Emerging Tensions

Test on Friday, October 12, 2007. Be ready, review the essay question.

Turn in your Africans in Colonial America WS.

Reading assignment 89-93

Question of the day: Due in 10 minutes


In a paragraph describe the living conditions endured by Africans slaves during the Middle Passage.
or
Compare and contrast the work conditions of a slave from South Carolina with slave from New England.



By the middle of the 18th century (1750) the 13 American colonies had become prosperous and content with their lives and role in the British Empire.

Unlike England where poverty limited family size the average American family contained as many as 8 children with some familes having a dozen.

This growing population along with new immigrants soon began to push the western boundaries of the colonies further and further away from the sea and into Native American lands that up until now had been unmapped.

Led by settlers from Germany and Scotland new settlements and farms were created overnight by the ever increasing demand for land and new opportunities.

As the American settlers moved into these areas they soon came into conflict with both the French and their native trading partners.

The relationship between the French and the Indians was relatively good. The French had not come to the Americas in the numbers that the English had and they they had no desire to overcome the native peoples culture with their own.

The native people while alarmed at the encroachment of the English settlers still felt a desire to trade with these people and even played the English off against the French when they saw a way to gain advantage.

The English and French had long been rivals in Europe and they continued their rivalry in the New World.

So as the English moved further and further west the French began to build forts and bases that would serve as checks on the advancment of the colonist. Soon these forts would be the basis for a war that would decide which nation, England or France would control North America.

Other events occuring in the colonies in the mid to late 18th century related to religion.

Beginning in the 1740'ss the Great Awakening helped to set forth the notion that democracy and equality before God was possible in the church setting. Most wealthy people belonged to the Church of England and believed that their wealth and status was granted to them by God.

The Great Awakening helped to dispel this notion amongst the common people and helped to lay the foundation for religious ideas that promoted democracy and equality.

Ideas that would help fuel the American Revolution and the democractic principles that it promoted.

Complete question # 5 on page 93. Your essay should be at least one half page in length.

Due tomorrow Thursday, October 11, 2007

Test on Friday, Test review tomorrow.



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