Proprietors

• If colonists were friends of the King or did exceptional service, they were given large tracts of land in the New World

• Social reformers created sanctuaries for religious minorities (Quakers + Catholics)

• Settlements created gov’ts + attracted colonists

• Private property rights

Coastal Plain

• Stretched from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean

• Contained fertile soil + rivers

Geographical Mobility

• Freedom of westward movement

• Once indentured servants completed their contracts, they moved west for their own land

• Many indentured servants escaped before end of contract

• Huge opportunity to climb social ladder + get rich with hard work

Social Mobility

• Fluid social ladder

• With geographical mobility + colonists’ intelligence, they were given many opportunities to prosper

• However, if mistakes were made, fortunes could be reversed quickly

Demographics

• Study of populations

• 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 - Settlements mostly concentrated in middle colonies + New England

• Prevented unhealthy dependence on cash-crop economy

• Economy consisted of furs, lumber, fish + whales, shipping

• Flexibility to market trends

Middle Passage

• Expanded colonial American economy

• Trading in the African slave market resulted in traffic across Atlantic Ocean

• Slave ships had very bad conditions + high death rate among slaves

Cash-Crop Economy

• Middle colonies mostly grew grain

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

  • High dependence on chattel slavery

  • Uncooperative climate, little flexibility, market prices

  • CANNOT DIVERSIFY!

• Northern colonies had more capital

Triangular Trade

• 1632 - Provided licenses to transport African slaves

• New England merchants built ships with lumber

• Raw materials from Boston, New York, Baltimore were sold in England or traded for slaves

• Slaves from Africa were brought to the Caribbean

• Molasses from Caribbean was sold in Boston for rum

• Benefited North (South depended on North)

Soil Depletion

• Because tobacco + corn strip nitrogen from soil, it lost its fertility quickly

• Colonists needed to clear more and more land to farm, resulting in conflicts w/ Native Americans

• Legumes (alfalfa, clover, beans, peas) fix nitrogen into soil + helped restore it

• 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

• Because of the English Reformation, Protestantism increased in England

• Composed of Loyal Anglicans dedicated to Roman Catholicism

• America was influenced by religious orthodoxy

• After changing its name to Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church’s power decreased

High Church vs. Low Church

• Liturgy was a style of worship

• The Anglican Church was a High Church that ritualized worship

• Puritans + evangelicals believed in simpler worship (preaching + singing) + egalitarian practices

Congregational Church

• Descended from original Puritan churches

• Believed in self-gov’t apart from influence of Anglican Church

Acts of Toleration

• Passed in 1649

• When the number of Protestants increased, the Acts of Toleration were passed

• Religious toleration led to higher diversity + less religious conflict

• Path to complete religious liberty

Half-Way Covenant

• 1662

• Compromise in Puritan churches

• Even if believers wanted church membership BUT lacked faith, they were still able to join church

• Resulted in churches filled with unbelievers

Jeremiad

• Puritan ministers modeled after Jeremiah

• Warned against worldliness of New England society

Scots-Irish

• Presbyterian Scots fled persecution to Ireland

• 1717 - Migrated to + welcomed into American colonies

• Independent-minded + disliked Anglicans and revolutionaries

• Settled in Appalachian Mts.

Germans

• Because there were German kings on English throne + English is Germanic language, they were easily assimilated into colonies

• “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 among colonists

Arminianism

• Counterpoint to Calvinism

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

• Became more and more popular

Jonathan Edwards

• Huge influence in 1st Great Awakening

• 1737 - Publishes book during 1st Great Awakening

  • “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

• Believed in rationality of faith + philosophy, mysticism

• Missionary work of Native Americans, writing, Princeton University

George Whitefield

• Arrived in America to preach in 1738

• Huge influence in 1st Great Awakening

• Evangelical + Calvinist Anglican

• Urban + open-air gatherings

• Popular

BIG PICTURE

• Natural resources, geographical space, advantageous climate → American prosperity

• Poor people found opportunities in America

• Diversified Northern economy surpassed agrarian Southern economy

• 2 intertwined colonial economies → War b/w Britain + America

• Religious society w/ religious diversity + religious experiments

• Georgia

  • Founded by James Oglethorpe

  • Provide defense against encroaching Spanish

  • Penal colony

• Mercantilism

  • Backbone of British empire

  • Exclusionary - Only British ships + no foreign competition

  • Challenged by colonists → Groundwork for Revolution