Students Again

Colonial to 1865 Discussion Question Examples

Questions from: Cronon, Native Americans and the Environment

1. What myth dominated colonist views of the New World?

1. What is Liebig’s Law?

1. How did northern New England Native Americans deal with the scarcity of winter?

1. How were southern New England different with regard to abundance and scarcity?

1. How did the roles of women differ between New England Native Americans and colonists?

1. How did southern New England Native Americans alter or manipulate the ecosystem to their advantage?

1. What is the “edge effect”?

1. Thinking in more broad terms, how did European notions of “fixity” conflict with Native American “mobility”? Could we say this represented a fundamental difference in world view?

Questions from: Tucker, “The Industrial Worker”

1. What methods did Samuel Slater use to make factory life and pre-industrial values compatible?

1. How did the Protestant ethic relate to the goals of industrial management?

1. How did factories break down the traditional views of workers and their traditional patterns of parental control?

1. How did the introduction of new laborers (e.g., single women or immigrants) affect the position of family style labor in factories?

1. Think about the conditions and position of power for 19th century workers in relation to contemporary workers with respect to:
   1. the ability to bargain with employers
   2. the availability of training
   3. mobility and security

Questions from: Wood, Slaves on the Frontier

1. What examples from the text show how fluid society was in South Carolina during the pre-Colonial period? Think about Elias Hory.

1. How did slaves and owners depend on each other for survival during this period?

1. How was marriage interpreted during this period?

1. How were children of different races or social backgrounds treated in early South Carolina society? Be sure to think about both social and legal treatment.

1. What types of skills (labor) did slaves bring to the economy?

1. Why did whites value slaves more than skilled white workers?

1. What useful knowledge did African slaves bring to South Carolina? Why did they possess this knowledge while most whites did not?