Name
Creating
a Colony in the New Land
Know
ye that His Royal Highness, the King of England, has hereby offered his
approval to a venture establishing a colony across the seas on the shores of
North America. This privilege has
been extended to thy group contingent upon thou available knowledge. You must ensure the success of the colony
and the health and welfare of the KingÕs subjects.
You
have been assigned the task of creating a proposal for a new colony. This work is to be very comprehensive
because an error on your part may cost the lives of many colonists.
You
need to provide the Royal Inspectors (Miss Cantillon) with a detailed
presentation of what you have found and what you recommend for your particular
part of the project. His majesty
wants a visual of the proposed settlement, and you need to participate in its
construction. Since there is only
one visual of the colony, you will cooperate with your team in creating
this. If your ideas are different
from your team members, you must work out any differences. At the request of the Royal Inspectors,
you shall present your proposal to the other members of the Royal Commission
(your class).
Your
proposal should consist of four products:
¬ written documentation (the answers to the
questions below)
¬ an oral presentation
¬ a visual of the settlement
¬ an edition from your colonyÕs newspaper
(each of the group members will have a section to write)
To
more efficiently carry out these tasks, Miss Cantillon will organize our class
into smaller groups: within your groups you will focus on political,
economical, technological and societal aspects for your colony. After doing research separately, work
within your groups to design your part of the presentation for the King. Your oral presentation should include
an explanation of your findings for your product (answers to the questions
below). Your visual could be
multimedia, play, puppet show, video, model, diagram or any combination of
these, with the approval of your Royal Inspectors. Include a layout of a settlement in the colony. Remember to include your sources into
your written documentation.
Directions for a colonial newspaper are included. You need to
research ACTUAL colonies that existed and model your colony after many real
colonies.
This
group is assigned the task of deciding how the colony shall be governed. His Majesty is most anxious that the
administration of the settlement be fair and efficient. Although you may wish to have a single
individual who is ultimately responsible to the Crown for the overall running
of the colony, order and efficiency cannot depend upon one person. Assignment of various important
functions shall need to be made.
Consider the following needs of the colony:
¬ What will be the location of the
colony? Be specific about where is
on a map.
¬ How will you protect the inhabitants from
attack by hostile savages? We want
the Indians to help us and not be our enemies. What will you do to make that happen?
¬ Who will rule the colony? What offices are needed? How will the laws be enforced? Whom
will enforce them?
¬ Will you have regular British soldiers or
militia? What are advantages to
each? What are the disadvantages?
¬ Who controls the soldiers? Who pays them? Who houses them?
¬ Who can own land? (Be specific about what qualifications they must have (age,
gender, etc.).
¬ Will anyone be allowed to run for
office? If so, how often and for
what offices?
¬ If people will vote, then who will be allowed to
vote? What criteria will be used?
¬ How will your colony make local laws?
¬ The King is very anxious to keep track of
the progress of the colony. Who
will do this, how often, and how do you intend to report this to His Majesty?
It
is most important that the colonists survive and prosper. To that end, each person must have
something to employ their time to the best advantage of himself and the colony. Not every person can or should be
engaged in growing food, nor in any one thing. There must be a balance among all the work so that every
person is dependent on the others to live. You must decide the following:
¬ What will be the main business purposes of
the colony? (Will it be agriculture, hunting for pelts, mining for minerals, or
something else?)
¬ Who will you trade with? For what will you trade? What will you offer in trade?
¬ What essential things do the colonists
originally need to bring from England for building, surviving until the colony
can support itself, protection and trade?
¬ What material can the colonists find in the
New World to sustain them?
¬ What important
occupations must your colonists have?
¬ How will people be
trained for each of the occupations?
How many days per week and how many hours per
day will people work?
¬ How will things be
paid for (currency or barter)? If currency, then describe it.
¬ There is a new idea
of using slaves or indentured servants to do work. Should we have slavery
or indentured servants in this colony? What would be reasons for each? If
you don't have slavery or indentured servants, from where and how where will
you get workers?
People in the colony will be living from day
to day. How well they live will be determined by your group. Yours is possibly
the hardest job since your decisions will affect every colonist personally. If
you are wrong, it could cost some lives. Perhaps the best way to approach your
job is to follow a typical colonist through a day from the time they get up
until they go to sleep.
¬ Describe a day from
an adult's and a child's point of view. For the adult include items such
as work, tasks, chores,
food, etc. For the child include items such as school (if there is one), tasks,
chores, food, games and the like. Other ways to approach the job is to answer
questions such as:
¬ Which religion(s)
will your colony permit? What is the role of religion in your colony?
¬ What shall people be
able to do for recreation?
What rules should be made concerning
schooling, including subjects taught, rules for attendance, discipline and
support for the teacher?
¬ What rules will you
have concerning courtship?
¬ What rules will you
have concerning marriage (role of husband, wife, children & relatives)?
¬ Will you have
different social classes of people? If so, what are they? Can people climb into
a higher social class? If so, then how can they do so?
¬ What customs will
you adhere to?
¬ What holidays will
you celebrate? How will you do that?
Technological
¬ What is the
proximity of your colony to water for drinking, irrigation, and navigation.
(Include maps.)
¬ What transportation
and communication systems will you use?
¬ What will their
houses look like (inside and outside - include sketches)? How will you adapt
your dwellings to the environment?
¬ What kind of
furniture will you use? (Describe.)
¬ How will you obtain food? What crops will
you plant? Will you raise animals? How will your store things?
¬ What farm implements
and other tools will you use?
¬ How will you make
clothes, blankets, etc.?
¬What technological
occupations are essential to any colony?
¬ What weapons and
fortifications will you use to protect yourselves?
¬ What are health
services like? Who will you go to if you become ill? How are you treated if you
are ill? What sanitary methods are practiced in obtaining water, cooking and in
medical practices?
These are some of the questions. You and your
group need to ask the rest of the questions, make them as detailed as possible,
and then come up with the answers. Bear in mind that if you forget something,
it could take a year or more before the things that you've forgotten can be
supplied.
Evaluation
Visual – 10 points
Newspaper – 20 points
Group Presentation – 20 points
Responses to Questions – 30 points
Cooperation & Participation – 20
points
Chapters 6, 7 and 8 have a wealth of
information.
His Majesty is most anxious for this project
to succeed and has therefore alerted the Royal School Librarian to assist you
in any way possible.
Remember to use the INDEX volume first.
"Get thee into cyberspace." The
Royal Inspectors and other folk have been busy finding places along the King's
Information Highway for you to stop and find out information that you need to
help you to complete your task. Take full advantage of these sites.
A TABLE ALPHABETICAL (R. Cawdrey 1604) is a dictionary of
some of those strange "Olde English" words you might find while doing
your research.