England in America, 1580-1652 | Page 2

it followed by
twenty-five years and had the advantage of the unhappy experience of
Virginia and of very capable management. The author shows how little
Maryland deserves the name of a Catholic colony, and he develops the
Kent Island episode, the first serious boundary controversy between
two English commonwealths in America.
To the two earliest New England colonies are devoted five chapters (ix.
to xiii.), which are treated not as a separate episode but as part of the
general spirit of colonization. Especial attention is paid to the
development of popular government in Massachusetts, where the
relation between governor, council, and freemen had an opportunity to
work itself out. Through the transfer of the charter to New England,
America had its first experience of a plantation with a written
constitution for internal affairs. The fathers of the Puritan republics are
further relieved of the halo which generations of venerating
descendants have bestowed upon them, and appear as human characters.
Though engaging in a great and difficult task, and while solving many
problems, they nevertheless denied their own fundamental precept of
the right of a man to worship God according to the dictates of his own
conscience.

Chapters
xiv. to xvi. describe the foundation of the little settlements in
Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Haven, New Hampshire, and Maine;
and here we have an interesting picture of little towns for a time
standing quite independent, and gradually consolidating into
commonwealths, or coalescing with more powerful neighbors. Then
follow (chapters xvii. and xviii.) the international and intercolonial
relations of the colonies, and especially the New England
Confederation, the first form of American federal government.
A brief sketch of the conditions of social life in New England (chapter
xix.) brings out the strong commercial spirit of the people as well as
their intense religious life and the narrowness of their social and
intellectual status. The bibliographical essay is necessarily a selection
from the great literature of early English colonization, but is a
conspectus of the most important secondary works and collections of
sources.
The aim of the volume is to show the reasons for as well as the
progress of English colonization. Hence for the illustration Sir Walter
Raleigh has been chosen, as the most conspicuous colonizer of his time.
The freshness of the story is in its clear exposition of the terrible
difficulties in the way of founding self-sustaining colonies--the
unfamiliar soil and climate, Indian enemies, internal dissensions,
interference by the English government, vague and conflicting
territorial grants. Yet out of these difficulties, in forty-five years of
actual settlement, two southern and six or seven northern communities
were permanently established, in the face of the opposition and rivalry
of Spain, France, and Holland. For this task the editor has thought that
President Tyler is especially qualified, as an author whose descent and
historical interest connect him both with the northern and the southern
groups of settlements.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
This book covers a period of a little more than three-quarters of a

century. It begins with the first attempt at English colonization in
America, in 1576, and ends with the year 1652, when the supremacy of
Parliament was recognized throughout the English colonies. The
original motive of colonization is found in English rivalry with the
Spanish power; and the first chapter of this work tells how this motive
influenced Gilbert and Raleigh in their endeavors to plant colonies in
Newfoundland and North Carolina. Though unfortunate in permanent
result, these expeditions familiarized the people of England with the
country of Virginia--a name given by Queen Elizabeth to all the region
from Canada to Florida--and stimulated the successful settlement at
Jamestown in the early part of the seventeenth century. With the charter
of 1609 Virginia was severed from North Virginia, to which Captain
Smith soon gave the name of "New England"; and the story thereafter
is of two streams of English emigration--one to Virginia and the other
to New England. Thence arose the Southern and Northern colonies of
English America, which, more than a century beyond the period of this
book, united to form the great republic of the United States.
The most interesting period in the history of any country is the
formative period; and through the mass of recently published original
material on America the opportunity to tell its story well has been of
late years greatly increased. In the preparation of this work I have
endeavored to consult the original sources, and to admit secondary
testimony only in matters of detail. I beg to express my indebtedness to
the authorities of the Harvard College Library and the Virginia Library
for their courtesy in giving me special facilities for the verification of
my authorities.
LYON GARDINER TYLER.

ENGLAND IN AMERICA
CHAPTER I
GENESIS OF ENGLISH COLONIZATION

(1492-1579)
Up to the last third of the sixteenth century