Life in Thirteen Colonies

Life in Thirteen Colonies

            Initially, the United States of America comprised thirteen states that had been colonies in Britain till 1776 when independence was declared and confirmed in 1783 by the Treaty of Paris. The Thirteen colonies are also called Thirteen American Colonies or the Thirteen British Colonies. They comprise Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, New Jersey, and New Hampshire[1]. These colonies had very similar constitutional, political, life, religion, and legal systems controlled by protestant English-Speakers. The New England states (Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire) were established mainly for religious beliefs. In contrast, the other colonies were established for economic and business expansion[2]. In the New World, all the thirteen colonies were possession parts of Britain, which also comprised colonies in the Caribbean, Florida, and Canada. Between 1675 and 1775, the colonial population raised from about 2500 to 2.5 million, shifting Native Americans[3]. This population comprised colonized people to a slavery system allowed in all the colonies before the American Revolutionary War[4]. In the 18th century, the British government operated its states under mercantilism policy, in which the essential government managed its possession for the economic advantage of the mother state.

The Thirteen colonies had a high amount of active elections locally, and self-governance and they counterattacked London’s mandates for excessive control. The 1754-1763 French and Italian War against France and its allies in India contributed to threats between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain. The colonies between 1950 started uniting with one another despite directly dealing with Britain. These activities of inter-colonial led to a spirit of shared American identity and contributed to calls of safeguarding of the colonists “Freedom as Englishmen,” particularly the rule of “without representation no taxation.” Disagreement with British government rights and over taxes contributed to the revolution in America, in which colonies operated together in continental congress form[5]. The colonists resisted Revolutionary War occurring between 1775-1783, with the help of France’s kingdom and, to much little extent, the Kingdom of Spain and the Dutch Republic.

The table below shows the thirteen colonies’ year of statehood and foundation alphabetically.

A question arises in the form of life in the thirteen colonies. Many Americans believe that life was harsh; the average colonist was poor and that most were uneducated.  This is, however, untrue.  Most of the citizens within the colonies lived a rich, full life with the best clothes, dinners and social gatherings and education from prestigious schools[6].  Not everyone in the colonies lived this life though[7].  Some were forced into indentured servitude to pay for their passage to the new world or to pay debts owed. Another segment of the population, especially in the southern colonies was forced into a life of slavery and bondage.

Over 2 million individuals in 1775 habited in the thirteen American colonies and approximately 400 000 of them survived in Virginia, the most populous and largest colony. Numerous of these people were cultivators or planters who worked and lived on small farms of not more than two hundred acres[8]. Small number of Virginia’s relatively were rich merchants and planters, and only about 2% of the population survived in Virginia’s few small cities or towns such as Richmond, York, Nor-folk, Fredericksburg, or Williamsburg. Almost 150 000 of people staying in Virginia were enslaved black Americans most of whom operated in tobacco plantations for white masters. Small farmers staying in Virginia about the period of the revolution in America was likely alarmed majorly with trying and surviving to change their family and their lives. To earn their livelihood, planters planted primary cash crops; also farmers grew different other things for survival. Farmers in Virginia raised vegetable such as carrots, beans, peas, and cabbage for consumption as means of life. Corn was significant crop because it gave food for people.

Furthermore, to earn living, planters planted cash crops that could be sold for credit or money for the purpose of buying required household products, livestock, and tools which could not be manufactured on the farm. Prior to revolution in America, tobacco in Virginia was most crops grown and sold to Scottish and English merchants. Towards early 19^th century, nevertheless, numerous farmers started planting cereals such as oats, corn, and wheat. These crops were grown by fewer workers because they did not deplete the soil nutrients the way tobacco did, and were needed mostly in West Indies and Europe[9]. Nevertheless, numerous Virginians started planting these grains, tobacco kept to be the largest export crop in the colonies.

Planters of tobacco normally depended on people enslaved to assist work the plantations. Each extra worker could plant about four to five acres of tobacco, but operators were costly[10]. Cultivators had to weigh out the cost of purchasing a slave or hiring one against the income they expected to benefit from selling of their crops end of the year.

In the thirteen colonies also relied on animals for means of life. On Virginia farms animals played numerous purposes. Horses and oxen were firm animals to work on the farms and could be used to push wagons and carts, transport tobacco from tobacco fields to warehouse for inspection, and plough the plantations[11]. Furthermore, farmers reared chickens, cows, pigs, and other fowl for livelihood. Pigs were slaughtered for lard, meat, or soap for the farm, sheep were kept for wool which could be spun into yarn and then woven or knitted into cloth. On Virginia farm colony, beef was main food, and cows released milk for both cheese and meat. Wild animals such as deer were hunted to complement the diet in the family.

In the colonies trade and merchant business grew by not only providing the basic needs of the colonists, but new sources of revenue and product for England.  Music, food, drink, social gatherings, and taverns were an intricate part of colonial life[12].  Some colonies even began to develop their own cultures, way of life and lingo.  Many of the colonists simply considered themselves British subjects and the colonies an extension of England. Others though saw the North American continent as an unexplored treasure trove waiting to be settled from coast to coast by Americans, not British subjects of King George[13].  Therefore, the life of people in the thirteen colonies was based on trade and agriculture. They relied on various crops cultivated as means of survival.

Religion in the Thirteen Colonies

In all the thirteen colonies in America different religions were practiced. The New England area, in the north, was controlled by Congregationalists, comprising Separatists and Puritans such as pilgrims. The region in the Middle had countless religious differences, with numerous Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Quakers, and Lutherans and members of Dutch and German Reformed Churches. In the Southern Colonies Anglicanism was dominating. Religion was a central portion of most colonists’ life, including those in slavery or servitude.   The colonies boasted a number of different denominations[14].  There were Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Lutheran and Catholic[15].  In many cases education carried a religious center in almost every institution and subject.  Some colonies were populated by a majority of one certain denomination or Christian belief system, while other colonies strictly forbid certain religious denominations from practicing within the colonies borders. Those colonists who chose to worship in the undesired or banned denominations faced scrutiny, fines or even imprisonment.

Moreover, in order to know how current Americans balanced among local community practice, national law, and personal freedom of belief originated, it is assisting to know some of the common patterns and experiences around the religion in colonial norms in the time between 1600 and 1776[16]. Christian religious groups in the ancient era of what eventually emerged the United States performed a powerful responsibility in each of the thirteen colonies, and most tried to impose firm religious compliance via both local town rules and colony governments.

Most tried to implement stern religious observance. Laws ordered that everyone join worship house and pay tribute that financed wages of ministers. Out of the 13 colonies eight had “established” or official churches and in those colonies dissenters who sought to proselytize or practice a diverse Christianity version or non-Christian doctrines were persecuted sometimes[17].  Though most colonists preferred themselves Christians, this did not imply that they survived in a culture of religious harmony[18]. Instead, opposing groups of Christians frequently trusted their personal faiths and practices offered unique values that required safeguarding against those who dishonored, forcing a requirement for regulation and rule.

Congregationalism and Anglicanism between 1680 and 1760, an offshoot of English Puritan movement, initiated themselves as the major organized denomination in most of the colonies. As the 17^th and 18^th century passed on, though, constantly the protestant wing of Christianity gave birth to new movements, such as the Unitarians, Methodists, Baptists, and Quakers alongside many more, at times called “Dissenters.[19]” In societies where one prevailing faith was governing, current congregation was frequent viewed as disloyal agitators who were upsetting the social regulation.

In spite of the effort to rule society on Christian (and more precisely protestant) values, the initial decades of colonial period in most colonies were spotted by unequal practices in religion, reduced communication between local settlers, and a population of “Theeves, Murtherers, idle people, and Adulterers. A normal Anglican American parish extended between 70 and 110 miles, and was frequent very sparingly populated[20]. Women in some regions justified for no more than a quarter of the population, and provided comparatively small number of orthodox households and severe scarcity of clergymen, life religiously was irregular and haphazard for most.

Further, Christianity was complicated by the extensive practice of alchemy, astrology, and types of witchcraft. The anxiety of such practices can be evaluated by the renowned trial held in 1693 and 1692 Massachusetts, Salem. Astonishingly, experimentation and other supernatural practices were not altogether separated from religion in minds of numerous “natural philosophers”, who sometimes reason of them as trials that could unlock the scripture secrets.

In turn, the associations become more established, the impacts of the clergy and their churches developed. Slavery which was also strongly institutionalized and established between 1680s and 1780s was structured by religion[21]. The application of violence anti slaves, their social dissimilarity, together with the settlers’ disapproval for all religions other than religion led to destructiveness of strange breadth, the loss of ancient religious practices among many slaves brought to the interior colonies between 1680s and revolution in America.

Local differences in ethnic differences and protestant practices among the white settlers did foster diversity in religion. Transportation, poor communication, wide distances, the clerical shortage and bad weather dictated religious differences from city to city and from area to area[22]. With Catholics, Huguenots, Dutch Calvinists, Jews, German Reformed pietist, and other religions arriving in developing numbers, most colonies with Congregational or Anglican establishments had small choice but to show some extent of spiritual acceptance.

Revival of religion swept the colonies in the 1740s and 1740s. The Great Awakening, in retrospect led to the revolutionary movement in a number of habits: it pushed Awakeners to mobilize, organize, petition, and gave them with political experience; it motivated believers to follow their trusts even if that meant flouting with their church; it removed clerical power in issues of conscience, and it interrogated the freedom of civil power to intercede in all issues of religion.

Culture in the Thirteen Colonies

The term cultural colonialism means to two practices related: the postponement of colonial state authority through institutions, cultural knowledge, and activities (specifically media and education) or the logical relegation of one theoretical framework for identity of culture over others[23]. The term is most frequently arrayed in reference to responsibility of cultural authority in the control of postcolonial and colonial or southern societies. Culture and society in colonial America differed widely among social and ethnic groups, and from colony to another colony, but specifically majored around agriculture as it was the main venture in many colonies. Religion also performed a main responsibility in shaping some cultures locally. Most American believes that the population of the colonies was made up of British citizens, but in reality, only around sixty percent actually came from England[24]. There were a good number of Scots, Irish, German and Dutch. Along with these ethnic groups, various African Americans from several different African countries lived in the colonies as slaves.

Although many women would play major roles later during the Revolutionary war years, many struggled to find a place for them in the colonies. Many were forced to marry young, often were not granted the education opportunities men were and divorce from a bad marriage was seldom granted. Some women did manage to become rather independent, operating plantations and farms, growing and managing what would become cash crops and speculating in land sales.  Some would later operate in underground espionage rings.

The knowledge that culture is a channel for economic and political authority and for confrontation predates postcolonial theory political and social thought. Sociologist in African American such as W.E.B DuBois in the early 20^th century highlighted the connection between economic, political, and cultural power, debating that Eurocentric and racist scientific knowledge was influential both in allowing racism in the United States and in justifying systems of colonialism and slavery globally. The Southern Colonies were divided into two groups: the Southern Region and Chesapeake. This difference was formed by the colonists as rejected to government of British, as the means of life in each area was different.

Furthermore, culture in the thirteen colonies was influenced by the history of combined colonies, its association with the Europe culture, England traditions, Christian religious life, and results of the British Empire. Even though British culture is a separate entity, the customs of Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and England are different and have different degrees of the distinctiveness and overlap. Particularly the literature of British is esteemed. Britain has also created prominent contributions to cinema, television, architecture, and art. Dominions and British colonies, in turn, affected British culture, specifically British cuisine. The culture evolved in the thirteen colonies to govern similar practices in the regions. Some rules and regulations concerning how the colonies should run were enacted. All the thirteen colonies were expected to adhere to certain beliefs and doctrines for unity. The thirteen colonies believed in the unity of purpose to achieve set goals and objectives. Just like the organizations, the thirteen colonies set goals and objectives to make them attain their targets. They ensured in the plantations each colony adhered to policy settings such as slavery policies. All the colonies were expected to keep the secrets about their operation. The means of livelihood also included some set rules and policies to ensure that each colony remained independent.

Indentured Servitude and Slavery in the Thirteen Colonies

Servitude had an extended period in England, tracing back to unenlightened serfdom. In British America, Indentured servitude was the main system of labor force colonies in British until it was at long last overawed by slavery. During this period, the system was so bulbous that more than three-quarters of all the immigrants to colonies in the British in the South of New England were white servants. Almost half of the whole white immigration to the British colonies came under the indenture. By starting the revolutionary war in America in 1975, only 4 to 5 percent of the colonial labor force was indentured servants. The agreement opinion among economic economists and historian is that indentured servitude emerged famous in the British Colonies in the 17^th century because of the big demand of the labor force there, doubled with surpluses of labor in Europe and high expenses of transatlantic transportation beyond the ways of workers in Europe. Around the 1630s and the revolution in America, one-half to two-thirds of white immigrants to the British colonies reached under indentures. Many million Europeans, most energetic young men, under indenture, went to the Caribbean to provide labor in the plantations. Most indentures were charitable; however, some people were coerced or tricked into them.

Indentured servants were women and men who signed contracts (also termed as a covenant or indenture) which they concurred to work for a definite number of years in exchange for transportation to Virginia and, once they reached, shelter, clothing, and food[25]. Usually adults worked for five to eight years with youths serving for longer period, most working in colony’s tobacco plantations.

Servants were treated harshly in the colonies. They ran away largely because their lives in Virginia tended to be short, nasty, and brutish. Even though they frequently served alongside their masters in tobacco plantations, they normally stayed apart and frequently under primitive situations[26]. They were expected to work to dusks from dawn, six days a week via the planting season, which on wheat and tobacco farms could survive from as early as February till late November. They died at high rates, especially due to what Virginians preferred the “summer seasoning,” a time during which majority of the new arrivals were killed by diseases.

In Virginia tobacco plantations servitude approached closer to slavery than anything familiar at the period in England. Men worked for long time, were subjected to extreme severe punishments, and were exchanged as commodities at the start of 1620s. Much of the 17^th century, those workers were white England women and men with a smattering of Indians, Africans, and Irish under indenture with promise of rights and freedoms.

In the colonial history of the U.S. slavery, from 1526 to 1776, grew from complex issues, and researchers have proposed numerous approaches to explain the growth of the slavery institution and of the slave trade[27]. Strongly slavery correlated with thirteen colonies’ requirement for labor, specifically for the labor-intensive field economies of the sugar colonies. There was enslavement of indigenous people in the colonies of North America[28]. In the thirteen colonies the first application of enslaved labor began in British West Indies. Most of Africans who were enslaved were sent to sugar fields in the British West Indies.

Economic and Political issues in the thirteen Colonies

Within the Thirteen Colonies there were different systems of government. All systems of government in the British colonies elected their personal parliament (legislature). The government in the thirteen colonies was all democratic. They had court system, governor’s court, and a governor. The different system of government of the initial Thirteen colonies were Charter Colonies, Royal Colonies, and Proprietary Colonies:

• Charter Government: Generally the charter Colonies were self-governing, and their charters were given to the colonists.
• Proprietary Government: The King gave people land in North America, who then created Proprietary Colonies.
• Royal government: The Loyal Colonies were directly ruled by English monarchy.

The main factor was how the colonies were governed. The challenge had rose in the initial few years of the time of settlement and rapidly in seventeenth century gained momentum. All the thirteen colonies by the late 1600s had come under control of English[29]. Therefore, the governing bodies comprised of either proprietors (people granted possession of a colony and whole power to establishment a government and share land) hired by councils, or investors regulated by monarchy (queen or King) and aristocracy (elite social class) in England.

Economically, in the colonies, trade and merchant business grew by not only providing the basic needs of the colonists, but new sources of revenue and product for England.  Music, food, drink, social gatherings, and taverns were an intricate part of colonial life[30].  Some colonies even began to develop their own cultures, way of life and lingo[31].  Many of the colonists simply considered themselves British subjects and the colonies an extension of England[32]. Others though saw the North American continent as an unexplored treasure trove waiting to be settled from coast to coast by Americans, not British subjects of King George.

In conclusion, initially the United States of America comprised of thirteen states that had been colonies in Britain till 1776 when independence was declared and confirmed in 1783 by the Treaty of Paris. The Thirteen colonies are also called Thirteen American Colonies or the Thirteen British Colonies. I believe there is a great deal more to the history of the original thirteen colonies than previously explored. This research project will attempt to explore the culture, religion, economic and general life within the colonies.  In all the thirteen colonies in America different religions were practiced[33]. The New England area, in the north, was controlled by Congregationalists, comprising Separatists and Puritans such as pilgrims. It will attempt to address the issues of indentured servitude and slavery and why it was difficult to escape the growing monster slavery would become for the nation. It has been noted that servitude had an extended period in England, tracing back to unenlightened serfdom. In British America Indentured servitude was the main system of labor force colonies in British until it was at long last overawed by slavery[34]. During this period, the system was so bulbous that more than three quarters of all the immigrants to colonies in British in South of New England were white servants, and that almost half of the whole white immigration to the British colonies came under indenture[35]. Furthermore, culture in the thirteen colonies was influenced by the history of combined colonies, its association with the Europe culture, England traditions, Christian religious life, and results of the British Empire. Finally, the paper also attempted to address why some colonists began to cry out for liberty and freedom from tyranny, while others simply wanted to remain loyal subjects to the King.

References

“American Battelfield Trust .” Everyday Life in Colonial America. n.d. (Primary Source)

Burt, Michelle, Jeremy Firestone, John A. Madsen, Dana E. Veron, and Richard Bowers. “Tall towers, long blades and manifest destiny: The migration of land-based wind from the Great Plains to the thirteen colonies.” Applied Energy 206 (2017): 487-497. (Primary Source)

Connor, Mary E. “Revolutionary Women: Portraits of Life in the Thirteen Colonies.” Social Education 64, no. 1 (2000). (Secondary Source)

Fisher, Sydney G. “The Quaker Colonies.” Gutenburg Literary Archive Foundation , 2020. (Primary Source)

Fretorne, Richard. “Our Plantation is Very Weak, The Experience of an Indentured Servant in Virginia.” The Records of the Virginia Companyof London. March 20, 1623. (Primary Source)

Hammond, J.H., Massey, A.K. and GARZA, M.A., 2019. African American Inequality in the United States. (Secondary sources)

Jaffee, David. “Religion and Culture in North America, 1600-1700.” Heilburn Timeline of Art History, 2004. (primary Source)

Jones, Alice Hanson. “Wealth and growth of the thirteen colonies: Some implications.” The Journal of Economic History 44, no. 2 (1984): 239-254. (Secondary Sources)

Rúa Serna, Juan Camilo. “Echoes from the Thirteen Colonies. From Taxation with Political Representation to Public Participation on Taxation.” Estudios Políticos 54 (2019): 82-105. (Primary source)

Stefoff, R., Hinds, K., Altman, L.J., Kelly, M. and Kelly, M., 2020. Colonial Life: Cities and Towns. (Secondary Sources)

Wolf, Morris. “Topic T11. Life and Affairs in the Thirteen Colonies.” Social Studies 41, no. 8 (1950): 359. (Secondary sources)

Wright, Louis B., Henry Steele Commager, and Richard Brandon Morris. The cultural life of the American colonies. Courier Corporation, 2002. (Secondary Sources)

[1] Wright, Louis B., Henry Steele Commager, and Richard Brandon Morris. The cultural life of the American colonies. Courier Corporation, 2002.

[2] Burt, Michelle, Jeremy Firestone, John A. Madsen, Dana E. Veron, and Richard Bowers. “Tall towers, long blades and manifest destiny: The migration of land-based wind from the Great Plains to the thirteen colonies.” Applied Energy 206 (2017): 487-497.

[3] Wright, Louis B., Henry Steele Commager, and Richard Brandon Morris. The cultural life of the American colonies. Courier Corporation, 2002.

[4] Rúa Serna, Juan Camilo. “Echoes from the Thirteen Colonies. From Taxation with Political Representation to Public Participation on Taxation.” Estudios Políticos 54 (2019): 82-105.

[5] Wright, Louis B., Henry Steele Commager, and Richard Brandon Morris. The cultural life of the American colonies. Courier Corporation, 2002.

[6] Connor, Mary E. “Revolutionary Women: Portraits of Life in the Thirteen Colonies.” Social Education 64, no. 1 (2000).

[7] Wright, Louis B., Henry Steele Commager, and Richard Brandon Morris. The cultural life of the American colonies. Courier Corporation, 2002.

[8] Hammond, J.H., Massey, A.K. and GARZA, M.A., 2019. African American Inequality in the United States.

[9] Connor, Mary E. “Revolutionary Women: Portraits of Life in the Thirteen Colonies.” Social Education 64, no. 1 (2000).

[10] Wright, Louis B., Henry Steele Commager, and Richard Brandon Morris. The cultural life of the American colonies. Courier Corporation, 2002.

[11] Fretorne, Richard. “Our Plantation is Very Weak, The Experience of an Indentured Servant in Virginia.” The Records of the Virginia Companyof London. March 20, 1623.

[12] Hammond, J.H., Massey, A.K. and GARZA, M.A., 2019. African American Inequality in the United States.

[13] Connor, Mary E. “Revolutionary Women: Portraits of Life in the Thirteen Colonies.” Social Education 64, no. 1 (2000).

[14] “American Battelfield Trust .” Everyday Life in Colonial America. n.d.

[15] Fisher, Sydney G. “The Quaker Colonies.” Gutenburg Literary Archive Foundation , 2020.

[16] Stefoff, R., Hinds, K., Altman, L.J., Kelly, M. and Kelly, M., 2020. Colonial Life: Cities and Towns

[17] Connor, Mary E. “Revolutionary Women: Portraits of Life in the Thirteen Colonies.” Social Education 64, no. 1 (2000).

[18] Burt, Michelle, Jeremy Firestone, John A. Madsen, Dana E. Veron, and Richard Bowers. “Tall towers, long blades and manifest destiny: The migration of land-based wind from the Great Plains to the thirteen colonies.” Applied Energy 206 (2017): 487-497.

[19] Burt, Michelle, Jeremy Firestone, John A. Madsen, Dana E. Veron, and Richard Bowers. “Tall towers, long blades and manifest destiny: The migration of land-based wind from the Great Plains to the thirteen colonies.” Applied Energy 206 (2017): 487-497.

[20] Connor, Mary E. “Revolutionary Women: Portraits of Life in the Thirteen Colonies.” Social Education 64, no. 1 (2000).

[21] Fisher, Sydney G. “The Quaker Colonies.” Gutenburg Literary Archive Foundation , 2020.

[22] Rúa Serna, Juan Camilo. “Echoes from the Thirteen Colonies. From Taxation with Political Representation to Public Participation on Taxation.” Estudios Políticos 54 (2019): 82-105.

[23] Jaffee, David. “Religion and Culture in North America, 1600-1700.” Heilburn Timeline of Art History, 2004.

[24] Jaffee, David. “Religion and Culture in North America, 1600-1700.” Heilburn Timeline of Art History, 2004.

[25] Fretorne, Richard. “Our Plantation is Very Weak, The Experience of an Indentured Servant in Virginia.” The Records of the Virginia Companyof London. March 20, 1623.

[26] Hammond, J.H., Massey, A.K. and GARZA, M.A., 2019. African American Inequality in the United States.

[27] Wolf, Morris. “Topic T11. Life and Affairs in the Thirteen Colonies.” Social Studies 41, no. 8 (1950): 359.

[28] Stefoff, R., Hinds, K., Altman, L.J., Kelly, M. and Kelly, M., 2020. Colonial Life: Cities and Towns.

[29] Wolf, Morris. “Topic T11. Life and Affairs in the Thirteen Colonies.” Social Studies 41, no. 8 (1950): 359.

[30] Wolf, Morris. “Topic T11. Life and Affairs in the Thirteen Colonies.” Social Studies 41, no. 8 (1950): 359.

[31] Wolf, Morris. “Topic T11. Life and Affairs in the Thirteen Colonies.” Social Studies 41, no. 8 (1950): 359.

[32] Hammond, J.H., Massey, A.K. and GARZA, M.A., 2019. African American Inequality in the United States.

[33] “American Battelfield Trust .” Everyday Life in Colonial America. n.d.

[34] Rúa Serna, Juan Camilo. “Echoes from the Thirteen Colonies. From Taxation with Political Representation to Public Participation on Taxation.” Estudios Políticos 54 (2019): 82-105.

[35] Stefoff, R., Hinds, K., Altman, L.J., Kelly, M. and Kelly, M., 2020. Colonial Life: Cities and Towns