Development of Colonial Society1720-1765

Old World Background

• Society in Europe—stratified• Rural– Aristocracy– Landed gentry– Peasants

• Urban– Prosperous merchants– Shopkeepers and artisans– Unskilled labor

New England Freehold Society

• Farm families: Women in the household economy– Husband the head of the household– Wife as helpmate– Motherhood – Limitations for women

• Farm property: Inheritance– Land ownership was possible

• Indentured servitude of children• Children of the wealthy• Marriage practices• Responsibility of the father

The Freehold Society in Crisis

• Population increases contributed to challenges– Decreased size of farms shaped family dynamics

• Additional land was necessary• Shift in farm production• Household mode of production

The Middle Colonies: New York

• Economic growth and social inequality

• Fertile lands and longer growing season

• Feudal system develops in New York– Tenancy

The Middle Colonies: New Jersey and Pennsylvania

• Started with relative equality• Influx of poor people shifts to more class

divisions• Slaves or Scots-Irish worked the land• By 1760 half of white men owned no land

Middle Colonies: Cultural Diversity

• Ethnically and religiously diverse

• Preservation of cultural identity

• Quakers in Pennsylvania• German settlers• Scots-Irish

Middle Colonies: Religious Diversity

• Germans criticized the separation of church and state in PA

• Quakers “enforced” morality through self-discipline

• Friction between the Germans and Quakers resulted

European Enlightenment

• Emphasized reason and the laws of nature

• John Locke—origins of political authority

• Benjamin Franklin—turned to Deism

• Increased secularism among the colonists

Elements of the Great Awakening• Religious reaction to the

enlightenment• Enthusiasm—contrast

with the stoic Anglican church

• Itinerant preachers• Democratic elements to

the movement• First inter-colonial event

Content of the Message

• Salvation through faith and prayer

• Importance of individual understanding of the Bible

• Emphasized personal piety

• Leading preachers: George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards

Impact of the Great Awakening• Conflict between “old light”

and “new light” ministers was heightened

• It undermined support of traditional churches

• Established institutions to train a new supply of preachers—Princeton, Rutgers, Brown and Columbia

• Challenged the Anglican church in the south

• Increased the numbers of new sects

Conflict in North America and Europe

• 1n 1750: Only 80,000 settlers occupied New France

• France and England had been fighting for supremacy in Europe and North America– First three wars—indecisive

• In 1754 fighting began again• France controlled important water ways

Albany Conference

• Seven colonies represented

• Negotiations with Iroquois

• Plan of Union (1754)– “Grand Council”– Royal veto– Never passed

French and Indian War (1754-1763)

• Began in North America• 1756—“Seven Years War”• Virginians moved into the

Ohio Valley• French countered by building

forts• Virginia sent out a militia• French won some early

battles• William Pitt—recommits to

the war (1757)• 1759—“The Year of Victory”• Indians at the end of the war

Treaty of Paris

• England is the major colonial power• England got all French territory to the Mississippi as

well as Spanish Florida• French territory west of the Mississippi became part

of New Spain• England’s dominance in India began

Results of the French and Indian War

• Colonies– Favorable military experience– Colonial unity– Threat removed– Less dependent

• Britain’s beliefs– Colonies had not fully cooperated– Had gained from victory– Should help pay

Results continued

• George Grenville—strict enforcement– Proclamation of 1763– Navigation Laws– Writs of Assistance– Maintain a peace-time army

• Colonial resistance– British don’t understand the reaction

On the Frontier

• Colonists resented lack of protection against Indians– Pennsylvania—Paxton

Boys– The Carolinas—the

Regulators