Dbq Great Britain's North American Colonies In The 1600s

A.P. US History
Assigned DBQ

In the 1600s, Great Britain’s North American colonies were mostly white, English, and Protestant. However, in the 1700s this changed. Great Britain’s colonies had become remarkably more diverse. The New World was home to many people who sought religious freedom; therefore new forces of race, ethnicity, and religion affected that society. Protestantism became the main religion in England after they won the religious struggle. To escape religious persecution, the Roman Catholics immigrated to the New World. The Roman Catholic, Cecilius Calvert, also called Lord Baltimore; set out to find protection for his followers. Therefore, he founded Maryland. However, the Catholics were not safe here from the Protestant immigrants. A law was passed that mandated religious freedom and no one who be punished for their religious beliefs (Doc A). This coexistence of the Roman Catholics and the English Protestants shows how religion has affected colonial society. Native Indians were already in control of most of the New
Jamestown profited well from the growing and selling of tobacco. However, large tobacco fields required a lot of manual labor to keep up with the demands. Most of the men working on the tobacco fields were indentured servants, Europeans who went to the new world for free to work for a certain amount of time. Indentured servants were extremely useful and there was a high demand for them. Locals would sometimes travel a lot of miles to Philadelphia to obtain them (Doc C). However, Englishmen were no the only ones looking for new opportunities; Germans along with Dutchmen also arrived in America looking for a new start. African slaves were also needed, and by 1700, black slaves made up most of the region’s population (Doc. D). The arrival of all these different races affected the American