Chapters 1-4

HOW WE STUDY HISTORY
• Primary Source - a document or other piece of evidence written or created during the time being studied.
• Secondary Source - A document which is an interpretation of primary sources.

THE PEOPLING OF THE AMERICAS
• Land Bridge Theory
• Watercraft Migration Theories
• Coastal Route
• Australia/Oceana

• Shift from Hunter/Gatherer 
Farmer
• Why?
• What does this lead to?
• Cities
• Civilization
• Domestication of Animals
• Writing
• Technology

IMPACT OF GEOGRAPHY AND CULTURE

THE AGE OF EXPLORATION
• The Renaissance
• Expansion of Trade
• Prince Henry the Navigator
• Wanted to spread religion and Portuguese power
• Brings skilled people together
• Makes people want to explore

The discovery of the Americas by Europeans
• Columbus
• Sailed for Ferdinand and Isabella
• Landed on San Salvador
• Looking for…?
• Henry Hudson
• Sailed for?
• Laid claim for?
• Northwest Passage
• Sea route through or around
North America

Columbian Exchange
Exchange of people, goods, ideas, between the eastern and western hemispheres.

COLONIZATION
• The first permanent English colony in North America.
• Jamestown
• Early on…
• John Smith
• “He who works not, eats not”
• Cash crops
• Eventually lead to…
• Why establish colonies in the first place?
• Mercantilism
• The idea that a colony exists to make the home country rich and powerful

NEW ENGLAND COLONIES
• Thin soil, hills and shorter growing season
• Not too easy to farm
• Less disease
• Fishing, ship building
• Pilgrims
• Separatists
• Mayflower Compact
• A step toward self-governance

NEW ENGLAND COLONIES
• Massachusetts Bay
• Puritans
• Religious beliefs?
• Toleration
• Salem
• John Winthrop
• Rhode Island
• “City on a hill”
• Roger Williams
• Toleration?

THE MIDDLE COLONIES
• Fertile land, longer growing seasons
• Great for farming!
• Hudson river is great for trade
• New York
• Henry Hudson lays claims for the
Dutch
• Eventually England takes the colony

THE MIDDLE COLONIES
• Pennsylvania
• William Penn
• “Holy Experiment”
• Toleration
• Eventually leads to Quakers championing the rights of women, slaves, etc.

THE SOUTHERN COLONIES
• Warm, hot, humid climate
• Very long growing season
• Good for cash crops
• Swampy areas
• Lead to early disease
• Maryland
• Lord Baltimore
• Act of Toleration
• All Christians are part of government
• Protects Catholics from persecution

THE SOUTHERN COLONIES
• Virginia
• Expansion of Jamestown
• Need for labor due to cash crops
• Plantation system
• First use Natives, then enslaved Africans
• Conflicts with Natives
• Bacon’s Rebellion

SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES
• Grows out of the plantation system
• Triangular Trade
• Middle Passage
• Picture
• “The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocating us….
The shrieks of the woman, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole scene of horror almost inconceivable”
- Olaudah Equiano
• What happens when they get to the Americas?

THE CREATION AND EXPANSION OF
GOVERNMENT AND LIBERTY
• Magna Carta
• Parliament
• English Bill of Rights
• House of Burgesses
• John Peter Zenger

THE MAGNA CARTA
• 1215 King John is forced to sign
• First document to limit the power of the king

PARLIAMENT
• Originally called the Great Council.
• Is a legislature….
• A group of people who have the power to make laws.
• Held the “power of the purse”
• Which is…

ENGLISH BILL OF RIGHTS
• In 1689 the King and Queen sign the English Bill of Rights
• A bill of rights is…
• A written list of freedoms that a government promises to protect.

COLONIAL GOVERNMENT
• House of Burgesses
• Virginia
• General Court
• Massachusetts
• General Assembly
• Pennsylvania

VOTING
• Who could not vote?
• Colonists actually have more rights in the Americas

PETER ZENGER
• 1735 – Zenger publishes statements which criticize the governor
• Libel – the publishing of statements that damage a person’s reputation.

EFFECTS OF THE ZENGER CASE
• Democracy depends on well informed citizens
• The press has a responsibility to keep the public informed of the truth