Outline of US History by U.S. Department of State - HTML preview

CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA

men” required to be members of the deep, rich soil . These new commu-

Puritan, or Congregational, Church . nities often eliminated church mem-

This guaranteed that the Puritans bership as a prerequisite for voting,

would be the dominant political as thereby extending the franchise to

well as religious force in the colony . ever larger numbers of men .

The General Court elected the gov-

At the same time, other settle-

ernor, who for most of the next gen- ments began cropping up along the

eration would be John Winthrop .

New Hampshire and Maine coasts,

The rigid orthodoxy of the Pu- as more and more immigrants

ritan rule was not to everyone’s lik- sought the land and liberty the New

ing . One of the first to challenge the World seemed to offer .

General Court openly was a young

clergyman named Roger Williams,

NEW NETHERLAND AND

who objected to the colony’s seizure

MARYLAND

of Indian lands and advocated sepa-

ration of church and state . Another Hired by the Dutch East India

dissenter, Anne Hutchinson, chal- Company, Henry Hudson in 1609

lenged key doctrines of Puritan the- explored the area around what is

ology . Both they and their followers now New York City and the river

were banished .

that bears his name, to a point prob-

Williams purchased land from ably north of present-day Albany,

the Narragansett Indians in what is New York . Subsequent Dutch voy-

now Providence, Rhode Island, in ages laid the basis for their claims

1636 . In 1644, a sympathetic Puri- and early settlements in the area .

tan-controlled English Parliament

As with the French to the north,

gave him the charter that established the first interest of the Dutch was the Rhode Island as a distinct colony fur trade . To this end, they cultivated

where complete separation of church close relations with the Five Nations

and state as well as freedom of reli- of the Iroquois, who were the key to

gion was practiced .

the heartland from which the furs

So-called heretics like Williams came . In 1617 Dutch settlers built a

were not the only ones who left Mas- fort at the junction of the Hudson

sachusetts . Orthodox Puritans, seek- and the Mohawk Rivers, where Al-

ing better lands and opportunities, bany now stands .

soon began leaving Massachusetts

Settlement on the island of Man-

Bay Colony . News of the fertility of hattan began in the early 1620s . In

the Connecticut River Valley, for in- 1624, the island was purchased from

stance, attracted the interest of farm- local Native Americans for the re-

ers having a difficult time with poor ported price of $24 . It was promptly

land . By the early 1630s, many were renamed New Amsterdam .

ready to brave the danger of Indian

In order to attract settlers to the

attack to obtain level ground and Hudson River region, the Dutch en-

14

OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

couraged a type of feudal aristocra- and to avoid trouble with the British

cy, known as the “patroon” system . government, they also encouraged

The first of these huge estates were Protestant immigration .

established in 1630 along the Hud-

Maryland’s royal charter had

son River . Under the patroon sys- a mixture of feudal and modern

tem, any stockholder, or patroon, elements . On the one hand the

who could bring 50 adults to his es- Calvert family had the power to

tate over a four-year period was giv- create manorial estates . On the oth-

en a 25-kilometer river-front plot, er, they could only make laws with

exclusive fishing and hunting privi- the consent of freemen (property

leges, and civil and criminal juris- holders) . They found that in order

diction over his lands . In turn, he to attract settlers — and make a

provided livestock, tools, and build- profit from their holdings — they

ings . The tenants paid the patroon had to offer people farms, not just

rent and gave him first option on tenancy on manorial estates . The

surplus crops .

number of independent farms grew

Further to the south, a Swedish in consequence . Their owners de-

trading company with ties to the manded a voice in the affairs of the

Dutch attempted to set up its first colony . Maryland’s first legislature

settlement along the Delaware Riv- met in 1635 .

er three years later . Without the re-

sources to consolidate its position,

COLONIAL-INDIAN

New Sweden was gradually absorbed

RELATIONS

into New Netherland, and later,

Pennsylvania and Delaware .

By 1640 the British had solid

In 1632 the Catholic Calvert fam- colonies established along the New

ily obtained a charter for land north England coast and the Chesapeake

of the Potomac River from King Bay . In between were the Dutch and

Charles I in what became known as the tiny Swedish community . To the

Maryland . As the charter did not ex- west were the original Americans,

pressly prohibit the establishment of then called Indians .

non-Protestant churches, the colony

Sometimes friendly, sometimes

became a haven for Catholics . Mary- hostile, the Eastern tribes were no

land’s first town, St . Mary’s, was longer strangers to the Europeans .

established in 1634 near where the Although Native Americans ben-

Potomac River flows into the Chesa- efited from access to new technol-

peake Bay .

ogy and trade, the disease and thirst

While establishing a refuge for for land that the early settlers also

Catholics, who faced increasing per- brought posed a serious challenge to

secution in Anglican England, the their long-established way of life .

Calverts were also interested in cre-

At first, trade with the European

ating profitable estates . To this end, settlers brought advantages: knives,

15