In the Life of a Puritan (Post 3)

The Puritans were a religious group. They followed religious standards and expected others to follow the same standards they did. The two biggest things that showed who the Puritans were, were their break away from the Catholic church and also the Salem Witch Trials. Both of these things greatly impacted the Puritans and the society in which they lived.

The way Puritans even came about was through the English Reformation (Roark 93). Henry the 8th started a reformation to break away from the catholic church, but really only got halfway there (93). Instead of completely breaking away, he was a head of the church in England, but was still following religious beliefs and practices of orthodox catholics (93). Some English people wanted to throw out the reformation and go back under the power of the pope, but others wanted an on-going of the reformation...and they became Puritans (93).

One of the biggest things the Puritans wanted to get away from in the Catholic Church were the "offensive features" from the Catholics (Roark 93). For one, they wanted hierarchy to be taken out of the church, they saw no need for a monarchy to be head of the church (93). Another change they wanted to make is that they wanted christians to have more control over their own religious life, it should not have to go through another person (93). The Puritans wanted more of a focus on an individual relationship with God and greater time of Bible study and prayer (93). Over time, problems arose in England with the monarchy and the reformation, so many Puritans made way to America from England (94).


(Linder))
Another widely known thing about the Puritans is that they were the ones who were part of the Salem Witch Trials. The Puritans believed that the devil was in pursuit and would attack anyone he could (National Geographic). Along with this belief, they had also heard about a case in Boston where a case of witch craft had been observed (National Geographic). The Puritans believed it to be heresy if anyone was practicing witchcraft, and the punishment for heresy was brutal (Linder). Punishments like hanging and being crushed under rocks were used (Linder). As professor Holden talked about in class, "The Puritans went on witch hunts." They wanted to find the accused and punish them (Linder). A grand total of 25 people were killed during the Witch Trials, one of which was infant born in a prison, and many others spent months in prison waiting for a trial or to be let go (Linder).

(National Geographic)


Roark, James L. ., Michael P. . Johnson, and Cohen Patricia. Cline. The American Promise. Boston: Bedford, 2003. Print.

Linder, Douglas. The Witchcraft Trials in Salem: a Commentary.

"National Geographic: Salem Witch-Hunt--Interactive." National Geographic: Salem Witch-Hunt--Interactive. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.

Differences Between the North, South, and Middle Colonies (Post 2)

The most easily identified differences between the  north, south, and middle colonies are the things that helped to shape the colony's economy, because it very much affected the way the people got to live. The northern colonies were shaped mostly by fish, farming, and trade, the southern colonies by tobacco and cash crops, and the middle colonies by their wheat and trade. Depending on what helped to shape the economy of the colonies also helped to determine how well off they would be financially. In fact, as Professor Holden said in class, the southern colonies made up the wealthiest region. This has to do with the fact that they produced cash crops like tobacco.

The middle colonies, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware, mainly depended on fur trade and farming to bring money in (The Middle Colonies). Many people came to the middle colonies because of the diverse societies and opportunities (The American Promise). The middle colonies were known as the Breadbasket of North America because of the wide variety of crops (The American Promise, 133). They mainly made their money off of wheat though, as they grew it in abundance to make profit.

This barn was thought to have held tobacco and other crops  (The Chesapeake Bay Company of the Jamestowne Society)

The Southern colonies, Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, made most of their profit off of tobacco and other cash crops, they made good money as they were the wealthiest region! Not only was the southern region the wealthiest, but also the largest (The American Promise, 135). Unfortunately, this is due to the amount of slaves brought in to work for people in the southern colonies (135). Looking at this, it all makes sense. There were lots of slaves in the southern colonies as well as lots of crops. The crop and land owners needed people to take care of the crops, therefore they had the slaves...slave population would continue to grow through the years, with the biggest prevalence in the southern colonies.

(Slave Law in Colonial Virginia)

The northern colonies' economies were shaped by farming, fishing, and trading (The American Promise, 127). Though the people of these colonies may not have made an abundance of money off of these things, they were able to get by. Colonists would trade extra crops with neighbors. Because of the location of the colonies, their main export was livestock (127). It was not easy to live in this area, but even under these conditions, they were better off in North America than they were in England (128).







Roark, James L. ., Michael P. . Johnson, and Cohen Patricia. Cline. The American Promise. Boston: Bedford, 2003. Print.

"The Middle Colonies." The Middle Colonies
  

The Columbian Exchange (Post 1)

The Europeans brought a lot of negative things to North America, all the while receiving many benefits from the native Americans, benefits that were quintessential to their survival. The Columbian Biological Exchange website shows in the chart that this is true. The Europeans brought so many new diseases to North America that greatly affected the natives. They brought diseases such as small pox, influenza, and the common cold. The native Americans, unlike the Europeans, were not immune to these diseases.

   (Palomar Website)

Even though the native Americans were not getting anything positive, at the time, from the Europeans, they still shared their maize with them (Public Gettysburg). As professor Holden said in class, maize was essentially the only thing keeping the European population, in North America, alive . As the Public Gettysburg website said, maize was useful to the Europeans because it could be stored quickly and easily and it also could grow faster, and in more sorts of conditions, than wheat could be. The Palomar Columbian Exchange website states that one of the reasons maize was so important to the Europeans was because it could be used in many ways other than food for the humans. They could use it as feed for their livestock, a major export, and food to keep their population alive. It could be argued that maize is the main reason Europeans were able to survive the new and harsh conditions of the new world.

(Gettysburg.edu)

According to the Palomar website on the Columbian Exchange, disease was the number one thing Europeans had to help lessen the strength of the natives. Even though the Europeans did not fully understand what they were doing, they were bringing awful diseases to a country that had no immunization or resistance to any of the diseases. This had a huge negative impact on the native Americans because they were not only losing part of their population, but they were losing great leaders as well. According to the Gettysburg website, the disease that had the greatest and worst affect on the native Americans was small pox. This was such a huge problem to the natives because it was often misdiagnosed and treated incorrectly, which led to death for tens of thousands of Indians (Public Gettysburg). Most Europeans had already been exposed to this disease and had developed at least a partial immunity to this disease, so even though it was destroying the native populations, it hardly affected the Europeans (Public Gettysburg).

(Gettysburg.edu)

"The Columbian Biological Exchange." The Columbian Biological Exchange.

 "Columbian Exchange." Palomar College. S.J. Crouthamel, 2003. Web. 12 Feb. 2013.

Malone, Cory, et. al.  "The Columbian Exchange." Gettysburg.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2013.