1 colonial society on the eve of revolution: chapter 5
DESCRIPTION
3 Races Mingle America had numerous foreign groups. Germans arrived to avoid persecutions & economic oppression. They held no loyalty to the English crown. Kept to their language and customs.TRANSCRIPT
1
Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution: Chapter 5
2
13 Original Colonies Characteristics
• High population.- 2.5 million people- Half a million
slaves- Natural fertility of
whites and blacks Americans
eventually outnumbered the immigrant British and the balance of power shifted.
3
Races Mingle • America had
numerous foreign groups.
• Germans arrived to avoid persecutions & economic oppression.
• They held no loyalty to the English crown.
• Kept to their language and customs.
4
Races Mingle• Scots-Irish left
burdensome Ireland to the frontiers of the Pennsylvania.
• They rejected Puritanism and stabled strict governments.
• Held no close ties to the royal British crown.
5
Races Mingle• The mixed diversity of the colonies
led to little loyalty to England.• The largest non-English group was
African. 20% of the population. • “a strange mixture of blood, which
you will find in no other country.” - Michel-Guillaume de Crevecoeur
6
Structure of Colonial Society• Colonists were
generally equal (except for slaves)
• No titled nobility dominated.
• Mostly small farmers & skilled artisans.
• Hardworking people could climb the social & economic ladder.
7
Structure of Colonial Society• War brought social & economical
changes.• Merchants profited from war supplies
& moved up social ranks.• War led to a class of widows who
needed to be supported through charity.
• The prospects of the New World began to dwindle. Land became scarce.
8
Structure of Colonial Society• Southern power
became disproportionate due to slave ownership.
• A gap between wealthy slave owners and “poor whites” grew.
• They became tenant farmers.
9
Structure of Colonial Society• British convicts
were also shipped to America. They were not loyal to the crown & some deportees became respectable citizens.
10
Structure of Colonial Society• Slaves enjoyed no
equality & could not ascend the social ladder.
• Fear of slave rebellions plagued the colonists.
• Early attempts to end transatlantic slavery failed with Great Britain.
11
Clerics, Physicians & Jurists• Professional clergy men lost some
influence as colonies grew.• Physicians were usually not educated
in college but rather apprenticed with experienced doctors.
• The law profession was not favorable because it wasn’t manual labor.
12
Workaday America• Agriculture was the
main industry. 90%• Middle colonies:
grain• Southern
colonies: tobacco• Northern colonies:
fishing & ship building.
• In the colonies and overseas.
13
Workaday America• Triangular Trade
was profitable. • A skipper would
travel from New England to Africa to the West Indies and then again to New England trading and selling various goods.
14
Workaday America• Manufacturing was
a secondary.• American
populations grew and so demand to sell their goods also grew.
• Farmers and manufacturers began to sell their goods abroad
• Molasses Act: Aimed at taxing colonial exports it also greatly cut American profits coming from the West Indies.
• Colonist avoided the tax through smuggling and bribing.
15
Transportation Problems• Roads were deficient
and dangerous. • Roads were muddy
while in the summer they were dusty.
• Traveling by river was slow but pleasant.
• Taverns began to spring up along road and water trails.
16
Religion: People worshiped as they pleased
• Congregationalists: New England
• Anglicans: New York and the South
• Presbyterians: Frontier
• German Churches (Lutheran): Pennsylvania
• Dutch Reformed: New York & New Jersey
• Quakers: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, & Delaware
• Baptists: Northern• Catholics: Middle• Methodists:
Scattered• Jews: Northern
17
The Enlightenment • Ideas about nature
in which philosophers valued reason and scientific methods.
• Ben Franklin believed in obtaining truth through experimentation and reason.
• These ideas spread from Europe to the colonies.
18
The Great Awakening
• Church participation slumped. • Jacobs Arminius began to preach
that people were not predestined to go to heaven. People could save themselves with good works.
• Church conversion also • became easier.• Colonial clergy grew• alarmed.
19
The Great Awakening• A Puritan religious
revival in the 1730’s to 1740’s.
• Jonathan Edwards preached that in order for people to be saved they must feel their sinfulness and feel Gods love for them.
20
Effects•Caused people to question traditional authority.
•Created an intellectual and social atmosphere that eventually led to the American Revolution.
21
Colonial Education
• Schools were established to educate good Christian boys. They were strict & mostly located in the North & Middle colonies.
• The South relied on private tutors.
22
Colonial Education• College
education was geared toward preparing men for the ministry.
• Enrollment was low and curriculum was loaded with theology and dead languages.
23
Colonial Presses• Most colonist didn’t
own or have time to read books.
• Pamphlets, leaflets and journals became popular.
• They became popular agencies to express grievances and rally British opposition.
24
Printing Press