A.P. U.S. History Notes
Chapter
5: “Colonial Society on the Eve of the Revolution”
~
1700 – 1775 ~
I.
Conquest
by the Cradle
1.
By
1775, Great Britain ruled 32 colonies in North America.
a.
Only
13 of them revolted.
b.
Canada
and Jamaica were wealthier than the 13.
2.
All
of them were growing by leaps and bounds.
3.
By
1775, the population numbered 2.5 million people.
4.
The
average age was 16 years.
5.
Most
of the population was densely cooped up east of the Alleghenies, though by
1775, some had slowly trickled into Tennessee and Kentucky.
6.
About
90% of the people lived in rural areas.
II.
A
Mingling of the Races
1.
Colonial
America, though mostly English, had other races as well.
a.
Germans
accounted for about 6% of the population, or about 150,000 people by 1775.
(1)
Most
were Protestant (primarily Lutheran) and were called the Pennsylvania Dutch.
2.
The
Scots-Irish were about 7% of the population, with 175,000 people.
a.
Over
many decades, they had been transplanted to Northern Ireland, but they had not
found a home there (the already existing Irish Catholics resented the
intruders).
b.
Many
of them reached America and became squatters, quarreling with both Indians and
white landowners.
c.
They
seemed to try to move as far from Britain as possible, trickling down to
Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas.
d.
In
1764, the Scots-Irish led the armed march of the Paxton Boys.
e.
They
were very hotheaded.
f.
Many
eventually became American revolutionists.
3.
About
5% of the multicolored population consisted of other European group, like
French Huguenots, Welsh, Dutch, Swedes, Jews, Irish, Swiss, and Scots
Highlanders.
4.
Americans
were of all races and mixed bloods, so it was no wonder that other races from
other countries had a hard time classifying them.
III.
The
Structure of the Colonial Society
1.
In
contrast to contemporary Europe, America was a land of opportunity.
2.
Anyone
who was willing to work hard could easily go from rags to riches, and poverty
was scorned upon.
3.
Class
differences did emerge, as a small group of aristocrats (made up of the rich
farmers, lawyers, officials, clergymen) had much of the power.
4.
Also,
armed conflicts in the 1690s and 1700s enriched a number of merchant princes in
the New England and middle colonies.
5.
War
also created many widows and orphans who eventually became to charity.
6.
In
the South, the hugely rich plantation owners had lots of slaves.
7.
Far
less fortunate than the indentured servants of America were the paupers and the
criminals sent to the New World.
a.
Some
of them were actually unfortunate victims of Britain’s unfair laws and did
become respectable citizens.
8.
The
least fortunate were the Black slaves, who had little or no hope of freedom
again.
a.
Slavery
became a divisive issue because some colonies didn’t want slaves while others
needed them, and therefore vetoed any bill banning the importation of slaves.
IV.
Clerics,
Physicians, and Jurists
1.
The
most honored profession in the colonial times was the clergy, which in 1775,
had less power than before but still wielded a great amount of it.
2.
Physicians
were not highly esteemed and many of them were bad.
a.
Bleeding
was often a favorite, and deadly, solution to illnesses.
3.
Plagues
were a nightmare.
a.
Smallpox
(afflicting 1 of 5 persons, including George Washington) was rampant, though a
crude form of inoculation for it was introduced in 1721.
b.
Some
of the clergy and doctors didn’t like it though, preferring not to tamper with
the will of God.
4.
At
first lawyers weren’t liked, being regarded as noisy scumbags.
a.
Criminals
often represented themselves in court.
b.
By
1750, lawyers were recognized as useful, and many defended high-profile cases,
were great orators and played important roles in the history of America.
V.
Workaday
America
1.
Agriculture
was the major leading industry (by a huge margin), since farmers could seem to
grow anything.
a.
In
Maryland and Virginia, tobacco was the staple crop, and by 1759 New York was
exporting 80,000 barrels of flour a year.
2.
Fishing
could be rewarding, though not as much as farming, and it was pursued in all
the American colonies especially in New England.
3.
Trading
was also a popular and prevalent industry, as commerce occurred all around the
colonies.
a.
The
“triangular trade” was common: A ship, for example, would leave New England
with rum and go to the Gold Coast of Africa and trade it for African
slaves. Then, it would go to the West
Indies and exchange the slaves for molasses, which it’d sell to New England
once it returned there.
4.
Manufacturing
was not as important, though many small enterprises existed.
5.
Strong-backed
laborers and skilled craftspeople were scarce and highly prized.
6.
Perhaps
the single most important manufacturing activity was lumbering.
a.
Britain
sometimes marked the tallest trees for its navy, and colonists resented that,
even though there were countless other good trees in the area and the marked
tree was going toward a common defense (it was the principle).
7.
In
1733, Parliament passed the Molasses Act, which, if successful, would have
struck a crippling blow to American international trade by hindering its trade
with the French West Indies.
a.
The
result was disagreement, and colonists got around it through smuggling.
VI.
Horsepower
and Sailpower
1.
Roads
in 1700s America were very bad, and not until the 18th century did
they even connect large cites.
a.
It
took a young Benjamin Franklin 9 days to get from Boston to Philadelphia.
2.
Roads
were so bad that they were dangerous.
a.
People
who would venture these roads would often sign wills and pray with family
members before embarking.
3.
As
a result, towns seemed to cluster around slow, navigable water sources, like
gentle rivers, or by the ocean.
4.
Taverns
and bars sprang up to serve tired travelers and were great places of gossip.
5.
An
inter-colonial mail system was set up in the mid-1700s, but mailmen often
passed time by reading private letters, since there was nothing else to do.
VII.
Dominant
Denominations
1.
Two
“established” (tax-supported) churches by 1775 were the Anglican and the
Congregational.
2.
A
great majority of people didn’t worship in churches.
3.
The
Church of England (Anglican) was official in Georgia, both Carolinas, Virginia,
Maryland, and a part of New York.
a.
Anglican
sermons were shorter, its descriptions of hell were less frightening, and
amusements were less scorned.
b.
William
and Mary was founded in 1693 to train young clergy members.
4.
The
Congregational church had grown from the Puritan church, and it was established
in all the New England colonies except for Rhode Island.
a.
There
was worry that people weren’t devout enough.
5.
For
Anglicans, not having a resident bishop proved to be a problem
for unordained young ministers.
VIII.
The
Great Awakening.
1.
Due
to less religious fervor than before and worry that so many people would not be
saved, the stage was set for a revival, which occurred, and became the Great
Awakening.
2.
Jonathan
Edwards was a preacher with fiery preaching methods, emotional moving many
listeners to tears while talking of the eternal damnation that nonbelievers
would face after death.
a.
He
began preaching in 1734, and his methods sparked debate among his peers.
3.
George
Whitefield was even better than Edwards when he started four years later.
a.
An
orator of rare gifts, he even made Jonathan Edwards weep and persuaded Ben
Franklin to empty his pockets into the collection plate.
b.
Imitators
copied his emotional shaking sermons and his heaping of blame on sinners.
4.
These
new preachers were met with skepticism by the “old lights,” or the orthodox
clergymen.
5.
However,
the Great Awakening led to the founding of “new light” centers like Princeton,
Brown, Rutgers, and Dartmouth.
6.
The
Great Awakening was the first religious experience shared by all Americans as a
history.
IX.
Schools
and Colleges
1.
Education
was most important in New England, where it was used to train young future
clergymen.
2.
In
other parts of America, farm labor used up most of the time that would have
been spent in school.
3.
However,
there were fairly adequate primary and secondary schools in areas other than
New England.
4.
In
a gloom and grim atmosphere, colonial schools put most of the emphasis on
religion and on the classical languages, as well as doctrine and orthodoxy.
5.
Discipline
was quite severe, with such punishments as a child being cut by a piece from a
birch tree.
6.
Also,
at least in New England, college education was regarded more important than the
ABC’s.
7.
Eventually,
some change was made in emphasis of curriculum from dead languages to live
ones, and Ben Franklin helped by launching the school that would become the
University of Pennsylvania.
X.
Culture
in the Backwoods
1.
Though
there was little time for recreation (farm work, fear of Indians, etc…), the
little free time that was there was used on religion, not art.
2.
Painters
were frowned upon.
a.
John
Trumbull of Connecticut was discouraged, as a youth, by his father.
b.
Charles
Willson Peale, best know for his portraits of George Washington, also ran a
museum, stuffed birds, and practiced dentistry in addition to his art.
c.
Benjamin
West and John Singleton Copley had to go to England to complete their ambitious
careers.
3.
Architecture
was largely imported from the Old World and modified to meet American needs.
a.
The
log cabin was borrowed form Sweden.
b.
The
red-bricked Georgian style was introduced in about 1720.
4.
Colonial
literature was also generally undistinguished.
a.
However,
a slave girl, Phillis Wheatley, who had never been formally educated, did go to
Britain and publish a book of verse and subsequently wrote other polished poems
that revealed the influence of Alexander Pope.
b.
Ben
Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac was very influential, containing many
common sayings and phrases, and was more widely read in America and Europe than
anything except for the Bible.
5.
Ben
Franklin’s experiments with science, and his sheer power of observation, also
helped advance science.
XI.
Pioneer
Presses
1.
Few
libraries were found in early America, and few Americans were rich enough to
buy books.
2.
On
the eve of the revolution, many hand-operated presses cranked out leaflets,
pamphlets, and journals signed with pseudonyms.
3.
In
one famous case, John Peter Zenger, a New York newspaper printer, was taken to
court and charged with seditious libel.
a.
The
judge urged the jury to consider that the mere fact of publishing was a crime,
no matter whether the content was derogatory or not.
b.
Zenger
won after his lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, excellently defended his case.
c.
Afterwards,
freedom of the press was pretty much assured in America.
XII.
The
Great Game of Politics
1.
By
1775, eight of the colonies had royal governors who were appointed by the king.
2.
Three
had governors chosen by proprietors.
3.
Practically
every colony utilized a two-house legislative body.
a.
The
upper house was appointed by royal officials or proprietors.
b.
The
lower house was elected by the people.
4.
Self-taxation
with representation came to be a cherished privilege that Americans came to
cherish above most other rights.
5.
Most
governors did a good job, but some were just plain corrupt.
a.
Lord
Cornbury, first cousin of Queen Anne, was made governor of New York and New
Jersey in 1702 but proved to be a drunkard, a spendthrift, a grafter, and
embezzler, a religious bigot, and a vain fool.
6.
The
right to vote was no available to anyone, just white landowners.
a.
However,
the ease of acquiring land to hard workers made voting a privilege easily
attainable to many people.
XIII.
Colonial
Folkways
1.
Americans
had many hardships, as many basic amenities that we have today were not
available.
a.
Churches
weren’t heated at all.
b.
Running
water in houses was nonexistent.
c.
No
plumbing was available either.
d.
Garbage
disposal was primitive at best.
2.
Yet,
amusement was permitted, and people often worked on house-raisings, apple
parings quilting bees, husking bees, and other merrymaking.
3.
In
the South, card playing, horse racing, cockfighting, and fox hunting were fun.
4.
Lotteries
were universally approved, even by the clergy because they helped raise money
for churches and colleges.
5.
Stage
plays were popular in the South, but not really in the North.
6.
Holidays
were celebrated everywhere in the colonies (New England didn’t like Christmas,
though).
7.
America
in 1775 was like a quilt, each part different and individual in its own way,
but all coming together to form one single, unified piece.
XIV.
Makers
of America: The Scots-Irish
1.
Life
for the Scots was miserable in England, as many were too poor, and Britain
still taxed them, squeezing the last cent out of them.
2.
Migrating
to Ulster, the Scots still felt unwelcome, and eventually came to America.
3.
They
constantly tried to further themselves away from Britain.
a.
Most
went to Pennsylvania, where tolerance was high.
4.
The
Scots-Irish were many of America’s pioneers, clearing the trails for others to
follow.
5.
Otherwise
independent, religion was the only thing that bonded these people.
6.
Their
hatred of England made them great allies and supporters of the United States
during the Revolutionary War.
XV.
Varying
Viewpoints- Colonial America: Communities of Conflict of Consensus?
1.
Read about it yourself, please.
