Awakenings & Enlightenments

pp. 91-98

Pattern of Religions

Variety in colonial America

Church of England in VA, MD, NY, NC, SC, GA

Increased variety in Christian denominations

Catholics & Jews remained religious minorities & suffered persecution

The Great Awakening

Concerns about declining piety & increased secularism

Increased religious fervor, 1730s-1740s

Esp. appealed to women & younger sons

Great Awakening

Evangelists

John & Charles Wesley, founders of Methodism

George Whitefield

Jonathan Edwards

Led to divisions between “New Light” revivalists & “Old Light” traditionalists

Enlightenment

Result of scientific & intellectual discoveries

In competition with the Great Awakening

Natural laws

Human reason Created progress & advanced knowledge

Scientific inquiry

Enlightenment

Increased emphasis on the importance of education, politics, & government

Encouraged one to look at oneself, rather than look to God for guidance

Education

Emphasis on education in colonies, but work often interfered

MA law in 1647 required every town to have a school

Apprentices learned from craftsmen in cities

Few went beyond primary years

Literacy rates in colonies were higher than in Europe

Education

Males had more educational opportunities

African slaves had few chances at schooling

Most Natives preferred to educate their children in their own way

First Colleges Tied to religion & training of preachers but had wide-

ranging curricula—

Logic, ethics, physics, geometry, astronomy, Latin, Greek, etc.

Harvard, 1636, MA

William & Mary, 1693, VA

Yale, 1701, CT

College of New Jersey (Princeton), 1746

King’s College (Columbia), 1754, NY

The Spread of Science

Increased interest in scientific knowledge

At colleges

By amateurs & scientific societies Ben Franklin—Kite experiment proved that

lightning & electricity were the same; invented the lightning rod

Cotton Mather—Inoculation against small pox

Concepts of Law & Politics

Royal government was far away, so colonies had a large measure of self-rule

Voted for colonial assemblies

Royal governors had limited powers

Colonies largely were independent of Parliament “little parliaments”

In comparison to England court procedures were simpler & punishments were different

Stocks, branding irons, whipping posts

Concepts of Law & Politics

Zenger Trial, 1734-1735

Criticizing gov’t & its officials OK if it is true

Increases freedom of press rights

Chapter 3 Key Qs:① How did patterns of family life & attitudes toward

women differ in the northern & southern colonies?

② Why did African slavery expand so rapidly in the late 17th century?

③ Who emigrated to North America in the 17th century, & why did they come?

④ How did religion shape & influence colonial society?

⑤ How & why did life in the English colonies diverge from life in England?