Chapter 4 Study Guide

  1. Between 1700 and 1750, the population of England's colonies in North America doubled and then doubled again. 
  2. At the start of the century, the colonial population stood at about 257,000. 
  3. By the 1700s, the colonies formed three distinct regions: 
  4. New England Colonies
  5. Middle Colonies
  6. Southern Colonies
  7. Another area was the Backcountry that ran along the Appalachian Mountains through the far western part of the other regions.
  8. New England had long winters and rocky soil. 
  9. The Middle Colonies had shorter winters and fertile soil. 
  10. The Southern Colonies had a warm climate and good soil.
  11. Many Scots-Irish immigrants settled the Backcountry.
  12. During the colonial era, the majority of people made their living by farming.
  13. Producing just enough food for themselves and sometimes a little extra to trade is known as subsistence farming.
  14. Most of New England’s land was divided among the members of its local Church.
  15. Because New England’s people lived together in small towns, shopkeepers such as blacksmith and carpenters had enough customers to make a living.
  16. Because New England's rocky soil made farming difficult they begin to turn to the ocean as a source of food.
  17. New England's forests were a rich source for materials needed to produce ships for fishing.
  18. New England's fish and timber were among its most valuable articles of trade.
  19. Triangular trade was the name given to a trading route with three stops that included the shipping of African Slaves.
  20. The Middle Passage was the brutal and horrific transportation of Africans across the Atlantic to the plantations of the Caribbean and Americas.
  21. To ensure that England made money from its colonies' trade the English government began to pass the Navigation Acts in 1651.
  22. In 1691, a new royal charter for Massachusetts guaranteed religious freedom for all Protestants.
  23. The settling of the Middle Colonies soon crowded out Native Americans, who had lived in the region for thousands of years.
  24. The Middle Colonies boasted a longer growing season than New England and a soil rich enough to grow cash crops.
  25. Cash Crops are simply raised to be sold for money.
  26. After harvesting their crops of corn, wheat, rye, or other grains, farmers took them to a gristmill to be crushed into flour or meal.
  27. Water wheels built along the region's plentiful rivers powered most of the mills.
  28. The excellent harbors along the coasts of the Middle Colonies were ideal sites for cities.
  29. One of the largest immigrant groups in the Middle Colonies after the English was the Germans.
  30. Because many different groups contributed to the culture of the Middle Colonies different groups had to learn to accept, or at least tolerate, one another.
  31. Quakers were also the first to raise their voices against slavery.
  32. In 1750, about 7 percent of the Middle Colonies' population was enslaved.
  33. New York City had a larger number of people of African descent than any other city in the Northern colonies.
  34. The economy of the Southern Colonies relied heavily on slave labor.
  35. The South's soil and almost year-round growing season were ideal for plantation crops like rice and tobacco.
  36. For the first half of the 1600s, there were few Africans in Virginia, whether enslaved or free.
  37. Planters or plantation owners tried to force Native Americans to work for them, but European diseases caused many to die.
  38. The growth of slavery allowed plantation farming to expand in South Carolina and Georgia.
  39. The cultivation of rice required not only backbreaking labor but also considerable skill, West Africans had these skills, planters sought out slaves who came from Africa's rice-growing regions.
  40. On higher ground, planters grew indigo, a plant that yields a deep blue dye.
  41. The planter class was relatively small compared to the rest of the population; however, this upper class soon took control of political and economic power in the South.
  42. On large Southern plantations, slaves toiled in groups of about 20 to 25 under the supervision of overseers.
  43. In spite of the brutal living conditions, Africans preserved many customs and beliefs from their homelands including music, dances, stories, and, for a time, African religions-including Islam. At times, slaves became so angry and frustrated by their loss of freedom that they rose up in rebellion; one of the most famous incidents was the Stono Rebellion.
  44. The Stono  Rebellion and similar revolts led planters to make slave codes even stricter.
  45. Settlers moved to the Backcountry because land was cheap and plentiful.
  46. The first Europeans in the Backcountry made a living by trading with the Native Americans.
  47. Backcountry settlers paid for goods with deerskins, a unit of value was one buckskin or, for short, a "buck."
  48. Scots-Irish headed to America by the thousands, after they arrived, they quickly moved into the Backcountry.
  49. The Backcountry settlers started a westward movement that would play a critical role in American history.
  50. In The Backcountry the English colonists also came into conflict with French fur traders.