Comparative Questions

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

Document Links

Document 5-1: Elizabeth Ashbridge Becomes an Indentured Servant in New York

Document 5-2: Poor Richard's Advice

Document 5-3: An Anglican Criticizes New Light Baptists and Presbyterians in the South Carolina Backcountry

Document 5-4: Advertisements for Runaway Slaves

Document 5-5: A Moravian Missionary Interviews Slaves in the West Indies, 1767-1768

  1. How did the choices made by Ashbridge, New Light converts, and the slaves compare with those recommended by Father Abraham? What basic values guided the behavior of each?
  2. What role does religion play in the documents in this chapter? What forms of faith are exhibited in the documents?
  3. In what ways do the documents reflect the significance of individualism in the eighteenth-century colonies? What freedoms and constraints did individuals experience? In what ways were individuals forced to conform to values imposed by the greater society?
  4. According to the documents, how did relations among people from different racial groups compare with those among people in the same racial group? To what extent do the documents suggest contrasts or similarities between racial relationships in the northern and southern colonies?
  5. The documents illustrate many of the ways that commerce influenced the eighteenth-century colonies. To what extent did commerce introduce change and novelty in the lives of eighteenth-century residents of British North America? In what ways did commerce create conditions of stability and order? To what extent did it foster turmoil and disorder?