Chapter 3 Social Welfare

The poor, unable to support themselves, are maintained by an assessment on the tytheable persons in their parish. This assessment is levied and administered by twelve persons in each parish, called ___, originally chosen by the housekeepers of the parish, but afterward filling vacancies in their own body by their own choice.

vestrymen

Independence did not magically erase the British class system, nor did it root out long-entrenched beliefs about poverty and the willful exploitation of human labor. An unfavored (white) population, widely thought of as_____remained disposable indeed well into modern times"

waste or 'rubbish'

Though noblemen, crusaders, and traders accumulated vast ___, the acquisition of wealth by exploiting market mechanisms—for example, charging interest on loaned money or raising the prices of food or commodities—was regarded with considerable suspicion. Early merchants who sought to accumulate money, or who tried to increase prices—and profits—by withholding grain from the market were often persecuted.

wealth

In the rice-growing areas of the coastal Carolinas, slaves worked in gangs of 50 or more as they planted, cultivated, and harvested rice. Less prosperous farmers used smaller groups of slaves to plant corn and other crops. Available evidence suggests that owners made frequent use of _______

whipping; vicious punishment of runaways; "intrusion, inspection, and harassment" of the minutest aspects of their personal lives; sales of "surplus" slaves in a pattern that disrupted familial relationships; imposition of a class system with preferential treatment given to those slaves who worked in the owners' houses; and a conscious pattern of disrupting families by taking children from them at an early age and often placing husbands and wives in separate sleeping quarters

Economic historians have documented that ___ colonists lived in a society with a high level of economic equality because most of them owned small plots of land with the exceptions of a relatively small class of aristocrats at the top and slaves, Native Americans, and many women at the bottom, as well as relatively few poor whites such as indentured servants.

white

In some jurisdictions, such as Boston, ___ with children successfully resisted the tendency to place all dependent persons in poorhouses and received outdoor relief

widowed or divorced women

Contemporary historians have analyzed the lives of ___ in medieval society and concluded that, despite notable exceptions such as female royalty, they lived within relatively restrictive boundaries. Virtually without exception, people viewed both society and the family as hierarchies in medieval times—and the husband was seen as the superior member of the family, to which his wife and children were subordinate.

women

If liberals tended to believe the Constitution conferred relatively broad powers on the federal government (following in the footsteps of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton), conservatives tended to view it as conferring relatively narrow power to the federal government (sharing the outlook of Thomas Jefferson). If liberals believed that the Constitution provided relatively loose guidelines that could be adapted to changing issues and conditions in society, conservatives believed in "strict constructionism"—that is, adhering to the literal words and intentions of the framers of the Constitution. This conflict between liberals and conservatives over the Constitution emerged with extraordinary force in the second term of the presidency of George W. Bush, when he appointed two conservative jurists to the Supreme Court—leading to conflict between conservative, moderate, and liberal jurists. These clashes would have huge implications for

women's right to choose, affirmative action, regulations of corporations by the government, the right to free expression, the rights of criminal defendants and persons accused of crimes such as terrorism, and the separation of church and state.

Factors that shaped American social welfare policies in the colonial era

. Cultural factors included an emphasis on individualism and limited government. Among political factors, the lack of a large class of landless people and the subjugation of persons of color meant that little pressure was exerted on public officials to develop policies that would redistribute land or resources. Institutional factors included a weak central government as well as relatively weak local jurisdictions

So many slaves were imported that they constituted almost______—and 40 to 60% of the population of many Southern jurisdictions. The slaves lived on plantations of differing sizes, ranging from huge plantations in rice-growing coastal regions of the Deep South to far smaller holdings of fewer than five slaves in Virginia and Maryland, where masters typically were of relatively modest means. As with Native Americans, a vicious cycle of violence developed. Slaves did not enjoy the harsh working conditions associated with tobacco farming and often refused to work as hard as their masters desired. Their resistance confirmed the white settlers' beliefs that they were uncivilized and beyond hope of conversion to English values or religion.

20% of the population in the New World by the time of the American Revolution

The wholesale deaths of the indigenous populations from disease and overwork created an economic dilemma for the Europeans when they introduced the labor-intensive crops of sugar and then tobacco in the Caribbean and South America. To find laborers for these crops, the Europeans, drawing on their experience with slavery, decided to import vast numbers of Africans to the New World. By a quirk of biology, these ___ slaves proved to be relatively resistant to European diseases; thus, not only did they survive, but they could be used as a self-replenishing source of labor. Moreover, the huge African population could be regularly raided for a seemingly endless supply of laborers. By 1670, Portuguese Brazil had at least 200,000 slaves, and the English had at least 20,000 slaves in Barbados

African

Social welfare institutions did not extend assistance to____, who were defined to be outside the social compact; this policy prevented slave owners from freeing their slaves when they could no longer work or were sick—actions that would have raised the Poor Law costs of local jurisdictions. Various colonies enacted laws that made slaves ineligible for assistance from Poor Law institutions and that forbade their owners from releasing them when they were ill or aged

African Americans

___ society in 1750 was similar in many respects to English society. By 1800, Americans had created a political culture and institutions that departed markedly from their counterparts in England; they founded a new society in the New World.

American

Although it fostered widespread acceptance of an ideology that extolled individualism, the leveling of distinctions between people, and freedom, the___ may be contrasted to the French or Russian Revolutions, in which social classes were pitted against one another and revolutionaries sought to redistribute wealth. A host of research strongly suggests that the American Revolution, though accompanied by a surge in idealism and sacrifice, had relatively limited effects on social reform. It did not help obtain legal parity for women, to provide just treatment to Native Americans, to end slavery, or to reduce the marked inequality between social classes

American Revolution

The ___ was the catalyst that moved Americans to define their differences from the Old World and to forge a distinctive set of institutions

American Revolution

While two-thirds of colonists owned land in 1750, only one-fifth of English citizens owned land. As they obtained property, many ___ came to perceive themselves not as common laborers, but as stakeholders in the emerging society. They increasingly demanded to participate in local and colonial politics; as landholders, they often were able to vote. They placed greater emphasis on work and initiative than landless people in England because they realized that their personal economic fate hinged on their ability to produce and sell crops and other commodities, such as candles or garments. The colonies lacked a large, landless, and destitute population, such as that existing in London and other English cities by 1750. This new society was a landed one, mostly composed of persons with holdings of between 90 and 160 acres

Americans

Once legitimated, slavery could not be abolished without passage of a constitutional amendment, but the necessary two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress or ratification by three-fourths of state legislatures would have been unattainable once the many Southern states were part of the Union. Had the framers not mentioned slavery in the Constitution, it could have been eliminated by a simple majority vote in Congress, in a manner akin to its abolition by a majority vote in the _____

British Parliament

The ____ was the only recognized church in the medieval period and was intimately associated with governmental institutions. It was, in effect, a government paralleling secular jurisdictions, with its own taxes, laws, and courts. In addition, many ecclesiastical officials served in secular government and in the monarch's inner circle of counselors

Catholic Church

By defining African Americans and Native Americans as nonpersons, Southern white settlers did not have to feel guilty about their actions or policies. Violence was often rationalized as serving the broader needs of society or even of the nonpersons themselves. In killing Native Americans, for example, many colonists believed they were promoting the advance of_______, just as many slaveholders believed that harsh treatment of slaves helped teach them discipline and good work habits. But slavery was not only a Southern institution in the colonial period. Slaves were also held in the Northern colonies, until all but New York and New Jersey eradicated the practice during the period from 1776 to 1783. (New York and New Jersey enacted laws that ended the institution in 1799 and 1804, respectively.) Agitation by Quakers and other religious groups assumed a major role in ending slavery in the North

Christianity and civilization

Although the___ ceded considerable power to them, local and colonial governments were extraordinarily weak in the colonial era. It is true that they imposed taxes and regulations on local citizens and businesses (e.g., they often established prices and wages), required males to work a certain numbers of days on roads and other public improvements, and constructed many roads and bridges (sometimes with tolls). But these local governments existed in an environment that was not conducive to the development of major powers

Constitution

America soon became a sanctuary for numerous Protestant sects who, despite various "toleration acts" in England, were still subject to widespread persecution; their children were excluded from English universities, their suffrage was subjected to numerous restrictions, and they were forced to tithe to the Church of England. As members of the various sects became representatives in local and colonial government, they urged separation of church and state and termination of the requirement in a number of colonies that citizens pay taxes to support the state church. Separation of church and state, which was made explicit in the ___, was inevitable in a country with so many religious sects.

Constitution

As originally written, the ____ must be viewed as retarding the development of federal social programs because it did not mention social welfare policies and appeared to restrict the federal government to specific and relatively limited powers. By contrast, the French Constitution, which was written a few years later, outlawed slavery, guaranteed all citizens the right to work, urged humane care of the poor, and declared education to be a public obligation. Moreover, as we discuss subsequently, the Constitution was both a sexist and a racist document severely limiting the rights of women and persons of color.

Constitution

___was tightly regulated. In Virginia, for example, each settler was required to plant a certain amount of corn to ensure adequate food crops. The colonists decided who could and who could not trap certain kinds of animals, where common pasturage would be located, the maximum levels of wages that could be paid, and the maximum prices that could be charged for specific products. Regulations were also promulgated that established apprenticeship requirements for entry into the various trades.

Early Life

___ and ___ did not think in terms of social classes until well into the 19th century, they conceptualized society as a series of vertical ranks or titles, ascending from indentured servants and tenant farmers at the lowest ranks to a landed aristocracy at the top. Marked inequalities existed in England and America; at the lowest ranks, indentured servants, tenant farmers, and common laborers possessed scant resources and no land. Furthermore, between one-half and two-thirds of white immigrants in the 18th century entered indentured service before or after arriving in the colonies. (Evidence suggests that many who became indentured servants were driven from England, Scotland, and Wales as unemployment increased markedly during the 17th century, but a considerable number were also felons who were deported to the colonies.)

England and America

Reasons why white settlers did not permanently cede large portions of lands on the frontier to the Native Americans

England and the trading companies, which had established the white settlements in the first instance to provide raw materials and markets for the English mercantile system, supported continuing migration inland for furs and other commodities that could be used in England. Moreover, the colonists believed that land was created by God to be farmed and that forest and other unfarmed land occupied by nonfarming Native Americans was wasted land that should be given to (or taken by) the white settlers

Officials in colonial and local governments also continued the tradition of the ____ by requiring the election or appointment of officials in local parishes who would collect taxes to pay for poor relief.

English Poor Law

The Church had long held the notion that heathens could be placed in servitude once they had "rejected" Christianity; on this principle, the Crusades had sought to conquer Muslim peoples in the Middle East. Feudalism provided the notion that native villages could be controlled by recreating the feudal equivalent of serfdom; in the New World, far removed from the ancient protections that had provided some assistance to European serfs, the indigenous population and then the slaves could be exploited with little interference from _____

European courts, the Church, or the Crown.

American colonists in 1750, then, had not developed a distinctive culture or set of political institutions. They often thought of themselves as ___ rather than as occupying an independent status in the New World. English émigrés primarily read literature from England, conversed about English politics, and often intended to return to England once they had obtained sufficient funds.

Europeans

____ society was replete with regulations and traditions that stifled upward mobility, changes in residence, sale of land, and changes in occupation, but it also offered many protections to its citizens precisely because it was so regulated. Courts protected the rights of serfs and their successors, whether tenant farmers, indentured servants, or apprentices. The early colonies inherited many of these feudal regulations but lacked England's rich history of enforcement

Feudal

As most Americans possessed land, no large class of landless and urbanized people existed (as in the ____), and no large class of landless peasants existed (as in the ____). These American revolutionaries fought both for independence and to establish a society grounded on individualism and freedom, but not to effect dramatic changes in the nation's social structure.

French Revolution; Russian Revolution

Historical research by ___ and ___ emphasizes the extent to which the culture and institutions of the American colonists resembled those of European nations

Gordon Wood and Joyce Appleby

____ wanted the federal government to invest resources in roads, canals, and bridges; to establish a national bank to oversee the economy; to fund promising new economic projects; to impose considerable taxes to fund these projects and pay off debts that remained from fighting the Revolutionary War; and to develop a strong navy and militia. Hamilton favored a relatively loose interpretation of the Constitution. While acknowledging that the Constitution mentioned only certain powers, Hamilton believed that it implied other powers, such as the power to establish a National Bank. By contrast, Jefferson favored a limited federal government; he supported "strict constructionism," according to which the government would be limited to the powers enumerated in the Constitution. He wanted the American economy to center upon agriculture, opposed a National Bank on the grounds that it was not mentioned in the Constitution, opposed mercantilist policies, wanted low federal taxes, and opposed a standing army.

Hamilton

Example of bottom up complications

In relatively poor jurisdictions or in relatively conservative areas, local services would be shortchanged and underfunded—as is currently reflected in states such as Georgia that severely underfund their educational and social welfare institutions. Some Americans would come to think, moreover, that the federal government ought to have virtually no role in social welfare policy—accurately noting that the Constitution failed even to mention social policy as a federal responsibility. Yet many social problems would subsequently require a federal response due to their complexity, their prevalence across the nation, or their cost.

____ who had completed their terms often had difficulty finding an economic niche for themselves. Lacking funds to purchase land, many became tenant farmers and worked at low wages for landowners. Some became part of the relatively poor and landless population in the small cities of colonial America. Those who purchased land often had to go to relatively cheap land on the frontier, where they encountered danger from Native Americans. Those servants who chose to become apprentices in hopes of entering a trade had to serve an additional seven years as assistants to tradesmen and were often mistreated by their masters.

Indentured servants

Inland tribes such as the______ were doomed, however. As the frequency of their contact with white settlers increased, they proved as vulnerable to fatal diseases as their coastal counterparts had been. When they altered their hunting patterns to collect furs as a means of purchasing guns and other products they dispersed their tribal settlements and thus made them more vulnerable to attack.

Iroquois in the North and the Cherokees in the South

In 1800, ___ narrowly defeated Adams in a tumultuous presidential contest. In his two terms, Jefferson implemented his limited government vision; he sharply reduced expenditures and slashed taxes.

Jefferson

___ view of a limited government was shared not merely by many federal legislators but by many people in the various states. So-called antifederalists had even sought to prevent ratification of the Constitution, which they believed conferred excessive powers on the federal government. Partly at their insistence, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution (the Bill of Rights) were added in 1791 to protect citizens' rights from capricious actions of the federal government.

Jefferson's

The _____ whose beliefs formed an American consensus about drastic reductions in the economic role of government, reductions in various federal taxes, and a strict interpretation of the Constitution so that the government did not exceed its enumerated powers, routed the Federalists, who had favored economic planning and a somewhat stronger federal government, in the election of 1800. The American consensus engineered by Jefferson meant that the federal government would remain exceedingly weak for generations

Jeffersonians,

When ___ agreed to rescind only some of his new taxes and when he did not honor the Americans' insistence on independence, war ensued; it lasted seven years. By the time the American Revolution had ended, about one-tenth of white males had joined the militia. The sheer length of the conflict dramatized the formal separation from England and encouraged widespread acceptance of a new ideology of republicanism that deemphasized hierarchy, lauded individualism, favored the toil of ordinary people, and sought democracy. The battle against the Crown was supplemented, moreover, by intensive conflict within the colonies.

King George

What were the events leading up to the Revolution?

King George was worried about the costs incurred by the Crown in seeking to protect the colonies from Native Americans. Partly to offset these costs, the Crown exacted new taxes on a wide range of goods. Already resentful of the various controls and taxes that the Crown imposed on the colonies, many colonial leaders were outraged by this new burden. Many colonists were familiar with the arguments of English parliamentary leaders who had sought to eclipse the power of the monarchy for decades and had obtained from it many concessions that increased the power of the Parliament. Some of these leaders even wanted to end the monarchy in favor of a republic. Drawing on the arguments of these parliamentary leaders, colonial leaders like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison developed a rationale for making the colonies independent from the Crown; these efforts culminated in the Declaration of Independence of 1776.

___ provided protection for some indentured servants who were beaten or whose term of service, typically four to seven years years, was not honored by their masters, but their legal rights were not as complete as in England. Servants were beholden to their masters, who had paid their transportation costs to this country. Owners could try to extend the period of indentured service by appealing to local courts if their servants ran away, swore at them, or committed other petty offenses. Female indentured servants were often denied permission to marry because their masters feared the women would leave their service

Local courts

____ approaches to myriad social problems continue to impede constructive efforts to help and empower persons to surmount them, as reflected by harsh welfare laws that fail to give single heads of households sufficient job training, child care, health care, transportation, and housing to allow them to better their (and their children's) condition.

Moralistic

Although slavery was largely eliminated in the North, Northern representatives at the Constitutional Convention in the 1780s had to decide whether to accede to Southerners' wishes to retain the institution. Many of the framers of the Constitution eyed slavery uneasily because they feared that social turmoil from slave rebellions would allow England to conquer the South (for its cotton) or might require the federal government to commit troops to restore tranquility. Northerners also feared that Southerners would bolt the Constitutional Convention—and the new nation—if they mentioned abolition, but they did not want slavery transplanted to the frontier. They also did not want Southerners to capture control of the Congress by adding large numbers of slave-favoring Congressmen as new states entered the union from frontier areas. This conflict between ______ became the most contentious division during the Constitutional Convention and led to a series of compromises. The Northerners obtained exclusion of slavery from the frontier north of the Ohio Paver in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and were allowed to place a tax on imported slaves. But Southerners won most of the concessions: slavery was not limited to those states where it existed; slaves were counted as though they were three-fifths of a person for purposes of apportioning congressional representatives; and Congress was not permitted to interfere with the importation of slaves until 1807. Slavery was legitimized by the Constitution, which referred to it in five places

Northerners and Southerners

___ and ___ of Americans in the different colonies mirrored England even in 1750, long after the earliest settlements—and that both the colonies and England retained many ideas and institutions from medieval Europe. Most English-speaking Americans, for example, remained loyal to the English monarchy. State religions still existed in many colonies. While not as well established or affluent as its English counterpart, an American aristocracy existed; this aristocracy was deeply prejudiced against ordinary people. Like the royal court in England, this aristocracy freely obtained favors from legislatures and royal governors in the various colonies. Many colonies required parents to pass their land on to their oldest son or their children, rather than selling it

Politics and culture

Social welfare policy in the colonial period centered on the local ____, which included a mixture of indoor (institutional) relief and outdoor relief.

Poor Law institutions

____ tried to define the powers of the central government; usually he sided with Hamilton. His patience was tested on many occasions. One such incident was the so-called Whiskey Rebellion. Needing funds to retire the national debt and to fund the government, the Congress enacted an excise tax on distilled liquor at Hamilton's request. However, in western Pennsylvania, local insurgents questioned the federal government's right to impose these taxes. This tax revolt was quelled only after Washington personally accompanied troops into Pennsylvania

President Washington

Tribes in an area extending from New York State to the Ohio Valley joined in a common negotiating alliance; their shrewd bargaining led the British Crown to draw a line, known as the ____, that separated settlers' lands from Native Americans' lands on the Western frontier. (The Crown was willing to make this concession to thwart alliances between the Native Americans and the French, who vigorously contested the English for possession of portions of the New World.) The Crown had difficulty enforcing this line, however, because individual settlers, trading companies, and colonies relentlessly sought lands beyond it. After the American Revolution, the Americans displayed far less resolve in enforcing the line than had the English

Proclamation Line of 1763

The individual colonies created official churches—_____They also divided the countryside into parishes and imposed on all citizens, including those who worshipped in different churches, a tax to support the official church. Officials in these early churches, who were accorded extraordinary deference, often assumed roles in secular governance.

Protestant churches in New England and a Church of England in Virginia.

The prevalence of ___ in the New World promoted the ethic of charitable giving. Wealth was often perceived by early Protestants as a mixed blessing; although it was the proper reward for a life of hard work, it could also promote laziness, pride, and greed—traits that were viewed by many colonists as sinful. Donating to charity became a way of easing this guilt about material possessions

Protestantism

Many of the earliest __ settlers believed that good works were morally correct but could not in themselves influence the Lord to grant salvation; however, by the middle of the 18th century, a growing number of clergy and citizens believed that moral living could increase the likelihood of achieving salvation. The sermons of preachers of the Great Awakening, a grassroots movement to revitalize and personalize Protestant religion during the 18th century, denied that good works could merit salvation but emphasized the importance of benevolence as a sign that one was saved

Puritan

____ were common in both England and the American colonies. Sometimes they were provoked by frustration at the slow workings of cumbersome bureaucracies. Periodic food shortages or rising prices of food prompted riots in local jurisdictions, even in the colonies. American squatters—people who inhabited land without having obtained legal title—often rioted to persuade local officials to give them titles or to allow them to purchase their land at reasonable fees. A series of nine major rebellions, each lasting a year or more, erupted in rural areas in the 17th and 18th centuries. These rebellions were waged by persons with a homestead ethic who believed that their land titles had been unfairly seized by trading companies or that their land was excessively taxed by legislatures. Thus, Bacon's Rebellion in 17th-century Virginia involved a number of landless freedmen and indentured servants who protested against the monopoly of land by owners with vast holdings.

Riots

Although some slaves had reached the New World earlier, the torrent of importation began after 1676, when the ____ monopoly was shattered and many private companies entered the lucrative slave trade. Shipments from Africa rose from 10,000 individuals per year in the 1690s to 40,000 per year in the 1790s. Roughly 1 million slaves were imported to the colonies or born in the colonies before the American Revolution

Royal African Company's

_____ persistence in addressing these issues is truly remarkable: his efforts included writing a tract against slavery in the early 1770s, helping to form the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1774, and becoming president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes in 1803

Rush

____ policy advocacy illustrates a tension in policy advocacy between "playing it safe" and "taking risks" when diagnosing the context. On the one hand, it is tempting to select only issues that have widespread support when engaging in policy advocacy. If everyone engaged in this practice, however, no one would seek important policy reforms that are associated with widespread opposition from the general public or public officials

Rush's

___were bound to the land and were required to work it. They also possessed rights to work specific amounts of land, which prevented noblemen from summarily evicting them; their children often inherited those rights. The serfs received no money for farming the land but could sometimes sell surplus goods in local farmers' markets after coinage appeared. Some pastures and woodlands were reserved for the common use of a village so that peasants could graze cattle in them and gather fuel. Serfs worked to meet basic obligations and subsistence needs—and no more. Numerous religious, seasonal, and traditional holidays were observed each year

Serfs

____ had existed in Roman times, and Christians had long enslaved Muslims, but the numbers of slaves involved were relatively small, and slavery had ended in Europe by the end of the 14th century. To fill minor labor shortages, Portugal and Spain began using Africans as slaves in their domestic economies in the 15th century. Even this minor use of slaves might have ended had Columbus and numerous successors not established colonies in the New World, first in the Caribbean and then in Central and South America

Slavery

Examples of oppression besides in America

Subjugated Muslim populations in France erupted in violence in 2005 and 2006 in response to segregated housing, poverty, and discrimination. Persons descended from Indian and Caribbean ancestors are often impoverished, segregated, and shunned in Great Britain. Tribal warfare in Africa has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of persons in such nations as Rwanda and Uganda. Women are often forcibly placed in prostitution in many nations of the world.

Because the founders realized that the government would need to evolve to meet the changing needs of the nation, they inserted four provisions that eventually provided a legal rationale for the development of federal social policy

They gave the federal government the power to regulate interstate commerce, which was used in the 20th century to regulate the working conditions of workers whose companies shipped goods to other states. They included a clause that allowed the federal government to enact laws that furthered the nation's "general welfare." This ill-defined clause was later used by social reformers to justify a range of social interventions. The founders stipulated that the federal government could "make all laws that shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the fore going [enumerated] powers." Like the general welfare clause, this phrase was sufficiently vague to justify a broad range of legislation. By allowing the Constitution to be amended, the founders provided a mechanism for change. Constitutional amendments protected the rights of African Americans and other groups in the wake of the Civil War.

___, without visible property or vocation, are placed in workhouses, where they are well cloathed, fed, lodged, and made to labour. Nearly the same method of providing for the poor prevails through all our states; and from Savannah to Portsmouth you will seldom meet a beggar

Vagabonds

___ elected members who negotiated with the nobleman's representative (the bailiff) to decide which fields would lie fallow, who would tend animals in common pastures, and which members of the villages would serve in the king's armies to meet the monarch's manpower levy.

Villagers

Why was the Constitution constructed?

When they finally achieved their independence in 1783, the Americans confronted a dilemma. If the 13 colonies became separate nations, they would confront many problems. Trade would be difficult with 13 separate currencies. They could not easily fashion treaties with foreign nations that had designs on frontier lands—especially Spain, France, and England—if they lacked a common foreign policy and navy. They could not easily fend off Native Americans on the frontier without a shared militia. Nor could they easily plan and build roads and canals across their boundaries if they remained independent. At the same time, each of the colonies jealously guarded its prerogatives; none wanted to yield excessive authority to a central government that might usurp its freedom in a manner akin to King George and the English Parliament.

____ servants became the major source of agricultural labor in the early Southern colonies, but they also proved unsuitable because many of them objected to the backbreaking work in the intolerable summer heat and had to be replaced when their prescribed term of indentured service was at an end. They posed a political problem as well, as freed indentured servants roamed the American countryside and agitated against oppressive working conditions when they lacked funds to purchase their own land. When the English economy improved in the mid-17th century and the harsh working conditions of the tobacco colonies became well known, it was increasingly difficult to recruit the English as indentured servants

White indentured

Many jurisdictions enacted laws prohibiting _____ In colonial Virginia, persons found guilty of these crimes were generally made to devote a certain number of hours to public works—for example, the construction of a local bridge. Alcoholism was a major problem in the American colonies and sometimes led to imprisonment. Major crimes were similarly met with harsh treatment. Debtors were often imprisoned, even when they had no means of paying debts that were due to disability or health problems. As in England, capital punishment was extensively employed, sometimes even for petty theft, and executions were often public events attended by throngs of people.

adultery and fornication, swearing, or even malicious gossiping.

Some historians believe that by investing even the poor white population with superior legal rights, the large slave owners decreased the likelihood of ____. (Before the enactment of these laws, indentured white servants had often worked in the fields alongside Africans and had even intermarried with them.) Indeed, by the 18th century, many white people in Southern jurisdictions, even those of modest means, saw owning slaves as a sign of respectability and upward mobility

alliances between low-income whites and slaves

____ can provide a buffer from economic uncertainties, since they can be used as collateral for loans, rented, or sold at a profit if they appreciate in value. Ownership of some assets may enhance the well-being of those persons who see themselves as having a stake in society

assets

Women suffered extraordinary hardship because no adequate method of_____ existed. In addition to abstinence and coitus interruptus, mostly herbal and other folk methods were used to prevent pregnancy; these were of dubious value. Moreover, because procreation was widely regarded as the ultimate purpose of marriage, few women used birth control at all, except to increase the interval between childbirths by means of abstinence. Women tended to marry in their early 20s and to have children every other year; a typical family might have seven children or more. It is estimated that as many as one in five women died during childbirth or from the toll of successive pregnancies. Moreover, many women were pregnant at the point of marriage—probably around 20% in some jurisdiction

birth control

This belief that Americans had created a utopian society served to retard the development of social programs by _______. If America is a utopia, few social programs or regulations are necessary. Even in the 19th century, when the nation began to develop an urban society and poverty and other social needs became relatively widespread, the persistent notion of the American utopia perpetuated a kind of collective denial.

blinding the colonists and succeeding generations of Americans to the existence of social needs in their midst

We can observe from the colonial experience that Americans would build their welfare state in the coming centuries "from the______," unlike many European nations that already had large regulatory, tax, and social welfare functions vested with central governments and monarchs. The vesting of poorhouses, jails, schools, and mental services with local and state governments at the outset of the Republic and through the 19th century would have some salutary benefits.

bottom upward

Although England was the birthplace of___and its attendant class of merchants, many English people, especially the landed aristocrats, still viewed capitalism with suspicion. Americans came to embrace it with a fervor and a completeness unknown to the English. In 1750, American society was still largely rural, with only 5% of the population living in cities. However, most Americans were small capitalists on their farms, where they labored to produce crops and commodities for export to Europe, which provided a vast market during a period of rapid population growth. Although factories had hardly emerged in the New World, many farmers supplemented their income by producing a wide array of goods—including hats, candles, clothing, and tools—in their homes and barns

capitalism

In the tobacco colonies, that legal task had been accomplished by the beginning of the 18th century. Slaves were not allowed to own property; indeed, their property was confiscated in Virginia and given to local parishes for redistribution to poor whites. Whites were forbidden by law to have sexual relations with Africans, and persons who sheltered or assisted runaway slaves were subjected to harsh treatment. Slaves were thus reduced to the legal status of ___

chattel

Meeting in Philadelphia, 55 delegates from all states except Rhode Island commenced their work in May and approved a document in September. It became the law of the land in June 1788, when the ninth colony, New Hampshire, ratified it. Although they realized that they needed their government to have some powers, the framers of the Constitution were also obsessed with the dangers of an oppressive central government. To avoid this possibility, they created a complex system of ___ and ___, including a popularly elected House of Representatives, senators elected by legislatures in their states, a president elected by an electoral college rather than by direct election, and an independent judiciary. To further circumscribe the federal government, the framers enumerated its specific powers; the list included the right to issue currency, to form a militia, and to make treaties. (Furthermore, as we note subsequently, they specifically reserved to the states all powers not given to the federal government when they added the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution as part of the Bill of Rights.)

checks and balances

Women in the ____ period were probably not as restricted as women in the 19th century. The high mortality rate in colonial society meant that many women assumed responsibility for the trades or businesses of their deceased husbands. Because society desperately needed labor, women were able to enter some trades. Midwives delivered children. In agriculture, women not only helped their husbands run farms but also produced candles and cloth in a society that lacked manufacturing industries. Much like Mahatma Gandhi in 20th-century India, women made homespun cloth during the American Revolution to reduce dependence on English imports. However, we should not exaggerate the economic roles of women in colonial times; as Harris notes, they often assumed economic roles only after their husbands had died, and they performed them within the larger context of subordination

colonial

The conflicts of colonial politics further eroded the ___ and ___ nature of the early settlements. Settlers in the western sections of the colonies demanded funds for a militia to protect them from Native Americans and for the construction of roads and other improvements. These demands were often resisted by easterners, and intense competition for limited public funds ensued. Many colonists soon came to oppose the royal governors appointed by the crown who, they believed, sought to advance the trade and financial interests of the monarchy by exploiting them—for example, by taxing them excessively; by demanding excessive exportation of agricultural products, even at the risk of food shortages; by forbidding them from establishing manufacturing that would compete with English goods; and by demanding that trade with England be transmitted in English ships.

communal and hierarchical

The Jeffersonian influence was so pervasive and long-lasting that it is not possible to understand modern American ___ without placing them in the context of Jefferson's ethos.

conservatives

The early colonists quickly encountered two groups of Native Americans: a string of tribes that occupied coastal areas from New England to Florida and a group of tribes that inhabited inland areas like the Appalachian Mountains. Colonists in the earliest settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts took the view that Native Americans in the coastal tribes could be converted to Christianity and, in the meantime, could help settlers by familiarizing them with native crops and hunting techniques. Early settlements in Massachusetts established "praying colonies," where converted Native Americans lived as part of the community. The settlers were certain that the Native Americans would choose Western culture not only to gain salvation but also to obtain its technological benefits. Native Americans valued their own culture, which differed markedly from the settlers'. Native Americans worshipped their own ____

deities, did not collect or value property, led a nomadic life, and were content with a subsistence existence that required only as much work as was needed for survival.

As in the Caribbean, the spread of _____was even more devastating to Native Americans than was warfare

diseases such as smallpox, cholera, and diphtheria

Americans in the upper social strata had weaker notions about their social obligations than did their English counterparts. Few aristocrats and noblemen came to America; most immigrants were from the lower and middle classes. These self-made individuals—the American version of an aristocracy—sometimes believed, by the 19th century, that everyone should be able to obtain _____. Colonial Virginia provides an example of American elites' limited sense of social obligation. Although Virginia's landholding aristocracy appeared similar to its English counterpart, available evidence suggests that many powerful landowners possessed scant interest in the needs of the lower strata of society; they expanded their holdings through ruthless exploitation of indentured servants, tenant farmers, and slaves.

economic success

As the numbers of white settlers increased, it became obvious that Native American culture was _____. Once they had given up feudal strip farming and communal property, many of the earliest settlers began to develop and enclose fields, much as the English landowners had done; this practice quickly depleted the Native Americans' lands. If Native Americans resisted, colonists cited their violence as evidence that they were savages beyond any hope of conversion to Christianity. If they did not resist, the relentless expansion of white settlements continued unabated. The settlers also conducted their share of unprovoked violence—for example, because some group within their settlement enjoyed slaughtering Native Americans, because they were overcome with fear as they heard of other violence, or because they wished to retaliate for some earlier violence. Petty theft by a Native American led in one case to the massacre of an entire tribe

endangered

Noblemen were forbidden to sell their property outside their families by prohibitions known as ___, which reflected the prominence of tradition and family

entail

In a society with such mobility, the semifeudal norms and traditions of the early colonies quickly ___. Many observers noted that frontier people were a raucous lot; they were often violent, they lacked government institutions, and they possessed a fierce individualism.

eroded

The guilds and crafts that developed to regulate skilled work in the towns and cities were dominated by men; women were ____. Much of the work that women undertook—as domestic servants, small retailers, spinsters, or midwives—was not organized into guilds or crafts, and thus women were deprived of the kinds of security that guilds and crafts afforded. Though husbands and wives often worked together in the fields in feudal settings, the husbands generally passed the rights to farm strips of land to their sons; consequently, daughters lacked land rights

excluded or, at best, allowed to be second-class members

The ___ were expected to give a large share of their produce to the company in exchange for the right to work company lands. They lived in villages that were surrounded by company fields, rather than in the dispersed patterns characteristic of American agriculture in the 18th and 19th centuries. Similar patterns were observed in the settlements in Virginia in the early 17th century.

farmers

_____ a term used in the contemporary period, had relevance to many women in urban areas in the colonial era. Women were excluded altogether from the professions of law and medicine.

feminization of poverty,

The social structure in these earliest colonies was also hierarchical in the___ sense. A few wealthy investors received rights to large tracts of land and were served by a landless class of indentured servants. A variety of artisans and craftsmen occupied an intermediary position in the social structure. As participation in the process of governance was conditioned on both holding land and meeting specific religious requirements, many persons were disenfranchised.

feudal

The ___ wanted to put strict limits on the power of the federal government, but they did not agree about how limited the new government would be. During the two terms of President George Washington, a heated battle developed between two factions led, respectively, by Thomas Jefferson, Washington's secretary of state, and Alexander Hamilton, his secretary of the treasury. A self-made man with aristocratic inclinations, Hamilton wanted a relatively strong central government that would pursue mercantilist policies akin to the Crown

framers

Medieval society was ___ and was NOT ___

hierarchical; capitalist

In medieval Europe, most people lived in relatively____ societies of white persons and had little or no contact with persons of other races.

homogeneous

the Europeans ____ the Enlightenment while the Americans ____

imagined; created it

In a relatively brief period, huge areas of Pennsylvania, New York State, and the Carolinas became flooded with ___. The dynamic and changing nature of this new society was fostered not only by mobility but by population growth owing to the relatively high birthrate and to continuing immigration. The white population in the colonies practically doubled every 20 years, increasing from 1 to 2 million between 1750 and 1770 and from 2 to 4 million from 1770 to 1790.

immigrants

The demand for ___ and ___ drew a wide and favorable response because large numbers of colonists, ensconced on their own plots of land and wanting to participate more fully in their own governance, had no wish to return to an old regime that might rescind their economic and political gains. The imposition of taxes on their goods by the Crown in the 1760s was a symbol of a different (and English) society that was not consonant with the New World.

independence and the associated attack on the monarchy

American social policy in the colonial era cannot be easily characterized because,

it reflected conflicting tendencies

With only a tiny bureaucracy and no police, a localized judiciary system that rarely met more than fifteen to thirty days in any given year, and legislators that in peacetime were rarely in session for more than a month in any given year, government was small, intermittent, and inexpensive. Except during wartime, taxes were low, and the only public activities that engaged most men were infrequent militia or jury service and some more frequent participation in vital public works such as building and repairing bridges and roads ... [W]hile they wanted enough government to secure peace and to maintain civil order, most Americans were ... in favor of ____

just so much government as will do justice, protect property, and defend the country

Perhaps the largest social welfare program of the colonial period and the early republic, however, was ___. Although wealthy people bought large amounts of land in early Virginia, many smaller farmers were able to acquire land from the Crown, trading companies chartered by the Crown, and colonial governments. Americans also developed private philanthropic institutions, which tended to support opportunity-enhancing educational, health, and self-help projects that reflected the new society's preoccupation with self-improvement

land distribution

The early Americans hoped to create a utopia of _______. Education would allow children to develop their reason and to learn good work habits. Widespread ownership of land, the colonists believed, would inspire settlers to work hard so as to improve their holdings and increase their personal wealth. Granted democratic institutions, Americans would inform themselves about policy issues so as to prevent the rise of despots who might try to concentrate property and power in the hands of social elites, appease landless and urban lower classes by taking private property from other citizens, or create an urbanized society. By maintaining an agricultural society, Americans would be able to avoid such social problems as unemployment, alienation, crime, and social disorder; colonists believed that these problems inevitably infested urban areas, where wage-earning and poor residents were more prone to social disorder and the appeals of despots. Moreover, early Americans placed extraordinary faith in the family, where moral conduct and the work ethic would be taught and modeled.

land-owning, hard-working, moral citizens

Women had few_____ in the medieval period. The Church of England provided wives some protections against cruelty, lack of support, and desertion. Divorce was not sanctioned, but women could petition the Church for separation; often, though, they made these petitions only after their husbands had left them.

legal protections

By the 12th century, most of Europe had become splintered into a series of fiefdoms that had developed ____.

localized, hierarchical, communalistic, and traditional social institutions

Massive importation of Africans was delayed, however, because the death rate from ______. When the death rate declined, the advantages of slaves as a source of labor became obvious. Slaves were kept for life rather than for brief terms and provided a self-replenishing source of labor; the planters would be spared the task of continually recruiting and importing indentured servants. The political and social problems of accommodating freed servants were obviated because slaves were not released

malaria and other epidemics was so high that planters would have lost most of their slaves

Americans would likely develop many___ social programs that conditioned the receipt of benefits or services upon tests of character and income. To gain assistance from poorhouses or outdoor relief in the colonial period, for example, applicants had to prove they were deserving of such assistance—that is, were not freeloaders and were truly impoverished. It was already widely assumed by many colonists that such assistance would be offered only for brief periods of time and under sufficiently harsh conditions that recipients would never want to seek assistance again. Unfortunately, this harsh orientation toward the provision of assistance even in contemporary society focuses attention on deterrence rather than on providing constructive policies to help persons surmount problems and empower themselves.

means-tested

In retrospect, both Southerners and Northerners____ during the Constitutional Convention. Southerners assumed that they would soon control Congress as new slave states were added to the Union and as the population of Southern states increased; thus, they believed no additional interference with the institution would develop. Northerners assumed that slavery would disappear naturally as the economy grew and as yeomen farmers populated the West. Neither side realized that both regions would obtain new states on the frontier, and a political stalemate would culminate in a civil war. In 1787, the two regions disagreed already on other issues as well. Southerners wanted a weak central government that could not impose tariffs or supervise interstate commerce, whereas many Northerners favored a stronger central government.

miscalculated

During medieval times, land was held by ___

monarchs, noblemen, and the Catholic Church.

When viewed ____, the American Revolution was simply a rebellion against an overreaching Crown that insisted on its right to impose taxes without consulting the colonies' elected assemblies. When viewed more___ however, the Revolution was the catalyst for colonists to define their new society in terms markedly different from the customs of the Old World

narrowly, broadly

Social workers need ____ partly because of this complexity that derives from the bottom-up approach that was followed by the addition of many federal programs after 1932. They have to decide where best to refer clients or consumers to services in this mosaic of programs and policies. They have to decide what entitlements clients or consumers possess with respect to which resources, services, and rights. To the extent that social workers wish to reform existing policies or propose new ones, they must decide what level of government and what policies to engage.

navigational skills

From the earliest colonial era, ___ existed that American society would develop a particularly harsh set of policies toward women and persons living in poverty, as well as African Americans and Native Americans.

ominous signs

Conflict also increased between___ and ____. Unlike the long-established and wealthy aristocracy of England, American aristocrats tended to be self-made men who lacked lineage to centuries of noblemen. They were poorer than their English counterparts; few had huge houses and manorial estates. Lacking the trappings of the English aristocracy and enveloped in a society where most people owned land, they commanded less respect from Americans than did the English aristocracy from the English.

ordinary people and the American aristocracy

Columbus and his Spanish successors quickly devised a method of controlling the indigenous people by ____ . Though indigenous people in their villages were allowed to keep their property, they were forced to give most of their produce to the conquerors in return for "protection." Moreover, tens of thousands of them were conscripted for forced labor in mining and other endeavors. The pope and Queen Isabella of Spain often tried to place moral constraints on Columbus and other conquistadors, but they had scant success in stopping the brutalization of the indigenous population, despite the protests of a handful of courageous priests.

placing them in a position akin to feudal serfs

Many children became orphans in colonial society because of their parents' early deaths from____. Local courts oversaw the economic affairs of these orphans to ensure that they received funds granted to them by their deceased parents' wills, which were often given in the form of proceeds over a period of years from the sale of livestock in the estate

plagues, accidents, and childbirth.

They were convinced that major social problems could not arise in the New World, precisely because they had masterminded a set of _____

political, educational, familial, and economic institutions that would avert them.

Contemporary Americans, cities, counties, and colonial assemblies limited wages and prices, granted business licenses to merchants, controlled the exportation of grain and other commodities, and regulated the rights and obligations of indentured servants and apprentices. These various regulations did not necessarily benefit ______ persons, as they could be devised in a manner that assisted those with wealth or those masters who had indentured or apprenticed labor. Nonetheless, colonists believed that government should assume a wide range of functions to further economic development and to assist persons in the lower economic strata

poor

The development of regulatory policies at the local and state levels must be regarded as a ___ social welfare response to social and economic needs

positive

Americans inherited the same combination of ___ and ___ social policies that existed in England in the 17th and 18th centuries, but they often did not enforce negative policies on the assumption that pauperism and even poverty would not become widespread in their land-owning utopia.

positive and punitive

In the transition from feudal to ____ society, many of the landed gentry in England resorted to enclosure and other policies that harmed emancipated serfs. Others, however, imbued with a sense of obligation to persons in lower social and economic strata, supported policies of job creation and mercantilism. Conservative philosophers like Edmund Burke contended that English society was an "organic" entity bound together by ancient traditions.

postfeudal

Although the colonists wanted to limit the power of government, they often supported the regulation of _____

prices, economic planning, and public improvements.

A tradition of ___ developed with remarkable rapidity and often led to projects that were jointly funded by government and private donors.

private philanthropy

Few women availed themselves of these settlements; in consequence, they lost control of their______.

property, both within the marriage and when their husbands died, divorced, or left them

Although the early cities were small, the sizable numbers of unskilled and semiskilled persons who came to reside in them were subject to the numerous ___ that bedeviled the fragile American economy. In a credit-hungry economy, many Americans became overextended, could not pay debts, and were imprisoned. Produce was often plentiful, but grain exports to Europe were sometimes so great that shortages occurred in American cities. Consumer goods were often scarce in a nation that imported most of its manufactured goods. Nash argues that these urban, white, and landless people often became increasingly aware of differences in wealth, and thus the likelihood of urban unrest in hard times increased

recessions

Men concerned themselves with farming, business, politics, and professions, whereas women were relegated to domestic matters and the raising of children. Although, on occasion, a woman whose husband died might assume management of a business, women generally refrained from _____

seeking expanded economic and social roles

The first enclaves in the early 17th century were ____ in nature, with villages and state churches, but that pattern soon changed. Realizing that landless persons could settle freely on open land at the frontier, trading companies decided it was in their interests to sell land to immigrants, who eagerly bought what was offered. When governments were established in the different colonies, they also sold large amounts of land to individual

semifeudal

Many Americans subscribed in the colonial era to ___ and ___, leading them to support policies in conflict with principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence.

sexism and racism

The pillaging of native settlements in Central and South America soon followed the early forays into the Caribbean. Far more deadly to the indigenous people than the violence and servitude imposed on them by the conquerors were the diseases brought by the Europeans; they had no natural resistance to ______. In Central Mexico, the native population declined from 11 million in 1519 to 2.5 million in 1597—a staggering loss that was repeated throughout Central and South America and in the Caribbean

smallpox, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, the bubonic plague, typhoid fever, cholera, scarlet fever, and influenza and died by the millions from these various diseases

By not enumerating ___ as one of the federal government's powers, the framers intended that it fall entirely within the province of state and local government. Until well into the 20th century, many presidents and legislators, as well as justices, assumed that it was unconstitutional for the Congress to enact social policies.

social policy

The examination of the founders' philosophies clarifies an important aspect of ___ in the United States: that a strong defense of the central government's role in social welfare is relatively recent in American history. The U.S. federal government did not develop strong social-policy powers until the Great Depression of the 1930s—or almost 150 years after the Constitution was written. By contrast, in England and other European countries, extensive central government policy and regulatory roles existed even before the 18th century.

social policy

Americans aimed to achieve freedom in their new society by developing _____. Liberty is an important social objective, but Americans failed to grapple with another vital objective—that of equality, which would have required them to develop institutions capable of reducing economic and social discrepancies. Although the slogan of the French Revolution was liberty and equality, the American Revolution emphasized liberty

state and federal constitutions, elaborating a Bill of Rights, ending taxation without representation, establishing freedom of religion, and expanding suffrage

Those who wished to establish a separate church—or to urge reforms in the existing one—met with ___ from church or government officials and were sometimes sentenced to death. Just as noblemen did, the Catholic Church used serfs to farm its vast amounts of land. (In England, King Henry VIII declared the English branch of the Catholic Church to be a state church in 1534 and succeeded in wresting control of it from the Vatican.)

strenuous persecution

As the _____, women were expected to be obedient, to confine themselves to household duties (or, in pastoral areas, to those farming duties that were most related to the household, such as milking cows, making cheese, and making clothing). It was widely assumed that women were "weaker vessels"—that is, inferior to males not just physically but also morally and intellectually. Prior to the 17th century in England, virtually no women were literate, and educational reformers in that century, who gave some women exposure to education, refrained from allowing them to learn subjects like Latin, a language essential in an era that emphasized classical studies.

subordinate party

This huge and dispersed population—including coastal tribes on the Pacific and Atlantic, tribes inhabiting the forests east of the Mississippi, the Plains tribes that hunted buffalo, tribes that occupied the Rocky Mountains, and tribes that lived in the deserts of the southwestern and western portions of the continent—represented a major barrier for the white settlers because these tribes occupied _____

the land, the most valuable resource in the New World