Opportunities in Colonial America

Colonial America differed from England because it offered great opportunities to those of varied financial backgrounds. The degree to which one could take advantage of these opportunities depended upon physical characteristics and ethnicity.

Being any other race than Caucasian was a negative factor in the ability to reap the full benefits of the many opportunities in the American colonies.

In the Chesapeake area Native Americans were massacred and marginalized into reservations during the 17th century by Sir William Berkeley (Reich, J. R. 2011).  In New England, the Native Americans were devastated by disease.  The Wampanoag were defeated by the death of King Phillip in 1676.  “Massachusetts and Connecticut executed many of their former enemies and sold hundreds of them, including Phillip’s wife and son, as slaves to the West Indies,” (Reich, J. R. 2011, pg. 78).

Africans were considered soulless and beasts of burden by many European settlers.  The Reverend Hugh Jones states in his essay, “yet they are by nature cut out for hard labour and fatigue,” (Kupperman, K. 2012, pg. 232).  The slave trade was so lucrative that it caused the largest mass exodus in our planets history.  Over 11 million Africans were forcibly taken from their homes, made to cross the Atlantic, and sold into slavery their will.  (In Films on Demand 2007).

Gender was an advantage if you were male.  Women could not own land and were unable to vote.  Men were expected to be educated, contribute to the community, participate in government, own property, maintain a family, and have social power.  Expectations of women were to maintain household order, encourage faith and moral development, and to be subordinate to men.  (Gender Roles in Colonial America. 2004).

Ethnicity played a large role in the English colonies.  Most of the colonists during the 17th century were of English descent.  Out of 165,000 European settlers in the English colonies, 100,000 were indentured servants and 65,000 were free people, with about 90 percent of these people coming directly from England, (Reich, J. R. 2011).  “Outside of the Dutch in New York and a few Finns and Swedes in Delaware, the first non-English group to arrive in the colonies in any significant numbers were the Huguenots, or French Protestants” starting in 1685, (Reich, J. R. 2011, pg. 129).  Being the majority population allowed for better communication and an understanding of cultural norms that minorities might not understand.