1. Diversity in Colonial America Social Unrest & New Ideas
Topics
Diversity in Colonial America
Social Unrest & New Ideas
Power Struggles

2. Diversity in Colonial America
“By European standards America was extraordinarily diverse”
Anglican, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Calvinist, Quaker, Shaker, Moravian, Baptist, Catholic, Animist, Pagan, etc. etc.
/5 African Descent
1790 – of white population 3/5 English, 1/5 Scottish or Irish, 1/5 Dutch, French, German, Swedish or other.
Coastal urban society vs. backwoods frontier farmers & traders; Homogenous New England vs. Heterogeneous Middle Colonies vs. Aristocratic Southern colonies; Slave South, ‘Free’ North, Wild West etc.
Slave, Indentured Servants, Sharecroppers, Yeoman Farmers, Mountain Men, Artisans, Traders, Fishermen, Plantation Managers, Plantation elite, Rich vs. Poor
Conservative vs. Liberal

3. Diversity in Colonial America
Diversity came as a result of the way America was settled. The earliest colonies were set up by:
Commercial companies
Religious organizations
Individual entrepreneurs
NOT Governments
By late 1600’s European governments started to exert more control over the growing colonies.
Spurred on by Mercantilist theory
“The main economic system used during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The main goal was to increase a nation's wealth by imposing government regulation concerning all of the nation's commercial interests. It was believed that national strength could be maximized by limiting imports via tariffs and maximizing exports.”

4. Diversity in Colonial America
From Self-Governing to Proprietary Colonies
European nations began to take a more active hand in the colonies by appointing royal governors and proprietors.
Proprietor: A person or persons granted royal charter over land in America.
Many proprietors had utopian or highly idealistic visions for “their’ colonies.
Examples
Roger Williams = Rhode Island: Complete religious toleration
George Calvert (Lord Baltimore) = Maryland: A haven for Catholics
Eight Noblemen = Carolina: A hierarchical manorial society with a hereditary nobility (neo-feudal structure)
James Oglethorpe = Georgia: A haven for white debtors and therefore anti-slavery.
William Penn = Pennsylvania: A haven for Quakers based on Quaker principles.

5. Diversity in Colonial America
Mercantilism versus Pragmatism
Although European governments desired profit above all else, the need to ensure a steady supply of colonists required them to promise many things including:
Economic opportunity
Land
Work
Freedom of Religion
Self-Government
Protection

6. Mostly English, some Scottish &
Irish.
Generally Puritan
Lumbermen, Fishermen, Small
Farmers, Trade!
Little Slavery

7. The most ethnically diverse
of the colonies
New York originally colonized
by the Dutch and named New
Amsterdam
Large percentage of German,
Swedish, Dutch, Scottish and
Irish

8. Pennsylvania Founded by William Penn (Penn’s Wood’s)
Son of High-Ranking British Naval Officer
Became a Quaker in late adolescence
Given Pennsylvania by King Charles II in lieu of $80,000 debt owed his father
Penn viewed this as his “Holy Experiment”
A chance to create a haven for Quakers and a colony based on Quaker beliefs.
Very liberal government
Religious liberty
Pacifism and friendly relations with Native Americans (no major Indian wars)
Eventually failed to live up to Penn’s dreams.

9. The Quakers
One of many “radical and millenarian religious groups” that emerged as a response to the English Civil Wars of the mid 1600’s.
Others:
Diggers & Levelers – rejected private property & abolish class structure.
Ranters – religious worship through hedonism or bodily pleasure (i.e. drinking, eating, smoking, sex, etc.)
Against all forms of hierarchy and authoritarianism (liberal, anarchist tendencies)
Refused to “doff hats” & swear oaths.
Gender equality
Pacifist
Salvation available to all.

10. STUDENT OBJECTIVES
After viewing the program students should be able to:
1. List some of the main religious, political, and economic motives the free immigrants from Europe had for coming to the Middle Colonies and explain the difficulties they encountered in America.
2. Compare and contrast how each of the Middle
Colonies was established and governed.
3. Describe Quaker beliefs and identify how they caused
political troubles in both Europe and America.

11. Middle Colonies Video Quiz
Directions: Answer the following statements either true or false.
1. True or False? New Netherland was founded a long time before Pennsylvania.
2. True or False? England conquered New Netherland without bloodshed.
3. True or False? The violent beliefs of the Quakers caused them to be unpopular in England.
4. True or False? The colony of New Jersey was originally part of New York.

12. Middle Colonies Video Quiz
5. True or False? Pennsylvania and New Jersey were proprietorship colonies.
6. True or False? William Penn was a Puritan.
7. True or False? Patroons were poor Dutch settlers.
8. True or False? Sweden once had a colony in Delaware.
9. True or False? Philadelphia grew to be the biggest city in the English colonies.
10. True or False? The colony of Delaware was named for a Virginia governor.

15. South Carolina Envisioned a neo-feudal society
Created the “Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina” written by John Locke
Called for a 3-tiered nobility to serve in a Council of Lords
Most closely resembled the slaveholding Caribbean colonies
1708 – Slaves outnumbered whites
1730 – 2x as many slaves as free whites
1/3 of slaves were Indians!

16. Video Discussion
1. List some of the main religious, political, and economic
motives that free immigrants from Europe experienced
when coming to the Southern Colonies.
2. Describe the opportunities for European immigrants
and indentured servants in the Southern Colonies, and
explain the difficulties they encountered.
3. Describe the reasons for the importation of African
slaves into the Southern Colonies.
4. Identify the problems that developed between the
Native Americans and English settlers in the Southern
Colonies.
5. Compare and contrast how each southern colony was
established and governed.

17. Part II – Social Unrest
New England: Quakers and other non-Puritans punished and maltreated.
South: 1676 Bacon’s Rebellion, 1739 Stono’s Slave Rebellion
The First Great Awakening
Splintering of American Protestantism
Old Lights vs. New Lights
Evangelical and Highly Democratic
Occurred throughout America – transcended regional boundaries

18. Part III – Power Struggles
Two Parallel Struggles
Imperial struggle between France and Britain
Indigenous struggle between Algonquin groups vs. Iroquois Confederacy
Most famous was the Seven Years War (a.k.a. The French and Indian War)
Unlike previous conflicts that began in Europe this war began in the colonies over competition for control of the Ohio River Valley.
The eventual French defeat left many Native American groups without allies and were therefore susceptible to British intrusions onto their land.
Start Last of the Mohicans