Many Europeans came to North America in the 1600s seeking religious freedom, wealth, and opportunity, despite the dangerous transatlantic voyage. They traveled for months in cramped and unsanitary ships with little food or clean water, and sickness often spread rapidly among the passengers. Thousands of Africans also made the journey, but were kidnapped and forced into slavery. Both indentured servants and African captives faced an uncertain future through forced labor in the colonies.

1. Why they came…

2. Read AloudBy the middle of the 1600s, Europeans were streaming into North America by the thousands. They left the homes they had grown up in and their friends to go to a new land. They began new lives, often with only the contents of one small trunk. Why would so many people leave everything they had known to come to the English colonies?

3. Why did they come?Religious freedomWealth“Colony Fever” hits EnglandTimes are bad, want better lifeLaws passed in England, still come to North America

4. Who Came?Wealthy some, most were notPoorMany sold everything they had to pay for the voyageOffered better way of life, cheap land, and greater opportunity worth the tripThousands of AfricansKidnapped from their homes, forced to work as slaves

5. The VoyageLasted usually 4 monthsVoyage dangerous and uncomfortableTrapped for weeks where sickness spread quicklyPassengers in “great number [were] lodged between the two decks”Little Air or lightCeiling only 4 ½ ft. in height “Meat was old and tainted,…the bread moldy or wormy,…the water smelt very bad.”j

6. Indentured Servants and African CaptivesOpen books to page 226. Read the first two paragraphs on the page.Who made up the group of indentured servants and captives that came to North America? Write a summary in the space provided.

7. What was life like for Indentured Servants?Why were there fewer servants working in New England?What is an Autobiography?

8. Autobiography – The story of a person’s life, written by that person

16. Summary QuestionsWhat hardships did people suffer to reach the English colonies?Sickness and death from overcrowded ships, rotten food, bad weatherWhat was the slave trade?The business of buying and selling people for profitFor what reasons did people make the voyage to North America?Religious freedom, cheap land, hope for a better life, desire for wealth