Diverse Purposes of England's American Colonies Essay Example

Each of the English colonies had different purposes and things to contribute. There were thirteen original colonies, each playing a different role from the other. Some colonies had purposes that were more different than others and over time these roles changed and varied. The first colony to be founded in 1607, Virginia, was called a “child of tobacco”. Originally the London Company founded this colony to find gold, but Virginia’s prosperity was built on tobacco. Tobacco played a vital role in the colony of Virginia’s economic stability and foundation. In 1612 John Rolfe had perfected the methods of growing tobacco and the colony was well on its way, but just 7 years later in 1619 the colony had a new purpose. In 1619 a Dutch warship sold about 20 Africans and it is said that this transaction planted the seeds of the North American slave system. Maryland was founded in 1634 as the fourth colony and was known as the Catholic Haven. Maryland was the second plantation colony and was founded partly for financial profits and party for a refuge for founder Lord Baltimore’s fellow Catholics. England was Protestant and did not accept Catholics. Maryland grew tobacco crops like Virginia and the colony depended on white indentured servants for much of their labor in its early years, years later in the seventeenth century black slaves were imported in vast volumes. In 1649, after the colony of Maryland had been established for about fifteen years, Lord Baltimore passed the Act of Toleration which allowed people to be not only Catholic, but any religion they wanted. All Christians were now tolerated in the colony of Maryland as opposed to the Catholic Haven it was once known as. Carolina was the eleventh colony and was founded in 1670 after civil war erupted in England. To restart the period of colonization, the king of England granted eight of his nobles, the Lord’s Proprietors, a vast amount of land spanning across the continent to the Pacific. The founders