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| Philosophy of Evil Socialism In America By Jerry McDaniel Chapter 3, Continued Colonial Expansion |
E-mail address
jfm@illinoisconservative.com
jfm@illinoisconservative.com
| Philosophy of Evil Socialism in America "The struggle of History is not between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat; it is between government and the governed." Jerry McDaniel |
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New Amsterdam (New York)
In 1609 an expedition of the Dutch East India Company captained by Englishman, Henry Hudson, discovered and explored
the Hudson River and New York Bay. From 1611 through 1614, the area was further explored and charted by private
commercial companies for the Dutch Republic. It was later decided that Manhattan Island would be an ideal place for
colonization by the East India Company as a seaport for its fur trade.
The first group of settlers established a settlement on Governor’s Island just off the tip of Manhattan in 1624. A second
group joined the colony in 1625 and the colony and the new arrivals relocated from Governors Island to Manhattan Island, a
half-mile away. In the next few years, small settlements and trading post were established all along the Hudson as far north
as Albany. These settlements, named “New Netherlands” provided the same freedom of religion enjoyed in the Dutch
Republic. As a result, its population quickly grew with settlers from England, Sweden, Germany and France. In 1654, a
group of Ashkenazic Jews arrived from Amsterdam and another group of Sephardic Jews arrived from Brazil which had
been re-conquered by Portugal.
In 1664, New Amsterdam (“New Netherlands” was the colony, “New Amsterdam” was the principle settlement at what is
today New York City) was temporarily taken by the British leading to the second Anglo-Dutch war between England and the
Dutch Republic. The name was changed from New Amsterdam to New York. The city was recaptured by the Dutch in 1673
and renamed New Orange. The following year it was finally ceded to England by the Treaty of Westminster with Suriname
becoming an official Dutch possession in return.
Massachusetts Bay
The next colony to be settled, of major significance to the future formation of America was the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Like those in the Plymouth colony forty miles to the south, the settlers in Massachusetts Bay sought freedom to worship
according to their own convictions without persecution. During the later years of the reign of James I, persecution of
dissenters to the Church of England increased considerably. His successor in 1625, Charles I, was even more oppressive,
resulting in the great Puritan Migration.
The New England Company, successor to the Plymouth Company of London, made a number of land grants in what had
formerly been the northern part of Virginia. Many of the grants were overlapping, causing uncertainty in who had claim to
what territory. One of those grants was issued to a Puritan leader named John Endicott and six other investors. Endicott
traveled to the town of Salem near Massachusetts Bay with sixty of his followers, adding to a small settlement that was
already there. By 1628, the increased persecution under Charles I had reached the point that hundreds of Puritans were
anxious to relocate to America.
Because of the uncertainty surrounding the land grant, the group applied to Charles I for a charter in 1629 and it was granted
to the “Massachusetts Bay Company”, supposing it to be for commercial purposes. In the same year, a group of Puritan
leaders met in Cambridge, England and adopted the “Cambridge Agreement,” agreeing to migrate to Massachusetts, on the
condition that full authority over the charter and colony would be transferred to members of the colony. The Massachusetts
Bay Company agreed, and shareholders who did not wish to migrate to the new colony sold their shares to others. Thus, the
Massachusetts Bay Colony became the first English colony whose ruling council was not located in England.
Over the next few years, John Winthrop a wealthy Puritan and lawyer, oversaw the migration of 1,000 Puritans to the new
colony. Soon the main group of settlers moved from Salem to the Shawmut Peninsula of Massachusetts Bay (later to be
called Boston). The great Puritan migration had begun. Within a few years there were more than twenty thousand colonists
residing in Massachusetts, the majority of them Puritans. Winthrop was elected governor of the colony for twelve terms.
Maryland: First Proprietary Colony
The first three permanent English colonies were colonized under corporate charters issued to groups of stockholders. The
first proprietary charter was issued to George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, an Irish Peerage. Calvert was a former British
Secretary of State, but was stripped of his title in 1625 when he announced his conversion to Roman Catholicism. Catholics
in England at the time were considered by many to be enemies of the Crown and traitors to their country. Some historians
argue that in spite of the political necessity for Calvert’s removal from his former post, King Charles was fond of him and
issued the charter as compensation for his lost position. Calvert had previously obtained a land grant for an area of
Newfoundland and briefly established a colony there in 1620. After a harsh winter, however, all of the colonists returned to
England and the colony was abandoned.
George died before the Maryland charter was implemented and it was issued to his son, Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore
in 1632. The colony was named “Maryland” in honor of Henrietta Maria, Queen Consort of Charles I. In October 1632,
some 400 colonists set sail from Gravesend and the Isle of Wight under the leadership of Cecilius’ younger brother Leonard.
The Calvert family was to rule Maryland off-and-on until the Revolution.
The Calvert’s primary purpose in establishing the Maryland Colony was to provide a safe haven for English Catholics who
were suffering persecution in their homeland. However, a generous system of land grants called “headrights” was used as a
means for quickly populating the colony. Under this system a grant of two fifty-acre headrights were given to each settler
who paid his own passage and one headright for each additional paid passage.
This system attracted settlers other than Catholics and as a result, from the very beginning there were more non-Catholics
than Catholics in the Maryland Colony. Quaker, German, Dutch and Huguenot settlers all found their way to Maryland in
great numbers. Under the proprietary charter issued by Charles I, Calvert had near absolute authority over the colony.
However, that power was later modified somewhat by the colonists themselves. When Cecilius Calvert sent his brother
Leonard as the colony’s first Governor, he gave him strict instructions regarding religious freedom. All Christian Trinitarian
religions were to be freely accepted. This was later codified in 1649 under the Maryland Toleration Act which required that,
However, the act also provided that,
In spite of the fact that the Calvert family proved to be able rulers and Maryland thrived and prospered as a comparatively
peaceful colony, it was involved in a long border dispute with Virginia, was taken over by the Puritans for a short time, and
had its charter revoked for a time after the “glorious revolution.” The Calvert family remained in power until the American
Revolution. This was partly due to its political astuteness. For example, when the Puritan Party under Cromwell, defeated the
Cavaliers in England in 1648, Lord Baltimore appointed a protestant Governor, William Stone to rule over the colony.
Pennsylvania
By the middle of the seventeenth century, a number of colonies had been established along the eastern seaboard, some
without charters and others chartered by various European nations. So it was in 1681 when William Penn was issued a
proprietary charter by Charles II for the colony of Pennsylvania, named for William’s father, Sir William Penn, an Admiral in
the British Navy. The territory covered by Penn’s charter overlapped claims by Virginia, New York, Maryland, Connecticut
and Delaware. The dispute with Maryland was later resolved by the famous Mason and Dixon line marking a two-hundred
and fifty mile section of the border between the two colonies.
Young William Penn converted to the Quaker religion in 1667, at the age of 20, causing him to endure persecution from his
peers in England and a brief estrangement from his father. Sir William Penn died in 1670 and his son William inherited his
estate including a £16,000 loan to Charles II. The charter issued to Penn was partly in exchange for cancellation of that debt.
The Quakers are known for their pacifism, refusing to participate in wars or paying taxes to support them. William Penn was
trusted by the native population more than anyone else among the settlers of America was. It is said that wearing Quaker
dress was a better protection from Indian attack than the best armor available.
Penn was a very wealthy man, purchasing or leasing land for his colony from Indians and others who had any type of claim
to land within the Pennsylvania colony even though the terms of his charter made that unnecessary. He leased lower
Delaware from the Duke of York, for example, and purchased large tracts of land from the Lenni Lenape Indians. Not all
went well for Penn in his later life, however. Due to political strife in England, he eventually lost his fortune and spent some
time in debtor’s prison before his death in 1718.
Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia, designed by Penn, played a leading role in American history. Both the Declaration
of Independence and the Constitution were debated, written and signed there. It was host to both the first and second
Continental Congresses and was the temporary Capitol of the United States from 1790 to 1800 while the new Capitol was
being constructed in the District of Columbia.
While the larger colonies of Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Amsterdam (New York) and Pennsylvania were being
formed, other smaller colonies were also being established. New Hampshire was colonized in 1623 by John Wheelwright;
Connecticut around 1635 by Thomas Hooker; Rhode Island in 1636 by Roger Williams; Delaware in 1638 by Peter Minuit
and the New Sweden Company; North Carolina in 1653 by a group of Virginians; South Carolina in 1663 by a group of
English Nobles; New York in 1664 by the Duke of York, and finally Georgia in 1732 by James Oglethorpe as a haven for
debtors from England’s debtor’s prisons.
By the time of the Revolutionary War, eight of the colonies’ charters had been converted to Royal Charters under direct rule
of the King. Only Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware and Pennsylvania remained as proprietary or corporate
colonies. In all of these diverse colonies made up of differing religions by people from several different countries and
cultures, we can begin to see the melding of the American character. The difficult life they faced in order to survive and the
ever present threat of death from hunger, disease and hostile natives molded a character of fierce independence, self-reliance
and a determination to live free, depending only on their own initiative and faculties.
In 1609 an expedition of the Dutch East India Company captained by Englishman, Henry Hudson, discovered and explored
the Hudson River and New York Bay. From 1611 through 1614, the area was further explored and charted by private
commercial companies for the Dutch Republic. It was later decided that Manhattan Island would be an ideal place for
colonization by the East India Company as a seaport for its fur trade.
The first group of settlers established a settlement on Governor’s Island just off the tip of Manhattan in 1624. A second
group joined the colony in 1625 and the colony and the new arrivals relocated from Governors Island to Manhattan Island, a
half-mile away. In the next few years, small settlements and trading post were established all along the Hudson as far north
as Albany. These settlements, named “New Netherlands” provided the same freedom of religion enjoyed in the Dutch
Republic. As a result, its population quickly grew with settlers from England, Sweden, Germany and France. In 1654, a
group of Ashkenazic Jews arrived from Amsterdam and another group of Sephardic Jews arrived from Brazil which had
been re-conquered by Portugal.
In 1664, New Amsterdam (“New Netherlands” was the colony, “New Amsterdam” was the principle settlement at what is
today New York City) was temporarily taken by the British leading to the second Anglo-Dutch war between England and the
Dutch Republic. The name was changed from New Amsterdam to New York. The city was recaptured by the Dutch in 1673
and renamed New Orange. The following year it was finally ceded to England by the Treaty of Westminster with Suriname
becoming an official Dutch possession in return.
Massachusetts Bay
The next colony to be settled, of major significance to the future formation of America was the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Like those in the Plymouth colony forty miles to the south, the settlers in Massachusetts Bay sought freedom to worship
according to their own convictions without persecution. During the later years of the reign of James I, persecution of
dissenters to the Church of England increased considerably. His successor in 1625, Charles I, was even more oppressive,
resulting in the great Puritan Migration.
The New England Company, successor to the Plymouth Company of London, made a number of land grants in what had
formerly been the northern part of Virginia. Many of the grants were overlapping, causing uncertainty in who had claim to
what territory. One of those grants was issued to a Puritan leader named John Endicott and six other investors. Endicott
traveled to the town of Salem near Massachusetts Bay with sixty of his followers, adding to a small settlement that was
already there. By 1628, the increased persecution under Charles I had reached the point that hundreds of Puritans were
anxious to relocate to America.
Because of the uncertainty surrounding the land grant, the group applied to Charles I for a charter in 1629 and it was granted
to the “Massachusetts Bay Company”, supposing it to be for commercial purposes. In the same year, a group of Puritan
leaders met in Cambridge, England and adopted the “Cambridge Agreement,” agreeing to migrate to Massachusetts, on the
condition that full authority over the charter and colony would be transferred to members of the colony. The Massachusetts
Bay Company agreed, and shareholders who did not wish to migrate to the new colony sold their shares to others. Thus, the
Massachusetts Bay Colony became the first English colony whose ruling council was not located in England.
Over the next few years, John Winthrop a wealthy Puritan and lawyer, oversaw the migration of 1,000 Puritans to the new
colony. Soon the main group of settlers moved from Salem to the Shawmut Peninsula of Massachusetts Bay (later to be
called Boston). The great Puritan migration had begun. Within a few years there were more than twenty thousand colonists
residing in Massachusetts, the majority of them Puritans. Winthrop was elected governor of the colony for twelve terms.
Maryland: First Proprietary Colony
The first three permanent English colonies were colonized under corporate charters issued to groups of stockholders. The
first proprietary charter was issued to George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, an Irish Peerage. Calvert was a former British
Secretary of State, but was stripped of his title in 1625 when he announced his conversion to Roman Catholicism. Catholics
in England at the time were considered by many to be enemies of the Crown and traitors to their country. Some historians
argue that in spite of the political necessity for Calvert’s removal from his former post, King Charles was fond of him and
issued the charter as compensation for his lost position. Calvert had previously obtained a land grant for an area of
Newfoundland and briefly established a colony there in 1620. After a harsh winter, however, all of the colonists returned to
England and the colony was abandoned.
George died before the Maryland charter was implemented and it was issued to his son, Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore
in 1632. The colony was named “Maryland” in honor of Henrietta Maria, Queen Consort of Charles I. In October 1632,
some 400 colonists set sail from Gravesend and the Isle of Wight under the leadership of Cecilius’ younger brother Leonard.
The Calvert family was to rule Maryland off-and-on until the Revolution.
The Calvert’s primary purpose in establishing the Maryland Colony was to provide a safe haven for English Catholics who
were suffering persecution in their homeland. However, a generous system of land grants called “headrights” was used as a
means for quickly populating the colony. Under this system a grant of two fifty-acre headrights were given to each settler
who paid his own passage and one headright for each additional paid passage.
This system attracted settlers other than Catholics and as a result, from the very beginning there were more non-Catholics
than Catholics in the Maryland Colony. Quaker, German, Dutch and Huguenot settlers all found their way to Maryland in
great numbers. Under the proprietary charter issued by Charles I, Calvert had near absolute authority over the colony.
However, that power was later modified somewhat by the colonists themselves. When Cecilius Calvert sent his brother
Leonard as the colony’s first Governor, he gave him strict instructions regarding religious freedom. All Christian Trinitarian
religions were to be freely accepted. This was later codified in 1649 under the Maryland Toleration Act which required that,
“...noe person or persons...professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth be any waies troubled,
Molested or discounte-nanced for or in respect of his or her religion nor in the free exercise thereof within this
Province.”
However, the act also provided that,
- “whatsoever person or persons within this Province and the islands thereunto belonging, that from henceforth
blaspheme God, that is curse him; or shall deny our Savior JESUS CHRIST to be the Son of God, or shall deny the
Holy Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost; or the Godhead of any of the said three persons of the Trinity, or the
unity of the Godhead, or shall use or utter any reproachful speeches, words, or language, concerning the Holy Trinity,
or any of the said persons thereof, shall be punished with death, and confiscation or forfeiture of all his or her lands
and goods to the Lord Proprietary and his heirs.”
In spite of the fact that the Calvert family proved to be able rulers and Maryland thrived and prospered as a comparatively
peaceful colony, it was involved in a long border dispute with Virginia, was taken over by the Puritans for a short time, and
had its charter revoked for a time after the “glorious revolution.” The Calvert family remained in power until the American
Revolution. This was partly due to its political astuteness. For example, when the Puritan Party under Cromwell, defeated the
Cavaliers in England in 1648, Lord Baltimore appointed a protestant Governor, William Stone to rule over the colony.
Pennsylvania
By the middle of the seventeenth century, a number of colonies had been established along the eastern seaboard, some
without charters and others chartered by various European nations. So it was in 1681 when William Penn was issued a
proprietary charter by Charles II for the colony of Pennsylvania, named for William’s father, Sir William Penn, an Admiral in
the British Navy. The territory covered by Penn’s charter overlapped claims by Virginia, New York, Maryland, Connecticut
and Delaware. The dispute with Maryland was later resolved by the famous Mason and Dixon line marking a two-hundred
and fifty mile section of the border between the two colonies.
Young William Penn converted to the Quaker religion in 1667, at the age of 20, causing him to endure persecution from his
peers in England and a brief estrangement from his father. Sir William Penn died in 1670 and his son William inherited his
estate including a £16,000 loan to Charles II. The charter issued to Penn was partly in exchange for cancellation of that debt.
The Quakers are known for their pacifism, refusing to participate in wars or paying taxes to support them. William Penn was
trusted by the native population more than anyone else among the settlers of America was. It is said that wearing Quaker
dress was a better protection from Indian attack than the best armor available.
Penn was a very wealthy man, purchasing or leasing land for his colony from Indians and others who had any type of claim
to land within the Pennsylvania colony even though the terms of his charter made that unnecessary. He leased lower
Delaware from the Duke of York, for example, and purchased large tracts of land from the Lenni Lenape Indians. Not all
went well for Penn in his later life, however. Due to political strife in England, he eventually lost his fortune and spent some
time in debtor’s prison before his death in 1718.
Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia, designed by Penn, played a leading role in American history. Both the Declaration
of Independence and the Constitution were debated, written and signed there. It was host to both the first and second
Continental Congresses and was the temporary Capitol of the United States from 1790 to 1800 while the new Capitol was
being constructed in the District of Columbia.
While the larger colonies of Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Amsterdam (New York) and Pennsylvania were being
formed, other smaller colonies were also being established. New Hampshire was colonized in 1623 by John Wheelwright;
Connecticut around 1635 by Thomas Hooker; Rhode Island in 1636 by Roger Williams; Delaware in 1638 by Peter Minuit
and the New Sweden Company; North Carolina in 1653 by a group of Virginians; South Carolina in 1663 by a group of
English Nobles; New York in 1664 by the Duke of York, and finally Georgia in 1732 by James Oglethorpe as a haven for
debtors from England’s debtor’s prisons.
By the time of the Revolutionary War, eight of the colonies’ charters had been converted to Royal Charters under direct rule
of the King. Only Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware and Pennsylvania remained as proprietary or corporate
colonies. In all of these diverse colonies made up of differing religions by people from several different countries and
cultures, we can begin to see the melding of the American character. The difficult life they faced in order to survive and the
ever present threat of death from hunger, disease and hostile natives molded a character of fierce independence, self-reliance
and a determination to live free, depending only on their own initiative and faculties.
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