ENGLISH SETTLMENTS

The first successful English colony in the Americas was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. The settlement was financed by a London company which expected to make a profit from the settlement. It never did. Of the first 105 colonists, 73 died of hunger and disease within seven months of their arrival. But the colony survived and eventually grew and became wealthy. The Virginians discovered a way to earn money by growing tobacco, which they began shipping to England in 1614.

In New England, the northeastern region of what is now the United States, several settlements were established by English Puritans. These settlers believed that the Church of England had adopted too many practices from Roman Catholicism, and they came to America to escape persecution in England and to found a colony based on their own religious ideals. One group of Puritans, called the "Pilgrims," crossed the Atlantic in the ship Mayflower and settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. A much larger Puritan colony was established in the Boston area in 1630. By 1635, some settlers were already migrating to nearby Connecticut.

One Puritan who disagreed with the decisions of the community, Roger Williams, protested that the state should not interfere with religion. Forced to leave Massachusetts in 1635, he set up the neighboring Rhode Island colony that guaranteed religious freedom and the separation of church and state. The colonies of Maryland, settled in 1634 as a refuge for Roman Catholics, and Pennsylvania, founded in 1681 by the Quaker leader William Penn, were also characterized by religious toleration. This toleration, in its turn, attracted further groups of settlers to the New World.

Over time, the British colonies in North America were also occupied by many non-British national groups. German farmers settled in Pennsylvania, Swedes founded the colony of Delaware, and African slaves first arrived in Virginia in 1619. In 1626, Dutch settlers purchased Manhattan Island from local Native American, or "Indian" chiefs and built the town of New Amsterdam; in 1664, the settlement was captured by the English and renamed New York.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 915