The making of a nation

In 1606, the new English King, James the First, gave two business groupspermission to establish colonies in Virginia, the area claimed by England.Companies were organized to carry out th

001 History Repeats Itself: A Fresh Start to ‘The Making of a Nation’

1400s–1500s

002 Columbus Sails, Others Follow, and Spain Is on Top of the World

003 A Difficult Life for English Settlers

004 Buffalo, ‘Mystery Dogs’ (Horses) and the Lives of the Plains Indians

005 A Clash of Cultures in the New World

006 How a Desire for Religious Freedom or Land, or Both, Led to

Colonies

1600s–1776

007 Slavery Arrives as Colonial Expansion Heads South

008 By 1750, Almost One in Four People in the Colonies Were Slaves

009 British Defeat the French in a Struggle for North America

010 Britain Says No to ‘No Taxation Without Representation’

011 A Tea Party at Night, on the Road to Revolution

012 A Declaration for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

1776–1800

013 How the Revolution Against Britain Divided Families and Friends

014 How Britain’s Defeat at Saratoga Marked a Turning Point

015 How the Constitution Came to Life

016 After the Revolution, the Nation Faces a Weak Political System

017 The Founding Fathers Meet in Philadelphia to Write a Constitution

018 Finding the Right Plan for a New Government

019 Early Leaders Debate Presidential Powers

020 In 1787, Debating the Need for Federal Courts

021 Struggle to Balance Power Between Big States and Small States

022 A ‘Great Compromise’ on State Representation

023 Debating Slaves’ Part in Representation of States

024 The Signing of the Constitution in Philadelphia

025 The Constitution Goes to the States for Approval

026 The Heart and Spirit of the Constitution

027 From Revolutionary War Hero to President

028 The Imagination of Alexander Hamilton

029 For a New Nation, Hamilton Seeks a Bank

030 Two-Party Political System Takes Hold in US

031 How a Dispute Helped Lead to Party System

032 John Adams Is Elected Nation’s Second President

033 Adams Avoids War With France, Signs Alien and Sedition Acts

1800–1825

034 Jefferson Is Elected President in 1800, But Only on the 36th Vote

035 Jefferson, at Inaugural, Urges Unity of Hearts and Minds

036 Jefferson Begins Presidency With a Loyal Cabinet

037 Jefferson Moves to Cut Debt, Spending

038 Jefferson Gets Louisiana Territory From France

039 A Supreme Court Justice Is Put on Trial in 1805

040 The Treason Trial of Aaron Burr, Former VP

041 Jefferson Suspends Trade with Europe in 1807

042 Jefferson Tries to Keep Trade Ban on Europe

043 The Last Days, and Lasting Influence, of Thomas Jefferson

044 Relations With Britain Hit a Low Point in 1811

045 Madison Declares War on Britain in 1812

046 British Set Fire to City of Washington in 1814

047 A National Anthem Is Born From the War of 1812

048 War of 1812 Ends, but Fighting Continues

049 War of 1812 Ends With Treaty of Ghent

050 James Monroe Easily Wins Election in 1816

051 Monroe Doctrine Warns Europe Not to Interfere in the Americas

052 Monroe Dislikes but Signs Missouri Compromise

053 In Election of 1824, a Clash of Personalities

054 John Quincy Adams, a Man Raised to Serve

1825–1850

055 In Election of 1828, a Bitter Campaign

056 Tragedy Hits as Jackson Prepares for Presidency

057 Split Divides Jackson, Vice President Calhoun

058 For President Jackson, a Question of States’ Rights

059 Bank of the United States Worries Jackson

060 Debating the Powerful Bank of the US

061 As Jackson Aims to Shut Bank, an Economic Crisis Results

062 Jackson’s Victory Over the Bank of the US

063 Trouble Grows Deep in the Heart of Texas

064 Jackson, ‘the People’s Friend,’ Leaves Office

065 New President Deals with Old Problems

066 US Gets a New President in 1837, and a Depression

067 The Rise of the Movement Against Slavery

068 Whigs See a Chance to Defeat Van Buren in 1840

069 The Brief Presidency of William Henry Harrison

070 President John Tyler Shows His Independence

071 Texas Statehood Is Chief Issue in 1844 Campaign

072 In 1845, Republic of Texas Faces a Choice

073 Polk Sends Troops to Border With Mexico

074 Polk Decides Not to Seek Second Term in 1848

075 Zachary Taylor Is Elected President in 1848

1850–1861

076 Plan in 1850 on Slavery Aims to Save Union

077 ‘The South Asks for Justice, Simple Justice’

078 ‘The Fresh Air of Liberty and Union’

079 Millard Fillmore Signs Compromise of 1850

080 Pierce, New President, Is Friendly but Weak

081 The Kansas-Nebraska Bill Divides the Country

082 Kansas Takes Steps Towards Statehood

083 The Struggle Over Slavery in the Kansas Territory

084 Slavery Debate Intensifies With Dred Scott Ruling

085 The Effort to Make Kansas a Slave State

086 Search for Gold Drives Settlers to the West

087 Brigham Young Leads His Mormons to a New Home

088 The Story of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858

089 Slavery Crisis Eases, but Not for Very Long

090 Story of John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry

091 A Failed Attempt to Raise a Rebel Army of Slaves

092 Hopes, Fears and the Election of 1860

093 Lincoln Takes Presidency of a Nation in Crisis

094 South Carolina Leaves Union, Tensions Increase

095 Lincoln Names a Cabinet

096 Lincoln’s Policy on South Is Soon Tested

1861–1865 – The Civil War

097 The Civil War Begins

098 The Civil War’s First Days

099 The North Loses the First Major Battle of the War

100 Lincoln Names a General to Defend Washington

101 The Civil War at Sea

102 South Defends Its Capital

103 At Bull Run, a Terrible Defeat for the North

104 Lincoln Needs a Victory

105 Lincoln Declares Slaves Free in Rebel States

106 The South Wins a Victory, but at a Great Cost

107 Lee and His Army Cross Into the North

108 As the Civil War Grows, So Does Opposition

109 The American Civil War: Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

110 The American Civil War: Battle of Vicksburg Splits the SouthernConfederacy

111 The American Civil War: Closing in on Richmond, the ConfederateCapital

112 The American Civil War: Sherman’s March to the Sea

113 The American Civil War: Election of 1864

114 The American Civil War: Victory Is Close for the Union

115 The American Civil War: Surrender at Appomattox

1865–1880

116 After the Civil War: Death of Lincoln Helps Unite a Divided Nation

117 After the Civil War: Searching for the Man Who Shot Lincoln

118 The American Civil War: Final Surrender of the Confederate Army

119 Andrew Johnson: The Story of America’s Seventeenth President

120 The Great Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson

121 Reconstruction: After the Civil War, the American South Rebuilds

122 Election of 1868: Famous War Hero Becomes President

123 President Grant: Civil War Hero Faces Battles of Politics

124 Questions of Wrongdoing Trouble President Grant’s Second Term

125 Election of 1876: One of the Closest in American History

126 Rutherford Hayes Wins Disputed 1876 Presidential Election

127 Gold! How the Search for Riches Drove Development After the U S.Civil War

128 Early Country Music: Cowboys Told About Their Lives in Song

129 Native Americans Went to War to Protect Their Lands

130 Native Americans Fight Two Wars Over Land Rights

131 How the Western United States Was Settled

1880–1900

132 James Garfield: Gunfire Ends a Presidency After Only Six Months

133 1881: Vice President Chester Arthur Replaces Murdered Leader

134 Grover Cleveland: A Democrat Wins the White House in 1884

135 Immigrants: America’s Industrial Growth Depended on Them

136 American Lawmakers React to Flood of Immigrants in Late 1800s

137 Election of 1888: Voters Cared Most About Import Taxes

138 Competition Drives Industrial Growth in the Late 1800s

139 Grover Cleveland Returns to the White House in 1892

140 Nation Is in Economic Trouble as President Cleveland Takes Office

141 President Cleveland Uses Federal Troops to Stop Railroad Strike

142 Election of 1896: It Came Down to a Question of Money

143 Trade Drives America’s Foreign Policy in the Late 1800’s

144 United States Declares War on Spain in 1898

145 William McKinley: The Twenty-Fifth President of the United States

146 Theodore Roosevelt Becomes America’s Youngest Leader

1900–1916

147 Theodore Roosevelt Leads America Into the 20th Century

148 Theodore Roosevelt Answers Public Demand for Reforms

149 President Roosevelt Decides to Build the Panama Canal

150 Teddy Roosevelt’s Policies Lead to Social Reform in America

151 William Howard Taft Replaces Teddy Roosevelt as President

152 President Taft Breaks From Teddy Roosevelt – His Closest Friend

153 Woodrow Wilson Wins 1912 Presidential Election

154 America’s Economic Life Changes Under President Woodrow Wilson

155 Wilson Presidency Remembered Best for Its Foreign Policy

1916–1919 – World War I

156 Wilson Is Re-elected in 1916 on a Promise: ‘He Kept Us Out of War!’

157 ‘Right Is More Precious Than Peace’: U S Enters World War One

158 1918: American and German Forces Meet on a Battlefield Near Paris

159 Technology Helps the Allied Forces Win World War One

160 President Wilson Begins Negotiations for a World War One PeaceTreaty

161 World War One Ends, but Wilson Knows His Battle Is Only HalfOver

1919–1929

162 Wilson Builds Public Support for the League of Nations

163 America Turns Inward After World War One

164 Lost in the Stars: Movies Become Big Business in 1920s America

165 America’s Fear of Communism in 1920 Becomes a Threat to Rights

166 Americans Vote for Change in 1920 as Harding Promises ‘Normalcy’

167 After Harding Dies, Coolidge Aims to Rebuild Trust in the

Government

168 ‘Roaring Twenties’ a Time of Economic and Social Change

169 In the 1920s, a Burst of American Art and Expression Takes Form

170 A Turn to the Right: Conservatism Grows in America in the 1920s

171 Blacks Set Out in Search of a Better Life in 1920s American Society

172 Coolidge Easily Wins Election of 1924

173 By 1920, America Had Become World’s Top Economic Power

174 Election of 1928: Americans Are Presented With a Clear Choice

175 Hoover’s High Hopes for American Economy Come Crashing Down

1929–mid-1930s – The Great Depression

176 The Great Depression: Fear Took Hold as an Economy Came Apart

177 The Great Depression: How It Affected U S Foreign Relations

178 Election of 1932: A Long Conservative Period in U S Politics Ends

179 1933: An Angry Nation Puts Its Hopes in President Roosevelt

180 1933: President Roosevelt’s First 100 Days Give People Hope

181 ‘We Have Only Just Begun to Fight’: Roosevelt’s Campaign of 1936

182 Roosevelt Aims for Economic Security With ‘Second New Deal’

183 From Great Depression’s Depths, Creativity Reached New Heights

184 1930s: ‘New Deal’ Starts to Fail, Just as Threats Grow Overseas

mid-1930s–1945 – World War II

185 Road to World War Two: 1930s See Major Changes in Europe, Asia

186 1930s: Britain Calls for ‘Peace in Our Time’

187 1940: Roosevelt Continues Policy of Neutrality After His Re-election

188 1941: Attack on Pearl Harbor Ends American Effort to Avoid War

189 Path to World War Two: Japan Widens Its Influence in Asia

190 US Goes to War After Pearl Harbor, but Japan Is Not the First Target

191 Fighting World War Two: Powerful Germany Begins to Face Defeats

192 D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Greatest Military Invasion in History

193 World War Two in the Pacific Comes to a Fiercely Fought Close in1945

194 On the Home Front During World War Two

195 Fighting World War Two Through Diplomacy

196 Story of World War Two: Developing the First Atomic Bombs

1945–1950

197 Life in the US After World War Two

198 Nation Still at War, Truman Is Suddenly President

199 After World War Two, US Reacts to ‘Iron Curtain’ Across Europe

200 For Truman, One Problem After Another in His First Months in

Office

201 Dewey Defeats Truman in 1948 Oops, Make It Truman DefeatsDewey

1950s – Korean War

202 Truman Faced Communist Fears, Real or Imagined

203 War Hero Is Elected President in 1952

204 Conflict in Korea Spills Over Into Eisenhower’s Presidency

205 1950s Popular Culture Helped Take Minds Off Nuclear Fears

206 A Freeze Hits US-Soviet Relations After World War Two

207 The Space Race Heightens Cold War Tensions

1960s – Kennedy Becomes President

208 Election of 1960 Brings Close Race Between Kennedy, Nixon

209 Kennedy Begins His Presidency With Strong Public Support

210 The Presidency of John Kennedy Begins With Great Energy, but Ends

in Tragedy

211 Johnson Takes Over Presidency After Kennedy’s Murder

1964 – Vietnam War

212 Johnson Wins a Full Term in 1964, Defends Vietnam Policies

213 Civil Rights Movement: In the ‘60s, a Struggle for Equality in US

214 The ‘60s Become a Time of Social Revolution and Unrest

1968 – Richard Nixon Becomes President

215 1968 in America: a Year of Social Unrest and a Presidential Election

216 Nixon Promises to ‘Bring the American People Together’ After ‘68Win

217 Vietnam War: Nixon Tries Secret Talks, but Also Invades Cambodia

218 Watergate: How a Name, and a Failed Break-In, Became a Symbol ofPolitical Corruption

219 Ford Leads Nation Through Difficult Days of Watergate

1976 – Bi-centenial

220 Jimmy Carter Wins the 1976 Presidential Election

221 Fuel Prices, Iran Hostage Crisis Weigh on Carter

222 Election of 1980 Launches the ‘Reagan Revolution’

223 President Reagan’s Main Goal was to Shrink Government But

Budget Deficits Created a Huge National Debt

224 1970s and ‘80s Were a Period of Change in American Society

1988 – George H W Bush Becomes President

225 George Herbert Walker Bush Is Elected President in 1988

226 George H W Bush’s Presidency Saw End of Cold War

1993 – Bill Clinton Becomes President

227 A ‘Man From Hope’ Is Elected to the White House in 1992

228 Bill Clinton Begins His First Term in 1993

229 Bill Clinton Wins Re-election in 1996

230 How Bill Clinton Became the Second President Ever to Be

Impeached

231 How Science and Technology Helped Shape ‘90s

2000 – George W Bush Becomes President

232 Supreme Court Ruling Decides the 2000 Presidential Election

233 After Attacks of 9/11, Bush Launches ‘War on Terror’

234 How Bush’s War on Terror Led to Iraq

235 The 43rd President’s First Four Years, Revisited

236 How Foreign Policy Shaped the 2004 Presidential Race

001 History Repeats Itself: A Fresh Start to ‘The Making

of a Nation’

Welcome to The Making Of A Nation – American history in VOA Special

English I’m Shirley Griffith And I’m Steve Ember Today history repeatsitself We start our series over again The last time we were at the beginningwas in February of 2003

The Making Of A Nation has a loyal following In fact, listener research

finds it the most popular weekly program in VOA Special English

It started in May of 1969 Some people can remember when The Making

Of A Nation was on the radio two times a week People who grew up

listening to it are old enough now to listen with their own children, or eventheir grandchildren

The series tells a story You can think of it not just as a series of programsabout the history of America and its people, but a series of lessons Thesubjects include exploration, revolution, civil war, social and politicalchange, the rise of industry and modern technology, and more

We ended last week at program number two hundred thirty-eight Thesubject was the presidential election of 2004 As time adds to the story, weadd new programs to the series

In a sense, The Making Of A Nation is a living history Yet some of the

announcers are no longer even alive after all these years

Here and there, too, the language may sound a little dated For example,some of the programs call black people Negroes The use of that term may behistorically correct, but today the socially accepted name is African-American

Technology has also changed Today The Making Of A Nation is not just

on radio but also on the Internet At voaspecialenglish com, you candownload MP3 files and transcripts That way you can listen anytime oranyplace – and read along The site also includes archives, in case you evermiss a program

So how was the nation made? Why did loyal citizens rebel against one

nation and start their own, with different laws? The Making Of A Nation

answers these and other questions about American history

We tell the story of how a group of farmers, businessmen and lawyers

wrote a document they called the Constitution of the United States OnSeptember seventeenth, 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention inPhiladelphia met one last time to sign it.

We explain why that document is still extremely important today – and notjust to Americans Other governments have used it as a guide to creating amodern democracy

We explore why the writers of the Constitution included guarantees offreedom of speech and religion, and the right to a fair and public trial

We also talk about the reasons for the American Revolution One of themost important was the idea that citizens of a country should have a voice inits decisions

British citizens in the American colonies paid taxes but had norepresentatives in the British Parliament Taxation without representation led

to growing anger in the American colonies

The leaders of the revolt made important changes They decided that anyfree citizen could be a candidate for public office And they made sure that allfree men who owned land and paid taxes were permitted to vote

Not until 1920 did the Constitution give women the right to vote Later,another change lowered the voting age for Americans from 21 to 18

Our programs explain the thinking behind these and other rights They alsotell the story of each presidential election and presidency in Americanhistory

The Making Of A Nation explores the good and the bad in American

history For example, how could slavery exist in a nation whose peopledeclared that “all men are created equal” and with a right to life, liberty andthe pursuit of happiness?

Many programs tell about the ideas and issues that have shaped the UnitedStates But most importantly, they tell about the people

For example, George Washington was a farmer before he became amilitary commander He became president because the citizens of the newcountry wanted him as their first leader

After two terms, he gave up power by his own choice He once againbecame a farmer and a private citizen In his farewell address in 1796, hewarned Americans about the dangers of political parties

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence It told the worldthat the people of this new country would no longer answer to a Europeanruler.

Some of the people who formed the United States into a nation during the1700s were well educated and wealthy Abraham Lincoln was not Still, hegrew up to become president

Abraham Lincoln became president during the 1860s when severalsouthern states decided they no longer wanted to be part of the United States

We tell how President Lincoln dealt with the terrible Civil War that almostsplit the country apart

One of our programs deals with a speech he gave in the little town ofGettysburg, Pennsylvania A great battle had been fought there PresidentLincoln had been asked to come to Gettysburg to say a few words at thededication of a military burial place

The speech was short President Lincoln honored the young men who haddied on that bloody battlefield He also told the world why the terrible warwas being fought and why it was so important

“Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on thiscontinent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to theproposition that all men are created equal ”

Those words were just the first sentence After President Lincoln wrote thespeech, he felt sad He considered it a failure In fact, his words earned therespect of history You can hear the full Gettysburg Address in our programsabout the life and presidency of Abraham Lincoln

The Making Of A Nation touches on many different subjects One of them

is social change For example, we tell about the changes that took place in the1920s, known as the Roaring Twenties

Many young people decided they no longer needed to follow theconservative traditions of their parents and grandparents This was the age ofjazz

But music and social values were not the only things changing TheRoaring Twenties were also a time of fast-moving economic change.Productivity grew sharply At the same time, the divide between rich andpoor Americans grew wider

By the end of the Roaring Twenties, the economy was ready to collapse

Then, in October of 1929, the stock market crashed What followed was aneconomic disaster worse than any the modern world has ever known.

We examine the causes of the Great Depression and how it affectedAmericans and the rest of the world We tell the story of people who losttheir jobs, their homes and their hope for the future

Franklin Roosevelt was elected with a promise to bring the country out ofthe Depression On March fourth, 1933, he was inaugurated to his first offour terms He served longer than any other president in American history

We discuss Roosevelt’s New Deal programs and his leadership during WorldWar Two

But not all of the subjects on The Making Of A Nation are so serious We

also look at the history of American popular culture and subjects like the rise

of high technology Something for everyone

Today’s news is not only tomorrow’s history, it will also become part of

The Making Of A Nation But for now, we start again from the beginning I’m

Shirley Griffith And I’m Steve Ember Join us at this time next week andevery week as we go back in time Listen on radio or online at

voaspecialenglish com as we bring you The Making Of A Nation in VOA

Special English

Following his explorations, a few settlements were built Experts digging

in eastern Canada in the 1960s found the remains of a village with houseslike those in Greenland, Iceland and Norway But the Norse did not establishany permanent settlements in North America

Today, as we launch our series from the beginning again, Sarah Long andRich Kleinfeldt tell the story of early European explorers in North America.About ten hundred, Europe was beginning a period of great change Onereason was the religious wars known as the crusades These wars were efforts

by Europeans who were mainly Roman Catholic Christians They wanted toforce Muslims out of what is now the Middle East The crusades began at theend of the eleventh century They continued for about two hundred years.The presence of European armies in the Middle East increased trade, whichwas controlled by businessmen in Venice and other Italian city-states Thebusinessmen were earning large profits by transporting and supplying thewarring armies

When the European crusaders returned home, they brought with themsome new and useful products The products included spices, perfumes, silkcloth, steel products and drugs Such products became highly valued all overEurope Increased trade resulted which led to the growth of towns It alsocreated a large number of rich European businessmen

The European nations were growing They developed armies andgovernments These had to be paid for by taxes from the people By the 15thcentury, European countries were ready to explore new parts of the world.The first explorers were the Portuguese By 1400, they wanted to controlthe Eastern spice trade European businessmen did not want to continuepaying Venetian and Arab traders for their costly spices They wanted to set

up trade themselves If they could sail to Asia directly for these products, theresulting trade would bring huge profits.

The leader of Portugal’s exploration efforts was Prince Henry, a son ofKing John the first He was interested in sea travel and exploration So hebecame known as Henry the Navigator

Prince Henry brought experts to his country and studied the sciencesinvolved in exploration He built an observatory to study the stars Portuguesesea captains led their ships around the west coast of Africa hoping to find apath to India and East Asia They finally found the end of the Africancontinent, the area called the Cape of Good Hope

It took the Portuguese only about fifty years to take control of the spicetrade They established trading colonies in Africa, the Persian Gulf, India andChina

Improvements in technology helped them succeed One improvement was

a new kind of ship It could sail more easily through ocean storms and winds.Other inventions like the compass permitted them to sail out of sight ofland The Portuguese also armed their ships with modern cannon They usedthese weapons to battle Muslim and East Asian traders

The other European nations would not permit Portugal to control this tradefor long, however Spain’s Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand agreed toprovide ships, crew and supplies for an exploration by an Italian seaman,Christopher Columbus

Columbus thought the shortest way to reach the East was to sail westacross the Atlantic Ocean He was right But he also was wrong He believedthe world was much smaller than it is He did not imagine the existence ofother lands and another huge ocean area between Europe and East Asia

Columbus and a crew of eighty-eight men left Spain on August third,

1492, in three ships On October twelfth, they stood on land again on anisland that Columbus named San Salvador

He explored it, and the nearby islands of what is now known as Cuba andHispaniola He believed they were part of the coast of East Asia, which wascalled the Indies He called the people he found there Indians

Columbus left about forty men on the island to build a fort from the wood

of one of the ships He returned to Spain with captured natives, birds, plantsand gold Columbus was considered a national hero when he reached Spain in

March, 1493.

Columbus returned across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean area fivemonths later This time, he had many more men and all the animals andequipment needed to start a colony on Hispaniola He found that theprotective fort built by his men had been destroyed by fire Columbus did notfind any of his men

Seven months later, Columbus sent five ships back to Spain They carriedIndians to be sold as slaves Columbus also sailed back to Spain leavingbehind some settlers who were not happy with conditions

Christopher Columbus made another trip in 1498, with six ships This time

he saw the coast of South America The settlers were so unhappy withconditions in the new colony, Columbus was sent back to Spain as a prisoner.Spain’s rulers pardoned him

In 1502, Columbus made his final voyage to what some were calling theNew World He stayed on the island of Jamaica until he returned home in1504

During all his trips, Columbus explored islands and waterways, searchingfor a passage to the Indies He never found it He also did not find spices orgreat amounts of gold Yet, he always believed that he had found the Indies

He refused to recognize that it was really a new world

Evidence of this was all around him – strange plants that were not known

in either Europe or Asia and a different people who did not understand anylanguage spoken in the East

Columbus’ voyages, however, opened up the new world Others laterexplored all of North America

You may be wondering about the name of this new land If ChristopherColumbus was the first European to attempt to settle the new world, why is itcalled “America”? The answer lies with the name of an Italian explorer,Amerigo Vespucci

He visited the coast of South America in 1499 He wrote stories about hisexperiences that were widely read in Europe

In 1507, a German mapmaker read Vespucci’s stories He decided that thewriter had discovered the new world and suggested that it be called America

in his honor So it was

Spanish explorers sought to find gold and power in the New World They

also wanted to expand belief in what they considered to be the true religion,Christianity.

The first of these Spanish explorers was Juan Ponce de Leon He landed onNorth America in 1513 He explored the eastern coast of what is now thesouthern state of Florida He was searching for a special kind of water thatpeople in Europe believed existed They believed that this water could makeold people young again Ponce de Leon never found it

Also in 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama andreached the Pacific Ocean In 1519, Hernan Cortes landed an army in Mexicoand destroyed the empire of the Aztec Indians

That same year Ferdinand Magellan began his three-year voyage aroundthe world And in the 1530s, Francisco Pizarro destroyed the Inca Indianempire in Peru

Ten years later, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado had marched as far north

as the central American state of Kansas and west to the Grand Canyon Aboutthe same time, Hernan de Soto reached the Mississippi River Fifty yearsafter Columbus first landed in San Salvador, Spain claimed a huge area ofAmerica

The riches of these new lands made Spain the greatest power in Europe.But other nations refused to accept Spain’s claim to rights in the new world.Explorers from England, France and Holland also were traveling to NorthAmerica That will be our story next week

003 A Difficult Life for English Settlers

England was the first country to compete with Spain for claims in the NewWorld, although it was too weak to do this openly at first But QueenElizabeth of England supported such explorations as early as the 1570s

Sir Humphrey Gilbert led the first English settlement efforts He did notestablish any lasting settlement He died as he was returning to England

Gilbert’s half brother Sir Walter Raleigh continued his work Raleigh sent

a number of ships to explore the east coast of North America He called theland Virginia to honor England’s unmarried Queen Elizabeth

In 1585, about one-hundred men settled on Roanoke Island, off the coast

of the present day state of North Carolina These settlers returned to England

a year later Another group went to Roanoke the next year This groupincluded a number of women and children But the supply ships Raleigh sent

to the colony failed to arrive When help got there in 1590, none of thesettlers could be found

History experts still are not sure what happened Some research suggeststhat at least some of the settlers became part of the Indian tribe that lived inthe area

One reason for the delay in getting supplies to Roanoke was the attack ofthe Spanish Navy against England in 1588 King Phillip of Spain had decided

to invade England But the small English ships combined with a fierce stormdefeated the huge Spanish fleet As a result, Spain was no longer able toblock English exploration

England discovered that supporting colonies so far away was extremelycostly So Queen Elizabeth took no more action to do this It was not untilafter her death in 1603 that England began serious efforts to start colonies inAmerica

In 1606, the new English King, James the First, gave two business groupspermission to establish colonies in Virginia, the area claimed by England.Companies were organized to carry out the move

The London Company sent one hundred settlers to Virginia in 1606 Thegroup landed there in May, 1607 and founded Jamestown It was the firstpermanent English colony in the new world

The colony seemed about to fail from the start The settlers did not plant

their crops in time so they soon had no food Their leaders lacked the farmingand building skills needed to survive on the land More than half the settlersdied during the first winter.

The businessmen controlling the colony from London knew nothing aboutliving in such a wild place They wanted the settlers to search for gold, andexplore local rivers in hopes of finding a way to the East One settler knewthis was wrong His name was Captain John Smith He helped the colonistsbuild houses and grow food by learning from the local Indians Still, theJamestown settlers continued to die each year from disease, lack of food andIndian attacks

The London Company sent six thousand settlers to Virginia between 1606and 1622 More than four thousand died during that time

History experts say that all the settlers surely would have died without thehelp of the local Powhatan Indians The Indians gave the settlers food Theytaught them how to live in the forest And the Powhatan Indians showed thesettlers how to plant new crops and how to clear the land for building

The settlers accepted the Indians’ help Then, however, the settlers tookwhatever else they wanted by force In 1622, the local Indians attacked thesettlers for interfering with Indian land Three hundred forty settlers died Thecolonists answered the attack by destroying the Indian tribes living alongVirginia’s coast

The settlers recognized that they would have to grow their own food andsurvive on their own without help from England or anyone else TheJamestown colony was clearly established by 1624 It was even beginning toearn money by growing and selling a new crop, tobacco

The other early English settlements in North America were much to thenorth of Virginia, in the present state of Massachusetts The people whosettled there left England for different reasons than those who settled inJamestown The Virginia settlers were looking for ways to earn money forEnglish businesses The settlers in Massachusetts were seeking religiousfreedom

King Henry the Eighth of England had separated from the Roman CatholicChurch His daughter, Queen Elizabeth, established the Protestant religion inEngland It was called the Church of England, or the Anglican Church TheAnglican Church, however, was similar to that of the Roman Catholic

These people were called pilgrims, because that is the name given topeople who travel for religious purposes.

About thirty-five pilgrims were among the passengers on a ship called theMayflower in 1620 It left England to go to Virginia But the Mayflowernever reached Virginia Instead, it landed to the north, on Cape Cod Bay Thegroup decided to stay there instead of trying to find Jamestown

The pilgrims and the others on the Mayflower saw a need for rules thatwould help them live together peacefully They believed they were not underEnglish control since they did not land in Virginia So they wrote a plan ofgovernment, called the Mayflower Compact It was the first such plan everdeveloped in the New World

They elected a man called William Bradford as the first governor of theirPlymouth Colony We know about the first thirty years of the Plymouth

Colony because William Bradford described it in his book, Of Plymouth

Plantation.

As happened in Jamestown, about half the settlers in Plymouth died thefirst winter The survivors were surprised to find an Indian who spokeEnglish His name was Squanto He had been kidnapped by an English seacaptain and had lived in England before returning to his people

The Pilgrims believed Squanto was sent to them from God He made itpossible for them to communicate with the native people He showed themthe best places to fish, what kind of crops to plant and how to grow them Heprovided them with all kinds of information they needed to survive Thesettlers invited the Indians to a feast in the month of November to celebratetheir successes and to thank Squanto for his help Americans remember thatcelebration every year when they observe the Thanksgiving holiday

Other English settlers began arriving in the area now called New England.One large group was called the Puritans Like the pilgrims, the Puritans didnot agree with the Anglican Church But they did not want to separate from

it The Puritans wanted to change it to make it more holy Their desire for thischange made them unwelcome in England.

The first ship carrying Puritans left England for America in 1630 By theend of that summer, one thousand Puritans had landed in the northeastern part

of the new country The new English King, Charles, had given permission forthem to settle the Massachusetts Bay area

The Puritans began leaving England in large groups Between 1630 and

1640, 20,000 sailed for New England They risked their lives on thedangerous trip They wanted to live among people who believed as they did,people who honored the rules of the Bible Puritans believed that the Biblewas the word of God

The Puritans and other Europeans, however, found a very different people

in the New World They were America’s native Indians That will be ourstory next week

004 Buffalo, ‘Mystery Dogs’ (Horses) and the Lives of the Plains Indians

Scientists believe that the native peoples of America came here thousands

of years ago during the last ice age These people settled the land from thecold northern areas to the extreme end of South America

As the groups of people settled different parts of the land, they developedtheir own languages, their own cultures and their own religions Each group’sstory is important in the history of the Americas However, it is perhaps thetribes of the central part of the United States that are most recognized Theywill be our story today

In 1804, Merriwether Lewis and William Clark led a group of explorers tothe Pacific Ocean They were the first educated Americans to see some of thenative tribes of the Great Plains

And they were the first white people these Native American people hadever seen

When the group of explorers neared the eastern side of the great RockyMountains, they met with a tribe of Indians called the Shoshoni MerriwetherLewis was the first to see them

Let us imagine we are with Merriwether Lewis near the Rocky Mountainsalmost two hundred years ago Across a small hill, a group of sixty Shoshonimen are riding toward us

The first thing we see is that these men are ready for war Each is armedwith a bow and arrows Some carry long poles with a sharp knife on the end.They are riding very fast Some horses seem to be without riders But acloser look shows that the men are hanging off the sides, or under the horse’sneck They are using the horses’ bodies as protection

The horses are painted with many different designs that use blue, black,red or other colors Later we learn that each design has a special meaning forthe man who owns the horse Each one tells a story

For example, the man riding one horse is a leader during battle Anotherhas killed an enemy in battle One of the designs protects the horse and rider

As they come nearer, the Shoshoni group sees that we are not ready forwar They slow their horses but are still very careful Merriwether Lewisholds up a open hand as a sign of peace The leader of the Shoshoni does the

same They come closer.

The Shoshoni are dressed in clothes made from animal skin Most of theseskins are from deer or the American buffalo The shirts they wear have manydesigns, and tell stories like the designs on the horses One shows a man hasfought in a battle Another shows a man has been in many raids to capturehorses Still another shows the man saved the life of a friend

Captain Lewis smiles at these men He again makes a hand sign that meanspeace The signs are now returned Lewis and the Shoshoni chief cannotspeak each other’s language They can communicate using hand signs

One young Shoshoni man comes near He drops to the ground from hishorse He is tall and looks strong His hair is black in color and long Hewears one long bird feather in the back of his hair Some of his hair is held inplace by animal fur

His arms have been painted with long lines We learn that each linerepresents a battle There are many lines But we leave the Shoshoni withouthim adding another one

The Shoshoni were only one of many tribes of native people who lived inthe Great Plains area The life, culture and society of these tribes developedbecause of the land that was their home

The Great Plains today is still huge Even in a car, traveling at one hundredkilometers an hour, it can take two long days of driving to cross the GreatPlains The plains reach from several hundred kilometers north in Canadaacross the middle of the continent to Mexico in the south

In the East, the Great Plains begin near the Mississippi River and go west

to the huge Rocky Mountains It is the center of the United States There arebig rivers here, deserts and mountains Other areas are so flat that a personcan see for hundreds of kilometers Millions of kilometers of this land wereonce covered by a thick ocean of grass

The grass provided food for an animal that made possible the culture of theIndians of the Great Plains The grass fed the bison, the American buffalo.The buffalo was the center of native Indian culture in the Great Plains Thehuge animal provided meat for the Indians But it was much more than justfood It was an important part of the religion of most of the native people inthe Great Plains

The Lakota tribe is one of the people of the Great Plains The Lakota are

sometimes called the Sioux They believed that everything necessary to lifewas within the buffalo Another Plains tribe, the Blackfeet, called the animal

“My home and my protection ”

The back of the huge buffalo provided thick skin that was used to makehomes for the Plains Indians Other parts were made into clothing Still otherparts became warm blankets Buffalo bones were made into tools Nothing ofthe animal was wasted

No one knows how many buffalo were in North America whenMerriwether Lewis first met the Shoshoni But experts say it was probablybetween sixty million to seventy-five million

Another animal also helped make possible the Indian cultures of the GreatPlains Native Americans first called these animals mystery dogs, or bigdogs They had no word for this animal in their language We know it as thehorse

No horses existed in North America before the Spanish arrived in the1500s in what is now the southern part of the United States Native peopleshunted, moved and traveled by foot Traveling long distances was difficult,

so was hunting buffalo

The horse greatly changed the life of all the people of the Great Plains Itgave them a method of travel It provided a way to carry food and equipment

It made it easier and safer to follow and hunt the buffalo The horse made itpossible to attack an enemy far away and return safely The number of horsesowned became the measure of a tribe’s wealth

Spanish settlers rode horses to the small town of Santa Fe in what is nowthe southwestern state of New Mexico They arrived there in about the year1609

It is not known how native peoples in Santa Fe got the first horses in thecountry Perhaps they traded for them Perhaps they captured them in anattack Many tribes soon were trading and capturing horses

By the 1750s, all the tribes of the Great Plains had horses They hadbecome experts at raising, training and riding horses They became experts athorse medicine

Each Indian of the Great Plains could ride a horse by the age of five As anadult, a young man would have a special horse for work Another horsewould be trained for hunting And another would be trained for war An

Indian warrior’s success depended upon how closely he and his horsesworked together.

George Catlin was an artist who traveled a great deal in the early Americanwest He painted many beautiful pictures of American Indians Mr Catlinsaid the Plains Indian was the greatest horse rider the world has ever known

He said the moment an Indian rider laid a hand on his horse he became part

of the animal

The buffalo and horse were extremely important to the Plains Indian.Because the horse made hunting easier, more time could be spent on thingslike art The Plains Indians began to make designs on their clothing, and onspecial blankets their horses wore Even common objects were painted withdesigns

The coming of white settlers to the Great Plains was the beginning of theend of the buffalo and horse culture of the American Indians Settlers did notwant buffalo destroying their crops The buffalo were killed By the year

1885, the Indians of the Great Plains were mostly restricted to area of landcalled reservations

Many of the Great Plains tribes that survive today work hard to keep theirtraditional cultures They produce art, music, and clothing They keep alivethe memory of these people who added greatly to the history of America

005 A Clash of Cultures in the New World

Our story today is a sad one It is the story of a clash of peoples, religions,ideas, and cultures It is a story of strongly held ideas and a lack ofcompromise

It is the story of the relations between Europeans and the natives who hadlived for thousands of years in the area we now call North America

Many different Native American groups lived on the East Coast of whatwould become United States They spoke many different languages Somewere farmers, some were hunters Some fought many wars, others werepeaceful

These groups are called tribes Their names are known to mostAmericans… the Senecas, the Mohawks, the Seminole, the Cherokee to nameonly a few

These tribes had developed their own cultures many years before the firstEuropean settlers arrived Each had a kind of religion, a strong spiritualbelief Many tribes shared a similar one

The Indians on the East Coast shared a highly developed system of trade.Researchers say different tribes of Native Americans traded goods all acrossthe country

The first recorded meetings between Europeans and the natives of the EastCoast took place in the 1500s Fishermen from France and the Basque area ofSpain crossed the Atlantic Ocean They searched for whales along the eastcoast of North America They made temporary camps along the coast Theyoften traded with the local Indians

The Europeans often paid Indians to work for them Both groups found this

to be a successful relationship Several times different groups of fishermentried to establish a permanent settlement on the coast, but the severe wintersmade it impossible These fishing camps were only temporary

The first permanent settlers in New England began arriving in 1620 Theywanted to live in peace with the Indians They needed to trade with them forfood The settlers also knew that a battle would result in their own, quickdefeat because they were so few in number

Yet, problems began almost immediately Perhaps the most serious was thedifferent way the American Indians and the Europeans thought about land

This difference created problems that would not be solved during the nextseveral hundred years.

Land was extremely important to the European settlers In England, and mostother countries, land meant wealth Owning large amounts of land meant aperson had great wealth and political power

Many of the settlers in this new country could never have owned land inEurope They were too poor And they belonged to minority religious groups.When they arrived in the new country, they discovered no one seemed to ownthe huge amounts of land

Companies in England needed to find people willing to settle in the newcountry So they offered land to anyone who would take the chance ofcrossing the Atlantic Ocean For many, it was a dream come true It was away to improve their lives The land gave them a chance to become wealthyand powerful

American Indians believed no person could own land They believed,however, that anyone could use it Anyone who wanted to live on and growcrops on a piece of land was able to do so

The American Indians lived within nature They lived very well withoutworking very hard They were able to do this because they understood theland and their environment They did not try to change the land They mightfarm in an area for a few years Then they would move on They permittedthe land on which they had farmed to become wild again

They might hunt on one area of land for some time, but again they wouldmove on They hunted only what they could eat, so the numbers of animalscontinued to increase The Indians understood nature and made it work forthem

The first Europeans to settle in New England in the northeastern part ofAmerica were few in number They wanted land The Indians did not fearthem There was enough land for everyone to use and plant crops It was easy

to live together The Indians helped the settlers by teaching them how to plantcrops and survive on the land

But the Indians did not understand that the settlers were going to keep theland This idea was foreign to the Indians It was like to trying to own the air,

or the clouds

As the years passed, more and more settlers arrived, and took more andmore land They cut down trees They built fences to keep people andanimals out They demanded that the Indians stay off their land.

Religion was another problem between the settlers and the Indians Thesettlers in New England were very serious about their Christian religion.They thought it was the one true faith and all people should believe in it.They soon learned that the Indians were not interested in learning about it orchanging their beliefs

Many settlers came to believe that Native Americans could not be trustedbecause they were not Christians The settler groups began to fear theIndians They thought of the Indians as a people who were evil because theyhad no religion The settlers told the Indians they must change and becomeChristians The Indians did not understand why they should change anything.The European settlers failed to understand that the Native AmericanIndians were extremely religious people with a strong belief in unseenpowers The Indians lived very close to nature They believed that all things

in the universe depend on each other All native tribes had ceremonies thathonored a creator of nature American Indians recognized the work of thecreator of the world in their everyday life

Other events also led to serious problems between the Native Americansand the settlers One serious problem was disease The settlers broughtsickness with them from Europe For example, the disease smallpox was wellknown in Europe Some people carried the bacteria that caused smallpox,although they did not suffer the sickness itself

Smallpox was unknown to Native Americans Their bodies’ defensesystems could not fight against smallpox It killed whole tribes And,smallpox was only one such disease There were many others

The first meetings between settlers and Native Americans were the same inalmost every European settlement on the East Coast of America The twogroups met as friends They would begin by trading for food and other goods

In time, however, something would happen to cause a crisis Perhaps asettler would demand that an Indian stay off the settler’s land Perhaps asettler, or Indian, was killed Fear would replace friendship One side or theother would answer what they believed was an attack A good example ofthis is the violent clash called King Philip’s War

Matacom was a leader of the Wampanoag tribe that lived in the most colonies He was known to the English as King Philip Without the help

northern-of his tribe, the first European settlers in that area might not have survivedtheir first winter The Wampanoag Indians provided them with food Theytaught the settlers how to plant corn and other food crops The two groupswere very friendly for several years

As the years passed, however, fear and a lack of understanding increased.Matacom’s brother died of a European disease Matacom blamed the settlers

He also saw how the increasing numbers of settlers were changing the land

He believed they were destroying it

One small crisis after another led to the killing of a Christian Indian wholived with the settlers The settlers answered this by killing three Indians Awar quickly followed It began in 1675 and continued for almost two years Itwas an extremely cruel war Men, women and children on both sides werekilled Researchers believe more than six hundred settlers were killed Theyalso say as many as three thousand Native Americans died in the violence.History experts say the tribe of Indians called the Narraganset were the truevictims of King Philip’s War The Narraganset were not involved in the war.They did not support one group or the other However, the settlers killedalmost all the Narraganset Indians because they had learned to fear allIndians

This fear, lack of understanding and the failure to compromise were notunusual They strongly influenced the European settlers relations with NativeAmericans in all areas of the new country

006 How a Desire for Religious Freedom or Land, or

Both, Led to Colonies

Today, we tell about the movement of European settlers throughoutnortheastern America And we tell how the separate colonies developed inthis area

The Puritans were one of the largest groups from England to settle in thenortheastern area called Massachusetts They began arriving in 1630 ThePuritans had formed the Massachusetts Bay Company in England The kinghad given the company an area of land between the Charles and Merrimackrivers

The Puritans were Protestants who did not agree with the AnglicanChurch The Puritans wanted to change the church to make it more holy.They were able to live as they wanted in Massachusetts Soon they becamethe largest religious group By 1690, 50,000 people were living inMassachusetts

Puritans thought their religion was the only true religion and everyoneshould believe in it They also believed that church leaders should lead thelocal government, and all people in the colony should pay to support thePuritan church The Puritans thought it was the job of government leaders totell people what to believe

Some people did not agree with the Puritans who had become leaders ofthe colony One of those who disagreed was a Puritan minister named RogerWilliams

Roger Williams believed as all Puritans did that other European religionswere wrong He thought the Native Indian religions were wrong too But hedid not believe in trying to force others to agree with him He thought that itwas a sin to punish or kill anyone in the name of Christianity And he thoughtthat only church members should pay to support their church

Roger Williams began speaking and writing about his ideas He wrote abook saying it was wrong to punish people for having different beliefs Then

he said that the European settlers were stealing the Indians’ land He said theking of England had no right to permit people to settle on land that was nothis, but belonged to the Indians

The Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony forced RogerWilliams to leave the colony in 1636 He traveled south He bought land from

local Indians and started a city, Providence The Parliament in England gavehim permission to establish a new colony, Rhode Island, with Providence asits capital As a colony, Rhode Island accepted people of all religious beliefs,including Catholics, Quakers, Jews and even people who denied the existence

of God

Roger Williams also believed that governments should have no connection

to a church This idea of separating church and state was very new Later itbecame one of the most important of all America’s governing ideas

Other colonies were started by people who left Massachusetts to seek land.One was Connecticut A group led by Puritan minister Thomas Hooker leftBoston in 1636 and went west They settled near the Connecticut River.Others soon joined them

Other groups from Massachusetts traveled north to find new homes Theking of England had given two friends a large piece of land in the north Thefriends divided it John Mason took what later became the colony of NewHampshire Ferdinando Gorges took the area that later became the state ofMaine It never became a colony, however It remained a part ofMassachusetts until after the United States was created

The area known today as New York State was settled by the Dutch Theycalled it New Netherland Their country was the Netherlands It was a greatworld power, with colonies all over the world A business called the DutchWest India Company owned most of the colonies

The Dutch claimed American land because of explorations by HenryHudson, an Englishman working for the Netherlands The land the Dutchclaimed was between the Puritans in the north and the Anglican tobaccofarmers in the south

The Dutch were not interested in settling the territory They wanted to earnmoney The Dutch West India Company built trading posts on the riversclaimed by the Netherlands People in Europe wanted to buy goods madefrom the skins of animals trapped there

In 1626, the Dutch West India Company bought two islands from the localIndians The islands are Manhattan Island and Long Island Traditionalstories say the Dutch paid for the islands with some trade goods worth abouttwenty-four dollars

The Dutch West India Company tried to find people to settle in America

But few Dutch wanted to leave Europe So the colony welcomed people fromother colonies, and other countries These people built a town on ManhattanIsland They called it New Amsterdam It was soon full of people who hadarrived on ships from faraway places It was said you could hear as many as

18 different languages spoken in New Amsterdam

In 1655, the governor of New Netherland took control of a nearby Swedishcolony on Delaware Bay In 1664, the English did the same to the Dutch TheEnglish seized control of New Amsterdam and called it New York Thatended Dutch control of the territory that now is the states of New York, NewJersey and Delaware

Most of the Dutch in New Amsterdam did not leave The Englishpermitted everyone to stay They let the Dutch have religious freedom TheDutch were just not in control any more

The Duke of York owned the area now He was the brother of KingCharles the Second of England The king gave some of the land near NewYork to two friends, Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley Theycalled it New Jersey, after the English island where Carteret was born

The two men wrote a plan of government for their colony It created anassembly that represented the settlers It provided for freedom of religion.Men could vote in New Jersey whatever their religion Soon, people from allparts of Europe were living in New Jersey Then King Charles took control ofthe area He sent a royal governor to rule But the colonists were permitted tomake their own laws through the elected assembly

The king of England did the same in each colony he controlled Hecollected taxes from the people who lived there, but permitted them to governthemselves

One religious group that was not welcome in England was the Quakers.Quakers call themselves Friends They believe that each person has an innerlight that leads them to God Quakers believe they do not need a religiousleader to tell them what is right So, they had no clergy

Quakers believe that all people are equal The Quakers in England refused

to recognize the king as more important than anyone else They also refused

to pay taxes to support the Anglican Church Quakers believe that it is alwayswrong to kill So they would not fight even when they were forced to join thearmy They also refuse to promise loyalty to a king or government or flag or

anyone but God.

The English did not like the Quakers for all these reasons Many Quakerswanted to leave England, but they were not welcome in most Americancolonies One Quaker changed this His name was William Penn

William Penn was not born a Quaker He became one as a young man Hisfather was an Anglican, and a good friend of the king

King Charles borrowed money from William’s father When his fatherdied, William Penn asked that the debt be paid with land in America In 1681,the king gave William Penn land which the King’s Council namedPennsylvania, meaning Penn’s woods

The Quakers now had their own colony It was between the Puritans in thenorth and the Anglicans in the south William Penn said the colony should be

a place where everyone could live by Quaker ideas

That meant treating all people as equals and honoring all religions It alsomeant that anyone could be elected In most other colonies, people couldbelieve any religion, but they could not vote or hold office unless they were amember of the majority church In Pennsylvania, all religions were equal

007 Slavery Arrives as Colonial Expansion Heads South

The most northern of the southern colonies was Maryland The king ofEngland, Charles the First, gave the land between Virginia and Pennsylvania

to George Calvert in 1632 George Calvert was also called Lord Baltimore

He was a Roman Catholic

George Calvert wanted to start a colony because of religious problems inEngland Catholics could not openly observe their religion They also had topay money to the government because they did not belong to the AnglicanChurch, which was the Church of England

George Calvert never saw the colony that was called Maryland He diedsoon after he received the documents His son Cecil Calvert became the nextLord Baltimore, and received all the land He had the power to collect taxes,fight wars, make laws and create courts in Maryland Cecil Calvert named hisbrother Leonard as the colony’s first governor

Cecil Calvert believed that English Catholics could live in peace inMaryland with people who believed in Protestant religions So he urgedCatholics to leave England To get more settlers, he permitted them to owntheir farms and gave them some power in local politics Some Catholics did

go to Maryland, but not as many as expected Protestants were in themajority In 1649, Lord Baltimore accepted a Toleration Act passed by thelocal government It guaranteed freedom of religion, but only for Christians.King Charles the Second of England gave away more land in America in

1663 This time, he gave to eight English lords the land known as Carolina Itextended south from Virginia into an area known as Florida Spain controlledFlorida Spain also claimed the southern part of Carolina

Spanish, French and English settlers had tried to live in that area earlier.But they were not successful But the eight new owners promised fortyhectares of land to anyone who would go to Carolina to live They alsopromised religious freedom The first successful Carolina settlers leftEngland in 1670 They built a town in an area where two rivers met Theycalled it Charles Town, for King Charles Spanish ships attacked the port citymany times, but the settlers kept them away

The settlers planted all kinds of crops to see what would grow best Theyfound rice was just right for the hot, wet land Their pigs and cattle did so

well that settlers in Carolina started selling meat to the West Indies Many ofCharles Town’s settlers came from Barbados, a port used in the West Indiesslave trade The settlers began buying black slaves to help grow the rice By

1708, more blacks than whites lived in southern Carolina The work of slavesmade possible a successful economy

Northern Carolina grew much more slowly than the southern part of thecolony Many settlers to this area were from nearby Virginia People who didnot agree with the Anglican Church were not welcome in Virginia Some ofthem moved south to the northern part of Carolina History experts say thatthe area that became North Carolina may have been the most democratic ofall the colonies The people generally did not get involved in each other’slives They permitted each other to live in peace They faced danger togetherfrom pirates who made the North Carolina coast their headquarters

Experts say the people in northern Carolina were independent thinkers In

1677, some of them rebelled against England They did not like England’sNavigation Acts These laws forced people in Carolina to pay taxes toEngland on goods sold to other colonies Some northern Carolina settlersrefused to pay this tax They even set up their own government and tried tobreak free of England But the English soldiers in the colonies stopped therebellion by arresting its leader

The differences between the people of northern Carolina and southernCarolina became too great The owners of the colony divided Carolina intotwo parts in 1612

The last English colony founded in the New World was Georgia It wasestablished in 1732, under King George the Second Georgia was the idea of

a man named James Oglethorpe He wanted to solve the debtor problem inEngland Debtors are people who cannot re-pay money they owe At thattime, debtors were placed in prison This made it impossible for them to earnthe money needed to pay their debts

Oglethorpe wanted to create a colony where debtors could go instead ofgoing to prison He wanted it to be a place where people could have goodlives But not many debtors wanted to go to Georgia The people who settledthere were much like the people in the other colonies They did not agreewith all of Oglethorpe’s ideas They wanted to do things he did not believewere right, like drinking alcohol and owning slaves The settlers won in theend They did not accept Oglethorpe’s ideas about how they should live

Life was not easy in Georgia Spaniards and pirates captured ships of allnations along the coast Spain controlled Florida and also claimed Georgiaand the Carolinas Border fights were common Oglethorpe lost all his moneytrying to establish Georgia King George took control of the colony in 1752.

As all these new colonies were being established nearby, the colony ofVirginia was growing A way of life was developing there that was verydifferent from that found in the north Most people in Virginia at this timewere members of the Church of England Religion was not as important apart of their lives as it was to the people in the north In the New Englandcolonies, the clergy were considered the most important people in town Inthe southern colonies, rich land owners were more important

People in Virginia did not live in towns, as people did in Massachusetts.They lived along rivers on small farms or on large farms called plantations.Living on a river made it easy to send goods to other nations by ship.Virginians were sending large amounts of tobacco to England on those ships

It was the crop that earned them the most money

Growing tobacco destroys the elements in the soil that support plant life.After a few years, nothing grows well on land that has been planted withtobacco A farmer has to stop planting anything on the land every few years.That means he needs a lot of land He also needs many workers So tobaccofarmers in Virginia began to buy land and workers

At first, they bought the services of poor people who had no money orjobs These people were called indentured servants They made an agreement

to work for a farmer for a period of four to seven years Then they were freed

to work for themselves

In 1619, a Dutch ship brought some Africans to Jamestown They had beenkidnapped from their homes by African traders and sold to the ship’s captain

He sold them to the Virginia settlers Those first blacks may have beentreated like indentured servants Later, however, colonists decided to keepthem as slaves so they would not have to continue paying for workers.Indians did not make good slaves because they could run away Blacks couldnot They had no place to go Slowly, laws were approved in Virginia thatmade it legal to keep black people as slaves By 1750, there were moreAfricans in Virginia than any other group

History experts continue to debate if slavery caused prejudice in America

or prejudice caused slavery No one knows the answer Most Europeans of

the 17th century felt they were better than African people The reasons forthis included the Africans’ different customs, religion and the black color oftheir skin Europeans believed the color black represented danger and death.Slavery in the American south affected the history of the United States formany years It divided the people and led to a great civil war But slavery didnot start in America That will be our story next week.

008 By 1750, Almost One in Four People in the Colonies Were Slaves

Slavery is one person controlling or owning another Some history expertssay it began following the development of farming about ten thousand yearsago People forced prisoners of war to work for them Other slaves werecriminals or people who could not re-pay money they owed

Experts say the first known slaves existed in the Sumerian society of what

is now Iraq more than five thousand years ago Slavery also existed amongpeople in China, India, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas Itexpanded as trade and industry increased

This increase created a demand for a labor force to produce goods forexport Slaves did most of the work Most ancient people thought of slavery

as a natural condition that could happen to anyone at any time Few saw it asevil or unfair In most cities, slaves could be freed by their owners andbecome citizens

In later times, slaves provided the labor needed to produce products thatwere in demand Sugar was one of these products Italians established largesugar farms beginning around the twelfth century They used slaves fromRussia and other parts of Europe to do the work By the year 1300, Africanblacks had begun to replace the Russian slaves They were bought orcaptured from North African Arabs, who used them as slaves for years

By the 1500s, Spain and Portugal had American colonies The Europeansmade native Indians work in large farms and mines in the colonies Most ofthe Indians died from European diseases and poor treatment So the Spanishand Portuguese began to bring in people from West Africa as slaves France,Britain and the Netherlands did the same in their American colonies

England’s southern colonies in North America developed a farm economythat could not survive without slave labor

Many slaves lived on large farms called plantations These large farmsproduced important crops traded by the colony, crops such as cotton andtobacco Each plantation was like a small village owned by one family Thatfamily lived in a large house, usually facing a river Many separate buildingswere needed on a plantation For example, a building was needed forcooking And buildings were needed for workers to produce goods such asfurniture that were used on the plantation