Did colonists become more “American” during the 18 th century?

1. Did colonists become more “American” during the 18th century?

2. "What then is the American, this new man?... [In America there are] no great lords who possess everything, and a herd of people who have nothing. Here are no aristocratic families, no kings, no bishops, no great refinements of luxury. The rich and poor are not so far removed from each other as they are in Europe…It is a place where all peoples of all nations are melted into a New race... The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, and useless labor, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence.” • Hector St. John de Crevecoeur - Hector St. John de Crevecoeur

3. “American:” • How autonomous (from England) colonial America was by mid-18th c. • Common “nationalizing” characteristics shared by the 13 colonies

5. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MORE ENGLISH MORE AMERICAN • Highly regulated economy (mercantilism) ie. Navigation Acts) -many colonists were content / many profited despite regulation • Wealth distribution did reach extremes (ie. planter and urban elite classes) • Period of Salutary Neglect (1688) allowed for economic leniency - more autonomous behavior • Colonial America had a large middle class and opportunity for greater numbers of people (due to cheap, abundant land)

6. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS BY 18th c. MORE ENGLISH MORE AMERICAN • Assembly representatives often were from elite classes (esp. in South) • Voting was still highly restrictive (by gender, class and race) • Most colonies had assemblies - ex. of local democracy • Many examples of self-gvt • Because of economic opportunities to own land, voting was more of an option for greater numbers • Evidence that ideas re. civil liberties were becoming more prominent - ie. Zenger Trial

7. SOCIAL/CULTURAL FACTORS - DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE MORE ENGLISH • Majority of colonists still were English, despite growing ethnic diversity • Generally colonists were loyal to the English crown MORE AMERICAN • 18th c. saw far more diversity (literally becoming less English) due to immigration • Population also expanded due to natural increase (ie. women gave birth to 8 children on avg)

8. Population Changes, 18th c. Eight-fold growth from 1700-1770 1700- 250,000 1775 - 2.5 million Explanations: • natural increases • widespread immigration

9. ie. 1700- almost all colonists lived w/in 50 mi of Atlantic 1770 – settlement extended to foot of Appalachians, creating a 4th “region” - the western frontier

10. Diversity by 1770 18th century immigrants: • 10% English • 36% Scots-Irish • 33% African • 15% German language principalities • 10% Scotland (in contrast to 1670 when 9/10 of Colonial Americans were English and 1/25 were African)

11. New settlers mostly went to Middle colonies and backcountry of Southern colonies ie. Pennsylvania: “The Best Poor (White) Man’s Country” Bethlehem, PA 1757

12. First Great Awakening 1730s/40s A. Factors Leading to it 1. Response to Enlightenment and growing secularization 2. Growing diversity at large and democratic impulses led to a questioning of church authorities and the formation of new religious sects 3. Christian denominations attempted to appeal to the masses with highly emotional sermons

13. B. Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield prominent leaders “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741) - Edwards • The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful and venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment..Therefore let everyone that is out of Christ now awake and fly from the wrath to come.

15. Impact of Great Awakening • Encouraged democratic spirit • ie. questioning church authorities • new denominations provided people with more choice/decisions re spirituality • Thought to have democratized religion • Religious revivals and embracing of religion/new denominations most popular in the backcountry regions of the middle and southern colonies

16. By the late 18th century, how “American” had colonists become?