James A.
Henretta
Eric Hinderaker
Rebecca Edwards
Robert O. Self
America’s History
Eighth Edition
America: A Concise History
Sixth Edition
CHAPTER 4
Growth, Diversity, and Conflict
1720–1763
Copyright © 2014 by Bedford/St. Martin’s
Growth, Diversity, and Conflict
1720–1763
Do Now:
• What ideas, institutions, and responsibilities
shaped New England farm women’s lives?
– Writing in your notes, answer the question based
on what you have read last night.
– Identify the Historical Thinking Skill(s) and the
Historical Theme(s) within the question.
– You have 5 minuets.
I. New England’s Freehold Society
A. Farm Families: Women in the Household Economy
1. Husband the head of the household – In The Well-Ordered Family
(1712), Reverend Benjamin Wadsworth of Boston told women that it was their duty “to love and reverence” their
husbands; girls learned from their mothers to be subordinate to their fathers; courts prosecuted more women
than men for the crime of fornication.
2. Wife as the “helpmate” – Women assumed the role of dutiful helpmates; they
tended gardens, spun thread and yard from flax and wool, wove cloth, knitted sweaters and stockings, made
candles and soap, churned milk into butter, fermented malt for beer, preserved meats, and mastered dozens of
.
other household tasks
3. Motherhood – Most women married in their early twenties and had given birth six or seven
times by their early forties. Fear of death during childbirth and the importance of baptism for the new baby were
believed to be a reason many Puritan women clung to the church even when fewer men were attending.
4. Restrictions – No equality for women within the church; most women accepted such
restrictions as social norms.
I. New England’s Freehold Society
B. Farm Property: Inheritance
1. Family authority – Emigrants wanted farms to provide for them and their grown children;
landless children could be placed as indentured servants until age 18 or 21; landless men hoped to climb from
laborer to tenant to freeholder.
2. Children of wealthy parents – Marriage portion was given when children of
well-to-do farmers were in their early twenties; consisted of land, livestock, or farm equipment; enabled parents
to choose their children’s spouses because economic concerns outweighed love in the long-term interests of the
extended family.
3. Marriage – Bride gave her husband legal ownership of her property; she received a dower right
to use but not sell one-third of the property if her husband died; this portion went to her children if she died or
remarried.
4. Father’s duty – Was to provide an inheritance for his children or lose status in the
community. Some men moved their families to the frontier where land was cheap and abundant; on the frontier,
these men created communities of independent property owners.
I. New England’s Freehold Society
C. Freehold Society in Crisis
1. Population increase – Rapid natural increase doubled New England’s population
each generation from 100,000 people in Puritan colonies in 1700 to nearly 400,000 in 1750; resulted in the
division and subdivision of family farms to 50 acres or less.
2. Changes in family life – Parents could now only provide one child with an
inheritance of land, which resulted in parents having less control over their children; increase in premarital
sex and marriages arranged quickly due to pregnancy. Couples tried to limit family size or moved their new
families into the frontiers of central Massachusetts, western Connecticut, and New Hampshire and Vermont.
Wheat and barley were replaced with corn because it could feed people and provide nourishment for cattle
and pigs.
3. “Household mode of production” – System of community exchange in
which families swapped labor and goods; participants recorded debits and credits and “balanced” their
accounts by exchanging only small amounts of currency, which was in short supply.
II. Diversity in the Middle Colonies Pg. 120
Do Now:
Get your map of the middle colonies out; answer the
following question:
How did rapid immigration and economic growth
trigger conflict in the Middle colonies?
– Writing in your notes, answer the question based
on what you have read last night.
– Identify the Historical Thinking Skill(s) and the
Historical Theme(s) within the question.
– You have 5 minuets.
II. Diversity in the Middle Colonies Pg. 120
A. Economic Growth, Opportunity, and Conflict
1. Tenancy in New York - To attract migrants to an area inhabited largely by
wealthy Dutch and English families, landowners granted long leases and the rights to sell improvements
(houses, barns) to subsequent tenants; population grew slowly because migrants desired to own land; new
tools such as the cradle scythe (1750s) increased the amount of grain produced but not enough to enable quick
profits and land ownership.
2. Conflict in the Quaker Colonies - Early Quakers had settled in
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, building simple homes and getting by with little. By the 1760s, wealthy
landowners in eastern Pennsylvania were using slaves and poor immigrants on their farms; a new class of
“agricultural capitalists” was forming out of men who were landlords, speculators, storekeepers, and large-scale
farmers and whose presence marked the growing divisions between the social classes in the region.
II. Diversity in the Middle Colonies
B. Cultural Diversity
1. Religious and ethnic diversity - The city of Philadelphia had more
than 12 religious denominations present in 1748; migrants married within their ethnic groups (though Huguenots
were a major exception); large population of wealthy Quakers helped to shape the culture of Pennsylvania and
western New Jersey; pacifists purchased land from Native Americans rather than seizing it; advocated the
abolition of slavery.
2. The German Influx - More than 100,000 German migrants settled in the
Pennsylvania/western New Jersey region in the 17th and 18th centuries; settled in Lutheran and Reformed
communities; discouraged from marrying outside of their ethnicity; advocated married women having the legal
right to hold property and write wills, as they did in Germany.
3. Scots-Irish Settlers - Largest group of migrants came from Ireland, numbering
about 115,000. Some were Irish and Catholic, but most were Scots and Presbyterians who had faced religious
and economic repression by the English; settled in Pennsylvania region for religious tolerance; retained cultural
practices.
II. Diversity in the Middle Colonies
C. Religion and Politics
1. Religious diversity - Orthodox church officials of several religions brought
intolerance to the colonies. In America, religious groups enforced acceptable behavior through communal self-
discipline. Quaker marriage rules maintained that couples have land and livestock; wealthy Quakers
encouraged marriage among their children, while the poor remained single or married later in life. As Quaker
population declined by 1750s, religious groups seeking increased political power (Lutherans and Baptists) had
bitter conflicts raging among them.
III. Commerce, Culture, and Identity
Do Now:
Get your map of the middle colonies out; answer the
following question:
In what ways was the spread of ideas during the
Enlightenment and the Great Awakening similar,
and how did it differ?
– Writing in your notes, answer the question based
on what you have read last night.
– Identify the Historical Thinking Skill(s) and the
Historical Theme(s) within the question.
– You have 5 minutes.
III. Commerce, Culture, and Identity
A. Transportation and the Print Revolution
1. Improved transportation networks – From 1700 to 1750,
colonies transformed by dramatic increases in shipping in the north Atlantic and construction of new networks
of roads; transportation networks carried people, merchandise, information, and printed matter.
2. Print revolution – In 1695, British government surrendered the power to censor
all printed materials; printers in England responded with a flood of newspapers, pamphlets, handbills,
advertisements, scientific treatises, novels, and other printed matter; publications crossed the Atlantic and
colonies began to create their own new publications, which facilitated the development of colonial identity and
solidarity.
III. Commerce, Culture, and Identity
B. The Enlightenment in America
1. The European Enlightenment
2. John Locke
3. Franklin’s Contributions
III. Commerce, Culture, and Identity
C. American Pietism and the Great Awakening
1. Pietism – An evangelical Christian movement that stressed a personal relationship with God;
attracted farmers and urban laborers; appealed to “believers hearts rather than their minds.”
2. New England Revivalism– In the 1730s, Jonathan Edwards in the Connecticut
River Valley preached the helplessness of men and women; his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
(1741), spoke of “Hell’s wide gaping mouth” and his promotion of conversions; successfully incited religious
fervor in the region.
3. Whitefield’s Great Awakening – Spoke from memory about the power of
God and the need to seek salvation; followers were called “New Lights” for their claim that they felt a new light in
them after hearing Whitefield preach.
III. Commerce, Culture, and Identity
D. Religious Upheaval in the North
1. Old Lights and New Lights – Old Lights (conservative ministers)
condemned the crying and fainting of New Lights in revival meetings and the New Light practice of women
speaking in public; New Lights withheld tax payments from Old Light churches; new enthusiasm for religion led
to the founding of schools for ministers (Princeton, Columbia, Brown, and Rutgers); people felt new power to be
part of the religious experience.
2. Challenges to authority – Great Awakening challenged authority of all
ministers; gave new sense of authority to the many who felt more justified in expressing religious and political
opinions.
III. Commerce, Culture, and Identity
E. Social and Religious Conflict in the South
1. The Presbyterian Revival – New Lights challenged the Church of
England in the South; ritual displays of wealth became less meaningful as competition existed between the
churches; Virginia governor denounced New Lights as offering “false teachings.”
2. The Baptist Insurgency – In the 1760s, thousands of white farmers
converted to Baptist (adult baptism); Whitefield encouraged slaveholders to bring the enslaved to church, but
many whites opposed; free blacks in Virginia embraced the church’s teachings; Baptist churches continued to
grow in spite of these pressures; ministers spread teachings among slaves and began to shrink the cultural
divide between white and black.
IV. The Midcentury Challenge: War,
Trade, and Social Conflict, 1750–1763
(Key events: British war against French in America, surge in trade increased American debt to British, and an increase in
westward migration led to violence and rebellion.)
A. The French and Indian War
1. Conflict in the Ohio Valley – In the 1750s, French authorities,
alarmed by British inroads into Ohio, build a string of defensive forts; British Governor Dinwiddie dispatched
military expedition led by George Washington to reassert British claims; result was an international incident that
.
prompted Virginian and British expansionists to demand war
2. The Albany Congress – In June 1754, delegates from British colonies met
in Albany to discuss relations with the Iroquois and French expansion; Franklin proposed a “Plan of Union” with a
continental assembly to manage trade, Indian policy, and defense in the western territories to counter French
expansion; Franklin’s effort failed; war between France and England seemed imminent.
3. The War Hawks Win – Rising British statesman William Pitt and Lord Halifax
in England wanted a war in North America with the French; fighting began June 1755; expanded to Europe by
1756 with Britain vowing to destroy France’s ability to compete economically.
IV. The Midcentury Challenge: War,
Trade, and Social Conflict, 1750–1763
(Key events: British war against French in America, surge in trade increases American debt to British, and an increase in
westward migration leads to violence and rebellion.)
B. The Great War for Empire
1. The Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) – Pitt directed the
war successfully from England, controlling both the commercial and military strategies; British had stunning
successes and acquired Cuba and the Philippines from Spain, French Senegal, Martinique and Guadeloupe
(eventually returned to France). The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ending the war gave Britain control of over half of
North America, including French Canada.
2. Pontiac’s Rebellion – British acquisitions in North America frightened the
Native American population, who believed that they would lose more territory to Anglo-American migrants;
inspired by a Delaware prophet (Neolin), the Ottawa chief Pontiac, with a group of loosely affiliated tribes,
launched an uprising against the British. Though Pontiac’s rebellion was put down, the Proclamation of 1763
prohibited white settlement west of the Appalachians; this edict was largely ignored by colonists.
IV. The Midcentury Challenge: War,
Trade, and Social Conflict, 1750–1763
C. British Industrial Growth and the Consumer
Revolution
1. Resources – Since 1700, Britain had become the dominant commercial power in the
Atlantic and Indian oceans. By 1750, it was also becoming the first nation to use manufacturing technology and
work discipline to expand output. Mechanical power was key to Britain’s Industrial Revolution; artisans designed
and built water mills and steam engines that powered a wide array of machines: lathes for shaping wood, jennies
and looms for spinning and weaving textiles, and hammers for iron forging.
2. American consumers – Soon Americans were purchasing 30 percent of all
British exports. To pay for British manufactures, mainland colonists exported tobacco, rice, indigo, and wheat;
New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia supplied wheat to Europeans; profits from exports enabled
colonists to buy goods from England. Americans became more dependent on overseas credit and markets.
IV. The Midcentury Challenge: War,
Trade, and Social Conflict, 1750–1763
D. The Struggle for Land in the East
1. Land disputes – Rising population of colonies meant more land needed; disputes
over land and tenant uprisings broke out in Hudson River Valley of New York, in New Jersey, and in some
southern colonies. Courts favored wealthy landowners; increasingly, the landless moved west to the Appalachian
Mountains region.
IV. The Midcentury Challenge: War,
Trade, and Social Conflict, 1750–1763
E. Western Rebels and Regulators
(Movement of landless into the west meant clashes over Indian policies, political representation, and debts.)
1. The South Carolina Regulators – During Seven Years’ War,
Anglo-American and Scottish settlers in South Carolina clashed with Cherokee; so-called Regulators were
vigilante landowners who demanded that South Carolina’s eastern-controlled government provide western
districts with more courts, fairer taxation, and greater representation in the assembly for those who had settled
the region. The South Carolina Regulators were unsuccessful in gaining power from the eastern elite.
2. Civil Strife in North Carolina – 1766 saw a significant economic
crisis in North Carolina as tobacco prices fell. To avoid losing their land, mobs of farmers (also called
“Regulators”) closed the courts and intimidated judges; the Regulators proposed a series of reforms, including
legislation to lower their legal fees and taxes. In May 1771, North Carolina’s royal governor sought to suppress
the rebellion; violence ensued, ending with thirty men dead and seven Regulator leaders executed.