The document summarizes various aspects of life in the English colonies, including: 1) Colonial governments were run by governors appointed by the English monarch or proprietors, with elected assemblies or town meetings. 2) Trade between the colonies and England followed a triangular pattern and was regulated by navigation acts, angering colonists. 3) Conflicts between the French and British for control of North America led to the French and Indian War, ending French power in North America.

1. Life in the English
Colonies

3. 1. Town meeting – a political meeting where people would make decisions about
local issues
2. Triangular trade – a trading network in which goods and slaves moved among
England, Africa, and the American colonies
3. Salutary neglect – The English policy of relaxing the enforcement of laws in
the colonies in return for the colonies’ economic loyalty
4. Mercantilism – the idea that a country’s power depended on its wealth
5. Imports – goods bought from foreign markets
6. Exports – goods sold to foreign markets

6. 7. Parliament – the law-making body of Great Britain
8. Militia – civilians trained to fight in conflicts
9. Backcountry – a region of hills and forests west of the seacoast

7. • Each colony had a governor and an advisory council to run the government
• In royal colonies, the governor was selected by the English monarch
• In proprietary colonies, the proprietors chose the officials
• In a few colonies, the people elected their representatives

8. • In 1619, Virginia’s assembly was the first colonial legislature (law-making
body) in North America. It had two Houses:
- The Council of State, whose members were chosen by the governor
and the Virginia Company
- The House of Burgesses, whose members were elected by the colonists

9. • In New England, the town meeting was the center of
politics
• In the Southern and Middle colonies, smaller town or
county meetings were held
• By 1685, in order to gain more control over the
government, King James II united the Northern colonies
under one government called the Dominion of New
England
• The royal governor limited the power of town meetings,
angering the colonists
• In 1689, Parliament passed the English Bill of Rights, which
reduced the power of the British monarch

11. IMPORTANCE OF TRADE
- England founded the American colonies to earn money from trade
- A country’s wealth would grow if it had fewer imports and more exports
- To support the system of mercantilism, Parliament passed a series of
Navigation Acts which limited colonial trade
- These acts forbade colonists from trading certain items with countries other
than England and required colonists to use English ships to transport goods

12. • Another act passed by Parliament required all trade goods to pass through
English ports, where the goods were then taxed
• The colonists disliked the Navigation Acts, wanting more freedom to buy or sell
goods wherever they chose
• Some began smuggling goods such as sugar, molasses, and rum from non-
English islands
• In response to the illegal trade,
Parliament passed the
Molasses Act of 1733, which taxed
these goods

13. • Trade between the American colonies and Great Britain took the form of
triangular trade.
• There were several routes through which goods were traded among the
colonies, Britain, and Africa
• A voyage called the Middle Passage brought enslaved Africans across the
Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies

15. • Movements in Europe in the 1700s had great impact on the American colonies
• In the 1730s and 1740s, a religious movement called the Great Awakening
changed colonial religion
- The Great Awakening was a series of religious revivals in which many
colonists found new meaning in the religions of the day
• Massachusetts preacher Jonathan Edwards was an important leader of this
movement

17. • The Enlightenment was a movement in Europe that emphasized reason and
individualism rather than tradition
• Among other things, the Enlightenment changed the way people thought
about how government should work
• Philosopher John Locke
spread his belief in natural rights,
like equality and liberty

18. • A scientific revolution was also taking place in Europe
• Developments in math, physics, biology, astronomy, and chemistry changed the
way people thought about nature and the world
• In time, all of these movement influenced colonial leaders

19. The French and Indian War
• In the 1750s, both Britain and
France had colonies in
North America
• The British wanted to settle
in the Ohio River Valley
to trade with Native Americans there
• The French built forts to
hold them back

20. • In 1754, a militiaman from Virginia
named George Washington built
Fort Necessity, and led an army
against the French, but he was
defeated
• Britain declared war on the French,
beginning the French and Indian
War
• Most of the Native Americans were
allies of the French because they
would trade with them, but did not
take their land

21. • In 1754, a group of colonial leaders met in Albany, New York to discuss
defense against the French
• Pennsylvanian Benjamin Franklin
proposed that the colonies unite,
working together to defeat France
• His idea was called the Albany Plan of Union; under this plan, each colony
would still have its own government, but would also be one government
together to decide important issues that affected them all

22. FYI:
Join, or Die is a political cartoon, drawn by Benjamin Franklin and first published in
his Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754. The original publication by the Gazette is
the earliest known pictorial representation of colonial union produced by a British
colonist in America.

23. • Franklin’s plan was rejected by the colonists
• In 1756, fighting broke out in Europe, beginning the Seven Years War
• The war ended in 1763 when Britain and France signed the Treaty of Paris
• The treaty gave Britain Canada, most French lands east of the Mississippi River,
and Spanish Florida
• This greatly changed the balance of power in North America

25. • In the mid-1700s, pioneers were moving into the backcountry of Virginia
and Carolina, and into the Ohio River Valley
• Native American leader Chief Pontiac opposed British settlement of this
land
• In 1763, his forces attacked British forts on the frontier; this became
known as Pontiac’s Rebellion
• The British defeated the Indians.

26. • King George III wanted to avoid more conflict, so he issued the Proclamation
of 1763, which banned British settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains

27. • The Proclamation angered colonists; they ignored the Proclamation and
fighting between the settlers and American Indians continued
• Before this time (1763), Britain had not interfered in colonial affairs
• The code of salutary neglect was the policy in which British Parliament
passed laws, but rarely enforced them
• The colonists grew accustomed to acting on their own, without punishment
• Now, more laws were being passed and enforced, and the colonists became
increasingly resentful of British Parliament