What cultural factors pushed Europeans to explore beyond their borders during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

One reason for Europeans exploring beyond their borders was to seek fame and or riches. Europeans wanted to explore beyond their borders because they had found trade routes to the far East where they could trade with places like India and the Orient. There were other reasons involved depending on the individual. The other reason for the Europeans to explore beyond their borders is because they wanted religious freedom. America in particular was known for an abundance of land and it also had better conditions which would enable the planters to farm and grow.

What was "the Southern way of life" for the white Southerner? Be sure to look at more than the life of the planter.

States before the Civil War were often called "yeomen". They owned land and had no slaves or only a few. In the colonial and antebellum years, subsistence farmers settled in the backcountry.
If nothing else, slavery set the South apart, made it unique. But how did the institution function, and what was its impact on the slave? Analyze the plantation systemits social and its economic functions. How did it control its labor? And what was the response of these workers? How had this institution evolved since colonial times? (Be sure to consult previous chapters when answering this question.) Compare and contrast the way of life of Southern white women and black women during the 1840s and 1850s. How did the institution of slavery affect them both? How did the way of life of Southern white women compare to that of women in the North? (Be sure to consult previous chapters when answering this question
What was slavery like for the slave? Examine the daily life of a slavework, family life, diet, restrictions, and resistance.

What was the "culture of slavery"? How did slaves try to make their world a better place for themselves and their families?