In many ways the ideas in this dystopian novel are more important than the characters – with the exception of Offred and Moira

In many ways the ideas in this dystopian novel are more important than the characters – with the exception of Offred and Moira. The other characters tend to function as members of groups or as representatives of certain ideological positions. However, as Offred insists, every individual is significant, whatever Gilead decrees, and her narrative weaves in particularities: she continually writes in other voices in sections of dialogue, in embedded stories and in remembered episodes. It is a feature of Atwood's realism, even within a fabricated futuristic world, that she pays dose attention not only to location but to people and relationships. OFFRED Offred, the main protagonist and narrator, is trapped in Gilead as a Handmaid, one of the ‘two-legged wombs' valued only for her potential as a surrogate mother. Denied all her individual rights, she is known only by the patronymic Of-Fred, derived from the name of her current Commander. Most of the time she is isolated and afraid. Virtually imprisoned in the domestic spaces of the home, she is allowed out only with a shopping partner and for Handmaids' official excursions like Prayvaganzas and Salvagings. At the age of thirty-three and potentially still fertile, she is a victim of Gileadean sexist ideology which equates ‘male' with power and sexual potency, and ‘female' with reproduction and submission to the point where individuality is effaced. Offred's narrative, however, does not possess such diagrammatic simplicity, for she resists such reductiveness by a variety of stratagems that allow her to retain a sense of her own individuality and psychological freedom. She refuses to forget her past or her own name when she was a daughter, lover, wife and working mother; she refuses to believe in biological reductionism; and she refuses to give up hope of getting out of her present situation. She knows what she needs to pay attention to: What I need is perspective. The illusion of depth †¦ Otherwise you live in the moment. Which is not where I want to be' (Chapter 24). Offred's greatest psychological resource is her faculty of double vision, for she is a survivor from the past, and it is her power to remember which enables her to survive in the present. It is not only through flashbacks that she reconstructs the past (though these are her most effective escape routes from isolation, loneliness and boredom), but even when she walks down the road she sees everything through a double exposure, with the past superimposed upon the present, or to use her own layered image from Chapter 1, as a ‘palimpsest' where the past gives depth to the present. She has perfected the technique of simultaneously inhabiting two spaces: her Handmaid's space (or lack of it) and the freer, happier spaces of memory. Though she is forbidden to use her own name, she keeps it like a buried treasure, as guarantee of her other identity (‘I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I'll come back to dig up, one day – Chapter 14). She gives her real name as a love token to Nick, and he in turn uses it as an exchange of faith when he comes for her with the black truck (‘He calls me by my real name. Why should this mean anything?' Chapter 46). Offred does not trust the reader with her real name, however, which is a sign of her wariness in a precarious situation, though there is a fascinating essay by a Canadian critic, Constance Rooke, which argues that it is coded into the text and that Offred's real name is June. What is most attractive about Offred is her lively responsiveness to the world around her. She is sharply observant of physical details in her surroundings, she is curious and likes to explore, and she has a very lyrical response to the Commander's Wife's beautiful garden. She observes its seasonal changes closely, for that garden represents for her all the natural fecundity and beauty that are denied by the regime but which flourish unchecked outside the window. It is also a silent testimonial to her own resistance: ‘There is something subversive about this garden of Serena's, a sense of buried things bursting upwards, wordlessly, into the light' (Chapter 25). Her response to the moonlight is equally imaginative, though noticeably tinged with irony, which is one of her most distinctive characteristics: ‘a wishing moon, a sliver of ancient rock, a goddess, a wink. The moon is a stone and the sky is full of deadly hardware, but A God, how beautiful anyway' (Chapter 17). Offred consistently refuses to be bamboozled by the rhetoric of Gilead, for she believes in the principle of making distinctions between things and in the precise use of words, just as she continues to believe in the value of every individual. Of the men in her life she says: ‘Each one remains unique, there is no way of joining them together. They cannot be exchanged, one for the other. They cannot replace each other' (Chapter 30). It is this sharpness of mind which informs her wittily critical view of her present situation, as in the satisfaction she gets out of teasing the young guard at the gate. ‘I enjoy the power; power of a dog bone, passive but there' (Chapter 4). Her attitude is discreetly subversive but never openly rebellious. She watches for those moments of instability which she calls ‘tiny peepholes' when human responses break through official surfaces. Offred is mischievous, but, more seriously, she yearns for communication and trust between people instead of mutual suspicion and isolation. Ironically enough, her fullest human relationship in Gilead is her ,arrangement' with the Commander. This provides her with a ‘forbidden oasis', for it is in their Scrabble games that Offred is at her liveliest and hermost conventionally feminine. In his study, Offred and the Commander relate to each other by old familiar social and sexual codes, which alleviates the loneliness both feel. It is after her first evening that Offred does something she has never done before in the novel: she laughs out loud, partly at the absurdity of it all, but partly out of a reawakening of her own high spirits. Yet she is too intelligent ever to forget that it is only a game or a replay of the past in parodic form, and her outing to Jezebel's confirms this. For all its glitter, her purple sequined costume, like the evening, is a shabby masquerade, and in the clear light of day she is left sitting with ‘a handful of crumpled stars' in her lap (Chapter 46). Living in a terrorist state, Offred is always alert to the glint of danger, as in her first unexpected encounter with Nick in the dark where fear and sexual risk exert a powerful charge which runs through the novel to its end. Their love represents the forbidden combination of desire and rebellion, and it is through that relationship that Offred manages to find new hope for the future and even to accommodate herself to reduced circumstances in the present, like a pioneer who has given up the Old World and come to the wilderness of a new one: ‘I said, I have made a life for myself, here, of a sort. That must have been what the settlers' wives thought' (Chapter 41). Offred shows through her detailed psychological narrative how she can survive traumas of loss and bereavement and how she manages to elude the constraints of absolute authority. We know little about her physical appearance because the only time she ever mentions it is when she is at her most bizarre, in her red habit with her white winged cap or in her purple sequined costume at Jezebel's. But we know a great deal about her mind and feelings and her sense of wry humour. We also know that she is a highly selfconscious narrator and that she is aware of contradictions and failings within herself She knows that she lacks Moira's flamboyant courage, and she accuses herself of cowardice and unreliability, just as at the end she feels guilty for having betrayed the household who imprisoned her. Yet, despite her own self-doubts, Offred manages to convince us of her integrity. She survives with dignity and she embraces the possibility of her escape with hope. Her narrative remains a witness t o the freedom and resilience of the human spirit. Offred and Moira are the two main examples of feminist positions in the novel (unlike the older women Serena Joy and the Aunts). Yet they are very different from each other, for Offred's resistance always works surreptitiously and through compromise, whereas Moira is more confrontational. Offred represents Atwood's version of a moderate heterosexual feminism in contrast to Moira's separatist feminism. MOIRA Moira, always known by her own name because she never becomes a Handmaid, is strongly individual, although she is also a type of the female rebel. This is a position which can be viewed in two ways, and both of them are illustrated here. From Offred's point of view Moira is the embodiment of female heroism, though from the Gileadean authorities' point of view she is a ‘loose woman', a criminal element, and her story follows the conventional fictional pattern of such rebellious figures: when Offred last sees her she is working as a prostitute in Jezebel's. Even here, Moira manages to express her dissidence, for she remains a declared lesbian and her costume is a deliberate travesty of feminine sexual allure, as Offred notices when she meets her again on her night out with the Commander. Moira's own wryly comic comment on it is, ‘I guess they thought it was me' (Chapter 38). Moira, too, is a survivor of the American permissive society, a trendy college student who wears purple overalls and leaves her unfinished paper on ‘Date Rape' to go for a beer. Much more astute about sexual politics than Offred, she is an activist in the Gay Rights movement, working for a women's collective at the time of the Gilead coup. When she is brought into the Rachel and Leah Centre she is still wearing jeans and declares that the place is a ‘loony bin' (Chapter 13). She cannot be terrorised into even outward conformity-, instead she tries to escape and succeeds on her second attempt. She manages to escape disguised as an Aunt. Always funny and ironic, to the other women at the Centre she represents all that they would like to do but would not dare: ‘Moira was our fantasy. We hugged her to us, she was with us in secret, a giggle; she was lava beneath the crust of daily life. In the light of Moira, the Aunts were less fearsome and more absurd' (Chapter 22). Moira continues to surface in Offred's narrative, bobbing up in memory, until her devastatingly fimny final appearance at Jezebel's. Behind the comedy, however, is the fact that Moira has not managed to escape after all, and as an unregenerate has been consigned to the brothel, where she tells Offred that she has ‘three or four good years' ahead of her, drinkingand smoking as a Jezebel hostess, before she is sent to the Colonies. Our last view of Moira is on that evening: ‘I'd like her to end with something daring and spectacular, some outrage, something that would befit her. But as far as I know that didn't happen' (Chapter 38). Moira is one of the spirited feminist heroines, like Offred's mother and Offred's predecessor in the Commander's house who left the message scrawled in the closet. The sad fact is these women do get sent off to the Colonies or commit suicide, which Offred herself refuses to do. Offred and Moira are both feminist heroines, showing women's energetic resistance to the Gilead system, but there are no winners. Neither compromise nor rebellion wins freedom, though it is likely that Offred is rescued by Nick. However, their value lies in their speaking out against the imposition of silence, challenging tyranny and oppression. Their stories highlight the actions of two individual women whose very different private assertions become exemplary or symbolic. Their voices survive as images of hope and defiance to be vindicated by history. SERENA JOY Serena Joy, the Commander's Wife, is the most powerful female presence in Offred's daily life in Gilead, and as Offred has plenty of opportunity to observe her at close quarters she appears in the narrative as more than just a member of a class in the hierarchy of Gileadean women. As an elderly childless woman she has to agree to the grotesque system of polygamy practised in Gilead and to shelter a Handmaid in her home, but it is plain that she resents this arrangement keenly as a violation of her marriage, and a continual reminder of her own crippled condition and fading feminine charms. The irony of the situation is made clear when Offred remembers Serena Joys past history, first as a child singing star on a gospel television show, and later as a media personality speaking up for ultra-conservative domestic policies and the sanctity of the home. Now, as Offred maliciously remarks, Serena is trapped in the very ideology on which she had based her popularity: ‘She stays in her home, but it doesn't seem to agree with her' (Chapter 8). Serena's present life is a parody of the Virtuous Woman: her only place of power is her own living room, she is estranged from her husband, jealous of her Handmaid, and has nothing to do except knit scarves for soldiers and gossip with her cronies or listen to her young voice on the gramophone. The only space for Serena's self-expression is her garden, and even that she cannot tend without the help of her husband's chauffeur. If flowers are important to Offred, so are they too to Serena, and she often sits alone in her ‘subversive garden', knitting or smoking. To see the world from Serena's perspective is to shift the emphasis of Offred's narrative, for these two women might be seen not as opposites but as doubles. They both want a child, and the attention of them both focuses on the Commander of whom Serena is very possessive: ‘As for my husband, she said, he's just that. My husband. I want that to be perfectly clear. Till death do us part. It's final' (Chapter 3). Offred seldom knows what Serena is thinking, though there are indications of her attitudes and tastes in the jewels and the perfume she wears and in the furnishings of her house: ‘hard lust for quality, soft sentimental cravings' as Offred uncharitably puts it (Chapter 14). There is also evidence of a certain toughness in Serena's cigarette-smoking and her use of slang, not to mention her suggestion that Offred, unknown to the Commander, should sleep with Nick in order to conceive the child she is supposed to produce: ‘She's actually smiling, coquettishly even; there's a hint of her former small-screen mannequin's allure, flickering over her face like momentary static' (Chapter 31). But Serena has her revenges too: she has deliberately withheld from Offred the news of her lost daughter and her photograph which Offred has been longing for. By a curious twist, Serena occupies the role of the wife in a very conventional plot about marital infidelity, as well as in the privileged Gileadean sense. She is one of the points in the triangular relationship which develops between Offred and the Commander: ‘The fact is that I'm his mistress †¦ Sometimes I think she knows' (Chapter 26). Actually, she does not know until she finds the purple costume and the lipstick on her cloak. It is a clich6-like situation, but Serena's own pain of loss goes beyond this conventional pattern: †¦ Behind my back,† she says. â€Å"You could have left me something.†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ Offred wonders, ‘Does she love him, after all?' (Chapter 45). Serena is still there in her house, standing anxiously beside the Commander at the end as Offred is led out through the door. Her farewell to Offred is wifely in an old-fashioned sense which has none of the pieties of Gilead: †¦ Bitch,† she says. â€Å"After all he did for you (Chapter 46). THE OTHER COMMANDERS' WIVES These merely exist as a gaggle of gossips in blue, for Offred knows nothing of their lives apart from overhearing snatches of their conversation at Birth Days, Prayvaganzas or social visits, when they make scandalous comments about their Handmaids. Only the Wife of Warren achieves a moment of grotesque individuality when she is seen sitting on the Birth Stool behind Janine, ‘wearing white cotton socks, and bedroom slippers, blue ones made of fuzzy material, like toilet-seat covers' (Chapter 21). There is also one other unfortunate Wife who is hanged at the Salvaging, but Offred does not know what her crime was. Was it murder? Was it adultery? ‘It could always be that. Or attempted escape' (Chapter 42). THE AUNTS Like the Wives, the Marthas, the Econowives and most of the Handmaids, these are presented as members of a class or group, every group representing a different female role within Gilead. With their names derived from preGileadean women's products, the Aunts are the older women who act as female collaborators on the orders of the patriarchy to train and police Handmaids. They are a paramilitary organisation, as is signified by their khaki uniforms and their cattle prods, and, as propagandists of the regime, they tell distorted tales of women's lives in the pre-Gileadean past. The villainesses of the novel, they are responsible for the most gruesome cruelties, like the female Salvagings and the Particicutions, as well as for individual punishments at the Rachel and Leah Centre. Only Aunt Lydia is individuated, and that is by her peculiar viciousness masquerading under a genteel feminine exterior: ‘Aunt Lydia thought she was very good at feeling f6r other people' (Chapter 8). A particularly sadistic tormentor, Aunt Lydia is an awful warning that a women's culture is no guarantee of sisterhood as Offred's mother's generation of feminists had optimistically assumed, but that it is also necessary to take account of some women's pathological inclinations towards violence and vindictiveness. OFGLEN AND OFWARREN Only two of the Handmaids, Ofglen and Ofwarren Ganine), emerge as individuals, one because of her courage and rebelliousness and the other because she is the conventional female victim figure. Both are casualties of the Gileadean system. Ofglen has no past life that Offred knows about, but she does have a secret life as a member of the Mayday resistance movement which she confides to Offred after weeks as her shopping partner. There is nothing exceptional about her appearance except her mechanical quality which Offred notices, ‘as if she's voice- activated, as if she's on little oiled wheels' (Chapter 8). Offred is proved right in her suspicions, for under the disguise of Handmaid, Ofglen is a sturdy resistance fighter. She identifies the alleged rapist as ‘one of ours' and knocks him out before the horrible Particicution begins. She also dies as a fighter, preferring to commit suicide when she sees the black truck coming rather than betray her friends under torture. Offred learns this from her replacement, the ‘new, treacherous Ofglen', who whispers the news to her on their shopping expedition. Janine is a female victim in both her lives: before Gilead when she worked as a waitress and was raped by a gang of thugs, then as a Handmaid. At the Rachel and Leah Centre she is a craven figure on the edge of nervous collapse, and consequently one of Aunt Lydia's pets. Though she has her moment of triumph as the ‘vastly pregnant' Handmaid Ofwarren in Chapter 5, she is also a victim of the system with which she has tried so hard to curry favour. Even at the Birth Day she is neglected as soon as the baby is born and left ‘crying helplessly, burnt-out miserable tears' when her baby is taken away and given to the Wife (Chapter 21). There is no reward for Janine. Her baby is declared an Unbaby and destroyed because it is deformed; Janine becomes a pale shadow overwhelmed with guilt; finally, after the Particicution, when Offred sees her again, she has slipped over into madness. OFFRED'S MOTHER Offred's mother and her life belong to the history of feminism which is being recorded in this novel, for she joined the Women's Liberation Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, campaigning for women's sexual and social freedom. As an older woman she continued to be a political activist, and at the time of the Gileadean take-over she disappeared. Only much later does Offred learn that she has been condemned as an Unwoman and sent to the Colonies. Like Moira, and possessing the same kind of energy, Offred's mother resists classification. In an odd way she even resists being dead, for she makes two startling appearances in the present, both times on film at the Rachel and Leah Centre. On one occasion Offred is shocked to see her as a young woman marching toward her in a pro-abortion march, and later Moira reports seeing her as an old woman working as slave labour in the Colonies. Offred's mother is, however, more than a feminist icon. She haunts her daughter's memory, and gradually Offred comes to understand her mother's independence of mind and to admire her courage. Her mother is evoked in a series of kaleidoscopic images: at a feminist pornographic book burning (Chapter 7), with a bruised face after an abortion riot (Chapter 28), and as an elderly woman proudly defending her position as a single parent to Offred's husband, while accusing her daughter of naivet6 and political irresponsibility. It is her jaunty language which Offred remembers as distinguishing her mother: A man is just a woman's strategy for making other women. Not that your father wasn't a nice guy and all, but he wasn't up to fatherhood. Not that I expected it of him. Just do the job, then you can bugger off, 1 said, I make a decent salary, I can afford daycare. So he went to the coast and sent Christmas cards. He had beautiful blue eyes though. (Chapter 20) An embarrassing but heroic figure, this is the woman whom her daughter misses when it is all too late, though Offred continues her dialogue with her mother in her own mind as a way of keeping her alive: ‘Mother, I think. Wherever you may be. Can you hear me? You wanted a women's culture. Well, now there is one. It isn't what you meant, but it exists. Be thankful for small mercies' (Chapter 21). Finally Offred tries to lay her mother to rest, but without success: ‘I've mourned for her already. But I will do it again, and again' (Chapter 39). Deprived of the freedoms which her mother fought for, Offred learns to admire her mother's courage and to value her memory as a vital link with her own lost identity. Her elegy to her mother underlines the thematic motif of Missing Persons, and particularly lost mothers and daughters, which runs through the novel. MALE CHARACTERS The few male characters in this novel seem little more than functionaries of the patriarchal state or functional to the workings of the plot. Most of them have no names but only group identities like ‘Angels' or ‘Eyes' or ‘the doctor', while Professor Pieixoto is a satirical sketch of a male academic. Only three male characters are given any individuating characteristics. They are Offred's Commander, her lover Nick, and her absent, vanished husband Luke. THE COMMANDER The Commander is the most powerful authority figure in Offred's world. He is a high-ranking government official, and he is head of the household to which Offred is assigned. It is his first name which she takes, though whether as a slave or as a parody of the marriage service is never made clear. Yet he is an ambiguous figure, substantial but shadowy, whose motivations, like his career in Gilead, remain unclear to Offred; even in the ‘Historical Notes' his identity remains uncertain. As a Commander he wears a black uniform and is driven in a prestige car, a Whirlwind. He is an elderly man with ‘straight neatly brushed silver hair' and a moustache and blue eyes. He is slightly stooped and his manner is mild (Chapter 15). As Offred observes him with his gold-rimmed glasses on his nose reading from the Bible before the monthly Ceremony, she thinks he looks ‘like a midwestern bank president', an astute judgement, as he tells her much later that before Gilead he was in market research (Chapter 29). The image he presents is that of male power, isolated and benignly indifferent to domestic matters, which include his Wife and his Handmaid. This is, however, not entirely true, for Offred has seen him earlier on the day of the Ceremony, a figure lurking in the shadows outside her room, who tried to peer at her as she passed: ‘Something has been shown to me, but what is it?' (Chapter 8). It is only after the official Ceremony, performed by the Commander in full dress uniform and with his eyes shut, that Offred has the chance to get to know him a little and his stereotypical male power image begins to break down. It is he who asks her to visit him ‘after hours' in his study, for he is a lonely man who desires friendship and intimacy with his Handmaid and not the serviceable monthly sex for which she has been allocated to him. In his Bluebeard's chamber, what he has to offer is not ‘kinky sex' but Scrabble games and an appearance of ‘normal life', with conversation and books and magazines, all of which he knows are forbidden to Handmaids. On his own private territory the Commander is an old-fashioned gentleman with an attractive sheepish smile, who treats Offred in a genially patronising way and gradually becomes quite fond of her. ‘In fact he is positively daddyish' (Chapter 29). He seems to have the ability to compartmentalise his life (in a w ay that Offred cannot manage) so that he can separate her official role as sexual slave from her unofficial role as his companion. In many ways the Commander's motives and needs remain obscure to Offred, though they do manage to develop an amiable relationship, which from one point of view is bizarre and from another is entirely banal: ‘The fact is that I'm his mistress' (Chapter 26). Yet their relationship is still a game of sexual power politics in which the Commander holds most of the cards, as Offred never allows herself to forget. For all his gallantry, he remains totally trapped in traditional patriarchal assumptions, believing that these are ‘Nature's norm' (Chapter 34) and allow exploitation of women, as his comments and conduct at Jezebel's suggest. Their private sexual encounter there ends in ‘futility and bathos' and is strongly contrasted with Offred's meeting with Nick later that same evening. As she leaves his house for the last time, Offred sees the Commander standing at the living-room door, looking old, worried and helpless. Possibly he is expecting his own downfall, for nobody is invulnerable in Gilead. Offred has her revenge, for the balance of power between them has shifted: ‘Possibly he will be a security risk, now. I am above him, looking down; he is shrinking' (Chapter 46). The academics go to some trouble later to establish the Commander's identity: he may have been ‘Frederick R. Waterford' or ‘B. Frederick Judd'. Waterford, it is revealed, had a background in market research (which seems most likely), while the more sinister Judd was a military strategist who worked for the CIA. Both of them ‘met their ends, probably soon after the events our author describes'. NICK Nick is presented as the central figure of Offred's romantic fantasy, for he is the mysterious dark stranger who is her rescuer through love. He also hasa place in her real world, of course, as the Commander's chauffeur and the Commander's Wife's gardener. He ‘has a French face, lean, whimsical, all planes and angles, with creases around the mouth where he smiles' (Chapter 4) and a general air of irreverence, wearing his cap at a jaunty angle, whistling while he polishes the car, and winking at Offred the first day he sees her. At the household prayers he presses his foot against hers, and she feels a surge of sensual warmth which she dare not acknowledge. In the daytime he is rather a comic figure but at night he is transformed into Offred's romantic lover, the embodiment of sexual desire. This transformation is made all the more piquant because he is always acting under orders, either as the Commander's messenger or as the lover chosen for Offred by the Commander's Wife. From their first unexpected encounter in the dark living room (Chapter 17) theirs is a silent exchange which carries an unmistakable erotic charge. It is Nicles hands which make his declaration: ‘His fingers move, feeling my arm under the night-gown sleeve, as if his hand won't listen to reason. It's so good, to be touched by someone, to be felt so greedily, to feel so greedy (Chapter 17). As a subordinate, Nick, like Offred, has to remain passive until ordered by the Commander's Wife to go to bed with Offred. On that occasion his attitude is not directly described but veiled by Offred's three different versions of that meeting. Certainly she falls in love with him, and in defiance of danger she returns many times to his room across the dark lawn on her own. Towards the end, she tells him that she is pregnant. Nevertheless, her description of their love-making is suggestive rather than explicitly erotic, and Nick tends to remain a mysterious figure. Even at the end when he appears with the Eyes to take her away, Offred really knows so little about him that she almost accuses him of having betrayed her, until he calls her by her real name and begs her to trust him. Ever elusive, he is the only member of the household not there to see her depart. We want to believe that Nick was in love with Offred, and we must assume from the ‘Historical Notes' that he did rescue her and that he was a member of Mayday resistance. However, as a character he is very lightly sketched and it is his function as romantic lover which is most significant. LUKE Luke, Offred's husband, is one of the Missing Persons in this novel. Probably dead before the narrative begins, he haunts Offred's memory until he fades like a ghost as her love affair with Nick develops. He is the one person Offred leaves out when she tells the story of her past life to Nick (Chapter 41), though she is still worrying about him at the end (Chapter 44). He is also the most fragmented character in the text, appearing briefly as a name in Chapter 2, and then gradually taking on an identity as Offred's lover, husband and the father of her child. He is a figure whose life story stopped for Offred at a traumatic point in the past: ‘Stopped dead in time, in mid-air, among the trees back there, in the act of falling' (Chapter 35). Through her reconstruction Luke appears as a late twentieth-century ‘liberated man', full of courage and humour and remembered by Offred entirely in his domestic relations with her. He is an older man who has been married before, so that there is an ironic parallel drawn between him and the Commander. Offred remembers their affair when she goes with the Commander to Jezebel's, for it is the hotel where she and Luke used to go (Chapter 37). She retains the memory of a strong loving partner, and her detailed recollections are of Luke cooking and joking with her mother, of lying in bed with her before their daughter was born, of collecting their daughter from school. We never know what Luke's job was, but Offred recalls his supportive behaviour when she lost her job at the time of the Gileadean take-over and her resentment against him for being a man (Chapter 28). Luke figures insistently in Offred's recurring nightmare of their failed escape attempt, not only in that final image of him lying shot face down in the snow, but also in her recollections of his careful preparations and his coolly courageous attempt to take his family to freedom over the Canadian border. His afterlife in the novel is very much the result of Offred's anxieties about what might have happened to him. Is he dead, or in prison? Did he escape? Will he send her a message and help her to escape back into their old family life? ‘It's this message, which may never arrive, that keeps me alive. I believe in the message' (Chapter 18). It is also her hope of this message which keeps the image of Luke alive. The anxieties we may feel for his fate are projections of Offred's own.

Ap Us History American Colonies Essay

Hello and welcome to the exciting world that is Advanced Placement United States History. You are now a member of an elite group: students who dare to take on an exceptionally challenging course. The risks are great, but then so are the potential gains. We will take on this challenge together and when you are done, you will be justifiably proud of yourself. This course is a one-year class designed to allow the student a head start on college level work, improve writing skills, sharpen problem solving techniques, and develop study habits necessary for rigorous course work. This course is equivalent to a one semester introductory (freshman) level college U.S. history. This summer’s assignment comes as a result of the time constraints placed on us all in covering the immense content in APUSH over nine months. To allow for more an in depth study of the various periods of American History, it is necessary to cover the first 350 years of history during the summer, individually, with some exceptionally readable non-fiction histories. You will be tested over the material covered in American Colonies when you return to school in August. The assigned reading is: †¢ Taylor, Alan, † American Colonies: The Settling of North America†, Part I Encounters: CH 1-5 pp. 3-113, Part II Colonies: CH 6-12, pp. 117-272, and Part III Empires: CH 13 – 19 pp. 275 – 480. THE â€Å"AMERICAN COLONIES† BOOK SHOULD BE PICKED UP FROM MY CLASSROOM (#20) BY WEDNESDAY, MAY 19TH. THE COST OF THE BOOK WILL BE BILLED TO YOU. Read the book carefully. As you read, follow the instructions for the book analysis on pages 3-7 of this document. AMERICAN COLONIES: THE SETTLING OF NORTH AMERICA Alan Taylor READING & NOTE-TAKING GUIDE As you read, you will take notes of crucial information to be described below. You are encouraged to highlight and/or underline key passages in the book and to annotate the text for your future reference. The first unit  that we will investigate in the fall semester is about the American Colonies. This corresponds to Chapters 1 – 6 in the textbook, Out of Many. You will find this book, American Colonies, by Alan Taylor, a helpful supplement to the textbook. And, as you study the textbook in the fall semester, you will identify some conflicting ideas regarding the historical significance of some events. This can serve as food for, and illustrations of, the thought processes that will help you to be successful in your study of this course. As you read Part II, identify and take notes about the following information for each colony and colonial group: †¢ The name of the colony †¢ The founding country †¢ The date on which it was founded †¢ The name(s) of the founder(s) †¢ Why it was founded †¢ The type of colony it was (royal, proprietary, etc.) †¢ Difficulties after founding: both in the short- and long-term. This includes conflicts within the colony as well as outside of the colony. †¢ Any changes in type (self-rule to royal, etc.) Also, as you read, write down any words that you do not know and, periodically, look up their definitions or meanings in a dictionary. A successful AP US History student will always have a good collegiate dictionary at his/her disposal. During thesecond week of school you will be tested on this material. Focus Questions: As you read, consider the following focus questions to help guide your reading. In thinking about colonial development, consider the political, economic, and social structure of each colonial region. Further, consider the factors that influenced the relations with the Native Americans in each colonial region. 1. How did religion shape the development of the New England colonies? 2. What role did geography and tobacco play in the development of the Chesapeake? 3. Analyze and compare and contrast family life in New England. Pay attention to the role of women. 4. Why did the first major slave rebellion, the Stono Rebellion, take place in the Carolinas? 5. How did the fur trade and religion shape the development of New France? 6. In what ways did conquest, religion, and geography interact in the Spanish colonies of the American Southwest? Directions: Students are to read carefully both books. Each chapter will have a set of questions/list of topics for which short answer responses will be asked to probe for understanding. Since this assignment is done on MICROSOFT WORD, the student need only to load the file on the computer and then bring it up on the computer screen where they can provide answers based upon what is asked for in the question. The goal is not to fish for a specific answer(s), but to ask the student probing questions for a critical understanding of what the questions are asking. Short analytical quotes are permissible; however, we do not want the student to copy the material directly from the book. It should be written in the student’s own voice as a summary of understanding. Chapter 1: Natives: 1. Pre-Columbian America is â€Å"fraught with controversy.† What were these conflicts? Some writers depict Pre-Columbian Americans as ecological and social saints that lived in harmony with each other and nature. However due to the mythology of European colonizers, some writers believe that the Indians were warlike savages with a primitive culture. 2. What are Taylor’s three ideas which he argues about migration? North and South America were the last continents occupied by people. Siberia to Alaska offered the readiest passage from the Old World to the New World. The period from 15,000 and 12,000 years ago was an ideal time from crossing into North America. 3. In the New World, Old world explorers encountered complex and diverse peoples. Who were these New World people? Where were they? What was left of the Hohokam was encountered by Spanish explores in the sixteenth century. These Natives lived in the hills and along the rivers in what is now southern Arizona. 4. How did some natives’ culture demand less of the environment than that of other natives? Some Natives stayed in one area which depleted the soil and wild game. Other Natives moved from place to place following their food supply. Chapter 2: Colonizers: 1. Why does Taylor makes a big issue over environmentalism? The environment worked to the European’s benefit because it gave them a whole new supply of natural resources. However, the environmental revolution worked against the native peoples and caused their population to decrease. 2. What caused the expansion of Europe—and why? The expansion of Europe was caused by the population explosion in the seventeenth and eighteenth century that was made possible by imported food plants developed by the Indians. The increase in population traveled to settle the Americas. 3. What were the two major religions of the age of expansion? How do they come to impact the new world? The two major religions were European Christianity and those of the Muslim faith. The competition between the Muslims and the Christians was about trade to Asia. By trying to find and alternate route to Asia, the Christians explored the Atlantic which ultimately led them to the discovery of the New World. 4. Why is the Atlantic Ocean such a central vital environmental concern for the colonizers? The Atlantic Ocean was much stormier and harder to navigate than the shallow seas that the Europeans were accustomed to. 5. Once across the Ocean, what were contributions of the colonizers to the New England area? The colonizers cleared the land for planting and grazing, but the biggest impact was the epidemics they brought to the native peoples that caused them to die in great numbers. 6. What does Taylor say about slavery in the new world? The colonists enslaved the people to work on sugar plantations, and the colonists justified their actions by saying that slavery would ultimately save the Indians’ souls from hell. 7. How significant was Renaissance science and technology for the colonizers? The discoveries of the New World launched new interest in science and technology which the colonists later benefitted from. Chapter 3: New Spain. Using short paragraphs, summarize Taylor’s assessment of the following: 1. Conquests: In the sixteenth century, the Spanish colonized parts of the North and South America and the Caribbean. Due to their fear of the Spanish Empire, the French, Portuguese, English, and the Dutch attempted to take some of the colonized land from the Spanish. The Spanish also raided Central America where they took slaves who told them about the riches of the Aztec Empire. The greatest advantage that the Spanish had in their conquests was the various diseases that they unintentionally passed on to the Indians. 2. Conquistadores: Conquistador expeditions were private and led by independent military contractors for profit. They usually had a license from the crown which gave the country a portion of any treasure claimed by the conquistador. The overriding trait for a conquistador was greed. Also,  conquistadores believed that anything they did was acceptable because they forced pagans to accept Christianity and Spanish rule. 3. Consolidation: The Spanish crown feared the conquistadores had too much power to rule New Spain. The crown also thought that they killed or enslaved too many Indians who might have become Christians and tax paying subjects. Eventually, many leading conquistadores died fighting each other or were forced into retirement by the crown. 4. Colonists: During the sixteenth century, about 250,000 Spanish immigrated to the Americas. People from all social classes went, but the middle classes skilled artisans dominated. Women rarely emigrated which resulted in the men taking wives among the Indians. This mixing resulted in a castas social system. 5. Empire: The center of the Spanish Empire consisted of Mexico and Peru. The American Empire was divided into two large administrative regions called viceroyalties. They were governed by a viceroy that was appointed by the king. The viceroyalty of New Spain was made of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean islands. Peru included all of South America except Portuguese Brazil. 6. Gold & Silver: Mexico and Peru produced a large amount of gold and silver. Between 1500 and 1650, the Spanish shipped about 181 tons of gold and 16,000 tons of silver from America to Europe. While this seemed like a good idea at first, it actually led to economic inflation. This eventually led to the decline of the Spanish military and economy during the seventeenth century. Chapter 4: â€Å"The Spanish Frontier†: 1. How and why does Florida became the focus of Spain? Florida becomes the focus of Spain because so many Spanish ships hauling royal revenue were attacked off of Florida’s coast. To combat this, the Spanish crown established a fortified colony along the Atlantic coast of Florida. 2. Spain reaches west to New Mexico—use of the Adelanto system. Who was Onate? He was the viceroy who was given the job of founding the colony of New Mexico. He founded New Mexico among the Pueblo people who he greatly exploited and eventually massacred, maimed, and enslaved. He was eventually found guilty of adultery and abusing Indians and colonists. 3. What significance can be attached to New Mexico Missions? Franciscans. By 1628, the friars had fifty missions in the Rio Grande Valley. These churches had thousands of converts. 4. What was the Pueblo Revolt, how did it begin and what happen to cause the fanaticism? After years of on and off conflict with the governors and the Franciscans, the Pueblo vented their rage by destroying missions, farms, and ranches. The Pueblos in the uprising made a special point to desecrate churches and mutilate the corpses of priests. Chapter 5: Canada & Iroquoia [a shift in geography, a new culture, and very different group of Native Americans] 1. What were the two major Native American cultural groups? How were they distinct? Algonquian and Iroquian. These two groups of Indians were distinct because of their cultures and languages. 2. The key for economic development was the fur trade of New France. Why was that so? Fur trading by the Europeans and Natives made them mutually dependent on each other. 3. How and why did trade develop? Discuss. The French traders developed alliances with the Northern Algonquians and later the Hurons of the Iroquian culture. 4. How did the fur trade operate in its widest applications Fur trading with the Indians began when the Indians exchanged furs with the colonists fishing at Newfoundland. The Indians desired shiny beads and copper, while the colonists highly valued furs. Due to overhunting in Europe, furs were scarce and very expensive. 5. Analyze and characterize The Five Nations. Who were they? The Five Nations Iroquois lived in large, fortified hilltop villages. The women farmed large fields that fed the young men so that they could go to war. They could travel long distances to launch raids against many enemies. 6. What impact did old world disease have upon new world natives? Between 1633 and 1635, smallpox and measles killed half of the Iroquois population. 7. How important was the formation and development of Dutch trade system & involvement? It led to a situation in which the Iroquois and the French needed each other as enemies in order to maintain the Dutch traders at Fort Orange. 8. In the new world the French brought the militant Jesuits to catholicize the new world. Did it work? It did not work. The Iroquois eventually killed or ran off all of the Jesuit priests and their converts. Chapter 6: Virginia: 1570-1650 1. How did English colonization differ from that of the Spanish and French? What was a later outcome of this difference? English colonization was different from the colonization of the Spanish and the French because the English colonized the mid-Atlantic seaboard. The French and Spanish believed that this area was too cool for tropical crops but too warm for the best furs. This colonization led the colonists to the discovery of the prime commodity of tobacco in 1616. Tobacco permitted an explosive growth in population, territory, and wealth. 2. How did Sir Walter Raleigh characterize the relationship between trade and power? Ralegh believed that whoever commanded trade was the lord of the world’s wealth. 3. What was the role of Roanoke? Roanoke was established because the island was buffered by dangerous shoals and long sandbanks. Because of the island’s location, the English believed that Roanoke promised obscurity from Spanish discovery and attack. 5. Who were the â€Å"sturdy beggars†? Sturdy beggars were English peasants who had been made homeless and unemployed by increased agricultural productivity and national wealth. This occurred because of a loss of common lands formally worked by the peasants. 6. Who was Powhatan? What is the character of the Native Americans in the area? Powhatan was the paramount chief of about 24,000 Indians that were divided into thirty tribes. These Indians were united by an Algonquian language. These Native Americans were distinct because of the mobile way of life and the way that they divided tasks along gender lines. 7. What was the importance of tobacco cultivation? Tobacco allowed the colonists to produce a commodity that consumers would pay high prices for in England. 7. What was the â€Å"headright† system? If a man could pay his way over on a ship to Virginia, he would be given fifty acres of land and another fifty acres for every servant or relative whose way he also paid on the ship. Chapter 7: Chesapeake Colonies: 1650-1750 1. Who were the leaders of the Chesapeake colonies? Hard-driving merchants and planters of the middle class claimed the highest offices in the Chesapeake colonies. 2. Who were the workers in the Chesapeake colonies prior to 1676? The workers in the colonies were indentured servants who were now planters  and their families. The successful planters consolidated to form large plantations which forced newly freed servants to become tenant farmers or move to the frontier. 3. What were the frustrations of freedmen, and to where did they move? The freedmen either had to become tenant farmers, or they had to move to the frontier where they later had problems with Indians. 4. Characterize Governor Berkeley. He spoke against Virginia’s economic addiction to tobacco. He felt that the people under his rule were so desperately poor that they might decide to team up with the Indians to raid the colony to better themselves. Berkeley was well liked by the wealthiest colonists, and he gave the wealthy well paying public offices as well as other perks. 5. What was his policy toward Indians? Berkeley opposed killing off the Indians because it would end the profitable deer skin trade that he and his friends enjoyed. 6. Describe the rebellion led by Nathanial Bacon. Bacon led a group of elite planters who were upset with Berkeley and a rival group of planters who resented their lack of offices and other rewards. They gained support among the common planters and servants by promising to help them. They attacked the governor and his supporters and ran them out of Jamestown in September 1676. 7. How did the British Crown respond, and what happened to Governor Berkeley? The king said the Berkeley was â€Å"an old fool†, so he sent an army to restore order in Jamestown. Governor Berkeley and his supporters were run out of Jamestown in September 1676 by the attackers. 8. How did the Chesapeake planters respond to the declining supply of white laborers? Chesapeake planters turned to African slaves to replenish servants who had become too scarce and expensive to keep. 9. What, then, did the planters do in order to keep the slaves intimidated? How did they, then, treat the common white man? The planters formed a colonial militia made up of common white men to keep the slaves from rebelling. The planters no longer feared the common white man. 9. What colonies comprised the Chesapeake group? Virginia and Maryland. Chapter 8: New England: 1600-1700 1. Compare and contrast the settlers in New England with those in the Chesapeake colonies. Both colonies were generated due to the social and economic pressures within England. Unlike the Chesapeake colonists, the New England colonists were â€Å"middling sorts†. However, the Chesapeake colonists were poor and short-lived indentured servants. 2. What colonies comprised New England? New England was compromised of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. 3. What was the topography of New England? New England was very cold and rocky. There were also many seaports in the New England area. 4. Who were the principal early settlers in New England? The Puritans were the first people to settle in New England. They decided to leave the Church of England and have their own way of worshipping because they did not like the monarch’s religious aspects. They also came to share and preach the gospel to those who were lost. 5. Contrast labor and land ownership in New England with that in the Chesapeake colonies. The New England colonies granted land to mean who banded together to found a town, but the Chesapeake colonies’ leaders allocated land directly to wealthy individuals. In New England, the town was a local government which was fundamental to its politics. However, the Chesapeake colonies relied of the larger county. 6. Characterize the Puritans. What was their motivation in coming to the New World? What were the principal tenets of their religion? Faith and economics aspired the Puritans to come to the New World. The Puritans were angry with their Anglican rulers, and they thought that in New England they could purify their churches, supervise one another, and enact a code of laws derived from the Bible. The Puritans also believed that New England would allow them to have a fresh economic start. 7. Describe the Great Migration. John Winthrop was the promoter of the Great Migration. It was the most significant emigration of Puritans to the New England area. The colonists in the New England territory fared much better than the Virginia colonists. 8. How did the Puritans reconcile their religion with the profit motive? The Puritans first tried to make some money. To help in keeping the people calm, the Puritans started supervising one another, purifying their churches, and making many laws. They maintained peace and order throughout their towns. 9. Why were the Puritans concerned with a: Theocracy? Education? Morality? Where they as bad as contemporary writers have alleged? The Puritans wanted a theocracy because it was the study of God and religion. They wanted to spread the word of God throughout the entire world and having a theocracy would help them in that goal. Because the Puritans always wanted growth in their towns, they always sent their children to school to learn about their colony. 9. What were the principal trades in New England? (How did the people make their money?) New England used the fishing industries as their principal trade because their soil made it hard to grow crops. The Puritans learned to  tolerate the fishermen because they made large sums of money, even though they had no morals. Timber was also a good business for the Puritans. 9. What was the economic relationship between New England and the West Indies? The New England colonists took their timber and fish to the West Indies. They would in return get molasses, tobacco, and rum for their colony. They would sometimes also get servants to work on small plantations. 11. Characterize the Bible Commonwealth. The Bible Commonwealth believed that if they did good deeds for others that in return they would receive salvation and save others. They were against worshipping idols, breaking the Sabbath, practicing magic, and blaspheming. They also believed that they were the only people that were right. 12. What was the influence of Harvard University graduates on the Puritan hierarchy? The graduates were usually very important men that influenced their society in a positive manner. These men were also ministers of England. 13. Characterize Rhode Island. How did it influence Massachusetts and Connecticut? Rhode Island did not judge people by their looks or their background. They kept their state ideas and problems completely away from their church ideas and problems. Connecticut and Massachusetts did not look highly upon Rhode Island, but they were thankful for them when M&C had problematic people. 14. Why did New England ultimately fail as a â€Å"City upon a Hill?† New England ultimately failed because the English showed no interest in their colonies. To most people in England, the Puritan experiment seemed at best strange. New England also appeared irrelevant after the triumphant restoration of the monarchy in 1660. 15. Why was there such a flap over the Witchcraft Issue? Where did it  occur? People were frequently accused of witchcraft because most people did not feel safe with strange events that occurred around them. They believed that the strange things that happened had a supernatural meaning. Witchcraft took place in almost the entire New England area, but it mainly happened in Salem, Massachusetts and Virginia. Chapter 9: Puritans and Indians 1. List several concerns Taylor discusses in this chapter about the culture and contributions of the Natives The Natives did not waste their land at all. They planted only what was necessary for them to get through the winter and summer months. While the men would be out hunting animals, the women would tend to the fields. Colonists soon took over and took the Natives’ land away. However, the Natives supplied the colonists with tools in order to make a high profit. 2. What was the issue of property? What was meant by tribute? Were the natives exploited? Why? The colonists did not like that the Natives were wasting their land. The colonists made the Natives mad by clearing out the forests which made all of their game leave. Tribute was opportunities with trade between the Indians and the colonists. Yes, because the colonists took advantage of the Natives and gave them less than what they deserved. 3. Discuss the Pequot War. What were the important elements, and what was the result? The Pequot War was the first major battle between the Indians and the English. The Pequot War started in 1636. The war occurred because the colonists wanted more land, so they told the Indians to pay them in wampum. The colonists also wanted the Native children held as hostages. Only five natives were able to survive the war because the colonists set fire to the village. 4. Discuss King Philip’s War. What were the important elements, and what was the result? What type of war did it eventually become? King Philip’s War began because the colonists hung three Natives because they had allegedly killed a praying town Indian. A civil war soon broke out with Indians due to this. Since the Indian rebels ran out of food, they either had to join to other Indians or were killed. 5. What was the deal about â€Å"praying towns?† What did it purport to do? The purpose of praying towns was to do missionary work in a safer environment. Praying towns also kept the Indians under close supervision and pressured them to change religions. The main components of Praying towns were weak and small bands of Indians. The Indians had to give up their culture to become English. 6. What ultimate end came as victory, and yet, end in defeat? The Indians destroyed the colonist’s fields and towns. They made French raids throughout the years which caused much havoc for the English. As a result, the English came back taking all their towns and bringing new people with them. Chapter 10: The West Indies 1. What is Taylor’s motivation to have us explore the West Indies in this chapter? In order for colonists to be rich, every colony had to have a good export crop to support them. The leading export crop in the West Indies was sugar. Because of the price of sugar, many men became rich off of it. Slaves were often used in sugar plantations. 2. What significance doe Taylor attach to Barbados? Discuss. The unusual thing about Barbados is that there were pigs all over the island. They estimated that thousands of wild pigs roamed around the entire island. The pigs also supported the early colonists until they destroyed their herds by wasting them. 3. What is revealing to the reader from the map of the West Indies? Today, the West Indies are still predominately English speaking countries. However, many islands were discovered by the English Empire because they controlled trade. 4. Discuss the major demand for the use of slavery, from whence did it come and who benefited? Slaves were mainly used to work in the sugar plantations. A large number of workers were needed to cultivate all of the crops. Eventually convicts and criminals were sent to work as slaves on the plantations. This was the period that African American slaves began to come to the Americas. The English tradesmen benefited from slavery. 5. Taylor boldly declares that sugar was a rich man’s crop. Why? What demand did it have outside the western hemisphere? Why the need for commercialization and hence colonization? Although there was a big profit from sugar, it cost a lot of money to grow. Many rich men started sugar plantations because they required expensive machinery, technical knowledge, precise timing, and strenuous labor. Many colonists came to the West Indies to make a profit off of sugar because the English used it to sweeten their tea. 6. Discuss the planter aristocracy. Analyze the social strata for the West Indies population. The planters aristocracy was an elite group of gentlemen that made a large amount of money off of the plantations in the West Indies. Corporations that could not make it alone were often bought out by the aristocracy, who gave them more land. The social hierocracy was divided into three parts: the planter elite, the middle class planters, and the slaves. 7. Finally, what does Taylor have to say about the importance of Jamaica? What is his central argument? The Jamaicans welcomed the people that left Barbados. The new colonists eventually produced more sugar than ever before on the island of Barbados. Jamaica also held many refugee camps for maroons who in turn helped catch runaway slaves. Chapter 11: Carolina: 1670-1760 1. Who were the initial settlers of Carolina? The initial settlers of Carolina were a group of West Indies planters. They named Carolina after King Charles II, and they formed the colony during the 1670s. The colony was later governed by eight proprietors. 2. What was the purpose for the settlement of Carolina? The purpose of the settlement of Carolina was to become a big plantation settlement. It offered many possibilities for the farmers because the land in the Carolina was very fertile. 3. Characterize the topography of Carolina. Carolina had many coastal plains that had good fertile soil. It also had rivers that provided irrigation for the crops. The swamps in the Carolina area also helped the colonists in various ways. 4. Characterize the climate of Carolina. The summers in Carolina were very long and were hot and humid. Unlike the summers, the winters were short and cold. Because the Englishmen could not stand the hot summers, they usually went away for the humid summers. 5. What was the concern about interaction between the Indians and the slaves? The colonists were worried that the slaves and Indians would join together and team up against the colonists. The colonists knew that they would be defeated because their numbers could not compare to that of the slaves and Indians. 6. How did the leadership of Carolina go about keeping the Indians and the slaves separate? If the Indians caught a runaway slave, they were promised to be given a large amount of goods by the colonists. Therefore, the Indians were constantly looking for runaway slaves to get guns, ammunition, and clothes. 7. Where was rice grown in Carolina? Rice was planted in the wet lowlands of Carolina. The colonists attempted to plant the rice in a climate that was identical to west Africa. 8. Who taught the planters how to grow rice? The slaves from west Africa taught the colonists how to grow rice. 9. How much rice was grown in the first half of the 1700s? What was the effect of this rice on the economy? During the first half of the 1700s, there was forty-five million pounds of rice grown. Rice became the second largest exported plant in Europe . 9. What was a second valuable plantation crop? The second most valuable crop was indigo. Indigo was used as blue dye in the clothing factories in England. 10. How much did this crop increase in growth between 1750 and 1760? The crop increased approximately 437,000 pounds between 1750 and 1760. 11. What was the effect of working conditions and climate on slave mortality? Many slaves were worked to death. The mortality rate increased in Carolina because the climate was much hotter than that of the West Indies. 13. What else did the imported Africans introduce to Carolina? Who was affected by this disease? The Africans brought many diseases to Carolina that the Indians had never been exposed to. Malaria was by far the worst disease that was introduced to the Indians. Carolina planters were the main people that were affected by the diseases, but the Indians were also greatly affected. 14. What was the growing fear of the planters? Since the black slaves outnumbered the white planters, they were afraid that their slaves would team up against them and make a rebellion against the whole planter elite. 15. What actions did the planters take in response to this fear? Due to this fear, the planters kept the slaves as busy as possible. The planters also adopted the West Indies slave system, so the slaves were constantly watched and had cruel punishments. 16. What became a reality near Charles Town on the Stono River, and when? A real slave rebellion began on September 9, 1739. Seven plantations were burned, and their owners were killed. 17. Who were the founders of Georgia? British imperialists and Carolina officials. 18. What role does Oglethorpe play? He led the first group of colonists to Savannah, Georgia, and he was also the leader of the Georgia Trustees who was a group of social reformers interested in Georgia. He could have been known as the leader of Georgia. 19. How was the colony financed, and what was the significance of that? The colony was primarily funded by the crown and parliament. However, charitable donations were also made by various people. Georgia was the first colony funded by British taxpayers. 20. Compare and contrast land ownership in Georgia with the other Southern colonies, especially for the purpose of increasing the number of whites willing to work and capable of bearing guns. Georgia did not accept slavery at first and rejected using black men as slaves. However, the white ethnicity was still dominated. 21. Why does Taylor have a section in which he discusses the gun trade? Indians would listen and help the white settlers control their slaves, if the white men would trade them their guns. This made it easier on the settlers. 22. Who were the Raiders and what is revealed about these groups? The Raiders were Westo Indians who spoke the Iroquoian language. They originated from the Indians around Lake Erie. The Westo Indians eventually destroyed all of the Cusabo people. 23. What good reasons does Taylor have for discussing â€Å"terror† in the territory? Many white planters were scared that the slaves would rebel and kill all of them throughout all of the colonies. The European countries would be put in debt if all of the white planters were killed. Destruction was horrible when the slaves rebelled. 24. What were the main points of Georgia governing? The main governing power of Georgia was the Georgia Trustees. The crown and parliament also governed Georgia by funding every expense they had. 25. What characteristic did the low country of Georgia and South Carolina replicate? Georgia and Carolina replicated the West Indies plantation system. They also relied on slaves to work for them in their large agricultural businesses. 26. What is Taylor’s final conclusion about this area during this century? Georgia and Carolina provided many opportunities for the settlers, whether it was a settler that got a big piece of land or a small piece of land. Chapter 12: Middle Colonies: 1600 – 1700 1. What region did the English neglect during the early 17th Century? The English neglected the area between the New England colonies and the Chesapeake Bay colonies. 2. Describe the topography and climate of the mid-Atlantic region. Compare and contrast with New England and the Chesapeake. The land in the mid-Atlantic region was fertile, unlike the rock soil of New England. There were three major rivers that provided irrigation and fish. The Chesapeake colonies were also much more sickly than the mid-Atlantic regions. 3. Who took advantage of this neglect? The Swedes and the Dutch took advantage of the neglect, and this also led them to build small colonies in the Delaware and Hudson valleys. 4. How did England react to those who took advantage? At first, the English starting protesting, but later they could do nothing about it because they were very weak compared to the Dutch. The English became very jealous of the Dutch because the Dutch were becoming very wealthy. The English rose up in power and started trying to take back the middle colonies. 5. What was the progression of colonial types (royal, proprietary, etc.)? At first, they were propriety colonies because England had lacked dues when they were established. Once the crown grew back in wealth, they were able to turn back into royal colonies 6. Describe the event and result of the English naval squadron in 1664. The English wanted respect from the colonists, so they wanted to take the New Netherlands away from the Dutch. In the end the English were successful because the Dutch had to thin their population to save both the Delaware and Hudson valleys. 7. Characterize the Dutch Empire. The people from the Dutch Empire were very smart and tactful of doing things. Most of their profits came from the sugar industry unlike the other European nations. They always took care of what they had and took care of it precisely. 8. Make a list of Dutch ( New Netherland ) contributions to the area. The Dutch built New Amsterdam which became a large seaport for trading ships. They also founded the first colonies in the middle colonies. 9. Who did the Dutch welcome that were not welcome in most European realms? The Dutch welcomed the Jews into their realm. They also welcomed many different religions that weren’t looked upon from the European people. They were the most diverse in the religious outlooks. 10. What is the significance of the phenomenon of Dutch trading companies losing money? The Dutch trading companies losing money helped them get a bigger profit than before. It also helped establish the Dutch West Indies trading company. 11. What economic advantage did Dutch shippers enjoy? Who took advantage of this? The Dutch shippers received more profit then the English ships because the Dutch charged thirty-three percent less. The English took advantage of it. 12. Describe the Navigation Acts. What was the significance of these acts? The Navigation Acts were documents that stated only English exports could sell English ships. They were also not allowed to trade or sell with any European countries. The acts began because the Dutch was charging less, so they all sold stuff to them which made the Dutch Empire more rich than the English. 13. Highlight the events between the English and New Netherlands in 1664 and 1667. English people sent war ships to conquer the New Netherlands because the Dutch were getting too powerful. After the Dutch surrendered, the English gave the garrison to Virginia. A peace treaty was then made in 1667 where the Dutch gave the New Netherlands to the English. 14. What resulted from these events with regard to the Indian nations? The English traded with the Mohawk and Iroquoian Indians, instead of the Dutch. They also increased the prices of their goods in order to make the Indians pay more. When other Indians started to attach the Mohawk and Iroquoian Indians, the English refused to help. 15. What action did the Duke of York take in 1664? What resulted from this action? The Duke of York gave the lands between the Delaware and Hudson valleys to two men. Then they sold it to two other men which were English and Scottish Quakers. The colony of New Jersey was then split in half. The Scottish Quakers ruled the east part of Jersey, while the English Quakers ruled the west part. 16. What situation was New Jersey left in? The crown reunited New Jersey in 1702 because it was not doing well. New Jersey was also not nearly as powerful economically and agriculturally as its two powerful neighboring colonies. This left New Jersey in the shadows of their great strength and achievements. 17. Who founded Pennsylvania , and why? William Penn founded Pennsylvania because he had always wanted a large colony of his own. 18. Explain the factional divide that set the older, non-Quaker settlements against the more numerous and mostly Quaker newcomers. The Non-Quakers thought the Quakers ere not a real religion and they had no right to be known as a religion. The Quakers also did not support slavery. 19. What action did Penn take when he was unable to reconcile these two regions? Penn thought that it would be best to make the Quakers a real religion by the King of England. The king made the Quakers a true religion and the non-Quakers started accepting them better. 20. What is the status of religion in the Middle Colonies? What is the status of religious dissenters? The religion in the Middle Colonies was very diverse. They also accepted every type of religion, and they did not persecute anyone who thought differently. As you read Part III, identify and take notes about the following specific details: Chapter 13: Revolutions: 1685-1730 1. Who succeeded King Charles I? Characterize his dealings with the American colonies. King James II, often known as the Duke of York, succeeded King Charles I. he often called the American colonies, â€Å"cash cows.† King James II only worried about the money the people made and not the people themselves. He thought the people should do as he said and respect the crown. 2. What action did Massachusetts take in 1678? Massachusetts stated that they thought the English laws did not reach the American colonies. The king did not like this, so he revoked their charter. He also made up all the governors in the surrounding colonies in order to have complete control. 3. Who was the governor-general? Explain what he did. The governor-general was Sir Edmund Andros. He levied taxes which made the mother country receive more money than the needy colonies. He replaced puritan officers with Anglican officers and he also made sure the Puritan clergy did not receive a salary from the crown. 4. What significant claim did the Reverend John Wise make in 1678? What was the importance of this claim? What response did Andros make to this claim? Reverend John Wise rallied a group of people to oppose the new taxes enforced by Andros. He stated since they had the same rights as Englishmen then they could not have levied taxes against them. Andros’ response was they had left English rights behind when they crossed the Atlantic Ocean. 5. What action did the Dominion take to enforce the Navigation Acts? Why was this a particular hardship on the colonists? The Dominion established a vice-admiralty court that condemned at least six merchant ships. This made some of their money useless because they could only trade with Englishmen. 6. By what name were the supporters of William, the Dutch Prince of Orange known? What did they call for? The supporters were known as Whigs. The Whigs wanted a Glorious Revolution, which meant a united group of English people had to come together. Later, the Glorious Revolution happened. Chapter 14: The Atlantic : 1700 – 1780 1. What effect did the Navigation Acts have on the Chesapeake and the West Indies ? The Navigation Act ordered that the Chesapeake and West Indies export their sugar to England. They were given bills of exchange that allowed them not to have any debt, since they exported more than they imported. 2. What effect did a growing economy have on free colonists? The free colonists were taxed less than the English and obtained a better income than those in England. They were also allowed to have a higher standard of living that their counterparts in Europe. 3. Explain the effect that a larger disposable income had on free colonists. They were able to but farms and raise livestock to support themselves. It also enabled them to build houses at a cheaper price. Since they made a little bit of extra money, they were able to live a healthier life style. 4. How many slaves did the British colonies import during the 18th Century? One and a half million slaves were imported during the eighteenth century. 5. What was the mortality rate among new slaves in the Chesapeake colonies during the early 18th Century? Since the Chesapeake colonies were fed much better and healthier than those in the West Indies, they survived longer. 6. How did the number of African-born slaves compare to the number of American-born by the mid-18th Century? The African born were still overpowering the numbers of the American born. Chapter 15: Awakenings: 1700 – 1775 1. Identify 10 facts about religion and religious establishments in the colonies 1700 – 1775. The colonist were required to attend and pay a tax to an established church in the colonies. Congregationalist sustained an especially impressive establishment in New England, except for Rhode Island, the Congregationalist had the largest denomination. Also, the New English owns enforced a Sabbath that restricted activity to the home and church, if you got caught working, playing or traveling, you got fined. 2. Describe the results of denominational reconciliation between the late 1740s and 1772. When they attracted more listeners and training ministers, they got together to celebrate their victory. They also did not care about the religious radical, so they got together. 3. Who was George Whitfield? What is his contributions? George Whitfield, a young Anglican minister, helped develop an evangelical style of preaching at differences with the church of England. He also became the first celebrity seen and heard by many colonists. He traveled and told many people about God. He helped the printing press get revolutionized by getting his stories printed. 4. Discuss Old Lights vs. New Lights—who was what? The New Lights were those people who believed in the divine grace and the Old Light were those who were against the evangelical style of preaching. The Old Lights believes in structural spiritual preaching with completely no emotions, while the New Lights believed in Whitefield’s preaching methods. Chapters 16 – 19 using the following topics Taylor discusses, outline why they are historically significant and what impact they had on colonial development. Chapter 16—French in America [1650-1750] 1. Emigrants Started going to Canada, the fur trading company district for the French. In 1673, the government wanted to save money, so they stopped which caused emigrants to stop coming. The emigrants helped develop many new towns that enriched France. 2. Geography The winters in French America were extremely long and cold. The river they had was the ST. Lawrence, which was frozen a lot of the time, so voyages were much longer. The emigrants were usually very few because of these harsh conditions. 3. Opportunity When the French lived in France, they were poor, but if they stayed in Canada, they had a higher standard of living. They would hunt game for food. The wives were treated mush better in Canada than in England. The women were able to own land or even live as nuns in convents. 4. Authority Louis XIV ruled over everyone at his house without and parliament rulers. He appointed three rival officials, a governor, a general, a civil administrator and a Catholic bishop. Although they sometimes fought, they always performed a decent job of keeping the French colonies orderly. 5. The Upper Country The Upper Country was a land full of forests and lakes. They also das a middle ground solutions that states that neither Indians nor colonists could dominate each other. They set up small refugee camps, so when the Indians were in trouble they could find a place of refuge 6. Louisiana Sieur de La Salle established Louisiana for King Louis XIV. They traded guns, ammunition and furs with the Indians. He geography of Louisiana was a very wet, swampy area with very hot summers. Colonists who lived there cared more about their slaves because they cost more than the soldiers. 7. Rebels and Allies Louisiana was split into two distinctive settlements. The first was a small plantation with settlers. The second was an immense hinterland dominated by Indians. The Natchez people decided to kill many of the settlers because they went into their territory. 8. Dependence The crown pulled upper country posts because they were so tired of losing money. The Indians depended on the French for trade, so the French got stuck with them. The French sold goods for less than the English, so they did not help the English Empire. Chapter 17—The Great Plains [1680-1800] 1. Villagers and Nomads The Villagers lived along the rivers of the southern plains. One group of villagers spoke Siouan which consisted of the Mandan, Hidatsa, Omaha and Ponca. The others were Caddoan speakers. The villagers would walk far out into the plain twice a year to hunt buffalo. The Nomads also hunted buffalo, but when they ran out they would kill their dogs and eat them. 2. The Bread Basket of the World The Bread Basket of the World was when the Villagers and Nomads would plant different foods. They would sometimes plant rice, wheat, potatoes, manioc or maire to feed themselves. They would plant a lot at one time and save it for the winter months. 3. Genizaros Genizaros were captives that worked for New Mexicans or were sent to work in the silver mines. Whenever they were taken captive, they were usually children and usually never returned home. The children worked on ranches and often suffered sexual exploitation. After 1740, the free Genizaros got together and formed small communities. Later, they obtained land and served New Mexico as border guards. 4. Horses and guns Horses first evolved in North America before spreading eastward. They became extinct in North America for some time, but they then returned to North America as domesticated animals kept by Hispanic colonists. As the Great Plains people obtained horses, they also obtained firearms. The primary reason they wanted guns were to defend their villages and raid their enemies. However, they still used bows for hunting their buffalo. 5. Texas The French traders traveled the Great Plains during the eighteenth century to seek people to trade items with. The Wichita Pawnee villagers got better firearms than the mission Indians and raided the Apache and Pueblo for captives to sell. In 1716, the Spanish built new missions in east Texas, where the Caddo people lived. 6. Comanche and Apache The Comanche were the big winners, but the Apache were aggressively catching up to the Comanche. The Comanche soon acquired horses as they moved southeast onto the southern plains. The Comanche would often raid the Apache for horses, women, children and buffalo territory. 7. Bourbon Reforms New Mexico was saved by Spanish officials during the 1770s and 1780s. The reform was very slow at first, but it progressed very quickly under the leadership of Teodoro de Croix, military commander of the northern frontier, Bernardo de Galvez, viceroy of New Spain and Juan Bautista de Anza, governor of New Mexico. 8. The Northern Plains The Northern Plains completion was between the British and French traders. It cost the British much less to get across the Northern Plains than it did the French. London merchants set up fortified trading posts on the bay’s western shore. The traders were more of a help than a threat to the colonists. Chapter 18—Imperial Wars and Crisis [1739-1775]: 1. Renewed War The British began to realize the increasing wealth and power of France. The French Empire began to grow in the West Indies because of their sugar plantations. Instead of directly attacking the French, the British attacked France’s ally, the Spanish. The British attacked Spanish shipping, ports, and islands around the Caribbean in hopes of restoring British predominance. 2. Balance of Power Both English and French imperialists recognized in North America that the Indians determined the balance of military power. Because the Indians dominated the forests between the two empires, they could obstruct the advance of their colonial enemy and destroy settlements. The Indians held the ultimate power position between the French and British. 3. Seven Years War Peace did not last long in the New World. In Nova Scotia, the British built a navy base at Halifax in 1749 to counter nearby Louisburg. Alarmed, the French built two new forts at the Bay of Fundy, which the British resented as an intrusion on their colony. The Seven Years War formed because of the French and British overacting to local aggressions. 4. Indian Rebellions The collapse of New France began a series of problems for the Indians. They could no longer play the French and the British off against one another to maintain their own independence, maximize their presents, and ensure trade competition. Most colonial traders cheated and abused Indians in pursuit of immediate profit, which ultimately led to many rebellions. 5. Imperial Crisis The Imperial Crisis was primarily about the colonists not wishing to pay taxes levied by a parliament in England in which they were not represented. This happened even though they were already taxed far less than Britain that lived in England. The tax demands of the British also happened at the same time the economy of the colonists was in a postwar depression. 6. Empire of liberty At first, the colonists wanted to remain a part of the Empire of Great Britain because they had such a good deal. Only after Great Britain began to insist on new taxes did they consider independence. The colonists did not want a war, and they thought that Great Britain would back down. After winning independence, the new Americans spread across the continent to the west as their military pushed the Indians and the Hispanics out of the way. Chapter 19—The Pacific [1760- 1820] 1. Russians The Russians came eastward across Siberia because of hunting. They traded in western Europe and eventually China in exchange for porcelain, tea, and silk. The Russian traders, known as promyshlenniki, were well armed and came in large number to intimidate the Siberian native people. The Russians also exposed the Siberians to diseases and alcohol which caused their population to be devastated. 2. Transcontinentalism The Russians continued this system of terror and forcing natives to produce skins in the Aleutians and Alaska. They wanted to set up something like the Hudson’s Bay Company in Canada, but they were not able to do so. 3. Alta California By the 1760s, the Spanish learned about the Russians being in the Aleutians Islands and were worried that they would go further south and west. They were also worried that the British would cross the Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, they ordered the colonization of California. 4. Crossings The Spanish failed to colonize the Alta California area to much extent because they lacked horticulture, precious metals, and adobe towns that the Spanish considered necessary for conquests and missions. The mountainous coast also provided few well-sheltered harbors for shipping. 5. Missions The Spanish thought that the California Indian cultures were stupid and insensible. They thought of the Indians as children who needed to be rescued, baptized, and converted to Catholicism. 6. Islands The Pacific Islands were not explored by the Spanish until the early sixteenth century when Magellan discovered a western route into the Pacific through the strait named for him. After this, the Spanish established a colony at Manila in the Philippines. 7. Nootka During 1778, Captain Cook sailed along the northwest coast of North America while going between Hawaii and Vancouver Island. During this time, Cook spent a month at an inlet on Vancouver Island’s west coast. This was mistakenly called Nootka by Cook. The Natives actually named this place Yuquot. This place and people were referred to as Nootka from that time on. 8. Kamehameha During the 1780s and the 1790s, Chief Kamehameha became the dominant chief of the Hawaiian islands. He defeated the chiefs of the other islands and unified Hawaii under one ruler. 9. Conclusions: What are they The Spanish lost out in North America because they were more interested in Catholic converts than establishing economic strongholds. The dominant power on the Pacific Rim became the United States. The United States also dominated from the Atlantic west to California, bought Alaska from the Russian, and absorbed Hawaii in 1898. Grading of the written assignments 1. The responses to the questions will be graded on: clarity, comprehension and understanding of the material. Each answer to the questions must be in your own words. DO NOT COPY WORD FOR WORD FROM THE READINGS!!! . 2. This assignment is worth 100 points So, there it is: Your summer assignment for AP United States History. Due Date and Submission Requirements: This assignment is due on Monday, August 8, 2011. (Of course you may submit it earlier, which I strongly suggest. Don’t wait until the last minute!!!) You MUST submit this summer assignment to Mr. Porter via email. Make sure you send the assignment as an attachment. SAVE A COPY OF YOUR EMAIL IN YOUR EMAIL SENT ITEMS FOLDER. The attachment must be in â€Å"Microsoft Word† or â€Å"PDF† format in order for me to read your work. SAVE A COPY OF THIS ASSIGNMENT ON YOUR COMPUTER!!!!! You may submit this assignment to one of two email addresses: 1. mimlog@hotmail.com (preferred) 2. tjrules1743@hotmail.com (only if first address does not work) I will reply to your email informing you it was received. If you do not hear from me within 24 hours, email me again to ensure I received your assignment. Make sure your name is stated on the email. If for some reason you are unable to email this assignment, then you may bring it to school by August 9th and a member of the office staff will put it in my mailbox (only as a last resort). Any work received without your name on it will NOT be graded and will receive in a grade of zero!!!!!! If you have any questions regarding this assignment, please email me and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. (DON’T WAIT UNTIL AUGUST 8th!!!). I will be out of town from 6/19-6/22 and 7/07-7/18, so plan accordingly if you have any questions. FAILURE TO SUBMIT THIS ASSIGNMENT BY THE DUE DATE WILL RESULT IN A ZERO GRADE (not a good way to start off the year!) Looking forward to seeing all of you on Friday August 12th !!!!!!!! Mr. Porter

Strategic Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 3

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Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 6

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Effects of Technology in Administrative Office Systems - Essay Example ed turnaround such as Smartphone, the Internet and tablet PCs has shown signs of certain disadvantages that may have long-lasting effects if not addressed timely. Since connectivity to the internet is not an issue anymore it is possible to access both personal and office related work via the internet just about any time during the day. All one needs to do is to log into the internet and begin to access your work while even sitting at your home. " Typically, the concern about our dependence on technology is that it detracts from our time with family and friends in the real world. ... It may be that the immediacy of the Internet, the efficiency of the iPhone and the anonymity of the chat room change the core of who we are." (Pope, 2010) Administrative Offices have many managerial tasks at hand. It is imperative that their details be discussed in order to narrate the changes that would be bought with the fusion of technology in them. For a conventional office system administrative tasks may merely be as simple as the maintenance of records of the employees working for an organization and the maintenance and generation of their payroll, regularly, on a monthly basis to the strategic tasks as those involving major business decision making. Managing of administrative knowledge, in a knowledgeable manner is the key to betterment in the implementation of these processes. Shannak researched the effect of managing knowledge upon administrative decision making and quotes the following as part of his research, "Knowledge Management is a technique that seeks to improve the performance of individuals and organizations by making use of the present and future value of knowledge assets. It is presumed that the performance will be improved by providing the right knowledge to the right people at the right time." (Shannak, 2010) The introduction of technology has revolutionized the nature of administrative office tasks. The transition from manually entered official data in a

Co-Evolution of Innovation Policy and Industrial Structure in Sweden Term Paper

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