APUSH – Unit 1C
(covers Ch. 3)
Mrs. Kray

Colonial
Population
A Heterogeneous Society

 Diverse society
 Distinct American regions (New
England, Middle, Southern)
 Still strongly influenced by England
 Tastes, styles, and customs
 Modeled political, social, and
educational institutions modeled on
English equivalents
Population Explosion

 High Birthrate**
 Immigration
 Push Factors: escape religious
persecution and wars
 Pull Factors: economic
opportunity
 Most settled in Middle colonies
or along western frontier of the
Southern colonies
Immigration from Europe
English

German
• Continued to come but in
smaller numbers
• 6% of the pop.
• Settled on farmland west of
Philly
• Showed little interest in
English politics
Scotch-Irish
Other Europeans
• 7% of the pop.
• Settled along the frontier
• Didn’t respect British gov’t
• 5% of the pop.
• Huguenots (Fr. Protestants)
• Swedes
• Dutch
From Servitude to Slavery

 Most 17th century immigrants came as indentured
servants
 Origins of Indentured Servitude
 Existing practice in England
 Labor shortage in Chesapeake
 Headright System
 Realities of Servitude
 Served fixed term 5-7 years
 Some became successful but most found themselves
without land, family, or prospects when service ended
 Became a source of social unrest (ex. Bacon’s Rebellion)
From Servitude to Slavery

 Africans = largest non-European
immigrant group
 20% of the colonial population
 90% lived in the South as slaves
 Slavery was not common in the
17th c
 1620: Dutch bring first Africans
to the colonies
 Original status similar to
indentured servant
From Servitude to Slavery

 Slavery increased dramatically in the 18th c,
why?
 Reduced migration from England
 Dependable workforce
 Planters had grown tired of political
demands and social unrest caused by freed
indentured servants
 Cheap source of labor
 As tobacco prices fell, rice & indigo became
the profitable crops, require large, cheap
labor supply
 Slave codes passed by colonial assemblies
 Slavery legal in ALL 13 colonies
The Slave Trade:
Asiento System

 Slave trade originally controlled
by Portuguese, then Dutch, then
English
 Triangular Trade
 Middle Passage
The Colonial Economies

Mercantilism was the rule.
Commerce was the primary goal of most colonies. However,
agriculture dominated all sections.
Comparing Colonial Economies

New England (Massachusetts, Rhode Island)
• Climate and geography made large-scale farming difficult, small farms
common
• Limited manufacturing.
• Economy based on trade: shipbuilding, logging, fishing
Middle (New York, Pennsylvania)
• Bread basket of the colonies (wheat, corn)
• Some manufacturing, some farming, some trading
Southern (Virginia, Maryland, Carolinas)
• Climate and geography lent itself to agriculture
• Large-scale farming of cash crops (tobacco, indigo, rice)
• Labor intensive cash crop farming led to slavery
Obstacles to Colonial Commerce

 Mercantilism made colonial needs subservient to those of the
mother country
 A major English strategy in controlling the colonial economy was
to limit the use of money.
 Colonies faced currency shortage – forced to use much of the
limited hard currency to pay for the imports from England.
 Many of the colonies issued paper money but this led to inflation.
 Parliament vetoed all colonial laws that might harm English
merchants.
 Fragmented commercial world made it difficult to find markets
to sell goods
 Fierce competition
 Despite obstacles, trade managed to stabilize & thrive by 18th c
An Emerging Merchant Class

 Concentrated in port cities (Boston, New
York, Philadelphia)
 Disliked limitations mercantilism
imposed on trade (ex. Navigation Acts)
 Led to smuggling
 English government ignored illegal
smuggling (salutary neglect)
 When English try to end salutary neglect,
colonial trading cities like Boston become
centers of revolutionary thought
Patterns of Society

Abundant land and a relatively small population meant that their
was great social mobility in America.
General Characteristics

 Rural society – 90% of
colonists were farmers
 Importance of the family
 Center of social and
economic life
 Elements of democracy
and self-government
 Each colony had a
representative assembly
elected by eligible voters
 Connecticut and Rhode
Island even let the people
vote for the governor
 Religious toleration
 Rhode Island and
Pennsylvania most
tolerant
 Massachusetts least
tolerant
 No hereditary aristocracy
 Social mobility
 Higher standard of living
than in Europe
Southern Society

White Society
 Highly stratified society
 Very few lived on large
plantations but these
large plantation owners
dominated society and
politics (planter
elite/planter aristocracy)
 Dispersed settlements
Slave Society
 Developed a strong
independent culture that
mixed elements of African
and European cultures
 Gullah, mulatto children
 Treatment varied greatly
 Responses to slavery varied
 Slave rebellions, like the
Stono Rebellion in SC,
uncommon
Women in the Colonies

Chesapeake
New England
 Unbalanced gender ratio in
the 17th c undermined male
authority
 More balanced gender ratio
created and more stable family
structure = less independence
 High mortality rate led to:
 Family relationships and status
of women based on religious
beliefs
 Blended families
 Flexible standards of sexual
behavior (30% of brides
pregnant)
 Male authority reestablished in 18th c
 Father = absolute ruler of family
 Married women had no separate
legal identity from their
husbands
 Wife expected to devote herself to
needs of the family
Puritan Communities in NE
 Still a theocracy

 Town = basic social unit
 Town meeting of adult males ran the affairs of
the community
 Compact settlements provided each family a
home lot in the village with outlying farm lots
 A family’s land distribution depended upon its
size, wealth, and social standing.
 Primogeniture was practiced
 As land within towns became scare, younger
sons moved west to areas of more plentiful land
 Weakened the authority of the father and the
town
Salem Witch Trials,
1680s – 1690s

 Example of the effects of community cohesion
eroding and the precarious position of women in
Puritan society
Education in the Colonies

New
England
Middle
Southern
• Most progressive
• 1647 law required all towns to have a public
school
• Schools were either church-sponsored or
private
• Parents gave children whatever education
they could
• Planter elites hired private tutors
Traditional emphasis on God vied with the
Enlightenment’s emphasis on science and
reason as a force in individuals’ lives, and
these created tension throughout the 18th c.
Established Churches

 Established churches = tax-supported churches
Anglican Church
Congregationalist Church
• Supported by prosperous
farmers and merchants in
Middle Colonies
• Supported by planter
elites in the South
• Symbol of English control
of the colonies
• Successor to Puritan
Church in New England
• Critics complained the
minister were too
domineering and
doctrines were overly
complex
• Predestination, the elect
The Great Awakening,
1730s-1740s

 Religious revival and reaction to the
religious decline of the early 18th c
 Emphasized human sinfulness and
the perils of damnation
 Broke away from traditional
constraints of the past and urged
people to form a new relationship
with God (new light vs. old light
preaching)
 Swept through ALL the colonies
 Particularly popular with women
and younger sons
Jonathan Edwards
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

 His series of sermons started the Great Awakening
George Whitefield

He and other itinerant preachers helped spread
the Great Awakening throughout the colonies
 Preached to audiences as large at 10,000
Significance of the
Great Awakening

 Challenged traditional
authority
 If you could make your
own religious decisions,
could you make your own
political decisions too?
 Divided many
congregations new lights
vs. old lights
 Led to the formation of
new churches & more
religious diversity
 Calls for separation of
church and state
 New colleges created to
train new light
ministers
 First shared American
experience
The Enlightenment

 Intellectual movement of the 18th c. that argued reason
and scientific inquiry led to progress
 Led to a heightened interest in politics and government
 Undermined traditional authorities and encouraged
education
 As tension w/Britain grew, colonists looked for an
explanation & justification for this changing relationship
 Found their answers in the philosophies of the
Enlightenment
Enlightenment Philosophers

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Argued gov’t was a social contract between the
leaders & the people. People therefore held the
ultimate authority (popular sovereignty)
John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government
• Argued people were born w/natural rights (life,
liberty, & property). If gov’t didn’t protect your rights
you could overthrow it
Baron Montesquieu
• Argued there must be a separation of powers to
protect citizens from government abuse of power
American Philosophes

John
Adams
Thomas
Jefferson
Ben Franklin
Colonial Governments

 Enlightenment influenced the English political and legal
systems transplanted to the colonies
 A time of salutary neglect
 Because British gov’t was far away, colonists had to take on a lot
of responsibilities for self-government
 Grew accustomed to running their own affairs
 Colonial assemblies exercised many of the same powers as
Parliament
 Came to view these privileges as rights
 The Problem with Royal Governors
 On paper had broad powers but their salary was controlled by
colonial assemblies
 Many were not familiar with the colonies they were governing
and were either inept or corrupt
The Zenger Trial, 1735

 John Peter Zenger was a NY newspaper
publisher charged with libel for criticizing
the royal governor of NY
 Colonial jury found him not guilty
because his criticism were true – ignored
actual British libel law
 Established freedom of the press in the
colonies
 Encouraged papers to take greater risks in
criticizing colonial government


 Religious restrictions were removed 
 White women, poor white men, slaves & most freed
blacks barred from voting 
 Property requirements for voting & holding office 
 Did the representative assemblies represent the
privileged elites or the larger society of plain
citizens?
Georgian style on east coast
One-room log cabin on the
frontier
Paul Revere
John Hancock
Watson & the Shark by John Copley
(currently hanging in Museum of Art in Balboa Park)

Colonists’ motives for leaving Europe,
the political heritage of the English
majority, & the influence of the
natural environment in America
combined to bring about a distinctly
American viewpoint & way of life
Used to
certain
liberties

restless
Forever seeking to
improve their situation
Fairly
tolerant

 Describe some of the patterns of immigration and
their effect on colonial development.
 What impact did the emergence of the new plantation
system have on southern society?
 What were the causes and effects of the Great
Awakening?