Читать книгу A School History of the United States - John Bach McMaster - Страница 41

1. The men who began the long struggle for the rights of Englishmen lived in a state of society very different from ours, and were utterly ignorant of most of the commonest things we use in daily life.

2. Labor was performed by slaves, by criminals sent over to the colonies and sold, and by "indented servants," or "redemptioners."

3. Manufactures were forbidden by the laws of trade. Nobody was permitted to manufacture iron beyond the state of pig or bar iron, or make woolen goods for export, or make hats.

4. Taking the colonies in geographical groups, the Eastern were engaged in fishing, in commerce, and in farming; the Middle Colonies were agricultural and commercial; the Southern were wholly agricultural, and raised two great, staples—rice and tobacco.

5. As a consequence, town life existed in the Eastern and Middle Colonies, and was little known in the South, particularly in Virginia.

6. Over the colonies, as a great governing body to aid the King, were the Lords of Trade and Plantations in London. Under them in America were the royal and proprietary governors, who with the local colonial legislatures managed the affairs of the colonies.