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1.

enlightenment
a. The Enlightenment was a European cultural movement that emphasized
the power of human reason to shape the world and challenged the status
quo in science, mathematics, religion, and government. The movement,
which appealed especially to well-educated men and women from
merchant or planter families and to urban artisans, promoted independent
thinking and transformed American intellectual and cultural life.

b. Germans and Scots-Irish settle in the Middle Atlantic colonies

i. The frontier regions of the middle colonies attracted large numbers


of non-English settlers. In the early 1700s the largest of these
ethnic groups were Germans and Scots-Irish, who settled mostly in
the backcountry of Pennsylvania. They tried to retain their own
cultures and identities, countering the usual trend toward
assimilation and adoption of English ways. At first they fit well
into Pennsylvania society, but over time their views came into
conflict with the Quaker leadership.

c. Theodore Jacob Frelinghuysen preaches Pietism to German


migrants

i. Pietism was a devotional movement that spread throughout the


colonies in the early eighteenth century. Pietists emphasized
devout behavior, emotional church services, and striving for a
mystical union with God. Pietist preachers appealed to the hearts,
rather than the minds, of their parishioners. The Dutch minister
Theodore Jacob Frelinghuysen, the first major Pietist minister in
North America, moved from church to church throughout New
Jersey and Pennsylvania, delivering enthusiastic sermons and
preaching spiritual urgency to German settlers.

2. Revivals among scots-irish

Following the lead of Frelinghuysen, who spread Pietism among German


settlers, William and Gilbert Tennent fostered revivalism among Scots-Irish
congregations throughout the Middle Atlantic region. Their work expanded the
denominational scope of revivalism in America.

Jonathan Edwards preaches in New England

i. The Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards delivered Pietistic sermons


in Congregational churches in the Connecticut River Valley.
Edwards's work brought revivalism into the New England colonies
and to English colonists much as Frelinghuysen and the Tennents
had done in the middle colonies among non-English settlers.

3. George whitefield
a. A young English evangelist, George Whitefield, transformed local
religious revivals into a "Great Awakening" that spanned the mainland
British American settlements. Using his compelling personal presence to
captivate his listeners, Whitefield preached to huge crowds from Georgia
to Massachusetts.

4. Great awakening
a. The Great Awakening created tension and caused splits in religious
denominations between traditionalists (Old Lights) and supporters of
revivalism (New Lights) who questioned the views of established
churches. These divisions tore into the fabric of society and caused many
settlers to question the status quo, first in religion and then in other areas,
including political life.

b. Shortage of farmland in New England threatens freehold ideal

i. By the eighteenth century, dramatic increases in population and


overcrowding of the land threatened freehold society in New
England, where good land had become difficult to find. Farm
communities responded to this crisis by choosing to have smaller
families, asking the government to open new land along the
frontier, planting crops with better yields, and sharing labor and
goods.

c. Growing ethnic and religious pluralism in Middle Atlantic


colonies
i. No region of colonial America enjoyed a greater mix of race,
religion, and ethnicity in its population than the Middle Atlantic
colonies. The Dutch heritage of New York, the Swedish foundation
of Delaware, and the German and Scots-Irish immigrants lured into
New Jersey and Pennsylvania by liberal Quaker policies assured
that the middle colonies would have a rich pluralism to broaden the
social, cultural, and religious life of Great Britain's mainland
colonies.

d. Religious denominations establish colleges

i. The influence of the Great Awakening was felt in many aspects of


American life, including education. Under the leadership of the
New Lights, a number of religious denominations promoted their
beliefs through newly established colleges, including Princeton
(originally the College of New Jersey), which was founded by
Presbyterians; Brown, founded by Baptists; and Rutgers,
subsidized by the Dutch Reformed Church.

e. Samuel Morris starts Presbyterian revivals in Virginia

i. In the southern colonies, the Great Awakening challenged the


dominance of both the Church of England and the planter elite. In
1743, bricklayer Samuel Morris, inspired by reading George
Whitefield's sermons, led a group of Virginia Anglicans out of the
church. Seeking a more vital religious experience, Morris and his
followers invited New Light Presbyterian ministers to lead their
prayer meetings. Soon Presbyterian revivals spread not only to the
Scots-Irish backcountry but also to English residents in the
Tidewater region, where they threatened the social authority of the
Virginia gentry.

5. Consumer revolution increases American imports and debt

The transition from human manufactures to machine-produced goods


revolutionized the British economy with an immediate echo effect on the
American colonies. American consumers enjoyed better and cheaper goods from
the home country but often went into debt to buy those goods, and resentment
against British merchants and colonial proprietors began to build.

6. French and Indian war

a. The last of the wars for empire between England and France began in
America when Virginians moved into the Ohio River Valley, where France
had been active in the fur trade. Within two years the war spread to Europe
and then became worldwide in scope. The Great War for Empire resolved
forever the competition between Great Britain and France to determine
which country would be the dominant European power in North America.

b. Iroquois and colonists meet at Albany Congress; Franklin's Plan


of Union

i. To shore up the alliance with the Iroquois Nations that had begun
to unravel, in part because of escalating Anglo-American demand
for Indian lands, the Board of Trade called for an intercolonial
meeting with the Indians at Albany, New York, in June 1754. At
the meeting the American delegates assured the Iroquois that they
had no designs on their lands and asked for their assistance against
the French. To bolster colonial defenses, Benjamin Franklin
proposed a Plan of Union that would include a continental
assembly to manage all western affairs: trade, Indian policy, and
defense. The Plan of Union never materialized because both the
provincial assemblies and the imperial government feared that
colonial collaboration would undermine their authority.

7. Great war

In 1756 the French and Indian War spread to Europe, where the conflict
aligned Britain and Prussia against France, Spain, and Austria. Britain mounted
major offenses in India and West Africa as well as in North America and the West
Indies, transforming the conflict into a war for empire in which Britain was
determined to crush France, its main obstacle to further imperial expansion.

8. Canada

a. William Pitt's imperial strategy in the French and Indian War was to take
control of French strongholds along the St. Lawrence River. The capture
of Quebec opened the way to control of the valley and proved to be the
turning point of the war. When Montreal fell to British arms in 1760, the
British conquest of Canada was complete.

9. Land conflict

a. By the middle of the eighteenth century, major political, economic, and


social changes in the colonies began to cause tension between western
settlers and colonial authorities along the seacoast. Throughout the
colonial backcountry, such as along the New York-New England border,
violence flared among Indians, tenants, and landlords over ownership
rights.

b. Baptist revivals win converts in Virginia

i. During the Great Awakening, traditional ways of thinking and


acting frequently came under challenge. Nowhere was this more
apparent than in Virginia, where Baptist ministers drew large
numbers of supporters and converts from the poor white and black
populations of the colony. In fact, slaves were welcomed at Baptist
revivals, where a message of equality often was preached. This
threat to long-standing beliefs and actions deepened the growing
gap between the landed gentry on one side and poor whites and
blacks on the other.

10. Pontiac’s rebellion


a. Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa supported the French against the British in the
French and Indian War and rose up against an influx of Anglo-American
settlers moving into the area of the Great Lakes. The British empire
attempted to mitigate the tensions by issuing the Proclamation of 1763,
which barred Anglo-Americans from settling west of the Appalachians.

b. Treaty of Paris ends Great War for Empire

i. The Treaty of Paris removed France as a threat to England in


America by stripping away France's mainland colonies. In a
secondary deal, Britain also assumed control of Spanish Florida.

c. Scots-Irish Paxton Boys massacre Indians in Pennsylvania

i. As colonists established new settlements along the frontier, conflict


with Native Americans was inevitable. In Pennsylvania, the Scots-
Irish Paxton Boys massacred Indians who stood in the way of their
settlement, creating a political crisis for the Pennsylvania
leadership.

11. Regulator revolt

a. In North Carolina, groups of landowning vigilantes called Regulators


organized to suppress bands of landless whites that were roaming the
countryside and stealing cattle and property. The Regulators pressed for
greater political rights for their region and demanded lower legal fees, a
fairer tax system, and greater local representation. In May 1771, Royal
Governor William Tryon mobilized British troops and the eastern militia
to defeat a large Regulator force at the Alamance River.

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