Life in Chesapeake & North Carolina Colonies (College Board AP® US History)

Timeline

1608 John Smith becomes leader of Jamestown

1614 Pocahontas married John Rolfe

1619 House of Burgesses founded

1634 The second Lord Baltimore founds Maryland 

1649 Maryland Toleration Act

1676 Bacon’s Rebellion

Life in the Chesapeake Colonies

Virginia (Jamestown) 

• John Rolfe was the first colonist to plant tobacco successfully in Virginia

  • This introduced a crop which was crucial to the colony’s economy

• He used seeds from the West Indies

  • They were not as bitter as local tobacco

• Pocahontas was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, leader of the Powhatan Confederacy

• She claimed to have saved the life of John Smith during a conflict between settlers and her father, but some experts dispute this account of events

  • John Smith was the leader of the Virginia Colony between September 1608 and August 1609

  • Some believe what happened to Smith was a ceremony, not an attempted execution

  • Some suggest Smith invented or exaggerated the story 

• Pocahontas married John Rolfe in 1614

  • The marriage brought a time of peace between the Powhaten Confederacy and the English settlers until Chief Powhatan died in 1618 

• Pocahontas travelled to England with Rolfe and their son

  • Here she attended royal events that encouraged investors to support the colony

  • She became ill and died in 1617, and was buried in Gravesend in Kent, England

Maryland

• The second Lord Baltimore received a royal charter for the colony of Maryland in 1632

  • The first colonists arrived in Maryland in 1634

• The motives for creating the colony were:

  • economic: to make money for its proprietors

  • religious: designed to create a refuge for Catholics and other persecuted Christians in England allowing them to worship freely 

• The Maryland Toleration Act was passed in 1649 

• The Act permitted colonists to practice any form of Christianity in the colony and observe the Sabbath

  • It was voided from 1654 to 1661 and again from 1692 to 1783

• This was significant as it was the first piece of legislation in the colonies that promoted religious freedom for Christians

• The Maryland Toleration Act created the following rules:

  • It was illegal to say or write negative comments about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, or another person’s religion 

  • Punishment for  people by death for serious offenses, such as denying Jesus’ divinity

  • Lesser offenses, such as disrespecting the Sabbath, resulted in fines

• It was the first legislative act in the colonies and promoted religious tolerance

House of Burgesses & Bacon’s Rebellion

House of Burgesses

• The House of Burgesses was established in Virginia in 1619 

• It was the first legislative body elected in colonial America

• It was created as an elected representative assembly of male property owners 

• Key responsibilities included:

  • passing local laws for the colony

  • regulating local affairs and issues affecting the community

  • interacting with the governor and council that the Virginia Company appointed

• The House of Burgesses was made up of many plantation owners who created laws that benefited them

• One reason for Bacon’s Rebellion was that the members of the House of Burgesses did not support the needs of non-plantation owners

Bacon’s Rebellion 

• Bacon’s Rebellion was a conflict in 1676 between supporters of Virginia governor Sir William Berkeley and frontier settlers on the Virginia frontier

• The rebellion wasled by a former member of the governor’s Council, Nathaniel Bacon

• Causes of Bacon’s Rebellion included:

  • declining tobacco prices

  • increased competition from other colonies

  • rising prices for English-manufactured goods

  • problems with the weather affected crop growth

  • the House of Burgesses passed laws that ignored the needs of farmers

  • frontier settlers faced raids and attacks from Indigenous people

• These causes led to:

  • economic hardship in Virginia

  • accusation of corruption towards the House of Burgesses

• Events of Bacon’s Rebellion:

  • Tensions arose between plantation owners and frontier settlers

  • Settlers thought the governor supported Indigenous groups too much and asked for more protection from raids on the frontier

  • Nathaniel Bacon led attacks against Indigenous groups without the governor’s permission

  • Bacon died from dysentery in October 1676 

  • British troops helped the governor end the rebellion a few months later

Indentured Servants, Headright System, & Cash Crops

Indentured Servants

• Indentured servants were a source of labor in Virginia

  • Men, women, and children worked as indentured servants 

• The younger the servant, the longer the term of service

  • Adults often served 4 to 7 years

  • Children usually served for much longer periods

• Servants had both positive and negative experiences during their contracts

  • positives: received transportation to Virginia, food, clothing, and a place to live

  • negatives: exposure to disease, cruel masters, long terms of service, limited legal rights

• The number of indentured servants decreased by the end of the 17^th century, as the number of Indigenous Peoples decreased

• The colonists increasingly used captured Africans as enslaved labor

Headright System

• The headright system was a settlement plan which referred to a grant of land offered to settlers who would come and work that land

  • It encouraged migration to Virginia

• The system allowed an individual to pay for the passage of another person to come to the colony and work a piece of land

• Individuals received a specific amount of land for each person or “head.” Most “heads” were indentured servants or enslaved people

• Individuals earned the “right” to land because they paid to bring people to Virginia 

• Plantation owners paid to bring entire families to the colonies in exchange for large amounts of land

• This enabled plantation owners:

  •  to enlarge their plantations

  • increase their wealth

• The system contributed to the growing size of their colonies

Cash Crops

• Cash crops were grown primarily to sell, not for a planter to consume or use themselves

• Crops which were in high demand in Europe could be grown and exported for large amounts of money 

• Major cash crops included: 

  • Tobacco

  • Sugar

  • Cotton

  • Indigo

• Cash crops were tended on plantations

• They required considerable labor (often enslaved people) to plant and harvest