Chapter 1 – New World Beginnings• North America forms and Land Bridge theory

– Pangaea: theory that continents were once one mega-continent– History was first recorded 6,000 years ago; Europeans first set foot in North America 600 years ago.– A land bridge emerged from Great Ice Age connecting Asia & North America across Bering Sea; possibly occurred 35,000 years ago– Countless tribes emerged, spreading across North, Central, and South America. Including Incas, Mayas, and Aztecs.

• First Americans– Pueblo Indians were first American corn growers that lived in adobe houses and had intricate irrigation systems to water/grow corn– Corn/maize around 5,000BC in Mexico = revolutionary because people need only be farmers (arrived in U.S. around 1,200BC)– Easter Indians grew corn, beans, and squash with three sister farming (corn grew in stalk providing trellis for beans, squash leaves

shade ground and kept moisture in soil)• Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw (South), and Iroquoi (North)

– Iroquois Confederation: group of 5 tribes in New York state led by Hiawatha. Independent but met in common interest i.e. war.– Native Americans (compared to Europeans) felt no man owned the land, nature was mixed with many spirits and sacred– Norse (vikings from Norway), first Europeans to come to America, led by Erik the Red and Leif Erikson landed in “Newfoundland”

• Africa & beginning of Slave Trade– Marco Polo traveling to China sparked European desire for spices which sparked up search for water route down along Africa– Caravel: ship w/ triangular sail, Compass: determines direction, Astrolabe: sextant gizmo identifying ship’s latitude– Slaves initially race-indendent; later slave traders wrecked tribes and families to prevent uprisings and they ended up on sugar

plantations Portuguese set up along Africa coast. Spain watched their success enviously.• Columbus convinces Isabella and Ferdinand to fund expedition to East Indies and after 30 days at sea struck land

– Europe can provide market, capital, and technology, Africa the labor, and New World the raw materials– New World introduced corn, potatoes, tobacco, beans, peppers, manioc, pumpkin squash; and syphilis; Old World introduced cows,

pigs, horses, wheat, sugar cane, apples, cabbage, citrus, and smallpox, yellow fever, malaria (90% of Columbus Indians died)• Spanish Conquistadores include Vasco Balboa (“discoverer” of Pacific Ocean across isthmus of Panama), Ferinand Magellan (first to

circumnavigate globe), Ponce de Leon (names Florida and searches for “fountain of youth”, Hernando Cortes, Francisco Pizarro (conquers Incan Empire of Peru), and Francisco Coronado (searched for legendary Cibola and found Pueblo Indians)– Encomienda: system when Indians given to Spanish landlords and be converted to Christianity (slavery guised as missionary work)– Mestizos: new race of people, mix of Spanish and Indian blood

Chapter 2 – The Planting of English America• Early American colonization

– Spain est. Santa Fe, France est. Quebec, Britain est. Jamestown (struggling); North America largely unclaimed– European efforts in 1500s to colonize failed because….King Henry VIII broke away from Roman Catholic Church, Elizabeth I directed

England in Protestant direction, problems with Catholic Ireland• Sir Humhrey Gilbert died at sea, Sir Walter Raleigh est Roanoke Island Colony /Lost Colony (mysteriously disappeared)

• England under fiery and ambitious Elizabeth I– Knighted Francis Drake, a “sea dog” who pirated gold from Spanish ships and circumnavigated Earth, infuriating Spanish– Defeated Spanish Armada in 1588, opening Atlantic; British navy dominates seas for next 300 years, peace treaty in 1604– Golden age of literature introduced by William Shakespeare– Less/no land for poor (enclosure) + bad economy in southern England + firstborn inheritances (primogeniture) = go to America

• 1606, VA Company receives charter to est colony in America. May 1607, 100 English men est in Jamestown, VA.– Forty died on boat ride over, poor drinking water, plenty disease, prioritizing gold, zero women, wrecked supply ship– Captain John Smith took control in 1608 and instituted strong discipline and according to legend saved by Pocahontas– Lord De La Warr intercepted ship of settlers abandoning colony, forced them to return, instituted more discipline, and supplies– First Anglo-Powhatan War ended in 1614 with marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe, later developed sweet tobacco saving

Jamestown (economically) but Rolfe was killed when Indians struck again in 1622• Tobacco led to “land butchery”, demanded cheap labor (white indentured servants), “all their eggs in one basket.”

– Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1644-1646): Indians banished from Chesapeake, notion that Indians & whites cannot live together• Indians fell due to disease, disorganization, and disposability and eventually go fire arm

• 1619, Virginians create House of Burgess (representative self-gov’t), first blacks brought to America, shipload of women came• Maryland: founded by Lord Baltimore in 1634, motivated with religious freedom. • Indentured servants began to be replaced by black slaves commonly in South and Chesapeake

– Desire for stable work force, white indentures wanted and got land, black slaves permanent workers, Act of Toleration• Sugar plantations (labor-intensive) sprung up in West Indies (Caribbean Islands)

– Barbados slave code of 1661: rules designed to keep slaves in control – Helped Carolina (formally begun in 1670) prosper due to natural harbor at Charleston; slave trade prospered as well

• Georgia founded in 1733 by James Oglethorpe, acting as a buffer zone and dumping ground for English criminals

Chapter 3 – Settling the Northern Colonies• Protestant Reformation produces Puritanism

– Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation when he nailed “95 Theses” on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral in 1517.• Bible or scripture alone was God’s word + grace from God alone will provide salvation + faith in Christ alone will save

someone– John Calvin preached about Calvinism which stressed predestination (the idea that God has already determined who will go Heaven

or Hell)• “Protestant Work Ethic”: the impact of Calvinism

• Pilgrims inhabit Plymouth at end of Pilgrimage– Pilgrims were Separatists (breakaways from the Church of England that struck a deal with Virginia Company to sail on Mayflower

from Holland to Virginia but instead arrived off coast of New England in 1620• Captain Myles Standish, aka “Captain Shrimp”, provided leadership and security against Indians

– Pilgrims agreed to make and live by new rules by signing the Mayflower Compact before leaving the ship (first form of self-gov’t in New England and laid foundation that America would be run by Americans

– Governor of the Plymouth colony, elected 30 times in annual elections, was William Bradford• Bay Colony Bible Commonwealth (democracy run on Biblical principles)

– Unlike pilgrims, Puritans (given a royal charter in 1629 to start Massachusetts Bay Colony) came in about 11,000– John Winthrop was elected governor for 19 years and economy based on fur trading, fishing, and shipbuilding thrived

• Building the Bay Colony– Franchise (right to vote) quickly given to all “freemen” (adult men members of the Congregational Church)

• Most noteworthy Puritan preacher was John Cotton, who criticized Church of England and emigrated to Massachusetts• Micahel Wigglesworth wrote “Day of Doom” and sold one copy every 20 people

• Trouble in Bible Commonwealth– Anne Hutchinson: outspoken woman who challenged predestination with theory called antinomianism (with predestination, a

person’s actions were immaterial) = heresy.• New England spreads out: New Haven colony established in 1638, joining Connecticut later.• King Philip’s War (between Metacom and English villages) lasted two years and was very violent.• New England Confederation set up, consisting of 4 colonies and held the main goal of defense.• Goals of Dominion of New England (1686) were to strengthen colonial defense against Indians and regain control by England over America

Chapter 4 – American Life in the Seventeenth Century• Chesapeake lifespans were only up to 40 or 50.• Men outnumbered women and therefore had to compete to win a woman’s heart (ratio 6:1 in 1650)• Headright System: if an aristocrat sponsored an indentured servant’s passage to America, the aristocrat earned the right to purchase 50

acres of land at a likely cheap price– Encourages growth of Chesapeake– As indentured servants decreased, slavery rose

• Bacon’s Rebellion– Nathaniel Bacon led about 1,000 men in 1676 in a revolt to get Gov. William Berkeley to crack down on Indians and get their land.

He suddenly died of disease but his legacy lives on• Colonial slavery

– Most slaves usually captured by African tribes, crammed in boats on grisly “Middle Passage” (from Africa to West Indies).– Slaves and children slaves would be property (chattels) to owners for life; some made it a crime to teach them ho w to read

• Africans in America– A unique African American culture emerged as a mix of African-and-white cultures

• Gullah (language variation of Angola), goober (peanut), gumbo (okra), and voodoo (witchcraft.). • The Stono River in South Carolina, 50 rising up to attempt an escape by walking to Spanish Florida but where militia

intercepted• Southern Society

– “planter aristocracy”: families of the privaleged (i.e. Fitzhughs, Lees, and Washingtons ran Virginia– Beneath FFVs (first families of VA were small farmers (aka yeomen farmers)– Next were the landless whites and slaves of course were at the bottom

• New England Family– Climate and condition in New England were much healthier than in South– Top priority of New England’s Bible Commonwealth is to protect the marriage and the family (illustrated in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s

The Scarlet Letter.• Half-Way Covenant, people could receive a sort of half-status in the church• The Salem Witch Trials: names were named, rumors spread, and innocent people were accused