COLONIAL SOCIETY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
The Frenchman who wrote the above description of Americans in 1782 observed a very different society from the struggling and undeveloped colonial villages that had existed in the 1600s. Over the course of a century, the British colonies had grown and matured, and their inhabitants had slowly evolved a distinct culture different from any that existed in Europe. This chapter describes the colonies in their mature stage and poses the question: If Americans in the 1760s constituted a new kind of society, what were its characteristics and what forces went into shaping its “new people”?
Population Growth
At the start of the new century, in 1701, the English colonies on the Atlantic Coast had a population of barely 250,000 (not counting the Native Americans). By 1775, the figure had jumped to 2,500,000, a tenfold increase within the span of a single lifetime. (Among African Americans, the population increase was even more dramatic: from about 28,000 in 1701 to 500,000 in 1775.) The spectacular gains in population during this period were the result of two factors: immigration of almost a million people and a sharp natural increase, caused chiefly by a high birthrate among colonial families. An abundance of fertile American land and a dependable food supply attracted thousands of European settlers each year and also encouraged the raising of large families.
European Immigrants
Newcomers to the British colonies came not only from Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland) but also from other parts of Western and Central Europe, especially large numbers of Protestants from France and German-speaking people from various German kingdoms and principalities. Their motives for leaving Europe were many. Some came to escape religious persecution and wars. Others sought economic opportunity either by farming new land or setting up shop in a colonial town as an artisan or a merchant. Most immigrants settled in the middle colonies (Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware) and on the western frontier of the southern colonies (Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia). In the 18th century, fewer immigrants headed for New England because the lands in this region were both limited in extent and under Puritan control.
English. English settlers continued to come to the American colonies, but with fewer problems at home, their numbers were relatively small compared to others, especially the Germans and Scotch-Irish.
Germans. This group of non-English immigrants settled chiefly on the rich farmlands west of Philadelphia, an area that became known as Pennsylvania Dutch country. They maintained their German language, customs, and religion (Lutheran) and, while obeying colonial laws, showed little interest in English politics. By 1775, people of German stock comprised 6 percent of the colonial population.
Scotch-Irish. This group of English-speaking people emigrated from Northern Ireland. Originally, their ancestors had moved to Ireland from Scotland, and they were thus commonly known as the Scotch-Irish. Scotch-Irish immigrants had little respect for the British government, which had pressured them into leaving Ireland. They settled along the frontier in the western parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. By 1775, they comprised 7 percent of the population.
Other Europeans. Other immigrant groups included French Protestants (called Huguenots), the Dutch, and the Swedes. These groups made up 5 percent of the population of all the colonies in 1775.
Africans
By far the largest single group of non-English immigrants did not come to America of their own free will. They were Africans—or the descendants of Africans—who had been taken captive, forced into the holds of European ships, and sold as slaves to southern plantation owners and other colonists. Some Africans were granted their freedom after years of forced labor. By 1775, the African-American population (both slave and free) made up fully 20 percent of the colonial population. An overwhelming majority—90 percent—lived in the southern colonies in a state of lifelong bondage. African Americans formed a majority of the population in South Carolina and Georgia and significant minorities in North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. Outside the South, thou- sands of African Americans worked at a broad range of occupations, some as slaves and others as free wage earners and property owners. In every colony, from New Hampshire to Georgia, there were laws that discriminated against African Americans and placed limits on their rights and opportunities.
The Structure of Colonial Society
Each of the 13 British colonies developed along different lines and adopted its own unique institutions. However, the colonies also shared a number of characteristics in common.
General Characteristics
Dominance of English culture. The great majority of the population were English in origin, language, and tradition. At the same time, however, both Africans and European immigrants were creating a diversity of culture that would gradually modify the culture of the majority in significant ways.
Self-government. The government of each colony had a representative assembly that was elected by eligible voters (limited to white male property owners). Only in two colonies, Rhode Island and Connecticut, was the governor also elected by the people. The governors of the other colonies were either appointed by the crown (for example, New York and Virginia) or by a proprietor (Pennsylvania and Maryland).
Religious toleration. All of the colonies permitted the practice of different religions, but with varying degrees of freedom. Massachusetts, the least tolerant, excluded non-Christians and Catholics, although it accepted a number of Protestant denominations. Rhode Island and Pennsylvania were the most liberal.
No hereditary aristocracy. The social extremes of Europe, with a nobility that inherited special privileges and masses of hungry poor, were missing in the colonies. A narrower class system, based on economics, was developing. Wealthy landowners were at the top; craftspeople and small farmers made up the majority of the common people.
Social mobility. With the major exception of the African Americans, everybody in colonial society had an opportunity to improve their standard of living and social status by hard work.
The Family
The family was the economic and social center of colonial life. With an expanding economy and ample food supply, people were marrying at a young age and rearing more children. Over 90 percent of the people lived on farms. While life in the coastal communities and on the frontier was not easy, it did provide a higher standard of living than in Europe.
Men. While wealth was increasingly being concentrated in the hands of a few, most men did work. Landowning was primarily reserved to men, who also dominated politics. English law gave the husband almost unlimited power in the home, including the right to beat his wife.
Women. The average colonial wife bore eight children and performed a wide range of tasks. Household work included cooking, cleaning, clothes- making, and medical care. Women also educated the children. A woman usually worked next to her husband in the shop, on the plantation, or on the farm. Divorce was legal but rare, and women had limited legal and political rights. Yet the shared labors and mutual dependence with their husbands gave most women protection from abuse and an active role in decision-making.
The Economy
By the 1760s, almost half of England’s world trade was with its American colonies. The government in England permitted limited kinds of colonial manufacturing, such as making flour or rum, but it restricted efforts that would compete with English industries, such as textiles. The richness of the American land and British mercantile policy produced a society almost entirely engaged in agriculture.
As the people prospered and communities grew, increasing numbers be- came ministers, lawyers, doctors, and teachers. The quickest route to wealth was through the land, although regional geography often provided distinct opportunities for the hardworking colonists.
New England. With rocky soil and long winters, farming was limited to subsistence levels that provided just enough for the farm family. Most farms were small—under 100 acres—and most work was done by family members and an occasional hired laborer. The industrious descendants of the Puritans profited from logging, shipbuilding, fishing, trading, and rum-distilling.
Middle colonies. Rich soil attracted farmers from Europe and produced an abundance of wheat and corn for export to Europe and the West Indies. Farms of up to 200 acres were common. Often, indentured servants and hired laborers worked with the farm family. A variety of small manufacturing efforts developed, including iron-making. Trading led to the growth of such cities as Philadelphia and New York.
Southern colonies. Because of the South’s varied geography and climate, farming ranged from small subsistence family farms to large plantations of over 2,000 acres. Cash crops were mainly tobacco in the Chesapeake and North Carolina colonies, and rice and indigo in South Carolina and Georgia. On the plantations, a shortage of indentured servants led to the increased use of slaves. Most plantations were self-sufficient—they grew their own food and had their own slave craftspeople. The Carolinas also exported large quantities of timber and naval stores (tar and pitch). Most plantations were located on rivers so that their cash crops could be shipped directly to Europe.
Monetary system. A major English strategy in controlling the colonial economy was to limit the use of money. The growing colonies were forced to use much of the limited hard currency—gold and silver—to pay for the imports from England that increasingly exceeded colonial exports. To provide currency for domestic trade, many of the colonies issued paper money, but this often led to inflation. The government in England also vetoed colonial laws that might harm English merchants.
Transportation. Transporting goods by water was much easier than at- tempting to carry them overland on rough and narrow roads or trails. Therefore, trading centers like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston were located on the sites of good harbors and navigable rivers. Despite the difficulty and expense of maintaining roads and bridges, overland travel by horse and stage became more common in the 18th century. Taverns not only provided food and lodging for travelers but also served as social centers where news was exchanged and politics discussed. A postal system using horses on overland routes and small ships on water routes was operating both within and between the colonies by the mid-18th century.
Religion
Although Maryland was founded by a Catholic proprietor, and many larger towns like New York and Boston attracted some Jewish settlers, the overwhelming majority of colonists belonged to different Protestant denominations. The Presbyterians were especially well represented in New England. People of Dutch descent in New York attended services of the Dutch Reformed Church. Lutherans, Mennonites, and Quakers were the most common Protestant sects in Pennsylvania.
Protestant Dominance
In the 17th century, certain colonial governments had taxed the people to support one of the Protestant denominations. Churches financed in this way were known as established churches. There were two such established churches in the early colonies: the Church of England (or Anglican Church) in Virginia and the Congregational Church in Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut. As various immigrant groups increased the religious diversity of the colonies, the governments gradually changed their policies on tax-supported churches. In Massachusetts and Connecticut, by the time of the Revolution, members of other established religions were exempt from supporting the Congregational Church. Some direct tax support remained until the 19th century. In Virginia, all tax support for the Anglican Church ended shortly after the Revolution.
Anglicans. Colonial members of the Church of England tended to be prosperous farmers and merchants in New York and plantation owners in Virginia and the Carolinas. There was no Anglican bishop in America to ordain ministers. The absence of such leadership hampered the church’s development. Because the Church of England was headed by the king, it was viewed as a symbol of English control in the colonies.
Congregationalists. As successors to the Puritans, members of the Congregational Church were found mainly in New England. Protestant critics of this church thought its ministers were domineering and its doctrine overly complex.
The Great Awakening
In the first decades of the 18th century, sermons in Protestant churches tended to be long intellectual discourses and portrayed God as a benign creator of a perfectly ordered universe. There was less emphasis than in Puritan times on human sinfulness and the perils of damnation. In the 1730s, however, a dramatic change occurred that swept through the colonies with the force of a hurricane. This was the Great Awakening, a movement characterized by fervent expressions of religious feeling among masses of people. The movement was at its strongest during the 1730s and 1740s.
Jonathan Edwards. In a Congregational church at Northampton, Massachusetts, the Reverend Jonathan Edwards initiated the Great Awakening with a series of sermons, notably one called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741). Invoking the Old Testament Scriptures, Edwards argued that God was rightfully angry with human sinfulness. Each individual who expressed deep penitence could be saved by God’s grace, but the souls who paid no heed to God’s commandments would suffer eternal damnation.
George Whitefield. Edwards’ influence was largely limited to the New England colonies. Another preacher, George Whitefield, came from England in 1739 and traveled from one end of colonial America to the other. More than any other figure, Whitefield ignited the Great Awakening with his rousing sermons on the hellish torments of the damned. He preached in barns, tents, and fields, sometimes attracting an audience of 10,000 people. He stressed that God was all-powerful and would save only those who openly professed belief in Jesus Christ; those who did not would be cast into hell. Whitefield taught that ordinary people who had faith and sincerity could understand the Christian Gospels without depending on ministers to lead them.
Religious impact. The Great Awakening had a profound effect on religious practice in the colonies. As sinners tearfully confessed their guilt and then joyously exulted in being “saved,” emotionalism became a common part of Protestant services. Ministers lost some of their former authority among those who now studied the Bible in their own homes.
The Great Awakening also caused a major division within churches such as the Congregational and Presbyterian, between those supporting its teachings (“New Lights”) and those condemning them (“Old Lights”). More evangelical sects such as the Baptists and Methodists attracted large numbers. As a result, there was greater competition to attract followers, increased religious diversity, and a call for separation of church and state.
Political influence. A movement as powerful as the Great Awakening was bound to affect all areas of life, including colonial politics. Unlike anything before it, the movement affected every social class in every section. For the first time, the colonists—regardless of their national origins—shared in a common experience as Americans. The Great Awakening may also have had a democratizing effect by changing the way people viewed authority. If the common people could make their own religious decisions without relying on the “higher” authority of ministers, then might they also make their own political decisions without deferring to the authority of the great landowners and merchants? This revolutionary idea was not expressed in the 1740s, but 30 years later, it would challenge the authority of a king and his royal governors.
Cultural Life
In the early 1600s, the chief concern of most colonists was economic survival. People had neither the time nor the resources to pursue leisure activities or create works of art and literature. One hundred years later, however, the colonial population had grown and matured to the point that the arts and other aspects of civilized living could flourish, at least among the well-to-do southern planters and the merchants of the northern cities.
Achievements in the Arts and Sciences
In the coastal areas, as fear of the Native Americans faded, people of means could display their prosperity and success by adopting architectural and decorative styles from England.
Architecture. In the 1740s and 1750s, the Georgian style of London was widely imitated in colonial houses, churches, and public buildings. Brick and stucco homes built in this style were characterized by a symmetrical placement of windows and dormers and a spacious center hall flanked by two fireplaces. Such homes were found only on or near the eastern seaboard. On the frontier, a one-room log cabin was the common shelter.
Painting. Many colonial painters were itinerant artists who wandered the countryside in search of families that wanted their portraits painted. Shortly before the Revolution, two American artists, Benjamin West and John Copley, went to England where they acquired the necessary training and financial support to establish themselves as prominent artists.
Literature. With limited resources available, most authors wrote on serious subjects, chiefly religion and politics. There were, for example, widely read religious tracts by two Massachusetts ministers, Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards. In the years preceding the American Revolution, a large number of political essays and treatises attempted to draw a line between American rights and English authority. Writers of this important literature included John Adams, James Otis, John Dickinson, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson.
By far the most popular and successful American writer of the 18th century was that remarkable jack-of-all-trades, Benjamin Franklin. His witty aphorisms and advice were collected in Poor Richard’s Almanack, a best-selling book that was annually revised from 1732 to 1757.
The lack of support for literature did not stop everyone. The poetry of Phillis Wheatley is noteworthy both for her triumph over slavery and the quality of her verse.
Science. Most scientists, such as the botanist John Bartram of Philadelphia, were self-taught. Benjamin Franklin’s pioneering work with electricity and his more practical developments of bifocal eyeglasses and the Franklin stove brought him international fame.
Education
Basic education was limited and varied greatly among the colonies. Formal efforts were directed to males, since females were to be trained only for household work.
New England. The Puritans’ emphasis on learning the Bible led them to create the first tax-supported schools. A Massachusetts law in 1647 required towns with over fifty families to establish primary schools for boys, and towns with over a hundred families to establish grammar schools to prepare boys for college.
Middle colonies. Schools were either church-sponsored or private. Often, teachers lived with the families of their students.
Southern colonies. Parents gave their children whatever education they could. On plantations, tutors provided instruction for the owners’ children.
Higher education. Harvard, the first colonial college, was founded at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1636 in order to give candidates for the ministry a proper theological and scholarly education. Two other early colleges were William and Mary in Virginia (opened in 1694) and Yale in Connecticut (1701). Like Harvard, both were sectarian, meaning that they existed to promote the doctrines of a particular religious sect. William and Mary was founded by Anglicans and Yale by Congregationalists.
The Great Awakening prompted the creation of five new colleges between 1746 and 1769:
- College of New Jersey (Princeton), 1746, Presbyterian
- King’s College (Columbia), 1754, Anglican
- Rhode Island College (Brown), 1764, Baptist
- Queens College (Rutgers), 1766, Dutch Reformed
- Dartmouth College, 1769, Congregationalist
Only one nonsectarian college was founded during this period. The College of Philadelphia, the future University of Pennsylvania, had no religious sponsors. On hand for the opening ceremonies in 1765 were the college’s civic- minded founders, chief among them Philadelphia’s leading citizen, Benjamin Franklin.
Professions
For perhaps the first hundred years of colonial life (1607–1707), Christian ministry was the only profession to enjoy widespread respect among the com- mon people. In the course of the 18th century, however, other professions gradually acquired respectability and social prominence.
Physicians. The thousands of colonists who fell prey to epidemics of smallpox and diphtheria were treated by a cure that only made matters worse. The common practice then was to bleed the sick, often by employing leeches or bloodsuckers. For a beginning doctor, there was little to no formal medical training other than acting as an apprentice to an experienced physician. The first medical college in the colonies was begun in 1765 as part of Franklin’s idea for the College of Philadelphia.
Lawyers. Often viewed as talkative troublemakers, lawyers were not commonly seen in the colonial courts of the 1600s. In that period, individuals would argue their own cases before a colonial magistrate. During the 1700s, however, as trade expanded and legal problems became more complex, the need for expert assistance in court became apparent. The most able lawyers formed a bar (committee or board), which set rules and standards for aspiring young lawyers. Lawyers gained further respect in the 1760s and 1770s when they argued for colonial rights. John Adams, James Otis, and Patrick Henry were three such lawyers whose legal arguments would ultimately provide the intellectual underpinnings of the American Revolution.
The Press
News and ideas circulated in the colonies principally by means of a postal system and local printing presses.
Newspapers. In 1725 only five newspapers existed in the colonies, but by 1776 the number had grown to more than 40. Issued weekly, each newspaper consisted of a single sheet folded once to make four pages. It contained such items as month-old news from Europe, ads for goods and services and for the return of runaway indentured servants and slaves, and pious essays giving advice for better living. Illustrations were few or nonexistent. The first cartoon appeared in the Philadelphia Gazette, placed there by (you guessed it) Ben Franklin.
The Zenger case. Newspaper printers in colonial days ran the risk of being jailed for libel if any article offended the political authorities. In 1735, John Peter Zenger, a New York editor and publisher, was brought to trial on a charge of libelously criticizing New York’s royal governor. Zenger’s lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, argued that his client had printed the truth about the governor. According to English common law at the time, injuring a governor’s reputation was considered a criminal act, no matter whether a printed statement was true or false. Ignoring the English law, the jury voted to acquit Zenger. While this case did not guarantee complete freedom of the press, it encouraged newspapers to take greater risks in criticizing a colony’s government.
Rural Folkways
The majority of colonists rarely saw a newspaper or read any book other than the Bible. As farmers on the frontier or even within a few miles of the coast, they worked from first daylight to sundown. The farmer’s year was divided into four ever-recurring seasons: spring planting, summer growing, fall harvesting, and winter preparations for the next cycle. Food was usually plentiful, but light and heat in the colonial farmhouse were limited to the kitchen fireplace and a few well-placed candles. Entertainment for the well-to-do consisted chiefly of cardplaying and horse-racing in the South, theatergoing in the middle colonies, and attending religious lectures in Puritan New England.
Emergence of a National Character
The colonists’ motivations for leaving Europe, the political heritage of the English majority, and the influence of the American natural environment combined to bring about a distinctly American viewpoint and way of life. Especially among white male property owners, the colonists exercised the rights of free speech and a free press, became accustomed to electing representatives to colonial assemblies, and tolerated a variety of religions. English travelers in the colonies remarked that Americans were restless, enterprising, practical, and forever seeking to improve their circumstances.
Politics
By 1750, the 13 colonies had similar systems of government, with a governor acting as chief executive and a separate legislature voting either to adopt or reject the governor’s proposed laws.
Structure of Government
There were eight royal colonies with governors appointed by the king (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia). In the three proprietary colonies (Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware), governors were appointed by the proprietors. The governors in only two of the colonies, Connecticut and Rhode Island, were elected by popular vote.
In every colony, the legislature consisted of two houses. The lower house, or assembly, elected by the eligible voters, voted for or against new taxes. Colonists thus became accustomed to paying taxes only if their chosen representatives approved. (Their unwillingness to surrender any part of this privilege would become a cause for revolt in the 1770s.) In the royal and proprietary colonies, members of the legislature’s upper house—or council—were ap- pointed by the king or the proprietor. In the two self-governing colonies, both the upper and lower houses were elective bodies.
Local government. From the earliest period of settlement, colonists in New England established towns and villages, clustering their small homes around an open space known as a green. In the southern colonies, on the other hand, towns were much less common, and farms and plantations were widely separated. Thus, the dominant form of local government in New England was the town meeting, in which people of the town would regularly come together, often in a church, to vote directly on public issues. In the southern colonies, local government was carried on by a law-enforcing sheriff and other officials who served a large territorial unit called a county.
Voting
If democracy is defined as the participation of all the people in the making of government policy, then colonial democracy was at best limited and partial. Those barred from voting—white women, poor white men, slaves of both sexes, and most free blacks—constituted a sizable majority of the colonial population. Nevertheless, the barriers to voting that existed in the 17th century were beginning to be removed in the 18th. Religious restrictions, for example, were removed in Massachusetts and other colonies. On the other hand, voters in all colonies were still required to own at least a small amount of property. Another factor to consider is the degree to which members of the colonial assemblies and governors’ councils represented either a privileged elite or the larger society of plain citizens. The situation varied from one colony to the next. In Virginia, membership in the House of Burgesses was tightly restricted to certain families of wealthy landowners. In Massachusetts, the legislature was more open to small farmers, although here, too, an educated, propertied elite held power for generations. The common people in every colony tended to defer to their “betters” and to depend upon the privileged few to make decisions for them. Without question, colonial politics was restricted to participation by white males only. Even so, compared with other parts of the world, the English colonies showed tendencies toward democracy and self-government that made their political system unusual for the time.
Population Growth
At the start of the new century, in 1701, the English colonies on the Atlantic Coast had a population of barely 250,000 (not counting the Native Americans). By 1775, the figure had jumped to 2,500,000, a tenfold increase within the span of a single lifetime. (Among African Americans, the population increase was even more dramatic: from about 28,000 in 1701 to 500,000 in 1775.) The spectacular gains in population during this period were the result of two factors: immigration of almost a million people and a sharp natural increase, caused chiefly by a high birthrate among colonial families. An abundance of fertile American land and a dependable food supply attracted thousands of European settlers each year and also encouraged the raising of large families.
European Immigrants
Newcomers to the British colonies came not only from Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland) but also from other parts of Western and Central Europe, especially large numbers of Protestants from France and German-speaking people from various German kingdoms and principalities. Their motives for leaving Europe were many. Some came to escape religious persecution and wars. Others sought economic opportunity either by farming new land or setting up shop in a colonial town as an artisan or a merchant. Most immigrants settled in the middle colonies (Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware) and on the western frontier of the southern colonies (Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia). In the 18th century, fewer immigrants headed for New England because the lands in this region were both limited in extent and under Puritan control.
English. English settlers continued to come to the American colonies, but with fewer problems at home, their numbers were relatively small compared to others, especially the Germans and Scotch-Irish.
Germans. This group of non-English immigrants settled chiefly on the rich farmlands west of Philadelphia, an area that became known as Pennsylvania Dutch country. They maintained their German language, customs, and religion (Lutheran) and, while obeying colonial laws, showed little interest in English politics. By 1775, people of German stock comprised 6 percent of the colonial population.
Scotch-Irish. This group of English-speaking people emigrated from Northern Ireland. Originally, their ancestors had moved to Ireland from Scotland, and they were thus commonly known as the Scotch-Irish. Scotch-Irish immigrants had little respect for the British government, which had pressured them into leaving Ireland. They settled along the frontier in the western parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. By 1775, they comprised 7 percent of the population.
Other Europeans. Other immigrant groups included French Protestants (called Huguenots), the Dutch, and the Swedes. These groups made up 5 percent of the population of all the colonies in 1775.
Africans
By far the largest single group of non-English immigrants did not come to America of their own free will. They were Africans—or the descendants of Africans—who had been taken captive, forced into the holds of European ships, and sold as slaves to southern plantation owners and other colonists. Some Africans were granted their freedom after years of forced labor. By 1775, the African-American population (both slave and free) made up fully 20 percent of the colonial population. An overwhelming majority—90 percent—lived in the southern colonies in a state of lifelong bondage. African Americans formed a majority of the population in South Carolina and Georgia and significant minorities in North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. Outside the South, thou- sands of African Americans worked at a broad range of occupations, some as slaves and others as free wage earners and property owners. In every colony, from New Hampshire to Georgia, there were laws that discriminated against African Americans and placed limits on their rights and opportunities.
The Structure of Colonial Society
Each of the 13 British colonies developed along different lines and adopted its own unique institutions. However, the colonies also shared a number of characteristics in common.
General Characteristics
Dominance of English culture. The great majority of the population were English in origin, language, and tradition. At the same time, however, both Africans and European immigrants were creating a diversity of culture that would gradually modify the culture of the majority in significant ways.
Self-government. The government of each colony had a representative assembly that was elected by eligible voters (limited to white male property owners). Only in two colonies, Rhode Island and Connecticut, was the governor also elected by the people. The governors of the other colonies were either appointed by the crown (for example, New York and Virginia) or by a proprietor (Pennsylvania and Maryland).
Religious toleration. All of the colonies permitted the practice of different religions, but with varying degrees of freedom. Massachusetts, the least tolerant, excluded non-Christians and Catholics, although it accepted a number of Protestant denominations. Rhode Island and Pennsylvania were the most liberal.
No hereditary aristocracy. The social extremes of Europe, with a nobility that inherited special privileges and masses of hungry poor, were missing in the colonies. A narrower class system, based on economics, was developing. Wealthy landowners were at the top; craftspeople and small farmers made up the majority of the common people.
Social mobility. With the major exception of the African Americans, everybody in colonial society had an opportunity to improve their standard of living and social status by hard work.
The Family
The family was the economic and social center of colonial life. With an expanding economy and ample food supply, people were marrying at a young age and rearing more children. Over 90 percent of the people lived on farms. While life in the coastal communities and on the frontier was not easy, it did provide a higher standard of living than in Europe.
Men. While wealth was increasingly being concentrated in the hands of a few, most men did work. Landowning was primarily reserved to men, who also dominated politics. English law gave the husband almost unlimited power in the home, including the right to beat his wife.
Women. The average colonial wife bore eight children and performed a wide range of tasks. Household work included cooking, cleaning, clothes- making, and medical care. Women also educated the children. A woman usually worked next to her husband in the shop, on the plantation, or on the farm. Divorce was legal but rare, and women had limited legal and political rights. Yet the shared labors and mutual dependence with their husbands gave most women protection from abuse and an active role in decision-making.
The Economy
By the 1760s, almost half of England’s world trade was with its American colonies. The government in England permitted limited kinds of colonial manufacturing, such as making flour or rum, but it restricted efforts that would compete with English industries, such as textiles. The richness of the American land and British mercantile policy produced a society almost entirely engaged in agriculture.
As the people prospered and communities grew, increasing numbers be- came ministers, lawyers, doctors, and teachers. The quickest route to wealth was through the land, although regional geography often provided distinct opportunities for the hardworking colonists.
New England. With rocky soil and long winters, farming was limited to subsistence levels that provided just enough for the farm family. Most farms were small—under 100 acres—and most work was done by family members and an occasional hired laborer. The industrious descendants of the Puritans profited from logging, shipbuilding, fishing, trading, and rum-distilling.
Middle colonies. Rich soil attracted farmers from Europe and produced an abundance of wheat and corn for export to Europe and the West Indies. Farms of up to 200 acres were common. Often, indentured servants and hired laborers worked with the farm family. A variety of small manufacturing efforts developed, including iron-making. Trading led to the growth of such cities as Philadelphia and New York.
Southern colonies. Because of the South’s varied geography and climate, farming ranged from small subsistence family farms to large plantations of over 2,000 acres. Cash crops were mainly tobacco in the Chesapeake and North Carolina colonies, and rice and indigo in South Carolina and Georgia. On the plantations, a shortage of indentured servants led to the increased use of slaves. Most plantations were self-sufficient—they grew their own food and had their own slave craftspeople. The Carolinas also exported large quantities of timber and naval stores (tar and pitch). Most plantations were located on rivers so that their cash crops could be shipped directly to Europe.
Monetary system. A major English strategy in controlling the colonial economy was to limit the use of money. The growing colonies were forced to use much of the limited hard currency—gold and silver—to pay for the imports from England that increasingly exceeded colonial exports. To provide currency for domestic trade, many of the colonies issued paper money, but this often led to inflation. The government in England also vetoed colonial laws that might harm English merchants.
Transportation. Transporting goods by water was much easier than at- tempting to carry them overland on rough and narrow roads or trails. Therefore, trading centers like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston were located on the sites of good harbors and navigable rivers. Despite the difficulty and expense of maintaining roads and bridges, overland travel by horse and stage became more common in the 18th century. Taverns not only provided food and lodging for travelers but also served as social centers where news was exchanged and politics discussed. A postal system using horses on overland routes and small ships on water routes was operating both within and between the colonies by the mid-18th century.
Religion
Although Maryland was founded by a Catholic proprietor, and many larger towns like New York and Boston attracted some Jewish settlers, the overwhelming majority of colonists belonged to different Protestant denominations. The Presbyterians were especially well represented in New England. People of Dutch descent in New York attended services of the Dutch Reformed Church. Lutherans, Mennonites, and Quakers were the most common Protestant sects in Pennsylvania.
Protestant Dominance
In the 17th century, certain colonial governments had taxed the people to support one of the Protestant denominations. Churches financed in this way were known as established churches. There were two such established churches in the early colonies: the Church of England (or Anglican Church) in Virginia and the Congregational Church in Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut. As various immigrant groups increased the religious diversity of the colonies, the governments gradually changed their policies on tax-supported churches. In Massachusetts and Connecticut, by the time of the Revolution, members of other established religions were exempt from supporting the Congregational Church. Some direct tax support remained until the 19th century. In Virginia, all tax support for the Anglican Church ended shortly after the Revolution.
Anglicans. Colonial members of the Church of England tended to be prosperous farmers and merchants in New York and plantation owners in Virginia and the Carolinas. There was no Anglican bishop in America to ordain ministers. The absence of such leadership hampered the church’s development. Because the Church of England was headed by the king, it was viewed as a symbol of English control in the colonies.
Congregationalists. As successors to the Puritans, members of the Congregational Church were found mainly in New England. Protestant critics of this church thought its ministers were domineering and its doctrine overly complex.
The Great Awakening
In the first decades of the 18th century, sermons in Protestant churches tended to be long intellectual discourses and portrayed God as a benign creator of a perfectly ordered universe. There was less emphasis than in Puritan times on human sinfulness and the perils of damnation. In the 1730s, however, a dramatic change occurred that swept through the colonies with the force of a hurricane. This was the Great Awakening, a movement characterized by fervent expressions of religious feeling among masses of people. The movement was at its strongest during the 1730s and 1740s.
Jonathan Edwards. In a Congregational church at Northampton, Massachusetts, the Reverend Jonathan Edwards initiated the Great Awakening with a series of sermons, notably one called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741). Invoking the Old Testament Scriptures, Edwards argued that God was rightfully angry with human sinfulness. Each individual who expressed deep penitence could be saved by God’s grace, but the souls who paid no heed to God’s commandments would suffer eternal damnation.
George Whitefield. Edwards’ influence was largely limited to the New England colonies. Another preacher, George Whitefield, came from England in 1739 and traveled from one end of colonial America to the other. More than any other figure, Whitefield ignited the Great Awakening with his rousing sermons on the hellish torments of the damned. He preached in barns, tents, and fields, sometimes attracting an audience of 10,000 people. He stressed that God was all-powerful and would save only those who openly professed belief in Jesus Christ; those who did not would be cast into hell. Whitefield taught that ordinary people who had faith and sincerity could understand the Christian Gospels without depending on ministers to lead them.
Religious impact. The Great Awakening had a profound effect on religious practice in the colonies. As sinners tearfully confessed their guilt and then joyously exulted in being “saved,” emotionalism became a common part of Protestant services. Ministers lost some of their former authority among those who now studied the Bible in their own homes.
The Great Awakening also caused a major division within churches such as the Congregational and Presbyterian, between those supporting its teachings (“New Lights”) and those condemning them (“Old Lights”). More evangelical sects such as the Baptists and Methodists attracted large numbers. As a result, there was greater competition to attract followers, increased religious diversity, and a call for separation of church and state.
Political influence. A movement as powerful as the Great Awakening was bound to affect all areas of life, including colonial politics. Unlike anything before it, the movement affected every social class in every section. For the first time, the colonists—regardless of their national origins—shared in a common experience as Americans. The Great Awakening may also have had a democratizing effect by changing the way people viewed authority. If the common people could make their own religious decisions without relying on the “higher” authority of ministers, then might they also make their own political decisions without deferring to the authority of the great landowners and merchants? This revolutionary idea was not expressed in the 1740s, but 30 years later, it would challenge the authority of a king and his royal governors.
Cultural Life
In the early 1600s, the chief concern of most colonists was economic survival. People had neither the time nor the resources to pursue leisure activities or create works of art and literature. One hundred years later, however, the colonial population had grown and matured to the point that the arts and other aspects of civilized living could flourish, at least among the well-to-do southern planters and the merchants of the northern cities.
Achievements in the Arts and Sciences
In the coastal areas, as fear of the Native Americans faded, people of means could display their prosperity and success by adopting architectural and decorative styles from England.
Architecture. In the 1740s and 1750s, the Georgian style of London was widely imitated in colonial houses, churches, and public buildings. Brick and stucco homes built in this style were characterized by a symmetrical placement of windows and dormers and a spacious center hall flanked by two fireplaces. Such homes were found only on or near the eastern seaboard. On the frontier, a one-room log cabin was the common shelter.
Painting. Many colonial painters were itinerant artists who wandered the countryside in search of families that wanted their portraits painted. Shortly before the Revolution, two American artists, Benjamin West and John Copley, went to England where they acquired the necessary training and financial support to establish themselves as prominent artists.
Literature. With limited resources available, most authors wrote on serious subjects, chiefly religion and politics. There were, for example, widely read religious tracts by two Massachusetts ministers, Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards. In the years preceding the American Revolution, a large number of political essays and treatises attempted to draw a line between American rights and English authority. Writers of this important literature included John Adams, James Otis, John Dickinson, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson.
By far the most popular and successful American writer of the 18th century was that remarkable jack-of-all-trades, Benjamin Franklin. His witty aphorisms and advice were collected in Poor Richard’s Almanack, a best-selling book that was annually revised from 1732 to 1757.
The lack of support for literature did not stop everyone. The poetry of Phillis Wheatley is noteworthy both for her triumph over slavery and the quality of her verse.
Science. Most scientists, such as the botanist John Bartram of Philadelphia, were self-taught. Benjamin Franklin’s pioneering work with electricity and his more practical developments of bifocal eyeglasses and the Franklin stove brought him international fame.
Education
Basic education was limited and varied greatly among the colonies. Formal efforts were directed to males, since females were to be trained only for household work.
New England. The Puritans’ emphasis on learning the Bible led them to create the first tax-supported schools. A Massachusetts law in 1647 required towns with over fifty families to establish primary schools for boys, and towns with over a hundred families to establish grammar schools to prepare boys for college.
Middle colonies. Schools were either church-sponsored or private. Often, teachers lived with the families of their students.
Southern colonies. Parents gave their children whatever education they could. On plantations, tutors provided instruction for the owners’ children.
Higher education. Harvard, the first colonial college, was founded at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1636 in order to give candidates for the ministry a proper theological and scholarly education. Two other early colleges were William and Mary in Virginia (opened in 1694) and Yale in Connecticut (1701). Like Harvard, both were sectarian, meaning that they existed to promote the doctrines of a particular religious sect. William and Mary was founded by Anglicans and Yale by Congregationalists.
The Great Awakening prompted the creation of five new colleges between 1746 and 1769:
- College of New Jersey (Princeton), 1746, Presbyterian
- King’s College (Columbia), 1754, Anglican
- Rhode Island College (Brown), 1764, Baptist
- Queens College (Rutgers), 1766, Dutch Reformed
- Dartmouth College, 1769, Congregationalist
Only one nonsectarian college was founded during this period. The College of Philadelphia, the future University of Pennsylvania, had no religious sponsors. On hand for the opening ceremonies in 1765 were the college’s civic- minded founders, chief among them Philadelphia’s leading citizen, Benjamin Franklin.
Professions
For perhaps the first hundred years of colonial life (1607–1707), Christian ministry was the only profession to enjoy widespread respect among the com- mon people. In the course of the 18th century, however, other professions gradually acquired respectability and social prominence.
Physicians. The thousands of colonists who fell prey to epidemics of smallpox and diphtheria were treated by a cure that only made matters worse. The common practice then was to bleed the sick, often by employing leeches or bloodsuckers. For a beginning doctor, there was little to no formal medical training other than acting as an apprentice to an experienced physician. The first medical college in the colonies was begun in 1765 as part of Franklin’s idea for the College of Philadelphia.
Lawyers. Often viewed as talkative troublemakers, lawyers were not commonly seen in the colonial courts of the 1600s. In that period, individuals would argue their own cases before a colonial magistrate. During the 1700s, however, as trade expanded and legal problems became more complex, the need for expert assistance in court became apparent. The most able lawyers formed a bar (committee or board), which set rules and standards for aspiring young lawyers. Lawyers gained further respect in the 1760s and 1770s when they argued for colonial rights. John Adams, James Otis, and Patrick Henry were three such lawyers whose legal arguments would ultimately provide the intellectual underpinnings of the American Revolution.
The Press
News and ideas circulated in the colonies principally by means of a postal system and local printing presses.
Newspapers. In 1725 only five newspapers existed in the colonies, but by 1776 the number had grown to more than 40. Issued weekly, each newspaper consisted of a single sheet folded once to make four pages. It contained such items as month-old news from Europe, ads for goods and services and for the return of runaway indentured servants and slaves, and pious essays giving advice for better living. Illustrations were few or nonexistent. The first cartoon appeared in the Philadelphia Gazette, placed there by (you guessed it) Ben Franklin.
The Zenger case. Newspaper printers in colonial days ran the risk of being jailed for libel if any article offended the political authorities. In 1735, John Peter Zenger, a New York editor and publisher, was brought to trial on a charge of libelously criticizing New York’s royal governor. Zenger’s lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, argued that his client had printed the truth about the governor. According to English common law at the time, injuring a governor’s reputation was considered a criminal act, no matter whether a printed statement was true or false. Ignoring the English law, the jury voted to acquit Zenger. While this case did not guarantee complete freedom of the press, it encouraged newspapers to take greater risks in criticizing a colony’s government.
Rural Folkways
The majority of colonists rarely saw a newspaper or read any book other than the Bible. As farmers on the frontier or even within a few miles of the coast, they worked from first daylight to sundown. The farmer’s year was divided into four ever-recurring seasons: spring planting, summer growing, fall harvesting, and winter preparations for the next cycle. Food was usually plentiful, but light and heat in the colonial farmhouse were limited to the kitchen fireplace and a few well-placed candles. Entertainment for the well-to-do consisted chiefly of cardplaying and horse-racing in the South, theatergoing in the middle colonies, and attending religious lectures in Puritan New England.
Emergence of a National Character
The colonists’ motivations for leaving Europe, the political heritage of the English majority, and the influence of the American natural environment combined to bring about a distinctly American viewpoint and way of life. Especially among white male property owners, the colonists exercised the rights of free speech and a free press, became accustomed to electing representatives to colonial assemblies, and tolerated a variety of religions. English travelers in the colonies remarked that Americans were restless, enterprising, practical, and forever seeking to improve their circumstances.
Politics
By 1750, the 13 colonies had similar systems of government, with a governor acting as chief executive and a separate legislature voting either to adopt or reject the governor’s proposed laws.
Structure of Government
There were eight royal colonies with governors appointed by the king (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia). In the three proprietary colonies (Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware), governors were appointed by the proprietors. The governors in only two of the colonies, Connecticut and Rhode Island, were elected by popular vote.
In every colony, the legislature consisted of two houses. The lower house, or assembly, elected by the eligible voters, voted for or against new taxes. Colonists thus became accustomed to paying taxes only if their chosen representatives approved. (Their unwillingness to surrender any part of this privilege would become a cause for revolt in the 1770s.) In the royal and proprietary colonies, members of the legislature’s upper house—or council—were ap- pointed by the king or the proprietor. In the two self-governing colonies, both the upper and lower houses were elective bodies.
Local government. From the earliest period of settlement, colonists in New England established towns and villages, clustering their small homes around an open space known as a green. In the southern colonies, on the other hand, towns were much less common, and farms and plantations were widely separated. Thus, the dominant form of local government in New England was the town meeting, in which people of the town would regularly come together, often in a church, to vote directly on public issues. In the southern colonies, local government was carried on by a law-enforcing sheriff and other officials who served a large territorial unit called a county.
Voting
If democracy is defined as the participation of all the people in the making of government policy, then colonial democracy was at best limited and partial. Those barred from voting—white women, poor white men, slaves of both sexes, and most free blacks—constituted a sizable majority of the colonial population. Nevertheless, the barriers to voting that existed in the 17th century were beginning to be removed in the 18th. Religious restrictions, for example, were removed in Massachusetts and other colonies. On the other hand, voters in all colonies were still required to own at least a small amount of property. Another factor to consider is the degree to which members of the colonial assemblies and governors’ councils represented either a privileged elite or the larger society of plain citizens. The situation varied from one colony to the next. In Virginia, membership in the House of Burgesses was tightly restricted to certain families of wealthy landowners. In Massachusetts, the legislature was more open to small farmers, although here, too, an educated, propertied elite held power for generations. The common people in every colony tended to defer to their “betters” and to depend upon the privileged few to make decisions for them. Without question, colonial politics was restricted to participation by white males only. Even so, compared with other parts of the world, the English colonies showed tendencies toward democracy and self-government that made their political system unusual for the time.