Peter Noyes and The Beginning of the American Dream

The quest for truth and Justice, for social and economic equality. A place where everyone had a fair change at making it big. America! America! The land of the FREE and the home of the brave, set your sail and travel to the New World of wonder and where your wildest dreams come true. Through the eyes of Peter Noyes you can see a drastic change in America. Within his lifetime the American Dream became real, and the ways of life became a lot better. When Peter left England he left an entire system of rules and regulations unknown to the settlers in the New World. And then there was a change in the New World almost to what we think of as America today. In the 1630's in Weyhill, England there was a firm set of beliefs and regulations in place. Life was how it was, and that was that. There was no changing it, so you might as well not try. First, government existed through the manorial system. It was a rural setting where farming was the way of life. At each manor there was a lord, and many serfs. Everything was communal. The property, which the serfs lived on, was communally shared using an open field farming system. Each person had their crops in rows, intermingled with rows of their neighbors crops. All of the cows were grazed together in one place, and all of the sheep grazed together in another place. Each farmer had the right to cut hay from the community field to feed his stock for the winter. The tools that the people used, such as plows, belonged to the lord. In exchange for use of the lord's land and tools the serfs paid a tax, and maintained all of the lord's grounds. The amount of land you had determined your social class, which was based on birthright. The king, of course was on top of everyone else. Next came the nobleman, such as landlords, after them came the Bourgeoisie who had a fair amount of $, and lastly came the peasants. There was no social mobility, you were who you were and there was no changing that. Your wealth was the same as your social status. The king, who collected the taxes, had money, and therefore power, so he was on top. Then came the rich landowner, and then all of the tenants.