Name: Mabel                                                                        Sept. 2016

Making Thirteen Colonies                                                        Homework

Directions: Read chapter 2 in Making Thirteen Colonies. Answer the following questions below. Use complete sentences. The following assignment is due on Friday, September 16th.

Questions:

1. What are the characteristics of the “gentlemen” as described in this reading? (Please be detailed in your description). How do they differ from “younkers”

The gentlemen were all rich, and they never had to work. They lived on family money, and wore fancy silk stockings and ruffles to show how rich and classy they were. They had butlers and servants, and were very important. They were probably not very nice to the people whom they considered inferior, like the younkers. The younkers were servants of the gentlemen, but they were only boys, orphans and runaways. They were supposed to climb the mast and rigging, fix the sails, and be lookouts. If a younker went overboard and fell to his death, or went splat on the deck, too bad for him.

2. Take a closer look at the picture of page 19 and the caption that accompanies it. How are people in London imagining the New World based on what this picture shows? Be specific and be sure to reference the picture.

The picture shows a lush island paradise in the foreground. It has people farming and relaxing. Everything was peaceful, and it was separate from the chaos on the second island. On the said second island, there were natives with bows and arrows hunting deer. They have set up bonfires so that the deer can’t swim away. Those that did manage to escape were being hunted by natives in canoes. The land was very lush. There was a mountain surrounded by a forest, and it was all untouched by Spain. The first island was also the picture of perfection. It had good farm lands, beautiful flowers and trees, green grass, as well as fruits and vegetables for gathering, and healthy, plump animals for hunting. It seems like the English envisioned this place as a forest island utopia, with wonderful conditions, lots of food, inferior neighbors whom they could beat easily, and riches for the taking. They had no idea just how wrong they were.

3. How well prepared would you say this group of men and boys was for the challenges of a new and unfamiliar land? Do you predict success or failure for this company’s colonizing attempts at this point? Why? Be sure to use textual evidence and analysis.

“ England seemed crowded. Timber was scarce and getting scarcer. Farmland was disappearing. London’s streets were filled with beggars,” says Hakim (p. 20). The English had fallen on terrible times. Everyone was dreaming about the promised land. These fantasies were encouraged by all the propaganda and rumors about Virginia. No one really knew the truth about what it was like, and that includes the sailors. Everybody was so disillusioned, that they were incredibly unprepared for what was to come. They expected paradise, full of hidden wealth. Everyone wanted that land for riches and a perfect new home, so they sent their men to colonize it. These sailors had also envisioned this utopia, so they didn’t understand the truth. The gentlemen who went were used to getting what they wanted because they were rich, but that didn't work in America, so they had to work to get food. Consequently, they were worse off than the younkers when it came to basic island survival. They set off so confidently with many wishes of luck. These people are really going to need it.