Colonial settlements.
Settlements were made, as productive germs of colonies, in the following order of time:
St. Augustine, Fla., was settled by Spaniards, under
Menendez, 1565, and is the oldest settlement by Europeans within the domain of the
United States.
It was permanently occupied by the Spaniards, excepting for a few years, until
Florida passed from their control (see
Florida and
St. Augustine).
Virginia was first settled by the
English temporarily (see
Raleigh, Sir Walter). The first permanent settlement was made by them in 1607, under the auspices of
London merchants, who that year sent five ships, with a colony, to settle on
Roanoke Island.
Storms drove them into the entrance to
Chesapeake Bay, when they ascended the Powhatan River 50 miles, landed, and built a hamlet, which they called
Jamestown.
The stream they named
James River—both in compliment to their
King.
After various vicissitudes, the settlement flourished, and, in 1619, the first representative Assembly in
Virginia was held at
Jamestown.
Then were laid the foundations of the
State of Virginia (q. v.).
Manhattan Island (now the borough of
Manhattan,
city of New York) was discovered by
Henry Hudson in 1609, while employed by the
Dutch East India Company.
Dutch traders were soon afterwards seated there and on the site of
Albany, 150 miles up the
Hudson River.
The government of
Holland granted exclusive privilege to
Amsterdam merchants to traffic with the Indians on the
Hudson, and the country was called New Netherland.
The Dutch West India Company was formed in 1621, with unrestricted control over New Netherland.
They bought
Manhattan Island of the Indians for about $24, paid chiefly in cheap trinkets, and in 1623 thirty families from
Holland landed there and began a settlement.
Then were laid the foundations of the
State of New York, as New Netherland was called after it passed into the possession of the
English.
Late in 1620 a company of
English Puritans (Puritans) who had fled from persecution to
Holland, crossed the
Atlantic and landed on the shores of
Massachusetts, by permission of the Plymouth Company (see
Plymouth Company). They built a town and called it New Plymouth; they organized a civil government and called themselves “Pilgrims.”
Others came to the shores of
Massachusetts soon afterwards, and tile present foundations of the
State of Massachusetts were laid at
Plymouth in 1620 (Pilgrim fathers). In 1622 the Plymouth Company granted to
Mason and
Gorges a tract of land bounded by the rivers
Merrimac and
Kennebec, the ocean, and the
St. Lawrence River, and fishermen settled there soon afterwards.
Mason and
Gorges dissolved their partnership in 1629, when the former obtained a grant for the whole tract, and laid the foundations for the commonwealth of
New Hampshire (q. v.).
King James of
England persecuted the
Roman Catholics in his dominions, and
George Calvert, who was a zealous royalist, sought a refuge for his brethren in
America.
King James favored his project, but died before anything of much consequence was accomplished.
His son Charles I. granted a domain between
North and
South Virginia to
Calvert (then created Lord Baltimore). Before the charter was completed Lord Baltimore died.
but his son
Cecil received it in 1632.
Tile domain was called
Maryland, and
Cecil sent his brother Leonard, with colonists, to settle it (see
Baltimore;
Baltimore, Lords;
Calvert,
Leonard). They arrived in the spring of 1634, and, at a place called St. Mary, they laid the foundations of the commonwealth of
Maryland (
Maryland). The
Dutch navigator,
Adriaen Block (q. v.), sailing east from
Manhattan, explored a river some distance inland, which the Indians called Quon-eh-ti-cut, and in the valley watered
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by that river a number of Puritans from
Plymouth began a settlement in 1633.
The first permanent settlement made in the
valley of the Connecticut was planted by Puritans from
Massachusetts (near
Boston), in 1636, on the site of
Hartford.
In 1638 another company from
Massachusetts settled on the site of New Haven.
The two settlements were afterwards politically united, and laid the foundations of the commonwealth of
Connecticut (q. v.), in 1639.
Meanwhile, elements were at work for the formation of a new settlement between
Connecticut and
Plymouth.
Roger Williams, a minister, was banished from
Massachusetts in 1636.
He went into the
Indian country at the head of Narraganset Bay, where he was joined by a few sympathizers, and they located themselves at a place which they called
Providence.
Others, men and women, joined them, and they formed a purely democratic government.
Others, persecuted at
Boston, fled to the
Island of Aquiday, or Aquitneck (now
Rhode Island), in 1638, and formed a settlement there.
The two settlements were consolidated under one government, called the
Providence and
Rhode Island Plantation, for which a charter was given in 1644.
So the commonwealth of
Rhode Island was founded.
A small colony from
Sweden made a settlement on the site of
New Castle, Del., and called the country New Sweden.
The
Dutch claimed the territory as a part of New Netherland, and the governor of the latter proceeded against the Swedes in the summer of 1655, and brought them under subjection.
It is difficult to draw the line of demarcation between the first settlements in
Delaware,
New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania, owing to their early political situation.
The (present)
State of Delaware remained in possession of the
Dutch, and afterwards of the
English, until it was purchased by
William Penn, in 1682, and annexed to
State of Pennsylvania (q. v.) So it remained until the Revolution as “the
Territories,” when it became the
State of
Delaware (q. v.) The first permanent settlement in
New Jersey (q. v.) was made at
Elizabethtown in 1644.
A province lying between
New Jersey and
Maryland was granted to
William Penn, in 1681, for an asylum for his persecuted brethren, the Quakers, and settlements were immediately begun there, in addition to some already made by the Swedes within the domain.
Unsuccessful attempts to settle in the region of the Carolinas had been made before the
English landed on the shores of the
James River.
Some settlers went into
North Carolina from
Jamestown, between the years 1640 and 1650, and in 1663 a settlement in the northern part of
North Carolina had an organized government, and the country was named Carolina, in honor of Charles II., of
England.
In 1668 the foundations of the commonwealth of
State of North Carolina (q. v.) were laid at
Edenton.
In 1670 some people from
Barbadoes sailed into the harbor of
Charleston and settled on the
Ashley and
Cooper rivers (see
State of South Carolina). The benevolent
General Oglethorpe, commiserating the condition of the prisoners for debt, in
England, conceived the idea of founding a colony in
America with them.
The government approved the project, and, in 1732, he landed, with emigrants, on the site of the city of
Savannah, and there planted the germ of the commonwealth of
Georgia (q. v.)
The first English colony planted in
America was the one sent over in 1585 by
Sir Walter Raleigh, who despatched
Sir Richard Grenville, with seven ships and many people, to form a colony in
Virginia, with Ralph Lane as their governor.
At
Roanoke Island Grenville left 107 men under
Lane to plant a colony, the first ever founded by Englishmen in
America.
This colony became much straitened for want of provisions next year, and, fortunately for them,
Sir Francis Drake, sailing up the
American coast with a squadron, visited the colony and found them in great distress.
He generously proposed to furnish them with supplies, a ship, a pinnace, and small boats, with sufficient seamen to stay and make a further discovery of the country; or sufficient provisions to carry them to
England, or to give them a passage home in his fleet.
The first proposal was accepted; but a storm having shattered his vessels, the discouraged colonists concluded to take passage for home with
Drake, which they did. The whole colony sailed from
Virginia June 18, 1586, and
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arrived at
Portsmouth, England, July 28.
Madame de Guercheville, a pious lady in
France, zealous for the conversion of the
American Indians, persuaded
De Monts to surrender his patent, and then obtained a charter for “all the lands of New France.”
She sent out missionaries in 1613.
They sailed from Honfleur March 12, and arrived in
Acadia (q. v.), where the arms of
Madame Guercheville were set up in token of possession.
Her agent proceeded to
Port Royal (now
Annapolis), where he found only five persons, two of whom were Jesuit missionaries previously sent over.
The
Jesuits went with other persons to
Mount Desert Island.
Just as they had begun to provide themselves with comforts, they were attacked by
Samuel Argall (q. v.), of
Virginia.
The
French made some resistance, but were compelled to surrender to superior numbers.
One of the Jesuits was killed, several were wounded, and the remainder made prisoners.
Argall took fifteen of the Frenchmen, besides the Jesuits, to
Virginia; the remainder sailed for
France.
This success induced the governor of
Virginia to send an expedition to crush the power of the
French in
Acadia, under the pretext that they were encroaching upon the rights of the
English.
Argall sailed with three ships for the purpose.
On his arrival he broke in pieces, at St. Saviour, a cross which the Jesuits had set up, and raised another, on which he inscribed the name of King James.
He sailed to St. Croix and destroyed the remains of De Mont's settlement there; and then he went to
Port Royal and laid that deserted town in ashes.
The English government did not approve the act, nor did the
French government resent it.
Though the revolution in
England (1688) found its warmest friends among the
Low Churchmen and Non-conformists there, who composed the
English Whig party, the high ideas which William entertained of royal authority made him naturally coalesce with the Tories and the High Church party.
As to the government of the colonies, he seems not to have abated any of the pretensions set up by his predecessors.
The colonial assemblies had hastened to enact in behalf of the people the
Bill of Rights of the Convention Parliament.
To these William gave frequent and decided negatives.
The provincial acts for establishing the writ of
Habeas corpus were also vetoed by the
King.
He also continued the order of James II.
prohibiting printing in the colonies.
Even men of liberal tendencies, like
Locke,
Somers, and
Chief-Justice Holt, conceded prerogatives to the
King in the colonies which they denied him at home.
The most renowned jurists of the kingdom had not yet comprehended the true nature of the connective principle between the parent country and her colonies.
As early as 1696 a pamphlet appeared in
England recommending Parliament to tax the
English-American colonies.
Two pamphlets appeared in reply, denying the right of Parliament to tax the colonies, because they had no representative in Parliament to give consent.
From that day the subject of taxing the colonies was a question frequently discussed, but not attempted until seventy years afterwards.
After the ratification of the treaty of
Paris in 1763, the
British government resolved to quarter troops in
America at the expense of the colonies.
The money was to be raised by a duty on foreign sugar and molasses, and by stamps on all legal and mercantile paper.
It was determined to make the experiment of tax ing the
American colonists in a way which
Walpole feared to undertake.
A debate arose in the House of Commons on the right of Parliament to tax the
Americans without allowing them to be represented in that body.
The question was decided by an almost unanimous vote in the affirmative.
“Until then no act. avowedly for the purpose of revenue, and with the ordinary title and recital taken together, is found on the statute-book of the realm,” said
Burke.
“All before stood on commercial regulations and restraints.”
Then the
House proceeded to consider the
Stamp act (q. v.).
In 1697 the right of appeal from the colonial courts to the
King in council was sustained by the highest legal authority.
By this means, and the establishment of courts of admiralty,
England at length acquired a judicial control over the colonies, and with it a power (afterwards imitated in our national Constitution) of bringing her supreme authority to bear not alone upon the colonies as political
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corporations, but, what was much more effectual, upon the colonists as individuals.
At the beginning of the
French and Indian War (1754), the period when the
American people “set up for themselves” in political and social life, there was no exact enumeration of the inhabitants; but from a careful examination of official records,
Mr. Bancroft estimated the number as follows:
| Colonies. | White. | Colored. |
| Massachusetts | 207,000 | 3 000 |
| New Hampshire | 50,000 |
| Connecticut | 133,000 | 3,500 |
| Rhode Island | 35,000 | 4,500 |
| New York | 85,000 | 11,000 |
| New Jersey | 73,000 | 5,000 |
| Pennsylvania and Delaware | 195,000 | 11,000 |
| Maryland | 104,000 | 44,000 |
| Virginia | 168,000 | 116,000 |
| North Carolina | 70,000 | 20,000 |
| South Carolina | 40,000 | 40,000 |
| Georgia | 5,000 | 2,000 |
| ——— | ——— |
| Total | 1,165,000 | 260,000 |
At this period the extent of the territorial possessions of
England and
France in
America was well defined on maps published by
Evans and
Mitchell—that of the latter (a new edition) in 1754.
The
British North American colonies stretched coastwise along the
Atlantic about 1,000 miles, but inland their extent was very limited.
New France, as the
French settlers called their claimed territory in
America, extended over a vastly wider space, from Cape Breton, in a sort of crescent, to the mouth of the
Mississippi River, but the population was mainly collected on the
St. Lawrence, between
Quebec and
Montreal.
The English colonies in
America at that time had a population of 1,485,634, of whom 292,738 were negroes.
The
French were scarcely 100,000 in number, but were strong in Indian allies, who, stretching along the whole interior frontier of the
English colonies, and disgusted with constant encroachments upon their territories, as well as ill-treatment by the
English, were always ripe and ready for cruel warfare.
The war with the
French and
Indians, and the contests with royal authority in which the colonies had been engaged at its close, in 1763, revealed to the colonists their almost unsuspected innate strength.
During these contests, disease and weapons had slain 30,000 of the colonists.
They had also spent more than $16,000,000, of which $5,000,000 had been reimbursed by Parliament.
Massachusetts alone had kept from 4,000 to 7,000 men in the field, besides garrisons and recruits to the regular regiments.
They served but a few months in the year, and were fed at the cost of the
British government.
At the approach of winter they were usually disbanded, and for every campaign a new army was summoned.
Yet that province alone spent $2,000,000 for this branch of the public service, exclusive of all parliamentary disbursements.
Connecticut had spent fully $2,000,000 for the same service, and the outstanding debt of New York, in 1763, incurred largely for the public service, was about $1,000,000.
The Southern colonies, too, had been liberal in such public expenditures, according to their means.
At that time
Virginia had a debt of $8,000,000. Everywhere the
English-American colonies felt the consciousness of puissant manhood, and were able to grapple in deadly conflict with every enemy of their inalienable rights.
They demanded a position of political equality with their fellowsubjects in
England, and were ready to maintain their rights at all hazards.
In
Pitt's cabinet, as chancellor of the exchequer, was the brilliant
Charles Townshend, loose in principles and bold in suggestions.
He had voted for the Stamp Act, and voted for its repeal as expedient, not because it was just.
In January, 1767, by virtue of his office, on which devolved the duty of suggesting ways and means for carrying on the government, he proposed taxation schemes which aroused the most vehement opposition in
America.
He introduced a bill imposing a duty on tea, paints, paper, glass, lead, and other articles of British manufacture imported into the colonies.
It was passed June 29.
The exportation of tea to
America was encouraged by another act, passed July 2, allowing for five years a drawback of the whole duty payable on the importation.
By another act, reorganizing the colonial custom-house system, a board of revenue commissioners for
America was established, to have its seat at
Boston.
Connected with these bills were provisions very obnoxious to the
Americans, all having relation to the main object—namely, raising a revenue
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in
America.
There was a provision in the first bill for the maintenance of a standing army in
America and enabling the crown to establish a general civil list; fixing the salaries of governors,
judges, and other officers in all the provinces, such salaries to be paid by the crown, making these officers independent of the people and fit instruments for government oppression.
A scheme was also approved, but not acted upon, for transferring to the mother-country, and converting into a source of revenue, the issue of the colonial paper currency.
The narrow-minded Hillsborough, British secretary of state for the colonies wishing, if possible, to blot out the settlements west of the
Appalachian Mountains, and to extend an unbroken line of Indian frontier from
Georgia to
Canada, had issued repeated instructions to that effect, in order to make an impassable obstruction of emigration westward.
These instructions were renewed with emphasis in 1768, when
John Stuart, an agent faithful to his trust, had already carried the frontier line to the northern limit of
North Carolina.
He was now ordered to continue it to the
Ohio, at the mouth of the
Kanawha.
By such a line all
Kentucky, as well as the entire territory northwest of the
Ohio, would be severed from the jurisdiction of
Virginia and confirmed to the Indians by treaties.
Virginia strenuously opposed this measure; and, to thwart the negotiations of
Stuart with the Indians, sent
Thomas Walker as her commissioner to the congress of the Six Nations held at
Fort Stanwix (q. v.) late in the autumn of 1768.
There about 3.000 Indians were present, who were loaded with generous gifts.
They complied with the wishes of the several agents present, and the western boundary-line was established at the mouth of the
Kanawha to meet
Stuart's line on the south.
From the
Kanawha northward it followed the
Ohio and
Alleghany rivers, a branch of the
Susquehanna, and so on to the junction of Canada and Wood creeks, tributaries of the
Mohawk River.
Thus the
Indian frontier was defined all the way from
Florida almost to
Lake Ontario; but
Sir William Johnson (q. v.), pretending to recognize a right of the Six Nations to a larger part of
Kentucky, caused the line to be continued down the
Ohio to the mouth of the
Tennessee River, which stream was made to constitute the western boundary of
Virginia.
In striking a balance of losses and gains in the matter of parliamentary taxation in
America, it was found in 1772 that the expenses on account of the Stamp Act exceeded $60,000, while there had been received for revenue (almost entirely from
Canada and the
West India islands) only about $7,500. The operation of levying a tax on tea had been still more disastrous.
The whole remittance from the colonies for the previous year for duties on teas and wines, and other articles taxed indirectly, amounted to no more than about $400, while ships and soldiers for the support of the collecting officers had cost about $500,000; and the East India Company had lost the sale of goods to the amount of $2,500,000 annually for four or five years.
After the proclamation of King George III., in 1775,
Joseph Hawley, one of the stanch patriots of
New England, wrote from
Watertown to
Samuel Adams, in Congress: “The eyes of all the continent are on your body to see whether you act with firmness and intrepidity—with the spirit and despatch which our situation calls for. It is time for your body to fix on periodical annual elections—nay, to form into a parliament of two houses.”
This was the first proposition for the establishment of an independent national government for the colonies.
On April 6, 1776, the Continental Congress, by resolution, threw open their ports to the commerce of the world “not subject to the
King of
Great Britain.”
This resolution was the broom that swept away the colonial system within the present bounds of the republic, and the flag of every nation save one was invited to our harbors.
Absolute free-trade was established.
The act was a virtual
declaration of independence.
