Knowt
Chapter 5: Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution, 1700-1775
Objectives:
Describe the basic population and social structure of the eighteenth-century colonies and indicate how they had changed since the seventeenth century.
Explain how the economic life of the colonies was related to the changing patterns of social prestige and wealth.
Explain the causes and effects of the religious changes of the eighteenth century, especially the Great Awakening.
Describe the origins and development of education, culture, and the learned professions in the colonies.
Describe the basic features of colonial politics, including the role of various official and information political institutions.
Vocabulary Words
1. Jonathan Edwards
He was a pastor from Northampton, Massachusetts who ignited the Great Awakening. He was deeply theological and had stark doctrines that created a sympathetic reaction from his listeners. He was a talented preacher whose most famous sermon was “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
2. John Peter Zenger
He was a newspaper printer who was involved in the Zenger trial in 1734-1735. His newspaper had attacked the royal governor and so he was charged with seditious libel. He was then defended by a former indentured servant, Andrew Hamilton. He argued he’d printed the truth but the royal chief justice told the jury to not consider the truth of his statements. The fact that he had printed them was enough to convict him. Hamilton said that the ability to expose and oppose power was at stake which convinced the jury to defy the judges and gave him a verdict of not guilty. This was significant because it created a base for the freedom of the press and encouraged open public discussion. It set a base that true statements could not be prosecuted as libel.
Benjamin Franklin
He was an American founding father. He donated money to George Whitefield after his sermon despite being very thrifty and careful. He never attended college but had a large role in the creation of the University of Pennsylvania which was the first American college without denominational control. He established the first privately supported circulating library in America. He wrote Poor Richard’s Almanack and edited it from 1732-1758. It had sayings that emphasised virtues like thrift, morality, and common sense. It was popular in Europe as well, but had incredible popularity in America and was second only to the Bible. He proved lightning was a form of electricity and invented bifocal spectacles and the Franklin Stove. He also was behind the creation of the lightning rod, which received criticism from churchmen.
Phillis Wheatley
(ca. 1753-1784) Phillis Wheatley was an enslaved girl who became an incredible poet. She was brought to Boston when she was eight and never received a proper education. She began writing poems at the age of twenty, she wrote poems that were influenced by Alexander Pope. Although her poetry was some of the best produced in the colonies, Boston’s printers refused to print a Black woman’s poetry and so she was first published in London.
John S. Copley
(1738-1815) Copley was a famous painter who went to England to continue their education, as they couldn’t find people willing to pay for their portraits. He was a Loyalist during the war.
George Whitefield
He was another Great Awakening preacher who was an incredibly powerful orator. He was a former alehouse attendant who could control audiences emotions very easily. His message was of human helplessness and divine omnipotence. He even convinced Benjamin Franklin to donate. He held openair revivals with thousands of attendants where many people converted and were taken over by religious excitation.
Paxton Boys
The Paxton Boys were a group of Scots-Irish who were not huge fans of the British because of the displacement they had felt. The Paxton Boys marched on Philadelphia in 1764 in order to protest the Quaker oligarchy’s lenient policy toward the Native Americans. They would later spearhead the Regulator movement that would include later American revolutionaries like Andrew Jackson. About a dozen of the future American presidents would be Scots-Irish.
Molasses Act
The Molasses Act was a Parliamentary act passed in 1733. It was passed after pressure from British West Indian planters with the goal of stopping North American trade with the French West Indies . It was supposed to crush American international trade and reduce the colonists standard of living. However it backfired when the American colonists began bribing and smuggling instead. This foreshadowed the impending revolution because the Americans would rather revolt than obey Parliament. It built resentment and encouraged revolutionary ideas.
Great Awakening
The Great Awakening happened from 1730-1740s and began in Northampton, Massachusetts by Jonathan Edwards. One of his famous sermons was “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and told parishioners that salvation couldn’t be achieved through good deeds and said to be completely dependent on God’s grace. George Whitefield would use a different style of evangelical preaching and had an incredible effect on his listeners. He held revival meetings where people would convert and be saved. The Awakening undermined the older clergy who had authority from their education and erudition. It created schisms in denominations and increased the competitiveness of the American churches. It encouraged more missionary work among Black and Native people who also attended these revivals and led to the creation of modern universities like Princeton, Brown, and Dartmouth. Most importantly it was the first spontaneous mass movement of Americans, as it broke down sectional and denominational lines and encouraged a sense of unity and common ground among the American people.
Old and new lights
“Old lights” were Orthodox clergymen who had their authority from their education and erudition. They were sceptical of the emotionalism and theatrical antics of the revivalists. “New lights” defended the Great Awakening because it revitalised American religion. Presbytarians and Congregationalists were split over the issue and many believers changed to join the Baptist and Methodist churches as they were more willing to accept emotion in religion. The schisms caused by this increased the number of churches in America as well as increased their competitiveness.
Regulator movement
The Regulator movement was in North Carolina and was spearheaded by the aforementioned Paxton Boys, an Irish-Scot group. It was a small but notable insurrection against eastern domination of the colony’s affairs. One of them was Andrew Jackson, among other future American revolutionaries.
Triangular trade
The triangular trade described the trade connecting Africa, the colonies, and the West Indies. It was very profitable, although it only made up a small part of the total colonial commerce. An example of this is someone going from New England port with rum to the Gold Coast of Africa. There the alcohol could be traded for enslaved Africans. They would then go from Africa to the West Indies, where they would trade the survivors of the brutal crossing for molasses. Then from the West Indies they would travel back to New England where it would be distilled into rum. The cycle would then repeat. The West Indies was a crucial part of the American system of commerce, as John Adams noted. Aside from the reliance on slavery in the colonies themselves, they also relied on the West Indies which were also built on slavery.
Stono Revolt
The Stono Revolt was a South Carolina slave revolt in 1739 when over fifty enslaved people seized weapons from a local store and tried to march to Spanish Florida. They were stopped by the local militia. Even though they revolted, the enslaved people were more strictly controlled than the indentured students they had replaced.
royal/proprietary colonies
Royal and proprietary colonies were part of a two-house legislative body. The upper house (council) has
appointed by the crown in the royal colonies and chosen by the proprietor in the proprietary colonies. It
was chosen by the voters in the self-governing colonies. The lower house, which was the popular
branch, was elected by the people who were allowed to vote . In some colonies the backcountry
elements were underrepresented leading to more resentment of the ruling colony elite than of the king.
