England in America, 1580-1652

Lyon Gardiner Tyler

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• Publié par: ornie
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 55
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Project Gutenberg's England in America, 1580-1652, by Lyon Gardiner Tyler This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: England in America, 1580-1652 Author: Lyon Gardiner Tyler Release Date: July 14, 2005 [EBook #16294] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLAND IN AMERICA, 1580-1652 *** Produced by Suzanne Shell, Gary Houston and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net ENGLAND IN AMERICA 1580-1652 By Lyon Gardiner Tyler, LL.D. J. & J. Harper Editions Harper & Row, Publishers New York and Evanston 1904 CONTENTS CHAP. EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. AUTHOR'S PREFACE GENESIS OF ENGLISH COLONIZATION (1492-1579) GILBERT AND RALEIGH COLONIES (1583-1602) FOUNDING OF VIRGINIA (1602-1608) GLOOM IN VIRGINIA (1608-1617) TRANSITION OF VIRGINIA (1617-1640) PAGE xiii xix 3 18 34 55 76 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF VIRGINIA (1634-1652) 100 FOUNDING OF MARYLAND (1632-1650) 118 CONTENTIONS IN MARYLAND (1633-1652) FOUNDING OF PLYMOUTH (1608-1630) DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PLYMOUTH (1621-1643) GENESIS OF MASSACHUSETTS (1628-1630) FOUNDING OF MASSACHUSETTS (1630-1642) RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS (16311638) NARRAGANSETT AND CONNECTICUT SETTLEMENTS (16351637) FOUNDING OF CONNECTICUT AND NEW HAVEN (1637-1652) NEW HAMPSHIRE AND MAINE (1653-1658) COLONIAL NEIGHBORS (1643-1652) THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERATION (1643-1654) EARLY NEW ENGLAND LIFE CRITICAL ESSAY ON AUTHORITIES INDEX 134 149 163 183 196 210 229 251 266 282 297 318 328 341 MAPS ROANOKE ISLAND, JAMESTOWN, AND ST. MARY'S (1584-1632) CHART OF VIRGINIA, SHOWING INDIAN AND EARLY ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN 1632 VIRGINIA IN 1652 MARYLAND IN 1652 NEW ENGLAND (1652) MAINE IN 1652 NEW SWEDEN AND NEW NETHERLAND facing 34 76 99 133 facing 196 265 296 Transcriber's Note: This text retains original spellings. Also, superscripted abbreviations or contractions are indicated by the use of a caret (^), such as w^th (with). EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION Some space has already been given in this series to the English and their relation to the New World, especially the latter half of Cheyney's European Background of American History , which deals with the religious, social, and political institutions which the English colonists brought with them; and chapter v. of Bourne's Spain in America, describing the Cabot voyages. This volume begins a detailed story of the English settlement, and its title indicates the conception of the author that during the first halfcentury the American colonies were simply outlying portions of the English nation, but that owing to disturbances culminating in civil war they had the opportunity to develop on lines not suggested by the home government. The first two chapters deal with the unsuccessful attempts to plant English colonies, especially by Gilbert and Raleigh. These beginnings are important because they proved the difficulty of planting colonies through individual enterprise. At the same time the author brings out clearly the various motives for colonization—the spirit of adventure, the desire to enjoy a new life, and the intent to harm the commerce of the colonies of Spain. In chapters iii. to vi. the author describes the final founding of the first successful colony, Virginia, and emphasizes four notable characteristics of that movement. The first is the creation of colonizing companies (a part of the movement described in its more general features by Cheyney in his chapters vii. and viii.). The second is the great waste of money and the awful sacrifice of human life caused by the failure of the colonizers to adapt themselves to the conditions of life in America. That the people of Virginia should be fed on grain brought from England, should build their houses in a swamp, should spend their feeble energies in military executions of one another is an unhappy story made none the pleasanter by the knowledge that the founders of the company in England were spending freely of their substance and their effort on the colony. The third element in the growth of Virginia is the introduction of the staple crop, always in demand, and adapted to the soil of Virginia. Tobacco, after 1616, speedily became the main interest of Virginia, and without tobacco it must have gone down. A fourth characteristic is the early evidence of an unconquerable desire for self-government, brought out in the movements of the first assembly of 1619 and the later colonial government: here we have the germ of the later American system of government. The founding of the neighboring colony of Maryland (chapters vii. and viii.) marks the first of the proprietary colonies; it followed by twenty-five years and had the advantage of the unhappy experience of Virginia and of very capable management. The author shows how little Maryland deserves the name of a Catholic colony, and he develops the Kent Island episode, the first serious boundary controversy between two English commonwealths in America. To the two earliest New England colonies are devoted five chapters (ix. to xiii.), which are treated not as a separate episode but as part of the general spirit of colonization. Especial attention is paid to the development of popular government in Massachusetts, where the relation between governor, council, and freemen had an opportunity to work itself out. Through the transfer of the charter to New England, America had its first experience of a plantation with a written constitution for internal affairs. The fathers of the Puritan republics are further relieved of the halo which generations of venerating descendants have bestowed upon them, and appear as human characters. Though engaging in a great and difficult task, and while solving many problems, they nevertheless denied their own fundamental precept of the right of a man to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. Chapters xiv. to xvi. describe the foundation of the little settlements in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Haven, New Hampshire, and Maine; and here we have an interesting picture of little towns for a time standing quite independent, and gradually consolidating into commonwealths, or coalescing with more powerful neighbors. Then follow (chapters xvii. and xviii.) the international and intercolonial relations of the colonies, and especially the New England Confederation, the first form of American federal government. A brief sketch of the conditions of social life in New England (chapter xix.) brings out the strong commercial spirit of the people as well as their intense religious life and the narrowness of their social and intellectual status. The bibliographical essay is necessarily a selection from the great literature of early English colonization, but is a conspectus of the most important secondary works and collections of sources.