Section 4-5 Notes

Life in the Colonies Chapter 4 Section 5 Colonial Society •

More social equality than in England

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Status determined by birth or wealth –

Gentry- top of the class structure

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Wealthy planters, merchants, royal officials, ministers, and successful lawyers

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Middle Class- included: farmers that worked their own land, skilled craft workers, and trades people.

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¾ of colonists belonged in this class

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Indentured servants- workers that agreed to work the land for a period of time for no pay in return they would get passage to America.

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Females could cut down their time as Indentured servants by marrying

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1000’s of people came to America this way and worked their way into the “middle class”

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Women’s work in the Colonies –

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City women •

Took care of the home

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Cooked, cleaned, milked the cows, took care of children and made clothing

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Sometimes worked outside the home

Country Women •

Worked the fields with husband

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Harvesting was “women’s work”

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Hunt

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Raise livestock

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Women who worked outside the home –

Nurses, midwives, seamstresses, butchers, cook, or printers

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Learned from husband, father, or brother

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A woman could take over a business if her husband died

African Cultural Influences –

Language and growing techniques varied depending on where the slaves came from

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Many of the fine crafts Africans made in the cities varied as well. Exropes, barrels, plates

Great Awakening –

A religious movement

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1730’s-1740’s

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All classes effected

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Jonathan Edwards was the father of the movement

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From New England

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A reintroduction to God and his wrath and grace

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1739 George Whitefield arrived from England and continued to advance the movement

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Impact of the Great Awakening –

New churches were formed

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Forces even greater religious tolerance

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Spread democratic feelings

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Formal religious training less important than “a heart filled with the Holy Spirit”

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Encouraged independence

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Challenge authority when liberty was at stake

Self governance •

Education in the Colonies

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New England •

Towns with 50 or more people were required to hire a school teacher

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Children needed to be taught to “read and understand the principals of religion”

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Massachusetts established the first public school

Middle and Southern Colonies –

Private schools established by churches and individual families

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Only wealthy kids got educated because families had to pay

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Tutors also used for families that lived too far out to go to a school

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Some families sent kids back to England to be educated

Apprenticeships and Dame Schools –

Apprentice- works for a master to learn a trade or craft

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Started when a boy was 12 or 13

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Apprentice would live with master for the 6 or 7 years they were in apprenticeship

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No pay

Dame School –

Private school run by women in their homes

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For girls

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Taught them to spin, weave, and read and write

Spread of Ideas –

Many laws of nature discovered during 1600’s

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Newton

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Enlightenment Spreads

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Reason and scientific method could explain society

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Natural laws that governed human behavior

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John Locke- English philosopher- said people gain knowledge by observing and experimenting

Ben Franklin –

Son of a soap and candle maker

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Started a printing press business at 17

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Wanted to use reason to improve the world around him

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Colonial Cities •

Centers of trade between coast and backcountry

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Way to spread culture