Chapter 5



Chapter 5

Colonial Society on The eve of Revolution

|Shift in Power |Melting Pot |Social Ladder |Merchant Princes |Almshouses |

|The Professionals |Agriculture is King |Triangle Trade |Taverns |Anglicans |

|Congregational Church |Great Awakening |Jonathon Edwards |George Whitefield |Ben Franklin |

|John Peter Zenger | | | | |

Shift in Power – The population in the Americas was doubling their numbers every twenty-years. This population boom had political consequences. In 1700 there were twenty English subjects for each American colonist. By 1775 the English advantage in numbers had fallen to three to one setting the stage for momentous shift in the balance of power between the colonies and Britain.

Melting Pot – From the beginning the United States was a melting pot. Although basically English, the colonies were mottled with numerous foreign groups, setting the tone for future immigration. ( chart page 86)

(Discussion of the of how diverse the colonies really were, since the ethnic groups were all northern European – except for blacks—and the religious groups almost all Protestant sects)

• Germans – came to flee persecution, and economic oppression,

o Mainly settling in Penn.

o No deep rooted allegiance to the British

• Scots-Irish – disorderly Scots Lowlanders that had been transported to Northern Ireland to avoid the British. Problem Irish Catholics already their hated the Presbyterianism of the Scottish)

o English placed restriction on their textile production – extremely poverty stricken

o Many came to Penn. And settled on the Frontier.

o Whiskey Distilling

o Hatred for the British Government

• Of the fifty-six signer so of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, 18 wee non-English and eight had not been born in the colonies.

• Intermarriage creates a new national identity and culture

• African Americans have the widest gene variance in the gene pool

Social Ladder – The colonies the land of equality and opportunity. No noble/king controlling must of the land.

o Most are farmers at least 90%

o Cities small class of skilled artisans, and unskilled laborers

o Rags to Riches – indentured servant could increase his or her position

o Eventually did see signs of stratification and barriers to mobility

Merchant Princes – Slowly merchants gained economic superiority because of selling war materials to the British. These elites sat on top of the social ladder and lived like it.

“Yankee Ingenuity” --- New England Way of Life

• Earth and climate shaped them rocky soil – tough, penny-pinching, less ethnically mixed turned to harbors and cities

• Encouraged a diversified agriculture

• The New Englanders also changed the land to fit their needs.

• Religion also drove their work ethic and high idealism

Almshouses—created to help the widows of war and orphans. The wealthy and religious groups felt it was their duty to help the poor especially in the city. The numbers of the impoverished in the colonies was less then the numbers seen in London.

• In the country farm sizes were shrinking land taken by previous colonists & the land is also subdivided between family members.

• Wealth was held in hands of the few in the South. Great Planters.

• Did see some rise up the social ladder. Two former indentured servants even became signers of the Declaration of Independence.

• The colonies became a place for the convicts of England (Although England’s penal code was very strict)

The Professionals – Number one most honored profession – was the Christian Ministry

• Doctors, poorly trained, if you couldn’t get the doc, ask for the barber instead. No real former education early on – to become a doctor you would get an apprenticeship

• Lawyers – At first the law profession was not a favorably one (some things never change) Often called trouble makers.

King Agriculture

• 90% percent of the population was involved in agriculture

• Fishing pursued in all the colonies – later this leads to shipbuilding in the northern coast

Manufacturing was of only secondary importance – yet there were small businesses

• Lumber was the must important single manufacturing activity

• Colonial naval stories

Trade imbalance between the Colonies and the British. More good was being sent to England than could be bought.

(How are the English going to make money if the British don’t buy? – Foreign Markets) They traded with many countries including the French in the W. Indies.

Background of the Molasses Act, 1733 

(Source: MacDonald, 1913, p. 103)

In the exchange of fish, lumber and agricultural products for the sugar, molasses and rum of the West Indies, the northern English colonies in America early found their most important and most lucrative trade. Moreover, it was by means of this trade that the money for the purchase of manufactured goods in England was mainly obtained.

The adoption of a more liberal commercial policy by France, however, in 1717, enabled the sugar of the French West Indies to displace the British product in European markets, and to compete successfully in the markets of the English colonies; while the prohibition of the importation of rum into France, as a protection to the production of brandy, forced the producers of molasses in the French colonies to seek a market in New England and New York, where molasses, little produced in the English West Indies, was much in demand.

The prosperity of the French colonies led to numerous protests from planters in the British sugar islands, and in 1731 a bill to prohibit the importation into Great Britain or the American colonies of any foreign sugar, molasses or rum passed the House of Commons, but was rejected by the Lords. The object of the bill was attained, however, by the passage, in 1733, of the so-called Molasses Act, by which practically prohibitory duties were imposed upon the before-mentioned articles. The act was systematically disregarded by the English colonies, and remained largely a dead-letter. The Molasses Act was to continue in force for five years; but it was five times renewed, and by the Sugar Act of 1764 was made perpetual.

Roads and travel were extremely slow in the colonies taking days to get from place to place. There were very few roads

Taverns – Towns often sprang up on a major waterway or road (if you can call them that). Taverns proofed to be a meeting place for all classes and became any early structure for democracy.

Two est. or tax supported churches in 1775: Anglicans and the Congregational. You did have a large number that did not support a church or belong to one. May of our founding fathers were not churchy ( they did not support any organized religion)

Anglicans – Members of the Church of England, and it became the official faith in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and part of New York. This religion is closely linked to the kings power and authority (remember he is head of the church). Many Anglican clergymen aware of which side their tax-provided bread was buttered on naturally supported the king. They did not have a resident bishop to ordain new ministers, so they had to travel to England to be ordained.

Congregational – Grown out of the Puritan Church. Ministers of the gospel discussed political topics from the pulpit, especially as the revolution against England drew closer. They were not close to the Church of England, so rebellion and congregationalism became a neo-trinity. Strongly stressed education to make good Christians. Many schools were created by religious denominations in the North

Great Awakening – Religious revival. Must keep up church membership, but keep the strict morality, and push out threats to the Calvinist doctrine. Exploded in the 1730s and 1740s. Started in Northampton Massachusetts by Jonathon Edwards.

Religious groups were split on the emotion the awakening brought. The effects of the awakening include: undermined the older clergy, created new denominations, increased the competitiveness of American churches, more missionary work to slaves and Indians, new schools were erected, first mass movement of the colonies.

Jonathon Edwards – He was a great preacher, revivalist, theologian, and philosopher of 18th century New England. Even as a child he showed personal piety ad intellectual brilliance: at age 7 he began leading other children into the woods for prayer, and by age 14 he was reading John Locke and Isaac Newton.

Tall, slender, with piercing eyes and a soft but perfectly modulated voice, rose daily at 4:00 am and devoted thirteen hours to study. His later years were absorbed by controversies with parishioners who objected to his strong oral demands on them. In 1750 a majority voted to dismiss him, and he was left jobless and in debt. In 1757 he was appointed president of Princeton University but died of small pox before taking office

In 1734 his intense preaching, first considered old fashion began producing emotional conversations that soon numbered thirty a week. His most famous sermon was “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

George Whitefield – an extremely talented orator used revival style meetings to reach his audience. Example could get Ben Franklin to put money on the collection plate.

Ben Franklin – One of the most famous American of the 18th century, was born to a Boston soap maker. In 1718 he became a Printer’s apprentice under his brother James. At 17 he moved to Philadelphia, which became his permanent home.

Once Franklin had made a substantial fortune from Poor Richard’s Almanack and other publishing business ventures, he concentrated on science, philosophy, and politics. Invented bifocal spectacles, Franklin stove, and proved lightening was electricity. Helped create the first public library 1776.

While serving as a colonial agent in England in the 1760s, he considered moving their, and in a America he was suspected of favoring the stamp act until he testified against it in Parliament. When he served as minister to France during the Revolution, his portrait was put in shop windows and on medals, rings, watches etc. His charm and “simple” democratic minded, insatiably curious, sexually passionate, uninhibited, endeared him to everyone, especially aristocratic French ladies.

On the eve of the Revolution, there were about forty colonial newspapers, chiefly weeklies that consisted of a large sheet folded once. Newspapers proved to be a powerful agency for airing colonial grievances and rallying opposition to British control.

Legal Case 1734-135 Freedom of Speech

John Peter Zenger – A newspaper printer. John’s newspaper The New York Weekly Journal was writing attacks/insults about the corrupt royal governor of New York, William Cosby. He was one of the most oppressive royal governors. Zenger was arrested for seditious libel and then hauled to court where he was defended by Andrew Hamilton. Hamilton argued that the newspaper couldn't be punished unless what it had printed was falsely seditious. The principle he proclaimed still stands in modern law: Libel only exists when falsehoods are perpetrated; the truth can never be libelous. Zenger was acquitted by the jury in August 18, 1735. Newspapers were thus eventually free to print responsible criticisms of powerful officials, through full freedom of the press was unknown during the Pre-Revolutionary era.

Royal Governors – by 1775 eight of the colonies had royal colonies, three were under proprietors and two elected their own governors under self-governing charters

• Every colony utilized a two-house legislative body the upper was normally appointed by the crown, or proprietor in the proprietary colonies. It was chosen by voters in self-governing colonies

• Under represented the back country

• Must of the royal appointed politicians were able body men, yet you had some who just needed a job or who was a relative to the king.

o Example Lord Cornbury cousin to Queen Ann

o Governor of New York and New Jersey 1702

o He proved to be a drunk, embezzler, religious bigot,

• The colonial assemblies found various ways to assert their power

o Employed the trick of withholding the governor’s salary

The ballot was not a birthright, yet the right to vote was not out of reach of most industrious and enterprising colonists.

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