Section 2 - The Colonies Govern Themselves

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Section 2 - The Colonies Govern Themselves

• U.S. History

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List two steps which contributed to the formation
of colonial self-government in the 150 years
after the first English colony.
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Arguments of historians bear examining, and the
first step is to determine the premise of the
argument.

• The next step is to find and evaluate the
  evidence the historian uses in the argument to
  support his or her premise.

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Identify Central Issues Finding the Main Point

• There are several ways to find the
• main point of an argument, but none
• of them are foolproof.
• Ask yourself What is the author trying to
  prove? What is the author trying to convince me
  of?
• Watch for cue words that may indicate a summary
  statement of the argument. Some cue words are
  so, therefore, thus, hence
• State in your own words what the main point is of
  each section of the argument. A section in a
  longer reading might be a paragraph. It is often
  stated in a topic sentence. After you have
  stated the idea of each section, ask yourself
  what statement

• Would take in or summarize the point
• of all the sections. This is the main
• point of the entire argument, or the
• premise. After you have stated what
• you think the main point is, check
• each paragraph to see that everything
• in it is related to your main point. If
• something is not related, then you
• havent stated the main point
• correctly.
• 4. Remember Main points are often not stated but
  implied. You have to write them out in your own
  words.

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• The Salem witch hysteria began when several girls
  accused some other people of being witches. The
  main reason that the girls were believed and that
  the hysteria spread was that there were so many
  disputes between neighbors in the village.
  Neighbors went to court and testified against
  people they did not like or people they were
  having a quarrel with. For example, John Putnam
  testified that George Burroughs was a witch, and
  Putnam thought Burroughs had helped cause his
  wifes death. Another example is John Bly and
  his wife, who testified against Bridget Bishop.
  The Blys had had a dispute with Mrs. Bishop about
  a hog. They testified that she had bewitched the
  pig. These people as well as many others had
  reasons to accuse people of witchcraft for
  revenge.

1. What is the author trying to prove in this
   passage.
2. Does the passage contain any cue words that
   indicate a summary statement of the argument?
3. State in your own words what the main point of
   the passage is?
4. Which sentence in the passage contains the main
   point of the argument?

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Critical Thinking Worksheet 2

• The Salem Witchcraft Trials.

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Identify Central Issues The Salem Witchcraft
Trials

• There were witch trials in Salem in 1692 because
  witchcraft really was being practiced in Salem
  Village. About 50 people in the Salem trials
  confessed to being witches. Tituba, the slave
  who probably started the girls accusing other
  people of witchcraft, confessed to being a witch.
  She said that the Devil had come to her in the
  shape of a man a tall man in black, with white
  hair. He had shown her a book and she had made a
  mark in it, a mark that was red like blood.
  She said that sometimes the man in black had
  brought four witches with him Sarah Good and
  Sarah Osborn and two women from Boston whose
  names she did not know and that they had forced
  her to go with them and afflict the girls.
• Bridget Bishop was another person in Salem who
  practiced witchcraft. Many people in the village
  believed she did, and two men testified in court
  that they had found in a house where she had
  lived several puppets made of rags and hogs
  bristle, with headless pins in them with the
  points sticking outward.

• This was a common procedure for people who
  practiced witchcraft in the 1600s. For example,
  the slave Candy confessed to being a witch and
  brought her puppets to court when she was being
  asked to show how she afflicted the girls.
  Bridget Bishop could make no reasonable reply to
  these charges in court.
• At least six people testified that Margaret Rule,
  who was afflicted, was lifted out of her bed by
  an invisible force so that none of her body
  rested either on the bed or any other support.
• There is no question that witchcraft was
  practiced in Salem in 1692. More importantly,
  almost everyone in Salem and in the European
  world in 1692 believed in witchcraft. Because of
  the power of suggestion, people who believed in
  witchcraft can be afflicted by it.
• What is the main point or premise of the
  argument? Explain your answer.

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• In 1692 some teenage girls started acting
  strangely and accusing people in Salem Village of
  being witches. They acted this way because they
  were poisoned by the bread they ate. The rye
  bread was infected with a fungus that caused
  ergot poisoning. The symptoms of ergot poisoning
  are the same as those the girls say they had
  choking, painful, itchy skin, visions or
  hallucinations, and so forth. The land on which
  the rye most of the girls ate was grown was
  perfect for ergot growth Several of the girls
  ate bread from the Putnam farm, which was
  reported in village records to be swampy
  lowlands. The weather in 1691 was also ideally
  suited to the growth of ergot-producing fungus

• Several diaries form the village reported that
  the weather in 1691 was warm and rainy. Also,
  women and children have been more susceptible to
  ergot poisoning in some epidemics, and it was
  female teenagers who were afflicted by the
  symptoms in 1692.
• What it the main point or premise of the
  argument? Explain your answer.

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• Reread the first paragraph under the heading
  Britain against France on page 66.
• Identify the main point of the passage.
• The main point is stated in the first sentence.

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Chronological Order

• Make a timeline of the French and Indian War
• Place the following dates on the line 1745,
  1754, 1755, 1757, 1758, 1759, 1763.
• Record the events and results alongside the dates.

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Cause and Effect

• The French and Indian War was part of a larger,
  worldwide conflict between France and England
  known as the Seven Years War (1756-1763).

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Cause and Effect
French (F) and English (E) Actions Colonists Response
French and Indians attacked Deerfield and other outlying settlements (F)
England returned Louisburg to France in exchange for Madras, India (E)
French attacked colonists settlement beyond the Alleghenies (F)
England ordered colonial leaders to gather for a meeting with the Iroquois (E)
English generals failed to respond to Indian guerilla warfare tactics (E)
Pitt promised to pay colonial armies for their efforts against the French (E)
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What general statements can you make about the
colonists after the French and Indian War that
was not true before the war?

• Colonists gained valuable experience at fighting
  a war.
• Actively reaffirmed their belief in
  self-government.
• First talk of a union of English colonies in
  North America.

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• Other battles of the Seven Years War were fought
  in India and off the coast of West Africa as well
  as in Europe and North America.
• Why did these warring countries fight in so many
  places?
• Why didnt England and its ally Prussia, attack
  Paris?
• Why didnt the French and its allies Sweden,
  Austria, and Russia invade England?

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• What were they fighting for?
• The Seven Years War was not a war of CONQUEST
  an attempt to overthrow the opponents government
  and rule a country but a war of EMPIRE.