Ch.3 New Ways in a New World Section 2 - The Colonies Govern Themselves U.S. History

Ch.3 New Ways in a New World

Section 2 - The Colonies Govern Themselves

U.S. History


List two steps which contributed to the formation of colonial self-government in the 150 years after the first English colony.


Arguments of historians bear examining, and the first step is to determine the premise of the argument.

The next step is to find and evaluate the evidence the historian uses in the argument to support his or her premise.


Identify Central Issues: “Finding the Main Point”There are several ways to find themain point of an argument, but noneof them are foolproof.1. Ask yourself: What is the author

trying to prove? What is the author trying to convince me of?

2. Watch for cue words that may indicate a summary statement of the argument. Some cue words are: so, therefore, thus, hence

3. State in your own words what the main point is of each section of the argument. A section in a longer reading might be a paragraph. It is often stated in a topic sentence. After you have stated the idea of each section, ask yourself what statement

Would take in or summarize the pointof all the sections. This is the mainpoint of the entire argument, or thepremise. After you have stated whatyou think the main point is, checkeach paragraph to see that everythingin it is related to your main point. Ifsomething is not related, then youhaven’t stated the main pointcorrectly.4. Remember: Main points are often

not stated but implied. You have to write them out in your own words.


The Salem witch hysteria began when several girls accused some other people of being witches. The main reason that the girls were believed and that the hysteria spread was that there were so many disputes between neighbors in the village. Neighbors went to court and testified against people they did not like or people they were having a quarrel with. For example, John Putnam testified that George Burroughs was a witch, and Putnam thought Burroughs had helped cause his wife’s death. Another example is John Bly and his wife, who testified against Bridget Bishop. The Blys had had a dispute with Mrs. Bishop about a hog. They testified that she had bewitched the pig. These people as well as many others had reasons to accuse people of witchcraft for revenge.

1. What is the author trying to prove in this passage.

2. Does the passage contain any cue words that indicate a summary statement of the argument?

3. State in your own words what the main point of the passage is?

4. Which sentence in the passage contains the main point of the argument?


Critical Thinking Worksheet 2 The Salem Witchcraft Trials.


Identify Central Issues: “The Salem Witchcraft Trials” There were witch trials in Salem in 1692

because witchcraft really was being practiced in Salem Village. About 50 people in the Salem trials confessed to being witches. Tituba, the slave who probably started the girls accusing other people of witchcraft, confessed to being a witch. She said that the Devil had come to her in the shape of a man – a tall man in black, with white hair. He had shown her a book and she had made a mark in it, a mark that was “red like blood.” She said that sometimes the man in black had brought four witches with him – Sarah Good and Sarah Osborn and two women from Boston whose names she did not know – and that they had forced her to go with them and afflict the girls.

Bridget Bishop was another person in Salem who practiced witchcraft. Many people in the village believed she did, and two men testified in court that they had found in a house where she had lived several puppets made of rags and hogs’ bristle, with headless pins in them with the points sticking outward.

This was a common procedure for people who practiced witchcraft in the 1600s. For example, the slave Candy confessed to being a witch and brought her puppets to court when she was being asked to show how she afflicted the girls. Bridget Bishop could make no reasonable reply to these charges in court.

At least six people testified that Margaret Rule, who was afflicted, was lifted out of her bed “by an invisible force” so that none of her body rested either on the bed or any other support.

There is no question that witchcraft was practiced in Salem in 1692. More importantly, almost everyone in Salem and in the European world in 1692 believed in witchcraft. Because of the power of suggestion, people who believed in witchcraft can be afflicted by it.

What is the main point or premise of the argument? Explain your answer.


In 1692 some teenage girls started acting strangely and accusing people in Salem Village of being witches. They acted this way because they were poisoned by the bread they ate. The rye bread was infected with a fungus that caused ergot poisoning. The symptoms of ergot poisoning are the same as those the girls say they had: choking, painful, itchy skin, visions or hallucinations, and so forth. The land on which the rye most of the girls ate was grown was perfect for ergot growth: Several of the girls ate bread from the Putnam farm, which was reported in village records to be swampy lowlands. The weather in 1691 was also ideally suited to the growth of ergot-producing fungus:

Several diaries form the village reported that the weather in 1691 was warm and rainy. Also, women and children have been more susceptible to ergot poisoning in some epidemics, and it was female teenagers who were afflicted by the symptoms in 1692.

What it the main point or premise of the argument? Explain your answer.


Reread the first paragraph under the heading “Britain against France” on page 66.

Identify the main point of the passage. The main point is stated in the first

sentence.


Chronological Order Make a timeline of the French and Indian

War Place the following dates on the line: 1745,

1754, 1755, 1757, 1758, 1759, 1763. Record the events and results alongside

the dates.


Cause and Effect The French and Indian War was part of a

larger, worldwide conflict between France and England known as the Seven Years War (1756-1763).


Cause and Effect

French (F) and English (E) Actions Colonists Response

French and Indians attacked Deerfield and other outlying settlements (F)

England returned Louisburg to France in exchange for Madras, India (E)

French attacked colonists settlement beyond the Alleghenies (F)

England ordered colonial leaders to gather for a meeting with the Iroquois (E)

English generals failed to respond to Indian guerilla warfare tactics (E)

Pitt promised to pay colonial armies for their efforts against the French (E)


What general statements can you make about the colonists after the French and Indian War that was not true before the war?

Colonists gained valuable experience at fighting a war.

Actively reaffirmed their belief in self-government.

First talk of a union of English colonies in North America.


Other battles of the Seven Years War were fought in India and off the coast of West Africa as well as in Europe and North America.

Why did these warring countries fight in so many places?

Why didn’t England and it’s ally Prussia, attack Paris?

Why didn’t the French and its allies – Sweden, Austria, and Russia – invade England?


What were they fighting for?The Seven Years War was not a

war of CONQUEST – an attempt to overthrow the opponents government and rule a country – but a war of EMPIRE.

Documents

Ch.3 New Ways in a New World Section 2 - The Colonies Govern Themselves U.S. History