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Back-breaking work, freezing weather, disease and depression all took their toll of the early colonists in America, but the first two years of establishing a colony were critical.
On 21 December 1620, the Mayflower pioneers landed on the peninsula of Cape Cod in south-east Massachusetts. Their voyage had been financed by the Virginia Company, but their ship hit land far north of Virginia. After some weeks of exploring, the colonists decided to stay where they were.
They chose the area near Plymouth harbour as a site for their colony and, although the first winter was severe, the settlement survived. Not all the early settlers were Pilgrim Fathers, wearing tall hats and black clothes, with a mission to change the world. Many were just hardworking people, farmers, craftworkers, traders, lumberjacks and fishermen.
Other pioneers looked for natural harbours for their ships. Their first problem was building shelters, and they often had to chop down trees to make room for tents and then wooden shacks. Their second problem was finding food. Their ability to survive was often undermined by the nature of the settlers.
In Virginia, the rich were unused to manual labour, and resented having to work, while the poor were often inexperienced at farming. For these reasons, the early pioneers often hoped the Native Americans would help them out.
Despite the problems, though, each colony soon established its own individual character.
In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh sent about 100 pioneers, all men, to Roanoke, a small island off Virginia (now North Carolina). The location was chosen because its sand banks offered security from marauding Spanish ships.
However, this also made it difficult for English ships to land supplies and its poor soil produced poor crops. The colonists reckoned they would be fed by Native Americans. But they treated them so badly that the indigenous people left them to starve. In the end, the surviving colonists persuaded a passing ship to take them back to England.
In 1587, 68 men, 17 women and nine children were the first English families to settle in North America. These colonists found conditions on Roanoke as difficult as their predecessors had but they could not leave, since English ships were busy fighting the Spanish Armada at home, and did not return to Roanoke until 1590.
By then, this second group of colonists had mysteriously disappeared, with no sign of death or attack. The only clue was the word Croatoan – the name of a nearby island – carved into a tree. But the English sailors refused to risk the shallow waters to get to this island, so the fate of the colonists remains a mystery.
In 1607, English colonists arrived at Chesapeake Bay, a more fertile region than Roanoke. After a peace treaty with Spain, there was less risk of Spanish attack and they set up Jamestown. Of the initial 104 men, only 38 survived longer than nine months. The rest died of disease and starvation.
In 1609, new arrivals boosted the numbers to 220 but a bad winter killed all but 60. One starving colonist killed and ate his wife. He was tried, found guilty and burnt at the stake.
By 1622, 10,000 people had tried to settle in Jamestown, sent by the Virginia Company, but only 20% survived. The main causes of death were malaria, spread by mosquitoes from a nearby swamp, and poor water supplies. The colonists were too lazy to work hard and they preferred to search for easy riches in precious metals. They expected Native Americans to feed them, but when these people were pushed too far, they attacked the colonists.
The New England colonies in the north faced a tougher climate but had the advantage of more hardworking settlers. Fleeing England because of religious persecution, these militant Puritans were relatively well-off and their faith gave them courage and discipline. Their aim was not to make a profit but to create a 'City on a Hill' – a god-fearing community.
When the Mayflower dropped the first 102 settlers in Massachusetts Bay, they occupied an abandoned Native American village, which they called Plymouth. Although half of them died in the first winter, newcomers from England strengthened the colony and it survived.
In 1630, a much larger contingent, led by John Winthorp and the Massachusetts Bay Company, and called the Great Migration, set up a republic at Boston, which expanded successfully throughout the 1640s. By 1660, with a population of 33,000, this was the most successful New England colony.
Other settlements – New Hampshire, Maine, Maryland, the Carolinas, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania – originally belonged to proprietors, members of the English gentry or nobility. As landlords, they advanced funds for settling tenants and servants on lands granted by the king. In the case of New Haven (now Connecticut), well-to-do emigrants financed the transport and equipment of their own families and servants.
Charles I granted Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore, about 2.8 million hectares that became the state of Maryland. Charles II dispensed grants that established the states that would become North and South Carolina and Pennsylvania. Technically, the proprietors were the king's tenants, but they made only token payments. Lord Baltimore, for instance, gave the king two Indian arrowheads each year, while William Penn – founder of Pennsylvania – gave him two beaver skins.
Each colony reflected its origins. Several were offshoots of other settlements: Rhode Island and Connecticut were founded by people from Massachusetts.
Georgia was established by James Edward Oglethorpe whose plan was to release imprisoned debtors from English jails and send them to America to defend the colonies against the Spanish in the south. Founded in 1621 by the Dutch, New Netherland with New Amsterdam as its capital, came under English rule in 1664, and both town and state were renamed New York.
To clear a site you had to cut down trees. Wood was chopped for firewood, and used to build fences, houses, barns and mills. Pioneers then planted small gardens with vegetables. Soon fields had to be ploughed, sown and harvested – all by hand. In the south, settlers grew tobacco and sugar for export; in New England they grew wheat, rye, maize, beans and vegetables. Farms also had oxen, cattle, a horse, sheep and pigs.
Pioneers brought seed with them and planted English peas, beans, barley, rye and wheat. In Virginia, only rye was successful as the soil was poor. When the settlers traded with Native Americans to obtain maize, which grew well, they found that it needed more attention than English crops.
While farms in the south had servants, the New England farmers relied on family labour. Families often had six or seven children and they would work from an early age. Boys looked after livestock; girls helped with domestic work. Most children didn't get married until in their mid- to late-20s, and helped their parents until then.
Although at first the settlers survived on biscuits, peas and the salted meat and fish they brought with them, soon they had to live off the land. Meals were based on cereals and bread, with vegetables to add some flavour. Occasionally, rabbit or venison supplemented the occasional meal of mutton or beef.
Milk was a vital nutrient. Beer, often watered down, was a staple drink. In some areas, fishing proved profitable, although it was always hard work. In favourable locations, shellfish were found and, depending on the season, children and women would pick fruit.
The most common cause of death for new settlers was starvation. In the southern colonies, many colonists lost their motivation to live when their dreams of an easy life evaporated. Many declined into apathy and succumbed to malaria, dysentery or salt poisoning from contaminated water. The Puritans, with their vision of a godly society, often proved more resilient.
Work often began at dawn and ended at dusk. On top of the endless heavy tasks of cooking and cleaning, women's work included extra labour such as making clothes. For the men, work in the fields could be backbreaking and relentless, especially in the early years of a settlement when new fields had to be created. Food shortages increased the burden.
Not only did the first settlers have to work to eat, but many had to make a profit in order to repay their sponsors. The simplest way to earn money was to cheat Native Americans. They would exchange small amounts of metal, such as axe heads or knives, for large amounts of furs, which were coming into fashion in Europe where there was a demand for beaver, bear, otter and fox.
Tough work also meant tough play. All religious settlers had to stop work on the Sabbath, Sunday. King James's Declaration of Sports stipulated that 'after the end of devotional meetings our good people may engage in harmless recreation.' This included maypole dancing and physical sports.
But some games - cockfights, bull- and bear-baiting and even bowling - were banned. Also prohibited on the Sabbath was 'unseemly behaviour', such as gambling or drinking during worship. But drinking and smoking outside church were common pursuits for men, although frowned on among women.
There were other bizarre games such as 'stone the bird to death' and 'kick the dwarf'.
Although the poor people who came to the southern colonies were often illiterate, those who came with the Puritans to Massachusetts Bay could read and write. The Puritans made Bible study a central part of their devotional life, and all family members were encouraged to learn. The Puritans also preferred to set up towns rather than isolated farmsteads.
Any town with 50 or more families needed a school. The teacher would be paid with money from taxes. Massachusetts was the first colony to build a school. All children learned sayings from the Bible. Girls went only to 'dame school', which was held in the schoolmaster's home. Boys went to 'writing schools', and learnt reading, writing and arithmetic. Paper was expensive so they wrote on birch bark.
Harvard College was founded in 1636 in Massachusetts, a notable achievement given how hard it was to survive in the colony's early years. Near the end of the century, the College of William and Mary was established in Virginia. The Collegiate School of Connecticut became Yale College in 1718, and Yale University in 1887. In 1647, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, followed shortly by most other New England colonies, provided compulsory elementary education.
Setting up a colony typically involved one or two years of immense and unimaginable hardship. If a settlement was doomed, because of poor location or the poor quality of settlers, it would fail in the first winter. But even successful settlements, such as Massachusetts Bay, suffered terrible casualties in the first few years.
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