2.3

• The first North American colony established by the British was Jamestown in 1607
• Joint stock company


  A new economic model of funding where a group of investors pooled their money together and shared the financial risk
• The purpose of the Jamestown colony was profit, as the investors wanted to make money
• Famine, disease, and even cannibalism plagued the Jamestown colony in its early years
• Tobacco


  A crop that saved the Jamestown colony after it was discovered and cultivated by colonist John Rolfe
• Indentured servants


  Colonists who couldn't afford the passage across the Atlantic and signed a 7-year labor contract to pay off their settlement fees
• Increased demand for tobacco

  Led to farmers needing more land, which caused tension and conflict with Native Americans
• Bacon's Rebellion was led by angry farmers and indentured servants against Native Americans and the colonial governor William Berkeley
• After Bacon's Rebellion, the elite planters began to seek a new source of labor - enslaved people from Africa
• Pilgrims


  Protestant settlers who were unhappy with the Church of England and sought to emigrate to live by their own conscience
• The Pilgrims did not primarily come to America for religious freedom, but for economic reasons as they had trouble making a living in Holland
• The New England colonies were settled largely as family groups, unlike the Jamestown settlers
• Tobacco became the primary cash crop in the British West Indies, but was later replaced by the more profitable sugarcane
• The growth and production of sugarcane led to a spike in demand for enslaved Africans, with the majority of the population on Barbados becoming black by 1660
• The Middle Colonies developed an export economy based on cereal crops due to their location by the sea and rivers
• Pennsylvania was founded by the Quaker William Penn and exhibited values of religious freedom and negotiation with Native Americans for land
• Despite their differences, the British colonies in North America developed unusually democratic systems of governance, with representative assemblies and participatory town meetings