Coming to America: Portrait of Colonial Life: Introduction of Slavery in Colonial America
For most of the 17th century, the number of slaves in the American colonies is quite small. Indentured servants and the settlers themselves handle most of the colonies' labor needs. The transition to slave labor in the Chesapeake is the result of ec...
Coming to America: Portrait of Colonial Life: Upsurge in Immigration
In addition to the large influx of African slaves in the early 18th century, there is an upsurge in the number of German and Scotch Irish Protestants who immigrate. Their economic potential is restricted in their home countries, in part because of t...
Coming to America: Portrait of Colonial Life: Family Unit in Colonial New England, The
Within the marriage relationship, community-prescribed roles and responsibilities are molded to meet the needs of the family, with the male head of household responsible for maintaining social and moral order within the family . There is no such thi...
Coming to America: Portrait of Colonial Life: Family and Community Life in New England
The portrait of life in New England plays out in stark contrast to life in the Southern colonies primarily because New England is settled by family groups. Although birth rates and life expectancy are generally high, women settlers find themselves i...
Coming to America: Portrait of Colonial Life: Immigration: A Key Element in American History
Immigration has been a key element throughout American history. The numbers of immigrants in the country's early history constituted a greater percentage of the population than it does today.
Turbulent Virginia: Pirate Base...Royal Colony: Roanoke, the First English Colony
The English use the "black legend of Spanish conquest" as the moral justification for their incursions into the Western Hemisphere. Sir Walter Raleigh, supported by Queen Elizabeth, selects Roanoke as his base of operations. It is a location that is...
Turbulent Virginia: Pirate Base...Royal Colony: France and the Netherlands Attempt to Establish Presence in North America
In the 16th century a pirate base established by the French on the Florida coast irritates the powerful Spanish. They quickly dispatch an expedition to seize control of the region and establish a fort at St. Augustine. The French then turn their att...
Divergent Paths: Southern Women: The Plantation Mistress and Her Slaves
The mistresses of successful southern plantations are businesswomen who spend most of their time and energy managing the plantation household. The slave women they oversee have a dual burden: the physical work they perform as slaves and the reproduc...
Divergent Paths: Witchcraft Hysteria, The
In the latter half of the 17th century, the well-ordered life New Englanders sought to establish begins to crumble with the advent of a series of calamitous events--a smallpox epidemic, war with Indians, accusations of witchcraft in Salem. Although ...
Divergent Paths: Plantation Society of the South
The plantation is a uniquely American form of community for many white and black Southerners. The region is largely rural, dependent on such lucrative but labor-intensive crops as rice, sugar, cotton, and later tobacco. The fact that the hard physic...