American Pageant: Chapter 5 p. 84-104

Conquest by the Cradle

  1. What were the social characteristics shared by the thirteen North American British colonies but not shared by the British West Indies?
  2. List the 5 most populated colonies in order from most populated to least populated.

A Mingling of the Races

  1. What was the largest non-African, non-English-speaking group in the colonies?
  2. Why did the march of the Paxton Boys occur?
  3. How were the Paxton Boys similar to Bacon’s rebels? (No, your text doesn’t come right out and say this. Look in the index, find Bacon’s Rebellion, re-read the section if necessary and then answer the question)
  4. Why would a mixture of different ethnicities lead to less loyalty to the British crown?
  5. Which region (NE, Middle or South) had the least social diversity?

The Structure of Colonial Society

  1. By the mid 18th century, was British American becoming more or lessegalitarian? Give three examples to prove your argument.
  2. Why had this trend developed?
  3. Which cities were forced to build almshouses in the 1730’s and why?
  4. What factors were reducing opportunities for social mobility in New England?
  5. What factor was widening the social gap in the South?
  6. Did South Carolina’s legislature attempt to halt the importation of slaves for moral reasons or was there another reason?
  7. Which region’s shipping owners benefited from the slave trade?

Workday America

  1. What was the most important sector of the colonial economy?
  2. Create your own Triangular Trade diagram including names of places and what was traded.
  3. By the 1730s, what disturbing trend had developed in British American trade?
  4. Describe the Molasses Act of 1733.
  5. How did the colonists typically respond to the Molasses Act and other imperial restrictions placed on colonial trade?

Horsepower and Sailpower

  1. Why wasintercolonialtravel so treacherous?
  2. How did colonial taverns help political parties flourish?
  3. Which two Christian denominations received tax support from their colonies?
  4. Did this “establishment” create tensions in the colonies?

The Great Awakening

  1. Describe the two trends that threatened orthodox Calvinism.
  2. What was the Great Awakening?
  3. Who was Jonathan Edwards?
  4. What was the title of one of his most famous sermons?
  5. Why would evangelism have appealed to members of the Congregationalist church?
  6. Describe the preaching style of George Whitefield.
  7. Why would the evangelical preachers have represented a threat to Anglican (Church of England) “Old Lights?”
  8. Describe the lasting effects of the Great Awakening.
  9. What effect did the Great Awakening have on sectional divisions in colonial America?
  10. What effect did the Great Awakening have on a rising sense of American community or nationalism?

Schools and Colleges

  1. Briefly describe the goals, the focus and the quality of education in the mid-18th century.
  2. How was the South hampered in developing institutions of higher learning?
  3. What steps did wealthy southerners take to compensate for these problems?
  4. Who played a major role in launching what became the 1st American college free from denominational control?

A Provincial Culture

  1. Who was Phillis Wheatly?
  2. Colonial interests in “enlightened science” had a distinctly pragmatic or practical nature. How do Benjamin Franklin’s accomplishments provide evidence of this fact?

Pioneer Presses

  1. Describe the John Peter Zenger Case (cause, features, result).
  2. What basic liberty associated with democracy can be traced to the Zenger case?

The Great Game of Politics

  1. Although the governors of the colonies were selected using a variety of methods, what political body was similar in all thirteen colonies?
  2. What was the political privilege that all of the colonies treasured?
  3. How did the colonies exert pressure on the occasionally troublesome colonial governors?
  4. At which level of government in the colonies could one find the most pure democracy?
  5. What limits existed on political participation (who couldn’t vote )?
  6. What were the main cultural factors that unified the colonists by the mid-18th century?

Colonial Folkways

  1. Describe life during the late 18th century in America using the Venn Diagram below.