4: Daily Life in the Colonies

Groups that were part of the upper class:

$merchants$
$traders$
$clergymen$
$landholders$

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

$Indentured Servants$

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

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