A World Transformed, 1720–17701
Chapter 4
A World Transformed,
1720–1770
Learning Objectives
After you have studied Chapter 4 in your textbook and worked through this study guide chapter, you should be able to:
1.Indicate the factors that contributed to population growth in the American colonies during the eighteenth century, and discuss the consequences of that growth.
2.Discuss the characteristics of the major non-English ethnic groups that came to the colonies during the period from 1720 to 1770, and explain their contributions to and impact on colonial society.
3.Examine the economic evolution of the American colonies from 1720 to 1770, and discuss the major factors that contributed to the economic development of each colonial region (New England, the Middle Colonies, the Chesapeake, and the Lower South).
4.Distinguish between the culture of the genteel and that of ordinary folk in eighteenth-century colonial America.
5.Identify the basic tenets of Enlightenment thought, and explain the impact of this thought on eighteenth-century American society.
6.Identify the divergent cultural traditions that emerged in eighteenth-century colonial America and explain the impact of race and ethnicity on such traditions.
7.Discuss and explain the importance of the religious, political, economic, and intercultural rituals in which eighteenth-century colonial Americans participated.
8.Discuss the similarities and differences among Indian, mixed-race, European-American, and African American families.
9.Examine the impact of place of residence (rural vs. urban), gender, socioeconomic status, and race on the daily lives of eighteenth-century colonial Americans.
10.Discuss the rise of colonial assemblies, and explain the characteristics of representative government in eighteenth-century colonial America.
11.Examine the causes and consequences of the Stono Rebellion, the New York conspiracy, the land riots, the Regulator movements, and the Great Awakening.
Thematic Guide
In Chapters 2 and 3, we looked at American society in its infancy. Though this society was shaped by many forces, its basic belief system and value system came from England. At the end of Chapter 3, we saw that colonial society was showing signs of evolving in its own unique direction, a fact that caused England to formulate some rules and regulations (the Navigation Acts, for example) designed to control colonial behavior.
In Chapter 4, the authors analyze the internal makeup of colonial society to show more clearly how certain forces interacted to create the unique American society.
In the first section of the chapter, “Population Growth and Ethnic Diversity,” we note the reasons behind the dramatic population growth in the colonies in the eighteenth century. By examining the migration of a variety of ethnic groups that made up that migration, we see the development of the cultural pluralism that distinguishes American society. At the same time we recognize some of the internal dynamics produced by that pluralism (the question of assimilation, as well as the emergence and consequences of ethnic antagonisms).
The economic evolution of the colonies is the main theme of the second section. Although there was slow economic growth between 1720 and 1750, growth was uneven. We examine in detail the economic forces operating in (l) New England, (2) the middle colonies, (3) the Chesapeake area, and (4) the Lower South. The forces affecting the economy as a whole interacted with regional characteristics to create a separate set of economic dynamics within each region. Consequently, the colonies were not a unified whole and had no history of unity or sense of common purpose.
An examination of the characteristics of genteel and ordinary culture leads to a discussion of the religious, political, economic, and intercultural rituals in which eighteenth-century colonial residents participated and through which they forged their cultural identities. Due to differences in the historical experiences of Indians, people of mixed race, European-Americans, and African Americans, different family forms emerged within each group. Ethnicity, gender, and place of residence (rural vs. urban) also affected patterns of daily life in eighteenth-century colonial America.
In the penultimate section, “Politics: Stability and Crisis in British America,” we turn to political developments—chiefly the emergence of colonial assemblies as a powerful political force. We also look at the contrasts between the ideal and the reality of representative government in eighteenth-century colonial America.
Then we return to the theme that underlies all the sections in this chapter: the seeds of tension, conflict, and crisis present within eighteenth-century American society. If you look back at the earlier sections, you can see the potential for conflict in (l) ethnic diversity; (2) the increase of urban poverty despite general economic growth, as well as the economic variations among the four regions; (3) the differences between city and rural life, between the status of men and women, and between white and black families; (4) the clashing of the older and the newer cultures and of the genteel and the ordinary; and (5) the conflict between the ideal and the reality of the role of colonial assemblies. The crises and conflicts resulting from this diversity are exemplified in the Stono Rebellion, the New York conspiracy, the land riots, and the Regulator movements.
Finally, we consider the crisis that was the most widespread because it was not confined to a particular region—the First Great Awakening. This was a religious crisis, but its causes resembled those of the other crises of the period.
Building Vocabulary
Listed below are important words and terms that you need to know to get the most out of Chapter 4. They are listed in the order in which they occur in the chapter. After carefully looking through the list, refer to a dictionary and jot down the definition of words that you do not know or of which you are unsure.
extract
roust
burgeon
enclaves
vagary
stagnate
amenity
destitution
infirm
privateer
foray
levy
hinterland
garrison
ostentatious
genteel
abstract
naturalist
rationalism
rudiments
communal
divergent
egalitarian
miscreant
proliferate
disparate
reciprocate
detriment
liaison
commandeer
polity
analogy
reapportion
pluralistic
foment
vigilante
innate
depravity
theologian
itinerant
evangelical
paradox
deference
secular
volatile
Identification and Significance
After studying Chapter 4 of A People and a Nation, you should be able to identify fully and explain the historical significance of each item listed below.
1.Identify each item in the space provided. Give an explanation or description of the item. Answer the questions who, what, where, and when.
2.Explain the historical significance of each item in the space provided. Establish the historical context in which the item exists. Establish the item as the result of or as the cause of other factors existing in the society under study. Answer this question: What were the political, social, economic, and/or cultural consequences of this item?
colonial population growth
Identification
Significance
African immigrants
Identification
Significance
Scotch-Irish, Scots, and Irish immigrants
Identification
Significance
German immigrants
Identification
Significance
the Huguenots
Identification
Significance
colonial Jews
Identification
Significance
urban poverty
Identification
Significance
King George’s War
Identification
Significance
James Oglethorpe
Identification
Significance
genteel culture
Identification
Significance
advanced education in eighteenth-century colonial America
Identification
Significance
the Enlightenment
Identification
Significance
John and William Bartram
Identification
Significance
Experiments and Observations on Electricity
Identification
Significance
Boston’s smallpox epidemic
Identification
Significance
Two Treatises of Government
Identification
Significance
oral cultures
Identification
Significance
religious rituals
Identification
Significance
civic rituals
Identification
Significance
rituals of consumption
Identification
Significance
rituals on the “middle ground” (intercultural rituals)
Identification
Significance
colonial families
Identification
Significance
genizaros
Identification
Significance
mestizos
Identification
Significance
the “indoor” affairs of the rural household
Identification
Significance
the “outdoor” affairs of the rural household
Identification
Significance
African American families
Identification
Significance
eighteenth-century colonial assemblies
Identification
Significance
John Peter Zenger
Identification
Significance
the Stono Rebellion
Identification
Significance
the New York conspiracy
Identification
Significance
the New Jersey, Vermont, and Hudson Valley land riots
Identification
Significance
the Regulator movements
Identification
Significance
the First Great Awakening
Identification
Significance
Jonathan Edwards
Identification
Significance
George Whitefield
Identification
Significance
“New Lights” and “Old Lights”
Identification
Significance
Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind
Identification
Significance
Interpreting Information
With the following hints as your guide, complete the four steps outlined below to produce the working draft of an essay identifying “The Enlightenment” and indicating its significance in the history of the United States, especially between 1720 and 1770. When you finish, you will have the material for either a fully developed but short essay or a response for a “quickie” identification/significance item.
The simple identification/significance answers called for in the Interpreting Information exercise for Chapter 3 suit items based on limited textbook and lecture material for which two or three sentences composed in about three minutes should suffice. (That is often the case when such items appear in a test’s “short-answer” section. But the amount of detail in your response to items of this type should always be based on what your professor indicates he or she wants.)
The kind of identification/significance answer this exercise focuses on, however, suits a question covering a large amount of information on which a well-prepared student would be expected to spend 15 or more minutes during a test. (As you work on the Identification and Significance exercises throughout this study guide, notice that the specificity of the items themselves varies considerably. Some items ask that you deal with a person or event barely mentioned in the text, whereas other items ask you to deal with much broader and more expansive topics that are covered at some length in the chapter. As you deal with these items, decide which items call for short answers and which call for expansive answers.)
Hints for Composing Essay-Length Answers to “Significance” Questions
1.Use a statement of the item’s overall impact as your one-sentence “core” answer to the question. That sentence, the thesis or whole point of your essay, can serve as the last sentence in the introductory paragraph. Or, it could be the first sentence of the essay’s first body paragraph, depending on your decision about matters referred to in Hint 2. Your essay’s thesis or whole point must focus on the significance of the person, place, thing, or concept; the definition merely clarifies the topic of your essay.
2.Early in your essay, include a clear, expanded definition of the item whose significance you are explaining. Use a formal definition of the type described in the previous chapter of this study guide as the first sentence of this expanded definition. In the rest of your expanded definition, answer basic questions that are most likely to make clear what or whom you are writing about. Answer a litany of questions like these: What are some examples? Who created, invented, discovered, wrote, built, etc., it? How does the item being defined differ from X (X being something with which people could confuse the item in question)? How is the item being defined like X (something of the same type that the essay’s reader is likely to know about or expect me to know about)? What are the origins of the item being defined? What types or parts does the item being defined have? For what is the item being defined used? Who uses it? Under what circumstances? When and where did it exist or take place? What was its goal or purpose? How did it work? What did the item being defined do? What caused the item being defined ? In other words, answer in the definition part of your essay—whether that is in the first body paragraph or the opening of the thesis paragraph—those questions whose answers would contribute the most toward making what or who the item is clear. You have to answer only enough of the questions you come up with to accomplish that goal.
3.Once the definition/identification is taken care of, it is time to answer the real question: What is the historical significance of the item being defined? Significance implies several things. First, and usually foremost, it implies consequences or effects. Second, it implies the scope of the impact—the number and kinds of people or things affected and the duration of the effects. Decide whether one or both of these implications apply to the item you are writing about and frame your explanation of the significance accordingly (see Hints 5 and 6). Often the number of people or things affected and the duration of the effects can be covered in the expanded definition (see Hint 3).
4.How you present the specific effects representing the total significance depends on how many effects you have to name and explain.
If there are only two or three, then either devote one paragraph to naming and explaining each effect or write one enumeration paragraph whose point is, roughly, “the item in question had three major effects.” (The body of that kind of paragraph names and explains the first effect, names and explains the second effect, and then names and explains the third effect.)
If there are more than two to four simple-to-explain effects, you should classify the effects (social, political, economic, religious, etc.) and devote a separate paragraph to each category. Each of these paragraphs can be either an exemplification paragraph (a paragraph in which you assert that the item has had a particular category of effects and then provide examples of the effects it has had in that category) or an enumeration paragraph (a paragraph in which you assert that the item has had a particular number of a particular category of effects—three political effects, for example—and then name and explain each effect briefly one by one).
5.If you decide your explanation of the significance of an item should focus on who was affected and how long the effect lasted, then do more than give the bare statistics. What else you say will depend on the item. If you are saying, as you might have been on a test on Chapter 1, that the entire population of Indians who had contact with the Europeans who came to the New World were affected by the European “killer diseases” such as smallpox, some questions you might be expected to answer in your paragraph would be: Why were the Indians particularly susceptible to such diseases? How soon after the arrival of Europeans was the effect being felt? How did the number of deaths affect Indian society, their chances of resisting European incursions into their territory, and their responses to European evangelical efforts?
Step One
Complete the chart “Evidence: Clarifying Details for Deriving and Supporting a Formal Definition of ‘The Enlightenment’” to bring together information for your expanded definition of “The Enlightenment.” For your purposes, an expanded definition is a group of sentences whose first sentence is a formal definition and whose succeeding sentences present information that clarifies the formal definition. You may want to add additional questions and answers (notes).
Step Two
Referring to the notes from the chart you created in Step One, complete the next chart (untitled) by entering the three basic parts of a formal definition. (If necessary, refer to the hints in the Interpreting Information exercise for Chapter 3 on page 69). The results will be the material for the statement of the expanded-definition part (see Hint 2) of your finished essay, no matter whether you use it as the first sentence of the essay’s thesis or introductory paragraph or as the first sentence of your essay’s first body paragraph. When you finish Step Two, you will have the material for a working draft of the definition part of your answer to the identification/significance question.
Evidence: Clarifying Details for Deriving and Supportinga Formal Definition of “The Enlightenment”
Questions / Answers (Notes) / Source of Notes—(Lectures, textbook) pages or dates
To what narrow, pertinent category of person, place, thing, or concept does “The Enlightenment” belong?
What kinds of people are associated with “The Enlightenment”?
What are the names of some specific individuals associated with “The Enlightenment”?
What did those people do, say, practice, believe, or create that linked them to “The Enlightenment”?
When did “The Enlightenment” exist? Where?
Term / Class / Differentiation
The item being defined or identified / Narrow, relevant category to which the item being defined belongs / What distinguishes the item being defined or identified from all other members of the category in which you have placed it
The Enlightenment
Step Three