American society between 1730 and 1776 was defined by the enormous changes that permeated every aspect of colonial life.
American society between 1730 and 1776 was defined by the enormous changes that permeated every aspect of colonial life. The effects of the Seven Years War, the Great Awakening, new ideas about the relationships between slaveholders and their slaves, and modernized views on one’s family all contributed to the political, religious, and social revolutions within colonial society. Politically and economically, the taxes imposed by the British to compensate for their enormous war debt were violently opposed in colonies throughout America. Towns that were originally governed by men of high religious or economic standing were being scrutinized by those who rejected the Halfway Covenant. The relationships of colonial families and their slaves also was a radical change from the previously widely-accepted social standards. These changes encompassed all aspects of colonial life in 1730, and are what initiated the formal separation of America from Britain in 1776.
The Seven Years War, fought between the French and the British (with the Iroquois eventually joining on the side of the British), resulted in a British victory. The French surrendered their land in America to the British, as stated in the Treaty of Paris written in 1763. However, this hard-earned victory cost the British a £137 million national debt. (Norton, pg. 124) Grenville’s solution to this debt was taxation of the colonies. The Navigation Acts (which had already been in effect for over a century) became more strictly enforced – however, the colonists had come to expect a large amount of latitude because these laws were very loosely enforced by colonial customs officers. Therefore, because the Navigation Acts were not providing enough revenue to the British, the Stamp Act was implemented in 1765. While the British stated in the “Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress” that, “…it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them without their own consent, given personally or by their representatives.” (Doc. B), the truth was that the taxes imposed in the Stamp Act were solely for British revenue, conducted without regard to the colonists’ wishes. Daniel Dulany, in 1765, wrote of the British method of taxation and control of trade, “A right to impose an internal tax on the colonies, without their consent for the single purpose of revenue, is denied, a right to regulate their trade without their consent is admitted.” (Doc. C) The colonists who felt similarly to Dulany either wrote letters to Parliament through Committees of Correspondence, or formed mobs to partake in acts of violence and destruction against Crown property (such as the burning of The Gaspee, a British ship patrolling Rhode Island harbors for violators of the Navigation Acts). The Sugar Acts, the Declaratory Act, and the Townshend Acts followed, with perhaps the most influential act – the Intolerable Act – being enforced in 1774. The Boston Port Act closed to harbor of Boston, which was the goal of the Intolerable Acts – as well as shutting down the Massachusetts Assembly, and sending more British troops to patrol the coastline.
