CHAPTER 3 READING GUIDE – COLONIAL WAYS OF LIFE
Focus Questions: Focus questions are found on the first page of each chapter. These questions are designed to guide
your thinking as you read the chapter and connect overarching themes. It is highly suggested that you answer each focus
question using textual evidence to help synthesize content.
1. What were the social and economic differences among the southern, middle, and New England colonies?
2. How did people of different genders, races, and classes fit into colonial society?
3. What was the impact of the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening on the American colonies?
***This chapter focuses more on “soft history” which explores more cultural and societal issues. As you read through the
chapter it’s important you distinguish similarities and differences between colonial ways of life in the different regions of
the (future) U.S.
THE SHAPE OF EARLY AMERICA
***As you read through this first section keep in mind that this is a general overview of life in the colonies. You should be
able to summarize each sub-section in a sentence or two. Subsequent sections will provide more detail and should be
paid closer attention.
British Folkways
 Four mass migrations from the 17th – 18th centuries. Who moved? Why did they move from? Where did they
move to?
 Many settlers brought customs, traditions, attitudes, and beliefs with them. If you moved across the world
would you cease to be you?
Seaboard Ecology
 The notion that America was untouched wilderness when the settlers arrived is simply not true. Native American
groups used and exploited the land for their own benefit, but tended to migrate around regions allowing for
regrowth.
 What is the most significant difference for how Native Americans and European settlers viewed land and
resources? How did the settlers use the land?
 List the ways livestock affected the colonists, Native Americans, and the environment.
 How did livestock affect relations between Native Americans and colonists?
 BIG PICTURE – The environment and how people and animals interacted with it changed rapidly with the arrival
of settlers and livestock.
Population Growth
 BIG PICTURE – From 1750 – 1775 the American colonial population grew from 1 million to 2.5 million. Think
about WHY the population grew so quickly.
Birthrates and Death Rates
 When people in the colonies married earlier (in their early twenties and opposed to their mid-twenties) women
had more time to have more children. Birth control did not exist and many women had as many babies as their
bodies could handle. The family pictured on page 103 had 8 children over the span of 14 years… yikes!
 List the factors that led to a lower death rate.
Sex Ratios and the Family
 Why were sex ratios among colonies so uneven early on?
Women in the Colonies
 “Both social custom and legal codes ensured that most women… remained deferential. In most colonies they
could not vote, preach, hold office, attend public schools or colleges, bring lawsuits, make contracts, or own
property.” Sums up the severe lack of power women had as the colonies formed.
Women’s Work
 What roles were women able to occupy? What was life like for the typical colonial woman? Were women any
better off in the colonies than they were in England?
SOCIETY AND THE ECONOMY IN THE SOUTHERN COLONIES
CHAPTER 3 READING GUIDE – COLONIAL WAYS OF LIFE
***Take detailed notes on life in the South. This includes the Chesapeake region!
Crops
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Land
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The climate of the South led the area to become highly agricultural unlike the Northeast.
Staple crops included: rice, tobacco, & indigo.
Read the last paragraph closely, who benefitted financially from the staple-crop system and why?
IMPORTANT - Land was plenty but labor scarce – remember the “headright system.”
“If one distinctive feature of the South’s agrarian economy was a ready market in England, another was a trend
toward large-scale production.
Labor
 Many laborers were indentured servants, kidnapped kids, and criminals, YIKES!
 Think back to the bell ringer from Thursday, what was life like for most indentured servants?
 “Many servants died before completing their indenture, however, and recent evidence suggests that most of
those who served their term remained relatively poor thereafter.
Slavery – SECTION IS VERY IMPORTANT!
 “Colonial America was a land of white opportunity and black slavery… During the 18th century there were more
than three times as many slaves as free immigrants in the British colonies.”
 1660s slavery was legally recognized and was hereditary unlike in other parts of the world.
 British North America received 5% of slaves from Africa. The rest when to the Bahamas (aka the West Indies)
and South America, namely Brazil.
African Roots
 Analyze the map on titled “The African Slave Trade 1500 – 1800” to grasp a sense of diversity within the slave
trade itself.
 What were some of the kinship and political systems in West Africa?
 “African preyed on Africans” – what does this mean?
Slave Culture
 What were the similarities and differences between slave culture in the colonies, why?
 Describe in detail was slave culture was like in the South.
 Most slaves became field hands, though not all. What other trades did slaves partake in?
 Many white slave owners had forcible relationships with black women. The end result was often a child. Why
was it culturally and socially acceptable for white men to have relations with black women but not the opposite
(white women & black men?)
The Gentry
 What does the term “gentry” mean?
 The Southern Gentry was a small minority of people often preoccupied with imitating English aristocracy.
Religion
 William Berkeley, VA Governor, declared the colony to be Anglican. All other religions would not be tolerated
which led to people leaving the area, i.e. Puritan New England and Quaker Pennsylvania
SOCIETY AND THE ECONOMY IN NEW ENGLAND
***Take detailed notes on life in New England
Townships
 Unlike the South, most New Englanders resided in townships that were divided up based on what was thought
to be fair (family size, etc.)
 “Towns shaped by English precedent and Puritan policy also fitted the environment of a rockbound land,
confined by sea and mountains and unfit for large-scale agriculture.
Dwellings and Daily Life
CHAPTER 3 READING GUIDE – COLONIAL WAYS OF LIFE
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If this section doesn’t make you appreciate modern amenities I don’t know what will! Your take away should be
that New England houses were small and simple.
Enterprise
 Due to the harsh climate New Englanders did not become an agrarian society. Instead, most ate fish and other
seafood from fisheries.
New England Shipbuilding
 “The New England economy was utterly dependent on fishing and maritime commerce, and this placed a
premium on the availability of boasts and ships – and shipbuilders.”
 Shipbuilding became a big industry for New England with up to 1/3 of all British ships being built in the
Northeast colonies.
Trade – ENTIRE SECTION IS IMPORTANT
 Since England colonized what became the U.S., parliament and the monarchy believed the colonies should
financially benefit England. No surprise there! However, the colonies often traded illegally with other European
countries to turn a profit. No surprise there either!
 How did trade work in New England? How was it different than in the other colonies?
 What was the “triangular trade?”
 Why was currency inflation an issue? Eventually all paper money in the colonies was outlawed by the British
Parliament, why?
Religion – ENTIRE SECTION IS IMPORTANT
 Religion was central to many colonist’s lives, perhaps none more so than New England colonists. Again,
remember that many Puritans settled in the Massachusetts region. The separatists settled in Plymouth, MA
specifically.
 How did religion dominate and influence the lives of New England colonists?
Diversity and Social Strains
 While many people associate the New England colonies with Puritans, that is not representative of EVERY
colonists in New England. Be aware of the differences too! Throughout history, U.S. history included, you’ll see
religion and its influence ebb and flow. At times religion will seem more or less important in people’s daily lives.
The Devil in New England
 Witch! The Salem Witch Trials are still a fascinating point in history but much like Raleigh’s lost colony no one
knows exactly what caused these women to have “fits.”
 This whole story reads like a soap opera. One girl accuses another of witchcraft and within weeks and months
hundreds more have been accused. Within a year the special court was disbanded since it was clear the trials
had reached a fever pitch. Most accusers recanted (took back their accusations) but only after 19 men and
women had been killed.
 The last paragraph is thoroughly amusing and simultaneously terrifying.
SOCIETY AND ECONOMY IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES
***Take detailed notes on life in the Middle Colonies
An Economic Mix
 Not surprisingly, the Middle Colonies adopted characteristics of both New England and the South. List an
example.
An Ethnic Mix
 The Middle Colonies became home to many non-English colonists. Who else settled here and why?
The Backcountry
 Main Idea: “Germans were the first white settlers in the upper Shenandoah Valley, and Scotch-Irish filled the
lower valley.”
COLONIAL CITIES
***Take notes on the main ideas
CHAPTER 3 READING GUIDE – COLONIAL WAYS OF LIFE
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Main Idea: Most colonial cities were more likely to keep in touch with London than with each other. The colony’s
reason for being was commerce with England.
The Social and Political Order
 Create a graphic representation (drawing, flow-chart, pyramid) of the social and political hierarchy in colonial
cities.
The Urban Web
 Most people traveled between cities by road on foot or horse (if you had access to a horse!)
 Taverns (aka bars) became boarding houses for travelers.
 Eventually a postal system was implemented and became more reliable and important. As a results there was a
rise in newspapers and their distribution.
 IMPORTANT – Know who John Peter Zenger is and how his trial influenced public criticism of government
officials.
THE ENLIGHTENMENT
***Summarize each section’s main idea(s) in one or two sentences.
Discovering the Laws of Nature
The Enlightenment in America
Franklin’s Influence
Education in the Colonies
THE GREAT AWAKENING
***Important! The Great Awakening and often the Second Grate Awakening (don’t worry we’ll get there) show up on the
exam. Take notes!
Stirrings
 As the colonies grew bigger and became more spread out many believed the colonists were moving further
away from God. This perception may or may not have been true, ultimately it depends on who you asked and
what their perspective on religion was.
 IMPORTANT – Know who J. Edwards and G. Whitefield are and why they were significant. George Whitefield was
a powerful speaker who often inspired those around him to recommit to the church. One might say Whitefield
was a great performer, also is he cross-eyed? Look at the picture on 142.
 Main Idea: The Great Awakening was designed to draw people back to God after all the logic and science
presented by the Enlightenment. I wonder if the Great Awakening would have even happened without the
Enlightenment.
Piety and Reason
 Read the entire section but focus on the last paragraph, “The Great Awakening, like the Enlightenment, set in
motion powerful currents that still flow in American life… Both movements emphasized the power and right of
individual decision making , and both aroused millennial hopes that America would become the promised land
in which people might attain the perfection of piety or reason, if not both.