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Life in the Colonies

Most colonists lived on farms that were separated by great distances.

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Life in the Colonies

Extended families living together were common.

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Life in the Colonies

4.2 Colonial Society:

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  • Extended Family -

family that includes:

parents, their children,

grandparents,

aunts-uncles,

cousins.

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Life in the Colonies

Farms had to be self-sufficient:

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  • plant

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  • cultivate

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  • harvest crops

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  • fences to mend

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  • animals to feed

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  • wood to chop

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Plant

Harvest

Cultivate

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Mending Fences

Cutting Wood

Feeding Animals

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Life in the Colonies

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Life in the Colonies

Farmhouses were not comfortable to live in.

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Life in the Colonies

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Life in the Colonies

Towns-cities tended to be more crowded

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Life in the Colonies

Apprentice: learns a trade (skilled job) by working for someone in that trade for a certain period of time.

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Shoes, furniture, masons, doctors

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Life in the Colonies

Social Classes:

  • Europeans - come to America to have a better life
  • Land was a main measure of your wealth
  • Europe - born into wealth
  • America - could make your own wealth

‘The American Dream’

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Life in the Colonies

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Life in the Colonies

  • Upper class: Gentry

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  • Merchants
  • Ministers
  • government officials
  • Lawyers
  • goldsmiths
  • plantation owners

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Life in the Colonies

A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Historically, goldsmiths also have made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and serviceable utensils

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Life in the Colonies

  • Middle Class: ‘middling sort’

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  • neither rich nor poor
  • Small planters, farmers
  • Artisans (coopers, masons,

Shoemakers)

  • Could vote, hold office
  • 99% White
  • 1% African American
  • Middle class is what the

poor aspired to be

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What is the American Dream?

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Life in the Colonies

  • Lower Class Poor or

‘Lesser Sort’

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  • Indentured Servants
  • contract to work 4-10

years, bought ticket

  • England, Ireland, Germany
  • No rights (Master)
  • Free - got a set of

Clothes, tools, 50 acres

of land

  • 2 in 10 made it; poor

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Life in the Colonies

  • Free African Americans

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  • About 60,000
  • mostly in the North
  • Compared to 757,000 slaves

mostly in South

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Concept Web

PAGES 107-112

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Concept Web * Mostly From England * Allowed to Own Property

PAGES 107-112

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  • No role in Public Life

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  • Apprentices to learn jobs * The upper class of Colonial Society * Could vote & hold

office

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Women

Indentured Servants

Free African Slaves

Colonial Society

Young

People

Gentry

Middle Class