The Big IdeaThe American colonies developed politically, culturally, and

economically.

Reading Focus

• How did political and economic events lead to the beginnings of self-government in the colonies?

• How did the colonial economy differ in the North and South?

• How did the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening contribute to America’s emerging culture?

• What were the causes and effects of the French and Indian War?

Chapter 1.3 Colonial Life 11.1.111.3.2

Early Americans

Who were the first people to inhabit the Americas?

Where did they come from?

Bering Land Bridge

North America

The British governed the colonies loosely and taxed them heavily, so American colonists

began to self-govern.• Colonists began smuggling goods because they felt Great Britain

taxed them unfairly.

• Britain, however, had established the colonies to obtain wealth.

• Great Britain and the American colonies were divided on several issues, including

– Britain passed the Navigation Acts, laws that restricted colonial trade, to ensure that the colonies stayed profitable.

Economic principles called mercantilism held that a nation’s power was directly related to its wealth. But colonial merchants wanted to make money for themselves, not for Britain.

The Colonists Begin to Self-Govern

• Local rebellions helped some colonies regain elected assemblies. Others were ruled more strictly as a result.

• Salutary neglect, which was the British officials’ tendency to rule the colonies leniently, benefited the colonies.

• Local governments (town meetings, counties, parishes and local governors) ruled daily life for colonists.

• Colonists elected assemblies that were based on the British Parliament’s bicameral (two house) system, with

Pair Share

• Do you feel that the idea of Taxation without Representation is a valid reason to go to war? Why or Why not?

Jamestown Video

• Video--2:56

John Smith

Pocahontas

John Rolfe

John Smith Wrote: Writing about himself in the third person, he explained that after he was captured and taken to the paramount chief, "two great stones were brought before Powhatan: then as many as could layd hands on him [Smith], dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being ready with their clubs, to beate out his braines, Pocahontas the Kings dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to save him from death…

John Rolfe :In a long letter to the governor requesting permission to wed her, he expressed both his love for her and his belief he would be saving her soul claiming he was:motivated not by the unbridled desire of carnal affection, but for the good of this plantation, for the honor of our country, for the Glory of God, for my own salvation... namely Pocahontas, to whom my hearty and best thoughts are, and have been a long time so entangled, and enthralled in so intricate a labyrinth that I was even a-wearied to unwind myself thereout

PocahontasVideo

Pocahontas

• Statue of Pocahontas in Saint George's church, Gravesend, Kent, England

Different regional economies developed in the North and South.

Northern Colonial Economies

• Commerce-based economy

• Crops did not grow well, so farmers only grew enough for themselves.

• The most valuable Northern resources were dense forests

– Timber exports

– Wood for shipbuilding

• Northerners produced rum, textiles, ironworks, and other goods.

• Good harbors and inexpensive ships encouraged commerce in the North; it was concentrated in the port cities.

• These cities became part of trade routes that linked the world.

Southern Colonial Economies

• Agricultural-based economy

• Produced valuable cash crops such as tobacco, rice, tar, and indigo.

• Two agricultural systems developed:

– Plantations were large, warm-climate farms that grew one cash crop and depending largely on slave labor.

– Small independent farms raised livestock and exported beef and pork. They grew corn, wheat, fruit and vegetables for the home market.

Pair Share

• If you were alive during the colonial days of America, where do you think you might have fit in best? This is not a question about slavery. Do you think that you have rather lived in the agricultural south or the industrial north? Why or Why not? How do you think life would have been different?

The Impact of Slavery

• Plantation owners needed more and more workers.

• Settlers gradually stopped using Native American workers and indentured servants in favor of enslaved Africans.

• The slave trade caused massive human suffering.

– The difficult trip across the Atlantic from Africa was called the Middle Passage.

– Kidnapped Africans were chained together in dark, filthy quarters below the decks and many died.

– The African population in America grew quickly.

• Slavery existed in both the North and South, but the South’s agricultural economy depended more on slave labor.

• Slaves developed strong cultural and religious communities.

Pair Share

• Take 2 minutes and write you feelings on slavery in America. How do you think it has effected our history? Why do you think the Founding Fathers believed that all men were created equal but allowed slavery in the colonies?

The Great Awakening

The Enlightenment

• A period in Europe that was known for its use of logic and reason to improve government, law, and society

• The ideas of the Enlightenment began in the European upper classes but soon traveled to the American colonies.

• John Locke believed the government should protect citizens’ “natural rights.” His ideas influenced Americans such as Jefferson and Franklin.

• The Enlightenment led some colonists to question religious beliefs.• Leaders worried that the concern for making money had displaced

spiritual values• In 1730, the clergy, trying to bring people back to church, began the

Great Awakening, a major religious revival in the colonies.• The Great Awakening made religion accessible to the people and

church membership grew. It’s new ideas influenced the growing colonies.

America’s Emerging Culture

Pair Share

• Why do you think the John Locke’s idea of Government existing only to protect our natural (God Given) rights, of life, liberty, and property, later changed to pursuit of happiness was so important to the concept of America?

• Why do you think property was changed to pursuit of happiness?

Great Awakening & Enlightenment

Both put the emphasis on the individual, this would become very important as the colonies began to redefine their relationship with Great Britain.

Great Britain believed they owned the Colonies and the Colonist worked for the British.

Life in the Colonies

• The colonies came of age culturally in the 1700s.

• Non-British colonists, including Scots, Scots-Irish, Germans, French and Jewish people began to arrive.

• The newcomers, along with British settlers, created a new American culture.

• Colonial cities were lively: paved streets lit by oil lamps, anchored ships from foreign ports, libraries, bookshops, and impressive public buildings added to colony life.

• Colonial printers printed and distributed newspapers, books, ads, and political announcements.

– Influential newspapers were published in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.

The Cause

• In the 1700s Britain and France struggled for territory.

• The French built forts and allied with Native Americans to protect their fur trade.

• The British built forts and alliances of their own, which led to many frontier battles.

• In 1754 the French joined with the Native Americans to attack the English, which is why it is called the French and Indian War.

The Course

• The British army, new to the territory, made easy targets.

• Britain’s William Pitt took over and forced colonists into the army.

• The British took the French city of Quebec in 1759.

• The French surrendered the following year and the Treaty of Paris ended the war in 1763.

The French and Indian War

Impacts of the French and Indian War

To avoid more conflict with the Native Americans, British officials tried to stop colonists from moving west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Proclamation of 1763 reserved the land for the Native Americans, but colonists ignored it.

Some say this war led to the American Revolution. Its effects include

– War Debts: The war cost England a lot of money. King George III thought colonists should pay some of the costs of the war. These policies drove Britain and the colonies further apart.

– New boundaries: Britain gained lands east of the Mississippi and much of Canada from the French, and Florida from the Spanish. Spain gained the Louisiana Territory from France for joining the war.

– Colonial unity: Ben Franklin proposed the Albany Plan of Union, which was the first plan to unify the colonies. It was never adopted.

Pair Share

• The colonies are getting ready to go to war with Great Britain, the most powerful country of this time period. In your opinion, how will we win the American Revolution when all the odds are stacked against us?

Daily QuickWrite

• Imagine you lived in the colonies. Using the information from your notes, describe your life in the colonies.

• You can take on the role of settler, trader, smuggler, slave, Native American, farmer, plantation owner, etc.