Chapter 1, Lesson 4: Life in the English Colonies

A More Perfect Union GUIDED READING

CHAPTER 1, LESSON 4: LIFE IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES

As you re-read the chapter, answer the following questions in your notebook. Title this assignment with the title of the lesson, and write the headings/sub-headings from the lesson to organize your answers.

q THE DEMAND FOR LABOR

q INDENTURED SERVANTS

·  What is the meaning of “labor intensive” crops?

·  What is a plantation?

·  How is it different from a “farm”?

·  What is an indentured servant?

·  Why did most indentured servants settle in the South?

·  In what ways were indentured servants similar to slave labor?

q GROWTH OF SLAVERY

·  By the late 1600s there were more or less indentured servants than slaves in Virginia?

·  What were the three main reasons for the increase in the shift to free, black labor?

·  What did England do to satisfy the increase demand for slaves?

·  What was the voyage from Africa to America called?

·  How long did the journey usually take?

·  Where did many of these enslaved Africans end up?

·  By the time of the Declaration of Independence (1776), how many slaves were in America?

q REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

·  What is a colony?

·  What was the main difference between the Northern and the Southern colonies?

·  Speculate (guess) as to why this would be so?

q THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

·  Name the New England colonies.

·  What did the New England colonists share, and what did this result in?

·  How did most people in New England make their living?

·  What is a subsistence farmer?

·  What was another way New Englanders made a living?

q THE MIDDLE COLONIES

·  Name the Middle colonies.

·  What were some of the differences – and the reasons for them – of the farming land in the Middle colonies?

·  How did these differences contribute to differences in the way the people lived (between the north and middle colonies)?

·  What is a “cash crop,” and how is it different from subsistence farming?

·  In what other ways did colonists in the middle colonies make a living?

·  What was different about where the settlers came from?

q THE SOUTHERN COLONIES

·  Name the colonies that made up the Southern English colonies.

·  What was the main difference in the geography of the south; and how did this difference contribute to the differences in the way people lived?

·  What were the two main plantation crops grown in the South at this time; and where, generally, were these crops grown?

·  Describe a typical Southern plantation.

·  How was life a different in the South for recent immigrants and recently-freed indentured servants (as opposed to life on plantations)?

·  Describe some of the features of the Southern population (who they were, where they lived, where they were from)

q PATTERNS OF COLONIAL LIFE (similarities)

·  Describe some of the similarities between the colonies in terms of transportation, port cities, and trade.

q Cut out the pictures and paste them next to the corresponding notes

from this section in your notebook: you’ll have to plan ahead!!

SLAVE SHIP SLAVE ADVERTISEMENT TOBACCO SMALL FAMILY FARM