Colonies in Profile: Summary & Synthesis

•Discuss Native American & colonists' narrative "comic strips"
•Discuss Slavery Q's & A's
•Look over the map (Upload Provided) that shows the distribution of European colonial territories in 1700.
•Reflect with students on the unique American character that emerged among the free British colonists in North America. The harshness and risk of settling the New World gave them a certain grit and determination, along with an enterprising mind and innovative skill set. The universal demand for trade skills and farming in establishing a new civilization placed the vast majority of colonists within what we would call today the “working class.” In New England especially, colonists’ Protestantism made them widely literate for the sake of reading the Bible, skeptical of human sources of authority, and focused on individual improvement. At the same time, it made them highly idealistic, with many seeking to re-found Christendom. For many colonists, previous persecution granted them a deeper and more passionate sense of justice, of right and wrong. It also made them highly attuned to the politics on which freedom depended. A certain rugged, enterprising, and justice-loving individualism defined the colonists.
▪ Explain how a sort of unofficial aristocracy emerged throughout the colonies, but an aristocracy open to promotion by the meritorious; that is, based on merit, talent, and virtue instead of mere heredity. This unofficial class of leading citizens was also modeled more on the English gentleman rather than on the courts of continental Europe. Their stations in life ranged from planters in the south, where the aristocratic element was most prevalent, to clergy, merchants, professors, and manufacturers in the north. And in general, all of them were highly learned.

•Questions to summarize "The Colonies in Profile":
▪How may the English approach to settlement and colonization be best described? ▪ In what ways did different groups of European settlers see the New World as a place of opportunity and restoration?
▪ What was unique about religion in the colonies and in the eyes of the law?
▪ What were the roles of literacy and learning among the colonists?
▪ What is meant by self-government? How might it be said that the colonists governed themselves?
▪ What was distinctive about property ownership in the colonies?
▪ How did colonial economies vary from region to region?
▪ What was indentured servitude? How is it similar to and different from slavery?
▪What are the origins of slavery in world history?
▪ How were Africans first enslaved, before being brought to the Western Hemisphere? ▪ What was it like to be an African on the Middle Passage and then a slave in the New World?
▪ How were African slaves distributed in the New World? What proportions of Africans were taken to which parts?
▪ How did slavery gradually expand and become sanctioned in law?
▪ What were the chief characteristics of the “American” colonists? What gave them these characteristics?