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Mayflower Dbq

Decent Essays

The Mayflower Compact, written and signed in 1620 by forty-one white men aboard a ship called the Mayflower, provided basic laws for those who first arrived in America. Eventually the thirteen colonies expanded, which brought an economical benefit and expanded trade for Britain. However, in the mid-1700s, Britain pushed the colonists to their limits, imposing them with unfair taxes. As a result, in 1775, colonists revolted in the American Revolution. When the war ended, colonists gained their freedom, from Britain, with the signing of The Treaty of Paris (1783). The Declaration of Independence (1776) - written by Thomas Jefferson (Southern Colony), Benjamin Franklin (Middle Colony), and John Adams (Northern Colony) - stated that all men …show more content…

The economy of the North was based primarily on manufacturing, trade, and transportation. Many people benefitted from the economy, which in turn supported vast infrastructures such as roads, canals, and railways. The invention of machines made agriculture in the North much more efficient. “In 1831, Virginia farmer Cyrus McCormick built a working model of a “right smart” machine called a reaper. A reaper could cut 28 times more grain than a single man using a scythe (a hand tool with a long curved blade)” (Hart 259). Machines, such as the reaper, helped the agricultural economy because it made it easier to produce much larger amounts of grain in a lot less time. “By 1860, the value of manufacturing in the North was ten times greater than in the South” (Hart 259). The invention of many machines made work time in the North much more efficient than in the …show more content…

In the North, people either lived on a farm or in cities. Urban areas, between 1840-1860, became very populated as people moved from farms. “By 1860, about seven in ten northerners still lived on farms. But more and more northerners were moving to towns and cities” (Hart 265). Many people crowded big cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. African Americans were free in the North, but were not treated equal to their white counterparts. Immigrants spiked the North’s population between 1845 and 1860. Some immigrants bought land while others worked in shops. Many northerners treated immigrants like African Americans were treated in the South- discriminating against

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