The Regions of the BRITISH COLONIES [APUSH Review Unit 2 Topic 3] 2.3

Summary

This video from Heinrich's History explores the development of distinct societies in British North American colonies. It begins with the Chesapeake colonies, highlighting the role of joint-stock companies in funding ventures like Jamestown, which initially struggled but thrived after tobacco cultivation. The video contrasts this with New England colonies, settled by Puritans seeking religious freedom and economic stability. It then discusses the British West Indies and Southern Atlantic colonies, where sugarcane led to a demand for enslaved labor. The Middle Colonies, with diverse populations and economies, are also covered. The video concludes by noting the democratic systems of governance that emerged across these colonies.

Takeaways

• 🏰 The first British colony in North America was Jamestown, established in 1607 and financed by a joint-stock company, marking a shift from state-sponsored ventures to private investment.
• 🌱 The initial focus of Jamestown was on gold mining and tobacco cultivation, with tobacco eventually becoming the colony's economic savior.
• 👨‍🌾 Indentured servants were the primary labor force in the Chesapeake colonies, working to pay off their passage to America through a seven-year labor contract.
• 🔥 Bacon's Rebellion highlighted the tensions between poor farmers and the colonial government, leading to a shift towards using enslaved labor from Africa.
• 🌐 The New England colonies were settled by Puritans seeking to practice their religion freely, though economic reasons were also a significant factor in their migration.
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 New England colonists migrated in family groups, establishing a society based on agriculture and commerce, contrasting with the profit-driven motives of the Chesapeake colonies.
• 🏝️ The British West Indies colonies, with their warm climate, initially grew tobacco but later shifted to sugarcane, leading to a high demand for enslaved labor.
• 📜 The shift to sugarcane production in the Caribbean colonies resulted in the enactment of harsh slave codes, defining enslaved people as property and regulating their behavior.
• 🌾 The Middle Colonies developed diverse economies based on cereal crops and trade, with a social structure that included wealthy merchants, artisans, and a significant enslaved population.
• ✝️ Pennsylvania, founded by Quaker William Penn, was known for its religious tolerance and peaceful land negotiations with Native Americans, reflecting Penn's pacifist values.

Q & A

What was the primary reason for the establishment of Jamestown?

The primary reason for the establishment of Jamestown was to generate profit for the investors who funded the colony through a joint-stock company model.

How did the joint-stock company model differ from the Spanish model of colonization funding?

The joint-stock company model was privately funded by a group of investors who pooled their money and shared the financial risk, unlike the Spanish model which was primarily state-sponsored and funded by the Spanish crown.

What crop saved the Jamestown colony from economic failure?

The cultivation of tobacco, which was experimented with by a colonist named John Rolfe, became the crop that saved the Jamestown colony from economic failure.

What was the role of indentured servants in the Chesapeake colonies?

Indentured servants in the Chesapeake colonies were individuals who signed labor contracts to work for a period, typically seven years, to pay off their settlement fees. They provided the labor needed for the tobacco plantations.

Why did the Chesapeake colonists encroach on Native American lands?

The Chesapeake colonists encroached on Native American lands to acquire more land for tobacco cultivation, which was in high demand due to its profitability.

What was Bacon's Rebellion and what were its consequences?

Bacon's Rebellion was an uprising led by Nathaniel Bacon against the colonial governor William Berkeley, due to resentment over the governor's neglect of Indian violence and the colonists' safety. The consequences included an increased fear among the elite planters of indentured servant uprisings, leading them to seek alternative labor sources, such as enslaved Africans.

Why did the Pilgrims and Puritans settle in New England, and what was their primary motivation?

The Pilgrims and Puritans settled in New England primarily for economic reasons, not religious freedom as commonly believed. They sought to establish a society and create family economies as farmers.

How did the climate of the British West Indies influence the type of crops grown there?

The warm climate of the British West Indies, which provided long growing seasons, initially favored tobacco cultivation. However, by the 1630s, sugarcane became the more profitable crop due to its labor-intensive production process.

What was the impact of sugarcane cultivation on the demand for enslaved labor in the British West Indies?

The labor-intensive nature of sugarcane cultivation led to a significant increase in the demand for enslaved Africans, resulting in a demographic shift where the majority of the population on islands like Barbados became black.

How did the Middle Colonies differ in terms of economy and population diversity compared to the Chesapeake and New England colonies?

The Middle Colonies had a more diverse population and developed an export economy based on cereal crops due to their fertile lands and access to waterways. The society was structured with wealthy urban merchants at the top, followed by middle-class artisans and shopkeepers, unskilled laborers, and a significant population of enslaved Africans at the bottom.

What was unique about the governance systems in the British colonies in North America?

The British colonies in North America developed unusually democratic systems of governance, largely due to the practical difficulty of governing from across the Atlantic. This led to the establishment of representative assemblies and town meetings that allowed for self-governance, although these were often dominated by the elite of the societies.

Outlines

00:00

🌏 Early British Colonies in North America

The video discusses the European colonization of the Americas, focusing on the British colonies in North America. It begins with the Chesapeake colonies, highlighting the establishment of Jamestown in 1607, financed by a joint-stock company. The colonists initially sought gold and silver, leading to a famine that nearly wiped them out. The cultivation of tobacco by John Rolfe saved the colony, and indentured servants provided the labor. The demand for land for tobacco cultivation led to conflicts with Native Americans, culminating in Bacon's Rebellion. The video also touches on the shift from indentured servants to enslaved Africans as a labor source.

05:00

🌱 Contrasting Colonial Societies and Governance

The video contrasts the Chesapeake colonies with the New England colonies, which were settled by Puritans seeking to live by their own conscience rather than for religious freedom. New England colonists migrated as family units, focusing on agriculture and commerce. The British West Indies and southern Atlantic colonies, with their warm climate, initially grew tobacco but later shifted to sugarcane, leading to a high demand for enslaved labor and the establishment of harsh slave codes. The Middle Colonies, including New York and New Jersey, developed export economies based on cereal crops and had diverse populations. Pennsylvania, founded by Quaker William Penn, emphasized religious freedom and peaceful negotiations with Native Americans for land. The video concludes by noting the democratic systems of governance that emerged across the colonies, reflecting the practical challenges of British rule from across the Atlantic.

Keywords

💡British Colonization

British Colonization refers to the establishment and growth of British colonies in various parts of the world, including North America. In the video, this term is central to understanding the historical context of how distinct societies developed in North America under British rule. The script discusses how different regions, despite being under British control, evolved unique characteristics due to factors like economic models, local leadership, and geographical conditions.

💡Chesapeake Colonies

The Chesapeake Colonies, which include Virginia and Maryland, were among the first British settlements in North America. The video explains that these colonies were characterized by their focus on profit through the cultivation of tobacco and the use of indentured servants. The script provides a detailed account of the economic and social challenges faced by these colonies, including the switch from gold mining to tobacco farming and the subsequent need for more land, which led to conflicts with Native Americans.

💡Joint Stock Company

A Joint Stock Company is a business model where investors pool their resources to fund ventures, sharing both the risks and the potential profits. The video script highlights that the establishment of Jamestown was financed by such a company, which was a departure from the state-sponsored ventures typical of Spanish colonization. This model influenced the colony's focus on profit, leading to the pursuit of gold and the eventual cultivation of tobacco.

💡Indentured Servants

Indentured Servants were individuals who agreed to work for a set period, typically seven years, in exchange for their passage to the New World. The video explains that these servants were a significant part of the labor force in the Chesapeake Colonies, particularly in tobacco farming. The script notes how the demand for labor due to the cultivation of tobacco led to the encroachment on Native American lands and the subsequent tensions.

💡Tobacco

Tobacco was a crucial cash crop in the Chesapeake Colonies, as explained in the video. Its cultivation was pivotal to the survival and economic success of these colonies, especially after the initial failures in gold mining. The script describes how the discovery of tobacco farming by John Rolfe saved the colony from famine and economic collapse, setting the stage for the development of a plantation economy.

💡Bacon's Rebellion

Bacon's Rebellion was an uprising in the Virginia Colony led by Nathaniel Bacon against the colonial governor, William Berkeley. The video script discusses this event as a response to the governor's perceived neglect of the colonists' concerns regarding Native American violence and land disputes. The rebellion is significant as it reflects the tensions between the elite planters and the poorer farmers, as well as the beginnings of a shift towards the use of enslaved labor.

💡New England Colonies

The New England Colonies, including Massachusetts, were settled by Puritans seeking religious freedom and a new life. The video contrasts these colonies with the Chesapeake Colonies, emphasizing their focus on family and community rather than profit. The script explains that these colonies were established by family groups and centered on agriculture and commerce, with a society that was more democratic and less focused on a single cash crop.

💡Puritans

Puritans were Protestants who sought to reform the Church of England and later emigrated to the New World for religious and economic reasons. The video script clarifies a common misconception about the Pilgrims' reasons for coming to America, stating that while religious freedom was important, economic factors were also significant. The Puritans' values and practices shaped the culture and governance of the New England Colonies.

💡Middle Colonies

The Middle Colonies, such as New York and Pennsylvania, were characterized by their diverse populations and economies based on cereal crops and trade. The video script describes how these colonies developed export economies and had more democratic systems of governance, with representative bodies that included a broader range of the population. The script also notes the presence of a significant enslaved African population and the emergence of an elite class.

💡Enslaved Africans

Enslaved Africans were brought to the British colonies as a labor force, particularly in the tobacco and sugarcane plantations. The video script discusses the shift from indentured servitude to slavery in the Chesapeake Colonies and the Caribbean, where the labor-intensive nature of sugar production created a high demand for enslaved workers. The script also touches on the harsh slave codes enacted to control this population and the implications for race relations in the colonies.

💡Democracy and Governance

The video script highlights the development of democratic systems of governance in the British colonies, despite their geographical distance from Britain. It explains that the practical difficulties of governing from afar led to the colonies developing their own representative bodies, such as the House of Burgesses in Virginia and town meetings in New England. These systems allowed for a degree of self-governance and participation by the colonists, which was a significant departure from the more autocratic rule often seen in other colonial contexts.

Highlights

British colonization in North America led to the development of distinct societies within the colonies.

Chesapeake colonies, starting with Jamestown in 1607, were the first British colonies in North America.

Jamestown was financed by a joint-stock company, a new economic model for funding exploration.

Colonists in Jamestown initially focused on finding gold and constructing military forts.

Famine and disease struck Jamestown, with cannibalism occurring during the harsh conditions.

The cultivation of tobacco by John Rolfe saved the Jamestown colony from collapse.

Indentured servants provided most of the labor in the Chesapeake colonies.

Demand for more land for tobacco cultivation led to conflicts with Native Americans.

Nathaniel Bacon led a rebellion against the governor's neglect of farmer's issues and Indian violence.

The elite planters in the Chesapeake colonies sought a new labor source, leading to the use of enslaved Africans.

New England colonies were settled by Pilgrims and Puritans seeking to live by their own conscience.

New England colonists migrated in family groups and focused on establishing a society and family economies.

The British West Indies colonies, such as Barbados, relied on sugarcane as a primary cash crop.

The labor-intensive sugar production in the Caribbean led to a high demand for enslaved Africans.

South Carolina colonists attempted to replicate the labor-intensive society of the British West Indies.

Middle colonies like New York and New Jersey developed export economies based on cereal crops.

Pennsylvania, founded by William Penn, recognized religious freedom and negotiated with Native Americans for land.

Despite being British, the colonies developed unusually democratic systems of governance.

The House of Burgesses in Virginia and the Mayflower Compact in New England exemplified democratic self-governance.

Transcripts

hey there and welcome back to heinrich's

history now we've been going through

unit two of the ap us history curriculum

and what we've been talking about is

european colonization in the americas

generally but now we're going to zero in

on the british colonies of north america

so if you're ready to get them brain

cows milked let's get to it okay so the

big question we've got to consider in

this video is not just british

colonization in general but specifically

how and why did these british colonies

develop into distinct societies like yes

they were all british but from region to

region the colonies were very different

and why was that let's just choose a

region to get started in our comparison

and just for poops and giggles let's

start with the chesapeake colonies you

know i have to be honest it's

not just for poops and googles that

we're starting here we're starting here

because they were first so the first

north american colony established by the

british was jamestown in 1607 and the

establishment of jamestown was financed

by a new economic model of funding

called a joint stock company this is

kind of a big deal so let me explain now

in the last unit we dealt mainly with

spanish colonization and that venture

was funded by the spanish crown and that

was the case for a great deal of the

european explorers but a joint stock

company was more of a private thing and

less of a state-sponsored thing in order

to pay for the exploration a group of

investors pooled their money together

and shared the financial risk so if the

venture profited so did they if it

failed then no one lost everything since

they all shared in it to begin with so

anyway that's how the founding of

jamestown was funded and that should

give you some idea as to what the

purpose of the colony actually was which

is to say profit those investors wanted

to make some scratch and so in line with

those motives when the colonists

actually did show up they basically

divided their time between digging for

gold and silver and constructing a

military fort to protect said gold and

silver now unfortunately no one told

them that they could not eat their gold

and so famine killed nearly half of them

in the first two years not to mention

disease and it got bad enough that they

did in fact resort to cannibalism this

is kenny

this tastes like kenny anyway who knows

how many of them would have passed

through their fellow colonists digestive

tracts if it weren't for the discovery

of a miracle in 1612 namely the

cultivation of tobacco one of the

colonists named john rolfe began to

experiment with tobacco planting and

once that took hold back in england this

one crop saved them now most of the

labor in this colony was done by

indentured servants and these were folks

who couldn't afford the passage across

the atlantic and so they signed a

seven-year labor contract in which they

basically worked to pay off their

settlement fees and then they went free

now the consequence of this increased

demand for tobacco was that the farmers

needed more land on which to plant it

and the only way they were going to get

more land is to further encroach on the

land of the native americans which as

you can imagine led to some increasing

tension between the two groups and not

surprisingly this encroachment on their

land led the natives to retaliate

violently and raid the farmers

settlements and when the columnist

called on their governor william

berkeley he decided that their cause was

not worth his effort and that snub leads

us to bacon's rebellion so nathaniel

bacon was one of those angry farmers who

turned out to be saltier than the

breakfast meat that bears his name

resentful of indian violence and

berkeley's neglect he led other poor

farmers and endangered servants in an

attack on the indians and then turned

their destructive power on the

plantations owned by berkeley himself

now it wasn't long before this rebellion

was squashed but the consequence of it

was exceedingly important the elite

planters looked around and saw the great

populations of indentured servants

working in their fields and they began

to fear that more uprisings might occur

and so it was at that point that they

began to seek a new source of labor for

their plantation and it just so happened

that enslaved people from africa fit

that bill and i'll have much more to say

about that in another video but for now

we'll just leave that there okay so that

was jamestown if we move a little

further north to the new england

colonies you can really ask for a

starker contrast in colonial society

these colonies were settled by pilgrims

in 1620 and that paved the way for an

influx of puritan settlers and these

were protestants who were unhappy with

the theology and the strictures of the

church of england and therefore sought

to emigrate in order to live by their

own conscience now side note ask anyone

on the street why the pilgrims showed up

to live in america and nine times out of

ten they're going to tell you religious

freedom and i'm here to tell you that

the pilgrims did not primarily come to

america for religious freedom

scandalous no when they first left

england many of them settled in holland

whose policies on religious tolerance

meant that the puritans had all the

religious freedom that they could ever

want but the problem is that as farmers

they had trouble making a living in an

urban area and so they left and came to

america so it was primarily for economic

reasons that they arrived on the

american shores but i digress anyway

unlike the jamestown settlers who

migrated without any familial

connections the new england colonists

migrated largely as family groups which

is to say they didn't come for profit

they came to establish a society and

create family economies as farmers even

so just like their southern counterparts

their life was rough the first couple of

years like fever and disease killed

nearly half of the original settlers but

after a couple of years they were able

to establish a thriving society and

economy that centered on agriculture and

commerce okay now let's have a look at

the colonies in the british west indies

and the southern atlantic coast in the

1620s the british established their

first permanent colonies in the

caribbean on islands like saint

christopher and barbados and nevis if

you've ever been to those places you

will know that they are warm for most of

the year and that means long growing

seasons and just like in jamestown

tobacco became the primary cash crop

grown here but by the 1630s and all

together more profitable crop had taken

its place sugarcane now the growth and

production of sugar is very labor

intensive so this created a spike in

demand for african enslaved people and

by 1660 that demand had grown so much

that the majority of the population on

barbados for example was black and

because of this growing population of

blacks the planter elites enacted harsh

slave codes which strictly regulated

their behavior and formally defined

enslaved people as property or to use a

term for it chattel now up on the

atlantic coast south carolina colonists

were inspired by such practices in the

british west indies and basically tried

to replicate such a society on the

mainland okay and finally we need to do

a little talking about the middle

colonies first new york and new jersey

these colonies were situated by the sea

and were shot through with lots of

rivers and streams and therefore they

developed an export economy based on

cereal crop additionally these colonies

had a diverse population that over time

became increasingly unequal due to an

emerging elite class and basically

society was structured thusly the

wealthy urban merchants were up on top

next came the middle class artisans and

shopkeepers and then below them you have

the unskilled laborers orphans widows

and the unemployed and bottom of all you

had a significant population of enslaved

africans another of the middle colonies

worth mentioning is pennsylvania which

was founded by william penn who was a

quaker and a pacifist and the colony

that bore his name also exhibited his

values in pennsylvania religious freedom

was recognized for all and when they

sought to expand their land holdings

they mostly negotiated with the indians

who held it contrary to the new england

and chesapeake colonists okay so that's

a flavor of all the british colonies

during this period and while they were

all british they developed into some

very distinct societies but there was

one thing that was pretty similar

throughout all these colonies and that

was their unusually democratic systems

of governance you see one of the

practical effects of mama britain being

all the dang way across the atlantic is

that it was difficult to govern these

colonies and so they kind of just let

the colonies figure out their own

systems of governance and when they did

they were largely models of democratic

self-governance for example in virginia

you had the house of burgesses which was

a representative assembly which could

levy taxes on the population and pass

laws in new england the pilgrims signed

and bound themselves to the mayflower

compact which organized their government

on the model of a self-governing church

congregation and to this end they

concentrated power into participatory

town meetings the middle and southern

colonies also had representative bodies

and it'll be important for you to know

that they were dominated by the elite of

those societies in the middle colonies

elite merchants ran the legislature and

in the south elite planters all right

that's what you need to know about unit

two topic three of ap us history if you

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