The Early American Colonies

The colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut made up the New England colonies. Most of the Europeans in the New England colonies were there to escape the religious persecution they faced in England. They practiced a lot of different things in these colonies compared to the middle and southern and colonies of colonial america.

Whether by land or by sea, eighteenth century colonial travel was arduous, expensive, and many times dangerous. Because of this, few people traveled very far from their homes. Transportation has changed dramatically since the late 1700’s. It was during this time that Colonial America was budding as a new country. This was before airplanes, which appeared in the very early stages of the 1900’s. Cars showed up about the same time, so rewind about 200 plus years and we’re back in colonial America. It wasn’t civilized like it is today. The dirt roads were bumpy, grimy, and when the rains came, they were mud baths. So how did people during this time get around? Often, they didn’t. Not many people could afford the cost of travel back then. Daily American Colonial Life was extremely harsh for the first settlers and colonists. They were faced with a new country, unknown territory and no friends, relatives or neighbors to help them “In those days, it was fairly expensive to travel. Because of this, generally only government officials, merchants, and planters took the risk (Constitution Facts).” Women were supposed to stay home and look after the children while the husband went off to do business. America was still a budding country, so there were not as many cities as there are now and they were more spread out. If the man wanted to travel, it would require several hours, or even several days to ride on horseback. Often the husband wouldn’t return for a couple of days, and when he

During colonial times life would not have been anything like it is today. They would not have a cell phone, computer or a global positioning system. The family would wake up to begin their day with chores depending on their sex, location, age and, the families’ social class.

With the end of slavery came the rise of indentured servants in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. When slaves were freed, they were no longer willing to put in the hours they were previously forced to work. The colonies depended on plantations and also needed a new source of labor. This led to mistreatment of indentured laborers.

           Chesapeake and the other Southern colonies were agrarian societies. The main crop in Chesapeake and North Virginia was tobacco, while in the Deep South, mainly in Georgia and South Carolina, the main crops were rice and cotton. The expansion of these crops led to an increased demand of a large force labor. At the first they hired indentured servants. These were young people who paid for their passage to the American Colonies by working for an employer from five to seven years. Unlike slaves, Indentured servants could look forward to receiving payment known as "freedom dues" upon their release (Foner 2005). These freedom dues included things like new clothes and perhaps a bit of land. However, many died before the end of the.ir terms, and freedom dues were so meager that did not enable recipients to acquire land (Ibid.). Despite the hard conditions of work, a high death rate and

Indentured servants were people who came over to the southern colonies in America from Britain were bound to a contract to work off their debt overseas. The women who came over as indentured servants were often convicted of crimes back in England or came from poor families, either way these women hoped to create a new life for themselves after working off their debts. A large portion, about three-fourths of the women who came over from Britain to the Southern Colonies during the seventeenth century, were indentured servants (Dubois, ch.2 p.51).

The Southern Colonies consist of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, and Georgia. In this news paper story there will be a descriptions of the jobs, religions, education, cooking, and the attire.

The British have been the source of American trade since the founding of the colonies. Colonist had a slight fear always on their mind of the British revoking that help. When colonist thought of breaking away, they also considered the dire situation they could put themselves in. While in America, there wasn't any form of government to help with trade, so the fully relied on the mother land. With Britain's knowledge of this, the colonist thoughts shifted and they viewed their mother land

From the founding of the first English colonies to Thomas Jefferson becoming the third president of the United States of America, there was always one question in mind. Is America a land of opportunity? This time period is ridden with oppression and rebellion. So, no America was not a land of opportunity. Because of its infancy and tolerance of oppression, America fell short in terms of opportunity for those who were of the “lesser” ethnic groups.

One of the most significant events in U.S. history during the late colonial period was the Boston Tea Party. After the Boston Massacre in spring of 1770, all of the Townshend acts had been repealed except the tea tax, and tensions went down, for the most part, between the colonists and the British. Two years later, however, the Gaspee incident and consequent formation of the Committee of Correspondence brought the tension back, to an alarming degree. Then in 1773, when Lord North tried to help the British East India Company by allowing them to export tea to America without paying taxes, many colonists were furious. The price reduction in the tea was rightly seen as both a sneaky business tactic, and an attempt to pacify the colonies so Britain could continue taxing them unfairly. By December 16th of that year, a group of Patriots in Boston made a decision that turned out to have monumental consequences: Dressed as Mohawks, the rebels destroyed an entire shipment of British tea, throwing over 300 chests of it overboard as other colonists cheered. Lord North and King George were furious and determined that “the colonists must either submit or triumph” (Tindall and Shi 128).

After the contract of an indentured servant ended, they were given freedom dues. There was also the possibility of being given material items such as clothing, shoes, corn, and land (depending upon the rules of the colony) at the end of the contract for them to start a new life.

The Massachusetts colony, otherwise known as the ‘Massachusetts Bay colony’ was originally settled by Puritans in 1630. They were plagued by the religious persecutions of King Charles I and the Church of England. Weary from this dogged torment, they left England under the leadership of John Winthrop. These original colonists quickly established many small towns in the name of high religious ideals and strict societal rules. They also planted churches, spread Puritanism and religiously educated the masses, as these were some of their goals. A utopian society that other colonies looked upon with high regards was the ultimate goal.

From 1607 to 1754, people’s views on governing themselves changed greatly. It began in 1607, with the settlement of Jamestown. They were a corporate colony, working for the Virginia Company, they were whole-heartedly British. The Great Awakening, the Enlightenment, and the Tradition of Neglect all introduced new ways for the American colonies to think of themselves as more independent. Although they still considered themselves part of the British Empire, by the end of this era they had discovered that they could make their own laws and constitutions that fit the way that their world worked as opposed to Great Britain.

In the years 1607-1688 indentured servitude became very prominent in the American Colonies as America’s first major cash crop began production which was Tobacco brought to the colonies by John Rolfe in 1613. This cash crop needed a big enough workforce to cultivate it which brought the introduction of indentured servitude. Indentured servitude was when a common man with no wealth would work under a wealthy person, in exchange for the eventuality of earning land for all the hard work. Indentured servants worked by choice and had a contract with their masters, most servants would die however earning nothing in the end. As the colonies in the Americas grew and continued to flourish the arrival of African slaves came to fruition. In 1619 Slavery was not a prominent due to indentured

On July 4 1776 the colonies gained their independence from the British. The Thirteen colonies were justified in their independence from the British for a number of different reasons. There were four different acts they used to justify their independence. These acts were the stamp act, Townshend act, Sugar act, and the Quartering act. Also there is the fact of the Boston massacre. Not all of these acts were put in place for the colonists, but the majorities were directly to the colonists. To King George, all of this has been a colonial rebellion; to the colonists it was a struggle for rights as a British citizen.