Life in the South

Compare and Contrast

Choose two of the colonies we have studied. Using your  knowledge and the vocabulary below, compare and contrast the two different colonies you chose.

What do they have in common? What are their differences?

Use the handout chart for brainstorming before writing your text.

The slaves in the 13 colonies

The slaves in the 13 colonies2014-09-25T16:08:03+00:00

Slavery was the status of several thousand inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies. Starting around 1680, more than

 100,000 Africans were forcibly transported to these colonies to serve as manual labour. They formed about one-fifth

 of the workforce. In South Carolina, nearly half of the population lived in slavery.

Hundreds of slaves had been brought to New York, Boston and Rhode Island, but it was in the southern colonies
where slavery was more deeply rooted. In Virginia and South Carolina, slaves worked on plantations that grew
 tobacco, rice and indigo (a plant used to make blue dye). These crops required a lot of labour over very long periods,
and involved backbreaking work in unhygienic conditions. In 1745, cotton was not widely grown in the colonies.
 It would only flourish in the 19th century.

Not all slaves worked on plantations. Some cut and sawed wood in North Carolina. On many small farms in the South,

 farmers had only one slave who helped him work the land.

In this system, slaves lost their freedom and worked long, hard days. Slaves were considered a commodity, like a tool

 that could be bought and sold.

Author: Léon Robichaud

http://blogdev.learnquebec.ca/societies/societies/the-thirteen-colonies-around-1745/the-slaves-2/

Two types of slavery

shelley August 14, 2014 Two types of slavery2014-09-25T15:44:27+00:00

Pehr Kalm, Swedish naturalist, during a visit of the 13 Colonies in 1749

“There were two classes of servants in the English colonies, domestics and slaves, and the former class was divided

 into two categories:

1. Those, of free condition, who rented themselves out for the year at a price ranging from eight to 20 louis (a French coin), not including food.
2. Poor immigrants who, not having the means to pay their passage, had agreed with the captain of the ship on which they made the crossing, to let themselves be sold for a few years upon their arrival in America. This category of domestics, who were called indentured servants, included men and women of all ages, and many unfortunates fleeing oppression and religious persecution.”

The Breadbasket Colonies

The Middle Colonies were composed of what is today the states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

Because the soil was rich in the Middle colonies, farmers were able to grow more grain than they could use. They began selling grain to other colonies and to England, shipping out of the big ports in Philadelphia and New York. Because of this, the middle colonies became known as the Breadbasket colonies.

http://www.slideshare.net/ajroets/61-the-middle-colonies-55805719

Source: http://13colonies.mrdonn.org/middlecolonies.html

New England Colonies

Life in the Middle Colonies

Jamestown Colony, Virginia Would you have survived?

   The Virginia Company was assigned land in the New World by the king of England. They had high hopes of making a lot of money by growing and making things in their colony that they could ship back to England for a profit. To do this, they needed a labor force.
The Virginia Company advertised for colonists. Anyone who agreed to make the journey was promised 50 acres of land and a share in the profits. That was quite an offer. About 1000 people accepted. A ship set sail for the New World.
   Jamestown was the name of the area selected by the Virginia Company to be the new home of these colonists. It was a swampy area, nearly an island, connected to the mainland by a sandbar. It was selected because the Virginia Company believed it could be defended. The colonists were not worried about the natives. The Indians in the area seemed friendly. They were worried about Spanish invasion.
   The choice of location did not work out well. The colonists soon ran out of game on the "island", and fresh water was in short supply.
They had other problems. The colonists were badly equipped to start a colony. About half of the colonists had been "gentlemen" back in England. They had little or no work experience. They knew nothing about farming or building. They had no intention of doing any of the work. They expected the others to feed and care for them. As you can imagine, this did not go over well with the other colonists.
    Hindsight: More colonists might have survived if ...

• Even then, the colonists in Jamestown might have survived if they had had time to plant crops and harvest before winter set in. They did plant. But they were not worried about food. They expected ships to arrive from England. But only a few ships arrived. The ships brought some supplies, but the ships had been sent to take goods back to England, goods that had not yet been created by the colonists.
• If they had abandoned their original settlement and moved inland where food, water, and firewood were in ample supply. Of course, they did not know if the natives would remain friendly if they moved inland. The fort they built on the "island" did offer some protection. So they did not move inland.

   If it had not been for the generosity of the Indians in the area, they all would have died.
As it was, with only two doctors, low supplies of food and fresh water, freezing temperatures, and almost no medicine to combat disease, only about 100 of the original colonists survived Jamestown.

Life in New England

The Colonies

Indentured Servants

Slavery

Life on the open seas

rom Visually.

The Age of Exploration: Life on the Open Seas. Find out how sailors were recruited, what was their average diet, and what ailments they had to face while sailing the open seas!

A Hard Day’s Work
Life was pretty difficult for a sailor in the age of exploration. Journeys could take years. Ships only covered about 100 miles a day. The pay was poor. Seamen on Columbus’ journeys made less than $10 a month in today’s money. Crews worked around the clock in shifts minding the ship. Disobedience led to harsh punishments. Beatings and floggings were common, and mutineers were put to death. 16 was the minimum age for sailors, but some boys started working on ships as young as 7 or 8. Some men didn’t join willingly. They were “impressed,” or forced into service.

Scurvy, Seasickness and Slime
Sailors consumed about 3,000 calories a day, which they got from: 1 lb. Salted beef or pork; flour mixed with fat was served when meat rations ran low. 1 lb. Biscuit or hardtack; hardtack was infested with weevils and bugs, which sailors ate as additional food. 1 gallon Ale, wine or hard liquor; a salty diet combined with a lack of fresh water led to dehydration. Dried beans, peas or rice. There were no fresh fruits or vegetables. Vitamin deficiencies gave men scurvy—and rotted teeth and gums, open sores and even mental breakdowns. It was common to lose 50 percent of a crew to scurvy, known as the “scourge of the seas.” Explorer James Cook was a pioneer in scurvy prevention. He fed his men sauerkraut and dried vegetable soup. If the diet didn’t kill you, there were plenty of other things that could. Sailors had just one set of clothes that were rarely washed. They thought dirt and grease provided protection from wind and rain. Lice, rodents and foul drinking water spread typhoid fever. Ships could be dangerously cold—fires were only allowed in calmer weather. The lack of fresh air below deck caused carbon monoxide poisoning. Men slept on deck in hammocks—an invention they borrowed from Mesoamerican cultures.

Ignominious Ends
Captains didn’t have it much better than their crews. Magellan didn’t make it around the world with his ships. He was killed in the Philippines. Ponce de Leon failed to find the Fountain of Youth, but a poison arrow found him in Florida. Balboa was beheaded after feuding with his bosses. Verrazzano was killed and eaten by cannibals in the Caribbean. A fight over stolen boats ended Cook’s life in Hawaii. Hudson’s crew set him adrift in what is now Hudson’s Bay. He was never heard from again.

https://www.history.co.uk/shows/mankind-the-story-of-all-of-us/articles/the-age-of-exploration

Life on the Open Seas

F

Explore the Map

http://www.phschool.com/atschool/ahon/history_interactive/mvl-1021/common_player.html

Need for trade routes!

Age of exploration site to explore

http://exploration.marinersmuseum.org/type/ancient/

Columbian Exchange

Reasons for the Age of Exploration

Europe Reasons For Exploration de Kelli Brooke

Silk Road- Connecting the ancient world through trade

https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-silk-road-history-s-first-world-wide-web-shannon-harris-castelo#review

The Silk Road

The Silk Road was a trade route that went from China to Eastern Europe. It went along the northern borders of China, India, and Persia and ended up in Eastern Europe near today's Turkey and the Mediterranean Sea. 

Map of the Silk Road - Route in red (later ocean routes in blue)

Why was the Silk Road important? 

The Silk Road was important because it helped to generate trade and commerce between a number of different kingdoms and empires. This helped for ideas, culture, inventions, and unique products to spread across much of the settled world. 

Why is it called the Silk Road? 

It was called the Silk Road because one of the major products traded was silk cloth from China. People throughout Asia and Europe prized Chinese silk for its softness and luxury. The Chinese sold silk for thousands of years and even the Romans called China the "land of silk". 

What goods did the Chinese trade? 

Besides silk, the Chinese also exported (sold) teas, salt, sugar, porcelain, and spices. Most of what was traded was expensive luxury goods. This was because it was a long trip and merchants didn't have a lot of room for goods. They imported, or bought, goods like cotton, ivory, wool, gold, and silver.

How did they travel? 

Merchants and tradesmen traveled in large caravans. They would have many guards with them. Traveling in a big group like a caravan helped in defending from bandits. Camels were popular animals for transport because much of the road was through dry and harsh land. 

History 

Although there was some trade between China and the rest of the world for some time, the silk trade was significantly expanded and promoted by the Han Dynasty which ruled from 206 BC to 220 AD. 

Later, under the rule of the Yuan Dynasty set up by Kublai Khan of the Mongols, trade from China along the Silk Road would reach its peak. During this time the Mongols controlled a significant portion of the trade route, enabling Chinese merchants to travel safely. Also, merchants were granted more social status during the Mongol rule. 

Fun facts about the Silk Road

• It was over 4,000 miles long.
• Marco Polo traveled to China along the Silk Road.
• Not all that was traded along the Silk Road was good. It is thought that the bubonic plague, or Black Death, traveled to Europe from the Silk Road.
• Very few merchants traveled along the entire route. Goods were traded at many cities and trade posts along the way.
• There wasn't just one route, but many routes. Some were shorter, but more dangerous. Others took longer, but were safer.

http://www.ducksters.com/history/china/silk_road.php

Age of Exploration

Age of Exploration Power Point from janetdiederich

Technology and the Age of Exploration

Technology and exploration ppt from Tania Gabriela Verniers

The Explorers The Dawning of the Era of Exploration

Why Do People Move to New Places?

 Discuss the following questions with your group:

1. Why do people move to new places, cities or countries?

2. Why do Brazilians leave the country?

3. What forces people to leave their own countries?

4. Is there anything on the news at the moment regarding this topic?

5. How do we choose the best place to move to?

Age of Exploration - A Short Documentary Film

History of Chocolate!

HOW THEY DISAPPEARED...

One of the world’s greatest mysteries is what happened to the Mayans, Incas,  and Aztecs culture.  It was the most important civilization in the new world in A.D. 900.  Suddenly, however, the Mayas left their great cities and scattered throughout the countryside.  We still do not know why the great Mayan civilization ended.  Some people believe a natural disaster, disease, agriculture issues, a revolt, or an invasion caused people to leave the cities.  After the fall of the great Mayan cities, civil wars, epidemics, droughts, and hurricanes weakened the Mayan tribes.  This made it easy for the Spanish to conquer the land. 
The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire started after years of preliminary exploration and military skirmishes.  It began as 168 Spanish soldiers and their native allies captured the Sapa Inca Atahualpa in the 1532. It took decades of fighting but ended in Spanish victory and colonization of the region.
Disease played a huge part in the fall of the Aztec empire.  The Spanish army introduced small pox to the Aztec people and many died.  Small pox spreads quickly. The Aztec did not know how to treat the disease.  The emperor died of small pox as well as many of the leaders in the army.  The Spanish army also used different tactics in war that also helped them defeat the Aztecs.

https://335951596893974651.weebly.com/how-they-disappeared.html

Mayas Incas and Aztecs

Mayaaztecandinca1 (1) from Tania Gabriela Verniers

Social Structure

MAYAS

The social structure in the Maya Empire was set. It was very difficult to move upwards. Status was usually hereditary. Occupations for Maya men was limited to their father's occupation. If your father was a farmer, you were a farmer. If your father made bricks, you made bricks. There were some exceptions, but they were rare. Women, however, could be involved in government, economics, and religion, as well as responsible for hearth, home, and children. Still, Maya women could not marry outside their social class.

Social Classes, the Caste System: A caste system is a very rigid social system in which you are born into a social position and cannot leave that position. In a caste system you are required to marry within your own caste. The upper caste was composed of rulers, nobles and priests. The middle caste were businessmen, merchants and soldiers. The lower caste was made up of farmers and slaves.

Rulers: Each city had a ruling family. That family lived a life of luxury. During religious ceremonies, rulers wore headdresses that were taller than they were. Rulers held hereditary positions. Sons inherited their right to rule from their fathers. The only way a new ruling family could take over would be by war. This is one reason fights and wars between Maya cities were common.

Nobles and Priests: The only people who could read and write in the ancient Maya world were most of the priests and some of the nobles.

Priests: The most powerful people in the ancient Maya Empire were not the ruling families; the most powerful were the priests. The common people brought the priests tributes or gifts and provided free manual labor for whatever they needed. They did this because the people believed the priests could talk to the Maya gods. Priests lived a life of luxury with servants and attendants. They usually lived away from the common people. Except at the major festivals, the people who supported the priests rarely saw them.

Nobles: Nobles did not have to pay taxes. They did not need to produce anything, although some had jobs. Those who wanted them were given jobs in civil service, as military leaders, and as business leaders in commerce and trade. Most nobles had a great deal of free time and lived lives of luxury.

Merchants and Craftsmen: The Maya didn't have a middle class, so merchants and craftsmen were either nobles or peasants creating art or running a business. For those craftsmen who were peasants, their life was a step up from the life of a farmer, but they could not act like or dress like a noble. They were peasants and if they forgot that, they risked death.

Peasants: Peasants made up the bulk of Maya society. Craftsmen lived in the cities. Farmers lived outside the cities, in their fields. Peasants worked very hard. They did not live a life of luxury. Peasants were used as human sacrifice if no other people, like captured warriors, were available.

Slaves: Slaves were the lowest level. In general, slaves were not treated poorly. In some cases, their lives were far more comfortable than the life of a farm family. But no matter how they were treated, slaves had no rights or privileges. Slaves could be orphans, captured people, or punished people - people who were serving a sentence as a slave. Most of the victims of human sacrifice were selected from the slaves.

Warriors: Warriors were special. They didn't fall into any class really except that of warrior. Military leaders came from the nobles. In the rank and file, some warriors were sons of warriors. Some warriors were peasants, pulled from the fields to fight, who remained in the military if they showed an aptitude for warfare. Some warriors were highly respected, and in some cases, honored. But there was a pecking order. If you were a peasant, you might become a warrior but you would never achieve the same rank as the son of a warrior, although your son might, because your son would be the son of a warrior.

INCAS

The Inca Empire was the largest empire during the days of the pre-Columbian America.  The Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru during the early 13th century and the people were generally referred to as the Incas.  The Incas considered their king to be the son of the sun and this king was known as the Sapa Inca.

The Incas followed a strict social hierarchy system and according to this system, there were 4 main levels which were the Sapa Inca, The Royalty, the Nobility and the Ayllu.  To know more about what each of these levels meant, you can read the following given information:

Sapa Inca

The Sapa Inca was the most powerful person during the Inca civilization and in other terms, was the king of the Incas.  The Sapa Inca was considered to be the son of the sun and was the wealthiest and most respected person.  The Sapa Inca would have many wives and father many children.  He had one primary wife who was known as the Coya. Coya was the full sister of Incas and this tradition was followed to maintain the royal blood.

Royalty

Besides the Sapa Inca or the king, the relatives and the royal family of the king were known as the Royalty and had a very high status in the society. They were the wealthiest and the most powerful people during the Incas civilization and enjoyed all the luxuries during those days.  The descendants of the Sapa Inca were also royalty and had the chance to become kings in the future.  The son of the Sapa Inca was called the Auqyi.

• Coya
• Auqyi

Nobility

Below the Royalty came the nobility which was the class of people who acted as leaders to govern over the rest of the Incas population.  The nobles were also respected people who had certain privileges and enjoyed many freedoms. For example, these people were not required to pay taxes and also received gifts from others. This class was further subdivided into three other divisions which are given as follows:

• Capac Incans-highest ranking nobles
• Huhua Incans- these were not the true nobles but were still given the status and rights
• Curacas-these were the local leaders and collected taxes.

Commoners

Most of the Incas population belonged to the category of the commoners.  These people took up low wage jobs like farming, herding and even worked as servants at the houses of the nobility or the royalty.

• Farmers
• Herders
• Servants
• slaves

https://www.hierarchystructure.com/incas-social-hierarchy/

Aztecs

The Aztec Empire had a strict social structure that was identified with nobles, commoners, serfs, or slaves. The social structure was also identified with boys and girls. Boys would receive a wider education than the girls and were taught how to fight and become a leader. Although, the girls were taught to cook, take care of a family, run a home and craft. The women did have a lot of power in the society but was mostly kept a secret.


The noble class had many privileges and the class is consist of government, military leaders, priests and lords. They had some wealth and were allowed to enjoy works of art unlike the common people. As a noble you were in the positions of leadership and influence of others. The noble class also received a fuller education and were allowed to wear fancy clothing and decorate their homes to show their status.

---

The commoners were known as the macehualli and consist of farmers and merchants who would travel to trade. Both farmers and merchants had a fair amount of freedom and to be independent. Common people were also allowed to dress nice. They enjoyed the great amount of wealth they received and prestige within the class. 

The serfs worked on land owned by the nobles and did not live in the calpulli. If the serfs fail to pay tribute would receive a punishment of becoming slaves for certain crimes. Many prisoners of war would become slaves if they were not used as human sacrifices. 

The slaves had many rights in the Aztec Empire considering they treated the slaves well. The slaves had rights to marry, have children, substitute another in their place and buy freedom. The slave owner's had many responsibilities for the slave to make sure they would not be re-sold. The slave owner's were responsible of feeding the slave and having a sheather for the slave for housing. 

Agriculture

Mayan

The Maya were skillful farmers. They used their knowledge of calendars and seasons to grow crops. In the beginning, they grew more food than they needed. City-states did trade some surplus food for other items. But most of the surplus food was stored by each city-state to feed anyone who needed it in that city-state.   

As the population grew, farmers found it ever more difficult to grow enough food to feed the growing population. Farming was difficult in the Maya region. There were dense forests, little surface water such as rivers and lakes, and the soil was poor. But the Maya were clever.

The Maya did not try to use one system of agriculture. The farmers in each city-state fit their system to the land.

• In the mountainous highlands, they used step farming, so that each step would be flat and able to be irrigated to better grow and harvest crops.

• In the swampy lowlands, the Maya built raised earth platforms, surrounded by canals, on which they could grow crops. (Later on, the Aztecs improved on this system, and built floating gardens.)
• In the dense forest, they used a slash and burn technique to create a flat surface to plant crops. They dug canals throughout the fields to irrigate the crops.

Aztecs

When the Aztec people finally found a place to settle down, they did so on rather marshy land around a lake. Some of the land was not very good for gardening. As the population grew, the Aztecs needed to find a way to grow more food. They could have built further away from the cities, but then they would need to guard the fields from robbers.

Instead, the clever Aztec engineers created “floating” gardens. The floating gardens were actually rafts. The rafts were anchored to the bottom of the lake, or to a strong tree in the marsh. They piled vegetation and reeds on top of the raft to help provide good soil and drainage. On top of this, they piled dirt. They planted seeds in the dirt. The gardens were used to grow chili peppers, corn, tomatoes, beans, and squash.

It was somewhat difficult to harvest the food since the gardens were floating in marsh water. To solve this, Aztec engineers built mud and stone walls around each floating garden. The walls acted as walkways between the gardens.

The floating gardens solved some of their problem, but as their population grew, they needed more land. Their engineers solved this by designing dikes to hold back water. They filled in the marshlands and swamps just as they had the rafts, the floating gardens.

Incas

Nobody went hungry in the Inca empire. The commoners ate little meat, but all people ate well.

The Inca were the first to grow potatoes. There were many crops. The big three were corn, potatoes, and quinoa, which is a seed used to make flour and soups.

The three staple crops were corn, potatoes, and quinoa - quinoa seeds were used to make cereal, flour, and soups. They planted grew tomatoes, avocados, peppers, strawberries, peanuts, squash, sweet potatoes, beans, pineapple, bananas, spices, and coco leaves to make chocolate. They kept honeybees.

The Inca grew more food than they needed. Stored food was dried and kept in special buildings. Because they lived high in the Andes, where it was often cold, it was easy to dry food. First, they left it out to freeze. Then they stamped on it until most of the water was out. They left it out in the sun to finish drying. And presto - dried food.

The Inca invented terrace farming. They lived in the mountains. Flatlands were rare. So, they simply created flat land by building steps of land for agriculture down the mountainside. This was great for irrigation. Instead of rainwater running down the mountainside, the Inca channeled it through each step. They also built aqueducts to carry water where it was needed.

They were great farmers, with clever solutions to their farming problems.

http://incas.mrdonn.org/farming.html

More About Incas

What makes the Inca Empire so fascinating to archaeologists and

historians is that they specialized in achieving the impossible.

They conquered a huge empire without the use of wheeled vehicles

or horses to pull them. They had no system of writing but managed

somehow to maintain administrative control of far-flung provinces

thousands of miles from their capital. Without survey instruments, blueprints, photographs, and

machines for construction, they were still able to produce magnificent mountainside terraces,

highways, bridges, cities, towns, temples, and royal estates. Many of their projects were built in

seemingly impossible places, including sheer cliffs, steep mountain peaks, and raging rivers.

And they did this in a remarkably short time of less than 100 years.

Scholars see the Incas as a people who adopted a very successful, alternative approach to some

of civilization’s greatest challenges. They offer proof that engineering and social skills can be

independently developed in an isolated and challenging environment. Exciting new information

about the Incas appears every year as scholars publish their research.