One of the causes involved the gentry’s political failures: “free Virginians’ efforts to influence imperial policy were contested by Native American, British merchants and enslaved Virginians. The elimination of the government as an instrument or ally of merchants, Indians, and slaves…
Kubic's Article on Manifest Destiny had a very strong structure and proofing system. Thus, Kubic builds his argument through recalling historical events and providing quotes from that time period to effectively show how the manifest destiny justified dishonorable and ignominious actions done by the united states. First the Author talks about Jefferson and his opinion on Native Americans. He describes how Jefferson thought the way he treated the Natives was with Kid glove. He includes Notes of the State of Virginia, which is a book written by Jefferson back in 1785.…
The Virginia Company was having issues with profits and the attitude of the settlers. A new Company Treasurer was selected, his name was Sir Edwin Sandys. He instated many reforms and believed manufacturing was being diluted by lack of manpower. He combatted the issue of low morale with rewarding the investors by distributing 100 acres of land to each adventure. This became known as the Virginia headright system. The system also gave 50 acres to any person who paid his or her own way and 50 acres more for each person they brought. The idea of reward for the colonist sparked motivation and exploration, this in turn created productive work. Tobacco quickly became a profitable cash crop and the colony wanted to plant it excessively. By 1617 tobacco exports from Virginia to England totaled over 20,000 pounds. And by 1620 colonist had sent back more than 50,000 pounds, by the end of the decade the amount had reached an astonishing 1.5 million pounds of tobacco sent back to England. The Company discouraged the planting of this crop because it took interest away from corn. The issue arose that there wasn’t enough food to feed the manpower. This was solved in 1619 when a Dutch man-of-war arrived carrying captive Africans. The slave labor became the colony’s foundation for economics and society. The Powhatan business had been becoming more distant but came into full view in 1622 when the Indian Massacre of 1622 took place. 347 colonist were killed which amounted to be a quarter of the English population of the Virginia…
Also, Indians gave them trouble time to time. What Captain Christopher Newport did as soon as he landed was building a fort and trying to make friends with Indians. Yet, when he came back, he found that two hundred of Powhatan’s warriors had attacked the fort. Even afterward, uneasiness with Indians continues throughout. Nonetheless, important thing to notice is that many mistakes of settlers are offspring of the poor organization and direction of the colony. The way leaders were picked didn’t help the colony, not to mention that the council members spent most of their time bickering and intriguing against one another. Later, John Smith came to rescue by putting people to work, but that changed again when the Virginia Company came to take over. Smith’s confidence in him self and his willingness to act while other talked over came most of the handicaps imposed by the feeble frame of government. It was smith who kept the colony going those years. But in doing so he dealt more decisively with the Indians than with his own quarreling countrymen, and he gave Initial turn to the colony’s Indian relations that was not quite what the company had…
After going threw those hard times the became a strong colony economically wise. The reason their economy grew was that they started to grow and trade tobacco. Before the English started to trade tobacco other European tried to sell it in Europe but were unsuccessful. The tobacco grown in Virginia had a stronger flavor and odor. When Virginian tobacco got to Europe it sold for higher price. Within a matter of time it became Virginia’s cash crop. Document B is a great…
“European grazing animals which constituted a heavier burden on New England soil.”(pg 385) More of the forest had been completely wiped out so that the Europeans can begin to create communities and villages on the land and for more grain production. Diseases traveled a lot faster and were much deadly to the Indians. “Livestock whether raised for market or for home consumption were themselves a major reason for the dispersal of colonial settlements. Ecological pressures brought on by overgrazing and inadequate forage reinforce economic incentives flowing more directly from market demand.”(pg 391) New England was becoming more Capital and finding more ways to bring in…
The English first settled in Jamestown, Virginia, a very unhealthy, swampy area. As a result, many people died and there was a very harsh winter. John Smith saved the colony by enforcing the “work to eat” rule, but chaos soon returned when he was…
In order for that to work efficiently, they assigned British with specific skill sets, as well as a significant number of elitists to set off for Virginia. Once settled in Virginia, the realization that there just weren’t enough laborers to produce the amount of product expected in order to maintain the colony. On top of that the relationship with the Native Americans was not going well, so supplies were getting scarce. Morgan explains how they had been importing indentured white servants. This helped in some aspects but it still was not enough and the colony suffered the…
During the time period between 1606 and 1700, hundreds of settlers flocked to the Virginia colony seeking riches only to find hardship, and no gold. However, after many years, and much effort, the Virginians managed to secure a solid social and economic system that would eventually make Virginia one of the most important North American colonies. One of the first hardships settlers encountered were disease, malnutrition, and starvation. When the settlers first arrived they wasted their valuable time searching for gold that was nowhere to be found, instead of getting accustomed to their new surroundings. The settlers were in such misery in an atmosphere that was foreign to them compared to ways of life they were used to in England. With the colony heading toward disaster, the colonists were luckily saved by Captain John Smith, who whipped the colonists into shape by forcing them to work or else they didn’t eat. His efforts were rewarded with his kidnapping by the Powhatan Native American tribe who desired a more peaceful than harmful relationship with the Virginians. Pocahontas, the tribe princess along with Smith who together helped the colonist survive their first couple of winters and acquire food. The colonists were beginning to need some source of money to help them with their development of Virginia. The ability to attain wealth from gold came to the realization of the settlers who knew they needed to find something else. John Rolfe soon came to the rescue when he developed methods of raising tobacco. Tobacco became in high demand in Europe and created a stable economy for Virginia. While bringing in profit for the Virginia colonist it also brought them long-lasting health problems. Regardless of its cons, tobacco advertisements contributed to the well-being of Virginia’s economy by demonstrating the value of the crop to Virginians. The large production fluctuated prices for a single crop causing planters to…
The search for land is primarily what led conflict of the upper and lower classes and ultimately the rebellion. As life expectancy rose and people came pouring into Virginia the availability of good land dropped dramatically. The aristocracy seeing an opportunity to make a profit bought up most of best land creating "artificial scarcity". Only a few lucky freed men could find small plots of land. Without land of there own, colonists could not hope to achieve financial…
The purpose of this article was to analyze the origins of the Yamasee War and to depict the reasoning for its occurrence by comparing various writers work. The researcher often mentions how little the war is recognized as one of the most important events in colonial history. In early 1712, Reverend LeJau made a remark that he felt “discomforted by “something cloudy in their looks”. This look apparently had a meaning stronger than it appeared. The Warriors from every tribe/ nation from the South had formed an alliance and were one of the strongest native coalitions to ever go against the British in North America. This strong force came extremely close to wiping out the European colonists. The war had created much controversy throughout South Carolina and was one of the strongest life threatening wars to the population. The dependence upon Native Americans became apparent with South Carolina’s “experimentation with Indian slavery”. The war caused an execution to “Indian slavery” and prompted African labor from 1715. The original efforts to discover the cause of the war focused mainly on the behavior of the English traders. “John R. Swanston, writing in the same decade, also felt that the “misconduct of some traders” had been the “immediate cause” of the war but went on to add that fears of enslavement may have prompted the Yamasees to action as well” This opinion has created an idea that this was the main cause of the war, but other writers and historians seem to feel otherwise. James Merrell, for example created a more logical discussion about the geography of South Carolina at the time as well as the misperceptions between the Yamasees and Europeans. Present studies bring forth the idea of the dependency theory. This idea changes the outlook of one of the possible causes of the war and can vouch for reasons why certain events occurred throughout the war. Some believe that dependency upon the Native Americans could have ignited the war. The cultural aspects of the…
These problems caused the death of hundreds of settlers in Jamestown. Without the resources they needed, the colonists would starve to death and become desperate for food and freshwater. They also struggled with unsanitary conditions due to the brackish water they lived off of the festering wastes they dumped into the James River. This may have caused the spread of deadly diseases. There was also the fact that the Natives would ambush and kill the settlers because of their evasive taking of the native’s land and their violent dealings when trading with them along with many other offenses against the opposing sides causing disputes. These factors into the many deaths of the early Jamestown settlers are significant even today because the knowledge of the past is important in understanding how we got here and what tribulations and “necessary” evils had to be taken for the settlement of Jamestown leading to the eventual settlement of the Americas which led to the creation of the United States of America, which we all call home now. The settlers went through so much and almost didn’t survive their endeavor in order to create Jamestown. They came anyways, despite the extreme risks of starvation, dehydration, native ambushes, and disease. Many of them didn’t survive. It can help us understand how the badly the settlers wanted a change. They wanted the freedom to make their own way, which translated into a lot of today’s beliefs. Scores of colonists depart this life before they even made it to the “New world” and many died while going through the extreme task of colonizing a strange new land filled with strange things and limitless possibilities. It can make us understand how much work went into the creation of the world, as we know it…
The Native American tribes in the Western frontier played a major role in the Virginia revolutionary movement. The elite Virginian gentry?s desire for Western Native American lands rapidly grew in the mid-eighteenth century. The wealthy Virginians made many attempts to attain these lands and the Native Americans resisted hard to defend what their land. Furthermore, the British government was more accommodating to the Natives than the Virginians wished. Parliament was careful not to incense native tribes for fear of a costly war or rebellion. A British official exclaimed that Indian rebellions (specifically Pontiac?s Rebellion) were ?expensive and destructive to his Majesty?s Subjects.? For example, in October 1768, the British imposed the Treaty of Hard Labor, which resulted in the Cherokee Indians retaining land that Virginian Thomas Jefferson had claimed. Two more major British treaties enraged the Virginia land speculators. The treaty of Easton in 1758 decreed all lands west of the Appalachian Mountains to the Indians. This treaty caused problems for many speculators and farming companies. However, the major calamity to the Virginian gentry was the Proclamation of 1763. Although the proclamation did little to stop settlers from…
In 1676 in Virginia, governor William Berkeley was under a lot of pressure, the colonist believed that Berkeley was protecting the Natives. Berkeley feared the poor colonist would go against him; he increased taxes, revoked their right to vote which made it impossible for anyone to be included into Berkeley’s inner circle. This was only the beginning of what is soon to be a disaster.…
An article in the October 20th 1787 issue of the newspaper The Massachusetts Sentinel makes several points highlighting the many difficulties the people of America were experiencing. The newspaper explains how the people of…