Homework Assignment
Henretta: Chapter Two
The Invasion and Settlement of North America

 Directions: Read Chapter One, and answer the following questions in complete sentences.  Your responses must be either typewritten or hand-written in black or blue ink.

PART ONE:

1.       Why did the Spanish, French, Dutch, and English pursue contrasting methods of settlement in North America during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

2.       Why was indentured servitude such a profitable system of labor for planters in the Chesapeake colonies?

3.       How did Bacon's Rebellion contribute to the rise of slavery in the Chesapeake colonies?

4.       Why were four decades of boom times for Chesapeake tobacco growers followed by a bust in the mid-1600s?

5.       Why did the Puritans flee England for America in the early 1600s?

6.       Compare the social aspects of the Chesapeake and New England colonies.

7.       In what ways did white Europeans cause social upheaval and compromise the traditional way of life among native groups during the colonial era?

8.       What were the impacts of the fur trade upon intertribal relations?

9.       Explain the Puritans' religious doctrines toward Native Americans.

PART TWO:

1.       Read: American Voices, Richard Frethorne: Hard Times in Early Virginia in Chapter 2 of the text. After reading the document, write a brief paragraph-length response to each of the following questions. This letter describes conditions for an indentured servant in early seventeenth-century Virginia. Hard work, sickness, hunger, isolation, and fear had clearly taken their toll on Richard Frethorne.

a.        What are the causes of the sickness, hunger, and fear that Frethorne describes? What aspects of the settlement process and the environment have contributed to these conditions?

b.      What does his letter say about the quality of community life in early Virginia? Why was society like this?

c.       Why did Frethorne travel to America?

d.      If Frethorne were to return to England, what would be his social and economic standing?

2.        Read: American Voices, Mary Rowlandson: A Captivity Narrative in Chapter 2 of the text. After reading the document, write a brief paragraph-length response to each of the following questions. When you are finished, select "Submit" to compare your responses with the model answers provided.

European immigrants to the New World, who were imbued with moral righteousness, justified their growing presence in the colonies and the Native Americans' demise as being God's will. Indians were made out to be savages, a culturally inferior people degenerated by their susceptibility to sin. In New England, frustrated by thwarted attempts to copy English ways, Metacom—the leader of the Wampanoags—determined that only military resistance could save Indian land and culture. Allying his people with the Narragansett and Nipmuck tribes, Metacom attacked white settlements throughout New England by burning towns, killing many European settlers, and taking others as captive. Mary Rowlandson was one such captive, held for twelve weeks until ransomed by her family.

a.       In this excerpt, does Rowlandson portray her captors, the Wampanoag Indians, as being savages?

b.      What cultural differences between the English and the Wampanoags are observed by Rowlandson during her captivity? Does she adapt to Indian ways?

c.       From Rowlandson's account of her captivity, what can we learn about Wampanoag women?