Chapter 7.1 Review
• You need your Chapter 7 Reading Packet.
• Use a RED pen to add notes to your
Packet.
Reading Packet – Chapter 7.1
Great Awakening
The Enlightenment
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
Colonial Society
• Social Classes
• Mobility
– England – Rigid class structure -> family, tradition
– America – Opportunity to move social position
based on occupation &wealth
• New England & Middle Colonies more so
• Southern Colonies  Less so
Nobility
Middle Class
Un skilled Laborers
Gentry
Skilled Artisans
Laborers
Slaves
The Great Awakening
• Revived interest in religion
• George Whitefield & Jonathan Edwards
• Touched all people – “ sober and vicious, high
and low, rich and poor, wise and unwise”
• Free and enslaved attended revivals
• Pulled colonists together with a set of
common beliefs
The Enlightenment
• The Age of Reason
• John Locke (Englishman) – The purpose of government was to protect
people’s natural rights
–
–
–
–
Life, liberty, and ownership of property
If government failed to provide for these rights, then it should be changed
Became the basis for for protest and revolution
Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among
Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,
• Respect for Science & curiosity about natural world
– Ben Franklin flying a kite to investigate the nature of lightening  invented
the lighenting rod
Page 83 Graphic Organizer
Great Awakening
The Enlightenment
1. Revived interest in religion
2. Promoted sense of commonality
3. Reinforced common Christian values
1. Shaped colonists’ views on
government.
2. Provided basis for protest and
revolution
3. Increased interest in science and
natural world
Colonial Writers
• Pioneer and travel stories – useful for financial
backers promoting immigration and investments
in the colonies
• Religious books and poetry
• Anne Dudley Bradstreet
• Phillis Wheatley
–
–
–
–
Enslaved as a child
Treated as a member
A family member
Taught with family child to read and write
On Being Brought From Africa to
America – Phillis Wheatley
"Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin'd and join th'angelic train.
Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno. 1632
Anne Dudley Bradstreet
O Bubble blast, how long can'st last?
That always art a breaking,
No sooner blown, but dead and gone,
Ev'n as a word that's speaking.
O whil'st I live, this grace me give,
I doing good may be,
Then death's arrest I shall count best,
because it's thy decree.
Newspapers & Political Writing
• Newspapers shared and discussed at inns
• Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac
– Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise
– There is no gain without pains
• Political pamphlets – e.g. “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine
– Argument:
• It was absurd for an island to rule a continent.
• America was not a "British nation"; but was composed of influences and
peoples from all of Europe.
• Even if Britain were the "mother country" of America, that made her actions
all the more horrendous, for no mother would harm her children so brutally.
• Being a part of Britain would drag America into unnecessary European wars,
and keep her from the international commerce at which America excelled.
• The distance between the two nations made governing the colonies from
England unwieldy. If some wrong were to be petitioned to Parliament, it would
take a year before the colonies received a response.
• The New World was discovered shortly before the Reformation. The Puritans
believed that God wanted to give them a safe haven from the persecution of
British rule.
• Britain ruled the colonies for her own benefit, and did not consider the best
interests of the colonists in governing Britain.
Key Themes
• Religious Revival  “usness”
• Interest in Science and inventiveness
• Political Interest in and discussions about the nature of
government
•
Religious Freedom:
•
Constitutional based, democratic government; The Mayflower Compact, Fundamental Orders of CT, and VA
House of Burgesses, and Town Meetings were all very early examples in which common men (not nobility) were
able to participate in self-govering activities.
•
American Exceptionalism: This is a belief that our nation is unique, special and exceptional in all the world and
across time. Still aboard the ship Arbella in 1630 , Winthrop admonished the future Massachusetts Bay colonists in
a sermon that their new community would be "as a city upon a hill", watched by the world — Winthrop was
alluding to a parable in Matthew In Matthew 5:14, where Jesus tells his listeners, "You are the light of the world. A
city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden."
•
Equality - While Europe was still using a rigid, pyramidal class system with the king on top, nobility just below,
then merchants and commoners/ peasants on the bottom, the PA Quakers believed in equality for all people –
including women, Native American and enslaved Africans. In fact, the Quakers were very anti-slavery and would
become strong abolitionists. The New England and Middle Colonies would outlaw slavery; whereas, the Southern
colonies would differ in this cultural aspect. The South would adopt the European hierarchical class system with
the planters on the top, then free whites below, and slaves on the bottom.