Background-Plymouth Plantation and General History of Virginia

• 1607

• Economic

  • Profit

  • Company

• Tobacco​

Virginia​

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Massachusetts

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• 1620

• Religious Freedom

  • Pilgrims then Puritans

• Mayflower Compact

  • Social Contract​

• Harsh Winter & Rocky Soil

• Swift Rivers

  • Fur Trapping

• ​Natural Harbors

  • Trading

  • Fishing/Whaling​

• Dense Forests​

  • Shipbuilding

  • Lumber​

New England Region

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Religion in Europe

After the Protestant Reformation, Christians in western Europe were divided into Protestants and Roman Catholics. This division led to fierce religious wars and persecution.

Most European rulers believed that they could not maintain order unless everyone followed the ruler's religion. The religion chosen by the ruler was known as the established church.

In England, for example, the established church was the Anglican church, or Church of England. In the 1530s, Parliament passed laws making the English monarch, King Henry the VIII, the head of the Church of England.

The Pilgrims

One religious group in England that faced persecution were the people we now call the Pilgrims. At the time, they were known as Separatists. They were called that because, although they were Protestant, they wanted to separate from the Church of England.

Considering that the King was the head of the church, opposing the church meant opposing the head of the government. The English government bitterly opposed the Separatists.

The Settlement of Plymouth

In September 1620, more than 100 men, women, and children set sail aboard a small ship called the Mayflower. The journey was long and difficult.

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At last, in November 1620, the Mayflower landed on the cold, bleak shore of Cape Cod, in present-day Massachusetts.

​In late 1620 the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in present-day Massachusetts. The colonists struggled through the winter to build the Plymouth settlement. Nearly half died during this first winter from sickness and the freezing weather.

In the spring they met Native Americans that helped them figure out how to grow food to live.

• Warm climate

• Flat Land

• Fertile Soil

  • Cash Crops

    • Tobacco

    • Cotton

• Slavery

  • Transatlantic Slave Trade

  • Middle Passage​

Southern

Region

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