Life in the Colonies
Social Classes! HUH?
• Colonial society enjoyed more
Only three
freedom and more social equality.
more years!
Colonial society did have social
classes, though. The highest class was
called the Gentry. These people were
the wealthiest in the colony. Maybe a
royal official or a wealthy planter. The
next level was the middle class. These
were your everyday townspeople. The
lowest included farmhands,
indentured servants, and slaves.
• Indentured servants signed contracts
to work for 4-7 years, and after their
service was complete, they were given
clothes, tools, and 50 acres of land.
This was a way for men and women in
England to get over to the new world
even if they didn’t have enough
money.
Some African Traditions Survive
• In the colonies, many
African traditions
survived the middle
passage. Many named
their children traditional
African names. Some
spoke Gullah, a mixture
of African languages and
English. Many Africans
were allowed by their
masters to perform rituals
from their native Africa.
Africans had not totally
lost their identity.
The Great Awakening
• In the 1730’s and 1740’s, a
religious movement known as
the Great Awakening spread
through the colonies. Preachers
like Jonathan Edwards and
George Whitefield helped to
fire people up by preaching on
the horror that awaited them in
hell if colonists did not turn
from their evil ways
• With newly forming churches,
and preachers who had no
formal teaching, the Great
Awakening helped to spark both
a spirit of religious tolerance
and a spirit of Independence.
Education Takes Root
• Education began to take root in the
Colonies. Massachusetts became
the first colony to make laws
creating a public school system.
• The Middle and Southern colonies
had private schools and tutors, put
you had to pay to go to those
schools.
• As a rule, Slaves received no
education.
• Many boys Apprenticed instead of
going to school. When you were an
apprentice, you worked for no pay,
learning a trade like glassmaking or
blacksmithing. The tradesman gave
the apprentice food, clothes, and in
addition to teaching him the trade
taught him how to read and write.
The Enlightenment
• In the 1600’s and 1700’s, European
scientists began to use reason and
logic instead of superstition to
understand the world. These people
studied people and discovered new
scientific laws. This was known as the
Enlightenment. The enlightenment
quickly spread to the 13 Colonies.
• Benjamin Franklin is the perfect
example of an enlightenment thinker.
He studied books, and thought of new
ways to think about the world.
Through this thinking, he made new
inventions like the lightning rod, and
bifocals. He is also credited for
coming up with public libraries and
having fire stations in town.
More Freedom Anyone?
• Newspapers began to be
published in every colony. A
man named John Zenger was
sued by the governor of New
York for libel (printing stories
that damage a person’s
reputation that are not true).
Zenger won the case when his
lawyer argued that since the
stories were true, Zenger had a
right to print them. This was an
important baby stem toward
freedom of the press.
• By the mid 1700’s, the colonists
were developing their own
identity that was not English, it
was distinctly different. It was
American.