Colonial America Dbq Essay

The middle colonies liked bread so much their nickname was the breadbaskets the new england mostly focused on religion.

For some British thinkers, the word “Democracy” was directly used for referring to the “House of Commons” unlike in the early American Revolution where the word “Democracy” was referred to as the greater equality inspired by the struggle for independence. Democracy did not exist in the colonies before the Revolution because political status was directly related to wealth. Special qualifications were supposed to be met in order to be eligible to vote or to be sitting in an assembly.

As a general rule, most states required that any potential voter own some sort of property. However, the exact amount and definition of property varied, with some states requiring possession of a certain amount of acreage, and others a specific sum of money in the bank. General rules like these property qualifications limited the number of citizens who could vote, but also allowed the voting groups to be more diverse than they would have been otherwise. For instance, women and even free black were allowed to vote alongside white men in elections provided they held the required amount of land and were at least twenty one, which was another qualification for white men as well. This diversity did, of course, vary based on states, with some states not allowing women or blacks to vote at all, and others being equally lenient between all genders and races.

OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to create an outline for a DBQ essay. Students will be able to identify democratic and undemocratic features of colonial America and how American democracy was a work in progress in colonial times and find evidence from documents to prove those ideas.

Between 1607 and 1733, Great Britain established thirteen colonies in the New World along the land’s eastern coast. England’s colonies included Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Though the colonies were classified as New England, middle or southern colonies, the colonists developed a unifying culture. With this new American culture, the colonists throughout the colonies began to think differently than their English cousins. Because colonial America displayed characteristics of a democratic society and, therefore, deviated from England’s monarchic ways, it was established as a democratic society.

Through this representative, the men had a voice in the government. In order to vote, some colonies had voting requirements, such as you had to be a white, Christian man. In other colonies, like Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the men had to have a certain amount of land. This allowed poorer men to have a choice in the government. Although this limited the amount of the population that could vote, some did have their chance to voice their opinion in the

The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."(The library of congress).The 15th amendment touched upon topics such as race and color but it had not touched on gender equality. It denied women certain rights, such as the right to vote. The constitution did not secure women’s rights to vote! How truly unfair this was! The constitution clarified that males had more power over women. Men were allowed to vote, and had many advantages over women. This made many women outraged. The accentuation on voting during the 1860s drove ladies' rights activists to concentrate on lady suffrage. The two sides built up two opponent national associations that intended to win ladies the vote.

From 1607 to 1754, people’s views on governing themselves changed greatly. It began in 1607, with the settlement of Jamestown. They were a corporate colony, working for the Virginia Company, they were whole-heartedly British. The Great Awakening, the Enlightenment, and the Tradition of Neglect all introduced new ways for the American colonies to think of themselves as more independent. Although they still considered themselves part of the British Empire, by the end of this era they had discovered that they could make their own laws and constitutions that fit the way that their world worked as opposed to Great Britain.

The American Revolution was the culmination of tension between the free-thinking and developing Colonists and the dominating and tax-imposing British. The war lasted from 1776 to 1783, but the most important part of the war was the events leading up to it, in which Colonists began to develop democratic thoughts about their social, political, economic, and religious life. People began to understand democratic ideas and it’s benefits, and many decided to make an active effort to increase the amount of democracy in their life. Democratic is defined as favoring or characterized by social equality. A democratic lifestyle is a fair and equal one, and the years leading up to the revolution brought a democratic environment to the Colonies. Despite lack of greater property distribution, the 1700s brought great democratic change to Colonial America, which experienced a democratic movement religiously in the separation of church and state, which led to social changes including slavery and new thinking, that led to democratic and intellectual political reforms.

Only church members were granted voting rights in the Puritan colony. Where as the Pilgrims developed a new system and it was based on honor and hard working. On the belief that they could follow someone who was fair and just and believed in the New world. (Schweikart Larry and Michael Allen, 2004,

The democratization of American society that started in 1820s has led to a significant change of relations between government and people. These changes include growing equality of opportunities for white men and possibility for people to influence political processes taking place in the US. While people gained new rights and chances to start another life, government was, on the one hand, set under the growing pressure of society, and on the other hand, could be constructed by people.

The European conquest for establishing North American colonies began with various motivations, each dependent on different, and/or merging necessities: economics, the desire to flee negative societal aspects, and the search for religious freedoms. Originally discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 in search for a trade route to Cathay (China), North America remained uninhabited, excluding the Native American establishments. Following this discovery, Spain –along with other European nations such as France, England, Sweden and the Netherlands– soon began the expedition to the new land with vast expectations. Driven by economic, societal, and religious purposes, the New World developed into a diversely structured colonial establishment

One of the primary features of the American politics in the 18th century was the idea of self-rule. As the motherland of Great Britain was all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, it was unable to keep a constant watch over their colonies in the New World. The lack of a British presence, coupled with conflicting ideas on how to run the colonies led the American government to evolve to be able to take care of itself. Colonies would often elect a self-appointed governor to take care of social, economic, and political business. Another feature of American politics was the accessibility of voting, compared to the English system. Voting in town-meetings was restricted to all white males who owned land. Having said that, land was an easier commodity to acquire in America, meaning many white males who were willing to put in the effort could weigh in at the polls. The voice of the colonists was especially useful for self-taxation. One of the dearest rights of the colonists was to only be taxed with representation, as only they could fairly decide how much of the people’s money needed to go to the

In today’s world, everything is almost equal. People of all races are equal and share the same roles and opportunities; in addition, men and women are equal in society and also share the same roles at home, work, and at high authority positions. Although it is equal today, during the colonial era, however, society was entirely different. Society, at that time, was unequal and unjustified; in addition, society was divided into social ranks where those who were extremely wealthy and owned an abundance of land are at the top and slaves, the poorest, were at the bottom. White male land owners, at the time, were the most dominant and slaves, who are forced to work by high class people, were at the bottom of the societal class. Women, although in a higher position of slaves, were ranked lower to men at all standards and did not enjoy the same equality and freedom that men received. Unfair social division or white male dominance defined the roles of women and slaves in society.

It also was never fair to all of the people who lived in the colonies. Many African-Americans and Europeans never had many rights as whites males did. Females also did not have a big role in the colonies and its government. They were only to work and clean the home that the husband owned and to take care of the children if they had any. The Declaration was in the works and was not thought out properly so it may have had some flaws but the mind set of colored people and women not having rights would greatly affect how they are seen in America’s future.