Early American colony

Early American colony

Introduction

In the Mid-eighteenth Century, the American colonies were divided into three namely; the northern, middle and southern colonies. The North colonies were also referred to as the New England colonies and comprised of four original colonies (Stanley Weintraub,2009). These colonies are Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhodes Island, and New Hampshire Colonies. Early 17th-Century England France and many other countries made attempts to colonize the Northern Colonies. The aim of this essay is to expound more on the social, economic and political organization in the North Colonies.

The founders of the  Northern colonies although economic growth  was still a goal, their main goal was religious. The pilgrims and the Puritans wanted to create a society in a way they believed God wanted it to be. The pilgrims migrated from England to what is now southern Massachusetts, they signed an agreement to establish a government under King James I (Zinn, 2017).  The agreement also allowed for the creation of Plymouth Colony. The Puritans having been harassed by the Church of England decided to settle in the New England colonies north of the Plymouth plantation. According to Stanley Weintraub,(2009), the Great Migration by the Puritans is one of the most significant migrations to ever take place in the Northern Colonies.

When English, Spanish and French explorers came to North America, they brought with them new diseases which native Americans had no immunity to. The diseases included chicken pox measles smallpox and influenza. Although the introduction of these diseases was an accident it brought tremendous effects to the Native Americans as most of them were infected either through contact with the Explorers or through traded goods and eventually died. The diseases could at times wipe out a whole village (Zinn, 2017). The great impact of the diseases is an important theme of the story of European exploration as many of Native Americans died from the illnesses.

The economic activities of the Native Americans were greatly influenced by the new settlers and explorers. New trade goods brought by the European explorers and colonists became of interest to the Native Americans (Dickson, 2015). They traded their prepared animal hides for clothes. Bows and arrows became less important to the Natives as now they could access more advanced weapons like European firearms, powder and lead shot. Metal tools such as knives hoes and axes became a valuable resource hence the natives would trade their goods for the tools. The ancient trading patterns were changed due to the presence and limited supply of European goods (Zinn, 2017). Hunting, the main economic activities of the Native Americans became less and less important than obtaining animal hides to trade purposes.

Slavery was introduced by the Europeans to the New England colonies. Labor was needed to build houses and clear fields. In order for the Europeans to get the labor they needed they introduced weapons to certain Native Americans who would capture other natives in tribal wars (Northrup, 2011). The captured natives were bought and sold as slaves. Charleston, a port city sold out many Native Americans to work as slaves in the Caribbean. Slave trade led to warfare among tribes of the Native Americans (Nelson & Minchin,2011). Many tribes had to  escape the slave trade by migrating to different places this led to destruction of many tribes completely.

In the 17th Century Northern colonies became a religious refuge for John Calvin followers who differed with the Church of England beliefs. These two groups were the pilgrims and the Puritans. The came to Northern colonies to search for freedom of religion. However, the religious freedom these groups sought was only theirs as they only allowed Puritan churches  and only church members had government rights (Wright, 2012). People who believed in other religions were treated harshly and punished. This made many Native Americans move from the New England Colonies to other colonies. In 1635 Roger Williams founded Rhode Island colony after being expelled from Massachusetts. He established religious tolerance for all and religious freedom (Zinn,2017).In 1680, the Puritans were forced to tolerate other Christian churches in their midst by the English law but the taxes were still established by the church.

The political organization differed from one colony to another. In the colony of Massachusetts, the Puritans allowed more religious freedom and only male church members could vote or serve the government (Stanley Weintraub,2009). The Puritans made the laws and rules for themselves. In the colony of Rhodes Island, Roger Williams formed a settlement where every person could worship freely. Women who disliked Puritans for discriminating women in their worship moved from Massachusetts to Rhodes Island led by Anne Hutchinson (Wright 2012).In 1639  Thomas Hooker and other settlers wrote the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut for the Connecticut Colony. He gave rights to all white people who owned property. He limited the governors’ power and is sometimes referred to as the Father of Democracy.

Conclusion

The aim of this essay which was to expound more on the social economic and political organization of Natives Americans and how the colonizers changed their way of life was achieved. Many changes happened to the Native Americans but they survived the severe and fatal diseases and big changes in their culture and traditions. The struggles they endured prepared them for the war of independence in 1776. The seeds for a new different society with new traditions and culture were planted which was quite different from their previous society.

References

Dickinson, j. (2015). Letters from a farmer in Pennsylvania to the inhabitants of the British colonies. Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Newson, L., & Minchin, S. (2011). From capture to sale. Leiden: Brill.

Northrup, D. (2011). The Atlantic slave trade. Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

Stanley Weintraub. (2009). The American Colonies. Dissent, 56(1), 33-37. doi: 10.1353/dss.0.0029

Wright, L. (2012). Cultural Life of the American Colonies. Dover Publications.

Zinn, H. (2017). A people’s history of the United States. New York: Harper [An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers].