AP US History – Chapter 3: Society and Culture in Provincial America
Objectives:
1. The sources of colonial labor, including indentured servants, women, and imported
Africans.
2. How patterns of birth and death influenced and reflected cultural development in the
colonies.
3. The ways in which factors of soil and climate determined the commercial and agricultural
development of the colonies, despite crown attempts to influence production.
4. The emergence of the plantation system, and its impact on southern society.
5. The beginning of colonial industry and commerce, and the early attempts at regulation by
Parliament.
6. The reasons for the appearance of a variety of religious sects in the colonies, and the
effect of the Great Awakening on the colonies.
Main Themes:
1. How the colonial population and economy grew and expanded to meet the needs of the
new world.
Terms:
1. Enlightenment
2. Slavery
3. Staple Crop
4. Nuclear family
5. Patriarchal
Summary:
After the turmoil of the late seventeenth century had subsided, it became evident that the
English-American colonies and the colonists who populated them were beginning to develop
characteristics that were distinctly “American.” Although still essentially transplanted English
subjects and still greatly influenced by European ideas and institutions, the colonists were also
diverse, aggressive, and as concerned with their own success as with that of the empire of which
they were part. New sources of wealth and new patterns of trade shaped the growth of the
colonies, and new immigrants, not always from England, added dimension unknown in the
mother country. Although differences in geography, economy, and population gave each colony
its own particular character and problems, there remained many common concerns – the least of
which was how to deal with, or avoid dealing with, British mercantile restrictions. In short,
between 1700 and 1750, Britain’s American colonies began to show signs of both being English
and American; they were indeed “different,” and it is this difference that Chapter Three explores.
AP US History – Chapter 4: The Empire in Transition
Objectives:
1. The primary reasons for the growth of the differences between colonial Americans and
the British government that resulted in a clash of interests.
2. The causes of the Great War for empire, and the reasons for the French defeat.
3. The effects of the war on the American colonists and on the status of the colonies within
the British Empire.
4. The options available to the British for dealing with the colonies in 1763, and the reasons
for adopting the policies that they chose to implement.
5. The importance of the series of crises from the Sugar Act through the Coercive Acts, and
how each crisis changed colonial attitudes toward the mother country.
6. The change in American attitudes toward Parliament, the English constitution, and the
king. What such slogans as “no taxation without representation” really meant.
7. The significance of the convening of the First Continental Congress, and what it
accomplished.
Terms:
1. Imperialism
2. Sovereignty
3. New Colonial System
4. Federalism
5. Right of Revolution
6. Whig
7. Loyalists (Tories)
8. Democracy
9. Republic
10. Proclamation of 1763
11. Sugar Act of 1764
12. Paxton Boys
13. Sons of Liberty
14. Townsend Duties
15. Boston Massacre
16. The English Constitution
17. The Tea Boycott
18. Intolerable Acts
Summary:
Despite a number of disagreements, by 1763, Anglo-American ties seemed stronger than ever.
The colonies had prospered under British rule, had developed local institutions through which
they seemed to govern themselves, and finally, with the defeat of France, appeared ready to
expand into the heart of the continent. However, no sooner was the war ended than the British
began to alter the pre-1763 system in an effort to make it more efficient and more responsive to
control from London. The means chosen to do this (enforced regulations to end the illegal trade
that had flourished under salutary neglect, plus taxation to pay for the colonial administration)
were seen in the colonies as threats to the way of life they had come to accept as rightfully theirs.
Rising in protest, the colonies faced a British government determined to assert its authority, and,
with neither side willing to give in, the cycle of action and reaction continued. Finally, spurred
on by a propaganda campaign that characterized the mother country as a tyrant determined to
bring America to its knees, the colonies acted. The Intolerable Acts proved the final straw, and
in September 1774, twelve British provinces met in a Continental Congress in hopes that a united
front would cause London to reconsider and that conflict would be avoided. But it did not work,
and in the spring, fighting occurred at Lexington and Concord. Although independence was not
yet declared, the American Revolution had begun.