The first American Way of Life

•Basic livelihood of Early Americans •Based on: tobacco, rice, fur and fish 4 distinct patterns of life: •Southern Plantations •New England Towns •Farms (middle colonies) •Coastal Cities

S. Plantations

• Single crop economies: – Tobacco- VA, MD – Rice, Indigo- SC – Sugar- W. Indies • Plantation= settlement – Individual holdings • Forced labor

Southern Plantation

• 1 st : VA • 1620s- tobacco boom – Labor force= white, cheaper – Lifespan of workers= 5-7 years – By 1650s life span ↑ • 1660s- production & pop increase – Navigation Acts make market go down – Price of tobacco↓ – Land value ↑ – Cost of production ↑ – Class of indigent freedmen ↑ • Armed, wild

Bacon’s Rebellion 1676

• Burned Jamestown – Drove out Gov Berkeley • Mostly servants, freedmen – Redistributed wealth • Slaves – 20 £ (2x of indentured servants) – Less dangerous – Kept unarmed, unorganized – VA- lower death rate than W.I.

• Children= property of master (use or sell) • 4.5% of all slaves imported – To American colonies

Plantations

• 30% of N. Amers = slaves • Few plantations had large numbers – Small communities – On riversides, coast, self sufficient – Planters governed on assembly + served w CT as magistrates • Dominated local society

England Towns

• Olde English Burroughs – Burroughs: town + charter from king, Mayor, Aldermen – Village: cluster- houses, fields, shared land • Open field system – Parish- area served by church, some local gov • Run by vestry (elite)

New England Townes

• Village, parish- church gathered as town built – Church officers diff from town officials – No property; no building – Meeting House: prayers, community meetings – Members elect minister • Penalty: ex communication – Sep of Church, State – Legislature= General court

Towns

– Applicants= proprietors of town • House lot in center • Meeting house in center • Land reserved for village green, school • Land w/ woods, meadows • Rest sold by proprietors • Puritans ran their own churches – Democracy in Congregational churches led to democracy in politics – Gov: town meeting • Local affairs, elected reps to assembly • By 1648: all free adult men

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Century

• Young go west for more land – More secular – More women join church – Men of town also met training day (militia) • Tavern= meeting for social purpose

Farms

• Land picked for – Water – Even ground – Fertility • Isolated because of size of farms – Soil depletion – Slow recovery – Max crops for min labor

Farm tenancy

• Common – Land speculation – Land value

↑ pop

↑ – Women married by 23 in 17 th c • 21 in 18 th c • Women average 5-6 children – Largest group of immigrants: slaves – Middle cols: big waves of immigration • Germany, N. Ireland

Middle colonies:

• At crossroads – stores – Trade hardware, clothing – Anglican church supported by taxes – Methodists, Baptists & Presbyterians move in to fill gaps • Outside NE – County court tried cases » Deeds, wills, care for orphans, poor – Family serves all functions » Doctor, school, brewery, manufacture, worship » Children = labor » Multi generational homes

Coastal cities

• Streets paved w/ oyster shells – Wild pigs, dogs – Sheep, cattle herded to market – Shops w/ luxuries – Merchants = impt men – Distillers of rum – Import wool, hardware – Millers – Coopers – Sophisticated people • Fashions, dance masters, barbers • Thieves, sewage problems • Lights, packed wood houses (fires)

Cities…

• Volunteer fire depts, police • Governments – Boston, Newport: selectmen & town meetings – New York: pop elected city corporation – Phillie: self perpetuating closed corporation • No reps – All: seaports, key rivers • Trade, transportation – Boston: shipping center – NYC= supply point for Hudson Valley, CT, NJ – Phillie: served PA, DE valley, back country – Each city had at least 1 newspaper

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century Americans

• No single polit org • Nationality: English • Institutions have local differences; not English – Puritan, Anglican flavor

Common ideas

• Representative gov • Gov should meet needs of people • Separation of Church + State • Some religious tolerance • Locke: human mind= blank slate – Knowledge is acquired • Natural law: all free men have rt to life, liberty, property • Freedom of printing press • Social mobility is possible here • Hard work is valued

Common institutions

• True Representation (not virtual) • Most free white males = land owners • Education = impt • Reading = impt • High literacy rate • Mostly protestant • Printing press + newspaper in almost all colonies • Schools • Colleges • Purpose of gov: to protect natural law

Attitudes by mid century

• Property qualifications to vote • Taxes born by people: voted by them • Clergy must serve; not rule • Suspicion of clerical authority (no bishops) • Fear of witchcraft • Sciences + discovery of universe via observation – Enlightenment • Newton’s physics respected • Individualism • Self reliance • Ability trumps birth • Admiration of success/ wealth

Half-Way Covenant

• Mid 17 th century sermons: – The Jeremiad • Scolding parishioners about fading piety • Alarmed by declining conversions – Testifying to receiving God’s Grace & auto admittance to Church – Church now allows Half-Way Covenant • Partial church membership to the not yet converted – Shows difficulty of maintaining the faith • Results: widening membership erased distinction of elect – & women come to dominate membership

Salem Witch Trials

• Adolescent girls claimed to be bewitched by certain women in Salem – Hysterical witch hunt follows 1692 • Those accused tended to be prosperous elite • Accusers came largely from poor families • Showing class division & tension – Hysteria ended 1693 when Governor’s wife was accused.

» Governor stopped trials and pardoned those accused but not yet executed.

The Great Awakening

• 1740s schisms, religious revivals, new groups • George Whitefield: Calvinist showman – 27 yrs old, preacher: fire + brimstone – From despair + fear to hope of salvation • For conversions • Jonathan Edwards: Strict Calvinist sparks revival 1735 – Conviction, conversion due to Spirit of God – New Lights: exuberant conversions • Undermined position of clergy • Said minister must be saved to bring salvation • Education: handicap to saving Grace • Educated: less respected

Old Lights

• Anti revival – cool & rational – Re-examine predestination • Unitarianism • Universalism • Deism

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Great Awakening

• 1790s-1840s – Rapid Social & economic change • New middle class (factory system) • Dorothea Dix & social reform – Prison reform – Mentally ill – Abolition & Seneca Falls – Early prohibition

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Awakening…(b)

– Evangelical movement • Preaching, not rituals – Anyone can be saved: good life; democratic!

• ↑ Methodists, Baptists • ↑↑Liberalness, competition: Anglicans, Presbyterians & Congregationalists – Itinerant preachers- emotional messages – Resistance to authority – Chart your own spiritual course » Lower classes, rise in democracy

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Awakening c.)

• Charles Finney – Revivalism -> science (**emotionalism) • Timothy Dwight & Lyman Beecher – Revise Calvinism… appeal to youth • Evangelism • Abolition • Transcendentalism: – Educated N.E.s

• Romanticism, from lit & Eastern philosophy • Ties to social reforms • Mormons • Communitarianism – Rappites, Shakers, new Harmony, Brook Farm, Oneida, Phalanxes

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Gt Awakening

• Atomic Age – Anxiety, cold war, fear – NY Times: God is Dead • 50s: Revivals- Billy Graham, TV – End of decade: slump in church attendance • 60s: modernized message – Social causes, civil rights, anti war – Eastern Religions • 80s: Protestant Fundamentalists – Old trad values – Moral Majority – Christian Coalition • Legal & social changes are conservative