Chapter 5 - Colonial “American” Society

Proprietors

Friends of King or did exceptional service → Given large tracts of land

Social reformers creating sanctuaries for religious minorities (Quakers + Catholics)

Created gov’ts + attracted colonists

Private property rights

Coastal Plain

Appalachian Mountains → Atlantic Ocean

Fertile soil + rivers

Settlement upriver

Geographical Mobility

Freedom of westward movement

Indentured servants complete contracts → Move west for land

Indentured servants escaped before end of contract

Opportunity to climb social ladder

Social Mobility

1625 - Fluid social ladder

Geographical mobility + intelligence → Many opportunities

Mistake → Reverse fortune

Demographics

Study of population

Rapid growth during colonial era

Ethnic blend of colonists (60% English)

Young, mostly male, rural

Capital

Crucial to grow American society

Needed investment funds

London banks + joint-stock companies established American economic networks

Diversified Economy

1700 - Middle colonies + New England

Prevented cash-crop economy

Furs, lumber, fish + whales, shipping

Flexibility to market trends

Middle Passage

Expanded colonial American economy

African slave market → Traffic across Atlantic Ocean

Slave ships - Bad conditions + high death rate

Cash-Crop Economy

Middle colonies - Grain

1614 - Southern colonies commit to cash crops (tobacco, sugar, indigo, rice)

North - More capital

Triangular Trade

1632 - Licenses to transport African slaves

New England merchants built ships w/ lumber

Raw materials from Boston, New York, Baltimore → Sold in England or traded for slaves

Slaves from Africa → Brought to Caribbean

Molasses from Caribbean → Sold in Boston for rum

Benefited North (South depended on North)

Soil Depletion

Tobacco + corn strip nitrogen from soil → Lose fertility

Clear more land → Settlement upriver → Conflicts w/ Native Americans

Legumes (alfalfa, clover, beans, peas) - Fix nitrogen into soil

Modern fertilizers

Franchise

Right to vote

Required land ownership

Higher % of males can vote in America than England

Expanded democracy

Anglican Church

Church of England founded by Henry VIII

English Reformation → Protestantism ↑ in England

Loyal Anglicans, more reformed, dedicated to Roman Catholicism

America influenced by religious orthodoxy + religious dissent

Changed name to Episcopal Church → Anglican Church’s power ↓

High Church vs. Low Church

Liturgy - Style of worship

Anglican Church - High Church, ritualized worship

Puritans + evangelicals - Simpler worship (preaching + singing) + egalitarian practices

Congregational Church

Descended from original Puritan churches

Self-gov’t apart from influence of Anglican Church

Acts of Toleration

1649

Protestants ↑ → Passed Acts of Toleration

Religious toleration → Diversity ↑, religious conflict ↓, support for churches ↓

Path to complete religious liberty

Half-Way Covenant

1662

Compromise in Puritan churches

Less devotion → Less claim to conversion experience

Wanted church membership BUT lacked faith → Still able to join church

Churches filled w/ unbelievers

Unitarianism → Rejected Trinity + deity of Christ

Jeremiad

Puritan ministers

Modeled after Jeremiah

Warned against worldliness of New England society

Scots-Irish

Presbyterian Scots fled persecution to Ireland

1717 - Migrated to American colonies → Welcomed

Independent-minded + disliked Anglicans + revolutionaries

Settled Appalachian Mts.

Germans

German kings on English throne + English is Germanic language → Easy assimilation

“Pennsylvania Dutch” in Western Pennsylvania

First Great Awakening

Declining devotion to God

Revival of Christianity

Widespread conversions + missionary activity among Native Americans

1730s-1740s

1st unifying event - Americans

Arminianism

Counterpoint to Calvinism

Man’s free will, not divine decree, is key to salvation

Became more and more popular

Jonathan Edwards

1st Great Awakening

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

1737 - Publishes book during 1st Great Awakening

Rationality of faith + philosophy, mysticism

Missionary work of Native Americans, writing, Princeton University

George Whitefield

1738 - Arrived in America to preach

1st Great Awakening

Evangelical + Calvinist Anglican

Booming voice

Urban + open-air

Popular