With The Promise Of Opportunity Quiz

Answer: North Carolina

Okay! I realize that I'm pushing it a bit here because the Carolinas were not successfully colonized until later, but Roanoke Island is off the coast of North Carolina today, and it bears mentioning as an attempt to establish English presence in the New World.

Roanoke Island was discovered in 1584, and was considered to be part of Virginia at the time. In 1585, a group led by Sir Richard Grenville arrived to settle the island, but after Grenville returned to England for more supplies, the small group decided to give up their endeavor and returned home with Sir Francis Drake.

By 1587 a new group returned, which was led by John White. Like the first group, the new colonists continued to have problems with the Native Americans on the island and struggled to survive. White returned to England for supplies and, upon his return, found that all the people had disappeared - even his granddaughter, Virginia Dare. Historians still debate theories regarding the group's fate.

Answer: Virginia

A joint stock company, known as the Virginia Company, was given permission from the king to colonize, with the hope of finding as much wealth in the New World as Spain had found. They established the first successful English colony in the New World, Jamestown, in 1607. John Smith was chosen by the company to be one of the leaders of the colony, and many credit his tough discipline with ensuring the survival of the settlement. Eventually, of course, he became well known for his famous encounter with Pocahontas. The colonists, however, did not discover the gold and riches that members of the company had hoped to find.

While Virginia was named for Queen Elizabeth I, Jamestown was named for the new Stuart King, James I. The colony struggled to survive. The first group of colonists, mostly gentlemen and their servants, had a rough winter, with only about one third of their group surviving. They had hoped to live off the land with help from the Native Americans, but the swampy land around Jamestown proved to be unhealthy, and did not yield the wild foods that they had hoped to find.

As more settlers arrived, the colony grew with help from friendly Native Americans. John Rolfe ensured its success with the introduction of a sweeter tobacco from the West Indies. It became the cash crop that was needed, and a source of wealth in the New World. In 1624 the king revoked the company's royal charter and Virginia became a royal colony.

Answer: Massachusetts

The Pilgrims sailed to Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts in 1620, and the Puritans followed them and formed Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. Both were dissenter groups, believing that the Church of England still retained too many Catholic practices. While the Pilgrims, sometimes called Separatists, wanted to break away from the Church, the Puritans just wanted to "purify" it of some of its rituals.

Myles Standish had been hired by the Pilgrims to be their military advisor, and he was elected to be the leader of their militia until his death in 1656. The Pilgrims had joined together to sign the Mayflower Compact, which provided for the first form of self-government in the New World. In 1691 Plymouth became part of Massachusetts Bay Colony, which had a theocratic government, and only allowed church members in good standing to vote.

Answer: New Hampshire

Captain John Mason was given exclusive rights to fishing in the North Sea as a reward for his service to King James I. This led him to explore and map the area of Newfoundland in Canada. He hoped to bring settlers to the area when another opportunity presented itself.

He received part of a land grant, however, which led to the formation of the colony of New Hampshire, which he named for the county in England where he lived. He died while he was preparing to travel there, but settlers came to establish fishing communities and trading posts for fur and timber, which was highly prized in England for use as ship masts.

Answer: Maryland

Henry VIII began the Reformation in England and established the Church of England as the state church. Members of other religious groups did not have religious freedom until the Act of Toleration was passed in 1689, and that still didn't apply to all groups.

Wealthy landowner George Calvert, also known as Lord Baltimore, was given royal charter for a tract of land in the New World by Charles I, and named it for the king's wife. Although Calvert died soon after the arrangement was made, his son, Cecilius, took over the charter, and established the colony as a haven for Catholics. By 1649 a law was passed that provided religious freedom for anyone who was a Christian.

Answer: Connecticut

Some of the Puritans who had settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony became disillusioned with the strict Puritanical rule there. Thomas Hooker, the pastor of a church, successfully petitioned for the members of his congregation to settle south in what became the colony known as Connecticut. He believed that people should have more of a voice in establishing the laws that governed them.

This action is considered to be the founding of American democracy. Those who followed Hooker signed the Fundamental Orders, which is believed to be the first ever written constitution that formed a government. And that is why Connecticut is known as the Constitution State!

Answer: Rhode Island

The Massachusetts Bay Colony decreased in size in 1636, as people fled to either Connecticut or Rhode Island. Roger Williams, a minister and a Separatist, had come to live in Plymouth colony in 1631, and he almost immediately began to raise concern there. He believed that the Plymouth congregation had not sufficiently separated themselves from the Church of England. If that wasn't enough, he believed that the Native Americans should be paid for the land that had been taken from them. This was seen as an outright assault on the King, who had granted them a royal charter.

He was tried on the charges of sedition and heresy, and found guilty. He was to be executed, but he was able to leave undetected and was sheltered by Native Americans. He established a town called Providence Plantation, and established a government called a majoritarian democracy, that is, a democracy ruled by the majority opinion. It is believed that Rhode Island had the first modern government which separated church and state.

Answer: South Carolina

Originally, both Carolinas were part of the same land grant, and they eventually were split apart sometime around 1710; the exact date is different in many sources. Charles II gave a group of eight nobles, Lord Proprietors, a royal charter to settle the land, although the area became a royal colony in 1729.

The farmland was good in South Carolina, and the colony prospered from the sale of cotton, indigo, and even rice. Unfortunately, farming on such a large scale needed workers, and slave labor was used on large plantations. Albemarle Point, founded in 1670, was the first permanent English settlement there.

Answer: Pennsylvania

William Penn Sr. was a very wealthy man who, during the period of the Restoration, loaned Charles II money to help fund his navy. Unable to repay the debt with coin, Charles II instead gave Penn Sr. a large tract of land, which the king called Penn's Woods, in the New World.

Penn's son, William Jr., was embarrassed by the name because he was afraid the people would think he named it after himself! He wanted to established a place where there would be religious toleration for Quakers who were looking for a new start. Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, was founded in 1682, and is considered to be the first planned city in the United States, and it later became a hotbed for the American Revolution.

Answer: Georgia

Named for King George II, and the last of the thirteen colonies that was established, Georgia was founded as a place where debtors in England could find a new start. It was also hoped that the climate there would be good for growing crops - like silk - that had to be acquired through trade, and that the land would serve as a buffer from the Spanish in Florida.

Oglethorpe had high expectations for his colony. He hoped that it would be free from slavery, as well as the larger plantations that existed in some of the other colonies. This was not, however, to become reality. He abandoned his dream, and Georgia followed the same paradigm as the other colonies to the south - large plantations that were worked by slaves.