Ch 2 & 3 reading Qs
1. The people who came to Virginia in Jamestown only cared about gold and did not care about making actual food. They were only used to short working shifts and they only used their spare time to dig gold instead of make food. They were troubled until John Smith came along and learned the Native American ways of producing food. When John Smith got wounded and had to go back to England he left them to starve during the harsh winter times and they were so desperate they even reserved to cannibalism. The Powhaten tribe fought with them until they were wiped out. The few who survived the struggle tried to leave and met up with De La Warr, who ruled with martial law. John Rofle comes and shows them how to cultivate tobacco. Fandyf established the House of Bourgeoisies which attracted more people. Due to the deaths amounted by the Virginia Company, the crown took the colony and made it royal.
2. The purpose behind Maryland’s foundation was simple: a haven for Catholics. Unlike the Massachusetts Bay which was a haven for protestants, Maryland had religious toleration since not everyone was Catholic. The Massachusetts Bay mostly consisted of a protestant population but since they needed merchants, they simply allowed them to remain there without taking any form of participation in the government. Religion wasn’t too important in the Chesapeake colonies and social states didn’t have much importance since most people did not come with their families or a social group. In the Massachusetts Bay there were entire communities which knew each other very well so there weren’t many opportunities for women of lower class, The Chesapeake colonies made money off of tobacco while the Massachusetts Bay only produced agriculture. When Massachusetts Bay, Maryland and Jamestown were founded they had high mortality rates yet as time went on Massachusetts Bay’s mortality rates lowered while the while the Chesapeake colonies mortality rates were still high.
3. The Puritans were strong believers of the Church of England yet they were disgusted with how corrupt it had become. Thus, they left to Massachusetts Bay in order to establish a strict religious society that could be seen as “the shining city upon a hill” .
4. The New England colonies had a patriarchal society due to their low mortality rates. They mixed church and state which showed that they had a strict religious society that allowed for closely knit communities.
This paved the way towards xenophobia since they wanted to keep religious purity. The Chesapeake had a high mortality rate and not many family units. They didn’t see religion as important as government was and they grew tobacco as a crop. The Middle Colonies had mostly Quaker rule which kept the government very cooperative with people and since they put more thought into their colonies they were able to establish a well structured government which allowed for an attempt at religious freedom. Pennsylvania only traded with other colonies, but not England.
5. Quakers rule in Pennsylvania had religious toleration towards other branches of Christianity, and they were not as strict with their discipline as other groups were. This freedom of movement let them establish a working government system and allowed them to form the first frame of government which included elective assembly, the capacity to veto bills, trial by jury, the abolishment of capital punishment, and the incorporation of Habeas Corpus.
6. After the civil wars in England, Catholics and Protstants were persecuted , thus many people migrated to the Americas bringing new ideas with them, and so on. England alternated between periods of war and peace causing people to migrate every time a war occurred. This allowed for an influx of new ideas every certain amount of time coming from England.
7. A covenant was established, so that the Puritans would obey the law. It allowed their leader to punish them individually so that not everyone would be punished because of the individual’s mistake. New Englanders experienced longevity which made tight communities, making them xenophobic. Overtime, the church and the state began to separate which allowed them to form the Body of Liberties that granted freedom to foreigners, women, servants, children, and animals. A new development was that they used juries to decide appeals and they produced universal baptism that included non converts.
8. There weren’t many family units in the Chesapeake colonies due to the fact that their ration of 5 men to 1 woman didn’t allow for this to happen., unlike New England colonies which had whole communities which consisted of families. Mortality rates in the Chesapeake colonies lowered but they were still higher than in the New England colonies. New England had a patriarchy, while the Chesapeake colonies had weak patriarchy. Finally, the Chesapeake colonies attained slaves before the New England colonies.
9. Mercantilism was seen as a way of gaining wealth which came directly from their colonies and the trade. England established the first Navigation Act which required goods to be shipped on English vessels and it stopped foreigners from trading between one English port and another. The colonist were angered by this interference, so England sent a naval fleet to enforce their cooperation. The Navigation Act had some specifications which included that the captain and three fourths of the crew had to be English, certain goods could only be shipped to England or other colonies and that other goods could be shipped to wherever they pleased. The Staple Act and the Plantation Duty Act allowed the English to rule the Atlantic Trade.
10. Virginia started using slaves but they inexperienced until 1680 when they had a racial caste system set. When the slaves were put to work, they were placed in groups and constantly guarded throughout their entire work day. Slavery required brute force to keep it running, yet some slaves were allowed skills and to become artisans. Slavery let them change their crops from tobacco to wheat which led to the establishment of cities within Virginia.
