Transcript Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution

Chapter 5
1700
fewer than 300,000 people
(20,000 were black)
By 1775; 2.5 million (1.25 were
black)
Average colonist age in 1775; 16
years old.
1700-
20 English for every American
colonist.
1775- 3 English for every colonist
(power balance is shifting)
Most populous colonies; Virginia,
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North
Carolina, and Maryland.
 Germans: 6%
1775)
of the population (150,000 by
• Most in Pennsylvania
 Scots-Irish: 7%
1775)
of population (175,000 by
• Most in Pennsylvania
• Led the Regulators movement in North Carolina (
young Andrew Jackson)
 Europeans
(French Huguenots, Welsh,
Dutch, Swedes, Jews, Irish, Swiss, and Scots
Highlanders): 5% of population by 1775.
Christian
minister was the most
honored profession.
Most physicians were poorly trained
and not held in high regard (1st
medical school founded in 1765).
If the physician was not available, the
local barber was often summoned.
Agriculture
involved about 90%
of colonial America.
Fishing was less important than
agriculture, but it was found in all
the colonies.
A ship would leave the colonies w/ rum
and sail to the Gold Coast of Africa
They would trade the liquor w/
African chiefs for captured slaves
They headed to the West Indies and
traded the surviving slaves
For molasses, which would be
distilled into rum in the colonies
In
1733, British Parliament passed
the Molasses Act, aimed at
squelching North American trade
with the French West Indies.
This act, if successful, would have
dealt a striking blow to the American
economy and standard of living for
Colonists.
American
merchants responded to
the act by bribing and smuggling
their way around the law.
This was a foreshadowing to the
colonists revolting rather than
submitting to colonial rule.
 Not
until the 1700s did roads connect
even the major cities.
 News of the Declaration of Independence
in 1776 reached Charleston from
Philadelphia 29 days after the fourth of
July.
 Population tended to cluster along the
banks of navigable rivers.
 Taverns
sprang up along main routes and
gave people the chance to enjoy bowling,
pool, and gambling equipment.
 Taverns were also the de facto debate
houses of the day for politics and the
coming revolution.
 Samuel Adams often held court in
Boston’s Green Dragon Tavern.
An
inter-colonial postal system was
established by the mid 1700s.
Service was slow and infrequent, and
mail carriers often passed the time
by reading the letters entrusted to
their care.
 Two
tax-supported churches were
conspicuous in 1775; the Anglican
Church (Church of England) and the
Congregational Church (Puritan).
 The Church of England became the
official faith in GA, NC, SC, VA, and MD.
 The Congregation Church was
established in all New England colonies
except RI.
Liberal
ideas began to challenge the
old-time religion.
Some worshippers now proclaimed
that human beings were not
necessarily predestined to
damnation and might save
themselves by leading a life of good
works.
 Arminianism
was a threat to Calvinist
predestination.
 Named after Dutch theologian Jacobus
Arminius, it preached that individual free
will, not divine decree, determined a
person’s eternal fate and all humans, not
just the ‘elect’ could be saved if they
freely accepted God’s grace
The
Great Awakening of the 1730s
and 1740s was ignited by Johnathan
Edwards and George Whitfield who
preached an emphasis on direct,
emotional, spirituality.
A
debate was sparked between the
old lights- Orthodox clergymen, who
were skeptical of the emotionalism
and theatricality of the revivalists,
and the new lights- who defended
the Awakening for its role in
revitalizing American religion.
 The
Great Awakening led to the founding
of “new light” centers of learning such as
Princeton, Brown, Rutgers, and
Dartmouth.
 It also broke down sectional boundaries
as well as denominational lines and
contributed to the growing sense that
Americans had of themselves as a single
people, united by a common history and
shared experiences.
English
education was seen as
something reserved for the
aristocratic few, and primary for
leadership and males.
In Puritan New England, education
was seen as important in order to be
a good Christian rather than a good
citizen.
 Primary
and secondary schools were
created in New England almost from the
outset of the colonies.
 Elementary schools were present in the
middle colonies and in the South, but
because of geography, wealthy Southern
families leaned on private tutors.
 College education, at least in New
England, was geared toward preparing
for ministry.
 Diet;
• Americans probably ate more meat than any
people in the Old World.
 Lacking basic comforts;
• Churches were not heated
• Homes poorly heated,
• No running water or indoor plumbing.
• Candles and whale oil lamps provided
flickering illumination.
• Hogs roamed the streets to consume waste.
 Lotteries
were universally approved, even
by the clergy, and were used to raise money
for churches and colleges including
Harvard.
 British North American by 1775 looked like
a patchwork quilt- each part slightly
different, but stitched together by common
origins, common ways of life, and common
beliefs in toleration, economic
development, and, above all, self-rule.