1. Unit 1 From Colonies to Independence
Chapters 1-4

2. I. The Great Convergence

3. American Colonies Emerge
3 Regions: New England, Middle, Southern

4. Colonial Characteristics
New England colonies were settled by Puritans seeking religious freedom.
Middle colonies were culturally diverse as many ethnic groups settled there seeking religious freedom and economic opportunity.
Southern colonies were formed for economic reasons in the form of land ownership.

5. Economics of the colonies
New England: shipbuilding, fishing, lumbering, small scale farming.
Middle: shipbuilding, small scale farming, and trading. Seaports and commercial centers.
Southern: large plantations and grew cash crops such as tobacco, rice, and indigo.

6. Social Structure
New England: based on religion and connected it to government.
Middle: skilled laborers, entrepreneurs, and small farmers.
Southern: Family status & land ownership.

7. Political Life New England: Town Meetings (Direct Democracy)
Middle: Reflected the basic rights of Englishmen.
Southern: Strong ties to Britain, with planters creating representative government.

8. New England Colonies
Massachusetts Bay: Founded by John Winthrop with strong Puritan beliefs and to be seen as “The city upon a hill.”
Plymouth: Founded by William Bradford and the Pilgrims. Set up as a “covenant community” created under the Mayflower Compact.
Rhode Island: Founded by Roger Williams for dissenters leaving Massachusetts

10. New England Events
Salem Witch Trials: Religious fanaticism led to multiple executions of individuals.
Great Awakening: A religious movement that swept both Europe and the colonies during the mid-1700s. It led to the rapid growth of evangelical religions, such as Methodist and Baptist, and challenged the established religious and governmental orders. It laid one of the social foundations for the American Revolution.

11. Middle Colonies
Pennsylvania: Founded by William Penn as a home to Quakers.
New York: Settled as a haven for Huguenots and Jews.
New Jersey: Home to Presbyterians.
Cities such as NY & Philadelphia became commercial centers & seaports.
Connecticut: 1st written Constitution (Fundamental Orders)

13. Southern Colonies
Jamestown: First permanent English settlement, Created the House of Burgesses as the first elected assembly in the New World.
North Carolina: Site of Roanoke
Georgia: Penal Colony established by James Oglethorpe.

14. Southern Events Eli Whitney: Cotton Gin increased slaves
Founders: John Smith
Tobacco: John Rolfe
Pocahontas

16. Indentured Servitude & Slavery
The growth of a plantation-based agricultural economy in the Southern colonies required warm weather & cheap labor on a large scale. Some of the labor needs, especially in Virginia, were met by indentured servants, who were often poor persons from England, Scotland, or Ireland who agreed to work on plantations for a period of time in return for their passage from Europe or relief from debts.
Most plantation labor needs eventually came to be satisfied by the forcible importation of Africans. Although some Africans worked as indentured servants, earned their freedom, and lived as free citizens during the Colonial Era, over time larger and larger numbers of enslaved Africans were forcibly brought to the Southern colonies (the “Middle Passage”).

17. Middle Passage

18. II. Steps Toward Independence
Enlightenment: news ideas about the rights of people and their relationship with their rulers.
John Locke: Influenced American belief in self-government the most. People have “natural rights” and the government has a “social contract” with the citizens. “Government power is limited by the consent of the governed.”
Thomas Paine: Published the “Common Sense” pamphlets that promoted independence.

19. French & Indian War
The rivalry in North America between Britain and France led to the French and Indian War, in which the French were driven out of Canada and their territories west of the Appalachian Mountains.
As a result of the war, Britain took several actions that angered the American colonies and led to the American Revolution. These included
the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains, a region that was costly for the British to protect.
new taxes on legal documents (the “Stamp Act”), tea, and sugar, to pay costs incurred during the French and Indian War and for British troops to protect colonists.

20. July 4th, 1776 The Declaration of Independence
The eventual draft of the Declaration of Independence, authored by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, reflected the ideas of Locke and Paine. Jefferson wrote:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government….”
Jefferson then went on to detail many of the grievances against the King of England that Paine had earlier described in Common Sense.

21. The American Revolution
Resistance to British rule in the colonies mounted, leading to war:
“No Taxation Without Representation”
The Boston Tea Party occurred.
The First Continental Congress was called, to which all of the colonies except Georgia sent representatives—the first time most of the colonies had acted together.
The Boston Massacre took place when British troops fired on anti-British demonstrators.
War began when the “Minutemen” in Massachusetts fought a brief skirmish with British troops at Lexington and Concord.

22. Colonial Thoughts
The colonists were divided into three main groups during the Revolution:
Patriots
Believed in complete independence from Britain
Inspired by the ideas of Locke and Paine and the words of Virginian Patrick Henry (“Give me liberty, or give me death!”)
Provided the troops for the American Army, led by Virginian George Washington
Loyalists (Tories)
Remained loyal to Britain because of cultural and economic ties
Believed that taxation of the colonies was justified to pay for British troops to protect American settlers from Indian attacks
Neutrals
The many colonists who tried to stay as uninvolved in the war as possible

23. Key Moments
Trenton—Washington surprised the British with an attack on Christmas night propelling the colonists to victory and another in Trenton 8 days later.
Saratoga—The British looked to isolate the New England colonies, but was not able to move through the rough terrain. The American defeated the British and as a result secured the aid of the French. The British focused their remaining war efforts on the south. This was the turning point of the war.
Treaty of Alliance 1778: Secured by Benjamin Franklin. Deciding factor in the war.
Yorktown—General Charles Cornwallis was defeated by the American & French forces. Cornwallis was cut off from the North by Washington and blocked from the seas by the French. Cornwallis surrendered the British army and the war was over.