ESPANSIONI DI TESTO

MODULE D - Society in Colonial America (p. 180)

TASK
Read the text below and fill in the blanks with the words in the box.

During the colonial period, there were distinct classes in the Old World. But in colonial America a poor person of … and energy could achieve the highest social rank. Throughout the colonies, social rank was soon based on office-holding and wealth rather than on family. In the south, the aristocracy was made up of large rice and tobacco …; in New York, it was the landed patrons(1); in New England, the office-holders and rich merchants in the coastal towns were social leaders. Social classes developed early and were rather well defined. Few of the settlers had been … in Europe, but as they gained …, they tried to imitate the aristocracy of the old countries. This group was small in … but enjoyed great power. It usually controlled the colonial governments and courts and the … in dress, architecture, and manners. It was chiefly the aristocrats who were interested in higher … and the arts.
The … of the colonial population was made up of freeholders, or middle-class freemen who owned property. These were small … and the lesser … of the towns. This group owned property and, therefore, had the … to vote. The freeholders usually controlled the lower houses of the colonial legislatures, and constantly … with the aristocrats for … of the government. The middle classes copied the style and … of the aristocrats and yearned for enough money to rank with them socially. Below the freeholders were the tenant farmers and wage earners in the towns. Most of them were struggling to get together enough money to … land and gain the right to vote.
The indentured servants were still … in the social scale. These men and women had signed an agreement to work without … for a number of years (usually five to seven) for the person or company which … their passage to America. At the end of his term of service, the indentured servant was given … by the colonial government and he became a middle-class freeman with the right to take part in the government and activities of the colonies.
The persons in the lowest position in colonial society were the black slaves, mostly brought from Africa against their …. In the 1660s, the slave system became legally recognized in the colonies. But it did not become important until after 1680, when black slaves began to take the place of white indentured servants on the southern plantations.

(1)Members of the Dutch West India Company who brought over to New Netherland (now the State of New York) 50 families of settlers at their own expense becoming a kind of feudal lords.

(Abridged from The World Book Encyclopedia, vol. 3, by Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, Chicago, Ill.,1963.)