The “Veneer” of Being English: 18 th Century British North America The Thirteen Colonies: British or American?

I. Economic Bonds

A. The Navigation Acts After Royal restoration in 1660, the Crown showed more interest in controlling the colonies Various motivations for the Navigation Acts The components of these Acts

A. The Navigations Acts (cont) Resisted or ignored by the colonists at first Mixed record on enforcement By 1700, the Acts were largely accepted

B. Trade within the Empire American per capita income figures remain relatively stable 50% of American exports went to England 25% of American shipping involved in “carrying trade”, esp. to West Indies West Indian trade influenced New England agricultural practices

B. Trade within the Empire (cont.) 25% of American shipping involved in intercoastal trade Balance of trade turned against the colonists between Colonists went deeper into debt, aggravated by two depressions during the 1760’s Colonies began issuing paper money as a solution to this crisis

II. Immigrational Bonds Population doubled every 25 years in the 18 th century = 3% annual growth rate By 1790, only half of Americans can trace their heritage to England Largest group of immigrants = Scots- Irish

II. Immigrational Bonds (cont) Germans migrated from the Upper Rhine Valley Immigrants raise suspicions of older English settlers Increasing movement into the backcountry

III. Cultural Bonds The role of cities in 18 th century colonial life --Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Charles Town, and Newport, R.I. --important centers of ideas as well as growing centers of poverty

III. Cultural Bonds (cont) Colonial American Architecture -- “Georgian” --Thomas Chippendale -- “Saltbox”

III. Cultural Bonds (cont) Colonial American Art and Literature --John Singleton Copley Colonial American Food and Language -- “Norfolk whine” -- “hoosier”, “redneck”, “cracker”

IV. Political Bonds The English System of Government -- “rotten” boroughs --Critics = Whig pamphleteers American colonial government Theory does not match reality

IV. Political Bonds (cont) “Rise” of the Colonial Assembly Controlled money bills and governor’s salaries English law used to protect “English” liberties in colonial America

V. Military Bonds The Birth of Georgia --James Oglethorpe Imperial Warfare in America King William’s War ( ) Queen Anne’s War ( )

V. Military Bonds (cont) King George’s War ( ) --loss of Louisbourg The Albany Congress (1754) French and Indian War ( ) --William Pitt

VI. Intellectual Bonds

A. The American Enlightenment The European Enlightenment --Isaac Newton --Voltaire American version was more tame in the sense that it did not move as far away from Christianity The appeal in Enlightened thinking for Americans was also the emphasis on the practical

A. American Enlightenment (cont) Leading American philosophes = Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson --Monticello Enlightenment principles are embedded in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution

B. The Great Awakening More impact on the common folk than the Enlightenment The phases of the Awakening throughout the colonies No single sect monopolized the movement while the Anglicans and the Quakers generally opposed it

B. The Great Awakening (cont) Begins in Northampton, Massachusetts in the parish of Jonathon Edwards -- “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” --Sarah Edwards

B. The Great Awakening (cont.) Central figure = George Whitefield --7 trips to America --orphanage in Georgia --friend of Franklin --1 st American celebrity Turmoil really begins with American itinerants following in Whitefield’s wake

B. The Great Awakening (cont) Gilbert Tenant’s sermon “The Dangers of an Unconverted Ministry” (1742) “New Lights” vs. “Old Lights” Results of the Great Awakening --New Colleges --Impact on the Revolution?