- Expand on the economic activities and
relationships of the different parts of the colonial social pyramid
discussed in the text. Explain especially the trend toward greater hierarchy,
with a wealthy elite on the top and jayle birds and others on
the bottom. The focus might be on the concern this tendency would have aroused
among the middle class of colonists.
REFERENCE: John J. McCusker and Russell R. Menard, The Economy of British America, 1607 - 1789 (1991).
- Show how the Great Awakening marked a
key transition from the lukewarm style of religion fostered by established
(tax-supported) colonial churches to the strong commitment required by the
voluntary (member-supported) churches that later became the
American norm. The focus might be on how a religious revival
like the Great Awakening could arouse marked fervor among some colonists while
also causing opposition among those who distrusted emotional religion. Consider
the arguments regarding the role that evangelical Protestantism played in
promoting the American Revolution. Consider the contentions of some historians
like Jon Butler that the Great Awakening did not have the extensive influence
usually attributed to it.
REFERENCES: Ronald Hoffman and Peter J. Albert,
eds., Religion in a Revolutionary Age (1994); Jon
Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing
the American People (1990).
- Examine the ordinary social lives of colonial
Americans. Consider the relationship between the way average people lived
in the eighteenth century and the kinds of public concerns they had in the
areas of politics, religion, economics, and culture.
REFERENCES: Stephanie G. Wolf, As
Various as Their Land: Everyday Lives of 18th Century Americans (1994);
Bruce Daniels, Puritans at Play: Leisure and Recreation
in Colonial New England (1995).
- Explain more fully the evolution of colonial
politics and why politics was especially important to colonists jealously
trying to control their own affairs. The emphasis might be on the development
of a distinctively American type of opposition politics, which
was anxious to preserve local liberties and fearful of centralized or corrupt
governmental powersuch as the royal governors represented.
REFERENCE: Bernard Bailyn, The
Origins of American Politics (1967).
