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fandomhigh2006-01-18 03:10 pm
professor-lyman.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2006-01-18 03:10 pm
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US History (Wednesday, January 18, 7th period)
"Okay, today we talk about the English settlements," Josh said. "Jamestown in Virginia and the Puritans in Massachusetts." He grinned at Cally. "And the first Thanksgiving."
He pointed at his inbox. "But first, please turn in your incredibly fascinating homework about an explorer."
He pulled down a map of North America. "Okay. The Spanish arrived in the New World in 1492, one of the few dates you'll have to learn. The French, the Dutch and the Portuguese were right behind them, and soon they were all exploring and setting up small settlements throughout North and South America, taking time to fight with each other about who owned what, as you do. Of course, none of them were asking the Native Americans for their view on property rightsbecause they didn't have flags.
"The English didn't come to the New World until more than 100 years later. They had been told to look for gold and a river or passage that would go through the country to China and Japan." Josh looked up. "This so-called Northwest Passage would be something that fueled exploration for hundreds of years--and didn't exist until the Panama Canal was built as a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans centuries later. Anyway. The English landed here--" he smacked Jamestown on the map with his hand--"in April of 1607. They named their settlement Jamestown, after King James I of England, and they also named the river they found there the James because these weren't the most original people you'll ever run across. As it turned out, the settlers couldn't have picked a worse spot to decide to live. The land was swampy, the drinking water was bad. It was hot in the summer, bone-chilling in the winter, and the mosquitoes carried malaria and drove everyone nuts just by being mosquitoes."
He spread his hands. "And it still could've worked, if they hadn't, for the most part, been a pretty useless group of people. They were, well, lazy and vain, and expecting to find stacks of gold waiting for them when they got off of the boat. They were mostly members of the gentry--so they had no experience and no use for doing real work. They didn't bring any women with them, or a single person who knew how to farm. The London Company, which had paid for the voyage, put them all on salary instead of allowing them to own property. Everyone got paid the same, regardless of the amount of work they did. So no one did any work." He grinned. "Except for John Smith. John Smith was fearless, and reckless, and a bit of a jackass. But without him Jamestown wouldn't have survived."
Josh looked around the room. "Smith, who came up with the always motivational 'don't work, don't eat' method of getting people to do stuff, also traded between Jamestown and the nearby camp of Woodland Indians run by the powerful rule Powhatan--axes and shovels and blankets for corn.
"An accident with gunpowder left Smith so badly injured he had to return to England, and he never made it back to Virginia. He did, however, do some extensive mapping of New England--" Josh smacked another part of the map--"which, conveniently enough, segues into the Puritans."
"Jamestown was finally up and running--after almost starving to death a lot, the settlers finally discovered a different sort of gold--tobacco. Tobacco is hard to grow. It takes a lot of land, it ruins the soil, and it takes a whole lot of manpower to be profitable. The Virginians tried everything they could think of to get people to come to America--and the mortality rate was still fairly unappealing. Indentured servants, who would work for four to seven years to pay off their boat fare, were the first idea. Then, a little more than ten years after Jamestown was founded, a Dutch ship brought a boatload of Africans. They were initially treated like the indentured servants, but gradually the idea of slavery percolated. When Indians were enslaved, they could run away. It was pretty much impossible for the Africans to go very far in a strange land." Josh sighed. "This was the beginning of a way of life that is still biting us in the ass."
He coughed. "Anyway. Virginia, by 1619, was up and running. And settlers from all over Europe are coming to the English colony because English men and women at the time have more rights and freedoms than people in other nations. Those coming to the English colonies expect to have those same rights respected." He raised an eyebrow. "This'll be important later. But for now, remember that from the very beginning, the English colonies were pluralistic--you didn't have to be English to come to Virginia.
"So. Massachusetts. People didn't just want to come to the colonies to get filthy stinking rich. Some of them also wanted religious freedom. There had been a break between the Catholic Church and the Anglicans. Blah, blah, Henry VIII and his wives, whatever. The point is that there were people that didn't think the Anglican church had gone far enough, and they were willing to get into a little leaky boat and head off for America just to practice their own version of their religion. It's 1620, the boat's the Mayflower, and only about half of the passengers are 'Saints'--as they call themselves--or Puritans, as we know them. The Mayflower lands at Cape Cod, which is a bit of a surprise to the passengers who weren't Puritans--they had been planning on going to Virginia.
"They landed in December, which, as you might imagine, isn't the greatest time to try to settle anywhere if you can't magically make food grow. And without the Indians in the neighborhood we wouldn't have people still snarking about America's Puritanical ethics. They get the settlers through the winter, and teach them how to farm and survive in what is, honestly, a pretty desolate piece of land. In 1621, after the first harvest, the Pilgrims invited the Indians over for a party, where everyone was fully clothed--" Josh looked at Cally and smiled, --and ate for three days.
"So the Massachusetts Colony began to flourish as well, but they weren't big on tolerance. They wanted religious freedom, sure, but only for their particular version of religion." He raised an eyebrow. "Something that we've totally moved past in the modern world, except for not."
He put his papers down. "Massachusetts and Virginia will soon expand into more English colonies up and down the Atlantic Coast--but we'll be talking about them next week. For today, I want you to tell me if you'd rather have been a colonist in Virginia or Massachusetts--malaria and slavery or religious intolerance and ridiculously cold winters? Both are pretty much huge improvements over the life you would be having as someone not in the aristocracy in Europe, though."
He pointed at his inbox. "But first, please turn in your incredibly fascinating homework about an explorer."
He pulled down a map of North America. "Okay. The Spanish arrived in the New World in 1492, one of the few dates you'll have to learn. The French, the Dutch and the Portuguese were right behind them, and soon they were all exploring and setting up small settlements throughout North and South America, taking time to fight with each other about who owned what, as you do. Of course, none of them were asking the Native Americans for their view on property rights
"The English didn't come to the New World until more than 100 years later. They had been told to look for gold and a river or passage that would go through the country to China and Japan." Josh looked up. "This so-called Northwest Passage would be something that fueled exploration for hundreds of years--and didn't exist until the Panama Canal was built as a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans centuries later. Anyway. The English landed here--" he smacked Jamestown on the map with his hand--"in April of 1607. They named their settlement Jamestown, after King James I of England, and they also named the river they found there the James because these weren't the most original people you'll ever run across. As it turned out, the settlers couldn't have picked a worse spot to decide to live. The land was swampy, the drinking water was bad. It was hot in the summer, bone-chilling in the winter, and the mosquitoes carried malaria and drove everyone nuts just by being mosquitoes."
He spread his hands. "And it still could've worked, if they hadn't, for the most part, been a pretty useless group of people. They were, well, lazy and vain, and expecting to find stacks of gold waiting for them when they got off of the boat. They were mostly members of the gentry--so they had no experience and no use for doing real work. They didn't bring any women with them, or a single person who knew how to farm. The London Company, which had paid for the voyage, put them all on salary instead of allowing them to own property. Everyone got paid the same, regardless of the amount of work they did. So no one did any work." He grinned. "Except for John Smith. John Smith was fearless, and reckless, and a bit of a jackass. But without him Jamestown wouldn't have survived."
Josh looked around the room. "Smith, who came up with the always motivational 'don't work, don't eat' method of getting people to do stuff, also traded between Jamestown and the nearby camp of Woodland Indians run by the powerful rule Powhatan--axes and shovels and blankets for corn.
"An accident with gunpowder left Smith so badly injured he had to return to England, and he never made it back to Virginia. He did, however, do some extensive mapping of New England--" Josh smacked another part of the map--"which, conveniently enough, segues into the Puritans."
"Jamestown was finally up and running--after almost starving to death a lot, the settlers finally discovered a different sort of gold--tobacco. Tobacco is hard to grow. It takes a lot of land, it ruins the soil, and it takes a whole lot of manpower to be profitable. The Virginians tried everything they could think of to get people to come to America--and the mortality rate was still fairly unappealing. Indentured servants, who would work for four to seven years to pay off their boat fare, were the first idea. Then, a little more than ten years after Jamestown was founded, a Dutch ship brought a boatload of Africans. They were initially treated like the indentured servants, but gradually the idea of slavery percolated. When Indians were enslaved, they could run away. It was pretty much impossible for the Africans to go very far in a strange land." Josh sighed. "This was the beginning of a way of life that is still biting us in the ass."
He coughed. "Anyway. Virginia, by 1619, was up and running. And settlers from all over Europe are coming to the English colony because English men and women at the time have more rights and freedoms than people in other nations. Those coming to the English colonies expect to have those same rights respected." He raised an eyebrow. "This'll be important later. But for now, remember that from the very beginning, the English colonies were pluralistic--you didn't have to be English to come to Virginia.
"So. Massachusetts. People didn't just want to come to the colonies to get filthy stinking rich. Some of them also wanted religious freedom. There had been a break between the Catholic Church and the Anglicans. Blah, blah, Henry VIII and his wives, whatever. The point is that there were people that didn't think the Anglican church had gone far enough, and they were willing to get into a little leaky boat and head off for America just to practice their own version of their religion. It's 1620, the boat's the Mayflower, and only about half of the passengers are 'Saints'--as they call themselves--or Puritans, as we know them. The Mayflower lands at Cape Cod, which is a bit of a surprise to the passengers who weren't Puritans--they had been planning on going to Virginia.
"They landed in December, which, as you might imagine, isn't the greatest time to try to settle anywhere if you can't magically make food grow. And without the Indians in the neighborhood we wouldn't have people still snarking about America's Puritanical ethics. They get the settlers through the winter, and teach them how to farm and survive in what is, honestly, a pretty desolate piece of land. In 1621, after the first harvest, the Pilgrims invited the Indians over for a party, where everyone was fully clothed--" Josh looked at Cally and smiled, --and ate for three days.
"So the Massachusetts Colony began to flourish as well, but they weren't big on tolerance. They wanted religious freedom, sure, but only for their particular version of religion." He raised an eyebrow. "Something that we've totally moved past in the modern world, except for not."
He put his papers down. "Massachusetts and Virginia will soon expand into more English colonies up and down the Atlantic Coast--but we'll be talking about them next week. For today, I want you to tell me if you'd rather have been a colonist in Virginia or Massachusetts--malaria and slavery or religious intolerance and ridiculously cold winters? Both are pretty much huge improvements over the life you would be having as someone not in the aristocracy in Europe, though."
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