CH4 – American Life in the 17th Century

Time Frame: 1607-1692

Objectives: At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Describe the basic economy, demographics, and social structure and life of the seventeenth-century colonies.
• Compare and contrast the different forms of society and ways of life of the southern colonies and New England.
• Explain how the practice of indentured servitude failed to solve the colonial labor problem and why colonists then turned to African slavery.
• Describe the character of slavery in the early English colonies and explain how a distinctive African American identity and culture emerged from the mingling of numerous African ethnic groups.
• Summarize the unique New England way of life centered on family, town, and church, and describe the problems that afflicted this comfortable social order in the late seventeenth century.
• Describe family life and the roles of women in both the southern and New England colonies, and indicate how these changed over the course of the seventeenth century.