Growth and Crisis in Colonial Society 1720 1765

Growth and Crisis in Colonial Society 1720 -1765 Chapter 4

Key Questions/Ideas • What • How • What

Colonial Society • ______ m people in colonies – 0. 5 m slaves • Most populous colonies in 1775 – – – • About _____% of people lived in rural areas and farmed

A Melting Pot? 1775 • of colonists were of English descent

A Melting Pot? Scots-Irish attacking Indians, Lancaster, PA • Scots-Irish were _____% – They were experienced colonists and anti-British – Chain of settlements lay scattered along the "great wagon road" • The eastern Appalachian foothills from PA to GA – Led the armed march of the in 1764 in Philadelphia • protesting the Quaker oligarchy's lenient policy toward the Indians – Led the in NC • An insurrection against eastern domination of the colony's affairs

A Melting Pot? • About % – Other European groups- French Huguenots, Welsh, Dutch, Swedes, Jews, Irish, Swiss, and Scots Highlanders • Colonial America was a melting pot?

Ethnic Groups in Eighteenth. Century British North America The Ancestry of the British Colonial Population

The Structure of Colonial Society • By mid 1700 s, the richest % of Bostonians and Philadelphians owned of the taxable wealth in their cities • In all the colonies the ranks of the lower classes were further swelled by the continuing stream of immigrants – Indentured servants • Black slaves were the lowest in society

The Structure of Colonial Society

Distribution of Assessed Taxable Wealth in Eighteenth-Century Chester County

Professions • Most honored profession was the – Most physicians were poorly trained and not highly esteemed • Bleeding was common cure • The first medical school came in 1765 – Epidemics were a constant nightmare • Powdered dried toad was a favorite prescription for smallpox which affected 1 in 5 • A crude form of inoculation was introduced in 1721

Workaday America • Agriculture was the leading industry, involving about 90% of the people – New England – Middle Colonies “ – South farming ” = grain • Fishing was not nearly as prevalent as agriculture, but it was rewarding – All colonies, but especially in New England • Trade was popular in New England, NY, and PA • Manufacturing in the colonies was of only secondary importance – Lumbering was most important manufacturing activity

Workaday America • By 1730 s, Americans demanded more and more British products Britain had reached for American imports – This trade imbalance prompted the Americans to look foreign markets to get money to pay for British products • Particularly the West Indies • 1733 – Passed by Parliament to limit trade with French West Indies • Colonists got around this by smuggling Parliament act of

Horsepower and Sailpower • Roads in the colonies were terrible • Ben Franklin 9 days to get from Boston to Philadelphia • 29 days for Declaration of Independence news to reach Charleston from Philadelphia • Towns clustered around navigable water sources • (An intercolonial postal system was established by the mid-1700 s)