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

CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA

Indian slaves . With time, however, refuge where the poor and former

timber, rice, and indigo gave the col- prisoners would be given new

ony a worthier economic base .

opportunities .

In 1681 William Penn, a wealthy

Quaker and friend of Charles II, re-

SETTLERS, SLAVES, AND

ceived a large tract of land west of

SERVANTS

the Delaware River, which became

known as Pennsylvania . To help Men and women with little active

populate it, Penn actively recruited interest in a new life in America were

a host of religious dissenters from often induced to make the move to

England and the continent — Quak- the New World by the skillful per-

ers, Mennonites, Amish, Moravians, suasion of promoters . William Penn,

and Baptists .

for example, publicized the oppor-

When Penn arrived the follow- tunities awaiting newcomers to the

ing year, there were already Dutch, Pennsylvania colony . Judges and

Swedish, and English settlers liv- prison authorities offered convicts

ing along the Delaware River . It was a chance to migrate to colonies like

there he founded Philadelphia, the Georgia instead of serving prison

“City of Brotherly Love .”

sentences .

In keeping with his faith, Penn

But few colonists could finance

was motivated by a sense of equal- the cost of passage for themselves and

ity not often found in other Amer- their families to make a start in the

ican colonies at the time . Thus, new land . In some cases, ships’ cap-

women in Pennsylvania had rights tains received large rewards from the

long before they did in other parts sale of service contracts for poor mi-

of America . Penn and his deputies grants, called indentured servants,

also paid considerable attention to and every method from extravagant

the colony’s relations with the Del- promises to actual kidnapping was

aware Indians, ensuring that they used to take on as many passengers

were paid for land on which the Eu- as their vessels could hold .

ropeans settled .

In other cases, the expenses of

Georgia was settled in 1732, transportation and maintenance

the last of the 13 colonies to be were paid by colonizing agencies like

established . Lying close to, if not the Virginia or Massachusetts Bay

actual y inside the boundaries of Companies . In return, indentured

Spanish Florida, the region was servants agreed to work for the agen-

viewed as a buffer against Spanish cies as contract laborers, usually for

incursion . But it had another unique four to seven years . Free at the end of quality: The man charged with this term, they would be given “free-Georgia’s fortifications, General dom dues,” sometimes including a

James Oglethorpe, was a reformer small tract of land .

who deliberately set out to create a

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OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

Perhaps half the settlers living in

There was one very important

the colonies south of New England exception to this pattern: African

came to America under this system . slaves . The first black Africans were

Although most of them fulfilled brought to Virginia in 1619, just 12

their obligations faithfully, some ran years after the founding of James-

away from their employers . Never- town . Initially, many were regarded

theless, many of them were eventu- as indentured servants who could

ally able to secure land and set up earn their freedom . By the 1660s,

homesteads, either in the colonies in however, as the demand for planta-

which they had originally settled or tion labor in the Southern colonies

in neighboring ones . No social stig- grew, the institution of slavery be-

ma was attached to a family that had gan to harden around them, and Af-

its beginning in America under this ricans were brought to America in

semi-bondage . Every colony had its shackles for a lifetime of involuntary

share of leaders who were former in- servitude .

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dentured servants .

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