Discuss and analyze how the various political, religious, and economic changes occurring in England during the 16th and early 17th centuries impacted its citizens, rich and poor alike, and drove many to seek a better life in the New World.
What roles did European indentured servants and African slaves play in colonial America? How did race-based slavery develop during the 17th and 18th centuries, and in what ways did it impact the social and economic development of colonial America?
What was everyday life like in 18th-century colonial society prior to the American Revolution (pre-1775)? Describe family life and the various roles of man, woman, and child. How did they worship God, study their lessons, work at their jobs, entertain themselves, and tend to their sick? From what you have heard and read so far, was theirs a basically good life or one of toil and adversity?
Describe and compare two influential movements that greatly affected colonial America during the first half of the 18th Century: the Enlightenment thinkers such as Benjamin Franklin and religious leaders such as George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards. Finally, did the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening improve colonial American life, and if so, how?
Contrast the Pilgrims’ experiences in the Plymouth colony with those of the early Jamestown settlers. Compare the relationship between the Pilgrims and the Powhatan nation. Why is the Pilgrim experience celebrated and admired more today than that of the Jamestown?
