Alan Brinkley,
AMERICAN HISTORY 13/e
Chapter Three: Society and
Culture in Provincial America
Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America
America in 1700
2
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Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

Introduction
 Diverging Societies

The Colonial Population
 Immigration and Natural Increase
– Indentured Servitude
 Origins
 Realities of Indentured Servitude
3
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

The Colonial Population
– Birth and Death
 Exceptional Longevity
in New England
 More Balanced
Sex Ratio
– Medicine in the Colonies
 Midwives
The Non-Indian Population of North America,
1700-1780
4
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Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

The Colonial Population
– Women and Families in the Chesapeake
 Male Authority Undermined
 Greater
Independence in
the South
 Revival of Patriarchy
Virginia and Carolina, 1638
(Royalty-Free / CORBIS)
5
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Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

The Colonial Population
– Women and Families in New England
 Male-Dominated New England
 The Patriarchal Puritan
Family
New England, 1755
(Royalty-Free / CORBIS)
6
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Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

The Colonial Population
– The Beginnings of Slavery in British America
 The Middle Passage
 Growing Slave Population
 Uncertain Status
 Slave Codes
7
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Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America
Slave Ship
8
(Library of Congress)
African Population of British
Colonies, 1620-1780
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

The Colonial Population
– Changing Sources of
European Immigration
 Huguenots and
Pennsylvania Dutch
 Scotch-Irish
Immigrant Groups
In Colonial America
9
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Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

The Colonial Economies
 Rapid Population Growth
– The Southern Economy
 Tobacco
Selling Tobacco
(American Heritage)
10
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

The Colonial Economies
– The Southern Economy
 Tobacco
 Indigo
– Northern Economic and Technological Life
 More Diverse Agriculture in the North
 Saugus Ironworks
 Extractive Industries
11
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

The Colonial Economies
– The Extent and Limits of Technology
 Myth of Self-Sufficiency
– The Rise of Colonial Commerce
 Shortage of Currency
 Triangular Trade
 Emerging Merchant Class
12
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Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America
The “Triangular Trade”
13
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

The Colonial Economies
– The Rise of Consumerism
 Growing Consumerism
 Social Consequences
14
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Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

Patterns of Society
 Social Mobility
– The Plantation
 Vagaries of the
Plantation Economy
 Stratified Southern
Society
Landscape of Mulberry
plantation, South Carolina,
(Library of Congress)
15
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

Patterns of Society
– Plantation Slavery
 Slave Culture
 Stono Rebellion
African Population as a
Proportion of Total Population,
c. 1775
16
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Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

Patterns of Society
– The Puritan Community
 Patterns of Settlement
 Puritan Democracy
 Population Pressure
 Generational Conflict
17
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Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America
The New England Town: Sudbury, MA, 17th century
18
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Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

Patterns of Society
– The Witchcraft Phenomenon
 Salem Witch Trials
The Witch House,
Salem, Massachusetts
(Royalty-Free / CORBIS)
19
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

Patterns of Society
– Cities
 Growth of Colonial Cities
 Commercial and Cultural Importance
20
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

Awakenings and Enlightenments
– The Pattern of Religions
 Roots of Religious Toleration
 Anti-Catholicism
 Jeremiads
– The Great Awakening
 Old Lights and New Lights
– The Enlightenment
 Traditional Authority Challenged
21
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Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America

Awakenings and Enlightenments
– Education
 High White Literacy Rates
 Liberal Curricula
– The Spread of Science
 Smallpox Inoculation
– Concepts of Law and Politics
 Colonial Governments
22
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America
Where Historians Disagree:
The Origins of Slavery
Slave Ship
(Library of Congress)
23
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America
Where Historians Disagree:
The Witchcraft Trials
24
© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter Three:
Society and Culture in Provincial America
Patterns of Popular Culture:
Colonial Almanacs
Poor Richard’s Almanack
(New York Public Library)
25
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