1. America’s History Seventh Edition
James A. Henretta
Rebecca Edwards
Robert O. Self
America’s History Seventh Edition
CHAPTER 4
Growth and Crisis in Colonial Society
Copyright © 2011 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

2. I. New England’s Freehold Society
Farm Families: Women in the Household Economy
Husband the Head of the Household-
Wife as the “Helpmate”-women subordinate-but important as workers and mothers
Motherhood-initially many children but fewer as farms got smaller-religious conversion
Restrictions-legal and social
Farm Property: Inheritance
Family Authority-property ownership
Children of Wealthy Parents-marriage portion-led to arranged marriages
Marriage-favored men-
Father’s Duty-provide an inheritance
I. New England’s Freehold Society
A. Farm Families
1. Husband the Head of the Household – in The Well-Ordered Family (1712) Reverend Wadsworth of Boston told women that it was their duty “to love and reverence” their husbands; girls learned from their mothers to be subordinate to their fathers; courts prosecuted more women than men for fornication.
2. Wife as the “Helpmate” – tended gardens, spun thread and yard from flax and wool, wove cloth, knitted, made candles and soap, churned butter, fermented malt for beer, preserved meats.
3. Motherhood – marriage in 20s for women, given birth six to seven times by their 40s. Fear of death during childbirth and the importance of baptism for the new baby were believed to be a reason many Puritan women clung to the church even when fewer men were attending.
4. Restrictions – no equality within the church, most women accepted such restrictions as social norms.
Farm Property: Inheritance
1. Family Authority – emigrants wanted farms to provide for them and their grown children, landless children could be placed as indentured servants until age 18 or 21, landless men hoped to climb from laborer to tenant to freeholder.
2. Children of Wealthy Parents – marriage portion between 23 and 25, consisted of land, livestock, or farm equipment; enabled parents to choose their children’s spouses because economic concerns outweighed love in the long-term interests of the extended family.
3. Marriage – bride gave her husband legal ownership of her property; she received a dower right to use but not sell one-third of the property if her husband died; this portion went to her children if she died or remarried.
4. Father’s Duty – provide an inheritance for children or lose status in the community; some men moved their families to the frontier where land was cheap and abundant; on the frontier these men created communities of independent property owners.

3. I. New England’s Freehold Society
C. Freehold Society in Crisis
Population Increase-doubled in each generation
Changes in Family Life-less arranged marriages –premarital sex and birth control more common
“Household Mode of Production”-gradual change from grain economy to livestock economy
I. New England’s Freehold Society
C. Freehold Society in Crisis
1. Population Increase – rapid natural increase doubled New England’s population each generation from 100,000 people in Puritan colonies in 1700 to nearly 400,000 in 1750; resulted in the division and subdivision of family farms to 50 acres or less.
2. Changes in Family Life – parents could now only provide one child with an inheritance of land, which resulted in parents having less control over their children; increase in premarital sex and marriages arranged quickly due to pregnancy; couples tried to limit family size or moved their new families into the frontiers of central Massachusetts, western Connecticut, and New Hampshire and Vermont. Wheat and barley were replaced with corn because it could feed people and provide nourishment for cattle and pigs.
3. “Household Mode of Production” – system of community exchange in which families swapped labor and goods; participants recorded debits and credits and “balanced” their accounts by exchanging only small amounts of currency, which was in short supply.

4. II. Toward a New Society: The Middle Colonies, 1720-1765
Economic Growth and Social Inequality
1. Tenancy in New York-wealthy landowners used manorial system-tenants aspired for independence
2. Conflict in Quaker Pennsylvania-uneven land distribution
3. Landlessness and Crime-committed by poor, indentured servants, or scots-irish
Toward a New Society: The Middle Colonies,
A. Economic Growth and Social Inequality
1. Tenancy in New York – to attract migrants to an area inhabited largely by wealthy Dutch and English families, landowners granted long leases and the rights to sell improvements (houses, barns) to subsequent tenants; population grew slowly because migrants desired to own land; new tools such as the cradle scythe (1750s) increased the amount of grain produced but not enough to enable quick profits and land ownership.
2. Conflict in Quaker Pennsylvania – early Quakers had settled in Pennsylvania and New Jersey building simple homes and getting by with little; by 1760s wealthy landowners in eastern Pennsylvania were using slaves and poor immigrants on their farms; a new class of “agricultural capitalists” was forming out of men who were landlords, speculators, storekeepers, and large-scale farmers and whose presence marked the growing divisions between the social classes in the region.
3. Landlessness and Crime – 50% of white men in the Middle Atlantic colonies owned no land though they desired to be landowners; crime rose after 1720; criminals tended to be propertyless, indentured servants, or migrants of Scots-Irish descent.

7. II. Toward a New Society: The Middle Colonies, 1720-1765
Cultural Diversity
1. Middle Colonies Not a “Melting Pot”
2. The German Influx-Penn., religious freedom,strong cultural identity-avoided outside influence
3. Scots-Irish Settlers-most numerous of all immigrants, from Ireland, Presbyterian-retained culture, moved west to back country mountains of West Virginia ,Tennessee, Kentucky
Toward a New Society: The Middle Colonies,
Cultural Diversity
1. Middle Colonies Not a “Melting Pot” – city of Philadelphia had more than 12 religious denominations present in 1748; migrants married within their ethnic groups (Huguenots were an exception); large population of wealthy Quakers helped to shape the culture of Pennsylvania and western New Jersey; pacifists purchased land from Native Americans rather than seizing it; advocated the abolition of slavery.
2. The German Influx – more than 100,000 German migrants settled in the Pennsylvania/western New Jersey region in the 17th and 18th centuries; settled in Lutheran and Reformed communities; discouraged from marrying outside of their ethnicity; advocated married women having legal rights similar to in Germany (property and will-writing).
3. Scots-Irish Settlers – largest group of migrants came from Ireland (115,000); included Catholics, Scots, and Presbyterians who had faced religious and economic repression by the English; settled in Pennsylvania region for religious tolerance; retained cultural practices. 7

10. II. Toward a New Society: The Middle Colonies, 1720-1765
C. Religious Identity and Political Conflict 1. Religious Diversity-condemned in Europe-tried in PA, Quakers, Scots-Irish, German-created conflict among religious groups-why?
Toward a New Society: The Middle Colonies,
Religious Identity and Political Conflict
1. Religious Diversity – Orthodox church officials of several religions brought intolerance to the colonies; in America, religious groups enforced acceptable behavior through communal self-discipline; Quaker marriage rules maintained that couples have land and livestock; wealthy Quakers encouraged marriage among their children while the poor remained single or married later in life; as Quaker population declined by 1750s, religious groups seeking increased political power (Lutherans and Baptists) had bitter conflicts raging amongst them.

12. III. The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening, 1720-1765
The Enlightenment in America p
1. The European Enlightenment-4 principles
2. John Locke-stresses education and rational thought
Political authority not divine ,”natural rights”
3. Franklin’s Contributions-father of American enlightenment, deist, Poor Richards Almanac,
electricity, bifocals, the Franklin Stove
The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening,
The Enlightenment in America
1. The European Enlightenment – emphasis on the power of human reason; appealed to urban artisans, well-educated from merchant and planter families; 17th-century teachings of Copernicus (earth traveled around the sun); philosophers used empirical research and scientific reasoning to study social institutions and human behavior; four fundamental principles: law-like order of the natural world, power of human reason, natural rights of individuals (self-government) and the improvement of society through progress.
2. John Locke – English philosopher; wrote Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) stressing the importance of environment and experience on human beliefs and behavior; change was possible through education, thought, and action; Two Treatises on Government (1690) argued that power did not come from divine right but from social compacts with the people who have the power to change their government.
3. Franklin’s Contributions – (b. 1706, Boston); shaped by Enlightenment literature and not the Bible; a “deist” – believed that a Supreme Being (Grand Architect) had created the world, which operated by natural laws; rejected divinity.

13. III. The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening, 1720-1765
B. American Pietism and the Great Awakening p
1. Pietism-appeal was to hearts not minds-
2. Jonathan Edwards’s Calvinism-New England Congregational, passion=belief=fear 1730s
3. Whitefield’s Great Awakening-emotional sermons
attracted huge crowds in all colonies, “New Light” vs “ Old Light” undermined established tax supported churches and ministers ,empowered common people, led to establishment of Ivy League colleges p122
The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening,
B. American Pietism and the Great Awakening
1. Pietism – an evangelical Christian movement that stressed a personal relationship with God, attracted farmers and urban laborers; an appeal to “hearts rather than minds.”
2. Jonathan Edwards’s Calvinism – (b. 1703) in the Connecticut River Valley, Edwards preached the helplessness of men and women; “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741), spoke of “Hell’s wide gaping mouth” and his promotion of conversions; successfully incited religious fervor in the region.
3. Whitefield’s Great Awakening – spoke from memory about the power of God and the need to seek salvation; followers were called “New Lights” for their claim that they felt a new light in them after hearing Whitefield preach. 13

14. III. The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening, 1720-1765
Religious Upheaval in the North
1. Old Lights and New Lights-Old Lights threatened by popularity of New Lights-refused to let them preach in towns-condemned the emotional drama and women speaking in public
Lost influence and power as well as salary
New Lights –enthusiasm led to establishment of Ivy league colleges
The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening,
C. Religious Upheaval in the North
1. Old Lights and New Lights – Old Lights (conservative ministers) condemned the crying and fainting of New Lights in revival meetings and the New Light practice of women speaking in public; New Lights withheld tax payments from Old Light churches; new enthusiasm for religion led to the founding of schools for ministers (Princeton, Columbia, Brown, and Rutgers); people felt new power to be part of the religious experience.

16. III. The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening, 1720-1765
Social and Religious Conflict in the South
1. The Presbyterian Revival-challenged the tax supported and gentry controlled Anglican Church
in Virginia
2. The Baptist Insurgency-radical preached religious conversion to poor people and slaves was seen as a threat to slavery system, challenged the gentry
lifestyle ,gave slaves a religious identity
The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening,
Social and Religious Conflict in the South
1. The Presbyterian Revival – New Lights challenged the Church of England in the south; ritual displays of wealth became less meaningful as competition existed between the churches; Virginia governor denounced New Lights as offering “false teachings.”
2. The Baptist Insurgency – 1760s thousands of white farmers converted to Baptist (adult baptism); Whitefield encouraged slaveholders to bring the enslaved to church but many whites opposed; free-blacks in Virginia embraced the church’s teachings; Baptist churches continued to grow in spite of these pressures; ministers spread teachings among slaves and began to shrink the cultural divide between white and black. 16

17. IV. The Midcentury Challenge: War, Trade, and Social Conflict, 1750-1765
The French and Indian War-The Great War for Empire-disputed territory French and British conflict
1. The Albany Congress-1754-keep Iroquois loyal to British, Benjamin Franklins “Plan of Union” approved then rejected-Join or Die
2. The War Hawks Win-Pitt and Halifax instigate war vs France in Ohio River Valley region-capture Acadia and banish French to Louisiana-George Washington? -
The Midcentury Challenge: War, Trade, and Social Conflict, (Key events: British war against French in America, surge in trade increases American debt to British, and an increase in westward migration leads to violence and rebellion.)
The French and Indian War
1. The Albany Congress – (1754) delegates from British colonies met in Albany to discuss relations with the Iroquois and French expansion; Franklin proposed a “Plan of Union” with a continental assembly to manage trade, Indian policy, and defense in the western territories; Franklin’s effort failed; war between France and England seemed imminent.
2. The War Hawks Win – Pitt and Halifax in England wanted a war in North America with the French; fighting began June 1755; expanded to Europe by 1756 with Britain vowing to destroy France’s ability to compete economically.

19. IV. The Midcentury Challenge: War, Trade, and Social Conflict, 1750-1765
The Great War for Empire
1. The Seven Years War fought on all continents-William Pitt -capture of Fort
Duquesne, Quebec, Montreal, Cuba, Philippines
Treaty of Paris 1763-French lost most of their North American territory to British
2. Pontiac’s Rebellion- Indians killed
2000 white settlers led to first use of chemical warfare(against Indians) Proclamation of 1763-set British western border at Appalachian mountains
The Midcentury Challenge: War, Trade, and Social Conflict, (Key events: British war against French in America, surge in trade increases American debt to British, and an increase in westward migration leads to violence and rebellion.)
The Great War for Empire
1. The Seven Years War ( ) – Pitt directed the war successfully from England, controlling both the commercial and military strategies; British had stunning successes and acquired Cuba and the Philippines from Spain, French Senegal, Martinique and Guadeloupe (eventually returned to France); Treaty of Paris ending the war gave Britain control of over half of North America, including French Canada.
2. Pontiac’s Rebellion – British acquisitions in North America frightened the Native American population, who believed that they would lose more territory to Anglo-American migrants; inspired by a prophet (Neolin) Pontiac (Ottawa Chief) with a group of loosely affiliated tribes launched an uprising against the British; though Pontiac’s rebellion was put down, the Proclamation of 1763 prohibited white settlement west of the Appalachians; ignored by colonists. 19

21. IV. The Midcentury Challenge: War, Trade, and Social Conflict, 1750-1765
British Industrial Growth and the Consumer Revolution
1. Resources-pioneer in the Industrial Revolution
2. American Consumers-colonists dependent on British goods
The Struggle for Land in the East
1. Land Disputes-due to population increase-land disputes caused landless to move west
The Midcentury Challenge: War, Trade, and Social Conflict,
British Industrial Growth and the Consumer Revolution
1. Resources – since 1700 the dominant commercial power in Atlantic and Indian Oceans; first nation to use manufacturing technology and work discipline to expand output; mechanical power of water mills and steam engines (lathes for wood, jennies and looms for textiles, hammers for iron forging).
2. American Consumers – purchasing 30% of all British exports by exporting tobacco, rice, indigo, and wheat from the colonies; New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia supplied wheat to Europeans; profits from exports enabled colonists to buy goods from England; Americans became more dependent on overseas credit and markets.
The Struggle for Land in the East
1. Land Disputes – rising population of colonies meant more land needed; disputes over land broke out in Hudson River Valley of New York, in New Jersey, and in some southern colonies; tenant uprisings; courts favored wealthy land owners; increasingly, the landless moved west to the Appalachian Mountains region.

23. 1. What was the purpose of this image when it was created in the 18th century?
(Answer: advertisement for tobacco)
2. What does the image tell the audience about the origin of this product?
(Answer: ship indicates that it has been imported; people depicted in advertisement as being part of the production process appear to be Native American with skin darker than Englishmen and dress consistent with the warm climates of the southern colonies of North America; drawings of housing-styles consistent with earlier European depictions of native villages.)
3. What aspects of life in the tobacco fields of North America does the advertisement not reveal to consumers?
(Answer: no indication of whether production was completed or aided by African or African-American slave labor; no indication of the hardship of life in the southern colonies [disease, hard labor] of North America in this period leading to short life expectancies.)

24. IV. The Midcentury Challenge: War, Trade, and Social Conflict, 1750-1765
Western Rebels and Regulators
1. The South Carolina Regulators-back country vigilantes (South Carolina) who protested for fairer taxes and greater representation in government
2. Civil Strife in North Carolina-violent clash of protesters(regulators) and government backed by colonial militia and British soldiers
Paxton Boys-violent attacks by Scots-Irish settlers vs peaceful Indians-occurred in eastern Pennsylvania
The Midcentury Challenge: War, Trade, and Social Conflict,
Western Rebels and Regulators (Movement of landless into the west meant clashes over Indian policies, political representation, and debts.)
1. The South Carolina Regulators – during Seven Years War, Anglo-American and Scottish settlers in South Carolina clashed with Cherokee; so-called Regulators were vigilante landowners who demanded that South Carolina’s eastern government provide courts for the western part of the colony, fairer taxation and representation for those who had settled the region; unsuccessful in gaining power.
2. Civil Strife in North Carolina – 1766 saw significant economic crisis in North Carolina as tobacco prices fell; to avoid losing their land mobs of farmers (also called “Regulators”) closed the courts and intimidated judges; proposed legislation to lower their taxes; May 1771 North Carolina’s royal governor sought to suppress the rebellion; violence ensued, ending with 30 men dead and seven Regulator leaders executed.