Life in the Colonies
Social Classes! Jigga What? Colonial society enjoyed more freedom and more social equality. Colonial society did have social classes, though. The highest class was called the Gentry. These people were the wealthiest in the colony. Maybe a royal official or a wealthy planter. The next level was the middle class. These were your everyday townspeople. The lowest included farmhands, indentured servants, and slaves. Indentured servants signed contracts to work for 4-7 years, and after their service was complete, they were given clothes, tools, and 50 acres of land. This was a way for men and women in England to get over to the new world even if they didn’t have enough money. Only three more years!
Some African Traditions Survive In the colonies, many African traditions survived the middle passage. Many named their children traditional African names. Some spoke Gullah, a mixture of African languages and English. Many Africans were allowed by their masters to perform rituals from their native Africa. Africans had not totally lost their identity.
The Great Awakening In the 1730’s and 1740’s, a religious movement known as the Great Awakening spread through the colonies. Preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield helped to fire people up by preaching on the horror that awaited them in hell if colonists did not turn from their evil ways With newly forming churches, and preachers who had no formal teaching, the Great Awakening helped to spark both a spirit of religious tolerance and a spirit of Independence.
Education Takes Root Education began to take root in the Colonies. Massachusetts became the first colony to make laws creating a public school system. The Middle and Southern colonies had private schools and tutors, put you had to pay to go to those schools. As a rule, Slaves received no education. Many boys Apprenticed instead of going to school. When you were an apprentice, you worked for no pay, learning a trade like glassmaking or blacksmithing. The tradesman gave the apprentice food, clothes, and in addition to teaching him the trade taught him how to read and write.
The Enlightenment In the 1600’s and 1700’s, European scientists began to use reason and logic instead of superstition to understand the world. These people studied people and discovered new scientific laws. This was known as the Enlightenment. The enlightenment quickly spread to the 13 Colonies. Benjamin Franklin is the perfect example of an enlightenment thinker. He studied books, and thought of new ways to think about the world. Through this thinking, he made new inventions like the lightning rod, and bifocals. He is also credited for coming up with public libraries and having fire stations in town.
More Freedom Anyone? Newspapers began to be published in every colony. A man named John Zenger was sued by the governor of New York for libel (printing stories that damage a person’s reputation that are not true). Zenger won the case when his lawyer argued that since the stories were true, Zenger had a right to print them. This was an important baby stem toward freedom of the press. By the mid 1700’s, the colonists were developing their own identity that was not English, it was distinctly different. It was American.