10 Myths and Realities about the British Colonies in America, 1607-1764
by Brad Wood
1) Myth: The British colonies in America were predominantly settled by people seeking
religious and political freedom.
Reality: The overwhelming majority of the colonists migrated for primarily economic
reasons. Even those who were motivated by religious concerns did not want religious
freedom for people who disagreed with them.
2) Myth: Those who came to colonial America quickly began to see themselves as
American and move away from British traditions.
Reality: Perhaps no group of people ha ever clung more tenaciously to their cultural
heritage than the British colonists in America. On the eve of the American Revolution
the colonists still showed incredible pride in their British identities.
3) Myth: The most important and representative colonists were the New England Puritans
and Pilgrims.
Reality: The New Englanders were a small, radical, highly unusual, and relatively poor
group of colonists.
4) Myth: The British colonies in America were created in a distinctive and exceptional
way that has made the United States different from other places in the world ever since.
Reality: While every place is unique in some ways, the British colonies in America were
created through the same processes of European expansion that have functioned in many
parts of the world over the last 500 years or so. Their story only makes sense in this
context.
5) Myth: The British colonies in America were especially important and successful
colonies.
Reality: The British considered the mainland colonies to be far less valuable than their
colonies in the West Indies which were far wealthier. At the time the British were
founding colonies on the North American coast, more people were interested in the West
Indian colonies. More British people were interested in colonizing Ireland in the early
seventeenth century than all of these transatlantic colonies combined.
6) Myth: The most important events in the colonial period were the events leading up to
the American Revolution.
Reality: Colonial Americans had complicated lives of their own that had little to do with
the American Revolution. Some of the more notable but usually neglected events in the
over 150 years between the start of the colonies and the American Revolution include
many political uprisings, massive slave rebellions, four imperial wars, and levels of
economic and population growth that were unprecedented in the history of the western
world at this time.
7) Myth: Slavery was not as important in Colonial America as it would become in the
antebellum South.
Reality: Slaveowning was the fastest and most important route to wealth in Colonial
America, and some colonies had populations that included more slaves than free people.
8) Myth: Native American groups posed no threat to the colonists because of superior
European technology. They had little influence on the lives of colonists except in frontier
areas.
Reality: Native Americans continued to be the dominant force on the North American
continent for generations after the arrival of Europeans and only lost this status because
of a biological catastrophe related to diseases.
9) Myth: Colonial American women filled the same gender roles as women in later
periods of American history but were even more strictly confined by religious concerns.
Reality: Women filled far more roles in the Colonial American economy than women
would in later generations and, in some ways, ideas about gender, sexuality, and domestic
roles were more loose and flexible. It could be argued that they also exercised more
power and had more flexibility in their lives than their descendants in the 19th century.
10) Myth: Colonial British America belonged to an authoritarian and monarchial British
Empire that only granted the colonists some freedom because of neglect and distance.
Reality: While neglect and distance did shape the development of the colonies, Great
Britain had perhaps the most democratic and politically modern system of government in
the world at this time. The king was also far less powerful than parliament in most ways.