The Cultures of Colonial North America

1700 – 1780

Indian America

• Native Americans showed a great capacity to adapt and change by using European materials and participating in trade (on which they became dependent for survival)

• Though the French seemed to have better relations with the Indians than most other nations, the Indians still tried to play each country off against the other

• By the end of the 18th century, it was the sheer number of colonists that concerned the Indians, as their populations declined due to disease

• The horse modified the Great Plains Indian cultures by making them nomadic hunters and warriors

The Spanish Borderlands

• New Spain was the largest and most prosperous colony in North America

• Whereas Mexico City was a cultural hotspot, the borderlands of California, New Mexico, Texas and Florida were considered buffer zones to protect them from other colonial powers

• Florida society was multiracial, combining Spanish, Indian, and African

• New Mexican society was spreading due to ranching and farming along the Rio Grande

The Spanish Mission System

• Presidios, or forts were built on the fringes of the colonies to protect the interior

• The mission system converted the Indians and made them subject to the Spanish Crown

• Indians were not forced to join, but were not allowed to leave

• Missions promised a higher standard of living• Congregacions: villages of converted Indians who

worked for the benefit of Spain, overseen by the missions

The French Crescent

• The Catholic Church was also instrumental in creating a “Second Catholic Empire” in America

• French allied with Indian trading partners to set up a line of military posts and settlements

• French communities combined French and Indian elements in architecture, dress, and familial patterns

• New France was a crescent-shape of settlement from Canada to the port of New Orleans in Louisiana

New England

• Puritan congregations governed local communities (very little distinction between secular and religious authority)

• Puritans did not come to create a society where religion could be practiced freely (harsh repression)

• Though the Toleration Act was passed in 1689, it was first resisted

• By the 1700s, other denominations were allowed to practice openly in Massachusetts

• New England grew in population and stressed the limits of available land

The Middle Colonies

• New York had one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the colonies; NYC grew quickly, but land was unavailable in the rural areas to immigrants

• Pennsylvania Quakers were more tolerant of immigrants and boasted a 4% raise in population every year!

• Middle Colony communities were more individualized than the tightly controlled New England colonies, creating a loose dispersal of small towns throughout the countryside

The Backcountry

• Most pioneers owned little or no land, hacking out their own squatted-tract of land

• Men were warriors and women were focused on domestic duties

• Conflicts between settlers and Indians made the area a violent region

• Helped to create that “pioneer-myth” of American culture• Movement into the Backcountry forced England to

officially forbid this activity and raise colonial taxes to protect these “pioneers,” creating some early resentment for English rule

The South

• A tri-racial society: European, African, and Indian• Specializing in tobacco, rice, and other commercial

crops, it was overwhelmingly rural, with large plantation homes taking vast tracts of land in the Lower South

• The Lower South was dominated by large plantations, that seemed to echo the large sugar plantations of the Caribbean

• Yet, small tobacco farms were widely found in the Upper South, creating a well-developed network of neighborhoods, establishing community and white solidarity

Traditional Culture in the New World

• Life revolved around family, kinship, the church and the local community

• Nostalgia for Europe helped to fix a conservative colonial attitude towards culture

• Oral traditions and suspicious towards change• Community needs outweighed those of the individual• Majority of rural Americans were self-sufficient farmers

who practiced diverse agriculture • Artisans and craftsmen flourished in the commercial

cities as the craft system continued in the colonies

The Frontier Heritage

• Land was plentiful and cheap, but that did not lead to any form of democracy

• Slave labor was common and indentured servants rarely won freedom

• Yet life for indentured servants offered more opportunities in the 18th century, due to the growing prosperity of the colonies

• Violence and brutality were considered an essential part of colonial life

Population Growth and Immigration

• High fertility rates and low mortality rates played important roles in the spike in population from 1700-1780

• Mainly due to an abundance of food, colonists enjoyed relatively good health

• Britain was the only colonial power to encourage immigration, including foreign immigration

Social Class

• In New Spain, class was based on racial purity• New Spain and New France kept their hereditary

ranks and styles from the Old World• In the British colonies, elite was open and based on

wealth– Social mobility was common– The large middle class was a social phenomena (as it did

not exist in New Spain or France)– The British colonies had a higher standard of living than

England

Economic Growth and Inequality

• New Spain and France were economically stagnant compared to the British colonies

• Though the growth of a middle class was an impressive social achievement, the gap between the rich and poor increased, especially in the cities and commercial farming regions

• Land shortages created the “strolling poor,” or homeless

Contrasts in Colonial Politics

• British authority was decentralized using royal governors and locally elected assemblies to govern

• Most adult white males could vote• Leadership was entrusted to men of high rank

and wealth• Most colonial assemblies had considerable

power over local affairs because they controlled the finances

Cultural Transformation of British North America

• The colonies were more open to intellectual and religious challenges than the French and Spanish

• Education and literacy was widespread in the British colonies

• Unlike Spain and France, the British made little attempt at cultural censorship

The Enlightenment

• Philosophical movement that stressed that the universe was governed by natural laws, emphasizing rationality, harmony, and order

• John Locke proposed a state that existed to provide for happiness and security of individuals who were endowed with the natural rights of life, liberty, and property

• Though most held to tradition, many colonists who were self-made, embraced these new ideas

• Colonial colleges taught a mixture of the traditional with Enlightenment viewpoints

Decline in Religious Devotion

• The economic growth in the colonies and the development of a colonial upper class led to a more cosmopolitan culture in the cities

• Puritan churches saw falling membership and attendance at services due to “uninspired” ministers

• Change to an established church led to a decline of regular goers, and the emergence of “half-way” members that weakened the overall influence of religion

• Questioning of tenets like Predestination

The Great Awakening• Reverend Jonathan Edwards of Massachusetts called for a return to

Puritan traditions that appealed to dissatisfied young people• Stressing “emotional conversions” preachers spoke with passion and

fire igniting religious fervor in the young and disenfranchised• George Whitefield toured America, fueling the movement with his

fiery sermons (revival meetings)• Religious enthusiasm gave people relief from social and economic

stresses• Conflict between the Old and New Lights• A full national event, that spread to the South where Christianity was

introduced to slaves• 1740-1780: number of churches doubled; church membership

increased with the population (women and the young affected, too)

The Politics of Revivalism

• It empowered ordinary people to challenge their leaders

• Old Lights politically tried to stamp the New Lights, but they politicized and won out in the end (they would provide the leadership for the American Revolution)

• Gave people the first chance to participate in public debate about religion, war, and economics