English Colonization in North America: A Historical Overview

English Goes West Across the Atlantic…But It Is Not Alone on the Trip

The Mayflower was the Pilgrim ship that in 1620 made the historic voyage from England to the New World. The ship carried 102 passengers in two core groups – religious Separatists coming from Holland and a largely non-religious settler group from London.

In Canada there was a British community that spoke English and a French community that spoke French. In Caribbean there were French, Spanish, Dutch and English people.

A Commercial Empire

• English colonial ventures were mostly conducted by private commercial companies.
• Famous companies involved in the British settlement in North America include:

1. The Virginia Company of London.
2. The Plymouth Company.
3. The Hudson’s Bay Company.
4. The Massachusetts Bay Company → New England Co
5. Three Types of Colony

Trading posts. Along the frontier, near waterways. Furs-guns, blankets, copper kettles, cloth, etc. In 1670, Hudson’s Bay Company spreads across Canadian territory. Settlements. Established for other reasons besides making money: escaping religious or political persecution, competing with other European powers: the Thirteen Colonies. Plantations. Tobacco in Virginia (the first plantation crop in North America), rice plantations in South Carolina and Georgia, and sugar plantations in the West Indies.

I. Early American Colonies and the Puritan Legacy in the United States

The New Land Becomes the Promised Land

In 1620, a group of English Radical Protestants dissatisfied with religious and constitutional in England fled prosecution and they sailed to North America on the Mayflower. Still on board they signed the Mayflower Compact, the first written constitution in England.

English in a “New” Land: Virginia

The name Virginia is derived from Elizabeth I, the “Virgin” Queen.

In the English colonisation of North America, Sir Walter Raleigh was granted a royal patent to explore Virginia, which paved the way for future English settlements. Roanoke Island has been known in European-American history for its significance as the site of Sir Walter Raleigh's planting of an English settlement with his Roanoke Colony in 1587.

In 1607, Jamestown was the first lasting British settlement.

The Puritan Heritage

“In spite of the high percentage of the population of the United States that has come from abroad, many of them embrace some of the puritan values such as long hours of hard work, few vacation and days off, pride in not missing work ...” Emory Elliott

English Accents in America

The northern dialectswere influenced by the dialect of the Puritans coming from the east of England. The southern dialects, originating in the earliest settlements in Virginia are rhotic. The Midlanddialects reflect the cosmopolitan immigration patchwork of the ‘middle’ Atlantic areas.

II. Canada: Two Solitudes

Canada Before the Europeans

Canada was divided in Northwest Coast, Plateau, Plains, Eastern Woodlands, Subarctic and Arctic.

European Languages in Colonial North America

In 1750 North America was divided in New Spain, New France and English (including English colonies).

The Making of the Two Solitudes

Pre-war boundaries 1754: British territory (British American colonies and the north of the current Canada), French territory (Louisiana) and Spanish territory (Texas and Florida). Also there was a zone disputed between Great Britain and France.

Post-war boundaries 1763: British territory (British American colonies, Florida, Hudson’s Bay Company and a lot of the territory which formerly belonged to France) and Spanish territory (Texas and Louisiana – ceded by France to Spain).

III. The Caribbean: The Beginnings of Black America

The Caribbean was formed by a lot of islands, including Montserrat, Martinique, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Martin, etc.