FREE ESSAY ON COLONIAL AMERICA

COLONIAL AMERICA

Colonial America 'til 1759
The American colonists came from a variety of backgrounds. There were the English, who
were running away from religious persecution, the Dutch, who reputedly bought Manhattan
for a string of beads. The French Huguenots, who were Protestants fleeing from
prosecution in a Catholic country. The Quakers, fleeing from harrassments of the Anglican
establishment, the church of England, and Germans from innumerable principalities,
fleeing military draft and the various exaction's of the petty princes. Also the Irish
population, who fled Ireland because of famine and corrupt and over-charging landlords.
Most of these immigrant people came to America with nothing but hope in their pockets.
What they set out to do was make a respectable life for themselves and their families,
without the dictatorship of a monarchy or the iron fist of religion looming over them.
What they would find was hardship and an even tougher life than in their homeland. 
The main problem with expansion in the colonies was that the Native Americans occupied
the land that the "Americans" wanted. The natives would not allow the new settlers to
push farther inland on their land, thus causing conflict between the colonists and the
Native Americans. Also, the new settlers would come into conflict over some desirable
parasols of land. For example, when the Connecticut towns sprang up, Governor of
Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop tried to assert authority over them. He had
originally expected to procure the land for his and his friends' own profit. 
The colonists and the Indians also had a very uneasy peace for over three decades. The
Pilgrims had tried unsuccessfully to take over Indian land, causing the two former allies
to battle for the land. 
Some of the institutions that were initiated during colonial time were an established
church for many different denominations, and colonial governments. 
When the majority of the settlers came to America, it was to break free of religious
oppression. The people wanted to worship their own God. Originally, when the people came
to this country, they had to obey the Trinity, as said by the legislature to be the
Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. This was the rule of the established church for a
colony. The churches were generally supported by taxes paid by the colonists, whether
they worshiped this religion or not. 
In Massachusetts and Connecticut, congregationalism was established where independent and
self-governing bodies governed a form of Protestant churches. 
Although the colonies were across the Atlantic Ocean, they were still in some way not
free from England and other countries. Kings had found ways to build local governments
that could handle day-to-day affairs of their colonies. Britain had set up these local
governments in hope that their colonies would become the most efficient and most
powerful. 
Each colony had a governor, a council (appointed by the governor), and an elected
representative with lawmaking and taxing powers. This is a broad system of what the US
has in place today. The government was the link between the kings and the colonies. They
were somewhat of messengers who would let the kings know if the colonies were being run
efficiently. Some of the colonies even invoked a biblical law, which meant that the
government regulated colonist's religious beliefs and practices. 
In Colonial America, women were mistreated by society. They did not have the same legal
rights as a man did, yet they were told to abide by the same laws. Woman lacked the right
to sell, acquire, or will property to another person. She could also not claim any wages
she earned. She could only gain use of these privileges through the permission of her
husband. Also no matter how wise or wealthy, women were denied a political voice. This
was true of all English colonies. 
The Indians, just the same, were treated much more unfairly. When the first settlers
arrived in the New World, they became friendly with the Native Americans. Unfortunately,
as land became scarce, the newcomers unjustly started battle with the natives. These many
battles took its toll on the number of Native Americans in the colonies. Once there were
a tremendous population of Natives, yet after many battles those numbers had dwindled to
just thousands. After the new settlers had beaten the various Indian tribes in battle,
they would take the Indian land and disperse it amongst the settlers for each colony. The
Indians would then be sold into slavery, or forced from their respective areas and pushed
further west or north. 
Unlike most of the other settlers to the new country, African Americans really didn't
chose to come here. They were usually sold into slavery and brought to the southern
colonies, where they worked for a white master. These Africans were treated very harshly
and were often beaten senselessly for no reason after working fifteen-hour days for their
"masters". These slaves were held for life terms, and would work usually for the same
master until they died. Unlike white indentured servants, their owners would not release
black slaves after serving a specific amount of time. 
The original religious dissenters were the pilgrims, whom escaped England and the
persecution the faced for not abiding by the bible laws of the monarchy. The dissenters
would usually relocate, either voluntarily or by banishment from their governments, to
other states. For example, Roger Williams was a Puritan minister who would give sermons
in which he would criticize the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was soon
banished from Massachusetts and later founded Rhode Island. Many of the religious
dissenters were not a welcome addition to their colonies. If a person was a religious
dissenter, there was a good chance that they would either be put on trial or be banished
for life from their colony. 
The idea of tolerance in the colonies was first decided upon for people who were facing
religious persecution and harassment. Charles Calvert, a wealthy nobleman, tried to
prevent Maryland's protestant population from persecuting or harassing the Catholic
minority. He offered equal protection to both religious groups with the Calvert
Toleration Act. As far as tolerance of other unlawful practices are concerned, blacks
were treated unfairly while all governing bodies went along with the idea of slave
trading. Women, as we know were not given many of the same rights that men were given
until the late eighteen and early nineteen hundreds. Tolerance was far from coming into
action in the Colonial Americas.