us hist. essay

A detailed Summary of us hist. essay

In modern times democracy is constantly seen through the world, from The United States of America to Australia and others. The definition of democracy is government by popular representation. This means by the people for the people. In the colonial times though democracy was unknown to the rest of the world but it prevailed in the colonies. Democracy is seen the strongest economically, socially, and politically.

Economically the systems of business and opportunities within the colonies extended a chance for one to succeed. The purest form of success economically would have to be with the indentured servants. Indentured servants would serve a labor debt for five to seven years. As a servant they would work the land or in the home of their master. Since the indentured servants were mostly white they would be treated better than the black slaves would. Servants were treated better than the slaves, though. An example of the servants being treated better wold be that if the servant had a child the child was not considered a servant. On the other hand though if the slaves had children the children would grow up to be slaves them self. When the five to seven years was up the servants were free to become landowners like their masters.

Within the colonies the opportunities to increase one's social status existed heavily. To increase one's social status means to upgrade to a higher class. Another word for to increase one's social status is social mobility. Social mobility is a key factor in a democratic society. And there is evidence of social mobility in the colonies. The first piece of evidence is that of the indentured servants. Indentured servants were the lowest class to have the ability to rise up and become wealthy; the way that the indentured servants would become wealthier was to first finish their labor debt to the landlord. Once the debt was finished the servant was free to use social mobility and become more like their former master. Another reason is public schooling. Public education was prevalent in the north colonies. Public education helped social mobility by educating the students and giving them the upper hand in all fields that makes them wealthy. A better example of the good qualities of public schooling was that the students would get a "gateway" of knowledge and having more knowledge would ease their way to the top. Public schooling was not as prevalent in the southern colonies because there were not very many towns and most children that would be taught would live on plantations. Because the plantations were so self-sufficient the south did not develop cities as well as the north did. Therefore the public school system would be much harder to develop because land was so far spread apart and transportation for the students would be impossible. The final example of social mobility would be that any

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Approximate Word count = 1077
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History