Make sure you
recorded which ones you missed so you know what part of your brain to change.
What is here and in
the course to help your brain:
First, the facts in the Lesson
may be hard to see unless you look at what changed from 1600s to 1700
If You Need Them, the
Questions Asked in the Self-Test
Caution: brains have a lot of trouble in
noticing change over time so pay attention.
One way to see change
over time is to ask yourself what is scarce (hard to get) and what is surplus
(easy to get) in different places and time.
·
Scarce
(hard to get) things go up in value
in what people are willing to pay or do for them.
·
Surplus
(easy to get) things go down in value
– You don’t ever want to be surplus so you want to pay attention to this trait
of time.
1. In the early 1600s in England, land (a place to grow food to eat and sell and perhaps to
be able to vote since property was required for that privilege) was:
*a. Scarce
b. Surplus
2. In the early 1600s in England, labor (people to work the land or to do other jobs) was:
a. Scarce
*b. Surplus
Look
at answers 1 and 2 and you know
why some English people left England.
Then look at answers 2 and 3 and you
know why they came to the Virginia Colony. This move occurred with
people with money and without:
·
If
your family had money, they might help a son (like Nathanial Bacon) go to the
new world of the Virginia Colony. By
paying his own way and for the passage for indentured servants, a richer setter
could gain a large amount of free land and perhaps strike it rich.
·
If
you and your family had nothing and saw no way that could ever change, you
might be an indentured servant. You were willing to risk your life for a better
future and gladly trade your labor for years for just room and board (survival)
for a chance to get to Virginia and—if you survived—to get land as part of what
you received when you completed your years of indenture. Getting land meant
that you could grow food for yourself and a
family and, in some places, that you also could
vote.
Think about it: Would you take a
risk so you and your family might not
remain poor and hungry all of your
lives?
3. In the early 1600s in the Virginia Colony, land was:
a. Scarce
*b. Surplus
4. In the early 1600s in the Virginia Colony, labor was:
*a. Scarce
b. Surplus
If
you look at answers 3 and 4 and you know how those who write the laws could eventually rig the deal
in their favor. (In your own lifetime, you want to notice the law and be an
active and attentive citizen.) Look at the people called the planters (the
landowners who were the ones to vote in the Virginia assembly and make the
colony’s laws).
In the early 1600s
in Virginia, the planters:
·
Bought
as much land as they could at that cheap price as anyone would do if they were
paying attention. The result, however, is that there will be a shortage of land
later—a scarcity made worse because many people were still coming to Virginia.
Reminder: The death
rate in Virginia was very high, but many still came.
·
Paid
for the Atlantic passage of English people who were willing to serve for a
period of years in return for passage, room and board (a bed and food), and a
fresh start at the end of their period of service – with some receiving land at
the end of their service.
Reminder: the term is indentured servant.
·
Paid
for Africans when they were brought to Virginia initially in the early 1600s:
o
With
some Africans becoming slaves
o
With
some Africans (like Anthony Johnson) becoming indentured servants
Read the primary on Anthony Johnson and the historian’s information in the
Lesson’s primaries.
Caution: The law in Virginia about 1660 changes the above and the future—and not
just for Africans coming later but for poor whites as well.
Reminders
about slavery in
general:
- In this era and before, enslaving someone was legal (not a crime).
- In this era and before, enslaving people because they lost a war was
considered just (not a crime).
|
For example, in this
period and before, in wartime capturing people and enslaving them was done by
such groups as colonists in New England and in the South, by the Spanish, by
Native American tribes of other Native American tribes, and by African tribes
of other African tribes. Do not assume that African enslavement
of Africans was the same. Differences in slavery of Africans by Africans that
are usually covered are: ·
Enslavement
could occur because you lost a war or you got in debt or you could not stay
out of trouble. ·
Enslavement
did not pass down to children and some were able to earn their way out of
slavery. If you would like
more details, please ask. |
5. In the late 1600s in the Virginia Colony, land—if you didn’t have it already—was:
*a. Scarce
b. Surplus
6. In the late 1600s in the Virginia Colony, white labor—because there was another source that
had no legal rights—was:
a. Scarce
*b. Surplus
Look
at answers 5 and 6 and you know
why some:
·
Landless
freemen (indentured servants who had completed their term of service) and
wanted land but none was left except near the treaty boundary with Virginia
colonists and the Native Americans
- Fought Native Americans
- Joined Nathaniel Bacon in his rebellion against the English governor William
Berkley
·
Some
planters stopped importing white English servants who might join a rebellion if
they did not gain land at the end of their service and began to import African
as slaves
·
In
general, the greatest power is changing the law, especially when it makes
violence legal and removes one group from access to the law. Click on the
Lesson’s Primary Documents from this Era. Read with care 1660–1732 Laws about
Slaves and Indentured Servants.
Tips: Laws are usually about stopping
things people are doing. Notice what whites were doing as well as blacks. The description
for this primary tells you specifics. Look at it.
·
In
general, violence against the government (armed rebellion) seems rarely to work
as planned, even with a legal justification stated. Optional primary. 1676
Bacon’s Rebellion: the Declaration.
First Resource: Read the resource on
Anthony Johnson in Primaries for the Lesson.
You need to notice
what happens to these real people over time:
·
In
the first half of the 1600s
- African slaves and African indentured servants who had not yet finished their
years of service
- “Free blacks,” especially Anthony Johnson and his access to courts
- English indentured servants
·
In
the second half of the 1600s
- African slaves
- “Free blacks” and the events with Anthony Johnson, his land, and the courts
- Landless freemen (indentured servants who completed their years of service
but no land was available
Reminder: For slave and indentured servant, see the
definitions with the primaries.
1. In the early 1600s in England, land (a place to grow food to eat and to sell and perhaps
to be able to vote since property was required for that privilege) was:
a. Scarce
b. Surplus
2. In the early 1600s in England, labor (people to work the land or to do other jobs) was:
a. Scarce
b. Surplus
3. In the early 1600s in the Virginia Colony, land was:
a. Scarce
b. Surplus
4. In the early 1600s in the Virginia Colony, labor was:
a. Scarce
b. Surplus
5. In the late 1600s in the Virginia Colony, land—if you didn’t have it already—was:
a. Scarce
b. Surplus
6. In the late 1600s in the Virginia Colony, white labor—because there was another source that
had no legal rights—was:
a. Scarce
b. Surplus
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Copyright C. J.
Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2017 |
|
WCJC Department: |
History – Dr. Bibus |
|
Contact Information: |
281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu
|
|
Last Updated: |
2017 |
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