Part 7 (2/2)

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 Ma.s.sachusetts 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 circ.u.mstances.

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 subst.i.tuted 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 a.s.sumed no importance.

Now was the time for England to display wisdom, justice, and statesmans.h.i.+p 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BIBLE BROUGHT OVER IN THE ”MAYFLOWER” IN PILGRIM HALL, NEW PLYMOUTH.]

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 a.s.sist 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 a.s.sist 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.

The laws were amazingly strict and would never be submitted to in these times. To ill.u.s.trate: a watchman in Hartford rang a bell every morning as notice to all adults to rise from their beds. Ma.s.sachusetts had fourteen and Virginia seventeen offenses that were punishable with death. Some of the minor punishments were unique. If a woman became a common scold, she was placed near her own door, with a gag fastened in her mouth, that all might see and beware of her example. For other offenses, a man was ducked in water or put in the stocks. A stock was a strong framework, through which the feet or both feet and hands were thrust and held fast, while the pillory was a framework through which the head and hands of a criminal were imprisoned. Besides the disgrace attending such punishment, it was very trying. The whipping-post was quite common long after the Revolution, and it is still occasionally used in Delaware.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AMERICAN STAGE-COACH OF 1795, FROM ”WELD'S TRAVELS.”

(Probably similar in form to those of the later colonial period.)]

Men and boys dressed much alike, and the fas.h.i.+ons for women and girls were similar. The breeches of the men suggested the present style of knickerbockers, the rich making quite a display of silver buckles and b.u.t.tons. The breeches of the poorer people were made of coa.r.s.e cloth, deerskin, or leather, the object being to obtain all the wear possible.

The wealthy used velvet, and the men and women were as fond of display as their descendants.

In the earliest days, all the houses were made of logs, and oiled paper took the place of gla.s.s for windows. Carpets were an unknown luxury.

Often the floor was the smooth, hard ground. The cooking was done in the big fireplace, where an iron arm called a crane was swung over the fire and sustained the pots and kettles. Coal and matches were unknown, a fire being started by means of a piece of steel and flint or with the help of a sun gla.s.s.

Coffee and tea were great luxuries, but nearly every family made its own beer. Rum and hard cider were drunk by church people as well as others, the only fault being when one drank too much. The important cities and towns were connected by stages, but most of the traveling was done on foot or horseback. Since most of the settlements were near the sea or on large rivers, long journeys were made by means of coasting sloops. When a line of stages in 1766 made the trip between New York and Philadelphia in two days, it was considered so wonderful that the vehicles were called ”flying machines.”

Regarding the state of religion in the colonies, Prof. George F. Holmes says:

”The state of religion among the people differed greatly in the different provinces. The Church of England was the established religion in New York, Virginia, and the Carolinas. In Maryland, the population remained largely Roman Catholic. In New England the original Puritanism was dominant, but its rigor had become much softened. A solemn and somewhat gloomy piety, however, still prevailed. The Presbyterians were numerous, influential, and earnest in New Jersey. There, but especially in Pennsylvania, were the quiet and gentle Quakers. In Carolina and Georgia, Moravians and other German Protestants were settled, and Huguenot families were frequent in Virginia and South Carolina.

”Everywhere, however, was found an intermixture of creeds, and consequently the need of toleration had been experienced. Laxity of morals and of conduct was alleged against the communities of the Anglican Church. In the middle of the eighteenth century a low tone of religious sentiment was general. The revival of fervor, which was incited then by the Wesleys, was widely spread by Whitefield in America, and Methodism was making itself felt throughout the country. The Baptists were spreading in different colonies and were acquiring influence by their earnest simplicity. They favored liberty in all forms and became warm partisans of the revolutionary movement.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL

When the third attack was made, and the Americans' ammunition was exhausted with the first volley, a desperate hand-to-hand struggle followed. General Warren was fighting heroically when a British officer recognized him, seized a musket from a private and shot him dead.]

CHAPTER IV.

THE REVOLUTION--THE WAR IN NEW ENGLAND.

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