New England, Middle and Southern colonies: land, climate and how people earned a living
Grade 8 Social Studies Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
Use this
Law and labor in Virginia. Card A, a law (Virginia's assembly, 1662; spelling modernized; a cut is marked): "… all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother." The law settled whether a child with an English father and an enslaved African mother would be enslaved or free. The assembly was made up of Virginia's property-owning men, many of them planters. Card B, a summary in our words: early Chesapeake planters relied on English indentured servants, who worked a set term. As servants who finished their terms wanted land, and after Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, many historians say planters turned more and more to enslaved Africans, who were held for life.
Card A was made by a planter-heavy assembly. How should Ari read the law as evidence of how labor worked, in Virginia?
- As a neutral rule that treated each worker fairly in law
- As proof that no enslaved person ever gained freedom
- As the owners' own rules for how enslavement would work
- As a private letter that shows one planter's feelings
Card A says children are 'bond or free only according to the condition of the mother.' What did that rule do, Bo asks?
- Children born to an enslaved mother were born enslaved
- Children of an enslaved mother were born free
- Children could be sold just after they turned twenty-one
- Children followed the status of the father
How did the 1662 law affect planters' labor supply in the long run, Esme asks?
- It forced planters to use machines in place of workers
- It gave enslaved parents ownership of their children's labor
- It ended slavery as children were declared free
- Children of enslaved mothers added to the workforce
Card B says 'many historians say' planters turned to enslaved labor after 1676. What does that wording tell Kira?
- The cause is false, since just some of the historians say it
- The cause is certain, because many historians repeat it
- It is an interpretation that historians weigh, not settled fact
- The cause was written down in the year 1676 by the planters
How did the workers in the Chesapeake change over the 1600s, according to card B, Luz asks?
- From English workers toward Native workers paid wages
- From enslaved Africans held for life toward servants with a set term
- From tobacco workers toward fishing workers in port towns
- From servants with a set term toward enslaved Africans held for life
Use this
Whose knowledge built the colonial economies? (Summaries in our words from the National Park Service, the Library of Congress and historians' articles.) Card A: in New Netherland, the Dutch fur trade depended on Native trappers, including Haudenosaunee and Lenape, who traded furs for cloth and metal goods. Shell beads called wampum, made by Native peoples of the coast, were used in the trade. Card B: the Lenni-Lenape taught colonists how to live in the climate of the Middle Colonies and New England, and they planted corn, squash and beans together. Card C: historian Judith Carney argues that rice growing in the Carolinas used West African methods, such as winnowing baskets and the way fields were flooded. Some historians say the evidence for how much knowledge crossed the ocean is partly indirect.
Which claim do cards A and B best support, Milo asks?
- Colonists taught Native peoples to trade and to farm
- Native peoples built the colonial economies without help
- Native skills and goods helped build colonial economies
- Dutch traders paid Native peoples in gold coins
What step connects the fur trade in card A to Dutch profits, Noah asks?
- Dutch farmers supplied furs that Native traders sold abroad
- Railroads carried furs from forests to ports
- Wampum was a tax collected by Dutch governors
- Native trappers supplied furs that Dutch traders sold
Card C names a historian and notes a debate. Why does that make it stronger evidence, Pia asks?
- It hides the historian's view so the claim sounds neutral
- It gives dates from the 1700s for each African method
- It names the author and admits where evidence is thin
- It settles the debate because one author is named
Which source would best test card C's claim about rice methods, Ren asks?
- A planter's diary that praises his own profits and land
- A map of Carolina's roads made around the year 1950
- Records from the 1700s on workers' origins and tools
- A list of tobacco prices in the Chesapeake in 1750
Use this
Law and labor in Virginia. Card A, a law (Virginia's assembly, 1662; spelling modernized; a cut is marked): "… all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother." The law settled whether a child with an English father and an enslaved African mother would be enslaved or free. The assembly was made up of Virginia's property-owning men, many of them planters. Card B, a summary in our words: early Chesapeake planters relied on English indentured servants, who worked a set term. As servants who finished their terms wanted land, and after Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, many historians say planters turned more and more to enslaved Africans, who were held for life. Whose knowledge built the colonial economies? (Summaries in our words from the National Park Service, the Library of Congress and historians' articles.) Card A: in New Netherland, the Dutch fur trade depended on Native trappers, including Haudenosaunee and Lenape, who traded furs for cloth and metal goods. Shell beads called wampum, made by Native peoples of the coast, were used in the trade. Card B: the Lenni-Lenape taught colonists how to live in the climate of the Middle Colonies and New England, and they planted corn, squash and beans together. Card C: historian Judith Carney argues that rice growing in the Carolinas used West African methods, such as winnowing baskets and the way fields were flooded. Some historians say the evidence for how much knowledge crossed the ocean is partly indirect.
On what did the regional economies rest, according to the cards, Zee asks?
- Land, laws, and the work and knowledge of people shut out of profits
- Factories, as in the 1800s, with most workers paid wages in cash
- Planters' skill and ambition alone, with enslaved workers adding little
- Land and climate alone, with no role for law, labor or knowledge