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Colonial America: New World Settlements | HISTORY

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Colonial America was settled by Spanish, Dutch, French and English immigrants in colonies such as St. Augustine, Jamestown and Roanoke.

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Many cultures practiced some version of the institution of slavery in the ancient and modern world, most commonly involving enemy captives or prisoners of war. Slavery and forced labor began in colonial America almost as soon as the English arrived and established a permanent settlement at Jamestown in 1607. Colonist George Percy wrote that the English held an "Indian guide" named Kempes in "hande locke" during the First Anglo-Powhatan War in 1610. English colonists exploited Virginia Indians-especially Indian children-for much of the first half of the 17 th century. Some colonists largely ignored Virginia laws prohibiting the enslavement of Indian children, which the Virginia Assembly passed in the 1650s and again in 1670.

While colonists continued to enslave Virginia Indians, the first unfree Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619. In that year, colonist John Rolfe wrote to Sir Edwin Sandys, one of the founders of the Virginia Company and its then-treasurer, of the arrival of the first Africans on Virginia's shores. According to Rolfe, in late August a 160-ton man-of-war, the White Lion, brought "20 and odd Negroes" to Point Comfort (present-day Hampton, Virginia). Governor George Yeardley and merchant Abraham Piersey purchased them in exchange for victuals and supplies. Days later in September, two or three more Africans disembarked from the ship Treasurer. These Africans were likely from the Angolan kingdom of Ndongo, captured by Angolan warriors allied with the Portuguese.

The 1620 census of Virginia records 32 Africans living in Virginia, 17 women and 15 men, listed as "in service of the English" and "in ye service of several[sic] planters." This census also lists four Indians laboring in the service of English planters. A 1624 muster of the inhabitants of Virginia lists some of the Africans by name, including a woman named Angelo, listed as having arrived on the Treasurer. The legal status of these first Africans in Virginia is unclear-whether the English settlers in Virginia intended to enslave the Africans for life, or whether they served for a period of years before gaining their freedom (a system of indentured servitude) is unknown, though some of these early Africans did later become free. For example, Anthony Johnson (whom the 1625 census lists as "Antonio the Negro") gained his freedom and by 1640 lived in a community of other free Africans and African Americans in Northampton County, Virginia. Anthony himself may have even enslaved an African man named John Casar.

As Europeans continued to settle the North American colonies throughout the 17 th century, the legal codification of race-based slavery also continued to grow. Though many historians agree that slavery and indentured servitude coexisted in the early part of the century (with many Europeans arriving in the colonies under indentures), especially throughout the 1640s-1660s colonies increasingly established laws limiting the rights of Africans and African-Americans and solidifying the institution of slavery upon the basis of race and heredity. In Virginia in 1641, officials sentenced "a negro named John Punch" to serve his master "for the time of his natural life," after Punch attempted to run away with two European indentured servants. Officials sentenced the two Europeans with four-year extensions on their servitude, while Punch's punishment was life-long servitude. Many historians look to the case of John Punch as the first instance of legally codified, life-long, and race-based slavery. In New England, colonists continued the practice of enslaving indigenous Indians, particularly those captured during warfare, while also legally justifying the enslavement of African and African Americans. Massachusetts is widely regarded as passing the first law to legalize slavery in 1641, sanctioning slavery for "captives taken in just warres...and strangers as willingly selle[sic] themselves or are sold to us."

The " triangle trade " largely defines the economics of slavery in the colonial era. In this cyclical system, slave traders imported enslaved Africans to North American colonies. Colonists in turn exported raw goods like lumber, tobacco, and sugar to Great Britain, where those materials were transformed into the finished, luxury goods like rum and textiles that merchants sold or traded along the African coast for enslaved Africans to be sent to North American colonies. Slave traders violently captured Africans and loaded them onto slave ships, where for months these individuals endured the "Middle Passage"-the crossing of the Atlantic from Africa to the North American colonies or West Indies. Many Africans did not survive the journey.

The 1660s was a watershed decade for slavery in colonial America. It is important to remember that during the colonial period, each colony enacted and enforced laws regarding slavery individually. Virginia's 1662 law establishing that children born to an enslaved mother would also be enslaved further codified race-based and hereditary enslavement in that colony. Maryland legalized slavery in 1663; New York and New Jersey followed in 1664. In addition, that year Maryland, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia passed laws legalizing life-long servitude. Colonies also adopted laws prohibiting non-whites from owning firearms, and established laws that negated a person's conversion to Christianity from affecting their status as a slave.

It is in this context of the evolution of slavery in colonial America that in 1688 Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania presented the first petition against the institution of slavery. The petition argued that slavery violated basic human rights-based upon the Biblical Golden Rule, "do unto others as you would have done unto you." The petition was neither adopted nor rejected, and largely forgotten until the 19 th century.

Many factors contributed to the growth of slavery and the slave trade from the end of the 17 th-century through the 18 th century. The history and growth of slavery in colonial America was tied to the rise of land cultivation, and particularly the boom in the production of tobacco (in Virginia and Maryland) and rice (in the Carolinas). The Royal African Company's expansion in 1672 resulted in a growing surge of the transport of Africans to the colonies. When the RAC lost its monopoly in 1696, trade in captive Africans and their transport to the colonies increased further. As the numbers of enslaved Africans rose in the colonies, the practice of enslaving indigenous Indians decreased, and colonial officials further restricted the rights and movements of enslaved Africans and African Americans, including making it harder-even illegal-for slaves to be emancipated. In the first decades of the 18 th century, some colonies began prohibiting the importation of enslaved Africans, though the internal slave trade-the buying and selling of enslaved people already in the colonies-increased.

Enslaved people were regarded and treated as property with little to no rights. In many colonies, enslaved people could not testify in a court of law, own guns, gather in large groups, or go out at night. Especially on southern farms, enslaved people were expected to work from sun up to sundown, though they may have been given Sundays off to tend to their own small gardens, repair allotted clothing, or tend to other needs that might supplement their meager allotments of clothing and food. As property, slaves were frequently bought and sold, and sometimes family groups were divided across plantations or even colonies, though some slave owners sought to keep families together as a safeguard against slaves running away. Slaves of small households often lived in the kitchen or a small outbuilding, while slaves on larger plantations often lived together in a quarter or a group of quarters with an overseer. Religion, storytelling, music, and dancing were important parts of an enslaved person's life, and could help share and preserve African cultural traditions across generations. Increasingly in the 18 th century, slaves responded to the Great Awakening and began converting to Christianity, worshiping both alone and together with whites in Baptist and Methodist congregations.

An enslaved person's experience of slavery was as unique as the individual themselves. Slavery differed greatly from the 17 th to 18 th centuries, in part because of the various slave laws enacted by colonial authorities as time progressed. Further, the geographic location could help to define an enslaved person's experience of slavery. In the south, many enslaved individuals found themselves working primarily in agricultural labor, such as in tobacco fields, while others (including women and children) worked as grooms, maids, cooks, or other domestic servants to wealthy plantation owners. In the north, as well as in urban city centers in the south, enslaved individuals may have been skilled tradesmen, worked on the eastern seaboard's many wharves and ports, or worked on the smaller farms of middling landowners.

In the northern colonies, slave-owning households may have only owned two or three slaves, while the enslaved population accounted for less than 5% of the total population of New England (though in larger cities like Newport, Rhode Island, slaves accounted for closer to 20% of the population of the city). In the mid-Atlantic colonies like Virginia, enslaved people made up closer to 50% of the population by the mid-18 th century. This number increased to roughly 60% in colonies like South Carolina, where much of the enslaved population lived and worked on vast plantations together with 50, 100, or more slaves.

As slavery expanded and the numbers of enslaved men, women, and children increased in the colonies, so too did anxieties about possible slave rebellions, uprisings, and insurrections. On September 9, 1739, a group of 20 enslaved men led by an enslaved African named Jemmy marched to a warehouse on the Stono River in South Carolina, where they stole arms and ammunition and killed the men they found there. The party grew in number, and with drums beating, the party continued south towards Florida, where they hoped to find their freedom there under Spanish rule. The party killed more than 20 white men, women, and children along their march before the militia intervened. Some of the slaves were killed during the fight while others were hanged or sold to slave markets in the West Indies (a routine yet harsh punishment for enslaved men, women, and children in the colonies). In New York in 1741, a series of suspicious fires fanned the flames of unrest between the colony's white, Black, free, and unfree populations. Anxious whites concluded, with little evidence, that enslaved men acted in concert to set fires in the city in a conspiratorial act of rebellion. Thirty enslaved men were executed, while 70 more were sent out of New York.

Even without large-scale rebellion, some enslaved men, women, and children found ways to passively resist in their daily lives by breaking tools or pretending to be sick so that they could not work. Others stole food, goods, or clothing from their owners. Some attempted to run away. Eighteenth-century newspapers often include owners' runaway advertisements, spreading the news of runaway slaves and sharing their physical descriptions along with a reward for whomever captured and returned the slave to the owner. A slave returning from a runaway attempt was met with harsh punishment.

By 1775, enslaved people accounted for 20% of the population of the colonies, with over half living in the south. On the eve of the Revolution, aided by the patriot rhetoric of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, enslaved and free African Americans worked to further the growing abolition movement and petitioned governments for gradual manumission and cessation of slavery. Further, enticed by promises of freedom in exchange for their service, enslaved African Americans took advantage of opportunities to serve the British army. Thousands of formerly enslaved men, women, and children left the new United States with the British in 1783, looking towards new lives of freedom in Nova Scotia and other British colonies. Enslaved men also served in patriot forces, sometimes by choice, but sometimes as substitutes for their owners who preferred not to fight. Some received payments and freedom for their service, while others did not.

The American Revolution offered many enslaved African Americans opportunities to pursue freedom that did not exist previously. The Revolution also influenced public opinion of slavery-in 1780 Pennsylvania became the first major slave-holding state to begin the process of ending slavery. Though some other new states followed suit, the Revolution failed to end the institution of slavery in America. Instead, the economy's reliance on slavery proved to be a defining element in the creation of the new United States government.

Further Reading:

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Many cultures practiced some version of the institution of slavery in the ancient and modern world, most commonly involving enemy captives or prisoners of war. Slavery and forced labor began in colonial America almost as soon as the English arrived and established a permanent settlement at Jamestown in 1607.

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NPS Ethnography: African American Heritage & Ethnography

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All of the colonies developed laws to establish and maintain dominance over African members of society. This held true for Africans who came to the New World as free agents, servants or as slaves. The bodies of law that evolved, known variously as “Slave Codes,” “Black Codes,” a…

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Although lacking a charter, the founders of Plymouth in Massachusetts were, like their counterparts in Virginia, dependent upon private investments from profit-minded backers to finance their colony. The nucleus of that settlement was drawn from an enclave of English émigrés in Leiden, Holland (now in The Netherlands). These religious Separatists believed that the true church was a voluntary company of the faithful under the "guidance" of a pastor and tended to be exceedingly individualistic in matters of church doctrine. Unlike the settlers of Massachusetts Bay, these Pilgrims chose to "separate" from the Church of England rather than to reform it from within.

In 1620, the first year of settlement, nearly half the Pilgrim settlers died of disease. From that time forward, however, and despite decreasing support from English investors, the health and the economic position of the colonists improved. The Pilgrims soon secured peace treaties with most of the Indians around them, enabling them to devote their time to building a strong, stable economic base rather than diverting their efforts toward costly and time-consuming problems of defending the colony from attack. Although none of their principal economic pursuits-farming, fishing, and trading-promised them lavish wealth, the Pilgrims in America were, after only five years, self-sufficient.

Although the Pilgrims were always a minority in Plymouth, they nevertheless controlled the entire governmental structure of their colony during the first four decades of settlement. Before disembarking from the in 1620, the Pilgrim founders, led by William Bradford, demanded that all the adult males aboard who were able to do so sign a compact promising obedience to the laws and ordinances drafted by the leaders of the enterprise. Although the Mayflower Compact has been interpreted as an important step in the evolution of democratic government in America, it is a fact that the compact represented a one-sided arrangement, with the settlers promising obedience and the Pilgrim founders promising very little. Although nearly all the male inhabitants were permitted to vote for deputies to a provincial assembly and for a governor, the colony, for at least the first 40 years of its existence, remained in the tight control of a few men. After 1660 the people of Plymouth gradually gained a greater voice in both their church and civic affairs, and by 1691, when Plymouth colony (also known as the Old Colony) was annexed to Massachusetts Bay, the Plymouth settlers had distinguished themselves by their quiet, orderly ways.

The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, like the Pilgrims, sailed to America principally to free themselves from religious restraints. Unlike the Pilgrims, the Puritans did not desire to "separate" themselves from the Church of England but, rather, hoped by their example to reform it. Nonetheless, one of the recurring problems facing the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was to be the tendency of some, in their desire to free themselves from the alleged corruption of the Church of England, to espouse Separatist doctrine. When these tendencies or any other hinting at deviation from orthodox Puritan doctrine developed, those holding them were either quickly corrected or expelled from the colony. The leaders of the Massachusetts Bay enterprise never intended their colony to be an outpost of toleration in the New World; rather, they intended it to be a "Zion in the wilderness," a model of purity and orthodoxy, with all backsliders subject to immediate correction.

The civil government of the colony was guided by a similar authoritarian spirit. Men such as John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay, believed that it was the duty of the governors of society not to act as the direct representatives of their constituents but rather to decide, independently, what measures were in the best interests of the total society. The original charter of 1629 gave all power in the colony to a General Court composed of only a small number of shareholders in the company. On arriving in Massachusetts, many disfranchised settlers immediately protested against this provision and caused the franchise to be widened to include all church members. These "freemen" were given the right to vote in the General Court once each year for a governor and a Council of Assistants. Although the charter of 1629 technically gave the General Court the power to decide on all matters affecting the colony, the members of the ruling elite initially refused to allow the freemen in the General Court to take part in the lawmaking process on the grounds that their numbers would render the court inefficient.

In 1634 the General Court adopted a new plan of representation whereby the freemen of each town would be permitted to select two or three delegates and assistants, elected separately but sitting together in the General Court, who would be responsible for all legislation. There was always tension existing between the smaller, more prestigious group of assistants and the larger group of deputies. In 1644, as a result of this continuing tension, the two groups were officially lodged in separate houses of the General Court, with each house reserving a veto power over the other.

Despite the authoritarian tendencies of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a spirit of community developed there as perhaps in no other colony. The same spirit that caused the residents of Massachusetts to report on their neighbours for deviation from the true principles of Puritan morality also prompted them to be extraordinarily solicitous about their neighbours' needs. Although life in Massachusetts was made difficult for those who dissented from the prevailing orthodoxy, it was marked by a feeling of attachment and community for those who lived within the enforced consensus of the society.

Many New Englanders, however, refused to live within the orthodoxy imposed by the ruling elite of Massachusetts, and both Connecticut and Rhode Island were founded as a by-product of their discontent. The Rev. Thomas Hooker, who had arrived in Massachusetts Bay in 1633, soon found himself in opposition to the colony's restrictive policy regarding the admission of church members and to the oligarchic power of the leaders of the colony. Motivated both by a distaste for the religious and political structure of Massachusetts and by a desire to open up new land, Hooker and his followers began moving into the Connecticut valley in 1635. By 1636 they had succeeded in founding three towns- Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersford. In 1638 the separate colony of New Haven was founded, and in 1662 Connecticut and Rhode Island merged under one charter.

Roger Williams, the man closely associated with the founding of Rhode Island, was banished from Massachusetts because of his unwillingness to conform to the orthodoxy established in that colony. Williams's views conflicted with those of the ruling hierarchy of Massachusetts in several important ways. His own strict criteria for determining who was regenerate, and therefore eligible for church membership, finally led him to deny any practical way to admit anyone into the church. Once he recognized that no church could ensure the purity of its congregation, he ceased using purity as a criterion and instead opened church membership to nearly everyone in the community. Moreover, Williams showed distinctly Separatist leanings, preaching that the Puritan church could not possibly achieve purity as long as it remained within the Church of England. Finally, and perhaps most serious, he openly disputed the right of the Massachusetts leaders to occupy land without first purchasing it from the Native Americans.

The unpopularity of Williams's views forced him to flee Massachusetts Bay for Providence in 1636. In 1639 William Coddington, another dissenter in Massachusetts, settled his congregation in Newport. Four years later Samuel Gorton, yet another minister banished from Massachusetts Bay because of his differences with the ruling oligarchy, settled in Shawomet (later renamed Warwick). In 1644 these three communities joined with a fourth in Portsmouth under one charter to become one colony called Providence Plantation in Narragansett Bay.

The early settlers of New Hampshire and Maine were also ruled by the government of Massachusetts Bay. New Hampshire was permanently separated from Massachusetts in 1692, although it was not until 1741 that it was given its own royal governor. Maine remained under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts until 1820.

The middle colonies

New Netherland, founded in 1624 at Fort Orange (now Albany) by the Dutch West India Company, was but one element in a wider program of Dutch expansion in the first half of the 17th century. In 1664 the English captured the colony of New Netherland, renaming it New York after James, duke of York, brother of Charles II, and placing it under the proprietary control of the duke. In return for an annual gift to the king of 40 beaver skins, the duke of York and his resident board of governors were given extraordinary discretion in the ruling of the colony. Although the grant to the duke of York made mention of a representative assembly, the duke was not legally obliged to summon it and in fact did not summon it until 1683. The duke's interest in the colony was chiefly economic, not political, but most of his efforts to derive economic gain from New York proved futile. Indians, foreign interlopers (the Dutch actually recaptured New York in 1673 and held it for more than a year), and the success of the colonists in evading taxes made the proprietor's job a frustrating one.

In February 1685 the duke of York found himself not only proprietor of New York but also king of England, a fact that changed the status of New York from that of a proprietary to a royal colony. The process of royal consolidation was accelerated when in 1688 the colony, along with the New England and New Jersey colonies, was made part of the ill-fated Dominion of New England. In 1691 Jacob Leisler, a German merchant living on Long Island, led a successful revolt against the rule of the deputy governor, Francis Nicholson. The revolt, which was a product of dissatisfaction with a small aristocratic ruling elite and a more general dislike of the consolidated scheme of government of the Dominion of New England, served to hasten the demise of the dominion.

Pennsylvania, in part because of the liberal policies of its founder, William Penn, was destined to become the most diverse, dynamic, and prosperous of all the North American colonies. Penn himself was a liberal, but by no means radical, English Whig. His Quaker ( Society of Friends) faith was marked not by the religious extremism of some Quaker leaders of the day but rather by an adherence to certain dominant tenets of the faith-liberty of conscience and pacifism-and by an attachment to some of the basic tenets of Whig doctrine. Penn sought to implement these ideals in his "holy experiment" in the New World.

Penn received his grant of land along the Delaware River in 1681 from Charles II as a reward for his father's service to the crown. The first "frame of government" proposed by Penn in 1682 provided for a council and an assembly, each to be elected by the freeholders of the colony. The council was to have the sole power of initiating legislation; the lower house could only approve or veto bills submitted by the council. After numerous objections about the "oligarchic" nature of this form of government, Penn issued a second frame of government in 1682 and then a third in 1696, but even these did not wholly satisfy the residents of the colony. Finally, in 1701, a Charter of Privileges, giving the lower house all legislative power and transforming the council into an appointive body with advisory functions only, was approved by the citizens. The Charter of Privileges, like the other three frames of government, continued to guarantee the principle of religious toleration to all Protestants.

Pennsylvania prospered from the outset. Although there was some jealousy between the original settlers (who had received the best land and important commercial privileges) and the later arrivals, economic opportunity in Pennsylvania was on the whole greater than in any other colony. Beginning in 1683 with the immigration of Germans into the Delaware valley and continuing with an enormous influx of Irish and Scotch-Irish in the 1720s and '30s, the population of Pennsylvania increased and diversified. The fertile soil of the countryside, in conjunction with a generous government land policy, kept immigration at high levels throughout the 18th century. Ultimately, however, the continuing influx of European settlers hungry for land spelled doom for the pacific Indian policy initially envisioned by Penn. "Economic opportunity" for European settlers often depended on the dislocation, and frequent extermination, of the American Indian residents who had initially occupied the land in Penn's colony.

New Jersey remained in the shadow of both New York and Pennsylvania throughout most of the colonial period. Part of the territory ceded to the duke of York by the English crown in 1664 lay in what would later become the colony of New Jersey. The duke of York in turn granted that portion of his lands to John Berkeley and George Carteret, two close friends and allies of the king. In 1665 Berkeley and Carteret established a proprietary government under their own direction. Constant clashes, however, developed between the New Jersey and the New York proprietors over the precise nature of the New Jersey grant. The legal status of New Jersey became even more tangled when Berkeley sold his half interest in the colony to two Quakers, who in turn placed the management of the colony in the hands of three trustees, one of whom was Penn. The area was then divided into East Jersey, controlled by Carteret, and West Jersey, controlled by Penn and the other Quaker trustees. In 1682 the Quakers bought East Jersey. A multiplicity of owners and an uncertainty of administration caused both colonists and colonizers to feel dissatisfied with the proprietary arrangement, and in 1702 the crown united the two Jerseys into a single royal province.

When the Quakers purchased East Jersey, they also acquired the tract of land that was to become Delaware, in order to protect their water route to Pennsylvania. That territory remained part of the Pennsylvania colony until 1704, when it was given an assembly of its own. It remained under the Pennsylvania governor, however, until the American Revolution.

The Carolinas and Georgia

The English crown had issued grants to the Carolina territory as early as 1629, but it was not until 1663 that a group of eight proprietors-most of them men of extraordinary wealth and power even by English standards-actually began colonizing the area. The proprietors hoped to grow silk in the warm climate of the Carolinas, but all efforts to produce that valuable commodity failed. Moreover, it proved difficult to attract settlers to the Carolinas; it was not until 1718, after a series of violent Indian wars had subsided, that the population began to increase substantially. The pattern of settlement, once begun, followed two paths. North Carolina, which was largely cut off from the European and Caribbean trade by its unpromising coastline, developed into a colony of small to medium farms. South Carolina, with close ties to both the Caribbean and Europe, produced rice and, after 1742, indigo for a world market. The early settlers in both areas came primarily from the West Indian colonies. This pattern of migration was not, however, as distinctive in North Carolina, where many of the residents were part of the spillover from the natural expansion of Virginians southward.

The original framework of government for the Carolinas, the Fundamental Constitutions, drafted in 1669 by Anthony Ashley Cooper (Lord Shaftesbury) with the help of the philosopher John Locke, was largely ineffective because of its restrictive and feudal nature. The Fundamental Constitutions was abandoned in 1693 and replaced by a frame of government diminishing the powers of the proprietors and increasing the prerogatives of the provincial assembly. In 1729, primarily because of the proprietors' inability to meet the pressing problems of defense, the Carolinas were converted into the two separate royal colonies of North and South Carolina.

The proprietors of Georgia, led by James Oglethorpe, were wealthy philanthropic English gentlemen. It was Oglethorpe's plan to transport imprisoned debtors to Georgia, where they could rehabilitate themselves by profitable labour and make money for the proprietors in the process. Those who actually settled in Georgia-and by no means all of them were impoverished debtors-encountered a highly restrictive economic and social system. Oglethorpe and his partners limited the size of individual landholdings to 500 acres (about 200 hectares), prohibited slavery, forbade the drinking of rum, and instituted a system of inheritance that further restricted the accumulation of large estates. The regulations, though noble in intention, created considerable tension between some of the more enterprising settlers and the proprietors. Moreover, the economy did not live up to the expectations of the colony's promoters. The silk industry in Georgia, like that in the Carolinas, failed to produce even one profitable crop.

The settlers were also dissatisfied with the political structure of the colony; the proprietors, concerned primarily with keeping close control over their utopian experiment, failed to provide for local institutions of self-government. As protests against the proprietors' policies mounted, the crown in 1752 assumed control over the colony; subsequently, many of the restrictions that the settlers had complained about, notably those discouraging the institution of slavery, were lifted.

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United States - The New England colonies

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Although lacking a charter, the founders of Plymouth in Massachusetts were, like their counterparts in Virginia, dependent upon private investments from profit-minded backers to finance their colony. The nucleus of that settlement was drawn from an enclave of English émigrés in Leiden, Holland (now in The Netherlands).

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The Middle colonies | Period 2: 1607-1754 | AP US History | Khan Academy

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Why you should know the name John Peter Zenger

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The Old Plantation, c. 1790. Credit: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum, Colonial Williamsburg.

The economy of the southern colonies dictated many of the differences in lifestyles that resulted in the region. Good, cleared land and a mild climate meant that the people living in the southern colonies grew staple and exotic crops for the cash market. Tobacco became the first staple crop grown large-scale, and soon became the economic foundation of Virginia and North Carolina.

Settlers in these colonies planted as much tobacco as possible, sometimes planting right up to the streets of their towns. Colonists in South Carolina tried growing tobacco, but the crop was not suited to the land. Instead, South Carolinians found that rice grew well in the soggy bottoms and indigo flourished, which could be sold to the British woolen industry to dye products blue. The southern colonies also produced lumber, tar, pitch, turpentine, furs, and cattle in abundance. The southern colonies included:

Colonial woman

Cash market crops require large amounts of land and a large work force. It was easy to get land-there was so much land in the Americas that at first it seemed almost free for the taking-but labor was scarce.

Elizabeth Springs indentured herself in exchange for a passage to the Americas. She served in a Maryland household and wrote home to her father, complaining of the terrible treatment, begging her family to send her a blanket.

Maryland, Sept'r 22'd 1756

Honored Father

My being for ever banished from your sight, will I hope pardon the Boldness I now take of troubling you with these, my long silence has been purely owning to my undutifullness to you, and well knowing I had offended in the highest Degree, put a tie to my tongue and pen, for fear I should be extinct from your good Graces and add a further Trouble to you, but too well knowing your care and tenderness for me so long as I retain'd my Duty to you, induced me once again to endeavor if possible, to kindle up that flame again. O Dear Father, believe what I am going to relate the words of truth and sincerity, and Balance my former bad Conduct my sufferings here, and then I am sure you'll pity your Destress Daughter, What we unfortunate English People suffer here is beyond the probability of you in England to Conceive, let it suffice that I one of the unhappy Number, am toiling almost Day and Night, and very often in the Horses drudgery, with only this comfort that you Bitch you do not halfe enough, and then tied up and whipp'd to that Degree that you'd not serve an Animal, scarce any thing but Indian Corn and Salt to eat and that even begrudged nay many Negroes are better used, almost naked no shoes nor stockings to wear, and the comfort after slaving during Masters pleasure, what rest we can get is to rap ourselves up in a Blanket and ly upon the Ground, this is the deplorable Condition your poor Betty endures, and now I beg if you have any Bowels of Compassion left show it by sending me some Relief, Clothing is the principal thing wanting, which if you should condiscend to, may easily send them to me by any of the ships bound to Baltimore Town Patapsco River Maryland, and give me leave to conclude in Duty to you and Uncles and Aunts, and Respect to all Friends

Honored Father

Your undutifull and Disobedient Child

Elizabeth Sprigs

Indentured Servants

Indentured servants performed much of the labor during the early years of colonization and were mainly of English, Irish, or German heritage. These servants got their name from the indenture or contract they signed, binding themselves to work for a number of years (usually four to seven) to pay for their transportation to the New World. Voluntary indentured servitude accounted for half of the white settlers living in the colonies outside New England.

Indentured servant contract

After serving their years of indenture, the servant was free to go and acquire land on their own. Some of these former servants did well for themselves, many became political leaders or plantation owners, although most remained part of the poorer classes. Until the latter half of the 1600s, white indentured servants comprised the dominant source of labor in the Americas and it was not until the 1680s and 1690s that slave labor began to surpass the use of white indentured servants. Although African slaves cost more initially than indentured servants, they served for life and quickly became the labor force of choice on large plantations.

Life in the Southern Colonies

In the early 1600s most southern colonists were poor and men outnumbered women three to one. Mortality rates were higher in the south because of greater disease risks-we now know that mosquitoes, a far more constant threat in the south, carried many of these diseases. On average, men lived to be forty and women did not live past their late thirties. One quarter of all children born died in infancy and half died before they reached adulthood. Most Southern colonials lived in remote areas in relative isolation on farms or plantations with their families, extended relatives, friends, and slaves. They had little opportunity for social activity but when they did entertain, they might have visitors for weeks. Anglicanism formed the dominant church, although southerners were not particularly religious.

By the 1700s life settled down for the southern colonials and more rigid social classes formed. A gentry class emerged, building large plantation homes and imitating the lives of the English upper crust. Many of the plantation owners relied heavily on credit to maintain their leisured lifestyles.

The mixing of different nationalities and religions did not always result in complete toleration but often economics made it in everyone's best interest to get along. A Frenchman named J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, traveling through the middle colonies, noted the arrangement and commented on it in a book he published called Letters From An American Farmer. De Crevecoeur described the blurring of national and religious differences that occurred in the middle colonies, and he said that this represented the forming of a "new race." He was the first person to talk about a distinct "American" identity.

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The Old Plantation, c. 1790. Credit: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum, Colonial Williamsburg. The economy of the southern colonies dictated many of the differences in lifestyles that resulted in the region. Good, cleared land and a mild climate meant that the people living in the southern colonies grew staple and exotic crops for the cash market.

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Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Crisis

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Portrait of Young William Penn in Armor, date and artist unknown.

William Penn (October 14, 1644-July 30, 1718) founded the Province of Pennsylvania, the British North American colony that became the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The democratic principles that he set forth served as an inspiration for the United States Constitution. Ahead of his time, Penn also published a plan for a United States of Europe, "European Dyet, Parliament or Estates."

Religious beliefs

Although born into a distinguished Anglican family and the son of Admiral Sir William Penn, Penn joined the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers at the age of 22. The Quakers obeyed their "inner light", which they believed to come directly from God, refused to bow or take off their hats to any man, and refused to take up arms. Penn was a close friend of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers. These were times of turmoil, just after Cromwell's death, and the Quakers were suspect, because of their principles which differed from the state imposed religion and because of their refusal to swear an oath of loyalty to Cromwell or the King (Quakers obeyed the command of Christ to not swear, Matthew 5:34).

Penn's religious views were extremely distressing to his father, Admiral Sir William Penn, who had through naval service earned an estate in Ireland and hoped that Penn's charisma and intelligence would be able to win him favor at the court of Charles II. In 1668 he was imprisoned for writing a tract (The Sandy Foundation Shaken) which attacked the doctrine of the trinity.

"If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God, and to do that, thou must be ruled by him....Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants." -William Penn

Penn was a frequent companion of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, travelling in Europe and England with him in their ministry. He also wrote a comprehensive, detailed explanation of Quakerism along with a testimony to the character of George Fox, in his Introductionto the autobiographical Journal of George Fox.

Persecutions

Penn was educated at Chigwell School, Essex where he had his earliest religious experience. Thereafter, young Penn's religious views effectively exiled him from English society - he was sent down (expelled) from Christ Church, Oxford for being a Quaker, and was arrested several times. Among the most famous of these was the trial following his arrest with William Meade for preaching before a Quaker gathering. Penn pleaded for his right to see a copy of the charges laid against him and the laws he had supposedly broken, but the judge, the Lord Mayor of London, refused - even though this right was guaranteed by the law. Despite heavy pressure from the Lord Mayor to convict the men, the jury returned a verdict of "not guilty". The Lord Mayor then not only had Penn sent to jail again (on a charge of contempt of court), but also the full jury. The members of the jury, fighting their case from prison, managed to win the right for all English juries to be free from the control of judges. (See jury nullification.)The persecution of Quakers became so fierce that Penn decided that it would be better to try to found a new, free, Quaker settlement in North America. Some Quakers had already moved to North America, but the New England Puritans, especially, were as negative towards Quakers as the people back home, and some of them had been banished to the Caribbean.

The founding of Pennsylvania

In 1677, Penn's chance came, as a group of prominent Quakers, among them Penn, received the colonial province of West New Jersey (half of the current state of New Jersey). That same year, two hundred settlers from the towns of Chorleywood and Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire and other towns in nearby Buckinghamshire arrived, and founded the town of Burlington. Penn, who was involved in the project but himself remained in England, drafted a charter of liberties for the settlement. He guaranteed free and fair trial by jury, freedom of religion, freedom from unjust imprisonment and free elections.

King Charles II of England had a large loan with Penn's father, after whose death, King Charles settled by granting Penn a large area west and south of New Jersey on March 4, 1681. Penn called the area Sylvania (Latin for woods), which Charles changed to Pennsylvania in honor of the elder Penn. Perhaps the king was glad to have a place where religious and political outsiders (like the Quakers, or the Whigs, who wanted more influence for the people's representatives) could have their own place, far away from England. One of the first counties of Pennsylvania was called Bucks County, named after Buckinghamshire (Bucks) in England, where the Penn's family seat was, and from whence many of the first settlers came.

Although Penn's authority over the colony was officially subject only to that of the king, through his Frame of Government he implemented a democratic system with full freedom of religion, fair trials, elected representatives of the people in power, and a separation of powers - again ideas that would later form the basis of the American constitution. The freedom of religion in Pennsylvania (complete freedom of religion for everybody who believed in God) brought not only English, Welsh, German and Dutch Quakers to the colony, but also Huguenots (French Protestants), Mennonites, Amish, and Lutherans from Catholic German states.

Penn had hoped that Pennsylvania would be a profitable venture for himself and his family. Penn marketed the colony throughout Europe in various languages and, as a result, settlers flocked to Pennsylvania. Despite Pennsylvania's rapid growth and diversity, the colony never turned a profit for Penn or his family. In fact, Penn would later be imprisoned in England for debt and, at the time of his death in 1718, he was penniless.

Wampum belt, legend dated 1682. Lenape Tribe; clam and whelk shell beads, leather.

From 1682 to 1684 Penn was, himself, in the Province of Pennsylvania. After the building plans for Philadelphia ("Brotherly Love") had been completed, and Penn's political ideas had been put into a workable form, Penn explored the interior. He befriended the local Indians (primarily of the Leni Lenape (aka Delaware) tribe) , and ensured that they were paid fairly for their lands. Penn even learned several different Indian dialects in order to communicate in negiotiations without interpreters. Penn introduced laws saying that if a European did an Indian wrong, there would be a fair trial, with an equal number of people from both groups deciding the matter. His measures in this matter proved successful: even though later colonists did not treat the Indians as fairly as Penn and his first group of colonists had done, colonists and Indians remained at peace in Pennsylvania much longer than in the other English colonies.

Penn began construction of Pennsbury Manor, his intended country estate in Bucks County on the right bank of the Delaware River, in 1683.

Penn also made a treaty with the Indians at Shackamaxon (near Kensington in Philadelphia) under an elm tree. Penn chose to acquire lands for his colony through business rather than conquest. He paid the Indians 1200 pounds for their land under the treaty, an amount considered fair. Voltaire praised this "Great Treaty" as "the only treaty between those people [Indians and Europeans] that was not ratified by an oath, and that was never infringed." Many regard the Great Treaty as a myth that sprung up around Penn. However, the story has had enduring power. The event has taken iconic status and is commemorated in a frieze on the United States Capitol.

Penn visited America once more, in 1699. In those years he put forward a plan to make a federation of all English colonies in America. There have been claims that he also fought slavery, but that seems unlikely, as he owned and even traded slaves himself. However, he did promote good treatment for slaves, and other Pennsylvania Quakers were among the earliest fighters against slavery.

Penn had wished to settle in Philadelphia himself, but financial problems forced him back to England in 1701. His financial advisor, Philip Ford, had cheated him out of thousands of pounds, and he had nearly lost Pennsylvania through Ford's machinations. The next decade of Penn's life was mainly filled with various court cases against Ford. He tried to sell Pennsylvania back to the state, but while the deal was still being discussed, he was hit by a stroke in 1712, after which he was unable to speak or take care of himself.

Penn died in 1718 at his home in Ruscombe, near Twyford in Berkshire, and was buried next to his first wife in the cemetery of the Jordans Quaker meeting house at Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire in England. His family retained ownership of the colony of Pennsylvania until the American Revolution.

Odds and Ends

Open Arm Chair with caned seat and back, c. 1695-1715.

On November 28, 1984 Ronald Reagan, upon an Act of Congress by Presidential Proclamation 5284 declared William Penn and his second wife, Hannah Callowhill Penn, each to be an Honorary Citizen of the United States.

There is a widely told, entirely apocryphal, story of an en encounter between Penn and George Fox, in which Penn expressed concern over wearing a sword (a standard part of dress for people of his station), and how this was not in keeping with Quaker beliefs. Fox responded, "Wear it as long as thou canst." Later, according to the story, Penn again met Fox, but this time without the sword. Penn then said, "I have taken thy advice; I wore it as long as I could." Though this story is entirely unfounded, it serves as an instructive parable about Penn's Quaker beliefs.

There is a statue of William Penn atop the City Hall building of Philadelphia, built by Alexander Milne Calder. At one time, there was a gentlemen's agreement that no building should be higher than Penn's statue. One Liberty Place was among the first of several buildings in the late 1980s to be built higher than Penn.

There is a common misconception that the smiling Quaker found on boxes of Quaker Oats is William Penn. The Quaker Oats Company has stated that this is not true.

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A history of William Penn, founder of the city of Phiuladelphia and the State of Pennsylvania, and champion of religious freedom

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George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, was born in England about 1580, and was the descendant of a noble Flemish family of the same name. He studied at Oxford University. He was appointed by James I one of the principal secretaries of state, which office he resigned in 1624, when he avowed his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith. James, however, retained him in the Privy Council and made him Baron of Baltimore in Longford County, Ireland. Obtaining a grant from that sovereign of a large tract of land in Newfoundland, he founded there at great expense, and for several years sustained, a colony named Avalon. Owing to the rigorous climate and difficulties with the French, his efforts were not crowned with success. Desirous, however, of securing a place where his fellow Catholics could enjoy liberty of worship, he visited Virginia in 1628 and explored the adjacent territory. Returning to England, he obtained from Charles I a grant of land embracing the present State of Maryland. His death occurring in 1632, before the charter was issued, that instrument was made out directly to his son Cecilius. It guaranteed civil and religious liberty to the colonists and their exemption from English taxation.

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Do You Know JEO?

James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the colony of Georgia, was born on December 22, 1696, in Yorkshire, England. After graduating from Eton and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Oglethorpe began a military career in 1717, fighting against the Turks under Prince Eugene of Savoy.

Championing the Oppressed

From 1722 to 1743, Oglethorpe served in the British House of Commons, gaining a reputation as the champion of the oppressed. He pressed for the elimination of English prison abuses and, in 1732, defended the North American colonies' right to trade freely with Britain and the other colonies.

Founding a Colony

The prison reforms Oglethorpe had championed soon inspired him to propose a charity colony in America. On June 9, 1732, the crown granted a charter to the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia. Oglethorpe himself led the first group of 114 colonists on the frigate Anne, landing at the site of today's Savannah on February 1, 1733. The original charter banned slavery and granted religious freedom, leading to the foundation of a Jewish community in Savannah.

The Battle of Bloody Marsh

In 1742, Oglethorpe called upon his military experience and Georgia's fledgling militia to defend the colony from a Spanish invasion on St. Simons Island. Oglethorpe and his militia defeated the invaders in the Battle of Bloody Marsh, which is credited as the turning point between England and Spain's fight for control of southeastern North America.

An Opponent of Slavery

In 1746, Oglethorpe was falsely accused of treason by a disgruntled military office and driven from public life, although he retained his title as general and - at the time of the American Revolution-was the senior office in the British Army. He did not publicly comment on the war, but in private he tried to convince the government to negotiate a truce in 1777-1778. Throughout his life, Oglethorpe remained an outspoken opponent of slavery in the colonies.

"Great Esteem"

At the age of 88 the General died at Cranham Hall on June 30, 1785. Three weeks before his death he called on John Adams, newly appointed ambassador to England from the United States of America, to express his "great esteem and regard for America"-the new country in whose creation he had played and important role.

How Does OU Pay Homage to its Namesake?

Thornwell Jacobs, who became the Oglethorpe president for nearly three decades, intended for the new campus to be a "living memorial" to James Oglethorpe.

Oglethorpe Day

Held in February, a beloved tradition, Oglethorpe Day annually commemorates the anniversary of General James Edward Oglethorpe's arrival in the new world in Savannah, GA. Oglethorpe Day celebrations include the spirited "Petrels of Fire" race on the quad, an esteemed guest speaker, and other Oglethorpe-related activities throughout the day.

Nescit Cedere

The Oglethorpe University motto, Nescit Cedere, a Latin phrase pronounced "nes-keet keh-deh-reh," was adopted from the Oglethorpe family crest as the University's motto. It translates as "he does not know (how) to give up" and perfectly captures the pride and tenacity of the Oglethorpe community.

Gothic revival architecture

The distinctive Gothic revival architecture of the buildings on the main quad of the Oglethorpe campus was inspired by the honorary alma mater of James Oglethorpe, Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

Battle of Bloody Marsh

Each year, a team of students and a team of faculty and staff meet to do battle ... via tug-of-war. The annual " Battle of Bloody Marsh " is named for the famous 1742 battle in which General Oglethorpe's forces defeated the Spanish troops in South Georgia.

Mascot: the Stormy Petrel

Oglethorpe University's mascot is the Stormy Petrel, affectionately called "Petey" by our students. This unusual mascot - a small, persistent seabird, according to legend, had inspired James Oglethorpe while on board ship to Georgia in 1732. The Oglethorpe University nickname "Stormy Petrels" is unique in intercollegiate athletics.

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Do You Know JEO? James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the colony of Georgia, was born on December 22, 1696, in Yorkshire, England. After graduating from Eton and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Oglethorpe began a military career in 1717, fighting against the Turks under Prince Eugene of Savoy.

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1694 Token

On March 24, 1663, King Charles II signed the first Charter for the colony of Carolina, granting liberal authority over a gigantic tract of land in the New World to eight (8) of his strongest supporters in his restoration to the Crown after the English Civil War and Oliver Cromwell's decade rule of England. These eight (8) supporters were known as Lords Proprietors, as named above.

On September 8, 1663, the Lords Proprietors instructed Governor William Berkeley of Virginia (and a Lords Proprietor) to inaugurate a government in Albemarle. Sometime in the fall of 1664, the Lords Proprietors commissioned William Drummond as governor of Albemarle for three years - no copies of this commission exist. Drummond's successor, Samuel Stephens, was appointed in October of 1667, indicating that Drummond was most likely commissioned in October of 1664.

On January 7, 1665 (one source asserts in was January 11th), John Yeamans was commissioned as governor of Clarendon County along the Cape Fear River. This short-lived county established a legislature and an Executive Council of six members in 1666, but was abandoned by August of 1667 due to total destruction by a very large hurricane.

On February 6, 1665, the "Grand Assembly" of Albemarle County met for the first time. The place chosen for the first meeting of this Assembly was a little knoll overlooking Hall's Creek in Pasquotank, about a mile from Nixonton, the small town that was chartered nearly a hundred years later. The names of all members is not currently known. George Catchmaid (aka George Catchmeyd) is the first known Speaker of the Assembly in 1666. Although no copy has survived, the first known "Act" of the General Assembly was passed - most likely - in September of 1666, prohibiting the sowing, planting, or in any way tending tobacco from February 1, 1666/67 to February 1, 1667/68. This was because there was a glut of tobacco on the market and prices were at an all-time low.

On June 30, 1665, King Charles II signed the second Charter for the colony of Carolina, increasing its size on the northern and southern borders, primarily due to the fact that it was along the northern border where a considerable number of people, former Virginians, already lived. This gave the eight (8) Lords Proprietors an existing citizenry to be able to tax.

In 1666, Sir John Colleton, 1st Baronet was the first of the original Lords Proprietors to die. His share was inherited by his eldest son, Sir Peter Colleton, 2nd Baronet.

On July 26, 1669, the Lords Proprietors commissioned William Sayle as the "Governour of all that Territory, or part of the Province of Carolina that lies southward and westward of Cape Carteret." He sailed from England in January of 1670 in three ships with about 150 settlers, first landed at Port Royal, then proceeded to the Ashley River and established Charles Town at Albemarle Point in April of 1670.

In 1669, the Lords Proprietors drafted the Fundamental Constitutions, and they were soon dispatched to a group planning to settle in South Carolina. These found their way to Albemarle County in January of 1670, well before Charles Town was settled later that year. On March 1, 1670, the second and "official" set of the Fundamental Constitutions was issued and were soon transmitted to Carolina. These were never fully embraced by either colony, but they did shape the early history of Carolina. These Fundamental Constitutions envisioned a central government controlled by the Lords Proprietors, and a hereditary nobility in each colony to lead Freeholders who were to have a limited role. Leetmen (serfs) were to have no part in the provincial government.

A key section of the Fundamental Constitutions made it clear that if one of the Lords Proprietors should live in Carolina, then he would be named the governor. Next in line would be the eldest Landgrave, then the eldest Cacique, then the eldest Baron. These seemingly minor rules would come to haunt the Lords Proprietors over the first few decades of their tenure, and by 1698, the Fundamental Constitutions were essentially tossed aside.

Another key section of the Fundamental Constitutions provided that each of the Lords Proprietors were to select a "Deputy" to serve and act on their behalf in the colony of Carolina. Of course, since there were two separate governments starting in 1670 with the settling of Charles Town, each of the Lords Proprietors were to select a Deputy for Albemarle County and another Deputy for Charles Town. In the beginning, these deputies had various duties, but these duties quickly evolved into these appointees becoming the "Executive Council" appointed to advise the governor, and to serve as the "Upper House" in a somewhat-bicameral General Assembly for each section of Carolina. The "Executive Council" was required to meet at least monthly when the General Assembly was not in session, and to serve as a "Court of Chancery" at least monthly. These "Executive Council" members also evolved into the "high court" for each colony - first known as the "Palatine's Court," then becoming the "General Court." Later, real judges/justices were appointed to these higher courts.

Also included in the Fundamental Constitutions, the Lords Proprietors agreed that the "eldest living of the Lords Proprietors" would be styled and titled as "Palatine," that is, the leader of the group of eight (8) Lords Proprietors. He would be succeeded, only upon his death, by the next eldest of the Lords Proprietors. On March 1, 1669, the first Palatine named was George Monck, Duke of Albemarle.

On October 21, 1669, six (6) of the eight (8) Lords Proprietors met at "the Cockpitt" and assigned titles/duties to themselves:

- George Monck, Duke of Albemarle - Palatine
- William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven - High Constable
- John Berkeley, 1st Baron of Stratton - Chancellor
- Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley - Chief Justice
- Sir George Carteret, Baronet - Admiral
- Sir Peter Colleton, 2nd Baronet - High Steward

Upon the death of George Monck, Duke of Albemarle on January 3, 1670, John Berkeley, 1st Baron of Stratton was named as the second Palatine. Sir Peter Colleton resigned as High Steward and was elected as Chancellor, in room of Berkeley. Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle inherited his father's share of Carolina.

In early 1672, there were talks among the Lords Proprietors that Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia, would consider accepting all of Albemarle County as his portion of Carolina and relinquish his title to the remainder of the colony. This potential agreement was discussed and negotiated for several years and in 1674 it almost happened, but by October of 1676 it was completely dismissed. The citizens of Albemarle County soon learned of this as well as rumors that the King wanted Albemarle County to revert back to Virginia - and they were very upset of these rumors.

On December 9, 1674, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon died, and his share of Carolina was inherited by his eldest son, Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon.

On July 9, 1677, Sir William Berkeley died, and his share of Carolina was inherited by his wife, Lady Frances Berkeley.

On August 28, 1678, John Berkeley, 1st Baron of Stratton died, and his share of Carolina was purchased by John Archdale on behalf of his son, Thomas Archdale. Sir George Carteret, Baronet was named as the third Palatine.

In 1679, Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon sold his share of Carolina to Seth Sothel, who later came to Carolina as Governor of Albemarle, then Governor of Charles Town. He was kicked out of the government of both colonies.

On January 14, 1680, Sir George Carteret, Baronet died, and his share of Carolina was inherited by his eldest son, Sir George Carteret, 1st Baronet Carteret. William Craven, 1st Baron Craven was named as the fourth Palatine.

On January 21, 1683, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury died, and his share of Carolina was inherited by his eldest son, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 2nd Earl of Shaftesbury.

In December of 1683, Lady Frances Berkeley sold her share of Carolina to four current Lords Proprietors - Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, Sir George Carteret, 1st Baronet Carteret, Sir Peter Colleton, 2nd Baronet, and William Craven, 1st Baron Craven - and they put this share in a trust, which was managed by Thomas Amy. Many historians seem to omit the fact that Thomas Amy was only the manager and not one of the official Lords Proprietors.

On October 6, 1688, Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle died in Jamaica, leaving no heir. After a lengthly court battle, his share of Carolina was given to a kinsman, John Grenville, 1st Earl of Bath, in 1694 (see below).

On March 24, 1694, Sir Peter Colleton, 2nd Baronet died, and his share of Carolina was inherited by his eldest son, Sir John Colleton, 3rd Baronet. This son was a very wealthy businessman and he hired William Thornburgh to represent his Carolina interests in London from 1694 to at least 1701, and perhaps longer.

In 1694 (sometime after August 31st - he signed a letter on that date), Seth Sothel died in North Carolina. His heirs sold his share of Carolina to James Bertie and Henry Bertie, both minors, and their share was held in trust and managed by Hugh Watson until they reached maturity. In the mid-1720s, this share was assigned to James Bertie as the sole owner (Henry was given another share that was acquired later).

It was in 1694 that John Grenville, 1st Earl of Bath, won his court battle and became the owner of Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle's share of Carolina.

On September 22, 1695, Sir George Carteret, 1st Baronet Carteret died, and his share of Carolina was inherited by his eldest son, John Carteret, 2nd Baronet Carteret (and later 2nd Earl of Granville).

In 1696, Thomas Archdale sold his share of Carolina to Joseph Blake, a wealthy South Carolina landholder.

On April 9, 1697, William Craven, 1st Baron Craven died as a bachelor, the longest-living of the original Lords Proprietors and Palatine. His share of Carolina was inherited by his grand-nephew, William Craven, 2nd Baron Craven. John Grenville, 1st Earl of Bath was named the fifth Palatine.

Sometime during 1697, the Lords Proprietors decided that Seth Sothel's share of Carolina was theirs and the sale of that share to James Bertie and Henry Bertie, held in trust by Hugh Watson, was not proper, so they decided to assign Sothel's share to themselves, again in a trust to be managed by Thomas Amy. This was contested by the Bertie brothers and was not resolved at the time the Crown purchased Carolina in 1728/1729.

On November 2, 1699, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 2nd Earl of Shaftesbury died, and his share of Carolina was inherited by his eldest son, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury. Since this heir was a very sickly man, he authorized his brother, Maurice Ashley, to represent him at all meetings with the Lords Proprietors on Carolina business until his death in 1713.

In 1700, Thomas Amy gave his share of Carolina (the Edward Hyde, Henry Hyde, Seth Sothel share) to his daughter Ann Amy, who was married to Nicholas Trott. This share was contested by the Lords Proprietors who claimed that Thomas Amy was merely a "trustee" for them and he had no right to give or sell this share to anyone. This share's ownership was not resolved at the time the Crown purchased Carolina in 1728/1729.

On September 7, 1700, Joseph Blake died in South Carolina, and his share of Carolina was inherited by his infant son, Joseph Blake, Jr. His mother, Elizabeth Blake, managed this share until he reached maturity. She also authorized Maurice Ashley in London to sign key documents on his behalf.

On August 22, 1701, John Grenville, 1st Earl of Bath died, and his share of Carolina was inherited by his second son, John Grenville, 1st Baron of Granville of Potheridge, who also became the sixth Palatine.

In 1704, Thomas Amy died and his alleged share of Carolina (the William Berkeley, Lady Frances Berkeley share) was inherited by his son, Thomas Amy, Jr.

In 1705, the Lords Proprietors decided that Thomas Amy's claim for the Berkeley share was incorrect since he was merely a "trustee" for them and he had no right to give or sell this share to anyone. The Lords Proprietors then sold this share to John Archdale (his second purchase). This share's ownership was not resolved at the time the Crown purchased Carolina in 1728/1729.

In 1707, Thomas Amy, Jr. died, and his alleged share of Carolina (the William Berkeley, Lady Frances Berkeley share) was inherited by his two sisters, Elizabeth Amy Moore and Ann Amy who was married to Nicholas Trott. This share's ownership was not resolved at the time the Crown purchased Carolina in 1728/1729.

On December 3, 1707, John Grenville, 1st Baron Granville of Potheridge died, and his share of Carolina was inherited by his wife's son by her first marriage, Henry Somerset, 2nd Duke of Beaufort. William Craven, 2nd Baron Craven was named the seventh Palatine.

In 1708, John Archdale gave his second share of Carolina (the William Berkeley, Lady Frances Berkeley share) to his daughter Mary Archdale and her husband John Danson.

On October 9, 1711, William Craven, 2nd Baron Craven died, and his share of Carolina was inherited by his eldest son, William Craven, 3rd Baron Craven. Henry Somerset, 2nd Duke of Beaufort was named the eighth Palatine.

On February 4, 1713, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury died, and his infant son, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 4th Earl of Shaftesbury inherited his share of Carolina. Very soon thereafter, the infant's mother sold this share outright to the child's uncle and her deceased husband's younger brother, Maurice Ashley, who had already been managing this share for his sickly brother.

On May 24, 1714, Henry Somerset, 2nd Duke of Beaufort died, and his share of Carolina was inherited by his two minor sons - Henry Somerset, 3rd Duke of Beaufort, and Charles Noel Somerset (later 4th Duke of Beaufort). This share was held in trust and managed by Doddington Greville until they reached maturity. Sir John Carteret, 2nd Baronet Carteret, later the 2nd Earl of Granville, became the ninth and final Palatine.

In 1724, John Danson died, and his wife, Mary Archdale Danson sold their share of Carolina (the William Berkeley, Lady Frances Berkeley, Thomas Amy, trustee share) to James Bertie and Henry Bertie, held in trust by Hugh Watson. Sometime not long afterwards, this share was assigned to Henry Bertie as the sole owner.

In 1725, Maurice Ashley sold his share of Carolina to Sir John Tyrrell.

In 1727, Sir John Tyrrell gave his share of Carolina to his father-in-law, John Cotton, and this share was placed in a trust that was managed by Archibald Hutcheson.

In 1728, James Bertie gave his share of Carolina (the Edward Hyde, Henry Hyde, Seth Sothel share) to four young men in hopes that their stature would help to increase the potential selling price to the Crown. These four young men included his own son - Edward Bertie, Alexius Clayton, Samuel Horsey, and Henry White.

In 1728 and 1729, seven of the eight Lords Proprietors gave in to increasing pressure to sell their rights to Carolina to the Crown. John Carteret, 2nd Baronet Carteret & 1st Earl of Granville chose not to sell his share and he demanded that the Crown survey a large tract of land and give him clear deed to millions of acres in North Carolina. He appointed several "land agents" to live in his territory and to sell it off piece-by-piece until his death in 1763.

At the time that the Crown purchased Carolina, which took several years to negotiate and obtain all requisite approvals, the following names were included as "owners" - and therefore, Lords Proprietors - even though some of their claims were not necessarily appropriate:

- Sir John Colleton, 3rd Baronet
- Henry Somerset, 3rd Duke of Beaufort, Charles Noel Somerset (later 4th Duke of Beaufort), by Doddington Greville, trustee
- Mary Archdale Danson
- Edward Bertie
- Alexius Clayton
- Samuel Horsey
- Henry Smith
- Ann Amy Trott / Nicholas Trott
- Elizabeth Amy Moore
- James Bertie
- Henry Bertie
- Joseph Blake, Jr., by Samuel Wragg, his attorney
- John Cotton, by Archibald Hutcheson, trustee
- William Craven, 3rd Baron Craven

By an Act of Parliament in 1729, North Carolina and South Carolina were now owned and managed by the Crown - King George II - and therefore managed by his Privy Council and the Board of Trade.

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Carolina Founders - The Lords Proprietors of Carolana & Carolina

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1694 Token On March 24, 1663, King Charles II signed the first Charter for the colony of Carolina, granting liberal authority over a gigantic tract of land in the New World to eight (8) of his strongest supporters in his restoration to the Crown after the English Civil War and Oliver Cromwell's decade rule of England.

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Roger Williams, (born 1603?, London, England-died January 27/March 15, 1683, Providence, Rhode Island [U.S.]), English colonist in New England, founder of the colony of Rhode Island and pioneer of religious liberty.

The son of a merchant tailor, he was a protégé of the jurist Sir Edward Coke and was educated at Cambridge. In 1630 he left his post as chaplain to Sir William Masham, which had brought him into contact with such politically active Puritans as Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Hooker, to pursue his by-then completely Nonconformist religious ideals in New England.

Arriving in Boston in 1631, Williams refused to associate himself with the Anglican Puritans and in the following year moved to the separatist Plymouth Colony. In 1633 he was back in Salem after a disagreement with Plymouth in which he insisted that the king's patent was invalid and that only direct purchase from the Indians gave a just title to the land.

Invited by the church at Salem to become pastor in 1634, Williams was banished from Massachusetts Bay by the civil authorities for his dangerous views: besides those on land rights, he held that magistrates had no right to interfere in matters of religion. Consequently, in January 1636 Williams set out for Narragansett Bay, and in the spring, on land purchased from the Narragansett Indians, he founded the town of Providence and the colony of Rhode Island. Providence became a haven for Anabaptists, Quakers, and others whose beliefs were denied public expression. Williams was briefly an Anabaptist but in 1639 declared himself a Seeker. He remained a steadfast believer in Calvinist theology. Williams went to England in 1643 to obtain a charter for Rhode Island and again in 1651-54 to have it confirmed, during which visit he became a friend of the poet John Milton. He was the first president of Rhode Island under its charter and until his death always held some public office. He was of constant service to Rhode Island and neighbouring colonies as a peacemaker with the Narragansett Indians, whose language he knew and whose trust he had earned, although he helped defend Rhode Island against them during King Philip's War (1675-76). From 1636 until his death he supported himself by farming and trading.

Williams was a vigorous controversialist and a prolific writer. His greatest work was The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution (1644).

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Roger Williams | Founder of Rhode Island, Religious Freedom Advocate

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Roger Williams, English colonist in New England, founder of the colony of Rhode Island and pioneer of religious liberty. The son of a merchant tailor, he was a protégé of the jurist Sir Edward Coke and was educated at Cambridge.

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Image of Governor John Winthrop, a Native American and a Puritan

John Winthrop was born in England in January of 1588. He trained in the law profession. He became involved with the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629. In April of the following year, Winthrop led a group of colonists to New England. They founded several communities on the shores of Massachusetts Bay. He remained in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for the rest of his life. He became a major political figure. He was elected Governor of the colony 12 times in addition to working for the counsel and the court. As a political leader, Winthrop often came into conflict with other early colonists such as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson over their religious views.

Winthrop heard of Roger Williams' religious background and saw him as "a godly minister." Winthrop offered Williams a job at the church in Boston. Williams declined this offer, because he disagreed with the church and how they chose to practice. This began a lifelong relationship between Williams and Winthrop. This relationship consisted of respect but not necessarily agreement. Winthrop opposed and could not tolerate Williams' criticism of the relationship between the church and state. It is also believed that Winthrop aided Williams when he fled the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636. The two remained in contact for the rest of their years often writing and aiding each other when possible. Winthrop died in 1649 at the age of 61. He was well respected and beloved by his fellow colonist. He is best known as the 1 st Governor of The Massachusetts Bay Colony and as a leading Puritan founder of New England.

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johnWinthrop - Roger Williams National Memorial (U.S. National Park Service)

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John Winthrop was born in England in January of 1588. He trained in the law profession. He became involved with the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629. In April of the following year, Winthrop led a group of colonists to New England. They founded several communities on the shores of Massachusetts Bay.

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Thomas Hooker: Connecticut's Founding Father

By Nancy Finlay
The man who became famous as the "father of Connecticut" was born in 1586 in a small village in the county of Leicestershire in central England. He attended grammar school at Market Bosworth, a tiny nearby town, and went on to Cambridge University, where he received his BA in 1608 and his MA in 1611. While a student at Cambridge, Thomas Hooker underwent a profound religious experience and decided to become a minister. Such conversion experiences were central to the beliefs of the Puritans, a Protestant sect that arose within the Church of England during the late 16th century. Puritans believed that in the process of conversion, they directly experienced the wrath and love of God. Unlike other, more radical sects, however, they sought to remain within the Anglican Church and to reform it from within. Emmanuel College at Cambridge, which Hooker attended, was a hotbed of Puritanism.

Hooker became a powerful and popular preacher, attracting a large following. He served first in a small village church just outside London and later in the large market town of Chelmsford. A neighboring vicar denounced him to William Laud, the Anglican Bishop of London and an ardent opponent of Puritanism. Ordered to abandon his practices and beliefs, Hooker resigned his position in Chelmsford and took a job as schoolmaster in yet another small village. This did not end the threat of prosecution, however, and he eventually fled to Holland where there was already a large community of Puritan exiles. Finally, in 1633, he decided to immigrate to America. On July 10, he and his family sailed for Boston on the Griffin with a large group of Puritans, including John Cotton, another prominent Puritan minister.

Thomas Hooker Arrives in North America

Founded in 1630 as a Puritan stronghold, Boston was still a raw new town on the edge of the wilderness. John Cotton assumed the role of its leading minister. Thomas Hooker served as minister to the citizens of nearby Newtown, a settlement on the opposite side of the Charles River that later became Cambridge. Almost immediately, Hooker's congregation began seeking to escape the Boston area and the influence of John Cotton. They began looking westward to the Connecticut River Valley, petitioning the General Court for permission to move there.

In June 1636, less than three years after Thomas Hooker arrived in Boston, he and one hundred members of his congregation set off on the two-week overland journey, accompanied by 160 head of cattle, goats, and pigs. They followed a Native American trail, later known as the Connecticut Path or the Bay Path, west to the Connecticut River and then south to the future site of Hartford.

There was already a scattering of settlements in the Connecticut Valley when Hooker and his congregation arrived there. The party passed indigenous villages as they made their way along the Connecticut Path, and encountered a small group of English settlers in Windsor, as they traveled south along the river. There was a Dutch fort at the mouth of the Little River (later the Park River) immediately to the south of Hartford, and another small group of English settlers in Wethersfield, immediately south of that. Throughout the 1630s, English settlers continued to arrive, most of them making the long overland trek from Boston.

Spreading Puritanism in Hartford

As minister of the church in Hartford, Hooker enjoyed enormous influence. At first the river settlements functioned as an adjunct of Boston, governed by eight magistrates appointed by the Massachusetts General Court, but this was clearly not an acceptable long-term solution. In 1638, Hooker preached a sermon on the text, "Choose men of wisdom, understanding, and repute...and [the Lord] will set them in authority over you," arguing that the people of Connecticut had the right to choose their own government. This sermon served as inspiration for the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which established a civil government and assured the existence of Connecticut as a separate colony, independent from Massachusetts. The Fundamental Orders served as the legal basis for the Connecticut Colony until Charles II granted it a formal charter in 1662.

Not only was Hooker one of the leading figures in the Connecticut Colony; he was also one of the leading Puritan theologians in New England. He took part in the trials of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson and in several church councils. His book, A Survey of the Summe of Church-Discipline, is considered one of the best expositions of Puritan church doctrine. Sadly, Hooker did not live to see it published. The ship carrying his original manuscript to England for printing sank and Hooker died before completing a second draft-succumbing during an epidemic in the summer of 1647.

His book finally met with publication, in London, the following year. Cotton Mather, the grandson of his old rival John Mather, praised him as "the light of the Western churches." Another contemporary called him "that great Elijah, that renowned man of faith." His trek to Hartford was the symbolic beginning of America's westward expansion, and his principles (stated in A Survey of the Summe of Church-Discipline and in his numerous sermons) not only supported the dominance of the Puritan church in succeeding centuries but also provided a tentative basis for American democracy.
Nancy Finlay grew up in Manchester, Connecticut. She has a BA from Smith College and an MFA and PhD from Princeton University. From 1998 to 2015, she was Curator of Graphics at the Connecticut Historical Society.

LEARN MORE

Documents

"Catalog Record for Thomas Hooker Letter to John Winthrop." Connecticut Historical Society Library Catalog, 2016. Link.

"Colonial Connecticut Records 1636-1776." University of Connecticut, 2016. Link.

Government Printing Office. "The Avalon Project: Fundamental Agreement, or Original Constitution of the Colony of New Haven, June 4, 1639." Yale Law School, 2016. Link.

Books

Hooker, Thomas. A Survey of the Summe of Church-Discipline: Wherein the Way of the Churches of New-England Is Warranted Out of the Word, and All Exceptions of Weight, Which Are Made Against It, Answered: Whereby Also It Will Appear to the Judicious Reader, That Something More Must Be Said, Then yet Hath Been, Before Their Principles Can Be Shaken, or They Should Be Unsetled in Their Practice. London: Printed by A. M. for John Bellamy, 1648. Link.

Jones, Mary Jeanne Anderson. Congregational Commonwealth Connecticut, 1636-1662. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1968.

Van Dusen, Albert. Puritans Against the Wilderness: Connecticut History to 1763. Chester, CT: Pequot Press, 1975.

Love, William DeLoss. The Colonial History of Hartford. Chester, CT: Centinel Hill Press, 1974.

Hooker, Thomas. The Poor Doubting Christian Drawn to Christ: Wherein the Main Lets and Hinderances, Which Keep Men from Coming to Christ, Are Discovered: With Special Helps to Recover Gods Favour ... Printed by J.M. for N. Ranew, 1674. Link.

Bremer, Francis J. The Puritan Experiment: New England Society from Bradford to Edwards. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1976.

Collingwood, Deryck. Thomas Hooker, 1586-1647: Father of American Democracy: A Pilgrim's Guide to the England He Knew, the Great People, and the Stirring Events Leading to His Becoming a Pre-Eminent Figure in the Founding of Puritan New England. Interlaken, NY: Heart of the Lakes Publishers, 1995.

Walker, George Leon. Thomas Hooker: Preacher, Founder, Democrat. New York, Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1891. Link.

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Thomas Hooker: Connecticut's Founding Father | ConnecticutHistory.org

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By Nancy Finlay The man who became famous as the "father of Connecticut" was born in 1586 in a small village in the county of Leicestershire in central England. He attended grammar school at Market Bosworth, a tiny nearby town, and went on to Cambridge University, where he received his BA in 1608 and his MA in 1611.

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The Surprising Religious Diversity of America’s 13 Colonies

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It wasn’t just Protestants seeking a place to freely practice their faiths.

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Carolina Charter of 1663 - North Carolina History

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The Carolina Charter of 1663 was the first organic law of what eventually became the state of North Carolina. It conferred territory that also included what is now South Carolina to eight “true and absolute Lords Proprietors.” They possessed broad feudal powers and bore the responsibility of managing Carolina in the interests of England.

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In the middle colonies, as in the South and New England, women were generally expected to be subordinate to their husbands and fathers. However, in some instances the experiences of women in the middle colonies differed from those of other colonial women. Their status often varied by the cultural norms of the ethnic group in which they resided.

On the farms of Pennsylvania's German settlements, women were expected to work in the fields alongside men. This differed from the norm on the farms of English colonists, where women were more often expected to concentrate on household tasks.

Under the influence of English common law, single colonial women were allowed to hold property but were required to relinquish those rights when they married. Widows regained their property, as well as assuming ownership of their husbands' properties and businesses. In German and Dutch immigrant communities, wives retained ownership of personal items such as clothing and could create some legal documents, including wills.

Voting rights in the colonies were usually restricted to landowning white males. Throughout most of the middle colonies, women were prohibited from owning land and voting. For the most part women filled domestic roles&mdash;managing households, raising children, and assisting with the family farm or business. They might also work outside the home as seamstresses, midwives, or nurses.

Social activities were generally divided by gender and class. Women often gathered to socialize while performing homemaking tasks such as quilting. However, men and women gathered together for harvesting activities, religious services, and community dances.

Religious affiliation influenced women's roles. Unlike the more rigid Puritans of New England, the Quakers of the middle colonies allowed significant participation by female congregants. Women led church services, and congregations believed that husbands and wives could be equal partners in marriage.

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Life in the Middle Colonies - Course Hero

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This lesson provides helpful information on Life in the Middle Colonies in the context of Middle Colonies: 1681-1730 to help students study for a college level U.S. History course.

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Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer (John Dickinson) Explained!

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Map of trade routes across the Atlantic Ocean

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Thomas Dudley (born 1576, Northampton, Eng.-died July 31, 1653, Roxbury, Mass.) was a British colonial governor of Massachusetts, for many years the most influential man in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, save for John Winthrop.

Dudley was the son of a country gentleman in England. After being converted to Puritanism he joined with other Lincolnshire gentlemen in the Cambridge Agreement to settle in New England and take the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company with them. In April 1630 Dudley sailed to America in the same ship with Winthrop. Dudley was elected deputy governor 13 times between 1629 and 1650, and served as governor 4 times.

Soon after his arrival in the colony Dudley settled at New Towne (later Cambridge), which he helped found. He was also one of the promoters of the plan to establish Harvard College. Winthrop's decision to make Boston instead of New Towne the capital precipitated the first of many quarrels between the two and prompted Dudley to move his residence to Roxbury.

From Dudley, an earnest and persistent heresy hunter, New England Puritanism derived some of its harshest aspects.

Encyclopaedia Britannica.

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Thomas Dudley | Puritan leader, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Colonial America

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Thomas Dudley was a British colonial governor of Massachusetts, for many years the most influential man in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, save for John Winthrop. Dudley was the son of a country gentleman in England. After being converted to Puritanism he joined with other Lincolnshire gentlemen in

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Sir George Carteret, Baronet, (born c. 1610, St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands-died January 14, 1680, London, England), British Royalist politician and colonial proprietor of New Jersey.

A British naval officer and lieutenant governor of Jersey, Carteret made the island a Royalist stronghold during the English Civil Wars and privateered in the Stuart cause, thereby winning a knighthood (1644) and a baronetcy (1645). After the capture of the island by a Parliamentary force in 1651, he went into exile in France, where he served in the French navy, but he returned to England at the Restoration (1660). There he became a powerful administrator and legislator. Censured by Parliament for laxity in account keeping, he gave up the naval treasury in 1667, though he subsequently held other important posts.

In 1663 Carteret was one of the eight original proprietors to whom King Charles II granted the area of Carolina in North America. The following year he received property rights to half of New Jersey, named for his birthplace in his honour. Friction in the colony and disappointing financial returns led the other owner, John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton, to sell out to the Quakers in 1674. With them Carteret agreed upon a division of the colony in 1676; he kept East Jersey, which his heirs sold to William Penn and other Quakers two years after his death.

John M. Cunningham, Readers Editor.

Learn More in these related Britannica articles:

United States: The middle colonies

...lands to John Berkeley and George Carteret, two close friends and allies of the king. In 1665 Berkeley and Carteret established a proprietary government under their own direction. Constant clashes, however, developed between the New Jersey and the New York proprietors over the precise nature of the New Jersey grant....

American colonies: Founding of the middle colonies

...friends, Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, as the province of Nova Cesaria, or New Jersey. To bring in more settlers, they drew up a charter or set of "concessions and agreements" which largely anticipated Penn's liberal ideas. That is, they offered generous terms for acquiring land, complete freedom...

New Jersey, constituent state of the United States of America. One of the original 13 states, it is bounded by New York to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, and Delaware and Pennsylvania to the west. The state was named for the island of...

Sir George Carteret, Baronet

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Sir George Carteret, Baronet | British politician

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Sir George Carteret, Baronet, British Royalist politician and colonial proprietor of New Jersey. A British naval officer and lieutenant governor of Jersey, Carteret made the island a Royalist stronghold during the English Civil Wars and privateered in the Stuart cause, thereby winning a knighthood

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The Transatlantic Slave Trade: Crash Course Black American History #1

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Note: Scroll down to find colonial part.

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New Hampshire, one of the original 13 colonies, was the first state to have its own state constitution. Its spirit of independence is epitomized in the state motto-"Live Free or Die." New Hampshire was the 9th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution-the final state needed to put the document into effect. It plays an important role in national elections, as it is the first state to holdnational primaries, and its primary results are thought to influence those in the rest of the nation, giving rise to the saying "As New Hampshire goes, so goes the nation." It is the site of the White Mountains and the famed Mount Washington, one of the windiest places in the nation.

Date of Statehood: June 21, 1788

Capital: Concord

Population: 1,316,470 (2010)

Size: 9,348 square miles

Nickname(s): Granite State; Mother of Rivers; White Mountain State; Switzerland of America

Motto: Live Free or Die

Tree: White Birch

Flower: Purple Lilac

Bird: Purple Finch

Interesting Facts

The "Old Man in the Mountain," depicted on the New Hampshire state quarter, was a rock formation in Franconia Notch made up of five distinct granite ledges that lined up perfectly into the shape of a man's profile. Formed by a series of geologic events that occurred over millions of years, the profile extended nearly 40 feet from forehead to chin. On May 3, 2003, the Old Man in the Mountain collapsed from its perch 1,200 feet above Profile Lake.

The Scotch-Irish immigrants who settled in Nutfield in April 1719 planted the first potato crops in North America. The settlement, which was later renamed Londonderry, is now the town of Derry.

On December 13, 1774, four months before his famous "midnight ride" to Lexington, Massachusetts, Paul Revere embarked on a 55-mile ride from Boston to Portsmouth to warn of Fort William and Mary's imminent seizure from British troops. One of the first acts of rebellion leading up to the revolution, a group of nearly 400 townspeople responded by raiding the garrison's gunpowder to prevent the takeover, lowering the fort's British flag upon their return to Portsmouth.

New Hampshire was home to the first American astronaut, Alan Shepard Jr., and first private civilian, Christa McAuliffe, to travel into space. Shepard's 15-minute flight onboard Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961, launched him 116 miles into the atmosphere before landing safely. McAuliffe, a schoolteacher from Concord who applied to participate in the legendary mission, perished aboard the Challenger space shuttle on January 28, 1986, 73 seconds and 48,000 feet after liftoff.

In July 1944, financiers from 44 countries gathered at the luxurious Mount Washington Hotel for the Bretton Woods International Monetary Conference, during which the World Bank and International Monetary Fund wereestablishedand the American dollar was designated the standard of international exchange.

New Hampshire is one of only nine states that does not require its residents to pay state income tax.

New Hampshire is the only state to have hosted the formal conclusion of a foreign war. In 1905, the treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War was signed in Portsmouth.

PHOTO GALLERIES

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New Hampshire, one of the original 13 colonies, was the first state to have its own state constitution. Its spirit of independence is epitomized in the state motto-"Live Free or Die." New Hampshire was the 9th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution-the final state needed to put the document into effect.