The American Pageant Chapter Five Outline

Awakening emphasized direct emotive spirituality, undermining older clergy whos authority = education + erudition

Encouraged fresh missionary work, working with Indians and black slaves, who attended the revivals

Resulted in foundation of Princeton, Brown, Rutgers, and Dartmouth

Broke down sectional boundaries, and denominational lines, causing a sense of unity among the American people

Schools and Colleges

1. Education

   • English idea said education only for aristocrats

   • Education only for males, and for leadership, not citizenship, colonists slowly broke these restrictions

   • Puritan NE most interested in education so that followers could read the bible

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     Primary goal of clergy, make good Christians, rather than good citizens

   • NE’ers established primary/2ndary schools

   • South handicapped to establish effective school system. Wealthy families looked for private tutors

   • School on mainly religion + Latin/Greek, not experiment and reason

   • Independence of thinking discouraged

   • College education at first in NE was to prepare men for ministry

   • Especially in south, families sent boys to elite English institutions for real education

   • 9 colleges established during colonial era

   • Curriculum = dead languages + theology, though 1750 switched to modern languages/subjects

   • Franklin launched University of Pennsylvania, first American college free from denominational control

A Provincial Culture

1. Art and Culture

   • John Trumbull(1756-1843)

     • Forced to travel to London to pursue ambitions

   • Other artists such as Wilson Peale, Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley all also had to go to England to succeed in their ambition to become famous.

   • Copley buried in London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral

   • Architecture brought from Old World and modified to meet climate/religion

     • Even log cabin brought from Sweden

   • Phillis Wheatley slave girl from Boston, who at 20 years old published book of verse+other poems

   • Benjamin Franklin, wrote Poor Richards Almanack(1732-1758), 2nd best seller, 1st being bible

     • Influence which helped shape American character

2. Science

   • Lagging behind compared to old world

   • Benjamin Franklin only first-rank scientist produced in America

Pioneer Presses

1. Books

   • Americans too poor to buy books, and too busy to read

   • Few private libraries owned by clergy

   • Franklin established first privately supported library in Philadelphia, and by 1776 50 libraries supported by subscription

   • Printing presses = pamphlets, leaflets, journals

   • News took few weeks to reach certain people

   • Newspapers used to rally opposition to British Control

2. The Zenger Trial(1734-1735)

   • Case arose in NY when he published newspaper on tumultuous give-and-take of politics in middle colonies, where ethnic groups jostled against each other

   • Newspaper assailed corrupt royal governor, and he was charged with seditious libel

   • Defended by Andrew Hamilton, arguing he had the printed truth, and chief justice told jury not to believe him

   • Jury defied judges and voted not guilt, marking banner of achievement for press/democracy

The Great Game of Politics

1. American Contributions to Politics

   • 1775 8 colonies had royal governors, 3, MA, PA, DE had proprietors who chose governor, 2 RI + Connecticut elected their own governors

   • Two-House legislative body in every colony, upper house appointed by crown/proprietors/chosen by voters, and lower branch, elected by people. People enjoyed direct representation, like taxation with representation

   • Most royally appointed governors = good, but some corrupt/incompetent.

   • Lord Cornbury, 1st cousin Queen Anne, made governor of NY/NJ 1702, who was drunkard, spendthrift, embezzler, and a fool

   • Royal governor embodied bothersome transatlantic authority 3,000 miles away

   • Colonial assemblies withheld governors pay until he agreed to their terms

   • London government had poor administration

   • County government remained rule in South, Town-meeting gov’t in NE, and modification of both in middle colonies. In town meetings, democracy was heavily practiced

   • Not everyone could vote, and those who could usually trusted colonial affairs to their leader

   • 1775 America more democratic than England/Europe, planting democratic seeds for later years

Colonial Folkways

1. Life in the Colonies

   • Drab compared to modern standards, constant and heavy labor

   • Food = plentiful, lazy/sick = hungry

   • No heated churches, and NE winters = freezing cold

   • Homes poorly heated, no running water, no plumbing, no bathtub. Candles/whale-oil lanterns provided faint illumination, garbage disposal = primitive

   • Amusement = militia assembling periodically doing drills while flirting etc, women quilting bees, husking bees, and apple parring, and Funerals/Weddings = social events to get drunk at.

   • Winter sports = popular in North, and card playing/horse racing/cockfighting/fox hunting = popular in South, as well as dancing

   • Lotteries used to raise money for churches/colleges, and stage plays became popular in south, but in Quaker/Puritan colonies. NE clergy saw it as waste of time

   • Holidays celebrated, Christmas frowned upon, Thanksgiving = American festival, time to thank God + opportunity to be jolly/gorge/guzzle

   • Mid 18th century, British colonies had many similarities with England, all had same language/customs, were Protestant.

   • All colonies had some self-government