Class, Conflict & Culture in the English Colonies

Ch. 4 - 5

Warm Up

Was the pre-1700 society of the southern colonies homogenous or heterogeneous when compared to that of New England?

SFI List

Thesis Statement

Slavery Symposium

With your group:Read the Virginia Slave Code handout

◦Identify the intended social outcomes behind these restrictions (on your own paper)

Discuss your assigned article & on chart paper:◦What does your article’s title mean?◦Identify the author’s thesis (in your own words)◦Give us the jist

The 5 facts we should take away from your presentation

Conflict in the Colonies

Bacon’s Rebellion Leisler’s Rebellion Virginia 1676 back country planter

Nathaniel Bacon Poor freemen, small

farmers indiscriminately attacked Indians & burned the capital

Put down by Gov. Berkeley Encouraged planters to

seek slaves instead of indentures

New York City 1689-91 Jacob Leisler, Protest

merchant led a rebellion again James Iis policies

Wealthy landholders versus merchants

Dominion of New England Royal-led (James II) attempt

to unify the colonies and enforce the Navigation Acts

Taxed people unfairly Collapsed due to Glorious

Revolution

Salem Witch Trials

Waning religious devotion by 1660s

Congregationalist Church (Puritan) created new formula to admit members –halfway covenant

Only baptism required, not full conversion

Created bigger division b/w ‘elect’ & everyone else

Majority of members were women

By the 1690s, widening social stratification led to conflict

Established poor farming families accused new merchants class families of acts of witch craft

Just the word of teenage girls & overzealous clergy convicted many

20 were killed and dozens indicted in 1692-93

Warm Up“What then is an American, this new

man?”◦This quote from Guillaume Jean de

Crevecoeur described Americans as a new kind of people, different from their European counterparts. Defend his position using your knowledge of Unit 1.

Colonial Society 1700 - 1775

About 90% of the population was involved in farming Fishing & shipbuilding were major industries

◦ 40% of all British ships were made in the colonies From 1700-1775 the population of the American colonies

surged, leading to a political imbalance◦ 1700:20 English for 1 Amer. colonist◦ 177:3 English for 1 Amer. Colonist

Increasing social stratification (lack of movement) after 1750 due to:◦ Wealthy merchant class that profited from colonial wars◦ Many widows & orphans due to colonial wars◦ Supply of available land in New England decreased and farms

subdivided (got smaller) through inheritance◦ Indentured servants◦ Convicts◦ Slave trade increased; supported by English crown

Scots-Irish

7% of non-English populationNot Irish, but Scot lowlandersPrimarily ProtestantTypically pushed out to the frontier lands

of NC, western MD, northwest VATypically anti-Indian; and anti-eliteSupported the Paxton Boys of PA and the

Regulator Movement in NC

Slaves20% of colonial

population by 1775Integral part of the

triangular trade system

NE (rum)to West Africa (slaves), West Africa (slaves) to West Indies (molasses), West Indies (molasses) to New England

Great Awakening

By the 1730s, most colonists were Congregationalists, Anglicans or Presbyterians

Catholics & Jews were the smallest groups, and discriminated against

Calvinist churches experienced a religious revival ◦ No salvation in good works, only through

divine grace◦ Inspired conversion and high emotionalism

Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield Old Lights vs. New Lights

◦ Inspired new universities to prepare preachers (Dartmouth, Princeton, Brown, Rutgers)

Education

Early Puritan settlers saw the need for literacy

NE had many elementary (boys & girls) & secondary schools (boys), but far less common in the middle and south –elementary only

Religion & classical languagesMost colleges began as seminaries,

except the University of PA

The American CharacterBenjamin Franklin (home grown)

◦Author, inventor, businessman, statesman

◦Poor Richard’s Almanack ◦Invented ‘modern’ stove, bifocals

Phyllis Wheatley (poet)John Singleton Copley, John Trumbull

(artists)

John Singleton Copley