+

Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution

+Conquest by Cradle

By 1775 colonial population was dramatically increasing

2.5 million people in 13 colonies…most people East of Allegany Mountains

Average age was 16

Rural society…90% were farmers

By 1775 Great Britain ruled 32 North American colonies

Territorial Expansion 1775

+A Mingling of Races

Mostly English people

6 % German (Lutheran / named erroneously Pennsylvania Dutch)

7% Scots-Irish, many were squatters past the Allegany mountains

Scots-Irish became revolutionaries

Paxton Boys led a march on Philadelphia to protest “fair” treatment of Indians

Regulators led a march in North Carolina to protest certain North Carolina “geographic powers”

Ethnic Diversity Paxton Boys and Regulators

+ “Americans were multicultural and

multicolored”

• As mentioned, English , Scot-Irish, French Huguenots, Welsh, Dutch, Swedes, Jews, Irish, Swiss and Scots-Highlanders.

• African Slaves and Native Americans also part of new “American”

• Many mixed peoples• In contrast to Europe,

America was a land of opportunity

• Rags to riches could happen

The Ultimate Rags to Riches Man

+Southern Colonial Structure

• Rich plantation owners / many slaves

• Yeoman farmers / owned own farms with some slaves

• Landless whites who owned no land or were tenant farmers (some had been indentures servants)

• Black and Indian Slaves

+Clerics, Physicians, and Jurist

Clergy were honored in colonial days

Physicians were not highly trained but still wielded a great amount of authority

Bleeding was the most famous remedy

Smallpox was rampant (inoculations began in 1721)

Clergy Colonial Physicians

+ Lawyers

• At first lawyers were not well liked.

• Many were self trained. • By 1750 this perception

began to change. • Business contracts grew

so did respect for those that could interpret legal documents.

• Many lawyers, like John Adams, defended high profile accused people

John Adams defended those British accused in

Boston Massacre

+Workaday America

• Agriculture was the biggest activity

• Fishing and whaling• Triangular Trade• Manufacturing and

secondary industries• Skilled craftsmen• Lumbering for

Britain’s navy was a big industry

+Triangular Trade

New England Africa = Rum

Africa West Indies = Slave Trade (Middle Passage)

West Indies New England = Molasses

+New England and England Trade

1730s – America’s booming population v. England’s slow-growing population = America needed to trade with other countries

Americans traded with other countries but all trade had to go through British ports = British took part of the profit

Molasses Act – aimed at stopping American trade with French West Indies

Colonists bribed and smuggled their way around the law

+Horsepower and Sail Power

Along with town meetings, “the cradle of democracy” Roads were poor and

connected only cities• Travel by canals and

river boats also occurred• Inefficient mail system• Taverns sprang up near

roads to serve weary travelers and were great

places of gossip and news

Early taverns

+Dominant Denominations

Anglican Church (Church of England)

William and Mary established to train Anglican ministers

Congregationalist churches evolved from Puritan belief

Less religious fervor in colonies set stage for The First Great Awakening

Fiery preachers like John Edwards and George Whitefield gave “fire and brimstone speeches” to win new converts to religion

First religious experience shared by “Americans” as a collective whole

Two established churches of Anglican and

CongregationalistThe Great Awakening

+New Lights v. Old Light Ministers

Orthodox clergymen who did not want to dilute their churches

Great Awakening led to the founding of “new light” centers like Brown and Rutgers.

Traveling preachers, like Jonathon Edwards, with emotional sermons appealing to human behavior and God’s fury

Old Lights New Lights

+ Schools and Colleges

• Primarily centered in New England towns

• In dimly lighted one room school houses children learned reading, writing , arithmetic, rhetoric and classical languages

• Early colleges focused on training of ministers

• First non-denominational college was the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

+Idle Hands were the Devil’s Hands

• There was little time for recreation

• Few great artist emerged until after the War of 1812

• Perhaps most influential colonial work was Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac

• Ben Franklin also advanced Science

• Architecture ran from log cabin to red-bricked Georgian style and later clapboard style homes

+Pioneer presses• An early seditious libel

case of John Peter Zenger who had written against a royal colonial governor

• Defended by lawyer Alexander Hamilton

• Established the precedent of a free press with a right to report on political actions (true statements are not libelous)

+Great game of Politics

• Mostly white land owning males exercised suffrage…acquiring land easier in America than elsewhere

• Town meeting in New England

• By 1775 most colonies had royal governors and utilized a two house legislative body (upper and lower house)

• The right to self-taxation with representation was quickly becoming a cherished belief

+Colonial Folkways

• Few home amenities• Lotteries funded towns,

groups and churches• Amusements existed with

quilting bees , barn raisings, horse racing, cock fighting, fox hunting

• “Yuletide was fooltide” in New England

• Sun Up to Sun Down work was the way of the colonist