CA - Colonial America: Key Concepts (Lesson)
Key Concepts: Colonial America
Before you begin...
Notes are given here as well as in the Readings Document from Boundless that is available to download below. There is one presentation to view as well.
The Key Concepts lesson is very important as it covers the main areas of the Advanced Placement frameworks and the Georgia Performance Standards. Many of the test questions will relate to items found here. Many of the test questions will relate to items found here.
Boundless: PDF of readings for this module - Colonial America Links to an external site.
Key Concepts:
Download the key concepts questions that are found below and answer these as you read and view the information in the module. The answers are found in the text on this and the following pages, the readings, the online textbook links, and in the presentation. After you have done this, you will use these answers to review for the multiple-choice test for this module.
Download your Key Concepts Questions here. Links to an external site.
The British eventually planted thirteen colonies along the Atlantic Ocean even though they emerged on the colonial scene a century later than Spain, Portugal, and France. The British eventually became the dominant power in North America and eventually, the British Empire controlled land holdings around the world--leading to the saying “the sun never sets on the British Empire” because of the nation’s vast global land holdings.
These thirteen colonies can be grouped by region--each group has common characteristics and each region also has distinctive features geographically, economically, and culturally.
It is important to know the characteristics that set each region apart from the others. Examine the map of the English colonies in the Colonial Era.
Map of the European Colonies at the end of Queen Anne's War. It is not intended to show the full extent of European land claims, which are generally much larger, or Native American areas of claim or control. However, it may be helpful in seeing the general areas of settlement.
Image Credit: UserMagicpiano CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Now that you have examined the map of the colonies, consider the information in the activity below.
Virginia
The first permanent English colony in North America was the Virginia Colony, settled in 1607. It was a business venture of the Virginia Company, an English firm (a joint stock company) whose investors planned to make money by sending people to America to find gold and other valuable natural resources and ship the raw goods back to England. Initially, only men traveled on three small ships to the coast of the Virginia Colony and founded a settlement called Jamestown, named after King James I.
The Virginia Company established a legislative assembly that was similar to the English Parliament called the House of Burgesses in 1619. The House of Burgesses was the first European-type legislative body in the New World and the members (called burgesses) passed laws that governed the colony---they voted on laws that affected the colonists on a daily basis. It set the precedent for future colonies to demand colonial assemblies (elected by a very select group of white men only---not what we consider democracy today, but it was a start.)
Colonists were sent from England to work for the Virginia Company. They didn’t find gold, but they learned how to cultivate tobacco. Tobacco quickly became a major cash crop and an important source of wealth in Virginia. It also helped lead to major social and economic divisions between those who owned land and those who did not. Additionally, tobacco cultivation was labor-intensive and caused the Virginia Colony's economy to become highly dependent on slavery. (Tobacco saps the soil of vital nutrients and after a few years of cultivation, more land must be planted which required additional land and labor to make a profit. Additionally, tobacco requires a lot of attention and successful cultivation requires a large labor force. The concept of a plantation economy started here.)
Native Americans had lived for centuries on the land the English settlers called Virginia. A notable Native American chieftain in the region was Powhatan. Soon after the English settlers arrived, the colonists forced the Native Americans off their own land so it could be used by the settlers for agricultural purposes, especially for growing tobacco. Their actions caused many Native Americans to flee the region and seek new places to live. However, all the colonists did not own land. Poor English colonists and enslaved people staged an uprising against the governor and his landowning supporters. In what is called Bacon's Rebellion (1675-1676), the landless rebels wanted harsher action against the Native Americans so more land would be available to the colonists. The uprising against the government was put down after the rebels burned Jamestown to the ground in protest, and the Virginia House of Burgesses passed laws to regulate slavery so poor white colonists would no longer side with slaves against rich white colonists.
View the presentation below.
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