Mr. Johnson
Honors US History
Q: What is the most important root of the American Dream formed during the Colonial Period?
With the establishment of the first settlement of Jamestown by the English in America through hardships the colonist quickly adapted to build an economy surrounded by land buzzing with commerce contributing to what we associate the American dream to today. In our society today the key to achieving this American dream is obtaining a stable manufacturing job that pays for a good education and a large house in a safe neighborhood. For centuries this aspect of the American dream has become harder to obtain with more and more jobs being moved overseas and sky rocketing prices of education. However as we see …show more content…
The leaders of the New England colonies prided themselves on the idea that religion was the primary motivation for emigration. A majority of those families that made the voyage came from the middle ranks of society and paid for their family’s passage rather then indenturing themselves in labor. They sought in New England not only religious liberty but also economic advancement. Lacking a marketable staple like sugar or tobacco, new Englanders turned to fishing and timber for exports. But the economy centered on family farms producing food for their own use and a small marketable surplus. The desire for land quickly became among younger families sand newcomers the major motive for New England’s expansion. However fast pace economic development in early America created a measure of social inequality. New England gradually assumed a role within the British empire based on trade. New England merchants shipped and marketed the staples of other colonies to markets in Europe and Africa. They engaged in profitable trade with the West Indies, whose growing slave plantations they supplied with fish, timber and agricultural produce gathered at home. The government of Massachusetts bay company also actively promoted economic development by building roads and bridges, offering bounties toe economic enterprises, and …show more content…
Slavery was based on the plantation, an agricultural enterprise that brought together large numbers of workers under the control of a single owner. No European nation embarked on the colonization of the new world with the intention of relying on African slaves for the bulk of its labor force. In the new world, slavery would come to be associated with race, a concept that drew a permanent line between whites and blacks. But the incessant demand for workers spurred by the spread of tobacco cultivation eventually led Chesapeake planters to turn to transatlantic trade in slaves. This mass division and stereotype has still influenced Americans perspectives today. We judge others and sometimes let our pre conceived notions make it harder for certain people born into a status to make it in