Chesapeake Region
English Perspective #1- During the Winter of 1609-1610, when the colonists first arrived in Jamestown, they went through a period of devastation called the Starving Time. Since the colonists did not focus on gathering food and preparing for the harsh weather, only about 60 of the 500 original colonists survived. After this brutal winter passed, the remaining colonists abandoned the colony and their dreams of the New World and set sail for England, but were turned around by a supply ship and forced to return to Jamestown.
English Perspective #2 - In the Southern Colonies, tobacco allowed the colonists to thrive and prosper. The entire economy of Virginia relied on this cash crop, which was in huge demand in Europe. In order to get enough labor for these huge fields, landowners paid for indentured servants to come over from England and work in the fields for the duration of their contracts, which usually lasted about five years. The living conditions of these indentured servants were brutal, and even after their contracts expired, they had a difficult time living off the very small amount of land that they were given with their "freedom dues."
Indian perspective - In the seventeenth century, there were many tribes of Native Americans in the Chesapeake region, many of which were associated with the Powhatan Confederacy. Before the colonists arrived, the primary source of conflict was with neighboring tribes. It was a prosperous time, and the Native American villages all shared a great sense of community. When the colonists first came to his land, Powhatan saw an alliance with them as a good way to get the upper hand on the rival tribes, but he never imagined that they would one day turn on him and bring about the eventual downfall of the Powhatan Confederacy.
Massachusetts bay Colony
English Perspective #1 - In 1621, after surviving the first brutal winter in the New World, the Pilgrims joined together with the local Native Americans to have a feast in celebration of their plentiful harvests, a common Indian tradition. The Pilgrims had been almost wiped out by the winter, with only 42 original members surviving, and the Indians used this as a chance to gain their friendship, in hopes that they could one day use the advanced British technology to help them against the other local Indian tribes.
English Perspective #2 - While still aboard the Arabella, the ship that the Puritans took to the New World, John Winthrop gave a sermon titled "A Model of Christian Charity," in which he states that their new settlement should be like "a city upon a hill" that can be looked upon as an model of an exemplary city. In 1630, when they reached land and founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he made sure to do everything he could to stay true to what he said and create the ideal city.
Indian Perspective - Once the Massachusetts Bay Colony was prospering, the colonists no longer needed the alliance with the Native Americans, but instead needed their land. The Native Americans had been living off of this land for years, but the colonists would use contracts and clever tricks to get the Indians into debt so that they could take their land. A Native American chieftain known as King Philip tried to resist this encroachment, but the colonists had much more advanced technology and were much stronger than the Indians. Because of this, the Indians had no choice but to let them take the land that they had lived on for countless generations. Since they lived almost solely off of the land, this completely changed their lifestyle. Additionally, some Native Americans were offered a chance to convert to Christianity and live in praying towns, which required them to go against everything they had previously believed in.
Slavery in the colonies
Slavery was essential for the economy of many colonies, since it provided very inexpensive labor for the big plantations. However, the living conditions for the slaves were horrible, and there were constant whippings and beating, sometimes for no justifiable reason. Since the African slaves were bought and sold as property, they were never seen as human beings, and thus were not treated like humans. Additionally, according to the slave codes, if a slave had a child, the child would be born into slavery, and would become property of the mother's master.
The Middle Passage was the journey across the Atlantic Ocean that slave ships used to transport slaves from Africa to the colonies. The voyage, lasting between one to six months, depending on weather conditions, was brutal for the slaves, who were treated like cargo instead of humans, and were packed very tightly into very small quarters, which also allowed diseases to spread easily. Up to 20% of the slaves would die on these ships, but the slave trading business was extremely profitable. Throughout the 18th century, British slave traders alone carried 2.5 million slaves across the Atlantic, many of which were purchased to work in the tobacco plantations in the colonies.
French and indian war
In May of 1754, Benjamin Franklin drew this cartoon, which became very popular in the colonies. It showed how essential intercolonial unity would be for the colonists' survival, and that without it they would be doomed. It emphasized the need for organized action against the French and Indians, and was the beginning of a push towards unity between the different colonies.
In 1755, Edward Braddock was the British general in charge of the French and Indian War in the colonies. He was responsible for "Braddock's Blunder," a massive defeat in which a large British army got devastated by a much smaller French and Indian army who were using guerrilla tactics. General Braddock died in this battle, and it was a crippling defeat for the British army, since many died and it greatly affected their morale.
In 1756, after Braddock's death, William Pitt was the informal British leader who helped to turn the war around. He was a very smart strategist and decided to focus the war effort on the vitals of Canada, notably the Quebec-Montreal area. He quickly took back Louisbourg, which was the first substantial British victory in the war, and helped raise the soldiers' morale.
On September 13, 1759, the British, led by James Wolfe, attacked Quebec. In the middle of the night, the British soldiers scaled a cliff and met the French army, led by Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, on the Plains of Abraham. Though both Montcalm and Wolfe were killed in the battle, the British won and took over this important city. This was a major victory for the British, and brought them one step closer to completely expelling the French from the New World.