I. INTRO: Throughout the eighteenth century to the time
period directly
prior to the American Revolution, the colonies continued
to develop
according to their individual interests and priorities.
II. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
A. POWER STRUGGLE: The triad of royal
governor, appointed council, and
elected assembly began to be questioned.
Some colonists distrusted
the governor and his council as
possible threats to colonial freedoms
and the customary way of life
in the colonies. There was an effort
to obtain more power for the colonial
assemblies. Many viewed the
assemblies as the people's protector.
The members of the assemblies
saw themselves as representatives
of the people. They saw their
duty as not so much to make policy
that would improve the lives of
the people but rather to prevent
the encroachment of the government
on the people's rights. The assemblies
asserted control through the
power of the purse (they
controlled the disbursement of the
governor's pay)
B. PARTISANSHIP: Political positions
formed with the supporters of
royal policy called court parties
and those who defended colonial
autonomy called the opposition
or country interests.
C. MILITIAS: Most colonies recruited
militias for protection and
maintenance of law and order.
Militia musters on village greens
became both military and social
events.
D. ZENGER CASE: John Peter Zenger,
a newspaper printer, published an
attack of the corrupt royal governor
of New York in 1733. In 1734
he was arrested for libel. In
his 1735 trial his attorney, Andrew
Hamilton, argued that Zenger had
printed the truth, which cannot be
libel. Zenger was found not guilty.
This was the first major
victory for freedom of the press
in the colonies.
E. REGULATOR MOVEMENTS; In he 1760's
in South Carolina and the 1770's
in North Carolina, Scots-Irish
backwoodsmen led protests against
eastern political domination.
F. TAVERNS: These have been dubbed
cradles
of democracy. Set along
trade routes, they served as sources
of information, gossip,
agitation.
III. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS: The American economy fluctuated
depending upon
the impact of European wars and the overseas demand
for American
products. Increasing colonial population created
an internal demand for
merchandise. Small-scale colonial manufacturing
began and a network of
internal trade developed. The largest colonial manufacturing
enterprise
was ironmaking. By 1775 the colonies were
producing more iron than
England. The slow economic growth of the 18th. century
resulted in a
rise in the standard of living for property-owning
Americans.
A. PARLIAMENT: The English law-making
body continued to try to impose
mercantilist policy on the colonies.
In 1733 it passed the Molasses
Act which restricted colonial
trade with the French West Indies. The
American response included smuggling
and bribing customs officials.
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B. NEW ENGLAND: By the mid-1700's an
intercolonial postal service was
established. Life was becoming
difficult for young people as they
inherited a greatly-divided landholding
or no land at all if the
entire inheritance went to the
oldest son. Many became wage
laborers or migrated westward.
Commerce, particularly the
Triangular Trade, was becoming
evermore important in New England.
C. THE SOUTH: Economic stratification
continued as wealthy Tidewater
planters increased slave ownership
and reduced the need for white
labor. Poor whites often
became tenant farmers, overseers, day
laborers. Conversely, after 1745,
some tobacco planters in the
Chesapeake switched to wheat and
corn since these prices were rising
and tobacco prices were falling.
This switch lowered the demand for
slaves, many of whom were sold
to planters in the Lower South or
were allowed to buy their freedom.
D. MIDDLE COLONIES: Commerce became
more important. New York City
grew to rival and than surpass
Philadelphia.
E. LAND CLAIMS: Competition for land
east of the Appalachians
increased as the supply dwindled.
1. In 1746 New Jersey
farmers owning lands granted by the
governor
clashed with East Jersey proprietors who claimed the
land and
demanded payment, called quitrents.
2. In the 1760's in the Vermont
region farmers holding land
grants
from New Hampshire clashed with speculators who held
title
from New York authorities.
3. Along the Hudson River
in 1765 and 1766 a family named Philipse
brought
suit against migrants from New England who had squatted
on Philipse
land for up to 20 or 30 years. The court agreed
with the
Philipse family and ordered the squatters to vacate.
The farmers
organized a rebellion which successfully controlled
the Hudson
Valley for almost a year. British troops were
finally
able to put down the rebellion after capturing its
leaders.
IV. RELIGION
A. NEW ENGLAND: Congregationalism was
the established church in all
but Rhode Island which was known
for complete religious toleration
and individualism. The ministry
was still the most-honored
profession although it was less
influential than in the 17th. century
The heresy of Arminianism,
which preached that free will determines
salvation, was fought by the established
church.
B. THE GREAT AWAKENING (1730's-40's)
1. Jonathan Edwards preached complete dependence on God's grace
2. George Whitefield,
an English Methodist preacher, toured the
colonies
in 1738 preaching human helplessness and divine
omnipotence.
The complete submission to the will of God would
result
in a moment of conversion
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3. The established churches
fought against the revivalist message.
Old
Lights vs. New Lights.
4. Results
included the undermining of orthodox authority; an
increase
in the number of churches, particularly the Baptist
and Methodist
churches; an increase in missionary work; the
establishment
of Princeton (1747), Columbia (1754), Brown
(1764),
Rutgers (1766), and Dartmouth (1769 - established to
train
missionaries to Christianize the Indians); the lessening
of deference
which undermined the prerogatives of the gentry.
5. The Great Awakening was
the first all-colonial religious
movement
and helped to break down sectional boundaries.
V. PEOPLE: The population rose from 300,000 in 1700 to
2.5 million in 1775.
In 1775 about half of the population was under 16 years
of age.
The largest single non-English migrants were Africans
who composed 20% of
colonial population in 1775. They composed a majority
of the population
in South Carolina; they were half the population in Georgia;
they were
40% of the population in the Chesapeake.
A. THE MIDDLE COLONIES: Germans,
who migrated to the colonies between
1730 and 1755 composed 6% of the
population. They were primarily
Lutheran. They were 1/3 of the
population of Pennsylvania by the end
of the 18th. century where they
were called Pennsylvania Dutch.
B. THE SOUTH: The Scots-Irish (Presbyterian
Scots who had first moved
to Northern Ireland to escape
Anglican discrimination); made up 7% of
colonial population. Most settled
in the backwoods of Maryland,
Virginia, the Carolinas. They
were a hardy, independent, self-
sufficient people - yeoman
farmers. Another large group of migrants
were the Scots (they were Jacobites,
ie. supporters of James II;
they were exiled between 1715
and 1745), who settled mainly in North
Carolina. The FFV's still dominated
southern society. The most
prominent family was the Byrds
who sported the largest book
collection in the colonies.
C. HEALTH: Plagues visited periodically,
especially smallpox. In 1721
inoculations were introduced but
they were not wholeheartedly
embraced, particularly by doctors
and clergymen. There was a
diphtheria epidemic in the 1730's.
D. STONO REBELLION: In September, 1739
twenty South Carolina slaves
seized guns and ammunition from
a store, killed the storekeeper and
some nearby planter families.
They were joined by about 80 other
slaves and headed toward Spanish
Florida for refuge. Militia caught
them later that day. Some slaves
were killed and the rest dispersed.
Most of these were captured within
the week and executed. This
episode shocked whites and resulted
in stronger laws regarding slaves
VI. RELATIONS WITH THE INDIANS: There were few Indians
remaining in New
England. Those not slaughtered moved westward. The
Iroquois
Confederacy
was still strong in the western portions of the
Middle Colonies. In
1764 the Paxton Boys marched on Philadelphia
led by Scots-Irish
protesting Quaker leniency toward the Indians. In
South Carolina the
Tuscarawas fought and were defeated by the
colonists in 1711-12. Many
were sold into slavery. In 1715 South Carolinians
and their Cherokee
allies defeated the Yamasees.
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VII. EDUCATION
A. Yale was established in 1701. In 1731 Benjamin
Franklin established
the first circulating library
in Philadelphia. In 1740 he
established the University of
Pennsylvania, the first non-
denominational college.
B. HIGHER EDUCATION in the 18th. century
was greatly influenced by
the ideas of the Enlightenment.
The focus was on the use of reason
to challenge commonly-held assumptions.
Reason and empirical
knowledge was stressed. The influence
on religion resulted in Deism
in which God was a distant presence
who had ordered the world with
natural laws that humans could
discover through investigation and
logic. In response to these ideas
colleges altered their Curriculums.
Before the 1720's the focus was
on ancient languages and theology.
After the 1720's courses in mathematics,
the natural sciences, law,
and medicine were introduced.
C. BASIC EDUCATION was generally provided
for males and consisted of
reading, writing, and figuring.
Anything else was a frill. Girls
learned the rudiments of the basics
plus music, dancing, and fancy
needlework. In the South,
it was considered subversive to teach
slaves to read and write
VIII. DAILY LIFE
A. The BASIC UNIT of colonial society
was the household. It was
headed by a white male who held
legal and economic authority over the
family. Most families were large.
A household generally consisted
only of the nuclear family.
Household tasks were gender associated
to such an extent that if one
of the genders was absent their jobs
would not be done. Women's
jobs included food preservation and
preparation, house cleaning, laundry,
and clothes production. Men's
jobs included field cultivation,
maintenance and harvesting, chopping
wood, building fences, animal
care, and butchering.
B. FARM HOUSEHOLDS were governed by
the seasons and by the hours of
daylight. Men had more leisure
in the winter; women in the summer.
Isolation and heavy work loads
made social time precious. Taverns
served this need for men. Women
socialized at child births, quilting
parties, spinning bees. Southerners
held barbecues and week-long
house parties (due to the distance
between plantations). Church was
also a social occasion. Harvest
festivals, corn-husking bees, barn
raisings were also occasions for
socializing.
C. URBAN LIFE in colonial times was
more dependent on clocks. Goods
were often available year round.
Life moved at a more rapid pace
and at a noisier level. Socializing
was not tied to farming
events. The wealthy had a lot
of leisure time. There was more
contact with the outside world
through newspapers and traveling
theatre productions.
D. The STATUS OF WOMEN in the colonies
depended on whether they were
married or not. A married woman
was subject to her husband. The
legal term that applied was coverture,
meaning a married woman
became one person with her husband.
She had few legal rights
separate from her husband. Only
widows or never-married women could
legally run independent businesses.
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E. The STATUS OF CHILDREN depended
on the will of the father. The
father set the rules and enforced
discipline.
IX. COLONIAL CULTURE: For the first half of the 18th.
century colonial
culture was oral, communal, and local for most people.
For the elite,
culture was print-oriented, individualized, and
cosmopolitan. A definite
divergence of social classes was developing.
A. A majority of the people of British America were
illiterate.
Conversation was the primary means
of communication. Information
traveled slowly. The regions developed
distinctive cultures since
there was sparse interaction between
them.
B. CHURCH ATTENDANCE very important
as a social agent. The first book
printed in the colonies was the
Bay
Psalm Book in 1640. Holidays
were celebrated with additional
Church attendance. Christmas in
18th. century colonial America
was celebrated in a strictly religious
sense. Secular decorations and
merriment were considered "popery."
C. CIVIC FUNCTIONS: Days of thanksgiving,
feasting, prayer were
declared by colonial governments.
Militia musters brought together
men between ages 16 and 60 once
a month. Court and election
days were important in the Chesapeake.
Voting was held in public
followed by rum paid for by the
candidate.
D. THE FINE ARTS
1. Painters:
John Trumbull 1756-1843; Charles Wilson Peale 1741-
1827;
Benjamin West 1738-1820; John Singleton Copley 1738-1815
2. Poetry: Philis Wheatley 1753-1784, free black from Boston
3. America's Renaissance
Man: Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790,
printer,
scientist, statesman, diplomat, writer (Poor Richard's
Almanac)
E. GEORGIAN was the prevailing architectural
style.