The Early Colonists

Between 1492-1776, although many people moved to the “New World”, North America lost population due to the amount of Indians dying from war and diseases and the inability of colonists to replace them. John Murrin states, “losers far outnumbered winners” in “ a tragedy of such huge proportions that no one’s imagination can easily encompass it all.” This thought of a decreasing population broadens one’s perspective of history from that of an excluded American tale full of positivity to that of a more unbiased, all-encompassing analysis. The Indians and slaves have recently been noted as a more crucial part of history than previously accredited with.

The colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut made up the New England colonies. Most of the Europeans in the New England colonies were there to escape the religious persecution they faced in England. They practiced a lot of different things in these colonies compared to the middle and southern and colonies of colonial america.

English colonists first came to America late 1500s with the lost colony of Roanoke. English settlers then tried again for a permanent settlement in the early 1600s with Jamestown. Following Jamestown the English were consistently sending new colonists from England to America. The first English settlers had faced quite the hardships. None of the colonists were prepared or equipped with the knowledge to survive in their new environment. This is where Native American and English colonists interactions began. Prior to English settlers, the Native Americans had also had interactions with the Spanish. At first people believed that English colonists would treat the Natives better than the Spanish colonists. But as history has shown,

The colonisation of North America by the Europeans became one of the most crucial points for the native North Americans. The differing experiences of contact between both cultures had overwhelmingly disastrous impacts on the normal way of life. From such contact arose the issue of land disputes, in turn resulting in massacres and frontier wars which could have otherwise been unnecessary. The factors stated above provide a suitable stimulus for a discussion in regards to the varying encounters of the Indigenous North Americans.

Whether by land or by sea, eighteenth century colonial travel was arduous, expensive, and many times dangerous. Because of this, few people traveled very far from their homes. Transportation has changed dramatically since the late 1700’s. It was during this time that Colonial America was budding as a new country. This was before airplanes, which appeared in the very early stages of the 1900’s. Cars showed up about the same time, so rewind about 200 plus years and we’re back in colonial America. It wasn’t civilized like it is today. The dirt roads were bumpy, grimy, and when the rains came, they were mud baths. So how did people during this time get around? Often, they didn’t. Not many people could afford the cost of travel back then. Daily American Colonial Life was extremely harsh for the first settlers and colonists. They were faced with a new country, unknown territory and no friends, relatives or neighbors to help them “In those days, it was fairly expensive to travel. Because of this, generally only government officials, merchants, and planters took the risk (Constitution Facts).” Women were supposed to stay home and look after the children while the husband went off to do business. America was still a budding country, so there were not as many cities as there are now and they were more spread out. If the man wanted to travel, it would require several hours, or even several days to ride on horseback. Often the husband wouldn’t return for a couple of days, and when he

The New England colonist living in the new world in the early 1600’s went from a society that had a few slaves, to a society that accepted slavery as a way of life by the early 1700’s. Not one single event or year can be definitely set as to when slavery became a permanent staple of the colonies. The institution of slavery was introduced over time. It took a little over a century of perpetuating laws, codes, and failed rebellions before African slavery became a corner stone of colonial life.

The freedoms and opportunities enjoyed by the colonists after the American Revolution were not simply established as much as they were fought tooth and nail for. The colonists between the 15th and 18th century faced much turmoil in which they had to overcome in order to become the success they sought after. Many of these freedoms and opportunities came at a cost to other people and cultures as the colonists paved their way to a new society. To gain full benefits of their freedoms, the colonists would also have to explore new ideals to shape the way they run their lives in order to be true successes. These successions can be tied back to the first Native American treaties.

In April of 1635, the City of Boston established the first system of law enforcement in the 13 colonies. They were called the “Night Watch”, the officers worked part-time with no pay. It was until 1712 when the City of Boston hired its first paid full time law enforcement officer in the 13 colonies. On September 24, 1789 “the United States Congress created the first Federal law enforcement officer, the United

Early policing in Colonial America had its beginnings in England. Police departments in America started to follow the trend. Actually, they were not police departments as we know them today. Policing in colonial America began as a night watch program of volunteers in the early 1600’s in the northern colonies, specifically in Boston. Early policing was not the same throughout the colonies. Southern colonies developed their own system of policing based on the needs of the community using watch groups and organized groups of white men known as slave patrols. The policing systems changed as the colonies grew in population, more small businesses, the development of large industries and more funding became available. “War and then revolution strained the Boston watch system…the French and Indian war 1756-1763…” (Wadman &Allison2004,p.10). The watch system in all of the colonies had similarities and differences, however none were very successful in reducing crime. New York, Boston, Charleston, Virginia, and Tennessee all suffered immense problems with their crime rate using the watch system. This was the first form of policing in colonial

On august 1585 the first colonists of england have arrived at roanoke and built a fort in 2 weeks. 2 months later the colonists ran out of supplies. They sent a rescue mission to england to bring supplies. It has been many months but the people that were sent did not come back. On 1890 most colonists decided to abandon roanoke and go to croatan island to seek for supplies. They wrote on the trees croton and before they could finish writing croton on another tree. The spanish had attacked them with full rage. The colonists had enough time to run and escape to croton but they did not know that the spanish were following them. The colonists were frightened so much that they were shaking. They asked the native americans to give them shelter and

When thinking about the first settlers of the United States, the Thirteen Colonies come to mind. Jamestown was honored as being the first town to successfully settle upon the newly discovered land. What most people do not know is that there was technically fourteen original colonies, and the Roanoke settlement was the first. In 1586, Queen Elizabeth I instructed a group of around one hundred and fifteen men and women to start a new life on the uncivilized land. After some time of being on the island, supplies were running short. John White and Ralph Lane, the colonists governors, sailed back to Britain to gather the necessary goods, but ran into issues when trying to return. A naval battle between Spain and Britain restricted White and Lane

The American colonists saw them self’s just as common folks in King George III eyes. They figured by trading with Britain they can all just be in peace. (So they thought) In this time period, they did not have banks and they had little money so Colonists used credit to get the things they needed from the other colonies. When they came to America, Britain wanted to control expansion into the western territories after the French and Indian War. To do so, King George issued the Proclamation of 1763 prohibiting settlements beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Pushing everyone who hand already settled down on that side to move back over to were the rest of the colonist were.

Playing this game made me realize how difficult it was for people who came to a new and strange place to start living their lives all over again. It helped me to get a better understanding of all the obstacles that the early colonists had to face, for instance, they had to completely build up their entire life from the ground up and sometimes it did not end up going so well. Many people had died from starvation or just from diseases that they encounter that they never even knew existed. They also had to worry about how they would grow crops to feed everyone or how they would plan on governing themselves since they were thousands of miles from any formal government. Or where was the best place to settle that would provide a good amount of natural

The Massachusetts colony, otherwise known as the ‘Massachusetts Bay colony’ was originally settled by Puritans in 1630. They were plagued by the religious persecutions of King Charles I and the Church of England. Weary from this dogged torment, they left England under the leadership of John Winthrop. These original colonists quickly established many small towns in the name of high religious ideals and strict societal rules. They also planted churches, spread Puritanism and religiously educated the masses, as these were some of their goals. A utopian society that other colonies looked upon with high regards was the ultimate goal.

The European conquest for establishing North American colonies began with various motivations, each dependent on different, and/or merging necessities: economics, the desire to flee negative societal aspects, and the search for religious freedoms. Originally discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 in search for a trade route to Cathay (China), North America remained uninhabited, excluding the Native American establishments. Following this discovery, Spain –along with other European nations such as France, England, Sweden and the Netherlands– soon began the expedition to the new land with vast expectations. Driven by economic, societal, and religious purposes, the New World developed into a diversely structured colonial establishment