8th Grade

Today in class we reviewed motivations of the New England Colonies and the Middle Colonies. I refreshed the class as to the expectations and then we worked through Section 3 of Chapter 4 with our daily summaries. You are having your Chapter 4 test on Wednesday of next week. You will have all the information your need to begin preparing for the test after you copy the below notes into your notebook.

Thanks
Mr.C

Life in the Colonies
Chapter 4
Section 5

Colonial Society
More social equality than in England
Status determined by birth or wealth

Gentry- top of the class structure
Wealthy planters, merchants, royal officials, ministers, and successful lawyers
Middle Class- included: farmers that worked their own land, skilled craft workers, and trades people.
¾ of colonists belonged in this class
1000’s of people came to America as indentured servants and worked their way into the “middle class”


Women’s work in the Colonies
City women
Took care of the home
Cooked, cleaned, milked the cows, took care of children and made clothing
Sometimes worked outside the home
Country Women
Worked the fields with husband
Harvesting was “women’s work”
Hunt
Raise livestock

Females could cut down their time as Indentured servants by marrying

Women who worked outside the home
Nurses, midwives, seamstresses, butchers, cook, or printers

Learned from husband, father, or brother

A woman could take over a business if her husband died

African Cultural Influences
Language and growing techniques varied depending on where the slaves came from
Many of the fine crafts Africans made in the cities varied as well. Ex- ropes, barrels, plates

Great Awakening
A religious movement
1730’s-1740’s
All classes effected

Jonathan Edwards was the father of the movement
From New England
A reintroduction to God and his wrath and grace

1739 George Whitefield arrived from England and continued to advance the movement

Impact of the Great Awakening
New churches were formed
Forces even greater religious tolerance
Spread democratic feelings
Formal religious training less important than “a heart filled with the Holy Spirit”
Encouraged independence
Challenge authority when liberty was at stake
Self governance

Education in the Colonies
New England
Towns with 50 or more people were required to hire a school teacher
Children needed to be taught to “read and understand the principals of religion”
Massachusetts established the first public school

Middle and Southern Colonies
Private schools established by churches and individual families
Only wealthy kids got educated because families had to pay
Tutors also used for families that lived too far out to go to a school
Some families sent kids back to England to be educated

Apprenticeships and Dame Schools
Apprentice- works for a master to learn a trade or craft
Started when a boy was 12 or 13
Apprentice would live with master for the 6 or 7 years they were in apprenticeship
No pay
Dame School
Private school run by women in their homes
For girls
Taught them to spin, weave, and read and write

Spread of Ideas
Many laws of nature discovered during 1600’s
Newton

Enlightenment Spreads
Reason and scientific method could explain society
Natural laws that governed human behavior
John Locke- English philosopher- said people gain knowledge by observing and experimenting

Ben Franklin
Son of a soap and candle maker
Started a printing press business at 17
Wanted to use reason to improve the world around him

Colonial Cities
Centers of trade between coast and back country
Way to spread culture