AP U.S. History · Lesson 3

Colonial society and culture

Know Know it

By the 1700s the colonies were growing fast, from natural increase and from immigrants such as Germans and Scots-Irish. Colonial life was pulled in two directions at once: closer to Britain in tastes and identity, and more used to running its own affairs.

Anglicization. Wealthier colonists bought British goods, read London newspapers and copied British fashions. Many saw themselves as proud British subjects with the rights of Englishmen.

Self-government. Each colony had an elected assembly, such as Virginia's House of Burgesses, and New England towns held town meetings. Assemblies controlled taxes and the governors' salaries, the power of the purse, and used it to win disputes with royal governors.

The Great Awakening (1730s and 1740s) was a wave of revivals. Jonathan Edwards preached in Massachusetts, and George Whitefield, an English minister, drew huge crowds up and down the colonies. Revivalists stressed emotional conversion and a personal bond with God, and new churches and colleges were founded.

The Enlightenment spread through books, newspapers and colleges. It stressed reason, science and natural rights, as in the ideas of John Locke. Benjamin Franklin, a printer, scientist and civic organizer in Philadelphia, is its best-known colonial example.

Native peoples and colonists kept trading, allying and fighting. The Pueblo Revolt (1680) drove the Spanish from New Mexico for about twelve years, and in New England King Philip's War (1675 to 1676) broke Native power in southern New England.

Trap Religious revival, political side effects

The Great Awakening was about salvation, not independence. Revival preachers did not call for breaking from Britain, so any political effect you describe has to be an indirect one.

Worked example Easy

Which English preacher drew huge crowds across the colonies during the Great Awakening?

  1. John Winthrop
  2. Roger Williams
  3. William Penn
  4. George WhitefieldAnswer

How to solve it

  1. Place the Great Awakening in time: the 1730s and 1740s.
  2. Only one choice was preaching then: George Whitefield.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. John Winthrop led the founding of Massachusetts Bay in 1630, a century before the Great Awakening.
  • B. Incorrect. Roger Williams founded Rhode Island in the 1630s, long before the revivals of the 1740s.
  • C. Incorrect. William Penn founded Pennsylvania in 1681 and was a Quaker leader, not a revival preacher.
  • D. Correct. George Whitefield toured the colonies from 1739 and preached to crowds in the thousands.

Explain Explain it

Task verbs: explain, compare

Two movements of the 1700s are easy to blur. The Great Awakening appealed to the heart and to personal faith; the Enlightenment appealed to reason and science. Explain any effect by naming the movement first and then tracing one step: who heard it, and what they did differently afterward.

Worked example Medium

How did the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment differ?

  1. The Awakening stressed emotional faith, and the Enlightenment stressed reasonAnswer
  2. The Awakening spread only in cities, and the Enlightenment only on farms
  3. The Awakening began in Spain, and the Enlightenment began in New France
  4. The Awakening defended the settled clergy, and the Enlightenment opposed all religion

How to solve it

  1. Name what each movement appealed to.
  2. The Awakening appealed to feeling and conversion; the Enlightenment to reason.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Correct. Revivalists called for a felt, personal conversion, while Enlightenment thinkers stressed reason and science.
  • B. Incorrect. Revivals reached towns and countryside alike, and Enlightenment ideas spread mostly among educated people in towns, so this split is wrong.
  • C. Incorrect. Neither movement began in Spain or New France; the Awakening grew out of Protestant revivals, and the Enlightenment came from European thinkers and books.
  • D. Incorrect. The Awakening challenged settled ministers, and many Enlightenment figures stayed religious, so both halves are wrong.

Explain Your turn

Describe one way the Great Awakening challenged religious authority in the colonies. Then explain how that challenge could make colonists more willing to question other kinds of authority.

Write it, then compare. Nothing you type here is saved or graded.

Compare with a model answer

A full answer does this

  • Describes an accurate way the Great Awakening challenged religious authority
  • Explains how that challenge could make colonists more willing to question other authority

Model answer

Traveling preachers like Whitefield told crowds that some settled ministers were unconverted, and many congregations split into New Lights and Old Lights. Ordinary churchgoers learned that they could judge their own leaders and walk away from them, a habit that could carry over to questioning royal governors and, later, Parliament.

Apply Apply it

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