Colonial Culture | BRI’s Homework Help Series

0:00 Welcome to Homework Help. Whether you’re studying for the AP US history exam or any other exam that your teacher is inflicting upon you, we’ve got you covered. Today we will be discussing early colonial culture. An American character was forged during the colonial era through the combination of selfreliance born out of the colonial frontier with the creation of economic, political and religious autonomy.

0:23 Many use the term salvatory neglect to describe the lack of British authority over the colonies. American colonists were separated by nearly 3000 mile of ocean from the English homeland, and because of this, the early English colonies became economically self reliant. The British officially had a policy of mercantilism in which the colonies that restricted trade within the British Empire.

0:46 However, the American colonists often handled routine matters of trade and commerce themselves, as regulations were not enforced. American shippers also evaded British regulations by smuggling. The American colonists also enjoyed a great deal of political autonomy from England. They established their own local assemblies and forms of representative

1:08 government, including colonial legislatures and local town meetings. Even though the colonists were establishing new communities in a faraway land, northern and southern colonists view themselves as British subjects living abroad, and as such they retain the rights of Englishmen and consider themselves equal to those living in the English homeland. They maintain a strong British identity

1:30 by following news events and debates that dominated discussions in England. There were, however, some important cultural differences between the American colonists and their British counterparts. At home, the British social system maintains clear divisions of rank and status which separated the culture and habits of wealthy aristocratic elite from the poor, lesseducated peasants and artisans.

1:53 By contrast, the colonial settlers collectively came more from middle class backgrounds and shared many of the same expectations for social life and education. Because almost all adult American males were literate, there were far fewer gaps in communication between social ranks. The colonies also enjoyed thriving discussions fueled by printed newspapers and books.

2:16 In the early colonies, many commoners participated in the same sorts of political, religious, and economic debates that were only forwarded to the aristocratic elite in England. This meant that most of the American colonists were well aware of the religious and constitutional debates that were going on across the ocean. In many ways, the Americans were closely involved in British political debates.

2:39 Yet, from the perspective of the British, the Americans seem to be far removed. Living along the frontier of the empire. Religion played a major role in the development of colonial identity. Many colonists were part of the religious Protestant movement in the early sixteen hundred s and settled in colonies with established churches. For example, the Puritan movement within England spread to the American colonies

3:02 during the 1630s, when nearly 20,000 Puritans migrated to New England during what was called the Great Migration. Puritans were focused on leaving the Church of England to establish a pure form of Christian beliefs. They felt the church of England was lacking. By the end of the Great Migration, there are more Puritans in America than in England.

3:22 Along with Puritans in New England, other religious groups, such as the Quakers and Baptists, also showed the same desire in protesting existing authorities for the sake of their religious identity. They also poured into the American colonies during the mid to late 16 hundreds, attracted by the growing tradition of religious toleration. By the 1740s, the Great Awakening led to a common culture of religious

3:45 and political dissenters spreading from New England to the American South. Many dissenting religious denominations, including Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists, grew rapidly and questioned the spiritual monopoly of the established churches. The dissenting Protestant tradition contributed to religious individualism and the development of a uniquely American character different from the English.

4:07 For most of the 16 and 1700s, American colonists were unaware of the growing differences in cultural identity between themselves and the British homeland. It was not until the French and Indian War that the colonists came to realize that their goals and ambitions as a colonial community were not the same as the goals and ambitions of the British Crown. During the previous century and a half, the American colonists had created

4:30 separate institutions and a unique character. After more than a century of self-reliance combined with the heritage of debating religious and constitutional reform, this realization set the colonists up for a stark contest against their English homeland.