Arrival of the English in the 1700s

Abstract

The English arrived in Virginia at the beginning of the 17th century, where they encountered one of the most politically complex Indian groups along the Atlantic coast, the Algonquian-speaking Powhatans. The Indians lived in dispersed settlements along the rivers and practiced slash-and-burn cultivation. They grew maize, beans, squash, pumpkins, gourds, sunflowers and tobacco, and harvested a variety of fish, birds and animals from the nearby rivers, marshes and woods. At this time, Indians of Virginia had begun to consolidate their dispersed groups for defense. There seems to have been an intensified era of tribal conflict just before the English settlement of Jamestown was founded in 1607. This conflict might have originated with the pressures felt by the Powhatan (and other related Algonquian speaking tribes) as Siouan-speaking Indians (the Monacan and Mannahoac) pushed towards the Fall Line (the boundary separating the Piedmont from the lower coastal, or Tidewater, plain). As depicted in prints such as those engraved by Theodor de Bry published in Thomas Harriot's A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1590), the Indian villages reflected a social hierarchy and some appear to have been surrounded by timber palisades for defense.

Arrival of the English

By the end of the 17th century, Virginia had become the most populous and wealthiest colony in North America. Virginia's wealthy planters began emulating current architecture trends in England, adapting late-baroque elements that came to be called Georgian after the Hanoverian monarchs of England. The Georgian style grew from the Italian Renaissance, which emphasized classical details, horizontal and symmetrical facades, and dominated the English colonies for most of the 18th century. The Georgian style was brought to America and disseminated by skilled English craftsmen who immigrated to the colonies, knowledgeable and wealthy patrons and through architectural books. These ranged from expensive treatises on Italian models to inexpensive carpenter's handbooks.

Britain France Netherlands Spain United States and British Caribbean Denmark Portugal

1519–1600 2.0 264.1

1601–1650 23.0 41.0 439.5

1651–1675 115.2 5.9 64.8 0.2 53.7

1676–1700 243.3 34.1 56.1 15.4 161.1

Total % 28.23% 2.94% 11.92% 1.15% 55.75%

Volume of Transatlantic Slave Trade Departures by Carrier (in thousands) 1519–1800

Data Source: Eltis et al 2001

Britain France Netherlands Spain United States and British Caribbean Denmark Portugal

1701–1725 380.9 106.3 65.5 11.0 16.7 378.3

1726–1750 490.5 253.9 109.2 44.5 7.6 405.6

1751–1775 859.1 321.5 148.0 1.0 89.1 13.4 472.9

The Plantation Era: The customs of the English settlers of Virginia emphasized personal honor, hospitality and the accumulation of land, slaves and wealth to denote social status. Following the initial settlement period, the landed gentry of Virginia began building magnificent plantation houses, the most visible sign of their social standing and monetary wealth, and furnishing them with the most fashionable imported appurtenances and material goods. In his book, Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, David Hackett Fischer describes the similarities between Virginia's early plantation dwellings and England's manor houses.

The African-American Presence

Almost from the arrival of English settlers, Africans were brought to Virginia; the first arrived in 1619 and were probably slaves. Until the mid-17th century, the majority