US History

Chapter 04 - American Life in the Seventeenth Century I. The Unhealthy Chesapeake 1. Life in the American wilderness was harsh. 2. Diseases like malaria, dysentery, and typhoid killed many. 3. Few people lived to 40 or 50 years. 4. In the early days of colonies, women were so scarce that men fought over all of them. The Chesapeake region had fewer women and a 6:1 male to female ratio is a good guide. 5. Few people knew any grandparents. 6. A third of all brides in one Maryland county were already pregnant before the wedding (scandalous). 7. Virginia, with 59,000 people, became the most populous colony. II. The Tobacco Economy 1. The Chesapeake was very good for tobacco cultivation. 2. Chesapeake Bay exported 1.5 million pounds of tobacco yearly in the

Chapter 01 - New World Beginnings I. The Shaping of North America 1. Recorded history began 6,000 years ago. It was 500 years ago that Europeans set foot on the Americas to begin colonization 2. The theory of Pangaea exists suggesting that the continents were once nestled together into one mega-continent. They then spread out as drifting islands. 3. Geologic forces of continental plates created the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains. 4. The Great Ice Age thrust down over North America & scoured the present day American Midwest. II. Peopling the Americas 1. The Land Bridge theory. o As the Great Ice Age diminished, so did the glaciers over North America. o The theory holds that a Land Bridge emerged linking Asia & North America across what is now known as the Bering