Spaniards, often single, young, and male, emigrated for the various promises of land, wealth, and social advancement. Laborers, craftsmen, soldiers, clerks, and priests all crossed the Atlantic in large numbers.

In the encomienda, the Spanish crown granted a person not only land but a specified number of natives as well.

Some groups used shifting cultivation where farmers cut the forest, burned the undergrowth and then planted seeds in the nutrient rich ashes of what remained. When crop yields began to decline, farmers would simply move to another field and allow the land to recover and the forest to regrow before they would again cut the forest, burn the undergrowth, and restart the cycle.

And as paleo-Indians populated mountains, prairies, deserts, and forests, cultures and ways of life as arose as varied as the geography.

Nomadic hunter-gatherers, they traveled in small bands following megafauna–enormous mammals that included mastodons and giant horses and bison–into the frozen Beringian tundra at the edge of North America.

Missionaries, most of whom were members of the Franciscan religious order, provided Spain with an advance guard in North America

Apalachee farmers grew an abundance of corn and other crops

e found between 150,000 and 300,000 Native Americans. But then two-and-a-half centuries of contact with European and African peoples–whether through war, slave raids, or, most dramtically, foreign disease–decimated Florida’s indigenous population.

And to avoid such a great evil we passed a law so that any white man living inour Kingdoms and wanting to purchase goods in any way should first informthree of our noblemen and officials of our court whom we rely upon in this mat-ter

very often it happens thatthey kidnap even noblemen and the sons of noblemen, and our relatives, andtake them to be sold to the white men who are in our Kingdoms

He dug into the sand and soon found clay with which to mould figures like himself

Wherever the sand landed it formed dry land, the bigger piles becoming hills and the smaller piles valleys.

gold chain long enough to reach below, a snail's shell filled with sand, a white hen, a black cat, and a palm nut, all of which he was to carry in a bag.

three crops in particular–corn, beans, and squash, the so-called “three sisters”–provided nutritional needs necessary to sustain cities and civilizations.

It was found that he had made the country all rocks and full of ledges, and also a mosquito which was very large.

and the fruit of the sycamore to become small and useless

How did human beings arrive in the world? • How were animals helpful? • What did twins do to create the world?

I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

he made the stars also

God called the firmament Heaven

While Northerners appealed to their states’ rights to refuse capturing runaway slaves, Southerners demanded a national commitment to slavery.

The protection of child laborers gained more middle-class support, especially in New England, than the protection of adult workers.

In England, an economic slump prompted Parliament to modernize British agriculture by revoking common land rights for Irish farmers.

But a new system, “piece work,” divided much of production into discrete steps performed by different workers. In this new system, merchants or investors sent or “put-out” materials to individuals and families to complete at home. These independent laborers then turned over the partially finished goods to the owner to be given to another laborer to finish.

Counterfeit bills were endemic during this early period of banking, as some individuals sought their own way to capitalize on the nation’s quest for wealth

Inspired by a strategy known as “moral suasion,” these young abolitionists believed they could convince slaveholders to voluntarily release their slaves by appealing to the their sense of Christian conscience.

In order to accomplish their goals, abolitionists employed every method of outreach and agitation used in the social reform projects of the benevolent empire.

I can’t read, but I can hear. I have heard the Bible and have learned that Eve caused man to sin. Well if woman upset the world, do give her a chance to set it right side up again

but they had souls large enough to feel the wrongs of others, without being scarified in their own flesh.

This call, without signature, was issued by Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Mary Ann McClintock

Christmas traditions of John Canoe, or “Jonkanoo,” took different forms in African diaspora communities in the Caribbean, Bahamas, and southern United States.

Folklore often conveyed religious worldviews and beliefs while relating the more mundane routines of everyday life-from the way families functioned through the rituals of birth and death, to simple routines of cooking and clothing, and the local calendar of celebrations.

Knowing then they would betray me

Then the fears and labors of another day begin; and until its close there is no such thing as rest....

“Prime field hands,” as they were called by merchants and traders, averaged $1,600 at market by 1850, a figure that fell in line with the rising prices of the cotton they picked.

In 1793, just a few years after the first, albeit unintentional, shipment of American cotton to Europe, the South produced around five million pounds of cotton, again almost exclusively the product of South Carolina’s Sea Islands.

The astronomical rise of American cotton production came at the cost of the South’s first staple crop—tobacco

First, it was simply impossible to secure unanimous endorsement by all thirteen states of even the most modest amendment -- and the proposed Constitution was far more than a modest amendment to the Articles. Second, the framers of the Constitution realized that the state legislatures woud not accept a system that diminished their authority. Third, the framers noted that they were creating a new constitution for a united American people.

the “Great Compromise”: each state would have two senators, who could vote independently

popular protest by common colonists

Now this distress lasted Almost two years: - Poor – Me – Miserable me. – It pleased God to bring on my Convictions more and more, and I was loaded with guilt of Sin, I saw I was undone for ever; I carried Such a weight of Sin in my breast or mind, that it seemed to me as I should sink into the ground every step; and I kept all to my self as much as I could; I went month after month mourning and begging for mercy,

For white women, the legal practice of coverture meant that women lost all of their political and economic rights to their husband.

An elected assembly was an offshoot of the idea of civic duty, the notion that men had a responsibility to support and uphold the government through voting, paying taxes, and service in the militia

Historians estimate that between 24,000 and 51,000 Native Americans were forced into slavery throughout the southern colonies between 1670 and 1715.

“that Negroes and Indians are otherwise than Beasts.”

All male property holders could vote in town meetings and choose the selectmen, assessors, constables, and other officials from among themselves to conduct the daily affairs of government.

these first Africans in North America could also work for only a set number of years before becoming free landowners themselves.

The colony’s great labor vacuum inspired the creation of the “headright policy” in 1618: any person who migrated to Virginia would automatically receive 50 acres of land and any immigrant whose passage they paid would entitle them to 50 acres more.

English privateering provoked Spain. Tensions worsened after the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic. In 1588, King Philip II of Spain unleashed the fabled Armada. With 130 Ships, 8,000 sailors, and 18,000 soldiers, Spain launched the largest invasion in history to destroy the British navy and depose Elizabeth.

But then a fluke storm, celebrated in England as the “divine wind,” annihilated the remainder of the fleet. The destruction of the Armada changed the course of world history.

In fact, over the entire history of the Atlantic slave trade, more Africans were enslaved in Brazil than any other colony in the Atlantic World.

both Portugal and Spain were instructed to treat the natives with Christian compassion and to bring them under the protection of the Church.

Like the French, the Dutch sought to profit, not to conquer. Trade with Native peoples became New Netherland’s central economic activity.

the Spaniards slaughtered nearly half of its roughly 1,500 inhabitants, including women and children. Oñate ordered one foot cut off of every surviving male over 15 and he enslaved the remaining women and children.1

New diseases wiped out entire civilizations in the Americas, while newly imported nutrient-rich foodstuffs enabled a European population boom.

the Puritan had made a covenant with God to establish a truly Christian community, in which the wealthy were to show charity and avoid exploiting their neighbors while the poor were to work diligently.

Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck and to provide for our posterity is to follow the counsel of Micah: to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God. For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man; we must hold each other in brotherly affection; we must be willing to rid ourself of our excesses to supply others' necessities; we must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience, and liberality. We must delight in each other, make others' conditions our own and rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and common work, our community as members of the same body.

In each seventeenth-century New England colony, government itself rested on consent. Governors and legislative assemblies were elected, usually annually, by the freemen of the colony.

Since tobacco production rapidly exhausted the soil of nutrients, the English began to acquire new lands along the James River, encroaching on Indian hunting grounds.

And the Christians attacked them with buffets and beatings, until finally they laid hands on the nobles of the villages. Then they behaved with such temerity and shamelessness that the most powerful ruler of the islands had to see his own wife raped by a Christian officer.

For in the beginning the Indians regarded the Spaniards as angels from Heaven. Only after the Spaniards had used violence against them, killing, robbing, torturing, did the Indians ever rise up against them....

the most obedient and faithful to their native masters and to the Spanish Christians whom they serve. They are by nature the most humble, patient, and peaceable, holding no grudges, free from embroilments, neither excitable nor quarrelsome. These people are the most devoid of rancors, hatreds, or desire for vengeance of any people in the world. And because they are so weak and complaisant, they are less able to endure heavy labor and soon die of no matter what malady.

Sir, Your Highness has been kind enough to write to us saying that we should ask in our letters for anything we need, and that we shall be provided with everything

very often it happens that they kidnap even noblemen and the sons of noblemen, and our relatives, and take them to be sold to the white men who are in our Kingdoms

According to King Afonso, what have been the detrimental effects of the Portuguese presence in his kingdom? What steps has he taken to deal with the problems caused by the Portuguese? Why is he appealing directly to the Portuguese king for aid? Does King Afonso see the Portuguese presence in his kingdom as a right or a privilege? How does King Afonso distinguish legitimate and illegitimate trade in slaves? What elements of Portuguese culture does he welcome? Why?

A 10,000 year history of disease crashed upon the New World in an instant. Smallpox, typhus, the bubonic plague, influenza, mumps, measles: pandemics ravaged populations up and down the continents.

Mestizo mothers, for instance, might insist that their mestizo daughters were actually castizas, or quarter-Indians, who, if they married a Spaniard, could, in the eyes of the law, produce “pure” criollo children entitled to the full rights and opportunities of Spanish citizens.

. In the encomienda, the Spanish crown granted a person not only land but a specified number of natives as well. Encomenderos brutalized their laborers with punishing labor.

But now it was a long, long ways back to the top. So the little muskrat, as he reached for the bottom, he did get a paw-full of mud.

The birds got together and they decided the big words with the big, big wings they decided they would open their wings; they would fly up and catch this creature on top of their wings because she didn’t look like she had wings.

The woman was very curious and so she came over to the hole and was peering deep, down into the hole and wanted to see what was there.

Wave after wave she unleashed, until much of the land was underwater and many of the people were drowned.

The new people built huts as Obatala had done, and soon Ife prospered and became a city.

Obatala settled down with the cat for company.

¶ And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

But Columbus had come for wealth and he could find little. The Arawaks, however, wore small gold ornaments. Columbus left thirty-nine Spaniards at a military fort to find and secure the source of the gold while he returned to Spain to great acclaim and to outfit a return voyage. Spain’s New World motives were clear from the beginning. If outfitted for a return voyage, Columbus promised the Spanish crown gold and slaves.

Thus were born the first great Atlantic plantations.

A series of military conflicts between England and France–the Hundred Years War–accelerated nationalism and cultivated the financial and military administration necessary to maintain nation-states.

Spiritual practices, beliefs on property, and kinship networks differed markedly from Europeans. Most Native Americans did not neatly distinguish between the natural and the supernatural. Spiritual power permeated their world and was both tangible and accessible. It could be appealed to and harnessed.

. The food surplus enabled a unique social organization, where individuals achieved social status by giving elaborate feasts, called potlaches. These days-long parties allowed the host to demonstrate his wealth by feeding and entertaining guests with food and artwork.

By 1300, the once powerful city had undergone a series of strains that led to collapse. Scholars previously pointed to ecological collapse or slow depopulation through emigration, but new research instead indicates that mounting warfare, or internal political tensions led to the collapse of the once mighty city.

Native American agriculture varied. Some groups used shifting cultivation where farmers cut the forest, burned the undergrowth and then planted seeds in the nutrient rich ashes of what remained. When crop yields began to decline, farmers would simply move to another field and allow the land to recover and the forest to regrow before they would again cut the forest, burn the undergrowth, and restart the cycle.

Whether because of overhunting, climate change, or a combination of the two, the megafauna population collapsed and mastodons, horses, and other large mammals disappeared. But native populations adapted: they fished, hunted small mammals, and gathered nuts and berries. Native peoples spread across North America.