Romish faith. De Monts and his
strangely assorted party of vagabonds and gentlemen first settled on an
island, near the present boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, in the
fall of 1604, but the following spring moved to Port Royal,--now Annapolis,
Nova Scotia. This, the first French agricultural colony yet planted in
America, suffered disaster after disaster; but although Port Royal was
abandoned in 1607, the germ of colonization lived. In 1608, Champlain--who
had, four years before, while in the employ of De Monts, explored the coast
as far south as Cape Cod--set up a permanent French post upon the gloomy
cliff at Quebec. Soon the Jesuits came; and by the time the "Mayflower" had
reached New England, New France was established beyond a doubt, and French
influence was penetrating inland. Wandering savages from the Upper Lakes,
nearly a thousand miles in the interior, had at last seen the white man and
begun to feel his power.
14. English Exploration (1498-1584).
Sidenote: English interests at Newfoundland.
England would have followed up Cabot's discovery of North America with more
vigor had not Henry VII., being a Catholic prince, hesitated to set aside
the Pope's bull giving the new continent to Spain. His subjects, however,
made large hauls of fish along the foggy shores of Newfoundland, and in
1502 some American savages were exhibited to him in London. Henry VIII. was
at first similarly scrupulous; but when, in 1533, he got rid of his queen,
Catharine of Aragon, he was free from Spanish entanglements, and aspired to
make England a maritime nation. Among many other enterprises the northwest
passage allured him, although nothing came of his ventures in that
direction. With the accession of Edward VI. (1547) a progressive era
opened. The Newfoundland fisheries were now so effectively encouraged that
by 1574, under Elizabeth, from thirty to fifty English ships were making
annual trips to the Grand Banks.
Sidenote: Elizabeth's courtiers looking towards America.
The most popular ventures among the nobles of Elizabeth's court were the
northwest passage, American colonization, and freebooting voyages. Writers
of voyages and travels and cartographers sprang up on every hand, the most
noteworthy being Richard Eden, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Richard Hakluyt, and
Martin Frobisher. Patronized by the powerful Earl of Warwick, Frobisher in
three successive voyages (1576-1578) vainly sought gold in Labrador.
Francis Drake, on his famous buccaneering tour around the world, explored
the Pacific coast of the United States as far north as Cape Blanco (1579),
unsuccessfully searching for a short cut by water through the continent.
Sidenote: Gilbert's voyage.
Gilbert saw that Newfoundland must thereafter be considered as the nucleus
of English settlement in America; and in 1579 Sir Humphrey, himself a
soldier and a member of Parliament, accompanied by his step-brother, Sir
Walter Raleigh, went out to lead the way. Storms and other disasters drove
them back, and it was 1583 before another squadron could be equipped.
Raleigh remained in England; but Gilbert landed at St. John's, where he
found that four hundred vessels of various nationalities, mainly Spanish
and Portuguese, were annually engaged in the fisheries. He took possession
of the island for the queen, examined the neighboring mainland, and
freighted his ships with glistening rock, ignorantly declared by an
unskilful expert accompanying the expedition to contain silver. Upon the
return voyage the vessel carrying Gilbert was lost, the companion ship,
with its worthless cargo, reaching Falmouth safely.
15. English Attempts to colonize (1584-1606).
Sidenote: Amadas and Barlowe.
Under Raleigh's auspices two vessels set out in 1584, commanded by Philip
Amadas and Arthur Barlowe. They landed at the island of Roanoke, the
southernmost of the reefs enclosing Albemarle Sound, in North Carolina; but
although charmed with the country, which they declared to be "the most
plentiful, sweet, fruitful, and wholesome of all the world," and well
treated by the Indians,--"people most gentle, loving, and faithful,"--they
made no settlement, and returned to England. Raleigh, however, was pleased
by the reports brought back; he was knighted, his claim was confirmed, he
named the country Virginia, in token of his virgin queen, and he
entertained visions of establishing a considerable province there, and of
enjoying a comfortable rent-roll.
Sidenote: Raleigh's first colony.
In 1585, aided by the queen, he sent out seven vessels and one hundred and
eight colonists, the fleet being commanded by Sir Richard Grenville, and
the intending settlers by Ralph Lane, a soldier of much merit. Few maritime
enterprises were sent out by England in the Elizabethan age that did not
include in their orders a project for preying on Spanish commerce by the
way; for our ancestors were as yet not far removed in this regard from the
spirit of the old Norse pirates. Grenville therefore sailed around by the
Canaries, picked up Spanish prizes partly to meet the cost of the
undertaking, and in due time anchored at Wocoken, whence he proceeded to
Roanoke island.
With the colonists was Manteo, a native who had gone to England with some
former expedition; and the good-natured fellow secured for his new friends
a warm reception on the part of the aborigines. But Grenville before his
return treated them harshly, leaving to them and the colonists a legacy of
mutual distrust and grievances. In March, 1586, Lane ascended the Roanoke
River, hoping to find rich ores and pearls in the upper country; for the
deceitful savages, wishing to divide the white men's forces, had told him
that the stream had its source near the western ocean, in a country
abounding with these articles, and encouraged his expedition with promises
of assistance. The enterprise proved full of hardship and peril, and the
governor returned just in time to check a conspiracy to attack the
garrison.
Lane had employed his men in frequent explorations, their journeyings
reaching on the north to Chesapeake Bay and Elizabeth River, on the south
to the Secotan. But the situation became irksome. The spirit of adventure
and wealth-seeking prevailed among the colonists; it was not a community
calculated for the uneventful and toilsome prosecution of agriculture; and
before long the fretful disease of homesickness prevailed on the island of
Roanoke.
Sidenote: The enterprise abandoned.
In June, 1586, Sir Francis Drake appeared with twenty-three vessels. He had
made a rich haul from Spanish treasure-ships in the West Indies, and had
turned aside on his return trip, curious to see how his friend Raleigh's
colony fared. Yielding to the importunities of the settlers, he took them
aboard his fleet and carried them back to England. They had been gone from
Roanoke but a few days, when a ship, bringing supplies sent out by Raleigh,
sailed into the inlet, only to find the place deserted. In another
fortnight, Grenville appeared with three well-furnished ships, and left
fifteen men on the island to renew the colonizing experiment.
Sidenote: Raleigh's second attempt.
Raleigh displayed most remarkable persistence. He was undismayed by this
long chapter of disasters. Men on whose judgment he relied brought back
good reports from the site of the ill-fated colony, and again he fitted out
an expedition,--this time entirely at his own charge, for Elizabeth had had
enough of the experiment. It was in July, 1587, when John White arrived
with Raleigh's new colonists off the shores of North Carolina. At Roanoke,
deer were quietly grazing in a field fertilized by the bones of Grenville's
contingent of the year before, and the fort was in ruins. Governor White
re-established the settlement.
Sidenote: Birth of Virginia Dare.
The 18th of August the daughter of White, Eleanor Dare, gave birth to a
daughter, called Virginia, after the country,--the first child of English
parents born on the soil of the United States. A few days later, White left
for England,--ostensibly for recruits and supplies, the colony which he
left behind being composed of eighty-nine men, seventeen women, and two
children. But England was now threatened with invasion from Spain; the
energy and resources of the island were being mustered in its defence;
Raleigh, Drake, Grenville, Frobisher, Hawkins, and the rest were engaged in
preparing to resist the enemy. It was no time for colonization schemes. The
Armada scattered, the father of English colonization in America found
himself ruined, having spent £40,000 in his several fruitless ventures.
Still hopeful, he next adopted a scheme of making large grants in Virginia
to merchants and adventurers, and in this manner obtained some aid.
Sidenote: Wreck of the colony.
In 1591 White returned to Roanoke, to find it again deserted, with no
traces of his daughter or of the other colonists. They had probably been
overcome by the Indians, and those whose lives were spared adopted into the
neighboring tribes. In spite of the many costly attempts, the sixteenth
century closed with no English settlement on the shores of America.
Sidenote: Causes of English failures thus far.
Among the principal causes of this early failure in Virginia were the
improper character and spirit of the emigrants, who, instead of looking to
the soil as the chief source of supplies, expected to find rich mines, or
tribes possessing gold, and relied upon England for the necessaries of
life; they had not enough occupation to keep them from brooding over their
isolation, and by their harshness they turned the Indians into harassing
enemies.
Sidenotes: Gosnold's voyages.
Pring in Maine, and Weymouth at Cape Cod.
Gorges becomes interested.
Bartholomew Gosnold has had the reputation of being the first mariner who
set out for America on a direct voyage from England, thus avoiding the West
Indies and the Spanish, and saving nearly a thousand miles; but others
before him had taken the direct course,--notably Verrazano (1524). In 1602,
while trading with the Indians, Gosnold explored the coast from Cape
Elizabeth, Maine, to the Elizabeth Islands, on his way landing upon and
naming Cape Cod. The following year Martin Pring discovered many harbors
and rivers in Maine. In 1605 George Weymouth, sent by the Earl of
Southampton and Lord Arundel, explored from Cape Cod northward. He carried
back with him several kidnapped natives, three of whom he gave to Sir
Ferdinando Gorges, governor of the English port of Plymouth. Gorges was
particularly struck with the reported abundance of good harbors in the
north, compared with the scarcity of such in Virginia and Carolina, and
became at once strongly interested in New England exploration.
Public attention in England had by this time become strongly attracted to
the northern region as probably the most desirable for future experiments
in colonization; it was pointed out with much force that the lack of good
anchorage was one of the reasons why the southern attempts had failed.
Conditions in England, too, had at last so changed as to make it possible
to undertake colonization with better assurances of success. But New
England was not destined to be the site of the first permanent plantation.
That honor was reserved for what is now Virginia.
16. The Experience of the Sixteenth Century
(1492-1606).
Sidenote: Sixteenth century notable for interest in discovery and
settlement.
In reviewing the period from 1492 to 1606,--practically the sixteenth
century,--we see that it was notable for the extraordinary interest
displayed in discovery and settlement. Attention has been called to the
part played by the general desire of Europeans to secure the trade of
India. But we must not forget as well that, as a feature of the great
Renaissance and Reformation movement, the spirit of investigation was
abroad, in religion, philosophy, and the arts; there had grown up great
commercial and trading cities, in which the successful foreign merchant
became a part of a powerful aristocracy; popular imagination had been fired
by traders' stories of India, China, and Japan; there was an eagerness to
reach out into the regions of mystery, to enlarge the horizon of human
knowledge. The effect was greatly to increase skill in navigation, to build
up a merchant marine, and--it being an age of universal freebooting--to
cultivate an experience in naval warfare which was a preparation for the
great sea-fights of the eighteenth century.
Sidenote: Causes of failure in North American colonization.
Of the three nations which, in the sixteenth century, attempted to colonize
America north of the Gulf of Mexico, all had practically failed. Spain had
with comparative ease conquered the unwarlike natives of Mexico and Peru
upon their cultivated plains. That very ease took away the disposition,
even had her people been capable of the effort, slowly and painfully to
subdue the tangled forests and savage warriors of Florida, with no other
promise of reward than the possession of unredeemed soil. Not suited to the
task, she utterly wasted alike the resources of the home government
applicable to colonization, and those of the established colonies. France
had failed because of dissensions at home, inferior powers of organization,
the want of the proper colonizing temper, and the severity of the climate
in that portion of the New World which she had seized upon as the seat of
her colonies. English colonization thus far had been unproductive because
there was a want of understanding of the difficulties, because of the
selection of colonists who lacked experience in agriculture, because poor
harbors were generally chosen, because there was difficulty in keeping up
communications with the mother-land, because the resident leaders lacked
courage and had not the staying qualities which were in after years the
salvation of the Plymouth Pilgrims. But the effect of these early English
efforts was important in giving the people needed training in navigation
and colonization, and a knowledge of the country.
Sidenote: European claims in America, 1600.
Taking a general view of America at the close of the sixteenth century, we
find Spain in undisputed possession of Peru, Central America, the country
west and northwest of the Gulf of Mexico, the greater part of the West
Indies, and the coast of what is now Florida; while they claimed all of the
southern third of the present United States and the greater part of South
America, except Guiana and Brazil. The French laid claim to the basin of
the St. Lawrence and to the coast northward and southward, but their
colonies were not as yet permanently planted; the attempts to make Huguenot
settlements in Brazil (1555) and Florida had been unsuccessful, and French
claims there had been abandoned under Spanish influence. It was not until
1609, when Hudson sailed up the river named for him, that the Dutch laid
any claims to American soil. Cabral discovered Brazil for the Portuguese in
1500; but when Portugal, eighty years later, became the dependency of Spain
(a condition lasting sixty years), her South American colonies were harried
by the Dutch, though she did not relinquish control of them. The English
claimed all the North American coast from Newfoundland to Florida, and of
course through to the Pacific, no one then entertaining the belief that the
continent was many hundred miles in width; but as yet none of their
colonizing efforts had been successful. The Bermudas, Bahamas, and Barbados
were neither claimed nor settled by Englishmen until the seventeenth
century. The great Mississippi basin had been visited by a few Spanish
overland wanderers, but as yet was practically forgotten and unclaimed,
except so far as it was included in the undefined Spanish and English
transcontinental zones; the Hudson Bay country, Oregon, and Alaska were
also undiscovered lands. A few thousand miles of American coast-line were
now familiar to European explorers; but of the interior of the continent
scarcely more was known than might be seen over the tree-tops from the
mast-head of a caravel.
CHAPTER III.
COLONIZATION AND THE COLONISTS.
17. References.
Bibliographies.--C. Lucas, _Introduction to Historical Geography of British
Colonies_, vii., viii.; Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, III., V.;
Larned, _Literature of American History_, 67-76; Avery, _United States_,
II. 409-411; E. Greene, _Provincial America_, ch. xix.; Channing and Hart,
_Guide_, §§ 92, 104, 110.
Historical Maps.--No. 2, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, No. 2); MacCoun,
Winsor, and Avery.
General Accounts.--Colonization: Lucas, as above (colonial policies of the
European states); J. Seeley, _Expansion of England_, chs. iii., iv.; A.
Smith, _Wealth of Nations_, chapter "Of Colonies"; H. Morris, _History of
Colonization_; A. Snow, _Administration of Dependencies_, chs.
i.-v.--English movement: G. Beer, _Origin of British Colonial System_; H.
Merivale, _Colonization and the Colonies_; H. Egerton, _Short History of
British Colonial Policy_, and _Origin and Growth of English Colonies_; W.
Woodward, _Expansion of British Empire_; C. Dilke, _Greater Britain_, and
_Problems of Greater Britain_; E. Creasy, _Imperial and Colonial
Constitutions_; Mill, _Colonial Constitutions_; J. Toner, _Colonies of
North America_; J. Marsden, _Early Puritans_.--Free institutions imported
by American colonists, and colonial government generally: Greene,
_Provincial Governor_; E. Eggleston, _Transit of Civilization_, and
_Beginners of a Nation_; A. Low, _American People_; Wilson, _The State_, §§
832-864; E. Freeman, _English People in its Three Homes_, lecture vi.; H.
Taylor, _English Constitution_, 15-48; Channing, _Town and County
Government_; C. Bishop, _History of Elections in the Colonies_.
Contemporary Accounts.--Published records (chiefly by historical societies)
of the several American colonies. See also Hakluyt, _Voyages_; Holinshed,
_Chronicles_.--Reprints: E. Arber, _Pilgrim Colonists_; A. Brown, _Genesis
of United States_; W. Macdonald, _Documentary Source Book of American
History_; _American History told by Contemporaries_, I. part iii.
18. Colonial Policy of European States.
The time had now come for making the first permanent English settlement in
America. Before we proceed to the story of that famous enterprise, however,
it will be well hastily to summarize the colonial policies of those
European States which have at various times established plantations in the
New World. It will be well also to know what sort of people were the seed
of English colonization, and what institutions they brought with them as
the foundations of American commonwealths.
Sidenote: Motives of colonization.
Four motives, working either singly or conjointly, lead to
colonization,--the spirit of adventurous enterprise, the desire for wealth,
economic or political discontent, and religious sentiment. For instance,
Columbus was quite as much a religious enthusiast desirous of spreading the
gospel in new lands as he was an adventurer; the southern group of English
colonies in America was in the main the outgrowth of a trading spirit
working in conjunction with economic distress in England; and the Puritan
migration to New England was impelled by economic and political causes, as
well as by religious.
Sidenote: Colonization is the expansion of the parent State, though
early viewed as a source of revenue to it.
In a large sense the planting of a colony means merely the expansion of the
parent State. But this was not the view formerly taken by European
governments. For a long time colonies were treated as dependencies of the
mother-country, existing chiefly to furnish revenue to the latter, either
directly in taxes or indirectly in increased trade. It was because the
English colonists in America, taking a broad view of their relationship to
Great Britain, wished to be treated as free Englishmen in Greater Britain,
and not merely as revenue-producing subjects, that they revolted in 1776.
Colonial history is nearly everywhere the history of this obtuseness of
vision on the part of the home government, and it is full of most painful
details.
19. Spanish and Portuguese Policy.
Sidenote: Spain.
It chanced that the American discoveries made by Spain were in the region
of rich and physically weak nations. Consequently she won her vast
dominions on this continent by sweeping conquest rather than by commercial
growth. This was in sharp contrast with the slow, steady planting of New
England, where the settlers were obliged to conquer a sterile soil and
brave a rigid climate, where they were hemmed about with savage neighbors
who disputed their establishment, and where they met as well the sharp
opposition, first of the Dutch, and then of the French,--the latter, in
their desire for the Mississippi valley, jealously endeavoring to restrict
Englishmen to the Atlantic slope. The Spaniards were brave, and they could
rule with severity. But they thirsted for adventure, conquest, and wealth,
for which their appetite was early encouraged; their progress in Mexico,
Peru, and the West Indies had been too rapid and brilliant for them to be
satisfied with the dull life and patient development of an agricultural
colony. Had they known in advance the conditions of success on the North
American mainland, it is probable that we should never have been obliged to
chronicle the splendid but disastrous expeditions of Narvaez and De Soto.
They would doubtless have made no attempt to subdue a land which offered
nothing for such appetites as theirs. Their aims were sordid, their State
was loosely knit, their commercial policy was rigidly exclusive, their
morals were lax, and their treatment of the savages was cruel, despite the
tendency of the colonists to amalgamate with the latter, and thus to
descend in the scale of civilization. The effect of the specie so easily
acquired in Mexico and Peru was to make Spain rapidly rich without
manufactures; but her people were thereby demoralized and unfitted for the
ordinary channels of employment, and her rulers were corrupted and
enfeebled; in the end the country was impoverished, declining as rapidly as
it had risen. Spain's glory was fast waning both in the New and the Old
World at the close of the sixteenth century, and France was ready, in the
march of events, to succeed to her place as the leading nation of Europe.
France was to be supplanted a century later by England, which was not known
as a great power until the dispersion of the Armada. We have seen that in
this historical progress Spain unwittingly helped England by driving the
French out from Florida and Carolina; nevertheless the decline of Spain
left France the most formidable rival of the English.
Sidenote: Portugal.
The Portuguese, though impelled by a similar passion for conquest, were
more eager for trade than their powerful and often domineering Spanish
neighbors. They oppressed their colonies, were greedy in their commercial
strivings, maltreated the weak natives of Brazil and the West Indies,
lacked administrative ability and the spirit of progress, and suffered from
want of a well-balanced colonial system. The Portuguese colonies in America
had much the same history as the Spanish, their situation being similar.
Brazil was of no great importance until the early years of the nineteenth
century, and made herself independent in 1822,--thus following the lead of
Mexico, which set up an independent government the previous year.
20. French Policy.
Sidenote: France.
France had no permanent colonies in America before the seventeenth century.
Port Royal was planted in 1604, and Quebec not until four years later. The
French were good fighters, enterprising, and while not eager to colonize,
were capable of adapting themselves to new conditions; they had the
capacity to carry their ideas with them across the seas, and they readily
assimilated with the aborigines. While freely intermarrying with the
natives, unlike the Spaniards they rather improved the savage stock than
were degraded by it. They had the faculty of making the red barbarian a
boon companion, and of inducing him to serve them and fight for them;
indeed, since their colonizing enterprises were based on the fur-trade,
their opposition to the advance of English agricultural possession was,
like that of the Indians, fundamental. The French and the savages were
therefore united in a common cause against a common foe.
The Breton and Norman merchant-seamen who went out to Newfoundland and
carried on fisheries and the fur-trade paved the way for the future throng
of emigrants. As colonizers the French worked quietly and persistently, and
would have succeeded, had not their enterprises been ruined by their
unfortunate political and ecclesiastical policy and the mismanagement of
their rulers. Louis XIV. was capricious and extravagant. His court was a
nest of intrigue, corruption, peculation, jealousies, and dissensions. The
Huguenots, who represented the industrial classes, began the French
colonization of America; but we have seen how sadly their government
neglected them in Florida. Finally, when the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes (1685) resulted in driving them from home, and they were eager to
join their lot with that of their countrymen in Canada, priest-rule
prescribed their deliberate exclusion from the colonies,--which they could
have made a New France in fact,--and thus forced them to contribute their
strength to the rival English settlements farther down the coast. The
government was in some respects over-liberal to its North American
colonies,--it aided them financially to an extent unknown elsewhere; but
they were not self-governed, and the king continually interfered with the
commercial companies, which in a large measure controlled the colonies, so
that a favor granted through corrupt influences to-day might to-morrow be
revoked by counter-influences equally corrupt. Paternalism, centralization,
bureaucratic government, official rottenness, instability of system,
religious exclusiveness, and a vicious system of land-tenure were the prime
causes of the ruin of New France; although we must not forget that the
centre of its power had been planted in an inhospitable climate, and that
its far-reaching water-system tempted the inhabitants into the forests and
cultivated the fur-trade at the expense of agriculture, thereby placing the
province at a disadvantage from the start.
21. Dutch and Swedish Policy.
Sidenote: Holland.
The burden of over-population with which Spain, France, and Portugal were
troubled, and to relieve the pressure of which was one of the motives of
their colonizing efforts, was not felt by Holland; for despite the fact
that she sustained a more dense population than any other European State,
her citizens were prosperous. They were not stirred, like neighboring
peoples, by the impulse of emigration. Preeminently a trading nation,
Holland sought commerce rather than extension of empire. Long the chief
carrier of Europe before striking into a broader field, she followed in the
steps of the Portuguese, and by the opening of the seventeenth century took
rank as a colonizing power. Her most fruitful labors were in the East
rather than in the West. It was in the attempt to find the northwest
passage to India that Hudson discovered the river which bears his name.
With the Dutch, though religious reformers, religion was secondary to
trade. So long as trade was good, they were patient under insult and
outrage. Individually they made but little impress upon the community.
Commerce was chiefly conducted through large chartered companies, minutely
managed in Holland. Dutch colonies declined because their commercial system
was non-progressive and unsound; they appear to have been unable to rise
out of the trader state. Yet we must not forget that Holland was of small
size and had overbearing, jealous neighbors; her long and heroic struggle
with Spain tended greatly to delay her efforts to trade in and colonize the
New World.
Sidenote: Sweden.
The Swedish colony on the Delaware was planned by authority of Gustavus
Adolphus on broad, liberal principles; he hoped it would become "the jewel
of his kingdom." But while it throve for a time and gave much promise of
endurance, the Dutch soon overpowered it. Had the Swedish monarch lived to
carry out the design, doubtless he would have proved that Scandinavians
could successfully maintain an independent province in the New World. Like
the Germans, however, they have in later years been in the main content to
colonize as the subjects of foreign governments.
22. English Policy.
Sidenote: England.
England remains the only country which planted populous colonies within the
present United States and retained them long after they were planted. Her
insular position and fine harbors have given her a race of sailors; her
climate has proved favorable for rearing a hardy people, who, secure in
their boundaries and not necessarily entangled in Continental affairs, have
been left free to develop and to push independent enterprises. As regards
American exploration, the fact that England is the westernmost State in
Europe had at first much to do with her pre-eminence. Until the close of
the sixteenth century England's resources were slender, and her government
was not desirous of incurring the hostility of stronger European neighbors
by poaching too freely on their colonial preserves. Cabot went out at his
own cost. Drake's operations, while adding to the glory of England, and
directly favored by Queen Elizabeth, were continually endangering her with
Spain. But in the face of all discouragements, the sixteenth century was a
notable training period for English sea-rovers. The records of the age are
aglow with the deeds of the Cabots, Frobisher, Davis, Drake, Cavendish,
Gilbert, Raleigh, Grenville, and their like, who, while invariably failing
in their persistent efforts at colonization, were charting the American
coast-line, making the New World familiar to their countrymen, and striking
out shorter paths across the Atlantic. At first outstripped by other
European nations, England was becoming one of the principal maritime powers
when the seventeenth century began. Spain, weakened by the defection of the
Netherlands, and still further humiliated by the defeat of the Armada
(1588), was by this time showing evidences of decay, and France was the
growing rival in the West.
Sidenote: The English trading spirit.
English occupation in North America, like the French, began with the
fishermen who, following in Cabot's wake, early sought the banks of
Newfoundland. They were courageous, businesslike men, who soon supplemented
their calling as fishermen with a profitable native trade in peltries. The
trading spirit has always been deeply implanted in the Teutonic races; when
England had gathered sufficient strength to make it discreet to assert
herself, we find that her reachings out for wider territory took the shape
of commercial enterprise. The romantic adventurers of the age of Elizabeth,
as much freebooters as explorers, were now succeeded by prosaic trading
companies, which undertook to plant colonies along the Atlantic coast. In
doing this they were impelled in part by a desire to relieve England from
some of her surplus population; but in the main the colonies were to serve
as trading and supply stations.
Sidenote: Scanty State aid.
In aiding these corporations, which succeeded after a fashion in planting
colonies, but failed for the most part in reaping profits, the State
expected increased revenue rather than the spread of European civilization.
In England, State assistance to such undertakings was always slight and
uncertain; the strength of the early colonies lay in the wealth and
persistence of their promoters.
23. Character of English Emigrants.
Sidenote: English impulse to emigration.
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were full of trouble for the
English people. Religious restlessness was succeeded by revolution and
civil war, while crude and oppressive economic conditions induced lawless
disturbance and disaster. Colonizing schemes were readily taken up in such
times of unrest. At first the notion prevailed that the colonies might
profitably be utilized for clearing the mother-country of jail-birds and
paupers, although with these went out many who were worthy pioneers. It
remained for the Plymouth planting to demonstrate that only the honest and
thrifty can work out the salvation of a wilderness. America attracted the
attention alike of traders and settlers because its soil was supposed to be
rich, because the climate was temperate and not unlike that of England,
because there was plenty of room, and because the unknown land attracted
the adventurous.
Sidenotes: Englishmen as colonists.
Their characteristics,
Englishmen were soon found to be the best colonizers in the world. An
intelligent, large, well-built, and handsome race, active in a high degree
and passionately fond of out-door life and manly sports, they are brave and
enterprising, will fight for supremacy, are tenacious of purpose, and carry
with them in their migrations their ideas, their customs, and their laws.
They do not assimilate with other races,--in fact, there is inbred in them
a strong disdain of foreigners, and still more of inferior races; but they
rule with vigor, and make a lasting impress of their characteristics upon
the communities they establish. Although Englishmen in the seventeenth
century, when they colonized America, lacked many of the refinements of
civilization, were coarse in their tastes and sentiments, and much given to
dissipation and petty vices, a fibre of robust morality ran through the
national life. The leaders were educated, they were ambitious for their
race, and there was a healthy tone to their patriotic aspirations. Simple
and reserved in manner, they prided themselves on repressing the utterance
of their feelings, entering upon the serious business of rearing a nation
in the wilds with most becoming gravity. Their conduct was often bad, but
they were schooled in piety and reverence, and were steadfast in high aims.
Sidenote: and their free institutions.
They had been trained in self-government, and were sticklers for healthy
political precedents. They were the heirs of grim and sturdy Teutonic
ancestors who knew no rule but that imposed by "the armed assembly of the
whole people." The germs of modern English free and representative
institutions are to be plainly traced in the forest councils of the
Germanic tribes. In the succeeding ages these institutions had grown
irregularly, but it was a growth founded on the irresistible will of the
people; they had descended to the men of the seventeenth century as the
sacred heirlooms of generations which had freely spent blood and treasure
for the rights of all Englishmen to come. The principle and habit of
self-government were deep rooted in the heart of every English commoner; it
was a part of his nature. And this principle, this habit, he brought with
him to America. English institutions were merely transplanted to the New
World, where they developed with perhaps greater rapidity than at
home,--certainly on somewhat different and characteristic lines; but they
were and still are English institutions.
24. Local Government in the Colonies.
Sidenote: The English town and county.
The primary local body in the England which these first colonists to
America knew, was the parish, or town, which had both an ecclesiastical and
a temporal jurisdiction. Next above the parishes was the territorial
division known as the county, with an independent magistracy and a judicial
and military organization adapted to the needs of a large rural area. In
making independent settlements on the American coast, the English
commercial companies and proprietors were not establishing states; what
they planted were but the germs of states. Each detached colony had a
distinct life, and it was natural that, despite the general rules of
government established by the companies, the people should proceed at once
to govern themselves in their local affairs upon either the town or the
county plan, according to circumstances. The flexibility of English
representative institutions has never elsewhere been so well illustrated as
in the different forms they took on in the American colonies, without once
departing from the integrity of historic models.
Sidenote: The county the political unit in the Southern colonies;
In the Southern colonies the country was traversed by deep, broad river
highways, leading far inland; the climate was genial, the savages proved
comparatively friendly, and the introduction of slavery tended to foster an
aristocratic class of landed proprietors,--large plantations, therefore,
were the rule. There were a few small trading villages, but the bulk of the
people were isolated, and township governments were impracticable. The
settlers therefore adopted a primary government akin to the English rural
county, having jurisdiction over a wide tract of country, with a commander
of militia, appointed by the governor and styled a lieutenant, whose duties
and authority were similar to those of the lords-lieutenant at home;
judicial powers being exercised by eight or more gentlemen, also appointed
by the governor, serving as a county court. It should be remembered that
the Southern county was not, as in England, a group of towns,--it was
itself the primary organization. The parish was sometimes, in newly settled
portions, co-extensive with the county; but more often the latter was, for
religious purposes, divided into parishes, the vestries of which had
authority in some civil matters. Again, for the purposes of tax levy and
collection, the county was divided into precincts; and in some districts
conditions were such--among them the hostility of the savages--that the
people of each plantation or small neighborhood assembled for worship by
themselves, and thus became recognized as a separate community, in some
matters self-governed. These differences in local organization account for
the terms "plantation," "congregation," and "hundred," often met with in
early Southern records. The tendency of the Southern political and social
system was to concentrate power in the hands of a few men, in sharp
distinction to the New England plan, where the people governed themselves
in small primary assemblies, only delegating the conduct of details to
their agents, the town officers.
Sidenotes: and the town in New England.
Unconscious reversion to older Teutonic forms.
In New England, the narrowness of the Atlantic slope, the shortness of the
rivers, the severe climate, the hostility of the savages, the neighborhood
of the French, the density of the forests, and the fact that each community
was an organized religious congregation,--people belonging to one church,
who had "resolved to live together,"--led to the establishment of more or
less compact communities, called towns; and these were the political and
ecclesiastical units. Since the conditions were changed, some features of
the English parish were modified to suit the more primitive necessities of
life in the wilderness. Thus we find that here and there in New England was
a reversion to older Teutonic forms, although of this significant fact the
colonists themselves were unaware; for the now familiar truth that the
ancestry of our institutions reaches back to the beginnings of the race,
had not then been discovered. Not only was the English town government
practically reproduced on American soil, with such changes as were adapted
to the new environment, but the titles of the town officials were, in many
cases, borrowed from the mother-land. When the first town meeting was held,
English local government had been successfully grafted upon the New World.
Sidenote: The mixed system in the middle colonies.
In the middle colonies, which partook of the climatic characteristics of
both their Northern and Southern neighbors, and had a population made up of
various nationalities, there were compact trading towns as well as large
agricultural regions; and there we find a mixed system, of both townships
and counties.
Sidenote: Differences only in form.
With all these differences in form, the principle at work was the same.
From the beginning the American colonists were hampered in the work of
their general assemblies, at first by commercial companies, and then by
royal and proprietary interference; nevertheless, in the conduct of their
purely local affairs they often exercised a greater degree of freedom than
their brethren in England. It is the purpose of this and succeeding volumes
to show how, amid many shiftings, unions, and divisions, these isolated,
self-governing English colonies, planted independently here and there in
the American wilds, unconscious of the great future before them, were, by
an orderly, logical progression of events, the trend of which was often not
noticeable to the men of the time, successfully merged, at first into
states, and finally into a nation.
25. Colonial Governments.
Sidenote: Social distinctions.
The colonists were accustomed in England to specific ranks and orders of
society. In America, while there were from the first sharp social
distinctions, the fact that the great body of the settlers began life in
the wilderness side by side, on an equal basis, was favorable to a
democratic sentiment. Nobility was connected, in English minds, with great
landed estates, of which there were few in America outside of Virginia,
Maryland, South Carolina, and New York. Under Locke's constitution it was
attempted by the proprietaries formally to divide Carolina society into
groups, with hereditary titles; but the project could not be carried out.
Nevertheless, Southern society was in the main as distinctly stratified,
after the introduction of slavery, as though titles had existed. New
England life was calculated strongly to foster the spirit of independence;
and the slave class was not large enough materially to affect social
conditions. Still, there was an acknowledged and respected aristocracy,
founded on ancestry, education, commercial success, and individual merit,
but lacking staying qualities; for it had neither large estates nor
primogeniture to back it. The scheme of Lord Brooke, Lord Say and Sele, and
others, to introduce hereditary rank in Massachusetts (1636) fortunately
failed to receive popular approval.
Sidenote: Colonial governors.
Used as they were to the exercise of the royal prerogative, the colonists
accepted the free exercise by the governors of the privileges of
appointment and veto, whether those officials were selected by the Crown or
by proprietaries. In addition to these privileges, the governor of a royal
colony was the bearer of royal instructions and the medium of royal
directions; he was the executive officer, the granter of pardons (except in
capital cases), the commander of the military and naval forces, the head of
the established church, and the chief of the judiciary; and he could
summon, prorogue, and dissolve the assembly. The assembly held the
purse-strings, however, and the actual power of the governor was
consequently in a great degree curtailed. The record of colonial politics
is largely made up of disputes between the representatives and the
executive, in which the assembly usually won by withholding supplies until
the governor came to its terms.
Sidenote: The judiciary.
The judiciary system was alike in no two colonies, but there were certain
resemblances in all. There were commonly local justices of the peace, with
jurisdiction limited to petty civil cases; sometimes these were elected by
the freeholders of the district, but generally they were appointed by the
governor. Then came the county courts, the members of which were appointees
of the governor, except in New Jersey, where they were elected. These
county judges were representative gentlemen, and not trained in the law.
They had criminal jurisdiction except in capital cases, and final
jurisdiction in civil cases not involving large amounts; the limit was £20
in Virginia and £2 in Maryland, and elsewhere between these extremes. Next
was the provincial, supreme, or general court: ordinarily this was composed
of the governor, as chancellor, and the members of his council; but in
several colonies this colonial court was a separate body, appointed by the
governor, who, with his council, constituted a still higher court of
appeals and chancery. From the highest courts a suitor could, in important
cases, carry his appeal to the king in council. The common and statute law
of England prevailed when provincial law was silent on the subject.
Sometimes questions arose upon the validity of provincial statutes: when
the courts found that they were not in accordance with the charter, they
declared them void; but the matter could be carried to the English Privy
Council for ultimate decision. This was the germ of the power of the United
States Supreme Court to decide on the constitutionality of a law.
Sidenote: Charters.
At first American territory was granted to chartered commercial
companies,--notably the Virginia Company and the Council for New
England,--which sought to control their colonies from England, under the
supervision of the Crown. The Virginia colony was early deprived of its
charter by the Crown (1624); but members of the Massachusetts Company
boldly emigrated to America, and taking advantage of the confusion in
England, kept up a practically independent state for two generations;
though at last (1692) the people were obliged to accept a new charter
establishing a royal governor. The colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut
obtained charters direct from England, with privileges of self-government,
and lived under them till long after they had become States. New Hampshire,
after having been governed by Massachusetts, became a royal province
without having passed through the charter or proprietary stage. The other
colonies were proprietary, but all finally reverted to the Crown. Maryland
and Pennsylvania and Delaware were still proprietary at the outbreak of the
Revolution, having been restored to the proprietors after reversion.
Sidenote: Two houses.
The two houses of Parliament had made the colonists accustomed to the
bicameral system. In Virginia under company management the corporation
council in England served in a measure as the upper house, with powers of
general direction. In Massachusetts (where the company was technically
resident in the colony), and in the proprietary and royal colonies as well,
there was for a long time but one house. Finally, often as the result of
dissensions between the deputies and the officials, the former came to sit
apart,--the colonies thus in most cases returning to the English system of
two houses; but the council was small, and had administrative functions
which made it very different from the House of Lords. These colonial
assemblies were schools for the cultivation of the spirit of independence.
Burke said the colonists "had formed within themselves, either by royal
instruction or royal charter, assemblies so exceedingly resembling a
parliament in all their forms, functions, and powers that it was impossible
they should not imbibe some opinion of a similar authority."
26. Privileges of the Colonists.
Sidenote: The suffrage.
Electoral qualifications varied greatly. In the consideration of this, as
well as of other institutions, Massachusetts and Virginia must be taken as
types of opposite systems, the other colonies departing more or less from
them, according to proximity. Originally in Massachusetts, "any person
inhabiting within the town" could vote at town-meetings; later, with the
arrival of objectionable immigrants, this privilege was restricted (1634)
to freemen,--practically all the members of the church,--and still later
(1691), to "the possessors of an estate of freehold in land to the value of
40s. per annum, or other estate to the value of £40." In Virginia, at the
start, all freemen were allowed to vote. But it was afterwards decided
(1670) that the "usuall way of chuseing burgesses by the votes of all
persons who, haveing served their time, are freemen of this country," was
detrimental to the colony; and the principle was laid down that "a voyce in
such election" should be given "only to such as by their estates, real or
personall, have interest enough to tye them to the endeavour of the
publique good." By the beginning of the eighteenth century a freehold test
obtained in most, if not in all, the colonies. In 1746 Parliament added a
further qualification, in the guise of a general naturalization law,
providing that a voter must have resided seven years in his colony, taken
the oath of allegiance, and professed the "Protestant Christian faith."
Sidenote: Representation.
The principle of representation, by which a few are charged with acting and
speaking for the many in the conduct of public affairs, has been familiar
to Englishmen since the time when a parliament was convoked during the
contest between John and the barons (1213). The practice was adopted early
in the history of the colonies,--the first house of burgesses of Virginia
meeting in 1619; while in Massachusetts, the refusal of Watertown (1632) to
be taxed without representation caused the adoption of the plan of sending
deputies to the General Court. The American colonial assemblies were more
truly representative of the great body of the people than the English
Parliament of the period; to-day, male suffrage is nearly universal in
England, and entirely so in all the British dependencies, with the
exception of the Crown colonies.
Sidenote: Rights of the colonists.
In the American colonies the execution of the laws was as a rule
comparatively an easy task. The English colonists had been trained in the
political art of self-control; they had an abounding regard for just laws
and the courts; they respected precedent, and stoutly stood for the common
law, or recognized customs of their race. They were restive under statutes
which conflicted with the customary rights of Englishmen, which had come
down to them from the earliest times, and had been confirmed by Magna
Charta. These rights had not been strictly observed by the Tudor
sovereigns, and many of the earlier settlers had in the mother-country
assisted in agitation for their renewal. Now that they were transplanted to
America, the struggle was continued at long range with the Stuarts, thus
developing in the colonists a habit of resistance which was to stand them
in good stead in the troublous period leading up to the American
Revolution.
CHAPTER IV.
THE COLONIZATION OF THE SOUTH.
(1606-1700.)
27. References.
Bibliographies.--S. Kingsbury, _Introduction to Records of Virginia
Company_, 207-214; P. Bruce, _Economic History of Virginia_, I. xv.-xix.;
N. Mereness, _Maryland_, 521-524; E. Whitney, _Government of South
Carolina_, footnotes; Avery, _United States_, II. 411-417, 434-438, III.
407-410, 412, 413; Larned, _Literature of American History_, 100-106;
Winsor, III. 153-166, 553-562, V. 335-356; C. Andrews, _Colonial
Self-Government_, 351-354; Channing and Hart, _Guide_, §§ 97-102.
Historical Maps.--Nos. 2 and 3, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, Nos. 2, 3);
Doyle, _English Colonies_, I.; MacCoun, Winsor, and school histories cited
in our ch. i.
General Accounts.--Lodge, _English Colonies_, chs. i., iii., v., vii.;
Doyle, as above, I.; H. Osgood, _American Colonies in Seventeenth Century_;
Avery, as above, II. chs. ix., x., III. chs. i.-iii.; Channing, _United
States_, I. chs. v.-ix.; Andrews, as above, chs. ix., xiii.-xv.; Greene,
_Provincial America_, chs. i.-v.; Winsor, as above, III. chs. v., xiii., V.
ch. v.
Special Histories.--Virginia: Brown, _First Republic in America_, and
_English Politics in Early Virginia History_; Bruce, as above; Fiske, _Old
Virginia and Her Neighbors_; J. Cooke (Commonwealths); L. Tyler, _Cradle of
the Republic_, and _Williamsburg_; R. Pryor, _Birth of the Nation_; J.
Wayland, _German Element in Shenandoah Valley_.--Maryland: Browne
(Commonwealths), Scharf, Bozman, Mereness, as above; C. Hall, _Lords
Baltimore_; B. Steiner, _Beginnings of Maryland_.--Carolinas: J. Moore, I.
chs. i.-iii.; C. Raper; E. McCrady, _South Carolina under Proprietary
Government_; S. Ashe, _North Carolina_, I. Lives of Smith by Bradley,
Roberts, and Smith.
Contemporary Accounts.--Reprints of Smith's _True Relation_, and other
early documents: Force, Tracts; publications of historical societies and
commissions of the several states; Carroll, _Historical Collections_;
Brown, _Genesis of United States_; Kingsbury and Osgood, _Records of
Virginia Company_; Jameson, _Original Narratives of Early American History;
American History told by Contemporaries_, I. part iv; _American History
Leaflets_, No. 27.
28. Reasons for Final English Colonization.
Sidenotes: Over-population of England in the seventeenth century.
Colonization as a means of relief.
By the beginning of the seventeenth century it was quite evident to
thoughtful men that England needed room for growth. The population of the
island had greatly increased during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The extension of the wool trade had encouraged the turning of vast tracts
of tillable ground into sheep-pastures, which elbowed large communities of
farm-laborers out of their calling. England at large waxed great, the
condition of the merchant and upper classes was improved, but the peasant
remained where he was, the gulf widening between him and those above him.
The growth of the merchant class and their appearance on the scene as large
landholders, still further lessened the feudal sympathy between peasant and
landlord. The land abounded with idle men. Everywhere was noticed the
uneasiness which frets a people too closely packed to find ready
subsistence. Starvation induced lawlessness. Colonization was thought by
many to be the only means of obtaining permanent relief from the pressing
political and economic dangers of pauperism; and naturally America, from
which Gosnold, Pring, and Weymouth had but recently brought favorable
reports, was deemed most available for the planting of new English
communities.
Sidenote: Chartered trading companies undertake the task.
But the temper of Englishmen had somewhat changed since the days of
Raleigh's brilliant enterprises. A spirit of sober calculation had
succeeded with the increase of the mercantile habit. Raleigh was out of
favor, and there were no longer any private men who would undertake the
task of colonization. If it were to be done at all, it must be by chartered
trading companies; and naturally they looked upon all ventures with
merchants' eyes rather than statesmen's. The career of the Muscovy Company,
which had been profitably trading to Russia for a half century, and the
rapid successes achieved by the East India Company, founded in 1599, were
pointed to as examples of what could be done in this direction; although
the obvious fact that Russia and India were old and wealthy countries,
while America was a wilderness peopled by savages, appears not to have been
considered.
29. The Charter of 1606.
Sidenote: The London and Plymouth Companies organized.
Gosnold, returning from his voyage to New England, was ardent in the desire
to establish a colony in the milder climate of Virginia, and easily won to
his support six representative Englishmen,--Richard Hakluyt, then
prebendary of Westminster, and now famous as an editor of the chronicles of
early voyages; Robert Hunt, a clergyman; Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George
Somers, two "brave and pious gentlemen;" a London merchant named Edward
Maria Wingfield; and John Smith, a soldier. As a result of their
endeavors,--seconded by Sir John Popham, chief justice of England, and Sir
Ferdinando Gorges (page 41, § 15),--a charter was granted by King James
(April 10, 1606) to a company with two subdivisions,--1. The London
Company, composed of London merchants, who were to establish a colony
somewhere between the 34th and 41st degrees of latitude; that is, between
the southern limit of the North Carolina of to-day and the mouth of Hudson
River. 2. The Plymouth Company, composed chiefly of traders and country
gentlemen in the West of England, with chief offices at Plymouth, who were
to plant a settlement somewhere between the 38th and 45th degrees; that is,
north of the mouth of the Potomac, and south of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
But neither was to make a planting within one hundred miles of the other,
although their assigned territories overlapped each other three degrees.
Later (1609), the southern colony was given bounds in more specific
terms,--it was to extend two hundred miles along the coast in either
direction from Old Point Comfort, and "up into the land from sea to sea,
west and northwest;" this latter phrase being the foundation of the later
claim of Virginia to the Northwest.
Sidenote: How the colonies were governed.
King James, unlike Elizabeth, did not favor colonization; but he was
induced to yield his consent to this undertaking. The colonies established
under the charter were directly under the king's control, and not under
that of Parliament. The government of the two proposed colonies was placed
in the hands of two resident councils, of thirteen members each, nominated
by the Crown from among the colonists; while above them was a general
council of fourteen in England, also appointed by the king. Afterwards,
eleven other persons, similarly selected, were added to the council in
England.
Sidenote: Royal instructions to the Virginia colonists.
The resident council was to govern according to laws, ordinances, and
instructions dictated by the Crown. The royal instructions sent out with
the first colonists to Virginia stipulated that the Church of England and
the king's supremacy must be maintained, but the president of the council
must not be in holy orders. The land tenure was to be the same as in
England. Jury trial was guaranteed. Summary punishment must be enforced for
drunkards, vagrants, and vagabonds, while the death penalty was prescribed
for rioting, mutiny, and treason, murder, manslaughter, and offences
against chastity. The resident council might coin money and control the
extraction of all precious metals, giving one fifth to the Crown. It might
also make provisions for the proper administration of public affairs; but
all laws were to remain in vogue only conditionally, till ratified by the
general council in England or the Crown. In another clause the king
declared that all ordinances should be "consonant to the laws of England
and the equity thereof." All trade was to be public, and in charge of a
treasurer or cape merchant,--an officer chosen by the resident council from
its own membership. All the produce of the colony was to be brought to a
magazine, from which settlers were to be supplied with necessaries by the
cape merchant. Doyle says: "The company ... was to be a vast joint-stock
farm, or collection of farms, worked by servants who were to receive, in
return for their labor, all their necessaries and a share in the proceeds
of the undertaking." As a pious afterthought, the colonists were admonished
"to show kindness to the savages and heathen people in those parts, and use
all proper means to draw them to the true knowledge and service of God."
Sidenote: The rights of the patentees.
The rights given to the patentees, represented in the general council in
England, were: free transport of emigrants and goods, the right to exact a
duty of two and one half per cent on trade with the colony by Englishmen,
and five per cent on trade by foreigners. For twenty-one years the proceeds
of the enterprise were to accrue to the company; after that, to the Crown.
Sidenote: The king is granted too much power.
It should be noted that this patent, given by James to the combined London
and Plymouth companies, differed greatly from that granted by Elizabeth to
Gilbert and Raleigh, for it prescribed a constitution for the colonies, and
left but little to the judgment of the patentees. The latter, in their
eagerness to get a commercial charter, had allowed the king to assume an
undue political control over their establishment. It was fortunate for
Englishmen, both in America and England, that James was a weak monarch. He
might readily have used his supreme power over the Virginia colonists, not
only to browbeat them at will, but to tax them unmercifully for the purpose
of raising money, with which he would be the better enabled to bid the home
Parliament defiance while attacking the liberties of his people. He did not
lack desire, but was wanting in courage and astuteness, and allowed those
shrewder than himself gradually to re-shape the American charter until,
within twenty years, Virginia had emerged into practical independence.
30. The Settlement of Virginia (1607-1624).
Sidenotes: The London Company first in the field.
Character of the colonists.
The London Company, of which Hakluyt, Somers, and Gates were the most
active spirits, was first in the field. A hundred and forty-three colonists
were gathered aboard three ships,--the "Discovery," the "Good Speed," and
the "Susan Constant,"--which on the 19th of December, 1606, sailed down the
Thames, on the way to Virginia. The composition of the party was not
promising. Most of them were "gentlemen," unused to and scorning manual
toil; only twelve were laborers; and among the artisans were "jewellers,
gold-refiners, and a perfumer." Adventure, mines, and golden sands were in
the minds of the company, and the "gentlemen" doubtless thought they were
out for a holiday excursion. The fact that there were neither women nor
children in the expedition shows how little conception these people had of
the true mission of a colony. The little fleet was in charge of Christopher
Newport, a seaman of good reputation, with whom Gosnold was associated.
Sidenote: John Smith.
Among the party was one of the patentees,--Captain John Smith. He was the
son of a Lincolnshire gentleman; and being a soldier of fortune, had
travelled and experienced adventures in many European countries,--a brave,
robust, self-reliant, public-spirited, enterprising, humane, and withal a
boastful Englishman, he has come down to us as one of the most romantic
figures in American history. Smith's active temperament was not at first
appreciated by his fellow-colonists, and in a fit of jealousy on shipboard
they put him into irons upon a silly charge of conspiracy; and though he
had been named a councillor by the king, he was not allowed to participate
in the government for nearly a month after landing.
Sidenote: Jamestown settled.
On the sixteenth of April, 1607, land was sighted, and the adventurers soon
entered Chesapeake Bay, naming the outlying capes, Henry and Charles, after
the king's sons, and the river, which they soon ascended, the James, in
honor of the monarch himself. Fifty miles above the mouth of the river is
"a low peninsula half buried in the tide at high water," which they
unfortunately selected as the site of a town; and landing there on the
thirteenth of May, they called the place Jamestown. Wingfield, one of the
patentees, was chosen president of the resident council, exploring parties
were sent out, fortifications were begun, and a few log-huts reared. The
colonists had been instructed by the English council to search for water
passages running through to the Pacific. A party soon set out, under
Newport and Smith; but on reaching the falls of the James turned back. At
first they were troubled by Indians; but peace had been made with the
neighboring chief before Newport left for England, the twenty-second of
June.
Sidenote: A dismal summer.
The marshes were rank, the water was bad, and food scanty at Jamestown. The
colonists were for the most part a shiftless set, lacking the habit of
industry. The heat was so intense during the first summer that few houses
were built, and the tents were rotten and leaky. The natives, being
ill-treated, soon broke out again into hostilities. When autumn came, fifty
of the colonists had died. "Some departed suddenly," wrote a chronicler,
"but for the most part they died of mere famine. There were never
Englishmen left in a foreign country in such misery as we were in this new
discovered Virginia.... It would make ... hearts bleed to hear the pitiful
murmurings and outcries." The only men in office who had not in some degree
succumbed to the miseries of the situation were Gosnold, a man of really
superior ability, and Smith himself, the latter having now attained to
supreme control by common consent. Smith compelled his people to
labor,--"he that will not work shall not eat," was his dictum,--maintained
trade with the Indians, among whom he became popular, drilled the little
garrison, kept up the fortifications, explored and mapped the country and
the coast, wrote appeals for assistance to London, and was the life and
soul of the colony for two years.
Sidenote: Smith the savior of the colony.
In 1609 Newport had come out with supplies and one hundred and twenty
emigrants, who again were mainly "gentlemen, goldsmiths, and libertines;"
and he promptly sailed back with a load of worthless shining earth. Smith
found the new-comers seized with a frenzy for discovering gold mines, and
his troubles increased. The company, impatient for returns, were
disappointed because he insisted on having the people cultivate the rich
soil, build houses, trade with the natives, and explore, rather than go
seeking for gold where there was none. He appears to have been the only man
of authority in the enterprise who understood the true conditions of
colonization. He had repeatedly urged the patentees in London to cease
sending him gentlemen, idlers, and curious handicraftsmen, and instead of
such to ship "carpenters, husbandmen gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths,
masons, and diggers up of trees' roots;" and insisted that they "as yet
must not look for profitable returning." To Smith we owe it that Jamestown
lived through all its early disasters, so that when he left it, in October,
1609, it had acquired a foothold and was the nucleus of permanent
settlement in Virginia. He never again returned to the colony, although in
later years we find him diligently exploring the New England coast.
Sidenotes: The king yields some of his prerogatives.
Administrations of Delaware and Dale.
With the following year began a new order of things. The London Company,
stimulated by ill success, had gained from the king many of the powers
heretofore reserved to himself, and secured the appointment of Lord
Delaware as governor and captain-general; he was authorized to rule by
martial law, thus depriving the turbulent colonists of numerous privileges
heretofore given them. Delaware was in Jamestown but for one year, being
succeeded by Sir Thomas Dale (1611), who found the colony in ill condition;
many of its servants had defaulted, and there was a large deficiency. In
March following (1612), the company obtained a fresh charter, giving it
still further powers of self-direction and of dealing with crime and
insubordination, and adding to its domain the Bermudas, or Somers
Islands,--called thus after Sir George Somers, who had touched at them in
1609 while on a voyage of relief to Virginia. Dale, now possessed of
enlarged authority, met with excellent success in bringing the unruly mob
of settlers under control of the military code, and induced fresh
immigration of a somewhat better class. He caused the abandonment of the
non-progressive and unsatisfactory system of communal proprietorship,
introduced individual allotment, and broadened the foundations of a
prosperous State.
Sidenote: Liberals gain control of the company.
Samuel Argall, "a sea-captain of piratical tastes," followed Dale in the
governorship (1617), but was soon recalled (1618), because the settlers
complained bitterly of tyrannical and mercenary treatment at his hands. The
liberals in England--prominent among whom were Sir Edwin Sandys and the
Earl of Southampton--had now gained control of the corporation, and were
fighting the king through the colony, with the result that Virginia gained
in the next few years political privileges which were never after wholly
relinquished; the colonists, too, had, in the case of Argall, learned the
power of organized resistance,--a lesson which long stood them in good
stead.
Sidenotes: First meeting of the assembly.
Indented servants.
Introduction of slavery.
The colony was granted a representative assembly,--the first in
America,--called the house of burgesses, which was first convened in June,
1619. In the words of the "briefe declaration," written a few years later,
"That they might have a hande in the governinge of themselves, y{t} was
graunted that a general Assemblie shoulde be helde yearly once, whereat
were to be present the Gov{r} and Counsell w{th} two Burgesses from each
Plantation, freely to be elected by the Inhabitants thereof, this Assemblie
to have power to make and ordaine whatsoever lawes and orders should by
them be thought good and profitable for our subsistance." In this assembly
Governor Yeardley (arrived April, 1619) and his council had seats and took
active part. The effect of this convention, composed of twenty-two
burgesses, representing eleven "cities," "hundreds," and "plantations," was
greatly to restrict the governor's power, heretofore quite absolute.
Yeardley was a judicious executive, and the settlement, in spite of many
difficulties, prospered under his rule. Men with families began to come out
from England; but an unfortunate element in the immigration of the time was
the class of indented servants, which not only included convicts and
vagabonds, but was largely made up of boys and girls entrapped on the
London streets by press-gangs and hurried off to Virginia to be forcibly
placed in servitude for long terms of years,--the nucleus of the "poor
white" element in the South. Another and far worse disaster befell the
colony this year (1619). Twenty African slaves, the first in America, were
landed and sold in Jamestown from a Dutch man-of-war. This was the
beginning of a large and wide-spreading traffic in human beings throughout
the Southern colonies.
Sidenote: Further political concessions.
In 1622 Sir Francis Wyatt succeeded Governor Yeardley, and brought out with
him, as a gift to the colonists, a most unexpected political
concession,--confirmation of all liberties previously granted, and definite
assurances and provisions for the regular assemblage of the house of
burgesses. It is no wonder that the king declared the London Company, with
its free debates and bold experiments in popular government in Virginia, "a
seminary for a seditious Parliament."
Sidenote: Virginia becomes a royal province.
The following year (1623) the Indians combined against the whites, who had
persistently maltreated them, and more than three hundred settlers were
killed. This loss, which was a serious blow to the colony, was one of the
grounds urged by James in annulling the company's charter (1624). Thereupon
the settlers passed under the immediate control of the king,--which was, on
principle, an improvement over government by a profit-seeking commercial
company, however liberal the tendencies of the latter. The growing of
tobacco had by this time become an important industry in Virginia,--forty
thousand pounds being shipped to England in 1620,--and both James and his
son and successor, Charles, received a considerable revenue from taxes on
the product.
31. Virginia during the English Revolution
(1624-1660).
Sidenote: Harvey's administration.
After a succession of inefficient governors, Sir John Harvey came out in
1629, being the first serving under direct royal appointment. Harvey proved
obnoxious to the colonists because of his despotic rule and constant
attempt to browbeat the house of burgesses; by the latter he was "thrust
out of his government" in 1635, whereupon he hastened to England to plead
his cause before Charles. The king, much incensed at the unruly temper of
his people, ordered the governor back; but four years later, desirous of
mollifying the Virginians, upon the profits of whose tobacco-raising he had
an eye, the king supplanted Harvey, and again sent out Wyatt. Under his
mild rule the colony once more lifted its head.
Sidenote: Berkeley's first term.
Sir William Berkeley succeeded Wyatt in 1642. While frequently quarrelling
with the assembly, as all the royal governors did, and eager for the spoils
of office, he was an educated, courtly gentleman and a courageous
statesman, though often unscrupulous and overbearing. A man of strong
passions and convictions, he was a pitiless hater of enemies of the State;
and in his estimation Puritans and Catholics were more prominent in that
category than the marauding savages who skulked in the forests. A second
Indian uprising (1644) was vigorously suppressed by the governor.
Sidenotes: During the Long Parliament.
Virginia a refuge for Cavaliers.
During the great struggle in England between Charles I. and the Long
Parliament (1642-1649), public sentiment in Virginia was with the king.
There were but few Puritans in or about Jamestown, and they had for the
most part come in from New England under Harvey's administration; their
missionary labors in the conservative South were unwelcome, and they were
warned "to depart the collony with all conveniencie,"--while the Papists,
who had settled Maryland in 1634 under Lord Baltimore, were not tolerated
in Virginia under any conditions. The execution of Charles (1649) naturally
aroused deep indignation among the colonists, refugee Cavaliers from
England soon joined them by thousands, and Berkeley seriously, but in vain,
invited Charles II. to take up his abode among his American subjects. The
extent of this sudden influx of Cavalier immigration to the colony was so
great that while the population of Virginia was but fifteen thousand in
1650, it had increased to forty thousand by 1670.
Sidenote: Parliamentary commissioners take possession.
Parliament, however, was not disposed to allow Virginia to become a
breeding-place for disloyalty to the Commonwealth, and appointed
commissioners (1652), to whom the colony was surrendered possession with
surprising promptness. "No sooner," wrote Lord Clarendon, "had the 'Guinea'
frigate anchored in the waters of the Chesapeake than all thoughts of
resistance were laid aside." The Puritan party at once took charge of the
government, ruling with moderation and wisdom; and the colony, now allowed
the utmost freedom in the conduct of its home affairs, prospered
politically and financially under the Protectorate.
Sidenote: Claiborne's quarrel with Maryland.
Among the commissioners was William Claiborne, an able, resolute, and
passionate Virginian, who was the leader of the Puritan party, and carried
on a considerable trade with Nova Scotia, New England, and Manhattan. He
had been much before the public of late years. The grant of Maryland to
Lord Baltimore was regarded by Virginians as an invasion of their
territory; and Claiborne, holding a royal license to trade in that region,
had planted a settlement (1631) on Kent Island, in Chesapeake Bay, within
the limits now claimed by Baltimore. Not acknowledging Baltimore's
proprietorship there, he was summarily ejected. The following year (1635)
he led a party of rangers against Maryland, compelled the Catholic
governor, Calvert, to fly to Virginia, and seized the government himself;
being soon expelled, however, by Calvert, who had now secured Berkeley's
support. As one of the Roundhead commissioners to settle the affairs of the
colonies, the turbulent Claiborne proceeded promptly to pay back some of
his old debts against the Maryland Catholics. In 1654, Puritan invaders of
Maryland, headed by Claiborne, who was now Secretary of the Province of
Virginia, met the Catholics near the mouth of the Severn River and worsted
them, thus again obtaining temporary control of the northern colony. Three
years later a compromise was reached between Baltimore and the Puritans.
Sidenote: Governors under the Commonwealth.
Richard Bennett was the first governor of Virginia under the Commonwealth
(1652), being elected by the burgesses and receiving his authority from
them. He was succeeded by Edward Digges (1655) and Samuel Matthews (1656),
both similarly chosen. They quarrelled with the burgesses, like the
governors of old, but were worthy and sensible men, and when outvoted
generally yielded with grace. Claiborne's affair with Maryland and an
unimportant Indian panic (1656) were the only clouds upon the horizon
during this tranquil period.
32. Development of Virginia (1660-1700).
Sidenotes: Berkeley recalled.
The Restoration.
When Oliver Cromwell died (1658), his successor, Richard, was accepted in
Virginia without question; but when the following year the latter
abdicated, Berkeley was quickly recalled, as "the servant of the people,"
from peaceful retirement on his country estate; and upon the Restoration
(1660) the king's party was suffered again to take control of the
government, and Claiborne was dismissed from the secretaryship. The return
of the Royalists to power was accompanied in Virginia by harsh measures
against Dissenters, by the enforcement of the Navigation Act under which
the colonists were obliged to ship their tobacco to English ports alone,
and to import no European goods except in vessels loaded in England, and by
the gift of the entire province to Lords Arlington and Culpeper. The
Puritans, angered by the harshness and profligacy of the church, by
economic distress occasioned by the navigation laws, and by the ruthless
invalidation of long-established land-titles, rose against the provincial
government in 1663, and were not repressed until several of their leaders
were hanged. The government became corrupt and despotic, and for many years
the people were denied the privilege of electing a new house of
burgesses,--the Royalist house chosen at the time of the Restoration
holding over by prorogation.
Sidenotes: The Bacon rebellion.
Berkeley recalled by the king.
The Bacon rebellion (1676) was an outgrowth of the general discontent. The
Indians were murdering settlers in the frontier counties; but Berkeley,
accused of having fur-trade interests at stake, and perhaps fearing to have
the people armed, dismissed the self-organized volunteers who proposed to
go out against the savages. Nathaniel Bacon, a popular young member of the
council, honest and courageous, but indiscreet, took it upon himself to
raise a small force for the purpose. Berkeley refused Bacon a military
commission, and declared him and his rangers rebels, and sought to crush
them with the regular militia. Through the succeeding four months Virginia
was thrown into confusion by a warfare which resembled the stormy military
duels with which the South American republics have been so often harassed.
The opposing forces had varying fortunes, and the fickle militiamen rallied
under one standard or the other, according to the direction of the wind.
Harrying Berkeley out of Jamestown, Bacon burned the capital to ashes,
"that the rogues should harbor there no more." In October he died, either
from poisoning or swamp-fever. His adherents, having no other cohesion than
their sympathy for him, now scattered, and were caught by Berkeley, who
executed twenty-three of them, and returned to Jamestown to renew his
tyrannical policy for a time undisturbed. But even Charles tired of his
governor's harsh and bloody doings, saying: "That old fool has hanged more
men in that naked country than I have done for the murder of my father."
Berkeley was summoned to England, his departure being celebrated by the
colonists with salutes, bonfires, and general rejoicings. The king refused
him an audience upon his arrival in London, and Berkeley died (1677) "of a
broken heart."
Sidenote: A sorry time under the Royalists.
The Royalists were now in full power, the friends of Bacon discreetly held
their peace, and the governors were allowed to browbeat and rob the
province at their will. The successor to Berkeley was Colonel Sir Herbert
Jeffries (1677); after him came Sir Henry Chicheley (1678), Thomas Lord
Culpeper, one of the proprietors under the king's patent (1679), Lord
Howard of Effingham (1684), Sir Francis Nicholson (1690), Sir Edmund Andros
(1692) and Nicholson again (1698). During the administration of Culpeper,
who was a greedy extortionist, the tobacco-planters rose in rebellion
because of the disaster to their industry brought on by the attempt of
government to regulate prices and establish ports of shipment. The governor
hanged a number of the offenders, and still further added to his
unpopularity as a ruler and his notoriety as a rascal by arbitrarily and
for his own gain raising and lowering the standard of coinage.
These closing years of the seventeenth century were sorry times for
Virginia. Riots and consequent imprisonments and hangings were ordinary
events. Nicholson told the gentlemen of the province that he would "beat
them into better manners," or "bring them to reason with halters about
their necks." The people were discontented, the province grew poorer as
each new governor introduced some fresh extortion, immigration practically
ceased, and the spirit of political independence was torpid.
Sidenotes: Virginia in the Albany Council.
Establishment of William and Mary College.
Arrival of Huguenots.
There were two or three gleams of sunshine during this period of almost
total darkness. Delegates were sent to Albany in 1684 to represent the
province at the famous council to consider a plan of union for repressing
Indian outbreaks. It was one of the earliest attempts at the confederation
of the colonies,--a scheme which Governor Nicholson persistently fostered,
in the vain hope, it is said, of being placed at the head of the united
provinces as governor-general. Again, under Nicholson's rule (1691), the
house of burgesses sent Commissary Blair to England to solicit a patent for
a college. This was obtained, and in 1693 the agent returned with the
charter of "William and Mary," the second university in America,--Harvard,
in Massachusetts, being the first and Yale, founded in 1701, the third. The
new college was set up at Williamsburg, whither Governor Nicholson had
removed the capital of the province. Another event, quite as significant,
signalized the close of the century. De Richebourg's colony of Huguenots
settled (1699) on the upper waters of the James and "infused a stream of
pure and rich blood into Virginia society."
Thus, in the ninety years from 1607 to 1697, the population of Virginia had
increased from a few score to nearly a hundred thousand; the dreams of
speedy wealth entertained by the patentees had been idle, but the hard
labor of Englishmen, supplemented by the forced service of negroes, had
built up a prosperous agricultural community. More important still was it
that, through all the vicissitudes of control, of government in England,
and of party in America, the germ of popular government had grown into an
established system, jealously watched by the colonies.
33. Settlement of Maryland (1632-1635).
Sidenote: George Calvert, Lord Baltimore.
George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, had been one of the members of the London
Company as well as a councillor in the Plymouth Company. From the beginning
of the century he had taken a strong interest in English colonization
schemes. A staunch Roman Catholic, he was (1618-1625) principal Secretary
of State to James I. Baltimore's observation of the turbulent career of
Virginia had convinced him that a commercial colony could not be
successful, because of divided administration and the mercenary aims of
non-resident stockholders. He went out with a colony to Newfoundland (1621)
under a proprietary patent, but the inhospitable climate was against the
project. In 1629 he landed at Jamestown with forty Catholic colonists; but
the Protestant Virginians made it uncomfortable for the Romanists, and they
returned to England.
Sidenotes: Secures a charter for Maryland.
His son Cecil succeeds him.
Provisions of the charter.
Baltimore thereupon secured a charter from King Charles I. for a tract of
country north of Potomac river, the limits being imperfectly defined,--on
the north, the fortieth degree of latitude (the southern boundary of the
Plymouth Company's patent); on the west, a line drawn due north from the
head of the Potomac. The lands embraced in this grant were within the
bounds of Virginia, as specified in 1609, but had thus far not been
occupied. At the king's request the country was named Maryland, in honor of
his queen, Henrietta Maria. Lord Baltimore died before the charter had
passed the seal, and was succeeded in his rights and titles by his son
Cecil. The province of Maryland being made a palatinate, Lord Baltimore was
given almost royal powers, the Crown reserving feudal supremacy and
exacting a nominal yearly tribute. The proprietor could declare war, make
peace, appoint all officers, including judges, rule by martial law, pardon
criminals, and confer titles. He was to summon the freemen to assist him in
making laws, which were to be similar to those of England, but did not
require the king's confirmation, and need not be sent to England. It was
therefore impossible for the Privy Council to check or inaugurate
legislation in Maryland. The relations between the Crown and his lordship
being thus established, it was left for the colonists and the proprietor to
settle their relation under the charter; but no tax could be levied without
consent of the freemen.
Sidenotes: St. Mary's founded.
Quarrel with Claiborne.
In November, 1633, Cecil sent out his brother Leonard with two hundred
colonists,--some twenty of whom were gentlemen, and the others laborers and
mechanics,--and in March following they founded a town near the mouth of
the Potomac, calling it St. Mary's. The troubles with Claiborne, the
Virginian who had made a settlement on Kent Island, in the Chesapeake and
within Baltimore's grant, have already been alluded to (page 77, § 31). The
dispute was a protracted one, and gave rise to much ill-feeling and some
bloodshed.
Sidenotes: Religious toleration.
Humane treatment of Indians.
The settlers of good quality.
Many of Baltimore's colonists were Protestants. He was, however, sincere in
his desire for complete religious toleration, and did not appear to concern
himself in what his subjects believed. The Jesuit priests accompanying the
party exerted their influence in behalf of a humane treatment of the
Indians, and a cordial friendship was soon established with the resident
tribes. As for the settlers, they were thrifty and industrious, held their
land in fee-simple, and up to the Commonwealth period there was prosperity
and content.
Sidenote: Legislative dispute with the proprietor.
The colonists were, however, not blind to their political rights, in the
midst of this economic security. In primary assembly, in which proxies were
allowed, the freemen adopted a code of laws (1635) which the proprietor
rejected because the former had presumed to take the initiative, and for
two years the province was self-governed under the English common law. In
1638 a set of laws drafted by the proprietor was promptly vetoed by the
assembly, and thus a deadlock was created. The matter was soon arranged by
compromise, with the utmost good-nature on both sides; there was created a
representative house of burgesses,--in which, however, individual freemen
might also appear,--Baltimore was granted a poll-tax subsidy, and the
people reserved to themselves the rights of self-taxation and legislative
initiative. The anomalous system of allowing both freemen--of whom there
were but one hundred and eighty-two in 1642--and their representatives to
sit in the general assembly continued, with some variations, until 1647,
when that body became truly representative. Three years later (1650), the
legislature was divided into two houses, the burgesses sitting in the lower
chamber, and the councillors and others especially summoned by the
proprietor in the upper.
34. Maryland during the English Revolution (1642-1660).
Sidenotes: Religious dissensions arise.
Claiborne drives out Calvert, but the latter eventually wins.
As in the other colonies, the outbreak of the civil war in England resulted
in serious dissensions in Maryland. The Puritan party waxed strong, and
sympathized with Claiborne's intruding Protestant colonists on Kent Island.
The seizure of a Parliament ship by Deputy-Governor Brent, under orders
from King Charles, resulted in popular disturbances. Claiborne, taking
advantage of the disorder and coming over from Virginia, seized the
government at St. Mary's. Governor Calvert fled to Virginia, where Governor
Berkeley gave him shelter until he was able to march back at the head of a
large force and suppress the Claiborne administration, which was weak and
mercenary, and had not commended itself to the people.
Sidenote: Growth of the Protestant party.
Leonard Calvert died in 1647. William Stone, a Protestant, appointed
Governor in 1648, favored Parliament as against the king, but was sworn by
the proprietor to protect Catholics and give them an equal chance with
other colonists. The Protestant party grew apace; but while represented by
the governor and council, was in the minority in the assembly. In 1649 a
"Toleration Act" was passed, by which Sunday games, blasphemy, and abuse of
rival sects were severally prohibited. "Whereas the enforcing of the
conscience in matters of religion," ran the preamble, "hath frequently
fallen out to be of dangerous consequence, ... and the better to preserve
mutual love and amity among the inhabitants of the province," no person
professing to be a Christian shall be "in any ways molested or
discountenanced for or in respect of his or her religion, nor in the free
exercise thereof."
Sidenote: Under the Protectorate.
The Parliamentary commissioners sent to reduce the colonies (1652)
displaced Stone; but his great popularity caused them to reinstate him.
Stone, however, now sided with the proprietor, who wished to banish all
colonists who would not take the oath of fidelity to his lordship. The
governor proclaimed the Puritan leaders as seditious, and ejected many. The
Puritans therefore rose and called in Claiborne, who was one of the
Parliamentary commissioners, to help them. In a pitched battle at
Providence (1655) the Protestants won, and followed up their victory by the
execution of several of Stone's followers and the sequestration of their
estates. Stone himself, though sentenced to death, was reprieved. The party
of Cromwell was now in full power in the palatinate. Claiborne renewed his
claim to Kent Island; but the Commissioners for Plantations do not appear
ever to have recognized it.
Sidenote: Baltimore restored to his proprietorship.
Baltimore was finally restored to his proprietorship by the English
Commissioners for Plantations (1657), the assembly accepted the situation,
an Act of Indemnity was passed, the right of the colonists to
self-government was reaffirmed, and the policy of toleration was again
adopted. The result of the proprietor's restoration was to enlarge the
political privileges of the people, and toleration succeeded Catholic
supremacy in Maryland,--a reflex of the tendencies of the Great Rebellion
in the mother-land.
35. Development of Maryland (1660-1715).
Sidenote: Charles Calvert as governor.
In 1661 Charles Calvert, eldest son of Lord Baltimore, became governor of
the province. His admirable administration lasted for fourteen years,
during which the colony greatly prospered, there being a considerable
immigration of Quakers and foreigners,--Maryland, with its religious
toleration and beneficent laws, becoming widely known as a haven for the
oppressed of all nations. Unhampered by the proprietor, the assembly was
reasonable in its dealings with him, and harmony prevailed between them.
The crops, particularly of tobacco, were profitable, the Indians were never
a source of serious disturbance, and the people were contented and loyal.
Sidenotes: A spirit of unrest.
The Fendall and Coode revolt.
Maryland declared a royal province.
By the death (1675) of Cecil, Lord Baltimore, Charles fell heir to the
family title and estates. Thomas Notly was sent out from England as
deputy-governor. In 1681 the new proprietor secured the passage of a law
limiting the suffrage to those having freeholds of fifty acres or other
property worth forty pounds. There was some popular uneasiness over this,
as well as over the encroachments on the Maryland grant made by William
Penn; the Navigation Act, compelling the planters to sell their tobacco in
English ports alone, was also fretting the people; while the Protestants,
most of whom were now of the Church of England, and bitter against Puritans
and other Dissenters, as well as Catholics, deemed the Toleration Act an
impious compact. Taking advantage of this spirit of unrest, and smarting
under old grievances, Josias Fendall, an unworthy demagogue, intrigued with
a retired clergyman named John Coode and instigated a revolt, in which the
aid of some Virginians was obtained. The uprising was promptly suppressed;
but under the influence of the revolution in England (1688) Coode again
headed an insurrection under the auspices of the Association for the
Defence of the Protestant Religion. In 1689 the associators seized the
government of Maryland, under the flimsy pretext that they were upholding
the cause of William and Mary. They at first won the favorable
consideration of the king; but in 1691 Maryland was declared a royal
province, and Sir Lionel Copley came out as the first royal governor.
Baltimore's interests were respected, but he now became a mere absentee
landlord. The powers of government rested in the Crown, the Church of
England was established, and other Protestant sects were discountenanced
while practically tolerated, but Catholics were persecuted.
Sidenote: Annapolis becomes the capital.
The capital was removed from St. Mary's, the centre of the Catholic
interest, to Annapolis,--first settled by Puritans, and now controlled by
the adherents of the establishment. Maryland's prosperity, heretofore
unrivalled in the colonies, now suffered a check, and for a term of years
the royal administration was signalized by religious persecution and a low
political and social tone, till in 1715 the proprietorship was
re-established. In 1729 the city of Baltimore was founded as a convenient
port for the planters. The settlement and growth of Maryland had enforced
two lessons which were never wholly forgotten,--the possibility, under
official toleration, of bringing members of different religious sects
together in one civil community and government; and the comfort and
prosperity attainable in a well-governed colony.
36. Early Settlers in the Carolinas (1542-1665).
Sidenote: Early colonial attempts.
Between Virginia and Spanish Florida a broad belt of territory lay long
unoccupied. A Huguenot colony in 1562 had had a brief existence there, and
in consequence France claimed the country as her share of Florida. But the
Spaniards drove out the French, and thus unwittingly left the field to the
north clear for the English. In 1584 Amadas and Barlowe led a prospecting
party to Roanoke Island (p. 38), and here also (1585, 1587) two of
Raleigh's ill-fated colonies spent their strength. The swamp-girted coast
had few harbors, the colonizing material did not possess staying qualities,
the ill-treated Indians turned on the invaders of their soil, the sites of
settlements were ill-chosen. For a long period of years after the failure
of these enterprises a prejudice existed against the middle region as a
colonizing ground.
Sidenotes: Adventurous Virginians explore North Carolina.
Roger Green plants Albemarle.
But before Jamestown was two years old restless Virginians had explored the
upper waters of some of the southern rivers, and by 1625 the region was
fairly familiar to hunters and adventurous land-seekers as far south as the
Chowan. In 1629 Charles I. gave "the province of Carolana" to Sir Robert
Heath, his attorney-general; but nothing came of the grant. The Virginia
Assembly took it upon itself to issue exploring and trading permits in the
southern portion of the Virginia claims, often called Carolana, to certain
commercial companies, with the result that the character of the country
became generally known. In 1653 a small colony of Virginia dissenters,
harassed by the Church of England party at home, were led by Roger Green to
the banks of the Chowan and Roanoke; and there they planted Albemarle, the
first permanent settlement in what is now North Carolina.
Sidenotes: Miscellaneous colonizing parties.
New Englanders at Cape Fear River.
Colonists from Barbadoes at Clarendon.
Numerous colonizing parties and individual settlers ventured into North
Carolina during the next twenty years, and purchased lands of the Indians.
Among these were many Baptists and Quakers who had found life intolerable
in the northern settlements. The story goes that in 1660 a number of New
Englanders, desiring to raise cattle, settled at the mouth of Cape Fear
River; but they incurred the hatred of the Indians, and the colony soon
melted away. The survivors, upon taking their departure, affixed to a post
a "scandalous writing, ... the contents whereof tended not only to the
disparagement of the land about the said river, but also to the great
discouragement of all such as should hereafter come into those parts to
settle." This was said to have been found in 1663 by a company of wanderers
from the English community on the island of Barbados, which had been
founded in 1625. These West Indian colonists, headed by a wealthy planter,
Sir John Yeamans, established themselves (1664), to the number of several
hundred, on the Cape Fear, in the district which soon came to be known as
Clarendon.
37. Proprietorship of the Carolinas (1663-1671)
Sidenotes: The Lords Proprietors acquire the Carolinas.
Early prosperity.
It is probable that Charles II. knew little of these infant settlements of
Virginians and Barbados men at Albemarle and Clarendon,--which were some
three hundred miles apart,--or of the numerous small holdings between them;
but he cautiously confirmed all private purchases from the Indians, in
giving Carolina (1663) to a coterie of his favorites. Chief among these
were the Earl of Clarendon, the Duke of Albemarle, the Earl of Shaftesbury,
and Sir William Berkeley, then governor of Virginia. The proprietaries had
been commanded to recognize the land-claims of the settlers already on the
ground. William Drummond, a Scotch colonist in Virginia, was made governor
of Albemarle, while Yeamans remained governor of Clarendon, these two
districts roughly corresponding to the North and South Carolina of to-day.
The proprietaries at first authorized a popular government on the simplest
plan, and the settlers, particularly in Albemarle, looked forward to a
prosperous career. A considerable trade in lumber and fur at once sprang
up, and the crops were good; for the soil proved richer than in any other
of the American colonies then occupied.
Sidenotes: An enlargement of bounds.
Immigrants attracted.
In 1667 Samuel Stephens succeeded Governor Drummond, who went to Virginia,
where he became a leader in the Bacon rebellion. The Lords Proprietors in
1665 secured a charter, with enlargements of their bounds; their new grants
in terms included the present territory of the United States between
Virginia and Florida, to the Pacific. In 1670 was added the
Bahamas,--neither the claims of Virginia nor of Spain being considered in
the grants. Stephens was assisted by a council of twelve, his own
appointees when the proprietaries did not choose them. The assembly, of
twelve members chosen by the people, was a lower house. This first
legislature met in 1669; and actuated by a desire to attract immigrants,
declared that no debts contracted abroad by settlers previous to removal to
Carolina could be collected in their new home. As a consequence, along with
many desirable colonists flocking in from the Bermudas, Bahamas, New
England, and Virginia, came others who were not worthy material for a
pioneer community. The proprietaries themselves were quite liberal in their
land-grants to inhabitants.
Sidenote: Locke's Fundamental Constitutions.
Unfortunately for the Carolinians, the Lords Proprietors engaged John
Locke, the famous philosopher, to devise for them a scheme of colonial
government (1669). It was a complicated feudal structure, entitled the
Fundamental Constitutions, not suited to any community, old or new, and now
chiefly interesting as a philosophical curiosity. The province was to be
divided into counties, and they into seignories, baronies, precincts, and
colonies; and the people were to be separated into four estates of the
realm,--proprietaries, landgraves, caciques, and commons. Locke defined
"political power to be the right of making laws for regulating and
preserving property." The objects sought to be attained in his constitution
were avowedly the "establishing the interest of the lords proprietors," the
making of a government "most agreeable to the monarchy, ... that we may
avoid erecting a numerous democracy," and the connecting political power
with hereditary wealth. The leet-men, or tenants, were to be kept from
asserting themselves by rigid feudal restrictions: "nor shall any leet-man
or leet-woman have liberty to go off from the land of their particular lord
and live anywhere else without license obtained from their said lord, under
hand and seal. All the children of leet-men shall be leet-men, and so to
all generations." The plan was the dream of an aristocrat; it was an
attempt to reproduce the thirteenth century in the seventeenth; it was
artificial and unwieldy. While the rough backwoods-men could not grasp its
intricacies or understand its mediæval terms, they instinctively felt it to
be a useless bit of constitutional romancing, and would have little to do
with it.
The only important result of the attempt was to unsettle existing
conditions and, especially in Albemarle, to create a contempt for all
government; while the attempt of the proprietaries to regulate trade
strengthened the too-prevalent spirit of lawlessness. Their officious
lordships had set out to establish the Church of England; but the result of
their interference was that the Quakers, elsewhere despised, took advantage
of the spirit of dissent and obtained a firm hold over the Carolinians.
Sidenote: The planting of Charleston.
During this period of unrest in the northern settlements William Sayle, who
had explored the coast in 1667, planted (1670-1671) a colony "on the first
highland" at the junction of the Ashley and Cooper rivers,--the site of the
Charleston of to-day.
38. The Two Settlements of Carolina (1671-1700).
Sidenotes: North Carolina neglected by the proprietaries.
The Culpeper rebellion.
The settlements at Cape Fear and Charleston being more orderly and
promising than that at Albemarle, the proprietaries were henceforth more
considerate towards them. North Carolina, as it was ultimately called, was
practically left to take care of itself for upwards of a decade, during
which the neglected colonists made a rough struggle for existence upon
their crude clearings in the wilderness, those nearest the coast eking out
their scanty income by trafficking with New England smugglers. Throughout
the rest of the seventeenth century the proprietaries had but a nominal
hold upon the people of the northern colony. In 1676 Thomas Eastchurch was
appointed governor of Albemarle, but he ruled only through deputies. Deputy
Miller, collector of the king's customs, a drunken, vicious fellow, added
to his unpopularity by attempting to browbeat the assembly. The colonists
rose in arms (1678), imprisoned Miller, chose one Culpeper as collector of
customs, and convened a new assembly, which confirmed the revolutionary
proceedings and controlled affairs until 1683, when Seth Sothel was sent
out as governor. Sothel won the reputation of being an arbitrary and
rapacious official, and in 1688 the unruly assembly deposed and banished
him, despite the feeble remonstrance of the proprietaries.
Sidenote: Charleston aided by the proprietaries.
Meanwhile, Sayle's colony at Charleston made good progress, the
proprietaries being lavish in their aid of the enterprise. While it was
found that but few features of Locke's elaborate constitutions could be put
into practice in a frontier settlement, their lordships minutely managed
the affairs of the colony, leaving little to the judgment of the
inhabitants. Sayle died the first winter, and Yeamans, the founder of the
Cape Fear colony, succeeded him as governor (1672). Two years later (1674),
the unpopularity of Yeamans led to his being supplanted by Joseph West, who
ruled in a wholesome manner for twelve years.
Sidenote: Thrifty condition of Clarendon.
In 1682 the Clarendon settlements, now chiefly centred at Charleston, which
had an excellent town government, embraced about three thousand persons.
Despite trade restrictions, the exports of furs and timber were large for
the time, much live-stock was reared, the cultivation of tobacco was
extensively engaged in, and the supply of fish was abundant.
Sidenotes: Arrival of Huguenots.
Scotch Presbyterians routed by the Spanish.
The settlers were of various types,--among the colonists being groups of
Englishmen from the Bahamas, Barbados, Virginia, and New England; while in
1679 French Huguenots began to arrive in considerable numbers, and had a
permanent effect upon the character of the province. A small party of
Scotch Presbyterians, flying from persecution at home, established
themselves at Port Royal,--the southernmost of the English settlements. Two
days' sail to the south lay the Spanish town of St. Augustine. The
Spaniards, jealous of this encroachment, and suffering as well from the
raids of pirates who made their headquarters in Charleston, fell upon the
little outpost of Port Royal (1686) and completely destroyed it. It was
long held as a cause of complaint in the Carolinas that the proprietaries
peremptorily forbade the colonists chastising the Spanish, on the principle
that a dependency had no right to carry on war against a country with which
the home government was at peace.
Sidenote: Colonial grievances in South Carolina.
The Huguenots, who had settled chiefly in Craven County, were for a time
denied all political rights, although the proprietaries favored them. The
buccaneers, who frequently appeared in Charleston, were continually preying
on Spanish commerce, and causing their lordships much trepidation lest
these sea-rovers should bring on a war with Spain. The dissenters, who were
in the majority, were constantly warring with the Church of England party,
represented by the proprietaries. The trade restrictions were exceedingly
unpopular. Proprietary interference, even when well intended, unsettled the
public mind. The colonists, while conducting their local political affairs
on independent English models, were continually apprehensive of a change in
the form of government, and in general nursed many grievances, petty and
great.
Sidenotes: A period of turbulence.
The Carolinas reunited.
After the close of West's first term (1683) there was some turbulence, and
within the following seven years a succession of unsatisfactory governors.
Sothel (1690) was driven out by the Southern colonists in 1691, as he had
been by the Northern (page 93, § 38), and Philip Ludwell came on from
Virginia to assume control. The proprietaries had at last changed their
policy, and determined to rule both Carolinas, as one province, Ludwell
being the first governor (1691) of the united colonies. He was weak,
however, and unable to restore order and public confidence. Under his
successor, Thomas Smith, the assembly was granted a share in initiating
legislation.
Sidenote: The century closes with improved conditions.
It was not until John Archdale, a sound-headed and conservative Quaker,
himself one of the proprietaries, came out (1695) as governor that the
colonists ceased their bickerings and the province settled down into a
condition of peace and good order. Joseph Blake, Archdale's nephew,
succeeded him (1696). Under Blake's benign rule the century closed in the
Carolinas with a better popular feeling towards the Huguenots, complete
religious toleration to all Christians except Catholics, and a marked
increase in the material prosperity of the settlers.
The Carolinas, which had been planted sixty years later than Virginia, were
in 1700 still feeble; and it was half a century before they began to be
important colonies. The chief interest of the Carolinas in the development
of America is the failure of the proprietors to stem or to deflect the tide
of local government. Nowhere does the innate determination of the
Anglo-Saxon to control his own political destiny more strikingly appear
than in the contentions of the Carolinians with their rulers in England.
CHAPTER V.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN THE SOUTH IN 1700.
39. References.
Bibliographies.--Same as § 27, above.
General Accounts.--Doyle, _Colonies_, I. ch. xiii.; Cooke, _Virginia_, ch.
xxiv.
Special Histories.--Eggleston, _Beginners of a Nation_; Bruce, _Social Life
of Virginia_, and _Economic History of Virginia_; S. Fisher, _Men, Women,
and Manners in Colonial Times_, I. ch. i.; T. Page, _Old Dominion_, ch.
iii.; A. Earle, _Colonial Dames and Good Wives_, and _Home Life in Colonial
Days_; M. Goodwin, _Colonial Cavalier_; A. Wharton, _Colonial Days and
Dames_; Hall, _Lords Baltimore_, lecture vi.; Channing, _Town and County
Government_; J. Ballagh, _Slavery in Virginia_; S. Weeks, _Quakers_; G.
Bernheim, _German Settlements_; many publications in _Johns Hopkins
University Studies_. See also, biographies of prominent men.
Contemporary Accounts.--W. Hening, _Statutes_; narratives enumerated in §
27, above. Reprints in _American History told by Contemporaries_, I. chs.
ix., xiii.; publications of historical societies and commissions.
40. Land and People in the South.
Sidenote: Traits common to the Southern colonies.
Although of dissimilar origin, developed along somewhat different lines,
and having striking individual characteristics, the Southern colonies
possessed in common so many traits--climatic, geographical, social, and
economic--that we may conveniently treat them as a distinct group.
Sidenote: Geography.
Virginia and Maryland, topographically similar, have numerous large and
safe harbors, and the area of cultivation extends to the coast. In the
Carolinas there are scarcely any good harbors; along the sea-shore are
great sand-fields and pine-barrens, interspersed by swamps, but the country
gradually slopes up to the Alleghany foot-hills, the soil improving with
the rise in elevation. Throughout the Southern colonies the country is
drained by broad rivers running down to the sea.
Sidenote: Population.
It is estimated that in 1688 there were but twenty-five thousand persons,
white and black, in Maryland, sixty thousand in Virginia, and four thousand
in the Carolinas. The English were dominant in all the colonies, but their
supremacy was more strongly marked in Virginia and Maryland than in the
Carolinas, where foreign elements (1700-1750) increased rapidly in numbers
and variety. The North Carolina lumbering industry attracted many
immigrants,--in the main French Huguenots, Moravians, and Germans, with
some Swiss and Scotch-Irish interspersed. The Huguenots, a particularly
desirable class, were stronger in South Carolina than in any other American
colony. While Virginia and Maryland were chiefly settled by colonists
direct from England, the Carolinas were largely peopled from the other
English colonies in North America, the Bahamas, and the West Indies.
Sidenote: Unimportant character of the villages.
In the South the rich soil was widely distributed, the rivers served as
convenient highways, and the climate was mild; except for protection from
the Indians, there was no necessity in colonial times for the massing of
the people. Villages were few, and the plantations were strung along the
streams, often many miles apart and separated by dense forests. The
legislatures of the Southern provinces from time to time endeavored to
create trading and manufacturing towns by statute; but with few exceptions
these remained, down to the Revolution, merely places of resort for
elections and courts, with perhaps an inn, a jail, a court-house, and two
or three dwellings. What trade there was at these cross-roads hamlets was
of the most petty retail character, and the traders themselves were deemed
of small consequence in the community. Jamestown remained the Virginia
capital until late in the century, and during the sessions of the
legislature and at gubernatorial inaugurations was a favorite resort for
the wealthy and fashionable from all parts of the province; but it was a
small, untidy village, with few of the characteristics of a modern town
except for its public buildings. Williamsburg, its successor, was but
little better. The original capital of Maryland, St. Mary's, was not worthy
the name of town; but when, in the last decade of the century, Providence,
rechristened Annapolis, became the seat of government, the new capital soon
grew into an improvement on the old, several sightly public buildings were
erected, and trade expanded with the increase of fashion. Charleston, the
capital of South Carolina, was the most important town in the South; the
wealthiest planters in the colony lived there, leaving their estates to the
care of overseers; and trade, fashion, and politics centred in the village,
which was well-built and handsome.
41. Slavery and Servants.
Sidenote: Negro slaves.
Society was divided into four classes, social distinctions being sharply
drawn. The lowest stratum was composed of the negro slaves, first
introduced in 1619. For many years the number of blacks was comparatively
small, servile labor being mainly performed by convicts and indented
servants. At first the African slave was looked upon as but an improved
variety of indented servant, whose term of labor was for life instead of a
few years. In 1650 there were but three hundred negroes in Virginia and
fifteen thousand whites. The slave system fast extended, after this date,
so that in 1661 Virginia had two thousand blacks, and by the close of the
seventeenth century they nearly equalled the whites in number; in South
Carolina, in 1708, two thirds of the population were of the negro race. It
was not until the blacks had become a numerous class that we find the laws
regarding them savoring of harshness. They were especially severe after
1687, when a negro insurrection in Virginia inspired the whites with fear.
The statutes for the repression of the slaves now became fairly ferocious.
In the eye of the law they were simply chattels, being hardly granted the
rights of human beings. A master might kill his slave, for he was but
destroying his own property. Runaways could be slain at sight by any one,
the owner being reimbursed from the public treasury. The laws against
racial amalgamation were savage, but the actual treatment of the slave by
his owner was not so barbarous as the laws suggest,--especially in the two
northern colonies of the Southern group. He was there comfortably housed,
clothed, and fed, and indulged in many amusements. The raising of tobacco
required constant care at certain seasons of the year, but there was much
leisure, and the occupation was healthful. Work in the rice-swamps and
indigo-fields, in the fierce summer heat of South Carolina, was extremely
exhausting, and the negroes rapidly wore out; for this reason there was a
tendency on the part of the planters of that province to work them to their
full capacity while still in their prime. Nowhere else in the South was
slave life so burdensome, and nowhere was the slave trade so active.
Sidenote: Indented white servants.
Removed from the slaves by the impassable gulf of color, but nevertheless
almost as much despised by the upper and middle class whites as the blacks,
were the indented white servants. While here and there among them were men
capable, when freed from their bonds, of rising to the middle and indeed
the upper class, they were of low character frequently, such as transported
convicts, the riff-raff of London, and in some cases children who had been
kidnapped by lawless adventurers in the streets of the English cities. As
servants they were under no gentle bonds. The laws concerning them were
harsh. They might not marry without the consent of their masters; an
assault on the latter was heavily punished; to run away was but to lengthen
the term of service, and for a second offence to be branded on the cheek.
For numerous petty offences their service could be prolonged, and masters
might thus retain them for years after the term fixed in the bond.
42. Middle and Upper Classes.
Sidenote: Middle class.
The middle class--small farmers and tradesmen--merged into each other, so
that it was often difficult to draw the line between them. In South
Carolina there was practically no middle class, and indented servants were
few; there existed in this colony a perfect oligarchy,--lords and their
slaves. In all the Southern colonies the trader was despised by the upper
class, which was composed of officials and wealthy planters. The men of the
middle class were uneducated, rude, and addicted to gambling,
hard-drinking, and rough sports; they were, however, a sturdy set, manly
and liberty-loving, and gave strong political support to the planters.
Sidenote: Upper class.
The upper class, in dress, manners, and political thought, resembled the
English country gentlemen of their time. Here and there among them were men
of fair scholarship, with degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, but the
majority had but slight education, such as was picked up haphazard from the
parish parson, an occasional tutor, or a freed servant of more than
ordinary attainments. The speech and manners of the young were badly
affected by being reared among slaves. The life of both men and women in
these "good old colony days" was exceedingly monotonous; the chief charge
of the former being the care of their plantation and negroes, and of the
latter the superintendence of their domestic affairs and the training of
house servants. There was much visiting to and fro among the county
families, and dancing was a favorite evening amusement; and there were
annual visits to the capital, where horse-racing, gambling, cock-fighting,
and wrestling were favorite recreations. The Crown officers did much to
keep the English fashions alive, and the inauguration of a governor was a
brilliant social event.
The manners of the gentry were better than those of the middle class;
nevertheless they drank overmuch, had a passion for gaming, and sometimes
engaged in brawls at the polling-places. The fist, especially in Virginia
and Maryland, was preferred to the duel as a means of settling
controversies. The landed gentlemen, born aristocrats, were indolent, vain,
haughty, arrogant, and sensitive to restraint,--a natural outgrowth of the
social conditions of the times. But they had great virtues as well as great
faults. There was a keen sense of honor among them, and great pride of
ancestry. They were of good, vigorous English stock, especially those who
came after the Restoration, and in the struggle for independence, two
generations later, furnished to the patriot cause a high class of soldiers,
diplomats, and statesmen.
43. Occupations.
Sidenote: Scarcity of professional men.
There were practically no professions in Virginia and North Carolina. In
Maryland and South Carolina a litigious spirit prevailed, and there arose a
small body of lawyers fairly well equipped. Medicine was in a crude state.
The clergymen of the English Established Church--except in South Carolina,
to which colony the London Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sent
out good material--were as a rule sadly deficient in manners and education,
although there were among them many men of superior attainments and noble
character. This was especially noticeable in Maryland. The dissenting
ministers were often of quite inferior calibre.
Sidenote: Agriculture.
Agriculture was the mainstay of the people, tobacco being the one great
crop; although in the Carolinas rice and indigo came to be close rivals.
Naval stores were also a staple export. In South Carolina there was a
greater area devoted to mixed tillage than elsewhere in the South, and corn
and cotton were raised in considerable quantities. In both the Carolinas
cattle-raising was an important industry, the large branded herds roaming
the glades and forests at will.
Sidenote: Economic independence of the planter.
A great plantation, with its galleried manor-house, its rows of negro
quarters, and group of barns and shops, was in a large measure a
self-sustained community. The planter needed little that could be obtained
elsewhere in his own colony or in the South, and conducted his commercial
operations direct with England, the West Indies, and the Northern colonies.
Vessels came to his landing, bringing the supplies which he had ordered of
his correspondents, and loading for the return trip with such material as
he had for export. Under this independent system, whereby the rural magnate
was his own merchant, and negro slaves his only workmen, neither general
trade nor industries could flourish. Manufactures of every sort--even
tables, chairs, stools, wooden bowls, and birchen brooms--were, along with
many necessaries of life, imported from England and neighboring colonies.
There were a few negroes on every plantation who were trained to the
mechanic arts; and a small number of white craftsmen found work in
travelling around the country, doing such jobs as were beyond the capacity
of the slaves.
Sidenote: Commerce.
There was a considerable trade with the other continental colonies, as well
as with sister colonies in the West Indies and with England. Small vessels
were built in Virginia and Maryland for the coasting traffic, though
Englishmen, New Englanders, and Dutchmen were the principal carriers. The
independent methods of the planters, with their systems of barter and
direct importations, suited the lordly notions prevalent among them; but
the luxury was an expensive one, for it placed them quite at the mercy of
their foreign correspondents. Tobacco was the chief export, and barter was
based upon its value, which, despite legal restrictions, was subject to
great fluctuation. The importance of the crop, as the basis of exchange,
led to governmental supervision of its quality, which was uniformly
excellent except in North Carolina, where public spirit was at a low stage.
The importance attached by the government to this industry is illustrated
by a famous remark of Attorney-General Seymour. In 1692, when a delegation
from Virginia were soliciting a charter for the College of William and
Mary, on the ground that a higher education was necessary as a step towards
the salvation of souls by the clergy, he blurted out: "Souls! Damn your
souls; grow tobacco!" The Southern colonies had also a large and profitable
export of lumber, tar, turpentine, and furs; from the Carolinas beef was
shipped in great quantities to the West Indies; and rice, indigo, and
cotton were sent to the Northern colonies and England. The trade with the
Indians grew to considerable proportions in Virginia and Maryland, but was
long neglected in the Carolinas.
44. Navigation Acts.
Sidenote: Early attempts to protect English shipping.
All manner of trade, however, was more or less hampered by the
Parliamentary Acts of Navigation and Trade. In the time of Richard II.
(1377-1399) it had been enacted that "None of the king's liege people
should ship any merchandise out of or into the realm, except in the ships
of the king's ligeance, on pain of forfeiture." Under Henry VII.
(1485-1509) only English-built ships manned by English sailors were
permitted to import certain commodities; and in the reign of Elizabeth
(1558-1603) only such vessels could engage in the English coasting trade
and fisheries.
Sidenote: The Commonwealth Acts.
The earliest English colonies were exempted by their charters from these
restrictions, but under James I. (1603-1625) the colonies were included.
For many years the colonists did not heed the Navigation Acts; in
consequence, the Dutch, then the chief carriers on the ocean, obtained
control of the colonial trade, and thereby amassed great wealth. Jealous of
their supremacy, the statesmen of the Commonwealth sought to upbuild
England by forcing English trade into English channels; and this policy
succeeded. Holland soon fell from her high position as a maritime power,
and England, with her far-spreading colonies, succeeded her. The Act of
1645 declared that certain articles should be brought into England only by
ships fitted out from England, by English subjects, and manned by
Englishmen; this was amended the following year so as to include the
colonies. In exchange for the privilege of importing English goods free of
duty, the colonists were not to suffer foreign ships to be loaded with
colonial goods. In 1651, a stringent Navigation Act was passed by the Long
Parliament, the beginning of a series of coercive ordinances extending down
to the time of the American Revolution: it provided that the rule as to the
importation of goods into England or its territories, in English-built
vessels, English manned, should extend to all products "of the growth,
production, or manufacture of Asia, Africa, or America, or of any part
thereof, ... as well of the English Plantations as others;" but the term
"English-built ships" included colonial vessels, in this and all subsequent
Acts.
Sidenote: Under the Restoration.
Under the Restoration the Commonwealth law was confirmed and extended
(1660). Such enumerated colonial products as the English merchants desired
to purchase were to be shipped to no other country than England; but those
products which they did not wish might be sent to other markets, provided
they did not there interfere in any way with English trade. In all
transactions, however, "English-built ships," manned by "English subjects"
only, were to be patronized. Three years later (1663) another step was
taken. By an Act of that year, such duties were levied as amounted to
prohibition of the importation of goods into the colonies except such as
had been actually shipped from an English port; thus the colonists were
forced to go to England for their supplies,--the mother-country making
herself the factor between her colonies and foreign markets.
Sidenote: Repression of intercolonial trade.
A considerable traffic had now sprung up between the colonies. New England
merchants were competing with Englishmen in the Southern markets. At the
behest of commercial interests in the parent isle, an Act was passed in
1673 seriously crippling this intercolonial trade; all commodities that
could have been supplied from England were now subjected to a duty
equivalent to that imposed on their consumption in England. From 1651 to
1764 upwards of twenty-five Acts of Parliament were passed for the
regulation of traffic between England and her colonies. Each succeeding
ministry felt it necessary to adopt some new scheme for monopolizing
colonial trade in order to purchase popularity at home. It was 1731 before
the home government began to repress the manufacture in the colonies of
goods that could be made in England; thereafter numerous Acts were passed
by Parliament having this end in view.
Sidenotes: England's coercive commercial policy a cause of the Revolution.
In brief, the mother-country regarded her American colonies merely as
feeders to her trade, consumers of her manufactures, and factories for the
distribution of her capital. Parliament never succeeded in satisfying the
greed of English merchants, while in America it was thought to be doing too
much. The constant irritation felt in the colonies over the gradual
application of commercial thumb-screws--turned at last beyond the point of
endurance--was one of the chief causes of the Revolution. Had it not been
that colonial ingenuity found frequent opportunities for evading these Acts
of Navigation and Trade, the final collision would doubtless have occurred
at a much earlier period.
45. Social Life.
Sidenote: Travel and roads.
The system of agriculture throughout the South was vicious. Few crops so
soon exhaust the soil as tobacco; and as this staple was the main reliance
of the planters, it was usual to seek fresh fields as fast as needed,
leaving the old planting grounds to revert to wilderness. From this, as
well as from other causes already stated, the settlements became diffuse,
and great belts of forest often separated the holdings. The far-reaching
rivers were fringed with plantations, and the waterways were the paths of
commerce. The cross-country roads were very bad, often degenerating into
mere bridle-paths; there was little travel, and that largely restricted to
saddle or sulky,--the former preferred; for there were numerous streams to
ford or swim. It was not uncommon for travellers to lose their way and to
be obliged to pass the night in the thicket. Inns were few and wretched;
but the hospitality of the planters was unstinted, every respectable
wayfarer being joyfully welcomed as a guest to the manor-houses.
Sidenote: Life at the plantations.
Some glowing pictures of life in these "baronial halls," with their great
open fireplaces, rich furnishings imported from England, crowds of negro
lackeys, bounteous larders, and general air of crude splendor, have come
down to us in the journals of pre-Revolutionary travellers. But the wealth
of the large planters was more apparent than real. Their wasteful
agricultural and business methods fostered a speculative spirit, their
habits were reckless, their tastes expensive, and their hospitality
ruinous; they were generally steeped in debt, and bankruptcy was frequent.
The South Carolina planters, however, were more prosperous and independent
than those to the north of them.
Sidenote: Education.
The means of education were limited. Governor Berkeley, in his famous
report on the state of the Virginia colony (1670), said: "I thank God there
are no free schools, nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these
hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience into the world, and
printing has divulged them, and libels against the best of governments. God
keep us from both!" Berkeley told the truth. There were not only no free
schools, but scarcely any that were not free. Settlers were supposed to be
capable of teaching their own children all that it was necessary for them
to know. At the wealthiest homes tutors were kept, some of these being
younger sons of good families in England who had come to America in an
adventurous spirit, while now and then a freed servant who had seen better
days was employed in this capacity, as was, a little later, the case in the
family of the Washingtons; occasionally the parish clergyman, when fitted
for the task, instructed the youth of the district, and here and there a
young man was sent to England to take a collegiate course. The upper class
as a rule had but meagre scholastic training and few intellectual
recreations, the middle class had even a scantier mental equipment, while
the poor whites were densely ignorant. Berkeley's bluntly expressed
opposition to the education of the masses, as tending to foster political
and social independence, perhaps reflected the sentiments of the majority
of the ruling order.
Sidenote: Religion.
In Virginia there was manifested throughout the century an intolerant
spirit towards dissenters by both the ruling sects, Puritans and Churchmen.
Catholics and Quakers were persecuted, pilloried and fined; but the sturdy
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians made a bold stand, and were finally tolerated
after a fashion. In Pennsylvania and Maryland there was more religious
toleration than elsewhere in the colonies,--the Catholics were in political
control until the triumph of William and Mary, when the Protestants came to
the front and harassed the Catholics with exorbitant taxes. The turbulent
population of North Carolina paid little attention to religious matters
throughout the seventeenth century, although there were some flourishing
congregations. There was no settled Episcopal minister there until 1701,
and no church until 1702. The majority in South Carolina dissented from the
Church of England, the Puritan element holding political power, and it was
1681 before an Episcopal church was built in Charleston; the Huguenots were
not at first tolerated, but in 1697 all Protestant sects were guaranteed
equal rights.
Sidenote: Crime.
The negroes and the poor whites formed the criminal class,--a not
inconsiderable element in the Southern colonies. The pillory or stocks,
whipping post, and ducking-stool were maintained at every county seat, and
were familiar objects to all. Paupers, and indeed all persons receiving
public relief, were compelled to wear conspicuous badges.
46. Political Life, and Conclusions.
Sidenote: Political life.
The colonists, like their brothers across sea, were eager politicians, and
their political methods were much the same as in the mother-country.
Attempts upon the part of England to regulate the raising and selling of
tobacco, in connection with the general policy of commercial and industrial
control, led to frequent quarrels with the home government, which were
harassing enough to the Americans, but served their purpose as a school of
legislative resistance. The gentlemen controlled colonial affairs, but
found efficient support in the middle class; to these two classes suffrage
was for the most part restricted.
Sidenote: Administration.
The political organization throughout the South was closely patterned after
that of England, the governor standing for the king, the council for the
House of Lords, and the assembly or house of burgesses for the Commons.
There were four sources of revenue: (1) quit-rents, payable to the king or
the proprietors; (2) export and port duties, for the benefit of the
provincial government; (3) any duties levied by and for the assembly; (4)
regular parish, county, and provincial levies. The last mentioned were
payable in tobacco, and the others as might be specified. The system of
taxation was simple, and was based chiefly on lands and negroes; it was
moderate in extent, but not always paid cheerfully,--in North Carolina,
especially, there was chronic objection to taxes in any form.
Sidenote: Official rapacity.
The salaries of the government officials were small; but the governor--who
was the executive officer, and might lawfully have ruled his little realm
in most despotic fashion, had not the assembly, as the holder of the
purse-strings, continually kept him in check--considered the salary a small
part of his income. By farming the quit-rents, taking fees for patenting
lands, and assessing office-holders, he reaped a rich harvest. Broken-down
court favorites considered an appointment to the colonies as governor a
means of retrieving fallen fortunes, and made little attempt to conceal
their sordid purpose. The members of the council were often admitted to a
share of the spoils, and official morality was much of the time in a low
condition.
Sidenote: Summary.
Thus we see that in the Southern colonies, in the year 1700, there were
three sharply-defined social grades among the whites,--the upper class, the
middle class, and the indented servants; with a caste still lower than the
lowest of these, the negro slaves. The status of the bondsmen, both white
and black, was morally and socially wretched, and from them sprang the
criminal class: the former were the basis of the "poor white trash," which
remains to-day a degenerating influence in the South. The presence of
degraded laborers made all labor dishonorable, and trade was held in
contempt by the country gentleman. The economic condition was bad, there
were practically no manufactures, the methods of the planters were
wasteful, there prevailed a wretched system of barter based on a
fluctuating crop, and finances were unsettled. The manners even of the
upper class were often coarse, while those of the lowest whites were not
seldom brutal. The people were clannish and narrow, having little
communication or sympathy with the outer world. Political power was for the
most part in the hands of the aristocratic planters, backed by the middle
class; the people at large exercised but slight control over public
affairs. Religion was at a low ebb, especially in the established church;
Bishop Meade says, "There was not only defective preaching, but, as might
be expected, most evil living among the clergy." The professions of law and
medicine were scarcely recognized. In looking back upon the life of the
Southern colonists at this time we cannot but consider their social,
economic, and moral condition as poor indeed; but it must be remembered
that there was latent in them a sturdy vitality; these men were of lusty
English stock, and when the crisis came, a half century later, they were of
the foremost in the ranks and the councils of the Revolution.
CHAPTER VI.
THE COLONIZATION OF NEW ENGLAND.
(1620-1643).
47. References.
Bibliographies.--Winsor, III. 244-256, 283-294; Larned, _Literature of
American History_, 72-92; Avery, II. 421-423; Andrews, _Colonial
Self-Government_, ch. xx.; Green, _Provincial America_, ch. xix.; M.
Wilson, _Reading List on Colonial New England_; Channing and Hart, _Guide_,
§§ 109-123.
Historical Maps.--No. 2, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, No. 2); Doyle,
_Colonies_, II.; MacCoun, Winsor, and school histories already cited.
General Accounts.--J. Palfrey, _New England_, I. 47-268; Winsor, III. chs.
vii.-ix.; Doyle, II. chs. i.-vii.; Osgood, _Colonies_; Lodge, _Colonies_,
341-351, 373-375, 385-387, 397, 398; Avery, II. chs. v.-viii.; Andrews and
Greene, as above, _passim_; Channing, _United States_, I. ch. xiv.; B.
James, _New England_; G. Bancroft, I. 177-288; Hildreth, I. chs. vi., vii.,
ix.; Fiske, _Beginnings of New England_, I. chs. i.-iii.; Eggleston,
_Beginners of a Nation_; L. Mathews, _Expansion of New England_, chs.
i.-iii.
Special Histories.--Ellis, _Puritan Age and Rule_; E. Byington, _Puritans
in England and New England_, and _Puritan as Colonist and Reformer_; D.
Campbell, _Puritan in Holland, England, and America_; M. Dexter, _Story of
the Pilgrims_; J. Brown, _Pilgrim Fathers_; W. Cockshott, _Pilgrim
Fathers_; F. Noble, _Pilgrims_; J. Goodwin, _Pilgrim Republic_; D. Howe,
_Puritan Republic_.--Massachusetts: W. Northend, _Bay Colony_; B. Adams,
_Emancipation of Massachusetts_; C. F. Adams, _Three Episodes of
Massachusetts History_; Winsor, _Memorial History of Boston_; H. Lodge,
_Boston_.--Connecticut: C. Levermore, _Republic of New Haven_; E. Atwater,
_New Haven Colony_; Andrews, _River Towns of Connecticut_; C. Orr, _Pequot
War_; state histories by Johnston (Commonwealths), Trumbull, and
Morgan.--Rhode Island: I. Richman, _Rhode Island: its Making and its
Meaning_; Arnold, Field, and Richman (Commonwealths).--New Hampshire:
Belknap and Sanborn (Commonwealths).--Maine: Williamson.
Contemporary Accounts.--Morton, _New England's Memorial_ (1669); Bradford,
_Plymouth Plantation_; Winthrop, _New England_; Johnson, _Wonder-Working
Providence_; Wood, _New England's Prospect_; _New England's First-Fruits_;
Shepard, _Autobiography_.--Reprints: Force, _Tracts_; Arber, _Pilgrim
Colonists_; Young, _Chronicles of Pilgrim Fathers_, and _Chronicles of
Massachusetts_; Jameson, _Original Narratives_; _American History told by
Contemporaries_, I. part v.; and the many publications of colonial and town
record commissions, state and local historical and antiquarian societies,
Prince Society, Gorges Society, etc.
48. The New England Colonists.
Sidenote: The Popham colony.
It will be remembered that the commercial company chartered by King James
I. (1606) to colonize Virginia, as all of English America was then styled,
consisted of two divisions,--the London (or South Virginia) Company, and
the Plymouth (or North Virginia) Company. We have seen how the London
Company planted a settlement at Jamestown, and what came of it. The
Plymouth Company was not at first so successful. In 1607, the same year
that Jamestown was founded, the Plymouth people--urged thereto by two of
their members, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, governor of the port of Plymouth, and
Sir John Popham, chief-justice of England--sent out a party of one hundred
and twenty colonists to the mouth of the Kennebec, headed by George Popham,
brother of Sir John; but the following winter was exceptionally severe,
many died, among them Popham, and the survivors were glad of an opportunity
to get back to England (1608).
Sidenote: Smith's voyage to New England.
In 1614 John Smith, after five years of quiet life in England, made a
voyage to North Virginia as the agent and partner of some London merchants,
and returned with a profitable cargo of fish and furs. The most notable
result of his voyage, however, was the fact that he gave the title of New
England to the northern coast, and upon many of the harbors he discovered,
Prince Charles bestowed names of English seaports. During the next
half-dozen years there were several voyages of exploration to New England,
its fisheries became important, and some detailed knowledge of the coast
was obtained; but its colonization was not advanced.
Sidenote: The new Plymouth charter (1620).
Chief among the patrons of these enterprises was Sir Ferdinando Gorges. In
1620 Gorges and his associates secured a new and independent charter for
the Plymouth Company, usually known as the Council for New England, wherein
that corporation was granted the country between the fortieth and
forty-eighth degrees of latitude,--from about Long Branch, N. J., to the
Bay of Chaleurs. The region received in this charter the name which Smith
had bestowed upon it,--New England. To the company, consisting of forty
patentees, was given the monopoly of trade within the grant, and its income
was to be derived from the letting or selling of its exclusive rights to
individual or corporate adventurers. It had power, also, both to establish
and to govern colonies. But the enterprise lacked capital and popular
support. Virginia, founded as an outlet for victims of economic distress in
England, appeared to absorb all those who cared to devote either money or
energy to the planting of America. The reorganized Plymouth Company would
doubtless have waited many years for settlements upon its lands, had not
aid come from an unexpected source.
Sidenote: Religious groups in England.
The persecution of a religious sect led to the permanent planting of New
England. The English Protestants under Elizabeth may be roughly divided
into several groups: (1) The great majority of the people, including most
of the rich and titled, adhered to the Church of England; as the
"establishment," or State religion, it retained much of the Catholic ritual
and creed, but with many important omissions and modifications. (2) Besides
the Catholics, few and oppressed, there was a distinct class who wished to
stay the progress of the Reformation and more closely to follow Rome. (3)
The Puritans sought to alter the forms of the church in the other
direction, but they were themselves divided into two camps: (_a_) the
conformists, who would go further than the establishment in purifying the
State religion and in rejecting Romish forms, yet were content to remain
and attempt their reforms within the folds of the Church; and (_b_) the
dissenters, who had withdrawn from the Church of England and would have no
communion with it. The dissenters were themselves divided: (1) there were
those who wished to be ruled by elders, on the Presbyterian plan, such as
had been introduced by Calvin and his followers in Switzerland and France,
by Zwingli in Switzerland and Germany, and by John Knox in Scotland; then
there were (2) the Independents, or Separatists, who would have each
congregation self-governing in religious affairs,--a system in vogue in
some parts of Germany. "Seeing they could not have the Word freely
preached, and the sacraments administered without idolatrous gear, they
concluded to break off from public churches, and _separate_ in private
houses." Sometimes the Separatists were called Brownists, after one of
their prominent teachers, Robert Browne. The Presbyterians and Independents
were alike few in number in Elizabeth's time; but as the result of
persecution under James I., and the impossibility of obtaining concessions
to the demand for reform, these sects steadily gained strength. The
Independents in particular were harshly treated, so that many fled to
Holland, where there was religious toleration for all; and from this branch
of the Separatists came the Pilgrims, who first colonized New England.
49. Plymouth colonized (1620-1621).
Sidenotes: The Scrooby congregation.
The Independents in Holland.
Among those who thus departed to a strange land, to dwell among a people
with habits and speech foreign to theirs, were about one hundred yeomen and
artisans, members of the Independent congregation at Scrooby, a village on
the border between Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. Headed by their wise and
excellent minister, John Robinson, and the ruling elder of the church,
William Brewster, the party first settled at Amsterdam (1608), but early
the following year moved to Leyden. Here, joined by many other refugees,
they lived for ten years, laboring in whatever capacities they could obtain
employment.
They lived peacefully enough in Holland, free from religious restraints,
but remained Englishmen at heart; they saw with dissatisfaction, as the
years went on, that there was no chance for material improvement in Leyden,
and that their children were being made foreigners. After long deliberation
they resolved to emigrate again, this time to America, far removed from
their old persecutors, and there in the wilderness to rear a New England,
where they might live under English laws, speak their native tongue, train
their children in English thought and habits, establish godly ways, and
perchance better their temporal condition. Mingled with these aspirations
was a desire to lay "some good foundation, or at least make some way
thereunto, for ye propagating & advancing ye gospell of ye kingdom of
Christ in those remote parts of ye world; yea, though they should be but
even as stepping-stones unto others for ye performing of so great a work."
Sidenote: Emigration to America.
Obtaining a grant of land from the London (South Virginia) Company, and a
promise from the king that they should not be disturbed in their proposed
colony if they behaved properly, the emigrants sailed from Leyden to
Southampton, where they were to take passage for the New World. These
Pilgrims, as they styled themselves, were about one hundred in number, and
under the excellent guidance of Brewster, Robinson remaining behind with
the majority of the congregation, who had decided to await the result of
the experiment.
Possessing little beyond their capacity to labor, the Pilgrims had found it
necessary to make the best bargain possible with a number of London
capitalists for transportation and supplies. A stock partnership was
formed, with shares at ten pounds each, each emigrant being deemed
equivalent to a certain amount of cash subscription; all over sixteen years
of age were counted as equal to one share, and a sliding scale covered the
cases of children and those who furnished themselves with supplies. All
except those so provided drew necessaries from the common stock. There was
to be a community of trade, property, and labor for seven years, at the end
of which time the corporation was to disband, and the assets were to be
distributed among the shareholders. The entire capital stock at the
beginning was seven thousand pounds, from a quarter to a fifth of this
being represented by the persons of the emigrants. The London partners sent
out several laborers on their account.
Sidenote: The landing.
The voyage of the "Mayflower" is one of the most familiar events in
American history. Its companion vessel, the "Speedwell," was obliged to
return to England because of an accident, and thus several of the original
company remained behind. The adventurers first saw land on the ninth of
November; it was the low, sandy spit of Cape Cod. Their purpose had been to
settle in the domain of the South Virginia Company, somewhere between the
Hudson and the Delaware; but fate happily willed otherwise. The captain,
thought to be in the pay of the Dutch, who were trading on the Hudson,
professed to be unable to proceed farther southward because of contrary
winds. After beating up and down the bay between the cape and the mainland,
and exploring the coast here and there, the Pilgrims landed at a spot "fit
for situation" (Dec. 22, 1620).
Sidenote: The social compact.
With true English instinct for combination against unruly elements, the
Pilgrims had (November 11), while lying off Cape Cod, formed themselves
into a body politic under a social compact. This notable document read as
follows: "We whose names are under-writen, the loyall subjects of our dread
soveraigne Lord, King James, by ye grace of God of Great Britaine, Franc, &
Ireland king, defender of ye faith, &c., haveing undertaken, for ye glorie
of God and advancemente of ye Christian faith, and honour of our king and
countrie, a voyage to plant ye first colonie in ye Northerne parts of
Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly and mutualy in ye presence of God,
and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves togeather into a civill
body politick, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of
ye ends aforesaid; and _by vertue hearof_ to enacte, constitute, and frame
such just and equall lawes, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices,
from time to time, as shall be thought most meete and convenient for ye
generall good of ye Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and
obedience."
The compact was signed by the adult males of the company, forty-one in
number, only twelve of whom bore the title of "Master," or "Mr.,"--then of
some significance. They elected Deacon John Carver as their first governor,
styled the place where they landed Plymouth, and entered upon the serious
business of building New England.
Sidenote: The first winter.
An exceptionally mild winter had opened, yet it was with difficulty that
they could provide adequate shelter for themselves, much less secure
comfortable quarters. The stock of food they had brought with them soon
failed, and what was left was not wholesome; in consequence of hunger and
exposure, sickness ensued, and about one half of the company died. Among
those who succumbed was Governor Carver; in his place was chosen William
Bradford, who held the office for twelve years, was the historian of the
colony, and until his death (1657) the leading man among his people. Those
who survived this terrible ordeal were so few and feeble that under
ordinary conditions the Indians could readily have massacred them. But
owing to a pestilence which, a few years before, had wasted the New England
coast tribes, it was many years before the aborigines were strong enough
seriously to annoy the Plymouth colonists.
Sidenote: Persistence amid adversity.
Had the Pilgrims been ordinary colonists, they would no doubt have
abandoned their settlement and returned in the vessel that brought them.
But they were of sterner stuff than the men who succumbed to less hardship
at Roanoke and on the Kennebec, and their religious conviction nerved them
to a grim task which they believed to be God-given. It was not for
faint-hearts to found a new Canaan.
In November, 1621, fifty more of the Leyden congregation came out. By this
time the people of Plymouth had, amid many sore trials, erected log-houses
enough for their use, built a rude fort on the hill overlooking the
settlement, made a clearing of twenty-six acres, and had laid by enough
provisions and fuel for the winter. But the addition to the number of
mouths materially decreased the _per capita_ allotment of rations.
Sidenote: Patent from the Plymouth Company.
The Pilgrims having settled upon land for which they had no grant, it had
become necessary for the London adventurers, who backed the enterprise, to
secure a patent from the reorganized Plymouth Company. That company was
working under a charter from the king as the feudal lord, giving it
privileges of settlement, trade, and government; rights to colonize and
trade, it was authorized to parcel out to others, in the form of patents,
and a document of this character was issued to the adventurers in May,
1621.
50. Development of Plymouth (1621-1691).
Sidenote: The industrial system.
The industrial system inaugurated at Plymouth was, like that adopted for
Jamestown, pure communism. The governor and assistants organized the
settlers into a working band, all produce going into a common stock, from
which the wants of the people were first supplied: the surplus to be the
profit of the corporation. As in the case of Jamestown, the London partners
were not pleased with the results of the speculation, and in harshly
expressing their dissatisfaction soon fell into a wordy dispute with the
colonists.
Sidenote: Dissatisfaction of the London partners.
Thirty-five new settlers came out in the autumn of 1622, and thereafter
nearly every year brought increase in the number; but the partners failed
to ship supplies with the new-comers, deeming it proper that the colony
should be self-supporting; and this neglect still further strained existing
relations.
Sidenote: Communal system partially abandoned.
In 1624 the communal system was partially abandoned, each freeman being
allowed one acre as a permanent holding. This land was to be as close to
the town as possible; for the climatic conditions, the necessity for
protection against Indians, and the desire for ease of assemblage at
worship, made it important that the settlement should be compact,--in sharp
distinction to the scattered river-side plantations of the South. In 1627
each household was granted twenty acres as a private allotment; but for
many years there existed as well a system of common tillage and pasturage
similar to that with which the colonists were familiar in the English
villages. About the same time (1627) the colonists purchased the interest
of their London partners for eighteen hundred pounds, and became wholly
independent of dictation from England.
Sidenote: The Pilgrims obtain sole control.
Up to this time many of the new colonists were sent or selected by the
London shareholders, and were not always congenial to the Pilgrims. It now
rested with them to invite whom they might; and as a result many of their
faith from England were brought over. In 1643 there were three thousand
inhabitants in the eight distinct towns comprising Plymouth colony; there
were also several independent trading and fishing stations along the coast
established under the auspices of the Plymouth Company. The colony was
beyond the danger of abandonment.
The early history of Plymouth is a story full of painful details of
suffering. It was a long time before the people became inured to the
rigorous climate; the tedious winters were often seasons of much hardship
and privation. The life they led was toilsome, but they bore up under it
bravely.
Sidenotes: Relations with the Indians.
Relations with white neighbors.
The original colonists were kind and considerate to the aborigines, and for
many years were the firm friends and allies of Massasoit, head chief of the
Pokanokets, whose lands they had occupied. Whites were not always as
comfortable neighbors as the savages. Thomas Weston, one of the London
partners, sent out (1622) an independent colony of seventy men to
Wessaugusset, about twenty-five miles north of Plymouth. They were an idle,
riotous set, and after making serious trouble with the Indians, a year or
two later returned to England. In 1623, Robert Gorges, son of Ferdinando,
was appointed governor-general of the country by the Council for New
England, and in person attempted to form a colony upon land patented to him
"on the northeast side of Massachusetts Bay," but soon abandoned his
enterprise and returned home. In 1625, Captain Wollaston appeared with a
number of indented white servants and started a colony on the site of the
Quincy of to-day. But this form of slave labor not being suited to the
democratic conditions of New England life, Wollaston took his servants to
the more congenial climate of Virginia, and his plant was taken possession
of by his partner, Thomas Morton, who styled the settlement Merrymount.
Morton was much disliked by the Puritans, who were scandalized at his
free-and-easy habits, regarded the apparently innocent sports in which he
encouraged his people as "beastly practices," and charged him with the
really serious offence of selling rum and firearms to the natives. The
Plymouth militia dispersed the merrymakers and sent Morton to England
(1628).
Several Church of England men, representatives of Robert Gorges,--who had a
patent for a strip of territory ten miles coastwise and thirty miles
inland,--had come out in 1623, among them William Blackstone, settling on
Shawmut peninsula, now Boston, Thomas Walford at Charlestown, and Samuel
Maverick at Chelsea. Blackstone afterwards vacated his peninsula in favor
of the Puritans of Charlestown. Maverick, in his palisaded fort, was a man
of importance, and afterwards a royal commissioner to the colonies. There
was also a small trading station at the mouth of the Piscataqua, and
another at Nantasket, with here and there an individual plantation. With
most of these the Plymouth people had business relations, but little else
in common.
Sidenote: Form of government.
Plymouth was at first governed in primary assembly with a governor and
assistants elected by popular vote. As the colony grew and new towns were
organized by compact bodies of people detaching themselves from the parent
settlement, it became inconvenient for all of the people frequently to
assemble in Plymouth. The representative system was adopted in 1638, each
township sending two delegates to an administrative body called the General
Court, in which the governor and assistants also sat. It was some years
later before the General Court was given law-making powers, this privilege
being retained by the whole body of freemen. For sixteen years the laws of
England were in vogue, but in 1636 a code of simple regulations was
adopted, more especially suited to the community. The assistants, with the
aid of the jury, tried cases as well as aided the governor in the conduct
of public affairs. Purely local matters were managed by primary assemblies
in the several towns, and petty cases were tried by town magistrates.
Sidenote: Characteristics of Plymouth.
Many features of American government and character may be readily traced to
the influence of Plymouth. It was the first permanent colony in New
England; it had become well established before another was planted, and
therefore served in some sense as a model for its successors. It was a
community of Independents acting without a charter, working out their own
career practically free from royal supervision or veto, and with an
elective governor and council. The Plymouth people were closely knit: their
struggle for existence had been hard, and it had taught them the value of
solidarity; they set the example of a compact religious brotherhood; they
were good traders, cultivated peace with the Indian tribes, and advanced
their towns only so fast as they needed room for growth and could hold and
cultivate the land. In many respects Plymouth may be regarded as a modern
American State in embryo.
Sidenote: Futile effort to obtain a charter.
Three several times (1618, 1676-77, and 1690-91) the colony endeavored, as
a measure of self-defence, to obtain a charter from the Crown; but failed
in each application,--at first through the influence of the prelates, and
afterwards because of the jealousy of its neighbors. Finally, in 1691,
Plymouth was incorporated with Massachusetts and lost its identity.
51. Massachusetts founded (1630).
Sidenote: Boundary disputes.
The Plymouth Company did business in a rather haphazard Way. Land-grants
were freely made to all manner of speculators, many of them members of the
corporation, with little or no regard to the geography of New England.
These grants were dealt out to third parties, often with a lordly
indifference to previous patents. The result was that holdings frequently
overlapped each other, giving rise to boundary quarrels which lasted
through several generations of claimants.
Sidenote: Settlement at Cape Ann.
In 1623, an association of merchants in Dorchester, England, sent out a
party to form a colony near the mouth of the Kennebec, where they had
fishing interests. The master, however, landed his men at Cape Ann, in
Massachusetts Bay, the site of the present Gloucester. Roger Conant, who,
withdrawing from Plymouth "out of dislike of their principles of rigid
separation," had made an independent settlement at Cape Ann, was appointed
local manager for the Dorchester merchants. In 1626 the merchants abandoned
their colony as unprofitable, most of the settlers returning to England;
and Conant led those remaining to Salem, then called Naumkeag.
Sidenote: White's scheme.
John White, a conforming Puritan rector at Dorchester, determined to make
this settlement of Dorchester men a success. To the settlers at Naumkeag he
sent urgent advice to stay, while at home he set on foot a movement which
resulted in a definite scheme of colonization. The arbitrary policy of
Charles I. towards dissenters had greatly alarmed the Puritans, and White's
plan of "raising a bulwark against the kingdom of Antichrist" in America
had the support of many wealthy and influential men.
Sidenote: The Massachusetts land grant.
In 1628, six persons, heading the movement, obtained from the Plymouth
Company a patent for a strip about sixty miles wide along the coast,--from
three miles south of Charles River to three miles north of the Merrimack,
and westward to the Pacific Ocean, which in those days was thought to be
not much farther away than the river discovered by Hendrik Hudson in 1609.
This patent conflicted with grants already issued (1622 and 1623) to Sir
Ferdinando Gorges, his son Robert, and John Mason, of whom we shall hear
later on.
Sidenote: The first charter (1628).
In September, 1628, John Endicott, gentleman, one of the patentees, arrived
at Salem with sixty persons, to reinforce the colony already there, and
supersede Conant. The following spring, the patentees being organized as a
trading company, the king granted them a charter styling the corporation
the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England; their
only relationship to the Plymouth Company was now that of purchasers of a
tract of the latter's land.
Sidenote: Form of government.
Under this trading charter the whole body of freemen, or members of the
company, was to elect annually a governor, a deputy-governor, and eighteen
assistants, who were to meet monthly to perform such public duties as might
be imposed upon them by the quarterly meeting of the company, or "Quarter
Court." There was also to be an annual meeting, known as "General Court,"
or "Court of Elections." Laws were to be adopted by the general assembly of
"freemen,"--that is, of stockholders,--not contrary to the established laws
of England. Endicott was continued as governor of the colony, which was at
once recruited by three hundred and eighty men and women of the better
grade of colonizing material.
Sidenote: Religious aspirations.
Although the company was chartered as a trading corporation, its principal
object was not gain, but to found a religious commonwealth. It was composed
of men of rare ability and tact, as well as of consummate courage. Among
them were members of parliament, diplomats, state officials, and some of
the brightest and most liberal-minded clergymen in England. The church
which they set up in Salem was not at first avowedly Separatist, like that
of Plymouth; it was simply a purified English church, with a system of
faith and discipline such as they had long insisted upon in the ranks of
the mother-church. But under the circumstances this purified church was as
independent in its character as the professedly Separatist congregations of
Plymouth; and it was not long, as one step led to another, and persecution
hurried them on, before the Massachusetts Puritans were, like their
brethren in England, full-fledged Independents.
Sidenotes: The company moves to America.
Character of the founders.
Soon there was taken the most important step of all. The Massachusetts
company, in the desire for still greater independence, removed its seat of
government to the colony, thus boldly transforming itself, without legal
sanction, from an English trading company into an American colonial
government. In April, 1630, eleven vessels went out to Massachusetts Bay,
with a large company of English reformers; and during the year there
crossed over to America not less than a thousand English men and women who
had found the arbitrary rule of Charles quite unbearable. John Winthrop, a
wealthy Suffolk gentleman forty-two years of age, and one of the strongest
and most lovable characters in American history, was the first governor
under the new arrangement. Thomas Dudley, the deputy, was a stern and
uncompromising Puritan, cold and narrow-minded. Francis Higginson, the
first teacher, who had come over with Endicott, but died in 1630, was a
Cambridge alumnus who had lost his church in Leicestershire because of
nonconformity. Skelton, the pastor, was also a Cambridge man.
52. Government of Massachusetts (1630-1634).
Sidenote: Salem divides.
There were now too many people assembled at the port of Salem for the
supply of food, and sickness and hunger prevailed to such an alarming
degree that many died in consequence. It became necessary to divide, and
independent congregations were established, on the Salem model, at
Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Roxbury, and later at Boston, which soon
became the capital of the colony (September, 1630). Morton, who had
returned to Merrymount, was again driven from the country; Sir Christopher
Gardiner, a disturbing element among the settlers, was obliged to withdraw
to the Piscataqua: the Puritans now held Massachusetts Bay, and brooked no
rival claimants. In establishing this commonwealth in America, the Puritan
founders were determined to have things their own way.
Sidenote: The theocracy established.
It was early decided by the General Court (1631) that none but church
members should be admitted as freemen. Four times a year the freemen were
to meet in quarter court, and with them the governor, his deputy, and the
assistants. But, as in Plymouth, it was found after a time that the towns
and the freemen had so multiplied that this primary assemblage became
inconvenient. In 1630 the assistants were given the power to elect the
governor and deputy governor, and also to make laws. Then it came about
that in certain cases the control of the colony was in the hands of only
five of the assistants, which made the government almost oligarchical. The
cap-sheaf was applied when (1631) it was ordered that the assistants were
to hold office so long as the freemen did not remove them.
Sidenote: The Watertown protest.
That same year, however, came a vigorous protest against this autocratic
rule. The Watertown freemen declined to pay a tax of £60, levied by the
assistants for fortifications built at Cambridge. It was argued that a
people who submitted to taxation without representation were in danger of
"bringing themselves and posterity into bondage." The next General Court
accepted this plea as valid, and a House of Representatives was inaugurated
on the plan of the English Commons, each town sending two deputies, and the
governor and assistants sitting as members.
Sidenote: The representative system established.
For a time the freemen resumed the right of election of governor and
deputy-governor, but soon handed this duty over to the representatives.
Voting by ballot was introduced in 1634, and the freemen, who had become
annoyed at threats from England of interference with their charter,
asserted their independence of the official class by rebuking the
assistants, turning Winthrop out of office, electing Dudley as governor,
making new rules for the election of deputies, providing for an oath of
allegiance to the colony, and placing their representative system on an
enduring foundation. Ten years later (1644), as the result of a quarrel
between the assistants and the deputies, growing out of a petty civil suit
over a lost pig, the colonial parliament became bicameral, the assistants
forming one house, and the deputies the other.
Sidenote: Aristocratic propositions rejected.
There had been a healthy renewal of immigration to Massachusetts in 1633
because of increased harshness towards Puritans in England, and a number of
strong men,--such as Sir Henry Vane and Hugh Peter,--destined to play no
inconsiderable part in the history of America and England, were among the
new arrivals. There were other Puritans higher in the social scale who
would have liked to come,--such as Lord Say and Sele, and Lord Brook; but
their proposition (1636) that an hereditary order of nobility be
established in the province, did not meet with popular favor; a desire to
be free from such distinctions was one of the causes which had impelled
thousands to flee to America. A little later (1638) the freemen put down
another attempt at aristocratic rule,--a movement looking to the
establishment of a permanent council, whose members were to hold for life
or until removed for cause.
53. Internal Dissensions in Massachusetts (1634-1637).
Sidenote: Condition of the colony (1634).
In 1634 the colony, now firmly planted with free English institutions in
full force, contained about four thousand inhabitants, resident in sixteen
towns. The old log-houses of the first settlers were gradually giving way
to commodious frame structures with gambrel roofs and generous gables. The
fields were being fenced, roads laid out between the towns, and
watercourses bridged; and the farms were beginning to take on an air of
prosperity. Goats, cattle, and swine abounded. Adventurous trading
skippers, often in home-made boats, had cautiously worked their way through
Long Island Sound as far as the Dutch settlements at New York, and up the
coast to the Piscataqua, doing a small business by barter. Salt fish, furs,
and lumber were exported to England, the vessels bringing back manufactured
articles; for as yet the industries of New England were few and crude.
Sidenote: Harvard College founded.
The Massachusetts colonists were for the most part middle-class Englishmen,
and education was general among them. Many were graduates of Cambridge, and
the clergymen had, as conscientious Reformers seeing no hope of improvement
in the English Church, abandoned comfortable livings at home to take charge
of rude Independent meeting-houses in America. In 1636, an appropriation of
£400--a very large sum, considering the means of the province--was made by
the General Court to found a college at Cambridge, that "the light of
learning might not go out, nor the study of God's Word perish." Two years
later (1638) the Rev. John Harvard, a graduate of Emmanuel College, who had
come out in 1637, dying, left his library and a legacy of £800 to the new
institution of learning, "towards the erecting of a college;" and the Court
decreed that it should bear his name. For two centuries the college
continued to receive grants from the commonwealth.
Sidenote: Malcontents make trouble.
While the colonists were thus bravely making progress in laying the
foundations of liberal institutions in America, there were troubles brewing
both at home and abroad. The uncongenial spirits whom they had driven from
Massachusetts Bay made complaints in England of the ill-treatment they had
received, and carried to Archbishop Laud and other members of the Privy
Council reports that the Puritans were setting up in America a practically
independent state and church. As an immediate consequence, emigrants, early
in 1634, were not permitted to go to New England without taking the royal
oath of allegiance and promising to conform to the Book of Common Prayer.
Sidenote: Attack on the charter.
In April a royal commission of twelve persons was appointed, ostensibly to
take charge of all the American colonies, secure conformity, and even to
revoke charters; but it was well understood that Massachusetts was
especially aimed at. The Massachusetts people were speedily ordered to lay
their charter before the Privy Council. Their answer, however, was
withheld, pending prayerful consideration. Meanwhile Dorchester,
Charlestown, and Castle Island were fortified; a military commission was
set to work to collect and store arms; militiamen were drilled;
arrangements were made on Beacon Hill, in Boston, for signalling the
inhabitants of the interior in case of an attack; the people were ordered
on pain of death, in the event of war, to obey the military authorities,
and no longer to swear allegiance to the Crown, but to the colony of
Massachusetts.
Sidenote: The charter annulled.
But the men of the colony were politic as well as pugnacious, and
despatched Winslow to England to make peace with the authorities. While he
was in London, in February, 1635, the Plymouth Company surrendered its
charter to the king, with the condition that the latter should annul all
existing titles in New England, and partition the country in severalty
among the members of the Plymouth council. In accordance with this
arrangement, a writ of _quo warranto_ was issued against the Massachusetts
charter, it was declared null and void, and Gorges was authorized to be
viceregal governor of New England.
Sidenote: Judgment suspended.
Winslow was imprisoned in England for four months for having broken the
ecclesiastical law in celebrating marriages in the Plymouth colony, but
upon his release did good diplomatic work and neutralized much of the
opposition. Meanwhile, another and stricter order was sent out to the
Massachusetts Company to surrender its charter. This again was met by
silence and renewed military preparations. English Puritans were at this
time attempting to leave for America in great numbers, on account of acts
of royal tyranny. The difficulty with the Scotch Church ensued, and by 1640
the Long Parliament was in session. In the excitement occasioned by the
Puritan rising in the mother-land, the day of punishment for Massachusetts
was postponed.
54. Religious Troubles in Massachusetts (1636-1638).
Sidenote: Roger Williams.
The opposition at home, occasioned by differences in religious belief, was
not, however, so easily thrust aside. Roger Williams, an able and learned,
but bigoted young Welshman, a graduate from Pembroke College, Cambridge,
came out to Plymouth in 1631. His tongue was too bold to suit the English
ecclesiastical authorities, and to gain peace he had been obliged to depart
for the colonies. In 1633 he went to Salem, where he became pastor of the
church. Williams was fond of abstruse metaphysical discussion, and he was
an extremist in thought, speech, and action; but while his arguments were
phrased in such manner as often to make it difficult for us to understand
him, the views he held were in the main what we style modern. He opposed
the union of church and state, such as obtained in Massachusetts, where
political power was exercised only by members of the congregation; he was
opposed to enforced attendance on church, and would have done away with all
contributions for religious purposes which were not purely voluntary. Such
doctrines were, however, held to be dangerous to the commonwealth; and
indeed expression of them would not at that time have been permitted in
England nor in many parts of Continental Europe. But this was not all.
Williams in a pamphlet pronounced it as his solemn judgment that the king
was an intruder, and had no right to grant American lands to the colonists;
that honest patents could only be procured from the Indians by purchase;
and that all existing titles were therefore invalid. This was deemed
downright treason, which he was compelled by the magistrates to recant. At
Salem, Endicott, who was one of his disciples, became so heated under his
pastor's teachings that, in token of his hatred of the symbols of Rome, he
cut the cross of St. George from the English ensign. The General Court,
greatly alarmed lest these proceedings should anger the king, reprimanded
Endicott; and, because of his "divers new and dangerous opinions," ordered
Williams (January, 1636) to return to England. The latter escaped, and
passed the winter in missionary service among the Indians. In the spring,
privately aided by the lenient Winthrop, the troublesome agitator passed
south, with five of his followers, to Narragansett Bay, and there
established Providence Plantation.
Sidenote: Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomians.
Mrs. Anne Hutchinson arrived in Boston from England in the autumn of 1634.
She was a woman of brilliant parts, but impetuous and indiscreet, and by
instinct an agitator. Her religious views are described by Winthrop as
containing "two dangerous errors,--first, that the person of the Holy Ghost
dwells in a justified person; second, that no sanctification can help to
evidence to us our justification." This is cloudy to a modern layman. The
theory is styled Antinomian by its enemies, and was substantially as
follows: Any person in a "state of grace" or "justification" is at the same
time "sanctified;" since he is both justified and sanctified, the person of
the Holy Ghost dwells in his heart, and his acts cannot in the nature of
things partake of sin: therefore he need have no great concern about the
outward aspect of his works. This doctrine was contrary to that entertained
by the Puritans, who believed that a person must be first justified by
faith, and then sanctified by works. They thought the Antinomian dogma open
to pernicious interpretation, and not conducive to the welfare of society.
Its advocacy threw Boston into a great ferment.
Mrs. Hutchinson soon had a large following, among whom were Wheelwright,
John Cotton, and Thomas Hooker, of the ministers; while among laymen who
were well inclined towards her doctrine was the younger Henry Vane, then
governor of the colony, who was in later years to become prominent as one
of the leaders in the English Commonwealth. In the conditions then existing
in Massachusetts Mrs. Hutchinson's teachings were considered dangerous to
the State; they opposed the authority of the ecclesiastical rulers, and
this tended to breed civil dissension. One of her supporters, Greensmith,
was fined £40 by the General Court (March, 1637) for publicly declaring
that all the preachers except Cotton, Wheelwright, and Thomas Hooker taught
a covenant of works instead of a covenant of grace, the difference between
which, the layman Winthrop said, "no man could tell, except some few who
knew the bottom of the matter." At the same time Wheelwright was found
guilty of sedition because in a sermon he had counselled his hearers to
fight for their liberties, but with weapons spiritual, not carnal. When the
Boston church supported their minister, the Court responded by voting to
hold its next meeting at Newtown (Cambridge), where it might deliberate
amid quieter surroundings than at Boston.
When the Court of Election met at Newtown (May, 1637), Vane and his friends
were, in the course of a tumultuous session, dropped out of the government,
Winthrop was again chosen governor, and the uncompromising heretic-hater
Dudley deputy-governor. Vane departed for England in disgust, never to
return. For a time it seemed as if peace had come under the politic
Winthrop, and the Hutchinsonians gave evidences of a desire to compromise.
In a few months, however, the Court re-opened the whole controversy by
legislating against all new-comers who were tainted with heresy. The old
warfare broke out again. The charges of sedition against Wheelwright were
renewed, he was banished, and fled, with a few adherents, to the
Piscataqua.
Sidenote: Mrs. Hutchinson banished.
Mrs. Hutchinson was placed on trial (November, 1637) and commanded to leave
the colony, which she did in March following, and went to Rhode Island.
Seventy-six of her followers were disarmed, some were disfranchised, others
fined, and still others "desired and obtained license to remove themselves
and their families out of the jurisdiction." Quiet once more prevailed.
Wheelwright recanted after a time, and was permitted to resume his
habitation in Boston; and many others of the disaffected were finally
restored to citizenship.
Sidenote: The policy of repression successful.
The little commonwealth had been shaken to its foundations by a controversy
which to-day---when religion and politics are separated, to the advantage
of both--would be considered of small moment even in one of our rural
villages; but the State and the Church were one in the colony of
Massachusetts, and ecclesiastical contumacy was political contumacy as
well. Under such conditions there could safely be neither liberty of
opinion nor of speech; the welfare of a government thus constituted lay in
stern repression. The suppression and banishment of Roger Williams and Mrs.
Hutchinson were eminently successful in restoring order and public
security, in the train of which came increased immigration and greater
prosperity.
55. Indian Wars (1635-1637).
Sidenote: The Dutch at Hartford.
While these things were going on in Boston and Newtown, warfare of another
sort was in progress to the south. In 1635 residents of Massachusetts made
a settlement on the Connecticut river, on the site of Windsor, above the
Dutch fort at Hartford; and later in the same year another party, under
John Winthrop the younger, built Saybrook, at the mouth of the stream.
These Connecticut settlements formed an outpost in the heart of the Indian
country, and trouble was inevitable.
Sidenote: The Pequod war.
At last the attitude of the Pequods, the tribe occupying the lower portion
of the Connecticut valley, became unbearable; they interfered with
immigrants going overland, and rendered trade by sea dangerous. They
endeavored to enlist the sympathy of the Narragansetts in their forays.
Could these tribes have formed a coalition, it seems likely that the New
England colonists, then few and weak, must have been driven into the sea.
Roger Williams, bearing no malice towards his old enemies in Massachusetts,
averted this calamity. As the result of great exertions on his part, the
Narragansetts were induced to disregard the overtures of their old enemies,
the Pequods, and the Connecticut Indians went alone upon the war-path. They
made life a burden to the settlers in the little towns of Saybrook,
Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield. An appeal for aid went up from the
colonists in the Connecticut valley to Massachusetts and Plymouth, and was
promptly answered.
Sidenote: The Pequods crushed.
In the little intercolonial army of some three hundred men, Captains John
Mason of Windsor and John Underhill of Massachusetts were the leading
figures. The Pequods were surprised in their chief town (May 20, 1637), the
walls of which were burned by the whites, while volleys of musketry were
poured into the crowd of savages, who huddled together in great fear. Says
Underhill, "It is reported by themselves that there were about four hundred
souls in this fort, and not above five of them escaped out of our hands;"
others report that seven hundred Pequods fell on that terrible day. Of the
besiegers but two were killed, though a quarter of the force were wounded.
From this scene of slaughter the victorious colonists marched through the
rest of the enemy's territory, burning wigwams and granaries, taking some
of the survivors prisoners, to be sold into slavery, and so thoroughly
scattering the others that the Pequod tribe never reorganized; the
expedition had thoroughly uprooted it.
56. Laws and Characteristics of Massachusetts
(1637-1643).
Sidenote: Laws.
For more than ten years after the planting of Massachusetts the magistrates
dispensed justice according to their understanding of right and wrong;
there were no statutes, neither had the English common law been officially
recognized, except so far as it was understood that Englishmen carried the
law of their land with them in emigrating to America. "In the year 1634,"
says Hutchinson, "the plantation was greatly increased, settlements were
extended more than thirty miles from the capital town, and it was thought
high time to have known established laws, that the inhabitants might no
longer be subject to the varying uncertain judgments which otherwise would
be made concerning their actions. The ministers and some of the principal
laymen were consulted with about a body of laws suited to the circumstances
of the colony, civil and religious. Committees of magistrates and elders
were appointed" from year to year by the General Court, but it was not
until 1641 that a body of statutes was finally adopted.
Sidenote: The Body of Liberties.
The influence of the clergy is well illustrated in the fact that the two
codes finally submitted were the work of ministers,--John Cotton of Boston,
and Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich. The latter's plan, in which he received the
aid of Winthrop and others of the elders, was adopted in 1641, under the
title of The Body of Liberties. In England, Ward had at one time been a
barrister, and was well read in the common law, on which his code was
mainly based, although it also contained many features of the law of Moses.
Equal justice was vouchsafed to all, old or young, freeman or foreigner,
master or servant, man or woman; persons and property were to be inviolable
except by law; brutes were to be humanely treated; no one was to be tried
twice for the same offence; barbarous or cruel punishments were forbidden;
public records were to be open for inspection; church regulations were to
be enforced by civil courts, and church officers and members were amenable
to civil law; the Scriptures were to overrule any custom or prescription;
the general rules of judicial proceedings were defined, as were also the
privileges and duties of freemen, and the liberties and prerogatives of the
churches; public money was to be spent only with the consent of the
taxpayers. "There shall be no bond slaverie, villinage or Captivitie
amongst us unles it be lawfull Captives taken in just warres, and such
strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold to us;" but all such
were to be allowed "all the liberties and Christian usages which the law of
god established in Israell." Notwithstanding this enlightened provision,
persons continued to be born and to live and die as slaves within the
boundaries of the commonwealth down to 1780. Servants fleeing from the
cruelty of their masters were to be protected, and there was to be appeal
from parental tyranny. "Everie marryed woeman shall be free from bodilie
correction or stripes by her husband, unlesse it be in his owne defence
upon her assalt." The capital offences, selected from the Scriptures, were
twelve in number; among them were: "(2) If any man or woman be a witch
(that is, hath or consulteth with a familiar spirit), they shall be put to
death;" and "(12) If any man shall conspire and attempt any invasion,
insurrection, or publique rebellion against our commonwealth, ... or shall
treacherously and perfediouslie attempt the alteration and subversion of
our frame of politie or Government fundamentallie, he shall be put to
death." The essence of this Body of Liberties was afterwards incorporated
into the formal laws of the colony. It was the foundation of the
Massachusetts code.
Sidenote: Characteristics of Massachusetts.
Massachusetts was the first large colony in New England. Its people were
educated, and as a rule of a higher social grade than those of Plymouth.
Under a charter which contained many very liberal provisions, a highly
organized government was developed, which served as a model to the other
colonies, and had a wide influence in the building of a nation founded on
the principles of self-government. Plymouth had, after sixteen years,
separated into towns; but when organized town and church governments moved
bodily from Massachusetts to found Connecticut, Massachusetts became the
first mother of colonies. Massachusetts was bolder, more aggressive, and
more tenacious of her liberties than any other of the American colonies;
her people took firm, sometimes obstinate, stand for their rights as
Englishmen, and were often alone in their early contentions for principles
upon which in after years the Revolution was based. In their treatment of
the Indians they were inclined to be more imperious than their neighbors.
57. Connecticut founded (1633-1639).
Sidenote: Plymouth traders at Windsor.
In 1633 Plymouth built a fur-trading house on the site of Windsor, on the
Connecticut River. A party of Dutch traders from New York was already
planted at Hartford, in "a rude earthwork with two guns," and strenuously
objected to this intrusion; but the Plymouth men found trade with the
Indians profitable, and stood their ground.
Sidenote: The Massachusetts hegira.
The same year the overland route to the Connecticut was explored by the
Massachusetts trader, John Oldham, who was afterwards slain by the Pequods
at Block Island. The favorable reports which Oldham carried back induced a
number of people in Newtown (Cambridge), Dorchester, and Watertown, in the
Massachusetts colony, to remove to the Connecticut and set up an
independent State. "Hereing of ye fame of Conightecute river, they had a
hankering mind after it." Ostensibly they sought better pasturage for their
cattle, to prevent the Dutch from gaining a permanent hold on the country,
and to plant an outpost in the Pequod country; but there also appear to
have been some differences of opinion between these people and the
Massachusetts authorities, growing out of the taxation of Watertown in
1631; and no doubt their ministers and elders--among whom were such strong
men as Thomas Hooker, Samuel Stone, and Roger Ludlow--were desirous of
greater recognition than they obtained at home. These differences were not
so grave but that Massachusetts, after a spasm of opposition, formally
permitted the migration, gave to the outgoing colonists a commission, and
lent to them a cannon and some ammunition.
Sidenote: Plymouth overawed.
During the summer of 1635 a Dorchester party planted a settlement at
Windsor around the walls of the Plymouth post. Plymouth did not approve of
this cavalier treatment of her prior rights by the Massachusetts pioneers,
but was obliged to submit with what grace she might, as she had in many
controversies with her domineering neighbor to the north.
Sidenote: Winthrop at Saybrook.
That same autumn (1635) John Winthrop, Jr., appeared at the mouth of the
Connecticut with a commission as governor, issued by Lord Brook, Lord Say
and Sele, and their partners, to whom in 1631 Lord Warwick, as president of
the council for New England, had granted all the country between the
Narragansett River and the Pacific Ocean. Winthrop had just thrown up a
breastwork when a Dutch vessel appeared on its way to Hartford with
supplies for the traders, and was ordered back; thus were the New Amsterdam
people cut off from a profitable commerce on the Connecticut, and from
territorial expansion eastward, although their Hartford colony lived for
many years.
Sidenote: Condition of the colony (1636-1637).
The migration from Massachusetts to the Connecticut continued vigorously
during 1636, and by the spring of 1637 the colony had a population of eight
hundred souls, grouped in the three towns of Windsor, Hartford, and
Wethersfield,--Winthrop's establishment at Saybrook being but a military
station, which had no connection with the Massachusetts settlements up the
river until 1644. The Pequod war, in 1637, stirred Connecticut to its
centre. A force of about one hundred and fifteen Massachusetts and
Connecticut men, under the command of Capt. John Mason of Windsor, was
handled with much skill, and soon nearly annihilated the Pequod tribe. The
Indians crushed, immigration was renewed, and prosperity became general
throughout the valley.
58. The Connecticut Government (1639-1643).
Sidenote: Government established.
During the first year the Connecticut towns were still claimed by the
parent colony, and were controlled by a commission from Massachusetts. At
the end of that time (1637) there was held a General Court, in which each
town was represented by two magistrates, this body adopting such local
regulations as were of immediate necessity.
Sidenote: The Connecticut Constitution.
In January, 1639, the three towns adopted a constitution in which
Massachusetts acquiesced, thus practically abandoning her claims of
sovereignty over them. This Connecticut constitution was undoubtedly, as
Fiske says, "the first written constitution known to history that created a
government,"--the "Mayflower" compact being rather an agreement to accept a
constitution, while Magna Charta did not create a government. Bryce
characterizes the Connecticut document as "the oldest truly political
constitution in America." It is noticeable for the fact that it made no
reference to the king or to any charter or patent; it was simply an
agreement between colonists in neighboring towns, independent of any but
royal authority, as to the manner of their local and general
self-government. The governor and six magistrates (another name for
assistants) were to be elected by a majority of the whole body of free men;
but later, with the spread of the colony, voting by proxies was allowed.
The governor alone need be a church member, and he was not to serve for two
years in succession; but this restriction on re-election was abolished in
favor of the younger Winthrop in 1660. Each town might admit freemen by
popular vote; and it is noticeable that despite the fact that the original
settlers of Connecticut came as organized congregations, with their
ministers and elders, it was ordained there should be no religious
restriction on suffrage, which was thus made almost unrestricted; the towns
were to be represented in the General Court by two deputies each; the
practical administration was in the hands of the governor and his
assistants, who were also members of the General Court. In time the system
became bicameral, the deputies forming the lower, and the council the upper
house; the towns were allowed all powers not expressly granted to the
commonwealth, the affairs of each being executed by a board of "chief
inhabitants," acting as magistrates. The government of Connecticut was on
the whole somewhat more liberal and democratic than that of Massachusetts,
and was the model upon which many American States were afterwards built.
Sidenote: Hooker's influence.
More than to any other man, the credit for this epoch-making constitution
belongs to the Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, the leading spirit of the
colony. He argued that "the foundation of authority is laid in the free
consent of the people;" that "the choice of public magistrates belongs unto
the people by God's own allowance;" and that "they who have power to
appoint officers and magistrates have the right also to set the bounds and
limitations of the power and place unto which they call them." These are
truisms to-day, but in 1638 they were the utterances of a political
prophet.
Sidenote: Characteristics of Connecticut.
Under her liberal constitutional government, based upon the voice of the
people, Connecticut was from the first a practically independent republic.
The public officers were plain, honest men, who acceptably administered the
affairs of the colony with small cost. The colonists were shrewd in
political management, frugal in their expenditures, hard-working, and
ingenious. Education flourished, a severe morality obtained, and religious
persecution was unknown. Connecticut was noted among the colonies for its
prosperity, independence, and enlightenment.
59. New Haven founded (1637-1644).
Sidenote: Origin of the colony.
Theophilus Eaton was a London merchant "of fair estate, and of great esteem
for religion and wisdom in outward affairs." He was at one time an
ambassador to the Danish court, and had been one of the original assistants
of the Massachusetts Company, although not active in its affairs. John
Davenport had been an ordained minister in London; he turned Puritan, and
on his resignation in 1633 went to Holland. These two men formed a
congregation, composed for the most part of middle-class Londoners, who
resolved to migrate to America, there to set up a State founded on
scriptural models. The Plymouth and Massachusetts men had started out with
this same idea; but as the result of circumstances, had made compromises
which Eaton and Davenport could not countenance.
Sidenote: The plantation covenant.
In July, 1637, the two leaders arrived in Boston with a small company of
their disciples, among whom were several men of wealth and good social
position, but extremely narrow and bigoted in religious faith. They have
been styled the Brahmins of New England Puritanism. They did not deem it
practicable to settle in Massachusetts, and the following spring (March,
1638) sailed to Long Island Sound and established an independent settlement
on the site of New Haven, thirty miles west of the Connecticut river. For a
year their only bond of union was a "plantation covenant" to obey the
Scriptures in all things.
Sidenote: The Constitution.
In October, 1639, there was adopted a constitution, in the making of which
Davenport had the chief hand. The governor and four magistrates were to be
elected by the freemen, who were, as in Massachusetts, church members;
trial by jury was rejected, because it lacked scriptural authority; and it
was formally declared "that the Word of God shall be the only rule attended
unto in ordering the affairs of government." Eaton was chosen governor, and
held the office by annual election until his death, twenty years later.
Sidenote: Neighboring towns.
The neighborhood of New Haven was soon settled by other immigrants, most of
whom were also strict constructionists of the Scriptures, while a few
others were as liberal in their ideas as the people of the Connecticut
valley. Guilford was established (1639) seventeen miles to the north, and
Milford (1639) eleven miles westward; Stamford (1640), well on towards New
York, followed, while Southold was boldly planted (1640) on Long Island,
opposite Guilford, in territory claimed by the Dutch. As each town was as
well a church, these were for some years little independent communities,
founded on the New Haven model. In 1643, however, they formed a union with
New Haven, and a system of representation was introduced. Each town sent up
deputies to the General Court, in which also sat the governor,
deputy-governor, and assistants, elected by the whole body of freemen; yet
a majority of either the deputies or the magistrates might veto a measure.
Local magistrates--seven to each town, known as "pillars of the
church"--tried petty cases, but important suits were passed upon by the
assistants. The "seven pillars" were the autocrats of their several towns,
and colonial affairs were also practically in the hands of the select few
who controlled the church.
Sidenote: Peter's False Blue Laws.
At the meeting of the General Court in April, 1644, the magistrates in the
confederation were ordered to observe "the judicial laws of God as they
were delivered by Moses." This injunction afterwards gave rise to an absurd
report, circulated in 1781 by Rev. Samuel Peters, a Tory refugee, that the
New Haven statutes were of peculiar quaintness and severity. For nearly one
hundred years Peters's fable of the New Haven Blue Laws was accepted as
historic truth.
Sidenote: Characteristics of New Haven.
At first, New Haven failed to prosper; but after a few years, with the
increase of trade, better times prevailed, and by the close of the century
the town was noted for the wealth of its inhabitants and their fine houses.
Education was greatly encouraged, and there were considerable shipping
interests; but the ecclesiastical system was peculiar, and suffrage greatly
restricted. There were, in consequence, frequent outbursts of
dissatisfaction among the people. The colony thus had conspicuous elements
of weakness, and was finally absorbed by Connecticut.
60. Rhode Island founded (1636-1654).
Sidenote: Roger Williams.
In 1636, with five of his disciples, Roger Williams, driven from
Massachusetts as a reformer of a dangerous type, established the town of
Providence, at the head of Narragansett Bay.
Sidenote: Anne Hutchinson.
The following year (1637) a party of Anne Hutchinson's followers--also
expelled from Massachusetts because of heretical opinions--settled on the
island of Aquedneck (afterwards Rhode Island), eighteen miles to the south.
Mrs. Hutchinson joined them in 1638, and the town was eventually called
Portsmouth.
Sidenote: Newport established.
Both communities at once attracted from Massachusetts people who had either
been expelled from that colony or were not in entire harmony with it, and
by the close of 1638 Providence contained sixty persons, and Portsmouth
nearly as many. The next year fifty-nine of the Portsmouth people, headed
by the chief magistrate, Coddington, dissenting from some of Mrs.
Hutchinson's "new heresies," withdrew to the southern end of the island and
settled Newport; but the two towns reunited in 1640, under the name of
Rhode Island, with Coddington as governor.
Sidenote: The Providence agreement.
Each of these colonies, Providence and Rhode Island, was at first an
independent body politic. It is interesting to note their original
compacts. The Providence agreement (1636), signed by Roger Williams and
twelve of his sympathizers, was as follows: "We whose names are hereunder,
desirous to inhabit in the Town of Providence, do promise to subject
ourselves in active or passive obedience to all such orders or agreements
as shall be made for the public good of the body, in an orderly way, by the
major assent of the present inhabitants, masters of families, incorporated
together into a town fellowship, and such others whom they shall admit unto
them, only in civil things." Five freemen, called arbitrators, managed
public affairs, and for some years there appear to have been no fixed rules
for their guidance.
Sidenote: The Portsmouth declaration.
At Portsmouth the people united in the following declaration: "We do here
solemnly, in the presence of Jehovah, incorporate ourselves into a body
politic, and as He shall help will submit our persons, lives, and estates
unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, and to all
those perfect and most absolute laws of His, given us in His holy words of
truth, to be guided and judged thereby." The freemen conducted public
affairs in town meeting, with a secretary, a clerk, and a chief magistrate.
Newport was similarly organized; but when Newport and Portsmouth reunited,
a more complex government was instituted. A General Court was then
established, in which sat the governor, the deputy-governor, and four
assistants,--one town choosing the governor and two of the assistants, and
the other the deputy-governor and the remaining assistants; the freemen
composed the body of the court, and settled even the most trivial cases. In
1641 it was declared that "it is in the power of the body of the freemen
orderly assembled, or the part of them, to make and constitute just laws by
which they shall be regulated, and to depute from among themselves such
ministers as shall see them faithfully executed between man and man." At
the same session an order was adopted "that none be accounted a delinquent
for doctrine, provided it be not directly repugnant to the government or
laws established."
Sidenote: An asylum for sectaries.
By the other colonies Providence and Rhode Island were deemed hot-beds of
anarchy. Persons holding all manner of Protestant theological notions
flocked thither in considerable numbers, and it is true that for many years
there were hot contentions between them, often to the disturbance of public
order. Despite these years of bickerings, Providence and Rhode Island
prospered.
Sidenote: Establishment of Providence Plantations.
Through the exertions of Roger Williams, Providence, Portsmouth, and
Newport, with a new town called Warwick were united under one charter
(1644), as the colony of Providence Plantations. This liberal document,
issued by the Parliamentary Committee on the Colonies, gave to the
inhabitants along Narragansett Bay authority to rule themselves "by such
form of civil government as by the voluntary consent of all or the greatest
part of them shall be found most serviceable to their estate and
condition." Larger power could not have been wished for. By a curious
provision, adopted in 1647, a law had to be proposed at the General Court;
it was then sent round to the towns for the freemen to pass upon it, thus
giving the voters a voice in the conduct of affairs, without the necessity
of attending court. A majority of freemen in any one town could defeat the
measure. A code of laws resembling the common laws of England, and with few
references to biblical precedents, passed safely through the ordeal in
1647; one important section provided that "all men may walk as their
conscience persuades them."
Sidenote: The Coddington faction.
The following year Coddington, as the head of a faction, obtained a
separate charter for Newport and Portsmouth,--much to the disgust of many
of the inhabitants of those as well as of the other towns. A bitter feud
lasted until 1654, when Williams once more appeared as peacemaker and
secured the reunion of all the towns under the general charter of 1644,
with himself as president. The old law code was restored.
Sidenote: Characteristics of Rhode Island.
Rhode Island was founded by a religious outcast, and always remained as an
asylum for those sectaries who could find no home elsewhere. The purpose
was noble, and Williams persisted in his policy, despite the fact that life
was often made uncomfortable for him by his ill-assorted fellow-colonists,
who were continually bickering with each other. Throughout the seventeenth
century Rhode Island was a hot-bed of disorder. Fanaticism not only
expressed itself in religion, but in politics and society; and no scheme
was so wild as to find no adherents in this confused medley. The condition
of the colony served as a warning to its neighbors, seeming to confirm the
wisdom of their theocratic methods.
61. Maine founded (1622-1658).
Sidenote: Sir Ferdinando Gorges.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges, governor of Plymouth in England, became interested
in New England, we have seen, as early as 1605. Ten years later he assisted
John Smith in organizing an unsuccessful voyage to the northern coast; in
1620 we find him a member of the council of the Plymouth Company; in 1622
he and John Mason (not the hero of the Pequod war), both of them Churchmen
and strong friends of the king, obtained a grant of the country lying
between the Merrimack and Kennebec Rivers; and it was Gorges who sent out
Maverick to settle on Noddle's Island, and Blackstone to hold the Boston
peninsula. Later (1629), Mason obtained an individual grant from the
Plymouth Council of the territory between the Merrimack and the Piscataqua
(New Hampshire), and Gorges that from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec
(Maine); these grants were similar in character to the charter of the
Massachusetts Bay Company. When the Plymouth Company threw up its charter
in 1634, and New England was parcelled out (1635) among the members of the
council, Gorges and Mason secured a confirmation of their former personal
grants. Mason died a few months later, leaving the settlements in his tract
to be annexed to Massachusetts in 1641.
Sidenote: Becomes Lord Proprietor of Maine.
In April, 1639, Gorges obtained a provincial charter from the king,
conferring upon him the title of Lord Proprietor of the Province or County
of Maine, his domain to extend, as before, from the Kennebec to the
Piscataqua, and backward one hundred and twenty miles from the coast. He
received almost absolute authority over the people of his province, who
were then but three hundred in number. Saco, established by him about the
year 1623, was the principal settlement, and contained one half of the
population; while a half-dozen smaller hamlets, chiefly of his creation,
were scattered along the neighboring shore, inhabited by fishermen,
hunters, and traders. The greater part of these people were adherents of
the king and the Established Church. Notwithstanding Gorges's
long-sustained effort to attract men of wealth to his plantations, the
province was not as flourishing as its neighbors to the south.
Sidenote: His cumbrous constitution.
Gorges amused his old age by drafting a cumbrous Constitution for his
people. He was to make laws in conjunction with the freemen; the laws of
England were to prevail in cases not covered by the statutes; the Church of
England was to be the State religion; all Englishmen were to be allowed
fishing privileges; the proprietor was to establish manorial courts; and he
was also empowered, of his own motion, to levy taxes, raise troops, and
declare war. In examining the official machinery which Gorges sought to
erect in Maine, we are reminded of Locke's constitution for the Carolinas;
the proprietor was to be represented by a deputy-governor, under whom was
to be a long line of officers with high-sounding titles, these to form the
council; with them were to meet the deputies selected by the freeholders.
The provinces were to be cut up into bailiwicks or counties, hundreds,
parishes, and tithings; justice in each bailiwick was to be administered by
a lieutenant and eight magistrates, the nominees of the proprietor or his
deputy, and under each was a staff of minor functionaries. There were
almost enough officers provided for in Gorges's plan to give every one of
his subjects a public position.
Sidenote: The colony neglected.
The proprietor himself never visited America; he was represented by his son
Thomas as deputy-governor. It was impossible for the latter, however, to
carry all of his father's plans into effect, and gradually the province
sank into disorder and neglect. Its towns were finally absorbed by
Massachusetts (1652-1658).
Sidenote: Characteristics of Maine.
The settlers brought out to people Maine were the servants of individuals
or companies having a tract of land to be occupied and cultivated,
fisheries to conduct, and fur-trade to prosecute. They did not come to
found a church or build a state, and such institutions as they developed
were the immediate outcome of their necessities. They had little sympathy
or communication with their neighbors of Massachusetts and Plymouth.
62. New Hampshire founded (1620-1685).
Sidenote: Origin of the first settlements.
We have seen that John Mason was given a grant in 1629 of the country
between the Merrimack and the Piscataqua. In his scheme for colonizing the
tract, Gorges was associated with him. But David Thomson and three Plymouth
fur-traders had already gained a footing at Rye in 1622, under a grant from
the Plymouth Council. Dover had been founded before 1628 by the brothers
Hilton, Puritan fish-dealers in London; and some of Mrs. Hutchinson's
adherents, exiles from Massachusetts, founded Exeter and Hampton. In 1630
Neal, as colonizing agent of Mason and Gorges, settled at Portsmouth, on
the Piscataqua, with a large party of farmers and fishermen, all of them
Church of England men; and it is probable that this colony absorbed the
neighboring settlement at Rye. By the time the proprietors dissolved
partnership in 1635 (page 150, § 61), considerable property had been
accumulated by them here, as in the inventory of their possessions at
Portsmouth we find twenty-two cannons, two hundred and fifty small-arms,
forty-eight fishing-boats, forty horses, fifty-four goats, nearly two
hundred sheep, and over a hundred cattle. This argues a large
establishment. Upon the death of Mason, later in the year, the Piscataqua
colony was left to its own guidance. All of the New Hampshire towns were
from the first independent communities, governed much after the fashion of
the other English towns to the south of them.
Sidenote: Characteristics of New Hampshire.
The beginnings of New Hampshire were the results of commercial enterprise
in England and theological dissensions in Massachusetts. The inhabitants of
the several towns had little in common, and held different political and
religious views. Planted under various auspices, when they grew to
importance they were the subject of long struggles for jurisdiction. It
would be tiresome to trace the history of these disputes; suffice it to say
that after many changes the settlements on or near the Piscataqua were
(1641-1643) incorporated with Massachusetts, which ruled them with marked
discretion, and refrained from meddling with their religious views. In
1679, as the result of disputes growing out of the revival of the Mason
claim in England, New Hampshire was turned into a royal province, but in
1685 was reunited to Massachusetts. As to the character of the people of
New Hampshire, what has been said in regard to those of Maine may in a
great measure also be applied to them.
CHAPTER VII.
NEW ENGLAND FROM 1643 TO 1700.
63. References.
Bibliographies.--Same as § 47, above; Avery, II., III.; Channing and Hart,
_Guide_, §§ 124-128.
Historical Maps.--Same as § 47, above.
General Accounts.--Doyle, _Colonies_, II. chs. viii., ix., III. chs. i.-v.;
Lodge, _Colonies_, 351-362, 375-380, 387-392, 398-400; Osgood, _Colonies_;
Avery, II. chs. xiii.-xviii., III. chs. vii., viii., x.-xii., xix.-xxi.; G.
Bancroft, I. 289-407, 574-613; Channing, _United States_, I. chs. xv.,
xviii., xix.; Hildreth, I. chs. x., xii., xiv.; Palfrey, _New England_, I.
269-408, III. 1-386; Fiske, _Beginnings of New England_; Hallowell, _Quaker
Invasion of Massachusetts_; R. Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, chs.
ii., iii.; A. MacLear, _Early New England Towns_; Winsor, _Narrative and
Critical_, as in § 47.
Special Histories.--Consult the numerous local histories, some of them of
much importance; Winsor's _Boston_, and Sheldon's _Deerfield_ are examples.
Contemporary Accounts.--Sewall, _Diary_; Mather, _Magnalia_; Bishop, _New
England Judged_; Hubbard, _Trouble with the Indians_.--Reprints in
publications of colonial and town record commissions, historical and
antiquarian societies, Prince Society, Gorges Society, etc.; Andros,
_Tracts_; _American History Leaflets_, Nos. 7, 25, 29; _Old South
Leaflets_; _American History told by Contemporaries_, I. ch. xx., II.
64. New England Confederation formed (1637-1643).
Sidenote: Local politics excluded.
In the preceding chapter has been sketched the origin and planting of the
New England colonies. Most of those colonies maintained a separate
existence and had a history of their own during the rest of the seventeenth
century. But the limits of this work do not permit a sketch of the local
and internal history of each colony. In this chapter will therefore be
considered only those events of common interest and having a significance
in the development of all the colonies.
Sidenote: Connecticut makes overtures for a colonial federation (1637).
First in time and first in its consequences is the federation of the New
England colonies, for which in August, 1637, the men of Connecticut made
overtures to the Massachusetts General Court. Connecticut, as an outpost of
English civilization in the heart of the Indian country and "over against
the Dutch," had especial need of support from the older colonies to the
east. The tribesmen were uneasy and the menaces of the Dutch at New
Amsterdam were especially alarming. Twice had the doughty Hollanders
endeavored to drive English settlers from the Connecticut valley and
recover their lost fur-trade there; both attempts had been failures, but it
seemed likely that in time the Dutch might summon sufficient strength to
make it more difficult to withstand them. Again, the French, who had
settled at Quebec in 1608, were beginning to push the confines of New
France southward; and there had been trouble with them at various times for
several years, the outgrowth of boundary disputes and race hatred. The
Connecticut and Hudson rivers were highways quite familiar to the French
Canadians and their Indian allies, and the Connecticut colonists were
apprehensive of partisan raids overland from the north, which they could
not hope to repel single-handed.
Sidenote: Massachusetts at last favorable (1642).
The proposition for union was renewed in 1639, and again in September,
1642. At first Massachusetts was indifferent; but finally "the ill news we
had out of England concerning the breach between the king and Parliament"
appears to have caused her statesmen to look favorably on the project.
Affairs were at such a pass in the mother-country that it behooved
Englishmen in America to be prepared to act on the defensive in the event
of the war-cloud drifting in their direction. Should the king win, there
was reason to believe that he would speedily turn his attention towards the
correction of New England, which had long been to dissenting Englishmen in
the mother-land an object-lesson in political independence and a ready
refuge in time of danger.
Sidenote: Formation of the New England Confederation.
In May, 1643, twelve articles were agreed upon at Boston between the
representatives of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven.
Winthrop tells us that the representatives "coming to consultation
encountered some difficulties, but being all desirous of union and studious
of peace, they readily yielded each to other in such things as tended to
common utility." Compromises were the foundation of this as well as of
later American constitutions.
Sidenote: The Constitution.
The four colonies were bound together by a formal written constitution,
under the name of "The United Colonies of New England," in "a firm and
perpetual league of friendship and amity for offence and defence, mutual
advice and succor, upon all just occasions, both for preserving and
propagating the truth and liberties of the Gospel, and for their own mutual
safety and welfare." Each colony was allowed to manage its internal
affairs; but a body of eight federal commissioners, two from each colony,
and all of them church members, were empowered to "determine all affairs of
war or peace, leagues, aids, charges, and numbers of men for war, division
of spoils and whatsoever was gotten by conquest, receiving of more
confederates for plantations into combination with any of the confederates,
and all things of like nature which were the proper concomitants or
consequents of such a confederation for amity, offence, and defence." Six
commissioners formed a working majority of the board; but in case of
disagreement, the question at issue was to be sent to the legislatures of
the several colonies for decision. War expenses were to be levied against
each colony in proportion to its male population between the ages of
sixteen and sixty. The board was to meet at least once a year, and oftener
when necessary. The president of the commissioners, chosen from their own
number, was to be "invested with no power or respect" except that of a
presiding officer.
65. Workings of the Confederation (1643-1660).
Sidenote: Inequality of representation.
The league which it represented is "interesting as the first American
experiment in federation;" but it had one fertile source of weakness. There
were in the four colonies represented an aggregate population of about
twenty-four thousand, of which Massachusetts contained fifteen thousand,
the other three having not more than three thousand each. In case of war
Massachusetts agreed to send one hundred men for every forty-five furnished
by each of her colleagues. In two ways she bore the heaviest burden,--in
the number of men sent to war, and in the amount of taxes levied therefor.
As each colony was to have an equal vote in the conduct of the league,
Massachusetts was placed at a disadvantage. She frequently endeavored to
exercise larger power than was allowed her under the articles, thus
arousing the enmity of the smaller colonies, and endangering the existence
of the union.
Sidenote: Massachusetts in control.
Nevertheless, during the twenty years in which the confederation was the
strongest political power on the continent of North America, Massachusetts
maintained control of its general policy. Maine and the settlements along
Narragansett Bay in vain made application to join the confederation. It was
objected that public order was not established in Rhode Island, and
moreover the oath taken by the freemen there bespoke fealty to the English
king. As for Maine, its proprietor, Gorges, was enlisted on the side of the
monarch, and the political system in vogue in his province differed from
that in the other colonies.
Sidenote: Nature of the Board of Commissioners.
The board was little more than a committee of public safety; it acted upon
the colonial legislatures, and not on the individual colonists, and had no
power to enforce its decrees. One of its early interests was the building
up of Harvard College; and at its request there was taken up, throughout
the four colonies, a contribution of "corn for the poor scholars in
Cambridge."
Sidenote: Local independence greater than national patriotism.
In the articles of confederation there was no reference whatever to the
home government. The New Englanders had taken charge of their own affairs,
apparently without a thought of the supremacy of either king or parliament.
The spirit of local independence among these people was greater than
national patriotism. With Laud in prison and the king an outcast, there
could be no interference from that quarter, and Parliament was too busy
just then to give much thought to the doings of the distant American
colonists. In November (1643) Parliament instituted a commission for the
government of the colonies, with the Earl of Warwick at its head; but it
was of small avail so far as New England was concerned.
Sidenote: Jealousy of interference from England.
Massachusetts was ever in an attitude of jealousy towards even a suspicion
of interference from England. In 1644 the General Court voted that any one
attempting to raise soldiers for the king should be "accounted as an
offender of an high nature against this commonwealth, and to be proceeded
with, either capitally or otherwise, according to the quality and degree of
his offence." The colony was, however, no more for the Commons than for the
king. When, in 1651, Parliament desired that Massachusetts surrender her
charter granted by King Charles and receive a new one at its hands, for a
year no notice was taken of the command; when at last England had a war
with Holland on her hands, the Massachusetts men evasively replied that
they were quite satisfied "to live under the government of a governor and
magistrates of their own choosing and under laws of their own making." The
General Court was also bold enough to establish a colonial mint (1652), and
for thirty years coined "pine-tree shillings," in the face of all
objections. In 1653 Cromwell, always a firm friend to New England, was
declared Lord Protector; yet Massachusetts did not allow the event to be
proclaimed within her borders, and when he wished Massachusetts to help him
in his war against the Dutch by capturing New Amsterdam, the colonial court
somewhat haughtily "gave liberty to his Highness's commissioners" to raise
volunteers in her territory. At the Restoration it was not until warning
came from friends in England, that Charles II. was proclaimed in New
England.
66. Disturbances in Rhode Island (1641-1647).
Sidenote: The sectaries on Narragansett Bay.
Over on Narragansett Bay the public peace continued to be disturbed by
factious disputations. Because of the freedom there generously offered to
all men, the settlements of Rhode Island and Providence were the
harboring-place for dissenters of every class, who for the most part had
been ordered to leave the other colonies. Many of these persons were of the
Baptist faith, or held other theological views which would be considered
sober enough in our day; but among them were numerous rank fanatics, whom
no well-ordered society was calculated to please.
Sidenote: The case of Gorton.
Some of Roger Williams's adherents had built Pawtuxet. To them came a band
of fanatics, headed by Samuel Gorton, described by his orthodox neighbors
as "a proud and pestilent seducer," of "insolent and riotous carriage," but
who was by no means so black as they painted him. The Pawtuxet settlers
asked Massachusetts (1641) "of gentle courtesy and for the preservation of
humanity and mankind," to "lend a neighbor-like helping hand" and relieve
them of the disturber. At the same time they secured the annexation of
their town to Massachusetts, so that it might be within the jurisdiction of
the latter. Gorton and nine of his followers were taken as prisoners to
Boston (1643), where they were convicted of blasphemy, and after four or
five months at hard labor were released, with threats of death if they did
not at once depart from Massachusetts soil.
Gorton went to England (1646) and appealed to the parliamentary
commissioners, who declared that he might "freely and quietly live and
plant" upon his land which he had purchased from the Indians at Shawomet
(Warwick), on the western shore of Narragansett Bay. Edward Winslow of
Plymouth was now sent over (1647) to represent Massachusetts in the Gorton
case; and through him the plea was entered that the commissioners, being
far distant from America, should not undertake the decision of appeals from
the colonies; and moreover, that the Massachusetts charter was an "absolute
power of government." The commissioners, in return, protested that they
"intended not to encourage any appeals from your justice;" nevertheless,
they "commanded" the General Court to allow Gorton and his followers to
dwell in peace; but "if they shall be faulty, we leave them to be proceeded
with according to justice." The offender was allowed to return, but his
presence was haughtily ignored; and when his settlement was threatened by
Indians, he cited in vain the parliamentary order as a warrant for
assistance.
67. Policy of the Confederation (1646-1660).
Sidenote: Expressions of independence.
The sturdy and independent spirit of the colonists was expressed in words
as well as in deeds. While Winslow was thus representing the colonists in
England he made his famous reply to those who were disposed to criticise
the formation of the New England confederacy as a presumptuous assertion of
independence: "If we in America should forbear to unite for offence and
defence against a common enemy till we have leave from England, our throats
might be all cut before the messenger would be half seas through." A
similar impatience of authority from England was expressed by Governor John
Winthrop. An opinion which he delivered about this time betokened the proud
and independent attitude of Massachusetts, and was prophetic of the spirit
of the Revolution. By a legal fiction, when the king granted land in
America it was held as being in the manor of East Greenwich. It was said
that the American colonists were represented in that body by the member
returned from the borough containing this manor, and were therefore subject
to Parliament. Winthrop held, however, that the supreme law in the colonies
was the common weal, and should parliamentary authority endanger the
welfare of the colonists, then they would be justified in ignoring that
authority.
Sidenote: The Presbyterians.
Religious liberty was quite as dear to the New England people as political
liberty. In 1645, under Scottish influence, Presbyterianism was established
by Act of Parliament as the state religion of England. Massachusetts was,
however, stoutly Independent, and furnished some of the chief champions for
that faith during the great controversy which was then raging between the
two sects on both sides of the water. A number of Massachusetts
Presbyterians sought (1646) to induce the home government to settle
churches of their faith in the colonies, and to secure the franchise to
all, regardless of religious affiliation; but before they reached England
to state their case the Independents were again in the ascendent, and the
Puritan theocracy in Massachusetts was undisturbed. Two years later (1648)
a synod of churches was held at Cambridge, at which was formulated a church
discipline familiarly styled "the Cambridge platform." In it the
Westminster Confession was approved, the powers of the clergy defined, the
civil power invoked to "coerce" churches which should "walk incorrigibly or
obstinately in any corrupt way of their own," and the term "Congregational"
established, to distinguish New England orthodoxy from "those corrupt sects
and heresies which showed themselves under the vast title of Independency."
In 1649 this platform was laid by the General Court before the several
congregations, and two years later it was formally agreed to.
Sidenote: Encroachments upon Dutch possessions.
It was hardly to be supposed that a people so little inclined to
acknowledge the rights of England should treat with greater respect those
of Holland; and indeed they had the countenance of the home government in
encroachments upon the Dutch colonies. In 1642 Boswell, who represented
England at the Hague, advised his fellow-countrymen in New England to "put
forward their plantations and crowd on, crowding the Dutch out of those
places where they have occupied."
The New Englanders were not slow to adopt this aggressive policy.
Settlements were pushed out westward from New Haven on the mainland, and
southward on Long Island. Peter Stuyvesant, then governor of New
Netherland, bitterly complained of these encroachments,--for the Dutch then
claimed everything between the Connecticut and Delaware rivers,--and
appealed to the federal commissioners to put a stop to them; but the answer
came that the Dutch were selling arms and ammunition to the Indians, that
their conduct was not conducive to peace, that they harbored criminals from
the English colonies, and that the United Colonies proposed to "vindicate
the English rights by all suitable and just means." Stuyvesant, who was a
hot-headed man, would have liked to go to war with the New Englanders, but
was informed by the Dutch West India Company that war "cannot in any event
be to our advantage: the New England people are too powerful for us." The
matter was finally (1651) left to arbitrators, who settled a provisional
boundary line which "on the mainland was not to come within ten miles of
the Hudson River," and which gave to Connecticut the greater part of Long
Island.
Sidenote: Weakness of the confederation in the Dutch War.
War broke out between England and Holland in 1652, and the Connecticut
people were anxious to attack New Netherland, which had not ceased its
depredations on the outlying settlements. All of the federal commissioners
except those from Massachusetts voted to go to war; there was a stormy
session of the federal court, in which Massachusetts endeavored in vain to
override the other colonies. Connecticut and New Haven applied to Cromwell
for assistance. He sent over a fleet to Boston, with injunctions to
Massachusetts to cease her opposition. The General Court stoutly refused to
raise troops for the enterprise, although it gave to the agents of Cromwell
the privilege of enlisting five hundred volunteers in the colony if they
could. But while arrangements were in progress for an attack by eight
hundred men on New Amsterdam, news came that England and Holland had
proclaimed peace (April 5, 1654), and warlike preparations in America
ceased.
Sidenote: Massachusetts in collision with the commissioners.
The weakness of the New England confederation was evident in domestic
affairs as well as in foreign wars. Massachusetts was frequently in
collision with the commissioners. An instance occurred as early as
1642-1643, when trouble broke out with the Narragansetts, who were friends
and allies of the disturber Gorton at Shawomet. Massachusetts refused to
sanction hostilities; nevertheless the commissioners despatched a federal
force against the Indians; but the expedition proved futile, owing to lack
of support from the chief colony.
Sidenote: Contention between Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Saybrook, at the mouth of the Connecticut River, was purchased by the
Connecticut federation in 1644. In order to compensate herself, Connecticut
levied toll on every vessel passing up the river. Massachusetts owned the
valley town of Springfield, and entered complaint before the commissioners
(1647) that Connecticut had no right to tax Massachusetts vessels trading
with a Massachusetts town. Two years later (1649) the commissioners decided
in favor of Connecticut; whereupon Massachusetts levied both export and
import duties at Boston designed to hamper the trade of her sister
colonies; at the same time she demanded that because of her greater size
she be allowed three commissioners, and insisted that the power of the
federal body be reduced. This action created great hostility, and
threatened at one time to break up the union. By 1654 the contention had
been allowed to drop on both sides, and duties on intercolonial trade
ceased.
68. Repression of the Quakers (1656-1660).
Sidenote: Treatment of the Quakers.
During the remainder of the Commonwealth period the most serious question
which arose in New England was what to do with the Quakers. In the
theocracy of the seventeenth century the attitude of the sect was both
theologically and politically well calculated to arouse hostility. They
would strip all formalities from religion, they would recognize no priestly
class, they would not take up arms in the common defence, would pay no
tithes and take no oath of allegiance, they doubted the efficacy of
baptism, had no veneration for the Sabbath, and had a large respect for the
right of individual judgment in spiritual matters. They were aggressive and
stubborn, and, goaded on by persecution, broke out into fantastic displays
of opposition to the State religion. In England four thousand of them were
in jail at one time. When Anne Austin and Mary Fisher arrived in Boston
(1656) from England, by way of the Barbados, as a vanguard of the Quaker
missionary army, the colonial authorities were aghast with horror. The
adventurous women were shipped back to the Barbados, and a law was enacted
against "all Quakers, Ranters, and other notorious heretics," providing for
their flogging and imprisonment at hard labor. Despite this harsh
treatment, the Quakers continued to arrive. Roger Williams said, when
applied to by Massachusetts to harry them out of Rhode Island: where they
are "most of all suffered to declare themselves freely, and only opposed by
arguments in discourse, there they least of all desire to come.... They are
likely to gain more followers by the conceit of their patient sufferings
than by consent to their pernicious sayings." Nevertheless, Rhode Island
was and is the stronghold of the Friends in New England.
In 1657 it was enacted that Quakers who had once been sent away and
returned, should have their ears lopped off, and for the third offence
should have their tongues pierced with red-hot irons. Banishment on pain of
death was recommended by the federal commissioners in 1658; and in
1659-1660 four Quakers lost their lives by hanging on Boston Common. Public
sentiment revolted at these spectacles, and in 1660 the Massachusetts
death-law was repealed, and Quakers were thereafter subjected to nothing
worse than being flogged in the several towns; even this gradually ceased,
with the growth of a more humane spirit. In Connecticut the sect suffered
but little persecution, and in Rhode Island none; while Plymouth and New
Haven were nearly as harsh in their treatment as Massachusetts.
Sidenote: New England in the hands of the council for the plantations.
The restoration of royalty in England (1660) began a new epoch in the
history of the colonies. Their control was placed in the hands of a council
for the plantations, and twelve privy councillors were designated to take
New England in charge. The Quakers had seized the opportunity of gaining an
early hearing from the new king, who was charitably disposed towards them.
In its address to Charles, the Massachusetts court expatiated on the
factious spirit of the Quakers; but the king replied that while he meant
well by the colonies, he desired that hereafter the Quakers be sent to
England for trial,--a desire which was as a matter of course disregarded.
69. Royal Commission (1660-1664).
Sidenote: The king suspects New England's loyalty.
It is not surprising that the king was disposed to look with suspicion upon
the men of New England. He had been told that the confederacy was "a war
combination made by the four colonies when they had a design to throw off
their dependence on England, and for that purpose." The New Englanders,
too, had been somewhat slow to proclaim his ascendancy; while two of the
judges who had sentenced his father to death, Goffe and Whalley, were
screened from royal justice by the people of New Haven, and afterwards by
those of Hadley, a Massachusetts town in the Connecticut valley.
Massachusetts had been bold enough when the home government was so
distracted by other affairs as to render attention to the colonies
impracticable; now that Charles appeared to be turning his attention to
America a more politic course was pursued. Simon Bradstreet, a leading
layman, and John Norton, prominent among the ministers, were sent to
England to make peace with the Crown, and soon returned (1662) with a
gracious answer, which, however, was coupled with an order to the court to
grant all "freeholders of competent estate" the right of suffrage and
office-holding, "without reference to their opinion or profession," to
allow the Church of England to hold services, to administer justice in the
name of the king, and to compel all inhabitants to swear allegiance to him.
The court decreed that legal papers should thereafter run in the king's
name; but all other matters in the royal mandate were referred to a
committee which failed to report upon them.
Sidenote: Arrival of royal commissioners.
Affairs now went on peacefully enough in Massachusetts until 1664. In that
year the king sent over four royal commissioners to look after the
colonies, among them being Samuel Maverick, one of the Presbyterian
petitioners who had made trouble for the New Englanders a few years before.
These commissioners were required "to dispose the people to an entire
submission and obedience to the king's government;" also to feel the public
pulse in Massachusetts, in order to see whether the Crown might not
judiciously assume to appoint a governor for that colony. They arrived at
Boston in July with two ships-of-war and four hundred troops. Obtaining
help from Connecticut, the expedition proceeded to New Amsterdam and easily
conquered that port from the Dutch. During the months the commissioners
were at Boston they were engaged in a prolonged quarrel with the
Massachusetts men, who claimed that their charter allowed them to govern
themselves after their own fashion, without interference from a royal
commission. The court was persistently importuned to give a plain answer to
the king's demands sent out in 1662; but nothing satisfactory could be
obtained, and the commissioners were obliged to return without having
accomplished their mission. The Dutch war against England was now going on,
and political affairs at home were unquiet. A policy of delay had been
profitable for Massachusetts.
Sidenote: Treatment of Connecticut, and of Rhode Island.
In the other colonies of New England better treatment had been accorded the
commissioners. Connecticut had sent over her governor, the younger
Winthrop, to represent her at court. He was well received there, being a
man of scholarly tastes and pleasing manner; the king was the more disposed
to favor him because by helping Connecticut a rival to Massachusetts would
be built up. A liberal charter was granted to his colony; and New
Haven--disliked by Charles for having harbored the regicides--was now,
despite her protest, annexed to her sister colony. Rhode Island, too, was
benefited by the royal favor, and received a charter making it a separate
colony. Doubtless the fact that the people of Narragansett Bay had been
shut out from the New England confederacy had inclined the king to look
kindly upon them. For these reasons Connecticut and Rhode Island had
received the commissioners with consideration, while weak Plymouth was also
praised for her ready obedience.
Sidenote: Decadence of the confederation.
The suppression of New Haven by the king, and the practical victory of the
Quakers over the theocratic policy of Massachusetts, were staggering blows
to the confederation. The federal commissioners held triennial meetings
thereafter until 1684, when the Massachusetts charter was revoked; but its
proceedings, except during King Philip's war, were of little importance.
Sidenote: A prosperous period.
The period of the decadence of the confederation, however, was in the main
one of prosperity for New England. Emigration to America had almost wholly
ceased after 1640, with the rise of the Puritans in England; but the
restoration of the Stuarts and the passage of the Act of Uniformity, with
its accompanying persecutions, caused a renewal of the departure of
Dissenters, and the movement included many, both laymen and clericals, of
eminent ability. New industries were introduced, commerce grew, the area of
settlement extended, and wealth increased.
Sidenote: Change of attitude towards England.
But the accretion of wealth and the passage of time brought changes in the
attitude towards England that threatened in a measure to counteract the
quiet struggle for independence which had been going on for nearly half a
century. A second generation of Americans had come upon the stage, with but
a traditional knowledge of the tyrannies practised upon their fathers in
the old country. Larger wealth secured greater leisure, which resulted in a
cultivation of the graceful arts, with a softening of the austere manners
and thinking of the first emigrants. There was now manifest a desire on the
part of many members of the upper class to bring about closer relations
with the Old World, with its fine manners, its aristocracy, and its
historic associations. Opposition to England began to give place to
imitation of England; colonial life had entered the provincial stage. Two
parties had by this time sprung up, although as yet without
organization,--one desiring to conciliate England, the other standing for
independence in everything except in name. Thus far none had ventured to
think of the possibility of dissolving all political connection with the
mother-land.
70. Indian Wars (1660-1678).
Sidenote: Indian policy of New England.
The Indian policy of the New Englanders was more humane than that adopted
in any of the other colonies except Pennsylvania. Compensation had been
granted to the savages for lands taken, firm friendships had been formed
between some of the chiefs and the whites, and the missionary enterprises
among the red-men were conducted on a large scale and with much zeal.
Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, and the country round about Boston were the
centres of proselytism; the "praying Indians" were gathered into village
congregations with native teachers, most notable being those under the
supervision of John Eliot, "the apostle." Of these converted Indians there
were in 1674 about four thousand; several hundred of them were taught a
written language invented by Eliot, who successfully undertook the
monumental labor of translating the Bible into it for their benefit.
Sidenote: Troubles with Philip.
Massasoit, head-chief of the Pokanokets, had made a treaty of alliance with
the Plymouth colonists soon after their arrival, and kept it strictly until
his death (1660). His two sons were christened at Plymouth as Alexander and
Philip. Alexander died (1662) at Plymouth, where he had gone to answer to a
charge of plotting with the Narragansetts against the whites. Philip, now
chief sachem, wrongfully thinking his brother to have been poisoned, was
thereafter a bitter enemy of the dominant race. For twelve years there were
numerous complaints against him, and he was frequently summoned to Plymouth
to make answer. He was smooth-spoken and fair of promise, but came to be
regarded as an unsatisfactory person with whom to deal. In 1674 it became
evident that Philip was planning a general Indian uprising, to drive the
English out of the land.
Sidenote: King Philip's War.
His territory was now chiefly confined to Mount Hope,--a peninsula running
into Narragansett Bay; and here he "began to keep his men in arms about
him, and to gather strangers unto him, and to march about in arms towards
the upper end of the neck on which he lived, and near to the English
houses." On the twentieth of June a party of his warriors attacked the
little town of Swanzey, killing many settlers and perpetrating fiendish
outrages. War-parties from Mount Hope now quickly spread over the country,
joined by the Nipmucks and other tribes. Throughout the white settlements
panic prevailed, and several towns in Massachusetts, as far west as the
Connecticut valley, were scenes of heart-rending tragedies.
The Narragansetts had played fast and loose in this struggle, their
disaffection growing with the success of the savage arms. It was evident
that unless crushed, they would openly espouse Philip's cause in the coming
spring, and the danger be doubled. A thousand volunteers, enlisted by the
federal commissioners, on December 19 attacked their palisaded fortress in
what is now South Kingston. Two thousand warriors, with many women and
children, were gathered within the walls. About one thousand Indians were
slain in the contest, which was one of the most desperate of its kind ever
fought in America.
The following spring and summer Philip again made bloody forays on the
settlements; but he was persistently attacked, his followers were
scattered, and he was at last driven, with a handful of followers, into a
swamp on Mount Hope. Here (Aug. 12, 1676) he was shot to death by a
friendly Indian, and "fell upon his face in the mud and water, with his gun
under him; ... upon which the whole army gave three loud huzzas." His hands
and head were cut off and taken to Boston and Plymouth respectively, in
token to the people at home that King Philip's war was at an end, and that
thereafter white men were to be supreme in New England.
Sidenote: The effect of the struggle.
During the two years' deadly struggle the colonists had been surfeited with
horrors, of which the statistics of loss can convey but slight idea. Of the
eighty or ninety towns in Plymouth and Massachusetts, nearly two-thirds had
been harried by the savages,--ten or twelve wholly, and the others
partially destroyed; while nearly six hundred fighting men--about ten per
cent of the whole--had either lost their lives or had been taken prisoners,
never to return. It was many years before the heavy war-debts of the
colonies could be paid; in Plymouth the debt exceeded in amount the value
of all the personal property.
The year before Philip fell (1675), trouble broke out with the Indians to
the north, on the Piscataqua. In the summer of 1678 the English of Maine
felt themselves compelled to purchase peace, thus establishing a precedent
which fortunately has not often been followed in America. The home
government was much annoyed at the obstinacy of the colonists in not
calling on it for aid in these two Indian wars. Jealous of English
interference, they preferred to fight their battles for themselves, and
thus to give no excuse to the king for maintaining royal troops in New
England.
71. Territorial Disputes (1649-1685).
Sidenote: Massachusetts extends her territory.
Massachusetts early gave evidence of a desire to extend her territory.
Disputes in regard to lands frequently gave rise to quarrels with the
Indians. In 1649 the strip of mainland along Long Island Sound, between the
western boundary of Rhode Island and Mystic River, was granted to her by
the federal commissioners. From 1652 to 1658 she absorbed the settlements
in Maine, now neglected by the heirs of Gorges, just as in 1642-1643 she
had annexed the New Hampshire towns. The council for foreign plantations
had been dissolved in 1675, and the management of colonial affairs was
resumed by a standing committee of the Privy Council styled "the Lords of
the Committee of Trade and Plantations." At this time the Gorges and Mason
heirs renewed their respective claims to Maine and New Hampshire, which
they said had been wrongfully swallowed up by Massachusetts.
Sidenote: The king's charges against Massachusetts.
Other complaints against the Bay Colony, that had been allowed to slumber
for some time, were now revived, and the Lords of Trade, as they were
familiarly called, were soon sitting in council upon the deeds of the
obstinate colony. The king's charges of early years were again advanced:
that the Acts of Navigation and Trade (page 104, § 44) were not being
observed; that ships from various European countries traded with Boston
direct, without paying duty to England on their cargoes; that money was
being coined at a colonial mint; and that Church of England members were
denied the right of suffrage. Edward Randolph, a relative of the Masons,
was sent over (1676) to be collector at the port of Boston, now a town of
five thousand inhabitants, and to investigate the colonies. His manner was
insulting, and he was rudely treated by the people, who were greatly
embittered against England in consequence of his malicious reports to the
home government.
Sidenote: New Hampshire a royal province.
In 1679 the king erected New Hampshire into a separate royal province.
Edward Cranfield, a tyrannical man, became the governor (1682), but his
conduct drove the people into insurrection. He was obliged to fly to the
West Indies (1685), and in the same year New Hampshire was reunited to
Massachusetts.
Sidenote: Massachusetts purchases Maine.
In 1665 the royal commissioners detached Maine from Massachusetts; but
three years later (1668) that commonwealth calmly took it back again.
Gorges was inclined to make trouble, and agents of Massachusetts quietly
purchased his claim (1677) for £1,250. The skilful manoeuvre excited the
displeasure of the king, who had intended himself to buy out the claims of
Gorges, in order to erect Maine into a proprietary province for his reputed
son, the Duke of Monmouth. The company of Massachusetts Bay now governed
Maine under the Gorges charter as lord proprietor, and did not make it a
part of the Massachusetts colony.
72. Revocation of the Charters (1679-1687).
Sidenote: The Massachusetts charter annulled.
It was two years later (1679) before Charles was ready again to make a
movement upon Massachusetts. He demanded that Maine should be delivered up
to the Crown, on repayment of the purchase money, and also that all other
complaints should at once be satisfied. The General Court gave an evasive
answer, and adopted its usual method of sending over agents to ward off
hostilities by a policy of delay. But in 1684 the blow came: a writ of _quo
warranto_ was issued against the simple trading charter under which
Massachusetts had so long been permitted to grow and prosper; the charter
was held to be annulled, and the colony now became a royal possession.
Sidenote: Arrival of Andros.
With the death of Charles II. (1685), James II. came to the English throne.
As a Roman Catholic, and imbued with a taste of absolute power, the
colonies had little favor to expect from him. In 1686, as a step towards
abolishing the American charters, James sent over Sir Edmund Andros as
governor of Massachusetts, Plymouth, New Hampshire, and Maine; he brought
authority to ignore all local political machinery and to govern the country
through a council, the president of which was Joseph Dudley, the unpopular
Tory son of the stern old Puritan who had been Winthrop's lieutenant. The
charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut were demanded for annulment
(1686). The former colony was, as usual, obedient, and yielded up her
charter; Connecticut failed to respond to the demand of Andros, and he went
to Hartford (October, 1687) and ordered the charter to be produced. A
familiar myth alleges that the document was concealed from him in the
hollow trunk of a large tree, known ever after as the "charter oak;"
nevertheless Andros arbitrarily declared the colony annexed to the other
New England colonies which he governed.
Sidenote: His despotic rule.
The following year (1688) Andros was also made governor of New York and the
Jerseys, his jurisdiction now extending from Delaware Bay to the confines
of New France, with his seat of government at Boston. The government of
Andros was despotic, and fell heavily on a people who had up to this time
been accustomed to their own way. Episcopal services were held in the
principal towns, and Congregational churches were frequently seized upon
for the purpose; the writ of _habeas corpus_ was suspended; a censorship of
the press was restored, with Dudley as censor; excessive registry fees were
charged; arbitrary taxes were levied; land grants made under former
administrations were annulled; private property was unsafe from
governmental interference; common lands were enclosed and divided among the
friends of Andros; the General Court was abolished, and most popular rights
were ignored. Dudley tersely described the situation (1687) on the trial of
the Rev. John Wise, of Ipswich, for heading a movement in that town to
resent taxation without representation: "Mr. Wise, you have no more
privileges left you than not to be sold for slaves."
73. Restoration of the Charters (1689-1692).
Sidenote: Andros deposed.
In April, 1689, news came of the Revolution in England, the flight of the
arrogant James, and the accession of the Prince of Orange. The example of
revolt was already foreshadowed in Boston, where Andros and Dudley were
deposed. Elsewhere in the Northern colonies the representatives of the
tyrant extortioners were driven out. The Protestant sovereigns, William and
Mary, were proclaimed amid great popular rejoicings.
Sidenote: New England under William and Mary.
The old charters were restored for the time. In September, 1691, Plymouth
and the newly acquired territory of Acadia were united to Massachusetts
under a new charter, which had been secured from the king chiefly through
the agency of the Rev. Increase Mather, of Boston, now influential in
colonial politics, as were also other members of the Mather family. In May
following (1692) this new charter for Massachusetts was received at Boston.
It was not as liberal as had been hoped. The people were allowed their
representative assembly as before, but the governor was to be appointed by
the Crown; the religious qualification for suffrage was abolished, a small
property qualification (an estate of £40 value, or a freehold worth £2 a
year) being substituted; laws passed by the General Court were subject to
veto by the king,--a provision fraught with danger to the colonists. Thus
Massachusetts became a Crown charter colony,--a position not uncomfortable
so long as the executive and the legislature could agree. The first royal
governor, Sir William Phipps (1692-1695), proved to be popular, generous,
and well-meaning. He had a romantic history, but was of slender capacity,
and owed his appointment to the favor of his pastor, Increase Mather.
Connecticut and Rhode Island received their charters back; New Hampshire
was governed by its new proprietor, Samuel Allen, but without a charter;
Maine continued under Massachusetts,--the Bay Colony now extending from
Rhode Island to New Brunswick, except for the short intervening strip of
New Hampshire coast.
It was fortunate for American liberty that the scheme of a consolidation of
the New England colonies was put forward by the Stuarts too late for
accomplishment. It was also fortunate that Massachusetts was flanked by and
often competed with by her neighbors, Plymouth, Connecticut, Rhode Island,
and New Hampshire, who were protected against her by a jealous government
in England, and that the Dutch cut off her ambitious territorial
aspirations to the west. In the separate colonial life was sown the spirit
of local patriotism which is now embodied in the American States. In New
England, as in the South, there was a leading, but never a dominant,
colony; the smaller colonies shared the experiences of the larger, but were
freer from calamitous changes, and enjoyed in some respects governments
which were more immediately under the control of the people.
The end of the century saw all the New England colonies established on what
seemed a permanent basis of loyalty to the Crown and of local independence.
CHAPTER VIII.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN NEW ENGLAND IN 1700.
74. References.
Bibliographies.--Same as §§ 47 and 63, above; Channing and Hart, _Guide_, §
130.
Historical Maps.--Same as § 47, above.
General Accounts.--Osgood, _Colonies_; Doyle, _Colonies_, III. ch. ix.;
Lodge, _Colonies_, ch. xxii.; W. Weeden, _Economic and Social History_; J.
Bishop, _History of American Manufactures_; American Statistical
Association _Publications_, No. 1.
Special Histories.--Manners and customs: Earle, _Costumes of Colonial
Times_, _Customs and Fashions in Old New England, Sabbath in Puritan New
England_, and _Stage Coach and Tavern Days_; W. Bliss, _Colonial Times on
Buzzard's Bay_, and _Old Colony Town_; F. Child, _Colonial Parsons of New
England_; J. Felt, _Customs of New England_; Fisher, _Men, Women, and
Manners_, I. chs. ii.-v.; Howe, _Puritan Republic_, chs. v.-ix.; W. Love,
_Fast and Thanksgiving Days_; M. Ward, _Old Colony Days_; Wharton,
_Colonial Days and Dames_.--Education: C. Johnson, _Old Time Schools and
School Books_; E. Brown, _Making of our Middle Schools_.--Theology: B.
Adams, _Emancipation of Massachusetts_; F. Foster, _New England Theology_;
M. Greene, _Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut_; C. F. Adams,
_Antinomianism_.--Press: C. Duniway, _Freedom of Press in Massachusetts_;
G. Littlefield, _Early Massachusetts Press_; R. Roden, _Cambridge
Press_.--Slavery: G. Moore, _Slavery in Massachusetts_; G. Williams, _Negro
Race in America, 1619-1880_; W. Dubois, _Suppression of Slave Trade_.--On
the witchcraft delusion: C. Upham, _Salem Witchcraft_; S. Drake, _Annals of
Witchcraft_; J. Taylor, _Witchcraft Delusion in Connecticut_.--Medical
practice: O. Holmes, _Medical Profession in Massachusetts_. See also,
biographies of prominent men.
Contemporary Accounts.--Same as § 63, above.
75. Land and People.
Sidenote: Geography.
North of Cape Cod the shores of New England are rugged and forbidding,
though the coast-line is indented by numerous inlets from the sea,
affording safe anchorage. To the south of the cape there are also abundant
harbors; but the mountains nowhere approach the shore, and the beach is
wide, with a sand strip extending for some distance inland, while
treacherous shoals are not uncommon. The rivers, except those in Maine and
the Merrimac and the Connecticut, are small, and have their sources in
innumerable small lakes; the upper streams fall in successions of
picturesque cascades, the water-power of which is often profitably utilized
in manufacturing; and the larger rivers are held back by great dams, about
which have grown up the manufacturing towns of Manchester, Nashua, Lowell,
Lawrence, Holyoke, and many others.
Two ranges of mountains traverse New England: the Green Mountains and their
continuation, the Berkshire Hills, run nearly north and south from Canada
to Connecticut; the White Mountains form a group, rather than a chain,
nearer the coast. In the eastern half of Maine the low watershed comes down
to within one hundred and forty miles of the sea-shore, and the
Atlantic-coast region may be said practically to end there. The highest
elevation in the Appalachian system north of North Carolina is Mount
Washington (six thousand two hundred and ninety feet), in the White
Mountain range. The soil of New England is for the most part thin, and
interspersed with rocks and gravel. The banks of some of the principal
rivers are enriched by alluvial deposits left by overflows; there are fair
pasturage lands in Vermont and New Hampshire, while Maine, back from the
shore, has much good soil. The New England hills are rich in quarries of
fine building stone. Their mineral wealth is not great; iron and manganese
have been found in considerable quantities, together with some anthracite
coal, lead, and copper. Originally New England was one vast forest, and the
trees had to be cleared away in order to prepare the soil for cultivation.
The climate is subject to rapid variations, being generally accounted
superb in the summer and autumn; but the winters are long and severe, and
the springs late and brief.
The natural obstacles to human welfare in New England were great; but the
English settlers were men of tough fibre and rare determination. They were
not daunted by rugged hills, gloomy forest, harsh climate, and niggardly
soil. With courageous toil they built up thrifty towns along the narrow
slope, and erected enduring commonwealths, in which the English
institutions to which they had been accustomed were reproduced, and often
improved upon.
Sidenote: The population.
The population of New England in 1700, by which time a second generation of
Englishmen had arisen in America, is roughly estimated at about a hundred
and five thousand souls, of whom seventy thousand were in Massachusetts and
Maine, five thousand in New Hampshire, six thousand in Rhode Island, and
twenty-five thousand in Connecticut. The people were almost wholly of pure
English stock. Up to 1640, when the first great Puritan exodus ceased, full
twenty thousand English Dissenters, mainly from the eastern counties of
England, came to New England; thenceforth the population, says Palfrey,
"continued to multiply on its own soil for a century and a half, in
remarkable seclusion from other communities." During this time there was a
small infusion of Normans from the Channel Islands, Welsh, Scotch-Irish
(chiefly in 1652 and 1719), and Huguenots (1685). It is computed that at
the opening of the Revolutionary War ninety-eight per cent of New England
people were English or unmixed descendants of Englishmen. Nowhere else in
the American colonies was there so homogeneous a population, or one of such
uniformly high quality. As said Stoughton, lieutenant-governor of
Massachusetts (1692-1701): "God sifted a whole nation, that he might send
choice grain over into this wilderness."
76. Social Classes and Professions.
Sidenote: Classes.
Social distinctions were almost as sharply drawn in New England as in the
South. There was a powerful and much-respected aristocratic class,
beginning with the village "squire" and ending with the Crown officials in
the capital towns. "The foundations of rank," says Lodge, "were birth,
ancestral or individual service to the State, ability, education, and to
some extent wealth." The recognized classes were, in order of precedence,
gentlemen, yeomen, merchants, and mechanics; and at church the people were
punctiliously seated according to station. Down to 1772 the students in
Harvard College were carefully arranged in the catalogue in the order of
their social rank, the Hutchinsons, Saltonstalls, Winthrops, and Quincys
near the head. There was also a distinction between new-comers and
old-comers, the "old family" class laying some pretensions to social
superiority. The aristocrats were not men of leisure,--everybody in New
England worked; but the public offices and the professions were reserved
for gentlemen. Now and then some of them conducted large estates, although
aristocracy was not, as in England, supported on landed possessions and
primogeniture. The force of public opinion alone separated the classes;
with the growth of the democratic idea, social barriers ultimately
weakened, although they continued to appear in the politics of the
commonwealth down to the middle of the present century.
Sidenote: Slavery.
Slaves were comparatively few in number, the greater part of them being
house and body servants, and they were not harshly treated; travellers have
left record of the fact that some of the humbler farmers ate at table with
their human chattels. The race was, however, generally despised, and in one
of the old churches in Boston is still to be seen the lofty "slaves'
gallery." Judge Samuel Sewall issued the first public denunciation of
slavery in Massachusetts, in a pamphlet issued in 1700, wherein he
denounced "the wicked practice." For many years this distinguished jurist
and diarist followed up his assaults, allowing no opportunity to escape
wherein he might espouse the cause of the oppressed "blackamores" and
mitigate the severity of the laws against them. But the colonists in
general saw nothing in the system to shock their moral sense, and it was
not until the Revolution that anti-slavery ideas began, in New England, to
spread beyond a narrow circle of humanitarians.
Sidenote: The legal profession.
There was a full system of courts, ranging from the colonial judges down to
the justices of the peace and "commissioners of small causes," appointed by
colonial authority in each town. The magistrates were uniformly men of good
character, of the upper, well-educated class, and rendered substantial
justice, although not specially trained in the law. The legal profession
was practically neglected throughout the seventeenth century, doubtless
owing in great part to lack of facilities for study and to the overtowering
importance of the ministry; we do not read of a professional barrister in
Massachusetts until 1688. There was, however, no lack of litigation;
personal disputes were rife in Rhode Island, and in Connecticut there were
frequent legal contests between towns regarding lands. Between the
colonies, also, there were complicated and hotly-contested boundary
disputes. The bar gained strength, but it was not till about the middle of
the eighteenth century that it stood beside the ministry.
Sidenote: The ministry.
We have had frequent evidences, in preceding chapters, of the large
influence of the clergy in the temporal affairs of New England. The ranks
of the Puritan ministry contained men of the best ability and station; they
were pre-eminently the strongest class, and as the popular leaders, deeply
impressed their character upon the laws and institutions of the community.
They were held in great affection and reverence; but in a body of sturdy,
intelligent parishioners they could maintain their supremacy only by the
exercise of superior mental gifts: their calling was one offering rich
rewards for excellence, and attracted to it men of the finest calibre, like
the Mathers and Hooker. The sloth or the dullard was soon taught by his
people that he had mistaken his calling. Jonathan Edwards, although of a
later period than that of which we are treating, was a fair type, and his
early resolution "to live with all my might while I do live," was an
expression of the spirit which dominated his order.
Sidenote: Medicine.
It was an age in which quackery flourished. The regular physicians, though
excellent men and highly regarded by the people, depended upon nostrums,
and had little medical knowledge; they were in the main "herb-doctors" and
"blood-letters." Many of the practitioners were barbers, and others
clergymen. "This relation between medicine and theology," writes Dr.
Holmes, "has existed from a very early period; from the Egyptian priest to
the Indian medicine-man, the alliance has been maintained in one form or
another. The partnership was very common among our British ancestors."
There were few facilities for the study of medicine in the colonies until
after the Revolution. The first medical school in America was established
in Philadelphia, about 1760.
77. Occupations.
Sidenote: Domestic manufactures.
Unlike the Southern colonists, New Englanders were dependent on England
only for the most important manufactures. Mechanics were sufficiently
numerous in every community. The lumber industry was important, and in
Connecticut and Massachusetts there was profitable iron mining, which gave
rise to several kindred pursuits. There being abundant water-power, small
saw and grist mills were numerous; there were many tanneries and
distilleries; the Scotch-Irish in Massachusetts and New Hampshire made
linens and coarse woollens, and beaver hats and paper were manufactured on
a small scale. The people were largely dressed in homespun cloth, and a
spinning-wheel was to be found in every farm-house. It was not until after
the Revolution, however, that New England manufacturing interests attained
much magnitude; the home government, through the Acts of Navigation and
Trade (page 104, § 44), had discouraged, as far as possible, American
efforts in this direction.
Sidenote: Fisheries.
The fisheries, particularly whale and cod, were an important source of
income, those of Massachusetts being estimated, in 1750, at £250,000 per
year. Fishers' hamlets, with their great net-reels and drying stages, were
strung along the shores. The men engaged in the traffic were hardy and
bold, no weather deterring them from long voyages to Newfoundland and
Labrador, while whale-fishers ventured into the Arctic seas. From their
ranks were largely recruited the superb sailors who made the American navy
famous in the two wars with England.
Sidenote: Shipbuilding.
A pinnace, called the "Virginia," was constructed by the Popham colonists
in 1607,--the first ocean-going vessel built in New England. Shipbuilding
was first undertaken at Plymouth in 1625, and in Massachusetts six years
later (1631). By 1650 New England vessels were to be seen all along the
coast, and carried the bulk of the export cargoes. Before 1724 English ship
carpenters complained of American competition. In 1760 ships to the extent
of twenty thousand tons a year were being turned out of American
shipyards,--chiefly in New England; and most of them found a market in the
mother-country.
Sidenote: Commerce.
Dried fish was the chief commodity carried out of New England, and was
exported in American bottoms to Spain, Portugal, and the West Indies.
Fish-oil and timber were also sent out of Maine and Massachusetts to
foreign countries; hay, grain, and cattle were taken to New York,
Philadelphia, and the West Indies. There was an active longshore coasting
service by small craft, which ascended the rivers and gathered produce from
the farmers; these they took to neighboring ports, and brought back other
colonial products in exchange. Larger vessels went with miscellaneous
cargoes to the West Indies, and returned with slaves and sugar. New
Englanders manufactured rum from West India sugar and molasses, and
exported the finished product. There are instances of New England ships
taking rum to Africa, where it was exchanged for slaves; these slaves were
then transported to the West Indies, to be bartered for sugar and molasses,
which was carried home and converted into rum. It was a day when kegs of
rum and wines were given to ministers at donation parties, and ministers
themselves made brandy by the barrel for domestic use, and sold it to their
parishioners. Wines were imported from Madeira and Malaga, and manufactured
goods from England and the Continent. A very large and profitable business
was done in the general carrying trade, which was developed by enterprising
New England men in all the sister colonies. Boston alone employed, by the
middle of the eighteenth century, about six hundred vessels in her foreign
commerce, and a thousand in her fisheries and coast-trade.
Sidenote: Distribution of occupations.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century the population was in about
equal degree engaged in trade and agriculture. Trade was the chief calling
in Rhode Island, and agriculture in Connecticut and New Hampshire, while in
Maine and Massachusetts both flourished. All of the colonies were also much
interested in the fisheries.
78. Social Conditions.
Sidenote: The towns.
Boston, Newport, and New Haven were the chief towns; the former was at this
time the centre of political and mercantile life on the North American
continent, and there were external evidences of considerable wealth and
some luxury. New Haven was famed for its prosperous appearance, and the
houses of its rich men were of a better style of architecture than commonly
seen in the colonies. Small villages, neighborhood centres of the several
townships, abounded everywhere. The houses of the minister and the
school-teacher, with the little shops of tradesmen and artisans, formed the
nucleus around which the farm-houses were grouped with more or less
density. The village streets, overhung with arching elms, were kept in
tolerable order by the "hog-reeves," "fence-viewers," and other town
officials. The quaint, roomy, gambrel-roofed houses were scrupulously plain
and clean, and were presided over by model housewives.
Sidenote: Life and manners.
The people in these rural communities were in moderate financial
circumstances, neat in habit, intelligent, and fairly educated; both sexes,
young and old, worked hard, were frugal, thrifty, and as a rule rigid in
morals. While coldly reserved towards strangers, they were kind and
hospitable, and noted far and wide for their acute inquisitiveness. They
wore sober-colored garments except on Sunday, the important day of the
week, when there was a general display of quaint finery of a sombre
character. The men wore long stockings and knee-breeches, with buckled
shoes; workmen had breeches and jackets of leather, buckskin, or coarse
canvas, while those of higher degree were generally dressed in coarse
homespun,--only the richest could afford imported cloths. Their great open
fireplaces were ill-adapted to withstand the winter's rigor. Their churches
were wholly unprovided with heating accommodations. Their diet was spare.
The well-to-do prided themselves on their old silver tableware, and New
England kitchens were noted for their displays of brightly burnished pewter
and brasses. Cider and New England rum were favorite beverages; but
drunkenness was less prevalent than in the other colonies: the New England
temperament was not inclined to excesses and roistering. The general tone
of life was sedate, even gloomy; the Puritans had "a lurking inherited
distrust for enjoyment," yet they cultivated a certain dry humor, and for
the young people there was not lacking a round of simple amusements, such
as house-raisings, dancing parties, and husking, spinning, quilting, and
apple-paring bees, into which the neighborhoods entered with great zest. In
the towns there was more pretension and ceremonial; but taking changed
conditions into account, the life of the townspeople and their habits of
thought differed but little from those of their rural cousins.
Sidenote: Roads and travel.
The highways were generally of fair character, but the larger streams were
unbridged. Outside of the neighborhoods of the large towns wheeled
vehicles, except for heavy loads, were not common until the time of the
Revolution. Horseback was the ordinary mode of travel. A tavern kept by
some leading citizen could be found in every town, with good lodgings at
reasonable rates, although there was general complaint of the cookery.
Nowhere else in the colonies was there so much intercommunication as in New
England.
79. Moral and Religious Conditions.
Sidenote: Education.
A system of public education was among the first institutions established
by the Puritans. Each town had its school; by 1649 there was no New England
colony, except Rhode Island, in which some degree of education was not
compulsory. Deep learning was rare, but the people were well drilled in the
rudiments; except on the far-off borders of Maine there was no illiteracy
in New England when the Revolution broke out. Latin schools and academies
soon supplemented parental instruction and the common schools. We have seen
that Boston was but six years old when Harvard College was established
(1636); and Yale College was opened at New Haven in the year 1700.
Sidenote: Crime.
Crime appears to have been less frequent in New England than in the
Southern or the middle colonies; the highways were safe after the close of
King Philip's war and the Tarratine trouble; doors and windows were seldom
barred in the country, and young women could travel anywhere with perfect
safety. The list of capital crimes was a long one in that day, as well in
the mother-land as in the colonies, and hangings, particularly of the
pirates who infested the coast, were spectacles frequently seen in New
England. A more cruel form of punishment was reserved for the negro race.
There were several cases of negroes being burned at the stake for murder or
arson. Great publicity was given to all manner of punishments; gibbets,
stocks, ducking-stools, pillories, and whipping-posts were familiar objects
in nearly every town. Criminals might also be branded, mutilated, or
compelled to wear, conspicuously sewed to their garments, colored letters
indicative of the offences committed. Hawthorne's romance of the "Scarlet
Letter" is based on this last-named custom.
Sidenote: Religion.
Organized on the Independent, or Congregational, form, each religious
congregation was a law unto itself, electing its own deacons and minister,
and was but little influenced by the occasional synods, or councils of
churches, which at last fell into disuse. At first the Church was bitterly
intolerant; but this spirit gradually softened as it became more and more
separated from the State. By the close of the seventeenth century John
Eliot complained that religion had declined; in 1749 Douglass was able to
write, "At present the Congregationalists of New England may be esteemed
among the most moderate and charitable of Christian professions." The
introduction of the Church of England under Andros aroused bitter
opposition. Episcopalianism was vigorously preached against until the
Revolution; but there was no great cause for complaint, as it was not
sought to foist it upon the people, but to gain for it a hearing. The name
"Bishop's palace," still applied to a house in Cambridge which was supposed
when built to have been intended for an imported bishop, bears testimony to
the popular feeling against the system. It had no success except among the
Tory element in Boston and Portsmouth,--and later (1736-1750) in New Haven.
In Rhode Island perfect tolerance made the colony a harboring place for all
manner of despised sects and factious disturbers driven out of other
communities, and the spirit of turbulence long reigned there.
Sidenote: "The great awakening."
A "great awakening" of religious fervor affected New England between 1713
and 1744. Originating in Northampton, Mass., in revivals under Solomon
Stoddard, the popular excitement became almost frenzied under Jonathan
Edwards, beginning in 1734. A visit from George Whitefield, the English
revivalist, in 1740 caused a great fervor of religious interest, and it is
estimated that twenty-five thousand converts were made by the great
agitator throughout his New England pilgrimage. By 1744, when Whitefield
again visited the scene of his triumphs, the excitement had greatly
subsided.
80. The Witchcraft Delusion.
Sidenote: The witchcraft craze.
The witchcraft craze at Salem is commonly thought to have been a legitimate
outgrowth of the gloomy religion of the Puritans. It was, however, but one
of those panics of fear which during several centuries periodically swept
over civilized lands. In the twelfth century thousands of persons in Europe
were sacrificed because the people believed them to be witches, in league
with the devil, and with the power to ride through the air and vex humanity
in many occult ways. Pope Innocent VIII. commanded (1484) that witches be
arrested, and hundreds of odd and repulsive old women were burned or hanged
in consequence. From King John down to 1712, innocent lives were constantly
sacrificed in England on this charge; in the year 1661 alone, one hundred
and twenty were hanged there. It was therefore no new frenzy that broke out
in Massachusetts. In 1648 Margaret Jones was hanged as a witch at
Charlestown; in 1656 the sister of Deputy-Governor Bellingham, for being
"too subtle in her perception of what was occurring around her," suffered
the same fate; in 1688 an Irish washerwoman named Glover went to the
gallows because a spiteful child said she had been bewitched by the poor
creature.
Sidenote: The trials.
There was general despondency in Massachusetts in 1692, the result of four
small-pox epidemics which had quickly followed each other, the loss of the
old charter, a temporary increase in crime, financial depression, and
general dread of another Indian outbreak. The time was ripe for an epidemic
of superstitious fear. All at once it broke out with great fury in the old
town of Salem. Despite the protest of Cotton Mather and other prominent
clergymen, who, though believers in witches, condemned unjust methods of
procedure, a special court of oyer and terminer was hastily organized
(1692) by the governor and council for the trial of the accused.
Lieutenant-Governor Stoughton, who presided over this extraordinary
tribunal, was in active sympathy with the fanatics who conducted the
prosecution. The witnesses were chiefly children, and the testimony the
flimsiest ever seriously received in an American court of justice. But the
judges, although sober and respectable citizens, were as deluded as the
people; while the frenzy lasted, nineteen persons were hanged for having
bewitched children in the neighborhood, and one was pressed to death
because he would not plead. Of the hundreds of others who were arrested,
two died while in prison.
Sidenote: Sewall's repentance.
By the following year the craze had exhausted itself, and there was a
general jail-delivery. Many of the children afterwards confessed to the
falsity of their testimony. Samuel Sewall was one of the trial judges. He
afterwards, while standing in his pew in the Old South Church at Boston,
had read at the desk at public declaration expressing his deep repentance
that he had been in such grievous error, and asking the congregation to
unite with him in praying for the forgiveness of God. Cotton Mather,
however, endeavored to vindicate himself by the statement, "I know not that
ever I have advanced any opinion in the matter of witchcraft but what all
the ministers of the Lord that I know of in the world, whether English or
Scotch, or French or Dutch, are of the same opinion with me."
Sidenote: The witchcraft delusion elsewhere in the colonies.
Belief in witchcraft was not confined to Massachusetts. Evidence of this
superstition--childish to us of to-day, but a stern reality in the
strongest minds of Cotton Mather's time--was noticeable throughout most of
the colonies until the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1705 a witch
was "ducked" in Virginia. There were trials for witchcraft in Maryland
during the last quarter of the seventeenth century, but there is no
evidence extant of an execution. In Pennsylvania in 1683 a woman was tried
as a witch, and bound to good behavior. In 1779, during a similar panic
among the French creoles at Cahokia, Ill., two negro slaves were condemned
to be hanged, and another to be burned alive while chained to a post, on
the charge of practising sorcery; there is, however, no evidence that the
sentence was carried out.
81. Political Conditions.
Sidenote: Administration.
The town was in New England the political unit. The town-meeting was a
primary assembly, at which were transacted all local affairs,--those which
came nearest to the individual. The colonial government dealt with general
interests; the colonial machinery of administration might break down, and
yet the immediate needs of the people would have been for a time subserved
by the town governments. This was the case at the beginning of the
Revolution. But the indispensable function of legislation upon property and
contracts, the definition of crimes, and all the judicial affairs of the
people, were from the first carried out by the colony. In the
town-meetings--and in church congregations, which were for a long period
scarcely distinguishable from them--the people were trained in
self-government; their intellects were sharpened, and there was bred a
stout spirit of political self-sufficiency. By the beginning of the
eighteenth century a freehold test for suffrage was common in New England,
as in most of the American colonies. Taxes raised on land, polls, and
personal property were not onerous, as public expenditures were carefully
watched and criticised by a frugal people. The introduction of royal
governors opened the door to bickerings between the executive and the
legislature,--so prominent a feature in eighteenth-century colonial history
prior to the Revolution. Up to 1700, with a few exceptions, the political
machinery had run quite smoothly, when not subjected to outside
interference. The several colonial governments in New England varied in
detail, but they were alike in being largely independent of England, in
being administered in a spirit of simplicity and economy, and in the extent
to which the body of the people were enabled to influence the conduct of
affairs.
Sidenote: Summary.
New England men were brave and liberty-loving, stoutly withstanding any
attempt on the part of the home government to curtail their rights as
Englishmen or hamper their progress. They were not always successful in
their resistance, but were vastly more independent than their French and
Spanish neighbors; and the principles of popular government were nowhere
else, even in the English colonies, so successfully put in practice. They
were hard-working, frugal, God-fearing, educated, and virtuous men. They
sprang from a high quality of pure English stock, and they had raised
indeed "choice grain." They founded an enduring empire amid obstacles that
two and a half centuries ago might well have seemed appalling. The creed of
the Puritans was harsh, their view of life gloomy, and their church
intolerant; but their mission, as they conceived it, was a serious one, and
the stormy experience of Rhode Island was not calculated elsewhere to
encourage looseness in religious thinking. They were enterprising and
thrifty to a high degree. In commerce, domestic trade, manufactures, and
political sagacity, for nearly two centuries New England easily led all the
American colonies. The nation owes much to the wisdom, the energy, and the
fortitude of New England colonial statesmen; and New England institutions
are to-day in large measure characteristics of the American commonwealth.
CHAPTER IX.
THE COLONIZATION OF THE MIDDLE COLONIES (1609-1700).
82. References.
Bibliographies.--Larned, _Literature of American History_, 92-100; Andrews,
_Colonial Self-Government_, ch. xx.; Avery, II. 417-421, 438-444, III.
413-418, 430-432, 443-445; Winsor, III. 411-420, 449-456, 495-516, IV.
409-442, 488-502; Channing and Hart, _Guide_, §§ 104-108.
Historical Maps.--Nos. 1, 2, and 3, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, Nos. 1, 2,
3); Winsor, as above.
General Accounts.--Fiske, _Dutch and Quaker Colonies_; Doyle, _Colonies_,
IV.; Lodge, _Colonies_, chs. ix.-xvi.; Channing, _United States_, I. chs.
xvi., xvii., II. chs. ii., iv., v., vii.; Avery, II. chs. iv., xi., xii.,
III. chs. iv.-vi., xv., xvii., xviii., xxvi.; Andrews, as above, chs.
v.-viii., xi., xii.; Winsor, III. chs. x.-xii., IV. chs. viii., ix.
Special Histories.--New York: Roberts (Commonwealths), and Brodhead:
O'Callaghan, _New Netherlands_; G. Schuyler, _Colonial New York_, I.; W.
Griffis, _New Netherland_; histories of New York city by Innis, Janvier,
Lamb, Rensselaer, Roosevelt, Stone, and Wilson.--Delaware: Conrad and
Scharf; Jameson, _Willem Usselinx_.--New Jersey: Lee, Mulford, Raum, and
Tanner; F. Stockton, _Stories of New Jersey_; A. Melick, _Old New Jersey
Farm_.--Pennsylvania: S. Fisher, _Making of Pennsylvania_; H. Jenkins,
_Pennsylvania_; I. Sharpless, _Two Centuries of Pennsylvania_, and _Quaker
Government_; A. Myers, _Irish Quakers_; O. Kuhns, _German and Swiss
Settlements_; J. Sachse, _Pennsylvania Germans_, and _German Pietists_;
Scharf and Westcott, _Philadelphia_.
Contemporary Accounts.--Josselyn, _Two Voyages_ (1675); Dankers Sluyter,
_Voyage to New York_ (1679); Penn, _Some Account_ (1681); Budd, _Good Order
Established_ (1685); Sewel, _History of Quakers_ (1722); Hazard, _Annals of
Pennsylvania_; Gabriel Thomas, _West Jersey_. Reprints: _Colonial
Documents_ and _Records_ of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; _Half
Moon Series_; _American History told by Contemporaries_, I. part vi.;
Jameson, _Original Narratives_; publications by colonial and town record
commissions, and historical and antiquarian societies.
83. Dutch Settlement (1609-1625).
Sidenote: Hudson's discovery.
In September, 1609, Hendrik Hudson, an English navigator in the employ of
the Dutch East India Company, sailed up the river to which his name has
been given by the English--the Dutch called it North River--as far as the
future site of Albany. He found "that the land was of the finest kind for
tillage, and as beautiful as the foot of man ever trod upon." Six weeks
earlier Champlain, the commander of New France, had been on the shores of
Lake Champlain about one hundred miles to the north, fighting the native
Iroquois. The object of Hudson's search was a familiar one in his
time,--the discovery of a water-passage through the continent that might
serve as a short-cut to India, where his masters were engaged in trade. He
did not find what he sought, but opened the way to a lucrative traffic with
the American savages, whose good graces the thrifty Dutch strove to
cultivate. The French leader's introduction to the Iroquois had been as an
enemy, but the explorer from Holland came as a friend: the Dutch reaped
advantage from the contrast.
Sidenote: Early Dutch trading-posts.
Dutch traders annually visited the region of Hudson River during the next
few years. There was at first no attempt at colonization, for Holland just
at that time was not prepared to give offence to her old enemy, Spain,
which claimed most of North America by the right of discovery and Pope
Alexander's bull of partition. Nevertheless, the country was styled New
Netherland, and Holland recognized it as a legal dependency. A Dutch
navigator, Adrian Block, as the result of an accident, spent a winter on
either Manhattan or Long Island, and built a coasting-vessel (1614) for
trafficking in furs. A small trading-house, called Fort Nassau, was also
erected this year on the site of Albany; a similar establishment, without
defences, and surrounded by a few huts for traders, was built on Manhattan
Island, at the mouth of the river, the following season (1615); a new Fort
Nassau was afterwards (1623) set up on the Delaware River, four miles below
the site of Philadelphia, but was soon abandoned.
Sidenote: The New Netherlands Company.
In 1615 the New Netherland Company obtained a trading charter from the
States-General of Holland. The corporation was granted a monopoly of the
Dutch fur-traffic in New Netherland for three years, and conducted
extensive operations between Albany and the Delaware, coastwise and in the
interior. The Dutch thus far had not ventured to exercise political control
over the New Netherland. The country was still claimed by the English
Virginia Company. The land originally granted to the Pilgrims from Leyden
by the latter company was described as being "about the Hudson's River." We
have seen how the party on the "Mayflower" were prevented by storms--or
possibly by the design of the captain--from reaching their destination and
planting an English colony in the neighborhood of the Dutch trading posts.
Sidenote: The Dutch West India Company.
In 1621 the Dutch West India Company came upon the scene as the successor
of the New Netherland Company. Its charter bade it "to advance the peopling
of those fruitful and unsettled parts," and to "do all that the service of
those countries and the profit and increase of trade shall require." The
corporation was given almost absolute commercial and political power in all
Dutch domains between Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan, the home
government reserving only the right to decline confirmation of colonial
officers. Three years elapsed before the company attempted to plant a
colony. Thirty families of Protestant Walloons--a people of mixed Gallic
and Teutonic blood, living in the southern provinces of Holland, whose
offer to settle in Virginia had been rejected by the English--were sent
over by the Dutch proprietors (1624) to their new possessions. The greater
part of the emigrants went to Albany, which they styled Fort Orange; others
were sent to the Delaware River colony; a small party went on to the
Connecticut; a few settled on Long Island; and eight men stayed on
Manhattan. These settlements, relying for their chief support on the
fur-trade with the Indians, were quite successful, and the New Netherlands
soon became an important group of commercial colonies.
84. Progress within New Netherland (1626-1664).
Sidenote: The settlements united.
In 1626 Peter Minuit, then director for the company, purchased Manhattan
from the Indians, united all the settlements under one system of direction,
and founded New Amsterdam (afterwards New York city) as the central trading
depot. In every direction the trade of New Netherland grew.
Sidenote: The patroon system.
As the settlers seemed to be interested in commerce, and agricultural
colonization did not flourish, the corporation secured from the
States-General a new charter of "freedoms and exemptions" (1629), which
they thought better adapted to the fostering of emigration. This document
sought to transplant the European feudal system to the American wilds.
Members of the Dutch West India Company might purchase tracts of land from
the Indians and plant colonies thereon, of which these proprietors were to
be the patroons, or patrons. Each patroon thus establishing a colony of
fifty persons upwards of fifteen years of age, was granted a tract "as a
perpetual inheritance," sixteen miles wide along the river, or eight miles
on both sides, "and so far into the country as the situation of the
occupiers will permit." The company retained intervening lands; but no one
might settle within thirty miles of a patroon colony without consent of the
patroon, subject to the order of the company's officials. The patroons were
given political and judicial power over their colonists; the latter might
take appeals to the New Netherlands council, but the patroons were
generally careful to bind the settlers before starting out not to exercise
this right.
Sidenote: Patroon settlements.
Leading members of the company were quick to avail themselves of this
opportunity to become members of a landed aristocracy and absolute chiefs
of whatever colonies they might plant. Small settlements were soon made on
these several domains, which were taken up chiefly along Hudson River, the
principal highway into the Indian country. Van Rensselaer founded
Rensselaerswyck, near Fort Orange; Pauw secured Hoboken and Staten Island;
while Godyn, Blommaert, De Vries, and others settled Swaanendael, on the
Delaware. Many of the old patroon estates long remained undivided, and the
heirs of the founders claimed some semi-feudal privileges well into the
nineteenth century. Attempts to collect long arrears of rent on the great
Van Rensselaer estate led to a serious anti-rent movement (1839-1846),
which broke out in bloody riots and affected New York politics for several
years.
Sidenote: Collisions with English traders.
The patroons, as individuals, haughtily assumed to shut out the Dutch West
India Company, of which they were members, from the trade of their petty
independent States. The corporation was not only torn by internal
dissensions, but soon had on hand a quarrel with New England because of the
establishment of a Dutch fur-trading post at Hartford, on the Connecticut
(1633), and the vain assertion of a right to exclude English vessels from
the Hudson river. On the south, the Dutch came into collision with
Virginians trading on the Delaware and the Schuylkill. Trade increased, but
colonization did not thrive, owing in part to the rapacity of the patroons,
and partly to the mismanagement of the governors sent out to represent the
company.
Sidenote: An Indian war.
The singular lack of tact displayed by Governor Kieft led to an Algonquian
Indian uprising (1643-45), which resulted in the death of sixteen hundred
savages, but left the border settlements in ruins, and seriously checked
colonial growth for several years. The Algonkins being enemies of the
Iroquois, the friendship originally formed between the Dutch and the latter
was not disturbed by this outbreak.
Sidenote: Attempts to foster colonization.
In 1640 the company fixed the limits of a patroon's estate at one mile
along the river front and two miles in depth, but did not disturb the
feudal privileges. As a counter-influence, a new class of settlers was
provided for. Any one going to New Netherland with five other emigrants
might take two hundred acres of land as a bounty and be independent of the
patroons. A species of local self-government was also provided for at this
time, the officers of each town or village being chosen by the directors of
the company from a list made up by the inhabitants. These inducements do
not seem to have attracted many colonists, for when Peter Stuyvesant came
out as governor (1647), and strutted about Manhattan "like a peacock,--as
if he were the Czar of Muscovy," there were only three hundred fighting men
in the entire province.
Sidenote: The colonists struggling for political rights.
Up to this time the people had been obliged to rely chiefly on petitions as
a means of presenting their political grievances. In 1641 Kieft had been
forced by popular opinion to call a council of twelve deputies from the
several settlements to advise him in regard to treatment of the Indians,
and again in 1644 to consult as to taxes; but he rode rough-shod over the
deputies. The public outcry over this arbitrary conduct led to his recall
and the institution of some minor reforms. Under Stuyvesant there was
formed a council of nine, the members being selected by him from a list of
popular nominations. The board was so arranged as to be self-perpetuating,
and the people, after the original election, ceased to have any hand in its
makeup. In an important struggle between Stuyvesant and the residents of
New Amsterdam (1651) relative to an excise tax, the director general was
obliged to yield.
Sidenote: A heterogeneous population.
A source of anxiety to the rulers of New Netherland was the heterogeneous
character of the population. The first permanent settlers had been the
Walloons. The Dutch themselves soon followed. Besides these were several
bands of Protestant reformers who had fled from persecution in Europe, and
numerous sectaries from New England who had found life intolerable there.
There were so many French-speaking people in the district that public
documents were often printed both in French and Dutch. In 1643 it was
reported that eighteen languages were spoken in New Amsterdam.
Sidenote: Encroachments by the Swedes.
The South Company of Sweden sent out a colony in 1638 under charge of
Minuit, formerly employed by the Dutch West India Company. He built Fort
Christina, on the future site of Wilmington, Del., and called the country
New Sweden. The Dutch governor at New Amsterdam vainly protested against
this occupation of territory claimed by his employers. Two years later
(1641) a party of Englishmen from New Haven built trading-houses on the
Schuylkill, and at Salem, N. J., near Fort Nassau, but were soon compelled
to leave. The Swedish enterprise went unchecked until Stuyvesant's rule,
when a fort was built (1651) on the site of Newcastle, Del., below the
Swedish fort; and four years after this (1655) the South Company was
obliged, upon display of force, to abandon its enterprise.
85. Conquest of New Netherland (1664).
Sidenote: English interference.
So long as a foreign nation and a formidable commercial rival held the
geographical centre, the northern and southern colonies of England were
separated, intercommunication was hampered, and international boundary
disputes arose. Moreover, New Amsterdam had the best harbor on the coast,
and the Hudson river was an easy highway for traffic with the Indians; it
was, as well, altogether too convenient for possible raids of French and
Indians from the north. For these reasons England was desirous of obtaining
possession of the New Netherlands. There were not wanting excuses for
interference. Englishmen in Connecticut, on Long Island, and on the
Schuylkill had had land disputes with the Dutch, and there had been much
bad temper displayed on both sides.
Sidenote: England captures New Netherlands.
In 1654 Cromwell sent out a fleet to take the country; but peace between
England and Holland intervened in time to give to New Netherland a respite
of ten years. In 1664 Charles II. revived the claim that Englishmen had
discovered the region before the Dutch. In August of that year Colonel
Nicolls appeared before New Amsterdam, then a town of fifteen hundred
inhabitants, with a fleet of four ships, having on board four hundred and
fifty English soldiers and Connecticut volunteers, and demanded its
surrender. There was a stone fort and twenty cannon; but the enemy were too
strong to be profitably resisted. Despite Stuyvesant's protest, "I would
rather be carried to my grave" than yield, the white flag was eagerly run
up by the frightened town officers, and Dutch rule in New Amsterdam came to
an end.
Sidenote: Importance of the conquest.
By October every possession of Holland in North America was in the hands of
the English, who now held the Atlantic coast from the Savannah to the
Kennebec. The achievement of Nicolls had rendered it possible for the
American colonies to unite, and thus was of the greatest importance to the
political development of the country. Had King Charles been able to foresee
the trend of events, he would no doubt have been glad to allow the Dutch to
stand as an obstacle to the union of his transatlantic possessions.
Sidenote: Introduction of English rule.
The Duke of York was made proprietor of the conquered territory, the
province and capital being now styled New York; Fort Orange was
rechristened Albany. But beyond the change of names, little was done to
interrupt the smooth current of life, and Dutch customs in household and
trade were retained so far as practicable; while the public offices were
impartially shared, and former Dutch officials were consulted. There was
one notable act of injustice: all land-grants had to be confirmed by the
new governor, Nicolls, and fees were exacted for this service. Under
English rule the prosperity of the colony greatly increased.
86. Development of New York (1664-1700).
Sidenote: Local government.
The methods of local self-government were quietly transformed. Under the
Dutch, the towns, manors, and villages held direct relations with the West
India Company. A systematic code drawn by Nicolls and a convention of the
settlers (1665)--promulgated as "the duke's laws"--provided for
town-meetings for the election in each town by a "plurality of the voices
of the freeholders," of a constable and eight overseers. These officers
were the governing board of the town, with judicial and legislative powers,
thus differing from the New England selectmen, who but carried out the
mandates of the town-meeting. There was created a judicial district called
a "riding," with an area embracing several towns and presided over by a
sheriff. In 1683, these ridings developed into counties; afterwards (1703),
it was arranged that a supervisor was to be elected by the freeholders in
each town, to represent it in a county board whose duties were chiefly to
levy, collect, and apportion taxes. Thus we see the genesis in the middle
colonies of the mixed system of local government,--town and county being of
equal importance, with elective executive officers in each: it was a
compromise between the town system of New England and the county system of
Virginia; and this mixed system now prevails in perhaps most of the States
of the Union. The duke's charter enabled him to make all laws, without
asking the advice or assistance of the freemen. By "the duke's laws," power
was vested in the hands of the governor and council, the people being
wholly ignored in all matters above the affairs of the riding. Perfect
religious liberty was allowed throughout the province.
Sidenote: Recapture by the Dutch.
In 1672 England and Holland were again at war, and Francis Lovelace, then
governor of New York, made such preparations as he could against
anticipated attack. The Dutch colonists had had more or less trouble about
taxes with the English authorities, and there had been some friction
because the duke had made grants to Carteret and Berkeley in what
afterwards by the release became New Jersey, and thus had still further
complicated land-titles; but in general the English rule had been borne
with comparative equanimity. Nevertheless, the Dutch were highly delighted
when a fleet from Holland appeared before the city (1673), and easily
secured the surrender of the place.
Sidenote: England again in possession.
Fifteen months later (1674) the treaty of Westminster ceded the province
back to England, and it became New York once more. The population at this
time was about seven thousand.
Sidenote: The rule of Andros.
Edmund Andros, later concerned in the attempt to reduce New England (page
174, § 72), now came out as governor. His domestic policy was wise, and the
province experienced a healthy growth, the fur-trade being greatly expanded
under his administration. Both Nicolls and Andros sought to neutralize the
ill effects of the New Jersey grants by contending that they were still
tributary to New York, and Andros, in particular, adopted aggressive
measures to maintain what he held to be his prerogative; but Carteret and
Berkeley were too influential at court, and the governor was recalled
(1680) and given other employment.
Sidenote: Charter of liberties.
Under Gov. Thomas Dongan (1683-1688) the government yielded to the clamor
of the people, who pointed to the greater freedom allowed the New
Englanders; and an assembly was formed composed of eighteen deputies
elected by the freeholders. A charter of liberties was adopted by this
body, with the king's consent, making the assembly co-ordinate with the
governor and council; freeholders and freemen of corporations were invested
with the franchise; religious toleration was ordained for all Christians;
taxes were not to be levied without the assembly's sanction: but all laws
were to require the assent of the duke, who was also to grant lands and
establish custom-houses. This liberal treatment was of short duration. The
Duke of York came to the throne in 1685 as James II., and his reign was
signalized by depriving his subjects in New York of their representative
government (1686). The governor and council were ordered to establish the
Church of England in the province, and to refuse permits to schools not
licensed by the Church.
Sidenote: Leisler's revolution.
In 1688 New York was annexed to New England under the rule of Andros, who
was represented in New York by a deputy, Francis Nicholson. Later in the
year news came of the Revolution in England. Jacob Leisler, an energetic
but uneducated German shopkeeper, who had come out as a soldier in the West
India Company's employ, headed the militia in driving Nicholson out and
proclaiming the Prince of Orange. Leisler assumed the government; but his
rule was rash and arbitrary, although there is no doubt of his patriotic
spirit, and soon there arose a demand from the conservative element for his
withdrawal. By various subterfuges, however, he retained office for three
years. His term was distinguished by his issuance of a call for the first
Colonial Congress held in America; it met at Albany, February, 1690, with
seven delegates, chiefly from New England, and sought to organize a
retaliatory raid against the French and their Algonquian allies, who had
recently swept Schenectady with fire and tomahawk. The following year
(1691) Leisler was forced to surrender to the royal governor, Col. Henry
Sloughter, who soon after, while intoxicated, was induced by Leisler's
enemies to sign the death-warrant of his predecessor.
Sidenote: Closing years of the century.
A representative assembly was called, which annulled Leisler's proceedings
and formulated a code similar to the earlier charter of liberties. Gov.
Benjamin Fletcher (1692-1698) was notoriously corrupt. He levied blackmail
on the pirates and smugglers who swarmed in the harbors, and intrigued for
money with members of the assembly; but in his dealings with the hostile
French and Indians he was firm and successful. In 1698 the Earl of
Bellomont was appointed governor, and New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts,
and New Hampshire were jointly placed under his rule. In New York he
restored order, reduced crime, and rooted out corruption and piracy, so
that when he died (1701), his loss was sincerely regretted.
Sidenote: Characteristics of New York.
New York had gone through a development which down to the end of the
eighteenth century marked the colony out from her sisters. No other colony
had a history of any importance before the English domination; in no other
colony were a foreign race and a foreign language and customs so
intrenched. No colony had such an experience of control from England. The
history of New York up to 1700 is chiefly a history of administrations. The
commercial pre-eminence of New York was hardly shown in colonial times. Its
chief importance among the colonies arose out of the relations with the
Iroquois.
87. Delaware (1623-1700).
Sidenote: Early Dutch settlers.
We have seen that the Dutch West India Company established (1623) a trading
post, called Fort Nassau, on the banks of the Delaware River within the
present town of Gloucester, N.J., and four miles below the future site of
Philadelphia. The settlers were a portion of the party of Walloons sent out
to America in that year. Eight years later (1631), De Vries, Blommaert,
and other patroons (page 199, § 84) of New Netherlands founded
Swaanendael, near the site of Lewes, Del.; but a quarrel soon arose
between the new settlers and the Indians, resulting in the complete
massacre of the Swaanendael colonists and the driving away of the garrison
at Fort Nassau. In 1635 the patroons owning lands on both shores of
Delaware Bay and River sold their possessions to the Dutch West India
Company, and a small garrison was sent by the latter to re-occupy Fort
Nassau. A party of Englishmen from New Haven attempted that year to settle
in the district, but were taken to New Amsterdam as prisoners.
Sidenote: The South Company of Sweden.
A third nation now appeared upon the scene as a competitor for the Delaware
country. The South Company of Sweden--which purposed trading in Asia,
Africa, and America, but especially in the last--had been chartered in
1624, under the auspices of the enterprising and ambitious Gustavus
Adolphus, by Willem Usselinx, an Amsterdam merchant, founder of the Dutch
West India Company. Usselinx had become embittered against the Dutch
company, which pursued a narrow and exclusive policy; and with him in this
new enterprise were associated several who had been formerly connected with
the Dutch corporation. Among these were Samuel Blommaert, one of the chief
patroons in the Delaware region, and Peter Minuit, a Walloon, once governor
at New Amsterdam. Minuit led the first Swedish trading colony to the
Delaware River (1638), and erected Fort Christina on the future site of
Wilmington, Del.
Sidenote: The rivals on the Delaware.
The governor at New Amsterdam, Kieft, protested loudly against this
invasion of soil claimed by the Dutch, although it was clearly within the
grant already made to Lord Baltimore by the English, who probably had as
good right in the district as the Dutch. The latter had indeed for a time
allowed it to revert to the Indians, after their first colonizing attempt.
Kieft rebuilt Fort Nassau, a menace to which the Swedes replied by
fortifying the island of Tinicum, six miles below the mouth of the
Schuylkill, thus planting the first colony in Pennsylvania as well as in
Delaware. In 1643 this island became the seat of Swedish government.
Sidenote: Prosperity of New Sweden.
New Sweden prospered. The settlers were industrious, thrifty, intelligent,
and contented. Along the shores of Delaware River and Bay were scattered
neat hamlets, and the company's fur-trade was extended far into the
interior.
Sidenote: Swedish aggressiveness ends in the fall of New Sweden.
In 1641 two English settlements were made on the river by New Haven men;
but there was good reason to distrust the new-comers, who belonged to a
land-hungry race, and Dutch and Swedes united to drive them out. Possibly
the Swedes might have finally settled down into friendly neighborhood
relations with the Dutch, had not the Swedish governor, John Printz,
adopted an aggressive attitude towards the New Netherlanders. This led to
reprisals. Stuyvesant, who succeeded Kieft at New Amsterdam, built Fort
Casimir, near the present city of Newcastle, Del., below the Swedish forts
(1651), and thus endeavored to cut them off from ocean communication. In
1654 a Swedish war-vessel anchored before Casimir, which was quietly
surrendered. The next year (1655) Stuyvesant raised an army of six or seven
hundred men, which suddenly appeared on the Delaware, overawed the Swedes,
and compelled them to abandon control of the region. Thus New Sweden fell,
amid a storm of protest, but without bloodshed.
Sidenote: The Dutch domination.
Part of the Delaware country was sold by the Dutch West India Company to
the city of Amsterdam (1656). The officers sent out by the municipality
were as a rule inefficient, and the colony declined; bad crops, famine,
disease, Indian troubles, quarrels with New Netherland, and boundary
difficulties with the English in Maryland, being additional reasons for
retrogression.
Sidenote: English rule established.
The city had just acquired the whole of the Delaware River region, when the
English took possession (1664), and Amsterdam rule was succeeded by that of
the Duke of York, with laws similar to those in vogue elsewhere in his
province. There were a few outbreaks, but as a rule both Dutch and Swedes
prospered under English domination.
Sidenote: Annexed to Pennsylvania.
The district was for some time the object of contention by rival English
claimants. Maryland and New Jersey both wanted it, but Penn finally secured
a grant of the country (1682), to give his province of Pennsylvania an
outlet to the sea. Delaware, now known as "the territories," "lower
counties," or "Delaware hundreds" of Pennsylvania, was for many years the
source of much anxiety to its Quaker proprietor, for political jealousy of
the "province," or Pennsylvania proper, gave rise to much popular
discontent. In 1691 the "territories" were granted a separate assembly and
a deputy-governor. But the "territories" and the "province" were reunited
under Fletcher's temporary rule (1693), and so remained until 1703, when
Delaware was recognized as a separate colony, with an assembly of its own,
although under the same governorship as Pennsylvania.
Sidenote: Characteristics of Delaware.
The separate existence of Delaware was almost an accident. The colony was
unjustly cut out of the Maryland grant, and was little more than a strip
along Chesapeake Bay. It remained down to the Revolution the smallest and
least important of all the colonies.
88. New Jersey (1664-1738).
Sidenote: Berkeley and Carteret's grant.
We have already noticed the erection of Fort Nassau by the Dutch, and the
struggle over the possession of the banks of Delaware River and Bay between
the Dutch, the Swedes, and the English. When the Duke of York came into
possession of the country (1664), he granted the lands between the Delaware
and the Hudson to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, under the name of
New Jersey; this title was in compliment to Carteret, who had been governor
of the island of Jersey and bravely held it for Charles II. during the
Great Rebellion. New Jersey had a hundred and twenty miles of sea-coast; it
was as yet sparsely settled; it had a fixed natural boundary on the west;
and it was considered a particularly desirable seat for colonization.
Sidenote: Liberal plan of government.
The new proprietors agreed upon a plan of government by which the
administration of affairs was placed in the hands of a governor, council,
and representative assembly, as in the other colonies; the proprietors
reserved the right to annul laws and to control the official appointments.
There was to be religious liberty to all "who do not actually disturb the
civil peace of said province;" and all who were subjects of the king and
swore fealty to him "and faithfulness to the lords, shall be admitted to
plant and become freemen."
Sidenote: A body of laws framed.
Philip Carteret, a nephew of Sir George, came out (1665) as governor, and
with him a body of English emigrants, who founded the town of Elizabeth.
There were already on the ground, at Bergen, a number of Dutch and Swedes,
while at Shrewsbury were several English sectaries, exiles from Connecticut
and Long Island, who had purchased land from the Indians. Other New
Englanders settled Middletown and Newark in 1666. Soon after the arrival of
Carteret, several more companies came out to New Jersey from the Eastern
colonies, together with a plentiful sprinkling of Scotch. In May, 1668,
deputies from each of the towns met at Elizabeth to frame a body of laws
for the colony. The Puritan element strongly influenced the code,
particularly in the penalties for crime, which were remarkable for their
severity.
Sidenote: The Quaker purchase.
Throughout 1672 there was much turbulence, owing to disputes about
quit-rents between the inhabitants and the proprietors. Berkeley was by
this time thoroughly dissatisfied, and sold his undivided moiety of the
province for a thousand pounds to a party of Quakers who desired to found a
retreat for their sect; nine tenths of this purchase soon (1674) fell into
the hands of William Penn and other Friends who were associated with him.
Two years later (1676) the Penn party purchased the remainder of the Quaker
interest.
Sidenote: The Jerseys divided.
In 1673 the Dutch recaptured the district. When they were obliged by treaty
(1674) to give it back to the English, Charles II. and the Duke of York
reaffirmed Sir George Carteret's claim in New Jersey. The new charter for
the first time made a division of the country, giving Carteret the eastern
part,--much more than one half,--and leaving the rest to the Quaker
proprietors. In 1676, Carteret and the Quakers agreed upon a boundary line,
running from Little Egg Harbor northwest to the Delaware, at 41° 40´.
Sidenote: West New Jersey.
In West New Jersey the Quakers set up a liberal government, in which the
chief features were religious toleration, a representative assembly, and an
executive council, whose members--"ten honest and able men fit for
government"--were to be elected by the assembly. As a proprietary body, the
framers of these "concessions and agreements" retained no authority for
themselves; they truly said, "We put the power in the people." To this
refuge for the oppressed, four hundred Quakers came out from England in
1677.
Sidenote: East New Jersey.
Sir George Carteret died in 1680, and in 1682 William Penn and twenty-four
associates--among whom were several Scotch Presbyterians--purchased East
New Jersey from the Carteret heirs. A government was established similar to
that in the western colony, except that the new proprietors and their
deputies were to form the executive council. In neither colony were the
public offices restricted to Quakers, and every Christian possessed the
elective franchise.
Sidenote: Trouble with the Duke of York.
Both the Jerseys had made excellent progress; but for several years there
was difficulty with Andros (page 205, § 86), who claimed that the country
was still the property of the Duke of York and therefore within his
jurisdiction, and who attempted to levy taxes. There was much bitterness
over the dispute, in the course of which Andros displayed a despotic
temper; but in the end the duke's claims were overruled by the English
arbitrator.
Sidenote: The Crown takes possession.
When the duke ascended the throne as James II., he had writs of _quo
warranto_ issued (1686) against the Jersey governments on the ground of
wholesale smuggling by the residents. Under this pressure the patents were
surrendered to the Crown (1688), so far as the government was concerned,
but there was a proviso that the landed rights of the proprietors were to
be undisturbed. Andros took the two colonies under his charge; thus he was
now governor of all the country north and east of the Delaware, except New
Hampshire. But though united to the northern colonies, the Jerseymen did
not cease to assert their independence. Andros again attempted to levy
taxes upon them, and they opposed him as stubbornly as ever, claiming that
there could be no lawful taxation without representation. With the
proprietors also they had ceaseless bickerings over the quit-rents. Affairs
were in a feverish state until the former, tired of keeping up the
profitless discussion, and now rent by dissensions in their councils,
surrendered all their claims to the Crown (1702). The policy of James was
to unite the colonies, and bring them into greater dependence.
Sidenote: New Jersey's condition as a royal province.
New Jersey, at last reunited, was made a royal colony; but until 1738, when
given a governor of its own, it was under the administration of the
governor of New York, who ruled through a deputy. The New Jersey council
was appointed by the king, and there was a popularly elected representative
assembly. All Christian sects were tolerated, but Roman Catholics were
denied political privileges. There was a property qualification for
suffrage,--the possession of two hundred acres of land, or other property
worth £50. The inhabitants were generally prosperous. Their isolated
geographical position secured them immunity from attacks by hostile
Indians; they had scrupulously purchased the lands from the native
inhabitants, and with the few who were now left they maintained friendly
relations. The new government brought them greater political security, and
under it they thrived even better than before.
Sidenote: Characteristics of New Jersey.
The annals of New Jersey are like the population and political
system,--confused and uninteresting. It was many years before a tradition
of common interest could be established between East and West New Jersey.
One of the most remarkable lessons in government furnished by the colony
was a decision of the courts that an Act of the assembly was void because
not in accordance with the frame of government.
89. Pennsylvania (1681-1718).
Sidenote: Penn's charter.
In 1676 William Penn, prominent among the English Quakers, became
financially concerned, with others of his sect, in the colony of West New
Jersey, and thereby acquired an interest in American colonization. His
father, an admiral in the English navy, had left him (1670) a claim against
the government for sixteen thousand pounds; in lieu of this he induced
Charles II. (1681) to give him a proprietary charter of forty thousand
square miles in America. The king called the region Pennsylvania, in honor
of the admiral, but against the protest of the grantee, who "feared lest it
be looked on as vanity in me."
Sidenote: His colonization scheme.
Penn at once widely advertised his dominions. He offered to sell one
hundred acres of land for £2, subject to a small quit-rent, and even
servants might acquire half this amount. He proposed to establish a popular
government, based on the principle of exact justice to all, red and white,
regardless of religious beliefs; there was to be trial by jury; murder and
treason were to be the only capital crimes; and punishment for other
offences was to have reformation, not retaliation, in view. By the terms of
the charter Penn was, in conjunction with and by the consent of the
free-men, to make all necessary laws. The proposals of the new proprietor
were received with enthusiasm among the people of his religious faith
throughout England.
In October three ship-loads of Quaker emigrants were sent out, and a year
later (1682) Penn himself followed, with a hundred fellow-passengers. At
the time of his arrival the Dutch had a church at Newcastle, Del., which
was within his grant, the Swedes had churches at Christina, Tinicum, and
Wicacoa, and Quaker meeting-houses were established at Chester, Shakamaxon,
and near the lower falls of the Delaware.
Sidenote: Constitution and laws.
The constitution drawn up by Penn for his colony provided that the
proprietor was to choose the governor, but the people were to elect the
members of the council, and also deputies to a representative assembly; it
was practically the West New Jersey plan. The laws decided upon by the
first assembly, convened by the proprietor soon after his arrival, were
beneficent. They included provisions for the humane treatment of Indians;
for the teaching of a trade to each child; for the useful employment of
criminals in prisons; for religious toleration, with the qualification that
all public officers must be professing Christians, and private citizens
believers in God. The principles set forth in Penn's original announcement
were thus given the sanction of law.
Sidenote: Relations between the "territories" and the province.
A distinction was made between the original Pennsylvania, as granted by the
king to Penn, and the territory afterwards known as Delaware, which the
latter had obtained in a special grant from the Duke of York,--the royal
grant being known as "the province," and the purchase from the duke as "the
territories," of Pennsylvania. In the province three counties were
established, and in the territories three more. These counties were given
popularly elected governing boards, and were made the unit of
representation in the assembly; the towns were merely administrative
subdivisions of the counties, without any form of local government.
Sidenote: Relations with the Indians.
Penn was eminently successful in treating with the Indians in his
neighborhood. Circumstances favored him greatly in this regard, but
nevertheless much was due to his shrewd diplomacy and humane spirit; and
for a long period the Quaker district of Pennsylvania was exempt from the
border warfare which harassed most of the other colonies.
Sidenote: Political turbulence.
Obliged to return to England in 1684, Penn did not again visit his American
possessions until fifteen years had elapsed, and then but for a brief time
(1699-1701). This intervening period was one of continuous political
disquiet for the proprietor and the colonists alike, despite the fact that
the material condition of the people--Quakers, Swedes, Dutch, Germans, and
Welsh alike--continued to improve. A boundary dispute with Maryland
required the intervention of the English government (1685) as an
arbitrator; during two years (1692-1694), Penn was dispossessed of his
colony by the Crown; and the turbulent "territories" gave him so much
trouble that he sought peace by erecting them into the separate colony of
Delaware in 1703.
Dissensions, however, did not cease either in the provinces or in Delaware.
Penn died in 1718, leaving to his heirs a legacy of petty but harassing
disputes which lasted until the Revolution.
Sidenote: Characteristics of Pennsylvania.
Planted as Pennsylvania was, half a century after the earlier Southern and
New England colonies, and aided by rich men and court favorites, its
progress was rapid and its prosperity assured from the beginning. The
pacific policy of Penn towards the Indians saved his colony from the
expense and danger of frontier wars. Nevertheless from the beginning the
colony showed the same indisposition to submit to the control of
proprietors that had so disturbed Maryland and the Carolinas.
Notwithstanding, Pennsylvania shortly became the most considerable of the
middle colonies, and eventually equalled Virginia and Massachusetts in
importance.
CHAPTER X.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES IN 1700.
90. References.
Bibliographies.--Same as § 82, above.
Historical Maps.--Same as § 82, above.
General Accounts.--Doyle, _Colonies_, IV.; Lodge, _Colonies_, chs. xiii.,
xv., xvii.; Andrews, _Colonial Self-Government_, chs. xviii., xix. See also
histories of separate colonies, § 82, above.
Special Histories.--Topography: Semple, _American History and its
Geographic Conditions_, chs. i.-iv.; Roberts, _New York_, I. ch. viii.;
Scharf, _Delaware_, ch. i.--Manners and Customs: Fisher, _Men, Women, and
Manners in Colonial Times_, I. chs. vi., vii., II. ch. viii.; Wilson,
_Rambles in Colonial Byways_; Earle, _Colonial Days in Old New York_; C.
Hemstreet, _When Old New York was Young_; T. Janvier, _Old New York_; E.
Singleton, _Dutch New York_; J. Van Rensselaer, _Goede Vrouw of
Mana-ha-ta_; A. Gummere, _The Quaker: a Study in Costume_; novels by
S. W. Mitchell.--Industries: Bishop, _History of American
Manufactures_.--Slavery: J. Brackett, _Negro in Maryland_. See also § 82,
above, and biographies of prominent men.
Contemporary Accounts.--Same as § 82, above.
91. Geographical Conditions in the Middle Colonies.
Sidenote: Geography.
The middle section of the Atlantic plain in the United States is
distinguished by three deep indentations,--Chesapeake, Delaware, and New
York bays; each of these is the expanded mouth of a comprehensive river
system, and furnishes abundant anchorage,--New York bay being the finest
harbor on the continent. Along the coast south of New York is a low, level
base-plain of sand and clay, from twenty-five to fifty miles in width, the
larger towns being generally situated on the uplands beyond. The
Appalachian mountains extend in several ridges across the middle district
from southwest to northeast, the highest elevations being those of the
Catskill group in southeastern New York, where Slide Mountain towers 4,205
feet above sea-level. New Jersey is largely occupied by the base-plain,
with hills in the northwest. From the eastern range of mountains, the
surface of New York slopes gently down, with great diversity, to Lake
Ontario; the mountains are rent by the interesting and important water-gap
of the Mohawk valley, which in an earlier geological age connected the lake
basin with the trough of the Hudson. Pennsylvania has three distinct
topographical divisions: (1) the highly fertile district between the Blue
Mountains and the sea,--including Delaware; (2) the middle belt of elevated
valleys, separated by low parallel ridges of mountains rich in anthracite
coal and iron ore; (3) the upland north and west of the mountain walls,
sloping down to the tributaries of the Ohio with a wealth of bituminous
coal, oil, and natural gas.
Sidenote: Intermingling river-systems.
In the New York and Pennsylvania hills the numerous rivers of the region
have their rise. These rivers either flow westward into the Mississippi
basin, northward into the Great Lakes, eastward into the deep cleft cut
through the mountains by the Hudson, or southward into the estuaries of the
Delaware and Chesapeake. Within a short distance of each other are waters
which will reach the Atlantic ocean by three divergent routes,--through the
Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the bays we have mentioned.
This fact has had a potent influence on the course of American settlement
and trade, which have persistently followed the water highways into the
interior of the continent; and along those rivers were fought two great
wars.
Sidenote: Their historical significance.
The ease with which the French and English in America could approach each
other, along the almost continuous water-route formed by Hudson River and
Lake Champlain and their tributaries, made this central region the theatre
of a protracted and desperate struggle throughout the French and Indian
war; while we shall see that during the Revolution the Hudson was regarded
as the key to the military situation. It has already been remarked (page
202, § 85) how important the English government deemed the possession of
the Hudson, in 1664, as a means to the unification of the Anglo-American
empire. Through its Mohawk arm, waters running into the Great Lakes
could be readily reached.
Sidenote: Soil and climate.
The soil in the middle district, back from the sandy coast-belt, is for the
most part fertile. Originally the entire country was densely wooded, even
to the summits of the mountains, which nowhere rise to the snow-line. The
climate is, judged by the record of average temperature, an agreeable
compromise between New England and the South; although, as elsewhere on the
Atlantic slope, it is subject to rapid and extreme variations. Penn wrote
that the "weather often changeth without notice, and is constant almost in
its inconstancy."
92. People of the Middle Colonies.
Sidenote: Population of New York,
The population of the middle colonies was noted for its heterogeneous
character. New York was first settled by the Dutch, who ruled the district
for fifty years. After the English conquest (1664), Dutch immigration
practically ceased; nevertheless in 1700 a majority of the whites were
Dutch, although the English, more of whom had emigrated from New England
than from the parent isle, were widely spread and politically dominant.
There were in 1700 about twenty-five thousand inhabitants, perhaps two
thousand five hundred being blacks. Besides the prevailing Dutch and
English, there were many French Huguenots, a number of Palatine Germans who
had fled from persecution at home, and a few Jews. The New York colonists
chiefly dwelt on the islands and shores of New York bay, and the banks of
the Hudson and Mohawk. Beyond this thin fringe of settlement, the forest
wall was for the most part still unbroken. Agricultural development was as
yet slow, but the fur-trade was spreading far into the interior.
Sidenote: of the Jerseys,
East Jersey had a population of about ten thousand, composed of Quakers,
New England men, and Scotch Presbyterians. Of the four thousand inhabitants
of West Jersey, the Quakers were the prevailing element. The population of
New Jersey was homogeneous, being very largely English; the few Dutch,
Germans, and Swedes having little effect on the character of the colony.
Jerseymen were vigorous and quick-witted, although Governor Belcher
(1748-1757) wrote, "They are a very rustical people, and deficient in
learning."
Sidenote: and of Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Pennsylvania and Delaware had, together, a population of about twenty
thousand in 1700, having developed more rapidly than any other of the
American colonies. Somewhat over one half were English Quakers, the others
being sectaries from New England, French, Dutch, Germans, Swedes, Finns,
Welsh, and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. The Germans moved in large numbers
to what were then the western borders, where they evolved a distinct
dialect, popularly known as "Pennsylvania Dutch." Although valuable
pioneers of civilization, they exhibited a stubborn temper, which, with
their strong opposition to the bearing of arms, made them untrustworthy
during the French and Indian wars. The rugged, liberty-loving Scotch-Irish
were a later acquisition. The pure Irish, destined to become so prominent
on the frontier, did not commence arriving until 1719. The Swedes were
strong, sturdy, and simple agriculturists. The English Quakers were of the
middle class of tradesmen and small farmers. Their prejudice against taking
up arms made it difficult for the colonial military officers to defend the
province against the disastrous Indian forays of the eighteenth century,
and was a fruitful source of political and social disturbance.
By the close of the seventeenth century a people had grown up in most of
the middle colonies which was largely English in composition, with habits
of speech, thought, and manner greatly affected by English traditions, but
still much modified by the liberal infusion of blood from kindred
nationalities on the continent of Europe. The eager, enterprising spirit of
the English, quickened by removal to the New World, had, after a generation
or two of amalgamation, been noticeably tempered by the phlegmatic
temperament of the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian settlers.
93. Social Classes.
Sidenote: Classes.
In the middle colonies, as in New England and the South, there existed an
acknowledged aristocracy, although there was a wide gap between the haughty
and elegant Dutch manor-chiefs in New York and the rude gentlemen farmers
who headed New Jersey society. The servile classes common to the Southern
colonies were also present here, as a foundation for aristocratic
distinction; but they were comparatively insignificant in number. Nowhere
in this middle group was free white labor regarded as degrading; nearly all
the colonists were workers, whether behind the desk or the counter, in the
shop or in the field. Trade was exalted to a high station.
Sidenote: Slavery.
New York had many negroes, left over from the Dutch rule, but there was a
strong physical prejudice against them, and their further importation was
gradually restricted. In 1711 and 1741, on insufficient evidence, the
blacks were accused of plots against the whites of New York city, and were
cruelly dealt with,--on the former occasion nineteen were hanged; on the
latter, eighteen suffered death by the gallows, and thirteen were burned at
the stake. The laws against negroes were harsh in all of the middle
colonies. But in practice, slaves were mildly treated, compared with those
in the South. The Quakers were opposed to human bondage on principle, yet
many employed slaves, chiefly as house-servants. There were numerous
indented servants, especially in Pennsylvania, and most stringent laws were
adopted for their regulation. From these and the negroes the criminal class
was recruited. Among Pennsylvania Quakers were formed the first abolition
societies.
Sidenote: The Dutch aristocrats.
No aristocrats in America so nearly resembled the nobility of the Old World
as the great-landed Dutch proprietors in New York,--such as the Van
Rensselaers, the Cortlandts, and the Livingstons. Their vast estates up the
Hudson, granted to their fathers in the days of the Dutch West India
Company, were rented out to tenant-farmers, over whom they ruled in
princely fashion, dispensing justice, and bountifully feasting the tenants
on semi-annual rent-days. Some of these estates were entitled to
representatives in the assembly, and the lords of the manor practically
held such appointments in their keeping. There was an impassable gulf
between the rural aristocrats and the small freeholders and tradesmen. This
condition of affairs was not calculated to encourage settlement; and out of
these feudal privileges, often harshly exercised, there arose conflicts
which became riotous as the Revolution approached.
Sidenote: Aristocracy among the Quakers.
The aristocrats of Pennsylvania and Delaware were also the wealthy landed
gentry, chiefly Penn's followers; but the class was not strongly marked,
and almost imperceptibly faded away into the ranks of the merchants and
small freeholders. Each village, however, had its Quaker "squire" or
magistrate, in powdered wig, broad ruffles, cocked hat, and gold-headed
cane, who meted out justice at the neighboring tavern and was highly
regarded. Rich and poor alike, among the Quakers, were simple in tastes and
habits. In New Jersey there was a mild recognition of the social
superiority of the gentlemen farmers, notwithstanding a strong underlying
spirit of democracy; a rude plenty prevailed, and the gentlemen's houses
were not without some degree of elegance.
94. Occupations.
Sidenote: The professions.
The judicial system was very similar to that which obtained elsewhere in
America. In each province was an upper court, consisting of a chief justice
and associates, appointed by the governor; from this an appeal might go in
important cases to the governor and council, and in causes involving £200
or over, to the king in council. Below the upper court was a regular series
of courts, ranging down to the local justices of the peace. Justice was
cheap, and court practice simple. In New York, the quality of both bench
and bar was inferior, and remained so down to the Revolution; the judges
had often no legal training, and the law was not recognized as a
profession. In Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania men of ability and
character were engaged on the bench and at the bar, and their calling won
universal respect. Penn brought out two physicians with him, and in the
Quaker colonies the art of medicine had from the first an honorable
standing; but in New York physicians were not licensed until 1760. In all
four colonies the clergymen for the most part were zealous, upright men, of
learning and ability, and took high social rank.
Sidenote: Agriculture and manufacturing.
Except in New York, where trade was equally important, agriculture was the
chief industry; but as the soil was fertile and the average farmer
consequently careless, farming was, except among the painstaking Quakers of
Pennsylvania, in a low condition. The principal crop was wheat, although
there was much variety in farm products, and New Jersey raised large herds
of cattle on her broad lowland meadows. There were many small manufactures
for domestic use, the most important being among the Germans of Germantown,
who made, in a small way, paper and glass, and also some varieties of knit
goods and coarse cloths; the spinning-wheel was a familiar household
machine, for homespun was much worn by all except the rich. But the bulk of
manufactured goods was imported from England and the continent of Europe.
Little picturesque windmills, with broad canvas sails, after the Dutch
fashion, were numerous. Many of the Maryland and Virginia colonists came
long distances to patronize the Pennsylvania mills. It was not until 1720
than an iron furnace was erected in the latter province,--the first in the
middle group of colonies.
Sidenote: Trade and commerce.
The middle-colony people had a keen sense for trade. The fur-traffic was
widespread and of the first importance, particularly in New York and
Pennsylvania; while the personal danger to the adventurous forest trader
was very great, the profits on packs of peltries successfully landed in New
York and Philadelphia were such as to warrant the hazard. The principal
exports were grain, flour, and furs, and vessels with these American
products sailed to England, Lisbon, Madeira, and the West Indies; the
exports of goods were never equal to the imports, however, and ships
bringing over wines, sugar, and miscellaneous manufactured articles often
found it difficult to obtain return cargoes. There was a profitable
'longshore commerce in farm products and small manufactures, boats
penetrating up the rivers far inland. New England bottoms were largely
employed, although a shipbuilding industry soon sprang up at Philadelphia.
New York was the chief port of the middle colonies for foreign trade; her
merchants were highly active and prosperous.
95. Social Life.
Sidenote: Life and manners in New York.
In 1700 the Dutch were still the largest landowners in New York. The
English and other nationalities, jealously excluded from the landed class
as far as possible, were to be mainly found in the large towns in the
southern portion of the province, engaged in trade. The Dutch adhered to
old dress and customs with remarkable tenacity. Their farm-houses were
usually of wood, with the second story overhanging; the great rafters
showed in the ceilings; the fireplaces were ornamented with pictured tiles,
and above were rows of great wooden and pewter dishes, and racks of long
tobacco-pipes; the floors were daily scrubbed and sanded, and evidences of
neatness and thrift were distinguishing features. In the little hamlets, as
well as on the farms, there was plenty of good plain living; but the
people, while thrifty, sober, contented, and industrious, were
superstitious, ignorant, grasping, and slow. Life with them was narrow and
monotonous. The wealthy landed proprietors lived on their estates up the
Hudson in summer, and moved to New York city in winter; their manor-houses
were large and richly furnished, they had trains of servants, black and
white, and maintained a degree of splendor scarcely equalled elsewhere in
the colonies. The Dutch women, rich and poor, were noted for their
excellence as housekeepers, their unaffected piety, and their love of
flowers.
Sidenote: Elsewhere in the middle colonies.
In Pennsylvania and Delaware there was a wide difference between the
condition of the dwellers in the long-settled portions, where there was
intelligent progress, sobriety, and neatness, and that of the western
borderers, who were a rude, turbulent people, living amid wretched economic
and sanitary conditions. The better class of farmers in the eastern section
were prosperous but simple; men and women alike worked in the fields, and a
patriarchal system of family life prevailed. The soberly attired Quakers
still exercised a large influence on society, which was pervaded by a
healthy moral tone; tradesmen had a particularly keen sense of business
honesty. New Jersey was also a well-to-do colony; but her farms and
villages long had the reputation of presenting an untidy appearance.
Sidenote: Social intercourse.
Although life among the middle-colony folk was sober and filled with toil,
there were the customary rough and simple popular diversions of the
period,--for the farmers corn-huskings, spinning-bees, house-raisings, and
dancing-parties, at which hard drinking was not infrequent; for the
townsfolk horse-racing, bull-baiting, cock-fighting, tavern-parties, balls,
and picnics. The people were, as a whole, of a more social temperament than
their New England neighbors. There was little luxury within their reach,
but they appear to have been as a rule satisfied in their condition, and
above want.
Sidenote: Town life.
The principal town was New York. Society there was more gay than in Boston,
and more fashionable than in any other American city, except perhaps
Charleston. The wealthy landed proprietors spent money freely during the
winter season, and the latest London styles were eagerly sought and
followed. A social polish was aimed at, clubs were fostered, and pride was
taken in the fact that no other American city was so cosmopolitan in
tone,--a result of its being the centre of a far-reaching foreign trade.
There was much that was English in New York, yet even here the Dutch
influence was strong. Visitors speak of the wide, pleasant streets lined
with trees, the low brick and stone houses, with their projecting eaves and
their gables to the street,--a fashion general in the colonies,--and the
insignificant character of the few public buildings. Albany was the centre
of the northern fur-trade, and purely Dutch in composition and
architecture.
Philadelphia was the Quaker capital. Laid out like a checker-board, with
architecture of severe simplicity, its best residences were surrounded by
gardens and orchards. The town was substantial, neat, and had the
appearance of prosperity. Germantown, near by, settled by the Germans
(1683), was largely given over to small manufactures. Newcastle was
ill-built and unattractive. The New Jersey towns were rather comely, but
insignificant; Trenton was chiefly supported by travellers along the great
highway between New York and Philadelphia.
Sidenote: Roads and travel.
There was little intercommunication, except between the larger towns, and
the facilities for travel were meagre. Rude farm-wagons, two-wheeled
chaises, and saddle-horses were the chief means of conveyance over the
rough, stony roads; and on the many and far-reaching rivers, travellers and
traders proceeded leisurely by slow-moving craft. New Jersey was traversed
by the highways between New York and Philadelphia, over which post-boys
rode weekly with the mail in saddlebags. Taverns were in every town in New
York and Pennsylvania, and were favorite meeting-places for the village and
country folk; but in New Jersey it required legislation to induce villages
to maintain "ordinaries" for wayfarers.
96. Intellectual and Moral Conditions.
Sidenote: Education.
Under the Dutch domination common schools flourished in New York, each town
supporting them by public aid. The English, however, jealous of educational
enterprises under charge of a nonconforming church, suffered them to fall
into neglect. Thus at the close of the seventeenth century education was
neither general nor of good quality. The English Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel established an excellent Church of England school
in New York city (1704), but the Dutch did not take kindly to it; they long
clung to their mother-tongue and the few rude schools of their own
ordering. In Pennsylvania but little attempt was made by the English in the
direction of popular education outside of the capital, where was opened
(1698) the now famous Penn Charter School, destined for fifty years to be
the only public school in the province. The Germans and Moravians
maintained some good private schools in the larger Pennsylvania and New
Jersey towns, but educational facilities in the rural places were generally
wretched, where there were any at all.
Sidenote: Religion.
The Church of England was nominally established in all except Pennsylvania;
but it was managed with great lack of discretion, and aroused popular
hostility against it and the mother-country. On Long Island and in New
Jersey the Puritans exerted a powerful influence on manners and thought.
Everywhere the laws against excesses in amusement and Sabbath-breaking were
very severe, but only in the Puritan communities were they strictly
enforced, although a strong sentiment of piety was general among all
respectable classes of the people. Except in New York, towards the close of
the seventeenth century there was toleration for all Protestant sects, but
in Pennsylvania alone were Roman Catholics entitled to equal consideration;
the New York laws against "Jesuits and Popish priests" were harsh, and
founded on the false notion that they incited the Indians to acts of
violence. In New York the Church of England endeavored for a time
(commencing in 1692), by violent persecution, to repress all forms of
dissent; but the sectaries flourished despite official opposition. The
leading denominations were the Dutch Lutheran, Dutch Reformed, English
Independent, and English Presbyterian. The Scotch Presbyterians and New
England Congregationalists were most numerous in New Jersey. In
Pennsylvania and Delaware, next to the Quakers stood the Lutherans and
Scotch Presbyterians, and the preachers of the latter church were vigorous
proselyters, especially successful among the western borderers. The
Germans, brought over, at first, largely through Penn's efforts, included a
number of persecuted groups,--Quakers, Palatines, Ridge Hermits, Dunkards,
and Pietists. All Christian forms and creeds were liberally represented in
Pennsylvania, where there was as genuine religious freedom as exists
anywhere in the United States to-day.
Sidenote: Crime and pauperism.
In none of the middle colonies was crime so prevalent as to be a
troublesome question, with the one exception of piracy,--the most common
and widely demoralizing of all the dangers to which the colonists were
subjected. Public officials often corruptly connived at the practice, and
popular sentiment was not strongly against a set of men who brought wealth
to the seaport towns and spent it lavishly. Hangings and whippings were not
infrequent public spectacles in the colonies, and the pillory was much in
use. In the Long Island towns the New Englanders, who were dominant there,
faithfully reproduced their native customs in the punishment of crime as in
most other particulars. The Quakers were, on the whole, the most lenient in
their treatment of evil-doers, up to 1718, when the second generation of
colonists abandoned the old theory of criminal legislation and adopted
measures of harsh repression similar to those in vogue in other colonies.
There was little pauperism, but perhaps more in Pennsylvania than
elsewhere. In the treatment of this evil the Quakers were also wise, and in
Philadelphia they established the first hospital for the insane, on the
continent.
97. Political Conditions and Conclusion.
Sidenote: Political spirit in the Jerseys,
New Jersey having no foreign trade and but little manufacturing, her people
were without experience of the harshness of the English Acts of Navigation
and Trade (page 104, § 44). Since there was not much to complain of
regarding treatment by the mother-country, they were generally loyal. Taxes
were light, public salaries small, and the colony, with Pennsylvania and
New York as buffers, was in no danger from Indians.
Sidenote: in New York,
On the other hand, New York was constantly subjected to border warfare,
which proved a serious financial burden; taxation, levied by duties on
slaves and imports, and on real and personal property, was clumsy and
oppressive, and the government corrupt and expensive. English officials and
wealthy Dutch were loyal because it was their interest to be so; but the
mass of the people, rich and poor, favored liberal candidates to the
assembly. The men from New England exerted a strong influence on the
general trend of political thought. Elections excited great bitterness and
often rioting, and they were made an excuse for the usual holiday excesses.
There was a strong feeling of resentment against the home government,
growing out of the Navigation Laws and the impressment of seamen.
Sidenote: and in Pennsylvania.
In Pennsylvania there prevailed a similar attitude of opposition to
England; the Quakers were, however, conservative, and slow in action, and
their dislike to bear arms made the colony a drag upon all attempts at
continental union for common defence. As in New York, local politics ran in
extremely narrow channels, and election riots were not uncommon.
Sidenote: Summary.
Taking a general view of the middle colonies, we find that the fur-traffic,
the fertile soil, a mixed system of agriculture, and an enterprising
commercial spirit, were the chief sources of their material prosperity.
There was prevalent a broader spirit of religious toleration; there was,
perhaps, on the whole, a more democratic spirit among all classes of the
people, than in New England or the South; except in the case of the Dutch
patroons, aristocracy did not flourish among them; the state of popular
education was pitiable; the population was more mixed than anywhere else in
America. The continental nationalities gave a more cheerful tone to society
than existed in New England and the South; the several communities varied
greatly in speech, customs, and thought, according to their origin,
although we find, as the eighteenth century opens, that the English
Puritans from New England were coming more and more to exercise a
considerable influence in political, social, and religious affairs.
CHAPTER XI.
OTHER ENGLISH NORTH AMERICAN COLONIES (1605-1750).
98. References.
Bibliographies.--Larned, _Literature of American History_, 430-438,
458-462; Winsor, VIII. 65-80, 175-177, 188-190, 270-291.
Historical Maps.--Nos. 2, 3, and 4, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, Nos. 2, 3,
4); Winsor, MacCoun, and school histories already cited.
General Accounts.--H. Fox-Bourne, _Story of our Colonies_, chs. i.-xi.;
Egerton, _British Colonial Policy_; Morris, _History of Colonization_; E.
Payne, _European Colonies_; Cotton and Payne, _Colonies and Dependencies_.
Special Histories.--West Indies: Lucas, _Historical Geography_, II., secs.
i., ii.; C. Eden, _West Indies_; J. Froude, _English in West Indies_
(answered by J. Thomas, _Froudacity_); A. Kennedy, _Story of West Indies_;
J. Rodway, _West Indies and Spanish Main_; J. Lefroy, _Discovery and Early
Settlement of Bermudas_; J. Esquemeling, _Buccaneers of America_ (and
similar books by Archenholtz, Burney, and Pyle); J. Masefield, _On the
Spanish Main_.--Newfoundland: D. Prowse, _Newfoundland_; also histories of
the island by Hatton and Harvey, Smith, and Pedley; S. Dawson, _Canada and
Newfoundland_; W. Greswell, _Geography of Canada and Newfoundland_.--Nova
Scotia: J. Bourinot, _Builders of Nova Scotia_; T. Haliburton, _Nova
Scotia_; B. Murdoch, _Nova Scotia_; E. Richard, _Acadia_.--Canada: see §
107.--Hudson's Bay Company: G. Bryce, _Remarkable History of Hudson's Bay
Company_; L. Burpee, _Search for the Western Sea_; A. Laut, _Conquest of
Great Northwest_; B. Willson, _Great Company_. Consult also publications of
Royal Society of Canada, and provincial historical and antiquarian
societies.
Contemporary Accounts.--Whitbourne, _Discourse and Discovery of
Newfoundland_ (1620); Mason, _Brief Discourse of Newfoundland_ (1620); Du
Tertre, _Histoire Générale des Antilles_ (1654); Denys, _Description and
Natural History of Arcadia_ (1672); Labat, _Nouveau Voyage aux Isles
d'Amérique_ (1724); Oldmixon, _British Empire in America_ (1741); Dobbs,
_Countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay_ (1744); Ellis, _Voyage to Hudson Bay_
(1748); Hakluyt, _Voyages_. Reprints in publications of historical and
antiquarian societies.
99. Outlying English Colonies.
Sidenote: Differences between the thirteen colonies and their English
neighbors to the south and north.
It is usual to think and speak of the English colonies in North America as
though they included only the thirteen which, in 1775, revolted against the
mother-country. In the eyes of the home government, however, and of the
colonists themselves, the relations between the mother-land and the English
West India Islands, the Bermudas, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay,
and, after 1763, Canada, were much the same as between it and Virginia or
New Hampshire or Pennsylvania. The chief differences between the colonies
were of race and occupation. Nova Scotia had, before the Revolution, but a
few thousand English inhabitants; the West Indies were almost exclusively
sugar-producing colonies. Both on the north and on the southeast the
English colonies touched elbows with the French in active commercial and
territorial competition. The West Indies were the emporium for sugar and
slaves, and an extensive traffic was had in both commodities with the
continental colonies. This important commerce has already been frequently
referred to, particularly in the treatment of New England (page 185, § 77),
whose vessels did the bulk of the colonial carrying trade.
Sidenote: Why those neighbors did not revolt against England.
Various causes conspired to prevent Englishmen in these outlying
plantations from joining their brethren of New England, the middle
colonies, and the South, in the movement for independence. The West India
planters were largely aided by English capital, and in England, where many
of them had summer residences, they enjoyed a profitable and exclusive
market for sugar, cotton, and other tropical products. It was considered
good policy by English statesmen to favor the island colonies as against
the continental, for the products of the former did not compete with those
of Great Britain; so that while the Navigation Acts (page 104, § 44),
restricting all colonial trade to British ports, at first bore heavily on
the island planters, they were compensated in part by numerous
discriminations in their favor. Many of these planters were the sons of
Cavaliers who had fled to the islands of the Caribbean Sea to escape from
the rule of the Commonwealth; or wealthy men who had, in times of popular
disturbance, been made to feel uncomfortable in their old homes on the
American mainland. In Nova Scotia and Newfoundland the ports were filled
with English traders and officers; and a great belt of untraversed forest
separated them from the New Englanders, with whom they had little in
common. But perhaps above all was the fact that His Majesty's fleet easily
commanded these outlying colonies, and revolt was not to be thought of
within the reach of the guns of ships.
It is worth our while briefly to review the history of these British
American dependencies which for one reason or another did not enter the
struggle that was soon to rend the empire in twain at the moment it had
reached its greatest extent.
100. Windward and Leeward Islands (1605-1814).
Sidenote: Settlement of Barbados.
_Barbados_, the easternmost of the Windward Islands, was first visited by a
party of English adventurers in 1605, since which time it has been an
English possession. But it was not until 1625 that a colony was planted on
the island. Its plan of government was much the same as that of the
mainland colonies.
Sidenote: Refuge for loyalists.
During the Puritan uprising in England, Barbados was a place of refuge for
loyalists, who were disposed, till the appearance of a parliamentary force
(1651), to hold the island for the king. Under Cromwell's rule many
prisoners of war were sent to the island, thus increasing the royalist
population. The Restoration was promptly proclaimed.
Sidenote: Warfare.
The colony made rapid progress, although now and then checked by the fact
that its exposed position made it in time of war a favorite point of attack
by enemies of England. The numerous harbors along the coast were, in such
troublous periods, infested by privateers, who seriously interfered with
the commerce of the island. In the war between Great Britain and France,
commencing in 1756, the West Indies was the theatre of a prolonged
conflict, into which the Barbadians entered with zeal, supplying money and
troops to the English side, and oftentimes suffering from reverses.
Sidenote: Commerce.
Before the Navigation Acts (page 104, § 44), by which England sought to
compel all her colonists to trade with her alone, the Dutch were good
customers for Barbados sugar; after that, English merchants having a
monopoly of the traffic, the planters had much reason to complain.
Nevertheless, the majority were stanch Tories, and remained so throughout
the Revolutionary war. Many Barbadians settled from time to time upon the
mainland, particularly in the Carolinas. We have seen that Sir John
Yeamans, a Barbados planter, led several hundred of his fellow-islanders
thither (1664), and founded a town on Cape Fear river (page 89, § 36).
Sidenote: St. Vincent.
_St. Vincent_, a hundred miles west of Barbados, although discovered by
Columbus in 1498 was unclaimed until 1627, when it was granted to the Earl
of Carlisle by Charles I., along with others of the Windward group. In
1722, the Duke of Montagu came into possession of it; and then immigrants
were introduced, who exported sugar, rum, molasses, and arrowroot.
Sidenote: Other Windward islands.
_St. Lucia_ was settled by the English in 1639; its ownership was long
passed back and forth by France and England, but in 1794 the latter secured
permanent possession. The English flag was raised over _Tobago_ in 1580,
but the island was alternately held by English and Dutch until 1814, since
which date the proprietorship of the former has been undisputed. _Grenada_
and the _Grenadines_, colonized by the French, first came into English
possession under the treaty of 1763. _Trinidad_, the southernmost of the
chain of islands and one of the most valuable, was occupied by the Spanish
until 1797, when it was yielded up to Great Britain, under show of force;
to-day it is one of the most progressive of the smaller English
dependencies.
Sidenotes: Early settlement.
Changes in ownership.
Upon the Leeward, or northern, islands of the Caribbean group are the
colonies of Antigua, Montserrat, St. Christopher (St. Kitts), Nevis,
Dominica, and the Virgin Islands. _Antigua_, the seat of the present
colonial government, is the most important. English families settled there
in 1632, and again in 1663. Ravaged by France three years later (1666), it
was soon after restored to the English under the treaty of Breda.
_Montserrat_, the healthiest island in the West Indies, was also colonized
by the English in 1632, and remained in their possession except for two
brief terms (1664-1668 and 1782-1784), when the French were in control.
_St. Christopher_ and _Nevis_ form a united English colony which traces its
history back to 1628. Dutch buccaneers intrenched themselves on the rocky
islets of the _Virgin_ group as early as 1648, but were driven out by
English pirates in 1666, since which date the archipelago has been the
property of Great Britain; a better class of settlers came in with the
eighteenth century. _Dominica_, the largest of the Leeward Isles, was
included in Carlisle's patent (1627); but the French were already in
possession, living on friendly terms with the native Caribs, just as their
compatriots in New France were with the more warlike Algonkins. Ceded by
France to England in 1763, Dominica was several times recaptured, and not
finally relinquished to the latter until 1814.
101. Bermudas (1609-1750) and Bahamas (1522-1783).
Sidenote: Early settlement.
The fertile Bermudas, or Somers's Islands,--"still vex'd Bermoothes" of
Shakespeare,--lie about six hundred miles east of South Carolina. They bear
the names of two navigators who were cast away upon them,--Juan Bermudez, a
Spaniard (1522), and an Englishman, Sir George Somers (1609); the latter
being on his way to Virginia to administer the affairs of that colony.
Somers founded the first settlement.
Sidenote: In the possession of Virginia.
Under the third patent to the Virginia Company in 1612 (page 72, § 30), the
Bermudas and all islands within three hundred leagues of the Virginia shore
were ceded to that corporation. Except Nova Scotia, therefore, the Bermudas
are the only present English colony which ever formed an integral part of
any of the present States or Territories of the United States. The Virginia
Company afterwards (1616) parted with its right to the Bermuda Company,
which carried thither a considerable company of Virginians. During the
Commonwealth, the Bermudas, like Barbados, were a refuge for royalists from
England. Representative government, similar to that of the mainland
colonies, was established in 1620, and has been ever since maintained.
Tobacco was the staple of the colony until about 1707, when a salt-making
industry sprang up and soon became the chief interest.
Sidenote: Strategic importance.
The Bermudas were from the earliest times recognized as an important marine
station. During the Revolutionary war Washington wrote: "Let us annex the
Bermudas, and thus possess a nest of hornets to annoy the British trade."
But the place was undisturbed, and remained loyal to the king.
Sidenote: The landfall of Columbus.
The first American soil trod by Columbus was an island in the fruitful
Bahama group. "This country," he wrote, "excels all others as far as the
day surpasses the night in splendor." The natives were numerous; "their
conversation is the sweetest imaginable; their faces always smiling; and so
gentle and so affectionate are they that I swear to your highness there is
not a better people in the world." Yet (commencing in 1509) the Spaniards
almost depopulated the islands; forty thousand of these innocent aborigines
were carried away to a wretched death in the mines of Cuba.
Sidenote: Spanish and French opposition to English settlement.
In 1629, an English colony was planted on New Providence, in the then
deserted archipelago. But the French and Spanish persisted in harrying the
settlement, which was frequently the scene of stormy conflicts. At last, in
1718, the English government drove out the pirates who had come to resort
there in great numbers, resettled the islands, and an era of progress
opened.
Sidenote: Americans capture the colony.
During the Revolutionary war many wealthy Tories went from the continental
colonies to the Bahamas and opened up large plantations, with slave labor.
The colony was captured by the Americans (1776),--the only conquest of
British territory during the Revolution, except the Canadian campaign of
1775 and the occupation of the Northwest by Virginia troops in 1778. The
Spanish took it in 1782, but it was soon retaken by the English (1783).
Three quarters of a century later the islands became famous as the point of
departure for blockade-runners bound into Confederate ports.
102. Jamaica (1655-1750).
Sidenote: England captures the island.
Jamaica was under Spanish control until 1655, when an English fleet under
Admirals Penn and Venables--the former, father of the founder of
Pennsylvania--compelled the surrender of the island to the Commonwealth.
The opposition of the Spanish planters and their negro slaves--the latter
were called Maroons--long made English government difficult; the Spaniards
were finally driven off, but the Maroons, fleeing to the mountains, were
troublesome until the close of the eighteenth century. Much annoyance was
also suffered in the seventeenth century from the buccaneers, who infested
the Jamaica coast and preyed indiscriminately on all West Indian commerce;
they were suppressed with great difficulty. In 1728, English laws and
statutes became applicable to the island.
Sidenote: The Tory element.
Like other islands in the West Indies, Jamaica was resorted to by many Tory
planters from the continental colonies, and apparently had no sympathy with
the struggle of the latter for independence. It was a colony having a large
slave population, and after the separation of the continental colonies
became, to some degree, a competitor with them. The abolition of slavery in
the island (1830-1837) had a great influence on the slavery conflict in the
United States.
103. British Honduras (1600-1798).
Sidenote: Lawless character of English settlers.
Belize, or British Honduras, on the eastern shore of the Yucatan peninsula,
was not occupied by Englishmen until after the suppression of freebooting
in the Spanish main,--about the opening of the eighteenth century. At that
time parties of English dyewood and mahogany cutters, many of whom had been
pirates, established themselves at Belize. Their holdings were frequently
beset by rival Spanish logging companies, but in 1798 the latter were
expelled.
Sidenote: English rights questioned.
Since that day Belize has existed as a prosperous Crown colony, although
England's legal right to the country is still questioned by some
authorities, and in 1846 this fact gave rise to serious diplomatic
difficulties with the United States.
104. Newfoundland (1497-1783).
Sidenote: Early settlements.
Newfoundland is the oldest of the colonial possessions of Great Britain. We
have seen (page 25, § 8) that John Cabot discovered it in 1497, that
Cortereal was there for the Portuguese in 1500, and that by 1504 fishermen
from Normandy, Brittany, and the Basque provinces were regularly engaged on
its shores. It was the nucleus for both French and English occupation of
the mainland, and from the first an important fishery station.
Not until 1583 did the English take formal possession, and it was much
later before any of their numerous colonizing schemes attained any great
measure of success.
Sidenote: Growth of the colony.
By the treaty of Utrecht (1713) Newfoundland was acknowledged as English
territory, but the French were given fishing privileges on the western and
northern coasts. This led to diplomatic contentions, not yet ended;
nevertheless settlement at once increased, and a satisfactory growth has
since been maintained. In 1728, a form of civil government was for the
first time established.
Sidenote: Loyalty to England.
During the American Revolution Newfoundland had sufficient inducement to
remain loyal; since French and American competitors in the fisheries were
kept out by British fleets, her merchants had a monopoly of the European
markets, and were enabled to maintain high prices.
105. Nova Scotia, Acadia. (1497-1755).
Sidenote: French and English rivalry.
First visited by the Cabots in 1497, it was not until 1604 that European
colonization was attempted in Nova Scotia, under the Frenchman De Monts
(page 35, § 13). In 1613, the Virginia privateer, Argall, basing his excuse
on Cabot's previous discovery, swooped down on the French settlements,
demolished the cabins, and expelled the inhabitants. A grant of the
peninsula--called Acadia by the French, but in this document styled Nova
Scotia by the king--was made by James I. to Sir William Alexander; the
latter was, however, prevented by the French (1623) from carrying out his
colonizing scheme. Nevertheless, several Englishmen and Scotchmen came into
the country and mingled with the French, who were slowly re-populating it.
Sidenote: New England captures the country.
Recaptured by an English force in 1654, Nova Scotia was, thirteen years
later (1667), ceded to France. But the ease of communication by water made
the colony an uncomfortably close neighbor for the English colonies farther
south. In 1710 the Massachusetts men captured Port Royal; and in 1713
France relinquished possession to England by the treaty of Utrecht. Again
in 1745, Massachusetts volunteers captured Louisbourg on Cape Breton (§§
111, 112).
Sidenote: Deportation of the Acadians.
England paid little attention to Nova Scotia until 1749, when four thousand
emigrants were sent over to found Halifax. The French settlers, known as
Acadians, had meanwhile become numerous, and greatly abused their
privileges as neutrals by fostering and joining Indian war-parties against
the New England settlers. In 1755, the Acadians were easily reduced by
General Monkton, and seven thousand transported to the British provinces
southward, many of them finally drifting to the French settlement at the
mouth of the Mississippi.
Sidenote: An asylum for Tories.
A colonial constitution of the regulation English pattern was granted to
Nova Scotia in 1758, and France formally released her claim by the treaty
of 1763. At the same time Cape Breton, which had been a second time
captured (1758), was added. The Englishmen in Nova Scotia were largely of
the official and trading class, having little in common with their
neighbors of the more southern colonies. In the Revolution several thousand
loyalist refugees found an asylum in the peninsula.
For the remaining French colony, Canada, special treatment will be
necessary.
106. Hudson's Bay Company.
Sidenote: Similarity to the Massachusetts Bay Company.
The Hudson's Bay Company, from the time it was chartered by Charles II.
(1670) until its lands were sold to the British Government (1869), was a
joint-stock association, with exclusive commercial and political
privileges, very similar to the Company of Massachusetts Bay. To-day it
trades as a private corporation; its former territory--the lands draining
into Hudson's Bay--is now open to all on equal terms.
Sidenote: French opposition.
Fur-trade factories, protected by strong forts, were early planted by the
company at the mouths of several sub-arctic rivers, such as the Rupert,
Moore, Albany, Nelson, and Churchill, the only inhabitants being the small
garrisons and the company's trading servants. Several expeditions were
successively made to Hudson's Bay by French war vessels; much devastation
was wrought and blood spilled, until in 1697 the treaty of Ryswick put an
end to the trouble, and left the company in undisputed possession. It had
lost more than £200,000 in this predatory warfare, but soon regained its
position, through the profits of the fur-trade.
Sidenote: American rivals.
After the fall of New France (1763), the Hudson's Bay Company met
formidable rivals in the enterprising Northwest and American organizations;
the story of the fierce competition which ensued, with its effect on
American settlement and international boundaries, belongs to the period
covered by other volumes of this series.
Sidenote: Summary.
From the foregoing sketch it will be seen that for all the American
colonies to the south of Georgia the English were obliged to fight a
changeful battle with the Spaniards and the French. It was not till after
the Revolutionary war that the permanent ownership of the islands was
assured to Great Britain. A similar struggle, though briefer and sooner
concluded, went on for the possession of the colonies north of Maine. But
twelve years before the Revolution the last of them had been yielded to the
British. In Nova Scotia, and later in Canada, English residents were not
numerous till the beginning of the nineteenth century. In Newfoundland and
Hudson's Bay, in colonial times, the settlers were English, but in numbers
they were few.
CHAPTER XII.
THE COLONIZATION OF NEW FRANCE (1608-1750).
107. References.
Bibliographies.--Thwaites, _Jesuit Relations_, LXXI. 219-365, and _France
in America_, ch. xix.; H. Biggar, _Early Trading Companies_, 171-296;
Larned, _Literature of American History_, 395-421; Avery, II. 403-408, III.
436, 437; P. Gagnon, _Essai de bibliographie canadienne_; H. Harrisse,
_Notes pour servir à l'histoire du Canada_. Consult also Wrong and Langton,
_Review of Historical Publications relating to Canada_ (published
annually).
Historical Maps.--No. 4, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, No. 4); also maps in
Parkman, Thwaites, Winsor, and MacCoun.
General Accounts.--Lucas, _Historical Geography_, V. The standard English
history of Canada is by W. Kingsford. The principal French historians are
M. Faillon, J. Ferland, F. Garnier (English translation by Bell), and B.
Sulte. The prime authority for New France is Parkman's series (12 vols.,
condensed into one by P. Edgar, 1902), _France and England in North
America_. Briefer and more recent treatment of New France will be found in
Works by Bourinot, Douglas, Greswell, Laut, Roberts, Thwaites, and Tracy.
Special Histories.--Winsor, _Cartier to Frontenac_, and _Mississippi
Basin_; Biggar, as above; Doughty and Dionne, _Quebec under Two Flags_; G.
Parker, _Old Quebec_; Laut, _Pathfinders of the West_; F. Ogg, _Opening of
the Mississippi_; C. Moore, _Northwest under Two Flags_; W. Munro,
_Seignorial System in Canada_; Bourinot, _Local Government in
Canada_.--French and Indian War: Parkman, _Montcalm and Wolfe_; A. Bradley,
_Fight with France for North America_; W. Wood, _Fight for Canada_; A.
Doughty, _Siege of Quebec_.--French in Northwest: Hinsdale, _Old
Northwest_, chs. iii.-v.; Thwaites, _Wisconsin_ (Commonwealths).--Manners
and customs: C. Colby, _Canadian Types of the Old Regime (1608-1698)_;
Dunn's _Indiana_ (Commonwealths), chs. ii., iii. for the Northwest; M.
Pepper, _Maids and Matrons of New France_; Machar and Marquis, _Stories of
New France_. See also biographies of prominent men.
Contemporary Accounts.--For detailed list, consult Thwaites, _France in
America_, 298-303. Numerous publications of Canadian and American
historical and antiquarian societies (especially the Champlain Society)
contain useful material. Relative to the Northwest, see _Wisconsin
Historical Collections_, XVI-XVIII.
108. Settlement of Canada (1608-1629).
The story of early French efforts at colonization in North America, from
Cartier's visit (1534) to Champlain's foundation of Quebec (1608), the
first permanent French colony in Canada, has already been told (Chapter
II.).
Sidenote: Effect of Iroquois opposition.
It was unfortunate for New France that Champlain incurred at the outset the
hostility of the Iroquois (page 196, § 83); the French and the Algonquians
with whom they maintained friendly relations were long after sorely
afflicted by them. Had it not been for the Iroquois wall interposed between
Champlain and the South, the French would doubtless have preceded the
English upon the Atlantic plain. The presence of this opposition led the
founder of New France, in his attempts to extend the sphere of French
influence, to explore along the line of least resistance, to the north and
west.
Sidenote: Champlain on Lake Huron.
In 1611, Montreal was planted at the first rapids in the St. Lawrence, and
near the mouths of the Ottawa and Richelieu. Four years later (1615),
Champlain reached Lake Huron by the way of the Ottawa. There were easier
highways to the Northwest, but the French were compelled for many years
thereafter to take this path, because of its greater security from the
all-devouring Iroquois.
Sidenote: Explorers and _coureurs de bois_.
To extend the sphere of French influence and the Catholic religion, as well
as to induce the savages to patronize French commerce, were objects which
inspired both lay and clerical followers of Champlain. Their wonderful zeal
illumined the history of New France with a poetic glamour such as is cast
over no other part of America north of Mexico. Under Champlain's guidance
and inspired by his example, traders and priests soon penetrated to the far
west,--the former bent on trafficking for peltries, and the latter on
saving souls. Another large class of rovers, styled _coureurs de bois_, or
wood-rangers, wandered far and wide, visiting and fraternizing with remote
tribes of Indians; they were attracted by the love of lawless adventure,
and conducted an extensive but illicit fur-trade. Many of these explorers
left no record of their journeys, hence it is now impossible to say who
first made some of the most important geographical discoveries.
109. Exploration of the Northwest (1629-1699).
Sidenote: Early discoveries in the Northwest.
We know that by 1629, the year before the planting of the Massachusetts Bay
colony, Champlain saw an ingot of copper obtained by barter with Indians
from the shores of Lake Superior. In 1634, Jean Nicolet, another emissary
from Champlain, penetrated to central Wisconsin, by way of the Fox River,
and thence went overland to the Illinois country, making trading agreements
with the savage tribes along his path. Seven years afterwards (1641),
Jesuit priests said mass before two thousand naked savages at Sault Ste.
Marie. In the winter of 1658-1659, two French fur-traders, Radisson and
Grosseilliers, imbued with a desire "to travell and see countreys" and "to
be knowne with the remotest people," visited Wisconsin, probably saw the
Mississippi, and built a log fort on Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior.
During 1662 they discovered James's Bay to the far northeast, and became
impressed with the fur-trading capabilities of the Hudson's Bay region. Not
receiving French support in their enterprise, they sold their services to
England. On the strength of their discoveries, the Hudson's Bay Company was
organized (1670). Saint-Lusson took formal possession of the Northwest for
the French king, at Sault Ste. Marie, in 1671. Two years later (1673),
Joliet and Marquette made their now famous trip over the Fox-Wisconsin
waterway and rediscovered the Mississippi.
Sidenote: La Salle.
Champlain died at Quebec in 1635, having extended the trade and domination
of France westward to Wisconsin, by the Ottawa highway. It remained for the
fur-trader, La Salle, one of the most brilliant of American explorers, to
add the Mississippi valley to French territory (1679-1682), his route being
up the Great Lakes and _via_ the Chicago-Illinois portage. It was 1699
before a French settlement was planted in Louisiana (Old Biloxi), and 1718
before New Orleans was founded.
The central geographical fact to be remembered in connection with the
history of New France is, that the St. Lawrence and the chain of Great
Lakes which serve as its feeders furnish a natural highway to the heart of
the continent (page 4, § 2).
Sidenote: Early explorations on the Great Lakes.
It has been shown that the hostility of the Iroquois forced the French, in
their earliest explorations westward, to take the northern, or indirect,
route of the Ottawa River, and caused Huron to be the first great lake
discovered; Ontario, Superior, and Michigan being next unveiled, in the
order named. Erie, the last to be seen by whites, was known as early as
1640, but owing to Iroquois warriors blocking the way, was not navigated
until 1669, except by _coureurs de bois_ seeking the New York fur-markets.
Thus Frenchmen were familiar with the sites of Sault Ste. Marie, Mackinaw,
Ashland, Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, and Chicago before they had visited
the site of Detroit (1669). But that place came to be recognized after its
settlement (1701) as the most important strategic point in the western
possessions of New France.
Sidenote: Differences between French and English colonists.
The difference between the character of the English and French colonies in
North America was great. Englishmen were content to sow and reap in a
plodding fashion, extending their territorial bounds no faster than their
settlements needed room for growth. Their acquaintance with the Indians did
not, with the exception of the New York and Southern fur-traders, extend
beyond the tribes which touched their borders. They were possessed of
remarkable vitality and a strong sense of political and commercial
independence.
110. Social and Political Conditions.
Sidenote: _Coureur de bois versus_ farmer.
The rigor of the Canadian winter, the shortness of the summer season, and
persistent annoyance from the Iroquois, who at times had carried their
warfare to the very walls of the settlements, combined to make the lot of
the French farmer on the St. Lawrence far from prosperous. During many of
its early years, New France largely depended for food upon supplies brought
out from the mother-country. The fur-trader experienced but little more
personal danger than the agriculturist who remained upon his narrow
farmhold abutting on the St. Lawrence; while the fascination of the
unbridled life of adventure led by the former, free from the restraints of
church and society, was such as strongly appealed to young men of spirit.
The trade of New France was farmed out to commercial companies and to
favorites of the king and his autocratic colonial governors. Unlicensed
traffic, such as was carried on by the _coureurs de bois_, was looked upon
as akin to smuggling, and harsh laws were promulgated against it.
Nevertheless the forests, far into the continental interior, were
penetrated by gay adventurers conducting illicit barter with the red
barbarians, while the agriculture of the colony languished. The
river-systems of the English coast colonies did not easily conduct to the
interior, but the far-reaching waterways of New France were a continual
invitation.
Sidenote: French treatment of the Indians.
Iroquois interests were bound up with the Dutch, and after them with the
English. The better to improve their own position and to keep up prices,
the Iroquois sought to prevent Algonquians of the upper lakes from trading
with the Canadians. But French influence in the Northwest was nevertheless
strong. Colonial officials cajoled the Indians and plied them with
presents; while the wandering traders and their employees dwelt in
comparative harmony with the red men, were adopted into many of the tribes,
and married squaws, who reared in the forest villages an extensive
half-breed progeny.
Sidenote: Paternal policy of France.
The disposition of the French Crown to interfere with the fur-trade and to
repress all commercial initiative not emanating from privileged circles,
was but an evidence of its general colonial policy. The colony on the St.
Lawrence was made continually to feel the hand of the king. In contrast to
the free town and county systems of the English, the people of New France
had no voice in their government or in the appointment of their officials.
Even in the most trivial affairs they looked to the Crown for action.
Sidenote: The administration of New France.
The country was governed much like a province in France. It was divided:
(1) for judicial purposes, into districts, with a judge at the head of
each, from whom there might be an appeal to the superior council. Within
the districts were (2) seigniories, or great estates. The seignior held his
land immediately from the king, and parcelled it out among his vassals, the
_habitants_, or cultivators, who paid him a small rent, patronized his
shops and mills, and owed him certain feudal obligations. Upon the estates
were (3) parishes, in which the curé and the captain of militia were the
chief personages. The only public duties exercised by the _habitants_ were
in connection with parish affairs, and then the initiative was taken at
Quebec, where resided the central authority, vested in the governor,
intendant, and council. In 1672, Frontenac attempted to set up in Canada an
assembly of the three estates or orders; but Colbert, the king's prime
minister, rebuked him, and gave directions for a gradual restriction of all
privileges of representation. "It seems better that every one should speak
for himself, and no one for all." The people were not permitted to think or
act for themselves, and they did not covet the privilege. Without political
training, they had no notion of what the English call political rights.
Sidenote: Causes of weakness.
Had King Louis XIV. been a wise monarch, paternalism might not have been a
disadvantage for a population of this sort. But the royal patronage of
colonial enterprises was spasmodic, sometimes breaking out into extravagant
aid, again remarkable for its penuriousness. There were several in the long
roll of colonial governors who were men of commanding ability, and well
fitted, under right conditions, to make of New France a success,--notably
Champlain (1622-1635), Frontenac (1672-1682, and 1689-1698), and De
Nonville (1685-1689). But the times and the material at hand were against
them. Official corruption ran riot. From the monopolists, who were the
present favorites of the king, down to the military commander of the most
distant forest trading station, officials considered the public treasury
and the resources of the colony as a source of individual profit. The
priesthood held full sway; little was done without the sanction of the
hierarchy. The missionaries of the faith won laurels for bravery,
self-denial, and hardihood, under the most adverse circumstances. But the
policy of the Church was too exclusive for the good of the colony.
Huguenots, driven from France by persecution, were forbidden by the bishops
to reside in Canada, and thus were compelled to contribute their brain and
brawn to the upbuilding of the rival English settlements. Of all Frenchmen,
these were the best adapted to the rearing of an industrial empire in the
New World.
111. Intercolonial Wars (1628-1697).
Sidenote: The struggle between French and English postponed.
In Champlain's time, while France was busy in crushing Protestant revolts
at home, the settlements of Port Royal and Quebec, then wretched hamlets of
a few dozen huts each, fell an easy prey to small English naval forces
(1628-1629). For a few months France did not hold one foot of ground in
North America. But as peace had been declared between France and England
before this conquest, the former received back all its possessions,
including Acadia (Nova Scotia) and the island of Cape Breton. The
inevitable struggle for the mastery of the continent was postponed, and
Frenchmen held Canada for four generations longer. By the close of the
seventeenth century, men of New France were ranging at will over much of
the country beyond the mountains, with visions of empire as extensive as
the continent.
Sidenote: English jealousy of the expansion of New France.
The French were not exploring and occupying the western country unwatched.
English colonial statesmen understood from the first the import of the
movement, and their alarm was frequently expressed in communications to the
home government. While Charles II. was a pensioner of Louis XIV., the royal
intendant in Canada expressed the situation clearly when he urged Louis
(1666) to purchase New York, "whereby he would have two entrances to
Canada, and by which he would give to the French all the peltries of the
north, of which the English share the profit by the communication which
they have with the Iroquois, by Manhattan and Orange." In 1687, Governor
Dongan of New York warned the ministry at London: "If the French have all
they pretend to have discovered in these parts, the king of England will
not have a hundred miles from the sea anywhere."
Sidenote: Extent of French settlement.
With the accession of Protestant William and Mary (1689), the Palatinate
war broke out between England and France, and at once spread to America,
where it was styled King William's War. The French had at that time
colonies in the undefined region of Acadia, on Cape Breton, and along the
north bank of the St. Lawrence as far up as Montreal. There were a few
small stockades scattered at long intervals through the Illinois country,
upon the banks of the upper Mississippi, at Chequamegon Bay of Lake
Superior, at Sault Ste. Marie, on the St. Joseph's River, and elsewhere;
with here and there a lonely Jesuit mission, and the movable camps of
_coureurs de bois_. Elsewhere, north and west of the Atlantic plain, the
grim solitude was broken only by bands of red savages, who roved to and fro
through the dark woodlands, intent on war or the chase.
The population of New France, in this wide region, was not, in 1690, more
than twelve thousand, against one hundred thousand in New England and New
York. Had it not been for the help of her Indian allies, the military
strength of many of her more important stations, and the fighting qualities
of her commanders, aided by division in the councils of the English
colonists, New France would from the first have made a feeble defence
against the overpowering resources of her southern neighbors.
Sidenote: King William's War.
King William's (or Frontenac's) War was costly to the colonists, and
resulted in no material advantage to either side. The French, under
Governor Frontenac, conducted their operations with vigor. Three winter
expeditions, composed almost entirely of Indians, were sent out (1690)
against the English frontier line, furiously attacking it at widely
separated points,--New York, New Hampshire, and Maine. In consequence of
the alarm created by these raids, the first colonial congress was held at
New York (1690). A fleet commanded by Sir William Phipps (page 177, § 73),
with eighteen hundred New England militiamen on board, captured Acadia and
Port Royal that summer, but Acadia was retaken by the French the following
season. During the five ensuing years fighting was confined to bushranging
along the New York and New England border. The struggle was without further
incident until Newfoundland yielded to the French (1696), and a party of
French and Indians sacked the little village of Andover, Mass. (1697), but
twenty-five miles out of Boston. Later in the year came the treaty of
Ryswick, under which each belligerent recovered what he possessed at the
outset of the war.
112. Frontier Wars (1702-1748).
Sidenote: Outbreak of Queen Anne's War.
After the treaty of Ryswick (1697) there was peace between England and
France for five years. Then broke out what is known in America as Queen
Anne's War (1702-1713), and in Europe as the War of the Spanish Succession.
The war originated in Europe; but one of England's objects in the struggle
was to prevent the French from obtaining too firm a foothold in America.
Much the same military operations as in King William's War were undertaken
by both of the American opponents.
Sidenote: Continuation of border warfare.
Three attempts were made by New England troops to recapture Acadia (1704,
1707, and 1710), the last being successful. The peace of Utrecht (1713)
recognized England's right to Acadia, "with its ancient boundaries," but it
brought only nominal peace to the New York and New England colonists.
Unfortunately the northern and western boundaries of Acadia were not
therein fixed, and the country between the Kennebec and the St. Lawrence
was in as much dispute as ever. Border settlers all along the line from the
Hudson to the Kennebec were in hourly peril of their lives from Indian
scalping-parties. There was abundant proof that the authorities of New
France, instructed by the government at Paris, were actively inciting the
red savages to forays for scalps and plunder. This fact tended greatly to
embitter the relations between the rival white races, and led to measures
of reprisal.
Sidenote: King George's War; capture of Louisbourg.
The irregular War of the Austrian Succession when it extended to America
was known as King George's War (1744-1748). The principal event was the
capture (1744) by New England troops of the strong fortress of Louisbourg,
on the island of Cape Breton. Having achieved so heroic a victory almost
single-handed, New Englanders considered themselves slighted by the treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), by which Louisbourg was surrendered to France,
and in other respects the unfortunate state of affairs existing before the
war was restored. Disappointment was openly expressed, and tended still
further to strain the relations between the colonies and the mother-land.
113. Territorial Claims.
Sidenote: Boundary disputes.
An attempt had been made at the convention at Aix-la-Chapelle to settle the
boundary disputes in America by referring the matter to a commission.
France now asserted her right to all countries drained by streams emptying
into the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi. This allowed,
the narrow strip of the Atlantic coast would alone have been left to
English domination. It was asserted on behalf of Great Britain that the
charters of her coast colonies carried their western bounds to the Pacific;
further, that as by the treaty of Utrecht France had acknowledged the
suzerainty of the British king over the Iroquois confederacy, the English
were entitled to all lands "conquered" by those Indians, whose war-paths
had extended from the Ottawa River on the north to the Carolinas on the
south, and whose forays reached alike to the Mississippi and to New
England. For three years the commissioners quarrelled at Paris over these
conflicting claims; but the dispute was irreconcilable; the only
arbitrament possible was by the sword.
Sidenote: The French line of frontier forts.
Meanwhile both sides were preparing to occupy and hold the contested
fields. New France already had a weak chain of water-side forts and
commercial stations, the rendezvous of priests, fur-traders, travellers,
and friendly Indians, extending, with long intervening stretches of
savage-haunted wilderness, through the heart of the continent,--chiefly on
the shores of the Great Lakes, and the banks of the principal river
highways,--from Lower Canada to her outlying post of New Orleans. Around
each of these frontier forts was a scattered farming community, the
holdings being narrow fields reaching far back into the country from the
water-front, with the neat log-cabins of the _habitants_ nestled in close
neighborhood upon the banks. In the summer the men, aided by their large
families, tilled the ribbon-like patches in a desultory fashion, and in the
winter assisted the fur-traders as oarsmen and pack-carriers. Many were
married to squaws, and the younger portion of the population was to a large
extent half-breed. They were a happy, contented people, without ambition
beyond the day's enjoyment, combining with the light-heartedness of the
French the improvidence of the savage.
Sidenote: The French covet the Ohio.
From 1700 on, the conflict seemed inevitable. The French realized that they
could not keep up connection between New Orleans and their settlements on
the St. Lawrence if not permitted to hold the valley of the Ohio. Governor
La Jonquière (1749-1752) understood the situation, and pleaded for the
shipment of ten thousand French peasants to settle the region; but the
government at Paris was just then as indifferent to New France as was King
George to his colonies, and the settlers were not sent.
114. Effect of French Colonization.
Sidenote: Characteristics of New France.
Of the region in which were scattered the permanent French settlements, the
southern shore of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi valley eventually
became a part of the United States; although these settlements were few and
small, the influence of French operations in the West, on the development
of the English colonies, was far reaching. New France will always be
renowned for the immense area held by a small European population. She was
from the first hampered by serious drawbacks,--centralization, paternalism,
official corruption, instability of system, religious exclusiveness, the
fascination of the fur-trade, a deadly Indian foe, and an inhospitable
climate,--the sum of which was in the end to destroy her (page 49, § 20).
She expanded with mushroom growth, but was predestined to collapse. Yet
more than any other part of North America, the French colonies in what is
now Canada preserve the language and the customs of the time of their
settlement.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE COLONIZATION OF GEORGIA (1732-1755).
115. References.
Bibliographies.--Avery, III. 438-440; Winsor, V. 392-406; Channing and
Hart, _Guide_, § 103.
Historical Maps.--No. 4, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, No. 4), MacCoun, and
school histories already cited.
General Accounts.--Avery, III. ch. xxiv.; Doyle, _Colonies_, V. ch. viii.;
G. Bancroft, II. 268-291; Greene, _Provincial America_, ch. xv.; Hildreth,
II. 362-377; Lodge, _Colonies_, ch. ix.; Winsor, V. ch. vi.; McCrady,
_South Carolina under Royal Government_, chs. xi., xii.; W. Wilson,
_American People_, II. 62-68; histories of Georgia by Jones, McCall, and
Stevens.
Special Histories.--C. Jones, _Dead Towns of Georgia_; P. A. Strobel,
_Salzburgers_; J. MacLean, _Scotch Highlanders in America_, ch. vi.; G.
White, _Historical Collections of Georgia_; lives of Oglethorpe by Bruce,
Cooper, Harris, and Wright.
Contemporary Accounts.--Oglethorpe, _Account_ (1732); Martyn, _Reasons for
Establishing Georgia_ (1733); _Account Showing Progress of Georgia_ (1741);
_Impartial Enquiry into State and Utility of Province of Georgia_ (1741);
Cadogan, _Impartial Account of Expedition against St. Augustine_ (1743);
Moore, _Voyage to Georgia_ (1744); Egmont, _Journal of Trustees for
Establishing Colony of Georgia_; Candler, _Colonial Records_.
116. Settlement of Georgia (1732-1735).
Sidenote: Unsettled territory.
The southern boundary of South Carolina was practically the Savannah River;
but the English claimed as far south as the St. John's. Just below the St.
John's, and one hundred and seventy miles south of the Savannah, lay the
old Spanish colony of St. Augustine, founded (page 34, § 12) in 1565. The
country between the Savannah and the St. John's was a part of the old
Carolina claim; but when the Carolinas became royal provinces the king
reserved this unsettled district as crown lands.
Sidenote: Formation of the Georgia Company.
James Oglethorpe had been an army officer; he was a member of parliament,
and was prominent in various efforts at domestic reform, particularly in
the improvement of the condition of debtors' prisons. Stirred by the
terrible revelations of his inquiry, he engaged other wealthy and
benevolent men with him, and formed a company (1732) for the settlement of
the reserved Carolina tract, which was to be styled Georgia, in honor of
the king, George II. The proposed colony was to serve the double purpose of
checking the threatened Spanish advance upon the southern colonies in
America, and of furnishing a home for members of the debtor class, who
would be given a chance to retrieve their fortunes by a fresh start in
life. This scheme, half philanthropic and half military, had also in view
the extension of the English fur-traffic among the Cherokees, whose trade
was now being eagerly sought by the Spanish on the south, and the French on
the west.
Sidenote: The charter.
The company was given a charter under the name of "The Trustees for
establishing the Colony of Georgia in America," its land-grant extending
from the Savannah to the Altamaha. There were twenty-one trustees, with
full powers of management; they were to appoint the governor and other
officials during the first four years,--after that the Crown was to
appoint. No member of the company was to hold any salaried colonial office.
Never was a colony founded upon motives more disinterested. It was to be,
literally, "an asylum for the oppressed." The settlers themselves were not
given any political privileges, for it was thought the trustees would be
better managers than a class of people who had not heretofore proved their
capacity for business affairs. Slavery was prohibited, because it would
interfere with free white labor, and a slave population might prove
dangerous in case of a frontier war with the Spanish. That immigration
might be encouraged, and thus that the colony might be strong from a
military point of view, it was ordered that no one should own over five
hundred acres of land. It was also ordained that all foreigners should have
equal rights with Englishmen, that there was to be complete religious
toleration except for Roman Catholics, that none but settlers of steady
habits should be admitted, that no rum should be imported, and that the
colonists were to practise military drill.
Sidenotes: Savannah founded.
Other settlements.
In November, 1732, Oglethorpe,--appointed governor and general, without
pay,--set out from England with thirty-five selected families, and in
February (1733) founded the city of Savannah, on a bluff overlooking
Savannah River, some ten miles from the sea. In May he made a firm alliance
with the neighboring Creeks, whom he treated with great consideration. The
second year (1734) there arrived a number of German Protestants, persecuted
exiles from Salzburg, who had been invited to America by the English
Society for Propagating the Gospel. The Salzburgers proved a desirable
acquisition, setting a much-needed example of industry and thrift. The
Germans settled the town of Ebenezer; in the same year Augusta was planted,
two hundred and thirty miles up the Savannah River, as a fortified trading
outpost in the Indian country; while two years later (1736), another armed
colony was sent to found Frederica, at the mouth of the Altamaha, on the
Spanish frontier.
Sidenote: The fur-trade.
Augusta, which in 1741 numbered but forty-seven permanent inhabitants, in
addition to a small garrison, was the chief seat of the Georgia and South
Carolina fur-traffic. It was the eastern key to the Creek, Chickasaw, and
Cherokee hunting-grounds. In 1741, it was estimated that about one hundred
and twenty-five white men--traders, pack-horse men, servants, and
townsmen--depended for their livelihood upon the traffic centring at the
Augusta station; another estimate, made in the same year, placed the number
of horses engaged at five hundred, and the annual value of skins at fifty
thousand pounds. The profits were great, and would have been larger but for
sharp competition in the far-away camps of the barbarians; there the
Georgians and Carolinians met Frenchmen, who had wandered from far
Louisiana by devious ways, part water, and part land, and Virginians, who
found their way to the southwest through the parallel valley system, thus
escaping the necessity of climbing the mountain wall.
117. Slow development of Georgia (1735-1755).
Sidenote: Dissatisfaction of the colonists.
The trustees perceived at last that men who had failed at home were not
likely to be successful as colonists, and they sent over a party of Scotch
Highlanders and yet more German Protestants. The colony now proved a
success. Savannah was well built, courts were established, the land-system
was well arranged, and Salzburgers, Moravians, and Highlanders soon came
out in considerable numbers (1735-1736). Yet there was no lack of
discontent. The very class for whom the colony was founded formed its most
undesirable inhabitants; hardly a regulation originally established for
their supposed benefit was to their taste, idle and worthless fellows were
numerous, and some of them, finding their complaints unheeded, fled to the
Carolinas or to join the rough borderers. Among the settlers were three
enthusiastic sectaries, Charles Wesley, secretary to Oglethorpe, his
brother John, a missionary to the Indians, and George Whitefield, who
succeeded the latter after he returned to England. Whitefield in later
years deeply stirred the American colonists, from Florida to New England,
in his efforts to arouse in them a strong religious conviction (page 190,
§ 79.)
Sidenote: Expedition against Spanish Florida.
In 1736, Oglethorpe made an expedition to the south as far as the English
claim extended, and planted several forts. At the same time he made a
treaty with the Chickasaws, and thus strengthened the southern line. Three
years later (1739), war broke out between Spain and England. Fearing that
he might not be able to withstand an attack from the Spaniards, Oglethorpe
took the offensive (1740), and marching into Florida planted himself before
St. Augustine, which had a garrison of two thousand men, well supplied with
artillery. Troops from Carolina soon came up. Sickness breaking out in the
camp, and many of the Carolinians deserting, the siege, which had been
gallantly conducted, was at last abandoned.
Sidenote: The Spaniards unsuccessfully retaliate.
Up to this time the Spaniards had been obliged to stand on the defensive;
Cuba was threatened by a large English squadron,--but the attack there
proved a failure, and opportunity was given for concentrating Spanish
troops in Florida. In 1742 a heavy assault by land and sea was made on
Frederica. By a combination of bravery and superior stratagem, Oglethorpe
succeeded in holding the place until the enemy's fleet was frightened off
by the arrival of English vessels, and Georgia was henceforth free from
Spanish invasion.
Sidenote: A change of policy.
Oglethorpe returned to England the following year (1743), never to return
to the colony. The trustees now placed the government in charge of a
president and four assistants. But after the departure of its gallant and
public-spirited founder the colony no longer flourished, and in a vain
attempt to remove causes for dissatisfaction the company made matters
worse. Slavery was introduced (1749), free traffic in rum was permitted,
and restrictions on the acquisition of land were removed. Discontent grew
apace among the original settlers, who were always hard to suit; only the
Highlanders and Germans remained satisfied.
Sidenote: A royal province.
In 1752, the charter was surrendered by the disappointed proprietors, and
Georgia became a royal province, with a government similar to that of South
Carolina. The change wrought improvement in many ways.
Sidenote: Characteristics of Georgia.
Georgia was the last of the thirteen colonies to be founded, and remained
one of the weakest until long after the Revolution. Its history is a proof
that the robust growth of a colony depends, not upon the character and aims
of its founders, but upon the slow accretion of public sentiment and public
spirit.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CONTINENTAL COLONIES FROM 1700 TO 1750.
118. References.
Bibliographies.--Avery, III. 426-446; Greene, _Provincial America_, ch.
xix.; Winsor, V. _passim_.
Historical Maps.--Nos. 3 and 4, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, Nos. 3, 4);
MacCoun, and school histories already cited.
General Accounts.--Avery, III. chs. x.-xxvii.; G. Bancroft, II. 212-565;
Channing, II. chs. xi.-xix.; Doyle, V.; G. Eggleston, _Eighteenth Century_;
Frothingham, _Rise of Republic_, ch. iv.; Greene, as above; Hildreth, II.
chs. xxii.-xxvii.; Lodge, _Colonies_; E. Sparks, _Expansion of American
People_; Wilson, _American People_, II. chs. i.-iii; Winsor, V. chs.
ii.-vi.
Special Histories.--Political: L. Kellogg, _Colonial Charter_; Channing,
_Town and County Government_; A. Cross, _Anglican Episcopate_; Greene,
_Provincial Governor_; C. Bishop, _Elections in American Colonies_; A.
McKinley, _Suffrage Franchise_; McCrady, _South Carolina_.--Economic:
Weeden, _Economic History_; E. Lord, _Industrial Experiments_; G. Beer,
_Commercial Policy_; R. Paine, _Ships and Sailors of Old
Salem_.--Nationalities: L. Fosdick, _French Blood in America_; J.
Rosengarten, _French Colonists and Exiles_; S. Cobb, _Palatines_; F.
Diffenderfer, _German Immigration_; L. Bittinger, _Germans in Colonial
Times_, and _German Religious Life_; Sachse, _German Sectarians_; Wayland,
_German Element_; C. Hanna, _Scotch-Irish_; McLean, _Scotch
Highlanders_.--Financial: D. Dewey, _Financial History_, ch. i.; A. Davis,
_Currency in Massachusetts Bay_; F. McLeod, _Fiat Money in New England_; C.
MacFarlane, _Pennsylvania Paper Currency_; W. Shaw, _Currency_.--Taxation:
F. Jones, _Taxation in Connecticut_.--Press: L. Schuyler, _Liberty of
Press_; L. Rutherford, _Zenger_.--See also F. Dexter, _Population in
Colonies_, and state histories.
Contemporary Accounts.--Hutchinson, _History of Massachusetts Bay_;
Falckner, _Curieuse Nachricht von Pennsylvania_ (1702); Madam Knight,
_Journal_ (1704); Fontaine, _Diary_ (1710-1716); Mittelberger, _Journey to
Pennsylvania_ (1750-1754); Franklin, _Autobiography_; Woolman, _Journal_.
119. Population (1700-1750).
Sidenote: Phases of common development.
Up to 1700 the history of each colony is the history of a unit; the impulse
of colonization came in successive waves, but each little commonwealth had
its own interests, its own struggles, and looked forward to its own future.
From 1700 to 1750, though the separate life and history of each colony
continued, there were perceptible certain great phases of common
development, which will be briefly outlined.
Sidenote: Growth of population.
Although disturbed by wars with the French and Indians, by domestic
political quarrels, and by disputes with the mother country regarding the
regulation of commerce and manufactures, there was a steady growth of
population in British North America during the first half of the
seventeenth century. The rewards of industry were sufficient, coupled with
considerable religious and political freedom, to entice a continuous,
though fluctuating, immigration from England and the continent of Europe.
In New England, where the English stock was practically unmixed with
foreign blood, the rate of progress was less pronounced than in
Pennsylvania and the South, which were largely recruited from other races.
In 1700, the population of New England was something, over one hundred and
five thousand. By the beginning of the French and Indian War (1754) it was
a little less than four hundred thousand, New Hampshire having forty
thousand, Massachusetts and Maine two hundred thousand, Rhode Island forty
thousand, and Connecticut a hundred and ten thousand. The middle colonies
commenced the century with fifty-nine thousand; but by 1750 this had,
chiefly owing to the exceptionally rapid growth of Pennsylvania after 1730,
increased to three hundred and fifty-five thousand, of which New York
contained ninety thousand, New Jersey eighty thousand, and Pennsylvania and
Delaware one hundred and eighty-five thousand. In the Southern group there
was a population of eighty-nine thousand in 1700, which had grown to six
hundred and twenty-five thousand in 1763, not counting Georgia, settled in
1733, which in twenty years had acquired a population of five thousand;
Maryland had a hundred and fifty-four thousand, chiefly Englishmen, but
there was a liberal admixture of Germans and people of other nationalities.
Virginia had nearly three hundred thousand, of whom the blacks were now in
the majority. North Carolina, important in numbers only, had ninety
thousand, of whom twenty per cent were slaves; South Carolina had eighty
thousand, the blacks outnumbering the whites by two or three to one. The
total for the thirteen colonies in 1750 is about thirteen hundred and
seventy thousand.
120. Attacks on the Charters (1701-1749).
Sidenote: Attack on the New England charters.
For many years the New England charters were in imminent danger of
annulment, the purpose apparently being to place the colonies under a
viceregal government. Those of Connecticut and Rhode Island were the
liberal documents granted to them early in their career; electing their own
governors, they were practically independent of the mother-country, and the
general movement against the charters had these two especially in view.
From 1701 to 1749, the charters were seriously menaced at various times;
but on each occasion the astute diplomacy of the colonial agents in England
succeeded in warding off the threatened attack. Worthy of especial mention
in this connection are Sir Henry Ashurst, the representative of
Connecticut, and Jeremiah Dummer, his successor. In 1715, at a time when it
was proposed to annex Rhode Island and Connecticut to the unchartered royal
province of New Hampshire, Dummer issued his now famous Defence of the
American Charters, in which he forcibly argued,--(1) That the colonies
"have a good and undoubted right to their respective charters," inasmuch as
they had been irrevocably granted by the sovereign "as premiums for
services to be performed." (2) "That these governments have by no
misbehavior forfeited their charters," and were in no danger of becoming
formidable to the mother-land. (3) That to repeal the charters would
endanger colonial prosperity, and "whatever injures the trade of the
plantations must in proportion affect Great Britain, the source and centre
of their commerce." (4) That the charters should be proceeded against in
lower courts of justice, not in parliament. Dummer's presentment of the
case was regarded by the friends of the colonies as unanswerable, and was
largely instrumental in causing an ultimate abandonment of the ministerial
attack on the New England charters.
Sidenote: The Carolinas become royal provinces.
In 1728, as a consequence of popular disturbances in the Carolinas, a writ
of _quo warranto_ was issued against the charter, and the proprietors sold
their interests to the Crown. A royal governor was now sent out to each
province. Heretofore, North Carolina had been nominally ruled by a deputy
serving under the South Carolina governor.
121. Settlement and Boundaries (1700-1750).
Sidenote: Boundary disputes.
Boundary disputes were a constant source of intercolonial irritation. There
were long and vexatious boundary wrangles between Connecticut and her
neighbors, Rhode Island, New York, and Massachusetts. In 1683 an agreement
reached between Connecticut and New York was the basis of the present line,
surveyed in 1878-1879; it was 1826 before the final survey between
Connecticut and Massachusetts; the quarrel between Connecticut and Rhode
Island was protracted and heated, the line between them not being
definitively established until 1840. Wentworth, the first royal governor of
New Hampshire (1740-1767), made large land-grants, which overlapped
territory claimed by New York, and thus brought on a protracted boundary
controversy between those two provinces. Patents covering both sides of
Lake Champlain were alike issued by New York and New Hampshire; the
settlers east of the lake organized in revolt, under the cognomen of Green
Mountain Boys, and were preparing to set up a government of their own, when
the Revolution broke out, and in 1777 the unacknowledged government of
Vermont was formed. A settlement of the boundary was not reached until
Vermont was admitted to the Union (1791). The boundary disputes of New York
with Massachusetts and Connecticut were settled prior to the Revolution. In
1737 a boundary commission adopted the present line between Massachusetts
and New Hampshire. The same commission established the present western
boundary of Maine. In a contest between Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the
former claimed a portion of the latter's territory, on the ground that it
was included in the old Plymouth patent; but in the final settlement Rhode
Island retained possession. The Penn and Baltimore families long wrangled
over the boundaries between Pennsylvania and Maryland. An agreement was
reached in 1732, and ratified by a convention in 1760: under its terms,
Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two eminent London mathematicians, ran
the famous "Mason and Dixon line" (1767), separating the southern colonies
from the northern. The boundary line between the Carolinas was not defined
until 1735-1746. To the north and west, English boundary disputes with the
French led to protracted and harassing wars; while to the south, Georgia's
claims clashed with those of the Spaniards in Florida, and during the war
between Spain and England occasion was taken by Oglethorpe (1740), governor
of Georgia, to invade Spanish territory (page 262, § 117).
Sidenote: Spotswood's enterprising spirit.
No man of his time was more energetic in pushing the confines of settlement
and encouraging development than Governor Spotswood of Virginia
(1710-1722), a stalwart soldier who had fought under Marlborough. He built
iron furnaces, introduced German vine-growers, made peace with the Indians,
and established several excellent mission schools for them upon the
frontier; under his administration the fur-trade spread far inland, and he
did much to extend topographical knowledge of Virginia by fostering
exploration.
Sidenote: The mountain borderers.
The Shenandoah valley, opened to settlement by Spotswood, became, after
1730, a notable home for Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, driven by English
persecution from their home in Ulster. They were by this time coming over
to America in two steady streams, one pouring in at Philadelphia, and the
other at Charleston, S. C. Those arriving at Philadelphia pushed westward
to the mountains, and drifting southwestward through the long parallel
valleys of the Alleghany range, met in the Shenandoah and kindred valleys
those of their brethren who had gone up into the hills of Carolina. It was
from these frontier valley homes that the migration into Kentucky and
Tennessee proceeded a generation later, led by such daring spirits as
Boone, Sevier, and Robertson.
122. Schemes of Colonial Union (1690-1754).
Sidenote: Governmental plans.
Schemes for a union of the colonies, to provide for the common defence and
settle intercolonial differences, were numerous enough, after the example
set by the New England Confederacy (Chapter VII.). They emanated almost
entirely, however, from the government party, and chiefly for this reason
were regarded with popular suspicion. In 1690 a continental congress had
been held at New York for the purpose of treating with the Iroquois against
the common enemy, New France (page 206, § 86). In 1697 William Penn laid
before the Board of Trade a plan providing for a high commissioner,
appointed by the king, to preside over a council composed of two delegates
from each province, and to act as commander-in-chief in times of war. The
scheme aroused much opposition from colonial pamphleteers, and failed of
adoption; other plans which were promulgated from time to time, for the
next sixty years, were in the main adaptations of Penn's, some of them
providing for two or three strongly centralized provinces, each to be
presided over by a Viceroy, assisted by a council of colonial delegates.
Sidenote: Neighborhood congresses.
While the Board of Trade, distracted by doubts whether the colonies could
be more firmly held as separate governments or under a viceregal union, was
engaged in considering the various propositions submitted to it, several
neighborhood congresses were held by the provinces themselves, chiefly to
treat with Indians or for purposes of defence. But these congresses were in
no sense popular meetings; they were composed of the official class, and
had little more effect on the people than to accustom them to the spectacle
of colonial union for matters of common interest.
Sidenotes: The second colonial congress.
Its plan of union rejected.
In 1754 the Lords of Trade recommended a second general congress of the
colonies, to treat with the Iroquois again; they also favored "articles of
union and confederation with each other for the mutual defence of his
Majesty's subjects and interests in North America, as well in time of peace
as war." The congress was held at Albany. Only seven of the colonies were
represented,--New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The convention adopted a plan of union
prepared by Franklin, providing for a general government that should be
self-sustaining and control federal affairs,--war, Indians, and public
lands,--while the colonial governments were to retain their constitutions
intact. The plan was rejected by the colonial assemblies. Franklin himself
wrote: "The Crown disapproved it, as having too much weight in the
democratic part of the constitution, and every assembly as having allowed
too much to prerogative." The defeat of the Albany plan marks the end of
efforts at union on the part of the official class. The next movement came
from the people themselves, as the result of oppression on the part of the
mother-country.
123. Quarrels with Royal Governors (1700-1750).
Sidenote: Quarrels between governors and assemblies.
The history of the English continental colonies during the first half of
the seventeenth century was largely made up of petty bickerings between the
popular assemblies and the royal governors. The salary question was the
most prominent feature of these disputes. Acting under orders from the
Crown, the governor in each colony insisted on being paid a regular salary
at stated intervals; but the assembly as persistently refused, and desiring
to keep him dependent upon them, voted from time to time such sums as they
chose. The principle at stake was important: a fixed salary grant would
have been in the nature of a tax imposed by the Crown. Had the assembly
been complaisant, the government would have been thrown into the hands of
the royal governor and council, through their absolute power to veto laws.
The acrimonious contention was greatly disturbing to all material
interests, but it served as a most valuable constitutional training school
for the Revolution.
Sidenote: The salary question in Massachusetts.
At times, in Boston, excitement over this perennial quarrel ran to a high
pitch, and now and then it looked as though the assembly would be obliged
to yield; but the men of Massachusetts were of stubborn clay, and never
displayed more bravery than when the governor, backed by writs from
England, threatened them the loudest. In 1728, the assembly, defended
itself, saying it was "the undoubted right of all Englishmen, by Magna
Charta, to raise and dispose of money for the public service of their own
free accord, without compulsion." The Privy Council at last yielded the
point (1735), and left the Massachusetts governor free to receive whatever
the assembly chose to grant. In some of the colonies this salary question
resulted in frequent deadlocks, in which all public business was at a
standstill.
124. Governors of Southern Colonies.
Sidenotes: Other differences.
South Carolina's experience.
Other differences between the governors and their assemblies hinged on
claims of prerogative, fees for issuing land-titles, issues of paper money,
official attempts to favor the Church of England at the expense of
dissenters, and levies of men and money for the public defence. There were
also special grievances in many of the provinces. In South Carolina
(1704-1706), the proprietors attempted to exclude all but Church of England
men from the assembly. This led to a bitter controversy, in which the
dissenters successfully appealed to the House of Lords, and legal
proceedings were commenced by the Crown for the revocation of the Carolina
charter; but they were not then pushed to an issue. In 1719 the meddlesome
executive policy of the proprietors resulted in a popular uprising, in
which the governor was deposed. Later, the authorities (1754-1765)
attempted to resist the issue of paper money, and also to reduce
representation in the assembly, while at the same time the home government
introduced some offensive regulations regarding land patents. Popular
indignation again expressed itself in bloody turbulence, and the colony
fell into great disorder.
Sidenote: North Carolina.
In North Carolina the scattered colonists maintained a vigorous resistance
to arbitrary authority; the tone of official life was low; corruption in
office was common; contests over questions of public policy often led to
rioting and anarchy; bloodshed was not infrequent in such times of popular
disturbance. In the far western valleys there was for a long period no
pretence of law or order, and criminals of every sort found a safe refuge
there; while pirates--until Blackbeard's capture by Governor Spotswood of
Virginia in 1718--freely used the deep-coast inlets as snug harbors, from
which they darted out with rakish craft to attack passing merchant-vessels.
From 1704 to 1711 there was practically no government in the province,
owing to an insurrection headed by Thomas Carey, whom Governor Spotswood
finally arrested (1710) and sent prisoner to England.
Sidenote: Virginia.
During the administration of Governor Nicholson (1698-1705) the Virginia
assembly had quietly gained control of the financial machinery, by making
the treasurer an officer of its own appointment. When, therefore, the
customary eighteenth-century wrangling commenced, the assembly was master
of the situation. The burgesses refused to vote money for public defence
until the governors yielded their claims of prerogative, and land-title
fees.
125. Governors of Middle Colonies.
Sidenote: Pennsylvania.
Nowhere was the weary disagreement between governor and assembly so harmful
to provincial interests as in Pennsylvania. There were elements in the
contention there not existing elsewhere. The Penn family, as the
proprietors, resisted the proposed inclusion of their lands in tax levies
for the conduct of military operations, while the assembly for many years
would vote no money for such purposes or pay the governor's salary, except
on the condition that the proprietary estates paid their share in the cost
of defence. The proprietors finally yielded (1759). Other points of
difference were,--the assertion of the gubernatorial prerogative of
establishing courts, and proprietary opposition to the reckless issues of
paper money frequently ordered by the assembly. The Quakers were opposed to
warfare on principle; they would neither take up arms themselves in defence
of the borderers from the French and Indians, nor, except when driven to it
in times of great distress, vote money to equip or pay volunteers. They
had, too, a great objection to levying and paying taxes; and in this they
found strong allies in the Germans, who had now come over in large numbers,
chiefly to settle on wild lands in the interior of the province. Most of
the Germans and Quakers would go to almost any length in compromise with
the Indian and French invaders who were mercilessly destroying the pioneer
settlements. The proprietors and their governors fretted and threatened;
the English government sent over order after order to the stubborn
legislators; the borderers plied the deputies with heart-rending appeals
for aid: yet the assembly long maintained its obstinate course, now and
then grudgingly voting insufficient issues of depreciated bills of credit.
Sidenote: New York.
Lord Cornbury, who succeeded the Earl of Bellomont as governor of New York
and New Jersey (1702), was not a man to inspire respect, being profligate
and overbearing; he opposed popular interests, winning especial hatred
through his petty persecution of dissenters from the Church of England. He
was recalled in 1708, in response to general denunciation of his course.
His successors were in continuous and often acrimonious controversy with
their assemblies, but generally succeeded in inducing the deputies to
contribute with more or less liberality to the conduct of expeditions
against the French and Indians.
Sidenote: New Jersey.
Governor Belcher of New Jersey (1748-1757), who had been worsted in a
heated salary contest in Massachusetts (1730-1741), and had profited by
experience, was now one of the few executives who understood how to handle
an assembly. By an obliging temper he readily secured the passage of such
revenue bills as were essential to the proper defence of the colony in the
French and Indian war, and avoided serious dispute.
126. Governors of New England Colonies.
Sidenote: Phipps's difficulties in Massachusetts.
The brief term of Sir William Phipps (1692-1695), as governor of
Massachusetts,--a province then extending all the way from Rhode Island to
New Brunswick, with the exception of New Hampshire,--was filled with
bitterness and disappointment. At the outset of his career and the
inauguration of the new charter (page 176, § 73), the assembly in the
absence of any provision under that head, enacted that taxes were only to
be levied in the province with the consent of the assembly. Had this rule
been accepted by the Crown it would have left little occasion for quarrels
between governor and people; its rejection by the home government left the
door open to a train of events which ended, eighty-four years later, in
continental independence. The witchcraft delusion (page 190, § 80) had
stirred the colony to its centre, and Phipps gained no friends from his
attitude in that affair; he angered Boston and crippled its political
influence by securing the passage of a law (1694) that deputies to the
assembly must be residents of the districts they represented; and his
temper was so testy that at the time of his recall he was engaged in a
quarrel with nearly every leading man in the province.
Sidenote: The Earl of Bellomont, and Massachusetts.
The Earl of Bellomont came over in 1698 as governor of New York, New
Jersey, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. In November the General Court of
Massachusetts invited him to visit Boston "so soon as the season of the
year might comfortably admit his undertaking so long and difficult a
journey." In the following spring (1699) he responded to the call. In
Massachusetts Bellomont won favor by siding, as he had in New York, with
the popular party, and recommending to his government the introduction of
many reforms. In Rhode Island, where he tarried by the way, he found much
to dissatisfy him, and reported the people as being ignorant, in a state of
political and moral disorder, with an indifferent set of public officials,
who were corrupt and abetted the pirates who swarmed in Narragansett Bay.
Bellomont promptly devoted himself to the suppression of these sea-robbers,
and in the year of his own death (1701) brought the notorious Kidd to the
gallows. Bellomont's conciliatory attitude towards Massachusetts did not
please the English Board of Trade, which sent him warning that the
colonists had "a thirst for independency," as was particularly exemplified
in their "denial of appeals."
Sidenote: Connecticut and Rhode Island free from disputes.
Connecticut and Rhode Island were left with their old charters and their
popularly elected governors, and thus were happily spared those quarrels
over salaries, prerogatives, and fees which elsewhere in the colonies
aroused so much ill-feeling. Governor Fletcher of New York was commissioned
to take military control of Connecticut. He went to Hartford (1693) to
assert his right; but meeting with rude treatment, felt impelled to return
home, and little more was heard from him. Like Massachusetts, Connecticut
was successful in preventing legal appeals to England.
Sidenote: The Mason claim in New Hampshire.
In New Hampshire--which was separated from Massachusetts in 1741 and became
a royal province--there had been more than a century of dispute between the
settlers and the proprietors respecting the Mason claim, and much confusion
had at times arisen. The matter was at last ended by the purchase of the
claim by a land company (1749), which released all of the settled tracts.
127. Effect of the French Wars (1700-1750).
Sidenote: War with French and Indians.
The aggressions of the French and their policy of inciting the northern and
western Indians to murderous attacks on the slowly advancing English
frontier, kept the colonies which abutted on New France in an almost
constant state of excitement. Those provinces which had no Indian frontier,
such as Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, and the
Carolinas,--which latter had, however, several desperate local Indian
uprisings to quell,--experienced but little alarm over the common danger,
viewed schemes of union with indifference, and contributed but grudgingly
to the funds and expeditions for general defence. Pennsylvania was open to
attack along an extended border; the Germans and Quakers being opposed to
making war on Indians, her frontier suffered greatly from frequent raids of
the enemy. New York, being on the highway between the Atlantic coast and
the Great Lakes and Canada, was the scene of many bloody encounters. No
other province was so greatly exposed, and on none did the cost of the
prolonged and desperate contest between the French and English in America
so heavily fall. In 1706, during Queen Anne's war (1702-1713), the French
made an unavailing attack on Charleston, South Carolina. In the capture of
Port Royal (1710), New England men chiefly participated, and they were
otherwise prominent throughout the war. In King George's War (1744-1748),
New Englanders alone took part, although New York and a few other colonies
contributed to the army chest. Louisburg was captured in 1745 by New
England troops, who were highly elated at their brilliant conquest.
England, too busy with her own affairs, could not well send protection the
following year, when a French fleet threatened New England; a curious
chapter of marine disasters alone saved the Americans from being severely
punished in retaliation. This doubtless unavoidable neglect on the part of
the mother-country, and the final surrender of Louisburg to the French by
the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), tended still further to strain the
relations between England and her colonies on the American continent.
Sidenote: Vernon's expedition to the West Indies.
Admiral Vernon's expedition against the French in the West Indies in 1740
was participated in by men from nearly all the English colonies, island and
continental. A campaign against the Spanish settlements in Florida was
undertaken by Oglethorpe during the same year (page 262, § 117). The
Carolinas gave somewhat tardy aid to Georgia in this daring enterprise.
128. Economic Conditions.
Sidenote: Paper money and finance.
Massachusetts was the first of the colonies to issue paper money. This was
in 1690, to aid in fitting out an expedition against Canada. The other
provinces followed at intervals. Affairs had come to such a pass by 1748
that the price in paper of £100 in coin ranged all the way from £1100 in
New England to £180 in Pennsylvania. The royal governors in all the
colonies, acting under instructions from home, were generally persistent
opponents of this financial expedient. Governor Belcher of Massachusetts,
in a proclamation against the practice (1740), said it gave "great
interruption and brought confusion into trade and business," and "reflected
great dishonor on his Majesty's government here." In 1720, Parliament
passed what was known as "the Bubble Act," designed to break up all private
banking companies in the United Kingdom chartered for the issue of
circulating notes; this Act was made applicable to the colonies in 1740,
and reinforced in 1751, the last-named Act forbidding the further issue of
colonial paper money except in cases of invasion or for the annual current
expenses of the government, these exceptional cases to be under control of
the Crown. In 1763 all issues to date were declared void; although ten
years later (1773), provincial bills of credit were made receivable as
legal tender at the treasuries of the colonies emitting them. The
controversy between the colonies and the home government over these issues
of a cheap circulating medium developed much bitterness on the part of the
former, who deemed the practice essential to their prosperity; and it was
one of the many causes of the Revolution.
Sidenote: Acts of Navigation and Trade.
Another constant source of irritation were the parliamentary Acts of
Navigation and Trade (page 104, § 44). In the continental colonies there
was no popular sentiment against smuggling or other interference with the
operation of these obnoxious laws. In no colony were the Acts strictly
observed; had they been enforced they would have worked unbearable
hardship. Massachusetts particularly offended the Board of Trade by openly
refusing to provide for their more rigorous execution; coupling its
stubborn behavior with the bold assertion, quite contrary to ministerial
ideas, that the colonists were "as much Englishmen as those in England, and
had a right, therefore, to all the privileges which the people of England
enjoyed."
129. Political and Social Conditions (1700-1750).
Sidenote: Virginia ideas _versus_ New England ideas.
In the colonies, as afterwards in the States, there was a continual contest
for supremacy between Virginia, where political power was lodged in the
aristocratic class, and New England, where there was a voluntary
recognition of aristocracy, but where the body of the people ruled.
Virginia ideas strongly influenced North Carolina on the south, and
Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania on the north. The tone of life in
South Carolina was purely southern, with no trace of Virginian
characteristics; New York, also free from Virginian methods, was strongly
influenced by New England ideas.
Sidenote: Political affairs in the South;
The governing class in Virginia were of strong English stock, and when
occasion for political action offered, were ready for it, proving
themselves good soldiers and statesmen, and furnishing some of the most
powerful leaders in the revolt against the mother-country. Their protracted
fights with the French and Indians inured them to habits of the camp; while
quarrels with their governors, and bickerings with the home government over
the Navigation Acts (page 104, § 44) and the impressment of seamen,
furnished schooling in constitutional agitation. By the middle of the
eighteenth century the majority of Virginians were natives of the soil, and
their attachment to England was weaker than that of their fathers; while
the considerable foreign element weakened the bond of union with the
mother-country. In Maryland general hostility to the Church of England and
its impolitic attempt to suppress dissent, was an important factor in
widening the breach. North Carolina continued to be distinguished for
disorder and a low state of morals, education, and wealth, and produced no
great leaders in the opposition to Great Britain. The people, having a keen
perception of their rights, were eager enough in the patriot cause; but
there was a large Tory party, and consequently fierce internal dissensions
characterized the history of the colony throughout the Revolutionary
agitation. Being dependent on England for trade and supplies, the
aristocratic planters of South Carolina were drawn much closer to the
mother-country than in any other continental colony. The Tory element was
powerful, yet the best and strongest men of the slave-holding class were
patriots, and furnished several popular leaders of ability,--the colony
ranking second only to Virginia, in the southern group, during the struggle
with the home government. Georgia was but newly settled, and the English
colonists were still strongly attached to their native country; she was
therefore more loyal than her neighbors. The settlers from New England,
with the political shrewdness peculiar to their section, succeeded in
committing Georgia to the patriot cause; but the mass of the people
remained lukewarm, and when English rule was overturned there was much
lawlessness. The community was immature, and had not yet learned the art of
self-government.
Sidenote: in the Middle Colonies;
The Navigation Acts and the impressment of seamen bore hard on
Pennsylvania, and there was no lack of complaint against other forms of
ministerial interference with colonial rights. But the Quakers, who were
chiefly of the shopkeeping and trading class, had not experienced the long
and painful struggle for existence that had been the lot of most of the
other colonists. They had been prosperous from the beginning; and being
conservative, timid, and slow in disposition and action, were not easily
persuaded to make material sacrifices for the sake of political sentiment.
Thus Pennsylvania was an uncertain factor in the revolt. New Jersey, with
no Indian frontier, no foreign trade, and but light taxes, had few causes
for complaint against England. Her rulers were thrifty, conservative
farmers, who were disposed to be loyal; yet as they were of pure English
descent, and tenacious of their liberties, they were gradually drawn into
an attitude of opposition to English rule. New York was the only one of the
middle group of colonies which stood stoutly against England. Since the
days of Andros the people "caught at everything to lessen the prerogative."
New York city, as the second commercial port on the coast, was naturally a
seat of opposition to the navigation laws. But the Tory minority were
nowhere more active or determined than in New York.
Sidenote: and in New England.
The New Englanders were pure in race, simple and frugal in habit,
enterprising, vigorous, intelligent, and with a high average of education.
They were small freeholders, possessed of a democratic system which had
powers of indefinite expansion, and were trained in a political school well
calculated to produce great popular leaders. Their political principles,
developed by a century and a half of contention with the home government,
pervaded the colonial revolt, and were carried out in the national
government in which it resulted. The New England Confederation of 1643 bore
fruit in the Stamp-Act congress of 1765, and still more in the
Confederation of 1781 and the Constitution of 1787.
130. Results of the Half-Century (1700-1750).
Sidenote: The colonial spirit.
Although the period 1700-1750 has not the interest of the previous half
century of colonization, it has great constitutional importance. The rugged
individuality of the founders of the colonies,--New England, middle, and
southern,--was beginning to give way to a distinctly American character.
The colonies lived separate lives; there was little intercommunication, but
their interests were much the same, their relations with the mother-country
were the same, and in the intercolonial wars they learned to act side by
side. More than this, they all enjoyed a greater degree of personal freedom
and local independence than was known anywhere else in the world. They had
no consciousness of any desire to become independent. They had their own
assemblies, made their own laws, and disregarded the Acts of Trade. In
population the colonies increased between 1650 and 1700 from about 100,000
to 250,000; during the period 1700-1750 they grew to 1,370,000. A few
passable towns were built,--Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. Their means
were small, their horizon narrow, but their spirit was large.
Sidenote: The English Ohio Company.
As the year 1750 approached, there came upon the colonies two changes,
destined to lead to a new political life. In the first place, the colonies
at last began to overrun the mountain barrier which had hemmed them in on
the west, and thus to invite another and more desperate struggle with the
French. The first settlement made west of the mountains was on a branch of
the Kanawha (1748); in the same season several adventurous Virginians
hunted and made land-claims in Kentucky and Tennessee. Before the close of
the following year (1749) there had been formed the Ohio Company, composed
of wealthy Virginians, among whom were two brothers of Washington. King
George granted the company five hundred thousand acres, on which they were
to plant one hundred families and build and maintain a fort. The first
attempt to explore the region of the Ohio brought the English and the
French traders into conflict; and troops were not long in following, on
both sides.
Sidenote: New colonial policy.
At the same time the home government was awaking to the fact that the
colonies were not under strict control. In 1750 the Administration began to
consider means of stopping unlawful trade. Before the plan could be
perfected the French and Indian War broke out, in 1754. The story of that
war and of the consequences of simultaneously dispossessing the French
enemies of the colonies, and tightening the reins of government, belongs to
the next volume of the series,--the Formation of the Union.
INDEX.
Acadia, united to Massachusetts, 176. _See_ Nova Scotia.
Africa, supposed migrations from, to America, 21;
European explorations of coast of, 24.
Aix-la-Chapelle, treaty of, 255, 278.
Alaska, Asiatic migration to, 2;
aborigines of, 12.
Albany, founded, 196;
as Fort Nassau, 197;
as Fort Orange, 198, 199;
re-named by English, 203;
characteristics, 228;
fur-trade, 253;
first Colonial Congress, 80, 206;
second Colonial Congress, 270.
Albemarle, 89;
a district in Carolina, 88-91.
Alexander VI., Pope, bull of partition, 24, 36, 196.
Algonquian Indians, status, 9-12;
as allies of the French, 206, 246, 250;
uprising in New York, 200.
Alleghany mountains. _See_ Appalachian.
Andover, Mass., sacked by French and Indians, 254.
Andros, Sir Edmund, governor of Virginia, 79;
governor of New York and the Jerseys, 175, 176, 205, 206, 282;
governor of New England, 175, 189, 211.
Augusta, Ga., founded, 260;
fur-trade, 261.
Annapolis, Md., founded, 87, 98.
--, Nova Scotia. _See_ Port Royal.
Antigua, Leeward Islands, 237.
Antinomian theory, held by Anne Hutchinson, 133, 134.
Appalachian mountains, extent of, 3,4, 6, 7;
early explorations, 4, 269;
characteristics, 5, 6, 97, 179, 219;
aborigines, 11;
early Scotch settlements in, 269.
Argall, Samuel, governor of Virginia, 73;
destroys French settlements in Acadia, 242.
Arizona, aborigines of, 8;
early Spanish explorations, 28-30;
Spanish missions, 31.
Armada, the Spanish, interrupts American colonization, 40;
defeat of, 48, 52.
Asia, possible emigration from, to America, 2, 3;
distance from America, 5;
relation to American exploration, 25-27;
early European commerce in, 23, 24.
Assemblies, hampered by commercial companies and royal and proprietary
interference, 58;
hold the purse-strings, 59;
origin of bicameral system, 61;
representative system, 62, 63;
in the South generally, 97, 109, 110;
in Virginia, 73, 75, 77, 78;
in the Carolinas, 90, 92;
in Maryland, 82-86;
in Pennsylvania, 215, 216;
in New Jersey, 211, 212, 214;
in New Netherlands, 200, 201;
in New York, 200, 201, 204-206;
in Connecticut, 142, 143;
in Rhode Island, 147, 148;
in Massachusetts, 123, 126, 128;
quarrels with the royal governors (1700-1750), 271-279.
Association for the defence of the Protestant religion in Maryland, 87.
Atlantic slope, natural entrance of North America, 3, 5;
rivers, 3, 4;
three grand natural divisions, 5, 6;
mining, 6;
soil and climate, 6, 97;
aborigines of, 9, 10;
early fur-trade on, 18;
early European explorations, 25-28;
early English colonies on, 47.
Aztecs. _See_ Mexico.
Bacon, Nathaniel, rebellion of, 78, 79, 80.
Bahamas, the, discovered by Columbus, 23;
claimed by English, 44;
included in Carolina, 90;
send settlers to Carolina, 93, 97;
historical sketch, 239, 240.
Balboa, Vasco Nuñez de, discovers Pacific ocean, 26.
Baltimore, Md., founded, 87.
--, Lord. _See_ Calvert.
Baptists, in Carolina, 89;
in Rhode Island, 159.
Barbados, founded, 89;
claimed by English, 44;
send settlers to Virginia, 93;
Quakers at, 165;
historical sketch, 236, 237, 239.
Basques, American discoveries by, 21;
engaged in Newfoundland fisheries, 241.
Belcher, Jonathan, governor of New Jersey, 221, 275;
governor of Massachusetts, 279.
Belize, history of, 241.
Bellomont, Earl of, governor of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and
New Hampshire, 207, 274, 276.
Berkeley, Sir William, governor of Virginia, 75, 77, 78, 79, 84;
one of the Carolina proprietors, 89;
on education in Virginia, 107, 108;
interest in New Jersey colonization, 205, 211, 212.
Bermudas, claimed by English, 44;
annexed to Virginia, 72;
send settlers to Carolina, 90;
intercolonial relations, 234;
historical sketch, 238, 239.
Biloxi (Old), Miss., founded, 248.
Blackbeard, a noted pirate, 273.
Blommaert, Samuel, Dutch patroon, 199, 207, 208.
Blue Laws, fabricated by Peters, 146.
Body of Liberties, 138, 139.
Boston, founded, 127;
the Anne Hutchinson episode, 133-136;
New Haven colonists in, 144;
formation of New England Confederation, 156;
Gortonites at, 160;
expeditions against New Netherlands, 163, 164, 168;
levies intercolonial duties, 164;
repression of the Quakers, 165, 166;
arrival of royal commissioners, 168;
Indian missionary efforts, 170;
evasion of Navigation Acts, 173;
the rule of Andros, 175, 176;
slavery, 182;
commerce, 186;
condition in 1700, 186;
Tory element, 189;
Sewall's repentance, 191, 192;
characteristics, 228;
disputes with Phipps, 275, 276;
Bellomont's visit, 276.
Boundary disputes between the Jerseys, 212;
between Maryland and Pennsylvania, 217;
between French and English colonies, 255, 256;
summary of intercolonial, 267-269.
Brazil, discovered by Cabral, 44;
Portuguese colonies, 43, 44, 48;
Huguenots in, 44.
Breda, treaty of, 237.
Brewster, William, leader of the Pilgrims, 116, 117.
British Honduras, historical sketch, 241.
Brittany, early fishers from, at Newfoundland, 26, 33, 241.
Brook, Lord, attempt to introduce hereditary rank in Massachusetts, 59,
129;
Connecticut land grant, 141.
Brownists, a branch of the Independents, 115.
Bubble Act, passed by Parliament, 279.
Cabot, John, discovery of North America, 25, 36, 52, 241, 242.
--, Sebastian, on the American coast, 25.
California, gulf of, aborigines, 8, 12;
early Spanish explorations, 28, 29, 31;
Spanish missions, 31.
Calvert, Cecilius, second Lord Baltimore, 82, 83, 85, 86.
--, Charles, as governor of Maryland, 86;
as third Lord Baltimore, 86, 87.
--, George, first Lord Baltimore, 76, 77, 81, 82, 208.
--, Leonard, governor of Maryland, 77, 82, 83, 84.
Calvin, John, influence of his teachings, 115.
Calvinists, De Monts' colony of, 35, 36.
Cambridge, Mass., founded, 127;
fortifications at, 128;
meeting of General Court, 135, 136;
establishment of Harvard College, 130, 158, 188;
emigration to Connecticut, 140;
the "bishop's palace," 189.
Cambridge platform adopted, 162.
Canada. _See_ New France.
Cape Breton island, discovered by Cabot, 25;
in early struggles between French and English, 252;
fall of Louisburg, 243;
in King William's War, 253;
in King George's War, 255.
Cape Cod, Champlain's visit, 36;
named by Gosnold, 41;
arrival of Pilgrims, 117, 118;
Indian missionary efforts, 170;
character of, 179.
Caribs, the, 8, 9, 236, 239.
Carolina, named after Charles IX., 33;
causes of failure of early colonies, 41-43;
French expelled by Spaniards, 48;
early settlers, 87-89;
under the lords proprietors, 89-92;
division of the colonies, 92;
reunited, 94;
Barbadians in, 236, 237;
geography, 96, 97;
population, 97;
character of colonists, 97;
agriculture, 102;
commerce, 104.
_See_ North Carolina and South Carolina.
Carteret, Sir George, obtains grant of New Jersey, 205, 211, 212.
--, Philip, governor of New Jersey, 211.
Cartier, Jacques, explores St. Lawrence River, 32, 246.
Catholics, in England, 115;
in Virginia, 76;
in Maryland, 77, 81-87, 108;
in the Carolinas, 95;
in Pennsylvania, 108, 230;
in New Jersey, 214;
in Georgia, 260;
policy of the church in New France, 49, 50, 246, 247, 251, 252.
Cayuga Indians, 10, 11.
Champlain, Samuel de, early explorations, 26, 35;
founds Quebec, 36, 246;
fights the Iroquois, 196;
on Lake Huron, 246, 247;
as governor of New France, 251, 252;
death, 248.
Charles I., king of England, interest in Virginia, 75;
interest in Maryland, 82, 84;
interest in Carolina, 88;
attitude towards the Puritans, 125, 127;
annuls Massachusetts charter, 131;
grants Windward Islands to Carlisle, 237;
execution, 76.
Charles II., king of England, reception of Berkeley, 79;
proclaimed in Massachusetts, 159;
attitude towards Quakers, 166;
displeased with New Englanders, 166-168, 174;
treatment of Connecticut and Rhode Island, 168, 169;
claims New Netherlands, 202, 203;
interest in New Jersey, 212;
charter to Penn, 215;
charters Hudson's Bay Company, 243;
attitude towards New France, 252;
death, 175.
Charleston, S.C., founded, 92, 93, 98;
churchmen in, 109;
characteristics, 228;
arrival of Scotch, 269;
attacked by French, 278.
Charlestown, Mass., founded, 122, 127;
fortified, 131;
hanging of a witch, 190.
Charters, commercial privileges of, 104, 105;
of Virginia, 60, 66-69, 72, 74, 113;
of Maryland, 81, 82;
of the Carolinas, 88, 89, 267, 272;
of Georgia, 259;
of Delaware, 216;
of Pennsylvania, 210, 215, 217;
under the Dutch, 197, 198;
South Company of Sweden, 208;
of New Jersey, 211-213;
of Connecticut, 61, 141, 168, 175, 276, 277;
of Rhode Island, 60, 61, 148, 149, 168, 175;
Plymouth Company, 120, 121, 124, 131, 150;
Massachusetts Bay, 60, 125-127, 131, 159, 169, 174, 175, 177;
to the Gorges, 122, 125, 150;
to John Mason, 125, 150, 152;
New Hampshire, 174;
ministerial attacks on the (1701-1749), 266, 267.
Cherokee Indians, status, 11;
relations with Georgians, 259, 261.
Chesapeake Bay, Cabot at, 25;
reached by Lane, 39;
reached by Jamestown colonists, 70;
arrival of royal commissioners, 76;
Claiborne's operations, 77, 83;
geography, 218, 219.
Chickasaw Indians, status, 11;
relations with Georgians, 261, 262.
Chicora, Vasquez's conquest of, 27.
Choctaw Indians, status, 11.
Church of England, in England, 114, 115;
in the Carolinas, 88, 91, 94, 109, 272;
in Virginia, 67, 78, 108;
in Maryland, 86, 87, 280;
in the South generally, 102, 111;
in New York, 229, 230, 274;
in Massachusetts, 122, 130-132, 173, 175, 189;
in New Hampshire, 152;
in Maine, 150, 151;
a source of dispute between governors and assemblies, 272.
Cibola, Seven Cities of, visited by Spaniards, 29-31.
Clarendon, a district in Carolina, 89, 90, 93.
Claiborne, William, his quarrel with Maryland, 76-78, 83-85.
Cliff-Dwellers, status, 8.
Colleges, Harvard, 80, 130, 158, 181, 188;
Yale, 80;
William and Mary, 80, 81, 103.
Colonization, motives of, 46;
early views of, 46;
French policy, 35, 48-50;
Spanish policy, 47, 48, 51;
Portuguese policy, 48;
Dutch policy, 50, 51;
German policy, 51;
English policy, 51, 53;
relations of colonists with Indians, 17-19;
experience of sixteenth century, 41-44;
character of English emigrants, 53, 54;
the institutions they imported, 55-63;
reasons for the English movement, 65, 66.
Columbus, Christopher, discoveries prior to his, 21-23;
his discoveries, 23-25, 31, 237;
his motives, 4, 6.
Commerce, early Norse, 22;
of Europe with India, 23, 24, 27, 42;
fur-trade of early European explorers, 26, 28, 35, 52, 53;
French commercial companies, 35;
of Spain, in West Indies, 38, 39;
as a motive of colonization, 46;
Spanish policy, 47;
Portuguese policy, 48, 50;
Dutch policy, 50, 51, 103-105;
early English commercial companies, 55, 65, 68, 69;
London company, 66-74;
Plymouth company, 114;
Massachusetts Bay Company, 125-127;
economic effect on England, 65;
intercolonial, 102-107, 130;
colonial, with England, 103, 104, 130, 169;
the Navigation Acts, 104-106.
_See_ Fur-trade.
Communal proprietorship, in Virginia, 68, 73;
at Plymouth, 117, 120, 121.
Congregationalists, origin of name, 162;
organization, 189;
in middle colonies, 230.
Connecticut, founded, 136, 140-142;
Pequod War, 136, 137;
government, 142-144;
early Dutch settlers, 136, 198, 199;
conflicts between Dutch and English, 163, 202;
New Haven founded and absorbed, 144-146, 168;
characteristics of Connecticut and New Haven, 146;
in the New England Confederation, 155, 156;
river-toll levied, 164;
treatment of Quakers, 166;
Massachusetts absorbs more territory, 173;
history of the charter, 168, 175, 177, 266, 267, 276, 277;
litigation, 182, 183;
iron mining, 184;
agriculture, 186;
colonization schemes on the Delaware, 208, 209;
boundary disputes, 267, 268;
represented in second colonial congress, 270;
Fletcher's visit, 276, 277;
population (1700) 180, (1754) 265.
Cordilleran mountains. _See_ Rocky mountains.
Cornbury, Lord, governor of New York and New Jersey, 274, 275.
Coronado, Francisco Vasquez de, search for Cibola, 11, 29-31.
Cortereal, Gaspar, explores American coast, 25, 241.
Cortez, Hernando, conquest of Mexico, 8, 27-29.
Council for New England. _See_ Plymouth Company.
County, the, in England, 55; in the South, 56;
in middle colonies, 57;
in New York, 204;
in Pennsylvania, 216.
_Coureurs de bois_, their characteristics, 247, 249, 250;
explorations of, 248, 253.
Creek Indians, status, 11;
relations with Georgians, 260, 261.
Cromwell, Oliver, accepted in Virginia, 76, 78;
in Maryland, 85;
friendship for New England, 159;
expedition against New Netherlands, 163, 164, 202;
sends prisoners to Barbados, 236.
Cuba, slavery in, 239;
threatened by English, 262.
Culpeper, Thomas, Lord, governor of Virginia, 78-80.
Cumberland Gap, a highway for exploration, 4.
Dakotah Indians, status, 11, 12
Danes, in Iceland, 21.
Dare, Virginia, first English child born in the United States, 40.
Davenport, John, heads New Haven colony, 144, 145.
Delaware, early Dutch settlers, 207, 208;
the Swedes, 201, 208;
fall of New Sweden, 209;
annexed to Pennsylvania, 210, 216, 217;
a separate colony, 61, 210, 217;
geography, 218, 219;
social classes, 222-224;
occupations, 224, 225;
trade and commerce, 225, 226;
life and manners, 227;
religion, 230;
general characteristics, 210;
Indian affairs, 277;
influence of Virginian ideas on, 280;
population (1700), 221, 222; (1750), 266.
--, Lord, governor of Virginia, 72.
-- River, early settlements on, 51, 197-199, 207-210, 215, 216;
Dutch claims on, 163;
conflicts between Dutch and Swedes, 200.
De Monts, Sieur, colonizes Nova Scotia, 35, 36, 242.
De Soto, Hernando, expedition of, 11, 30, 31, 47.
Detroit, site discovered, 248, 249.
Digger Indians, status, 9.
"Discovery," the, carries colonists to Virginia, 69.
Dominica, Leeward Islands, 237, 238.
Dorchester, Mass., fortified, 131;
emigration from, to Connecticut, 140, 141.
Drake, Sir Francis, explorations, 37, 52;
relieves Raleigh's colony, 39;
resists the Armada, 40.
Dudley, Joseph, president of Andros's council, 175, 176.
--, Thomas, lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, 127, 135, 175;
governor, 129.
"Duke's laws," the, in New York, 203, 204.
Dummer, Jeremiah, "Defence of the American Charters," 266, 267.
Dunkards, in Pennsylvania, 230.
Dutch, the, early claims in America, 44;
colonial policy, 50, 51;
as ocean carriers, 103, 104;
plant New Netherlands, 196-198;
patroon system, 198-200;
operations on the Connecticut, 136, 140, 141;
collisions with English traders and settlers, 47, 145, 155, 162-164,
199, 200;
Swedish opposition, 51, 208, 209;
wars with England, 159, 163, 164, 168, 201-203;
fall of New Netherlands, 168, 202, 203;
New Netherlands recaptured, but lost again, 205;
in the West Indies, 236-238;
in New York, 203, 204, 220, 221, 223, 227, 229, 231, 232;
in New Jersey, 210, 211, 221;
in Pennsylvania and Delaware, 207-210, 215, 217, 221, 222.
-- East India Company, sends out Hudson, 196.
-- Reformed Church, in middle colonies, 230.
-- West India Company, chartered, 197;
patroon system, 198-200, 223;
plan of government, 203;
Delaware settlements, 207, 209;
pacific policy towards New England, 163.
East India Company, 66.
East Indies, Dutch in the, 50.
East New Jersey, as a separate province, 212-214;
population (1700), 221.
Eaton, Theophilus, heads New Haven colony, 144, 145.
Edward VI., king of England, 36.
Edwards, Jonathan, character, 183;
revival work, 190.
Eliot, John, the Indian missionary, 170, 189.
Elizabeth, queen of England, interest in American colonization, 37, 38,
40, 52, 53, 67, 68;
English commerce under, 104;
Puritanism under, 114, 115.
England, attitude towards papal bull of partition, 24, 25;
sends out Cabot, 25;
fishing colony at Newfoundland, 26;
early exploration and settlements in America, 36-44;
becomes a great power, 48;
reasons for final colonization of America, 65, 66;
character of her colonists, 53-55;
her colonial policy, 51-53;
the institutions in which her colonists were trained, 53-58;
Quaker repression, 165.
Endicott, John, heads the Massachusetts colony, 125, 126.
Eskimos, possible Asiatic origin of, 2, 3;
status, 12.
Exeter, N. H., founded, 152.
Finns, in Delaware and Pennsylvania, 221.
Fisheries at Newfoundland, 26, 36, 37, 49, 52, 241, 242;
in Carolina, 93;
in England, 104;
in New England, 113, 114, 124, 130, 151, 184, 185.
Five Nations. _See_ Iroquois.
Fletcher, Benjamin, governor of New York, 206, 207, 210, 276.
Florida, Spanish exploration of, 27, 28, 30, 31;
Spanish occupation, 31, 32, 43, 88, 93;
French occupation, 33, 34, 44, 49, 88;
French expelled by Spanish, 48;
Oglethorpe's expedition, 262, 278.
Fort Casimir, Del., 209.
Fort Christina, 208, 215. _See_ Wilmington, Del.
Fort Nassau, site of Albany, 197.
--, on the Delaware, 197, 201, 207, 208.
Fort Orange. _See_ Albany.
Franklin, Benjamin, plan for colonial union, 271.
Frederica, Ga., founded, 260;
attacked by Spanish, 262.
"Freeman," term defined, 62.
French, the, colonies in Florida, 33, 34, 44, 49, 88;
causes of failure of early colonies, 43, 44;
early attempts to colonize Canada, 35, 36;
fishing colony at Newfoundland, 26, 241, 242;
Quebec founded, 36;
France becomes a great power, 48, 52;
colonial policy of 48-50;
influence on English colonization in America, 57;
opposition to English settlement, 47, 206, 207;
in New Amsterdam, 201;
in Pennsylvania and Delaware, 221;
conflicts with English in West Indies, 236-239, 244;
holds Acadia, 242, 243;
troubles with Hudson's Bay Company, 244;
rivalry of Georgian traders. 259, 261.
French and Indian War, 221, 222, 274, 275, 284.
Frobisher, Martin, efforts at American colonization, 37, 52;
resists the Armada, 40.
Frontenac, Louis de Buade, Comte de, governor of New France, 251, 254.
Fundamental constitutions, devised for Carolina, 90, 91, 93, 95.
Fur-trade, early spread of, 17, 18;
by Norsemen, 22;
by other early European explorers, 26, 28, 35, 52, 53;
of New France, 35, 49, 50, 247-251, 256-258;
by Claiborne, 76, 77;
of Georgia, 259, 261;
of Carolina, 93, 104;
of Virginia, 104, 269;
of Maryland, 104;
of Pennsylvania, 225, 226;
of New Amsterdam, 118;
of New Sweden, 208, 209;
of New York, 198, 202, 221, 225, 226, 228;
in middle colonies generally, 232;
of Connecticut, 140, 141, 155;
of Plymouth, 122, 124;
of New Hampshire, 152;
of New England generally, 113;
by Hudson's Bay Company, 243, 244;
by American and Northwest companies, 244.
Gama, Vasco da, reaches India, 25.
George II., king of England, name-giver for Georgia, 259;
grants land to Ohio Company, 283.
Georgia, settlement of, 258-262;
fur-trade, 259, 261;
expedition against Florida Spaniards, 262, 278;
becomes a royal province, 263;
population (1750), 266;
political spirit, 281.
Germans, in Georgia, 269, 261, 263;
in North Carolina, 97;
in Virginia, 269;
in Maryland, 266;
in Pennsylvania and Delaware, 217, 221, 222, 225, 229, 230, 274, 277;
in New York, 221.
Germany, colonial policy of, 51;
Presbyterian movement in, 115.
Gomez, Estevan, on the North American coast, 27, 28.
Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, early interest in American colonization, 41, 66,
150;
member of Plymouth Company, 113, 114;
lord proprietor of Maine, 150-152, 158;
allied with Mason in colonizing New Hampshire, 125, 152.
--, Robert, governor-general of New England, 122, 132;
land-grants to, 125.
--, Thomas, deputy-governor of Maine, 152.
Gorton, Samuel, difficulties with Rhode Islanders, 160, 161, 164.
Gosnold, Bartholomew, voyages to America, 41, 65, 66, 69, 71.
Green Bay, Wis., Nicolet at, 12, 248.
Green Mountain Boys, origin of, 268.
Greenland, discovered by Norsemen, 21;
Norwegian settlements in, 21-23.
Grenada, Windward Islands, 237.
Grenadines, the, Windward Islands, 237.
Grenville, Sir Richard, leads colony to Roanoke, 38-40, 52;
resists the Armada, 40.
"Guinea," the, in Chesapeake Bay, 76.
Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, interest in American colonization, 51,
208.
Guzman, Nuño Beltran de, founds Culiacan, 28, 29;
expedition to Cibola, 29.
Hadley, Mass., shelters the regicides, 167.
Hakluyt, Richard, early English chronicler, 37;
interest in American colonization, 66, 69.
Hartford, Conn., founded, 136, 140, 141;
raided by Indians, 137;
the charter-oak story, 175;
early Dutch settlement at, 199;
Fletcher's visit, 276, 277.
Harvard College founded, 80, 130, 188;
aided by New England Confederation, 158;
social distinctions at, 181.
Hawkins, Sir John, visits Florida, 34;
resists the Armada, 40.
Heath, Sir Robert, first proprietor of Carolina, 88.
Henri IV., king of France, his colonial policy, 35.
Henry VII., king of England, rewards Cabot, 25;
attitude towards bull of partition, 36;
Navigation Acts under, 104.
-- VIII., king of England, interest in northwest passage, 36.
Hoboken, N. J., founded, 199.
Holland, English Independents in, 115-117.
_See_ Dutch.
Hooker, Thomas, supports Anne Hutchinson, 134;
assists in settling Connecticut, 141;
as a constitution-maker, 143;
character, 183.
Hopi Indians, Spanish with, 29, 30.
Howard of Effingham, Lord, Governor of Virginia, 79.
Hudson Bay, exploration of, 4;
aborigines of, 9, 12;
early French visits, 247, 248.
Hudson, Hendrik, discovers Hudson River, 44, 50, 125, 196.
-- River, discovered by Hudson, 50, 125, 196;
early Dutch trade on, 118;
as a highway for trade, exploration, and Indian war-parties, 4, 5, 8,
155, 202, 219, 220, 255;
named in London Company's charter, 66;
Pilgrim land-grant on, 197;
early settlements on, 221;
patroons' estates on, 198-200, 223, 227;
Dutch attempt to exclude English from, 199, 200.
Hudson's Bay Company, organized, 248;
intercolonial relations, 234;
historical sketch, 243, 244.
Huguenots, in Florida, 31-34, 49;
De Monts' colony, 35, 36;
in Brazil, 44;
in New France, 49, 252;
in Carolina, 87, 88, 93-95, 97, 108;
in Virginia, 81;
in New York, 221;
in New England, 221.
Hutchinson, Anne, religious agitator in Massachusetts, 133-136;
in Rhode Island, 146, 147;
her adherents in New Hampshire, 152.
Iceland, early settlements in, 21, 22.
Illinois, canoe portages in, 4;
aborigines of, 12;
French settlements, 247, 253.
Independents, definition of term, 115;
in Holland, 115-117.
_See_ Puritans.
India, early commerce with Europe, 23, 24, 66;
reached by Portuguese, 25;
effect on American exploration, 26, 27, 50;
search for water passage to, 42, 196.
Indian Territory, Southern Indians in, 11;
early Spanish exploration in, 28.
Indians, their origin, 2, 3;
philological divisions, 9-12;
characteristics, 13-16;
relations with English colonists in general, 17-19, 36, 38-43;
Pequod War, 136, 137;
Philip's War, 14, 170-172, 188;
relations with the Spaniards, 27-32, 42, 43, 47, 238, 239;
with the Portuguese, 48;
with the French, 34, 35, 49, 246-258;
with the Dutch, 163;
with Georgia, 259-261;
with Carolina, 88, 89, 277;
with Virginia, 14, 68, 71, 74, 75, 77, 78, 269, 280;
with Maryland, 83, 86, 277;
with the South generally, 56, 97;
with Pennsylvania, 216, 217, 222, 274, 277;
with Delaware, 207-209, 277;
with New Jersey, 211, 214, 231, 277, 282;
with New York, 196, 198-202, 206, 207, 230, 270, 271, 277;
with Connecticut, 140, 142, 155;
with Rhode Island, 160, 161, 164, 277;
with Massachusetts, 140, 170, 173;
with Maine, 172;
with New England generally, 119, 120, 133, 136, 137, 170.
Ipswich, Mass., Nathaniel Ward at, 138;
trial of John Wise, 176.
Irish, American discoveries by, 21;
in Iceland, 21;
in Pennsylvania and Delaware, 222.
Iroquois, the, status, 10, 11;
hostility to French, 196, 246, 248-250, 253;
allies of Dutch and English, 196, 200, 207, 256.
Jamaica, historical sketch, 240, 241.
James I., king of England, charters London and Plymouth companies, 66-69,
113;
interest in Virginia colonization, 74, 75, 81;
treatment of Puritans, 115, 116.
-- II., king of England, colonial policy of, 175;
attitude towards New York and New Jersey, 206, 213, 214;
flight, 176.
-- River, exploration of, 26;
named by Jamestown colonists, 70;
Huguenot settlement on, 81.
Jamestown, Va., settlement of, 70-72, 113;
early iron smelting at, 6;
introduction of slaves, 74;
Indian massacre, 74;
Puritans at, 76;
burned, 79;
Baltimore at, 81;
as capital of Virginia, 98;
communal proprietorship at, 120.
Japan, prehistoric vessels from, 2;
early European attempts to reach, 42.
Jesuits, in New France, 36, 253;
in Maryland, 83;
in New York, 230;
explorations in the Northwest, 247.
Jolliet, Louis, discovery of Mississippi River, 26, 248.
Kansas, crossed by Coronado, 30.
Kent island, occupied by Claiborne, 77, 83-85.
Kentucky, early exploration, 4;
aborigines of, 9;
early white settlements, 269, 283.
Kidd, William, a noted pirate, 276.
Kieft, William, governor of New Netherlands, 200, 201, 208, 209.
King George's War, 255, 256, 278.
King William's War, 253, 254.
Labrador, Norse discovery of, 22;
early English voyages to, 37.
Lake Champlain, as a highway for exploration and Indian raids, 4, 220;
discovery, 196;
New York and New Hampshire land claims on, 268.
Lake Erie, aborigines on, 10, 11;
discovery, 248.
Lake George, as a highway for exploration, 4.
Lake Huron, reached by Champlain, 246, 248.
Lake Michigan, discovered, 12, 248.
Lake Ontario, aborigines on, 10, 11;
drainage system, 219, 220;
discovered, 248.
Lake Superior, early fur-trade on, 18;
in Champlain's time, 247;
visited by Radisson and Grosseilliers, 247, 248;
early French settlement on, 253.
La Salle, Chevalier, explorations of, 248.
Laud, Archbishop, represses dissent in Massachusetts, 131;
in prison, 158.
Leeward Islands, English colonies on, 237, 238.
Leisler, Jacob, heads a revolution in New York, 206.
Leon, Ponce de, explores Florida, 27.
Léry, Baron de, colonizing attempt of, 35.
Locke, John, his constitution for the Carolinas, 58, 90, 91, 93, 95.
London Company, chartered, 66, 113;
settles Virginia, 69-74, 81;
criticised by James I., 74;
grant to the Pilgrims, 116, 117;
charter annulled, 74.
Long Island, Block's visit, 196;
Walloon settlement, 198;
conflicts between Dutch and English, 163, 202;
Connecticut wins a part, 163;
religion on, 229, 230;
crime on, 231.
Long Parliament, the, Virginia under, 76;
Navigation Act of, 105;
relation to Massachusetts, 132.
Louis XIV., king of France, his colonial policy, 49, 251-253.
Louisburg, captured by the English, 255, 278.
Ludwell, Philip, governor of South Carolina, 94;
and of reunited Carolina, 94.
Lutherans, in middle colonies, 230.
Louisiana, early French settlement of, 248.
Lower California, early Spanish exploration of, 28, 29, 31.
Maine, De Monts' colony, 36;
visited by Gosnold and Pring, 41;
Gorges' proprietorship, 150, 151, 173;
characteristics, 150;
not in the New England Confederation, 157, 158;
absorbed by Massachusetts, 152, 173, 174;
Indian uprising, 172, 188;
rule of Andros, 175;
in King William's War, 177, 254;
river system, 179;
commerce, 185;
agriculture 186;
education, 188;
population (1700) 180, (1754) 265;
boundary established, 268.
Maldonado, Lorenzo Ferret de, on the Pacific coast, 28.
Manhattan Island, Block's visit, 196;
early settlement, 197, 198.
_See_ New York City.
Marquette, Father Jacques, on Mississippi River, 26, 248.
Martha's Vineyard, Indian missionary efforts at, 170.
Maryland, origin of name, 82;
settlement, 76, 81-84;
landed estates, 58;
judiciary, 60;
during English Revolution, 84, 85;
development, 86, 87;
becomes a royal province, 61, 87;
Claiborne's quarrel, 76, 77;
geography, 96;
character of colonists, 97;
its capital, 98;
occupations, 102;
religion, 102, 108;
commerce, 103, 104;
tobacco-raising, 103;
William and Mary's College, 103;
witchcraft trials, 192;
boundary disputes, 209, 217, 268;
settlers patronize Pennsylvania mills, 225;
represented in colonial congress, 270;
Indian affairs, 83, 86, 277;
influence of Virginia ideas on, 280;
political spirit, 280;
population (1688) 97, (1763) 266.
Mason, Charles, runs "Mason and Dixon line," 268.
--, John, colonizing efforts in New Hampshire, 125, 150, 152, 153, 277.
--, Capt. John, in Pequod War, 137, 142.
Massachusetts, settlement, 124-127, 144;
suffrage qualifications, 61, 62, 167;
social distinctions, 59;
Harvard College founded, 80;
internal dissensions, 129-132;
religious troubles, 132-136, 146, 152;
interest in Pequod War, 136, 137;
laws, 137-139;
characteristics, 139, 140;
the Watertown protest, 62;
emigration to Connecticut, 140-142;
emigration to Rhode Island, 147;
interest in the Gorton case, 160, 164;
absorbs New Hampshire, 152, 153, 173;
absorbs Plymouth, 124, 176;
annexes land in Connecticut and Maine, 173;
influence in the Confederation, 155-157, 164;
independent attitude towards England, 158, 159, 161;
jealousy of King Charles, 173;
under the royal commissioners, 167, 168;
charter annulled, 131, 132, 169, 174, 175;
becomes a royal province, 175;
rule of Andros, 175, 176;
the Presbyterian movement, 162;
attitude in war with New Netherlands, 163, 164;
disputes Connecticut ship-toll, 164;
repression of Quakers, 165, 166, 169;
Philip's War, 170-172, 188;
absorbs Acadia, 176;
new charter, 176, 177;
population, (1700) 180, (1754) 265;
slavery, 182, 272, 275;
iron mining, 184;
manufactures, 184;
fisheries, 184;
shipbuilding and commerce, 185;
agriculture, 186;
witchcraft delusion, 190-192;
boundary disputes, 267, 268;
represented in second colonial congress, 270;
Phipps's term, 275, 276;
Bellomont's term, 207, 276;
loses New Hampshire, 277;
paper money, 278, 279.
Massachusetts Bay, visited by Roberval, 33;
early settlements on, 122, 124, 127.
-- Company, chartered, 125;
removes to America, 126, 127;
charter annulled, 131, 132, 169, 174, 175.
Massasoit, head-chief of Pokanokets, 121, 170.
Mather, Cotton, in witchcraft trials, 191, 192.
--, Increase, influence in Massachusetts politics, 176, 177.
Maverick, Samuel, early Massachusetts settler, 122, 150;
royal commissioner, 167.
"Mayflower," voyage of, 36, 117, 118, 142, 197.
Melendez de Aviles, Pedro, his massacre of Huguenots in Florida, 34.
Mexico, aborigines of, 8;
Spanish conquest of, 8, 11, 27-31, 42, 47;
Spanish colonies, 31, 32.
-- Gulf of, Spanish explorations of, 4, 27;
aborigines of, 9, 11;
Spanish possessions on, 43.
Middletown, N. J., founded, 211.
Milford, Conn., founded, 145.
Mining, Spanish efforts at, 28-30;
early English efforts, 6, 37, 39, 41;
in Virginia, 6, 69, 71, 269;
in New England, 180;
in Pennsylvania, 219, 225.
Minuit, Peter, founds New Amsterdam, 198;
in employ of the Swedes, 201, 208.
Mississippi River, portage-routes, 4;
geography of basin, 6, 7;
aborigines of valley of, 9-12;
discovered by De Soto, 31, 44;
French reaching out for the, 47;
seen by Radisson and Grosseilliers, 247;
seen by Jolliet and Marquette, 26, 248;
early trade on, 18;
drainage system, 219;
La Salle on the, 248;
early French settlements on, 253;
as an element in French-English boundary disputes, 256.
Mohawk Indians, status, 10, 11.
Mohican Indians, status, 9, 10.
Montreal, Cartier at, 32;
Champlain's visit, 35;
founded, 246.
Montserrat, Leeward Islands, 237, 238.
Moravians, in North Carolina, 97;
in Pennsylvania, 229;
in Georgia, 261.
Morton, Thomas, at Merrymount, 122, 127.
Mound-builders, 12.
Nantasket, Mass., founded, 122.
Narragansett Bay, early settlements on, 133, 146, 159, 161;
Philip's War on, 171.
Narragansett Indians, status, 9, 10;
troubles with whites, 136, 137, 164;
in Philip's War, 170.
Narvaez, Pamphilo de, in Florida, 11, 28, 30, 47.
Natchez Indians, 9.
Navigation Acts, historical sketch of, 104-106;
effect in South Carolina, 94;
in Virginia, 78, 80, 280;
in Maryland, 86;
in Pennsylvania, 281;
in the Jerseys, 231;
in New York, 232;
in Massachusetts, 173, 279, 280;
in New England generally, 184;
in the West Indies, 235, 236;
one of the causes of the Revolution, 279.
Nevis, Leeward Islands, 237, 238.
New Amsterdam, founded, 198;
Kieft's term, 208, 209;
Stuyvesant's term, 201, 209;
captured by English, 168, 202, 203;
becomes New York, 203;
fur-trade of, 253.
_See_ Dutch.
Newark, N. J., founded, 211.
New Brunswick, De Monts' colony in, 36.
Newcastle, Del., founded, 202, 215;
characteristics, 228.
New England, geography of, 5, 6, 179, 180;
early mining, 6;
named by Smith, 72, 113, 114;
population,(1690) 253, (1700) 180, 181, (1700-1750) 265;
social distinctions, 58, 181, 182;
slavery, 182;
occupations, 182-184;
manufactures, 184;
fisheries and shipbuilding, 185;
commerce, 77, 164, 185, 186, 234, 235;
towns, 186;
education, 188;
crime, 188;
religion, 189, 190, 194;
witchcraft delusion, 190-192;
life and manners, 187;
political conditions, 192-194, 282;
repression of Quakers, 165, 166;
formation of the confederation, 156;
decadence of the confederation, 169;
in the hands of the Lords of Trade, 173;
in Queen Anne's War, 255;
in King George's War, 255, 256;
ideas of _versus_ Virginia ideas, 280, 281.
New England, Council for, chartered, 60.
Newfoundland, Spaniards at, 28;
early European fishermen at, 36, 37, 49, 52;
early French visits, 32, 33;
claimed by England, 44;
Baltimore's colony, 81;
intercolonial relations, 234, 235;
in King William's War, 254;
historical sketch, 241, 242, 244.
New France, founded, 36;
Louis XIV.'s policy towards, 49, 50;
Champlain fights the Iroquois, 196;
early settlements of, 246, 247;
exploration of the Northwest, 247-249;
ambition for territorial aggrandizement, 155;
contests with the English, 220, 234, 252-254, 274, 275, 277, 278;
in Queen Anne's War, 254, 255;
in King George's War, 255, 256;
boundary disputes with English, 256;
line of frontier forts, 256;
struggle for the Ohio valley, 257;
social and political conditions of, 249-252;
general characteristics, 249, 257, 258;
causes of decline, 49, 50.
New Hampshire, Mason's grant, 150, 152, 173, 277;
early colonizing efforts, 152, 153;
soil, 179;
manufactures, 184;
agriculture, 186;
characteristics, 153;
population (1700), 180, (1754) 265;
annexed by Massachusetts, 61, 153, 173;
becomes a royal province, 61, 153, 174, 277;
reunited to Massachusetts, 153, 174;
rule of Andros, 175;
under William and Mary, 177;
in King William's War, 254;
Bellomont's term, 276;
boundary disputes, 268;
represented in second colonial congress, 270.
New Haven, founded, 144-146, 163;
false "Blue Laws," 146;
joins New England Confederation, 156;
in war with New Netherlands, 163;
treatment of Quakers, 166;
shelters the regicides, 167;
absorbed by Connecticut, 146, 168, 169;
condition in 1700, 186;
Yale College founded, 188;
Tory element in, 189.
New Jersey, early mining, 6;
visited by Gomez, 28;
early settlements, 199, 210-212;
covets Delaware, 210;
the two Jerseys, 212, 213;
reunited as a royal province, 207, 213, 214;
claimed by New York, 205;
general characteristics, 214;
election of county judges, 59, 60;
geography, 219;
social distinctions, 222-224;
occupations, 224, 225;
trade and commerce, 225, 226;
life and manners, 227-229;
education, 229;
religion, 230;
political conditions, 231, 282;
Bellomont's term, 276;
Indian affairs, 277, 282;
population(1700), 221, (1750), 265.
New Mexico, aborigines of, 8;
Spanish explorations, 28-30;
Spanish colonies, 31, 32.
New Netherland, settlement of, 196-198;
progress, 198-202;
Puritan encroachments, 162-164;
settlements on the Delaware, 207-209;
conquered by England, 168, 202, 203, 210-212.
New Netherlands Company, 197.
New Orleans, founded, 248, 256.
Newport, R. I., old mill at, 23;
settled, 147;
unites with Portsmouth, 148;
chartered, 149.
New Spain. _See_ Mexico.
New Sweden, its rise and fall, 201, 202, 208, 209.
_See_ Swedes.
New York, early mining, 6;
geography, 218-220;
social classes, 222-224;
occupations, 224, 225;
trade and commerce, 77, 140, 185, 225, 226;
fur-trade, 248-250;
life and manners, 226-229;
education, 229;
religion, 229, 230;
crime and pauperism, 230, 231;
political conditions, 231, 232, 282;
Indian affairs, 277;
the Dutch régime, 196-202;
captured by English, 202, 203;
the "duke's laws," 204;
recaptured by Dutch, 205;
England again in possession, 205;
the rule of Andros, 205, 206, 213;
the charter of liberties, 205;
Leisler's revolution, 206;
French designs on, 253;
in King William's War, 253, 254;
in Queen Anne's War, 255;
Bellomont's term, 276;
colonial congress, 270, 271;
boundary disputes, 267, 268;
population, (1690) 253, (1700) 220, 221, (1750) 265;
characteristics, 207.
New York City, founded by the Dutch, 198;
early commerce, 226;
characteristics, 227, 228;
education in, 229;
political spirit in, 282.
Nicholson, Sir Francis, governor of Virginia, 79, 80, 81, 273;
deputy-governor of New York, 206.
Normans, American discoveries by, 21, 180;
early at Newfoundland, 26, 49, 241.
North Carolina, aborigines of, 11;
Raleigh's colonies, 38, 40;
named in London Company's charter, 66;
origin of, 88, 90;
first settlements, 92, 93;
Culpeper rebellion, 92;
character of colonists, 97;
their turbulent spirit, 273, 280, 281;
occupations, 102;
agriculture, 103;
religion, 108, 109;
mountains of, 179;
becomes a royal province, 267;
boundary established, 268;
Indian affairs, 277;
Oglethorpe's expedition, 278;
influence of Virginian ideas, 280;
population (1763), 266.
North Virgina Company. _See_ Plymouth Company.
Norwegians, in Iceland, 21.
Nova Scotia, early French settlement, 35, 36;
Claiborne's trade with, 77;
intercolonial relations, 234, 235;
French-English struggles, 252;
in King William's War, 253, 254;
in Queen Anne's War, 255;
removal of the Acadians, 243;
general history, 242-244.
Ocrakoke inlet, English colony on, 38.
Oglethorpe, James, character, 259;
founds Georgia, 259, 260;
campaign against Florida Spaniards, 262, 269, 278.
Ohio Company, its colonization efforts, 283.
Oneida Indians, 10, 11.
Onondaga Indians, 10, 11.
Oregon, aborigines of, 12.
Pacific ocean, crossed by prehistoric vessels, 2;
effect on American exploration, 26, 27, 70;
discovery by Balboa, 26.
-- slope, north-shore flora, 2;
difficulties of colonizing, 3;
geography, 3, 4, 6, 7;
early Spanish explorations, 28, 29;
Spanish missions, 31;
Drake's explorations, 37.
Palatinate War. _See_ King William's War.
Palatines, in Pennsylvania, 230.
Paper money, governors oppose its issue, 272-274, 278, 289.
Parish, the, in England, 55, 57;
in the South, 56.
Patroon system, in New York, 198-200;
in Delaware, 207, 208.
Pawtuxet, R. I., founded, 160;
the Gorton case, 160, 161.
Penn Charter School, founded, 229.
Penn, William, secures grant of Delaware, 210;
interested in New Jersey, 212, 213, 215;
secures grant of Pennsylvania, 215;
his government, 216;
relations with Indians, 216, 217;
boundary disputes with Maryland, 86;
on American climate, 220;
supported by aristocrats, 224;
introduces physicians, 225;
imports Germans, 230;
plan for colonial union, 270;
death, 217;
his heirs resist taxation of their lands, 273, 274.
--, Admiral Sir William, father of foregoing, 215, 240.
Pennsylvania, settlements, 208, 209, 215;
geography, 219;
social classes, 222-224;
occupations, 224, 225;
trade and commerce, 225, 226;
life and manners, 227-229;
education, 229;
religion, 108, 229, 230;
crime and pauperism, 231;
political conditions, 232, 280, 281;
annexation of Delaware, 210, 216;
development, 216, 217;
witchcraft delusion, 192;
boundary disputes, 86, 268;
disagreement between governor and assembly, 273, 274;
Indian affairs, 170, 277;
paper money, 278;
characteristics, 217;
influence of Virgina ideas, 280;
population (1700), 221, 222, (1750) 265, 266.
Pequod Indians, uprising of, 136, 137, 140-142.
Philadelphia, first medical school, 184;
commerce, 185, 226;
first insane hospital, 231;
arrival of Scotch, 269;
characteristics, 228.
Philip II., king of Spain, 34.
Philip's War, in New England, 169-172, 188.
Phipps, Sir William, governor of Massachusetts, 177, 275, 276;
captures Port Royal, 254.
Pilgrims, their staying qualities, 43;
in Holland, 115-117;
voyage of "Mayflower," 117, 118;
settlement of Plymouth, 118-120;
land-grant on the Hudson, 197.
Piracy, English, on Spanish commerce, 94;
in New York, 206, 207;
in the West Indies, 239, 240;
in Virginia, 273;
in Rhode Island, 276.
Plantation, as a political unit, 56, 73.
Plymouth, England, seat of Plymouth Company, 41, 66, 113, 150, 152.
Plymouth Colony, settled, 116-120, 144;
development, 120-124;
characteristics, 123, 124, 139;
marriages in, 132;
Williams at, 132;
fur-trade on the Connecticut, 140;
in the Gorton case, 160;
treatment of Quakers, 166;
receives royal commissioners, 169;
Indian affairs, 170-172;
joins the confederation, 156;
rule of Andros, 175;
shipbuilding, 185;
merged in Massachusetts, 124, 176;
lesson of the colony, 53.
Plymouth Company, chartered, 66;
Baltimore a councillor, 81;
southern boundary, 82;
relations with New Englanders, 120, 122, 124;
sends out Popham colony, 113;
reorganizes, 114;
grant to Massachusetts Bay Company, 125;
grant to Brook and Say and Sele, 141;
surrenders its charter, 131, 150, 152.
Pokanoket Indians, relations with Plymouth, 121, 170.
Poor whites, genesis of, 74, 100, 110.
Popham, George, heads the Popham colony, 113.
--, Sir John, interest in American colonization, 66, 113.
Population, of Indian tribes, 9-11, 15;
excess of, in Europe, 50, 53, 65;
of Virginia (1650-1670), 76, (1697) 81;
of the South generally (1688), 97;
of Pennsylvania and Delaware (1700), 221, 222;
of the Jerseys (1700), 221;
of New York (1674), 205, (1690) 253, (1700) 220, 221;
of Connecticut (1636), 141;
of Rhode Island (1638), 147;
of Plymouth (1643), 121;
of Massachusetts (1634), 129;
of New England generally (1690), 253, (1700) 180;
of the English colonies generally (1700-1750), 265, 266;
of New France (1690), 253.
Portage paths, situation and importance of, 4;
Indian villages on, 13.
Port Royal, Nova Scotia, founded, 36, 48;
captured by English, 242, 243, 252, 254, 278.
--, S. C., founded by Huguenots, 33, 93;
destroyed by Spanish, 93, 94.
Portsmouth, N. H., founded, 152, 153;
Tory element at, 189.
--, R. I., founded, 147;
declaration, 147, 148;
chartered, 149.
Portuguese, early explorations of, 24, 25, 27;
Alexander's bull of partition and the, 24;
fishing colony at Newfoundland, 26, 37, 241;
South American colonies of the, 44;
colonial policy of, 48;
over-population, 50;
trade with New England, 185.
Presbyterians, in England, 115;
in Scotland, 115, 132, 161;
on the Continent, 115;
in Virginia, 108;
in Massachusetts, 161, 162;
in Pennsylvania and Delaware, 221;
in middle colonies generally, 230;
in the Shenandoah valley, 269.
Providence, R. I., founded, 133, 146;
religious disturbances at, 148, 159;
union with Rhode Island, 147;
the compact, 147;
chartered, 148, 149;
population (1638), 147.
--, Md., former name for Annapolis, 98.
Pueblo Indians, status, 8;
visited by Spaniards, 29, 30;
Spanish missions among, 31, 32.
Puritans, definition of term, 115;
in Holland, 115, 117;
motive of emigration to America, 46;
settle New England, 116-140;
gain ascendency over Massachusetts Presbyterians, 162;
rise to power in England, 169;
in Virginia, 75-78, 108;
in South Carolina, 109;
in Maryland, 84-87;
in middle colonies, 230.
Quakers, in Carolina, 89, 91, 95;
in Virginia, 108;
in Maryland, 86;
in Pennsylvania and Delaware, 210, 215-217, 221-225, 227, 230-232, 274,
277, 281;
in the Jerseys, 212, 213, 221;
in New England, 165, 166, 169.
Quebec, Cartier at, 32;
founded by Champlain, 36, 48, 155, 246;
capital of New France, 251;
captured by English, 252.
Queen Anne's War, 254, 255, 277, 278.
Radisson, Sieur, early French explorer, 247, 248.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, interest in American colonization, 37-40, 52, 65,
68, 88;
resists the Armada, 40.
Randolph, Edward, collector at Boston, 173, 174.
Representation, colonial practice of, 62;
in Virginia, 73;
in Maryland, 83, 84;
in Pennsylvania, 216;
in New Jersey, 211, 212, 214;
in New Netherlands, 200, 201, 223;
in New York, 204 206;
in Connecticut, 143, 145;
in Plymouth, 123;
in Massachusetts, 62, 128, 129;
the Watertown case, 128.
Rhode Island, founded, 133, 135, 146-150;
chartered, 61, 168;
religious disturbances, 148, 149, 159-161, 189, 190, 194;
Mrs. Hutchinson in, 135;
treatment of Quakers, 165, 166;
litigation, 182;
trade, 186;
education, 188;
union of colonies as Providence Plantations, 148;
not permitted to join the confederation, 157;
charter troubles, 175, 177, 266, 267;
boundary disputes, 267, 268;
represented in second colonial congress, 270;
Bellomont's visit, 276;
Indian affairs, 277;
population (1700), 180;
characteristics, 49, 50.
Ridge Hermits, in Pennsylvania, 230.
Rensselaerswyck, N. Y., founded, 199.
Roanoke Island, Raleigh's colony on, 38-40, 88, 119.
Roberval, Jean François de, attempt at French colonization, 32, 33.
Rocky Mountains, a barrier to colonization, 3;
exploration of, 4;
geography of, 6, 7;
aborigines of, 8, 9, 12.
Ryswick, treaty of, 244, 254.
Sable, Isle of, early French colonies on, 35.
Saint-Lusson, Sieur de, early French explorer, 248.
Salem, Mass., founded, 125, 126;
divides, 127;
Williams at, 132, 133;
witchcraft delusion at, 190-192.
Salzburgers, in Georgia, 260, 261.
San Francisco, harbor of, 3;
founded, 31.
Santa Fé, N. Mex., founded, 31, 32.
Sault Ste. Marie, early French visits to, 247, 248;
French settlement at, 253.
Savannah, Ga., founded, 258.
Say and Sele, Lord, attempts to introduce hereditary rank, 59, 129;
Connecticut land-grant to, 141.
Saybrook, Conn., founded, 136, 137, 141, 164;
raided by Indians, 137.
Scandinavians, pre-Columbian discoveries of, 21-23;
on the Delaware, 51.
Schenectady, N. Y., sacked by French and Indians, 206.
Schuylkill River, conflicts between Dutch and English on, 200-202.
Scotch, in Carolina, 93;
in the Jerseys, 211, 213, 221.
Scotch-Irish, in Georgia, 261, 263;
in North Carolina, 97;
in Virginia, 108;
in Shenandoah valley, 269;
in Pennsylvania and Delaware, 221, 222;
in New England, 180;
in Nova Scotia, 242.
Seminoles, status of, 11.
Seneca Indians, status of, 10, 11.
Sewall, Samuel, denounces slavery, 182;
in witchcraft trials, 191, 192.
Shenandoah valley, a home for Scotch Presbyterians, 269.
Shipbuilding in New England, 146, 185;
Block's vessel, 196;
in Pennsylvania, 226.
Shrewsbury, N. J., founded, 211.
Sioux Indians. _See_ Dakotahs.
Six Nations. _See_ Iroquois.
Slavery, in Georgia, 260, 263;
in South Carolina, 99;
in Virginia, 74, 81, 99;
in the South generally, 98, 99, 103, 110;
in the middle colonies, 223, 224;
in New England, 58, 139, 182, 185;
in Illinois, 192;
in the West Indies, 234, 239-241.
Smith, Capt. John, attempts to reach the Pacific, 26;
member of the London Company, 66;
experiences at Jamestown, 70-72;
voyage to New England, 113, 114, 150.
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, work in South Carolina, 102;
in New York, 229;
in Georgia, 260.
Somers, Sir George, member of London Company, 66, 69, 72;
at Bermudas, 238.
Somers's Islands. _See_ Bermudas.
Sothel, Seth, governor of North Carolina, 92, 93;
of South Carolina, 94.
South Carolina as Chicora, 27;
settlement of, 90;
landed estates in, 58;
occupations, 102;
religion, 102, 109;
trade, 102, 261;
social life, 107;
becomes a royal province, 267;
boundary established, 268;
Indian affairs, 277;
Oglethorpe's expedition, 278;
influence of Virginia ideas, 280;
political condition, 281;
population (1763), 266.
Southern Indians, status of, 9, 11.
Southold, L. I., founded, 145.
Spaniards, conquest of Mexico and Peru, 8, 11;
treatment of Indians, 17;
early American discoveries, 23, 24;
the bull of partition, 24, 36;
fishermen at Newfoundland, 25, 37;
exploration of American interior, 27-31;
their American colonies, 26, 31, 32, 88;
character of those colonies, 42, 43;
conflicts with France, 32, 34, 93, 94;
influence on English court, 36;
conflicts with English, 38, 39, 237, 239-241, 244;
war with Holland, 196;
the Armada, 40;
their colonial policy, 47, 48;
over-population in Spain, 50;
causes of failure of North American colonies, 42-44;
trade with New England, 185;
conflicts with Georgia, 259-262, 278.
St. Augustine, Fla., founded, 32, 34, 94;
in Oglethorpe's campaign, 259, 261.
St. Christopher, Leeward Islands, 237, 238.
St. John's, Newfoundland, early fisheries at, 37.
St. Lawrence River, gateway to continental interior, 4, 248;
explored by Cartier, 32;
by Champlain, 35, 36;
French claims on, 43, 255, 256;
settlements on, 246, 249, 250, 253.
St. Lucia, Windward Islands, 237.
St. Mary's, Md., founded, 82, 83;
as the capital, 84, 87, 98.
St. Vincent, in Windward Islands, 237.
Stamford, Conn., founded, 145.
Stoughton, William, lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, 181;
in witchcraft trials, 191.
Stuyvesant, Peter, governor of New Netherlands, 163, 200, 201, 202, 203,
209.
Suffrage in judicial elections, 59;
general qualifications, 61, 62;
in Maryland, 86;
in New Jersey, 213, 214;
in New Netherlands, 200;
in New York, 204, 205;
in Connecticut, 143;
in Massachusetts, 128, 167, 173, 176;
in New England generally, 193.
"Susan Constant," the, carries colonists to Virginia, 69.
Swedes, colonial policy of the, 51;
career of New Sweden, 201, 202, 208, 209;
in Pennsylvania and Delaware, 208-210, 215, 217, 221, 222;
in New Jersey, 211, 221.
Swiss, in North Carolina, 97.
Tarratine Indians, uprising in Maine, 188.
Tennessee, character of early settlers, 269, 283.
Texas, early Spanish exploration of, 28.
Tinicum, island of, seat of Swedish government in America, 208, 215.
Tobago, Windward Islands, 237.
Town, the, in England, 55;
in New England, 57, 62, 139, 140, 192, 193;
in the middle colonies, 57, 204, 216.
Trenton, N. J., characteristics, 228.
Trinidad, Windward Islands, 237.
Tuscarora Indians, join the Five Nations, 11.
Underhill, John, in Pequod War, 137.
Union, schemes for colonial, New England Confederation, 155-158;
first colonial congress, 80, 206, 270;
governmental plans, 267, 270;
second congress, 270, 271.
Usselinx, Willem, founds South Company of Sweden, 208.
Utah, aborigines of, 12.
Utrecht, treaty of, 241-243, 255, 256.
Vaca, Cabeza de, in Narvaez's expedition, 28, 29.
Vane, Sir Henry, governor of Massachusetts, 129, 134, 135.
Van Rensselaer family, 199, 223.
Vermont, soil, 179;
becomes a State, 268.
Verrazano, John, on the American coast, 32, 41.
Virginia, named by Raleigh, 38;
Raleigh's land grants, 40;
causes of early failures in colonizing, 41-44;
geography, 96;
settlement, 69-75;
character of colonists, 97, 114;
landed estates, 58;
judiciary, 60;
suffrage, 61, 62;
first assembly, 62;
first charter, 66-69, 70, 113;
second charter, 72;
development, 75-81;
becomes a royal province, 74;
Bacon's rebellion, 78, 79, 90;
occupations, 102;
commerce, 103, 104;
education, 107, 108;
religion, 108;
witch-ducking, 192;
conflicts with Dutch, 197, 200;
Walloons rejected, 198;
piracy, 273;
Spotswood's term, 269;
Nicholson's term, 273;
includes Bermudas, 238;
Virginia ideas _versus_ New England ideas, 280;
reaching out to the West, 67, 283;
population (1688), 97; (1763), 266.
"Virginia," the early New England pinnace, 185.
Virgin Islands, Leeward group, 237, 238.
Walford, Thomas, settles at Charlestown, 122.
Walloons, settle in New Netherlands, 198, 201;
in Delaware, 207, 208.
Warwick, Earl of, interest in American colonization, 37;
president of Council for New England, 141, 158.
--, R. I., founded, 148;
Gorton case, 160.
Washington, George, education of, 108;
opinion of Bermudas, 239.
Watertown, Mass., founded, 127;
protest against taxation without representation, 62, 128;
emigration to Connecticut, 140.
Welsh, American discoveries by, 21;
in New England, 180;
in Pennsylvania and Delaware, 217, 221.
Wesley, Charles, in Georgia, 262.
--, John, in Georgia, 262.
West Indies, aborigines of, 8;
Spanish conquest of, 43, 47;
Spanish commerce, 39;
piracy, 34;
Portuguese in, 48;
Dutch in, 50;
trade with Southern colonies, 102, 104;
trade with New England, 185;
trade with middle colonies, 226;
intercolonial relations, 234, 235.
West Jersey, 212-214, 216, 221.
Westminster, treaty of, 205.
Wethersfield, Conn., founded, 141;
sacked by Indians, 137.
Weymouth, George, explores New England coast, 41, 65.
Whitefield, George, revival work, 190, 262.
William III., king of England, 206, 253.
-- and Mary, sovereigns of England, proclaimed in the colonies, 87, 176.
William and Mary college, chartered, 80, 81, 103.
Williams, Roger, character, 132;
at Salem, 132, 133;
founds Providence, 133, 146, 147, 149, 160;
services in Pequod War, 136;
attitude towards Quakers, 165.
Williamsburg, capital of Virginia, 81, 98.
Wilmington, Del., founded, 201, 208.
--, N. C., early French visit to, 32.
Windsor, Conn., founded, 136, 137, 140, 141.
Windward Islands, English colonies, 236, 237.
Wingfield, Edward Maria, member of London Company, 66;
president of Jamestown, 70.
Winslow, Edward, London agent of Massachusetts, 131, 132;
in the Gorton case, 160;
expression of colonial independence, 161.
Winthrop, John, governor of Massachusetts, 127, 129, 135, 138, 156;
expression of colonial independence, 161.
--, John, Jr., founds Saybrook, 136, 141;
governor of Connecticut, 143;
London agent of Connecticut, 168.
Wisconsin, canoe portages in, 4;
aborigines of, 12;
discovered by Nicolet, 26;
early French explorations in, 247, 248.
Witchcraft delusion, at Salem, 190-192, 275;
elsewhere, 190, 192.
Wocoken, island of, English colony on, 38, 88.
Yale College, founded, 80, 188.
Yeamans, Sir John, leads colony to Carolina, 89, 237;
governor of South Carolina, 93.
York, Duke of, proprietor of New York, 203, 210-212;
becomes James II., 205, 206, 213;
grants Delaware to Pennsylvania, 216.
Zuñi Indians, visited by Spaniards, 29, 30.
Illustration: EPOCH MAP II
NORTH AMERICA 1650.
SHOWING CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF EXPLORATION AND OCCUPANCY.
Illustration: EPOCH MAP III
ENGLISH COLONIES 1700.
Showing Extent of Actual Jurisdiction.
Illustration: EPOCH MAP IV
NORTH AMERICA 1750.
SHOWING CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF EXPLORATION AND OCCUPANCY.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
Punctuation was standardized. Missing punctuation was added, where
appropriate. William Claiborne's name is also spelled 'Clayborne.' Both
were left as printed. The index entry for Augusta, GA, is out of order in
the original and was not amended. Archaic and obsolete spellings were left
unchanged. Text in italics is surrounded by underscores, _like this_.
Superscripted letters are surrounded by braces, for example, Gov{r}.
Sidenotes were moved to precede the paragraph to which each refers.
Within the text of the book, where there are references to the book's
page numbers, the section in which that page appears has been added. For
example, "(page 41)" was altered to appear as "(page 41, § 15)," so that
the reader may more easily locate the referenced text.
The following spelling corrections were made:
'da Leon' to 'de Leon' sidenote, Chapter II, § 9
'Greene' to 'Green' sidenote, Chapter VI, § 36
'Roberth' to 'Robert' Chapter VI, § 36
'browbreat' to 'browbeat' Chapter IV, § 38
'circumtances' to 'circumstances' Chapter XII, § 110
'beween' to 'between' Chapter XIV, § 121
'king Charles' to 'King Charles' index entry for Massachusetts
'Phillip's War' to 'Philip's War' twice, in the index only
The following hyphenated words were changed for consistency within the text:
'brow-beat' to 'browbeat' Chapter IV, § 31
'fire-places' to 'fireplaces' Chapter V, § 45
'foot-hold' to 'foothold' Chapter XII, § 112
'free-men' to 'freemen' Chapter IX, § 89
'heartrending' to 'heart-rending' Chapter XIV, § 125
'Jersey-men' to 'Jerseymen' Chapter X, § 92
'long-shore' to 'longshore' Chapter X, § 94
'overpopulation' to 'over-population' index, Portuguese;
and index, Spaniards
're-affirm' to 'reaffirm' Chapter IV, § 34
'Ship-building' to 'Shipbuilding' Chapter VII, § 77;
index, Massachusetts; and
index, Shipbuilding
'vice-regal' to 'viceregal' Chapter XIV, § 120
End of Project Gutenberg's The Colonies 1492-1750, by Reuben Gold Thwaites
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