Two Controversial Topics

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Two Controversial Topics

• You Decide

2
Was the Colonial Period a Golden Age for Women?

• Yes or No

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Womens Roles

• Women were expected to be a help to their
  husbands however possible
• Women were responsible for the home and
  childrearing
• Had no choice they had to have children
• Expected to also help in the fields in some
  families
• Seen as the moral guide of the family
• Often responsible for teaching children about
  religion and the Bible
• Religion was often very important to men!

4
Freedoms

• Women ran their own day the men were away all
  day and women could do what they wanted when they
  wanted
• Women depended on each other to ease work
• ex. Baking one woman may love it and then do
  it for all her neighbors while they help her with
  other tasks
• This gives women a chance for specialization
• Getting to become advanced in one task

5
Women and Marriage

• Getting married later in life because they served
  such a valuable position in the home
• This led to a choice in who they married
• Became property of their husband as they had
  been of their fathers

6
Restrictions

• No right to own anything
• If not attached to a husband or father they were
  isolated
• No role in politics but expected to obey the
  law
• Women were confined to the home not allowed to
  expand beyond their traditional responsibilities

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Our T Chart

• Yes
• Role of women was considered very important
• Women were honored for their contributions
• Women completed their tasks on their own times
• Women were very social amongst themselves
• Women were able to specialize in tasks they
  enjoyed
• Women had more choice in who they married and
  married later
• Women had more freedoms than in previous eras

• No
• Gender roles were very strict
• Women had no right to own land
• Women could not divorce but men could
• Women were considered property
• Women had to be tied to a man
• Women had no role in politics
• Women were confined to the home
• Women were all expected to have children there
  was no choice

8
Which Came First?Slavery or Racism?

• You Decide

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First We Must Define Racism!

• "Discrimination or prejudice based on race."

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Labor in the New World

• Started with indentured servitude people were
  treated poorly
• Maintained serfdom type of master allegiance
• Triangle Trade expands existing slave trade
• Slavery follows indentured servitude
• Does not become well defined in the Americas
  until the 1660s (started in 1500s) leaving people
  to act however they wanted
• Follows tradition of labor not being directly
  paid in the Americas

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Treatment of Africans

• Very harsh following serfdom and treatment of
  indentured servants and becoming much more severe
• Major crops were labor intensive tobacco,
  indigo, rice (grown primarily in the South)
• Received room and board for their work
• Seen as property not people

13
African Americans in City Areas

• Many worked in trades and then sent their payment
  back to their masters
• Freed African Americans Reside Here
• Not many freed until after the Revolution
• Some did exist and took part in artisan trades
• Dealt with much discrimination
• No more political rights than slaves

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Race Relations in the New World

• Europeans generally treated poorly all of the
  following groups
• Non-Christians
• Other rival Europeans ex. Irish and German
• Non- Europeans
• Labor force

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Our T Chart

• Slavery Came First
• Started in Africa, Americans tapped into the
  already existing system
• Many early African Americans were indentured
  servants not slaves
• Serfdom partially dictated the harsh treatment of
  labor
• Slavery was based on the need for labor not the
  belief that Africans were not as good as
  Europeans
• The British had negative feelings towards other
  Europeans in the same way Irish for example
• Slaves were not devalued based on race but on
  non-Christian status
• Slavery does not become defined in the way we
  know it until the 1660s when it started in 1500s
• Racism resulted from the horrible treatment of
  labor and the fact that Africans made up the
  labor force

• Racism Came First
• Slavery in the Americas was always conducted
  based on slaves being non-white
• Whites were never slaves in the New World
• Culture of the time presumed non-Europeans and
  non-Christians were subservient
• Traditional symbolism black equaling evil
• Slavery was not defined by law so it was on an
  individual basis no other excuse for treatment
  but racism
• Indentured servants could have been used in
  continuation
• If Africans were valued they would have been paid