Discussion Question:
A recurring idea in American History is the friction caused by this ongoing dynamic: reconciling individual pursuit of self-interest with ensuring the well-being of the larger community (town, colony, state, nation, etc.) In the case of Anne Hutchinson and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, how did self-interest and community interest collide?
Using evidence from both textbooks David E. Shi and George B. Tindall, America: A Narrative History, 10th edition (full version), volume 1 (New York: W.W. Norton, 2016);
William Bruce Wheeler, Susan D. Becker, and Lorri Glover, Discovering the American Past: A Look at the Evidence, 7th ed., vol. 1 (Boston: Wadsworth, 2012), provide at least one distinct consequence of this collision.
Shown below is an example of an excellent post with comments.
Q: A recurring belief in American History is the notion of achieving status through merit: that people can significantly better their economic and social situation through hard work, diligence, deferred gratification, and a measure of luck. In the case of colonial Chesapeake society: Over time, did it become easier or harder for people to go from "rags to riches"? Provide at least two examples from the readings to support your argument.
Subject Line: Disease and indentured servanthood were stumbling blocks to prosperity.
[The subject line is a complete sentence and it accurately conveys the essence of her argument.]
The "Lost Colony" is certainly ample evidence that life in this region wasn't always a guarantee that one could go from "rags to riches."
[In this first sentence, she has taken a definite position and she has put forth her thesis.]
In spite of the hardship that was to be encountered, the "Access to Opportunity" in the Chesapeake region still held enough allure to draw people in. Land ownership equaled wealth in these colonists' eyes and "the prospect of owning land continued to lure migrants to the Chesapeake region," (Henretta, pg. 52). Most of these European transplants could only afford passage to the New World as indentured servants, bound to a contract that enslaved them to their "owner" for a period of at least four to five years (Henretta, pg. 52). During this time, most of these servants were cruelly treated and denied certain freedoms such as the freedom to marry (Henretta, pg. 52). It was hardly a life that would afford them the opportunity to grow in wealth and riches since they could not own land of their own during the time of their servanthood. In fact, "half the men died before receiving their freedom, and another quarter remained poor" (Henretta, pg. 52).
[The first sentence in this paragraph is a topic sentence, which is the main idea of the paragraph and which relates to her thesis. This paragraph, moreover, contains evidence from the primary textbook (Henretta) that supports the topic sentence and relates to the thesis.]
Disease also played a part in crushing dreams of prosperity. The Chesapeake environment was ideal for mosquitoes, so many were hit hard with malaria. "In Middlesex County, Virginia, more than 60 percent of children lost one or both of their parents by the time they were thirteen," (Henretta, pg. 50). Analyzing statistics tables also shows that the mortality rate grew as time went on with the number of Chesapeake-born twenty-year old males that died before the age of twenty-four rising from 9.4 in the 1670s to 11.3 in the 1720s (Wheeler, pg. 61). These facts were evidence that life in the Chesapeake colonies was tough and that going from "rags to riches" wasn't an easy dream to make into reality.
[Again, her topic sentence both conveys the main idea of this paragraph and relates to her thesis. She has accurately used relevant evidence from both textbooks, and properly cited her sources. Simply "tossing in" information is not enough. The evidence used should be accurate, come from reliable sources (in this class, the assigned textbooks), and be relevant to the question being asked.]
Although the "Access to Opporunity" was enticing enough for poverty-stricken migrants from Europe to make the journey to the Chesapeake colonies, there were many factors that inhibited them from having true access to that opportunity. Some did not foresee that a life of indentured servanthood would make it harder to go from "rags to riches." Rampant disease was another factor that made the pursuit of wealth difficult in the Chesapeake colonies.