American History Homework Two Answers - Student Three

KaraH

1. First of all, the colonists were accustomed to much independence, and Tory's efforts to regulate and tax where bitterly opposed by the colonists. Secondly, the burdens the British placed on the colonies hurt nearly all the colonists in some way or form. And the third reason would be that the colonists could actually legally disagree with the "virtual representation" the British said took place when new taxes or laws came out, meaning that they had no say in what taxes and laws were formed for them.

Excellent!

2. The colonists were the ones to use the phrase "taxation without representation," for the British taxed and ruled the colonies without a single colonist representative in Britain, attributed to the massive distance between the two countries. That would leave the colonists with no say in the matter, something they were far from pleased with.

Good.

3. The Boston Tea Party occurred in the December of 1773 when a band of colonists led by Samuel Adams dressed themselves as Indians, boarded the ships that imported the tea, and dumped every crate of tea over the sides into the Boston Harbor in protest of the high taxes placed on the tea.

Good.

4. I actually blame two people: the doctor who examined the girls, and Tituba, the Indian slave. The reason I blame the doctor is because he essentially started the whole problem by saying that the cause could be "supernatural." Instead, he should have said that the cause for the girls ailments were unknown instead of blaming it on something that was far more dangerous then it really was. For Tituba it sounds as if she were simply vying for attention. Since she was a slave it would be very likely that she was treated as an invisible being. However, the stories of "voodoo and witchcraft" that she told may in fact be true to the Indian tribes, but that would work only if she had been raised by the Indians and heard these stories for herself, not made them up as she went. The "witchcake" may just have been Indian tradition, too. But when she later "confessed" to being a witch, it was either all in her head, or she simply wanted attention. Attention that would come with the high cost of human life.

Superb answer. Very insightful. One of the best in the class.

5. False. For example, Massachusetts was founded for the sake of the Puritan's religious beliefs, and yet that's where both the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party took place, both of which were large signs of rebellion.

But Massachusetts itself had almost no religious freedom, so your observation supports a conclusion of "True" rather than "False". (Minus 1.)

6. Should England have had the right to impose taxes on the colonies? Actually, in a way yes and no. They had no right whatsoever to claim that colonies were represented "virtually," nor to impose taxes simply to earn money or show "who's boss." In my opinion, though, they had every right to set up some form of taxation. The people who first founded colonies were originally from England, or had direct relatives who were. Therefore they were all British, and were still a part of Britain, meaning they were subject to Britain's ruling and taxes. All this taxing trouble occurred before the colonies became America, so they were still under Britain's rule. But that doesn't mean that Britain had the right to go to such lengths and prices of taxes to simply earn money. That's just not right.

Good arguments.

7. Each part of the snake represents what is today the states of North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware). One thing I noticed is that it doesn't include Georgia. Georgia joined the colonies nearly 50 years after Pennsylvania joined in the late 1600s, so that would place the map to have been made around the late 1600s to the early 1700s. One of the meanings I see in the map is how each piece of snake that represents a colony is separate from the other, yet still remains together to make the whole. That could show that even with all their differences and troubles that the colonies are all one, only small, different parts that make the whole picture what it is. Another thing that I later learned online was that if you flip the snake to be vertical, every colony segment is in its proper place as it would be on a map.

Excellent analysis! Your last sentence is insightful.

H1) The main difference that caught my interest was the fact that the area representing the land of the colonies in the 1700s was much smaller then the area that is used for those 13 states today. Also, some areas of colonization are completely surrounded by "wild land" instead of other colonies.

Superb.

H2) In order to gain more money, Britain raised the taxes on common supplies like tea, paint, and paper. Although I already answered this question before, I'll say it again. In some ways, England had every right to tax the colonies since at that time they were essentially a part of England. However, the ways that England taxed them with all the outrageously ridiculous taxes, that wasn't their right.

Good.

H3) There are so many explanations and ideas about the Salem Witch Trials, and the girls they affected. They could in fact have been possessed by the devil, but the possibilities of physical and mental sickness are there as well. Epilepsy is one option; different variations of mental illness is another. When these girls "confessed" to being possessed, it's possible that they were pressed to confess by Tituba, or maybe they were so desperate to find a cause for their ailments that they were willing to go along with whatever the doctor said, or just find any random thing to blame.

Good.

Excellent work! 99/100.--Aschlafly 17:12, 23 September 2008 (EDT)