U.S. Social History from Pre-Columbian History to 1789 - SAT Subject Test in United States History

The key argument for Columbus' voyage west across the Atlantic Ocean was to find a shorter route to the Far East, which was importing spices and precious metals across the Eurasian landmass to Western Europe. The Catholic Church was also attempting to missionize into Asia. Most learned people in the late fifteenth century believed the earth was round. Where Columbus disagreed with the consensus was in his belief the Earth was much smaller. Many scholars at the time knew just how big the earth was, but did not believe there was a landmass between Japan and Western Europe. Columbus believed he had reached Indonesia when he landed in the Caribbean, and never thought he had discovered a new Continent.

During British colonial rule many Americans living on the frontiers were forced to house British soldiers. This practice was particularly common during the French-Indian Wars in the middle of the eighteenth century. The economic and social strain of this situation was one of the motivating factors behind the outbreak of revolution. After colonial rule was overthrown, the new United States government sought to prohibit forced quartering in the Constitution. This was achieved with the passage of the Third Amendment.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects United States citizens from unreasonable search and seizure of property. In practical application it requires law enforcement to provide a warrant and valid cause before any invasion of privacy can take place. The Fourth Amendment was added to the Bill of Rights in response to British abuses of writs of assistance, which, in pre-Revolutionary America, allowed British colonial officials to inspect property whenever they pleased.

The Eighth Amendment prohibits the use of “cruel and unusual punishment” when dealing with criminal practice. The Amendment has its roots in British common law and later the British Bill of Rights. The terms "cruel and unusual" are somewhat vague and open to interpretation. As a result, throughout American history, legal and judicial theorists have offered competing definitions of cruel and unusual; however, it is generally considered to prohibit mental and physical torture, as well as dehumanizing and humiliating treatment.

Free slaves numbered only in the thousands in the Colonial period, but they were an important social factor, being both reminders of the humanity of blacks and as a symbol to those blacks still enslaved. A slave could gain freedom if their mother was white, if their owner freed them or if they were able to buy their freedom (almost impossible). Those who were descendants of indentured servants had been brought over at a time when slavery had not yet been embraced and maintained their freedom, legally, throughout their lives. However, those slaves that escaped from a slave owning territory to one in which slavery was illegal were still considered property of their masters and legally had to be returned.

New York was originally called New Amsterdam when it was established by the Dutch in 1614. Surrounded by English settlements, the small colony was taken by the English in 1664 and rechristened New York.

The Crucible is based on the Salem Witch Trials.

The first permanent English settlement in the New World was Jamestown. Plymouth, Massachusetts was founded in 1620.

Hernando de Soto is the first European known to have discovered and crossed the Mississippi River. His expedition ranged across the southeastern and western United States. He was searching primarily for gold, like many Spanish explorers of the time. The motivation for Spanish exploration is often illustrated by historians with the simple phrase “God, glory, and gold.” God—the desire to spread Christianity to Native populations. Glory—the desire to make a name for oneself back in Spain. Gold—the desire for wealth. It is important to remember these three primary motivations as they explain the actions of many European explorers at the time.

The city of St. Augustine was established in 1565, in what is now Florida. For many years prior the French and Spanish had tried and failed to establish a European community in Florida, Georgia and elsewhere. The city began life as a base from which the Spanish could combat both piracy and the French. After a shipment of slaves arrived the community grew at a reasonably fast rate.

The Mississippian culture flourished in the Mississippi Valley from roughly 800 CE to 1500 CE. The Mississippians were best known as mound builders: they developed small cities by building giant pyramids from soil around corn based agriculture. Trade between these cities occurred mostly around watersheds and rivers. None of the Mississippian cultures were nomadic in any way.

Slavery was fairly widespread in the American colonies before the American Revolution. Great Britain did not allow slavery until the early ninteenth century, and each colony got to decide its own laws about slavery. Slavery had become much more widespread on Southern plantations, and developed more strongly there. In the north, only a few states completely banned slavery. New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut all slowly outlawed slavery shortly after the Revolution. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were the most notable large states to have never allowed slavery.

The term "primogeniture" refers to the practice of awarding all lands, titles, and finances that can be inherited solely to the firstborn son. It was practiced for hundreds of years in Europe and passed as an ideology into the nascent United States. In his important literary work, Democracy in America,Alexis de Tocqueville argues that the abolition of primogeniture would cause land to be spread much more evenly across society, encourage the overthrow of the established order, and spread democracy.

The nickname is "The Lost Colony." To this day, the colony's disappearance remains inexplicable.

Almost all of the colonies were directly linked at a governmental level to a specific church. The two exceptions to this were Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, which both intentionally separated the church from the governmental structure, and provided religious freedom to anyone who wanted to come to the colony. In Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Maine, the Congregational Church, the sucessor to the separatist groups that founded New England, was the official church. In New York, Virginia, both Carolinas, and Georgia, the offical Anglican Church, headed by the British Crown, dominated. Maryland was set up by Catholics, but still run by Anglicans.

After Columbus' initial voyages in the 1490s, most European powers came to America in an age of exploration. The Spanish were still the leaders in settlement. While their initial efforts did focus on Central and South America, and the conquest and subjugation of the Aztec and Inca Empires, the Spanish also went into North America. The Spanish established a fort and mission at St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565.

The Colony of Maryland was first established by George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, through a Royal Charter from Charles I in 1629. Calvert, a Catholic himself, felt a New World colony was the best place to establish a refuge for increasingly beleaguered English Catholics. The colony was not formally settled until 1634, and provided toleration for Catholics. Maryland remained a home for Catholics, but also was beset by unfriendly neighboring Anglicans in Virginia.

After its foundation in 1603, Jamestown was plagued with a number of issues, including frequent attacks from Native American groups, disease, and bad harvests. Jamestown was founded as a business venture, which did little to help the colony prosper. In its first few decades, Jamestown witnessed the death of most people who arrived from England and was significantly detached from English culture and other North American colonies.

The Patriots were a vast majority of American colonists in 1775 and 1776, although it was not true that every colonist was a Patriot. The key groups that remained Loyalists were colonial officials, non-English colonists, and slaves, who were promised emancipation by British officials if they fought for the British government.