American Pageant: Chapter 4 (pp.66-83)

“American Life in the 17th Century”

  1. Which economic feature most differentiated the Southern colonies?
  1. What were the effects of the gender imbalance in the Chesapeake?
  1. When did Virginia finally begin to increase its population through natural reproduction?
  1. What did indentured servants receive for their service?

headright system –

  1. How did the headright system give moderately wealthy planters a huge head start?
  1. As the 17th century continued, was indentured servitude a true path to prosperity?

Bacon’s Rebellion –

  1. What was the immediate cause of Bacon’s Rebellion?
  1. What effect did Bacon’s Rebellion have on planters’ ideas of where to get labor?
  1. What are the three factors that led planters to import more slaves than servants after 1680?

Middle Passage –

Virginia Slave Codes –

  1. What differences existed between the slave experience in the Chesapeake and that in the SC low- country?

Gullah culture –

  1. What kind of labor did most slaves provide?

New York City Slave Revolt of 1712 –

Stono Rebellion of 1739 –

  1. What effect did slavery have on the social structure of the South?

First Families of Virginia (Draw a social structure pyramid of the South as it is described in the text)

  1. What resulted from the lack of cities and towns in the South?
  1. In contrast to the unhealthy climate of the Chesapeake, how did the climate in New England impact life expectancy?
  1. How soon after settlement did the population of New England begin natural reproduction?
  1. What factors contributed to strong families in New England?
  1. Considering the right to own property, were women in New England better off than those in the Chesapeake?
  1. What explains the development of strong communities in New England?
  1. What was required of towns with more than fifty families in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts School Law of 1647/ “Old Deluder Law” –

Harvard College –

William and Mary College –

  1. Why were town meetings considered a “classroom of democracy?”

Half Way Covenant –

  1. What did jeremiads and the Half Way Covenant reveal about religious fervor in the second generation of Puritans?

Salem Witchcraft Trials 1692 –

  1. What did the witch hunt reveal about the effects of Yankee commercialism?
  1. What do witch hunts imply about society today?
  1. How did the climate of New England affect ethnic diversity?
  1. How did the climate affect the economy?
  1. How did New England colonists justify taking Indian lands?
  1. Why did shipbuilding and fishing become so important to the region?
  1. How did Americans’ standard of living compare with that of Europe in the 18th century?
  1. Which regions were the most egalitarian?
  1. What do Bacon’s Rebellion and Leisler’s Rebellion reveal about how the colonial experience altered British American expectations for equality?