Power In Early Colonial America

Religious freedom was one of the main causes for English peoples to move to the New World. They escaped from the de-catholicization of the Church of England in order to believe in what they wanted to belive in. The government once again did not pay any heed to set an official religious set of rules in the colonies, therefore allowing the people to

There was a problem though, the colonies in America only allowed active members of that colony’s church to vote or be a part of the government. Some of these colonies were under the Kings control and others needed his permission to make government decisions. However, the members of Separatists church found a way around the King’s rule. They sailed out with one hundred people to America and landed at Plymouth Rock, a territory that was out of King James control. This allowed them to be able to form their own government that was in no way associated with the kind.

The New England believed on English people were aloud. They were all Puritans. In New England there was no such thing as religious freedom, whoever moved to New England had to be an English Puritan and nobody else. The New England was a dominated region. People such as John Winthrop were a big impact on New England since they were the people who decided to leave New England so they could choose their religion and live by it. Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson from Rhode Island believed that even if someone’s religion was different, there would only be acceptance and no harm. The Middle Colonies had a lot more religious freedom than the New England. They were a diverse colony, a colony that accepted anybody from any religion including black slaves. There was no church that dominated the middle colonies. This region was not only a diverse colony but also included Quakers whom was led by William Penn. The Dutch and the Swedish Lutherans were the first Europeans to settle in the middle colonies. In Pennsylvania William Penn, Quaker, soon provided all religious freedoms. Although Jews and Catholics couldn’t vote, they followed William Penn’s footsteps and went to Pennsylvania for religious freedom. Just like the New England, the southern colonies were strict on their religion even if they accepted many people from different religions. Usually the slaves that the southern colonists

It is evident that the drive to colonize this new nation had chiefly been for economic purposes and the fact that the European continent was becoming overpopulated. The New World had been discovered by explorers who wanted to locate a new route to India so that trade could be better established. However, once what is now known as the United States was founded, there were more opportunities for a variety of things, including slave labor, colonization, entrepreneurship, and even an escape from religious persecution and the social and political system of Europe. As a result of this drive for change, the European people aggressively came to America so that they could make changes, and this would be on behalf of the Native American people who already claimed the land.

Colonial America was a time filled with hardships and inequality. The idea of who should have rights and how they should be administered was very common throughout the 17th and 18th centuries within the colonies. At this time, colonies were having trouble themselves with their own government laws as their mother country, Great Britain, ruled over them from nearly 3,000 miles away across the Atlantic Ocean. Colonists, themselves, felt that they should be in power and wanted to create their own government, which eventually led to the American Revolution. At this time, rights were only being provided for rich, white, land- owning males. Over the 17th and 18th centuries, events such as Bacon's Rebellion, The Great Awakening, and The Stono

Colonization during the 1600’s brought hundreds of Europeans to America. They, up until that point had only known the control and steady income of England. However, it did mean there were problems within the colonies. Power was a struggle in colonial America considering the imbalance of it. Wealth in the colonies wasn’t much better especially after the French and Indian War.

Whether by land or by sea, eighteenth century colonial travel was arduous, expensive, and many times dangerous. Because of this, few people traveled very far from their homes. Transportation has changed dramatically since the late 1700’s. It was during this time that Colonial America was budding as a new country. This was before airplanes, which appeared in the very early stages of the 1900’s. Cars showed up about the same time, so rewind about 200 plus years and we’re back in colonial America. It wasn’t civilized like it is today. The dirt roads were bumpy, grimy, and when the rains came, they were mud baths. So how did people during this time get around? Often, they didn’t. Not many people could afford the cost of travel back then. Daily American Colonial Life was extremely harsh for the first settlers and colonists. They were faced with a new country, unknown territory and no friends, relatives or neighbors to help them “In those days, it was fairly expensive to travel. Because of this, generally only government officials, merchants, and planters took the risk (Constitution Facts).” Women were supposed to stay home and look after the children while the husband went off to do business. America was still a budding country, so there were not as many cities as there are now and they were more spread out. If the man wanted to travel, it would require several hours, or even several days to ride on horseback. Often the husband wouldn’t return for a couple of days, and when he

Colonial New England women did not benefit from autonomy because they did not have the freedom associated. The husbands of colonial women had full control and their wives were dependent on them financially, occupationally, spiritually and even mentally: the women counted on the men for funds to keep the household fulfilled, took on their husbands religious and spiritual views, and also were told the right and wrong things they should be thinking about. In addition to not being independent in ways aforementioned, women in this era were not legally and politically autonomous which they would not get that right until later on in American history.

As the colonies continued to grow and become more powerful, and as the colony’s assemblies had more and more representatives elected, the British government began to fear that they would lose power and influence over the colonies.

America, unlike Great Britain, had the colonists pay light taxes to the colonial government, allowing for whatever needed to be done, to be done, by taxing themselves. Britain’s taxes were for regulation, and not for profit, unlike America up until 1764 when the British Parliament changed all policies and enacted laws to make money from the colonists. This new imperial system consisted of three goals: the ability to provide for colony security, the reassertion of authority over the colonies, and the shift of financial burden of war debt and

     Religion was a very important part of everyday life in colonial America. Sometimes people were not allowed to question what they were taught, and if they did so they were punished accordingly. Before 1700 some colonies had more religious freedom then others. While others colonies only allowed religious freedom to a select group, others allowed religious freedom to all different kinds of religions. In the overall there was quite a bit of religious freedom in colonial America

Woman and family roles are considerably different today than they were back in Puritan times. Puritans thought that the public’s foundation rested on the “little commonwealth”, and not merely on the individual. The “little commonwealth” meant that a father’s rule over his family mirrored God’s rule over creation or a king over his subjects. John Winthrop believed that a “true wife” thought of herself “in [weakness] to her husband’s authority.” As ludicrous as this idea may appeal to women and others in today’s society, this idea was truly necessary for colonies to be able to thrive and maintain social order.

1.Historian Nancy Scott focuses on the New England women’s gender roles. A two-fold role, Domesticity and Feminism. A paradox in “progress” of women’s history in the United States of 1830’s. “New England women in 1835 endured subordination to men in marriage and society, profound disadvantage in education and in the economy, denial of access to official power in the churches that they populated, and virtual impotence in politics. A married woman had no legal existence apart from her husband’s”. Women had no voting and inheritance rights. Widows and single women with property had to submit to taxation without being represented. In economy they had second-class position. Those who worked earned one-fourth to one-half to men for

The role and status of an eighteenth century colonial woman was clearly an overlooked responsibility. She was required to be her husband's assistant, "not his equal", but an inferior. She was expected to show her husband "reverence" and be "Submissive to his demands". If a woman did not live

their lives due to staying home alone and taking care of themselves and their younger siblings,