NHC+1690-1763

National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox Becoming American: The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690-1763

I. GROWTH []

Framing Questions

• What factors fostered or hindered the growth of the British Atlantic colonies (that later became the United States of America) from 1690 to 1763? • How did the European colonists respond to the growing diversity among them—by religion, ethnicity, economic status, and country of origin?

1) The Colonies, 1690-1712 []

–Connecticut: Journal of a woman traveler, 1704 []

–Pennsylvania: Description by a German settler, 1700 []

–New York: Report of an English chaplain, 1695 []

–Virginia: Status report by a planter, 1705 []

–Carolina: Views of an official and a settler, 1699, 1712 []

Discussion questions

Overall, what impressions do you get from these readings of the British Atlantic colonies at the turn of the eighteenth century? What aspects of colonial life receive the most scrutiny from the writers? What positive aspects do they extol the most? What negative aspects concern them the most? Why would these positive and negative aspects be first-and-foremost to colonial settlers? What issues might you have expected in these readings that do not appear? Why might this be so? How do the writers describe colonists of other religions or from other European countries? How do they describe Native Americans? African slaves?

3) Coming to America []

Europeans’ journeys:

–Christopher Sauer from Germany, 1724 []

–Gottlieb Mittelberger from Germany, 1750 [2 separate documents] [] []

–John Harrower from Scotland, 1774 []

–Emigrate or not? Writings from Ireland, 1700s []

Africans’ journeys:

–Olaudah Equiano from Benin, ca. 1756 []

Discussion questions

How do the Europeans encourage or discourage emigration? What factors carry the most emotional force in their arguments? What aspects of the ocean journey are most distressing? What provides comfort or protection during the voyages? Based on the accounts of John Harrower and Gottlieb Mittelberger, describe the experience of an indentured servant from his or her departure from Europe to being "sold" in America. Argue for and against the proposition that a private letter provides more authentic and accurate evidence than a published work. If you were a European immigrant, would you have chosen to live permanently in America, like Christopher Sauer, or would you have returned to your home country, like Gottlieb Mittelberger and the anonymous Irish poet? Why?

4) New Settlers []

–Irish settlers in Pennsylvania: letter, journal, 1725, 1737-1742 []

–French Huguenots in Virginia: petition, reports, journal, 1700-1702 []

–German & Swiss settlers in North Carolina: letters and journals, 1710-1711, 1752-1753 []

–Scots-Irish in South Carolina: memoir, 1734 []

Discussion Questions:

Overall, what impressions do you get from these readings, maps, and drawings of new settlements in the British mainland colonies? What impressions do you get of the new settlers? of the founders and leaders? For what reasons are the new settlements and towns created? What factors contribute to the success or failure of the settlements? of the individual settlers? What factors that you would expect to influence the settlers' fate are not mentioned in the accounts and reports? Why might this be so?

5) Servants & Slaves []

Indentured servants from Europe:

–Pennsylvania: William Moraley, 1729-1734, memoir http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6229

–New York: Elizabeth Ashbridge, 1732-1735, memoir []

–Maryland: Elizabeth Sprigs, letter, 1756 []

–Middle colonies: John Grimes, statement, 1765 []

Discussion Questions:

What motivated young English men and women to become indentured servants? How did the servants resist harsh treatment by their masters? What were the consequences? Compare the experiences of William Moraley and John Grimes, both imprisoned for their conduct. What led to their different outcomes? Compare the experiences of Elizabeth Sprigs and Elizabeth Ashbridge. How did their relationships with their fathers influence their decisions in Europe and in the colonies? How did William Moraley and Elizabeth Ashbridge achieve freedom from their indentures? Why, do you think, did John Grimes not experience the same outcome as Moraley and Ashbridge?

9) The Colonies: 1720-1763 []

–Pennsylvania: An immigrant’s perspective, 1750 []

–Virginia: A visitor’s survey, 1724 []

Discussion Questions:

Overall, what impressions do you get from these readings of the British Atlantic colonies between 1720 and 1763? What positive aspects are extolled by colonists? newcomers? visitors? What negative aspects are of most concern to colonists? newcomers? visitors? What perspective would enslaved and indentured residents add to these appraisals? What issues might you have expected in these readings that do not appear? Why might this be so? How do the writers describe colonists of other religions or from other European countries? How does the goal of each writer affect his or her content? To what extent do the texts reveal a nascent sense of nationhood in the colonies? What texts reflect the colonies' resistance to unity? How has the colonies' relationship with Britain, and with each other, changed? To what extent have "they" become an "it"?

II. PEOPLES []

Framing Questions

• What varieties of personal experience did the circumstances of life in eighteenth-century British America make available to the people of the colonies—native-born or immigrant; free, bonded, or enslaved? • How did they respond to the racial, ethnic, religious, and economic diversity in British America? How did they define tolerance, peers, rights, and opportunity? • How did their responses to diversity shape colonial society as a whole? • By 1763, what would "American" mean to the diverse peoples of North America?

1) Europeans I: British []

–Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, selections on his young adult life, 1720s-1730s [] [] []

–William Moraley, selections on his young adult life, 1729-1734 [] []

Discussion questions

Compare Franklin and Moraley as young men in Philadelphia. How and why did they go there? What did they hope to achieve? How did they pursue their goals? As young men, what opportunities and constraints did they face in creating their adult lives? How did they respond? Compare the outcomes of their decisions to work in Philadelphia. (Take care not to consider Moraley's venture a failure because he returned to England.) How do their decisions reflect their identity (ethnic, racial, religious, economic) within the fluid and diverse society of British America? If multiplied many times, how would their decisions impact colonial society? Consider the statement of historian Alan Taylor: "As the colonial population became less English, it assumed a new ethnic and racial complexity, which increased the gap between freedom and slavery, privilege and prejudice, wealth and poverty, white and black." How do these readings illustrate Taylor's point?

2) Europeans II: The Continent []

–Non-British immigrants in British America: selections from letters, 1687-1758 []

Discussion questions

Overall, describe the experience of continental European immigrants in British America. How did it differ from the general experience of British immigrants? Why did the continental Europeans decide to emigrate to America? Were they welcomed in the colonies? How did they and the British colonists relate to each other? What did the continental Europeans tell their families back in Europe? How did their increasing presence affect colonial society? Why did the two German immigrants, Francis Daniel Pastorius and Gottlieb Mittelberger, have such opposite impressions of life in Pennsylvania? Why did the three groups of French immigrants have such different experiences in British America? How do the selections reveal the increasing religious as well as ethnic diversity in the British colonies?

3) Native Americans []

–Indians and colonists view each other: selections from journals, 1710-1760 []

–Samson Occom (Mohegan), on becoming a Christian minister (1730s/40s) []

Discussion questions

Overall, what impressions do Native Americans and Europeans express about each other in the readings? What factors lead to trust, respect, curiosity, awe, suspicion, fear, contempt, and animosity between Indians and colonists? How do Native Americans respond to the colonists' attempts to convert and "civilize" them? Why did some Native Americans convert to Christianity? Why did some colonists choose to live with Indians? What discrimination does Occom face as an Indian Christian minister? How does he interpret the discrimination?

5) Women (British ancestry) []

–Mary Cooper, Long Island, New York farmwife; diary, 1768-1773 []

–Eliza Lucas Pinckney, South Carolina plantation wife/manager; letters, 1739-1762 []

–Mary Jemison, captive and adoptee of Seneca Indians; narrative, 1758-1780s []

–Elizabeth Ashbridge, indentured servant and Quaker convert; narrative, 1730s []

–Jane Turell, Massachusetts daughter/wife/mother; poems and letters, ca. 1727-1735 []

Discussion Questions:

What opportunities, constraints, and hardships did these women face in their adult lives? How did they respond? If multiplied many times, how would their decisions impact colonial society? How do their relationships with male relatives differ from those with women relatives? How do they relate to these differences, as far as you can determine? Which woman would you want to interview? What questions would you ask? Why? How does your gender influence your choice of questions? Try to evaluate the validity of the published life narratives. How close do we get to each woman's private life and thoughts? For what purposes are the narratives written? What time span of each woman's life is covered? Was the work published in the woman's lifetime?

6) Diversity []

–On the colonies’ religious and ethnic diversity: commentary from letters, 1698-1769 []

Discussion Questions

How do colonists and visitors respond to the racial, ethnic, religious, and economic diversity in British America? Do the observers applaud or disparage diversity? What might explain the preponderance of commentary in these selections on the religious diversity of the colonies rather than their ethnic and national diversity?

III. ECONOMIES []

Framing Questions

• What were the local, regional, and global economies of pre-revolutionary America in the 1700s? • How did they shape the lives of individuals—free, bonded, and enslaved?

5) Planters []

–Diary of William Byrd II of Virginia, selections, 1709-1712 []

–Diary of Landon Carter of Virginia, selections, 1758 []

Discussion questions

Overall, what do you learn about the life of the Virginia gentleman-planter from the diaries of Byrd and Carter? What are the most striking similarities and differences in their diaries (form, tone, and content)? What are the most significant similarities and differences in their lives? families? plantations? What most concerns Byrd? Carter? What makes them feel happy or successful? How do they relate to their children? slaves? and, in Byrd's case, to his wife? How do they analyze and judge others? their society? themselves? What forms the basis of their analyses and judgments? Choose one statement from each diary that defines the man, in your opinion. Why did you select the phrases? What do you learn from the diaries about the production and trade of tobacco and other crops? Why, do you think, does Carter write so much about crop production, and Byrd does not? Compare the lives of gentlemen-planters and common farmers. How can one learn about the lives of the non-wealthy colonists who did not keep journals and write numerous letters?

IV. IDEAS []

2) Religion II: The Great Awakening []

–George Whitefield revivals described, 1739-1765 [use both] [] []

–Puritan clergymen debate revivalism, 1740-45 []

–Poems on revivalists (3), 1739-1771 []

Discussion Questions:

Overall, what impressions do you have of the Great Awakening from these readings? Has your perception of eighteenth-century revivalism changed from these readings? How? Summarize the main arguments for and against the revivalists' (1) religious message, (2) influence on believers, and (3) influence on church and society. Compare the three laymen's eyewitness accounts of Whitefield revivals (Cole, Equiano, and Franklin). What most impresses them about Whitefield's preaching? What troubles them? Why does Franklin support Whitefield's orphanage and publish his American sermons, even though he and Whitefield "had no religious connection"? What aspects of revivalism merit the praise of "New Lights" and the censure of "Old Lights"? To what extent were their disagreements theological? To what extent were they social and political? What most troubles Rev. Charles Chauncy and poet Sarah Parsons Moorhead about the excesses of revivalist preachers? To what extent did the Great Awakening stimulate notions of equality and liberty? (Historians warn us not to overdo this connection, but apply Prof. Ferguson's idea of the "assumption of freedom" and see where it takes you.)

3) Religion III: Slavery []

–Is slavery Christian?⎯ pamphlet debate, Boston, 1700-1706 []

–What about slavery is unChristian?⎯ Puritan, Anglican, and Quaker views, 1690-1760 []

Discussion Questions:

Of the Puritan, Anglican, and Quaker writers, which oppose slavery as an institution? What are their main arguments? Of those who do not condemn slavery itself, what aspects of slavery do they deem unChristian? What are their main arguments? How do the writers interpret these scriptural texts in their arguments? Which texts are emphasized by the opposing positions? Which texts are used by both to buttress their opinions? (See biblegateway.com for quick reference.)

OLD TESTAMENT NEW TESTAMENT Genesis 9:25-27 Matthew 7:12 Genesis 37 John 13:34 Exodus 21:16 Acts 17:26-28 Leviticus 25:39-46 Colossians 3:11 Psalm 115:15-16 Revelation 18:10-13 Jeremiah 34:8-10

Specifically, how do opposing writers interpret the "golden rule," the "curse of slavery," the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers, and the status of Jewish and Gentile slaves in the Old Testament? What non-scriptural religious arguments are presented for and against slavery? In addition to religious arguments, what social, legal, economic, and historical considerations are offered in these writings? What interpretations of equality, rights, and liberty do these religious writers bring to the discussion of slavery? What considerations do the Quaker writers add to the debate? In style, tone, and use of rhetorical devices, how do the tracts by Quakers differ from those by Puritan and Anglican writers? How did slaveholders respond to the debate over slavery? What were their primary religious and secular concerns, as apparent in these writings?

5) Communication []

Newspapers:

–Benjamin Franklin, editor, printer,The Pennsylvania Gazette, selections, 1730-1743 []

–Benjamin Franklin: editorials on the duties of a printer & the press, 1723-1740 []

Pamphlets and Broadsides:

–Four “pamphlet wars” on politics, theology, and public health, 1700-1755 Is Slavery Christian? [] Is the Governor Corrupt? [] Smallpox Vacination? [] –Printed broadsides, selections, 1700-1760 []

Discussion questions

Overall, what impressions do you get of the "public space" of discussion in colonial America of the 1700s? Compare the "public space" of discussion that developed through printing in the 1700s with that of the Internet in our time. How far can one extend the analogy of blogging to the pamphlet wars of the 1700s? What other analogies from cyberspace can be applied to the printing environment of colonial America? Select an event in prerevolutionary America of the 1700s that was widely discussed in print (an Indian war, a theological dispute, or a rebellion against an unpopular governor). Compare it with a similar event in the 1600s to analyze the influence of printing on the discussion and outcome of the eighteenth-century event. Compare the two colonial newspapers—the northern Pennsylvania Gazette and the southern Virginia Gazette. Are they more similar than different? To what factors would you ascribe the differences? Based on his editorials, what advice might Benjamin Franklin offer to newspaper editors and online bloggers today about their duties to the reading public? What advice would he offer to the readers? What would be a twenty-first-century equivalent to each of the broadsides in the 1750s collection? To what extent, if any, did the expansion of public printing in the 1730s and 1740s position the colonies for union? for rebellion?

V. AMERICAN []

Framing Questions

• How did the political relationship between the colonies and Great Britain change in this period? • How did individual colonies and colonists influence and respond to these changes? • To what extent were the colonies and colonists "becoming American"?

1) Empire []

–On the European competition for territory in North America: commentary, 1699-1763 []

–Ltr. Benjamin Jones to John Jones,1754, on the defense of the Pennsylvania frontier []

–Benjamin Franklin, The Interest of Great Britain Considered,1760, excerpts []

Discussion questions

Overall, what impressions do you get from the readings and the map about the European conflicts for territory in North America? about the consequences of the wars for the colonies, the colonists, and the Indians (friend and foe)? How do the British and colonists view differently the territorial competition and its consequences to the British empire? to the colonies? Why? What illustrations do you find of a "patriotism of empire" among the colonists (even when they oppose specific British policies)? What enhances the colonists' "patriotism of empire"? When? Compare the colonists attitudes before and after the French and Indian War (1754-1963). What diminishes the colonists' "patriotism of empire"? What takes its place? Does Britain care? Summarize the main arguments for and against the British taking possession of French Canada after a victory in the French and Indian War. Why would it become a debated issue?

4) Union? []

–On the likelihood of a colonial union: commentary, 1724-1766 []

–Benjamin Franklin, “Join, or Die,” cartoon/editorial, Pennsylvania Gazette, 1754 []

Discussion questions

What do you see as the core issue blocking a union of the colonies (not just in 1754)? power? economic interests? territory? festering discord? influence with Britain? Contrast the American and European perspectives on the "impossibility" of a union of the colonies. How do they perceive the colonies' situation differently? For the cartoon illustration, why did Franklin choose the image of a snake? What other animals, or objects, could he have chosen that would provide suitable metaphors? Why did he adopt such an insistent tone in his remarks accompanying the "Join, or Die" cartoon?