The Colonies, 1492-1750

by Reuben Gold Thwaites

129. Political and Social Conditions (1700-1750).

Virginia ideas versus New England ideas.

In the colonies, as afterwards in the States, there was a continual contest for supremacy between Virginia, where political power was lodged in the aristocratic class, and New England, where there was a voluntary recognition of aristocracy, but where the body of the people ruled. Virginia ideas strongly influenced North Carolina on the south, and Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania on the north. The tone of life in South Carolina was purely southern, with no trace of Virginian characteristics; New York, also free from Virginian methods, was strongly influenced by New England ideas.

Political affairs in the South;

The governing class in Virginia were of strong English stock, and when occasion for political action offered, were ready for it, proving themselves good soldiers and statesmen, and furnishing some of the most powerful leaders in the revolt against the mother-country. Their protracted fights with the French and Indians inured them to habits of the camp; while quarrels with their governors, and bickerings with the home government over the Navigation Acts (page [104]) and the impressment of seamen, furnished schooling in constitutional agitation. By the middle of the eighteenth century the majority of Virginians were natives of the soil, and their attachment to England was weaker than that of their fathers; while the considerable foreign element weakened the bond of union with the mother-country. In Maryland general hostility to the Church of England and its impolitic attempt to suppress dissent, was an important factor in widening the breach. North Carolina continued to be distinguished for disorder and a low state of morals, education, and wealth, and produced no great leaders in the opposition to Great Britain. The people, having a keen perception of their rights, were eager enough in the patriot cause; but there was a large Tory party, and consequently fierce internal dissensions characterized the history of the colony throughout the Revolutionary agitation. Being dependent on England for trade and supplies, the aristocratic planters of South Carolina were drawn much closer to the mother-country than in any other continental colony. The Tory element was powerful, yet the best and strongest men of the slave-holding class were patriots, and furnished several popular leaders of ability,—the colony ranking second only to Virginia, in the southern group, during the struggle with the home government. Georgia was but newly settled, and the English colonists were still strongly attached to their native country; she was therefore more loyal than her neighbors. The settlers from New England, with the political shrewdness peculiar to their section, succeeded in committing Georgia to the patriot cause; but the mass of the people remained lukewarm, and when English rule was overturned there was much lawlessness. The community was immature, and had not yet learned the art of self-government.

in the Middle Colonies;

The Navigation Acts and the impressment of seamen bore hard on Pennsylvania, and there was no lack of complaint against other forms of ministerial interference with colonial rights. But the Quakers, who were chiefly of the shopkeeping and trading class, had not experienced the long and painful struggle for existence that had been the lot of most of the other colonists. They had been prosperous from the beginning; and being conservative, timid, and slow in disposition and action, were not easily persuaded to make material sacrifices for the sake of political sentiment. Thus Pennsylvania was an uncertain factor in the revolt. New Jersey, with no Indian frontier, no foreign trade, and but light taxes, had few causes for complaint against England. Her rulers were thrifty, conservative farmers, who were disposed to be loyal; yet as they were of pure English descent, and tenacious of their liberties, they were gradually drawn into an attitude of opposition to English rule. New York was the only one of the middle group of colonies which stood stoutly against England. Since the days of Andros the people "caught at everything to lessen the prerogative." New York city, as the second commercial port on the coast, was naturally a seat of opposition to the navigation laws. But the Tory minority were nowhere more active or determined than in New York.

and in New England.

The New Englanders were pure in race, simple and frugal in habit, enterprising, vigorous, intelligent, and with a high average of education. They were small freeholders, possessed of a democratic system which had powers of indefinite expansion, and were trained in a political school well calculated to produce great popular leaders. Their political principles, developed by a century and a half of contention with the home government, pervaded the colonial revolt, and were carried out in the national government in which it resulted. The New England Confederation of 1643 bore fruit in the Stamp-Act congress of 1765, and still more in the Confederation of 1781 and the Constitution of 1787.

130. Results of the Half-Century (1700-1750).