W. W. Norton & Company | Inventing America, 2 ed.

Chapter 4: Benjamin Franklin's World: Colonial North America (1702-1763)

Chapter Outline

Population Growth
1. Benjamin Franklin
  1. Colonial newspapers
  2. Franklin's Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind (1754)
2. Sources of Population Growth
  1. High birthrate (80 percent of growth)
    1. earlier marriage
    2. better nutrition
  2. Immigration (20 percent of growth)
    1. British restrictions
    2. "transportation" of criminals
    3. French Huguenots
    4. Scottish immigrants
    5. Irish Catholics
    6. German Protestants
      1. Lutherans
      2. pacifist sects: Mennonites, Amish, Dunkers, Schwenkfelders
      3. Pennsylvania Dutch
    7. African slaves
Development of American Slavery
1. Development of Slavery
  1. Chesapeake colonies
    1. arrival of first slaves in Jamestown (1619)
    2. Creole origins
    3. sex ratio
  2. Northern colonies
2. Development of a Slave Society
  1. Decline in supply of indentured servants from England
  2. New colonies
  3. Rise in life expectancy
  4. First slave laws in Virginia (1660s)
3. The Chesapeake
  1. The African slave trade
  2. The Middle Passage
  3. Creoles and African American culture
  4. Rise of racial divisions in Virginia society
4. South Carolina
  1. Origins in the Caribbean island of Barbados
  2. Rice culture
  3. Indigo production
  4. Stono Rebellion (1739)
  5. Plantation system
    1. absentee owners
    2. task system
    3. perpetuation of African religious and social traditions
    4. family life
  6. Resistance
    1. maroon societies
    2. Spanish Florida
5. The Northern Colonies
  1. Northern cities
  2. Restrictions on African American freedom
    1. restricted manumissions
    2. denial of voting rights, property ownership, militia service, court testimony
Expansion, Prosperity, and Refinement
1. Founding of Georgia
  1. Last of the original thirteen colonies
  2. General James Oglethorpe
  3. Charter of 1732
  4. Reversion to Crown as royal colony in 1751
2. Domestic Life
  1. Affluence and growth of a consumer society
  2. Domestic architecture
  3. Differentiation of space in homes
  4. "Great houses"
    1. ornamental gardens
    2. glass windows
    3. iron stoves
  5. Consumer comforts
    1. textiles
    2. luxury goods: sugar, tea, tobacco
  6. Family life
    1. introduction of bedrooms
    2. affectionate unions
    3. divorce
    4. child nurture
    5. privatization of the family
  7. Domestic manufactures
    1. craftsmen: Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Directory (1754)
    2. colonial productions: sugar, rum, iron
  8. Colonial cities
    1. printers and newspapers
    2. urban grids
Natural History and Science
1. Natural History (Botany and Zoology)
  1. Herbalists
  2. Carolus Linnaeus of Sweden
  3. Mark Catesby
    1. Royal Society member
    2. The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands
  4. John Bartram
  5. Amateur scientists
2. Science
  1. Cotton Mather
    1. Royal Society member
    2. Curiosa Americana
    3. smallpox inoculation
  2. Astronomy
    1. John Winthrop
  3. Benjamin Franklin
    1. electricity
      1. Leyden jar
      2. lightning
      3. Franklin's Experiments and Observations on Electricity (1751)
      4. Royal Society's Copley Medal
      5. lightning rods
    2. bifocals
    3. Pennsylvania stove
  4. American Philosophical Society . . . for Promoting Useful Knowledge
An Emerging American Identity
1. Government
  1. Governors
  2. Assemblies
  3. Whig philosophy and the English revolutionary tradition
    1. Algernon Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government
    2. John Locke's Second Treatise of Government
    3. Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws
    4. William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England
2. Religion
  1. The Half-Way covenant
  2. The Great Awakening
    1. revivals
    2. conversion experiences
    3. Jonathan Edwards
    4. George Whitefield
    5. new colleges: Brown, Princeton, Dartmouth, Rutgers, University of Pennsylvania
    6. "old lights" vs. "new lights"
    7. emergence of the Baptist Church
Warfare
1. European Wars
  1. King William's War / War of the League of Augsburg (1689-97)
  2. Queen Anne's War (1702-13)
  3. King George's War / War of Jenkins's Ear (1739-48)
2. French and Indian War (1754-63) / Seven Years'War (1756-63)
  1. Fort Duquesne
  2. George Washington's Fort Necessity (1754)
  3. The abortive Albany Union (1754)
  4. Braddock's defeat at Fort Duquesne (1755)
  5. British and American invasion of Canada
    1. capture of Fort Duquesne and Louisbourg (1758)
    2. capture of Quebec (1759)
    3. capture of Montreal (1760)
3. The Peace of Paris (1763)

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