Boom Country

Question 1

“_________was the biggest settlement in the Americas by 1620 because it was on the mountain of silver.”

Answer 1

Potosi.

Question 2

“Recall the asian spices that came down the Silk Road—or consider a red berry in Africa that the people of _________ grew. When roasted, it made a drink that Europeans quickly learned to savor. The Turks called it ________; the Dutch (who learned of it from the Turks) called it ________.”

Answer 2

“Recall the asian spices that came down the Silk Road—or consider a red berry in Africa that the people of Kaffa grew. When roasted, it made a drink that Europeans quickly learned to savor. The Turks called it Kahve; the Dutch (who learned of it from the Turks) called it koffie.”

Question 3

What food product sparked the biggest boom?

Answer 3

Sugar.

Question 4

What places became the prime sugar regions?

Answer 4

Spain, Portugal and the Caribbean.

Question 5

Describe the process of making the Sugar.

Answer 5

“Sugarcane was grown on large farms called plantations, where dozens or even hundreds of workers chopped down the tall stalks and carried them to mills, where they were crushed and boiled into molasses (mostly used to make rum) or into sugar itself.”

Question 6

“A number of English merchants and gentlemen pooled their money together to form what was known as a________________, with the ideas of making a new colony boom.”

Answer 6

“A number of English merchants and gentlemen pooled their money together to form what was known as a joint stock company, with the ideas of making a new colony boom.”

Question 7

Where did the New Virginia Company send 105 colonists?

Answer 7

“But the new Virginia Company sent 105 colonists to settle on Chesapeake Bay in 1607”

Question 8

“No holy “_____________” for them—what they sought were “__________________.”

Answer 8

“No holy “city on a hill” for them—what they sought were “golding-showing mountains.”

Question 9

Describe Captain John Smith.

Answer 9

“Captain John Smith, a soldier of fortune who had knocked around the far corners of Europe before joining the Virginia Company. Smith’s confidence in himself was as large as his big bushy beard.”

Question 10

Why was Captain John Smith hated?

Answer 10

“For the unlikely crime of plotting to “murder” the colony’s leaders “and make himself king.”

Question 11

What made John smith take charge in the Virginia colony?

Answer 11

“After several months in Virginia, with many colonists dying from “burning fevers” and almost everyone dissatisfied with the colony’s original leaders, Smith took charge and set everyone to work.”

Question 12

What happened to John Smith as he was heading up river to trade for food?

Answer 12

He was taken prisoner by Indians.

Question 13

What was the name of the chief of the loose confederation that lived around Chesapeake Bay

Answer 13

Powhatan

Question 14

Who saved Captain John Smith from having his brains crashed with a war club?

Answer 14

“It was then that one of the chief’s young daughters, Pocahnotas stepped in and begged that the captain’s life be spared”

Question 15

“The English held the same sort of ceremony—a “_______________” at which they asked Powhatan to kneel and accept a crown as a subject king. The colonists had a “foul trouble” making him do it, succeeding only by “_________________________.”

Answer 15

the English held the same sort of ceremony—a “coronation” at which they asked Powhatan to kneel and accept a crown as a subject king. The colonists had a “foul trouble” making him do it, succeeding only by “leaning hard on his shoulders.”

Question 16

What happened to Smith as he slept one night in Virginia?

Answer 16

“A sack of gunpowder caught fire and exploded, badly burning him. The powder may have been lighted by his enemies in a plot to kill him.”

Question 17

What did the new governor from England see when he got to the colony in Virginia?

Answer 17

“he found only a half dozen houses standing, the fort fence broken,”

Question 18

“They had been planted—as a crop called ___________, the very crop Virginians needed to set their colony booming.”

Answer 18

They had been planted—as a crop called tobacco, the very crop Virginians needed to set their colony booming.

Question 19

What did King James think of the concept of smoking?

Answer 19

“loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs.”

Question 20

Describe the steps to plant the tobacco.

Answer 20

“After breaking up the ground, you made a mound of each tobacco seed by sticking your leg out and drawing the earth around it with a “grubbing hoe” until the mound was like “a mole hill, and nearly as high as the knee.” Put out your foot, “flatten the top of the hill by a dab: and stick in the seedling.”

Question 21

What was one thing that was inconveniencing the tobacco production in the summer?

Answer 21

“During the hot summer, weed the plants constantly and pick off the worms that eat tobacco leaves.”

Question 22

“It was backbreaking work—but the crop brought in___________ times as much money as working on an English farm.”

Answer 22

“five to ten times”

Question 23

What name was given for the first year in the colony for newcomers?

Answer 23

Virginians had a name for what newcomers faced in their first year in the colony: “the seasoning.”

Question 24

What did the newcomers die from in the colony?

Answer 24

“Newcomers died in large numbers from malaria spread by mosquitoes. They died from typhoid or dysentery spread by germs in the water. Even in the 1630s, 1640s and 1650s colonists died at great rates.”

Question 25

“On average, the English who came to Virginia lived to be only ___________. Someone who stayed in England, on the other hand, could expect to live to about ________.”

Answer 25

“On average, the English who came to Virginia lived to be only thirty-five or forty. Someone who stayed in England, on the other hand, could expect to live to about sixty.”