Relationship Between Jamestown And Early American English Colonies

880 Words4 Pages

Though Christopher Columbus was not the first to discover the Incipient World, his landing in the Incipient World in 1492 was consequential: it commenced a period kenned as the Age of Exploration. During this age, European explorers strived to find trade routes and acquire wealth from the Incipient World. Unlike most European countries, England got such a tardy start in the colonization game. As a result, English settlements were concentrated along the East Coast of North America. Among the prosperous English colonies, two categorically paramount English colonies were Jamestown (in modern day Virginia) and Massachusetts Bay Colony. Economically, these two colonies are kindred. Their relationship with the Native Americans was homogeneous and …show more content…

Early relationship between both colonies was characterized by fascination and altruism; however, this relationship was superseded with enmity. In Jamestown, the settlers believed that the Americans were adept people living in highly developed societies. The Indians' achievement, of developing an intricate civilization, made colonization feasible in English ocular perceivers. The settlers kenned how reliant they would be on native crops for their pabulum. On the other hand, Powhatan and his men optically discerned the incipient English settlement as great opportunity for them to exploit. The Natives believed that the Europeans are “edgy, rapacious, and remotely maladroit.” Sure enough, the settlers in Jamestown kenned little about farming and found the environment baffling. It was conspicuous that the colonists needed the avail of the Natives. Despite their inexperience the English dominated the Indians. From “the beginning the Virginia Company indited that the relationship would ineluctably become bellicose: for you Cannot Carry Your Selves so towards them but they will Grow Discontented with Your habitation.” In the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Puritans, at first, established a good relationship with a Native American tribe called the Pequots. These quandaries were compounded by the Puritans' incrementing conviction that the Indians' claims were invalid, because God had bestowed …show more content…

In Jamestown, the colonists formed a general assembly, the House of Burgesses, the first legislative assembly. It consisted of elected or appointed official of a municipality representing eleven plantations. Also, the Massachusetts Bay colony established a representative government. The colony was initially run by a General Court. After the number of settlers increased, the settlers elected two representatives from each district to the General Court. However, the governments of both colonies were carried out differently. In Massachusetts Bay Colony, religious thinking continued to dominate the government, even in court orders. A strong sense of community with equal access to property and fair wages and prices was maintained. in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Whereas in Jamestown, there were wealthy landowners of the tidewater region who were not responsive to the needs of the desperate poor. This led to Bacon’s Rebellion, a gang of impoverished and landless former servants attacked the capital of the colony and plundered the homes of the wealthy. Both colonies constituted a successful form of government; however, both governments were carried out in dissimilar ways. The establishment of two primitive English colonies, Jamestown and Massachusetts Bay Colony had many homogeneous attributes and differences. Both had an adequate relationship with the Native Americans that deteriorated and

Open Document