American social and cultural development

Seven of the colonies made an effort in 1754 to devise a plan of closer association. Their governors met at Albany to agree upon a treaty with the Iroquois. Benjamin Franklin, who was present, offered a scheme of colonial union which, if adopted, might have prevented or delayed the American Revolution. It called for a congress with power to negotiate with the Indians, control the public lands, maintain military forces, and collect taxes for common objects.

But though the Albany Congress accepted the scheme, the colonies were too jealous of their separate powers to approve it, while the British government feared that it might unduly increase the strength and independence of the provinces. The 13 colonies were separated by geographical distance and difficulties of travel, by differences of temper, religious thought, and custom, and by provincialism of spirit. Even in the crisis of war with the French they cooperated poorly.

Yet they were united by their common English tongue and its rich literature, by their common experience with representative forms of government, by the English common law, and by a basic similarity of outlook. They all believed in democracy in the sense of a rough equality of opportunity and (after John Locke) the possession by every man of the basic human rights of life, liberty, and property. During the 18th century, barriers between the colonies were steadily reduced. Roads were opened, coastal shipping increased, and intercolonial travel became more common. The newspapers and pamphlets of one province were read widely in others. Restless young men migrated freely, as Franklin moved from Boston to Philadelphia, and Alexander Hamilton from the British West Indies to New York. A post office service was established for British America, with Franklin as postmaster, 1753–55. Businessmen made frequent journeys from colony to colony to promote trade, and, if they were members of a fraternal order such as the Masons or of a special religious body such as the Quakers, found warm welcomes from fellow members. Mechanic groups were much the same in Charleston, New York, or Boston; the lawyers and large landholders of the various colonies held the same views.

Seven different colleges and a large number of private academies were established in the colonies before the Revolution. Harvard was founded in 1636, William and Mary in 1693, Yale in 1701, and King’s College (later Columbia) in 1754. The Great Awakening helped bring about the opening of the institutions which grew into Princeton (1746), Brown (1764), and Dartmouth (1769). At first collegiate studies emphasized the classical languages, mathematics, logic, rhetoric, and astronomy, but later science gained a strong foothold. Some large private libraries were collected, those of William Byrd in Virginia and Cotton Mather in Massachusetts being especially noteworthy.

Not all the books were imported, for American printers began reaching up toward a total of 1,000 titles, chiefly British, a year. Franklin was the most versatile American author, publishing essays, satires, scientific papers, and collections of aphorisms. Historical works of importance were written in the first 60 years of the 18th century by Robert Beverley for Virginia, John Lawson (an expert on Indian life) for North Carolina, and Thomas Prince for New England.

Thirteen colonials obtained the high honour of election to the Royal Society in the 60 years preceding the Revolution; among them were Cotton Mather of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Alexander Garden of South Carolina. Arguably Mather’s most important work was the melange of history, biography, religion, and science entitled Magnalia Christi Americana. Jonathan Edwards made an important contribution to philosophy in his treatise Freedom of Will (1754). Botanist John Bartram and astronomer David Rittenhouse, both Pennsylvanians, and the mathematician John Winthrop IV of Harvard all did creditable work.

Many specimens of a truly beautiful architecture, mainly English in design and detail, could be found by 1750 in all the colonies from Maine to South Carolina. Skilled cabinetmakers, migrating from Europe, trained excellent colonial artisans. At least four painters attained such distinction that their work has been carefully preserved and highly prized: John Singleton Copley, John Smibert, Robert Feke, and Benjamin West—the last of whom became head of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Town planning of a high order was to be found in Philadelphia, Williamsburg, and Savannah.

Altogether, the colonies by the end of the French and Indian War were becoming mature in some cultural as well as political and economic respects. Their lawyers, doctors, educators, and other professional men looked to Europe for standards but hardly felt inferior to their European contemporaries. Their intellectual ties with Great Britain grew closer with the improvement in communications. Newspapers clipped much of their foreign intelligence from British journals; students pursued law at the London Inns of Court and medicine at the University of Edinburgh; Anglican priests had to be trained and ordained in England; and British ideas, notably those of Sir Edward Coke, the Commonwealthmen, and John Locke, shaped political thought. Loyalty to the crown and affection for the mother country were still strong in 1763—stronger than intercolonial ties. Franklin thought that a union of the colonies was impossible without a course of flagrant oppression by Britain.

But after the French and Indian War the colonists had no intention of accepting a subordinate position in the empire. They were proud of the fighting record of their soldiers. They knew well that Philadelphia was the second largest city under the British flag and that as a seat of learning, scientific inquiry, and the arts it compared well with any city outside of London. They knew that American commercial enterprise equaled that of Britain and that they were making more rapid advances in some respects than any other people in the world. A spirit of self-sufficiency pervaded the land. It was especially strong among the settlers of mixed stock who had moved out toward the frontiers and among the artisans, mechanics, and labourers of the towns. The atmosphere was changing, and John Adams spoke truly when he later declared: “The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people.”

The bid for independence (1763–83)

Early in 1763 King George III and his ministers proclaimed the triumphant close of the Seven Years’ War and took the first long steps toward another conflict that would shake the British Empire to its foundations. Fifteen days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the secretary at war announced in the House of Commons a ministerial plan to raise the British garrison forces in North America from a peacetime establishment of 3,100 men to 7,500, declaring that these troops should “be supported the first year by England, afterwards by the Colonies.” This simple proposal raised issues that gradually drove the American colonists toward independence.