4: Daily Life in the Colonies

Groups that were part of the upper class:

1. $merchants$
2. $traders$
3. $clergymen$
4. $landholders$

• $The upper class had servants and luxuries; the middle class could not buy these things$

$Indentured Servants$

• $if he worked during the time he was given, he had could be set free$

Family Roles

• all members were involved in the hospital, school, church. businesses, and social activities
• without these, a sense of community would not be there

Puritans’ belief on the family’s order:

• believed that family represent God
• God is a god of order and families should reflect that

  $Freemen were the only ones who could own property$

How did the colonial family change over time?

• more loving
• people started to marry for love
• children had more freedom
• fathers were involved in rasing their kid

Slaves

• were separated from their families
• known as property; had to rely on their owners
• when they had a family, it also became property
• no true independence
• high chance of never seeing those who gave birth to them

Education

• $Grammar schools: early elementary schools$
• $Hornbook: a printed sheet posted on a paddle-shaped board that was used for learning the alphabet and learning to read$
• $New England: emphasized on having education$
• $Apprenticeship: system that was used to teach trades$
• Which American core value is shown by the colonists’ desire for everyone to have an education?
  • Equality

What group tried to create a Christian society in New England?

• Puritans
  • name changed to $Congregationalist$
  • Why?

$Members of the congregations controlled their own church affairs$

What church was the strongest in souther cities and how was it supported?

• $The Anglican Church was supported by taxes$

What group followed the teachings of John Huss and why did they come to America?

• $Moravians$

  • Reasons:
  • $escape persecution$
  • $missionary work to:$
    • $Slaves$
    • $Indians$
    • $German settlers$

• The Middle Colonies had the greatest religious diversity

$Groups that settles in the Middle Colonies:$

• Anglicans
• Luthers
• Baptists
• Dutch Reformed
• Presbyterians
• Quakers
• Jews
• Catholics
• Schwenkfelders
• Amish
• Mennonites
• Dunkers
• Moravians

Half-Way Covenant

• Puritans
• wanted to increase the number of saved people in the church and keep the church pure
  • if the church is pure, society will be pure
• did not want a church and society that was not pure like the one they left in England

  $The Great Awakening$

• Decade: 1720s

• $Jonathan Edwards$

  • Puritan preacher
  • played an important role in New England
  • preached “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

• $George Whitefield$

  • English preacher
  • important role in the Great Awakening as well
  • once preached to a crown of 20,000 people

• $Samuel Davies$

  • Greates figure in the southern Great Awakening
  • Virginia preacher

• $Results from the Great Awakening:$

  • $many converts$
  • $increase in missionary work$
  • $changing nature of churches$
  • $greater emphasis on higher education$
  • $increase in the gap between church and state$
  • $closing gap between social classes$
  • $increased desire for political freedom$

$Deism$

• $A movement that teaches that God created the universe and then left it to run its own course$

• $Deists: group that believed the God had no personal concern for man$

  $Unitarianism$

• $A movement that denies the Trinity and the diety of Christ$

• $Unitarian movement$

  • $philosophy had a strong effect on intellectuals$

• Why was the Great Awakening so significant for later American history?

  • without the event, the War for Independence may not have took place
  • revivals increased the gap between church and state
  • led people to think more of their personal place in society and their political freedoms
  • revivals unified the colonies

What were the differences between redemptioners and indentured servants?

• $Redemptioners$

  • $brought their families and possessions hoping that friends or relatives would pay their passages when they arrived$

• $Indentured Servants$

  • $single males who received passage in return for several years of work$

$Noah Webster$

• $wrote the Blue-Backed Speller$

• $David Brainerd$

  • $missionary who was devoted to the Indians$

• $Congregationalists$

  • $New England Puritans$

• $Enlightenment$

  • $movement of the 1700s which exalted rational thinking and critical reasoning$

• $Half-Way Covenant$

  • $1662$
  • $allowed unsaved children of Puritans to become church members$

• $Old Deluder Satan Act$

  • $'“to prevent that Old Deluder Satan” from keeping people “from the Knowledge of the Scriptures.”$
  • $passed in 1647$
  • $provided for local education in Massachusetts$

• $Harvard College$

  • $1st institution of higher learning in the colonies$
  • $Cambridge, Massachusetts$

• Subjects taught in Grammar school:

  • Latin
  • Greek
  • Natural Science
  • English Composition and Literature
  • Math
  • Modern Languages