Population Survey

Hello,

My name is Dr Jonathan Barth,

and I'm assistant professor of history at Arizona State University.

This is, of course,

on the development of a variety of regional and group cultures in

British colonial America in a century

and decades preceding the revolutionary period.

In it,

we will explain how and why the movement of people and ideas

across the Atlantic contributed to this

highly unique and distinctive colonial culture

will begin with the survey of population movements and

of the different people groups religious and ethnic,

who settled Colonial America

will then examine the maturation of colonial America in the 18th century,

will look at economic growth, the social structure of the colonies,

the founding of colleges and universities and

the flourishing of a colonial print culture.

Well, then, explain how

and why English models and ideas of government

influence colonial governance as well as colonial notions of liberty

finally will conclude by zeroing in on the great awakening and the Enlightenment

and the influence that those two movements had on colonial American culture.

Now, discussing the development

of American colonial culture,

we have to take a close look at the

remarkable pluralism that characterise the British American colonies.

This was a pluralism

that was unparalleled from virtually any other society on earth at that time.

Or, for that matter, in human history.

In Colonial America, there existed a wide assortment

of ethnic groups and religious affiliations.

Now, to be sure,

English,

English folk ways,

the English language and Protestantism stood out

among this medley as the predominant,

overriding character of American colonial culture.

Nonetheless, by the time of the revolution,

up to one third of the colonial population was not English.

And, in fact, of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence,

18 were not English, and so this is a highly pluralistic society for that time.

Let's begin, however, in the 17th century

now in the Chesapeake Bay area, Virginia and Maryland,

as well as in New England, which included Massachusetts, Plymouth,

Connecticut.

The overwhelming majority of immigrants to those

areas in the 17th century were indeed

English.

As late as 16 90

in Virginia,

fewer than 10% of colonial Virginians were African Americans.

These are overwhelmingly English settlements. In the 17th century,

the pluralism in this period in these regions was less ethnic and more religious.

In Maryland, for example, Catholics were welcomed

Catholics back in England experience, severe persecution

and

legal discrimination.

Lord Baltimore, a Catholic back in England

found in Maryland as a refuge for Catholics.

And it was in Maryland in 16 49 that

the Legislature passed the famous Act of Toleration,

which extended religious freedom to all professing Christians,

whether Catholic or Protestant or whatever sect of Protestantism,

he or she belonged to a fairly liberal law.

For that time

in New England,

humans were established.

A refuge was established for the Puritans, who were a minority, UH,

dissenting group within the Church of England.

These Puritan peoples came to Massachusetts,

came to Connecticut and founded Puritan cultures.

Now, when they arrived there, they were not tolerant of other Protestant groups.

They were a religiously homogeneous grew, however, in Rhode Island.

In 16 36 a Baptist minister named Roger Williams founded a colony

that allowed, for

near total freedom of religion and freedom of conscious conscience

in Rhode Island,

far and away the most liberal approach towards religion of any other

colony or, frankly, society of that time

with regard to ethnic pluralism.

In the 17th century,

the main arena was in the middle colonies,

New York. Before it became New York was New Netherland

in New York City. Before his New York City was New Amsterdam,

it was a Dutch colony.

Now England conquered New Netherland and re christened at New York in 16 64

and there were, in fact, an influx of English migrants to New York.

Afterward, however,

the colony retained its predominant Dutch character,

and many of the colonies,

wealthiest merchants and landowners after the English conquest

remained Dutch and insist on speaking Dutch.

Just south of New Netherland,

along the Delaware River,

there were small Swedish settlements, a remnant of a former colony of New Sweden,

which dissipated in the 16 fifties.

But those Swedish families remained afterward,

and then in that same area. In the 16 eighties,

an English man

named William Penn

founded the colony of Pennsylvania.

Now Pennsylvania was primarily in the beginning.

Settled by English, however,

Pen designed the colony to serve as a refuge for

Quakers who were a minority religious sect within the church.

In England, Quakers experienced persecution like the Puritans,

like Roman Catholics,

and pen designed this as a refuge for those

people and Quakers thereafter dominated local city government.

In Philadelphia, and the local culture there.

Now let's move to the 18th century

after 1700 English migration slowed down to colonial

America and the ethnic pluralism in all places.

But New England increased substantially.

Let's talk about three groups in particular that flowed into America,

flocked to America in the 18th century.

The Scotch, Irish, the Germans and African slaves.

Let's begin with the German, uh, population.

By the time of the revolution, Germans made up 6% of the total colonial population.

German migrants flocked to

Colonial America in the early 18th century. Through the 17 forties.

They were Lutheran, so they contributed to some of the religious pluralism

and by the revolution constituted about one third of the Pennsylvania population.

In fact, visit Philadelphia.

There were many street signs that were written in German and English,

about 100 and 50,000 Germans.

By the time of the revolution,

Scotch Irish were another key group.

The Scotch Irish, who were Scots who temporarily relocated to Northern Ireland,

flocked to

Colonial America in the 18th century. Just huge numbers,

um, constitute about 7% of the total colonial population.

By the time of the revolution,

it came first to fill it to Pennsylvania because most

of the land was already taken up in the Scotch,

Irish were quite poor.

They went out to the western frontier of Pennsylvania,

just east of the Appalachian Mountains, and from their bands of Scotch Irish

migrated southward down eastern edge of the Appalachian Mountains,

into Virginia and into Carolina.

The Scotch Irish were Presbyterian again,

contributing to some of the religious pluralism.

They were also fierce people, highly individualistic.

They loved their liberty, and they made for excellent revolutionaries.

When the time came.

The other group, of course, African slaves, and by the time of the revolution,

African slaves made up probably about 20% of the colonial population,

or about half a million people.

This was a huge increase from 17 years 1700

when about 30,000 African slaves lived in Colonial America.

In the Chesapeake, Virginia and Maryland,

slaves made up almost 40% of the population. By the time of the revolution

in the year 1700 slaves made up only about 13% of Virginia's population.

That's a huge increase

Many of these slaves were transplanted via the notoriously brutal middle passage.

Others were sold from sugar plantations in the Caribbean,

and then many others were born in the colony of Virginia or Carolina,

wherever they were born and never left.

That colony,

South Carolina was the only British colony that

retains or that had a black majority.

On the eve of the revolution, however,

it wasn't just the South that had black slaves.

Seven, about 7 to 10% of the Middle colony population was African slaves

in New York was slightly above 10%.

In New England, it was slightly under 3% of the total population.

And so again, this was not simply a Southern phenomenon.

African Folkways made a huge imprint on American culture and

English folk ways made a huge print on African culture,

thus producing a distinctive African American culture.

And of course,

there were other ethnic groups that were smaller in size French Huguenots, Welsh,

Irish swifts, Jews, Scots Highlanders who were distinct from the Scotch Irish.

Many of these people felt little loyalty to the British crown, so in short,

to conclude by 17 75 colonial America is probably

the most mixed population of anywhere in the world,

despite its predominant British character

was colonial America, melting pot or salad bowl

that all these cultures Mel gel into a single American culture or where they was it.

A salad bowl of this culture and that culture that didn't really blame together

something in between,

Uh,

English Protestant culture was undoubtedly the

predominant culture and colonial American life.

And yet that English Protestant culture was heavily

influenced by the pluralism surrounding it in English.

Protestant culture heavily influenced those other groups surrounding it.

This is what created that distinctive colonial

American culture on the eve of independence.

All of it was shaped by this variety of groups and ideas in early America.