Transcript EARLY AMERICAN CULTURE

Chapter 5
Beginnings of an
American Identity
1689-1763
5.1
Early American Culture
In England only 5% of the population
owned land.
In America, land was up for
grabs. Anyone, with any money,
could own land. So, many
Americans were landowners.
Social Mobility
~In England there was
very little social
mobility. If you were
going to “be someone”,
you HAD to own land.
~Since England is a
small island, the only
people that owned land
were nobility – people
who had inherited land
from their ancestors.
Cheap farmland and plentiful
natural resources were two
elements that gave English
colonial farmers a chance to
prosper.
Although women were essential
to the colonial economy, women
were not allowed to own land,
vote, preach in most churches,
and by law, even the money she
earned belonged to her
husband.
In the social ranks
of colonial life,
women held the
same rank as their
husbands.
In the colonies, children as
young as three or four were
expected to be useful. At the
age of six, boys began to help
their fathers at work. Around
age 11 many boys left home to
become apprentices in a trade.
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Land was plentiful in
America. If a person
worked hard, he could
eventual own his own
land. With land
ownership came
political influence and
social status.
Upper
Middle
Lower
Middle
Low
Large landowners
Church officials
Government officials
Wealthy merchants
• Small farmers
• Trades-people
• Renters
• Unskilled workers
• Indentured
servants
• slaves
Education was very important in the colonies.
Most children learned to read; wealthier children
also learned writing and arithmetic. Most
education was religious in nature. The main reason
for the colonies’ mandate or order that children
learn to read was so that they could learn to read
the bible. It was illegal to teach slaves to read.
A Dame School
One of the most famous examples of
the New England Primer’s verse is as
follows:
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep;
If I should die before I wake,
I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take.
—1784 ed.
Newspapers and books, mostly printed
in England, helped draw the colonies
together. Among these, almanacs
containing farm advice,
remedies, recipes, etc., were
very popular.
Haste makes
waste .
In the early 1730s and 1740s, a
religious movement called the
Great Awakening swept
through the colonies. Traveling
ministers preached that inner
religious emotion was more
important than outward
religious behavior.
Unlike the Great Awakening,
which stressed religious
emotion, the Enlightenment
emphasized reason and science
as the paths to knowledge.
The Enlightenment Began in
Europe
•Scientists discovered natural laws governing
the universe
•Isaac Newton explained the law of gravity
Benjamin Franklin, a
man of reason and
science, was a good
example of the
Enlightenment in the
American colonies.
Accomplishments:
•Proved that lightning is a
form of electricity
•Invented lightning rods to
protect buildings
•Invented the Franklin stove
•Invented bifocal glasses
•Organized a fire department
•Organized a lending library
•Helped draft the Declaration
of Independence
Franklin in 1783, an engraving from a
painting by Joseph Duplessis.
Section 5.2
The Roots of Representative
Government
The Englishmen in England Felt
Superior to the Englishmen in America
•The English back in
England felt that
Americans were
unsophisticated people
•The English nobility
even thought that
George Washington
and Benjamin Franklin
were hicks.
The English did not consider America
an equal part of England.
They considered America a wilderness
that could be used for profit.
The American Attitude:
WE ARE ENGLISHMEN
Americans felt they were entitled to every right
and privilege guaranteed to English citizens.
According to the Magna Carta written in 1215,
Englishmen had the rights to due process.
1.The Magna Carta
2.the English Bill of Rights
3.the Glorious Revolution,
all played a part in the
growth of representative
government in the
colonies.
The Rights of Englishmen
A look at English government
•Magna Carta (1215) This document guaranteed
important rights to noblemen and freemen.
•They could:
The Magna Carta 6:13
•Not be taxed
•Be punished only by a jury of their peers
•Not have their property seized
•IMPORTANT because it gave colonists the idea of having
basic rights
Parliament - England’s law-making group
•these people were elected by representatives
•the colonists’ model for representative government
Parliament in England
in the 1700’s.
Our version of Parliament is ????
England’s Glorious
Revolution
King James II ignored
Parliament and tried to
restore Catholicism.
Parliament replaced King
James II with William and
Mary.
English Bill of Rights
The king or queen
could not cancel laws
or impose taxes unless
Parliament agreed.
Salutary Neglect’s Impact
England interfered very
little in colonial affairs.
The colonists got used to
acting independently (on
their own).
Peter Zenger Trial
resulted in freedom of
the press
5.3
The French &
Indian War
The French & Indian War
The French and Indian War into. 18 min.
•The fur trade created alliances
(partnerships) between the Indians and their
trading partners.
 France & England declared war on each
other in Europe.
– French and English colonists in Americas also
began to fight each other because of the war.
 With
the help of their Native American
friends, the French & British(us) began
attacking each others settlements and forts.
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the story of the fur hat 2:33
The basic cause of the
conflict among Native
Americans west of the
Appalachian
Mountains was land
and the fur trade.
Causes of the French and Indian
War:
1.conflict between English and
French fur traders in the Ohio
Valley
2.fighting between France and
England in Europe
3.fighting among Native American
groups
The Albany Plan of Union
Albany Plan of Union – Benjamin
Franklin’s idea – a formal proposal to
unite all 13 colonies to fight against the
French.
First formal proposal to unite the colonies
DID NOT WORK!
Why was the plan defeated?
• colonies did not want to give up control of their own
affairs.
• colonies had their own governments, laws, and did not
want to give that up
Turning Point of the
French and Indian
War
*the Battle of
Quebec
What did France lose
under the Treaty of
Paris?
Power in North
America
Before F&I War
After F&I War
British settlers moved
onto Native American
land which drove the
Native Americans
toward Pontiac’s
Rebellion.
Pontiac’s Rebellion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxbipcZ-ee4 10:57
The Proclamation
of 1763 was a
response to
Pontiac’s
Rebellion.