Make sure you
recorded which ones you missed on the quiz 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 Lesson 2
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. This includes information beyond
our textbook. Details are available.
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—get land as part of your
“freedom dues” and you might not remain poor all your life.
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, typical textbooks cover that
enslaving Native Americans was done by colonists in New England and in the
South and by the Spanish, by Native American tribes of other Native American
tribes, and by African tribes of other African tribes. Tip: Slavery
in African by Africans, however, was not like slavery in the Caribbean colonies
or the colonies on the mainland.
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 change things
to be 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 Africans when they were brought to Virginia—with some Africans becoming
slaves and some Africans (like Anthony Johnson) becoming indentured servants
Read
the screens on Anthony Johnson, watch the video with Lesson 2
’s primaries (including what you see with the search word Bacon, and
look at the color-coded primary.
Caution:
You can tell what facts are about before
1660 and after 1660. The law changes
the future—and not just for Africans coming later but for poor whites as well.
·
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.
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
o Fought Native Americans
o
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. Read with care the
2nd primary in the folder, the one on Laws about Slaves and
Indentured Servants.
·
Historically,
in general, violence against the government (armed rebellion) seems rarely to
work as planned, even with a legal justification stated. If interested, ask
your prof to make visible Bacon’s Declaration.
First Resource: Read the resource on
Anthony Johnson in Primaries for Lesson 2.
You need to notice
what happens to these real people over time:
·
In
the first half of the 1600s, notice:
o
African slaves and African indentured servants
who had not yet finished their years of service
o
“Free
blacks,” especially Anthony Johnson and his access to courts
o
English
indentured servants
·
In
the second half of the 1600s
o
African
slaves
o
Free
blacks” and the events with Anthony Johnson, his land, and the courts
o
Landless
and disenfranchised 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
Copyright C. J.
Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2020 |
WCJC Department: |
History – Dr. Bibus |
Contact Information: |
281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu
|
Last Updated: |
2020 |
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