Settlers in the early eighteenth century had no radio, no television, and few books. They had no electricity and little light after sunset. What did they do with their time? Students may enjoy speculating on such a question. Ask three students to construct a likely set of activities in an average twenty-four-hour period for a farm family in Massachusetts, a family of planters, and an urban family in Philadelphia and report to the class. In addition to the general colonial histories already cited, see Richard Hofstadter, America at 1750: A Social Portrait (1971); Daniel Blake Smith, Inside the Great House: Family Life in Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake Society (1980); Carl Bridenbaugh, Cities in the Wilderness: The First Century of Urban Life in America, 1625-1742 (second edition; 1968) and Cities in Revolt: Urban Life in America, 1743-1776 (1955); Jane C. Nylander, Our Own Snug Fireside: Images of the New England Home, 1760-1860 (1993); and Stephanie Grauman Wolf, As Various as Their Land: The Everyday Lives of Eighteenth-Century Americans (1993). For earlier years see David Freeman Hawke, Everyday Life in Early America (1988), and George Francis Dow, Everyday Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1988).

Preparation of biographical sketches is an assignment often made in history courses. Try it with an additional twist. Ask students to come to a conclusion regarding the short-term consequences of the subject's accomplishments, the long-term consequences, and the ultimate success or failure of the subject's life. Possible subjects are William Penn, James Oglethorpe, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Junípero Serra, and others that the instructor may add. You may also wish to raise the general question of success and failure for speculative discussion by the class. See Melvin B. Endy, Jr., William Penn and Early Quakerism (1973); Phinizy Spalding, Oglethorpe in America (1977); Joseph Tracy, Great Awakening: A History of the Revival of Religion in the Time of Edwards and Whitefield (1945); Perry Miller, Jonathan Edwards (1949); and Donald De Nevi and Noel Moholy, Junípero Serra (1987).

A whole tradition seems to have grown up about English inability to fathom the character of the warfare practiced by Native Americans, at least until after the French and Indian War. There had been Indian wars for over a century before that. How was warfare actually conducted during King William's War and Queen Anne's War? Ask a pair of students to try to answer the question and comment on it for the class. See Howard H. Peckham, The Colonial War, 1689-1762 (1964); John E. Ferling, A Wilderness of Miseries: War and Warriors in Early America (1980) and Struggle for a Continent: The Wars of the Colonial Age (1993); and John Morgan Dederer, War in America to 1775: Before Yankee Doodle (1990); and Patrick M. Malone, The Skulking Way of War: Technology and Tactics Among the New England Indians (1993).

The assigning of individual student exercises should not be mistaken for an arbitrary increase in some students' responsibilities and not in others. Rather, the instructor will want to keep a careful record of such assignments, perhaps even allocating weight according to level of difficulty or demands on time. By the end of the semester, there should be at least rough justice in the distribution of work.