AP® United States History review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/us-history/units/2/2-7)
Unit 2 · Topic 2.7
2.7 Colonial Society and Culture
Between 1607 and 1754 the British colonies grew more English in culture and politics, a process called Anglicization, even as immigration made them more diverse. The First Great Awakening and the Enlightenment brought new religious and political ideas, and colonial assemblies grew used to governing themselves.
Key terms
- Anglicization
- First Great Awakening
- Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield
- Enlightenment
- colonial self-government
Anglicization
Anglicization means becoming more English. As trade with Britain grew, colonists bought British cloth, tea, dishes and books. Wealthy colonists copied British fashions and building styles. Newspapers and almanacs spread British news and ideas; Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack (1732–1758) was a bestseller. The Church of England was the official church in several southern colonies.
Colonists also embraced British political ideas. They took pride in the 'rights of Englishmen', protections that went back to the Magna Carta (1215) and were strengthened by the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the English Bill of Rights (1689), which limited the monarch's power and protected Parliament.
Growing diversity
At the same time, the colonies became more diverse. Large numbers of Germans settled in Pennsylvania, and Scots-Irish migrants moved into the backcountry from Pennsylvania down to the Carolinas. French Huguenots (Protestants), Dutch families in New York and small Jewish communities in cities like New York and Newport added to the mix. Africans were the largest group of newcomers in many southern colonies.
This mix made religious toleration more practical, especially in the Middle Colonies, and it meant British identity was layered on top of many other identities.
The First Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening was a wave of Protestant religious revivals in the 1730s and 1740s. Preachers stressed emotional conversion and a personal relationship with God over formal church ritual. Jonathan Edwards, a Massachusetts minister, preached the famous sermon 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' (1741). George Whitefield, an English preacher, toured the colonies in 1739–1740 and drew huge outdoor crowds.
The Awakening split churches into 'New Lights', who supported the revivals, and 'Old Lights', who opposed them. It encouraged ordinary people, including women and some enslaved people, to question the authority of established ministers, and it led to new colleges such as Princeton (founded 1746). It was also one of the first experiences shared across colonies.
The Enlightenment and self-government
The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement that stressed reason, science and the idea that people could improve society. John Locke's argument that government rests on the consent of the governed and protects natural rights would become central to the Revolution (3.4). Benjamin Franklin's electrical experiments made him a famous Enlightenment figure.
Colonists also practiced self-government. Virginia's House of Burgesses first met in 1619, the Mayflower Compact (1620) set up self-rule at Plymouth, and New England towns held town meetings. Every colony had an elected assembly, and assemblies used the 'power of the purse', control over taxes and often the governor's salary, to push back against royal governors. In the southern colonies, wealthy planters dominated both local government and the elected assemblies. In the Zenger trial (1735), a New York jury acquitted a printer accused of criticizing the governor, a step toward freedom of the press.
Voting was limited to men who owned property, but because land was easier to get in America than in England, a larger share of white men could vote.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Explaining an effect of a movement
Short-answer practice: Briefly explain ONE effect of the First Great Awakening on colonial society.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Name the movement's key feature: emotional, personal religion led by traveling preachers.
- Step 2: Pick one effect and give evidence.
- Step 3: Explain how the movement caused it.
Answer: Model answer: The First Great Awakening weakened the authority of established ministers. Preachers like George Whitefield taught that each person could experience salvation directly, and many listeners left their churches to join 'New Light' congregations. This habit of questioning religious authority encouraged colonists to think of themselves as able to judge their leaders, an attitude that later carried over into politics.
Common mistakes
- Confusing the First Great Awakening (1730s–1740s, colonial) with the Second Great Awakening (early 1800s, 4.10).
- Treating Anglicization and diversity as contradictions. Both happened at once: colonists became more British in trade and politics while immigration made them more varied.
- Overstating colonial democracy. Assemblies were elected, but only property-owning white men could vote.
On the exam
- Questions often ask how the Great Awakening or the Enlightenment helped set up the American Revolution. The link is challenges to authority and ideas of natural rights.
- Colonial self-government (House of Burgesses, town meetings, assemblies) is common evidence for continuity questions spanning Periods 2 and 3.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
5 questions on 2.7 Colonial Society and Culture. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
"He was at first permitted to preach in some of our churches; but the clergy, taking a dislike to him, soon refus'd him their pulpits, and he was oblig'd to preach in the fields. The multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended his sermons were enormous, and it was matter of speculation to me, who was one of the number, to observe the extraordinary influence of his oratory on his hearers . . . .
It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seem'd as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro' the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street."
Source: Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia printer and writer, Autobiography, section written in 1788, describing the English preacher George Whitefield's visit to Philadelphia in 1739.
The developments Franklin describes were part of
The religious movement described in the passage most directly contributed to
Franklin's point of view in the passage is best described as that of
"The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire . . . ."
"O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God . . . . You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder . . . ."
Source: Jonathan Edwards, Congregationalist minister of Northampton, Massachusetts, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," sermon preached at Enfield, Connecticut, July 8, 1741.
Edwards's sermon is most typical of which feature of the religious revivals of the 1730s and 1740s?
Edwards's approach differed most from that of Enlightenment thinkers in the colonies, who
0 of 5 answered