New England Colonies: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|British American colonies (1620-1776)}}

| event1 = [[Mayflower#Arrival_in_AmericaArrival in America|Landing of the ''Mayflower'']]

| event6 = [[Siege_of_BostonSiege of Boston#Evacuation|British troops leave Boston]]

In 1616, [[John Smith (explorer)|Captain John Smith]]'s authored ''[[A Description of New England]]'', which first applied the term "[[New England]]"<ref>Bisceglia</ref> to the coastal lands from [[Long Island Sound]] in the south to [[Newfoundland]] in the north.<ref>Smith</ref>

England, France, and the Netherlands made several attempts to colonize New England early in the 17th century, and those nations were often in contention over lands in the New World. French nobleman [[Pierre Dugua Sieur de Monts]] established a settlement on [[Saint Croix Island, Maine]] in June 1604 under the authority of the King of France. Nearly half the settlers perished due to the harsh winter and [[scurvy]], and the survivors moved north out of New England to [[Port -Royal, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia(Acadia)|Port-Royal]] of Nova Scotia (see symbol "R" on map to the right) in the spring of 1605.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stecroix2004.org/en/history.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010803065118/http://www.stecroix2004.org/en/history.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=2001-08-03 |title=St. Croix Island History |last=St. Croix Celebration |access-date=2008-12-21 }}</ref>

[[King James VI and I|King James I of England]] recognized the need for a permanent settlement in New England, and he granted competing royal charters to the [[Plymouth Company]] and the [[London Company]]. The Plymouth Company ships arrived at the mouthbay of the [[Kennebec River]] (then called the Sagadahoc River) in August 1607 where they established a settlement named Sagadahoc Colony, better known as [[Popham Colony]] (see symbol "Po" on map to right) to honor financial backer Sir [[John Popham (Lord Chief Justice)|John Popham]]. The colonists faced a harsh winter, the loss of supplies following a storehouse fire, and mixed relations with the local Indian tribes.

Colony leader Captain [[George Popham]] died, and Raleigh Gilbert decided to return to England to take up an inheritance left by an older brother— at which point, all of the colonists decided to return to England. It was around August 1608 when they left on the ship ''Mary and John'' and on a new ship built by the colony named ''[[Virginia of Sagadahoc]]''. The 30-ton ''Virginia'' was the first sea-going ship ever built in North America.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mfship.org/Maines_First_Ship/Home.html|title=Maine's First Ship: Historic Overview|publisher=Maine's First Ship|access-date=22 July 2013}}</ref>

[[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|American Indians]] who were captured during various conflicts in New England, such as the [[Pequot War]] (1636–1638) and [[King Philip's War]] (1675–1678), were sometimes sold into slavery.<ref>{{cite book |last=Newell |first=Margret Ellen |date=2015 |title=Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/57597 |location=Ithaca, New York |publisher=Cornell University Press |pagepages=11–158|isbn=978-0-8014-5648-1580 }}</ref> Utilizing captured prisoners of war as a source of forced labor was common in Europe; during the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]], prisoners of war were frequently [[Indentured servitude|indentured]] and transported to plantations in [[Barbados]] and [[Colony of Jamaica|Jamaica]].<ref>Nathaniel Philbrick. ''Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War'' (Viking 2006) p. 253</ref>

[[Plymouth Colony]] ranger [[Benjamin Church (ranger)|Benjamin Church]] spoke out against the practice of enslaving Indians in the summer of 1675, describing the practice as "an action so hateful... that [I] opposed it to the loss of the goodwill and respect of some that before were good friends." However, Church was not opposed to [[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|black slavery]], owning black slaves like many of his fellow colonists.<ref>Nathaniel Philbrick. ''Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War'' (Viking 2006) pp 253, 345</ref> During King Philip's War, some captured Indians were enslaved and transported aboard New England merchant ships to the [[West Indies]], where they were sold to European planters. Various colonial councils decreed that "no male captive above the age of fourteen years should reside in the colony."<ref>Nathaniel Philbrick. ''Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War'' (Viking 2006) p. 345</ref> Margret Ellen Newell estimates that hundreds of Indians were enslaved during the colonial conflicts,<ref>{{cite book |last=Newell |first=Margret Ellen |date=2015 |title=Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/57597 |location=Ithaca, New York |publisher=Cornell University Press |page=7|isbn=978-0-8014-5648-0 }}</ref> while Nathaniel Philbrick estimates that at least 1,000 New England Indians were sold into slavery during King Philip's War, with more than half coming from Plymouth.<ref>Nathaniel Philbrick. ''Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War'' (Viking 2006) p. 332</ref>

* {{cite journal|last=Smith|first= John, Captain & Admiral|editor= Royster, Paul |title=A Description of New England (1616): An Online Electronic Text Edition |year=1616|journal= Electronic Texts in American Studies|number= Paper 4|url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/4}}