1. Why were the English interested in overseas colonization? 2. What do these quotations indicate about English attitudes toward the poor?
3. How does the size of the English population in 1600 compare to the size of the English population today?
4. Did real wages in England rise or decline between 1500 and 1700?
5. How high was the death rate in England around 1600? At what ages did the largest number of Englishmen die? What might have been some of the social implications of this high death rate?
6 Why do you think the Virginians were incapable of feeding themselves--when the Indians were able to grow corn, the woods were filled with game, and the rivers were covered with geese and filled with fish?
7. Why did these individuals migrate to the New World?
8. Describe their experiences in migrating to America.
9. What do these quotations tell us about colonial attitudes toward labor?

10. How did life expectancy in the Northern and Chesapeake colonies compare? What implications might this have upon the nature of family life in the two regions?
11. What factors may have contributed to the discrepancy in life expectancy in the two regions?
12. Why might women have had a shorter life expectancy than men?

13. How does the growth of the colonial population compare to the growth of the American population today?
14. What were the major contributors to the growth of the colonial population?
15. What factors may have contributed to the decline in fertility after 1800?

16. How many slaves were imported into the American colonies and the United States?
17. Which country imported the greatest number of slaves?
18. Construct an explanation of why the United States, which imported a relatively small number of slaves from Africa, had by far the largest black population in the New World by 1820.
19. During which period did the American slave population grow most rapidly?
20. How likely was a slave to die during the "middle passage" from Africa to the Americas?