Key ID Chapter 4 Flashcards
Colonial Population Boom
Between 1700 and 1775, population in the thirteen colonies increased over 800%, from about
300,000 to 2,500,000. In part, this was due to immigration and in part to the practice of having
large families.
The significance of this is that it led to a shift in the balance of political and military power away
from Britain and toward America. In 1700 there were twenty Britons for every American; by
1775 the ratio was only three to one.
The Enlightenment
Also known as the Age of Reason, this was a period in which reason and observation of nature
began to replace revelation, reliance on tradition or traditional authority, and inward
illumination as the dominant means of acquiring knowledge and understanding the world. In the
American colonies, this had a number of effects.
The works of European Enlightenment thinkers, especially John Locke, encouraged colonists to
consider resistance to British control.
European Enlightenment ideas inspired many American political thinkers to emphasize
individual talent over hereditary privilege, thus promoting more social mobility in America.
In religion, the ideas of the Enlightenment promoted deism, a variety of Christianity that holds
that God exists, that He created the universe, but does not intervene in the affairs of
humankind. It was an effort to reconcile the existence of God with newly surfacing scientific
discoveries and belief in the existence of free will.
Enlightenment ideas were also one source of republican motherhood, which called on
women to teach republican values within the family and granted women a new importance in
American society.
Anglicization
This referred to the process of the American colonies gradually adopting more British values and
customs over time.
Colonial governments were based on English models (with a governor instead of a king, an
upper house or council instead of the House of Lords, and a lower house or assembly instead of
the House of Commons).
Frequent contact with Britain via the trans-Atlantic print culture spread British ideas through
newspapers and books that were sent from England to the colonies.
Protestant Evangelicalism – George Whitefield, John Wesley, and others from England traveled
across to colonies to spread religious ideas.
The Paxton Boys
1763
Scots-Irish immigrants were noted for their violent conflicts with Native Americans over control
of land. In Paxton, Pennsylvania, the Scots-Irish community felt its requests for aid against the
Indians were being ignored by colonial legislators, many of whom were Quakers and pacifists.
When a group from Paxton responded to Indian conflicts by killing a tribe of peaceful Indians,
the governor issued warrants for their arrest and offered protection to a group of Christianized
Indians.
Angered that the government would side with Native Americans, the Paxton Boys marched on
the capital. Benjamin Franklin and others were able to arrange a peaceful meeting between
officials and the Paxton boys, allowing the frontiersmen to air their grievances.
This event was significant in that it was one of a series of conflicts between the colonial elite to
the east and the poorer settlers on the western frontier.
Structure of Colonial Society
In contrast to society in England, colonial society was more flexible. It was possible for a poor
person to achieve economic success and rise to a higher rank. Yet as the Paxton Boys illustrated,
there were real class tensions in the colonies.
The largest colonial group consisted of yeoman farmers, those individuals who owned their own
land, but who owned no slaves and could not afford to hire farm hands. Jefferson argued that
this group of independent farmers formed the basis for democracy.
Attempts to Ban the Slave Trade
Slaves made up a significant portion of colonial society, about 20% overall in 1750. Concerns
over slave rebellions and the injustice of slavery led some colonies to attempt to ban the
international slave trade.
The British authorities blocked these efforts. Under a mercantilist system, the sale of slaves (or
other goods) to a colony simply enriched and strengthened the mother country.
These British obstacles to ending the slave trade led Thomas Jefferson to include in his original
draft of the Declaration of Independence a paragraph condemning King George III for this, but
objections from South Carolina and Georgia resulted in this passage being deleted from the final
draft.
Triangle Trade
This was a profitable trade circuit in which a skipper would leave a New England port with a
cargo of rum, travel to Africa, and trade the rum for slaves. Then he would sail to the West
Indies and trade the slaves for sugar and molasses, which he took back to New England to be
distilled into rum to start the cycle over again.
Established Churches
Established churches, that is, official state churches supported by tax dollars, were common in
the colonies. In New England, the Puritan church was the established church. In the southern
colonies and the New York City area, the Anglican Church (Church of England) was the
established church.
The King of England was the head of the Anglican Church and, as such, could exercise both
religious and political power. But the bonds between the Anglicans in America and the King
were weak. The Anglican Church had no bishop in the colonies, so prospective ministers had to
travel to England to be ordained. American ministers were to report to and be guided by their
superiors in England, but distance made that difficult. Further, American Anglican clergymen
often found that the wealthy planters who paid their salaries expected the ministers to be
controlled by the planters, not the Church in Britain.
The Anglican Church talked of establishing an American bishop in the period prior to the
Revolution, but this was resisted by the colonists as an extension of kingly authority.
Other factors weakening the hold of the Church of England included the fact that there was no
college for training Anglican ministers until the establishment of the College of William and
Mary in 1693. (Harvard, established 1636, trained Puritan ministers.) Anglican clergy in England
preferred to find a congregation in England rather than serving in the rustic parishes of Virginia
or Maryland. By 1672 more than 90% of Virginia parishes lacked ordained clergymen. Finally, the
services were, to English critics, shockingly informal: parts of the service were often omitted,
many of the clergy did not wear formal ecclesiastical garments, and in many churches there was
no altar with candle and cross.
With the American Revolution came a strong push for disestablishment of churches. The last
state to strip tax support from the official church was Massachusetts in 1833.
Jonathan Edwards
Congregationalist minister Jonathan Edwards set off a religious revival known as the First Great
Awakening in 1734.
Edwards proclaimed the folly of believing in salvation through good works and affirmed the
need for complete dependence on God’s grace.
He was famous for his “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon.
George Whitefield
Whitefield was a powerful preacher and the other leading figure in the First Great Awakening.
He relied on emotional appeals and effective oratory to convert sinners. Listeners often cried
out, rolled on the ground, and fainted as Whitefield described the terrors of hell.
The First Great Awakening
1730s and 1740s
At a time when the vitality was oozing away from many religious denominations, the Great
Awakening, sparked by Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, brought a new passion and
emotion to religion.
The first mass movement of the American people, the Great Awakening broke down sectional
boundaries and denominational lines, creating greater religious diversity.
But it contributed to the growing sense that Americans had of themselves as a single people. In
addition, it called on people to decide things on their individual consciences rather than on the
authority of the powerful. In this sense, it was a step toward the American Revolution.
Old and New Lights
Old Lights were orthodox clergymen who were deeply skeptical of the emotionalism and the
theatrical antics of the Great Awakening revivalists.
New Lights were ministers who defended the Great Awakening for its role in revitalizing
American religion.
John Peter Zenger
Zenger was a newspaper publisher who criticized the corrupt governor of New York and was
charged with seditious libel.
Andrew (not Alexander) Hamilton defended Zenger, arguing that since his charges were true, he
should not be punished.
The jury acquitted Zenger, helping to establish the doctrine of freedom of the press.
Colonial Government
Colonial governments generally consisted of governor (appointed by the king or the proprietor
and expected to protect the interests of the king or proprietor), a council made up of the
colonial elite (appointed and generally supportive of the governor), and a lower house or
assembly (elected and generally protective of the interests of the merchants and farmers who
elected them).
Colonial governors often found themselves caught between what they knew to be the king’s
wishes (which they were bound to carry out) and the laws passed by the assembly. These laws
could contradict royal policy, but the governors often approved them anyway since failure to do
so would lead the assembly to cut off the governor’s salary.
The right to vote was not universal. It was restricted to free, white, adult males who, depending
on the colony, belonged to the established church and/or owned land and paid sufficient taxes
on that land. Yet it was relatively easy to obtain land in America, so perhaps half the adult white
males were eligible to vote. However, women, Indians, slaves, and others were disenfranchised,
so only 10% to 20% of the total population could vote.
The vast physical separation from England (leading to long lags in communication back and
forth), the dispersed population in the colonies, and the belief shared by many colonists that
local self-government protected liberty while distant, concentrated authority tended toward
tyranny all led many colonists to desire more self-government and to resist English authority.
Regulator Movement
1768-1771
Frontiersmen in North Carolina felt the colonial elite was not representing their interests. They
formed armed bands to halt foreclosures, etc., but were eventually defeated by the state militia.
During the Revolution, many of the former Regulators became Loyalists, not because they loved
England, but because they saw the colonial elite as their main enemy.
