2.7: Colonial Society and Culture
2.7: Explain how and why the movement of a variety of people and ideas across the Atlantic contributed to the development of American culture over time.
In the last set of notes, we went over slavery in the British colonies and now, for the last topic of Unit 2, we will go over the society of the colonies and the Great Awakening.
The Enlightenment
Before we get to the colonies, we have to talk about the Enlightenment in Europe. The Enlightenment was a movement in Europe that emphasized a change of looking at the world through faith and religious to using logic and reason instead. It emphasized rational thinking over tradition and religious revelation. Because of trade, Enlightenment ideas soon spread from Europe to the colonies. Colonial Americans were exposed to the ideas of people such as John Locke, who wrote Two Treatises on Government, writings that argued that people were born with natural rights such as life, liberty, and property, and that these rights cannot be taken away from them by anyone. Other Enlightenment thinkers were Voltaire, who argued for religious freedom; Baron Montesquieu, who argued for splitting governments into different branches that could check and balance each other and prevent any one person from becoming too powerful; and Rousseau, who wrote about the social contract.
The social contract was an idea that people and their government were in a contract with each other. In exchange for giving the government the power to govern the people, the people received protection from their government. If the government failed to protect the people’s natural rights, then the people should have the right to abolish their government and change it.
The Great Awakening
While the Enlightenment brought in many ideas that the colonists appreciated, some of these ideas conflicted with the Bible’s authority because the Enlightenment emphasized logic and reason over faith and revelation. This led to faith in religion declining. Because of this, a religious revival known as the Great Awakening occurred in the 1730s to bring back religious faith. People like the New Light Clergy started this revival by emphasizing that people should care more about emotion over reason in spiritual matters. Because of them and others like them, the Great Awakening spread throughout the colonies and reignited Christian devotion. Preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield traveled the colonies to spread religious ideas and messages. One of Edwards’ most famous sermons became known as “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. He emphasized that people should enjoy religion and the presence of other human beings, and became one of the main leaders at the start of the Great Awakening.
In the end, Enlightenment thinkers awakened American colonists to ideas about liberty, rights, and democracy, and then the Great Awakening followed suit and created a nationwide movement that bound American society together and taught them to resist threats to democracy. As the years went by, the colonies became increasingly dissatisfied with British rule throughout the 18th century. One reason was due to impressment, which was the practice of British officials seizing men from seaport cities and forcing them to serve in the Royal Navy. This was seen as terrible due to the high risk of death and injury on these ships. When King George II ordered the impressment of American men during the War of Austrian Succession, Americans rioted for three days in response. This event shows that colonists were now increasingly resisting any attempts to violate their natural rights due to the Enlightenment and Great Awakening.
As the Great Awakening spread, it had a significant impact on colonial society. The New Light preachers advocated for democracy in the Bible and taught that a lack of wealth did not mean that you received less of God’s favor. They also encouraged colonists to resist tyranny from colonial officials, which led to a shift in the colonial attitude towards authority. Due to the distance between Britain and the colonies, as the population grew, the colonies established their own local self-governing structures such as town meetings and legislatures. By 1750, America had become more religiously and ethnically diverse, with Protestantism being the dominant religion. Jews existed in New York and New Jersey, while Maryland had a Catholic presence. In New England, Puritans established the tax-supported Congregational Church, and the South had the tax-supported Anglican Church. The Great Awakening also led to many more new religious denominations appearing, including Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Evangelicals, due to differences in interpreting the new beliefs of the Great Awakening.
Societal Culture and Conflicts in the Colonies
In the colonies, there were many immigrants from England and so they would often imitate English political, economic, and cultural characteristics. For example, colonies had their own government with a governor, an upper house, and a lower house, very similar to the government of the British King and his Parliament. English common law was used and the colonies believed that they had the rights of Englishmen such as liberty, equality, and private property. Colonies were under the British mercantile system and this directly affected what colonists could produce and buy and from where due to the Navigation Acts. Because of this, material culture in the colonies was very similar to English culture. The people of the urban areas mimicked the aristocrats of England by drinking tea, reading newspapers, practicing etiquette, and smoking tobacco.
There were several conflicts in the colonies during this time period. In 1624, King James I revoked the charter of Virginia because he saw their House of Burgesses as disloyal because they were having political meetings outside of British influence. In the 1640s, the English Civil War occurred which allowed several New England colonies to create their own New England Confederation in 1643 and they used their own resources to fight against natives and the French. But then in 1684, Charles II revoked the charter of Massachusetts for being rebellious and replaced the New England Confederation with the Royal Dominion of New England.
This was done to strengthen defense against Native Americans and enforce the Navigation Laws but this led to the colonists despising Sir Edmund Andros, the leader of the new dominion. Other problems included land conflicts such as King Philip’s War or Metacom’s War in 1675, Bacon’s Rebellion in the 1670s, and Scots-Irish rebellions and settlements in the frontiers of Pennsylvania. Additionally, mercantilism led to the restriction of what countries the colonists could trade with and many protested by smuggling products, starting the first rebellions against British rule.
