Colonial America: Settlements, Systems, Heads of Society

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Jamestown:

The Virginia Company, a joint stock company, received a charter from King James I in 1606 with the intention of making a settlement in the New World. The charter of the Virginia Company guaranteed the settlers the same rights of Englishmen back in England. On May 24, 1607 105 English settlers, all of them men, landed to settle Jamestown. Jamestown, named in honor of King James I, became the English settlement in the New World. Virginia was founded to offer and expand a market for trade, profit from land sales and give English territorial claims to America. Jamestown became a successful tobacco producing and shipping colony.

Mayflower Compact, Plymouth, Pilgrims, Puritans, Calvinism:

The Mayflower Compact was an agreement made by the Pilgrims in 1620 when they disembarked at Plymouth. The compact formed a crude government under James I based on the general will. The compact was crucial in the early organization of the Plymouth colony. The Pilgrims were the original group of Puritan separatist that escaped religious persecution in England and found haven in New World. The Pilgrims wanted a place where they would worship their own religion. The Pilgrims reached the New World in 1620 where they founded the Plymouth colony and structured a government based on the Mayflower Compact. The Puritans and the Pilgrims were very similar in many beliefs and practices, but the Pilgrims were a group of Puritans who wanted complete separation from the Church. The Puritans were influenced to purify the Church. It was for this reason that they fled England. The Puritan colonies were based on the teachings of John Calvin, a leader in the Protestant reformation. Calvinism stressed predestination, the belief that one’s after life...

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...s and began attacking and driving all of the Indians out of the colony. Berkeley decided that Bacon’s actions were extreme and recalled him. Bacon’s force then rebelled against the government, chasing Berkeley from Jamestown and burning it down. In the middle of the rebellion, Bacon suddenly died of disease. Berkeley immediately crushed the rebellion with cruelty and hunted down the rebels. Bacon’s legacy lived on, giving irritated poor people ideas to begin a rebellion. As a result of Bacon’s Rebellion the colonists adopted slavery as the main source for labor. The uprising took place because many of the indentured servants in Virginia were not satisfied with how they were being treated. The rebellion showed the aristocracy that they needed a more compliant labor force that would be easier to control for the fear of rebellion again. Thus they invested in slavery.

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