History essay topics and approaches

American Colonialism

OPPORTUNITY in COLONIAL AMERCIA

Colonization of the New World in the seventeenth century offered unprecedented opportunity for Europeans, particularly refugees from the religious intolerance and persecutions of minority religions in England. Even after initial reports suggested that the new territories were rich in precious metals proved erroneous, the new colonies still presented opportunities for increased political autonomy and potential for exploitation of new natural resources. Despite the progress in the areas of personal freedoms and potential for profitable work in early colonial America, social change in certain areas was comparatively slow to take root, especially in the case of women, and of course, black

Africans brought over to the New World as slaves (Hayes).

Gradually, over the course of the first century and a half of the original settlements at Plymouth and Massachusetts, public opposition to slavery arose in certain colonies, eventually culminating in the Civil War whose outcome abolished slavery as an American institution in 1865. The descendants of slaves, while free, were still subject to significant social prejudices and deprivations for most of the next hundred years until the Civil Rights era of the 1960s. Women would eventually achieve equal rights and female suffrage as well, but not for another half century (Nevins).

Religious Freedom:

On one hand, religious autonomy was the primary influence that sparked the first settlers to leave England and establish colonies in the New World; on the other hand, some of the first colonies immediately emulated the very principle responsible for their persecution in Europe, by establishing mandatory churches in the new colonies. Several of the new colonies were owned by British ventures; consequently, the Royal Crown continued to dictate religious affiliation, even in the New World. Other colonies established different religions, but required membership to benefit from the full rights and privileges available within those colonies. Under British rule in the colony of Virginia, opportunities were obviously favorable to Church members, and under the Puritan Church in Massachusetts, opportunity comparatively restricted for non-members of the Puritan Church. Only with the Great Awakening of the late seventeenth century would settlers of the new colonies first begin to unite in their religious beliefs, but equal opportunity irrespective of religious affiliation would await the War of Independence and the drafting of the United States Constitution in 1787.

Gender Equality and Land Ownership in the Early Colonial Period:

In early colonial society, women had some rights that were the same as those of men, others that differed substantially, and still others that were the same in an official sense, but significantly different from men's rights in actual practice and everyday life

Uden). Women in Colonial America had the same freedoms of speech and travel, and to trial by jury as men, but could not own property on their own. In marriage, all family property automatically was titled in the husband's name.

Probably the greatest significance of the difference in property rights between men and women was that real property ownership was an absolute prerequisite for voting, which automatically excluded female suffrage in the colonies (Nevins) Even technical legal rights that failed to distinguish between men and women allowed for differential treatment in actual practice. For example, while entitled to free speech, it was practically unheard of for colonial women to voice their opinions publicly on social issues and matters of law. Likewise, while not specifically proscribed by law, social convention and custom made it almost inconceivable for colonial women to hold jobs or work outside the home (Fenton). Even in later colonial periods when it became more common for women to work outside the home, taxation laws in some colonies "discouraged" the employment of women outdoors in the field by exempting only landowners who did not employ women outside (Uden).

Slavery in the Early Colonial Period:

Naturally, the most significant social differences in colonial America were between the white settlers and their African slaves and indentured servants. Slavery first came to the colonies in the form of a Dutch ship that brought a shipment of kidnapped