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May's 2002 Book Review Continued
 May 1, 2002This Months Book Review
My Country's Heritage
By Ames & Ames
Copyright 1945, 1951
by Webster Publishing Company
Preface
The Story of America is unintelligible unless set against the
background of Old World history. This fact has been
recognized for at least a generation. The number and the
worth of the texts setting forth the prinicpal features of this
Old World background in the language of childhood attests
the interest in the movement to correct past shortcomings.
But to fall under the conviction that the American child has
the right to examine the roots of America's past in the Old
World, and, indeed, must examine them to understand the
history of his own country, is one thing. Properly to
evaluate and winnow these background materials, and
adequately to present them to a ten- or eleven-year old
child is quite another. American reaction to world events,
during these latter years, the long-continued American
ignorance of this world stage on which we act, and
American indifference to the world drama seem to
suggest that what the American Schools have done in
this respect has either been too late or too little.
The authors of this text are convinced that the story of the
Old World, as presented to American children, should be
simple, direct, interestingly told. Ancient dynasties, the
rise and fall of empires, and all complexities to be found
in the "boiled down" world histories that have too often
been foisted on the young American find no place in this
text. It presents much to think abount and to feel; little
that must be clung to by a sheer exercise of memory.
In winnowing the mass of facts to be considered, the
authors have saved and have pushed into the fore-ground
those elements of the past that became the direct, tangible
causes of the spread of Europeans to the New World, that
conditioned their living and their ideas and ideals once they
were here. It is the merit of their sifting process which, the
authors believe, will give this book a deserved place in the
schools. It is their conviction that educators will welcome
a text that perhaps fails to enlarge on the exploits of
Rameses II of Egypt, but includes dramatic stories of the
origins of our Bill of Rights.
Examiners of this text will be interested in noting the large
amount of space given to the nineteenth-century immigrant
to our shores. Why not? Did European influence on
America cease with the sailing of the "Mayflower"? Is there
but one "Pilgrim band" and one "Plymounth Rock" in the
story of America? The authors of this text believe that their
recognition of this continuing influence of the Old World on
the New constitutes a long-needed advance in this general
field.
The Authors
 A Land Of Many Nationalities, Chapter TwentyPeople from many lands joined the settlers in the English
colonies. In their new American homes they grew more and
more alike. At last they became one people.
The Swedes.
You have read how in early times the people of the
Scandinavian countries-the Danes, Swedes, and
Norwegians-left their homelands to make settlements across
the seas. Small bands of these peoples settled in Iceland and
in Greenland. Many years later a small body of Swedes
started the first Swedish settlement in America. This
settlement was near where the city of Wilmington, Delaware,
now stands. After a few years this Swedish settlement
became a part of the Dutch New Netherlands colony, which
had been started a few years before. Perhaps we would not
care to remember about this small settlement if it were not for
the fact that it was the beginning of a great movement of
Scandinavian people to this country.
"Pennsylvania Dutch."
The people of Germany were made to suffer terribly because
of a war over religion. This was known as the Thirty Years'
War because it lasted about that long. Other wars followed
which laid waste the lands along the Rhine River. Villagers
and farmers by the thousands were killed or driven away
from their homes. Those who could pay their passage
across the sea fled to the only place where they felt sure of
safety. That was America.
About that time William Penn had received his grant of land
called Pennsylvania. He was eager to have many of the poor
Germans come to his colony. He sent printed matter telling
them about Pennsylvania. It was not long before shiploads
of Germans began to come to Penn's new town of
Philadelphia. Some of them stayed in the city. One large
group went to the northwest and started Germantown. Many
more pushed westward and took up farming in the long valleys
between the eastern ranges of the mountains. In time all the
Germans living in Pennsylvania came to be known by the name
they have ever since carried-"Pennsylvania Dutch."
The Scotch-Irish people.
In the years we have been reading about, the northern part of
Ireland became almost empty of people. The English soldiers
had driven the Irish people out of that part of the land. Word
came to the people of Scotland that they would be permitted
to cross the channel and take over the land from which the
Irish had been driven. The Scotch people who moved to
Ireland were experienced weavers, and they went on with the
manufacture of woolen and linen cloth in their new homes.
They had gone to Ireland hoping that their lives would be
more pleasant there than in the rugged hills of Scotland.
These Scotch people who settled in Ireland came to be known
as Scotch-Irish. They were not satisfied for long with their
new homes. Those who farmed found it hard to raise good
crops. The lands which they farmed had to be rented from
English landowners, and high rents were charged. These
Scotch-Irish belonged to the Presbyterian Church. Soon
news came from England that they would not be permitted
to carry on the Presbyterian form of worship. Another law
was also passed which would not permit the Scotch-Irish to
sell their cloth in England. Can you wonder then that these
high-spirited people decided that they would not live under
such conditions? Within a few years thousands of them
moved to America.
Living in the forest.
By the time the Scotch-Irish people reached America, some
of the English colonies were more than a hundred years old.
Most of the best land along the seashore had been taken,
so the new immigrants pushed on past the big farms of
eastern Maryland and Pennsylvania and past the great
plantations in eastern Virginia and the Carolinas. At last
they settled along the swift rivers in the valleys of the
Appalachian Mountains. Their farms were small. They were
a long distance from the older settlements, and the roads
were mere trails through the woods. West of them were
more mountain ranges and tribes of warlike Indians. Being
a bold people, they were just the right kind to make and hold
their homes on the edge of the Indian country.
All of these new settlers brought from their homelands the
knowledge and skill they had gained there. Some of them
became good farmers. Others were skilled workers. There
was room for all of them in America. Before they had been
long in their new homes, they began to mix freely with the
older English settlers around them. The differences
between the groups of people in the colonies began quickly
to disappear.
What is meant when America is called a "melting pot"?
Does it not mean that here the people from many lands and
of many religious beliefs learn to live at peace side by side
and to join together freely in all the things they need to do?
Do you see then that even in the time of the colonies the
"melting pot" was beginning to boil?
How People Lived In England's Colonies
The farm homes of New England.
In early times the farmers of New England lived in small
villages. They wanted to be near the fort in case the Indians
made an attack. Also, they wanted to live near the village
church and the school. The farmer and his sons did all the
work on the farm. They raised corn, oats, barley, hay, and
vegetables. In the winter the farmer was busy making
shoes and other things which the family needed. Here and
there a farmer had a blacksmith's forge and an anvil. With
these he could make nails and blades for knives and
scythes and other tools which were needed on the farms.
The New England women and girls were as busy as the men
and boys. Besides the cooking and cleaning that takes place
in our homes today, in the colonial home in New England
meat was dried or smoked, stockings and mittens were
knitted, and butter, cloth, candles, and soap were made.
Such work was done by the women and girls.
The people on the seacoast.
The New England people who lived near the ocean also lived
in villages. In time some of these villages grew into cities.
In the near-by harbors many ships, large and small, were to
be seen. Some of the larger ships were used to carry
cargoes of fur, lumber, and fish to England. These ships
brought back to the settlers the things which they bought in
England. Other large stout-looking ships hunted whales.
These ships sailed on long voyages to the Arctic and whales.
Many of the smaller boats were used for fishing, which was
an important industry. Many of the people in these seacoast
towns were seafaring men.
The middle colonies.
In the colonies in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania
there was more of a mixture of people than in New England.
A traveler would have found many things to remind him of
Holland and Germany rather than of England. For a long time
these people did not learn to speak English, but used the
language of their fathers.
The farms in the middle colonies were often larger than those
of New England. The Germans were good farmers who liked
to build large houses and barns and to have fine herds of
cattle. The middle colonies grew rapidly. Two of the largest
cities, New York and Philadelphia, were located in these
colonies.
In the plantation country.
In Virginia and the other colonies farther south were many
large farms, which were called plantations. The owners of
the plantations lived in fine houses. The work was carried
on by white servants and Negro slaves. The chief crop was
tobacco, which was easily sold in England. Nearly everything
that the colonists of the Southland used was bought in
England with the money which came to the planters from the
sale of tobacco.
The poorer people of the South.
There were poor people in the South as well as the important
planters. Many of these were people who had come to the
new land as servants. These people had no money with which
to pay for their passage, so they agreed to work a certain
number of years after arriving in the new land. When their terms
as servants ended, many of them built homes on the poorer
lands and up the rivers where the country was rough and hilly.
Americans.
The people in England's colonies were not like what they had been
before they came to America. They learned to love their new home
with its rolling hills, its grand forests, and its sparkling rivers. They
came to believe that what a man could do counted for much more
than who his father or his grandfather was. Soon they forgot their
differences in language and religion They were getting ready to be
good citizens of a new American nation.
I. Things To Talk About
1. What plans and ideas did the English colonists have for making
their settlements into "another England"?.
2. Can you think of any ways in which it helped the English colonies
to have settlers from other lands? Why did settlers from other
countries come to the English colonies?
3. How were the New England, Souther, and Middle Atlantic colonies
different?
How were they alike?
4. Compare colonial farm life in New England and in the South.
5. Make lists of the products of New England and of the South.
6. Explain the statement: "The melting pot was beginning to boil."
7. How much did the colonists owe their mother country?
8. How did the colonists of different sections become more like one
another and more different from Englishmen?
II. Things To Do
1. On a map of the eastern part of our country write the names of the
different peoples who came to the English colonies to make their
homes. Write the names across the parts of the map where the
different groups lived.
2. Pretend that you are making a trip through the colonies. Make a
daily record of your experiences and of what you see and hear.
3. Look up an account of how rice was grown and harvested in
colonial times.
Report to the class.
4. Imagine that you are an early settler in one of the colonies. Write a
letter to our friends in Europe to tell of your experiences in the new
country.
5. Draw a map of the eastern half of North America. Shade in carefully
the lands settled by the Dutch; the French; the Swedes.
6. Imagine yourself to be Champlain. Make a report to the French king
on your new colony on the St. Lawrence River.
III. Who?
Write the numbers 1-7 on your paper. Writer the answers to these
questions in order.
1. Who, besides white servants, did most of the work on the large
southern plantations?
2. Who came from France to settle in the English colonies?
3. Who first made a settlement in Delaware?
4. Who moved first to northern Ireland and then to America?
5. Who came to live in William Penn's new city in Pennsylvania?
6. Who was looked up to as a religious leader in Germany?
7. Who were specially skillful at weaving woolen and linen cloth?
IV. True or False?
1. The farmers in New England lived far from each other.
2. Large southern farms were called plantations.
3. The people who came to america from England believed that even
the king had no right to put them in prison without a trial.
4. The cloth used in America was all bought in England.
5. The Scotch-Irish people were afraid to live in the western lands near
the Indians.
6. There were so many people from different lands in early America that
they could not work together to make the new home a better place to
live in.
7. There were small farms in the South, as well as great plantations.
V. New Words and Terms
Huguenot "melting pot" Scotch-Irish
Lutheran Pennsylvania Dutch anvil looms "rights of Englishmen"
forge Protestant scythe Scandinavian
IV. Books to Read
1. Bacon, Edwin Munroe, The Boy's Hakluyt (Scribner)
You can learn in this book about the English people of three or four
hundred years ago, and why many of them were so eager to start
colonies in America.
2. Cooke, J. E. , Stories of the Old Dominion (Harper)
In this book are interesting stories about the people who lived in Virginia
in earliest colonial times.
3. Dodge, Mary Mapes, The Land of Pluck (Am. Bk. )
Holland is the "Land of Pluck." You will like these stories of the brave
people of this little country.
4. Foote, Anna E., and Skinner, Avery W., Explorers and Founders of
America (Am. Bk. )
5. Holland, R. S., Historic Girlhoods (Macrae)
Girl readers will like this book. You will want to read at this time about
Pocahontas and Priscilla Alden.
6. Southworth, Gertrude Van Duyn, Builders of Our Country (Appleton)
Here are to be found short stories about American leaders from early
times down to the present. It will be a good book to turn to from time to
time.
7. Tappan, Eva March, American Hero Stories (Houghton)
8. Usher, Roland Greeene, The Story of the Pilgrims for Children
(Macmillan) This is an interesting, easy-to-read book about the Pilgrims.
It tells the story of the Pilgrims in Holland, the voyage in the
"Mayflower," and the first years at Plymouth.
9. Wood, William, Elizabethan Sea Dogs (Yale U. Press)
Note: This book tells the story of early English sea rovers.
I hope you have enjoyed this month's book review from
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