A variety of motives—political, religious, and economic—contributed to the settling of the Atlantic seaboard. Both labour and capital in England had become fairly fluid by 1600 and were seeking more profitable fields. A sharp rise in prices and living costs made many people restless; the increase in sheep grazing and the fencing in of former common lands drove many from the soil; bold young men, including younger sons of the gentry, losing in peace the occupation which the wars with Spain had given them, looked abroad. Many Englishmen saw that the colonization of the New World might contribute to the power and affluence of their homeland and felt that Spain, Portugal, and other lands should face competition. Finally, the spread of great commercial trading companies assisted in the work.

These companies were chartered by the crown to give England new outlets abroad. The Muscovy Company, for example, founded in 1555, intended to trade with Russia; the Levant Company controlled trade with Venice and the Near East; and the East India Company (1600) covered the Pacific and Indian Ocean coasts. Companies were also organized for Newfoundland, the Northwest Passage, and Bermuda. Most important for America, however, were the two companies for which King James I granted a charter in 1606, one to colonize the American coast anywhere between parallels 34° and 41° north and the other anywhere between 38° and 45° north. Because members of the first company lived in London, it became known as the Virginia Company of London (Virginia Company); as members of the second dwelt in Plymouth, it was called the Plymouth Company. Shareholders in the companies were to provide settlers and capital and were to control production and trade. Government, however, was to remain in the hands of the crown, acting through councils. A guarantee was given to the colonists of all the rights and liberties of English subjects, without any definition of their scope. In return, the grantees were forbidden to draft any orders or make any laws contrary to those of England.

The Virginia Company lost no time in using its powers. Before Christmas in 1606 three ships sailed for Virginia, carrying among others Capt. John Smith, who was to take an important part in the American story, and Bartholomew Gosnold, who had previously visited the New England coast. In the spring of 1607 the three ships sailed to Hampton Roads, christened the James River, landed 120 men, and founded Jamestown. Starvation, disease, and Indian warfare ensued, and, though more ships with fresh settlers arrived, for a time the colony had but precarious life. In the end Virginia took sturdy root: “We hope to plant a nation / Where none before hath stood,” sang a ballad maker among the early adventurers, and they achieved their ambition.

In these years the Virginia Company had achieved a broader legal basis. It obtained two new charters from the crown, one in 1609 and one in 1612. These new grants practically severed it from the Plymouth Company and confirmed to it a great belt of territory 400 miles (640 km) wide extending through the American continent to the Pacific Ocean. The Virginia Company thus became proprietor of the colony of Virginia. At the same time it obtained large rights of government. It could appoint the resident governor, his resident council, and other officers and hold full control of them. The old system of joint-stock management of land and trade was abolished, and private property in land and stores took its place. An able soldier, Sir Thomas Dale, went to Virginia in 1611 with three ships, 300 colonists, and some livestock, and for five years exercised statesmanlike control. During these years the colony took up the cultivation of tobacco with great profit.

Meanwhile, the Plymouth Company had failed in an effort to plant a colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine. Nothing more was done to colonize what is now New England until a group of Separatists, who believed that the Bible was the only test of faith and revolted against all other creeds, turned to this area. These Pilgrims placed themselves in partnership with a group of merchants and other businessmen who agreed to finance the venture. In return for advances of ready money, the colonists promised to labour for seven years, throwing all they produced into a common pool; both profits and land were to remain undivided for that period. Of two vessels dispatched, one turned back, but the other, the Mayflower, set sail on September 16 (New Style; September 6, Old Style), 1620, with about 100 passengers, and reached Cape Cod before the year ended. After much suffering and peril courageously met, the colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts, took root. Within 10 years it was prosperously expanding, had separated itself from the partners in England, and had replaced the joint-stock arrangement with private properties and private enterprise.

First steps in self-government

Both in Virginia and New England the colonists soon began to exercise a certain autonomy. In 1619 Gov. George Yeardley brought out to Jamestown a new plan of government and a momentous step forward was taken. A two-part legislature was created, one part consisting of the governor and his council, named by the company in England, and the other a house made up of two burgesses from each settlement. It was to legislate upon Virginian home affairs, subject to the approval of the governor and the company. During the summer the first true legislature in continental America met in the log church in Jamestown. A little later the Pilgrims, before leaving their ship, adopted the Mayflower Compact. It was not a form of government but an agreement that they would live together in orderly fashion under civil officers of their own selection. On board the ship, John Carver was chosen governor, soon to be succeeded by William Bradford. As soon as they had begun housing themselves, the Plymouth settlers met and consulted upon laws both for their civil and military government resulting in the first New England town meeting.

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However, a colony of sturdier individualism, with a bolder degree of self-government, was soon to be established. In the years 1630–42 the “Great Migration” of the Puritans from England to America occurred. These believers in a church purged of old forms and abuses, and a society purified of gross evils, were unhappy under King Charles I, who in 1629 dissolved Parliament for 11 years, and under Archbishop William Laud, who declared war upon them. Two men, John Endecott, who led a body of settlers to Salem, Massachusetts, and John Winthrop, a country squire of great energy, showed special leadership. The crown in 1629 gave a charter to the Massachusetts Bay Company. The Puritans quickly obtained control of it, and Winthrop as governor persuaded the members to decide in favour of transporting company, charter, and a large assemblage of colonists all together to Boston, Massachusetts. At once new groups migrated to this colony of Massachusetts Bay, with Boston as its centre. Careful estimates show that by 1641, 300 ships had carried 20,000 settlers to America. This was an almost purely English migration, which included a few aristocrats and many university graduates. Religious zeal animated most of the migrants.

The result was the erection of a church state which fell far short of democracy but cherished a passion for liberty and self-government. Each town of Massachusetts Bay had its own church, minister, and town government and was an independent Congregational community. Voting rights were limited to church members, and the ministers exercised a powerful authority in civil affairs. From an early date the voting freemen elected deputies to sit in the general court, or legislature, where they, the governor, and a small body of his assistants made laws and levied taxes. Thus a self-sufficient commonwealth of oligarchical type sprang into being. Governor Winthrop and others declared that it had absolute powers of self-government under the crown and owed no allegiance or deference to the English Parliament. The dominance of the clergy, however, and the narrowness and harshness of their government aroused great discontent.

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A combination of two impulses—the restlessness of men seeking better land and a desire for greater independence in religion and politics—led various elements in New England to establish other colonies. Thus Roger Williams, a stout adherent of freedom and tolerance, helped bring Rhode Island into existence, Thomas Hooker and others founded settlements on the Connecticut River, and the Rev. John Davenport and others established New Haven colony, which expanded along Long Island Sound. The early inhabitants of Maine and New Hampshire were controlled by Massachusetts Bay. All the New Englanders until 1680 practically ruled themselves. They regarded the government in England as sovereign but passed their own laws, traded under their own regulations, and raised their own forces for defense. Their tie with England was one of sentiment, not force, and they developed themselves in full freedom.

Particularly during the years of the Civil War and Commonwealth in England, the colonies profited from the preoccupation of the mother country with its own affairs. The Massachusetts legislature boldly asserted that the laws of the English Parliament did not reach New England. Under Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth, Virginia was permitted to elect its own governor and council as well as burgesses. During the period of civil strife in England, the four colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven in 1643 formed the New England Confederation, which lasted for a full generation. Its primary purpose was defense against Native Americans, the French, and the Dutch, but it also dealt with boundary controversies and provided “mutual advice” on various questions.