POLITICAL AND SOCIAL UPHEAVALS- HISTORY OF COLONIAL AMERICA

As Britain increased its overseas holdings in the mid-18th century, its American colonies experienced a number of crises that changed the nature of politics and society. Some of these crises—such as a conflict between long-settled regions and backcountry areas—were a result of American developments, but others, like the Great Awakening, stemmed from European influences.

A

Great Awakening

The first of these upheavals was a series of religious revivals, often referred to as the Great Awakening. Influenced by religious revivals in Germany and Britain, evangelical ministers traveled through the colonial countryside and made emotional appeals for sinners to repent and to convert to the Christian faith in order to attain salvation. Enthusiasm for the new religious message of these evangelists reached its peak during the early 1740s. However, the revivalists’ eagerness to convert people and their belief that anyone could preach the gospel divided many colonial churches. Conservative Old Lights believed the movement threatened established religion, while the more enthusiastic New Lights supported a more open or democratic approach to religion. The New Lights often formed their own congregations.

These religious disputes prompted some established churches to seek assistance from political leaders. The Connecticut legislature, which was dominated by Old Lights, banned traveling New Light preachers from speaking to congregations without the minister’s permission. In Virginia, the planter elite, who generally belonged to the Church of England, closed down the meeting houses of evangelical Presbyterians and used violence to suppress the prayer services of Baptist congregations.

These attempts to suppress New Lights and other new denominations failed. The most important legacy of the Great Awakening was greater religious and political freedom in the American colonies. More colonists chose their own faith, and the upheavals undermined the dominance of established churches and promoted both religious toleration and a democratic spirit. As a Baptist preacher noted in the aftermath of the Great Awakening, “the common people now claim as good a right to judge and act in matters of religion as civil rulers or the learned clergy.”

B

End of Salutary Neglect

A second important political development during this period was the renewed interest of the British Parliament and royal bureaucrats in American affairs. British officials recognized the growing size and wealth of the mainland settlements and wanted to ensure their continued loyalty. The Navigation Acts of the 17th century allowed colonists only to produce agricultural goods and raw materials. Thus the acts reserved for Britain profitable enterprises such as manufacturing goods and providing commercial services including shipping and insurance to British residents. In 1732 Parliament made this ban more specific, prohibiting Americans from marketing colonial-made hats. The following year, Parliament passed the Molasses Act (see Sugar and Molasses Acts), which placed a high tariff on molasses imported into the mainland colonies from the West Indies. These taxes discouraged colonists living in port cities from distilling their own rum because local distillers competed with British rum producers. Then in 1750, Parliament extended the ban on colonial manufactures to iron products such as plows, axes, and skillets.

Colonists also clashed with the British government because they lacked gold and silver coins and printed paper money to take their place. Ten colonial assemblies had established land banks to create a domestic money supply. These banks issued paper money and loaned it to farmers, who used their land as collateral. But some colonial assemblies, including the Rhode Island legislature, issued such large amounts of paper currency that it fell in value. When the assemblies required creditors to accept the depreciated currency at its face value, British merchants complained to Parliament. In 1751 Parliament passed a Currency Act outlawing land banks and prohibiting the use of paper currency to pay private debts.

These economic conflicts angered a new generation of British political leaders, who believed that the colonies already had too much self-rule. During the French and Indian War, their anger turned to rage when American merchants continued to trade with the French, and many assemblies refused to levy taxes for support of the war. When the assemblies did act, they extracted concessions from the royal governors. For example, they insisted on control of the military budget and of the appointment of officers. By the end of the war, royal officials were determined to cut the power of the American legislatures. The era of salutary neglect had come to an end, and Americans had to choose between accepting increased British control or taking a more rebellious stance.

C

Establishment Versus Backcountry

The westward spread of settlement created a third dangerous area of political conflict. Antagonism grew between backcountry settlers and eastern elites, composed primarily of wealthy planters and merchants. Many backcountry residents were religious dissenters who were also discontented with their economic status. Their farms, which they had often bought on credit from eastern land speculators, were new and far from established markets. Moreover, these western settlers had little money to pay their taxes and resented being governed by officials who were chosen by distant assemblies and royal governors.

As western communities grew, they increasingly needed funds to build roads and bridges and to establish institutions for local self-government, but they did not find much support in the colonial legislatures. Eastern political leaders were slow to set up new counties in the West, and when they did, these counties contained huge amounts of land but had few representatives.

Eventually, these conflicts between the backcountry and the eastern establishment led to some violent uprisings. In Pennsylvania, Scots-Irish immigrants who lived along the frontier took matters into their own hands when the Quaker-dominated assembly refused to push Native Americans out of the colony. In 1763 a band of Scots-Irish farmers, known as the Paxton Boys, attacked a small settlement of Native Americans called the Susquehannock and massacred 20 people. When Pennsylvania governor John Penn tried to bring the murderers to justice, about 250 armed Scots-Irish marched on Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin, who had built his reputation as a diplomat, intercepted the angry mob at Lancaster and arranged a compromise, narrowly averting a battle.

In the backcountry of South Carolina, clashes between land-hungry white settlers and the Cherokee during the war with France also led to violence. A vigilante group, the Regulators, forcibly imposed order on outlaw bands of whites. The group threatened its own rebellion if the South Carolina assembly, which was controlled by the eastern side of the colony, refused to provide more local courts, fairer taxes, and greater western representation. The assembly satisfied some of the Regulators' demands, and a rival group of western vigilantes, the Moderators, persuaded the western settlers to accept the authority of the colonial government. In North Carolina, another Regulator movement supported an even broader political agenda and was quelled only after a heated battle.

D

Legacy of Colonial Development

By the end of the colonial period in 1763, Americans lived in a new economic, social, and political world. As a result of sustained population growth, the mainland colonies had approximately two million residents and a dynamic economy. At the top of the society stood a capable group of leaders. However, this was also a society in flux. Religious upheaval strengthened popular democratic sentiment, while western rebels and imperial reformers began to challenge the established political system. This combination of dynamic economic development, internal social conflicts, and increased controls by British officials set the stage for a 12-year conflict over parliamentary taxes and administrative power that brought about the American Revolution (1775-1783). As historian Carl Becker suggested, the political situation in the colonies meant that the war would become both a struggle against England for “home rule” and a conflict over which social groups should “rule at home.”