Category: Thirteen Colonies

The American colonies were established by people who fled British religious persecution. The British government is deeply involved in colonial affairs, and people are beginning to worry about losing their freedom again. After failing to establish a colony on Roanoke Island, Jamestown was known as the first of 13 colonies. It was founded by the London company in 1607, mainly to make money. As we all know, Jamestown is a port and commercial center. This is where people come to make a fortune. The purpose of Jamestown was to preach and convert the locals to Christianity. In 1624, a larger area was named Virginia, and this area included Jamestown. During this period, other colonies were named and established. In this essay, I will be explaining how and why so many colonists died in Jamestown back in 1607 to 1609.

It all started in the spring of 1607 when three English ships carrying about 110 men sailed into the Chesapeake Bay. They sailed up the James River with high hopes because this was going to be the first permanent English settlement in the New World. The settlers explored the coast and picked an island spot that could be easily defended if they were attacked by the local natives. They named the new settlement Jamestown after King James I, They then built a triangle shaped fort for protection. There were a lot of plans for this New World like finding riches, teaching Native American people the ways of Christ, and also finding a trade route to China.

Unfortunately, their dreams were crushed when over half of them died. Many colonists died because of the environment. The main reason the environment killed them was that of the Brackish water, tides, and droughts. The contamination of their water happened when they decided to throw their waste in the water. They did this because they thought that the waste would wash away but it started to fester instead of flushing away, according to document A. They would then drink the water and would get sick and eventually die from the disease. The tides are also included in killing colonists because when it is a high tide, the salt water would come into their fresh water, making the water brackish and would make it bad to drink. Drinking too much brackish water is not good for you and can give you a disease and kill you. The tides also mixed the water which made the water even more contaminated. Also in Document E, the chronology article, it says that many of the colonists died from sickness.

Based on the evidence I found, I think the disease is one of the main causes of all of the deaths. In conclusion, I think that so many colonists died in early Jamestown because of disease, lack of surgeons, and medicine. Droughts killed many colonists in the Jamestown. Drought from 1607 to 1611 shown by document B that shows tree rings which is an evaluation of what happens to the tree. If the ring is thicker, that was a period of wet weather and if the ring is thinner than that was a period of dry weather. The ring was thinnest and longest under average rainfall in 1607 to 1611 which was mentioned before. A drought is a long period of dry weather, long enough to harm crops. A drought would harm crops and killing them and would leave the colonists with a limited food supply if any. This would lead to the trade with the Native Americans which would not go well going back to the earlier point of their relations with the Native Americans. Another cause of death in the colony was starvation. The Starving Time at Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia was a period of starvation during the winter of 1609–1610.

When the colonists sailed from England to Jamestown, they had very little food supplies because they believed they would quickly learn how to develop the land and grow their own food. However, the Powhatans refused to give over their food and firewood that were located outside of the fort walls. The colonists began to die from extreme starvation. Food became so scarce, that the colonists began to result in cannibalism to keep from starving. Cannibalism is the practice of eating the flesh of one’s own species. Basically, many colonists died in early Jamestown because of the relations with the Native Americans, typically the trading incident with cutting extremities, the environment, which is the contamination of water, tides and droughts, and finally the lack of skills, which are jobs that provide food, help the sick and social skills with the Native Americans. All these problems were very hard for the colonists, only 90 people got throughout of 560 colonists. These obstacles that the colonists faced really changed the development of the settlement of Jamestown and affected the coming of any future settlement.

From the time our generation landed in Jamestown, we have been respecting your acts and regulations. During those times, many inappropriate actions both sides have taken. However, your recent actions of the Molasses Act, Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Quartering Act, Townshend Act, the Tea Act, and Coercive Acts cannot be tolerated by the colonists. These actions have led us to revolt against your will and will not be condoned because of it suppressed our natural rights. The colonists and I covet for your consideration and we also yearn for the peace and independence from you and your country We have evident reasons on why us, colonist, should revolt against your country and nothing can stand in our way, not even your army. Everyone are created equal, no one surpassing another, and our inalienable rights are all endued by God. No one has the right to take our freedom away from us; No one has the right to subdue our rights for their own contentment; And no one has the right to remove our inalienable privileges from us. However, you have attempted to take them without our awareness. but we won’t let that occur. We will fight back! We will revolt! We will boycott! For years, burden has weighed us down and distress has lead us astray, but this time your decisions will no longer affect our nation. We will fight against your troops no matter what it takes. All the sufferings that you gave us are no longer going to affect us. The rigorous acts that you have passed over the years are unbearable and we want you to know the stress, anguish, and hardship we suffered.

The resented acts you passed are not reasonable because us, as colonists, should have the liberty to vote on what kinds of laws we accept to be passed. In the contrary, you, my king, just kept passing multiple laws without any consent from us. An act that many of us are angered of is the Quartering Act because of the soldiers coming in and out of our homes without any permission. Also, many of our children and other people living in our homes are being harassed and raped against their will. Nonetheless,after you heard our plan of revolt, you held back and repealed the law. The next act that we were vexed at is the Tea Act. The Tea Act prevented us from buying from any other company except the East India Company, where the teas are very expensive and are taxed. Because of this act, we revolted in anger and didn’t even hesitate to think about our actions. During the Boston Tea Party, the Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Indians and went to the Boston Harbor, boarded the ships containing tea, and dumped approximately 45,000 tons, or 90,000 pounds, of tea into the frigid Atlantic Ocean waters. Due to this action, you repealed the Tea Act and replaced it with the ever so vicious Intolerable Acts of the Coercive Acts. Not only did this act shut down the Boston Harbor, but also it prohibited us from having town meetings, brought back the Quartering Act, passed the Quebec Act, which gave back the land we gained from France back to the French, and allowed the British Soldiers to have their trials in England. The Intolerable Act was the worst law ever passed, affecting everyone in the whole colony. We know that you are mad, but you have no right to be irked because of all the unfair laws you have passed to give burden to our life. Try to at least consider all the suffering that you have given us and try to cooperate with us. We can work things out in a peaceful manner or in violent actions. Which one do you want?

According to John Locke, everyone has inalienable rights, which are privileges that can never be taken away from an individual. These rights are called natural rights and they are the right to live, the right to have liberty, and the right to have ownership over their properties. However, you have tried to take away our rights and claim us as your own, but that cannot be left untouched. John Locke believed that if a king or a monarch decides to take away our rights, we have the right to revolt and set up a new government, and that is the reason for this letter. Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet called Common Sense where he uses strong words in order to condemn you and called for a complete separation from Britain because of your injustice acts. We do not accept your ways and can go against your will no matter what it takes. There are only two choices for you, my king: To be at peace and release us from your grasp or decide the faith of the colonists by having a revolution.

The Thirteen colonies was a new world for oppressed people to go for new opportunities for a better life. The thirteen colonies are seperated into three different sections: the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies.These colonies might have been vastly different, but they actually do have some similarities. The New England Colonies were located in the north parts of the thirteen colonies. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, and New Hampshire were apart of the New England Colonies. On June 12th, 1630, eleven pilgrim ships arrived in Massachusetts, led by the Arbella. It arrived with 700 Puritans. The Puritan faith are identified with Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The Puritans sailed to the new world to escape the english church. They were influenced to totally reform and “purify” the Church of England. The main export of these colonies were fur, timber, and fish. In 1633, Puritans from Plymouth moved to Connecticut River Valley. Some Puritans pushed further west and in 1662, Connecticut was given a royal charter. In 1622, the Council for New England granted new land for settlement, New Hampshire and Maine. The main export for the New England colonies were timber, fur, and fish. The relationship between the New England colonists was extremely volatile. From 1637 to 1638, the Pequot War was fought and the Pequot Nation was defeated and dissolved. New England colonists expanded west, encroaching on land belonging to the Wampanoag Tribe. The colonists even tried to christianize them. In June, 1675, they attacked New England farms. King Philip’s War began. Eventually, Wampanoags were worn down by heavy casualties, losses of food and supplies. Colonists expanded further west and could easily control remaining Wampanoag natives.

The Middle Colonies were in the middle of the the thirteen colonies. Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware were apart of the the middle colonies.There was quite a large residencies from different parts of Europe in the middle colonies. In 1609, The Dutch East India Company with captain Henry Hudson sailed into Delaware and New York Bay was claimed the area for Holland (Netherlands). In 1610, a fur trading post was established on Manhattan Island called New Amsterdam. In 1626, Peter Minuit led the Dutch Colony in Manhattan. In 1638, the Swedes established a trading post of their own.

In 1681, William Penn was given a land grant in honor of his late father, who died in 1670, during the British Civil War. Pennsylvania named after his father – means “Penn’s Woods”. William Penn was a quaker and so, of course, pennsylvania was inherenitly a quaker colony. Pennsylvania had lots of land and fertile soil. Quakers had good relations with Indians and walked freely in their villages. Scotch-Irish and Germans mainly migrated to Pennsylvania. In 1704, Delaware chose its own separate assembly. Most of these people were refugees seeking new land, freedom from religious oppression, and new opptunities for a better life. Religon in the middle colonies were intermingled, because of the various people from different countries carligons into America. The main export for the middle colonies was wheat.

The Southern Colonies were Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina colonies. On May 6th, 1607, The Virginia company landed on American east coast in the Chesapeake Bay region. Virgina was a haven for anglicans. In 1634, Maryland was founded by Cecilius Calvert. Maryland was founded originally for persecuted Catholics and Protestants. In 1649, Maryland issued the Act of Toleration. It guaranteed religious toleration to all Christians, but decreeded the death penalty to anyone who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Carolina was made up of two different settlements; In late 1650’s Northern part was settled by people from Virginirying their rea and in 1669 , the area of South Carolina had first colonists arrive from Barbados. In 1670, Carolina became a royal colony.

In 1732, King George II gave land to James Oglethorpe, who named it after King George II. A year later, Georgia became a royal colony. The southern colonies were plantations colonies. Their main exports were tobacco, rice, and indigo. Indentured servants and slavery provided most of the labor for these planations. The relationship between the colonist and native americans were a mix of volatile and mutually beneificial.

These colonies are almost polar opposites, but they do have some similarities between them. The All the colonies had one big religious group that had a big influence over the colonies: Puritans, Quakers, and Anglicans. Religious freedom was a common theme for all the colonists to come to America. It may not have been the defining reason for every colonists to come to America, but it was one reason of a list to do so. All colonies had slaves or indentured servants. The Middle Colonies were semi-industrial and semi-agricultral, but shared the agricultural part with the southern colonies. The New England and some Southern Colonies had a type of volatile relationship with the natives, but the Middle Colonies and some Southern Colonies also shared a mutually beneficial relationship with the natives.

The New England, Middle, and Southern colonies had multiple differnces, but multiple similarities. The main differences were where they were settled, who they were and their purpose for settling. The main similarites were religous freedom and slavery/indentured servants. The New England, Middle, and Southern colonies had their differences, but they also had their similarities.