The social development of the colonies during the 18th century, leading up to the American Revolution, was a social and cultural convergence that led to the colonies in North America being more like British society than in any time, since the first colonists landed on American shores. In ‘Pursuits of Happiness’, Jack Greene claims that the New England colonies, far from being the norm, were the exception. They became less settled, cohesive and coherent as the century wore on, less like the original puritanical settlements and more like the Chesapeake and other British colonies. The puritans moved away from their community and traditionalism towards a more individual and modern outlook just like those back in Britain and in the other colonies. By the mid-18th century, the colonists in the south had become the wealthiest in America. Residents of Charleston, South Carolina were earning four times more, per capita, than the tobacco farmers of Virginia, and six times the amount of those in New York and Philadelphia. These white settlers accumulated considerable wealth, and the richest of these were able to live a luxurious, almost anglicised lifestyle. English style mansions were built and in urban centres such as Charleston and Savannah, and cultural institutions such as libraries, theatres and race courses usually seen only within the empire back home in Britain, were also erected. The social development of those in the colonies, from north to south, led to a convergence of the differing colonies and closer to the British experience throughout the British Atlantic world. This development was not immediately brought with the original immigrants but was the result of the exploitation of the economic realities of their new environment.
Tenant farmers back in Britain where dependent on the state, whereas in the colonies most free men had conditions which permitted them to employ themselves and their families. These independent conditions came to become cherished amongst the colonists as a precious state. Every man who owned land in British America was entitled to a vote, whereas in Britain, less than 1% of people were entitled. This provided the roots of democracy absent in Britain, and this was further enveloped by the fact that there was such a wide range of ethnic groups present who took great interest in politics. The opportunity to vote that these colonists had, did not however gain them any representation at Westminster, and their predication to their mother nation was tested by taxes levied on trade and to support the British military. Following the Seven Years War, an army of ten thousand men were garrisoned in North America and these men had to be maintained by taxes on the colonies. The colonists baulked at such taxes and interference from the distant parliament where no colonist sat. The war had also removed the common enemy that Britain and the colonists shared, as now little threat was posed by the French or natives. The troops even began to be seen following a British truce with the natives as a force preventing colonist’s expansion, rather than for the colonist’s own protection.
The implications of these factors led initially to each of the colonies becoming more like the mother land through the consumption of British goods and their own social development influenced by the wealth they began to acquire. The consumption of consumer goods from Britain led to an Anglo-American market that began to standardise everyday life. Southern and northern colonies were buying the same goods, and therefore had the same consumer experience as they all became more anglicized. Liberal republicanism which was a common political belief in British America, held the view that every man is created equal. The slaves and natives may not have been entitled to the same rights as the white land owners, but the Americans were well aware of the freedom they had in comparison to those back in Britain. The fear of increasing British governance in America threated that freedom. The development of an American social society eventually led them believe that they had to fight for their own independence, and with the empire unwilling to let these colonists who routinely ignored imperial regulations drift from their control, conflict was surely and shortly on the horizon.
Considering the evidence presented, it can be concluded that not only did 18th century British American society converged both together as colonies, but also became more like the mother nation than at any time since the colonies were established. Conversely this want for the luxuries and political equality of those back in Britain, combined a new found independent lifestyle, led the colonists to want for the best of both worlds, and it was this which would ultimately separate them from Britain. The fear of an aristocratic upper class found in Britain and a racial divide between white and black saw the colonial elite, surrender more social equality and political freedom to the land owners of the American seaboard. The wider implication of the convergence of the two regions was that the colonist did not feel inferior to those in Britain, and indeed now wanted for more. Lack of representation at Westminster, and being required to pay taxes to a parliament where no colonist had a seat would very quickly fuel an independence movement that would create a war and ultimately the separation of the two regions.
Bibliography
Taylor. A, American Colonies: The Settlement of North America to 1800 (Penguin Books Ltd; New Ed, 2003).
Greene. J.P, Pursuits of Happiness: The Social Development of the Early Modern British Colonies and the Formation of American Culture (Chapel Hill, 1988).
Galenson. D, The Social Origins of Some Early Americans Re-examined (William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 35, 1978).
Breen. T.H, An Empire of Goods: The Anglicization of Colonial America, 1690-1776. (The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 25, 1986).
Breen. T.H, Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence (New York, 2004).
J. Greene, Pursuits of Happiness (Chapel Hill, 1988) p.170.
J. Greene, Pursuits of Happiness, p.174.
A. Taylor, American Colonies: The Settlement of North America to 1800 (Penguin Books Ltd; New Ed, 2003), p.137.
A. Taylor, American Colonies, p.8.
D. Galenson, The Social Origins of Some Early Americans Re-examined (William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 35, 1978) p.477.
T. Breen, Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence (New York, 2004) p.158.
T. Breen, An Empire of Goods: The Anglicization of Colonial America, 1690-1776. (The Journal of British Studies, 1986) p.140.
A. Taylor, American Colonies, p.121.
A. Taylor, American Colonies, p.123.
T. Breen, Marketplace of Revolution, p.20.
J. Greene, Pursuits of Happiness, p.205.
J. Greene, Pursuits of Happiness, p.80.
J. Greene, Pursuits of Happiness, p.147.
J. Greene, Pursuits of Happiness, p.147.
A. Taylor, American Colonies, p.489.
A. Taylor, American Colonies, p.141.
A. Taylor, American Colonies, p.461.
A. Taylor, American Colonies, p.483.
T. Breen, Marketplace of Revolution, p.169.
J. Greene, Pursuits of Happiness, p.61.
J. Greene, Pursuits of Happiness, p.180.
A. Taylor, American Colonies, p.486.