2. People of Colonial America Created by Vina Evans Baker Elementary 4 th grade

3. SS4H3: The student will explain the factors that shaped British Colonial America –b. Describe colonial life in America as experienced by various people, including large landowners, farmers, artisans, women, indentured servants, slaves, and Native Americans. –Table of Contents Table of ContentsTable of Contents

4. Large Landowners Farmers Artisans Women Slaves Indentured Servants Native Americans Who settled in the Thirteen Original Colonies?

5. Large Landowners The Southern colonies contained farming settlements because the growing season in the South was long. The farms in the southern colonies were large and called plantations. People on plantations grew cash crops like cotton, tobacco, indigo, rice, and sugar cane so that they could send agricultural products to Europe to be sold. These landowners were wealthy and would hire imported slaves to do the hard work on the plantation.

6. Most colonists lived on small farms in the backcountry. The backcountry is an area in the country where very few people live. They usually didn’t live near schools or towns. Farmers in the New England colonies only grew enough to feed their families. Most families had 7-8 children and they had to help with the farming. Farmers’ children learned to read and write ONLY if their parents were able to teach them. In the Middle colonies, settlers owned or worked on farms of various sizes. Workers who did not own the land were called tenant farmers.

7. An artisan is a person that specializes in a special craft, product or service. Many artisans made bricks, sails for ships and furniture. Others were carpenters, blacksmiths, silversmiths, printers, weavers, shoemakers, tailors, and basket makers. Artisans could be found in all colonies but they were most common in the middle colonies. Artisan usually hired an apprentice to help with the making of their craft. Apprentices were people who trained for many years to become an artisan (skilled worker). Usually an apprentice would train for seven or more years. Age nine was the youngest a boy could become an apprentice. It was very hard work. An apprentice would work long hours to learn his trade. Being an apprentice was a great way of helping a young boy learn to make his own living and raise a family. An artisan is a person that specializes in a special craft, product or service. Many artisans made bricks, sails for ships and furniture. Others were carpenters, blacksmiths, silversmiths, printers, weavers, shoemakers, tailors, and basket makers. Artisans could be found in all colonies but they were most common in the middle colonies. Artisan usually hired an apprentice to help with the making of their craft. Apprentices were people who trained for many years to become an artisan (skilled worker). Usually an apprentice would train for seven or more years. Age nine was the youngest a boy could become an apprentice. It was very hard work. An apprentice would work long hours to learn his trade. Being an apprentice was a great way of helping a young boy learn to make his own living and raise a family.

8. Women played an active role in colonial life. They performed traditional roles including preparing and serving the food, weaving clothing, and raising and educating the children. Tending farmlands was hard work during colonial times, and it was not suited for European women. But times were changing and tobacco and cotton were the rulers of the land in the South. Women were needed in the new settlements to help tend to the crops and harvesting. Candle-making, churning butter, milking cows, gardening and making cheese were other task that women performed.

9. In colonial times, many Southern landowners used indentured servants. An indentured servant would agree to work for someone for a certain length of time usually between four and seven years. In exchange, servants had their boat fares paid. For many Europeans, this was the only way they could afford to travel to North America. Indentured servants had few rights. Without the permission of their masters, they were not allowed to marry, to leave their houses or travel, nor buy or sell anything. Most indentured servants were put to work in the tobacco fields of Virginia and Maryland. This was hard manual labor under the grueling hot summer sun, under which Europeans were not accustomed to working.

10. Beginning early in the 1600s, southern plantation owners began to import enslaved people to do the hard work of growing the crops on their large plantations. The first enslaved Africans were brought to the Jamestown colony in Virginia in 1619. They were bought and sold like property. Men, women and children were treated as if they were animals. When the sale was finished, families, friends, and relatives were often separated. Some owners provided decent food, clothing, and shelter. However, some owners provided terrible living conditions. Many times entire families would have to share small, dirty living spaces and barely had enough food to feed their family.

11. During the colonial period, Native American life was a story of cooperation and conflict with the Europeans. Both groups competed for land. Sadly, many Europeans came to view the Native Americans as uncivilized and dangerous. Both groups depended on the land for their survival. But Europeans and Native Americans had very different ideas about land ownership. They also had quite different religious beliefs. Oftentimes, Europeans would take Native Americans as slaves to work for them.