The Cultures of Colonial North America 1700-1780

1. 5 The Cultures of Colonial North America 1700-1780

2. The Cultures of Colonial North America, 1700-1780 • North American Regions • Social and Political Patterns • The Cultural Transformation of British North America • Conclusion

3. The Old State House, historic Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the late 1700s.

4. Chapter Focus Questions • What were the similarities and differences among eighteenth-century Spanish, French, and British colonies? • What was the impact on British culture of increasing European immigration? • In what ways did Indian America change as a result of contact with European customs and life ways?

5. Chapter Focus Questions (cont'd) • What were the patterns of work and class in eighteenth-century North America? • How did tension between Enlightenment thought and traditional culture lead to the Great Awakening?

6. North America and Northampton, MA

7. The Revival of Religion and Community in Northampton • Preacher and revivalist Jonathan Edwards • Aimed at young disaffected adults • Created conditions for Great Awakening • Religion, social conflict and cultural turmoil came together in the Awakening to challenge traditional values.

8. North American Regions

9. A portrait of the Delaware chief Tishcohan

10. North American Region • British North America was a land of regions, both European and Native, with customs and traditions constantly adapting to each other.

11. A mounted Soldado de Cuera (Leather-Coated Soldier)

12. MAP 5.1 Regions in Eighteenth-Century North America

13. TABLE 5.1 Population of North America in 1750

14. MAP 5.2 Growing Use of the Horse by Plains Indians

15. Indian America • Indians adapted to European culture and participated in trade, but became increasingly dependent on European commerce. • Colonial expansion and native depopulation continued to threaten native communities. • The introduction of the horse stimulated the rise of nomadic Plains culture.

16. The Church of San Xavier del Bac

17. The Spanish Borderlands • Viceroyalty of New Spain largest, most prosperous European colony in North America • Northern borderlands considered a buffer zone of protection from other European colonies • Florida; Spanish alliances with Indians and runaway slaves create a multiracial society

18. The Spanish Borderlands (cont'd) • New Mexico • Population expanded by developing ranches and farms along the Rio Grande River

19. The Spanish Borderlands (cont'd) • Rumors of Russian expansion • Increased Spanish presence along the Pacific coast • California: the mission system guided development in the 1770s • The Catholic Church played a dominant role in community life.

20. The Spanish Borderlands (cont'd) • Indians • Once joined; not allowed to leave • Needed food, clothing, tools

21. MAP 5.3 The French Crescent

22. The French Crescent • Catholic Church • strong role in the French colonies • French allied with Indian trading partners • line of military posts, settlements • Quebec: Farming communities • Shipped wheat to Louisiana

23. The French Crescent (cont'd) • France sent few colonists • Extensive but thinly populated • Métis or mulatto households • Combined French and Indian elements in architecture, dress, family patterns

24. Enhanced satellite photograph of the Mississippi River near New Orleans.

25. New England • Puritan congregations governed local communities with little distinction between church and state. • Initially Puritans promoted religious freedom for themselves but not toleration of dissenters. • Under English pressure, non-Puritans practiced their faiths openly by 1700.

26. New England (cont’d) • New England towns grew rapidly and the expanding population pressed against available land. • The few remaining Native Americans were driven onto reservations and excluded from English society.

27. The Middle Colonies • New York • ethnically diverse populations—more “salad bowl” than “melting pot” • New York City grew tremendously • immigration to rural areas lower than surrounding areas • Pennsylvania Quakers • More diverse population—German and Scots Protestants.

28. The Middle Colonies (cont'd) • Property owners chose local officials • Middle Colony communities more individualistic

29. View of the Philadelphia waterfront, painted about 1720

30. MAP 5.4 Spread of Settlement: Movement into the Backcountry, 1720–60

31. The Backcountry • As settlement reached the mountains, backcountry population grew rapidly after 1720.

32. The Backcountry (cont'd) • Backcountry was a distinctive region where rank was often of little concern. • Most pioneers owned little or no land. • “Big men” held large tracts and dominated local communities. • Men were warriors; women were domestic workers. • Conflicts between settlers and Indians made the backcountry a violent region.

33. A Plan of an American New Cleared Farm

34. The South • The Chesapeake and lower South were • Triracial societies—Europeans, Africans, Indians • Large plantation homes—Tidewater and coastal Lower South • Small tobacco farms—Upper South. • White males dominated

35. The South (cont'd) • Upper South: Well-developed neighborhoods—community and white solidarity • Communities weaker in plantation-centered Lower South

36. Social and Political Patterns

37. A spinner and potter from The Book of Trades

38. The Persistence of Traditional Culture in the New World • Family, kinship, church, local community • Regional cultures via oral transmission • Community over individual • Rural Americans • Self-sufficient farmers, diverse agriculture, crafts on the side • Cities • Artisans

39. The Persistence of Traditional Culture in the New World (cont'd) • Women few career opportunities • Widows’ dower rights

40. The Frontier Heritage • Land in America was abundant and cheap but did not lead to a democratic society. • Forced labor was common and often the landowner’s only means of securing workers. • More than half of eighteenth century immigrants to British America arrived as indentured servants.

41. The Frontier Heritage (cont'd) • Indentured servants’ prospects after completing their indentures improved in the eighteenth century due to rising prosperity.

42. FIGURE 5.1 Estimated Total Population of New Spain, New France, and the British North American Colonies, 1700–1800

43. Growth and Immigration • In 1700, 290,000 colonists lived north of Mexico; by 1750, almost 1.3 million. • High fertility and low mortality played important roles in population growth, as did abundant food. • Britain alone encouraged immigration of foreign nationals, making her colonies the most diverse.

44. Growth and Immigration (cont'd) • While not as harsh as slaves’ “middle passage,” immigrants found the Atlantic voyage harrowing.

45. MAP 5.5 Ethnic Groups in Eighteenth- Century British North America

46. FIGURE 5.2 The Ancestry of the British Colonial Population

47. Social Class • Not aristocratic, but had social hierarchy • New Spain: Racial purity • New France and New Spain • Hereditary ranks and styles from the Old World prevailed.

48. Social Class (cont'd) • British colonies: Elite was open, based on wealth • Social mobility present, common • Large middle class: New with higher standard of living than most Europeans • Large lower class

49. An eighteenth-century genre painting from New Spain showing various racial castas, the result of ethnic mixing.

50. TABLE 5.2 Wealth Held by Richest 10 Percent of Population in British Colonial America, 1770