Life in the Colonies

Chapter 4 Sections 1 & 2

Pages 102 - 123

Did you know that Connecticut is called the Constitution State?

Big Idea Questions

Why did religion play such a big part in the lives of early Americans ?

How did Americans develop a common identity?

Essential Questions

1. Is separation of church and state important today?

2. What happens when cultures collide?

3. Why do people set up governments?

Governing the Colonies pg.102

The English Parliamentary TraditionEnglish subjects believed they

had political rights and protections just as they had back in England. All three regions of the colonies shared these beliefs which have their roots in two British documents created years before the colonies were started or founded.

Magna Carta

In 1215 English Nobles forced the King of England to sign this document. It is the first time a ruler’s power becomes limited. The king could no longer levy taxes without consulting the nobles. Levy means to raise or collect money from people.

The English Parliament

The Magna Carta called for a Great Council that became known as Parliament. It would be the legislature of the country. It became two groups of elected representatives who voted on what the laws of the land would be.

Legislature – a group of people who have the power to make laws.

Parliaments greatest power became the right to raise taxes.

There were two houses to parliament – the House of Lords (nobles) and the House of Commons made up of the common men who were not as wealthy as the nobles.

English Bill of Rights

This is a portion from the middle section of the entire document.

Parliaments power increased in 1688 when it removed King James II from the thrown and invited his daughter Mary and husband William to be Queen and King of England. They agreed to sign this document.

A bill of rights is a written list of freedoms that a government promises to protect.

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution are called our American Bill of Rights which has its roots from past English documents like the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights.

Three Basic Principals Right to a Trial by Jury It upheld habeas corpus – which is a

person can not be held in jail without being officially charged with a crime.

Finally the King could not raise taxes without the consent of Parliament.

Consent - permission

Colonial Self-Government

Starting with the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619 which was a colonial legislature, all the colonies had a legislature or what they called an Assembly by 1760. The King could overrule these decisions and the governors appointed by the King were often in disagreement with some of these laws. Virginia Assembly

(a colonial legislature)

The Right to Vote

50 to 75 % of the white men who owned property could vote which was better than back in England.

Women and African Americans could not vote

Freedom of the Press The right of journalists to publish

the truth without penalty. John Peter Zenger was arrested for

writing articles that criticized the governor.

He was charged with libel which is writing something that damages a person’s reputation.

Not Guilty Zenger’s lawyer

convinced the court that Zenger’s statements were based on truth so therefore not libel and should be found not guilty.

A Principal Started by this Case

A democracy has the right to keep the public informed and depends on well-informed citizens to know how to vote on the issues and who to choose to represent them.

The fall of 2008 was big for this country and the following 4 years. What was the change we made? What direction have we taken?

Regulating Trade

Mercantilism – a colony exist to make the mother country (England) wealthy.

Starting in 1651 Parliament passed the set of Navigation Acts. One of the laws said that all tobacco and sugar grown in the colonies had to be sold to England.

Over time the colonists began to resent these laws and felt they should have the right to decide who they sell their crops or goods to.

Navigation Acts 1651 and Beyond

Those that got so mad at these laws would sometimes smuggle their goods or crops to other countries besides England. This was illegal but often the British could not catch the ships smuggling the goods.

Section 2 Colonial Society The Family in Colonial Times

Most families in colonial times were what we call extended families. This often times meant that not just the parents and kids lived together but also grandparents and even aunts and uncles all under one roof.

Colonial Society

New England And Middle Colonies

Life In the New England Colonies

A New England Home

Harsh Winters in Both Regions

On the Frontier or Backcountry

The Fireplace On cold winter

nights the family huddled around the fireplace.

Men Women and Children Roles of Women

Child caringdomestic responsibilities –

cooking, cleaning, laundry, gardening, milking cows,churning butter,

preserving foods

Women’s roles on the Frontier

Women had more equality on the frontier and did more work that was considered men’s work. She was more respected here than anywhere else in the colonies.

Colonial Women

Young People If you survived infancy you might have

some moments to play games like marbles, hopscotch, and jump rope.

By the age of seven children had to do work often times called chores. Normally boys helped their fathers all day and girls labored with their moms. This was to prepare them for adult life on their own some day.

Apprentice

Any 12 or 13 year old boy could learn a craft or skill by becoming an apprentice or trainee. The young man would work for years without wages in return for food, shelter, and knowledge of the craft from a master crafts-worker.

Social Classes Back in England a person’s future

or prospects were determined by birth.

Here in the New World or the British American Colonies it was different.

There was more social mobility in America and more social equality.

Still there are class distinctions

The Gentry – the upper class of colonial society like lawyers, royal officials, wealthy planters, ministers, and merchants. Sometimes even prosperous artisans like goldsmiths could be considered in the Gentry Class. In Virginia land plantations were owned by only 50 families. This made them wealthy and powerful.

Middle Class

The majority of Europeans that came here to the Americas were by far the middling sort of person.

The middle class is made up of small planters, independent farmers, and artisans like coopers.

The person born to a poor family had hope that someday they could move up to the middle class by learning a trade from someone who would let them be an apprentice.

Indentured Servants The lower class was just

above African Americans who were slaves.

These were poor farmhands, and indentured servants

Indentured Servants – signed a contract to work from 4 to 10 years in the colonies for anyone who would pay for his or her passage to the Americas. Most of these were from England and then Ireland and Germany.

Free African Americans Free Africans were never

a large group of the colonial population but by 1790 there were over 60,000 freedmen. 757,000 African slaves lived mostly in the Southern colonies.

Most free land owning Africans were not allowed to vote for a representative to their local Assembly or legislature.

Section 3 Slavery in the Colonies pg. 113 The Atlantic Slave Trade

The British, Dutch, and the French entered the slave trade. Many slave trading posts were set up along the West Coast of Africa. Many Africans would make raids into the interior of the African Continent and capture Africans from different backgrounds or tribes and take them back to trade for goods from the English slave traders.

The Middle Passage

The name of the horrible

route between Americaand West Africa was

the Middle Passage.It is thought that 15 to

20 percent of the African passengers died of sickness or committed suicide.

The Middle Passage of the Ship

Triangular Trade Route

A three way trade between the Colonies, the islands of the Caribbean, and Africa.

These routes formed triangles !

Import – IN Export - OUT

Triangular Trade Routes A three legged journey.

3 Leg Journey Leg 1 – Ships leave New

England with fish, lumber, and other goods to head to West Africa

Leg 2 – In West Africa goods are traded for African Americans and spices to be sold in the slave trade back in the Colonies.

Leg 3 – Ships head to the Caribbean Islands for rum and other goods.

Slavery in the Colonies The Southern Economy came to

depend on the institution of slavery. In other cultures slavery did not

always last a lifetime but in the Southern Colonies it did become a lifetime experience

The plantation system required many workers for its success and its ability to make a profit for the landowner.

Slavery Takes Root

By 1663 Virginia passed a law that declared a child born to a slave is a slave as well.Slavery became related to racism which holds to the belief that one race is superior to the other thusly trying justify it’s existence.

Resistance to Slavery

As the number of slaves grew landowners became afraid of revolts which means to rebel.

So slave codes were passed to keep African slaves from meeting in large numbers or leaving their plantation without permission from their master.

Revolt in 1663 in Virginia

African Cultural Influences

Only 10% of the slaves lived north of the colony of Maryland.

Many slaves in South Carolina were isolated from meeting many whites and kept their African traditions including their language which blended English with their home language and this was called Gullah.

African styles influenced the creation of furniture, quilts, and more. The banjo came from Africa.

Section 4 The Spread of New Ideas

The Importance of Education Puritan Beginnings –

Puritans passed laws to promote education. They were the first colony to pass laws to begin public schools.

Colonial Schools (New England)

One of three sections to Early America

Hornbook

A flat sheet of board shaped like a paddle which was covered in a thin sheet of transparent horn from an animal.

Hornbook

The living room and the Biblearound the fire was your class in the Dame Schools.

You were taught the alphabet by reading verses from the Bible.

Women opened up their homes to teach the local children.

A New England School

Massachusetts School Law brought public schools to the New England area first.

The Church or Meeting House

It seemed natural to have the Church be the place where issues were dealt with by the townspeople.

Education for African Americans

Education was restricted to white people. In New York, members of the Anglican Church

held a school for free Africans as well as Native Americans and poor whites

Many Quakers and other missionaries taught enslaved people.

When the slave codes came about, teaching African Americans became something done only in secret.

Many learned from borrowed or stolen books.

Upper Levels of Education Many wealthy boys were

prepared for college where they would learn Greek and Latin. As well as mathematics, geography, and English Composition.

The first college in the colonies was financed by the General Court and was started as a college to instruct and prepare men to be ministers – Harvard in Boston, Massachusetts.

Anne Dudley Bradstreet

Her poetry reflected her Puritan beliefs . In 1650 a book of her poems were printed in England .

Roots of American Literature

Phillis Wheatley

Enslaved at the age of 8 she lived with a Boston Merchant’s family and was taught Latin and English . Her poetry was published in 1772 and later her poetry was in magazines in America .

Ben Franklin wrote Poor Richard’s

Almanac

He had a respect & curiosity about the laws that govern the natural world.

The Great Awakening

A movement during the 1730s – 1740s

A religious revival .

Jonathan Edwards

The Great Awakening touched all people of all classes . Edwards said , it touched “sober and vicious, high and low , rich and poor , wise and unwise ……..

George Whitefield

The leading preacher during this period . He was from Eng. and traveled all over with a fiery message .

Impact of the Great Awakening

1. Provoked great emotion

2. Sermons stressed God’s anger

3. Message united people of all classes

4. This national movement reinforced democratic ideas

Religious Toleration grew across the colonies as people felt a since of oneness in God’s eyes.

The Enlightenment

Also known as the Age of Reason this movement also swept the colonies during the mid 1700’s .

Locke

John Locke Stressed logic and reason and said, “ Government’s sole purpose is to protect people’s natural rights including life, liberty, & ownership of property.”

Natural Rights -

Rights that belong to all human beings from birth

He challenged the idea of Divine Right which means a ruler or King gets his or her power directly from God.

John Locke

Montesquieu He wrote the book

called the Spirit of the Laws in which he declared that the power of governments should be clearly defined.

He favored Separation of Powers , or division of the power of government into separate branches.

Europe and the World

World Religions