Pageant Chapter 2 Study Questions
The Big Question: Why did the English come to America and what kinds of societies did they form? The primary motives for English expansion to America included unemployment and a thirst for adventure, for markets, and for religious freedom. Poor people in England without a job needed a way to improve their life, and the only chance of that rode on the "New World" colonies. Coming over by charters or by the orders of the crown, England's poor ventured to America in hopes of new beginnings. Also, having defeated the Spanish Armada, England could easily open up it's trade to further reaches of the world, with the "New World" included. Finally, with Protestants having become the big religion in England, it was much more convenient for Catholic's lives to come to the "New World", where they could escape this religious tension (except for a few colonies). The societies formed by the English who came to America depended on the region they settled in. While the northern colonies may have one lifestyle within the colonies, the south or middle colonies may have been quite different in some ways. Ranging from primary crops and economic tendencies to cultural and religious differences, some colonies were very opposite of one another. The northern colonies were far more economically active than the middle and southern colonies, and fishing was common. The middle colonies included very important cash crops such as tobacco and also had quite a lot of religious diversity. The southern colonies utilized the concept of plantations and heavily employed the use of slaves, making them highly productive, but they also did not participate in trade as much.
Describe the motives for the settlement of Jamestown. What were the difficulties the settlement faced and why did it almost fail? King James I of England created a charter for the Virginia joint-stock Company to bring over settlers to start a colony. The biggest attraction being a lot of gold, as well as a desire to find a passage through the Americas to the Indies. Although this type of thing did not exist, the English had no way of knowing that. The settlement was right in the center of a large Native American tribe, which did not have a good relationship with Jamestown. Also, the colonists settling in Jamestown were gentleman types and were not used to fending for themselves, so they did not know how to go out into the woods and obtain things to provide for themselves. Many people died from malnutrition, disease, and starvation.
How did the Powhatan Wars foreshadow the future for the North American Indians? The Virginia Company and its continuous orders to destroy the Powhatan indians led to the slaughter of a large part of the Native American population in the area, and drove them westward. This would soon happen to all of the North American Indians, as more and more settlements popped up in the colonies, and as the Europeans continued to push the Indians back to claim more land for themselves.
What was the impact of tobacco on Virginia? Tobacco was a large cash crop, and played an essential role in the development of Virginia as a colony as well as the beginnings of a soon to be powerful nation. The Virginia colony was small and not very successful at first, but with the introduction of tobacco as the primary crop in Virginia allowed the settlers to produce enough to trade for all the supplies they needed, which allowed them to grow more and more.
How and why did Lord Baltimore create a colony exceptional for its times? Lord Baltimore founded Maryland, the fourth English colony, and the second plantation colony, in 1634 by advertising it as a colony for his fellow Catholics, where they would be free from the harsh religious issues back in England. It grew rapidly due to it using tobacco, like Virginia, as a large, lucrative crop. He created the colony so that he and his fellow Catholics could have a colony just for themselves. He