Unit 2: The New World



Unit 2: The New World

➢ Pre-Colonial Peoples

➢ Transatlantic Contact & Settlement

➢ Colonial Period: 1640-1763

Focus Questions: These are based on APUSH essay prompts that have often appeared on the exam since 1991. These focus questions guide our study of this period in North American history, and you should be referring to these when taking notes on your independent reading of ‘American Pageant’ and other assigned texts. An ideal goal is to be ready to produce a clear, detailed thesis and essay brainstorm for each of these prompts using your reading notes. If you can do this at the end of the unit, then you have high quality notes that will stand you in good stead when studying for APUSH next May.

➢ What were the English, French, and Spanish imperial goals in North America? How do you think these goals evolved over time?

➢ What were relations like between Europeans and Native Americans at different times and places? Analyze how these relations changed over time.

➢ What factors caused the differences in population numbers and settlement types between the English, French, and Spanish colonies in North America?

➢ How was geography an important primary factor in shaping the development of the English colonies in North America?

➢ How did religious ideals affect the English colonies’ social, economic, political, and cultural development?

➢ How was the situation different in the French and Spanish colonies?

➢ What tensions and conflicts arose among English settlers in North America?

➢ How did British policies towards the colonies influence the development of a distinctly American political and cultural identity?

➢ How did economic, geographic, and social factors encourage the growth of slavery and racism as part of the economy of the southern colonies between 1607 and 1775?

➢ How did the presence of slavery affect the culture of the various colonies?

➢ How do these factors relate to the later development of an independent United States?

Suggested Reading Prompts: These are designed to help you focus your study of each chapter in American Pageant. They do not constitute a definitive list of facts you need to remember, but do encompass the most important events and themes we don’t always have time to cover in class. As APUSH students I expect your reading notes to do more than just answer the prompts for each chapter, because I know you all have the ability to challenge yourselves and go further than required in your independent studies. Remember, the key to being a great historian is not simply knowing facts, but creating questions about the facts you know.

|CHAPTER 3 (Settling the Northern Colonies) |

|If acquiring worldly riches was the main motivation in the southern colonies, what was the main motivator for people going to New England. Based |

|on the teachings of John ___________ of Geneva, what were the main elements of Puritan theology? |

|(1) Relation of God to man: |

|(2) Good works vs. predestination: |

|(3) Signs of conversion, grace, membership in the “elect” : |

|(4) “Visible saints” only as church members: |

|What do you think of Puritan theology? How does it compare with other religions with which you are familiar? |

|What were the Puritans trying to “purify”? |

|The Pilgrims were ______________, i.e., they wanted to split from the Church of England, not continue trying to reform the Church. A small group |

|who had settled in Holland left for America aboard the _____________ in 1620. |

|What was the significance of the Mayflower Compact? |

|If, contrary to the Pilgrims, the Massachusetts Bay Puritans were nonseparatist (i.e., not in favor of breaking with the Church of England), what |

|motivated their mass exodus to the New World beginning in 1629? |

|What did Governor John__________ mean when he said that the new Bay Colony would be “as a city upon a hill?” |

|Who had political power in the colony? Did the Puritans believe in the separation of church and state? |

|Why did the Puritans expel Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams? What do you find significant about her trial? |

|What is the most distinguishing characteristic of Rhode Island? |

|People from Massachusetts Bay spawned four new colonies, three to the south and one to the north. They were: ___________________, |

|____________________, ______________________, and _____________________________. |

|Read the section on the decimation of native populations through disease and wars such as the ____________________ War (1637) and King |

|________________ War (1675). What thoughts do you have about these early encounters between Indians and Europeans? Could things have been done |

|differently? Was conflict inevitable? How does American Pageant compare to other readings we’ve done on this topic? |

|The Dutch staked their claim in the New World through the explorations of Henry ______________, in the employ of the Dutch East ___________ |

|Company. The city of New ___________ was established as a trading post and Dutch families built feudal estates up the ________________ River |

|Valley. The able governor Peter _________________________ solidified the Dutch position, but the British took over the colony and renamed it New |

|___________ in 16____. |

|Pennsylvania and the Middle Colonies. How was the Dutch style of governance different from that of the English colonies? |

|List two distinguishing beliefs of the Quakers. How were their beliefs different from those of the Puritans? |

|What was the objective of William Penn in founding the colony in 1681? |

|The Quakers tried out a rather novel and enlightened approach to the native populations. What do you think American Pageant means when it says |

|“Quaker tolerance proved the undoing of Quaker Indian Policy”? |

|What economic, environmental, or social characteristics distinguished the “Middle Colonies” (N.Y., N.J., Del., Pa.) from the other English |

|colonies? |

|Europeanizing America or Americanizing Europe? |

|Based on this section, how might the historical perspectives your parents and grandparents could have read in their U.S. history textbooks been |

|different to the perspective that you are exposed to today? |

|CHAPTER 4: American Life in the Seventeenth Century (1607-1692) |

|Read the first section about the diseases, high mortality rates, and predominantly male society that evolved in the Chesapeake colonies. Why do you|

|think people would have been motivated to leave England for such miserable conditions and hostile environment? |

|How could their gender or economic status have played a role in their decision to migrate to the Chesapeake? |

|What were indentured servants and why were they needed in the tobacco economy? |

|What was the headright system and how did it lead to the formation of an aristocratic landowning class? |

|How was Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676 an example of the consequences of too many ex-indentured servants and the conflict between the backcountry and |

|the tidewater elite? |

|With about _____ million Africans transported to the New World, the slave trade was a huge business. What (if any) objections seem to have been |

|raised by Europeans or American colonists about this industry in the 17th and 18th centuries? |

|Look at the chart on p. 70: What proportion of humans shipped from Africa through the dreaded “Middle _________” actually ended up in North |

|America. What happened in the 1680s to drastically increase the flow of slaves into the American colonies? |

|How reliable do you think the figures given in the table on p.70 are? (Some further independent research into how these figures are calculated may|

|be valuable here) |

|The authors conclude the section by noting that “slaves in the South proved to be a more manageable labor force than the white indentured |

|servants.” What ideas do you have about why this might have been the case? Compare this statement with other class readings about the emergence of |

|a slave class in colonial America. |

|Read the insert section about Africans in America. Do you think a chapter on American life in the 17th century in a US History textbook written by |

|African-American historians would differ from this one in American Pageant? Why, or why not? |

|Southern vs. New England Society (pp. 73–78) |

|How did Southern society contrast with that of New England? List a few of the contrasting characteristics. |

|Evolving Life in New England (pp. 78-83) |

|How did Puritanism change over the course of the 1600s? Do you see any connection between these changes and the Salem witch hysteria of 1692–1693? |

|What shaped the “Yankee” character of New Englanders? |

|What were the contrasting views of land ownership (p. 81) held by Europeans and Native Americans? |

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