Chapter 3. Emergence of Colonies

Table of Contents

Beginning the Journey
Users will find material for this era in many of the modules of the American Journey Online. "Westward Expansion," "Women in America," "Civil Rights," "The African-American Experience," "The Hispanic-American Experience," "The Immigrant Experience," "The Native American Experience," and "The American Revolution" can all be tapped for useful documents and images relevant to the era of European colonization.

As with earlier eras, one way to locate sources within these modules is to search by year. Conducting this sort of search yields brief introductions to the various years identified in each module, and in some cases lists of relevant documents or images as well.

Users are also advised to scan the lists of "Key Topics" under "Contents" for each of the relevant modules, as these sections provide good introductions to the major topics and issues dealt with in each module. (They also contain numerous links that can be used to go directly to documents and images themselves.)

The "Regions" function for the modules relevant to this era is another good way to find sources, as it enables users to locate materials that deal with a particular geographical area. This is an especially good way to gather information on specific colonies.

Activity 1
Although the United States has no "official" state religion, religion and religious freedom have been important parts of American life from the very earliest colonies. In fact, many of the thirteen original colonies were founded by one or another group seeking the right to practice their religion without opposition or persecution. (For more on these ideas see the Key Topic "Freedom of Religion" within the module "Civil Rights.")

Different colonies had different traditions and ideas when it came to religion. The Massachusetts Bay Colony, for example, was founded by the Puritans, who left England in order to escape persecution for their religious beliefs. Yet once ensconced in New England the Puritans became hostile to dissenters and non-Puritans and ruled their colony as a theocracy. As a result of persecution in Massachusetts Bay, a number of other colonies were founded. Rhode Island, for example, became a haven for dissenters of all types. Pennsylvania was nominally a Quaker colony, but its charter gave favor to no faith. And Maryland, though founded as a refuge for Catholics, tolerated all faiths, included Judaism.

Exploring the role that religion played in the founding of some of the first colonies can shed light on why the United States--and the various states that comprise it--developed as they did. Within the "Civil Rights" module, locate the following two documents and three images:

• "A Modell of Christian Charity" by John Winthrop (one way to locate this document is to go to "Contents," then "Regions," then "Massachusetts," then scroll down to the title)
• "Excerpt from The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution" by Roger Williams (one way to locate this document is to go to "Contents," then "Authors," then "W," then scroll down to the title)
• "Mary Dyer" (to locate this image, go to "Contents," then "Years," then "1660," then click on the title)
• "Anne Hutchinson Preaching" (this image can be located by going to "Index," then "H," then scrolling down to "Hutchinson")
• "Roger Williams" (this image may be located by clicking on "Contents," then "Images," then "R," then scrolling down to the title).

Use the documents and images to answer the following questions.

1. Compare John Winthrop's impassioned defense of Puritanism with the pleas for religious freedom contained in the document by Roger Williams. How does Williams seem to be responding, directly or indirectly, to the ideas expressed by Winthrop? Explain your answer with specifics from the documents.
2. Although historians have found irony in Puritan repression of religious dissent (in light of the Puritans' own quest for religious freedom), the Puritans themselves saw nothing inconsistent in their efforts to establish a theocracy. Using Winthrop's "A Modell of Christian Charity," explain how this could be the case. Be sure to cite specific passages from his sermon.
3. Williams lays out various ways that governments can protect religious freedom. Discuss these governmental actions in defense of freedom of religion as fully as you can. Discuss also the reforms he suggests for increasing democracy within the church. Why would he have included these reforms?
4. Examine the last three sources (all images). The three individuals pictured all suffered varying degrees of persecution at the hands of the Puritans. Explain the punishments each experienced. Why did each receive different treatment? What do the different punishments say about the way the Puritans viewed different kinds of "crimes"? Be specific.
5. Historians have long been interested in these early debates about religious freedom as crucial to explaining the course of U.S. political and cultural development. Using the sources you have examined here, explain how these early debates about religion manifest themselves today. Be as specific and comprehensive as you can here.

Activity 2
During the decades after the settlement of the English colony at Plymouth, settlers steadily encroached on Native American lands. In search of a freer and more tolerant society than was permitted by the theocratic rulers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Englishmen moved west and south along the Atlantic seaboard, into lands inhabited by the Pequot and Narragansett people.

In 1636, long-simmering tensions between the western colonists, who had formed a temporary alliance with the Narragansetts, and the Pequots boiled over into all-out conflict. Periodic engagements throughout that year and into the next resulted in significant losses for the Pequots, with some survivors of the conflict being sold in the Bahamas for Africans who entered the Massachusetts Bay Colony as slaves.

"The Native American Experience" module within the American Journey Online database contains a number of sources (both written and visual) that deal with the Pequot War. To access these sources, go to "Contents," then "Years," then "1636." Utilize "Excerpt from Of Plymouth Plantation 2" and "Attack on Mystic Fort" to answer the following questions.

1. The documentary source here describes the events leading up to the Pequot War, as well as the war's course and immediate aftermath. What are the salient points of this narrative? What does the document identify as turning points or major components of this story?
2. The document describes the efforts of the Pequots to sway the Narragansetts from allying with the British. What arguments does it lay out? Why were these arguments likely to be unsuccessful in changing the Narragansetts' position?
3. How does the image "Attack on Mystic Fort" square with the written account of the battle laid out in the document? Can you identify any apparent discrepancies between the two sources?

As the sources examined above (and their accompanying written commentaries) make clear, the Narragansetts joined forces with the colonists to crush the Pequots in 1636-37. Not long afterward, however, the Narragansetts (perhaps seeing the error of their ways) changed sides and began working to resist further westward movement by the English.

For the next several years, the Narragansetts worked against colonial expansion. Their efforts met with little success, though, as the colonists moved ever westward despite Native American resistance. Resigned, perhaps, to their fate, in 1644 the Narragansetts signed "An Act of Submission" affirming their loyalty to British interests. Significantly, they did not submit to colonial authority. To access this document, click on its title from the list of related items that appears at the top of either of the items discussed above.

Use this document, in conjunction with the sources above, to answer the following questions.

4. How does this document, and what you know about its origins from reading the accompanying "Commentary," relate to the arguments raised by the Pequots as outlined in the first document above? Were the Pequots correct? Why or why not?
5. How do these three sources together provide historians with some idea of how contentious life along the early frontier was? With the different tactics that people adopted to survive? How does the last document especially illustrate early tensions between colonial authority and that of England?

Activity 3
Setting out clear rules of governance was a priority for early colonists, who constructed strict frameworks laying out penalties for offenses and guaranteeing certain rights to citizens.

Two of the earliest documents of American colonial government were the "Fundamental Orders of Connecticut" and the "Massachusetts Body of Liberties," adopted in 1639 and 1641, respectively. Within the module "Civil Rights," go to the first document. (One way to accomplish this is to utilize the index function and search under "F." The second document can then be located by title from the list of related items that appears at the top of the first.)

Use the documents to answer the following questions.

1. What similarities do you find between the two documents? What differences?
2. What would have been revolutionary about the Fundamental Orders when they went into effect? What premises do they stem from, especially about the sources of power and authority and the rights of citizens?
3. What activities does the Massachusetts Body of Liberties include as crimes? What punishments are assigned for them? Does anything surprise you about either list? Why or why not?
4. Both documents make special mention of God and religion. What do they say about the place of religion in their own societies? Be specific.
5. What do the documents together say about the primacy of society or the individual? Which is more important in each? What effect would these two positions have had on the societies they covered?

Activity 4
Slavery was a factor in colonial society almost from the very beginning of European settlement. In fact, at the same time that laws like those explored in Activity 3 were codifying the rights of white residents, others were legitimizing the enslavement of Native Americans and Africans imported specifically to serve the needs of colonial society.

At first, slavery was permitted in all colonies, north and south. Only later would northern colonies change their laws and abolish slavery.

Several early statutes authorizing slavery and setting out rules regarding the practice are contained in the module "The African-American Experience." Within that module, go to the documents "Liberties of Forreiners and Strangers" and "An Act to Repeal a Former Law Making Indians and Others Free." (One way to accomplish this is to go to "Contents," then "Regions," then "Eastern Seaboard." Both titles may be accessed from the list that appears.)

Use the documents to answer the following questions.

1. What groups of people does the first document, a law from Massachusetts that constitutes the first legal sanction of slavery in the United States, decree as eligible to be enslaved? What is significant about the groups included?
2. Does anything about this document surprise you? If so, what? If not, why?
3. What distinctions does the second document, a 1680 Virginia law, make about those to be enslaved and those to be subject to indentured servitude? Do these distinctions make sense to you? Why or why not? What do you think their purpose was?
4. The second document is a revision of a law passed ten years earlier that defined slaves and indentured servants in slightly different terms. Can you determine the differences between the two laws from the text of the newer one? Why do you think these changes would be desired?
5. Taken together, what do these two documents tell you about the state of race relations in colonial America? Be specific

Activity 5
The early American colonies faced a perennial shortage of labor, which partly explains the use of slave labor. In addition to slaves, the colonists also utilized indentured servants--people who voluntarily entered into contracts to work for a certain period of time (normally four to seven years) in exchange for passage to the colonies, food, clothing, and shelter, and often educational or vocational training and tools. Once their obligation had been satisfied, indentured servants entered society as free individuals.

Several modules of the American Journey Online contain material on indentured servitude. Accessing the information needed to complete this activity will require you to work within two of them: "The Immigrant Experience" and "Women in America." Within the first module, locate the document "Excerpt of Letters from America" by William Eddis (One way to accomplish this is to go to "Contents," then "Authors," then "E.") Within the second module, locate "Excerpt from the History and Present State of Virginia" by Robert Beverley and "Letter of Elizabeth Sprigs to John Sprigs." (These documents may be located by going to "Index," then "I," then "indentured servants." The two documents may be accessed through the list of documents that appears under the term.)

Use the documents to answer the following questions.

1. What different categories of workers do these documents outline? How meaningful do the differences among these categories seem? (Use especially the documents by Eddis and Beverley here.)
2. What differences do these documents note among various colonies? How do working conditions in the colonies discussed here compare? How might historians explain these differences? (Again, the Eddis and Beverley documents are most useful here.)
3. Collectively, these documents detail numerous difficulties faced by indentured servants in the American colonies. Outline these difficulties as fully as you can. In what ways would these difficulties have troubled workers? How would they have made workers' lives hard, or even intolerable?
4. Elizabeth Sprigs' letter to her father is one of the only surviving first-hand accounts of indentured servitude. What does it reveal to historians about the lot of those who served as indentured servants? About their physical and mental states?
5. Although many indentured servants had hoped to use their period of servitude as the route to a better life in America than they could hope for in England (or elsewhere in Europe), few saw a drastic improvement in their social or economic status in the years after their indenture ended. Historians have advanced several explanations for this state of affairs. Using these documents and their accompanying commentaries, identify as many reasons as you can for the delay in social improvement for indentured servants. Then speculate on how their position would have influenced the overall social composition of the colonies. Be specific.

Activity 6
As colonists in the present-day United States expanded the frontier of settlement ever westward, conflicts between colonists and Native Americans were common. Sometimes actual warfare broke out (as in Connecticut's Pequot War in 1636-37). At other times, simple skirmishes occurred between settlers and Native Americans.

Often during these skirmishes, settlers would be kidnapped and taken into captivity. Many captives lived the rest of their lives with their captors. Others were eventually returned, and some of them wrote of their experiences in what historians have come to call "captivity narratives."

The most famous captivity narrative, both during the colonial era and today, is that of Mary Rowlandson, who was taken from her home in Lancaster, Massachusetts, by Narragansetts in February 1675. Within the module "Women in America," locate her account, "Excerpt from A Narrative of the Captivity, Sufferings, and Removes of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson." (One way to accomplish this is to utilize the search function and type "Mary Rowlandson" in the box. The document is the first item in the list that appears.)

Use the document to answer the following questions.

1. Rowlandson details a number of changes she experienced as a result of her captivity. Explain as many of these changes as you can. Why do you think Rowlandson changed in these ways?
2. What sorts of functions or jobs did Rowlandson provide for her captors? What role(s) did she play in Indian society? How might her position in Indian society have affected her experience while in captivity? Explain.
3. What things about Indian society and life did Rowlandson find distasteful? How did she cope with things she found distressing during her captivity?
4. What role does Rowlandson's religious faith play in her narrative? How did her faith sustain her during her captivity? What does her experience say about the role of religion in colonial society in general?
5. How does Rowlandson's narrative of her captivity provide a window into the larger experience of American colonists in general at the time? What sorts of challenges did colonists face on a daily basis, and how might they have dealt with them?

Activity 7
One of the most fascinating events within the history of colonial America is the Salem Witch Trials, which occurred between June and September 1692. During that period, more than two hundred people were accused of practicing witchcraft; nineteen were eventually executed.

Because most of the accused (and executed) were eccentric, misfit women, the trials have provided historians with an important window into the roles that gender and conformity played in colonial society. Because most of the accusers came from agricultural Salem Village and most of the accused came from commercial Salem Town, the trials also reveal latent--and serious--cultural divisions within colonial society.

The "Women in America" module within the American Journey Online database contains a number of sources relevant to the trials, including several portions of trial testimony by accused. These documents and images can be located by going to "Index," then "S." The five relevant sources are listed under "Salem, MA."

Use the sources collectively to answer the following questions.

1. What similarities do you note among the testimony of Sarah Good and Martha Corey? What differences? How might these similarities and differences be accounted for?
2. "The Tryal of Bridget Bishop" and "The Tryal of Susanna Martin" detail numerous instances that were purported to prove that the accused were witches. What similarities may be found in the testimony of these alleged victims? What differences?
3. Many of the alleged misdeeds of Bridget Bishop and Susanna Martin involved financial transactions of one sort or another. More than mere coincidence, this fact suggests a possible economic motive for the accusations of witchcraft against the two women. Speculate on why this might be the case, especially in a society where economically powerful women were the exception rather than the norm. How do these deeds illustrate tensions within colonial Massachusetts society?
4. Throughout these sources, personal commentaries and judgments are common. What do these insertions suggest about the fairness and impartiality of the trials? Does it seem that the outcome was a foregone conclusion? If so, why might this have been the case?
5. Scholars studying the Salem witch trials have spent a great deal of time pinpointing the home locations of the accusers and the accused. Their findings suggest that most of the accusers came from rural Salem Village while most of the accused came from commercial Salem Town. What does this fact suggest about underlying tensions in colonial Massachusetts at the time?

Activity 8
As we have already seen, conflicts between settlers and Native Americans became increasingly common as the frontier of settlement moved steadily westward. Not surprisingly, settlers on the western edges of settlement often expected the central governments of their particular colonies to provide protection against Indian depredations. To their chagrin, this protection was rarely forthcoming. And when it was, colonial governors, like William Berkeley in Virginia, proposed the construction of western forts to keep the Indians pacified rather than wars of extermination to permanently eliminate them.

Unable to influence colonial legislatures, colonists often lashed out. One outburst in Virginia was especially important for the way it illustrated the tensions emerging in that colony (and by extension in others) between westerners and easterners and between big plantation owners who owned many slaves and small, backwater farmers who owned none. Commencing in 1676, this outburst was led by Nathaniel Bacon, a western settler who wanted both to pacify the western Indians and to make the Virginia government in Jamestown more responsive to the needs of the frontier residents.

Within the module "Westward Expansion" locate the document "Excerpt from The Beginning, Progress and End of Bacon's Rebellion" by Thomas Mathew. (One way to accomplish this is to go to "Contents," then "Authors," then "M," then scroll down the list to the desired document.)

Use the document to answer the following questions.

1. What do the document, and the outbreak of Bacon's Rebellion, say about the tensions in colonial America between different societal groups? Be as comprehensive as you can in covering the various kinds of differences.
2. How does the division of power within the colony of Virginia come through in the document? What sort of power seems most important in the events described in the document? Explain.
3. What does the outcome of Bacon's Rebellion say about the importance of individual leaders?

The failure of Bacon's Rebellion did not mean the end of frontier concerns about Indian threats. On the contrary, westerners made their displeasure on this subject known periodically for the next century.

In 1764, a group of Pennsylvanians petitioned the colonial legislature in Philadelphia for greater protection against the Native Americans. Go now to "Remonstrance of Distressed Frontier Inhabitants." (This can be accomplished by choosing the title from the list of related items that appears at the top of the document discussed above.)

Use this document, in conjunction with the first, to answer the following questions.

4. What similarities do you see between the grievances that led to Bacon's Rebellion and those in Pennsylvania outlined in the second document? What differences?
5. How can historians and other scholars use the events discussed in these documents to understand the tensions that existed within the colonies during the century before the American Revolution? What do these tensions suggest about the cohesion among and within the colonies at this time? About the prospects that they could act together in the future?

Activity 9
Beginning in New England during the 1730s but soon spreading throughout the colonies, evangelical preachers began to challenge established ideas about religion and human salvation. Responding to mounting public anxiety about the uncertainty of life and the need for religious reassurance, these preachers sought to revive public involvement in religion and bring religion closer to the people.

These preachers, who traveled throughout the colonies, ran afoul of many established ministers because they often spoke extemporaneously without set sermons and resorted to speaking in large outdoor arenas when they were prohibited from speaking in local churches. Their speeches were often emotional affairs, and many were accompanied by emotional "conversion experiences" from their congregations.

This religious revivalism has been dubbed the "Great Awakening." It transformed religion in America by sparking an increase for the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptists churches and a decline in Congregational and Anglican membership. It also instilled in people the conviction that they held the keys to their own salvation and thereby reduced the power and influence of religious elites throughout the colonies.

Within the module "The American Revolution," go to "Contents," then "Key Topics," then "Religion and the Revolution," then "Changes in Religious Life." Click on the link "George Whitefield" in the text, and study the document "Excerpt of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin." Use that document, and the image "George Whitefield Preaching," which can be accessed from the list of related items at the top of the document, to answer the following questions.

1. How does Franklin describe the experience of hearing Whitefield preach? (To get an even better idea of what it was like, click on the audio link that appears at the beginning of the document.) How was Whitefield's preaching different from what Franklin (and other colonials) was used to?
2. Examine the image of Whitefield preaching. What sort of preaching is he likely engaged in? How would established and more conventional ministers have viewed his preaching? Speculate on why he was popular with the public.
3. Many of those who gravitated toward Whitefield and the other preachers of the Great Awakening were from lower social and economic classes in the colonies. How did their support for the Great Awakening reveal tensions within the colonies? Why would established colonial elites, like ministers and the upper elements of society, have feared the Great Awakening?
4. By helping to make religion more accessible to people, the Great Awakening spawned interest in a number of new denominations and helped to give those denominations a distinctly American cast. How is the influence of the Great Awakening still evident in American religious life? Be as specific as you can.
5. The preachers of the Great Awakening were especially popular among blacks and women, two groups that had been spurned by the established churches. What does their inclusion by preachers like Whitefield suggest about the preachers' views on race and gender? About their views on social questions generally?

Activity 10
Between 1756 and 1763, Great Britain, its American colonies, and their Indian allies fought the French and their Indian allies over which side would control the future of North America. The British scored an overwhelming victory, and the Treaty of Paris in 1763 gave Britain control of former French and Spanish possessions in North America and the Caribbean.

Although Britain won the war and the accompanying peace, its government soon found that administering the newly acquired lands and paying the debt incurred to win the war would be costly endeavors. Under prevailing ideology, it seemed logical to British officials that the colonists should help foot the bill. (For more on the assumptions behind British colonial thinking see the Key Topic "The Colonial System and Governing New Territories" in "The American Revolution" module.)

Within that module, go to "Contents," then "Years," then "1763" to locate sources relevant to the outcome of the French and Indian War.

Use those various sources to answer the following questions.

1. According to the Treaty of Paris of 1763, which Western Hemisphere territories were transferred to England? Which nations lost territory to England? How did these land transfers change the face of the North American map?
2. How is the Proclamation of 1763 a response to the land transfers outlined in the treaty? Why did George III deem it necessary to issue the Proclamation? What purpose did it serve back in England? Who might have urged the king to act in this manner?
3. What was the practical effect of the Currency Act of 1763? How would it have been received in the colonies? Why would it have generated the response that it did?
4. The two parliamentary acts utilize the language of parent-child with regard to the relationship between England and the colonies, a practice that was in step with contemporary practice. What does this language say about the English view of the colonists' rights and power? How might this language, and the thinking behind it, have affected the way that the colonists' responded to these measures?
5. How would the Proclamation of 1763 and the Currency Act of that year have contributed to the events that led up to the Revolutionary War? What part(s) of these documents fly in the face of traditional American principles?