Awakenings%20

1
Awakenings Enlightenments

• pp. 91-98

2
Pattern of Religions

• Variety in colonial America
• Difficult to impose any one religion on any large
  area
• Church of England in VA, MD, NY, NC, SC, GA
• Increased variety in Christian denominations
• Catholics Jews remained religious minorities
  suffered persecution

3
The Great Awakening

• Concerns about declining piety (reverence for
  God) increased secularism
• Began with increased religious fervor,
  1730s-1740s
• Esp. appealed to women younger sons
• Reflected desire to break away from families and
  start a new life

4
Great Awakening

• Evangelists
• John Charles Wesley-Methodism
• George Whitefield-see link
• Jonathan Edwards-Puritan
• Led to divisions between New Light revivalists
  Old Light traditionalists
• Some revivalists said book learning was a
  hindrance to salvation
• G.A. caused a great upheaval in the culture of
  colonies

5
Enlightenment

• Result of scientific intellectual discoveries
• In competition with the Great Awakening
• Natural laws regulated workings of nature
• Francis Bacon, John Locke older ideas
• Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas
  Paine, James Madison were newer thinkers
• Human reason
• Created progress advanced knowledge

6
Enlightenment

• Increased emphasis on the importance of
  education, politics, government
• Encouraged one to look at oneself, rather than
  look to God for guidance

7
Education

• Emphasis on education in colonies, but work often
  interfered
• MA law in 1647 required every town to have a
  school
• Quakers set up church schools
• Apprentices learned from craftsmen in cities
  evening schools
• Few children went beyond primary school years
• Literacy rates in colonies were higher than in
  Europe
• Over ½ of white men could read and write

8
Education

• Males had more educational opportunities, but
  females had primary home schooling and higher
  literacy rates
• African slaves had few chances at schooling
• Literacy discouraged, so there was no questioning
  of status
• Most Natives preferred to educate their children
  in their own way
• Due to increased literacy, almanacs were
  published and circulated (p. 94-95)

9
First Colleges

• Tied to religion training of preachers but had
  wide-ranging curricula
• Logic, ethics, physics, geometry, astronomy,
  Latin, Greek, etc.
• Harvard, 1636, MA
• William Mary, 1693, VA
• Yale, 1701, CT
• College of New Jersey (Princeton), 1746
• Kings College (Columbia), 1754, NY
• Academy of College of Philadelphia (Penn, Ben
  Fr.)
• Offered mechanics, chem., agri., govt.,
  commerce, languages, 1st medical school

10
The Spread of Science

• Increased interest in scientific knowledge
• At colleges
• By amateurs scientific societies
• Ben FranklinKite experiment proved that
  lightning electricity were the same invented
  the lightning rod
• Cotton MatherInoculation against small pox

11
Concepts of Law Politics

• In comparison to England court procedures were
  simpler punishments were different
• Stocks, branding irons, whipping posts, ducking
  stools
• Royal government was far away, so colonies had a
  large measure of self-rule
• Voted for colonial assemblies
• Royal governors had limited powers
• Colonies largely were independent of Parliament