Chapter 5
Colonial Society on the Eve of
Revolution
1700-1775
Conquest by the Cradle
• Population Growth:
– 1700 = 300k, 20k Africans
• England had 20x the population
– 1775 = 2.5 million, ½ = African
• England had only 3x the population
– Colonists were 2x population every 25 years
• Average age
– 1775 = 16 yrs
• Where’d they live?
– Majority near the Alleghanies
• Most populous colonies?
– VA, Mass, Penn, NC & MD
– Only 4 major cities (in order of pop.) Philadelphia, NY, Boston, Charleston
A Mingling of the Races
• Colonial America = Melting Pot
• Germans (1775)
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6% of total population
Fled religious persecution, economic oppression, war
Settled mainly in PA (1/3 of the population)
Belonged to many Protestant sects (mainly Lutheran)
Lived in the backcountry
Not loyal to British crown
Clung to Ger customs and language
A Mingling of the Races
• Scots-Irish (1775)
– = 7% of population
– Not Irish at all, nor English, did speak English
• Many had moved into Ireland, before America
– From the turbulent lowlands of Scotland
– Mostly Presbyterian
– Moved to Pennsylvania
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Ran into best lands already taken by Germans & Quakers
Pushed into frontier
Many squatted (created clashes with Nat. Am. And white settlers.
Eventually settled all along “great wagon road” along Appalachian
foothills from PA to GA
German Farm in Western Maryland (p. 111)
Library of Congress.
• Beginning in the 1730s, wheat became a major export crop in MD & VA.;
This engraving probably depicts a German farm, because the harvesters are
using oxen, not horses, and women are working in the field alongside men.
Using new method of reaping” that is possibly of German origin, the
harvester cuts only the grain-bearing tip & leaves the wheat stalks in the
field, to be eaten by livestock
A Mingling of the Races
• Scots-Irish continued:
– Didn’t like British
– Paxton Boys:
• Led an armed march to Philadelphia (1764)
against Quaker govt’s lenient Indian policy
– Regulator Movement in North Carolina
• An insurrection agst eastern domination of the
colony’s affairs.
• Hotheads, many became revolutionaries
– Including Andrew Jackson
A Mingling of the Races
• Other European groups
– Approx 5% of the population
• French Huguenots, Welsh, Dutch, Swedes, Jews, Irish, Swiss and Scots
Highlanders
• All except Scots Highlanders were patriots
• African
– Approx 19% of the population
– Heavily concentrated in the South
• Less ethnic diversity in the Puritan New England
– Praying Towns = places where Native Americans gathered to be
Christianized (exception)
• Middle Colonies had most diversity
• ***18 of the 56 signers of the Dec of Ind were non-English
Map 4.2 Ethnic and Racial Diversity, 1775 (p. 110)
• In 1700 most colonists in
British North America were of
English origin, but by 1775
settlers of English descent
constituted a minority of the
total nonaboriginal population.
African-Americans now
accounted for one-third of the
residents of the South, while
thousands of Germans and
Scots-Irish migrants created
ethnic and religious diversity in
the Middle Atlantic colonies
and southern backcountry.
Structure of Colonial Society
• Contrast w/Europe
– No titled nobility
– No pauperized underclass
– Most Am owned modest holdings and worked
the soil
– Cities had some skilled artisans
– Open society (meaning opportunities to climb
the ladder)
Structure of Colonial Society
• Contrast w/ 17C America
– Beginning to show stratification
• Some thought America was becoming “Europeanized”
• By midcentury richest 10% of Bostonians and Philadelphians
owned nearly 2/3s of the taxable wealth.
– New England:
• Descendants of original settlers found limited prospects (land
was full, families had grown)
– Avg size farm shrank
– Younger sons/daughters may have had to work as wage
laborers
Structure of Colonial Society
• Contrast w/ 17C America (cont)
– South
• Great Planters continued to do well
– Bolstered by ownership of slaves
• Wide gap b/w gentry and “poor whites”
– Poor often were tenant farmers
– Jayle birds (about 50K of them)
• Convicts dumped on colonies by London
authorities
– Didn’t like King’s govt
Structure of Colonial Society
• Contrast w/ 17C America (cont)
– Slaves
• No equality with whites
• Some colonists attempted to stop importation
• Very complex issue
Clerics, Physicians, Jurists
• Clerics
– = honorable profession, yet less influential than earlier
colonial days
• Physicians
– Poorly trained, not highly esteemed
– 1765 = first medical school
– Some believed they were tampering with the Will of
God
• Lawyers
– Not highly regarded
– People typically represented themselves in court
Workday America
• Agriculture
– = leading industry (90% of population)
– Tobacco still staple crop in MD/VA
– Grain in Middle colonies
• Fishing (including whaling)
– All colonies
– Major industry in NE (esp cod fishing)
– Stimulated shipbuilding
• Commerce
– Included coastal and inland communities
– Land speculation = big
Workday America
• Commerce (continued)
– Triangular trade (see map page 93)
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NE
foodstuffs and timber to sugar islands
NE
tobacco, fish, lumber, flour to England
NE
rum to Africa
Africa
slaves to sugar islands & to Am.
Colonies
• Sugar islands molasses and sugar to make rum
to NE
Workday America
• Manufacturing
– Also very important
– Household manufacturing
• Spinning
• Weaving
• Lumbering
– Timber used by northern shipbuilders (NE)
– By 1770 producing about 400 vessels a year
– 1/3 of British merchant marine = manufactured in
America
– Also used tar, pitch, rosin and turpentine
Workday America
• Trade Imbalance
– ***even though England relied on our natural
resources, we needed British manufacturing goods
– Americans needed to seek more markets
• Ie: France and other European nations
• Molasses Act (1733)
– taxed molasses imported into colonies not ruled by
Britain. Their protest of this and other laws led to
revolution.
– Aim? To stop trade with French West Indies
– Americans bribed customs officials and smuggled
Horsepower and Sailpower
• Roads
– Not until 1700s did roads connect major cities
• Treacherous and difficult travel
• (news about Declaration of Ind took 29 days to reach Charleston)
• Dusty/muddy
• Waterways
– Population clusters along navigable rivers.
– Cheap and more pleasant than roads
• Taverns
– Along main routes & in cities
– Cradle of democracy (opinions were formed/broken)
– Clearinghouse for information
• Postal system
– Established by mid-1700s
– Slow/infrequent
– Secrecy problematic
Dominant Dominations
• Anglican and Congregational Churches
– Only 2 “established” (meaning tax-supported) churches
– Only minority belonged
– Many people didn’t go to church
• Anglican Church (Church of England)
– Members = Anglicans
– Official faith of GA/NC/SC/VA/MD and part of NY
– College of William and Mary (1693) founded to train ministers
• Congregational Church
– Grew out of Puritan Church
– Established in NE colonies (except RI)
• Presbyterianism
– Never made official in colonies, but significant numbers
Map 4.3 Religious Diversity in 1750 (p. 112)
• By 1750 religious diversity among
European Colonists was on the rise
and not only in the ethnically
disparate Middle Atlantic colonies.
Baptists had increased their
numbers in New England, long the
stronghold of Congregationalism,
and would soon be important in
Virginia. Already there were goodsized pockets of Presbyterians,
Lutherans, and German Reformed
in the South, where the Church of
England (Anglicanism) was the
established religion.
Dominant Dominations
• Trinity of rebellion
– Sedition sometimes came from the pulpit
• Presbyterianism
• Congregationalism
• Rebellion
• Lack of Anglican Bishop
– Hampered growth of Anglican Church
– Ministers had to go to England to be ordained
• Religious Toleration?
– Better than in England
– Roman Catholics still discriminated against
– Less anti-papist laws than in Europe
• Couldn’t hold office
• Fewer of them than in Europe
The Great Awakening
• Background:
– Colonial worship was on the decline
• Esp. Puritan churches
– Churchgoers were tired of the long drawn out sermons
– Ministers were concerned that souls were not pious
anymore
» Some people even stopped believing in
predestination
• A revitalization was on horizon
• When? 1730s-1740s
• Where? Began in Massachusetts
The Great Awakening
• Who? Started by Jonathan Edwards
• What did he do? His sermons had common
themes:
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Said it was wrong to give up predestination
Needed to depend on God’s grace
Described hells and torments of damned
Famous sermon?
• “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
• Who else? George Whitefield
– Toured colonies with similar message to Edwards
– Held revival meetings
The Great Awakening
• Old Lights
– Orthodox clergyman who were skeptical of the revivalists
• New Lights
– Ministers who defended the Awakening as revitalizing America
• Why is the G.A. important?
– Undermined authority of older clergy
• Later transferred to political authority
– Encouraged missionary work among Nat. Am.
– Led to founding of universities for new light ministers
– First movement by American people, unifying the colonies
Schools and Colleges
• Puritan NE leads the colonies in education
– Congregational Church stresses need for
Bible reading by individuals
• Goal = making good Christians
– Boys went to schools early on in NE history
• middle colonies
– Also educated young boys
• South
– Harder to establish schools as population was
so spread out. Wealthy used tutors
Schools and Colleges
• Curriculum
– Religion and classics
• Discipline
– Severe (spare the rod)
• College Education
– Focused on training of ministers
– In the South boys were sent abroad for a “real”
education
– Student enrollment small
– Ben Franklin founded first college free of
denominational control—University of PA
A Provincial Culture
• Benjamin Franklin
– Best known for Poor Richard’s Almanack
• Edited from 1732-1758
• Collection of sayings, advice, ideas and virtues
• Ex:
– “Fish and visitors stink in three days”
• Read second only to the Bible in America
– Also a scientist…
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Kite flying
Biofocals
Franklin Stove
Lightening rod
Pioneer Presses
• About 50 public libraries by the Revolution
• Hand-cranked presses
– Printed journal, pamphlets and leaflets
• About 40 colonial newspapers by Revolution
– Used to swing opinions
• Peter Zenger
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Newspaper printer in NY
Spoke out agst corrupt governor
Defended by former indentured servant
He said he told truth
Jury instructed to consider only whether he should have printed
Jurors sided with Zenger
First freedom of the press case in America
Newspapers now allowed to print responsible criticisms of public
officials
The Great Game of Politics
• Colonial Governments (1775):
– 8 had royal governors (appointed by king)
– 3 had proprietors (chose governors)
• MD/PA/Delaware
– 2 had elected governors
• RI/Connecticut
– Almost all had 2 house legislature
• Upper house (typically appointed by the crown/proprietor)
• Lower house elected by people (usually property owners)
– many colonies ignored needs of backcountry and they
were underrepresented
– Taxes typically went through legislatures
• Meant they self-taxed
The Great Game of Politics
• Colonial governments (cont)
– Most governors were honest, some were
corrupt
• Still they had trouble with colonial legislatures
• The legislatures would manipulate governors into
doing what they wanted
• Local governments
– South-mainly county govt where planters ruled
– NE-mostly town-meetings, open voting and direct
democracy
– Middle colonies-some combination of the both
The Great Game of Politics
• Voting Rights:
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Religious or property qualifications = norm
Office holding had stricter qualifications
½ of adult white males were disfranchised
Often those who could vote, didn’t
• They deferred to their “betters”
• BY 1775 AMERICA NOT A TRUE
DEMOCRACY, SOCIALLY, ECONOMICALLY
OR POLITICALLY--- FAR MORE
DEMOCRATIC THAN ENGLAND AND OTHER
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
Colonial Folkways
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Food was plentiful
Homes were drafty and cold
No running h20
Candles lit homes
Entertainment often mixed with work
Southerners- dancing, horse racing, cockfighting card
playing
• Lotteries were everywhere
• Stage plays popular in South, but not North
• Holidays were celebrated (except Xmas)
Colonial Folkways
• Similarities b/w colonies:
– Basically English
– Basically Protestant
– Opportunities for social mobility
• Shared history, culture and geography set
the stage for colonists’ struggle to unite as
an independent people.