The Beginnings of an American Identity

Chapter 5

In this chapter you will learn how the colonists began to develop ideas

separate from Britain and started to develop a national identity as

Americans.

Big Ideas• Living a great distance from your native country

can cause your society to develop and grow in different ways and with different ideas. This is called geographical disconnect.

• People deserve rights and protections from their government as well as from each other.

• People want a say in how they live and what their government does.

• A desire for more power by the people often leads to change in government, usually by force.

• War costs a tremendous amount of money.

Early American Culture• In most places your social rank was determined by

how much land you owned.

• Only men who owned land could vote.

• Women were excluded from voting and were not allowed to own property or keep money they earned unless their husbands gave them permission.

• Most women and children worked around their family farms while African American women worked on plantations.

• Children learned to read so they could read the bible but formal schooling was not required and was only offered to the rich, mostly through private tutoring.

Early American Culture• Many newspapers and books began to be published,

spreading new ideas to the people of the colonies.

• The Great Awakening was a religious movement that called on people to focus on the more their religious feelings inside rather than the appearance of them on the outside.

• The Enlightenment was a period of time where many people started wondering about human lives and what rights we should all have.• Valued Science and reason as paths to knowledge• Benjamin Franklin was an Enlightenment thinker.• John Locke argued that people had natural rights which could not

be taken away. These rights included life, liberty, and property.

• These changes in perception and the spread of new ideas allowed the colonies to develop ideas on their own and caused them to begin challenging the authority of others over their lives.

The Roots of Representative Government

• Britain had a history of giving certain rights to it’s people. This is mostly because the people started forcing the crown to give them those rights.

The Roots of Representative Government

• Magna Carta – 1215• Limited the power of the king• Gave some rights to noblemen and freemen.• The King couldn’t take property from citizens.• Couldn’t tax without the consent of a council of

noblemen.• People couldn’t be put on trial without a witness

and had to have a jury for their peers.

Roots of US Constitution & Magna Carta

• Right to a Trial by Jury• Right to a Speedy Trial • No unreasonable search and seizure

The Roots of Representative Government

• Glorious Revolution - 1688• King James was Catholic and Parliament didn’t

like that so they asked the king’s daughter Mary and her husband William to take over the crown.

• English Bill of Rights – 1689• After taking over William and Mary signed an

agreement of rights for their people.• All laws had to be made by parliament and not just

on the wishes of the king.• Rights of people were strengthened

• The colonists were quick to claim these rights and used this to justify their beliefs that they should have a representative government that worked for them IN the colonies.

The Roots of Representative Government

• English Bill of Rights – 16891. Free elections and frequent meetings of

Parliament must be held

2. Excessive fines and cruel punishments were forbidden

3. People had the right to complain to the king or queen in Parliament without being arrested

4. Couldn’t tax or cancel laws without the consent of a council of noblemen.

Roots of US Bill of Rights & EBOR

• No Cruel & Unusual Punishment • Freedom of Speech• No unreasonable search and seizure

The Roots of Representative Government

• After the Glorious Revolution, the colonists had more self governing power.

• They had an assembly to make laws but those assemblies were still able to be overruled by a governor picked by the King.

• For the 1st half of the 1700s, the king and parliament pretty much left the colonies alone.

• This policy of salutary neglect allowed the colonies to rule themselves and GET USED TO HAVING CERTAIN FREEDOMS.

The Roots of Representative Government

The Trial of Peter Zinger• In 1735, the publisher of the New-York

Weekly Journal went to trial for criticizing the Royal Governor in his newspaper.

• Criticizing the governor in print was illegal.• Zinger’s lawyer argued that people had the

right to speak the truth and the jury set Zinger free.

• This was a first important step to gaining rights such as freedom of the press.

Growths of Representative Government

•Salutary Neglect•House of Burgesses •Magna Carta•Zenger Trial •English Bill of Rights

What conclusion can you draw from this information?

The French and Indian War• War fought between England (won) and France (lost)

during the mid 1700s.

• Caused by the British moving into an area claimed by France and trying to dominate the fur trade there (taking the business away from France).

• Both sides had Native American allies

• In the Treaty of Paris (1763), which officially ended the war, Britain got almost all of North America east of the Mississippi River.

• France gave New Orleans and Louisiana to Spain as payment for their help in the war.

• Spain gave up Florida to Britain in exchange for getting Cuba and the Philippines.

The French and Indian War cont.• The war was very expensive and Britain claimed that

because it was fought it here, the colonists (who he saw as the main benefactors of the war) would have to pay the debts.

• This led to many TAXES which angered the colonists…

• Pontiacs Rebellion• Native Americans were angered at the British soldiers for not

giving them supplies as the French had.• They were also upset that colonists had settled on their land.• In 1763 they rebelled, attacking British soldiers and forts.• To defeat the Native American’s British soldiers met with leaders

of the native tribe and gave them gifts of blankets as a peace offering. The blankets were infected with small pox which seriously decimated the native population and caused them to retreat.

• After putting down the rebellion, the King of Britain decided it was too costly to fight the natives. He ordered the Proclamation of 1763 which stated that no British colonists were allowed to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains.