MEMORIAL HALL, HARVARD COLLEGE.
The intellectual progress of the colonies was remarkable. The first printing press was set up at Cambridge in 1639, and newspapers and books were in general circulation. Harvard College was founded in Massachusetts in 1638; William and Mary, in Virginia, in 1692; Yale, in Connecticut, in 1700; the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), in 1746; the University of Pennsylvania, in 1749; and King's College (now Columbia), in New York, in 1754. Much attention was given to education, commerce was greatly extended, the oppressive Navigation Act being generally disregarded, and thousands of citizens were in prosperous circumstances.
More significant than all else was the growth of the sentiment of unity among the different colonies. Although properly known as provincials, to distinguish them from the British, they now, instead of speaking of themselves as New Englanders or Virginians or Englishmen, often substituted the name "Americans." The different colonies were looked upon as members of the same great family, ready to make common cause against a danger threatening any one of them. Some of the bolder ones began to express the thought that it would be a fine thing if they were all independent of the mother country, though for years the sentiment assumed no importance.
BIBLE BROUGHT OVER IN
THE "MAYFLOWER"
IN PILGRIM HALL,
NEW PLYMOUTH.
Now was the time for England to display wisdom, justice, and statesmanship toward her subjects in America. Had she treated them as she now treats Canada and Australia and her other colonies, there never would have been a Revolution. No doubt in time we should have separated from her, but the separation would have been peaceable.
But while Great Britain has always been immeasurably above Spain in her treatment of her American subjects, she was almost as foolish, because she chilled the loyalty that had been proven in too many instances to be doubted. The mother country was laboring under the weight of burdensome taxes, and, since the colonies had always been prompt in voting money and supplies as well as men to assist England, Parliament thought she saw a way of shouldering a large part of this burden upon the Americans. Her attempts to do so and the results therefrom properly belong to the succeeding chapter.
HOME LIFE OF THE COLONISTS.
A few facts will assist in understanding the events that follow. Slavery, as has been stated, was legal and existed in all the colonies, but climatic conditions caused it to flourish in the South and decline in the North. All the colonies were Protestant, though religious liberty was permitted everywhere.