United States History to 1877

Exploration to Revolution: Pre-Columbian Times to the 1770s

USI.5

The student will demonstrate knowledge of the factors that shaped colonial America by

a) describing the religious and economic events and conditions that led to the colonization of America;
b) comparing and contrasting life in the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies, with emphasis on how people interacted with their environment;
c) describing colonial life in America from the perspectives of large landowners, farmers, artisans, women, indentured servants, and slaves;
d) identifying the political and economic relationships between the colonies and England.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Introduce the unit on colonial life by asking students how England imposed its political and economic control over the colonies.
Explain that England established and attempted to maintain control over the colonies.
Economic relationships included the following:
- England and the colonies was England imposed strict control over trade.
- England taxed the colonies after the French and Indian War.
- Colonies traded raw materials for goods.
Explain that the raw materials of the colonies would supply English manufacturing interests, and by settling English colonists overseas, markets for English goods would be assured.
Provide background information. In 1764, the first tax law imposed to raise money to pay for the recently concluded wars was called the Sugar Act. This law mandated that the colonists pay a tax on many manufactured goods coming to the colonies from other places. This tax or tariff especially angered the colonists because they had no part in imposing it. The King and Parliament had taxed the colonists without their consent. Not all of the colonists were angry. Some people, the Loyalists or Tories, approved of the King's decision.
Explain that a year later, the Stamp Act was passed. This was a tax on anything that was printed or written on paper. Again the colonists were angry, but mostly because they had no representation in Parliament. Many colonists began forming committees to organize and speak about their concerns. Their words began to spread around the colonies. People protested in many ways: some people wrote up petitions and gathered long lists of signatures; others printed angry broadsides. Still others began boycotting or refusing to buy British goods. Many colonial women began replacing British-made cloth with homespun cloth and grew herbs in their garden to replace imported tea. Additional information is available at http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/history/teaching/enewsletter
Explain that the French & Indian War started in America in 1754 and spread to Europe in 1756 where it was known as the Seven Years War. The cause of the war was over which country would control the trans-Appalachian region. In 1754 the British built a fort at the junction of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers (present-day Pittsburgh). The French promptly captured and enlarged the fort. The following year British General Braddock arrived in America with a regular army and with orders to retake the fort. Braddock refused to take the advice of his colonial officers (including Colonel George Washington) on how to wage frontier warfare, and his forces were badly defeated and he was killed. The British reverses continued through 1756. The outcomes of the war were that: (1) France no longer owned any land in the New World; (2) England decided that they needed to tax the colonists to pay for the war; and (3) England also decided that they needed to keep an eye on the colonies. Additional resources are available at:http://www.nps.gov/fone/classroom/fiwar/adplans.htm
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/us/colonial/fiwar/
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/us/colonial/fiwar/cloze/answers.shtml
The political relationships included the following:
- Colonists had to obey English laws that were enforced by governors.
- Colonial governors were appointed by the king or by the proprietor.
- Colonial legislatures made laws for each colony and were monitored by colonial governors.
Explain that the American colonial government was based on the English model. In 1619 the first legislature in the colonies, the Virginia House of Burgesses, was organized. Although there were slight variations between colonies, the general framework was the same. The monarch appointed the colonial governor; the governor appointed a council, generally made up of the wealthiest men in the colony. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the British North American colonies were the most democratic places in the world. Additional resources are available at http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/1stASSLY.html and http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/socialstudies/projects/jvc/overview.html.

WEB SITES

http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume3
Background information on how taxes affected the colonists

http://www.nps.gov/fone/classroom/fiwar/adplans.htm
National Park Service resources on the French and Indian War

http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/1stASSLY.html
National Park Service Web with information on the first general assembly in Jamestown

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