North America, with the exception of Mexico, was not colonized by
Europeans so early as the southern part of the Continent. The
discoveries of Cabot, A. D. 1497, had given England a valid claim to
the whole coast from Labrador to Florida; but the country presented
none of the allurements that had incited and rewarded the Spanish
adventurers. Fertile and well wooded, indeed, intersected by noble
rivers, and inclosing safe and capacious harbors and bays, it seemed a
promising region for permanent settlements and agricultural industry,
but offered only a faint prospect of wealth to be obtained from gold
and silver mines, or from plundering the native inhabitants. A party
of French Huguenots attempted to colonize Florida; but the Spaniards,
who claimed the country, surprised the infant settlement, and
massacred nearly all its inhabitants, not sparing even the women and
children, A. D. 1564. This slaughter was soon avenged by a Frenchman,
Dominique de Gourges, who captured Fort Carolina, where the victors
had established themselves, and hanged all his prisoners; but he made
no attempt to form another colony, and did not even disturb the little
Spanish city of St. Augustine, which remained, but did not flourish,
as the only permanent settlement of Europeans on the coast north of
the Gulf of Mexico during the sixteenth century.
The English, under the direction of Sir Walter Raleigh and his
half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, attempted to create a settlement
on the coast of what was subsequently called North Carolina. Three
parties of colonists were sent thither, A. D. 1583-1587, but they were
few in number, and ill provided with necessaries; one returned, and
the other two perished, either from starvation or the hostility of the
natives. Early in the seventeenth century, the French, under de Monts
and Champlain, explored the country around the Bay of Fundy and that
bordering on the St. Lawrence, laying claim to Acadie (Nova Scotia)
and Canada, which together were called New France. In 1609, the Dutch
sent out Henry Hudson, who explored the American coast for a
considerable distance, entered New York harbor, and sailed up the
river which now bears his name. Stimulated by a feeling of rivalry
with the French, the English renewed their attempts at colonization on
a larger scale. James I granted the whole country, from Cape Fear to
Passamaquoddy Bay, to two companies of merchants and adventurers. The
southern portion, from the thirty-fourth to the forty-first degree of
latitude, was given to the London Company; and the northern part, from
the thirty-eighth to the forty-fifth degree, was to be colonized by
the Plymouth Company.
VIRGINIA. The first band of colonists sent out by the London Company,
A. D. 1607, established themselves on a spot which they called
Jamestown, on the James river, about fifty miles above its entrance
into Chesapeake Bay. The direction of affairs had been given to a
council, consisting of seven persons, nominated by the Company in
England. John Smith, a military adventurer of great courage,
enterprise, and sagacity, was one of them; and the incompetency of his
colleagues soon becoming manifest, he gradually assumed the lead, and
several times rescued the feeble settlements from the imminent perils
of savage warfare and famine. Half of the emigrants perished during
the first six months; and if the colony had not been fed by frequent
supplies of food and additional settlers from England, the enterprise
must soon have been abandoned. In spite of Smith’s remonstrances, the
settlers wasted their time in seeking for gold and silver, instead of
cultivating the ground; and they actually sent a vessel to England
laden with dirt, in which glittering specks had been discovered, which
they mistook for gold. Smith explored the country, and coasted the bay
in an open boat, entering the principal rivers and inlets, and thus
obtaining the requisite information for the construction of a chart,
which was transmitted to England and published. In one of these
expeditions, he fell into the hands of the savages, and was on the
point of being put to death, when he was rescued by the chieftain’s
daughter, Pocahontas, and after an imprisonment of a few weeks, was
sent back to Jamestown. But the colony was soon deprived of his
invaluable services; in 1609, he was severely injured by the
accidental explosion of his powder bag, and was compelled to return to
England for surgical aid. After his departure, the affairs of the
colony again declined, and the settlers more than once determined to
abandon the undertaking, and return home. But they were prevented by
the seasonable arrival of ships, bringing fresh supplies and a
reinforcement of men, whose broken fortunes in their native land made
them eager to brave the perils of a desperate enterprise. Thus often
rescued from the brink of ruin, the colony struggled on, till its
members at last became inured to their novel situation, and acquired
the habits of life which alone could meet its exigencies. Novel
recruits were sent out from time to time to keep up their numbers. In
1619, ninety young women arrived, of irreproachable character, who
were sold at the price of their passage, to become wives to the
planters. Many cargoes of vagrants, thieves, and jail-birds also came,
to serve as indented servants for a term of years, and afterwards to
become free colonists. Then a more lasting impression was made on the
future character and fortunes of the settlement by the introduction of
twenty negro slaves, who were brought by a Dutch trading vessel, and
readily purchased by the settlers. Tobacco had now become the staple
product of the colony, and slaves were profitably employed in its
cultivation.
[Illustration: CAPT. SMITH AND POCAHONTAS.]
The savages had occasionally given much trouble, and in 1622, they
were nearly successful in a plot which they had formed for the entire
destruction of the settlements. In one day, they killed three hundred
and forty-seven of the whites. A furious war succeeded, in which the
Indians, indeed, were defeated and driven back with great slaughter,
so that they never became formidable again. But the colony had
received a fearful blow, from which it recovered with slowness and
difficulty. The number of settlements was reduced from eighty to
eight, and a famine ensued that destroyed many lives. The first
colonial assembly was called by Governor Yeardley in 1619, and two
years afterwards, a special ordinance confirmed the right of holding
such a local legislature.
The proceedings of the Company in England had now awakened the
jealousy of the crown; and these misfortunes gave King James the
pretext that he wanted for depriving them of their charter, and taking
the government into his own hands. Of course, it was administered on
the arbitrary principles which were then in favor at court. Complete
legislative and executive power was given to a governor and council of
twelve persons, all nominated by the crown; and this power was
tyrannically exercised. Yet the General Assembly, though not formally
authorized, was still permitted to meet, though it was much restricted
in the exercise of its functions. At one time, in 1635, the patience
of the settlers gave way, and they seized their governor, Sir John
Harvey, and sent him a prisoner to England to answer for his
misconduct. With the native obstinacy of his character, Charles I
resented this act as savoring of audacity and rebellion, and sent back
the obnoxious governor, with a fresh commission, under which he ruled
more tyrannically than ever. Still, the prevailing sentiment in the
colony was eminently loyal, and during the English Civil War, they
took sides, as long as they durst, with the king, against the
Parliament. Many of the settlers were decayed gentlemen and
unportioned sons of noble families, in whose minds the prejudices of
rank were rather heightened than diminished by the want of fortune.
The Church of England was established by law, regular stipends being
allotted to its ministers in every parish, and the preachers of any
other persuasion were not allowed to exercise their functions. The
English law of primogeniture and entail regulated the descent of
property; and the wealthier colonists, directing the labor of many
indented servants and slaves, lived apart on their plantations,
affecting something of the state of a landed aristocracy. After the
ruin of the king’s cause at home, in 1645, many of the disbanded
cavaliers found refuge in Virginia, bringing with them their sentiment
of chivalrous attachment to Church and King.
[Illustration: PROVIDENCE, R. I.]
[Illustration: NEWPORT, R. I.]
In 1671, Governor Berkeley estimated the population of the colony at
40,000, including 2,000 negro slaves, and 6,000 indented white
servants. The character of his administration may be inferred from a
communication made by him, this year, to the English Privy Council. ‘I
thank God,’ he wrote, ‘there are no free schools or printing, and I
hope we shall not have any these hundred years; for learning has
brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and
printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government.
God keep us from both!’ Yet a few years afterwards, discontent had
become so general that a rebellion broke out, and for a few months the
insurgents had entire control of the government. Nathaniel Bacon, a
young lawyer, distinguished for his talents and activity, was the
popular leader in this movement.
In the midst of his successes, Bacon was suddenly taken sick and died;
and no proper person being found to take his place, the army was
dispersed, and the insurrection abandoned. Berkeley punished the
rebels with great rigor, some of their leaders being condemned and
executed and others were sentenced to pay heavy fines. He then went to
England, where, instead of the praise and rewards that he expected, he
was severely censured for his cruelty. He died a few months
afterwards, as it was reported, of chagrin. An act of general pardon
and oblivion was sent out from England, and other mild and popular
measures soon wiped out the memory of Bacon’s rebellion. Needy and
covetous governors still provoked occasional discontent; but the
spirit of the people was eminently loyal, so that they were tardy and
reluctant to acknowledge the revolution of 1688, and only after
repeated commands was a proclamation issued announcing the succession
of William and Mary to the English throne.
Far different was the character of the emigrants who founded the _New
England Colonies_, under grants from the Plymouth Company. These were
Puritans of the straitest sect, Independents in their notions of
Church government, and now fast verging toward republicanism, in
consequence of their long continued opposition to the constituted
authorities of Church and State at home. The intolerant spirit of the
English hierarchy and the arbitrary proceedings of the court made
their residence in England uncomfortable, if not perilous; and they
looked to voluntary exile for deliverance. A company of them, under
the Rev. John Robinson as pastor, and William Brewster as ruling
elder, embarked for Holland in 1608, carrying their wives, children,
and little property along with them. They were kindly received by the
Dutch, who were Protestants, and they remained over ten years in peace
at Leyden. But Puritans as they were, they were still Englishmen; they
disliked the sound of a foreign language, and the prospect that their
children would intermarry with the Dutch, and forget their English
parentage and the customs of their forefathers. The greater part of
them, therefore, determined to emigrate to America, and for this
purpose, returned first to England, where they easily procured the
promise of a grant of land from the London Company, as they intended
to establish themselves within what were then the limits of Virginia.
They sailed from Plymouth in the ship Mayflower, and after a tedious
and stormy voyage of over two months, arrived at Cape Cod, nearly two
degrees north of the place they had aimed at. The lateness of the
season, however, the fatigues of the voyage, and the perils of
coasting along a shore which had been but imperfectly explored,
preventing them from putting to sea again, they sought a spot for
their settlement in that neighborhood. But as they were then without
the limits of the Virginia Company, and the Crown had refused to grant
them a charter, they deemed it necessary, before leaving the vessel,
to sign an agreement, promising to submit to whatever ‘just and equal
laws and ordinances might be thought convenient for the general good.’
They selected Plymouth, which offered a tolerable good harbor in the
southwestern part of Massachusetts Bay, as a suitable place for the
commencement of a colony; and on the 22d of December, 1620, the
PILGRIMS, as they might now well be termed, landed there, numbering
only one hundred and one, including the women and children. John
Carver was chosen the first governer, and Miles Standish their
military leader, as they had some apprehensions of the savages.
Divided into nineteen families, they immediately began to fell trees
and construct houses, in which to find shelter against the rigors of
winter. But their exposure was necessarily great, and they had but a
slender stock of provisions and other necessaries. Sickness came upon
them, and during the first five months, they lost more than half of
their number.
One of their associates, who had been left behind in England, obtained
for them a grant of land from the Company which was now incorporated,
under a new charter, as ‘The Council established at Plymouth, in the
County of Devon, (England,) for the Planting, Ruling, Ordering, and
Governing of New England in America.’ This grant authorized the
colonists to choose a governor, council, and general court, for the
enactment and execution of laws. Strictly speaking, however, the
Company had no right to give them any thing more than the property of
the soil. A charter from the Crown was necessary to complete their
political organization; and this they never obtained. But the
necessity of the case compelled them to act as if they had received
full powers; and their remoteness and insignificance prevented the
authorities at home from questioning their right. The agreement which
they had signed on board the Mayflower was the basis of their
legislation; and for some time, all the settlers came together in a
general assembly, to enact the necessary laws. Thus, in its origin,
the colony was the purest democracy on earth. Time showed the
inconveniences of such an arrangement, and the legislative power was
then delegated to an Assembly, composed of representatives from the
several towns. Land and other property were at first held in common,
the Company in England being entitled to a specified share of the
total profits. But this experiment turned out like the similar one in
Virginia; finding that industry was discouraged by it, the Colonists
succeeded in purchasing, on credit, the share of the London partners.
A division was then made of the land and movable property, and
henceforth each one reaped the fruits of his own toil. The people were
united in religious faith, and wished not to be disturbed by
theological controversies; so, when one Lyford, a clergyman of the
Church of England, was sent out to them as a suitable pastor, in place
of Robinson, who had died at Leyden, they refused him, and exercised
their undoubted right of ownership of the soil, by expelling him, and
two who adhered to him, Oldham and Conant, from their territory. These
banished persons established themselves at Nantasket, just beyond the
limits of the Plymouth colonists. The soil around Plymouth was thin
and poor, and the people had brought but few worldly goods along with
them; thus, the progress of the settlement was slow. Some of their old
companions, who had been left behind in Holland, now came out to join
them; and a few others, attracted by similarity of worship, and by the
prospect of driving a little traffic in fish and peltry, were added to
their number. But ten years after the landing at Plymouth, the
population numbered only three hundred. Their territory, indeed, was
but small, being bounded on the land side by a line drawn northerly
from the mouth of Narraganset river, till it met one carried westerly
from Cohasset rivulet, ‘at the uttermost limits of a place called
Pocanoket.’
[Illustration: NEW HAVEN.]
[Illustration: PHILADELPHIA.]
But encouraged by the growth of this colony, feeble as it was, the
Council of New England proceeded to make lavish grants of their
remaining lands, and to send out other bands of emigrants, taking
little care to define the boundaries of the new grants, or to avoid
ceding to one company or individual the very tract already bestowed
upon another. This negligence was the cause of much subsequent dispute
and difficulty. A few persons also established themselves at various
points along the coast, who had no formal title to any land, but who
were afterwards generally admitted to have an imperfect right, founded
on occupancy and prescription. Some few fishing settlements were thus
established; but their inhabitants had not the disposition to toil,
the habits of order and self-denial, or the indomitable perseverance
which characterized the Puritans. All their establishments were
subsequently absorbed by the Massachusetts colony, which became the
chief agent in the settlement of New England.
The persecution of all who would not conform to the Established Church
still continuing in England, and king Charles having avowed his
purpose to govern without a Parliament, many of the wealthier class of
Puritans now determined to emigrate to America. A company was formed
at the instigation of Mr. White, a clergyman of Dorchester; among its
members were John Humphrey and Isaac Johnson, two brothers-in-law of
the Earl of Lincoln, John Winthrop, a gentleman of landed property in
Suffolk, Sir Richard Saltonstall, John Endicott, Thomas Dudley,
William Coddington, Richard Bellingham, Matthew Cradock, and other
merchants and lawyers of wealth and influence in London and some of
the northern and midland counties. They obtained from the Council for
New England a grant of a tract of land, bounded by two parallel lines
running westward to the Pacific Ocean, one drawn three miles north of
any part of the Merrimac river, and the other, three miles south of
any portion of the Charles. Soon afterwards, their organization was
completed by a charter from the Crown, which incorporated them under
the title of the ‘Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New
England,’ with power to admit what new members or freemen they might
choose. They were supposed to be a private trading corporation,
resident in England, where they were to make laws and regulations
for the government of their colony in America. A governor,
deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants were to have the management
of their affairs; and these officers were to be chosen, and all
important laws enacted, at a ‘Great and General Court’ of all the
freemen, to be held quarterly. A company of sixty or seventy persons,
under John Endicott, were sent out in 1628, who commenced a settlement
at Salem; and these were followed, the next year, by six ships,
bringing about two hundred colonists, of whom many were indented
servants, together with a stock of cattle and other necessaries. It
was soon manifest, however, that a colony, to be prosperous, must have
the management of its own affairs, without being obliged to wait for
orders from a distance. John Winthrop and many other leading
stockholders offered to emigrate, if they were allowed to carry the
charter and the government along with them. The legality of such a
measure was at least doubtful; but the urgency of the case removed all
scruple, and the colonists probably hoped that the remoteness of their
new home would screen their procedings from public notice. New
officers were therefore chosen from those who were disposed to
emigrate; and in 1630, a fleet of fifteen ships, equipped at an
expense of £20,000, sailed from the Isle of Wight, having on board
Winthrop and Dudley as governor and deputy-governor, together with
most of the assistants, and a company of about one thousand persons.
They began a settlement at Charlestown, but soon removed to the
neighboring peninsula of Trimountain, which they named Boston, after
the English town whence some of the chief emigrants came. The
hardships of the first winter, which was a severe one, caused disease
to break out among them, and over two hundred died, among whom were
Isaac Johnson, and his wife, Arabella. But after this period, the
order and industry which prevailed in the colony, the commencement of
trade with Virginia and the Dutch at Manhattan (New York), and the
rapid influx of settlers, driven away from England by the religious
and political persecution which still raged there, laid the
foundations of steady growth and permanent prosperity. During the
first ten years after the settlement of Massachusetts, about
twenty-five thousand persons left their native land to find a home in
New England.
The government of the colony was theocratic in many of its features,
modified at first by an aristocratic or patriarchal element, which was
soon eliminated, however, by the force of circumstances, that set
strongly towards republican institutions. The few men of wealth and
consideration, who were the leaders of the emigration, naturally
strove to retain the chief power and influence in their own hands, and
to govern according to their notions of what religion and the word of
God required; and in this attempt they were strongly seconded by the
ministers of the churches. At first, the people, with the instinctive
respect of Englishmen for rank and station, gave way to them, and
conferred the whole power of legislation on the governor and the
assistants, who were familiarly known as ‘the magistrates.’
Even a council for life at one time was instituted, but it continued
only for a few years, and the freemen also resumed the power of
enacting laws. Still, they were moderate in the exercise of their
functions; and persons once chosen to the board of magistrates were
usually reäppointed, no one being left out but for some extraordinary
cause. Purity of faith and worship was the chief motive for
establishing the colony. The people wished to be free, not only from
persecution, but from the presence of other sects and from theological
controversies. Only such persons were to be admitted to be freemen, or
voters, as those who were already freemen should designate; and this
privilege was soon confined by law to those who were members of the
churches. But as there was little difference among them in point of
religious opinion, and as most of the adult males, or at least, nearly
all the heads of families, were church members, this exclusive
privilege created no general discontent. The magistrates exercised
their large powers resolutely to keep out heretics and schismatics,
and to maintain religious worship and practice in all their purity.
Those who did not agree with them were required to go elsewhere, and
establish a colony for themselves. Roger Williams, and some followers
of Mrs. Hutchinson, did so, and founded a new settlement in Rhode
Island. Others took refuge in New Hampshire; but Massachusetts claimed
the land there as a part of her own territory, and from 1640 to 1680,
the claim was made good. A few Quakers gave great annoyance by their
fanatical and outrageous conduct; they were once and again dismissed,
with threats in case they returned. They did come again, and then
three of them were hanged. The magistrates, on this occasion,
published a defense of their conduct, dwelling especially on the case
of Mary Dyre, who was a third comer, and had been once reprieved when
already on the gallows, as a proof they desired, not the death, but
the absence, of the Quakers. Some adherents of the Church of England,
who had come out without invitation to join them, were summarily sent
back to the mother country. Two hundred years ago, the principles of
religious toleration were but little understood; yet as the Company
owned the territory, and had emigrated for the avowed purpose of
forming a religious community by themselves, it is perhaps harsh in us
to charge them with intolerance. They had a right to expel intruders.
Of course, great severity of manners and punctiliousness of religious
observances were enjoined. Various sumptuary laws were enacted; the
Sabbath was observed with Jewish strictness; blasphemy, witchcraft,
and adultery, were punished with death; slanderers were whipt,
cropped, and banished. But except in these particulars, and a few
others of no great importance, the Mosaic law was not established in
the colony. The people had good sense enough to see that it was not
adapted to the circumstances and the times. No restriction was imposed
upon them except that contained in the Charter, that no laws should be
made repugnant to the laws of England; and this was construed, very
liberally, to mean that no part of the English law was in force there
till it was expressly reenacted. At first the magistrates governed
without any other rule than their own sense of right and their
interpretation of the law of God. But the people becoming jealous of
so large a discretion, a code, or ‘Body of Liberties,’ was established
in 1641, consisting of one hundred articles, drawn up with singular
brevity and clearness, embracing many of the best and most liberal
provisions of the English Common Law, and, in some respects, in
advance both of English and American law of the present day. This code
became the basis of legislation, not only in Massachusetts, but
throughout New England, the other colonies adopting many of its most
important provisions. In one important respect, the Mosaic rule was
followed in preference to the English law; the estates of persons
dying without a will were divided equally among the children, except
that the eldest son received a double share. This law, favoring the
distribution rather than the aggregation of property, made the
establishment of a territorial aristocracy impossible, kept up the
idea of equality among the people, and tended strongly to the
development of republican sentiments.
Another circumstance, which silently fostered the democratic spirit of
the people, was the great extent of their territory in comparison with
their numbers, and the disposition that has characterized them from
that day to this, to spread themselves over the face of the country,
instead of remaining together on one spot. When as yet they were only
a few hundred in number, instead of seeking protection against the
savages and other perils of the wilderness by union and concentration,
they colonized a dozen or twenty distinct townships, the extremes of
which were some thirty miles apart. Eight townships were represented
in a General Court held only two years after Winthrop landed; and
before the colony was ten years old, or contained in all more than
15,000 settlers, at least twenty distinct settlements were formed. But
the most remarkable instance of this tendency to segregation took
place as early as 1634, when Mr. Hooker and his whole church at
Newtown petitioned for leave to remove to Connecticut, the avowed
reason for this step being the want of pasturage for their cattle; and
‘it was alleged by Mr. Hooker as a fundamental error, that the towns
were set so near to each other.’ The settlements being thus scattered,
and the colony as a whole being imperfectly organized, each town was
obliged from the first to direct its own expenditures and manage its
own affairs. The inhabitants held town-meetings, levied taxes to
provide for their common wants, chose executive officers, afterwards
termed ‘selectmen,’ and in fact created a little republic nearly
complete in organization. It is now generally admitted, that the tone
of American politics and the general character of American
institutions have been more controlled by the influences of the
township-system of New England than by all other causes united.
In the main, also, there was great equality among the colonists in
point of fortune and social position. Many English gentlemen and
wealthy merchants, as we have seen, favored the emigration, and some
embarked in it. But the happy and the powerful do not often go into
exile, and the perils and hardships of a home in the wilderness
prevented many persons of wealth from joining in the enterprise, and
caused others to leave it after a brief sojourn in New England.
Humphrey, Saltonstall, Vane and Vassal returned to their native land
after a short stay, and the Johnsons died. The great bulk of the
colonists were middling and lower classes of English society; very few
were wealthy, nearly all were dependent on the labor of their hands.
Equality of social claims was the natural basis of equality of
political rights. There was a germ of republicanism in the colony from
the outset,――a natural tendency towards universal eligibility and
universal suffrage.
The first care of the settlers of Massachusetts was to provide for
universal education and worship. The several townships that were
organized were so many distinct churches, which admitted their own
members, chose their own pastors, and managed their own affairs. Each
town, either by levying a tax or by voluntary contributions, provided
buildings for public worship and salaries for their ministers. When
Boston was but six years old, the General Court passed an order,
appropriating a sum, equal to the amount raised by a year’s taxation
to defray all the public expenditures of the colony, for the
establishment of a college at Newtown; and two years afterwards, John
Harvard, a clergyman of Charlestown, bequeathing half of his estate
for the same object, Harvard College was founded. Free schools were
established in several of the towns; and in 1649, a general system of
popular education was established throughout the colony, each township
being required to maintain a free school for reading and writing, and
every town of a hundred householders a grammar school, ‘to fit youths
for the university.’ The preamble of this law declares that the motive
for passing it was to provide ‘that learning may not be buried in the
grave of our fathers,’――‘it being one chief project of that old
deluder, Sathan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures; as
in former times keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter
times by persuading men from the use of tongues.’ The grim Puritan of
those days believed his child’s soul would be in danger if he were not
enabled to read the Bible for himself; and thus care for general
education naturally grew out of care for the interests of religion. As
the democratic spirit spread among the people, they reclaimed the
legislative authority for themselves; and a body of representatives,
consisting of two or three delegates from each town, were united with
‘the magistrate’ for the purpose of enacting laws. At first, the
representatives sat and voted in the same chamber with the assistants;
but in 1644, a division was made, and the two classes afterwards
formed separate houses of legislation.
[Illustration: HALIFAX, N. S.]
[Illustration: LAKE GEORGE.]
During the first few years in the history of the settlement, the
Indians had given no cause for alarm. Just before the arrival of the
whites, a contagious disease had raged among the native tribes, nearly
exterminating some of them, so that the territory seemed
providentially left vacant for occupation by the English. But as the
white settlements increased in number, the jealousy of the Indians was
aroused; and in 1637, the Pequods, a tribe dwelling on the banks of
what is now called the Thames river, Connecticut, began hostilities.
But as they were yet very imperfectly provided with fire-arms, they
formed but a contemptible enemy. A band of eighty men, under Captain
Mason, were sent against them, who, with the aid of a few friendly
Indians, attacked their palisadoed village in the gray of the morning,
forced their way into it, set fire to the wigwams, and killed about
six hundred of the savages. The next month, another band attacked the
remainder of the tribe, who had taken refuge in a swamp, killed many
of them, and took about two hundred prisoners, who were afterwards
kept as slaves, a portion being sent to the West Indies to be sold.
The few who escaped found a home among the Narraganset and Mohegan
Indians, and the Pequod tribe ceased to exist.
To guard against the dangers apprehended not only from the Indians,
but from the Dutch and the French, a confederacy was formed in 1643,
between the four colonies of Masachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and
New Haven, to form rules for regulating intercourse with the savages,
and to render mutual aid if a war should break out. In consequence of
this union, the whites became more respected and feared by the native
tribes, several of whom sought their alliance and protection. But in
1675, Philip of Mount Hope, a chief of the Wampanoags in Rhode Island,
began hostilities, in which he was soon joined by nearly all the
native tribes in New England. The Indians were now well supplied with
fire-arms, and were expert in the arts of ambush and forest warfare,
in which as yet the whites were very deficient. A fearful contest
ensued, which brought all the white settlements to the verge of
destruction. It lasted nearly a year, in the course of which, upwards
of two thousand Indians were killed or taken, and some of the New
England tribes were exterminated. The whites suffered terribly; twelve
or thirteen of their towns were entirely ruined, six hundred houses
had been burned, and about six hundred men had fallen in battle. No
assistance was received from England, and the expenses of the war
burdened Massachusetts with a heavy debt. But henceforward, no great
danger was apprehended from the Indians, except when they acted as
allies of the French.
Frequent complaints were made to the Privy Council in England, that
the acts of trade were generally disregarded by Massachusetts, and
that the conduct and laws of the colony in many other respects were in
violation of the charter and subversive of the authority of the crown.
Commissioners were sent out to make inquiries respecting these
subjects of complaint. But the breach was only widened by this
measure, as the commissioners were captious and insolent in their
language and conduct, and the General Court was obstinate and not over
respectful. Charles II, had just triumphed after a long contest with
the popular party at home, had taken away the franchises of the city
of London, and confiscated the charters of nearly all the boroughs in
the realm, was in no humor to be bearded by a few daring sectaries in
New England. Legal proceedings were instituted, and before
Massachusetts could engage counsel in her defense, judgment was
entered by default, and the charter declared to be forfeited. The
government of the colony was thus thrown entirely into the hands of
the king; and James II, who had now come to the throne, appointed Sir
Edmund Andros to be governor of all New England, the charters of the
other colonies being either forfeited or in abeyance. The popular
legislative assemblies were dissolved, and Sir Edmund, with authority
to appoint and remove the members of his council at pleasure, enacted
laws and governed as he saw fit. For more than two years, his yoke was
heavy upon the necks of the people. Then came a rumor that a
revolution had taken place in England, and that the Prince of Orange
already was, or would soon be, on the throne, in place of the deposed
James II; and without waiting to learn whether it was any thing more
than a rumor, the inhabitants of Boston seized their arms, imprisoned
Andros and his chief adherents, and reinstated their beloved charter
government, with the venerable Simon Bradstreet at its head, April,
1689. Then ensued a negotiation with the government of William and
Mary, for the restoration of the old charter. But the king and his
ministers were determined to strengthen the royal prerogative, and
they would only offer a new charter, far less liberal in its
provisions than the old one, with the significant intimation that the
colony might take that or none. Finding that they would otherwise be
governed at the royal pleasure, the people very reluctantly accepted
the new instrument, by which Plymouth and Maine were united to
Massachusetts, and the appointment of the governor, secretary, and all
admiralty officers was reserved to the crown. The governor might
convoke and adjourn the General Court at pleasure; he had a negative
upon the election of counsellors and the enactment of laws, and a
right to nominate all judges and military officers. The laws were to
be transmitted to England, even after he had sanctioned them; and if
disapproved by the king within three years from the time of their
enactment, they became void. The right of suffrage was no longer
confined to church members, but was given to all who had 40 shillings
income from freehold property, or 40 pounds of personal estate.
The first royal governor appointed was Sir William Phips, whose
administration was distinguished only by the unhappy popular delusion,
usually called the Salem Witchcraft, A. D. 1692. Some children were,
or pretended to be, thrown into convulsions; and they accused certain
persons of bewitching them. The mania spread; others declared that
they were afflicted, pinched, and bruised, and when the witnesses and
the accused were confronted in open court, the former seemed to be
thrown into an agony and charged the latter with tormenting them by
diabolical means. Every one against whom they ‘cried out’ was
arrested, and the prisons were soon filled. Some weak-minded persons
among the prisoners were persuaded or terrified into a confession of
guilt, and then bore witness against others; and upon this
accumulation of evidence, many were convicted. Twenty persons were
hanged, among whom was Mr. Burroughs, a clergyman; and one old man,
aged eighty years, was pressed to death. Many others were cried out
against, and fled for their lives. At last, the extravagance of the
evil began to work its cure. The witnesses accused some persons who
stood so high in character and station, that the belief even of the
credulous mob was shocked. A reaction took place, juries refused to
convict, the jails were emptied, and some of the judges and those who
had been active in the prosecutions made a public profession of their
errors and their penitence.
Having sketched the history of Virginia, Plymouth, and Massachusetts,
during the seventeenth century, a few words must suffice for the other
Colonies. Roger Williams and some other religious exiles from
Massachusetts, colonized RHODE ISLAND in 1638, having purchased the
land of the Narraganset Indians. They obtained a patent from the Long
Parliament six years afterwards, and in 1663, Charles II granted them
a very liberal charter, under which they chose their own officers and
enacted their own laws with almost as much freedom as if they had been
an independent republic. By the influence of Williams, perfect
religious toleration was established in this Colony, men being held
responsible for their religious opinions and practice only to their
God. The territory of CONNECTICUT was granted, in 1630, to the Earl of
Warwick, who soon assigned his right to Lord Say and Seale, Lord
Brook, and others. Several settlements were formed on the Connecticut
river, in 1635-6, by Mr. Hooker and other emigrants from
Massachusetts, who at first acknowledged the authority of the Colony
they had just left, but soon established a government for themselves,
modeled on that of Massachusetts. Hartford was their chief town. About
the same time, Lord Say and Seale with his associates sent over John
Winthrop the younger, with instructions to build a fort at the mouth
of the Connecticut, and erect buildings to accommodate such settlers
as might come thither. This was the origin of Saybrook. In 1637, Mr.
Davenport, with a company of emigrants, some of them men of wealth,
arrived in New England, and after some hesitation as to the choice of
a place, they founded a settlement at New Haven. They were rigid
Puritans, who wished to establish a community conforming in all things
to their peculiar principles. They admitted only church members to be
freemen, and resolved that the Word of God should be the only rule in
their administration. The Dutch laid claim to the whole country, and
the dispute between them and the English settlers was more than once
on the verge of breaking out into open war. Charles II, soon after his
restoration, granted to Connecticut a charter quite as liberal as that
given to Rhode Island; but as this instrument brought together the two
distinct settlements of Hartford and New Haven, the people of the
latter place were very reluctant to accept it, and only yielded, after
some years’ delay, to the fear that a general governor might be sent
out from England to rule them. From the period of this union, 1665,
the progress of the Colony was steady and prosperous. The territory of
NEW HAMPSHIRE was granted by the Plymouth Company to Capt. John Mason,
in 1629. But few settlements were formed under his management,
principally by fishermen and exiles from Massachusetts, who remained
for some time without any government but such as they established for
themselves. Exeter, Dover, and Portsmouth, then called Strawberry
Bank, were the only towns that contained many inhabitants. In 1641,
they voluntarily placed themselves under the protection of
Massachusetts, who had always claimed the land, and who continued to
govern them till 1679, when, by a decree of the king in council, New
Hampshire was made a separate province, to be governed by a President
and Council, appointed by the king, and a House of Representatives
elected by the people. Frequent disputes ensued, both with their
rulers, and with Mason and his heirs respecting the titles to their
lands. But after the Revolution of 1688, most of these controversies
were quieted, and excepting frequent hostilities with the Indians, the
people prospered. MAINE was originally granted to Sir Ferdinando
Gorges, and was purchased of his heirs, in 1677, by Massachusetts, for
£1,200, it having been governed by that Colony for many years
previous, under a disputed title. The controversy ending with this
purchase, Maine remained a part of Massachusetts till a very recent
period.
NEW YORK. The Dutch, founding on the explorations of Henry Hudson a
claim to the Hudson river and an indefinite extent of territory
through which it flows, built some fortified trading posts near its
mouth as early as 1613. They also explored the northern coast of Long
Island Sound, and both shores of Delaware Bay; and on the strength of
these discoveries, an Amsterdam company obtained from the States
General an exclusive grant to trade along the coast between the 40th
and 45th degrees of latitude, a region by them called New Netherland.
The English never allowed their claim, which only became important
when, in 1621, it passed into the hands of the Dutch West India
Company, a wealthy association with large privileges, and capable of
conducting extensive operations. Under their direction, Fort Orange
was built where Albany now stands; and in 1626, the island of
Manhattan was purchased of the Indians, and Fort Amsterdam erected at
its southern extremity. As yet, traffic with the savages in peltry was
the only object of these establishments; but in 1629, a scheme was
matured for forming Dutch settlements in the country. Extensive grants
of land were offered to any member of the Company, who, under the name
of Patroon, should establish a colony of at least fifty persons upon
it; and as much land as they could cultivate was offered to any free
settlers who should remove thither at their own expense. Under these
offers, some of the most inviting lands were taken up; but the
progress of colonization was slow, agriculture being made secondary to
trade with the Indians. A port was established on the Connecticut,
near Hartford, which soon led to a sharp dispute with the English
settlers in that region. The Swedes also came into collision with the
Dutch, by attempting, under the sanction of the renowned Gustavus
Adolphus, to found a settlement and trading post on the west shore of
Delaware Bay, a region claimed by the Hollanders. The Swedes bought
some land of the Indians, and built a fort called Christina,――the germ
of the Colony of New Sweden, now the State of DELAWARE. The infant
settlement was prudently managed, and might in a few years have become
prosperous, if the Dutch had not attacked it, in 1655, with a force of
six hundred men, who captured all the Swedish posts, and the region
was again absorbed into New Netherland.
[Illustration: CASTLE WILLIAM, N. Y.]
[Illustration: CASTLE GARDEN, N. Y.]
A destructive Indian war was added to the other embarassments of the
Dutch. The latter showed themselves as great savages as their red
opponents, who nearly overmatched them, and destroyed many of their
most flourishing ‘boweries,’ or plantations. The people were harshly
governed, being allowed no voice in the administration, and they
complained that ‘under a king they could not be worse treated.’ The
English were determined to monopolize the coast, and in 1664, Charles
II granted to his brother a large region, including New Netherland, to
be called, in future, NEW YORK. An expedition of six hundred men,
under Sir Robert Nicholls, was fitted out to take possession; and so
many English were now settled in the Colony, the Dutch also being
lukewarm towards their own government, that no opposition was offered.
Liberal terms of capitulation were granted, and the territory was
annexed without a blow to the domain of England. No popular
representation in the government was allowed till 1684, the Duke of
York appointing a governor who reigned arbitrarily; and even after
that period, the administration continued to be distasteful to the
people. When the news of the revolution in 1688 arrived, the
inhabitants of New York rose in arms, like their brethren of Boston,
and under the guidance of Jacob Leisler, a wealthy German merchant,
deposed the former authorities of the place, and instituted a
government of their own. The colony remained under Leisler’s rule till
March, 1691, when Col. Slaughter arrived, with a commission as
governor, and his agent demanded peremptorily the surrender of the
fort. Leisler hesitated and delayed, and when at last he did obey, he
was seized, together with his son-in-law, Milbourne, tried for
rebellion, and executed. This proceeding was a harsh and hasty one;
and the king subsequently restored their confiscated estates to their
heirs, and allowed their bodies to be taken up and reinterred with
pomp, while the people cherished their memory with affection and
respect.
MARYLAND. George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic by
religion, obtained from Charles I, in 1630, a grant of the then
uninhabited shores of Chesapeake Bay, as an asylum for the persecuted
Papists. The charter, which secured liberty of conscience, and equal
privileges to the members of all Christian sects, was not issued until
after this lord’s death, and was then given to Cecil, his eldest son
and heir. He sent out his brother, Leonard Calvert, as governor, in
1633, with about two hundred emigrants, mostly Roman Catholics, and a
settlement was formed at St. Mary’s, the new colony being called
MARYLAND, in honor of queen Henrietta Maria. The proprietary had full
power to enact all necessary laws, not repugnant to the laws of
England, and not without the advice and approbation of the freemen of
the province or their representatives;――this being the first provision
in any colonial charter for giving a legislative power to the people.
The province was wisely and moderately governed, liberal grants of
land being offered to all comers, to be held by the payment of a quit
rent to the proprietor. Baltimore did not wish to shut out heretics
from his colony; Puritans and Church of England men were invited to
come, under a promise of enjoying equal privileges with the Catholics;
thus Maryland became a general asylum for the persecuted of all sects.
We are not surprised to learn, therefore, that, before Lord
Baltimore’s death in 1676, he was in receipt of a considerable income
from the province, which then contained about sixteen thousand
inhabitants, most of whom were Protestants. The people wisely sought
support from agriculture rather than mining and trade. Yet they did
not pass through the time of the Civil War and the domination of the
Long Parliament without annoyances and contests. During this period,
of course, Lord Baltimore’s principles were not in favor, and his
colony was regarded with a jealous eye. William Clayborne had obtained
a royal license to trade in all those parts, and he and his associates
denied the legality of the Maryland grant. The Parliament sent out
commissioners who displaced the officers of the proprietary, and put
the government into the hands of the Puritans, who soon passed an act
that excluded papists and prelatists from the benefit of the act of
toleration. A civil war at one time raged in the colony, Roundheads
and Cavaliers being opposed to each other, as in the mother land. But
with the restoration of Charles II, these troubles ceased, and the
prosperity of the settlement for a long period suffered but little
interruption. Yet an order was passed in 1681, for intrusting all
offices to Protestants, so that the Catholics were disfranchised a
second time in the colony they had founded.
THE CAROLINAS. The territory on the coast south of Virginia, extending
nominally as far south as St. Augustine, was granted, in 1663, to the
great Lord Clarendon, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and six other eminent
individuals. The whole region was to constitute one province, under
the name of Carolina, the proprietors receiving, together with the
grant of the land, ample powers of government. But a settlement had
already been formed near Albemarle Sound by some religious exiles from
Virginia, and another one near the mouth of Cape Fear river, by some
adventurers from New England, afterwards reinforced by a band of
emigrants from Barbadoes. In 1670, three ships were fitted out with
colonists from England, under the command of William Sayle, who formed
a settlement at Port Royal, which he soon removed to the peninsula at
the mouth of the Ashley and the Cooper rivers, giving to the town that
he founded there the name of Charleston. As this place was remote from
Albemarle, it obtained a separate government, and thus were created
the two colonies of North and South Carolina. The proprietors gave
public assurance that the settlers should enjoy unrestricted religious
liberty, and that their representatives should have a voice in the
enactment of laws. Unluckily they employed the celebrated philosopher,
John Locke, to devise a scheme of government for the colony; and he
gave them, under the name of the ‘Grand Model,’ the most complicated
and fanciful system that the wit of man ever contrived, and which was
a perpetual source of trouble and confusion for the quarter of a
century during which it was in partial operation. It established two
orders of nobility, landgraves and caciques; it assigned two fifths of
the land for seignories, baronies, and manors, to be cultivated by a
race of tenants attached to the soil, and the remaining three fifths
were allotted to private freeholders; and it erected a formidable
bureaucracy, with officers and titles enough for a populous kingdom of
the Old World. This rickety system could never be put into full
operation, and in 1693, it was entirely abrogated. The motley
population was swelled by two ship-loads of Dutch emigrants from New
York, and by a cargo of slaves from Barbadoes. After the revocation of
the Edict of Nantes, many Huguenots came to South Carolina, and
settled along the Santee; they had been preceded by some Presbyterian
settlers from the north of Ireland, and by a Scotch colony led by lord
Cardross. Religious toleration and the prospect of obtaining land on
easy terms were the lures which drew so many different classes of
immigrants. The population thus formed did not show themselves very
tractable. They persisted in keeping up an illegal traffic with New
England, they grumbled at paying quit rent to the proprietaries, and
they quarreled with the arbitrary and rapacious governors who were
sent to rule over them. But in spite of these interruptions, the two
colonies prospered, advancing steadily, though not rapidly, both in
population and wealth.
[Illustration: WILMINGTON, N. C.]
[Illustration: PRISON, PHILADELPHIA.]
NEW JERSEY. The territory between the Delaware and Hudson rivers,
being included in the surrender by the Dutch to the English in 1664,
was granted by the duke of York, under the name of NEW JERSEY, to lord
Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. They sent over Philip Carteret as
governor, with a liberal constitution for the new colony, and
bountiful offers of land to all settlers who would come thither. Lord
Berkeley sold his right, after he had held it ten years, to a company
of Quakers, who, wishing to govern separately a region which might be
an asylum for the persecuted of their sect, made an agreement with
Carteret, for the partition of the territory. The western portion was
assigned to them, the eastern to Carteret. A large company, consisting
principally of Quakers, then came from England, and settled in
Burlington and its neighborhood, ample privileges being secured to
them by a new constitution. A dispute ensued with the duke of York
respecting the title to their lands, as he pretended that, under a new
patent which he had obtained from the crown, his original rights were
restored. But the commissioners in England, to whom the matter was
referred, adjudged his claim to be invalid, and new settlers
continuing to arrive, the colony became very prosperous. East Jersey,
also, in 1682, was sold by the heirs of Carteret to William Penn and
twenty-three associates, mostly Quakers, who appointed Robert Barclay
governor, and endeavored to attract emigrants thither. Many of the
Scottish Covenanters, now suffering a deplorable persecution under
Lauderdale and Claverhouse, fled from their native land, and found a
pleasant and safe asylum in East Jersey. The numerous proprietors,
weary of quarreling with each other and with the people, surrendered
their rights to the crown in 1702; and the two divisions united under
one government.
PENNSYLVANIA. Another Quaker colony was established, on a larger
scale, by the celebrated William Penn, a man of great ability and
integrity, resolute in purpose and energetic in conduct, a keen
controversialist, and one who displayed on many occasions more
shrewdness, knowledge of the world, and practical talent than are
often found united with a fervor and sincerity of religious belief
which had the appearance of an unruly fanaticism. The Quakers, indeed,
while preserving with great steadfastness most of their inoffensive
external peculiarities, had quietly undergone a considerable change in
the manner and spirit of their proceedings,――a change attributable in
some degree to the influence of Penn himself. They were no longer the
wild and extravagant sectaries, whose outrageous conduct, twenty years
before, had troubled the peace of Massachusetts. Their manners had
become quiet and discreet, and though they remained fearless of
persecution, they no longer courted it. In consideration of the
services of his father, a distinguished admiral, Penn obtained from
Charles II, in 1681, a grant of the territory on the west bank of the
river Delaware, extending five degrees in longitude, and bounded by
the 40th and 43d parallels of latitude; and the king insisted on
naming it PENNSYLVANIA. The charter gave him the absolute property of
the soil and ample powers of government, but required the advice and
consent of the freemen of the province for the enactment of laws. The
sturdy and independent spirit of the New England colonies having
taught the crown lawyers a lesson of caution in drawing up colonial
charters, it was stipulated in this case that the king might negative
any enactment of the assembly, that parliament might levy taxes, and
that an appeal might be made to the crown from the decisions of the
courts of justice.
Acting under this charter, Penn drew up a very liberal ‘Frame of
Government,’ and also published a body of laws that had been examined
and approved by a company of proposed emigrants in England. He also
advertised the lands for sale, asking forty shillings, besides a
perpetual quitrent of one shilling, for every hundred acres. Unlimited
freedom of conscience, and the right to be governed by laws enacted by
themselves, were secured to the people. As the terms were liberal, and
the advantages of the territory, in respect to climate, situation,
fertility of the soil, and the friendly disposition of the neighboring
Indians, were considerable, a crowd of emigrants presented themselves,
comprising many Quakers and a number from Holland and Germany. The
Duke of York, afterwards James II, with whom Penn was high in favor,
made over to him all his own right to the three lower counties on the
Delaware, first peopled by the Swedes, which had lately been governed
as an appendage to the Duke’s province of New York. These counties
belonged geographically rather to Pennsylvania than New York, and
possession of them was important for the new colony, as they already
contained about 3,000 inhabitants, Swedes, Finns, and Dutch, steady
and industrious in their habits, and inured to their situation.
Besides these, a number of Swedish, Dutch, and English settlers were
already established in other portions of the territory, by whom the
new government was favorably received. William Markham, one of Penn’s
kinsmen, was sent out in 1681, with three ships and about three
hundred emigrants, bearing a plan of the city which was to be founded
at the confluence of the Schuylkill with the Delaware, and a very
friendly message to the Indians, whose good will the new proprietor
was anxious to conciliate. Penn himself came out the next year, in the
course of which twenty-three vessels arrived laden with goods and
emigrants. He held a friendly conference with the savages, under a
large elm at Kensington, which afterwards became an object of much
curiosity and respect, as marking the site of this famous interview. A
treaty was made by which the Indians sold their lands on terms
satisfactory to them, and stipulated to maintain peace and friendship,
which promise was long religiously observed. The savages named him
Onas, and though they gave the same title to the subsequent governors
of the colony, they always referred to him as the great and good Onas.
After laying out the new city of Philadelphia, so called from the
spirit of brotherly love which was to animate its inhabitants, and
holding a conference with Lord Baltimore about the disputed boundary
between Delaware and Pennsylvania, Penn returned, in 1684, to England.
He did not visit America again till 1699, and then made but a short
stay. The progress of the new province was as rapid as its
commencement had been auspicious. In 1684, it contained twenty settled
townships and seven thousand inhabitants; and not many years
afterwards, the population was estimated at thirty thousand. Some of
the laws proposed by Penn and adopted by the Assembly bore the imprint
of his quaint and benevolent disposition. To prevent law-suits, three
arbitrators were to be appointed by the county courts, to hear and
determine small controversies; children were to be taught some useful
trade, to the end that none might be idle; agents who wronged their
employers should make restitution and one-third over; and the property
of intestates was to be divided equally among the children, except
that the eldest son should receive a double share.
GEORGIA was founded in 1732, under a plan formed by General Oglethorpe
and some other benevolent gentlemen, in order to establish a place of
refuge for poor debtors and other indigent persons from Great Britain,
and for persecuted Protestants from all nations. A grant was obtained
from the king of the unoccupied territory on the right bank of the
Savannah river, the land to be apportioned gratuitously among the
settlers, charitable donations being made to defray the expense of
transporting them across the Atlantic, and supporting them during the
first season. Funds were freely contributed for this generous purpose,
under the hope that the measure would reduce the poor rates in
England, and empty the workhouses and debtors’ jails. But the class of
persons thus sent out were very unfit for the work of creating a new
settlement and subduing the wilderness. They were chiefly broken-down
tradesmen and impoverished debauchees; while sailors, agriculturists,
and laborers from the country were needed. A company of persecuted
Lutherans from Salzburg, and one of Scotch Highlanders, who settled
respectively the towns of Ebenezer and New Inverness, formed
industrious and thriving colonists. Oglethorpe brought over the first
band of emigrants, and founded the city of Savannah. The colony being
regarded as in a state of pupilage, its affairs were administered, for
the first twenty years, by a board of trustees, nominated in the
charter, who were to appoint their associates and successors, and had
the exclusive right of legislation. The generous motto on their
official seal, _non sibi, sed aliis_, (not for themselves, but for
others,) showed the benevolent purposes with which they acted. Some of
their measures were wise, others were preposterous. They strictly
forbade the introduction of negro slaves; the use of rum was
prohibited; no grant of land was to exceed five hundred acres; the
land was not to be sold or devised by the holders, but was to descend
to male children only, and in case of the failure of such heirs, was
to revert to the trustees. But these laws did not long remain in
force; slavery was introduced from the neighboring province of
Carolina; females were allowed to inherit, and the land became subject
to the same regulations as other property. So long as the colony was
managed by trustees, and considered as an object of charity, it
languished, and large sums were expended upon it in vain. At last, the
government was abandoned to the crown, its institutions were
assimilated to those of the other colonies, and it then had a steady
and prosperous growth. The Methodists and Moravians were numerous in
Georgia, two renowned preachers of the former denomination, Wesley and
Whitefield, residing in it for several years.
It is apparent from this review, that the English colonies in North
America, with the exception of Virginia and New York, were founded and
peopled chiefly by religious exiles. The English Puritans were most
numerous in New England, the Quakers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania,
the Roman Catholics in Maryland, Scotch Presbyterians, French
Huguenots and Methodists in the south, and German Lutherans in
Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Earnestness, sobriety, an independent
spirit, and a determined hatred of oppression thus characterized the
people from the beginning. Whatever emigrants came out solely in quest
of wealth were soon disabused of their error, and either returned to
the Old World, or learned to labor and to endure in their new home.
Property was very evenly distributed, and there were no marked
inequalities of rank or social position. Protected by their feebleness
and insignificance in the outset, and by their distance from the
mother country, the colonists were, in the main, allowed to enact
their own laws, and manage their own affairs. Without any marked
purpose of deviating from the policy, or shaking off the yoke, of
England, they were, from the commencement, semi-republican and
semi-independent. Disciplined by privation, exile, and peril, thrown
on their own resources, governing themselves, their situation
developed in them the elements of a thoughtful, vigorous, and resolute
character. After they had overcome the first difficulties and
obstructions in the way of founding a new home in the wilderness,
their habits of endurance, industry, and frugality soon gave
prosperity to their undertakings. Agriculture and commerce flourished,
and they increased rapidly in population and wealth. They were no
longer the feeble dependencies of a remote power; they could boast
that they had laid the foundations of a great empire.
CONTEST OF THE ENGLISH WITH THE FRENCH FOR THE POSSESSION OF NORTH
AMERICA.
The English revolution, which placed William III on the throne, while
it freed the colonies from the oppressions they endured during the
reign of his predecessor, involved them in the calamities of the war
between France and England, which lasted from 1690 to the peace of
Ryswick in 1697. The French in Canada directed an expedition against
the English colonies, instigating the Indians to join them in their
hostilities. In return, an armament was fitted out by Massachusetts
for the invasion of the French settlements. Port Royal in Nova Scotia
was taken. A second expedition was undertaken by the colonies of New
York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, for the reduction of Montreal
and Quebec. It failed in its object, and had the effect of producing
dissatisfaction among the Indian tribes in New York, who were the
allies of the English. This war, commonly called _King William’s war_,
was marked by the most savage atrocities on the part of the French and
Indians.
Scarcely had the colonies begun to recover from this war, when in 1702
they were plunged into another with the French, Indians, and
Spaniards, commonly called _Queen Anne’s war_, arising from disputes
about the boundaries, which had been left unsettled at the peace of
Ryswick. The colonies of Massachusetts and New Hampshire were the
chief sufferers, being most exposed to the devastating and murderous
incursions of the French and Indians from Canada. Several expeditions
were sent into Canada; but the only success that attended the English
arms was the taking again of Port Royal, which had been restored to
the French at the close of the former war. It was now named
_Annapolis_. The peace of Utrecht, in 1713, put an end to the war in
the northern colonies; but South Carolina continued to be annoyed for
some time by the Indians. By the treaty of Utrecht, France ceded
Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to England.
[Illustration: FORT PUTNAM.]
[Illustration: PILLAR ROCK.]
In 1744, England again declared war against France and Spain, which
again involved the colonies in hostilities with the enemies of the
mother-country and with their Indian allies. The principal event of
this war, in America, was the capture of Louisburg from the French by
forces from New England. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 again
gave peace to the colonies. Prisoners were to be released on both
sides without ransom, and all conquests to be mutually restored.
This war was extremely disastrous to the colonies. Many lives were
lost; the growth of population was checked; great losses were
sustained in the commercial interests of the country; and finally a
burdensome debt of several millions had been incurred to defray the
expenses of the war. With the return of peace, however, commerce
revived; the settlements began to extend, and public credit was
restored.
But only a brief interval of repose was allowed to the colonies. In
1756, eight years from the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, Great Britain
again declared war against France, on the ground of the encroachments
of the French upon the English territories in America.
Some years previous to this war the French had commenced a chain of
posts, designed to extend from the head of the St. Lawrence to the
Mississippi, with a view to maintain a communication between their
northern possessions and Louisiana.
In 1750, the English government granted a large tract of land on the
Ohio river to a company called the _Ohio company_, formed for the
purpose of settling the country, and carrying on a trade in furs with
the Indians. The French governor of Canada, apprehending both the loss
of the fur-trade and the interruption of his communications with
Louisiana, claimed the whole country between the Ohio and the
Alleghanies, and prohibited the further encroachments of the English.
He also opened a new communication between Lake Erie and the Ohio, and
stationed troops at posts along the line. The Ohio company, thus
threatened in their trade, persuaded Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia,
in 1753, to send a remonstrance to the French commandant. GEORGE
WASHINGTON was the bearer. The commandant returned for answer that he
had taken possession of the country by order of the governor-general
of Canada, whose orders alone he could regard.
The British government, on learning the claim set up by the French,
directed the Virginians to resist it by force. In 1754, an expedition
was conducted against the French by Washington; but the superior force
of the French obliged him to capitulate, with the privilege of
returning with his troops to Virginia. This was properly the
commencement of what is commonly styled the _French war_, although the
formal declaration was not yet made.
In the meantime, the British government recommended the colonies to
unite for their common defense. A convention of delegates from all of
the northern colonies accordingly met at Albany in 1754, and adopted a
plan of union: but it was rejected, both by the provincial assemblies
and by the home government: by the former because it gave too much
power to the crown, and by the latter because it gave too little.
In the spring of 1755, vigorous preparations were made for carrying on
the war. An expedition was sent against _Nova Scotia_, which met with
entire success: the colonial forces, with trifling loss, subdued the
French, and gained complete and permanent possession of the whole
country.
An expedition under General Braddock, directed against the French on
the _Ohio_, was unfortunate. Owing to the arrogance and rashness of
the commander, the British troops were surprised and defeated with
great loss by a very inferior force of French and Indians. General
Braddock was mortally wounded, and the conduct of the retreat devolved
on Washington, who was in command of the colonial militia, and by whom
the army was saved from total destruction.
The American arms were more successful in the north. The French were
signally defeated on the borders of Lake George, and their commander,
Baron Dieskau, was mortally wounded. The moral effect of this victory,
following within a few weeks the discomfiture of Braddock, was very
great and salutary in its influence upon the colonies.
In the year, 1756, war was formally declared between Great Britain and
France; and in Europe began what is called the _seven years’ war_, in
which Prussia was united with England against France. In America the
campaign of 1756 was very disastrous to the colonists; they were
unable even to attempt gaining of _Niagara_ and _Crown Point_, places
of great importance in the hands of the French, and the reduction of
which was in the plan of operations. The French, under Montcalm, took
Fort Oswego, thus gaining entire command of the Lakes Ontario and
Erie, besides inflicting upon the English a very severe loss,
amounting to sixteen hundred men made prisoners, one hundred and
twenty cannon, with fourteen mortars, two sloops-of-war, and two
hundred bateaux.
The British government made great preparations for the campaign of
1757. A large force was destined for the reduction of Louisburg; but
the indecision and incapacity of Lord Loudon, the commander-in-chief,
caused the expedition to be abandoned. Meantime, Montcalm, the French
commander, besieged and took Fort William Henry, on Lake George, after
a most spirited defense by Colonel Munroe. The English troops, after
being admitted to honorable capitulation, were treacherously massacred
by the Indians attached to Montcalm’s army.
The campaign of 1758 was more prosperous. Lord Chatham had now become
prime minister, and infused new energy into the prosecution of the
war. In answer to a call made by him upon the colonies, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and New Hampshire, united and raised fifteen thousand
men. The tide of success now turned in favor of the English. Three
expeditions had been planned: one against Louisburg, another against
Ticonderoga, and the third against Fort du Quesne on the Ohio.
Louisburg was taken, with great loss to the French in prisoners,
ships, and munitions of war. Fort du Quesne was abandoned by the
French, taken possession of by the English, and named _Pittsburgh_.
The expedition against Ticonderoga failed, but the failure was
compensated by the capture of _Fort Frontinac_, an important fortress
at the outlet of Lake Ontario.
The campaign of 1759 commenced with a nearly simultaneous attack upon
all the French strongholds in Canada, namely, Ticonderoga, Crown
Point, Niagara, and Quebec. One division of the army, under General
Amherst, the commander-in-chief, proceeded against Ticonderoga and
Crown Point, which were successively taken. Another division, under
General Prideaux, advanced and took Niagara. General Wolfe was no less
successful in the great enterprise of conquering Quebec. The French,
under Montcalm, were defeated on the plains of Abraham, and Quebec
fell into the hands of the British. General Wolfe died upon the field
of battle.
In 1760, the French made an unsucessful attempt to recover Quebec. In
less than a year from the capture of that city, Montreal, Detroit, and
all other places in the possession of the French, were surrendered to
the British, and the conquest of Canada was completed.
By the treaty of peace definitively concluded at Paris in 1763, Nova
Scotia, Canada, Cape Breton, and all other islands in the gulf and
river St. Lawrence, were ceded to the British crown.
The protracted contest with the French and the Indians being brought
to a close by the complete triumph of the English, the American
Colonies were seemingly in the full tide of prosperity. The great
exertions they had made during the last war had taught them the secret
of their strength; that war had cost them, it was computed, about
30,000 lives and over sixteen millions of dollars, of which only five
millions were repaid by the British ministry. Immigration rapidly
increased, and the vast forest in the interior began to be explored by
those who were in search of a new home. The Delaware and Hudson rivers
were crossed by a thronging multitude, the Alleghanies were
surmounted, and white settlements were formed upon the upper
tributaries of the Ohio. No longer hemmed in, as with a ring of iron,
by the French and the savages, the internal principle of expansion,
which has been at work ever since, received its first free
development, and carried the limits of civilization every year farther
west. Trade flourished on the sea-coast; Boston had long been
distinguished for enterprising traffic, and Newport, New York,
Philadelphia, and Baltimore were rising rapidly in commercial
importance. Printing presses and newspapers, schools and colleges,
flourished, though the literature of the Colonies as yet existed only
in the humble form of sermons. Yet the metaphysical writings of
Jonathan Edwards slowly acquired a European reputation, and the fame
of Dr. Franklin was carried, by his brilliant discoveries in
electricity, to the bounds of the civilized world.