Transcript Growth and Crisis in Colonial Society

Ch.4


Puritans wanted a yeoman society and by
1750 had settled most of arable land
Puritan ideology placed husband/father as
head of household
◦ Didn’t matter if wife was wealthier or smarter
◦ Female gender roles taught throughout a woman’s
life
◦ Women supposed to be helpmates
◦ More women members of church congregations
than men

European men came to America because it
offered opportunities to own land and Europe
didn’t
◦ Poor families sent children to be indentured
servants
◦ Wealthier farm families gave children marriage
portions
 Gave fathers the choice in child’s spouse
 Wife gave up all land at marriage to husband and
received a dower right at his death


New England’s population doubled with each
generation and portions of farms became so
small that father’s couldn’t provide a decent
inheritance
Less to give children meant less control over
their lives




Chose to have smaller families
Received frontier land grants or just created
farms out of frontier land on their own
Used small plots more productively
Household mode of production


Grain exports to the West Indies financed and
attracted rapid settlement
Between 1720 and 1765 the population grew
from 120,000 to 450,000


Few migrants moved to NY because Dutch
landlords and wealthy English families owned
large tracts of land along Hudson River Valley
To attract settlers, manorial lords granted
them long leases with the right to sell their
improvements to the next tenant

Wealth was distributed more evenly at first,
but expanding trade in wheat and influx of
poor settlers led to social divisions
◦ Agriculture Capitalists
◦ Propertyless men
 Agriculture capitalists took advantage of ample labor
supply
 Socially divided communities like those in England
emerged


Middle Colonies were not a melting pot
because migrants held tightly to their
religious beliefs and traditions
Preserved cultural identities by marrying
within their community



Mennonites in 1683 due to religious
persecution
1720’s- overcrowding and religious upheaval
brought more Germans
1749-1756- 40,000 more
◦ Remained in PA or moved south through
Shenandoah Valley


Irish were the largest incoming European
group (approx. 150,000)
Some Catholic but many Presbyterians who
were forced from Scotland by British
◦ Many came to America due to persecution in Ireland



Religious leaders in America had less power
through government
Religious value were upheld through
communal self-discipline (meetings, etc.)
1740’s Quaker dominance in PA came under
attack
◦ Made a minority by Germans and Scots-Irish
◦ Challenged pacifism of Quakers
◦ Quakers turned to Germans as allies and in return
Germans demanded better representation and laws
respecting their inheritance customs
◦ Created political turmoil

Enlightenment- emphasized the power of
human reason to understand and shape the
world
◦ Appealed to urban artisans and well-educated men
and women the most

Pietism- Evangelical Christian movement that
stressed the individual’s person relationship
with God and attracted many, primarily
farmers and urban laborers



Before Enlightenment, many people in
America relied on folk wisdom and religion to
explain events
Scientific Revolution challenged Christian
beliefs about the universe
Philosophers of the Enlightenment used
research and scientific reasoning to study all
aspects of life

Enlightenment influenced
by Locke’s Two Treatises of
Government (1690)
◦ Political authority came from
social contracts that people
made to preserve their natural
rights
◦ People have the right to
change government policies
through the majority

Ideas came to America and
resulted in many clergymen
devising rational forms of
Christianity and promoting
inoculations to prevent
diseases
John Locke

Ben Franklin leader of
Enlightenment in
America
◦ American Philosophical
Society
◦ Deist- God created the
world but allowed it to
operate through laws of
nature
 Did not intervene directly
in people’s lives
◦ Poor Richard’s Almanack
(1732-1757)
Ben Franklin




“Eat to live, not live to
eat.”
“After three days men
grow weary of a wench, a
guest, and weather
rainy.”
“Three may keep a
secret, if two of them are
dead.”
“Early to bed and early to
rise, makes a man
healthy, wealthy, and
wise.”

Many also turned to Pietism, a Christian
movement that emphasized pious behavior
◦ Origins in Germany in 1700 and came over with
migrants
◦ Individuals could form a mystical union with God
and its emotional services appealed to the heart
whereas the Enlightenment appealed to the mind
◦ Quickly sparked a religious revival
 Rousing emotional sermons and promoted spreading
the message


Simultaneously, an American-born pious
movement appeared in Puritan New England
because original spiritual zeal had faded
Restored zeal to Congregational Churches
◦ Preached that men and women were helpless and
completely dependent on God
◦ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
 Vivid words would “fright persons away from Hell” and
promote conversions


Transformed revivals
inspired by Edwards
into a Great Awakening
Follower of John
Wesley
◦ Founder of Methodism


Preached from Georgia
and Massachusetts
“New Light”- salvation
from God, born again
George Whitefield

Conservative ministers (“Old Lights”) vs.
Evangelical Ministers (“New Lights”)
◦ New Lights allowed women to speak in public
churches
◦ New Lights said Old Lights were unconverted
sinners

Undermined allegiance to established
churches and tax-supported ministers
◦ 125 separatist churches founded in New England
and these ministers were supported through
voluntary contributions
◦ Others joined Baptist churches


Challenged authority of all ministers and
emphasized that all who received redemption
from God’s grace could speak with ministerial
authority
Reinforced communal values of farm-families
by questioning moneygrubbing practices of
wealthy

Churches founded new colleges to educate
men and train ministers
◦
◦
◦
◦

Presbyterians- College of New Jersey (Princeton)
Anglicans- King’s College (Columbia)
Baptists- College of Rhode Island (Brown)
Dutch Reformed Church – Queen’s College (Rutgers)
Educational legacy of Great Awakening was a
sense of authority among many



Wealthy families held the power in the
Anglican churches and used their control over
parish finances to discipline their ministers
Great Awakening challenged church and
planter elite’s authority
To halt spread of New Light beliefs, VA
Governor Gooch condemned them as “false
teachings” which kept many away

Large number of converts in 1760’s
◦ Radical Protestants
◦ Adult, not infant baptism
◦ Slaves were welcome
 First major conversion in VA in 1760’s
◦ Against social hierarchy
◦ By 1775, 15% of whites and hundreds of black
slaves had joined the Baptist Church
◦ No equality among sexes

Events occur that change social life:
◦ French and Indian War (British vs. French in
America) becomes worldwide conflict
◦ Surge in trade boosted colonial consumption but
placed some Americans in deep debt with British
creditors
◦ Westward migration of colonists sparked new
conflicts with natives, land speculators, and
eastern-controlled governments

By 1754, both France and Great Britain laid
claim to much of the land west of the
Appalachians but few Europeans had moved
there because of:
◦ Few natural routes
◦ Iroquois and other native peoples controlled much
of the frontier river valleys and opposed white
settlement


Natives had played the French off the British
using the fur trade but Europeans
increasingly resented the “gifts” in exchange
for furs by the 1740’s
Anglo-American and native relations had
deteriorated by 1740’s due to settlers moving
West

Meeting to repair AngloAmerican and Indian
relationship
◦ Anglo-Americans denied any
attempts at Iroquois land and
asked for help against the
French
◦ To counter the French, Ben
Franklin proposed the Albany
Plan on Union where delegates
of the Continental Assembly
would:
 Manage trade
 Manage Indian policies
 Manage defense in the West and
increase British influence there


Ohio Company land grant alarmed French and
they built forts in preparation of war
Confrontation occurred when Gov. Dinwiddie
sent a military expedition to Ohio River Valley
and French attacked them
◦ British Prime Minister against war because of debt
◦ Lord Halifax and William Pitt for war because they
advocated colonial expansion.
 Persuaded PM to send troops to America


1756 spreads to Europe (Seven Years’ War)
Pitt became architect of war vs. French
◦ Paid ½ cost of colonial troops and supplied them
with arms and equipment
◦ Committed a British fleet and 30,000 troops

Beginning in 1758 the British/Americans
forces were consistently successful
◦ Treaty of 1763 ended the war
 British gained French Canada, territory east of
Mississippi, and Spanish FL

Ottawa Chief led
confederation of tribes
against British
◦ Initially successful, but
Indian alliance weakened,
allowing British troops to
defeat them
◦ Peace Settlement:
 Pontiac and allies
accepted British as their
“new fathers”
 Proclamation of 1763


Military/Diplomatic success because of its
unprecedented economic resources
Americans bought 30% of all British exports
◦ Led to a “consumer revolution”
◦ Raised colonial standard of living
◦ Buying British goods put some Americans in debt
 Exports paid for 80% of purchases, other 20% came
from British credit and Pitt’s military expenditures
 Military money ended in 1763 and left colonists in a
recession

Colonial population continued to grow and
increased demand for arable land
◦ Families from Kent, CT and from PA were at war by
1750’s
◦ Land disputes in Hudson River Valley in 1750’s
◦ Additional land disputes in NC and VA
◦ Settlers and new migrants moved toward
Appalachian Mountains


During F/I War the Delaware and Shawnee
Indians attacked settlers in Western PA,
killing and capturing 100’s
1763 Scots-Irish demanded removal of
Indians but Quaker gov’t refused
◦ Paxton Boys massacred 20 members of peaceful
Conestaga Indians
◦ When Gov. Penn tried to bring Paxton Boys to
justice, 250 Scots-Irish marched on Philadelphia
◦ Franklin intercepted to mob and arranged truce
◦ Paxton Boys freed due to lack of witnesses and
Scots-Irish dropped demand for Indian removal


Backcountry Scots-Irish and Anglo-American
settlers clashed with Cherokee and F/I War
1763 the Regulators tried to suppress outlaw
bands of whites who were stealing cattle and
other property
◦ Also wanted western districts to have more courts,
greater representation in gov’t, and fair tax system
 1767 the SC government only gave them more courts

Recession caused a decline in tobacco prices
and farmers couldn’t pay debts
◦ Creditors sued and judges directed sheriffs to seize
the debtor’s property and sell it to pay debt/court
costs
◦ NC debtors defied the gov’t and demanded:
 Legislation to lower legal fees and allow payment of
taxes in the “produce of the country”
 Greater representation in the assembly
 Fair tax system
◦ Governor Tryon chose to suppress the rebellion
instead
 30 killed, 7 leaders executed later