fcmv england

BACKGROUND
English colonization of North America began with the founding of Jamestown in 1607. Over the next century other English colonies
were established along the Atlantic coast of what would become the United States. By 1700, almost 250,000 people, most of whom were
born in England or were of English descent, lived in the colonies.

Virginia was England's first North American colony, and as many as 120,000 English migrants arrived here in the 1600s. Some colonists
were granted land where they established tobacco plantations worked by white indentured servants and African slaves. Settlement slowly
crept westward into the piedmont, and by the mid-1700s Anglo-Virginians crossed the Blue Ridge and began to settle in the Valley of
Virginia.

PEOPLE
The great majority of Virginia colonists were tenant farmers and agricultural laborers in England, and came to the colony as indentured
servants. A much smaller number, perhaps a quarter of the colony's population, were members of the lesser gentry, merchant, yeoman,
and professional ranks of English society. These colonists formed Virginia's landholding elite, and their wealth and power was founded
on growing tobacco and exporting it back to England.

Most Virginia colonist came from the region of England between the cities London and Bristol. Landed gentry dominated this area, and
much of its population served as tenants and laborers on their estates. A class of common landowners, generally known as yeoman, were
also present in this region. During the 1600s, the term, "yeoman," referred to a class of prosperous farmers who held land in the form of
a freehold or copyhold. Some yeomen were as rich as the lesser gentry, and the children of these yeoman were able to enter this class
through intermarriage with gentry families, a university education, or military service at the rank of captain or above. The English Farm
at the Frontier Culture Museum represents a prosperous yeoman household.

FARMING PRACTICES
Yeoman farmers produced for the market, rather than mere subsistence. From the late medieval period through the early 1600s, farming
proved profitable for farmers who owned enough land to grow grain to feed England's growing population and graze sheep to supply
woolen cloth to Europe. In the Midlands and the south of the country, farmers raised sheep for wool and cattle for meat, cheese, and
butter. Grain crops were usually the most profitable, and fields were planted in wheat, barley, and rye. Vegetables and fruits, such as
beans, carrots, cabbages, apples, and pears, were also grown on yeoman farms. Production for the market encouraged improved farming
methods that increased yields and profits. Clover was grown as a source of nitrogen to enrich the soil and feed stock, and a system of
crop rotation on a three or four-year cycle was practiced. Innovative farmers also tried new crops, such as rape seed for oil and turnips
for livestock fodder.

LIFE IN THE ENGLISH FARMHOUSE
Most yeomen families lived in comfortable, sturdy, multi-room dwellings. Their houses were well-stocked with traditional furnishings,
including pewter, tables, chairs, and cupboards. Much of their furniture and furnishings conveyed the status and authority of the
household head to guests, and reinforced the subordination of wives, children, servants, and farm laborers. The farmer sat at the dinner
table in a "great" chair, an armchair with a paneled back, often elaborately carved, in contrast to his wife and children who sat on simple
benches or stools. A large press cupboard with carved and applied decoration held the family's pewter or silver, and was intended to be a
show of wealth and power. The yeoman farmer and his wife often slept in a tester bedstead, equipped with flock and feather mattresses,
pillows, and bolsters and hung with costly woolen bed curtains and valences, far more elaborate than the beds used by children and
servants.

The yeoman's wife was in charge of the household, including the training and supervision of daughters and servant girls. Foremost was
her responsibility in preparing the family's meals. The diet of the English yeoman was more varied than that of German peasants and
Irish tenants, and included more meat in the form of stews, meat pies, and roasted, fried, and grilled chicken, beef, and lamb. The
housewife directed the dairying on the farm, including butter and cheese making, and textile production. Kitchen gardens, where
vegetables and medicinal herbs were grown, were also cared for by the housewife.

IMMIGRATION
The period between 1500 and 1700 was a time of great social change in England. Much of the rural population was uprooted as a result
of enclosure, which accelerated during the 1600s. Enclosing fields and pastures that were traditionally open, common lands forced many
small peasant farmers off the land and onto the roads in search of work and charity. England's colonial ventures were, in part, promoted
as an outlet for people regarded as excess population. Many went to the American colonies, particularly Virginia, as indentured servants.
In exchange for passage, indentured servants agreed to work a term of service for a master, usually a tobacco planter. If they survived
their indenture, they received fifty acres of land, tools and clothing. Other immigrants came to Virginia seeking better opportunity. This
group included the younger sons of gentry and yeoman families who would not inherit their fathers' property; in England at this time,
the eldest son inherited all of his father's real property. Immigrants able to pay their way to Virginia received fifty acres of land for
themselves, and an additional fifty acres for each person they brought with them at their own expense under the headright system.

The primary ports of embarkation for English immigrants to Virginia and the Chesapeake were London and Bristol. The immigrant
trade was far less organized in the 1600s than in later periods. The ships were smaller, and the voyage was often longer and more
dangerous.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICAN CULTURE
English culture and traditions were dominant in England's North American colonies due to the numbers of English settlers, and the role
the Crown and English proprietors played in establishing these colonies. In Virginia, this culture quickly took on the characteristics of
southern England. This took the form of a patriarchal and hierarchical society led by the "gentlemen" of the colony. With the arrival of
other ethnic groups and the emergence of political democracy during the era of the American Revolution, this traditional culture faded.
What endured were American versions of English language, law and government, morality, and an ideal of individual liberty.