United States History – Reflections



United States History – Reflections

COLONIES UNIT

Unit 2, Chapter 4 Building the First Colonies (pp. 149 – 183)

Lesson 1: The Spanish Colonies (pp. 154 – 158)

• colony: land ruled by another country

• plantations: large farms

• slavery: practice of holding people against their will and making them carryout orders

Lesson 2: The Virginia Colony (pp. 160 – 166)

• raw material: a resource that can be used to make a product

• cash crop: a crop that people grow to sell

• indentured servant: a person who agreed to work for another person without pay for a certain length of time in exchange for passage to North America

• legislature: a lawmaking branch of government

• represent: to speak for

• established church: a church supported by the government

• royal colony: colony owned by the king

• governor: person picked to help run a colony

Roanoke – in 1584 100 colonists were sent to Roanoke Island by Walter Raleigh in an area named Virginia. They did not stay long as they ran out of food. In 1587 John White led another group of settlers to Roanoke and they also ran low on food. White returned to England to get food and supplies – he did not return until 3 years later. When he got there all the settlers were gone. What happened to them remains a mystery.

Jamestown – Despite the failure of the settlements in Roanoke, English merchants wanted to start a new colony in Virginia. King James I let them set up the Virginia Company. The Virginia Company sent settlers up the James River where they chose a spot to settle and called it Jamestown. The location was a poor choice for a settlement because the land was swampy. Captain John Smith became the leader of Jamestown and saved the settlement from being another Roanoke. He made the rule that everyone must work to eat and got colonists planting gardens, building shelters, and protecting themselves from Indian attacks. Tobacco, which was grown as a cash crop, finally made Jamestown successful.

House of Burgesses – Virginia’s legislature was the first representative assembly in the English colonies. Colonists could elect members to represent them. Only men who owned property could become members.

READING CHECK

One of the reasons England wanted to start colonies in North America was that England wanted to gain new wealth.

John Smith contributed to the survival of the Jamestown settlement by making sure all of the colonists worked for their food, shelter, and safety.

Slavery was introduced into Virginia because growing tobacco required more workers.

Lesson 3: The Plymouth Colony (pp. 170 – 175)

• pilgrim: a person who makes a journey for religious reasons

• compact: an agreement

• Mayflower Compact: document signed by the men aboard the Mayflower that said that fair laws would be made for the good of the colony.

• self-government: a system of government in which people make their own laws

• majority rule: if more than half the people agree to a law or decision, then everyone had to follow it

Plymouth – Pilgrims left England in 1620, heading for Virginia. The ship went off course and ended up at Cape Cod in what is now Massachusetts. Men aboard the ship wanted to keep order and signed a document called the Mayflower Compact. This was a step toward self-government. The settlers chose a place on a harbor to set up their colony called Plymouth. The colony prospered from farming, fishing, and fur trading.

READING CHECK

The Pilgrims wanted to go to North American to build their own society, where they would be free to worship as they chose.

The Mayflower Compact was important because it meant that colonists would govern themselves.

The relationship between the Indians and the colonists changed because at first the two groups cooperated, but they later stopped helping each other.

Lesson 4: The French and the Dutch (pp. 176 – 183)

• allies: partners

• proprietary colony: whole colony was given to one person to own

READING CHECK

The French explorers advanced the king’s aims by claiming new lands for France.

It was hard for the French to control land in North America because the French claimed large areas but had few colonists to settle their lands.

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UNIT 3, Chapter 5 Settling the Colonies

Lesson 1: Settling New England (pp. 206 – 213)

• charter: an official paper in which certain rights are given by a government to a person, group or business

• dissent: a difference of opinion

• expel: to force to leave

• consent: agreement

• sedition: speech or behavior that causes other people to work against a government

• frontier: the land beyond settled areas

READING CHECK

Thomas Hooker was a Puritan Minister who left Massachusetts because he disagreed with the way its leaders ruled. He founded the settlement of Hartford, which became part of the Connecticut Colony.

In 1639, the leaders of the Connecticut Colony wrote the Fundamental Orders – a plan of government. These orders allowed voters to elect leaders.

The Puritans founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony because they wanted a place where they could live by their religious beliefs and start farms and businesses.

In 1630, John Winthrop led the 2nd group of Puritans to settle in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Later he was elected governor of the colony.

Roger Williams disagreed with Puritan leaders on many issues. He was expelled and wished to start a new settlement because he wanted to start a colony with greater religious freedom. He founded the settlement of Providence, which became part of the Rhode Island Colony.

Anne Hutchinson’s actions also angered the Puritan leaders. She led followers to an island near Providence after being expelled from the Massachusetts Colony for sedition. Her settlement later joined Williams’ settlement.

Metacomet, known to the English as King Philip, was the leader of the Wampanoag Indians. When settlers moved onto Indian lands, he decided Indians had to unite against them, and this led to war.

Farmers settled in the Connecticut River Valley because they were in search of better farmland than the poor soil they had found on the New England coast.

Lesson 2: Life in New England (pp. 214-221)

• common: an open area where sheep and cattle graze, village green

• town meeting: an assembly in the New England Colonies in which the male land owners could take part in government

• public office: a job a person is elected to do

READING CHECK

The religious beliefs of the Puritans affected how they lived, worked and spent their free time.

Town meetings were important to New England Colonies because they gave the colonists a voice in how their colony was governed.

Women contributed to New England communities by preparing and storing food and making other essential items, such as clothing, butter, soap and candles.

Education was important for the Puritans because they thought everyone should be able to read the bible.

Lesson 3: New England’s Economy (pp. 222-227)

• free market: an economic system where people are free to choose the goods and services they buy and provide

• industry: all the businesses that make one kind of product or provide one kind of service

• naval stores: a product that is used to build and repair a ship

• export: a product that leaves a country

• import: a product brought into a country

• triangular trade routes: a shipping route that linked England, the colonies and the west coast of Africa.

• middle passage: the travel of enslaved Africans from Africa to the West Indies

READING CHECK

Farmers sold or traded their surplus goods for other goods.

The colonists used the lumber from the forests in New England to build houses, barns, churches, and ships. They sold the rest to people in other colonies or Europe.

Fishing and whaling become important industries in colonial New England because most of New England is near the ocean, which had large numbers of fish and whales.

Chapter 6 Middle Colonies (pp. 235 – 261)

Lesson 1: Settling the Middle Colonies (pp. 240 – 246)

• refuge: a safe place

• proprietor: owner

• trial by jury: people accused of breaking laws have the right to have a group of fellow citizens decide their guilt or innocence

• justice: fairness

READING CHECK

The Middle Colonies produced so many crops used in making bread (wheat, corn, and rye) that they came to be called the “breadbasket” colonies.

What attracted settlers to the Middle colonies were fertile land, large harbors, and deep rivers, religious freedom, and escape from wars.

King Charles II of England wanted to control New Netherland because he wanted to control the entire Atlantic coast of North America.

The Quakers were often mistreated by those who did not share their beliefs because they refused to fight in wars or swear loyalty to any king or country.

In 1682, William Penn wrote the Frame of Government of Pennsylvania, a plan of government that set up a legislature called the General Assembly which would make laws for the colony. It gave citizens of Pennsylvania freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to a fair trial by jury.

Penn’s treatment of the Indians related to Quaker beliefs because the Quakers believe that all people are equal.

Lesson 2: Life in the Colonies (pp. 250 – 255)

• diversity: differences, such as those among different people

• immigrant: a person who comes into a country to make a new home there

• Great Awakening: a religious movement

• religious toleration: acceptance of religious differences

• militia: a volunteer army

READING CHECK

Immigrants came to the Middle Colonies to escape war, for religious freedom, and for better opportunities.

The Great Awakening was a religious movement that brought together people of different beliefs.

The Middle Colonies differed from the New England colonies because there were many different religious groups in the Middle Colonies.

Lesson 3: Busy Farms and Seaports (pp. 256 – 261)

• prosperity: economic success

• artisans: craft workers

• apprentice: a person who learns a trade by living with the family of a skilled worker and training for several years

READING CHECK

Geography affected the Middle Colonies’ economy because the rich land and good climate helped farmers prosper.

New York and Philadelphia were good locations for ports because they were on rivers that colonists could use for floating goods downriver to the ports.

People learned to be artisans because artisans first served as apprentices

Chapter 7 The Southern Colonies (pp. 272 – 295)

Lesson 1: Settling the South (pp. 272 – 279)

• constitution: a written plan of government

• debtor: people who owe money

• back country: the land between the costal plain and the Appalachian mountains

READING CHECK

The Maryland colony was founded mainly as a religious refuge but people were able to make money there by growing tobacco in the fertile soil.

Unlike Virginia. Maryland welcomed many different religions. In 1649, the Maryland assembly passed the Toleration Act, which allowed religious freedom on the colony to all Christians.

Maryland and Virginia have the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River in common.

James Oglethorpe founded the Georgia Colony to defend England’s claim to it’s southern lands and to give debtors a new start.

The Carolina Colony’s leaders wrote a constitution that allowed free make colonists to elect some leaders and make some laws.

When the settlers moved into the colonies many Native Americans (Indians) were killed or captured. Many were also forced to move further west.

Lesson 2: Life in the South (pp. 282-289)

• institutionalize: to make part of life

• planter: plantation owners

• overseer: watched the slaves in the field as they worked

READING CHECK

Laws institutionalized slavery by making slavery legal. Children of enslaved people were automatically considered slaves.

Plantations were like small villages because they had many buildings, crop fields and people.

Much of the Southern economy depended on large plantations. However, most Southern colonists lived and worked on small farms.

Some enslaved Africans were able to escape slavery by buying their freedom. Others were able to escape to Spanish Florida.

Lesson 3: The Southern Economy (pp. 290-295)

• indigo: a blue dye that was used in the cloth making process

• interdependence: depending on others for goods and services

• broker: a person who is paid to buy and sell for someone else

READING CHECK

Some of the cash crops in the southern colonies were tobacco, rice and indigo.

The relative location of Charlestown affected its growth because it was located deep in the harbor. It was a good place for ships to bring and trade goods. This trade attracted more people.

Industries of the southern economy were based on the region’s natural resources.

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