APUSH

Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution

Social Aspects of Colonial Society

• Demographics in America: – Average age in 1775 was 16– Populations increasing rapidly

• Pennsylvania Dutch: Germans fleeing religious persecution, economic oppression, and war

• Scots-Irish: from Scotland, troubled by English restrictions on production of linens and wools

Cities

• Philadelphia: 30,000• New York: 25,000• Boston: 16,000• Charleston: 12,000• Newport: 11,000

Colonial communication/transportation:

• Roads• Taverns• Mail• Newspapers

Social Aspects

• Paxton Boys – – Philadelphia 1764– Regulator movement: NC

• South: contained about 90% of the slave population• New England: least ethnic diversity (Puritans)• Middle colonies: mainly white but of varying descent

• “Praying towns” – New England spots to convert Natives where polyglot communities emerged– Significant because blurred boundaries of tribal identities

The Structure of Colonial Society

• Different from England– Land of small farmers with few exceptions– Able to move up social ladder

• Stratification begins to emerge pre-Revo• Almshouses in Philadelphia and NYC• “P” for Poor• Slavery begins to divide social classes and wealth

becomes concentrated in hands of prosperous gentry• “Jayle birds” – about 50,000 convicts brought to

colonies

Economy• Agriculture – 90% of people involved• Fishing – cod to Catholic Europe

• Triangular Trade: North America, Europe, South America, West Indies• In your journal, provide an example of products/goods exchanged in the Triangular

Trade

• Manufacturing• Lumber• Naval Stores

• Molasses Act – why is this significant?

Religion

• Problems for Puritan churches: 1) elaborate doctrines 2) compromising to liberalize membership requirements

• Arminianism – Jacobus Arminius, individual free will determined eternal fate

The Great Awakening

• Jonathan Edwards• George Whitefield• Variety of denominations• Old lights vs. new lights– Religious colleges

Press

• Zenger Trial – 1734-1735 NY– Zenger charged with seditious libel– Defended by Alexander Hamilton– Freedom of the press and one point for

democracy

Politics

• Bicameral• In royal colonies upper house appointed by

crown– Governors often had trouble with colonial

legislatures because they resented imposition of control from crown

• In proprietary colonies by proprietor (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware)

Homework

• Analyze the ways in which the following influenced the development of American society:– Puritanism during the seventeenth century– The Great Awakening during the eighteenth

century