User:Krismoose42

New Ways in a New World

Section One There were a variety of different peoples who came to America. The biggest groups of immigrants were the English. They came for the new opportunities and some for religious freedom. Even poor people in the colonies could find there sense of freedom. They could easily find a job to buy a plot of land for a house. There were others, however; that were forced to America to be slaves. These people were the African Americans. The biggest business in the colonies was tobacco plantations and the plantations needed workers. This is where the slaves came in. Trade was a big part of the American economy. Goods such as tobacco, rum, rice and indigo were traded from the colonies to Africa and England. Also, fish caught in the colonies were traded to Cuba and England. England provided the colonies with manufactured goods, while Africa brought slaves and wine to the colonies. Cuba gave molasses and sugar to the colonies. Spain contributed Fruit and salt to the colonies. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC9dlmeU_4Q

Families settled in everywhere in the colonies. Men were the leaders of the household: they controlled the money and could vote. Women were the ones who did most of the work. They were expected to do even moore work than the men. Children had no say in what their lives turned out to be. The parents decided if their boy was to be apprenticed to a blacksmith or a shoemaker or get an education etc. A girl would grow up in their mother’s shadow: learning to sew, cook and clean etc. The parents usually set up arranged marriages for their children.

Section 2 English Parliament was at war with the king in the 1640’s. In 1649, King Charles I was beheaded. After that, England was ruled by several other leaders who did not last long. Not until 1688, during the Glorious Revolution, did a lasting ruler come to power. King William and Queen Mary of Holland came to the thrown. As England was at war with France, the colonies prospered. They no longer had the ridiculous taxes in place on the goods they exported. Since England was taxing many things that were exported, some people took to smuggling goods in and out of the country. Mercantilism is the policy of letting money rule the government. It is exactly the opposite of “laissez faire” which is free market. It was the policy used by William and Mary in the 1690’s. There was also the Old Colonial system which was the name for the years of the neglect for the Navigation acts. They turned out to be a system for not enforcing the acts.

Section 3 In the 16-1700’s America was a battlefield for Europe’s rivalries. The British and the French were always fighting. In 1704 some French soldiers and their Indian allies massacred Deerfield, Massachusetts residents and took many others hostage. This was known as the Deerfield massacre. In response, Brits would attack Quebec and other French strongholds. The French and Indian war was not truly a war between the French and the Indians. It was between the British and the French with their Indian allies. It started in 1754 with the Battle of Great Meadows. The fighting ended in 1759 but the Treaty of Paris wasn’t signed until 63. The Treaty of Paris was the peace treaty that officially ended the French and Indian War in 1663. It stated that The French would have to give up some of their land. They gave Spain New Orleans and all of the land west of the Mississippi river. France gave Britain all of the land between the Mississippi river and the Appalachian Mountains. Britain gave France their sugar islands. Lastly Britain took Canada from France as it would soon be economically good for the colonies.

“Benjamin Franklin was one of the American Commissioners in France who negotiated the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain ending the American Revolutionary War and securing the United States ownership of a vast territory between the Atlantic coast and the Mississippi River.” Excerpt from http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/franklin-treaty.html