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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

70 Chapter 4

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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.

A World Transformed, 1720–1770 71


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

72 Chapter 4


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

74 Chapter 4


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

76 Chapter 4


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

78 Chapter 4


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

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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

82 Chapter 4


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).

84 Chapter 4


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 Supporting a 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

Using the questions in the first column of the following chart as an indication of the kind of material you are looking for, search Chapter 4 of your textbook and your class notes for information about the significance of “The Enlightenment” and individuals or works associated with it. Record your notes on what you learn about the significance of “The Enlightenment” in the appropriate blanks in the chart. If your search indicates that additional questions need to be answered, enter those questions and your answers to them in the chart’s last two rows.

Evidence: Clarifying Details For Deriving and Supporting an Assertion of the Overall Significance of “The Enlightenment”

Questions

Answers (Notes)

Source of Notes—(Lectures, textbook) pages or dates

What fields of human endeavor or belief did “The Enlightenment” influence? How?

What events, documents, inventions, creations, etc., grew out of “The Enlightenment”?

How widespread was the influence of “The Enlightenment” (number and categories of people and works)?

What changes in attitudes or behavior resulted from the existence of “The Enlightenment”?

Step Four

Using the material you have gathered in Steps One through Three and the suggestions for organizing a significance essay, write (in your reading notebook) the working draft of an essay that answers the question inherent in this instruction: Identify and explain the historical significance of “The Enlightenment.”

86 Chapter 4


Ideas and Details

Objective 1

1. The age at which most colonial women married was a major factor contributing to the a. high divorce rate in colonial America. b. growth of the colonial population by natural increase. c. unusually small size of most colonial families. d. high infant mortality rate in the colonies.

Objective 2

2. Which of the following is true of German immigrants? a. They were drawn to the urban areas of the middle colonies. b. They were a destabilizing force because of their radical political ideas. c. They contributed to the religious diversity of Pennsylvania and New York. d. Most were young, single men seeking economic opportunity.

Objective 2

3. For which of the following reasons were American Indians sometimes used as slave catchers? a. They were more fearless than white slave catchers. b. Such use would help prevent an anti-white alliance between blacks and Indians. c. Indian religious teaching portrayed blacks as a threat. d. They were better able than whites to lure blacks out of hiding.

Objective 3

4. Which of the following factors had a stabilizing influence on the eighteenth-century American economy? a. European wars b. The slave system c. The growing American population d. International trade

Objectives 2 and 3

5. In contrast to seventeenth-century immigrants, immigrants to the colonies in the eighteenth century a. had fewer opportunities for advancement. b. were seldom able to assimilate into Anglo-American culture. c. always came by choice. d. were primarily of English origin.

Objective 3

6. The demand for foodstuffs during King George’s War had a positive economic impact on a. Massachusetts. b. Pennsylvania. c. South Carolina. d. Connecticut.



Objective 5

7. The Enlightenment emphasized a. revealed religion. b. faith. c. reason. d. intuitive knowledge.

Objective 5

8. In his Two Treatises of Government, John Locke argued that a. government was created by God. b. government was created for the sole purpose of bringing order and stability to human

society. c. the people created government and placed absolute power in the hands of the

monarch. d. the people have the right to oust a ruler if he does not protect their rights.

Objectives 4 and 7

9. The seating system in New England Congregationalist churches showed the a. wealth and status of church members. b. ethnic background of the members of the congregation. c. vocations of church members. d. marital status of church members.

Objective 7

10. Tea served as a sign of status in colonial America because a. upper-class colonists drank it hot while lower-class colonists drank it cold. b. the drinking of tea was considered to be a lower-class activity. c. tea was served only in salons frequented by those of genteel status. d. the items necessary for its “proper” consumption were expensive.

Objective 7

11. Which of the following was an important component of intercultural trading rituals between Europeans and Indians? a. Prayer b. Gift-giving c. Cigar smoking d. Tea drinking

Objective 8

12. The extended family was important to blacks for which of the following reasons? a. It was the focus of all religious teaching. b. The uncertainties of slave life increased the need for a large support group. c. It was the basic work unit on the plantation. d. It was the one aspect of black culture respected by whites.

88 Chapter 4


Objective 9

13. Which of the following distinguished urban life from rural life in eighteenth-century America? a. Work schedules in the city were governed by the sun rather than by the clock. b. The incidence of epidemic diseases was lower in the city. c. Urban dwellers had more contact with the world at large. d. The distance between the ordinary and the genteel was less noticeable in the city.

Objectives 10 and 11

14. The Regulator movements, the Stono Revolt, and the Hudson Valley land riots provide evidence that a. colonial assemblies had the means to control internal disorder. b. colonial assemblies did not live up to the ideal of protecting the rights of all the

people. c. there were few ethnic tensions in eighteenth-century colonial America. d. political rights were gradually being extended to more and more people.

Objective 11

15. Which of the following was a consequence of the First Great Awakening? a. It brought intellectualism into religion. b. It created a new sense of unity between England and the colonies. c. It led to the founding of an established church throughout the colonies. d. It fostered a willingness to question traditional beliefs.

Essay Questions

Objective 2

1. Discuss the characteristics of the Scotch-Irish, German, and Scottish immigrants to the American colonies in the eighteenth century. Why did they come? Where did they settle? How did their immigrant status affect their lives?

Objective 3

2. Examine the similarities and differences between the economic development of New England and that of the Lower South during the eighteenth century.

Objective 5

3. Discuss the ideas associated with the Enlightenment and the impact of those ideas on mid-eighteenth-century colonial society.

Objective 7

4. Discuss the importance of church attendance in the lives of eighteenth-century colonial Americans. In what way were colonial church services an expression of community values?

Objective 9

5. Examine gender roles in mid-eighteenth-century colonial America.



Objectives 2 and 8

6. Examine the characteristics of the lives of African Americans in mid-eighteenth-century colonial America.

Objective 9

7. Discuss the similarities and differences between rural life and city life in mid-eighteenth-century colonial America.

Objective 11

8. Defend the following thesis statement: The Stono Rebellion and the land riots in New Jersey, Vermont, and the Hudson Valley exposed the ethnic, racial, and economic tensions in early eighteenth-century colonial America.

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