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Unit 2: Period 2: 1607-1754

2.1 Colonization

British Treatment of the Colonies

  • Period preceding the French and Indian War is often described as salutary neglect or benign neglect.

  • England regulated trade and government in its colonies but interfered in colonial affairs as little as possible.

  • England set up absentee customs officials and colonies were left to self-govern.

  • England occasionally turned a blind eye to the colonies' violations of trade restrictions.

  • Developed a large degree of autonomy.

  • Helped fuel revolutionary sentiments when monarchy later attempted to gain greater control of the New World.

English Regulation of Colonial Trade

  • Throughout the colonial period, Europeans used a theory called mercantilism.

  • Mercantilists believed that economic power was rooted in a favorable balance of trade and control of specie

  • Colonies were important mostly for economic reasons, which is why the British considered their colonies in the West Indies more important than their colonies on the North American continent

  • Colonies on the North American continent were seen primarily as markets for British and West Indian goods, but also as sources of raw materials

British Control of Colonial Commerce

  • British government encouraged manufacturing in England and placed protective tariffs on imports that might compete with English goods

  • Navigation Acts passed between 1651 and 1673, required colonists to buy goods only from England, sell certain of their products only to England, and import non-English goods via English ports and pay a duty on those imports

  • Navigation Acts also prohibited the colonies from manufacturing a number of goods that England already produced

  • Wool Act of 1699, forbade both the export of wool from the American colonies and the importation of wool from other British colonies

  • Molasses Act of 1733, imposed an exorbitant tax upon the importation of sugar from the French West Indies

  • New Englanders frequently refused to pay the taxes imposed by these acts

Wool Act of 1699

  • Forbade both the export of wool from the American colonies and the importation of wool from other British colonies

  • Some colonists protested this law by dealing only in flax and hemp

Molasses Act of 1733

  • Imposed an exorbitant tax upon the importation of sugar from the French West Indies

  • New Englanders frequently refused to pay the tax, an early example of rebellion against the Crown.

Colonial Governments

  • Despite trade regulations, colonists maintained a high degree of autonomy

  • Each colony had a governor appointed by the king or proprietor

  • Governor had powers similar to the king, but also dependent on colonial legislatures for money

  • Governor's power relied on cooperation of colonists, most ruled accordingly

Legislatures:

  • Except for Pennsylvania, all colonies had bicameral legislatures modeled after British Parliament

  • Lower house functioned similar to House of Representatives, members directly elected by white, male property holders and had "power of the purse"

  • Upper house made of appointees serving as advisors to governor, had some legislative and judicial powers

  • Most upper house members chosen from local population and concerned with protecting interests of colonial landowners

British Central Government:

  • British never established powerful central government in colonies

  • Autonomy allowed eased transition to independence in following century

Colonial Efforts Toward Centralization:

  • Small efforts made by colonists towards centralized government

  • New England Confederation most prominent attempt

  • No real power, but offered advice to northeastern colonies when disputes arose

  • Provided opportunity for colonists from different settlements to meet and discuss mutual problems

2.2 The Regions of the British Colonies

Development of the Colonies

  • Colonies "grew up," developing fledgling economies.

  • Beginnings of an American culture, as opposed to a transplanted English culture, took root.

Puritan Immigration

  • Near halt between 1649 and 1660 during Oliver Cromwell's rule as Lord Protector of England

  • Puritans had little motive to move to New World during Interregnum (between kings)

  • With the restoration of the Stuarts, many English Puritans again immigrated to the New World, bringing with them republican ideals of revolution

Differences between New England and Chesapeake

  • Entire families tended to immigrate to New England, but Chesapeake immigrants were often single males

  • Climate in New England was more hospitable, leading to longer life expectancy and larger families

  • Stronger sense of community and absence of tobacco as cash crop led New Englanders to settle in larger towns

  • Chesapeake residents lived in smaller, more spread-out farming communities

  • New Englanders were more religious, settling near meetinghouses

  • Slavery was rare in New England, but farms in middle and southern colonies were much larger, requiring large numbers of enslaved Africans

  • South Carolina had a larger proportion of enslaved Africans than European settlers

Other Early Colonies

Proprietorships

  • Several colonies were owned by one person, usually received land as gift from king

  • Connecticut and Maryland were two such colonies

Connecticut

  • Received charter in 1635

  • Produced Fundamental Orders, considered first written constitution in British North America

Maryland

  • Granted to Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore

  • Calvert intended to create haven colony for Catholics and make a profit growing tobacco

  • Offered religious tolerance for all Christians but tension between faiths soon arose

  • Act of Tolerance passed in 1649 to protect religious freedom but situation devolved into religious civil war

New York

  • Royal gift to James, king's brother

  • Dutch Republic was largest commercial power of the century and economic rival of the British

  • Dutch had established initial settlement in 1614 near present-day Albany, which they called New Netherland

  • In 1664, Charles II of England waged war against the Dutch Republic and captured New Netherland

  • James became Duke of York, and when he became king in 1685, he proclaimed New York a royal colony

  • Dutch were allowed to remain in colony on generous terms and made up large segment of population for many years

New Jersey

  • Given to friends of Charles II, who sold it off to investors, many of whom were Quakers

Pennsylvania

  • William Penn, a Quaker, received colony as a gift from King Charles II

  • Charles had a friendship with William Penn and wanted to export Quakers to someplace far from England

  • Penn established liberal policies towards religious freedom and civil liberties

  • Pennsylvania had natural bounty and attracted settlers through advertising, making it one of the fastest growing colonies

  • Penn attempted to treat Native Americans more fairly but had mixed results

  • Penn made a treaty with the Delawares to take only as much land as could be walked by a man in three days. His son, however, renegotiated the treaty, hiring three marathon runners for the same task, thereby claiming considerably more land.

Carolina Colony

  • Proprietary colony (English-owned)

  • Split into North and South in 1729

North Carolina

  • Settled by Virginians

South Carolina

  • Settled by descendants of Englishmen who had colonized Barbados

  • Barbados’ primary export: sugar

  • Plantations worked by enslaved people

Slavery in the Colonies

  • Existed in Virginia since 1619

  • Arrival of settlers from Barbados marked the beginning of the slave era in the colonies

  • First Englishmen in the New World to see widespread slavery at work

Formation of Georgia

  • Formation of South Carolina and ongoing armed conflicts with Spanish Florida prompted British to support formation of Georgia by James Oglethorpe in 1732

  • Georgia initially banned slavery

Slavery in Georgia

  • Ban was soon overturned due to economic advantage and growth afforded to neighboring South Carolina due to slavery

Proprietary Colonies

  • Most of the proprietary colonies were converted to royal colonies (owned by the king)

  • Greater control over government

Royal Colonies

  • By the time of the Revolution, only Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were not royal colonies.

2.3 Diversity in the Colonies

Population Growth in the Colonies

  • Population in 1700 was 250,000 and by 1750 it was 1,250,000

  • Substantial non-English European populations (Scotch-Irish, Scots, Germans) started arriving in large numbers during the 18th century

  • English settlers continued to come to the New World as well

  • Black population in 1750 was more than 200,000

  • In a few colonies, Black population would outnumber whites by the time of the Revolution

  • Over 90% of colonists lived in rural areas

Rural Life in the Colonies

  • Labor divided along gender lines, men doing outdoor work and women doing indoor work

  • Opportunities for social interaction outside the family were limited

  • Patriarchy society, children and women were subordinate to men

  • Children's education was secondary to their work schedules

  • Women were not allowed to vote, draft a will, or testify in court

Black People in the Colonies

  • Predominantly lived in the countryside and in the South

  • Lives varied from region to region, with conditions being most difficult in the South

  • Enslaved people who worked on large plantations and had specialized skills fared better than field hands

  • Condition of servitude was demeaning

  • Enslaved people often developed extended kinship ties and strong communal bonds to cope with the misery of servitude

  • In the North, Black people often had trouble maintaining a sense of community and history.

Conditions in the Cities

  • Often worse than in the countryside

  • Immigrants settled in cities for work, but work paid too little and poverty was widespread

  • Sanitary conditions were primitive, epidemics such as smallpox were common

  • Cities offered residents wider contact with other people and the outside world

  • Centers for progress and education

Education in the Colonies

  • Citizens with anything above a rudimentary level of education were rare

  • Nearly all colleges established during this period served primarily to train ministers

  • Early colleges in the North include Harvard and Yale (established in 1636 and 1701, respectively)

  • College of William and Mary was chartered in the South in 1693

Regional Differences in the Colonies

  • New England society centered on trade, Boston was the colonies' major port city

  • Population farmed for subsistence, subscribed to rigid Puritanism

  • Middle colonies (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey) had more fertile land and focused primarily on farming

  • Lower South (the Carolinas) concentrated on cash crops such as tobacco and rice

  • Slavery played a major role on plantations, but majority of Southerners were subsistence farmers

  • Blacks constituted up to half the population of some southern colonies

  • Chesapeake colonies (Maryland and Virginia) combined features of the middle colonies and the lower South

  • Slavery and tobacco played a larger role in the Chesapeake than in the middle colonies

  • Chesapeake residents also farmed grain and diversified their economies

  • Development of major cities in the Chesapeake region distinguished it from the lower South, which was almost entirely rural.

2.4 Major Events in the Period

Bacon's Rebellion:

  • Took place on Virginia's western frontier in 1676

  • Frontier farmers forced west into back country due to all coastal land being claimed

  • Encroaching on land inhabited by Native Americans led to raids on frontier farmers

  • Frontier settlers sought to band together and drive out native tribes

  • Stymied by government in Jamestown, which did not want to risk full-scale war

  • Class resentment grew as frontiersmen suspected eastern elites viewed them as expendable "human shields"

  • Nathaniel Bacon, a recent immigrant, rallied the farmers and demanded Governor William Berkeley grant him authority to raise a militia and attack nearby tribes

  • When Berkeley refused, Bacon and his men attacked the Susquehannock and Pamunkeys, who were actually allies of the English

  • Rebels then turned their attention to Jamestown, sacking and burning the city

  • Rebellion dissolved when Bacon died of dysentery, conflict between colonists and Native Americans averted with new treaty

  • Often cited as early example of populist uprising in America

Stono Uprising:

  • First and one of the most successful slave rebellions

  • Took place in September 1739 near Stono River, outside of Charleston, South Carolina

  • Approximately 20 enslaved people stole guns and ammunition, killed storekeepers and planters, and liberated a number of enslaved people

  • Rebels fled to Florida, where they hoped the Spanish colonists would grant them their freedom

  • Colonial militia caught up with them and attacked, killing some and capturing most of the others

  • Those who were captured and returned were later executed

  • As a result of the Stono Uprising, many colonies passed more restrictive laws to govern the behavior of enslaved people

  • Fear of slave rebellions increased, and New York experienced a "witch hunt" period

Salem Witch Trials:

  • Took place in 1692, not the first witch trials in New England

  • During the first 70 years of English settlement in the region, 103 people (almost all women) had been tried on charges of witchcraft

  • Never before had so many been accused at once, more than 130 "witches" were jailed or executed in Salem

  • Historians have different explanations for why the mass hysteria started and ended so quickly

  • Region had recently endured the autocratic control of the Dominion of New England

  • In 1691, Massachusetts became a royal colony under new monarchs, suffrage was extended to all Protestants

  • War against French and Native Americans on the Canadian border increased regional anxieties

Puritanism in America

  • Feared that their religion was being undermined by commercialism in cities like Boston

  • Many second and third generation Puritans lacked the fervor of the original settlers

  • Led to the Halfway Covenant in 1662 which changed rules for Puritan baptisms

    • Prior to the Halfway Covenant, a Puritan had to experience God's grace for their children to be baptized

    • With many losing interest in the church, the Puritan clergy decided to baptize all children whose parents were baptized

    • However, those who had not experienced God's grace were not allowed to vote

  • All of these factors (religious, economic, and gender) combined to create mass hysteria in Salem in 1692

    • Accusers were mostly teenage girls who accused prominent citizens of consorting with the Devil

    • Town leaders turned against the accusers and the hysteria ended

  • Generations that followed original settlers were generally less religious

  • By 1700, women constituted the majority of active church members

  • First Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s

    • Wave of religious revivalism in the colonies and Europe

    • Led by Congregationalist minister Jonathan Edwards and Methodist preacher George Whitefield

    • Edwards preached severe, predeterministic doctrines of Calvinism

    • Whitefield preached a Christianity based on emotionalism and spirituality

    • Often described as a response to the Enlightenment, a European intellectual movement emphasizing rationalism over emotionalism or spirituality.

Benjamin Franklin

  • Self-made, self-educated man who typified Enlightenment ideals in America

  • Printer's apprentice who became a wealthy printer and respected intellectual

  • Created Poor Richard's Almanack which remains influential to this day

  • Did pioneering work in electricity, inventing bifocals, the lightning rod, and the Franklin stove

  • Founded the colonies' first fire department, post office, and public library

  • Espoused Enlightenment ideals about education, government, and religion

  • Colonists' favorite son until George Washington came along

  • Served as an ambassador in Europe and negotiated a crucial alliance with the French and peace treaty that ended the Revolutionary War.

AK

Unit 2: Period 2: 1607-1754

2.1 Colonization

British Treatment of the Colonies

  • Period preceding the French and Indian War is often described as salutary neglect or benign neglect.

  • England regulated trade and government in its colonies but interfered in colonial affairs as little as possible.

  • England set up absentee customs officials and colonies were left to self-govern.

  • England occasionally turned a blind eye to the colonies' violations of trade restrictions.

  • Developed a large degree of autonomy.

  • Helped fuel revolutionary sentiments when monarchy later attempted to gain greater control of the New World.

English Regulation of Colonial Trade

  • Throughout the colonial period, Europeans used a theory called mercantilism.

  • Mercantilists believed that economic power was rooted in a favorable balance of trade and control of specie

  • Colonies were important mostly for economic reasons, which is why the British considered their colonies in the West Indies more important than their colonies on the North American continent

  • Colonies on the North American continent were seen primarily as markets for British and West Indian goods, but also as sources of raw materials

British Control of Colonial Commerce

  • British government encouraged manufacturing in England and placed protective tariffs on imports that might compete with English goods

  • Navigation Acts passed between 1651 and 1673, required colonists to buy goods only from England, sell certain of their products only to England, and import non-English goods via English ports and pay a duty on those imports

  • Navigation Acts also prohibited the colonies from manufacturing a number of goods that England already produced

  • Wool Act of 1699, forbade both the export of wool from the American colonies and the importation of wool from other British colonies

  • Molasses Act of 1733, imposed an exorbitant tax upon the importation of sugar from the French West Indies

  • New Englanders frequently refused to pay the taxes imposed by these acts

Wool Act of 1699

  • Forbade both the export of wool from the American colonies and the importation of wool from other British colonies

  • Some colonists protested this law by dealing only in flax and hemp

Molasses Act of 1733

  • Imposed an exorbitant tax upon the importation of sugar from the French West Indies

  • New Englanders frequently refused to pay the tax, an early example of rebellion against the Crown.

Colonial Governments

  • Despite trade regulations, colonists maintained a high degree of autonomy

  • Each colony had a governor appointed by the king or proprietor

  • Governor had powers similar to the king, but also dependent on colonial legislatures for money

  • Governor's power relied on cooperation of colonists, most ruled accordingly

Legislatures:

  • Except for Pennsylvania, all colonies had bicameral legislatures modeled after British Parliament

  • Lower house functioned similar to House of Representatives, members directly elected by white, male property holders and had "power of the purse"

  • Upper house made of appointees serving as advisors to governor, had some legislative and judicial powers

  • Most upper house members chosen from local population and concerned with protecting interests of colonial landowners

British Central Government:

  • British never established powerful central government in colonies

  • Autonomy allowed eased transition to independence in following century

Colonial Efforts Toward Centralization:

  • Small efforts made by colonists towards centralized government

  • New England Confederation most prominent attempt

  • No real power, but offered advice to northeastern colonies when disputes arose

  • Provided opportunity for colonists from different settlements to meet and discuss mutual problems

2.2 The Regions of the British Colonies

Development of the Colonies

  • Colonies "grew up," developing fledgling economies.

  • Beginnings of an American culture, as opposed to a transplanted English culture, took root.

Puritan Immigration

  • Near halt between 1649 and 1660 during Oliver Cromwell's rule as Lord Protector of England

  • Puritans had little motive to move to New World during Interregnum (between kings)

  • With the restoration of the Stuarts, many English Puritans again immigrated to the New World, bringing with them republican ideals of revolution

Differences between New England and Chesapeake

  • Entire families tended to immigrate to New England, but Chesapeake immigrants were often single males

  • Climate in New England was more hospitable, leading to longer life expectancy and larger families

  • Stronger sense of community and absence of tobacco as cash crop led New Englanders to settle in larger towns

  • Chesapeake residents lived in smaller, more spread-out farming communities

  • New Englanders were more religious, settling near meetinghouses

  • Slavery was rare in New England, but farms in middle and southern colonies were much larger, requiring large numbers of enslaved Africans

  • South Carolina had a larger proportion of enslaved Africans than European settlers

Other Early Colonies

Proprietorships

  • Several colonies were owned by one person, usually received land as gift from king

  • Connecticut and Maryland were two such colonies

Connecticut

  • Received charter in 1635

  • Produced Fundamental Orders, considered first written constitution in British North America

Maryland

  • Granted to Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore

  • Calvert intended to create haven colony for Catholics and make a profit growing tobacco

  • Offered religious tolerance for all Christians but tension between faiths soon arose

  • Act of Tolerance passed in 1649 to protect religious freedom but situation devolved into religious civil war

New York

  • Royal gift to James, king's brother

  • Dutch Republic was largest commercial power of the century and economic rival of the British

  • Dutch had established initial settlement in 1614 near present-day Albany, which they called New Netherland

  • In 1664, Charles II of England waged war against the Dutch Republic and captured New Netherland

  • James became Duke of York, and when he became king in 1685, he proclaimed New York a royal colony

  • Dutch were allowed to remain in colony on generous terms and made up large segment of population for many years

New Jersey

  • Given to friends of Charles II, who sold it off to investors, many of whom were Quakers

Pennsylvania

  • William Penn, a Quaker, received colony as a gift from King Charles II

  • Charles had a friendship with William Penn and wanted to export Quakers to someplace far from England

  • Penn established liberal policies towards religious freedom and civil liberties

  • Pennsylvania had natural bounty and attracted settlers through advertising, making it one of the fastest growing colonies

  • Penn attempted to treat Native Americans more fairly but had mixed results

  • Penn made a treaty with the Delawares to take only as much land as could be walked by a man in three days. His son, however, renegotiated the treaty, hiring three marathon runners for the same task, thereby claiming considerably more land.

Carolina Colony

  • Proprietary colony (English-owned)

  • Split into North and South in 1729

North Carolina

  • Settled by Virginians

South Carolina

  • Settled by descendants of Englishmen who had colonized Barbados

  • Barbados’ primary export: sugar

  • Plantations worked by enslaved people

Slavery in the Colonies

  • Existed in Virginia since 1619

  • Arrival of settlers from Barbados marked the beginning of the slave era in the colonies

  • First Englishmen in the New World to see widespread slavery at work

Formation of Georgia

  • Formation of South Carolina and ongoing armed conflicts with Spanish Florida prompted British to support formation of Georgia by James Oglethorpe in 1732

  • Georgia initially banned slavery

Slavery in Georgia

  • Ban was soon overturned due to economic advantage and growth afforded to neighboring South Carolina due to slavery

Proprietary Colonies

  • Most of the proprietary colonies were converted to royal colonies (owned by the king)

  • Greater control over government

Royal Colonies

  • By the time of the Revolution, only Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were not royal colonies.

2.3 Diversity in the Colonies

Population Growth in the Colonies

  • Population in 1700 was 250,000 and by 1750 it was 1,250,000

  • Substantial non-English European populations (Scotch-Irish, Scots, Germans) started arriving in large numbers during the 18th century

  • English settlers continued to come to the New World as well

  • Black population in 1750 was more than 200,000

  • In a few colonies, Black population would outnumber whites by the time of the Revolution

  • Over 90% of colonists lived in rural areas

Rural Life in the Colonies

  • Labor divided along gender lines, men doing outdoor work and women doing indoor work

  • Opportunities for social interaction outside the family were limited

  • Patriarchy society, children and women were subordinate to men

  • Children's education was secondary to their work schedules

  • Women were not allowed to vote, draft a will, or testify in court

Black People in the Colonies

  • Predominantly lived in the countryside and in the South

  • Lives varied from region to region, with conditions being most difficult in the South

  • Enslaved people who worked on large plantations and had specialized skills fared better than field hands

  • Condition of servitude was demeaning

  • Enslaved people often developed extended kinship ties and strong communal bonds to cope with the misery of servitude

  • In the North, Black people often had trouble maintaining a sense of community and history.

Conditions in the Cities

  • Often worse than in the countryside

  • Immigrants settled in cities for work, but work paid too little and poverty was widespread

  • Sanitary conditions were primitive, epidemics such as smallpox were common

  • Cities offered residents wider contact with other people and the outside world

  • Centers for progress and education

Education in the Colonies

  • Citizens with anything above a rudimentary level of education were rare

  • Nearly all colleges established during this period served primarily to train ministers

  • Early colleges in the North include Harvard and Yale (established in 1636 and 1701, respectively)

  • College of William and Mary was chartered in the South in 1693

Regional Differences in the Colonies

  • New England society centered on trade, Boston was the colonies' major port city

  • Population farmed for subsistence, subscribed to rigid Puritanism

  • Middle colonies (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey) had more fertile land and focused primarily on farming

  • Lower South (the Carolinas) concentrated on cash crops such as tobacco and rice

  • Slavery played a major role on plantations, but majority of Southerners were subsistence farmers

  • Blacks constituted up to half the population of some southern colonies

  • Chesapeake colonies (Maryland and Virginia) combined features of the middle colonies and the lower South

  • Slavery and tobacco played a larger role in the Chesapeake than in the middle colonies

  • Chesapeake residents also farmed grain and diversified their economies

  • Development of major cities in the Chesapeake region distinguished it from the lower South, which was almost entirely rural.

2.4 Major Events in the Period

Bacon's Rebellion:

  • Took place on Virginia's western frontier in 1676

  • Frontier farmers forced west into back country due to all coastal land being claimed

  • Encroaching on land inhabited by Native Americans led to raids on frontier farmers

  • Frontier settlers sought to band together and drive out native tribes

  • Stymied by government in Jamestown, which did not want to risk full-scale war

  • Class resentment grew as frontiersmen suspected eastern elites viewed them as expendable "human shields"

  • Nathaniel Bacon, a recent immigrant, rallied the farmers and demanded Governor William Berkeley grant him authority to raise a militia and attack nearby tribes

  • When Berkeley refused, Bacon and his men attacked the Susquehannock and Pamunkeys, who were actually allies of the English

  • Rebels then turned their attention to Jamestown, sacking and burning the city

  • Rebellion dissolved when Bacon died of dysentery, conflict between colonists and Native Americans averted with new treaty

  • Often cited as early example of populist uprising in America

Stono Uprising:

  • First and one of the most successful slave rebellions

  • Took place in September 1739 near Stono River, outside of Charleston, South Carolina

  • Approximately 20 enslaved people stole guns and ammunition, killed storekeepers and planters, and liberated a number of enslaved people

  • Rebels fled to Florida, where they hoped the Spanish colonists would grant them their freedom

  • Colonial militia caught up with them and attacked, killing some and capturing most of the others

  • Those who were captured and returned were later executed

  • As a result of the Stono Uprising, many colonies passed more restrictive laws to govern the behavior of enslaved people

  • Fear of slave rebellions increased, and New York experienced a "witch hunt" period

Salem Witch Trials:

  • Took place in 1692, not the first witch trials in New England

  • During the first 70 years of English settlement in the region, 103 people (almost all women) had been tried on charges of witchcraft

  • Never before had so many been accused at once, more than 130 "witches" were jailed or executed in Salem

  • Historians have different explanations for why the mass hysteria started and ended so quickly

  • Region had recently endured the autocratic control of the Dominion of New England

  • In 1691, Massachusetts became a royal colony under new monarchs, suffrage was extended to all Protestants

  • War against French and Native Americans on the Canadian border increased regional anxieties

Puritanism in America

  • Feared that their religion was being undermined by commercialism in cities like Boston

  • Many second and third generation Puritans lacked the fervor of the original settlers

  • Led to the Halfway Covenant in 1662 which changed rules for Puritan baptisms

    • Prior to the Halfway Covenant, a Puritan had to experience God's grace for their children to be baptized

    • With many losing interest in the church, the Puritan clergy decided to baptize all children whose parents were baptized

    • However, those who had not experienced God's grace were not allowed to vote

  • All of these factors (religious, economic, and gender) combined to create mass hysteria in Salem in 1692

    • Accusers were mostly teenage girls who accused prominent citizens of consorting with the Devil

    • Town leaders turned against the accusers and the hysteria ended

  • Generations that followed original settlers were generally less religious

  • By 1700, women constituted the majority of active church members

  • First Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s

    • Wave of religious revivalism in the colonies and Europe

    • Led by Congregationalist minister Jonathan Edwards and Methodist preacher George Whitefield

    • Edwards preached severe, predeterministic doctrines of Calvinism

    • Whitefield preached a Christianity based on emotionalism and spirituality

    • Often described as a response to the Enlightenment, a European intellectual movement emphasizing rationalism over emotionalism or spirituality.

Benjamin Franklin

  • Self-made, self-educated man who typified Enlightenment ideals in America

  • Printer's apprentice who became a wealthy printer and respected intellectual

  • Created Poor Richard's Almanack which remains influential to this day

  • Did pioneering work in electricity, inventing bifocals, the lightning rod, and the Franklin stove

  • Founded the colonies' first fire department, post office, and public library

  • Espoused Enlightenment ideals about education, government, and religion

  • Colonists' favorite son until George Washington came along

  • Served as an ambassador in Europe and negotiated a crucial alliance with the French and peace treaty that ended the Revolutionary War.

robot