Religion was of paramount importance in the early colonies. It influenced their way of thinking, speaking and life, as a whole.

The first colony was at Virginia in 1607. The people who formed part of this colony left England to avoid religious persecution. These people were referred to as Puritans. Puritans are so-called because they strive to attain “purity” of worship and doctrine. The Puritans were only after changes of the system not total separation from the church. Puritans immigrated to North America because they dislike the practices and leadership of the Church of England at that time.

Most of the Puritans settled in New England. The immigrants were comprised mostly of large families – women, men and children. This point in history is often referred to as Great Migration.

In the seventeenth century, the social and economic troubles in England created two major English colonies in America- Chesapeake colonies in the south and New England in the north.

New England and Virginia

New England colonists differed from their Chesapeake counterparts. Chesapeake was comprised mostly of poor and short-lived servants while New England was made up mostly by “middling sorts” who preserved their freedom because they have money to be able to travel across the Atlantic.

New England settlers practiced a more demanding faith than the Anglicanism practiced in the Chesapeake. New England settlers were called Puritans because of their quest to purify the Protestant faith, whether in England or creating a New En-land if needed.

New England environment is characterized as colder, less abundant, but far healthier than Chesapeake. It is hilly land of dense forests, sharp slopes, stony soils, and a short growing season. New England settlers have to work hard to be able to farm. It did not offer much prospect of becoming wealthy. New England was described as, “the air of the country is sharp, the rocks many, the trees innumerable, the grass little, the winter cold, the summer hot, the gnats in summer biting, [and] the wolves at midnight howling.” But the Puritans were grateful having to work hard. One explained:

If men desire to have a people degenerate speedily, and to corrupt their mindes and bodies too … let them se[e]cke a rich soile, that brings in much with little labour; but if they desire that Piety and Godlinesse should prosper … let them choose a Country such as [New England] which may yield sufficiency with hard labour and industry. Emigrants who wanted to become rich could go farther south to the Chesapeake.

To make farms, the colonists had to do a number of things requiring hard labor such as cut clearings in the forest, chop firewood, erect fences, build barns and houses, plow and plant fields, harvest crops, and construct mills. This work needed to be done in cold and rocky New England and in flatter, warmer, and fertile Chesapeake. Despite harder work, the New England farm earned smaller profits than the Chesapeake plantation. This was because of the shorter growing season and rougher land prevented the cultivation of the colonial staples with the most demand in Europe such as tobacco and sugar.

The New English farmers were forced to raise small crops – wheat, rye, maize, potatoes, beans, and garden plants. None could be sold to England, because of the lack of demand for those products.

New England farmers did not have slaves to do the farming for them. They depended on their families for the labor. Thus, distribution of property and power was more fair in New England than in their richer counterpart, Chesapeake, where a group of elite exploited servants and slaves.

The New England colonies granted lands to men who formed a corporate group to build a town. The town system contrasted was in sharp contrast with the Chesapeake colonies, where the leaders gave land directly to individuals particularly the wealthy. This Chesapeake practice scattered the settlers causing them problems in maintaining schools and churches and to discourage Indian attacks.

New England settlers were less scattered which helped them defend their town; sustain public schools, promote morality, and, above all, to maintain a local church.

The colonial legislature served as the basis for town boundaries. Each town corporation allocated land for household farms and a village center with church and school. The town was not just a tract of land; it was also a local government. In contrast, Chesapeake colonies depended on the larger county. They gathered in town meeting where the male property holders elected their local officials comprised by a board of selectmen.

Unlike in Chesapeake, differences in social status were not felt in New England

where majority of the settlers were middle class. Also, the New England economy distributed its share more equitably among the farmers and tradesmen compared to Chesapeake.

New England society was formed on the basis of Puritan family whether economically or religiously. The women were responsible of molding their children into ideal Puritan adults. Success was measured by harmonious marriage and godly children. The success of the Great Migration therefore rested to a great extent on the shoulders of women.

Middle Colonies

Middle colonies in Pennsylvania and Delaware were established in part due to William Penn. The Middle colonies society was cosmopolitan and more lenient than New England.

William Penn helped Pennsylvania developed. In 1685, the population reached 9,000. The center of the Middle colonies is Philadelphia. Towards the end of the colonial period there were around 30,000 residents of the place. Philadelphia was known for enterprising businessmen making them one of the most progressive cities of colonial America.

The Quakers numbered the most in Philadelphia. The Germans were considered the most experienced farmers. Cottage industries such as weaving, shoemaking, cabinetmaking and others abound in the place.

Scot-Irish also moved to Pennsylvania in the early 18th century. They settled at the back country and worked as hunters or farmers. The population comprising Pennsylvania may be diverse but it was not as diverse as that of New York. New York was made up of Dutch, Italians, Portuguese, French, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, English, Scots, Irish, Germans, Poles and Bohemians.

The Dutch were the most prominent member of the society in New York during that time. They exercised a lot of social and economic influence in the community.

Society and Culture

It was hard to create a powerful or aristocratic class in the colonies at that time because anyone could easily leave and establish another colony elsewhere. This served as a reason why creation of higher classes was discouraged. The rich and the powerful relied on the masses to take care of their businesses. Without them, the business would not flourish.

To prevent the departure of the masses, those in position were forced to adopt liberal policy measures, provide land-grant requirements and allow religious practices among the workers.

During the colonial period, the foundations of American education and culture were created. The famed and highly-recognized Harvard College was established in 1636 in Massachusetts. The College of William and Mary was also founded in Virginia. Then, Collegiate School of Connecticut or what we know now as Yale College came to be. School system overlooked by government authority was also developed. The Puritans imbibed the reading and study of Scriptures to promote literacy.

Massachusetts Bay Colony was noted to have established in 1647 the “ye olde deluder Satan” Act which required towns with more than 50 families to create a grammar school which was a Latin school used to prepare students for college. All the New England colonies followed Massachusetts educational policy except for Rhode Island.

The first libraries were instituted by the immigrants from New England. The first immigrants had little libraries filled with books from London. In the 1680s, Boston booksellers sold various books of different genres such as classical literature, history, politics, philosophy, science, theology and belles-lettres. The English colonies created the first printing press in Harvard College in 1939.

In Pennsylvania, the first school was established in 1683. The lessons taught in the school at that time were reading, writing and account keeping. Another school called Friends Public School offered advanced lessons in classical languages, history and literature. This school is now known as William Penn Charter School. The lessons were free to those who cannot afford to pay. Parents who could afford were required to pay tuition fees.

A number of private schools also sprung up in Philadelphia. These private schools did not have religious affiliations. They trained students in languages, mathematics and natural science. For adults, night schools were available for them. Women had the opportunity to study too but the lessons taught to them were limited to those they could use at home. There were private teachers however that could teach women especially from those of the rich Philadelphia families lessons in dancing, music, French, singing, painting, grammar and bookkeeping.

Two leading men in Philadelphia had profound influence on the quality of education of the place. These men were James Logan and Benjamin Franklin. Logan held the position of secretary of the colony. Young Franklin used his library for his scientific discoveries. Logan housed his book collection in a building he donated to the city in 1745.

Franklin was the foremost contributor to Philadelphia’s intellectual society. He created a debating club which became the basis of the American Philosophical Society. His works led to the creation of a public academy now known as University of Pennsylvania. He also established the subscription library which he referred as “the mother of all North American subscription libraries.”

The wealthy people from the Southern colonies hired private tutors all the way from Ireland or Scotland to teach their children lessons. Some sent their children to England. Due to these reasons, those in the upper classes did not promote public education. Also, farms and plantations were widely dispersed, making it difficult to establish a community school. A few free schools however were built in Virginia in 1647, Syms School and in 1659, Eaton School.

In 1704, the colonies in Cambridge, Massachusetts launched the first newspaper. In 1745, 22 other newspapers were sold in the entire colonies.

Freedom of the press was established in New York in the case of Johann Peter Zenger who created the New York Weekly Journal in 1733. Zenger opposed the government. Into the two years of the newspapers existence, the governor could not stand Zenger’s barbs. He had him put to prison on the charge of seditious libel. Zenger edited his paper in jail for nine months which caused great furor throughout the colonies. Andrew Hamilton, Zenger’s lawyer pointed out in his defense that Zenger’s barbs were true therefore not libelous. The jury gave a verdict to not guilty and Zenger was set free.

In the 1730s, a reformation movement called the Great Awakening was sweeping the entire colonies. This movement is a religious revival which began in Philadelphia and then spread to New England. George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards spearheaded this spiritual movement.

Whitefield preached to an estimated 20,000 people using emotional oratory and gestures. It captured the audience’s attention and the religious revival spread like wildfire throughout New England and the middle colonies. Edwards, one of those influenced by Whitefield, gave the most memorable speech during the Great Awakening “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. His speech stressed the importance of emotional content of Christianity.

The Great Awakening became the foundation for evangelical denominations and revivalism which are still considered important in American religious and cultural life to this day. It encouraged believers to depend on their conscience and led to the creation of different religious sects and denominations which in turn formed the basis of the principle of religious toleration.