Adrian Herrera

European Exploration/Colonization
8th Grade US History
Goal Standard 1: Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their
understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the
history of the United States and New York.
Objectives:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Students will know the difference between an indentured servant and a slave.
Students will learn which nations occupied the Americas.
Students will organize the steps in colonization chronologically.
Students will identify relevant questions for inquiry.

Materials Needed: PowerPoint/overhead, Vocabulary sheet.

Detailed Lesson:
Warm up (5 Minutes): See what they might already know about European colonization.
European Interest (5 Minutes):

The first people in the New World (Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, French, and

finally the English)

The Spanish and Portuguese were the main occupants of the World until Queen

Elizabeth took an interest.

1607, the English settled in the colony known as Jamestown.
Only one crop gave the colony life: tobacco
Because the growth of tobacco drained the life out of the soil, there was a new
drive for new farmland.

Indentured servants were introduced into the mix due to the amount of labor

needed.
Indentured servants were able to freely enter Virginia so long as they worked the
field for a few years, followed by being granted their freedom.

Early Troubles (5 Minutes):

The colonists eventually came into conflict with the indigenous population.
Peace was short lived after a treaty with the Powhatan people was made and

Pocahontas married John Rolfe.

Fighting soon continued after Powhatan died, which almost annihilated the colony

until the British came out on top, forcing the Algonquians to accept their law.
Land was seen as something to be collectively used by the natives so they found it

worth fighting over when the English wanted to push them off the land.
Distinctions between governments in early colonial life
France and Spain had an absolute monarchy while Great Britain had a limited

monarchy.
The Virginia House of Burgesses was the first popularly elected legislature in the

New World (1619).

The colonists wanted some form of representation, similar to the British

Parliament.
The House of Burgesses would meet with their local governors to decide on laws.
The importance of the House of Burgesses was that it was a building base for

democracy even if that wasnt its intention.

Each colony wanted its own legislature.

The New England Colonies (10 Minutes):

Puritans and pilgrims fled England due to religious intolerance.
Pilgrims desired to separate themselves from the Anglican Church and Puritans
wanted to purify the Church of England.

Pilgrims were originally meant to land in Jamestown, VA. Instead they landed
further north in Cape Cod, where Plymouth Rock would be discovered.
The pilgrims had no one to rule themselves so they decided to rule themselves
under the Mayflower Compact of 1620.
Similar to the House of Burgesses, this would lead to democratic practices with
the establishments of town meetings and elected legislatures.
The pilgrims began dying off and only with the help of the natives did they
manage to survive.
William Bradford was elected governor and ruled for 30 years.
Another mass puritan civilization took roots in the Massachusetts Bay.
The puritans who inhabited it wanted to be seen as the City upon a Hill in the
sense that theyd set an example for how a society should be run.
Eventually establishing Harvard College, initially for the purpose of training
Puritan ministers.
Birth rates in the new colonies went up and life expectancy grew.
Literacy rates were high due to Puritans creating schools for kids to know how to
read the bible.
Puritans like many other societies were Patriarchic and women did not participate
in town meetings.
Religion was not a joking matter, it was to be taken seriously and youd be
severely punished if behaving out of religious conduct.
Puritan hold was too strong that when people spoke against it, they were
banished.
Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams spoke against Puritans, were banished and
Williams bought land from the natives to make Rhode Island.
The Middle Colonies (10 Minutes):
Consisted of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
Very diverse with English, Scots, Dutch, Swedes, German, and French.
As well as neighboring natives such as the Algonquin and Iroquois.

The religious aspect of it was diverse as well (Mennonites, Lutherans, Dutch

Calvinists, and Presbyterians), so many that no one religion could claim
dominance.
The middle colonies were the middle colonies for good reason, they served as a
crossroads of ideas and trade.
New York was originally New Netherlands and owned by the Dutch.
New Amsterdam was owned by the Dutch and would later be named Manhattan.
Slavery was common in the Dutch colony.
Governor Peter Stuyvesant was forced to surrender the land after the Charles II
came to power in Great Britain and sent British troops over to New Netherlands.
Quakers fled England to get away from religious persecution.
Women had the most freedom and mobility in Quaker societies.
Quakers made up most of society in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
Benjamin Franklin legitimized colonists as more than just people who fled
Europe.
Born in Boston, arrived in Pennsylvania poor, and made a name for himself
through a printing company.
He founded what is now the University of Philadelphia.
He was an inventor with his most historic invention being electricity.
He gained domestic fame as well as fame abroad.
He even served as a delegate to the Continental Congress.
The Southern Colonies (10 Minutes):
The south, unlike the commercial middle colonies, invested their time in cash
crops.
The southern colonies life expectancy was longer than that of Europe but shorter
than the middle colonies.
The southern colonies suffered from diseases such as malaria and yellow fever.
Slaves and indentured slaves were the backbone of southern economy.
Cecelius Calvert became known as Lord Baltimore and was in charge of
Maryland, The Catholic Experiment.

Catholics still faced persecution in England and Baltimore hoped to change that in
Maryland while still making a profit off it.
Maryland found itself focusing on the production of tobacco as well.
Religious freedom was trying to be established with the passage of the Maryland
Act of Toleration but Protestants quickly got rid of the legislatures.
Indentured servants played such a big role that in VA and MD, they implemented
the Headright System.
Under the headright system, for each laborer brought across the Atlantic, 50 acres
of land would be given to the master.
Being an indentured servants didnt seem too bad at first but many wouldnt live
to become freedmen and the women would often be harassed.
Eventually a class of angered freedmen who couldnt find good land to farm,
emerged and started Bacons Rebellion. This eventually led to the use of slaves.
The Carolinas were formed around this time and split into North and South
Carolina because the north consisted of freed indentured servants and the south
was made up of landowners and a huge mass of slaves.
Georgia was the last colony to be established and it was made up of debtors.
James Oglethorpe proposed a plan to King George that would decrease prison
population and those imprisoned for debt could have a new start in the New
World.
Oglethorpe setup a plan that actually did not allow the use of slavery which failed
very early.
Plantation life in the south had developed a class system with the landowning at
the top.
Only the wealthy were educated because they could afford private tutors.
Wrap up (5minutes): Ask the students whether theyd prefer being a slave or indentured
servant at the time? Why?

Vocabulary Sheet
Indentured Servants:

Absolute Monarchy:

Limited Monarchy:

House of Burgesses:

Pilgrims:

Puritans:

Mayflower Compact:

Bacons Rebellion: