ASAP Name some of the characteristics of colonial life. Your response should be no less than 125 words. One of the striking characteristics of colonial life was the ease with which a person could better his position. Class distinctions did exist in colonial America but they were never as rigid as in Europe. On the frontier, they were less obvious than in the towns and cities. Common hardships and dangers made social status seem insignificant. In the town, social status was more important. Pews in the churches were assigned according to social standing, and colleges, according to social standing, accepted students. Clothes often showed to which segment of society a person belonged. Farmers dressed in homemade clothes, but well-to-do merchants wore silver-buckled shoes, silks and satins, and powdered wigs.

Planters and merchants made up the higher social class of colonists. Planters were large landowners. Most of them lived in the southern colonies. They owned many acres of land and many slaves. Sometimes they would oversee their own plantations. The planter's house was usually very nice and the center of a little world of its own. The plantations were the centers of the social activities in the south. In the northern colonies, the merchants dominated the social scene. A merchant generally owned a wharf and warehouse as well as a store. He invested his money in ships and trade. The merchants were also the bankers of the time. They lived in handsome brick houses on the edges of the towns and rode to work in elegant carriages. They dressed in the finest imported clothes and imitated the English aristocrats.

The middle classes formed the bulk of the population. These colonists included the professional people, the artisans, and the small farmers. Most of the professional people and artisans lived in the towns and cities. The small farmer might own as much as one hundred fifty acres of land. He, with his family and perhaps a hired man, worked the land. The farm children had less schooling than the children of the professional people and artisans did. Social gatherings for the farmers were usually limited to harvest parties, barn raisings, sewing bees, or religious meetings.

Near the bottom of the social scale were the indentured servants. These people secured passage to the New World by selling their labor for a period of years. Those who served out their time were usually paid a small sum of money and could then buy land or set themselves up as independent artisans. Many became respected members of their communities.

The ease with which the colonists could improve their social status depended largely on transportation and communication. An ambitious colonist could move to another part of the colony or even to another colony and begin a new life there. At first, most transportation was by foot or by boat. Later, roads made traveling by coach possible between most important centers. Mail deliveries were increased, and postal service was extended to the back-country and to the South. Such improvements in transportation and communication promoted social change and strengthened the ties of the colonies.