The American Pageant

Chapter 5: Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution, 1700-1775

Conquest by Cradle• By 1775, 2.5 million people in the 13 Colonies

– Less than 300,000 in 1700• Between 1700 and 1775, 400,000 white

immigrants and nearly 400,000 slaves• Average age of colonists is 16 in 1775• Ratio of English to colonists in 1700 is 20 to 1.

Down to 3 to 1 in 1775. Balance of power shifting

• 90% of people live in rural areas. Only Philadelphia, NYC, Boston, and Charleston are “cities”

The Colonial Melting Pot

• By 1775…– 6% of Colonists are German (mostly in PA, Protestant,

1/3 of PA population– 7% Scots-Irish (Scots who had moved to Ireland then

to the colonies, mostly to PA)• Spread out down to the Allegheny and Appalachian

Mountains into western MD, VA, and Carolinas• No love for the British or any other government for that

matter

• 5% other European groups (French, Welsh, Dutch, Swedes, Irish, Swiss, Scottish)

The Colonial Melting Pot

• South has 90% of colonial slaves• Least ethnic diversity in New England, most in

the middle colonies.• Outside of New England, half of the

population is non-English• Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur quote

– “a strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country”

– “What then is the American, this new man?”

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Map 5.1: Immigrant Groups in 1775

Structure of Colonial Society

• Openness of the social ladder– No titled nobility (lords, earls, etc.)– No real underclass in white society

• Beginning to change in the 18th Century– Wars during the 1690s and early 1700s made a

number of merchants in the middle colonies and New England very rich

– By 1750, the richest 10% in Boston and Philadelphia have 2/3 of the wealth

Structure of Colonial Society

• The poor– Wars of the 1690s and early 1700s create widows

and orphans who become society’s dependents– Farm sizes are shrinking drastically in New

England. No new land is available, so the land already claimed is divided among families. Forces people to move west to seek land or become wage laborers

Society in the South

• Large-scale planters have a huge amount of power because they own so many slaves

• Gap between wealthy planters and small farmers/tenant farmers is growing

• Lower class also growing because of indentured servants continuing to come to America

Slavery Becoming an Issue

• Slaves had no equality, and no chance to improve their social or economic status

• Some colonies attempt to restrict the importation of slaves because of fears of slave rebellions if their numbers grew too large

• The British vetoed all of these efforts because of their desire for cheap labor for their colonies, especially in the West Indies

Professions in the Colonies

• Clerics- most honored• Doctors- Not looked highly upon

– Bleeding– Epidemics were an everyday fear. Death of

thousands of children in the 1730s due to diphtheria reminded many of their mortality

• Lawyers– Not looked favorably upon at first

Working in the Colonies

• Agriculture– The leading industry– Tobacco in the Chesapeake colonies– Grain in the bread (middle) colonies– Diverse farming in New England

• Fishing was a big industry in New England, but far below farming in the colonies

Triangular Trade

• Commercial trade was also big in the colonies• Triangle Trade

– Leave New England with rum– Trade rum for slaves in Africa– Slaves for molasses in the West Indies– Molasses to New England to be distilled into rum

• Also carried food and wooden products to the Caribbean

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Map 5.3: Colonial Trade Patterns, c. 1770

Manufacturing in the Colonies

• Smaller than most other industries, but some manufacturing endeavors are taking off– Rum distillation in Rhode Island and

Massachusetts– Ironworks , like Valley Forge, found more

• Lumbering the most important manufacturing– Lots of wood needed for shipbuilders– 400 ships per year built by 1770

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Map 5.2: The Colonial Economy

Economic Problem• Growing population needs more British products• Population in Britain growing very slowly, so they

are importing less American goods than we export to them

• Have to seek out non-British markets to sell our goods (French Islands in the West Indies a good market)

• Molasses Act passed to try to stop trade between colonies and West Indies

• Bribery and smuggling become a major problem after this for the British

Connection in the Colonies?

• Roads in the 1700s are terrible– Dust in the summer and mud in the winter

• Waterways the travel method of choice.– Slow and dependent on the weather, but cheap

• Taverns (Another cradle of democracy)– Social classes would mingle together in what was

a center of information in many colonial towns

• Postal system– Service slow and mail didn’t run often, no secrecy

Denominations in the Colonies

• Two established churches in 1775: Anglican and Congregational• Anglican Church

– Prop of the crown’s authority in America– Bad reputation of Anglican clergy. William and Mary

founded in 1693 to train better ones.• Congregational Church

– Grows out of the Puritan Church.– In all New England colonies except Rhode Island

• Ministers become political activists as revolution gets closer.- Presbyterian, Congregational, and rebellion (The Rebellion Trinity)

The Great Awakening

• New doctrines and more liberal membership policies threatening the church

• Great Awakening is the revival in response in the 1730s and 1740s– Jonathan Edwards (1734)- Sinners in the Hands of

an Angry God- Need for complete dependence on God’s grace

– George Whitefield- Toured the colonies starting in 1738. Great speaker, who preached human helplessness and divine omnipotence

Effects of the Great Awakening

• Emphasis on direct, emotional spirituality changed the church

• Number of churches increased by the divides in denominations

• New missionary work among Native Americans and slaves

• “New light” centers created like Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, and Rutgers

• First spontaneous mass movement of Americans

Education

• New England most interested in education– Needed to be able to read the Bible– Education emphasis on good Christians rather than on

good citizens– Established primary and secondary schools early as well

• Elementary schools also existed in the middle colonies and South

• Emphasis is on religion and classical languages, not reason and experiment

• Nine colleges established in the colonies- still focused on theology and languages until the 1750s

The Arts and Culture in the Colonies

• Artists had to go to London for training. Still not a “American” art style

• Charles Wilson Peale- portraits of George Washington

• People in the U.S. do not have the money or leisure time to sit for portraits

• Architecture from Europe as well

Literature• Phillis Wheatley

– Slave girl brought to Boston at age 8– No formal education– Taken to England at 20, and writes a book of verse.– Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773)

• Benjamin Franklin– “First civilized American”– Poor Richard’s Almanack- Witty sayings that emphasized morality,

thrift, and common sense– More widely read in America than anything except the Bible– Best scientist produced in the early colonial times– Lightning Rod, Bifocals, Franklin stove

Pioneer Presses• 40 Colonial newspapers by 1775

– Ran weekly• News typically lagged many weeks behind the event• Good tool for airing colonial grievances and rallying British opposition• John Peter Zenger case

– New York case- Zenger’s newspaper criticized the royal governor– Charged with seditious libel– Jury finds Zenger not guilty– Huge moment for freedom of the press and democracy– Open public discussion required in a diverse democratic society– Precedent that true statements about public officials cannot be

prosecuted as libel

Colonial Politics

• 8 Colonies with royal governors, 3 with proprietors who chose the governors, and 2 who were self-governing

• Two-house legislative body was typical– Upper house appointed usually– Lower house elected by the people with enough

property to qualify as voters

• Self-taxation through representation was a huge deal to Americans.

Colonial Politics

• Colonial assemblies would withhold a governor’s salary unless he yielded to the legislature’s wishes. Usually worked

• Town-meeting gov’t in New England, county gov’t in the South, a mix in the Middle

• Because of property and religious requirements to vote in different areas, nearly half of adult white males could not vote

• Not a true democracy by 1775, but more so than anywhere in Europe