Chesapeake Colonies

The Chesapeake colonies were comprised of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Province of Maryland, which included the modern states of Virginia and Maryland. Both were formed with charters granted by the ruling monarch of England to try to secure the riches that colonization had brought Spain and Portugal. Virginia was founded first and became the first successful English settlement in the New World. Maryland was founded later as a refuge for Catholics facing religious persecution in Protestant England.

The Chesapeake colonies were similar in many ways. Both periodically clashed with local Native American tribes and had governments that were structured to give significant legislative power to the governor. Additionally, both Maryland and Virginia based much of their economy on the farming and sale of tobacco. The Chesapeake Bay and other local waterways provided a convenient means of shipping the cash crop, and the local environment was well suited to the creation of tobacco plantations.

Background

The Chesapeake colonies were the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Province of Maryland. The Colony of Virginia was the first successful English colony in North America. In 1607, the English settled Jamestown, the first settlement of the Virginia colony. They hoped to compete with the Spanish, who had amassed a great fortune through the settlement of colonies in central and South America.

Disease and famine soon plagued Jamestown. Many of the original settlers lacked the agricultural skills necessary to survive in the swampy region. Only 34 of the original 104 male settlers lived through the first year. The English had assumed that they would be able to force the Native Americans to provide them with food and supplies. However, the local Algonquian tribe was part of a large political alliance between various groups of Native Americans. Members of the tribe were not afraid of the settlers and viewed their lack of preparation as weakness. The Algonquin tribe repeatedly attacked Jamestown, killing many settlers.

Over time, the settlers began to grow cash crops such as tobacco, which they shipped along with other goods to England and other colonies, selling them for a profit. The colony quickly became wealthy, attracting more settlers. However, to grow such large quantities of crops, the Virginia colonists used indentured servants and slaves as cheap labor.

The first English colonists in the Maryland Colony arrived in 1632, significantly later than the Virginia Colony. Like the Virginia colonists, the Maryland colonists initially stuggled to deal with local Native Americans. The nearby Susquehannock tribe was very powerful. It possessed large numbers of soldiers, firearms, and artillery. Maryland and the Susquehannocks went to war in 1642 and did not sign a peace treaty until ten years later.

Both colonies participated in the American Revolutionary War. Believing that taxation without representation was unethical, they felt that they would be better served by an independent United States of America. The thirteen colonies banded together, declaring independence from Great Britain and forming the United States of America, which became a formally recognized independent nation after defeating Great Britain in its subsequent war for independence.

Overview

The government of the Virginia Colony was based on the government of England. Originally, the English monarch appointed individuals to a special council in England that was responsible for overseeing the Virginia Colony. That council appointed people to a second council that actively made decisions within the Virginia Colony itself. Both councils were expected to act on behalf of the Virginia Company of London, which funded the colony. However, even though the local council voted for a president from among its own members, most of the power remained with the council as a whole.

King James I thought that the Virginia Colony suffered from a lack of strong leadership. He transferred most of the control of the colony from the Crown to the colonies’ investors, granting them the ability to appoint a strong governor. The governor published a strict set of laws. However, when the Virginia Company attempted to limit the amount of tobacco that each farmer could grow, the settlers began to resist. The Virginia Company was dissolved in 1625, and future governors were directly appointed by the crown.

Colonial Virginia had fewer towns than many other colonies. Families tended to live on large portions of land, much of which was used for farming. For this reason, colonists in Virginia tended to rely on dances and other large gatherings for socializing and discussing business. Over time, a few large families came to dominate Virginia’s economy.

The charter to establish Maryland was secured by George Calvert, a British politician. His son, Cecil Calvert, founded the colony after his father’s death. Calvert declared himself Governor of Maryland and established the colonial government in a manner that gave the governor significant power over the colony’s laws.

Though Maryland was originally founded as a colony where Catholics could freely practice their faith, the number of Protestants in the colony quickly grew beyond the number of Catholics. Many Catholics feared that the Protestants would take away their religious freedom. In 1659, Governor William Stone passed the Act of Toleration, which protected the religious rights of all Christians. However, in 1689, the Protestant settlers took control of the colony and repealed the act. Tensions between Catholics and Protestants in Maryland remained high throughout the eighteenth century.

Like the Virginia colonists, the Maryland colonists farmed tobacco, which became a staple crop of their economy. Farmers grew large quantities of tobacco, often on plantations where slaves labored under brutal conditions, then sold or traded their crop for other commodities. The Chesapeake Bay was a convenient port for shipping tobacco, and by the 1670s, more than ten million pounds of tobacco was shipped out of the bay each year.

Maryland’s reliance on tobacco sometimes caused problems with its economy. Because so many Maryland colonists grew and sold the crop, slight fluctuations in tobacco prices had significant effects on Maryland’s economy, causing periodic booms and depressions throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Many Maryland colonists built large plantations along the Chesapeake Bay. Instead of organizing large markets in towns and cities, plantation owners could purchase supplies directly from merchant ships. The large towns that existed were typically organized around taverns, inns, and government buildings.

Bibliography

“Colonial Governments of the Original 13 Colonies.” ThoughtCo. 2019, www.thoughtco.com/colonial-governments-of-the-thirteen-colonies-104595. Accessed 30 Mar. 2020.

“Facts About the Maryland Colony.” ThoughtCo. 2019, www.thoughtco.com/facts-about-the-maryland-colony-103875. Accessed 30 Mar. 2020.

“Lesson Summary: Chesapeake and Southern Colonies.” Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/colonial-america/early-chesapeake-and-southern-colonies/a/chesapeake-and-southern-colonies-lesson-summary. Accessed 30 Mar. 2020.

“The Colonial Period, 1607-1780.” The Mariners’ Museum, www.marinersmuseum.org/sites/micro/cbhf/economy/cbe001.html. Accessed 30 Mar. 2020.

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“The Lure of Softweed: Tobacco and Maryland History.” Historic St Mary’s City, www.hsmcdigshistory.org/pdf/Tobacco.pdf. Accessed 30 Mar. 2020.

“The Settlement of Maryland.” History, 2020, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-settlement-of-maryland. Accessed 30 Mar. 2020.