Geographical note: The Fall Line marks the edge of the flat, fertile coastal plain and the beginning of the hillier, less-fertile Piedmont foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. All rivers had falls along this line, hence the name. It therefore also marked the point where ships could go no further upstream.
Prologue: What kind of land did John Smith find around the Chesapeake Bay? Who lived there? What was Smith's purpose? Who were Leah and Rachel, and why do the authors compare Virginia and Maryland to them? In what major ways were the two colonies similar? In what major ways were they different?
1. Why was England looking to establish colonies? Where did
the English look? What was the experience of Spanish Jesuits who came to the Chesapeake?
Describe the natives of the region. Who was Powhatan and what authority did he
have?
Who were the settlers at Jamestown? What challenges did they face? Why did
colonists prepare to leave in 1610? How did Lord De La Warr turn the colony
around? Explain the importance of tobacco, headrights, and self-government for
the colony. Describe relations with the Indians over the first decades of
Virginia. What was the outcome of Opechancanough's attack in 1622?
How and why was Maryland founded, and by whom? What kind of colony did the
Calverts try to establish? What kind of colony did they get?
2. How was tobacco grown and marketed? Explain how indentured servitude served planters' labor needs. Describe the slow adoption and legal definition of slavery in the 1600s. Why did the English Civil War of the 1640s cause serious problems for Virginia and Maryland? How did the colonies fare in the wake of the Restoration of Charles II in 1660? Explain why Indians continued to lose land to colonial expansion.
3. Why did the colonies become more dependent on slavery in latter part of the 17th century? How did settlement affect the landscape? What did most farms look like? How did Virginia and Maryland differ religiously? What were the causes and effects of Bacon's Rebellion? How did England's Glorious Revolution of 1688 affect Maryland, and what was the role of anti-Catholicism?
4. How did creole society differ from the earlier, mostly immigrant society? Describe the process of westward expansion, and how Virginia's experience differed from that of Maryland. How did the colonies' economies begin to diversify? What were the effects of a slowly rising standard of living on different social classes?
5. Describe life in slave communities. In which areas of life did slaves have little control, and in what ways did they try to assert themselves? Where did the free black community come from? How did authorities react to the presence of free blacks? Describe the colonies' hierarchical society. How did the elite exercise control? Who began to challenge their dominance?
Epilogue: What was the Ohio Company, and how did it spark the French and Indian War? Describe the three battles with the French at Fort Duquesne, and George Washington's role in them. Why were Virginia and Maryland unenthusiastic in their support of the war they started? How did the war's consequences pave the way for the Revolution?