British North America
SSUSH2 The student will trace the ways that
the economy and society of British North
America developed.
a. Explain the development of mercantilism and
the trans-Atlantic trade.
b. Describe the Middle Passage, growth of the
African population, and African-American
culture.
c. Identify Benjamin Franklin as a symbol of social
mobility and individualism.
d. Explain the significance of the Great Awakening.
Mercantilism
a. Explain the development of
mercantilism and the transAtlantic trade.
Mercantilism
• Economic System
England
• Colonies exist for the
good of the mother
country
America
Mercantilism
• Major goal:
– Acquisition of gold and silver through
favorable balance of trade
• How?
– Colonies exist to provide raw materials &
markets
– Import
vs. Export
Trans-Atlantic Trade
• Controlled by British
• Navigation Acts (1660 & 1696):
– Required colonists to buy British goods only
– Raw materials were to be sold only to Britain
– Manufacturing items in colonies was banned
The “Middle Passage”
b. Describe the Middle Passage,
growth of the African population,
and African-American culture.
Triangle Trade
• Trade between Europe, Africa and the
Americas
• What was traded?
– Europe → Africa
– Africa → Americas
– Americas → Europe
Finished Goods
Slaves
Raw Materials
“Middle Passage”
Growth of African Population
• Grew quickly
• Why?
Remember…
1. English had taken over
slave trade
2. No economic benefit to
indentured servants
3. Easier to control
African-American Culture
• Different in each region
• Some Common Themes:
– Christianity
• Encouraged by the Great Awakening
– Music → Gospel
– Unique languages: Gullah, Pidgin English
• Merging of African & European cultures
Benjamin Franklin
c. Identify Benjamin Franklin as a
symbol of social mobility and
individualism.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
• Distinctly American
• Symbol of social
mobility &
individualism
"In Franklin could be merged the
virtues of Puritanism without its
defects, the illumination of the
Enlightenment without its heat.“
-Henry Steele Commager
(American Historian, 1902-1998)
Benjamin Franklin
Electricity
•
•
•
•
•
•
Scientist
Inventor
Statesman
Printer
Philosopher
Economist
Charted the Gulf Stream
Bifocals
Lightning Rod
“Founding Father”
Signed: Declaration,
Constitution
Franklin Stove
Pennsylvania Gazette
Poor Richard's Almanack
1st Public Library in America
Quotes
Hard Work → wealth
Sayings
“American Dream”
Franklin as a symbol…
• Of Social Mobility
Born
poor
Hard
work
Social mobility:
Ability of a person
to move up in
social status in a
given society
– Born in Boston in 1706, 15th of 17 children
– Age 12 – apprentice to brother (James) a printer
– Ran away to Philadelphia
– Worked odd jobs as printer/clerk
– Founded a literary society
– Founded Pennsylvania Gazette in 1728
– Founded Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1733
Becomes successful!
Franklin as a symbol… Individualism: Ability of
• Of individualism
– WHY?
How did Franklin become
successful?
a person to be his own
person – to find success
through himself
The Great Awakening
d. Explain the significance of the
Great Awakening.
The Great Awakening
• Series of religious revivals that swept
through America in the mid-1700’s
• Major Figures:
– Jonathan Edwards
– George Whitefield
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
• Preacher in Northampton, Massachusetts
• “Sinners in the Hands of an
Angry God”
– One of the most famous sermons
in American history
Excerpt from Sinners…
…Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as
lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and
pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go,
you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and
plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy
constitution, and your own care and prudence, and
best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would
have no more influence to uphold you and keep you
out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a
falling rock…
…And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a
day wherein Christ has flung the door of mercy wide
open, and stands in the door calling and crying with a
loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are
flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God;
many are daily coming from the east, west, north and
south; many that were very lately in the same
miserable condition that you are in, are in now an
happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him
that has loved them and washed them from their sins
in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of
God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To
see so many others feasting, while you are pining and
perishing!
George Whitefield (1714-1770)
• The “Great Itinerant”
– Precursor to circuit riders
• Early Methodist
"Father Abraham, whom have you in heaven? Any
Episcopalians? No! Any Presbyterians? No! Any Independents
or Methodists? No, No No! Whom have you there? We don't
know those names here. All who are here are Christians...Oh, is
this the case? Then God help us to forget your party names and
to become Christians in deed and truth."
Whitefield Preaching. Woodcut.
The Great Awakening
• Major Emphasis:
– Free will
>
Predestination
– Democracy
>
Monarchy
Significance
• Growth of Baptist and Methodist churches
in America
– Why?
More emotional than Puritan/Anglican services
Appealed to poor/slaves
• Expanded education
Needed for religious understandings
• Democratized religion
Destroyed religious “theocracy”