Teaching American History, Year I Peopling North America George S. Vascik Miami University Hamilton February 18, 2009

Teaching American History, Year I Benchmarks and Indicators Grade Five, History –Settlement Describe the lasting effects of Spanish, French and English colonization in North America

Teaching American History, Year I Benchmarks and Indicators Grade Eight, History –The First Global Age Reasons for colonization, including religion, desire for land and economic opportunity

Teaching American History, Year I Speech regions in the US Where did these speech patterns come from?

Teaching American History, Year I The argument David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America, Oxford University Press, The colonies were settled by four separate folk groups, each with their own folkways. The influence of those folkways are with us still today.

Teaching American History, Year I Different folkways Fischer identifies 24 folkways: –Speech –Building –Family/Marriage/Gender/Sex/Naming –Death/Age –Dress/Food/Work –Religion –Learning/Magic –Wealth/Rank/Order –Power/Freedom

Teaching American History, Year I The four cultural areas Borderlands Quakers Puritans Cavaliers

Teaching American History, Year I Puritan origins -Anti-Royalist -Religious -Educated -Wealth = salvation -John Winthrop, the Adams family

Teaching American History, Year I Quaker origins -Non-Conformers -Anti-authority -Commercial -Most welcoming of Other groups -Penn, Franklin

Teaching American History, Year I Cavalier origins -Royalist -Church of England -Hierarchical -Style and fashion valued over education -Fairfax, Washington, Jefferson

Teaching American History, Year I Borderlands origin -Anti-Royalist -Lawless -Men = warriors -Women = workers -Unique family patterns -Calhoun, Polk, Jackson

Teaching American History, Year I Borderlands settlement

Teaching American History, Year I Representative figures

Teaching American History, Year I Housing types

Teaching American History, Year I Summation Given these disparate folk ways, it will be very difficult for the colonies to unite. What was it about life in America that made these very different people feel more “American” and alike than “British” and dissimilar?

Teaching American History, Year I Benchmarks and Indicators Grade Five, History –Settlement Describe the lasting effects of Spanish, French and English colonization in North America

Teaching American History, Year I Benchmarks and Indicators Grade Eight, History –The First Global Age Reasons for colonization, including religion, desire for land and economic opportunity