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American revolution effect on american society
The American Revolution changed colonial society
The American Revolution changed colonial society
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In Gordon Wood’s The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Wood explains how the American Revolution was different than any of the other revolutions that had taken place before. He states that it was unlike any other prior revolution in the way that it changed the “personal and social relationships of people,” (Wood 7). Colonial America had many characteristics of a true pre-modern society and two of them were hierarchical structure and extended families. Hierarchical structure, borrowed from the English, was extremely essential to colonial America. It was so significant that much of their society was based on the order of the social classes. The same also went for extended families. A characteristic of pre-modern societies, extended families …show more content…
Throughout the chapter “Hierarchy”, Wood explores this structure and how traditional it was. Wood continuously reminds the readers of the fact that “in some respects colonial society [is] more traditional than that of the mother country,” (Wood 12). Hierarchy was very ingrained into the colonists’ minds and since the colonists were still subjects of the King of England, they followed much of the monarchial structure that was set in England. The monarchial structure is essentially the same as hierarchy, except with one person at the top instead of a group of people. Wood notes that the colonists had no other social system to derive from than England’s, so many similarities between both societies existed. Also, the fact that Americans were fascinated by the King and perhaps more patriotic than the English people became a large part of the reason why Americans believed “hierarchy of a monarchial society was part of the natural order of things,” (Wood …show more content…
They are never focused on an individual, instead an individual is considered part of a whole. That is why extended families and households were prided upon. Extended families were created by “inbreeding and intermarrying,” (Wood 44) which created various relationships between relatives. This pre-modern tradition borrowed from the Europeans of having extended families was upheld and taken very seriously in colonial America. In the chapter “Patriarchal Dependence”, Wood identifies extended families as a characteristic of a pre-modern society. They were “the basic institution in the society and the center for all rights and obligations,” (Wood 44). Wood also explains that the household in general was a very important part of the colonies. According to Wood, “the family household was…the place where most of the work in the society was done,” (Wood 44). These complicated families were integral to a pre-modern society because they ran most of the
After the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the powerful Old World scrambled to colonize it. The three major nations involved in this were Spain, France, and England. Spain took more to the south in the Central American and Mexico areas while France went north in the Canada region. The English came to America and settled in both the New England and Chesapeake area. Although the people in these regions originated from the same area, the regions as a whole evolved into different societies because of the settlers’ purpose for coming to America and the obstacles faced in both nature and with the natives.
Many times throughout history, a specific individual or a group comes along and shapes a society. Religious groups often arrive and settle on a new piece of land, and happen to shape that society, around their beliefs and religion. The New England Puritans and the Chesapeake Catholics are prime examples to show how religion shaped the development of a colonial society.
Colonial living in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the New World was both diverse and, in many cases, proved deadly through such avenues as disease, Native American attacks, a lack of proper medical treatment, and disastrous weather conditions. Even through all of these hardships, the first colonists persevered, doing their best to see the blessings in their lives and create a better life for their children through all of the uncertainties. Nothing, it seems, in the original colonies was set in stone except for the fact that they never knew what the next day would hold in store. Everything, even small mishaps, had dramatic impacts on the social, economic, and political aspects of their lives. These circumstances, however, were more strongly influenced by geography than class position, unlike what many were used to in England. How population, economics, disease, and climate played into the social conditions of early colonists is truly a story for the ages. Whether people were seeking land, religious freedom, or money and profits, everyone worked to a certain extent just to survive, let alone thrive, in the wilderness that was North America at that time.
To the south of New England were the middle colonies. There the soil was fertile, and the weather more acclimated to farming (Sarcelle, 1965). Rivers flowed west toward the frontier, enabling transportation. The middle colonies, as opposed to the relatively Puritan dominated New England, were very diverse in people. A mixture of Dutch, German, Swedes, English and other smaller groups were present in middle colonial cities such as New York (Higginbotham, 1996).
The start of the American Revolution, described by Edmund Morgan as, “the shot heard around the world,” was the “Americans’ search for principles” (Bender 63). Although the world’s colonies did not necessarily seek independence much like the Americans, the world’s colonies were nonetheless tired of the “administrative tyranny” being carried out by their colonizers (Bender 75). The American Revolution set a new standard in the colonies, proclaiming that the “rights of Englishmen” should and must be the “rights of man,” which established a new set foundation for the universal rights of man (Bender 63). This revolution spread new ideas of democracy for the colonized world, reshaping people’s expectations on how they should be governed. Bender emphasizes America as challenging “the old, imperial social forms and cultural values” and embracing modern individualism” (Bender 74). Bender shapes the American Revolution as a turning point for national governments. The American Revolution commenced a new trend of pushing out the old and introducing new self-reliant systems of government for the former
Secondly, political backgrounds varied between the colonists. A lot of people came to get away from England and their bureaucratic and insufficient way of governing. In the colonies there was no aristocracy. No nobles, no lords enforcing the King’s laws were p...
The United States of America has a reputation as a beacon of freedom and diversity from the colonial period of its history. From the beginning, however, Americans' freedoms were tied to a mixture of religious and ethnic affiliations that privileged some inhabitants of North America over others. Although European ideas of liberty set the tone for what was possible, those liberties looked somewhat different in colonial North America, where indigenous and African peoples and cultures also had some influence. The result was greater freedom for some and unprecedented slavery and dispossession for others, making colonial America a society of greater diversity—for better and for worse—than Europe.
Women have been oppressed since the beginning of time, they have always been thought of as lesser to men in our culture, and they still are. Although some people may disagree women are still put at a lower bar to men. They have a lower chance of getting certain jobs, making more money and being put into places of higher power. People of color have also been oppressed for a very long time. Back in colonial times this sexism and racism was even stronger and more powerful. Women couldn’t get any jobs that had to do with government and had very little power over what they could or couldn’t do. African americans were almost all slaves and if they weren’t they still had little to no rights, it was extremely difficult for them to find jobs. This
(7 There once was an Italian man by the name of Amerigo Vespucci, who sailed the seas and explored South America. And later named America after himself.
In the early twentieth century, scholars gain a deeper understanding of the ideology behind those who partook in the American Revolution. People’s motivations throughout the American Revolution are a result of their desire for a new society that is not based on the old world’s standards of monarchy, privilege, and social hierarchy. Likewise, people want a society in the new world to determine one’s status based on one’s abilities, efforts, and talents and to characterize equality. A meritocracy, not monarchy become prevalent in the new world’s society, and one’s family’s reputation, wealth, and titles are no longer important. Therefore, colonists rebuke the old world system, which was questioned throughout the American Revolution. Wood explains that “republic individuals were no longer destined to be what their fathers were” (Wood 99). His explanation shows that scholars treated the American Revolution as an extension of the development America’s meritocracy and as an innovation of America’s resulting society during the early twentieth
From the 1770s to the 1780s, the American Revolution was extremely influential in developing the United States as a country, and creating the Constitution. This political upheaval was the colonists’ initial rebellious demonstration against the British, and heavily elaborated on the ideas of freedom from a dominating power, which reflected among all social divisions nationwide. From gender relations to the social hierarchy of the persecuted racial groups, every group was by some means affected by the American Revolution and the consequences that followed. The repercussions from the revolt were not entirely positive, despite the country’s newly-developed democracy and the citizens’ increase of political influence. The Revolutionary War had a
There were a myriad of differences between Great Britain and her American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but these differences can be divided into three basic categories: economic, social, and political. The original American settlers came to the colonies for varied reasons, but a common trait among these settlers was that they still considered themselves British subjects. However, as time passed, the colonists grew disenfranchised from England. Separated from the king by three thousand miles and living in a primitive environment where obtaining simple necessities was a struggle, pragmatism became the common thread throughout all daily life in the colonies. It was this pragmatism that led the colonists to create their own society with a unique culture and system of economics and politics.
Family life in the 1700's was highly valued and prioritized. Back in those times families were extremely large in size. There was much inter-marriages from generation to generation, Therefore, everyone in a community was most likely related to each other. Because of these extreme connections between communities, visiting fellow family members was very popular. Many of these visits were informal and prolonged. Out of everyone in a family, the women usually corresponded the most with other relatives. The lack of decently designed roads and great distances made the matter of traveling very important in social activities. In addition, the family was looked upon as a unit of production and enterprise. Most families in the 1700's contained usually twenty to thirty people. These large numbers were due to the fact that the families were extended. Every relative lived together, even if they were distant relatives. Families with ten or twelve children were common and those with twenty or twenty-five children were not regarded as abnormal. But, usually not all the children survived. Typically, four in ten children dies before they reached the age of sixteen.
The extended family predominated pre-industrially because of the need for a large family to help tend the land or look after those who were unable to do so. Infant mortality was high so you had to produce more children to be sure of having enough help. The family were a unit of production producing only the goods needed to survive and trading the remainder. Following the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century, it was replaced by the nuclear family which was a unit of consumption as family members became wage earners and families needed to become more geographically mobile and move to where they could find work.
To thoroughly elaborate on the institution of family we most look at the family as it was before and how much it has changed over time. Throughout the years we are recognizing that the family is slowly being replaced by other agents of socialization. Families in the past consisted of a mother and a father and most times children. We are, as many societies a patriarchal society; men are usually the head of the households. This has always been considered the norm.