Colonial Work and Coercion

Supplied materials

• Paper and pencil; drawing or spoken answers are welcome.
• Topic notes: Wage work: work performed for agreed pay. Apprenticeship: training in a trade under an agreement with a skilled worker. Indentured service: labor bound by a contract for a stated term. Slavery: coercive control treating people as property.
• Original exercise cards: A classroom historical-style card describes a worker paid for a job. / A historical-style card describes a learner training with a craftsperson. / A historical description identifies a fixed service term. / A historical description identifies people sold as property. / A young learner receives structured trade instruction from a master artisan. / A labor contract binds a worker for several years. / A historical card describes forced labor without the enslaved person’s freedom to leave. / A worker receives money for stated labor.

Learn the idea

Colonial economies included farming, crafts and commerce, but labor arrangements differed in freedom and power. Wage work received payment; apprenticeship trained a trade under an agreement; indentured service bound labor for a term; slavery imposed ownership and coercion. These categories cannot be treated as equally free choices.

Wage work: work performed for agreed pay. Apprenticeship: training in a trade under an agreement with a skilled worker. Indentured service: labor bound by a contract for a stated term. Slavery: coercive control treating people as property.

Check the labor arrangement: agreed pay, training in a trade, a fixed service contract or enslaved people denied freedom. Read the notes and the word cards. You can write, draw or say your answer.

1. Read the four notes. Find the words Wage work, Apprenticeship, Indentured service, Slavery.
2. Check the labor arrangement: agreed pay, training in a trade, a fixed service contract or enslaved people denied freedom.
3. Read the worked answer. Then try the other cards and explain which words helped you choose.
4. Choose two different examples: one for Wage work and one for Apprenticeship. Explain how their clues differ.

Check your reasoning

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Take it further

New card: “A worker receives money for stated labor.” Match it with a note, then point to or say the words that helped. Check: The card says: “A worker receives money for stated labor.” That matches Wage work. Wage work is work performed for agreed pay.

Nothing here is saved to an account or sent to a teacher. The answer download includes your current choice and any checked feedback. It does not include choices from the separate More practice section. Download that section separately.