Question for Phylis Young for Final Paper

Question

"Although the thirteen American colonies were founded at different times by people with

different motives and with different forms of colonial charters and political organization, by the

time of the American Revolution the thirteen colonies had become remarkably similar."

In your essay evaluate the accuracy of this statement. Were the colonies really "remarkably

similar" by the time of the Revolution?

Evaluating the Essays

When reading the essays consider the following questions:

 Does the introduction provide a general, overall response to the question? Is there a thesis?

 Do the body paragraphs have clear topic sentences which indicate the main point which is being argued in each paragraph? Remember, the topic sentence should be what you're

trying to prove in the paragraph -- it shouldn't be a statement of fact. A fact is used as

evidence, it's not something you're trying to prove.

 Are paragraphs in the body logically organized to address specific issues relating to the argument? Or are they a jumble of ideas and facts that don't necessarily relate to

answering the question? If they are relevant to answering the question, is this connection

made clearly? Remember, you can't just throw out ideas and facts, even though they may

be good individual points. They need to be organized to support your argument -- you

need to show how these ideas and facts relate to proving your argument and answering

the question.

 Are the arguments in the body paragraphs effectively supported by specific historical evidence? Does this evidence support the main argument presented in the topic sentence?

Is the evidence correct? Relevant to the point?

 Does the conclusion summarize the overall response to the question? Show what has been proven in the body of the essay?

 Does the essay actually answer the question?

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Sample Response #1: Poor

The 13th colonies were founded because people didn't want to be in Europe anymore. Because of this

many people came to the colonies seeking other things. They were looking for money and so they could

practice any religion they wanted. The good thing about the colonies was that people were able to be

free! This provided the foundations for the nation we know today.

The first settlers were the Pilgrims. They came to Plymouth Rock because they had been chased out of

England. The English hated them because they were Protestants and the English were Catholics. The

Pilgrims quickly began to make money by growing tobacco using slaves. So, they were much happier in

America, because they could money, unlike in England. Of course, the slaves weren't very happy because

they were treated very poorly and often killed for no reason. This is why we see all of the colonies

suffering from slave rebellions which almost succeeded in overthrowing their governments. There were

also the people who came to Pennsylvania starting in the 1780s. The colony of Pennsylvania was

founded by William Penn. The King owed Penn a lot of money, so rather than paying him he gave him a

big chunk of land. Penn was very friendly with the natives, so that helped his colony a lot.

In 1676 Bacon's Rebellion tore through Virginia. Virginia and Maryland were troubled early on because

lots of people died of diseases and fighting with the natives. Eventually, though, it did get better and

people started to live longer. Then, they started to become rich by becoming merchants, building ships,

and engaging in lots of commerce. This was exactly what happened in places like New York, so they

were pretty similar. Another way they were similar was because they hated the British and wanted to be

free. This ultimately led to the Revolution and the creation of the Constitution. Under the Constitution

the colonists became united under one government which had the power to stand up to the British and win

their war. As one people, under one government, the colonists were now free.

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Sample Response #2: Fair

The 13 colonies started off being very different indeed. Some colonists came for religious freedom while

others came to make money. Each colony had their own ideas about their goals and how they were going

to organize themselves. By 1776, though, they were all unified in being Americans.

First let us talk about their economics. All of the colonies became much more stable and economically

prosperous over time. Individuals could make money in all kinds of ways, like farming or engaging in

trade. During this time the fur trade with the Indians grew greatly. There was also growing trade with

England and other places in the world. The Navigation Acts, which applied to all the colonies, also

ensured that their economies were pretty similar.

Next, we can discuss how the colonies governed themselves. In the beginning there were several

different types of colonial governments, including charter colonies and proprietary colonies. These were

governed in different ways. In New England they had town hall meetings, which were very democratic.

By the time of the Revolution, however, all of the colonies had become royal colonies directly controlled

by the British government. This is an important reason why the American colonists ultimately rebelled

against the British -- they were tired of being governed by them in an arbitrary fashion.

Finally, the colonies had become very religiously similar by the time of the Revolution. They were all

Christians and they had come to believe in being religiously tolerant and not having government

controlled churches. This was a big change from what it had been in the beginning. Places like

Massachusetts had been very intolerant of other religions and they insisted upon having only one church,

paid for by everyone out of their taxes. Pennsylvania, on the other hand, was very open about other

religions right from the beginning. By the time of the Revolution all the colonies pretty much looked like

Pennsylvania.

As we can see, the colonies had definitely grown together and become very similar by the time of the

Revolution. What they had become was very similar what we have in America today: freedom of

religion, democracy, and economic opportunity.

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Sample Response #3: Good

The American colonies did become more alike over time. By the time of the Revolution their basic forms

of government were similar and increasingly they shared a culture defined by tolerance for religious

diversity. They were also bound together by the growth of the Atlantic trading economy, which in turn

sparked a rising disparity between the rich and poor throughout the colonies. However, since there were

also still some significant differences between the colonies, the statement is only partially correct.

One of the ways in which the colonies were most similar was in their political systems. There were some

variations in terms of how governors were chosen, based upon whether they were royal, proprietary, or

charter colonies. By the time of the Revolution most colonies were royal colonies in which the governors

were appointed by the king, but in a couple they were appointed by the colony's proprietor and a few

more they were actually elected by the people. Other than that, their political systems tended to be pretty

similar, since all of them enjoyed a representative form of government with an elected assembly.

The general trend throughout the colonies was also for greater religious tolerance. In the beginning the

most religiously intolerant colony was Massachusetts. By the time of the Revolution, however, their

religious enthusiasm had waned and they became less concerned about enforcing religious conformity.

Throughout the colonies tolerance for religious diversity had been increased by a couple of factors. It

became increasingly difficult for colonial authorities to support having just one church supported by the

government out of everyone's taxes because there were simply too many different churches whose

members actively resisted this idea. This explosion of religious diversity in the 18th century was in part

because of immigration from places other than England, and in part because of the Great Awakening, out

of which came several new religious movements who tended to support the idea of separation of church

and state. Another factor in the growth of religious tolerance was the influence of Enlightenment thought,

which stressed reason over faith as the proper way to understand the world. While Enlightenment thinkers

generally did believe in the concept of a God, they were far less likely to believe that there was only one

way to worship God. These factors tended to push all of the colonies towards a greater acceptance of

religious diversity and a growing separation between church and state.

The growth of the Atlantic trading economy increasingly tied the colonies together, but there remained

important differences between the colonial regions. By the time of the Revolution all of the colonies

witnessed a significant increase in the amount of overseas trade. They also all traded within the confines

of the British mercantile system, created by the Navigation Acts of the 17th century. However, the

different colonial regions experienced this growth of trade differently. The South became increasingly

dependent upon the export of agricultural crops raised using slaves. The North also exported some crops,

but they tended to be those that were less labor intensive, like wheat, and slavery was not nearly as

important an economic institution. The Northern economy also began to be more diversified, since they

were more likely to engage in activities such as shipbuilding and more likely to become the merchants

who were actually moving goods to and from the colonies. Thus, by the time of the Revolution there was

a growing difference between the economies of the North and the South.

Socially, all of the colonies saw the growth of class differences between the rich and the poor, but they

also remained dissimilar in the types of people who inhabited the various colonies. In the South the

success of plantation agriculture led to the rise of a very wealthy and powerful planter class, while in the

North it was the mercantile elite which rose to the top. In both cases society became much more

stratified, with a growing gulf between the rich and the poor. However, in terms of population, they were

also increasingly different. Because of slavery, a much larger population of African-Americans inhabited

the South. There was quite a lot of non-English immigration from Europe at this time as well, but where

they settled varied widely. Initially the most popular location for both German and Scotch-Irish

immigrants was Pennsylvania, although many Scotch-Irish ultimately did move into the Southern

backcountry. New England was different because very few immigrants settled there. Thus, while there

were some social similarities, there were also significant differences.

It is generally true that the colonies became more similar by the time of the Revolution. They shared a

fairly common experience of representative government, growing religious tolerance, the growth of

connections to the Atlantic economy, and an increase in social stratification. However, there were also

significant differences that remained, particularly between the Northern and the Southern colonies.