CA - Colonial America Module Overview

Colonial America Module Overview

Introduction

Studies of Colonization brought forth the fact that millions of people organized in a diversity of societies existed in the Americas prior to the arrival of the Europeans. We now turn our attention to the English and the 13 colonies that they established along the eastern seaboard. The English would emerge on top from the competition of the various powers for control of the area that would become the United States. The American English colonies served as a strategic and economic benefit to the Crown.

While these 13 colonies were ruled by the English, each one was unique in many ways. The plantation-based economy of Virginia was very different from Massachusetts, which had much smaller farms and a dependence on the maritime activities of merchants and fishermen. There was also a diversity of culture in the areas of social structure, religion, and ethnic minority groups. The Southern Colonies contained a growing population of people of African decent as slavery became institutionalized. As these colonies grew and expanded they began to develop a more distinct American identity.

Essential Questions

• How was the English colonization of the New World different from the other European groups?
• What were the main groupings of the 13 Colonies and what were the major economic and social characteristics of each?
• In what ways did the developing economy of the 13 colonies affect the colonial experience?

 

Textbook Assignment

 Read the chapter in your textbook that relates to this module. Your instructor will provide you with a specific reading schedule. 

 

Key Terms

Look over your key terms for this module. Then review them with the activity below.

• Southern Colonies - the region of British colonies on the Atlantic seaboard that included
  Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The Southern
  Colonies had an economy based on large-scale agriculture and slavery particularly took
  root in this region.
  
• Virginia Company -an English joint-stock company that planned to make money by sending
  people to America to find gold and other valuable natural resources and then ship the resources
  back to England. Wealthy people bought shares of stock in the company and would profit if the
  colony succeeded economically. This established the first permanent English colony in America.
  
• House of Burgesses - the first European-type legislative body in the New World;
  Established in Virginia
  
• Powhatan - was a notable American Indian chieftain in Virginia.
  
• Chesapeake Colonies - a sub-group of the Southern Colonies made up of Virginia and
  Maryland, which border the Chesapeake Bay. This region was heavily reliant on the
  growth of tobacco on large plantations and had an unhealthy climate, which resulted in
  the death of many of the early colonists.
  
• Indentured Servants - provided much of the labor in early Colonial America, especially
  in the Southern Colonies. They would agree to work without pay for a specified number
  of years in return for passage to the New World. The practice fell out of favor after
  Bacon’s Rebellion.
  
• Bacon's Rebellion - was an uprising largely of poor whites in Virginia who wanted land
  and the colonial government to take harsher actions toward American Indians. It helped
  lead to the rise of slavery.
  
• Puritans - a religious movement in England that felt that the Reformation had not gone
  far enough in removing “Catholic” elements from the Church of England. Many Puritans
  migrated to the New England Colonies in order to practice their faith and establish a
  society based on their beliefs.
  
• Massachusetts Settlement - was established by the Puritans in the region known as
  New England.
  
• Rhode Island Settlement - founded by religious dissenters from Massachusetts who
  were more tolerant of different religious beliefs.
  
• New England Colonies - a colonial region that included Massachusetts, Connecticut,
  Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. This region was dominated by the Puritans (except
  for Rhode Island) and was characterized by merchants, the fishing industry, and an
  overall more healthy climate than the other colonies.
  
• Half-Way Covenant - allowed for partial church membership for the children and
  grandchildren of original Puritans.
  
• King Philip's War - (1675-1676) was an early conflict between English colonists and
  American Indians that resulted in establishing the English colonists as the dominant
  power in New England.
  
• Salem Witch Trials - were a series of trials resulting from a mass hysteria about witches.
  150 were accused and 29 convicted.
  
• Dominion of New England - a failed attempt by King Charles II to decrease the local
  autonomy of New England governments by combining them into one administrative
  district.
  
• Mid-Atlantic Colonies - included New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
  It was the most diverse area of the 13 colonies.
  
• Pennsylvania - founded by the religiously tolerant Quakers, led by William Penn
  
• New Amsterdam (New York) - founded by the Dutch, but in 1664 it was captured and
  renamed by the British.
  
• Quebec - area of Canada that was settled by the French; one of its focuses was on the fur
  trade.
  
• Mercantilism - an economic theory that held that the best way to become a stronger
  nation was to acquire more wealth; helped influence the desire of European powers to set
  up colonies.
  
• Trans-Atlantic Trade - a part of mercantilism where Britain required goods from the
  colonies to be shipped on British ships and that British products would have a monopoly
  of the market.
  
• Navigation Acts - laws meant to ensure British dominance of the colonial economy by
  forbidding trade with nations other than Britain. They were enforced with varying vigor
  at different times during the Colonial Era.
  
• Middle Passage - the sea voyage that carried African slaves to North America.
  Conditions on the ships were poor.
  
• African-American Culture - developed among the slaves in the New World, it included
  music, dance, basket weaving, and pottery making.
  
• Benjamin Franklin - was one of the best-known Founding Fathers who was a printer,
  scientist, statesman, writer, businessman, philosopher, and inventor. He is a good
  example of individualism and social mobility.
  
• Individualism - focused on a person improving himself or herself.
  
• Social Mobility - rising through society; often connected to individualism.
  
• The Great Awakening - a religious revival that swept through the colonies in the 1730s
  and 40s that led to a more distinct American identity.

RESOURCES IN THIS MODULE ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) OR CREATED BY GAVS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. SOME IMAGES USED UNDER SUBSCRIPTION.