I. Introduction
After 1720, the American colonies expanded to cover most of the territory between the Atlantic coast and the Appalachian Mountains. Also, the population came to include a larger number of non-English people and a variety of ethnic groups and religious sects.
II. Population Growth and Ethnic Diversity
A. Newcomers from Africa and Europe
About 260,000 Africans arrived on the mainland during the eighteenth century, making them the largest ethnic or racial group that came to the colonies.
B. Scots-Irish, Germans, and Scots
One of the largest groups of immigrants¾about 150,000¾came from Ireland and Scotland. They were joined by about 85,000 Germans.
C. Maintaining Ethnic Identities
By 1775, half of the population south of New England was of non-English stock. Assimilation of these migrants into Anglo-American culture depended on patterns of settlement, the size of the group, and the strength of the migrants’ ties to their cultural roots. To retain power, the English elites sometimes fostered antagonism among ethnic groups. However, in the 1770s the elites realized they needed the support of non-English Americans in their rebellion against Great Britain.
III. Economic Growth and Development
A. Overview of the Anglo-American Economy
Large populations made British colonies economically stable while the widely scattered people of the French and Spanish colonies left them weak and vulnerable and often dependent on foreign colonies for goods.
B. Growth of Consumption
Generally, the American economy improved, leading to a better standard of living for many people. Economic stratification, on the other hand, also shaped social and economic structures.
C. Urban Poverty
New immigrants usually faced fewer opportunities for advancement than had the earliest arrivals. Although rural poverty remained limited, a poor class did begin to emerge in urban areas.
D. New England and King George’s War
King George’s War increased the wealth of some New Englanders, but many Bostonians suffered economically as a result of the conflict.
E. Prosperity of the Middle Colonies
King George’s War spurred an economic boom in the Middle Colonies.
F. Change in the Chesapeake
During the 1740s, grain crops made important inroads into the tobacco culture of the Chesapeake, causing a change in settlement patterns.
G. Trade and the Lower South
The Lower South experienced several economic fluctuations.
H. Georgia
Founded in 1732, Georgia served as a haven for debtors and as a garrison colony to protect England’s southernmost claims on the North American mainland.
IV. Colonial Cultures
A. Genteel Culture
Well-to-do Americans formed the core of a genteel elite that constructed a culture different from that of the seventeenth century and from that of ordinary colonists in the eighteenth century.
B. Education
Men from wealthy families prided themselves on their level of education and their intellectual connections to Europe.
C. The Enlightenment
In the eighteenth century, Europeans’ fascination with natural law led to an emphasis on acquiring knowledge through reason. This movement¾known as the Enlightenment¾ affected American culture and politics, particularly among the elite.
D. Contract Theory of Government
John Locke and other Enlightenment philosophers advanced the theory that governments were created by men and existed for the good of the people. A ruler who did not fulfill his contract with the people could be ousted from power.
E. Oral Cultures
The majority of British Americans could not read, and conversation provided the primary means of communication. Consequently, the exchange of information remained slow and restricted.
F. Religious Rituals
Many cultural identities grew out of public rituals, including attendance at church. These gatherings reinforced local attitudes, mores, and hierarchies.
G. Civic Rituals
Important public rituals included church festivals, militia musters, and, especially in the Chesapeake, court days and political events.
H. Rituals of Consumption
The growth of prosperity led to shopping and conspicuous consumption.
I. Importance of Tea
Tea drinking was an important consumption ritual.
J. Rituals on the “Middle Ground”
Relations with Indians led to innovative rituals, including those relating to trade, crimes, and punishment.
V. Colonial Families
A. Indian Families
Pressure from European settlers forced most Indians to change their traditional marriage views and roles.
B. Mixed-Race Families
Sexual liaisons occurred among European men and Indian women, producing a mixed-race population. The offspring of mixed unions were generally accepted in New France and in the Anglo-American backcountry but were considered degraded individuals in the Spanish Borderlands.
C. European-American Families
In these more stable households, men held dominion over family external affairs but women ruled the home.
D. African-American Families
The shape of African-Americans’ family lives were determined by the setting in which African Americans lived.
E. Running Away and Other Forms of Resistance
Since slavery existed in all of the English colonies, slaves had few options if they considered running away. The extended family helped African Americans deal with the uncertainties associated with the institution of slavery, and slave families struggled to gain some sort of autonomy.
F. Life in the Cities
Urban dwellers had much more contact with the outside world than their rural counterparts, but sometimes the benefits of city life were overshadowed by epidemics.
VI. Politics: Stability and Crisis in British America
A. Rise of the Assemblies
American political leaders sought to exert influence through increasingly important assemblies.
B. Interpretations of the Assemblies
By the middle of the century, Americans expressed a belief in balanced government, and they viewed the assembly as the representative of the people.
C. Stono Rebellion
The first in a series of colonial crises occurred with the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739, an uprising that led to stiffer laws regarding slaves.
D. New York Conspiracy
News of the Stono Rebellion was one factor that led to fears in New York of a conspiracy to foment a slave insurrection.
E. Land Riots in New Jersey and New York
Growing competition for good farmland resulted in a number of violent disputes in New Jersey and along the Hudson River.
F. Regulators in the Carolinas
In the Carolinas, frontier people’s unhappiness with the colonial governments led to violence in the 1760s and 1770s.
VII. A Crisis in Religion
A. The First Great Awakening
The most widespread crisis took a religious form, called the Great Awakening, that began in Massachusetts and spread throughout the colonies by the 1760s.
B. New England and the Great Awakening
The Great Awakening began in New England and was furthered by the preaching of Jonathan Edwards.
C. George Whitefield
George Whitefield, a Methodist minister from England, played a key role in spreading the excitement of the Great Awakening.
D. Impact of the Awakening
Many congregations splintered as a result of the Awakening, but the revival also introduced a strain of egalitarianism to the colonies. The religious experience thus had vast consequences as it helped break Americans’ ties to their seventeenth-century origins.
E. Virginia Baptists
These religious dissenters challenged the status quo in Virginia by condemning the lifestyle of the gentry and by preaching equality of races in the eyes of the church.
