Colonial America
Three regions built three different economies out of the same ocean crossing, and how a labor shortage hardened into racial slavery.
6 topics · 19 questions
Each topic is a path, not a menu: work down it in order and every question builds on the one above. Click any of them to watch the answer draw itself.
Jamestown and the Virginia Company
- How it worksHow did switching from searching for gold to growing tobacco save the Virginia Company's colony?
- Worked exampleTrace Jamestown's population from about 104 settlers in 1607 to roughly 60 survivors by 1610.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't Jamestown's survival proof that the settlers had figured out how to feed themselves?
Your turn1 of 2
Jamestown began in 1607 with about 111 settlers. By 1610, disease, starvation, and conflict with the Powhatan had cut that number down to roughly 59 survivors. About what percentage of the original settlers had died by 1610?Plymouth and Puritan New England
- How it worksWalk me through how the Mayflower Compact turned a shipload of strangers into a self-governing colony.
- Going furtherWhat happens to Puritan unity once colonists like Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson start disagreeing with the church?
- How it worksHow did the New England town meeting let every Puritan household have a direct say in local government?
Your turn1 of 2
Before landing in 1620, the Plymouth colonists signed the Mayflower Compact, an agreement to form a government and obey laws made by common consent, since their original charter only covered land farther south in Virginia. What did the Mayflower Compact most directly establish for the new colony?Comparing New England, the Middle Colonies, and the South
- Going furtherWhat happens to a colony's need for labor once its main crop is something as labor-hungry as tobacco or rice?
- How it worksShow me New England, the Middle Colonies, and the Southern colonies side by side by climate, crop, and labor system.
- How it worksHow does Pennsylvania's wheat farming and religious tolerance make it the most diverse of the thirteen colonies?
Your turn1 of 2
New England had rocky soil, a short growing season, and small farms alongside shipping and trade; the Middle Colonies had fertile land that exported grain and a religiously diverse population; and the southern colonies had a warm climate suited to large plantations of tobacco and rice worked by enslaved labor. What best explains why these three regions, all founded by England, grew into such different societies?From Indentured Servitude to Racial Slavery
- How it worksWalk me through how Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 pushed planters toward permanent racial slavery instead of servitude.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't slavery in the colonies something that started the moment the first Africans arrived in 1619?
- How it worksHow did Virginia's slave codes turn a lifetime of unpaid labor into something passed down to a person's children?
Your turn1 of 2
In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon led a rebellion of poor former servants and small farmers against Virginia's governor, burning the capital before the revolt was put down. Within a few decades, Virginia's planters had shifted their labor force from mostly white indentured servants to mostly enslaved Africans held for life. Why did that shift follow the rebellion?Triangular Trade and the Middle Passage
- How it worksShow me the triangular trade cycle: manufactured goods to Africa, enslaved people to the Americas, raw materials to Europe.
- Worked exampleTrace one 1750s voyage carrying 300 enslaved Africans from West Africa to the Caribbean and count how many survive the crossing.
- Going furtherWhat happens to a West African kingdom's own politics once European traders start paying in guns for captives?
Your turn1 of 2
A ship left West Africa in the 1750s carrying 312 captive Africans bound for the Caribbean. About 16 percent of everyone aboard died during the Middle Passage from disease, starvation, and the brutal conditions of the crossing. About how many of the 312 captives survived to reach the Caribbean?The French and Indian War
- How it worksShow me British and French territory in North America before 1754 and after the 1763 Treaty of Paris.
- How it worksHow did George Washington's failed skirmish at Fort Necessity in 1754 spark a war he didn't intend to start?
- Going furtherWhat happens to Britain's relationship with its colonies once it needs to pay off a war debt this size?
- Ties togetherHow does Britain's war debt from the French and Indian War connect directly to the taxes that spark the revolution?
Your turn1 of 2
In 1754, a clash over a fort in the Ohio Valley between British colonial militia and French forces grew into a war that eventually drew in Britain, France, and their allies fighting across North America, Europe, and beyond. What best explains why a local border dispute grew into a conflict this large?