View source for Notes:BC1.AH.Conditions in the colonies

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|HasArticleDate=2014/05/18
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|HasArticleText=This article describes the conditions encountered by the colonists from the time of the first colonies to the 1760s when differences between the colonies and England became belligerent.  

The source of our information for the first versions of this article are the first two volumes of Edward Channing's ''History of the United States''<ref name="Channing_I">Channing, Edward. History of The United States Volume I, The Planting of a Nation in the New World, 1000 - 1660. New York. The MacMillan Company. 1909.</ref><ref name="Channing_II">Channing, Edward. History of The United States Volume II, A Century of Colonial History, 1660 - 1760. New York. The MacMillan Company 1918.</ref>


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|HasArticleText===Early Virginia==

The first colony that had a continuous population were the collection of small settlements on the James River.  These date from 1606, so we begin there.

The colonists who travelled to America under the first charter met with hardship that ended in the death of many of them.
:*December 20, 1606, The ''Susan Constant'', the ''Godspeed'', and the ''Discovery'' sailed for the southern part of Virginia.  
:::16 of the 120 died on the voyage.  
:*They entered Chesapeake Bay on May 6, 1607. 
::A few went to shore and were attacked by natives - 2 wounded.  
:*They built a fort on the James River.
::*Six months later, less than half of those who reached Virginia were still alive due to malaria, Indian arrows, and hunger.
::*There was also much internal strife.  In January 1608, of the colonial council appointed by the king one had died of disease, one had been executed, two were waiting execution, leaving only two others alive and at large. The reasons are not apparent.
::*One of the council recommended including all surviving members be consulted on governing, but this was considered too democratic and despotic rule was to continue.
:*On an important point comparing the results of despotic vs. democratic rule, Channing writes: "In connection with his description of this expedition, Gardiner (History of England, ii, 253) makes the extraordinary statement that such enterprises needed strong government and not representative institutions, a dictum which is in direct opposition to the teaching of American history, as is evident from a comparison of the history of Virginia  and Plymouth.  In one there was a council with sufficient power to hang the king's subjects; in the other the majority ruled.  Or compare new Netherland under the tyranny of the Dutch regime with the neighboring English colony of Connecticut, where the franchise, in those days, was most liberal."
:::Gardiner was a fine historian - writing in the 1880s - but he put greater trust in the rule of the elite class than in the choices made by a broader electorate as democracy would provide.  One of his errors was his inability to gauge the character of the colonists.  It was a different kind of person who would leave a relatively comfortable homeland for wilderness and hardship.  But his fundamental error was philosophical.  Perhaps he is to be forgiven when one try's to take on his perspective as an educated member of the upper class.  America was born out of a unique American perspective - which we get to in other articles.  But we digress.
:*Of these first 197 colonists who sailed for Virginia from England, in November, 1606, 53 were alive in April 1608.  
::This was typical of the first groups to sail to America and an important thing to understand and remember.  Primarily men, but also women and children; these were the first heroes of American history.
Alexander Brown's ''First Republic''<ref name="First Republic">Brown, Alexander. ''The First Republic in America: An Account of the Origin of this Nation, Written from the Records Then (1624) Concealed by the Council, Rather Than from the Histories then Licensed by the Crown''. Boston and New York. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. 1898</ref> states that:
:* 1606-1625     5649 emigrants left England for Virginia
:::1095 colonists were living in Virginia in 1625
:* In a 12 month period in 1619 to 1620 1200 sailed for Virginia.  
:::Of these 1000 died en route or in the colony by April 1920.
:* In a 12 month period in 1622 to 1623, 347 died in the Indian massacre and 1000 died en route to Virginia or in the colony 

These words are from Channing's Vol 1 (pg 205)<ref name="Channing_I"/>
::"During the years 1618 to 1624, Sandys, . . . made great and successful efforts to send over colonists and supplies; in three years' time no fewer than 3570 emigrants crossed the Atlantic to Virginia.  As there were six hundred . . living in the colony at the beginning of this period, the total number . . . to be accounted for is 4170.  In March 1622, before the Indian massacre, there were living in Virginia twelve hundred English colonists, showing that in three years nearly three thousand persons had perished from disease and starvation.  The "massacre" cost the lives of three hundred and forty-seven more.  Instead of carefully searching out the causes of the disasters, the company continued to pour setters into the colony; but in 1624, when a careful enumeration was made, there were only 1232 colonists alive, including in this number twenty three negro slaves."

Reports from members of Sandys' own family who traveled to Virginia painted a grim picture of the conditions of life in Virginia in those days.
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