By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — August 26, 2026 — 23:05 PHST

The Core Force

The 1620s marked the expansion of English colonization beyond a single fragile outpost into multiple settlements shaped by different motivations. If the 1600s were about survival and the 1610s about economic footing, the 1620s introduced a second model of colonization: communities built around belief, governance, and social structure, not just profit (Taylor, 2016).

What Actually Happened

In 1620, a small group of English separatists, later known as the Pilgrims, crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower and established Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts (Philbrick, 2006). Unlike Jamestown, Plymouth was not a corporate extraction venture in the same sense. It was a religious community seeking autonomy from the Church of England.

Before landing, the settlers drafted the Mayflower Compact, a short agreement establishing a form of self-governance among the male members of the colony. It was not democratic in a modern sense, but it represented an early attempt at collective rule based on consent within the group (Taylor, 2016).

Survival was again uncertain. The first winter was devastating, with disease and exposure killing a significant portion of the settlers. Assistance from Indigenous peoples, particularly members of the Wampanoag Confederacy, including individuals such as Tisquantum (Squanto), was critical in teaching the colonists how to grow crops and survive in the local environment (Philbrick, 2006).

Elsewhere, Virginia continued to expand under its tobacco economy. Land demands grew, and relations with Indigenous groups worsened. In 1622, coordinated attacks by Powhatan-aligned groups killed hundreds of English settlers, leading to a cycle of retaliation and long-term conflict (Rountree, 1990).

By 1624, the Virginia Company collapsed, and Virginia became a royal colony under direct control of the English crown, signaling a shift in how England managed its overseas territories (Horn, 2005).

Toward the end of the decade, in 1629, a new and much larger migration effort began with the Massachusetts Bay Company, setting the stage for the Puritan Great Migration of the 1630s (Taylor, 2016).

What People Were Trying to Build

Two different colonial visions were taking shape.

In Virginia, the focus remained economic: land, tobacco, labor, and profit. Expansion required labor and land, which meant continued pressure on Indigenous populations and growing dependence on bound labor systems.

In New England, settlers were attempting to build structured, religiously defined communities. These societies emphasized order, shared belief, and governance systems rooted in their interpretation of Christianity.

Neither model was neutral. Both were built on land already inhabited by Indigenous peoples. Both required adaptation to unfamiliar environments. Both carried internal limits on who held power and who did not.

What Made Life Feel Worth It

For settlers in Plymouth and emerging New England communities, survival reinforced belief. The idea that they had endured hardship and remained intact was often interpreted as confirmation of purpose or divine favor (Philbrick, 2006).

In Virginia, economic progress brought a different kind of satisfaction. Tobacco production created wealth for some and reinforced the idea that the colony had a future. Land ownership, even in a harsh environment, carried meaning and status.

Across both regions, permanence itself was a form of achievement. The colonies were no longer temporary experiments. They were beginning to take root.

What Went Wrong

The decade exposed the cost of expansion.

The 1622 attacks in Virginia and the violent retaliation that followed hardened attitudes toward Indigenous populations and made long-term coexistence less likely (Rountree, 1990).

In New England, while cooperation existed in the early years, it was conditional and unequal. European settlement brought disease, displacement, and long-term disruption to Indigenous societies.

Within the colonies themselves, systems of governance excluded large portions of the population, including women, non-landowners, and all non-Europeans. The structures being built were not broadly inclusive, even as they developed elements of self-rule.

The collapse of the Virginia Company also revealed that early corporate colonial models were unstable. Control would increasingly shift toward the crown, bringing new forms of oversight and expectation.

What This Decade Left Behind

The 1620s left behind a divided but expanding colonial landscape.

Virginia demonstrated that profit-driven colonization could sustain itself economically, though at significant human and social cost. New England demonstrated that communities organized around belief and governance could survive and grow, though they too would expand at the expense of Indigenous populations.

These two models—economic extraction and community-building—would continue to shape the development of English North America. They were not separate paths for long. Over time, they would merge into a broader colonial system defined by expansion, governance, labor demands, and conflict.

The United States did not emerge from a single idea. It grew from competing visions that were already visible by the 1620s.

References

Horn, J. (2005). A Land as God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America. Basic Books.

Philbrick, N. (2006). Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. Viking.

Rountree, H. C. (1990). The Powhatan Indians of Virginia: Their Traditional Culture. University of Oklahoma Press.

Taylor, A. (2016). American Colonies: The Settling of North America. Penguin Books.

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