 Home Index Freedom Documents Constitution In-Depth About Us Contact Us Education Site Map Links Archives E-Mail The History of America 
Chapter I - Charles II, Quakers and Colonization
Charles II, Quakers and Colonization 1660 - 1750
During the reign of Charles II from 1660 to 1685, the English colonized New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and North and South Carolina. All of these colonies were proprietorships; that is, like Maryland they were granted in their entirety to one individual or a group who owned the land and controlled the government. Charles' younger brother, the Duke of York, was the first to receive a proprietorship in March of 1664 when Charles granted him territory which the Dutch had already claimed. York set sail in August prepared to seize the territory, but the colonists surrendered without firing a shot. The Dutch colony of New Netherlands then became the British colony of New York. Shortly after obtaining the territory, the Duke granted his lands between the Delaware and Hudson Rivers to two of his favorite associates, Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley, who promised generous land grants and religious tolerance to settlers of New Jersey. A disillusioned group of Puritans fleeing religious persecution in Connecticut founded Newark.
Another proprietary colony granted by Charles II entailed a large tract of land extending from south of Virginia to Spanish-held Florida. Named after the King, Carolina split into two fairly distinct areas of settlement. In the north, a small group of settlers endeavored to grow tobacco. Meanwhile, other settlers focused on an area that is now Charleston, South Carolina. Because the eight proprietors of the colony were eager to profit, they also persuaded colonists from the island of Barbados to settle in the Carolinas. These settlers, mostly small sugar planters, came with their slaves, both Indians and Blacks, and founded Charlestown in 1670. At this time one-third of the population of South Carolina was black and three-fourths were male. The American slave system, then, did not simply emerge full-blown but gradually evolved from an economic system of slavery already entrenched in the West Indies and Latin America.
In 1681 the Quakers obtained a colony for themselves when Charles II granted the territory between Maryland and New York to William Penn, the aristocratic son of a British admiral. Penn, a devout Quaker, was overjoyed to find this haven for the much persecuted sect. In Pennsylvania, which Charles II insisted on naming after Admiral Penn, only Christians were granted the right to vote and to trial by jury as well as a representative assembly and large tracts of fertile land. A "pacifist with egalitarian principles," Penn was one of the few Europeans who consistently treated Indians with dignity and respect. Before land-hungry settlers could monopolize the territory, he purchased huge tracts of land for the Delaware Indians. He also instituted strict regulations for trade with the Indians and prohibited the sale of alcohol to them. His generous policies persuaded many Indian tribes to settle in what he called a "holy experiment." However, his liberality also drew in settlers such as Scots-Irish farmers who despised the Indians. This cantankerous group of farmers would continue to feud with the Indians well into the eighteenth century. Despite these internal conflicts, however, William Penn hoped to create a society based on Quaker principles which would maintain peace and order "without oaths or wars" - a society in which religion could flourish without a restrictive established church and with "absolute freedom of conscience."
During the early 1700s Berkeley and Carteret profitably sold their interest in New Jersey to other Quakers who sought escape from religious oppression in England. However, the Puritans who had founded Newark considered them religious radicals. These Quakers denied the need for an intermediary between the individual and God, much as the ill-fated Anne Hutchinson had done. Because Quakers believed anyone was capable of receiving the "inner light," women could become members of their clergy. Religious differences thus added to other tensions which already existed in the colonies.
Georgia, the last of the British colonies, was settled in 1732 when King George III gave land between the Savannah and Altamaha Rivers to twenty-one trustees. Georgia was founded for two purposes: as a haven for debtors and as a military buffer against Spanish Florida. Its somewhat idealistic founder, James Oglethorpe, intended to help "the industrious yet unfortunate poor," envisioning a community of hard-working, sober men and women. Each man received five hundred acres of land which he worked himself since slavery was prohibited. Also, though the colonists intended to produce silk and wine for export, the importation of rum was forbidden. Georgia succeeded as a military post, but as an ideal community it failed. Greedy settlers from South Carolina disregarded the limit of five hundred acres per man and ignored the law against slavery. Ventures in silk and wine production declined, and by 1753 lax enforcement of various ordinances resulted in revocation of the original charter. Georgia then reverted to a royal colony owned and controlled by the British government. To Oglethorpe's deep regret, by 1760 one-third of the inhabitants of Georgia were slaves.
By the 1750s, thirteen struggling colonies existed, all of which had experienced dramatic changes. In 1650 only two isolated regions had been settled - New England and the Chesapeake. By 1750, however, the English dominated almost all of the eastern seaboard of North America excluding disputed territory which the French wanted to claim and Spanish-held Florida. A previously migrant population was now almost entirely American-born, and economies based on small-scale trade had developed into two distinct regions. In the North a minority of large farmers and merchants controlled a predominantly "free, white" economy consisting mainly of small farmers. In the South, a minority of large planters controlled a racially-mixed slave-based, staple-crop economy consisting mainly of small planters. Thus, between 1650 and 1720 the basic economic, social and political patterns which would influence American life for years to come had been established. These patterns would eventually frustrate the efforts of the British empire to regain control of their colonies after struggling with France and Spain for domination of the New World.
     
|