APUSH 2.7 Colonial Society and Culture

Push-pull theory of immigration
  * Push factors are features of an area that discourage, or push, people from moving or staying there
  * Pull factors are features that encourage people to come to an area
  * Push factors in England that led to British people moving to the Colonies included overpopulation, religious persecution, lack of economic activities, and more
  * factors that pulled the British to the Atlantic colonies were access and opportunity for free land, religious establishment that may match the individual’s belief, indentured servitude and related opportunities, appeal of the frontier, etc.
The first American population explosion came in 1680-1770
  * There was a natural increase
  * As well as new arrival in the Scot-Irish, German, and English groups
  * There was a gradual reduction in mortality, meaning people had longer lifespans

Predominantly Anglo-Saxon
There was much religious diversity, and no faith completely dominated the others
There were institutions of self-government, and the mainland government practiced salutary neglect, letting the colonies run themselves
* American colonists will get used to this treatment… it’s retraction is a factor that leads to the revolutionary war
It was an aspirational society
* Immigrants were most usually lower middle class citizens looking to have a better future in the New World

An enthusiastic movement of bringing the religion to the people
* Pastors and religious speakers flood the nation, traveling and spreading word of their respective denominations
Elements of the Great Awakening
  * Fanatic exuberance
  * Itinerancy; traveling preachers and open air revivals
  * A socially leveling force
    * The idea of personal relationships with God created the idea of divine equality
    * People no longer felt that they needed a minister to be the conduit between them and God; everyone could connect with the religion
  * Johnathan Edwards and George Whitefield
    * Leading practitioners, had very emotional preaching styles

Politically, the growing diversity in religious thought led to a diversity in political thought
Socially, the Great Awakening was and anti-hierarchical, anti-elitist movement
Denominationally, the movement led to the birth of many new religious groups (Baptists, Methodists, Episcopal,) and prevented a monopoly of religious power from resting in the hands of one particular religion

Enlightenment, a movement that had originated in Europe, believed reason was the key to understanding the universe
* Moved away from explaining everything by attributing it to god
Included the concept of natural law
* Understanding natures laws could lead to improvements in society
* As deists, they questions the established religious practices and doctrines of their era

The printing press, the internet of its time, drove the spread of ideas, concepts, debate, and discussion on both sides of the atlantic
* This both contributed to and accelerated colonial thinking on the rights of men, the Good Society, and the role of government
More people had access to ideas an intellectual discourse than ever before, and this has consequences

Joint Stock: Privately held, for-profit corporate venture
Royal: Property of the crown, a governmental holding
Proprietary: Granted to a single individual, managed/governed as he saw fit
In each of these colony types, the central priority and power structure was not driven by the people
As colonies grew, oversight and governance became more complex, and further removed from local concerns

Mercantilism was an economic philosophy/policy built around the idea of maximizing profit for the state
* In order to do this, this philosophy stipulated that nations should develop colonies to both extract their resources and to sell them finished goods
* The role of colonies in this model was purely one of dependence and subsidiary status
Trade and Navigation Acts of 1650-1673
* Passed by England to control colonial trade, route all profitability to England, and prevent colonies from producing goods that England could sell them, even if it could be made cheaper there
* Colonial perception and reaction was increasingly one of displeasure and resentment that they were being economically used

England saw itself as organizing and strengthening the Empire, while the colonists increasingly view these same actions as deliberate policies to stunt their growth and deprive them of rights
Colonists also increasingly saw themselves as pawns and victims in Great-Power conflicts that were fought out in North America in the early to mid 18th century
* They did not view English defense against Native Americans or other European powers as sufficient
Over time, colonists began to see things as done to them, not for them
England comes to see the colonies as both valuable and expensive holdings, and salutary neglect as obsolete

Great Awakening, which led to democratizing changes in religion, led naturally to calls for more democratizing changes in politics
Enlightenment political philosophies, such as those of John Locke, travelled across the Atlantic and argues against absolutist rule in favor of Natural Rights and the Social Contract