Colonial America

Crime&Punishment

A very common form of punishment was public punishment

Stocks: The stocks were a small wooden device with foot holes.The persons ankles were locked in as their feet were held straight
Pillory:The Pillory was wooden and had holes for a person’s head and hands. It was a worse punishment -than the Stocks because the criminal had to stand. Onlookers often threw rotten fruit or rocks at the criminal
-Whipping Post: The whipping post was where criminals were publicly whipped before onlookers and neighbors.
-Ducking Stool: The dunking stool was a chair to which criminals were tied and dunked into water repeatedly as punishment
-Many laws were based on moral law from the bible
-Much having to do with land laws
-Drunk crime was taken very serious ly in Colonial America
-In colonies without religious freedom it was very illegal to skip church services
-Swearing was also a criminal offense in Colonial America

The Stocks

BAll&Chain

African-Americans in Colonial America

African-Americans in Colonial America
-20% of the population in the thirteen colonies was of African descent
-The majority of African-Americans living in the Chesapeake worked on tobacco plantations and large farms

-Most of Virginia’s slave population came from West Africa

-A modern West African adage is, “It takes a village to raise a child,”

-Slaves depended on their masters for food, shelter, clothing, and health care. The masters depended on their slaves for labor and services, and that led to a complex relationship of authority, obligation, and family loyalty that must have required diplomacy and skill to negotiate.

African-American Slaves

Trade

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• The most valuable trad-able crop was tabbaco
• The colonial Americans also traded furs like beaver fur
• New England: Fish, whale products, ships, timber products, furs, maple syrup, copper, livestock products, horses, rum, whiskey and beer
• Middle Colonies:Corn and wheat and livestock including beef and pork. Other industries included the production of iron ore, lumber, coal, textiles, furs and shipbuilding
• Southern Colonies:Tobacco, cotton, sugar, rice, indigo (dye) via the Slave Plantations, lumber, furs, farm products

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• The Southern Colonies consisted of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
• The natural resources available for trade in the Southern Colonies included Fish, forests (timber) and good agricultural land
• The   geography of the Middle Colonies had a mix of the New England and Southern features but had fertile soil and land that was suited to farming The  resources  for trade included good farmland, timber, furs and coal
• The geography of New England consisted of mountains thick with trees, rivers and poor rocky soil that was difficult to farm and unsuitable for crops
• The natural resources available for trade  included fish, whales and forests

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Tabbaco