Chapter Four - Life in the English Colonies (1630 - 1770)

Section One - Forms of Government

Colonial Governments

• Each of the English colonies had their own govenrments
• Most were run by a governor selected by the King or Queen of England
• Bicameral legislature - two house law making group (the House of Reps and Senate is an example)
• Parliament - British legislature
• Town Meeting - Public meetings when citizens would discuss issues of the community

Glorious Revolution

• English Bill of Rights (1689) - reduced the power of English Kings and Queens and gave more power to the Parliament

Section Two - The Growth of Trade

English Trade Laws

• Mercantilism - countries create wealth by carefully controlling trade
• Balance of Trade - a country seeks to export more than it imports to reduce its reliance on foreign countries
• Imports - goods bought from other countries
• Exports - goods sold to other countries
• Navigation Acts - trade laws that stated that the colonies had to do most of their trading with England
• Tariffs/Duties - taxes placed on imported goods
• Free enterprise - the idea that merchants should be able to trade with anyone without government interference
• The Navigation Acts upset colonial traders, who felt they could make more money trading with countries other than England
• Colonial traders wanted a free enterprise system

Colonial Trade

• Smuggling - trading illegally
• New England traders began to smuggle goods from around the globe, making England angry
• Triangular Trade - New England sent lumber, fish, and cloth to Africa. Africa traded slaves for these goods. Slaves were then sent to the West Indies on the middle passage in exchange for sugar and molasses. The sugar and molasses was sent to New England. The shipping was controlled by England.

Middle Passage

• 10 million Africans sent across the Atlantic (mostly to West Indies) to be used as slaves
• Three months long
• Overcrowded, no fresh air, and terrible diseases were spread on the ship

Section Three - The Colonial Economy

Agriculture in the Southern Colonies%

• Southern economies depended on farming (agriculture)
• Most of the farms in the south were small
• Large farms were called plantations
• Cash Crops - crops sold for profit
• Cash crops of the south were tobacco, rice and indigo
• The crops required much labor, so indentured servants or slaves were brought in to help tend to the land
• Slave Codes - laws designed to control slaves

Industry and Trade in New England

• Because of the harsh climate and rocky soil, it was difficult to grow cash crops in New England
• Slavery was not as important to this region as a result
• Trade was important to New England - fish, lumber, and furs were traded in port cities
• Shipbuilding was another major industry in New England
• Apprentices - young boys who learned skilled trades such as ship building, blacksmithing or printing

The Middle Colonies

• Combined the ecomines of New England and the south
• Slaves were more important to the Middle colonies than to New England
• Trade and free enterprise (little government control of trade) were important to middle colonies, especially in port cities

Women and the Economy

• Colonial laws limited women's economic activites
• Married women could not usually work outside the home without a husband's permission
• Most colonial women worked in the home cooking, cleaning, and raising children
• Some women made money washing clothes, selling butter, or making clothing

Section Five - American Culture

New Ideas from Europe

• Scientific Revoltuion - time in which scientists begin to better understand laws of nature
• Scientific Method -practice of trail and error (experimentation) to learn about natural events

Colonial Education

• Few people could afford formal education
• New England taught kids to read so that they could understand the Bible
• Most kids stopped after the elementary grades, then went to work on farm or as an apprentice
• Some universities created (Havard - 1636)

Benjamin Franklin

• Creates his own newspaper, Poor Richards Almanac
• Inventor - bifocals, Franklin wood stoves
• Opens first free library in colonies
• Starts the University of Pennsylvania