Colonial Culture
In eighteenth-century Europe, the intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment championed the principles of rationalism and logic, while the Scientific Revolution worked to demystify the natural world. Upper-class Americans, including many of the colonists who would eventually lead the American Revolution, were heavily influenced by Enlightenment ideas and embraced reason and science, viewing with skepticism any beliefs that could not be proven by clear logic or experiment. Religion was a prime target for Enlightenment thinkers. The American most representative of Enlightenment ideals was Benjamin Franklin, who devoted his life to intellectual pursuits. Franklin published Poor Richard’s Almanac, a collection of proverbs, in 1732. He created the American Philosophical Society in 1743.
The First Great Awakening
Perhaps in response to the religious skepticism espoused by the Enlightenment, the 1730s and 1740s saw a broad movement of religious fervor called the First Great Awakening. During this time, revival ministers stressed the emptiness of material comfort, the corruption of human nature, and the need for immediate repentance lest individuals incur divine fury. These revivalists, such as Jonathan Edwards and the Englishman George Whitefield, stressed that believers must rely on their own conscience to achieve an inner emotional understanding of religious truth. Jonathan Edwards gave an impassioned sermon called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” in which he proclaimed that man must save himself by immediately repenting his sins.
The Great Awakening was a revival movement meant to purify religion from material distractions and renew one’s personal faith in God. The movement was a reaction against the waning of religion and the spread of skepticism during the Enlightenment of the 1700s.
The Great Awakening is often credited with democratizing religion, since revivalist ministers stressed that anyone who repents can be saved by God, not just those who are prominent members of established churches. For this reason, the movement appealed to all classes and groups. Revival ministers reached out to the poor, to slaves, and to Native Americans. The Great Awakening divided American Protestants, pitting the revivalists, or “New Lights,” against the “Old Lights”—established ministers happy with the status quo. This division resulted in the formation of many new religious congregations and sects, and the founding of universities such as Princeton, Columbia, Brown, and Dartmouth to accomodate revivalist teachings.
Colonial Wars
By the late 1600s, the French and English had emerged as the two dominant forces in North America. The two nations jockeyed for position in Europe and the New World, resulting in occasional wars that took place on both continents (though the wars on the two continents often had different names, and sometimes occurred over slightly different time periods). This series of wars, which ranged through the first half of the 18th century, culminated in the French and Indian War of 1754–1763.
The Path to War
In the early 1750s, Virginia, Pennsylvania, France, and the Iroquois tribe all claimed ownership of the Ohio Valley. The French began constructing forts to stave off English colonial advances and to maintain their fur trade with local Native Americans. In 1754, a young George Washington, on the orders of the Virginia governor, led 400 Virginia militiamen against the French. He was quickly forced to surrender and lead his men home.
Following this and other skirmishes, colonial delegates gathered in Albany, New York. Benjamin Franklin submitted the Albany Plan, which called for the colonies to unify in the face of French and Native American threats. The Albany Plan, remarkable for its attempt to establish a unified colonial government, won the support of the delegates but was rejected by the colonies, who were not yet ready for union. British officials did not push for the union because they were wary of the powerful colonial entity it would create.
The French and Indian War
Soon after the Albany meeting, the French and Indian War broke out, pitting England against France and its Native American allies. This war paralleled the Seven Years War in Europe (1756–1763). England held a great advantage in men and supplies, yet in the first two years the cunning guerrilla tactics of the French and their allies resulted in numerous humiliating losses for the English. Still, under the able leadership of Prime Minister William Pitt, England righted itself and pushed France out of the Ohio Valley and into Canada. In 1759, English forces captured Quebec, effectively ending the war in North America. Under the Treaty of Paris (1763), Britain gained all of the land in North America east of the Mississippi.
The euphoria of victory, however, soon wore off. Due to the costs of the war, England faced financial difficulties. The English reasoned that because the colonies benefited the most from the war, they should be taxed to alleviate England’s war debt. England ended its century-long policy of salutary neglect. This change in policy sparked an escalating tension between England and its colonists that eventually led to the American Revolution.
The Writs of Assistance
Tensions between the colonies and England initially arose during the French and Indian War. Colonial traders smuggled French goods from the French West Indies in order to avoid English taxes—set by the 1733 Molasses Act—on molasses, rum, and sugar imported from non-British territories. As its war debt accumulated, England strictly enforced the Molasses Act in order to raise more revenue from the colonies. In 1760, England authorized British revenue officers to use writs of assistance. Writs of assistance served as general search warrants, allowing customs officials to enter and investigate any ship or building suspected of holding smuggled goods.
The writs of assistance proved a useful tool in combating smuggling, allowing the British to seize and ransack buildings and ships at will. The colonists were furious. In 1761, Boston merchants challenged the constitutionality of the writs before the Massachusetts Supreme Court, arguing that the writs stood “against the fundamental principles of law.” Although they lost the case, the merchants and colonists continued to protest the writs, believing Britain had overstepped its bounds.
Colonists and many British observers were outraged at the breach of what had been considered traditional English liberties. Writs of assistance allowed officials to enter and ransack private homes and ships without proving probable cause for suspicion, a customary prerequisite for any search in England.