Chapter 5: Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution, 1700 1775 1

Chapter 5: Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution, 1700–1775 1

CHAPTER5

Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution, 1700–1775

AP® Focus

Focus on Historical Period:

Period 2 (1607–1754)

Period 3 (1754–1800)

Focus on Historical Thinking:

Interpretation

Historical Argumentation
Comparison
Synthesis

Appropriate Use of Relevant Historical Evidence

Focus on Thematic Learning Objectives:

America in the World (WOR): Students demonstrate understanding of the relationship among events in North America and the United States and contemporary events in the rest of the world. In particular, students can explain how imperial competition and the exchange of commodities across both sides of the Atlantic Ocean influenced the origins and patterns of development of North American societies in the colonial period (WOR-1) and explain how the exchange of ideas among different parts of the “Atlantic World” shaped belief systems and independence movements from the early nineteenth century (WOR-2).
Identity (ID): Students demonstrate how and why debates over national identity changed over time. In particular, students can analyze how competing conceptions of national identity were expressed in the development of political institutions and cultural values from the late colonial through the antebellum periods (ID-1).
Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture (CUL): Students demonstrate how and why changes in moral, philosophical, and cultural values affected U.S. history. In particular, students can analyze how changing religious ideals, Enlightenment beliefs, and republican thought shaped the politics, culture, and society of the colonial era through the early Republic (CUL-4).

Focus on Key Concepts:

Differences in imperial goals, cultures, and the North American environments that different empires confronted led Europeans to develop diverse patterns of colonization (Key Concept 2.1).
The increasing political, economic, and cultural exchanges within the “Atlantic World” had a profound impact on the development of colonial societies in North America (Key Concept 2.3).
In the late eighteenth century, new experiments with democratic ideas and republican forms of government as well as other new religious, economic, and cultural ideas challenged traditional imperial systems across the “Atlantic World” (Key Concept 3.2).
Migration within North America, cooperative interaction, and competition for resources raised questions about boundaries and policies, intensified conflicts among peoples and nations, and led to contests over the creation of a multiethnic, multiracial national identity (Key Concept 3.3).

Focus on Essential Historical Details from Concept Outline:

Patterns of British colonization
British imperial system
“Atlantic World”
Anglicization
Protestant evangelicalism
Trans-Atlantic print culture

chapter summary

By 1775, the 13American colonies east of the Appalachians were inhabited by a burgeoning population of 2million whites and half a million blacks. The white population was increasingly a melting pot of diverse ethnic groups, including Germans and the Scots-Irish.

Compared with Europe, America was a land of equality and opportunity (for whites), but relative to the seventeenth-century colonies, there was a rising economic hierarchy and increasing social complexity. Ninety percent of Americans remained agriculturalists. But a growing class of wealthy planters and merchants appeared at the top of the social pyramid, in contrast with slaves and “jayle birds” from England, who formed a visible lower class.

By the early eighteenth century, the established New England Congregational Church was losing religious fervor. The Great Awakening, sparked by fiery preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, spread a new style of emotional worship that revived religious zeal. Colonial education and culture were generally undistinguished, although science and journalism displayed some vigor. Politics was everywhere an important activity, as representative colonial assemblies battled on equal terms with politically appointed governors from England.

developing the AP® U.S. History CurriculUM Framework: suggested activities And discussion topics

“Developing Course Themes with Chapter Subheadings.” Since this chapter addresses a variety of diverse topics throughout the eighteenth century, the teacher can use this activity to help students preview the chapter, connect its content to the course themes, reinforce the historical thinking skill of appropriate use of historical evidence. For homework prior to the beginning of class, the teacher will have the students link each of chapter subheadings to one of the seven course themes and cite at least two relevant examples of historical evidence from each subheading to support their choice. Since there are 13 subheadings in the chapter, the teacher will lead a large group discussion about potential connections between the first subheading (“Conquest by the Cradle” AmericanPageant,p. 78) and the course themes. The teacher will then divide the class into six groups and assign each group two subheadings. The groups will work together to form a consensus about how the specific information in their subheading connects to and develops a course theme. Near the end of the period, the groups will present their findings to the class and the teacher will lead a large group discussion about how the students can use the information in this chapter to develop course themes. (Relationship to Key Concepts and Learning Objectives will vary based on student responses.)
“The Political Economy and Culture of ‘the Atlantic World.’”Teachers can use this activity to help students develop the historical thinking skill of synthesis and the course themes of America in the World and Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture. The teacher labels index cards with either “Political Economy” or “Culture” for each student in the class (the cards are evenly divided between the two topics). Students randomly draw index cards in order to determine which topic they will research. Depending on the size of the class, the teacher will allow groups two to four students with the same topic to work together to complete the activity. The student groups will use the information in the chapter and other relevant print and electronic resources to create a slide show that explains the evolution of the political economy or culture in the eighteenth century “Atlantic World.” Each group will present its findings to the class and the teacher will use the presentations as a basis for a large group discussion about the impact of political, economic, and cultural exchanges in the “Atlantic World” on the development of the British colonies (Key Concept 2.3.I.A and Learning Objectives WOR-2 and CUL-4).
“The Identity Crisis Game: Anglicization.”The teacher can use this activity to reinforce the historical thinking skills of interpretation, historical argumentation, and appropriate use of historical evidence as well as develop the course themes of Identity,Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture, and America in the World. The teacher will provide a brief lecture that introduces the students to the concept of Anglicization. Students will be divided into five groups (autonomous political communities based on English models, commercial ties and legal structures, emergence of a trans-Atlantic print culture, Protestant evangelism and religious toleration, and spread of European Enlightenment ideas). Each group will be responsible for gathering historical evidence from the chapter and other relevant print and electronic resources that supports how their topic promoted Anglicization in the British colonies. The class will then be re-grouped using the jigsaw method (i.e., the new groups will include at least one student from each of the original groups so all of the new groups have an expert on each of the topics). These groups compete to develop the most compelling historical argument about how the process of Anglicization impacted the development of the British colonies in the eighteenth century. The teacher evaluates the responses from the various groups and decides which group wins the game(Key Concept 2.3.I.B and Learning Objectives CUL-4 and WOR-2).
“Slave Communities: Africans in America or AfricanAmericans?” Teachers can use this activity to reinforce the historical thinking skills of patterns of continuity and change over time, historical argumentation, and appropriate use of relevant historical evidence as they continue to develop the theme of Identity. For homework the night before the teacher plans to begin this activity, the students should read “Africans in America” and “Makers of America: From African to African American” (AmericanPageant,pp. 80–83) and develop a concise thesis that accounts for the development of a distinctive slave culture in the British colonies. During class the following day, the teacher will divide the class into small groups and have the students share their theses with each other. Each group will develop a consensus thesis and write it on the board. The entire class will use the group theses to develop a consensus thesis and test its validity using specific evidence from the chapter and other relevant print and electronic resources (Key Concept 2.1.II.C/D and Learning Objective ID-4).
“Expanding Varying Viewpoints Part I: Using Historical Evidence to Test an Interpretation.” This activity will afford teachers the opportunity to help students apply the historical thinking skills of historical argumentation, interpretation, and appropriate use of historical evidence and the themes of Identity and America in the World. After the students read the following excerpt, the teacher will have them work with a partner to develop an argument that uses specific historical evidence from the chapter to support, modify, or refute James Henretta’s interpretation of colonial society. The student partnerships will share their arguments with the class and the teacher will moderate a discussion about the similarities and differences of the various arguments (Key Concepts 2.3.II.A and Learning Objectives ID-1 and WOR-1).

James Henretta, The Evolution of American Society, 1700–1815: An Interdisciplinary Analysis (New York: D.C. Heath, 1973, p. 112).

“Common allegiance to the British Crown produced similarities in language, culture, and political institutions in the various American colonies but it could not prevent (or conceal) their fundamental divergences in social development. The economic base and the composition of the population varied from one region to another; and so also did the value systems, behavior patterns, and character structures of their inhabitants. Within each area, however, the fragments, or facets, of social life formed a coherent and interdependent whole. Each of these social systems had a number of functionally critical qualities; and these can be isolated, as a set of abstractions, for comparison and contrast.”

“Expanding Varying Viewpoints and AP Exam Skills Part II: Short Answer Questions.” The teacher can use the following prompt to reinforce the historical thinking skills of historical argumentation and interpretation and help students continue to develop strategies to respond to short answer questions. Prior to the administration of this quiz, the teacher will have the students read “Varying Viewpoints: Colonial America: Communities of Conflict or Consensus?” (AmericanPageant,pp. 98–99) and lead a class discussion about the different interpretations described in the passage. The teacher should limit the student responses to the space available within a 7″× 8″ lined sheet of paper. The teacher will allow the students to have approximately 12 ½ minutes to respond to the following prompt. After the student responses are scored, the teacher may want to lead a class discussion about the specific evidence from the chapter that supports, modifies, or refutes the excerpts from the two interpretations (Key Concepts 2.3.II.C and 3.2.I.A and Learning Objectives ID-1, WOR-2, and CUL-4).

Richard Bushman, From Puritan to Yankee (1967).

“The law and authority embodied in governing institutions gave way under the impact first of economic ambitions and later of the religious impulses of the Great Awakening . . . As, in the expanding eighteenth century, merchants and farmers felt free to pursue wealth with an avidity dangerously close to avarice, the energies released exerted irresistible pressures against traditional bounds. When the Great Awakening added its measure of opposition, the old institutions began to crumble.”

Gary Nash, The Urban Crucible (1979).

“What has led early American historians to avoid questions about class formation and the development of lower-class political consciousness is not only an aversion to Marxist conceptualizations of history but also the myth that class relations did not matter in early America because there were no classes. . . . By the end of the Seven Years’ War, poverty on a scale that urban leaders found appalling had appeared in New York and Philadelphia. Many urban Americans, living amidst historical forces that were transforming the social landscape, came to perceive antagonistic divisions based on economic and social position; . . . they began to struggle around these conflicting interests; and through these struggles they developed a consciousness of class.”

Using the excerpts, answer parts a, b, and c.

a)Briefly explain ONE major difference between Bushman and Nash’s historical interpretation of British colonial America.

b)Briefly explain how ONE development from the period 1700 to 1775 not directly mentioned in the excerpts supports Bushman’s argument.

c)Briefly explain how ONE development from the period 1700 to 1775 not directly mentioned in the excerpts supports Nash’s argument.