Conquest by Cradle
By 1775 Great Britain ruled 32 North
American colonies
• By 1775 colonial population
was dramatically increasing
• 2.5 million people in 13
colonies…most people East
of Allegany Mountains
• Average age was 16
• Rural society…90% were
farmers
Territorial Expansion 1775
A Mingling of Races
Ethnic Diversity
• Mostly English people
• 6 % German (Lutheran / named
erroneously Pennsylvania Dutch)
• 7% Scots-Irish, many were
squatters past the Allegany
mountains
• Scots-Irish became
revolutionaries
• Paxton Boys led a march on
Philadelphia to protest “fair”
treatment of Indians
Paxton Boys and Regulators
• Regulators led a march in
North Carolina to protest
certain North Carolina
“geographic powers”
“Americans were
multicultural and
multicolored”
•As mentioned, English ,
Scot-Irish, French
Huguenots, Welsh, Dutch,
Swedes, Jews, Irish, Swiss
and Scots-Highlanders.
•African Slaves and Native
Americans also part of
new “American”
•Many mixed peoples
• In contrast to Europe,
America was a land of
opportunity
• Rags to riches could
happen
The Ultimate Rags to Riches Man
Southern Colonial
Structure
• Rich plantation owners /
many slaves
• Yeoman farmers / owned
own farms with some
slaves
• Landless whites who
owned no land or were
tenant farmers (some had
been indentures servants)
• Black and Indian Slaves
Plantation
owners
Yeoman
farmers
Landless whites
Free blacks
Slaves
Indians
Clerics, Physicians, and Jurist
Clergy
• Clergy were honored in
colonial days
Colonial Physicians
• Physicians were not highly
trained but still wielded a
great amount of authority
• Bleeding was the most
famous remedy
• Smallpox was rampant
(inoculations began in 1721)
Lawyers
At first lawyers were not
well liked. Many were self
trained. By 1750 this
perception began to
change. Perhaps ,as
business contracts grew so
did respect for those that
could interpret legal
documents.
Many lawyers, like John
Adams, defended high
profile accused people
John Adams defended
those British accused in
Boston Massacre
Workaday America
•Agriculture was the
biggest activity
• Fishing and whaling
•Triangular Trade
•Manufacturing and
secondary industries
• Skilled craftsmen
•Lumbering for
Britain’s navy was a
big industry
Horsepower and Sail Power
Roads were poor and connected Early taverns
only cities
• Along with town meetings,
• Travel by canals and river boats
“the cradle of democracy”
also occurred
• Inefficient mail system
• Taverns sprang up near roads to
serve weary travelers and were
great places of gossip and news
Dominant Denominations
Two established churches of
Anglican and Congregationalist
• Anglican Church (Church of
England)
• William and Mary
established to train Anglican
ministers
• Congregationalist churches
evolved from Puritan belief
The Great Awakening
• Less religious fervor in
colonies set stage for The
First Great Awakening
• Fiery preachers like John
Edwards and George
Whitefield gave “fire and
brimstone speeches” to win
new converts to religion
• First religious experience
shared by “Americans” as a
collective whole
New Lights v. Old Light Ministers
Old Lights
• Orthodox clergymen who
did not want to dilute their
churches
• Great Awakening led to the
founding of “new light”
centers like Brown and
Rutgers.
New Lights
• Traveling preachers, like
Jonathon Edwards, with
emotional sermons
appealing to human
behavior and God’s fury
Schools and
Colleges
•Primarily centered in
New England towns
•In dimly lighted one room
school houses children
learned reading, writing ,
arithmetic, rhetoric and
classical languages
•Early colleges focused on
training of ministers
•First non-denominational
college was the University
of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
Idle Hands were the
Devil’s Hands
• There was little time for
recreation
• Few great artist emerged
until after the War of 1812
• Perhaps most influential
colonial work was Ben
Franklin’s Poor Richard’s
Almanac
• Ben Franklin also
advanced Science
• Architecture ran from log
cabin to red-bricked
Georgian style and later
clapboard style homes
Pioneer presses
• An early seditious libel
case of John Peter Zenger
who had written against a
royal colonial governor
• Defended by lawyer
Alexander Hamilton, this
case established the
precedent of a free press
with a right to report on
political actions (true
statements are not
libelous)
Great game of
Politics
• Mostly white land owning
males exercised
suffrage…acquiring land
easier in America than
elsewhere
•Town meeting in New
England
•By 1775 most colonies had
royal governors and utilized a
two house legislative body
(upper and lower house)
•The right to self-taxation
with representation was
quickly becoming a cherished
belief
Colonial Folkways
•Few home amenities
• lotteries funded towns,
groups and churches
• amusements existed
with quilting bees , barn
raisings, horse racing, cock
fighting, fox hunting
• “Yuletide was fooltide”
in New England
• Sun Up to Sun Down
work was the way of the
colonist