Colonial America Test Study Guide
Primary Source will be distributed in class
Generating an essay:
Introduction: State your thesis
-What does the primary source tell us about the existence of hierarchy
and harmony within colonial society? How does the primary source relate
to a larger idea (perhaps the Declaration of Independence or the
American Revolution)?
Body: Evidence/explanation ("This is evidenced by...")
-Explain what hierarchy and harmony mean. After each explanation, find
direct quotes from the primary source to reinforce your explanations.
Conclusion: Summarize how the evidence relates to your thesis. Most
importantly, you should try to link the information to a larger idea,
historical event or present-day circumstances.
*It is better to have a strong intro/conclusion than an essay merely
reporting facts. The facts must relate to what you are trying to
prove/disprove. Introductions and conclusions showcase analysis and
higher order thinking skills.
You may outline your essay on an index card and keep your primary
source on your desk during the test. You may only utilize one side of the
index card. Do NOT write your entire essay on the card or it will be
confiscated.
-Jamestown 1607
-Colonial America Review/differences between the colonies
-Motivations for migrating to America
-Pilgrams/Puritans (“City Upon a Hill”) The Great Migration
-joint-stock company/proprietorship and royal colony
-cash crops/economic systems
-What type of person came to the colonies?
-How did this effect British perceptions of Americans?
-What is primogeniture?
-What is an indentured servant?
-What is the head right system? How did it bring about the
plantation system?
-When did slavery come to America?
-Why didn't the New England and Middle Colonies have slavery?
-Why did it become race-based?
-What is mercantilism?
-Triangular Trade (role of New England)
-Navigation, Sugar & Molasses Acts/inspectors
-What common element could be found within colonial
governments?
-Social History/Hierarchy & Harmony
-What does Hierarchy and Harmony mean?
-How was this evident in the colonies?
-Upward mobility-mimic English Culture
-commercial vs. aristocratic wealth
-Only the gentry ruled in England (top to bottom-vertical)
-lower classes considered “mobs” and had no role in political life
-What determined their social class?
-How the Americans attempt to challenge the harmony?
of social status?
-How does the accumulation of material goods/status symbols
from the consumer revolution and the need to create
etiquette/manners provide evidence to this?
-How did England view all the colonials, regardless of their
social status in America?
-How do these ideas contribute to a "revolution" in
American
thought?
-What is the American Dream?
-French and Indian War causes
outcomes (Proclamation of 1763/Royal debttaxation/quartering of soldiers/crack down with smuggling
-How did American accumulation of goods (in their feeble
attempt to earn the respect of the British) in the colonies
contribute to the idea of taxing the colonists?
-What is salutory neglect? (consider what colonial
governments
had in common
-Rights of Englishmen/life/liberty and property
-Virtual vs. Actual Representation
-“Power to tax is the power to destroy” Edmund Burke