1. The student will demonstrate an understanding of the conflicts between
America:
USHC-1.1
The student will demonstrate an understanding of the conflicts between
regional and national interest in the development of democracy in the United States
US History
& Constitution

2. Contemporary democratic ideals originated in England, were transplanted to North America by English settlers, and have evolved in the United States as a result of regional experiences

3. What were the motivations Europeans to settle in New England?
How did those motivations impacted the type of society that developed in each region?
Did the colonies REALLY have religious FREEDOM?
What is the Magna Carta and Parliament?

4. One of the most common misunderstandings about the motivation of settlers is that they all came for religious reasons.
Although the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay were founded for religious purposes, most other settlers came to the New World to get land to improve their economic and social standing.
Southern colonies were founded for economic reasons and religion did not play as large a role in their cultural development until the Great Awakening.
The impact of religion in the English colonies depended upon which groups of Englishmen settled the region

5. The first Pilgrims and Puritans migrated for religious freedom for themselves but not for religious freedom for other religious groups.
There was very little religious tolerance in New England.
The Puritans were trying to create a “city on the hill,” a community that England could look to as a model of godliness. They did not want their model community defiled by people with other religious beliefs, so they exiled dissenters such as Roger Williams to Rhode Island and persecuted Quakers.

6. Religion played a large role in the cultural development of New England.
There was more religious diversity and tolerance in the Mid-Atlantic colonies; however, it was also limited.
Pennsylvania was founded by Quaker William Penn. Quakers believed that everyone had an inner light and this belief fostered tolerance.
The Church of England (Anglican) was the established church in the South.

7. The Act of Toleration in Maryland is often cited as evidence of religious tolerance but is also evidence of the intolerance practiced by the Puritans in Maryland. Lord Baltimore promoted the Act in order to protect the rights of the Catholics in the colony.
Religious intolerance in the colonial period was a prime factor in the establishment of the principle of separation of church and state after the American Revolution.

8. Society:
Early migrants to New England and the mid-Atlantic colonies initially developed a somewhat egalitarian society based on religious equality that fostered the development of democratic political institutions but as economic prosperity developed and immigration increased, so did class distinctions.

9. Society, continued
The Congregational (Puritan) church fostered the development of towns and educational institutions and shaped New England society.
The English settlements in the South developed a hierarchical social structure early because of the plantation system and their dependence on indentured servants and later on slaves.
The slave system was transplanted to the Carolinas from Barbados.
Although Georgia was initially chartered as a penal colony that outlawed slavery in order to promote a more egalitarian society, it soon became a plantation colony that allowed slavery.

10. Politics
The political development of the colonies was impacted by the political traditions of the mother country. The British emigrants brought not only their language and culture with them but also their experience with the Magna Carta and Parliament.
Colonial experiences and distance from the mother country fostered the development of democratic institutions starting with Virginia’s House of Burgesses and the New England town meeting.

11. Politics Continued
Dependence on slavery and the development of the plantation economy impacted the South’s less democratic political system in which the coastal planters had more political power than ordinary farmers
Civil war in England during the 1600s and the policy of salutary neglect helped to undermine the authority of the king in the colonies and strengthened the role of colonial assemblies. Although most colonies were royal colonies by 1750, colonial assemblies used the power of the purse to control the impact of the royal governors.

12. British subjects in the colonies were loyal to the Crown but believed that only their colonial assemblies had the power to tax them based on the traditions of the Magna Carta and colonial experience. The English Civil War, the Glorious Revolution and the English Bill of Right all influenced the colonists’ perception of their rights as Englishmen.

13. Economics
The economic development of the English colonies in the New World depended on their geographic location and the natural resources and the human capital available to them.

14. Northern Economics
Geographic conditions afforded the settlers in New England only a subsistence farming economy. They turned to the forests for shipbuilding and to the sea as merchants and fishermen. New Englanders were not as dependent on slavery as Southern colonists because of geographic conditions, such as rocky soil and a short growing season and this impacted their views of democracy.

15. Mid- Atlantic Colonies Economics
The settlers of the Mid-Atlantic colonies were able to exploit their geographic resources of fertile soil and moderate climate and employ their large families to develop an export trade in food stuffs and were not dependent on slave labor.

16. Southern Colony Economics
The Southern colonies used their wide expanses of fertile soil to grow cash crops, such as tobacco, rice, and indigo, with slave labor and to export these crops on the ships of New England. It is a common misunderstanding that cotton was a major export crop of the colonial era. Cotton became an important part of the southern economy only after the invention of the cotton gin in 1793.

17. Trade
The three regions developed an interdependent network of coastal trade and trade with the British Caribbean as well as trade across the Atlantic with Africa and Europe. This trade and consequent economic development was impacted by the mercantilist policies of the mother country

18. European Exploration of the Americas, 1492–1682
Chapter 1, Section 2

19. Colonial Policies and Self-Government
Chapter 1, Section 3
England’s colonial policies were based on two ideas:
1. Mercantilism — the theory that a country should try to get and keep as much bullion, or gold and silver, as possible.
2. Balance of trade — the difference in value between imports and exports should show more exports than imports. In this way, the country profits, or keeps more bullion.
By the early 1700s, similarities in colonial governments included:
1. A governor appointed by the king
2. A colonial legislature that
served under the governor
had an upper house council appointed by the king
had an elected lower house
Local leaders came to dominate the legislatures, and thus upheld England’s long tradition of strong local government.

20. Diverse Colonial Economies
Chapter 1, Section 3