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CHAPTER 3
Colonial Ways of Life
This chapter discusses the major social and economic differences among the colonies. It outlines the
various groups of people within colonial society, including farmers, workers, urban dwellers, women, and
immigrants. The chapter draws a contrast between the society and economy of the Southern colonies and
those of New England. The rise of race-based slavery follows, along with its political implications, and
forms of resistance. The later part of the chapter traces the development of the Enlightenment and the
Great Awakening in the American colonies.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. The Shape of Early America
A. Population Growth
B. Anti-Immigrant Prejudices
C. Women in the Colonies
i. “Women’s Work”
ii. Elizabeth Lucas Pinckney
iii. Women and Religion
II. Society and Economy in the Southern Colonies
III. Society and Economy in New England
A. Townships
B. Dwellings and Daily Life
C. The New England Economy
D. Shipbuilding
E. Trade
F. Puritanical Puritans?
G. Witches in Salem
VI. First Stirrings of a Common Colonial Culture
VII. Colonial Cities
A. The Social and Political Order
B. The Urban Web
C. Citizenship in the Empire
VIII. The Enlightenment in America
A. The Age of Reason
B. The American Enlightenment
C. Education in the Colonies
IX. The Great Awakening
A. Revivalism
B. Jonathan Edwards
C. George Whitefield
D. Radical Evangelists
E. Women and Revivals
F. A Changing Religious Landscape
LECTURE IDEAS
1. Develop a lecture on the diversity of colonial settlers. This lecture should include a discussion on
both social and economic issues, and it should focus on cultural issues as well. See the following
2. Examine daily life in the early colonies with a lecture on sports and recreation. This will especially
(1997). For southern quarter-horse racing and gambling, see “Horses and Gentlemen” in T. H.
Breen’s Puritans and Adventurers (1980). For horse racing and cockfighting, see the relevant pages in
3. An incredibly interesting and effective way to study Puritan communities in the later seventeenth
(1976) and “The Visible and Invisible Worlds of Salem” in James Davidson and Mark Lytle’s After the
Fact: The Art of Historical Detection (2005). For a source that puts the Salem outbreak in its larger
context through the centuries, see John Demos’s The Enemy Within: 2000 Years of Witch-Hunting in
4. One of the inescapably important questions in American history is why slavery arose and why it was
Africans exclusively who were enslaved. The reasons for slavery are often oversimplified and justified
(1974) and Donald Wright’s African Americans in the Colonial Era: From African Origins to the
American Revolution (2000).
5. Deliver a lecture on the social and intellectual features of the colonies. You can focus on the isolation
of the colonies, compare them to the urban colonial experience, and examine critical issues such as
6. Develop a lecture on the impact of the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening on the American
colonies. Discuss the impact these movements had on both New England and the Chesapeake region.
IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES
1. The Puritans are a fine example of a people whose long-term reputations have been simplified by
outsiders. Formulate a lecture that will explain the Puritan lifestyle complete with a discussion of why
2. A lecture on British folkways may assist in teaching this section of American history. Although it has
3. For a group that makes up one-half of the world’s population, women have certainly been given a
short shrift historically. This era of American history gives us an opportunity to discuss women’s roles
4. On a blackboard or poster board, make a list with your students of reasons why the Salem witchcraft
trials may have happened in the first place. You might organize it as a table, being sure to emphasize
the social, political, and cultural contexts in each column. To get their thoughts rolling, consider first
showing your students some clips from one of the many Hollywood attempts to portray the trials,
such as the Salem Witch Trials (2003), and ask your students how they might have portrayed the trials
differently if they had been the film’s director. What can the trials tell us about Puritan society in
general in the late seventeenth century? Although we like to think of the notion of witches as
outdated, what are some ways our own society engages in witch hunts?
5. In groups, have students research several different past civilizations that have relied on the use of
slave labor. You might select ancient Sparta, ancient China (Qin and Han dynasty), the Ottoman
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
2. In what way and why did women, especially those in Puritan communities, experience greater
freedoms and protections than their counterparts in Europe?
3. What were the causes of the Salem witchcraft trials? Was there any one cause in particular that is
necessary to explain the excesses of the episode?
PRACTICING CITIZENSHIP
This chapter details how the Great Awakening brought about contention within churches that caused
many of them to divide and brought about an explosion in the number of denominations, which is an
important feature of American life to the present. Explore this religious diversity outside of the classroom
by attending the service of a church or temple other than your own. Try to pick one that you are less
familiar with. Learn as much as you can by observing the people in attendance, by taking in the
surroundings, and by listening carefully to the content of the service itself. Did you feel welcome as a
