Society and Culture in Colonial America

1. Society and Culture in Colonial America

2. The Colonies 1700 • Population Growth • Women in the Colonies North and South • Colonial Economy North and South • Triangular Trade • Colonial Society North and South • Salem Witchcraft Trials • Religious Revival and The Great Awakening • Colonial Government • Regionalism Develops • Slavery Expands • French and Indian War • Similarities of Colonies

3. Who is the subject? “Few of their children in the country learn English... The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages ... Unless the stream of their importation could be turned they will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious.”

4. Population Growth by 1750s • Immigration (See Map Page 120) • Population Growth • Healthy Colonists- Married young, • Immigration- • Criminals, Huguenots, Some Jews, Scots, Scotch-Irish 200,000, • German 125,000 Pennsylvania (Language issue Franklin) • Some Irish Catholics • New England the least ethnically mixed; predominantly Puritan

5. Population Growth by 1750s • Push Factors: • Religious Oppression • Economic Misfortune • War • Pull Factors: • Economic Opportunity • Religious Freedom • Land and Liberty

7. Cities • Population growth supports the growth of cities • Philadelphia Largest city (1770’s) 22,000 • Boston (1760) 15,000 • New York (1700) 5,000 to 21,000 (1770s) • Charleston- (1775) 12,000

8. Population Growth • 1700 = 251,000 non Indians • 1770= 2,148,000 • 1775= 2,500,000 by 1775 (50,000 black) • 1790= 4,000,000 • Largest colonies were Virginia, Mass., Penn., NC, and Maryland • Only four major cities: Philadelphia, NY, Boston, Charleston • 90% lived in rural areas.

9. Family structure more stable Sex ratio balanced Lower infant mortality rate Strict parental supervision Less premarital pregnancy Status defined by religious belief Women expected to be modest, submissive, serving, and working for the household Women moved from families when married South Greater independence (early) Lots of Widows (early) Had stronger social power when population was lower Premarital pregnancy Were in demand due to low numbers thus more influence Still child rearing Women North or South? Mid/late colonial period 1740s

10. Common Aspect Colonial Economy • Commercial oriented • Trade • With Indians • Local French and Spanish when they could • Agriculture dominated • Domestic and export • Extraction economies

11. North Diverse Agriculture Low scale Small local trade Home industries Cobblers, blacksmiths, rifle makers, cabinet makers, silversmiths, printers, Mills run on water power Wheat, Cloth, lumber Ship building Iron works (Iron act 1750) Merchant Class growes strong Boston, New York, Philadelphia The South Large and small agriculture Tobacco dominant Boom and bust pattern Rice in South Carolina Indigo Slavery Lopsided Development Low Merchant class emerges Low Industry Colonial Economy North and South

12. Industry in the colonies was restricted English wanted to limit manufactures in colonies so they would not compete with English companies. Iron Act 1750= limit colonial iron mills Triangular Trade: one example of the trade relationship between colonies and other countries. Map Slave trade considerations Extraction economies Industry and Trade Expand

14. Triangular Trade

15. The Colonies • Mostly English • Self-government (though not all democratic) • Religious toleration (to at least some degree in each colony) • Educational opportunity (New England better) • Provided unusual opportunities for economic and social self-development • Farming in all colonies • Differences among the three colonial regions. • -- New England: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire • Puritan dominated in many areas, less religiously tolerant, more restrictions on civic participation, more industry, less available farm land • Middle Colonies: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware • Ethnically diverse, religiously tolerant, democratic, Quakers contributed to human freedom, farming, lumbering, ship building, shipping, trade, fur trapping • Southern Colonies: Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia • Plantation economy, aristocratic, slavery, cash crops, scattered population, expansionary, some religious toleration (Church of England dominant)

16. Slavery Expands • Late 1600s and 1700s Large population of African Slaves begin to arrive • Earlier Slaves from West Indies, Caribbean- excess Slaves from Sugar Plantations • Chattel Slavery- ownership, hereditary, perpetual, racially defined • South held 90% of slaves • Slavery becomes a fundamental part of southern Colonial society • 1740, 40 % of all Virginians were slaves • 1720, African slaves outnumbered whites in South Carolina 2-1.

17. Brutality of Slavery • African Slaves not accustomed to English work hours and ethics are brutalized • Horrors of the Middle Passage: • Two months on board ship • Cramped, 10-20% slaves died • Slaves resisted 1. is by passive Resistance and 2. 2. by running away • Northern colonies also used some slave labor • Both Northern and Southern colonies created slave codes to regulate the slave behavior and actions (land ownership…) • During the entire time of the Atlantic Slave trade about 11 million Africans were transported to the Americas • 1739- Stono Rebellion slave uprising South Carolina = 100 slaves

19. Plantation Mostly Self contained Planter class emerges Dominated politics Majority of small farmers had no slaves Society South

20. Society North • Puritan • Town focus of community • Covenants bind members together “religious and social commitment to unity” • Village around a “Common” Pasture • Social Hierarchy the “Elect” chosen by god • “Town Meetings” • Adult males, close family ties due to lack of land

21. Salem Witchcraft Trials (1692) • Accusations of witchcraft come to a small village in Massachusetts- (Adolescent) • Bad things were happening to Mass: and the very religious Puritans believed the devil was responsible. • Names remain: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, Tituba…

23. Salem Witches • 19 people executed 2 die in jail, one is tortured to death • Prominent people are accused and the court is disbanded • Classic Witch Hunt: • “Accused could save their lives only by confessing and implicating others…” • “Vivid example of people’s capacity to turn against fellow humans, however innocent, in an effort to save themselves.”

24. Mostly women Middle aged widows Few or no children Low social position Involved in conflicts in the area Accused of other crimes Abrasive Women who had inherited land Women who challenged Gender norms Witch Trials Associated Correlations

25. Great Awakening= “Awakening” to religion The Great Awakening of the 1700scame in response to a decline in religious piety Western movement = less organized religion Stated man is not helpless in achieving (Salvation) regeneration; his will can be an effective force in his being saved Characteristics: Evangelism = strong, energetic preachers Jeremiads = sermons complaining about decline of piety Appealed to women Sermons emphasized starting new relationship with GOD. The Great Awakening 1730s-1740s

26. Great Awakening • Congregations divided into New Light Revivalists and Old Lights • Jonathan Edwards(1703-1758) • Credited with starting the Great Awakening (c. 1734) in Northampton in 1734 • Most influential theological writer and thinker of the movement. • Salvation depended on God's grace is • Graphic Depictions of hell • George Whitefield (1714-1770) • Huge crowds went to see him • Brilliant English orator; made 7 trips to the American colonies and traveled extensively             b. His basic appeal was to the Bible • Most influential figure of the Great Awakening; founded Methodism

27. Results of The Great Awakening • Brought religion to many who had lost touch with it       c. Undermined the older clergy (Old Lights) • Brought a number of religious groups to popularity i.e., Baptists- which spread throughout the middle and southern colonies • Led to general acceptance of religious differences

28. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God • the one preached to the congregation of Enfield, Massachusetts (later Connecticut) in July 1741. Anthologized in high school and college textbooks, Sinners represents in many persons’ minds the bleak, cruel, and hell-bent outlook of Edwards and his Puritan predecessors. • As a specially crafted awakening sermon, Sinners was aimed at a particularly hard-hearted congregation. But, at the same time, the awakening sermon and all it expressed—the awful weight of sin, the wrath of an infinitely holy God, and the unexpectedness of the moment when God will execute justice—were integral to Edwards’s theology.

29. Colonial Government • Colonies had large degree of Autonomy 1600-1750 • Salutary Neglect: Lax enforcement of laws, loose control • Royal Governor represented the King’s Government (could veto colonial legislatures) • Could dissolve assemblies • Judges were appointed by Governors • Were appointed by the King’s government • Elected representative bodies-Bicameral (Two house legislatures) • (White male, land owners- 50 acres of land minimum, Self Government) • House of Burgesses (Virginia) and Assemblies • Budgeted Governor's Salary • Make laws for the colonies

30. French and Indian War 1754-1763AKA: Seven Years War • The British and French rivalry and antagonism manifest itself in the American colonies. • A Series of limited wars preceded the FI War: • King William’s War 1689-1697 • Queen Anne’s War 1701-1713 • King George’s War 1744-48 • The Ohio Company of Virginia gain charter to settle land and causes French to assert claims and build forts. Map

32. French and Indian War1754-1763 • The Ohio Company of Virginia send troops to build fort and are expelled by French • French build Fort Duquesne • Washington-commanded a small force, attacks and must retreat to Ft. Necessity and later surrenders. • Full scale war erupts and British send troops but want colonial cooperation • At first colonials don’t support the war until the British promise to reimburse colonies for efforts.

35. Albany Plan of UnionBenjamin Franklin, Cartoon in the Pennsylvania Gazette, May 9, 1754 • This cartoon shows a snake cut into eight pieces, each labeled with the name of one of the colonies. The position of each colony in the snake corresponds to the geographic position of the colonies along the American coast, with the snake's tail pointing south and the head pointing north. • The colonies, from tail to head (south to north), are: South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England (New England refered to the colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire). The caption reads, "JOIN, or DIE." The cartoon appeared along with Franklin's editorial about the "disunited state" of the colonies, and helped make his point about the importance of colonial unity. At the time, there was a superstition that a snake which had been cut into pieces would come back to life if the pieces were put together before sunset.

36. French and Indian War1754-1763 • French were allied with most Indian tribes except Iroquois • British invade under Braddock and are beaten back • Later the British, under new leadership, are able to gradually divide the French powers and end up invading Canada, taking Quebec and Montreal. • Peace of Paris, 1763 effectively remove French presence in Canada and East of the Mississippi including New Orleans (Was ceded to Spain).

38. Effects of the French and Indian War • British now control most of North America • British change their policy and relationship with the Colonies • British War Debt= 1763- L122, 603, 336 (7Million lbs each 6 month) • More taxes will be charged in order to pay for war expenses • No more movement West for colonists, Proclamation line of 1763 Speculator, buy land and sell it to immigrants for profit. • British left troops in colonies- Standing Army (Colonists Resented) • British government expected- colonist to pay for portion of the Troops. • These changes will mark an end to Salutary Neglect and bring a more direct control of colonies by England and lead to the Revolution. • Colonists begin to develop a sense of common identity, proud to be part of the British family, but perceiving clear distinctions.