Life In Colonial America

America is one of the many countries with a history dating back to many years back. It is one of the countries made up of many non-natives from different countries who migrated and settled in different parts that today make up the United States of America. This article is going to look into the history of America focusing on the how economic status of an individual impacted life in colonial America. It will also look into how the classes, regions, genders and races were appreciated or not thereof (Gale Encyclopedia of U.S Economic History).
Over a period beginning in 1763, enterprising merchants and traders as well as hardworking Native Americans together with immigrants joined in the commercializing of business with the British in

the North. This began with the meeting of the English vessels at the shore with fur that they exchanged with some English products like iron, glass beads and woven clothes (Jonathan and Pollack).
Such business trading was necessary for the English settlers who were by then using the revenue gained from such trade for payment of voyages that ferried them. This business was not only to benefit the English settlers; it partly had an influence on the New York's then economy as it started to depend on Indian trade during this colonial error. The European goods also displaced traditional Native American products as more of the former goods like clothes, dishes, and imported weapons found their way into the economy. This is what the historian James Axtell referred to as the first consumer revolution. This was the time when the demand for European products among Native Americans living in the north increased so rapidly that the market of the same also expanded (Jonathan and Pollack).
In fact, it is reported that this trade changed the traditional life at the north with traditional trading pattern changing and natural resources being stressed from the over-hunting and other activities like the dressing styles of the Americans. This is especial with the availability of clothes from the trade and better weapons replacing bones that were used for hunting. In fact, by 1700, most eastern Indians became permanently dependent on European colonial trade thereby greatly contributing to the growth of North America.
Settlers of Jamestown, which was one of the first settlers of English origin in North America agreed with the earlier adventurers of, the earlier 1585 Roanoke Settlement about the possibility of doing mining. This was to include Virginia's game, fishing, agriculture and even doing business with the neighboring Powhatan Empire. However, this was not to be as the Chesapeake colony faced the threat of failure. There was no gem nor gold. The next thing was the tobacco cultivation something that had been opposed by James, the king. Settler Rolfe began cultivating this crop in the year 1610 and was loved by most Europeans. The crop was planted by Jamestown settlers in any area they could find available. Big tobacco plantations in Chesapeake meant an increase in the demand for labor to work on the land.
The same success was tried in Maryland in 1634 by the settlers there. The labor was provided by the indentured servants from England and subsidized by the African and Indian captives. The terms were different from the laborers with English indentured servants working for seven years and then getting freed. The same applied to Africans, however, as the supply of labor from Europe declined, the settlers resorted to using of more African slaves for the labor. It is reported that the economy of both Maryland and Virginia in 1700 relied fully on the labor of the lifetime slaves from African origin (Jonathan and Pollack).
While this was happening, a different economy was emerging in the colonies of New England since families were migrating to New Haven, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay as well as New Hampshire and Connecticut to run away from the church and state Sanctioned ceremonies in England. With the cold northern climate, it was not easy and possible to cultivate the staple food crops that were cultivated in England although the land was suitable for their methods of cultivation. In general, life was not the same in the early times of America across the regions. It varied depending on where one was. Relatively less rich Scot-Irish immigrants settled in North Carolina and the Appalachian Mountains while the wealthy rich Germans immigrants fleeing war and religious conflicts settled in Pennsylvania westwards.
In the northern colony, women homes were closer together since the immigrants here came in families. This made it possible to do business. Women were accorded higher social standing than their counterpart in Europe. Here, a competent wife was seen as an asset and hence most women were educated for the purpose of studying the Bible. In fact, they were even allowed to vote on behalf of their husbands if the latter was absent.
In the southern colonies, homes were distant apart, females population was less than the adult males.

The majority of the Southerners were indentured laborers, slaves or mere small farmers. A small population were the owners of the plantations and became very wealthy. The plantations meant homes were far apart thereby discouraging urbanization and trading. Life expectancy was even less for the southerners. Due to the less number of women, widowed women were highly sought after and protected once they were married. However, their minority status prohibited from participating in political affairs something that continued even after their population had increased to equal

men's.
Education System
Beginning around 16th century to around 1700, education in America was in the hands of private people.

There were no public schools that we see today yet they centuries produced some of the best people we have known in the science world. The system was organized into home schools, churches, libraries, apprenticeship and private studies. It was a free system with support coming only from the people who demanded the services. However, government involvement was witnessed in some colonies like Massachusetts. The most influential book during this Anglo-American time was the Bible. The bible teachings made them believe that children were blessings from God, and therefore, it was their responsibility to show them how to make a living and how to live (Louis 108).
Education began at a home near the mother to the field near father. The mother played a role in helping the child to read by tracing alphabetical letters in the dust and how to sound them due to the scarcity of papers by then. This practice became very common that most Americans even before joining schools were well versed with reading thanks to their mothers pioneering home

education.
In middle-income colonies like Pennsylvania, the government intervention was even minimal despite the passing of compulsory education law in 1683. The schools that were set up were only there to meet the demands of people. Philadelphia was one of the few cities which offered education for almost all the needs by then. There were schools for blacks, women, the poor and the Negroes. In fact, the poor were allowed to go to these schools without paying fees.
German immigrants in the countryside however maintained their schools. By 1776, over fifteen schools were being run by the Mennonites in Eastern Pennsylvania. Philadelphians offered boarding facilities to both girls and boys and hence the reason why even Marylanders were sending their children to further their education there. Then was the college that was not viewed as a basic need but was still available for people who wanted to join. There were six of them with Massachusetts hosting Harvard while New Jersey had two colleges. Other institutions of education available were the libraries, philosophical societies and the highly literate populace (Fredrick 15-16).
In general, the economic status of people in the colonial America influenced how they were treated and their roles not only in schools but the whole society. A mother from a wealthy family could bear children and get them raised by different mothers as they played the role of educating them. A relatively poor families worked as laborers for the plantation owners relying on free education. The settlement areas were also different with more of them settling in the southern region along the river banks and was more of political. Laborers were not allowed freedom of settlement wherever they liked as this was going to affect their neighbors as evidenced by the court case of Lima and Ohio County (From the Folks who brought you the Weekend).