US HISTORY

1
US HISTORY

• CHAPTER 4
• LIFE IN THE COLONIES

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Benjamin Franklin

• 1723 Franklin arrived in Philadelphia
• He was 17 years old.
• At the age of 12 he signed a 9 year contract to
  work for his brother in his brothers Boston
  print shop
• His brother was a jerk and
• he left.

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Whats a 17 year old to do?

• He finds work in Philadelphia as a printers
  assistant.
• At the age of 23 he had saved enough money to
  purchase the Pennsylvania Gazette. October 2,
  1729.
• In 1732 he published a book called Poor
  Richards Almanac

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A little about Poor Richard

• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_Richard27s_Alma
  nac
• It was very popular. Typical printings were
  10,000
• Contained a calendar
• Weather patterns
• Astronomical info
• Astrological info

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A little more about Poor Richards

• It also contained some of Franklins aphorisms
  (word of the day) and proverbs
• A sentence that tells or describes a principle
  in a few telling words, or a short sentence. It
  is told in such a way that when once heard it is
  unlikely to pass from memory.
• Lost time is never found again.
• A penny saved is a penny earned.
• Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man
  healthy, wealthy and wise.
• Fish and visitors smell in three days.

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Early retirement

• The Gazette and Almanac sold so well that
  Franklin was able to retire at 42.
• He concentrated on some hobbies.
• He became a scientist, inventor, political
  leader, diplomat and National Postmaster.
• Franklin in 1777

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Ben Franklin

• Founded the first Public lending library
• The first Fire Department
• Wrote against the Iron Act of 1750. The act
  prohibited anyone in the colonies from
  manufacturing finished iron products. This law,
  if followed, would have severely limited the
  emerging iron industry in the colonies, which at
  the time was producing one seventh of the worlds
  pig iron and iron products.
• Drafted, in 1754, the Albany Plan of Union, which
  would have created a continental legislature
  demonstrating how early he conceived of the
  colonies as being naturally one political unit.

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Benjamin Franklin later years

• Franklin became a national hero in America when
  he spearheaded the effort to have Parliament
  repeal the unpopular Stamp Act.
• The Stamp Act of 1765 (short title Duties in
  American Colonies Act 1765 5 George III, c. 12)
  was the fourth Stamp Act to be passed by the
  Parliament of Great Britain and required all
  legal documents, permits, commercial contracts,
  newspapers, wills, pamphlets, and playing cards
  in the American colonies to carry a tax stamp.
  The Act was enacted in order to defray the cost
  of maintaining the military presence protecting
  the colonies. Britain also needed money to repay
  the suppliers from the French and Indian War,
  which had been very costly, even though Great
  Britain had been victorious in 1763 (see Treaty
  of Paris (1763)).
• The Act passed unanimously on March 22, 1765, and
  went into effect later that year, on November 1.
  It met with great resistance in the colonies and
  was never effectively enforced. Colonists
  threatened tax collectors with tarring and
  feathering. Few collectors were willing to risk
  their well-being to uphold the tax. The Act was
  repealed on March 18, 1766. This incident
  increased the colonists' concerns about the
  intent of the British Parliament and added fuel
  to the growing separatist movement that later
  resulted in the American Revolution.

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A bit more on the Stamp Tax

• The American colonists did not believe their
  representation in the British parliament was
  equitable. To be admitted to the bar or enrolled
  as a notary, one would pay a tax of 10 in North
  America, but only 2 in Great Britain
• War is coming.

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Accomplishments

• lightning rod, the Franklin stove, catheter,
  swimfins, glass harmonica, and bifocals.
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
• Established the University of Pennsylvania and
  Franklin and Marshall College
• Toward the end of his life, he became one of the
  most prominent abolitionists

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Colonial life

• Economy was based on farming, commerce and
  handcrafts.
• 9 out of 10 people lived on small family farms
• Most raised, or made everything they needed in a
  typical year.
• http//www.pbs.org/wnet/colonialhouse/history/pano
  ramas.html

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Colonial life farms

• You had to clear the land with basic tools
• You had to make the lumber with those tools. The
  lumber to make your house.
• Fireplace provide warmth and cooking.
• Fires were kept going 24/7 because you did not
  have matches and trying to hand start the fire
  was very tedious.

13
Life in the Cities

• In 1750 one out of 20 lived in a city.
• Heart of the city was the waterfront.
• News from England, and new materials arrived
  there first.
• Streets were lined with businesses
• Streets were paved with round cobblestones
• And they smelled

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Oh to live in the City

• Rotting garbage, open sewers made the air smell
  like.
• During the hot summer months, the flies and
  mosquitoes were thick.
• Torches of pine and grease burning in betty lamps
  lit the homes
• House fires were common
• Because of the insects
• Illness was common too

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Colonial Rights

• Colonists saw themselves as English citizens and
  wanted the same rights.
• The most important right was the right to have a
  voice in their government.
• 1689 the English Bill of Rights.
• freedom from taxation by royal prerogative,
  without agreement by Parliament
• freedom to petition the King

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Colonial Rights

• freedom from cruel and unusual punishments, and
  excessive bail
• freedom from fines and forfeitures without trial
• Colonial assemblies were looking for the same
  rights
• But the taxes came and came hard

17
Crime and Punishment

• Murder, treason, piracy, denying the true God, or
  striking or curing your parents were punishable
  by death.
• Theft, forgery, robbery brought jail, whipping,
  or branding with a hot iron.
• Hog theft had some surprising results.  Colonists
  were either fined the equivalent of ten pounds or
  slashed twenty-five times at the whipping post
  upon their first offense. 
• The second offense resulted in the criminal being
  locked in the Pillory with their ears nailed to
  the frame.  When the thief was released, the
  nailed part of his/her ear was torn off. 

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Crime and punishment

• Puritans required all to attend church on Sunday
• Forbade anyone to work, or play on that day.
• Wrote their laws in books with blue paper
  bindings
• Became known as Blue Laws.
• Some still in existence today.
• In Massachusetts it is still illegal to sell
  liquor on Sundays.
• Salem Witch Trials
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials

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Class differences

• Colonialists came to America to start again
• Most were poor and worked their way up. Look back
  at Benjamin Franklin
• Poor person could become successful and a girl
  could marry higher
• Clothing makes the man! Started in Colonial
  America. Clothing showed their social position.
• http//www.history.org/history/clothing/intro/inde
  x.cfm

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Life for African Americans

• By the early 1700s enslaved African Americans
  were living in every colony
• In the Northern colonies slaves made up less than
  5 of the population
• In the Southern colonies slaves made up 40 of
  the population

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Life for African Americans Chapter 4

• They were removed from their West African homes
  and shipped to the New World in ships like this
• 645,000 slaves were
• sent to the United States
• The slave population grew
• to 4,000,000 by the 1860
• census

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Life for African Americans

• Life pretty much was the pits for the African
  American
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_slavery

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Religion

• In New England they had Captains of the Watch
• These people made sure that everyone was a church
  on Sunday by searching houses.
• Services were as long as 5 hours.
• They would take a noon break and return for
  afternoon services.

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The First Great Awakening

• Starting in the 1730s Puritans began noticing
  that the power of Godliness was missing.
• The Great Awakening brought in traveling
  preachers who held huge outdoor Revivals.
• These Revivals helped spread the idea that all
  were equal in Gods eyes

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The First Great Awakening

• These Revivals encouraged the ideas of liberty,
  equality and resistance to authority.
• The Great Awakening helped pave the way for the
  American Revolution

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Education

• In New England colonies, the colonies were
  required to provide public schools
• The wanted their children to be able to read the
  Bible
• Massachusetts passed a law in 1647 that required
  every town with 50 families to hire an instructor
  to teach the children to read and write.
• Towns with 100 families had to build a school

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Education

• The main book was the New England Primer
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Primer
• Middle Colonies were torn apart by religious
  differences and could not agree on public
  education.
• Churches generally did the educating

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Education

• In Southern Colonies the plantations were so
  large that the families hired tutors to come in
  and educate their children
• Female education went often no further than
  writing and arithmetic, sometimes music and dance.

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Families

• Most married in their early to mid twenties
• Most families had between 7 and 10 children.
  Almost half of the children died
• Indentured servants could not marry until their
  debt was paid off

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Leisure

• Combine work and play.
• Chopping bees to help clear land for a new
  settler
• Quilting bee to help some one make blankets for
  the winter.
• House and barn raising.
• Children had dolls, marbles and tops and sleds
  where it snowed

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Leisure

• Lawn bowling, something like backgammon, called
  tick-tack and a form of billiards called trock.
• Southern colonies had fox hunting and cards.
• Horse racing, cock fighting and bull baiting
• And the ever popular greased pig contest

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Food

• Corn was a major part of their diet.
• Meats such as wild deer, rabbits and birds
• They also raised pigs, cattle and chickens
• Meat had to heavily salted, smoked, or pickled to
  keep it from rotting.

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Food

• They had pumpkins, squash, beans, peas and sweet
  potatoes
• They had root vegetables such as parsnips,
  turnips, carrots and onions
• The children had huckleberries, blackberries,
  blueberries, strawberries and grapes.
• In the south they had peaches