Ap American History

At the beginning of the eighteenth century there were less than 300,000 people who inhabited the English-American colonies. By 1775, that population had climbed to almost 2.5 million people, with approximately 20 percent of those being African slaves (Lancaster, 7). The majority of the colonists were involved in agriculture. Most of them were tenant farmers. Men were responsible for labor outside the home while women were responsible for taking care of the children and housework. There was a lot of slavery at the time, so about twenty percent of the population were African slaves. Most of the slaves belonged to Southern plantation owners. More people white people immigrated to the colonies because they thought slavery was economically satisfying (Morgan). The whites thought of the slaves as "goods" because they were able to sell the slaves to other people once they get captured. The slaves worked until death and made the economy better because they worked without pay. Before the colonists immigrated to the colonies, most of them were in England (Becker). The colonist had limited rights under monarch control. There was a strict social ladder, which meant that it was difficult to move from one class to another. They wanted to get out of England to see the New World and search for a new life. And lastly, the colonist didn't have much living space in England. The colonists moved to the Virginia colonies where the colonist took advantage of natives, even though the Indians were helping with agriculture. The colonists were also intolerant of their religion and wanted to convert them to Christianity. Indians wanted to defend their land and themselves so it soon led to the French and Indian War. The French and Indians fought the British for seven years. Some changes in colonial American was giving up by the French, the British feared the Indians (Lancaster, 37). The lands of the west were granted to the Indians. This had angered the colonists and they revolted