DIRECTIONS: Use the objective sheet below to read & understand the attached packet of information. This packet substi-

tutes for the first 2 chapters of the textbook (designed by me and a few of the students from 02-03) and is all the information you

will need to know for our first test on Tuesday, Aug 19. The 2 readings at the end of the packet are from our textbook & will

expose you to the reading level of the text and questions. Pick 3 terms from the list below to describe in detail & explain

the significance of (about 3 sentences each) and bring them with you to class on the first day Thurs, Aug 14. I have included

a term answer (Headright System) to see how to write yours. We will spend the first day of school having students read aloud

one of their terms & practicing sample questions & answers for the test. This first test should be easy if you read & understand

the attached information. Your test on TUES, August 19 will ask you to describe in detail & explain the significance of 5 terms

I select from the list below and answer 25-30 multiple choice questions about the terms & questions listed below. If you have

problems or questions, email me starting the last week of July at drzchowski@bssd.net

*You will receive a letter in early August explaining course fees and registration procedures for each semester—last year it was

$90.03/credit hr or $270.09 per semester. Even if fees go up, they are always 1/3 of what they are on campus. Some financial

assistance is available from UMKC based on economic need. You can start applying for this at the end of July at:

http://cas.umkc.edu/hscp/tuition-assistance.asp

**If you have questions about this reading or need help writing out your 3 terms, you may wish to come to a help session in

ST402 at BSHS anytime between 10 am & noon Wed, Aug 6 OR 3-6 pm Mon, Tues, or Wed Aug 11, 12, or 13.

You may also go to the class website (blackboard.umkc.edu); click on “Login”, type in s_amhist101 (all lower case) as User

Name, then student (all lower case) as Password. Click on HISTORY 101: American History to 1877 (FS2010 SANDBOX)

under MY COURSES. Then click on Course Content (on the left), then on Unit I (summer packet), then on “Self-Test”.

Keep answering “yes” until you see the Multiple Choice questions. Answer all the questions, then click “Submit”, then OK

until you see the answers. There is a 2nd self-test to try also—follow same procedures. To practice writing terms, click on

Quizzes on the left and choose Unit I Sample Terms. After typing in all your answers, click on “Submit” to see what a correct

response should look like. At some times the site will not be accessible because of maintenance from UMKC so try again

later.

UMKC American History 101 TEST (100 Pts) is TUES, August 19

Unit I Guide: Native Americans, European Exploration, & Colonial Settlement

Identification/Significance: Describe important characteristics & why it’s significant (important) to the period

Bering Strait Vikings Marco Polo

Columbus Columbian exchange Conquistadors

Encomienda Primogeniture John Smith

House of Burgesses Roanoke (Croatoan) Mayflower Compact

Salem Witch Trials Joint Stock Company FFV

established churches Triangular Trade power of the purse

Great Awakening Ben Franklin indentured servants

slave codes John Peter Zenger

Questions to Consider: Practice writing complete answers to these so you can answer multiple choice questions on them.

1. What were the characteristics of the Native American cultures in N America and how did that make them easier to conquer?

2. Why did Europeans start exploration that led to the discovery of the New World and what impact did this have on both

cultures?

3. Compare & contrast English & Spanish exploration & settlement of the New World.

4. Compare & contrast the reasons for settlement, methods of settlement, and the religious backgrounds of the English colonies.

5. Compare & contrast the 3 groups of English colonies in terms of their physical features, economies, & cultural

characteristics.

6. What were the key characteristics of the population, economy, government, religion, culture, education, slavery, and the press

in the English colonies as a whole?

Chronology: ___ Vikings come to New World ___ Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock

___ Jamestown settled ___ St. Augustine founded

___ Columbus arrives in New World ___ Roanoke settled

___ Asians cross land bridge into America ___ “The Great Awakening”

The true discoverers of North & South

America crossed the land bridge across

the Bering Strait between Siberia &

Alaska. Then the sea level rose, isolating

the American continents. These Indians

emigrated throughout N & S America,

developing a different culture from their

distant relatives in Asia and becoming

the ancestors of the Indians with whom

Spanish explorers would later come into

contact.

FIRST EUROPEANS —

Vikings from Scandinavia were the first Europeans

to come to the New World. But as they were mainly

adventurers & sailors, they didn’t publicize their voy-

age. Since they mainly traveled in bands/tribes, they

didn’t stay and make permanent colonies because no

strong nation-state was behind them to encourage

settlement. So it would be the Spanish who would

later claim (incorrectly) to be the first Europeans in

the New World.

NATIVE AMERICAN SETLEMENTS — Unlike the large Indian empires (Inca, Aztec, & Mayan) in

South America, no large empires or settlements existed in North America. Most Plains Indians (Sioux, Pawnee)

migrated following the buffalo & had no permanent settlements. In the Southwest, tribes such as the Anasazi

built cliff dwellings (right) and the Pueblo (left) built permanent homes out of mud & brick because they

cultivated corn. However, most tribes were very scattered & impermanent making it easier for the Europeans to

later conquer them. The only group that was more powerful was the Iroquois Confederation in the Northeast

which kept itself in power by playing off one group of Europeans against another.

People returning from fighting the Crusades brought

back silks, spices, & many other unusual products from

the Far East. By the late Middle Ages, trade fairs had

sprung up near villages to meet the increased demand by

Europeans for goods from the Far East.

Powerful merchant & banking families in the Northern Italian city-

states monopolized the sea routes across the Aegean to trade with

the East; Arab merchants monopolized the land routes. So other

Europeans had to pay inflated prices to get those goods from the

East. The rulers of Portugal & Spain were willing to finance voy-

ages of exploration in order to find other routes to the East and

lower the cost of those products.

Dias & DaGama, both sponsored by Portugal, were the first to sail around Africa &

develop trade with India. From this point on the Portuguese monopolized trade with

the Indies, making Spain look for another route to the East.

Marco Polo (left), from an Italian merchant family, spent

20 years in the Far East and China. He wrote about his

travels and, because of the newly invented printing press,

more & more people read about the gold & silks of the

East, increasing demand for these products.

New technology made it easier and safer to

travel long distances by sea. The astrolabe (left)

allowed sailors to more accurately plot a course

at sea. The caravel (right) was a ship with a

sturdier keel that could sail more closely into the

wind (making it safer to go longer distances).

Better & more accurate maps & compasses

made captains no longer fear that they would

“sail off the edge of the earth”.

Christopher Columbus was NOT the first to believe the

world was round (most educated Europeans did) but you

could argue that his voyage proved that. By suggesting

that he could sail West to reach the East (and by revealing

that he had secret maps with information about the trade

winds that would produce a safer & faster voyage), he

convinced Ferdinand & Isabella to pay for his voyage.

When he landed on what is now Cuba, he was convinced

that he had arrived in the East Indies (off the coast of

India). It was Amerigo Vespucci who later publicized

that a New World (North & South America) had actually

been discovered.

After Columbus’ discovery, more Spaniards flocked to the New World in search of gold, fame, & land. Called conquistadors,

they wanted to conquer quickly then return to Spain with their fortunes. Cortes (left) conquered the Aztecs by pretending to be

their returning god (who had been predicted to return on that date) and by using superior weapons such as cannon. It also

helped that many Aztecs died of smallpox passed along by the Spanish. Pizzaro (right) conquered the Inca in Peru by capturing

their leader Atahualpa. He promised to free him if the Inca filled a room to the ceiling with gold & silver. When they did,

Pizzaro still executed Atahualpa but agreed to kill him before burning him if he converted to Christianity first. For these

reasons, the legend of the “Black Spaniards” spread — men who conquered but brought no benefits to the New World.

A viceroy was appointed to rule over the Spanish territories in the New World. He had to be upper

class & born in Spain. Conquistadors who came to the New World were granted an encomienda (land grant) that they

could farm and the right to use all the Indians who lived there as slaves if they would convert them to Christianity. All

Spanish explorers brought a priest with them because this was one of King Philip II’s motives: “God, Glory, & Gold”.

These “soldiers of fortune” came without wives or girlfriends so they often intermixed with native girls, creating a new race

of half-Spanish and half-Indian — the mestizos. Indians in the New World practiced a unique form of Catholicism which

incorporated many of their original native beliefs & legends.

Eventually, Indians rebelled against their forced conversion to Catholicism and other mistreatment by the Spanish. In 1680,

the Pueblo Indians revolted against Spanish rule in the Rio Grande valley (Pope’s Rebellion). This began when Pueblo Indi-

ans killed the Spanish Governor and the Spanish herded Indians inside the Catholic church and set it on fire, burning them

alive. (ruins shown above) In the resulting chaos, Pueblo Indians all over the Southwest burned Catholic churches and killed

Spanish settlers. It took the Spanish 50 years to regain control of their territory of New Mexico with Santa Fe as its capital.

The phrase Columbian Exchange

is used to explain the results of

contact between the New World (N

& S America) and the Old World

(Europe). As the Spanish con-

trolled all of South America, Cen-

tral America, & much of what is

now the southern US, they pro-

duced so much food for Europe

that Europeans became healthier &

lived longer. An unexpected nega-

tive consequence was the introduc-

tion of the syphilis disease to

Europe by conquistadors returning

home from the New World. Horses

sent from Europe revolutionized

the Plains Indian culture, giving

them an advantage in attacking

their enemies. But in the century

after Columbus, almost 90% of the

Native Indians were wiped out by

war and disease. Be familiar with

which products were sent in each

direction.

The Spanish did not have to fear competition from the Portuguese

because both Catholic nations had agreed to a compromise by the

Pope where they split the New World Empire — Portugal got

Brazil & islands off the coast of Africa but was much more inter-

ested in the slave trade than in settlement. Because the Spanish

were worried about the French moving in on their territory, they

built a fortress (Castello San Marco, to the right) & a Catholic

mission (Nombre de Dios) at St. Augustine (in what is now

Florida). St. Augustine has the distinction of being the oldest

permanent European settlement in North America.

Spain quickly amassed great wealth, draining the New World of all the

gold & silver the conquistadors could find: the king always got his cut.

But so much gold dumped onto the European market led to a huge infla-

tion rate as Spaniards spent their wealth on luxuries imported from other

nations. This dependence on colonial gold & lack of economic develop-

ment in Spain would eventually weaken the Spanish empire.

British sea dogs (glorified pirates) attacked Spanish galleons in the open

sea when they were on their way back heavy with New World gold. Sea

dogs such as Sir Francis Drake (far left) & Sir Walter Raleigh (near left)

were secretly supported by Queen Elizabeth because Britain did not

have the imperial wealth of Spain. She benefited from the thefts while

assuring Philip of Spain that she had nothing to do with the piracy.

Gold, Silver

Corn, potatoes, beans, vanilla, chocolate

tobacco, cotton

wheat, sugar, rice, coffee

horses, cows, pigs

smallpox, measles, plague, influenza, typhus, scarlet fever

African slaves

syphilis

In 1588, the English defeated

the Spanish Armada. Eng-

land would now become the

#1 naval power in the world,

encouraging exploration.

The Enclosure Acts

pushed small farmers

(especially Puritans)

off their land and into

the major cities where

they were spoken of as

a surplus population.

English laws of primogeniture

required that large landowners

(like of the manor to the right)

keep their estates intact by leav-

ing everything to the oldest son

instead of dividing up the prop-

erty. This meant that second or

third sons had to go elsewhere

to “make their fortunes”, such

as the New World.

Queen Elizabeth did not have

supplies of gold & silver to

finance exploration so joint-

stock companies were

formed to raise the money.

Like corporations, they sold

stock to finance the voyage,

then recruited people to settle

in the colony. These settlers

contracted to send goods

back to the company by ship;

investors got a share of the

profits based on their original

shares.

Sir Walter Raleigh recruited the first group of settlers to colonize the

New World for England on a commission from Queen Elizabeth. They

settled on Roanoke Island, along the coast of what is now Virginia but

left in frustration after a few months. Raleigh found a new group of

settlers to repopulate the colony under the leadership of John White.

White sailed back to England, planning on returning with more supplies

but in the meantime the Spanish Armada was attacking England and he

stayed to help defend England. When he finally returned to the colony,

he found that it had been deserted and there was no sign of the original

settlers except for the word “Croatoan” carved on one of the poles of the

overgrown fort. Even though they searched, no one ever found the set-

tlers.

One theory is that they were attacked by Indians (but the Croatoan Indi-

ans had been a friendly tribe). Another theory is that there had been a

drought so the colonists voluntarily joined with an Indian tribe & mi-

grated elsewhere in order to survive. The drought theory is supported

by tree ring evidence and there are descendants of the Hatterat Indians

who had blue eyes (signs of intermarriage with the colonists). All that

survived were Captain John White’s sketches of the local Indians from

his first trip to Roanoke.

Who could settle Catholics onlyAll religions

Relations with

Indians

Slavery-intermarriage-

convert to Catholicism

Push off land

Role of family Brought no women Brought family

Amount of self-

governmentViceroy-encomienda Chartered

How financed Ruler Joint Stock

WhereSE to SW SE to NE

Similarities

•Both failed to appreciate native culture

•Europeans tried to conquer nature,

Indians tried to live within it & respect it

SPANISH ENGLISH

English colonies in the New

World differed from Spanish colo-

nies because the English encour-

aged the minority religions to

leave England & settle in the New

World. Instead of mixing with the

Indians, English settlements

tended to isolate themselves from

the Indians (except when they

needed food) & then took their

land. Many English settlers came

as entire families, looking to make

a new start in life. Once in the

New World, they had a high de-

gree of independence from the

British government as long as they

supplied the required products.

Although land was granted by the

ruler, the voyages were financed

by private companies rather than

the ruler.

Another settlement was started a few years later by the Virginia Company, further inland along the James

River. Most of the settlers were “second sons” of aristocrats who were unused to physical labor. The colony

might have starved in the harsh winter had it not been for John Smith (below right) who took charge with the

cry “He who shall not work shall not eat.” This is the same John Smith who had been saved from execution

by Chief Powhatan of the neighboring Indians by Pocahontas, the chief’s daughter. But relations with

Powhatan’s tribe soon worsened as colonists stole food from the Indians when bad times came. According to

the record, crops were so bad that settlers ate dogs, cats, & rats and even dug up corpses. English settlers

raided Indian supplies, burned their village, & eventually kicked them out of the area. War with the Indians

was only ended by an arranged marriage between Pocahontas and local tobacco planter John Rolfe. Tobacco

ended up saving Virginia, becoming its main crop (below left) and a sure seller back home in Europe but it

needed a plantation system. Indians were an unreliable labor source so the colonists imported the first black

slaves to do the work. Ironically, Pocahontas would die of smallpox a few years later on a trip to England.

The Pilgrims, like all Puritans, were upset with the Church of

England because it admitted all as members, not just “visible

saints”. They were called “Separatists” because they wanted to

separate from the Church total instead of reforming it. Led by

William Bradford, they first traveled to Holland, then contracted

with the Virginia Company to settle in the New World. During

the voyage in 1620, they were blown off course & ended up in

New England instead where they established their colony. Be-

fore leaving their ship “The Mayflower”, all the Pilgrims (others

came with them who were not of their religion) signed “The

Mayflower Compact”. This was not actually a constitution but

as an agreement to go by majority rule, it was a step toward self-

government. From this came town meetings where the males

made their own laws for the colony. Since they brought their

families with them, they never considered returning to England

(where they had faced persecution) despite the harsh conditions

of the New World. After being helped by a friendly Indian tribe

and introduced to corn, they celebrated the first Thanksgiving.

Unlike the Pilgrims, the settler at Massachusetts Bay were not Separatists but

remained a part of the Church of England, hoping to “purify it” from within.

They got a royal charter to establish the Massachusetts Bay Company and over

1000 sailed to New England to establish a “city upon a hill” where they would

build a holy society as a model for mankind led by Governor John Winthrop. But

this was not a democracy. Non-church members could not vote but still had to

pay taxes to the government-supported church. Persecuted themselves back in

England, the Puritans did not tolerate dissenters in their colony. They fined &

flogged Quakers and banished Anne Hutchinson (who said the truly saved didn’t

need to obey God’s laws) and Roger Williams (a minister who demanded separa-

tion from the Church of England, total separation of Church & States, & payment

to the Indians for stolen land). Williams would go on to found Rhode Island the

first colony to allow total religious freedom.

The Scarlet Letter describes the

abuses & hypocrisy of Puritan society.

Began when young girls accused older

women of bewitching them.

Tried & convicted by religious court.

130 tried & imprisoned; 19 hanged,

1 pressed to death, 2 dogs hanged

Accusers were from the poorer families,

accused witches were prosperous mer-

chant class

Ended when governor’s wife accused

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS

—Jeremiads - fiery sermons from pulpit

—English rulers extended voting rights to

non-Puritans

—Halfway Covenant - extended partial

church membership to those not converted

The Salem

witch trials in-

spired the

phrase “witch

hunt” for gov-

ernment perse-

cution with little

or no evidence.

Georgia began as an experimental colony under the leadership of

James Oglethorpe. He received a royal charter to establish Georgia

(named for the king) as a buffer colony to protect the English

colonies from attack from Spanish Florida and from French

Louisiana. Oglethorpe used much of his personal fortune to

establish Georgia as a place for people imprisoned back in England

to “get a fresh start in the New World”. In England they had been

humiliated in the stocks & pillories (right) and then imprisoned

when they couldn’t pay their debts.

The first of England’s colonies was Virginia,

which began with the Jamestown settlement. The

settlers planted tobacco, incredibly popular back in

England. They planted so much of that, leading to

the plantation system, that they often had to import

their own food. Virginia also created the first

representative government in the New World, the

House of Burgesses (below), a colonial assembly

where land-owning colonists elected others to

represent them in making local

laws. Virginia, like most of the Southern colonies, was dominated by the

planter aristocracy. In Virginia, these large plantation owners were

called the FFV (First Families of Virginia). They relied almost en-

tirely on slave labor, making it almost impossible for small farmers to

successfully compete with them, and dominated the government and

the economy.

Other Virginians resented the control of the FFV (they made up 70%

of the legislature). In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon led a large group of fron-

tiersmen (& former indentured servants) in Bacon’s Rebellion

(above). Complaining that the governor did not provide enough pro-

tection from the Indians, they drove him out of the capital, Jamestown,

& burned it to the ground. Clearly a strong social class structure was

developing and colonists who came to the New World to escape that

resented it. The new capital was built at Williamsburg (below).

Henry Hudson originally claimed

this area for the Dutch. The Dutch

East India Company then bought

Manhattan Island from the local In-

dians for some beads and renamed

it New Amsterdam. It was run as a

company town and dominated by

patroons, large local landowners.

Governor Peter Stuyvesant & these

aristocrats refused to allow any

form of representative government.

When the English took over in

1664, they were welcomed by the

locals. The English renamed the

area New York and gained one of

the most important ports in the

colonies. Large landowning fami-

lies still dominated the colony.

Quakers were discriminated against in England because

they refused to pay taxes to the Church of England and

refused to serve in the military. William Penn converted

to this religion and, when granted a large area of land in

the New World in payment for a loan that his father had

made to the English king, he decided to establish Penn-

sylvania as a haven for the Society of Friends (Quakers).

He recruited craftsman & immigrants to his colony by

giving away land. Pennsylvania had a representative

assembly & freedom of worship, with the death penalty

only given for treason & murder. The Quakers were

known for their Sunday “meetings” (right) where they

worshipped democratically with no leader and for their

friendly relations with the Indians. Its easy policy

toward immigrants made it one of the most ethnically

diverse colonies.

Religious

freedom

Economic

opportunity

Economic

opportunity Penn: Religious

Freedom

Slavery, first

Indians then

Africans; some

colonies had more

blacks than whites

Slavery impractical,

farms too small,

indentured servants

used

Mostly

indentured

servants,

few slaves

Few large cities; more

rural

Main religion was

Church of England

Controlled by aristocracy

(FFV)

Most ethnically

diverse region

More religious

tolerance & more

democratic than

others

Little religious toler-

ance; mostly Puritans

Most live in cities

Town meetings allowed

input from locals

Protestant work ethic

Subsistence agriculture

Fishing, shipbuilding, &

trading

Stressing the importance of

education

Plantation Agriculture

Cash crops: tobacco, cotton,

rice

First Families of Virginia —

aristocrats who controlled the

government & economy, de-

scended from first settlers

Breadbasket of the 13

colonies — wheat,

corn, other grains

Mix of rural & urban

The English New World colonies were a place of abundance and growth. The

overall American population doubled every 25 years, reaching 2.5 million by

1775. The average age in 1776 was 16, showing that people were having lots

of children. The largest American cities were Philadelphia, Boston, and New

York City. The South remained mostly rural & agricultural. Roads & travel

were long & dangerous. Travelers often said a prayer before leaving on a jour-

ney.

Americans had a much better standard of living than many Europeans at the

time. They had plenty of meat (game from the forests) when most Europeans

did not. Food was so plentiful, it was once said that “Hungry people are lazy

or sickly.” Jobs such as carpentry were in high demand due to American expan-

sion. Many carpenters earned 3 times their European wages. In such a lush

economic environment, rags to riches stories were common. It was easy to

move up in economic status in the New World.

Taverns were the major gathering place for

gossip, socializing, & political discussions

and would later become the plotting ground

for the American Revolution.

Ministers were at the top of the social scale, and the most re-

spected. Lawyers were viewed with suspicion & were not con-

sidered useful until more conflicts with Britain developed. Doc-

tors were poorly trained and used bleeding to “cure” most dis-

eases. So many of their patients died that they were not high on

the social scale either.

In the America colonies, 90% of the people were farmers.

New Englanders were paid a bounty to sell tar, pitch,

resin and turpentine to England, which was very depend-

ent on these products for its navy.

Americans needed a market to sell their plentiful raw

materials. England expected the colonies to provide raw

materials for the industries of England. Therefore, manu-

facturing was discouraged in the British colonies.

The most famous trade route was the triangular trade.

New England rum

was used to purchase

African

slaves. The slaves

were then

sold in the West

Indies for molasses,

which was then

shipped back to New

England to make

more rum.

By 1776, each colony had become a British royal colony

The colonial governments consisted of a governor as well as a bi-

cameral (two house) legislature. The lower house was elected; the

upper was appointed. Citizens also had self-taxation through this

legislative representation to pay for needs of people in the colony.

Most colonies had voter restrictions based upon

religion and/or property ownership.

Many New England colonies held town meetings.

The Virginia House of Burgesses (below right) was the first

representative government in the New World.

Colonial legislatures had the

power of the purse. Colonial

governors were appointed by the

English king but he allocated no

money for their salaries. Since

colonial legislatures paid the

governor’s salary, they could

effectively blackmail him by

refusing to pay his salary unless he

agreed not to veto laws they

passed.

Many colonial governments had established

churches, meaning you had to pay taxes to them

whether or not you were a member. The Congre-

gationalist Church (from the Puritan) was the es-

tablished church in most New England colonies.

The Anglican Church (Church of England) was

the established religion of Southern colonies.

In the 1700’s, America experienced a “Great

Awakening” in the religious world. It was the

first mass movement of the Colonial Era.

Contrary to the belief that good works were nec-

essary to attain God’s grace, “New Light” reviv-

alists relied on emotional revival meetings &

mass conversions. Thought, belief, & trust in

God was all that was needed. These revivalists

(led by George Whitefield, left) led to the Baptist

& Methodist religions in the colonies.

A prominent Puritan preacher

of the time was Jonathan

Edwards (right), who penned

the famous sermon “Sinners in

the Hands of an Angry God.”

He used his powerful, “fire and

brimstone” speeches to

frighten sinners onto the

straight and narrow path.

Indians Ever since arriving in the new world, Indi-

ans had not been a reliable work force for

the Europeans. As soon as Indian popula-

tions came in contact with whites, they

would contract diseases and die in large

numbers. Indians also did not do well in

captivity, causing many problems for the

slave owners. They also could easily escape

& join neighboring tribes who later became

a threat to white settlements (right). This

lead to the importation of some indentured

servants and numerous slaves from Africa. Indentured Servants Many settlers came to America to get a new

start because of low wages & a poor econ-

omy in England. If they could not pay their

passage, they could become indentured ser-

vants by agreeing to work for so many

years to pay off the cost of their trip. Un-

der the Headright system, For every per-

son that a colonist paid the ocean voyage

for and took as a servant, the colonist

would receive 50 acres of land. At first,

when a servant had worked off his inden-

ture, he was given an acre of land or could

buy it at low cost. But as the good land

was being used up, sponsors were less

likely to give land away. Some indentured

servants who broke the rules were given

more years to serve. Once freed, these

indentured servants became the new lower

class. It was former indentured servants

who had led Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia.

However as soon as wages in England

began to increase, indentured servitude

declined in popularity, forcing an increase

in the importation of African slaves so that

they became the major labor source in the

South.

Below, indentured servants harvest tobacco.

As indentured servitude & convict labor declined, the need for slaves rapidly increased.

Africans were captured by enemy tribes in their native lands and sold to Portuguese slave

traders who brought them across the ocean (in the ship’s hold packed head to foot—see

below) over a route called the Middle Passage. Many slaves perished on the ocean voy-

age due to disease and horrible living conditions. Once in the New World, slaves were

sold at auction (below left). Slaves were needed in America, especially the South, in or-

der to work on tobacco, rice, sugar, and cotton plantations. At first, slavery wasn’t perma-

nent, following a format much like indentured servitude where blacks could buy their way

out of slavery or where slavery only lasted for their lifetime.

But by 1650, most British New World colonies passed slave codes:

Slavery was for life.

A child of a slave would also become a slave

It was illegal to teach a slave to read or white

Slaves were also at the mercy of their owners. If a master needed to sell a slave for extra income, it would

often be done without regard to a slave’s family. Slaves were Christianized in order to convince them to

obey their owners.

Slaves also made many contributions to today’s American culture, including jazz, spirituals, instruments

like the banjo, and words that are today common in everyday speech (below right). In South Carolina,

slaves outnumbered whites 2 to 1 and in Virginia they were half the population.

In southern colonies, wealthy aristocrat slave owners with large plantations could dominate the economy &

government compared to most of the population who were small farmers with no slaves.

During the colonial era, the arts were not a major

part of life; Many people were too poor to buy

books and too busy working to read them.

One rare author of this time was Phyllis

Wheatley, a former slave turned poet. She was

taught to read by her master’s mistress, despite

legal restrictions on slaves.

Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac was one

of the few widely-read books of the time. It em-

phasized thrift, industry, morality, and common

sense with his humorous sayings about life.

Typical Franklinisms were:

“Fish and visitors stink

after three days” and

“Honesty is the best

policy.” Franklin was also

known as the first Ameri-

can scientists with inven-

tions such as bifocal

glasses, the Franklin stove,

& the lightning rod.

As the population grew, so did

the need for education. The first

colonial schools were places to

train ministers. Universities and

schools emphasized discipline,

the study of classical languages,

and above all, religion. Many

New England colonies required

towns and provinces to establish

public schools at taxpayer expense

but the rural South was more likely

to use private tutors so only the

wealthy were educated.

Harvard—America’s First University,

established to train Puritan ministers

Since entire books were difficult to obtain and

rather expensive in the American Colonies, the

common man often turned to literature produced

by hand-operated printing presses in their home

town. These presses were responsible for the pro-

duction of pamphlets, leaflets, journals, and

newspapers (and Franklin’s Almanac). By the

time of the Revolution, there were about 40

weekly, one sheet newspapers available in Amer-

ica. Despite this, news, especially overseas hap-

penings, lagged weeks behind.

During this time, freedom of the

press was questioned. In 1734, John

Peter Zenger and his New York

newspaper were charged with sedi-

tious libel for printing an embarrass-

ing story about that state’s governor.

Zenger and his attorney argued that

as long as the information printed

was true, the story was not libel. The

jury went against existing laws and

sided with Zenger, establishing our

American tradition of freedom of the

press. This would later become the

basis for our first amendment belief

that a free press is necessary for a de-

mocracy to work. In England today

it is still considered libel if it harms

the person’s reputation, even if it is

true, and you may have to pay him

damages.

English in language & customs

mostly Protestant (except Catholics in Maryland)

Some degree of ethnic & religious tolerance (except Massachusetts

Bay)

Great social mobility (easy to move up in class & economic

opportunity

Fairly cheap land, plentiful, always could move west

All had some type of representative government (not democratic by

our standards today but much more so than in Europe of the time)

Isolated from British rule & control by 3000 miles but expected to

benefit England economically by providing needed raw materials

All except Pennsylvania had little tolerance for Indians, viewing

them as savages & heathens who needed to be Christianized but

needed to be pushed off their land so that the “new Americans”

Here is a sample answer for the term HEADRIGHT SYSTEM: Some people wanted to come to the New World but didn’t have the money to pay for the passage. So the

Headright System was started where a colonist already living in the New World could sponsor the way of

a person who could not otherwise afford to come. The sponsor would then benefit in two ways: he re-

ceived 50 acres of land in the New World from the British government and the person he sponsored

would have to work for him for a set number of years to pay off the cost of the trip. Significance:

This allowed more people to come to the New World and provided a major labor source there.

Below is a section from our textbook describing & analyzing Bacon’s Rebellion. The vocabulary and sentence structure is typical

of what you will find throughout your textbook — above a 12th grade reading level. You should use a dictionary to look up words

you do not understand as this may make a big difference in how you interpret the meaning of a sentence or paragraph in your text-

book. We will not be discussing in class all items from the textbook that will be on each test, so it is very important that you keep

up with all of the reading and that you understand it. As you read this section, ask yourself “What were the causes of Bacon’s Re-

bellion, what happened in it, and what were the significant consequences of it?” Then answer the questions following the reading.

_____ 1. Bacon’s Rebellion took place due to

(A) African American slaves escaping and creating an insurrection

(B) American elites critical of legislation by the British parliament

(C) the land needs of impoverished white freeholders and aspiring tenants

(D) French attempts to dislodge English colonists from Virginia

_____ 2. Bacon’s Rebellion was

(A) a protest by New Yorkers against their loss of civil rights in the Dominion of New England

(B) a slave revolt that so frightened Southerners that they instituted harsher laws for protection

(C) an Indian uprising

(D) generated by class conflict and exacerbated by political corruption

_____ 3. Bacon’s Rebellion inadvertently contributed to

(A) the decline of the planter elite in Virginia

(B) the end of representative government in the House of Burgesses

(C) the expansion of African slavery

(D) better relations with local Indian tribes

_____ 4. Bacon’s Rebellion resulted in all of the following EXCEPT

(A) equality between the landed planters and yeomen

(B) tax cuts for yeomen

(C) the expansion of African slavery

(D) the expansion of English settlement on Indian lands

One of the skills you will practice regularly in this course is reading primary and secondary

sources and interpreting them to draw conclusions about and gain insight into a specific

topic. The next page is a primary source about the Atlantic slave trade . Read this carefully

and then try to answer the questions under ANALYZING THE EVIDENCE. As you read,

think about: Who is the author & what is his background?

What is the purpose of the document? What do you think is the goal of the author & how can you tell?

Who was involved in the slave trade & what were the steps in it?

What was this man’s reaction to the slave trip & his passage?

Why didn’t Africans escape before arriving in the New World (Barbados)?

____ 1. What BEST describes the contro-

versy about Olaudah Equiano’s writing?

(A) He actually participated in the slave

trade and captured and sold slaves him-

self

(B) He might not have been born in Africa

and may not have experienced the Mid-

dle Passage

(C) He was never a slave at all and was

born a free man in the northern colonies

(D) He greatly exaggerated the conditions

of the Middle Passage

_____ 2. According to this passage, all of

the following are true of Equiano’s experi-

ence with slavery EXCEPT

(A) His family owned slaves themselves

(B) He was unable to eat because of the

smell & fear, then was punished for not

eating

(C) He jumped over the side of the ship and

tried to swim to shore

(D) He was first captured by other Africans

and was sold as a slave several times

before being shipped to the New World

_____ 3. From the tone of this passage and

from what you know about Equiano’s later

life, what does he want people who read this

to do?

(A) help work to end slavery

(B) go to Africa to see how much better life

there is for blacks

(C) become a ship’s captain

(D) work to improve conditions on the

slave ships