Summer Reading Assignment

Get it while it's hot.

The Northern Colonies: Reading 1.2

We move North now, out of the so-called Plantation Colonies and into New England. This is a longer reading, so please feel free to follow the reading guide, rather than try and read the whole thing. I have tried to provide questions that I feel are the most significant from the reading (remember to STOP when you reach the second subject heading listed):

1. Where does the Protestant Reformation fit into the story of America? What does it have to do with settlement, if anything? (Think Cause and Effect.)
2. Define: Puritans, Separatists
3. What is the Mayflower Compact, and why is it significant?
4. Put this quote into context: "the beaver and the Bible were the early mainstays: the one for the sustenance of the body, the other for the sustenance of the soul" (Kennedy, 43).
5. How was The Massachusetts Bay Colony founded?
6. What did John Winthrop think of democracy? Why does this matter? Does it tell us anything about the mindset of early leaders in Colonial American society?
7. Was the New England settlers' experience with Native Americans similar to that of the Virginians, or different? How so?
8. Describe two distinct features of the Middle Colonies.

"England on the Eve of Empire": Reading 1.1

Tonight marks, for you A dayers, the start of nightly readings. (B dayers, feel free to get started.) Every night, you will come to the blog to check for reading questions, guides, and overviews. Ideally, you will read through once, annotate, and then come back to the questions. So, without further ado, here are your first set of questions, from 26-31, and 38:

1. What do you think is the connection between population growth in England and settling the New World (America) in the late 16th and early 17th centuries?
2. What is primogenture?
3. What is a joint-stock company?
4. Why is the Virginia Company charter such a significant document?
5. What is the real story of John Smith and Pocahontas?
6. Describe early Virginians' relationship with local Indian tribes.
7. What were the most significant consequences of European arrival in America for Native Americans?
8. Name three distinctive features of the Plantation Colonies.
9. PLEASE BRING COMPUTER TO FIRST DAY OF CLASS IF YOU HAVE ONE