Colonial America: Settlement, Society & the Roots of Revolution

US History

Chapter 2 · Colonial America: Settlement, Society & the Roots of Revolution

This chapter describes who settled the English colonies that became the United States, why, how they lived and how they were governed locally. It starts with Jamestown in 1607, a scope choice explained in Chapter 1, and it does not describe the peoples already living there beyond a few mentions. The sources are three reference articles, on the Thirteen Colonies, on Plymouth Colony and on indentured servitude. Their figures differ in places, and the chapter marks those. The "roots of revolution" in the title are only partly covered here, and Chapter 3 takes them up.

The Colonies

The Thirteen Colonies article groups them in three regions, not the four I had expected, and gives these founding dates.

Region	Colonies and dates in the article
New England	Massachusetts Bay (1628), Plymouth (1620), Connecticut (1636), Rhode Island (1663)
Middle	New York (1664), New Jersey (1664), Pennsylvania (1681), Delaware (1664)
Southern	Virginia (1607), Maryland (1632), North Carolina and South Carolina (each 1712 as separate colonies), Georgia (1732)

Dates That Depend on the Definition The article gives Massachusetts Bay as 1628, and I have seen other dates for it, but I did not check which is standard, so I use the article's. It calls Virginia at Jamestown "the first permanently settled English colony" in 1607, the same claim that The Age of Exploration 8 flagged as a "first permanent" claim I had not checked against other candidates. Its 1712 dates for the Carolinas are for separate colonies, not for first settlement.

"Thirteen Colonies" Is a Later Label The article says the term "became current only in the context of the American Revolution." The colonies were governed separately and the grouping was constructed later. That is a warning about the chapter's own heading. I use it for convenience and do not claim contemporaries saw thirteen as one thing.

Growth and the Economy

The population grew "from 2 thousand to 2.4 million" between 1625 and 1775, and by 1750 historian Alan Taylor estimated 1.5 million.
By 1770 colonial economic output "made up forty percent of the gross domestic product of the entire British Empire."
The colonies engaged in "global trade," exporting "foodstuffs, wood, tobacco, and various other resources."
More than 90 percent of colonists lived as farmers. Philadelphia became the largest city with about 30,000 people.

Estimates and a Striking Share All of these are estimates, and the article does not say how they were made. The 40 percent figure is a claim about the whole British Empire's output, and I did not find how "gross domestic product" was measured for the 1770s or whether the figure is widely accepted. I would not build an argument on it without checking.

Plymouth, 1620

Plymouth Colony was established in 1620 by Protestant Separatists, the Pilgrims, aboard the Mayflower, which carried about 102 passengers plus around 30 crew. The article says they fled persecution by the Church of England, and settled first in the Netherlands in 1608 but worried their children were adopting Dutch culture, which prompted the transatlantic voyage.

The Compact

Recognising they lacked legal authority to settle, 41 male passengers drafted the Mayflower Compact while anchored at Provincetown, establishing a first legal framework based on "just and equal laws."

The First Winter

"Nearly half of the original 102 passengers had died during the first winter," about 45 of 102, from disease and harsh conditions.

The Treaty

A March 1621 treaty with the chief Massasoit, facilitated by Squanto, the sole Patuxet survivor, ensured mutual defence and established trading relationships.

The article dates the harvest celebration now called the first Thanksgiving to early October 1621. It says 53 surviving Pilgrims, Massasoit and 90 Wampanoag warriors took part, and it "lasted three days," though the exact historical details "remain somewhat uncertain regarding dating." Plymouth lost its independent status on 17 October 1691 when a new charter combined it with Massachusetts Bay and other territories.

What the Summary Does Not Say The source says Squanto was "the sole Patuxet survivor" and does not say what happened to the Patuxet people. I did not find that, and Chapter 4 returns to the wider question of indigenous dispossession. The treaty's terms are given in one line, and I did not check how long it held.

Labour: Indenture

Indentured servitude was a labour contract in which European workers agreed to serve for a fixed period in exchange for passage. The article says servants received "sufficient Meat, Drink, Apparel, Lodging and all other necessaries" but no wages during their term.

Feature	What the source says
Scale	"Between one-half and two-thirds of European immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies between the 1630s and the American Revolution came under indentures," and separately about 48 percent of roughly 500,000 to 550,000 European arrivals before 1775. More than half of all immigrants south of New England were white servants.
Term	Typically four or five years, ranging from one to seven, with longer terms for those under 24.
Restrictions	Servants could not marry without their owner's permission and were subject to physical punishment.
Mortality	"Many servants did not live to the end of their terms," and death rates reached 33 to 50 percent in the Caribbean.
Afterwards	"Freedom dues" and becoming "free members of society," often used to establish farms or trades.

Two Estimates That Do Not Match The article's "one-half to two-thirds" and "about 48 percent" cannot both describe the same population, and it does not explain the difference. Historians' estimates differ, and I cannot tell which is better. The 33 to 50 percent mortality figure is for the Caribbean, not the Thirteen Colonies, and I did not find a mainland figure.

Slavery

The Thirteen Colonies article says slavery "was legal in all of the colonies," and that between 1680 and 1750 "the population of slaves in America grew dramatically." The Middle Colonies and later the North employed enslaved people in "a variety of occupations," while Southern plantation economies relied heavily on enslaved labour. The indenture article says "African slaves became cheaper for unskilled and then eventually skilled labor," with most farmhand positions "ultimately filled by slaves." It says labour economics, and not racial ideology alone, drove the substitution.

Where the Sources Are Cautious The indenture article hedges on why enslaved labour replaced indentured labour and does not discuss Bacon's Rebellion, which I had expected. "Labor economics, not racial ideology alone" leaves room for both, and I do not weigh them. The Age of Exploration 9 covers the Atlantic trade from the other side, and it dates the first documented Africans in English North America to 1619 (Chapter 8 there). Neither of today's sources gives a share of the colonial population that was enslaved, and I do not supply one.

Religion and Self-Government

The article says Maryland, Pennsylvania and the New England colonies were "substantially motivated by their founders' concerns related to the practice of religion." Pennsylvania attracted Quakers, Scotch-Irish and German settlers, and the 1740s saw "a religious revival known as the First Great Awakening." The colonies had "a degree of self-governance and active local elections," though the article gives little detail on how the assemblies worked.

The "Roots of Revolution" I Cannot Yet Show The only sources in this chapter that bear on the Revolution are the note that the Thirteen Colonies label arose with it, the self-government sentence and the trade and output figures. They do not say how any of these led to the break with Britain. The plan for Chapter 3 is to take up taxation and the Boston Tea Party, and the war itself is covered in Military History: The War of US Independence.

What I Did Not Verify I did not find the Chesapeake tobacco economy in detail, women's lives, the Puritan communities of New England beyond Plymouth, the Dutch and Swedish settlements, colonial towns, the experiences of indigenous peoples, or the numbers for enslaved people. I also did not check the population figures against a second source. The chapter gives a framework and some headline numbers.

Hands-On Exercises

Exercise 1

Compare New England, the Middle Colonies and the South on founding dates, one economic feature and one social feature, using only the chapter, and say what is missing.

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Exercise 2

A student writes "Most colonists were free settlers who paid their own way." Use the chapter's indenture figures to qualify it, and note what is uncertain.

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Exercise 3

The title promises "roots of revolution." List what the chapter offers on that theme and what a reader would need for a full account.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

Regions: New England, Middle, Southern; Virginia 1607, Plymouth 1620, Massachusetts Bay 1628 (article), Pennsylvania 1681, Georgia 1732
Growth: 2 thousand to 2.4 million, 1625 to 1775 (estimates); over 90 percent farmers
Plymouth: Mayflower 1620, about 102 passengers, nearly half died in the first winter; Compact; 1621 treaty; merged 1691
Indenture: one-half to two-thirds, or about 48 percent, of European immigrants; four or five years; freedom dues
Slavery: legal in all the colonies; grew dramatically 1680 to 1750
Not covered: indigenous peoples, women, Dutch and Swedish settlements, the causes of the Revolution