2. THE UNHEALTHY CHESAPEAKE
1. How would you describe life in
the American wilderness?
2. Life expectancies?
3. Describe the family
characteristics in the
wilderness.
4. What was the largest colony at
the end of the 17th century?

3. THE TOBACCO ECONOMY
Although unhealthy for human life, the Chesapeake was immensely hospitable to
tobacco cultivation. The insatiable demand for virgin land pushed commercial growers
further inland, creating friction with the Indians.

4. By the 1630’s, 1.5 million lbs of tobacco were shipped to Europe; by the end of the 17th
century, the amount reached 40 million lbs.

5. More tobacco meant more labor, but where would it come from? Families procreated
too slowly, Indians died too quickly on contact with whites, and African slaves cost too
much money. But England still had a “surplus” of displaced farmers, desperate for
employment. Many of them, as “indentured servants,” voluntarily mortgaged their
bodies for several years to Chesapeake masters. In exchange, they received free
passage to America and eventual “freedom dues.”

6. Explain the “headright” system employed by Virginia & Maryland to encourage the
importation of servant workers. Describe the plight of the “white slave.”

8. FRUSTRATED FREEMEN and
BACON’S REBELLION
Explain the evolution of the rebellion (Nathaniel Bacon v. William Berkeley).

9. Who were the rebels? What was the outcome of the rebellion? Explain the
rebellion’s significance.

11. COLONIAL SLAVERY
Perhaps 10 million Africans were carried in chains to the New World in the 300 years
after Columbus’s landing. Only about 400,000 ended up in North America.

13. Most of the slaves came from the west coast of Africa. They were captured by African
coastal tribes, who traded them in crude markets on tropical beaches to European and
American flesh merchants.

15. Upon arrival in colonial America, slave auction ads appeared throughout the colonies, both
North and South.

16. Explain the purpose and specifics of the
“slave codes.”
Slavery might have begun in America for
economic reasons (labor), but by the end of
the 17th century, it was clear that racial
discrimination also powerfully molded the
American slave system.

17. The primary components of this racial
discrimination were no legal or political rights
and strict limitations on educational
opportunities.

19. AFRICANS in AMERICA
Contrast slave life in the deep South with slave life in the Chesapeake region.

20. Native-born African-Americans contributed
to the growth of a stable & distinctive slave
culture, a mixture of African and American
elements of speech, religion, and folkways.
Slaves also helped to build the country with
their labor, both skilled and unskilled.
The “fortunate” slave worked as a house
servant.

23. SOUTHERN SOCIETY
As slavery spread, the gaps in the South’s social structure widened. Identify and
describethe southern social hierarchy.

25. THE NEW ENGLAND FAMILY
Contrast life expectancies in New England versus the Chesapeake. Reasons?
On average, how many pregnancies for a married New England woman? How did
women view child birth?
Contrast New England families with Chesapeake families.

26. LIFE in the NEW ENGLAND TOWNS
Sturdy New Englanders evolved a tightly-knit society, the basis of which was small
villages and farms. Geography and Puritanism made for unity of purpose. New England
society grew in a more orderly fashion than elsewhere. Education was emphasized and
villagers gathered regularly in their meetinghouses to elect their officials, appoint
schoolmasters, and debate village matters.

27. THE HALF-WAY COVENANT
And the SALEM WITCH TRIALS
Explain the dilemma for Puritan clergymen as
Puritan settlements grew?
What was the Half-Way Covenant? What was
the impact?

28. How did the infamous “witch hunts” reflect
widening social stratification?
What put an end to the witchcraft hysteria?

29. “Witch hunting” passed into the American vocabulary as a metaphor for the often
dangerously irrational urge to find a scapegoat for social resentments.

31. THE EARLY SETTLER’S DAYS and WAYS
The cycles of seasons and sun set the schedules of the settlers, especially since most
of them were farmers. Most rose at dawn and went to bed at dusk.. They planted
their crops in the spring, tended their crops in the summer, and harvested in the fall.
They used the winter to prepare for the next spring.
Explain the consistent division of labor.
Contrast frontier life versus life in England.
How did frontier life affect social stratification?