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• Virginia was an establishment colony in the 1600s. People came to Virginia for economic advancement
rather than for political and religious freedom.
• For the most part, Virginia in the 1600s was an unfree society based on servitude for most whites,
slavery for most blacks, and the subordination of women.
• Virginia developed a code of slave laws that was adopted by later British colonies.
• The coercion of slavery prevented Africans from reconstructing their different African life-styles.
A new African–Virginian culture emerged that mixed with the white culture and produced a distinct, hybrid society.
• The climate, abundant virgin land, sparse population, native Indians, and especially the presence of
Africans and slavery meant that Virginia never came close to replicating England.
• The English Toleration Act of 1689 caused thousands of Germans and Scotch-Irish to come to Virginia.
These groups added new ideas and cultural differences to the colony.
• By the 1700s, a century of coping with changing conditions had separated the colonists from their
English roots. This blending of various peoples and cultures created a new society, Virginians.
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