Chapter 4
 3 types of colonies: Corporate, Royal, Proprietary
 Corporate/self governing=company/group of people
(Virginia / Massachusetts for a while)
 Royal=owned by the king (New York)
 Proprietary=belonged to one individual (PA)
 All colonies had representative government (House of
Burgesses 1619)
 Assembly elected by the people—controlled taxes made
most laws
 Governor/Upper house appointed by the King—ran day
to day affairs of colony represented the King (assembly
controlled their salary)
 Backcountry=area away from the coast (the frontier)
 Poorer people, less settled, more of a mix of Indian and
European
 Felt slighted by the elites close to the coast (Bacon’s
Rebellion)
 Trade: Shipping centered in New England
 All the colonies participated in trade (Atlantic
Economy)
 Trade between colonies and England and other
European countries
 Trade between colonies and Africa/Caribbean (triangle
trade)
 Mercantilism:
 The amount of gold in the world is essentially fixed
 A nation increases its power by increasing its stockpiles
of gold
 Gold is increased by minimizing imports (buying) and
maximizing exports (selling)
 Colonies=way to supply raw materials without sending
gold to a foreign country & buy English products
 Mercantilist Policies—make sure that trade involving
America benefitted England
 Navigation Acts of 1650—all trade had to be conducted on
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English (or American) vessels
Navigation Acts of 1660—Ship crews had to be ¾ English
(or American) certain products (tobacco, sugar, etc) could
only be shipped to England
Navigation Acts of 1663—Certain goods that were being
shipped to the colonies from other countries had to be
shipped to England first
Navigation Acts accepted in theory (English had a right to
pass them) but defied in practice (smuggling) by the
colonists
Efforts to stop smuggling would lead to problems. . . .
 Enlightenment occurring in Europe beginning in the
late 1600’s, active in the colonies as well
 Applied reason and logic to political world
 Major political thinkers
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Hobbes—state of nature
Locke—contract theory of government, natural rights
Voltaire—religious toleration
Montesquieu—three branches of government
Rousseau—social contract (democracy, sort of)
 Reason and logic will be applied to almost every aspect
of society—including religion
 Problems for religion in the 18th century
 Religion was once king, not so much by the 1700’s
 Materialism wore away at religious devotion
 Salem Witch Trials
 Half-Way Covenant
 Enlightenment led people to become even less devoted
 Deism—belief in God, but don’t believe in any one particular
religion, God doesn’t take an active role in the daily
happenings of the world (watchmaker God)
 Stage was set for a religious revival: Great Awakening
 Major religious revival
 Began in New England
 Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God”
 George Whitefield
 More emotional than previous religious movements
 Reaction to the intellectualism of the enlightenment
 Big boost for more evangelical churches
 Baptists
 Colony-wide movement—helped set the stage for the
Revolution?????
 New England—each town had to have an elementary
school (teach kids how to read the Bible)
 No public education in the South
 Most colleges affiliated with religious groups (train
ministers)
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Harvard/Yale—congregational
Brown—Baptist
William and Mary—Anglican
Dartmouth—missionary school for Indians
Princeton—Presbyterian
Penn—non-religious
Rutgers—Dutch Reformed
 By the mid 1700’s only about half of the colonists in British
North America were of British descent
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English-49%
African-19%
Scottish-7%
German-7%
Scots-Irish-5%
Irish-3%
Dutch-3%
Other European-9%
 Were the colonists beginning to view themselves as
Americans rather than British?
 How could this help lead to revolution?
 What type of events help to lead to a sense of national
identity, have you seen any in this lecture?