WEBVTT

00:01.370 --> 00:02.820
Prof: Okay.

00:02.819 --> 00:04.989
So Thursday,
last--long ago,

00:04.992 --> 00:08.372
last week,
we began to set the scene for

00:08.372 --> 00:13.112
this course by talking about the
experience of being a British

00:13.110 --> 00:15.940
colonist,
and as you remember we talked

00:15.942 --> 00:19.402
about the connection the
colonists had with England both

00:19.398 --> 00:22.598
positive and negative;
we talked about their sense of

00:22.598 --> 00:25.688
England--and particularly
London--as being the sort of the

00:25.693 --> 00:29.063
center of the empire and almost
the center of the universe;

00:29.060 --> 00:32.810
and we talked about the
colonists' simultaneous concerns

00:32.810 --> 00:36.900
about maybe not quite being as
good as the people who were at

00:36.901 --> 00:40.721
that wonderful sophisticated
center of the universe.

00:40.720 --> 00:44.540
And I closed the lecture by
noting that in many ways the

00:44.543 --> 00:48.923
colonists were never as British
as when they began to object and

00:48.923 --> 00:52.893
then ultimately rebel against
their mother country for not

00:52.886 --> 00:56.776
being given their full rights as
British subjects.

00:56.780 --> 00:57.130
Okay.

00:57.133 --> 01:00.743
So if Thursday's lecture was
about how the colonists

01:00.735 --> 01:04.825
identified with the mother
country, today's lecture sort of

01:04.834 --> 01:06.464
does the opposite.

01:06.459 --> 01:09.779
And what I'm going to be
talking about today is the ways

01:09.784 --> 01:13.294
in which the colonists and the
colonies were different from

01:13.292 --> 01:15.592
people back in the mother
country.

01:15.590 --> 01:18.400
Basically, as the title of this
lecture suggests,

01:18.400 --> 01:21.400
I'm going to be talking about
being a British American as

01:21.400 --> 01:23.490
opposed to being a British
colonist,

01:23.489 --> 01:24.939
which was last week.

01:24.938 --> 01:28.718
Now connected with what I
suggested on Thursday,

01:28.720 --> 01:32.220
it's important to note that the
American colonists weren't

01:32.217 --> 01:35.957
necessarily aware of the ways in
which some of their ideas and

01:35.959 --> 01:39.719
attitudes were different,
or certainly were evolving

01:39.724 --> 01:42.394
differently from those in
England,

01:42.390 --> 01:44.830
and I'll come back to this
again in this lecture but I'll

01:44.825 --> 01:45.605
mention it here.

01:45.610 --> 01:48.380
By the mid-eighteenth century,
the period that we're really

01:48.376 --> 01:51.136
talking about now,
there had already been several

01:51.141 --> 01:53.611
generations of colonists in the
colonies.

01:53.610 --> 01:56.870
So certainly there were people
in the colonies who themselves

01:56.866 --> 01:59.806
had never been to England,
perhaps they didn't know very

01:59.812 --> 02:01.612
many people who had been to
England,

02:01.608 --> 02:05.588
and so they didn't necessarily
have an amazingly accurate sense

02:05.590 --> 02:09.570
of really what it meant to be a
British subject in England,

02:09.568 --> 02:12.228
living in England proper,
as opposed to their experience

02:12.232 --> 02:13.542
of being in the colonies.

02:13.538 --> 02:16.118
And that's going to be an
important thing to think about

02:16.120 --> 02:17.810
as we continue on in this
course,

02:17.810 --> 02:20.990
this idea that ideas are
evolving differently in the

02:20.991 --> 02:23.801
colonies than they're evolving
in England,

02:23.800 --> 02:28.130
and the colonists didn't
necessarily realize that these

02:28.127 --> 02:29.887
differences existed.

02:29.889 --> 02:30.339
Okay.

02:30.335 --> 02:35.945
So I want to begin this lecture
on being a British American with

02:35.950 --> 02:39.160
just a handful of examples and
--

02:39.160 --> 02:43.270
really, kinds of snapshots of
life in the colonies in the

02:43.271 --> 02:43.861
1740s.

02:43.860 --> 02:46.420
And as you'll see with these
little examples,

02:46.419 --> 02:49.009
they're going to each be
demonstrating something that I'm

02:49.010 --> 02:51.140
going to come back to later in
the lecture,

02:51.139 --> 02:53.579
but I at least wanted to give
you sort of a sense of what it

02:53.577 --> 02:55.557
looked like before I actually
talked about it.

02:55.560 --> 02:56.670
And I've pulled all of these
examples--

02:56.669 --> 02:59.419
there's three or four of
them--all from the same source,

02:59.419 --> 03:02.519
which is from a really
well-known diary by a

03:02.521 --> 03:04.471
Dr. Alexander Hamilton.

03:04.468 --> 03:06.028
And this is not the Alexander
Hamilton.

03:06.030 --> 03:08.570
I always feel bad for this guy
because [laughter]

03:08.574 --> 03:12.024
he's gone down to posterity as
not the real Alexander Hamilton.

03:12.020 --> 03:14.010
[laughter]
He's the not real--he's the

03:14.008 --> 03:16.528
unknown,
unimportant Alexander Hamilton,

03:16.526 --> 03:18.476
poor guy--
who lived in Maryland as a

03:18.483 --> 03:21.523
doctor, and actually he does
have a really interesting diary.

03:21.520 --> 03:24.290
I'll be reading a couple of
sections from it,

03:24.290 --> 03:27.440
but he's not the founder,
tough break for Alexander

03:27.441 --> 03:28.261
Hamilton.

03:28.258 --> 03:28.678
Okay.

03:28.677 --> 03:33.687
So in 1744, he decided to take
a trip north from Maryland for

03:33.694 --> 03:36.304
his health,
and that's when he keeps this

03:36.297 --> 03:39.207
sort of a travel diary,
and in it he recorded his

03:39.205 --> 03:41.715
observations with a lot of
detail,

03:41.720 --> 03:44.120
as you'll hear,
that show a lot about habits of

03:44.119 --> 03:46.779
behavior and thought in the
colonies or certain--

03:46.780 --> 03:49.240
and they also will show a lot,
as you'll see,

03:49.240 --> 03:52.580
about Mr. Hamilton,
but also they sort of show you

03:52.581 --> 03:56.811
what he saw through the lens of
him--but still they'll give you

03:56.811 --> 03:58.791
a sense of some trends.

03:58.788 --> 03:59.158
Okay.

03:59.157 --> 04:02.747
And I'll--Actually,
I'll add here one little brief

04:02.754 --> 04:04.794
point,
and that is I'm--in a sense

04:04.789 --> 04:07.729
this is touching on something
that I'm going to be focusing on

04:07.727 --> 04:11.207
in Thursday's lecture--
and that's the idea that to

04:11.211 --> 04:13.741
many people--
and you'll hear it sort of

04:13.738 --> 04:15.578
underlying what he's saying
here--

04:15.580 --> 04:18.230
to many people,
their individual colony really

04:18.233 --> 04:20.833
was what felt to them like their
country,

04:20.829 --> 04:23.629
and people often referred
to--Jefferson called Virginia

04:23.627 --> 04:26.007
"my country"
well into the 1790s,

04:26.009 --> 04:27.689
if not beyond.

04:27.689 --> 04:31.439
So you'll be hearing how people
really feel about their colony

04:31.440 --> 04:33.840
versus those other foreign
colonies,

04:33.839 --> 04:36.729
that people often felt as
though they were different

04:36.728 --> 04:40.068
countries with strange habits
and weird speech patterns,

04:40.069 --> 04:43.129
so you'll kind of hear that,
beneath what I'm going to read

04:43.127 --> 04:44.127
here by Hamilton.

04:44.129 --> 04:44.519
Okay.

04:44.521 --> 04:48.921
So one thing that Hamilton
wrote about in his diary shows

04:48.916 --> 04:51.816
the impact of the Great
Awakening.

04:51.819 --> 04:54.279
During the time that he was
traveling,

04:54.279 --> 04:56.829
which is the 1740s,
the colonies were actually

04:56.831 --> 04:59.441
right in the middle of the Great
Awakening,

04:59.440 --> 05:02.520
which was this really vast
religious revival that really

05:02.519 --> 05:05.599
swept through the colonies,
and in the course of Hamilton's

05:05.596 --> 05:08.166
travels he said he could always
tell when he came across a

05:08.165 --> 05:10.905
revivalist because they always
had a really dour expression on

05:10.913 --> 05:13.663
their face as though they were
just about to ask you to repent

05:13.663 --> 05:14.613
for your sins.

05:14.610 --> 05:18.390
So he says at one point he came
across one of these revivalists.

05:18.389 --> 05:22.049
He said the fellow was named
Mr. Thomas Quiet and,

05:22.050 --> 05:25.000
as Hamilton put it in his
diary: "This fellow I

05:25.004 --> 05:27.734
observed had a particular
down-hanging look,

05:27.730 --> 05:30.110
which made me suspect"
that he is one of the

05:30.113 --> 05:30.813
revivalists.

05:30.810 --> 05:32.600
"I guessed right,
for he introduced a

05:32.596 --> 05:34.686
discourse"
concerning George Whitefield,

05:34.690 --> 05:37.630
who is the renowned preacher of
the Great Awakening.

05:37.629 --> 05:40.139
He traveled throughout the
colonies preaching,

05:40.139 --> 05:43.429
and in a lot of ways he was
sort of the guiding force behind

05:43.430 --> 05:45.440
this Great Awakening in America.

05:45.440 --> 05:48.250
So Mr. Thomas Quiet
"enlarged pretty much and

05:48.252 --> 05:51.182
with some warmth upon the
doctrines of that apostle,

05:51.178 --> 05:53.128
speaking much in his praise.

05:53.129 --> 05:55.229
I took upon me,
in a ludicrous manner,

05:55.233 --> 05:57.513
to impugn some of his
doctrines."

05:57.509 --> 06:00.349
Charming: he was like 'oh,
well, since this means a lot to

06:00.353 --> 06:02.003
him, I'll just make fun of it.'

06:02.000 --> 06:05.100
"Which by degrees put
Mr. Quiet in a passion."

06:05.100 --> 06:07.100
So--and he successfully upsets
Mr. Quiet.

06:07.100 --> 06:09.180
"He told me flatly that I
was damned without

06:09.184 --> 06:10.014
redemption."

06:10.009 --> 06:12.549
[laughter]
A really fun conversation.

06:12.550 --> 06:15.380
"I replied that I thought
his name and behavior were very

06:15.375 --> 06:17.685
incongruous,
and desired him to change it

06:17.687 --> 06:19.117
with all speed,
[laughter]

06:19.122 --> 06:21.792
for it was very improper that
such an angry turbulent mortal

06:21.793 --> 06:24.513
as he should be called by the
name of Thomas Quiet."

06:24.509 --> 06:24.709
Okay.

06:24.709 --> 06:26.539
This tells you a lot about
Alexander [laughter]

06:26.540 --> 06:27.020
Hamilton.

06:27.019 --> 06:29.809
It just--As you'll hear,
he doesn't sound like a really

06:29.807 --> 06:32.067
charming fellow,
but certainly that passage

06:32.072 --> 06:35.032
gives you a sense of the sort of
religiosity that marked this

06:35.033 --> 06:36.073
particular period.

06:36.069 --> 06:36.449
Okay.

06:36.447 --> 06:39.847
So sometime later,
Hamilton met three men from

06:39.848 --> 06:44.528
Pennsylvania and he decided he
was going to treat them to punch

06:44.533 --> 06:46.653
in an off-roads tavern.

06:46.649 --> 06:48.479
Now to Hamilton,
as you'll hear,

06:48.475 --> 06:51.825
clearly these three men were
not gentlemen or certainly he

06:51.831 --> 06:54.131
assumed that they were beneath
him.

06:54.129 --> 06:56.559
As he noted in his diary:
One of them seemed to have to

06:56.564 --> 06:58.414
think really,
really hard about every word

06:58.411 --> 06:59.811
that came out of his mouth.

06:59.810 --> 07:02.950
One of them was "profuse
in compliments,

07:02.949 --> 07:05.399
which were generally blunt,
and came out in an awkward

07:05.399 --> 07:07.249
manner,"
and the third one was a

07:07.250 --> 07:09.590
"very roughspun, forward,
clownish blade,

07:09.591 --> 07:12.841
much addicted to swearing,
at the same time desirous to

07:12.838 --> 07:15.838
pass for a gentleman,
notwithstanding which ambition,

07:15.841 --> 07:19.291
the conscientiousness of his
natural boorishness obliged him

07:19.290 --> 07:23.090
frequently to frame ill-timed
apologies for his misbehaviour,

07:23.089 --> 07:24.929
which he termed frankness and
freeness.

07:24.930 --> 07:27.600
It was often,"
quote, "Damn me,

07:27.603 --> 07:30.263
gentlemen, excuse me;
I am a plain, honest fellow;

07:30.259 --> 07:32.109
all is right down
plain-dealing,

07:32.113 --> 07:33.013
by God."

07:33.009 --> 07:36.249
So he manages to apologize and
swear in the same sentence,

07:36.249 --> 07:37.669
which is pretty tricky.

07:37.670 --> 07:40.190
Now that fellow --that Hamilton
refers to as the sort of odd

07:40.190 --> 07:42.960
cursing fellow--
went on to curse Sir Robert

07:42.959 --> 07:45.079
Walpole,
who was a recent British Prime

07:45.081 --> 07:46.211
Minister,
as a rascal,

07:46.213 --> 07:48.973
and as Hamilton put it:
"We asked him his reasons

07:48.966 --> 07:51.926
for cursing Sir Robert but he
would give us no other"

07:51.928 --> 07:54.068
than this,
"that he was certainly

07:54.065 --> 07:56.675
informed by some very good
gentlemen who understood the

07:56.675 --> 07:59.755
thing right well,
that the said Sir Robert was a

07:59.755 --> 08:02.025
damn rogue,"
so he must be.

08:02.028 --> 08:04.008
[laughs]
'Well, important gentlemen have

08:04.009 --> 08:05.939
told me he was and thus he must
be,

08:05.939 --> 08:08.449
and I will now quote it to
anyone I meet in random taverns

08:08.449 --> 08:09.639
by the side of the road.'

08:09.639 --> 08:12.769
So here you see three average
people trying clearly,

08:12.774 --> 08:15.974
or at least to Hamilton,
trying clearly to impress or

08:15.970 --> 08:17.630
please him in some way.

08:17.629 --> 08:21.029
Clearly, he is sort of snarkily
feeling as though he's above

08:21.033 --> 08:22.423
them in social status.

08:22.420 --> 08:25.040
His tavern companions feel a
little bit awkward.

08:25.040 --> 08:27.100
They're apologizing all the
time and saying,

08:27.098 --> 08:29.678
'Well, I'm just a plain
speaker,' all of which Hamilton

08:29.684 --> 08:30.934
clearly finds amusing.

08:30.930 --> 08:32.890
And this anecdote suggests two
things.

08:32.889 --> 08:36.039
First it shows people of
different social ranks obviously

08:36.043 --> 08:38.123
socializing,
and shows several,

08:38.124 --> 08:42.174
well, what Hamilton would have
considered common folk trying

08:42.168 --> 08:44.328
to,
in his mind, pass for gentlemen.

08:44.330 --> 08:47.690
But second, you see a group of
people who all perceive

08:47.686 --> 08:50.026
differences in status on all
sides.

08:50.029 --> 08:52.059
So they're hanging out
together, but they also

08:52.056 --> 08:54.666
understand that there's a little
bit of a difference that's

08:54.668 --> 08:56.378
making them feel somewhat
awkward.

08:56.379 --> 08:56.669
Okay.

08:56.672 --> 08:59.602
So at another tavern--So
Hamilton's going tavern to

08:59.597 --> 09:02.287
tavern I guess in this portion
of the trip.

09:02.288 --> 09:05.278
At another tavern he said he
dined "with a very mixed

09:05.278 --> 09:07.638
company of different nations and
religions.

09:07.639 --> 09:09.389
There were Scots,
English, Dutch,

09:09.394 --> 09:10.714
Germans,"
Irish,

09:10.710 --> 09:12.500
"Roman Catholicks,
Churchmen,

09:12.500 --> 09:14.100
Presbyterians,
Quakers, Newlightmen,

09:14.100 --> 09:15.970
Methodists, Seventhdaymen,
Moravians,

09:15.970 --> 09:17.870
Anabaptists, and one Jew."

09:17.870 --> 09:20.210
[laughter]
I like the fact that he counted

09:20.211 --> 09:21.071
that one guy.

09:21.070 --> 09:25.160
So obviously here you see
diversity,

09:25.158 --> 09:27.518
great diversity of all
kinds--religious diversity,

09:27.519 --> 09:31.069
ethnic diversity--which also
represents something that was

09:31.068 --> 09:33.808
typical of the colonies in a
general way,

09:33.808 --> 09:36.028
though more in some places than
in others.

09:36.029 --> 09:38.769
And actually Pennsylvania,
which is where I think he is at

09:38.769 --> 09:41.409
this point, was known at the
time for being particularly

09:41.413 --> 09:41.993
diverse.

09:41.990 --> 09:43.600
One last anecdote.

09:43.600 --> 09:46.520
So at one point he--Hamilton
says he ended up in a

09:46.523 --> 09:49.513
conversation with some
Pennsylvanians about how low

09:49.505 --> 09:52.485
Maryland was in comparison with
Pennsylvania,

09:52.490 --> 09:54.450
which clearly was a much better
colony.

09:54.450 --> 09:56.620
As Hamilton put it,
the Pennsylvanians

09:56.615 --> 09:58.835
"enlarged upon the
immorality,

09:58.840 --> 10:01.430
drunkenness,
rudeness, and immoderate

10:01.427 --> 10:04.057
swearing,
so much practiced in Maryland,

10:04.059 --> 10:06.839
and added that no such vices
were to be found in

10:06.835 --> 10:07.775
Pennsylvania.

10:07.778 --> 10:11.018
I heard this and contradicted
it not, because I knew that the

10:11.015 --> 10:13.925
first part of the proposition
was pretty true."

10:13.928 --> 10:16.668
He's like, [laughs]
'yeah, we are drunk and we do

10:16.672 --> 10:19.532
swear a lot and we're rude in
Maryland so, okay.

10:19.529 --> 10:20.879
I think that's true.'

10:20.879 --> 10:23.009
[laughter]
"But what appeared most

10:23.010 --> 10:26.210
comical in their criticism was
their making a merit of the

10:26.207 --> 10:28.057
stoniness of the roads."

10:28.058 --> 10:30.328
As one put it:
"'One may ride ...

10:30.327 --> 10:33.877
fifty miles in Maryland and not
see as many stones upon the

10:33.883 --> 10:37.013
roads as fifty paces of roads in
Pennsylvania.'

10:37.009 --> 10:40.059
This I knew to be false,
but as I thought there was no

10:40.062 --> 10:41.792
advantage in stony roads,
I ...

10:41.791 --> 10:44.331
let them take the honour of it
to themselves,

10:44.325 --> 10:46.625
and did not contradict
them."

10:46.629 --> 10:48.779
Now to me, one of the
interesting things about this

10:48.779 --> 10:51.139
anecdote: It makes me think
about almost a century later

10:51.144 --> 10:53.084
when we're talking about de
Tocqueville,

10:53.080 --> 10:55.000
and he's wandering around
America talking with random

10:55.000 --> 10:56.740
Americans,
and one of the things that

10:56.735 --> 10:59.725
drives him a little bit nuts is
that no matter what American he

10:59.730 --> 11:01.310
talks to,
no matter where he is,

11:01.307 --> 11:03.627
the American always tells him
how everything is best in

11:03.633 --> 11:05.183
America,
better than anywhere else in

11:05.176 --> 11:05.576
the world.

11:05.580 --> 11:09.230
So what Tocqueville is
witnessing in the middle of

11:09.227 --> 11:10.847
the--
towards the middle of the

11:10.846 --> 11:12.556
nineteenth century is national
pride,

11:12.558 --> 11:14.678
and what you're seeing here is
a close equivalent,

11:14.678 --> 11:17.778
but obviously it's colonial
pride.

11:17.778 --> 11:20.268
It's pride in your own
individual colony.

11:20.269 --> 11:23.199
And in a sense,
again, it's a reminder that

11:23.200 --> 11:26.690
people are seeing their colony
as their country.

11:26.690 --> 11:29.040
So in all of these
little--these snapshots,

11:29.043 --> 11:32.243
these anecdotes--we've seen a
few things about life in the

11:32.240 --> 11:32.970
colonies.

11:32.970 --> 11:36.680
We've seen religiosity and the
impact of the Great Awakening;

11:36.678 --> 11:40.558
we've seen diversity of all
types, sometimes at one dinner

11:40.556 --> 11:43.846
table;
we've seen a middling society;

11:43.850 --> 11:47.240
and we've seen how people saw
their own colony as their own

11:47.240 --> 11:50.690
country and in a sense other
colonies as other countries.

11:50.690 --> 11:53.500
To varying degrees in all of
the colonies,

11:53.495 --> 11:56.365
all of these things were
characteristic.

11:56.370 --> 12:00.130
So with that introduction,
I want to turn now to really

12:00.129 --> 12:04.099
look at what was different about
the American colonies.

12:04.100 --> 12:06.540
Why were people here different?

12:06.538 --> 12:09.658
Why was life here different
from what it would have been

12:09.662 --> 12:12.332
like to be a British subject
back in England?

12:12.330 --> 12:15.560
So that's going to be what I
mainly address for the rest of

12:15.559 --> 12:18.739
the lecture, and I'm going to
talk about it by focusing on

12:18.735 --> 12:20.235
three different points.

12:20.240 --> 12:22.790
Point number one:
I'm going to talk a little bit

12:22.793 --> 12:26.053
about the distinctive character
of the people who migrated to

12:26.054 --> 12:26.984
the colonies.

12:26.980 --> 12:30.890
It gives you such a sense of
power when you're lecturing and

12:30.889 --> 12:32.539
you say,
"There are three

12:32.543 --> 12:34.213
reasons"
and the entire room goes:

12:34.212 --> 12:34.872
"Oh."

12:34.873 --> 12:36.063
[laughter]
"Three.

12:36.059 --> 12:37.439
There are three."

12:37.440 --> 12:38.860
So there are three.

12:38.860 --> 12:41.260
So number one is the
distinctive character of the

12:41.264 --> 12:43.174
people who migrated to the
colonies.

12:43.168 --> 12:46.558
Number two is the distinctive
conditions of life in British

12:46.559 --> 12:50.009
America,--and that point I'll
talk about for the longest.

12:50.009 --> 12:53.739
And then number three is the
nature of British colonial

12:53.735 --> 12:54.905
administration.

12:54.908 --> 12:57.318
And I'll repeat that:
the distinctive character of

12:57.322 --> 12:59.442
the people who migrated to the
colonies,

12:59.440 --> 13:02.050
the distinctive conditions of
life in British North America,

13:02.048 --> 13:05.738
and the nature of British
colonial administration.

13:05.740 --> 13:08.410
So let's start off first by
looking at that first category

13:08.412 --> 13:10.982
of difference,
the character of the people who

13:10.979 --> 13:13.529
migrated to the colonies--
and, as you'll see,

13:13.529 --> 13:16.509
in some ways a distinctive kind
of person migrated to the

13:16.508 --> 13:18.738
colonies--
or at least tended to--in ways

13:18.735 --> 13:20.265
that will make perfect sense.

13:20.269 --> 13:23.849
So for one thing--and in a way
this sounds obvious once you

13:23.851 --> 13:27.371
think about it--people who
migrated to the colonies tended

13:27.370 --> 13:28.730
to be risk-takers.

13:28.730 --> 13:31.860
These were people who were
willing to take a risk.

13:31.860 --> 13:34.680
They were willing to make the
hazardous passage across the

13:34.682 --> 13:36.682
sea,
put themselves at a distance of

13:36.678 --> 13:39.658
several months' travel from
everything that they knew,

13:39.658 --> 13:43.228
and start life anew in what
they assumed to be some kind of

13:43.226 --> 13:44.146
a wilderness.

13:44.149 --> 13:47.799
They were people who wanted
something, maybe to better their

13:47.798 --> 13:51.258
condition, and they weren't
afraid to act on that desire,

13:51.261 --> 13:52.501
to reach for it.

13:52.500 --> 13:55.340
Obviously, these are people who
are going to be pretty

13:55.335 --> 13:58.645
independent and they were often
people who didn't simply accept

13:58.653 --> 13:59.673
the status quo.

13:59.668 --> 14:01.978
Now all of these are really
big, broad generalizations,

14:01.980 --> 14:04.980
but as big and broad as they
are, you can see in a general

14:04.977 --> 14:07.917
sense that people who are
deciding to migrate in this way

14:07.923 --> 14:09.563
--
certainly, many of them would

14:09.558 --> 14:12.198
have shared some of these
characteristics to some degree.

14:12.200 --> 14:14.820
And, as we're going to see in
the next few weeks,

14:14.820 --> 14:19.010
in a general way this spirit
ran through all of the colonies,

14:19.009 --> 14:22.079
this sort of sense of really
being willing to push for what

14:22.081 --> 14:22.771
you wanted.

14:22.769 --> 14:24.579
In the Old World,
naturally enough,

14:24.582 --> 14:26.452
things were more
tradition-bound.

14:26.450 --> 14:30.110
In the New World,
just by deciding to go to the

14:30.105 --> 14:32.855
colonies,
you were already breaking with

14:32.855 --> 14:35.845
tradition and behaving
differently from the average

14:35.851 --> 14:36.991
British subject.

14:36.990 --> 14:41.030
So if you put this different
sort of person in a different

14:41.029 --> 14:43.719
kind of environment,
as in the colonies,

14:43.724 --> 14:46.974
you begin to understand the
slow creation of something that

14:46.972 --> 14:50.672
ends up being a kind of colonial
American mindset or mentality.

14:50.668 --> 14:55.118
And this brings us to my second
category of differences in the

14:55.115 --> 14:58.315
colonies, which is:
the conditions of life in

14:58.323 --> 15:00.223
British North America.

15:00.220 --> 15:01.570
You have a different kind of
person.

15:01.570 --> 15:04.160
Now you're putting them in a
different kind of living

15:04.162 --> 15:05.842
situation--
and there were a number of

15:05.836 --> 15:08.046
things that were different about
living conditions in the

15:08.046 --> 15:08.516
colonies.

15:08.519 --> 15:13.609
First, as I mentioned last
time, more people owned land in

15:13.610 --> 15:14.950
the colonies.

15:14.950 --> 15:16.960
There was a lot of land,
"empty land,"

15:16.956 --> 15:19.836
some of it actually empty land,
some of it land owned by

15:19.836 --> 15:23.046
Indians that people considered
to be "empty,"

15:23.046 --> 15:26.316
but there was more land that
was certainly accessible to

15:26.316 --> 15:28.096
settlers in the colonies.

15:28.100 --> 15:31.970
So these risk-taking types who
came to the colonies could get

15:31.965 --> 15:35.695
land and set up their own farms
a lot more easily than they

15:35.702 --> 15:39.412
could in England,
which gave more people a more

15:39.409 --> 15:42.569
independent lifestyle in the
colonies,

15:42.570 --> 15:45.520
and a sense meant they could be
and maybe were raising

15:45.524 --> 15:48.984
themselves up in the world in a
way that might not have been as

15:48.980 --> 15:50.710
easy to do back in England.

15:50.710 --> 15:55.750
A second difference in living
conditions involved voting and

15:55.745 --> 16:00.145
political participation,
because logically enough and

16:00.147 --> 16:03.567
generally speaking,
landholding and the vote went

16:03.572 --> 16:06.452
hand in hand,
the idea being in the colonies

16:06.452 --> 16:10.492
that you should only let people
vote who were really invested in

16:10.493 --> 16:13.283
a community,
and landholders are pretty

16:13.277 --> 16:16.047
literally invested in their
communities.

16:16.048 --> 16:20.318
So in the colonies where you
have a lot--a much larger number

16:20.321 --> 16:23.601
of landholders,
you have a much wider franchise

16:23.596 --> 16:25.016
than in England.

16:25.019 --> 16:28.629
So an example of that:
In the 1760s in England,

16:28.628 --> 16:32.628
roughly twenty percent of white
men had the vote.

16:32.629 --> 16:35.789
In the colonies,
roughly sixty to eighty percent

16:35.792 --> 16:39.092
of white men had the vote
depending on the colony,

16:39.090 --> 16:41.580
which is a pretty big
difference.

16:41.580 --> 16:46.030
And that one fact alone
represents a big shift in

16:46.032 --> 16:46.962
mindset.

16:46.960 --> 16:50.620
In the colonies you had lots of
landholders who knew that they

16:50.620 --> 16:53.800
had the right to be directly
involved in the political

16:53.798 --> 16:54.518
process.

16:54.519 --> 16:57.759
Equally important,
not only were more people able

16:57.760 --> 17:00.530
to be active in the political
process,

17:00.528 --> 17:03.198
but the process in which they
were taking part was really

17:03.200 --> 17:05.510
localized,
so people felt able to

17:05.507 --> 17:08.267
understand and effect that
process.

17:08.269 --> 17:11.579
A lot of times you knew--or at
least perhaps had met--

17:11.578 --> 17:14.378
many of the people that held
government offices--

17:14.380 --> 17:18.180
and elections could be won or
lost by just a handful of votes.

17:18.180 --> 17:20.870
Now when I first taught this
course,

17:20.868 --> 17:23.178
that always used to be an
amazing fact,

17:23.180 --> 17:25.880
'well, an election could be
lost by a handful of votes,' and

17:25.884 --> 17:28.364
somehow in the last ten years
that doesn't seem amazing

17:28.358 --> 17:28.908
anymore.

17:28.910 --> 17:30.510
[laughs]
We do that all the time now.

17:30.509 --> 17:32.739
I don't know why that happens.

17:32.740 --> 17:32.960
Okay.

17:32.961 --> 17:35.571
So I want to look for just a
couple of minutes at how voting

17:35.567 --> 17:38.587
actually worked in the colonies,
and it varies from colony to

17:38.589 --> 17:40.359
colony,
so again I'm talking in a

17:40.361 --> 17:41.831
general kind of a way here.

17:41.828 --> 17:44.088
Elections first of all --and
this is generally true in all of

17:44.086 --> 17:46.416
the colonies--
they had to take place over the

17:46.423 --> 17:49.003
course of a few days,
because people were often

17:48.997 --> 17:51.877
traveling from very far away to
get to a polling place.

17:51.880 --> 17:54.530
And once they got there,
because it was such a big deal

17:54.534 --> 17:56.504
for people to get to a polling
place,

17:56.500 --> 17:59.880
they generally discovered what
in essence was a kind of a fair.

17:59.880 --> 18:02.170
Election Day was a big sort of
celebration day.

18:02.170 --> 18:04.470
There were a lot of people
mulling about.

18:04.470 --> 18:05.590
There was a lot happening.

18:05.589 --> 18:07.359
There was a lot of alcohol.

18:07.358 --> 18:10.018
The alcohol was provided by the
candidates.

18:10.019 --> 18:10.929
[laughter]
'Here.

18:10.932 --> 18:12.302
You must vote for me.'

18:12.299 --> 18:14.189
[laughs] 'Have another.'

18:14.190 --> 18:17.160
And the candidates themselves
would have been present,

18:17.160 --> 18:19.680
helping to pour,
and mingling with prospective

18:19.682 --> 18:20.302
voters.

18:20.298 --> 18:23.178
Now a couple of years ago--I
knew this fact for myself.

18:23.180 --> 18:25.570
I hadn't ever sort of thought
about how it played out,

18:25.566 --> 18:27.996
and then a couple of years ago
I was researching in the

18:27.998 --> 18:29.438
Virginia Historical Society.

18:29.440 --> 18:30.970
I was of course looking for
something else,

18:30.970 --> 18:34.190
but what I came across was a
bunch of documents that clearly

18:34.189 --> 18:37.299
involved some kind of legal
dispute that broke out because

18:37.298 --> 18:40.408
of a problem on one of the
election days in Virginia.

18:40.410 --> 18:44.240
And apparently what happened
was, the brother of one of the

18:44.240 --> 18:47.610
candidates showed up with a pack
of his friends,

18:47.608 --> 18:50.058
drank a lot,
got really drunk and then stood

18:50.057 --> 18:53.417
at the door of the polling place
with guns and threatened to

18:53.417 --> 18:57.007
shoot anyone who didn't vote for
the brother of the guy standing

18:57.006 --> 18:57.686
there.

18:57.690 --> 19:00.230
[laughter]
'Don't vote for my brother,

19:00.226 --> 19:00.976
you die.'

19:00.980 --> 19:03.770
A strong persuasive component.

19:03.769 --> 19:06.279
So obviously,
at least in that election,

19:06.278 --> 19:07.708
you had drinking,
celebrating,

19:07.714 --> 19:09.754
and guns,
which is a bad combination,

19:09.747 --> 19:12.707
[laughter]--
but elections were really kind

19:12.708 --> 19:14.218
of rowdy occasions.

19:14.220 --> 19:17.040
Now what that kind of hints of,
that sort of 'door persuasion,'

19:17.039 --> 19:19.009
is that actually,
once you went in to the polling

19:19.007 --> 19:21.207
place,
assuming that you weren't shot

19:21.205 --> 19:24.405
first,
there were no secret ballots.

19:24.410 --> 19:27.290
You actually stepped to the
front of the room,

19:27.288 --> 19:29.588
there usually was a table,
at the table were sitting the

19:29.589 --> 19:31.179
candidates and maybe some
official,

19:31.180 --> 19:33.980
perhaps a local sheriff,
and you declared who you voted

19:33.980 --> 19:37.040
for in front of everybody and in
front of the candidates.

19:37.038 --> 19:41.298
So one example actually from a
document from the time period:

19:41.301 --> 19:44.431
We're in Virginia and one
voter, a Mr. Blair,

19:44.428 --> 19:48.618
came forward to this table in
the front of the room,

19:48.618 --> 19:49.608
a candidate on each side of the
table,

19:49.608 --> 19:51.588
the sheriff in the middle,
and the sheriff says,

19:51.588 --> 19:53.068
"Sir, who do you vote
for?"

19:53.068 --> 19:55.708
and Mr. Blair says,
"Mr. Marshall,"

19:55.712 --> 19:59.142
and Mr. Marshall responds,
"Your vote is appreciated,

19:59.136 --> 20:00.816
Mr. Blair."

20:00.819 --> 20:02.309
It's a very personal exchange.

20:02.308 --> 20:03.858
The next voter,
a Mr. Buchanan,

20:03.856 --> 20:06.686
is asked the same question and
he says that he votes for

20:06.694 --> 20:09.584
Mr. Clapton and Mr. Clapton
responds, "Mr. Buchanan,

20:09.584 --> 20:12.374
I shall treasure that vote in
my memory.

20:12.368 --> 20:15.668
It will be regarded as a
feather in my cap forever."

20:15.670 --> 20:17.650
[laughter]
That's such a politician,

20:17.654 --> 20:18.794
[laughs]
Isn't it?

20:18.789 --> 20:20.439
Already you can hear.

20:20.440 --> 20:23.420
So obviously this is a very
personal process in which

20:23.419 --> 20:27.029
certainly you could feel some
pressure to vote a certain way.

20:27.028 --> 20:29.728
It's actually a surprisingly
long period of time before

20:29.733 --> 20:32.543
people figure out that maybe
ballots are a great idea;

20:32.538 --> 20:34.808
maybe voting in person is not
so good.

20:34.808 --> 20:35.188
Okay.

20:35.192 --> 20:38.792
So you've got more land holding
in the colonies,

20:38.792 --> 20:42.932
which leads to a broader
franchise in the colonies.

20:42.930 --> 20:45.700
You have voters taking part in
a very localized,

20:45.701 --> 20:47.471
immediate political process.

20:47.470 --> 20:51.170
Another significant difference
in colonial conditions of life

20:51.167 --> 20:54.497
connects with something that I
had mentioned briefly on

20:54.497 --> 20:57.197
Thursday,
and that's the nature of the

20:57.202 --> 20:58.982
colonial social structure.

20:58.980 --> 21:02.440
As I mentioned last week,
you did have an elite in the

21:02.436 --> 21:06.416
colonies, but the proportions of
elite and laboring people was

21:06.415 --> 21:07.325
different.

21:07.328 --> 21:10.768
In England, half of the
population roughly was of the

21:10.771 --> 21:13.821
laboring class,
people who did not own land and

21:13.817 --> 21:15.337
labored for others.

21:15.338 --> 21:18.518
And the other half of the
population--which included small

21:18.517 --> 21:21.247
farmers and gentry and
nobility--owned most of the

21:21.248 --> 21:21.748
land.

21:21.750 --> 21:25.310
In the colonies,
two-thirds of the white men

21:25.310 --> 21:29.530
owned land or businesses--
again, which gives you a sense

21:29.528 --> 21:33.068
of why the colonies are often
known as a sort of middling

21:33.073 --> 21:33.773
society.

21:33.769 --> 21:36.789
Also in the colonies there
wasn't such a stark contrast

21:36.794 --> 21:39.934
between the top and the bottom
of the social spectrum.

21:39.930 --> 21:43.030
So in England,
you had the royal Court and the

21:43.026 --> 21:47.356
courtiers and opulence and court
ritual and sort of kowtowing to

21:47.361 --> 21:50.941
the King at the very top of the
social spectrum.

21:50.940 --> 21:55.050
Obviously, the colonies did not
have something like that.

21:55.048 --> 21:57.628
They did have royal governors,
and certainly royal governors

21:57.627 --> 21:59.767
lived in fine style in
comparison with others,

21:59.769 --> 22:03.439
and there was certainly a
distinction between average

22:03.443 --> 22:07.063
people and gentlemen,
but the contrast between

22:07.061 --> 22:10.991
governors and farmers was
nowhere near the extreme

22:10.989 --> 22:16.039
contrast between a member of the
entrenched British nobility and

22:16.036 --> 22:18.036
a landless commoner.

22:18.038 --> 22:20.098
So in America the
spectrum--It's like the top and

22:20.098 --> 22:22.628
the bottom of that spectrum have
been sort of lopped off and

22:22.631 --> 22:24.821
what's in between is a little
bit more pliable.

22:24.818 --> 22:27.618
So more landholding,
broader franchise and

22:27.615 --> 22:31.435
everything that that entails,
more of a middling society,

22:31.442 --> 22:34.972
and now yet another colonial
difference that I hinted about

22:34.969 --> 22:38.189
at the start of today's lecture:
the fact that several

22:38.192 --> 22:41.722
generations of colonists had
lived and died in the colonies

22:41.720 --> 22:43.910
having never been to England.

22:43.910 --> 22:48.190
By the mid-eighteenth century
you had a colonial society full

22:48.192 --> 22:52.192
of people who often had no
actual personal tie to England

22:52.190 --> 22:55.310
except an emotional tie,
and I talked about those

22:55.310 --> 22:56.450
emotional ties last week.

22:56.450 --> 22:59.370
So just think about this
comparison.

22:59.368 --> 23:03.268
The length of time between the
first settlement at Jamestown

23:03.265 --> 23:06.825
and the Declaration of
Independence is roughly the same

23:06.829 --> 23:10.789
as the length of time between
the Declaration of Independence

23:10.790 --> 23:12.310
and World War II.

23:12.308 --> 23:12.618
Okay.

23:12.624 --> 23:16.214
We tend to collapse all of
early America into one big blob

23:16.209 --> 23:18.629
of early America,
and we assume it's a kind of a

23:18.632 --> 23:20.062
small blob,
but if you think about that,

23:20.055 --> 23:21.605
Declaration of Independence to
World War II,

23:21.608 --> 23:23.778
Jamestown to the Declaration of
Independence,

23:23.778 --> 23:27.768
we are talking about a broad
expanse of time.

23:27.769 --> 23:30.129
So these people,
or at least many of them,

23:30.127 --> 23:32.657
are truly British Americans at
this point.

23:32.660 --> 23:38.040
Colonists were also not Britons
in yet another way--

23:38.038 --> 23:41.168
another distinctive feature of
colonial society--

23:41.170 --> 23:43.790
and that's again something I
referred to at the beginning,

23:43.788 --> 23:47.208
and that's the great ethnic and
religious diversity.

23:47.210 --> 23:51.500
As our friend, Mr.***Hamilton,
or Dr.***Hamilton, was noting,

23:51.500 --> 23:53.470
there were immigrants from
Germany,

23:53.470 --> 23:55.840
Scotland, Ireland,
there were Quakers,

23:55.838 --> 23:57.758
there were Roman Catholics,
Congregationalists,

23:57.759 --> 23:59.959
and then later on Methodists
and Baptists.

23:59.960 --> 24:03.150
So generally speaking,
it's a reasonably pluralistic

24:03.154 --> 24:06.794
society with a relatively high
tolerance for diversity,

24:06.788 --> 24:08.518
although New Englanders in some
ways,

24:08.519 --> 24:10.629
particularly in early colonial
times,

24:10.630 --> 24:12.500
are a little bit less tolerant.

24:12.500 --> 24:16.120
Related to this diversity is
yet another colonial

24:16.118 --> 24:19.018
distinction,
and that's the religiosity in

24:19.021 --> 24:21.321
the colonies,
which is really heightened by

24:21.316 --> 24:24.936
the Great Awakening,
which was roughly from the

24:24.936 --> 24:26.916
1730s to the 1760s.

24:26.920 --> 24:29.360
Now I've said that,
but what I really want to also

24:29.355 --> 24:32.385
point out: I'm not saying that
the Great Awakening is a purely

24:32.386 --> 24:34.876
colonial phenomenon,
because it isn't.

24:34.880 --> 24:38.140
And as a matter of fact it
spread to the colonies from

24:38.144 --> 24:41.384
England and from Ireland,
but its impact on the colonies

24:41.384 --> 24:44.164
would be different when you
combined it with some of the

24:44.162 --> 24:46.592
other things that were
distinctive about colonial

24:46.586 --> 24:49.006
society and life as I'm talking
about here.

24:49.009 --> 24:51.969
Now we can have a little Yale
moment here.

24:51.970 --> 24:54.090
I'm always looking for a Yale
moment.

24:54.088 --> 24:57.438
This is a little Yale moment,
because Jonathan Edwards is

24:57.444 --> 25:01.104
someone of importance in the
spread of the Great Awakening.

25:01.098 --> 25:04.658
His preaching really sparked
the New England branch of the

25:04.655 --> 25:05.775
Great Awakening.

25:05.778 --> 25:08.678
Edwards preached that God was
wrathful,

25:08.680 --> 25:11.460
that endless torture awaited
the sinner,

25:11.460 --> 25:15.320
but God was also loving and
wanted sinners to convert and

25:15.321 --> 25:18.451
turn towards God's love and,
most important,

25:18.453 --> 25:22.503
you could choose heaven or hell
depending on whether you chose

25:22.498 --> 25:23.358
to repent.

25:23.358 --> 25:26.718
And I can't resist--Whenever I
get to this part of the course,

25:26.720 --> 25:29.710
I can't resist offering a
little snippet of one of

25:29.708 --> 25:32.618
Edwards' most famous sermons,
which is Sinners in the

25:32.615 --> 25:33.605
Hands of an Angry God.

25:33.609 --> 25:34.589
How many of you have read?

25:34.589 --> 25:37.639
A good number of you have read.

25:37.640 --> 25:39.720
That's a great sermon, 1741.

25:39.720 --> 25:42.940
I can't resist giving you your
own Great Awakening moment

25:42.939 --> 25:46.329
because that means I get to
actually be Edwards for a little

25:46.329 --> 25:48.629
bit and offer you the wrath of
God,

25:48.630 --> 25:52.230
so I will offer you a tiny
snippet from Edwards' sermon.

25:52.230 --> 25:55.670
I think it's different when you
hear it from when you read it.

25:55.670 --> 25:59.050
"The God that holds you
over the pit of hell,

25:59.048 --> 26:03.018
much as one holds a spider or
some loathsome insect over the

26:03.020 --> 26:06.190
fire,
abhors you and is dreadfully

26:06.190 --> 26:07.130
provoked.

26:07.130 --> 26:10.470
His wrath towards you burns
like fire.

26:10.470 --> 26:13.640
He looks upon you as worthy of
nothing else but to be cast into

26:13.636 --> 26:14.196
the fire.

26:14.200 --> 26:19.040
He is of purer eyes than to
bear to have you in his sight.

26:19.038 --> 26:23.258
You are ten thousand times more
abominable in his eyes than the

26:23.256 --> 26:26.176
most hateful venomous serpent is
in ours.

26:26.180 --> 26:29.810
You have offended him
infinitely more than ever a

26:29.811 --> 26:34.401
stubborn rebel did his prince,
and yet it is nothing but his

26:34.404 --> 26:38.814
hand that holds you from falling
into the fire every moment.

26:38.808 --> 26:43.088
It is to be ascribed to nothing
else that you did not go to hell

26:43.086 --> 26:45.786
the last night,
that you were suffered to awake

26:45.792 --> 26:48.572
again in this world after you
closed your eyes to sleep,

26:48.568 --> 26:52.138
and there was no other reason
to be given why you have not

26:52.144 --> 26:55.534
dropped into hell since you
arose this morning and that

26:55.529 --> 26:58.159
God's--
but that God's hand has held

26:58.163 --> 26:58.723
you up.

26:58.720 --> 27:02.620
There is no other reason to be
given why you have not gone to

27:02.615 --> 27:04.625
hell since you have sat here.

27:04.630 --> 27:08.970
Oh, sinner, consider the
fearful danger you are in.

27:08.970 --> 27:12.500
You hang by a slender thread
with the flames of divine wrath

27:12.501 --> 27:16.041
flashing about it,
ready every moment to singe it

27:16.038 --> 27:19.768
and burn it asunder,
and you have no interest in any

27:19.770 --> 27:23.230
mediator and nothing to lay hold
of save yourself,

27:23.230 --> 27:25.060
nothing to keep off the flames
of wrath,

27:25.058 --> 27:28.008
nothing of your own,
nothing that you have ever

27:28.007 --> 27:30.217
done,
nothing that you can do to

27:30.221 --> 27:32.971
induce God to spare you one
moment."

27:32.970 --> 27:35.730
I think--wow,
that's sermonizing.

27:35.730 --> 27:37.990
That's "pow"
in-your-face sermonizing.

27:37.990 --> 27:40.810
So that, kind of,
is the core of the Great

27:40.805 --> 27:42.105
Awakening, right?

27:42.108 --> 27:46.338
This belief in the sinfulness
and helplessness of humankind

27:46.337 --> 27:50.127
and the possibility of
redemption if you individually

27:50.128 --> 27:52.388
make the choice and repent.

27:52.390 --> 27:55.770
And as suggested by Edwards'
sermon, there were often some

27:55.769 --> 27:59.509
tearful emotional conversions at
the big camp meetings that took

27:59.506 --> 28:00.866
place at this time.

28:00.868 --> 28:02.978
And I actually have an
eyewitness account of a camp

28:02.976 --> 28:04.416
meeting,
which I offer you partly

28:04.419 --> 28:06.619
because, as you'll see,
there's an aspect of it which I

28:06.621 --> 28:07.651
consider truly ridiculous.

28:07.650 --> 28:09.870
But it's offered by Benjamin
Franklin,

28:09.868 --> 28:12.498
which I also think is
interesting, and you'll see the

28:12.498 --> 28:15.428
Enlightenment and the Great
Awakening come up right against

28:15.429 --> 28:17.349
each other in this little
passage.

28:17.348 --> 28:20.428
Franklin actually is in
Pennsylvania and he says he sees

28:20.426 --> 28:22.326
Whitefield preaching to a crowd.

28:22.329 --> 28:26.389
As he describes it,
"In 1739 arrived among us

28:26.386 --> 28:29.486
from Ireland the Reverend
Mr. Whitefield,

28:29.490 --> 28:33.300
who had made himself remarkable
there as an itinerant preacher.

28:33.298 --> 28:36.908
He was at first permitted to
preach in some of our churches;

28:36.910 --> 28:38.890
but the clergy,
taking a dislike to him,

28:38.890 --> 28:42.040
soon refused him their pulpits,
and he was obliged to preach in

28:42.038 --> 28:42.798
the fields.

28:42.798 --> 28:46.418
The multitudes of all sects and
denominations that attended his

28:46.420 --> 28:49.110
sermons were enormous,
and it was a matter of

28:49.105 --> 28:51.525
speculation to me,
who was of that number,

28:51.526 --> 28:54.876
to observe the extraordinary
influence of his oratory on his

28:54.877 --> 28:58.057
hearers and how much they
admired and respected him,

28:58.058 --> 29:00.568
notwithstanding his common
abuse of them,

29:00.568 --> 29:03.068
by assuring them that they were
naturally "half beasts and

29:03.071 --> 29:03.881
half devils."

29:03.880 --> 29:06.720
Being among the crowd,
"being among the hindmost

29:06.718 --> 29:09.068
of the crowd"--
so he's towards the back of the

29:09.071 --> 29:11.031
crowd" --
"I had the curiosity to

29:11.034 --> 29:14.964
learn how far he could be heard,
by retiring backwards ..."

29:14.960 --> 29:15.240
Okay.

29:15.236 --> 29:18.046
So now Franklin says,
'I wonder how far I could back

29:18.050 --> 29:20.150
away and still hear him
preaching.'

29:20.150 --> 29:21.700
Clearfully -- Clearly,
at this moment,

29:21.702 --> 29:23.592
he's not really thinking about
the message.

29:23.588 --> 29:25.768
So I backed away "towards
the river,

29:25.769 --> 29:29.389
and I found his voice distinct
'till I came near Front Street,

29:29.390 --> 29:31.740
when some noise in the street
obscured it."

29:31.740 --> 29:34.060
And at this point you can
really hear the sort of

29:34.058 --> 29:36.958
Enlightenment come banging up
against the Great Awakening.

29:36.960 --> 29:40.330
"Imagining then a
semicircle, of which my distance

29:40.329 --> 29:42.889
should be the radius,"
[laughter]

29:42.890 --> 29:45.270
"and that it was filled
with auditors,

29:45.272 --> 29:47.772
to each of whom I allowed two
square feet.

29:47.769 --> 29:50.699
I computed that he might well
be heard by more than thirty

29:50.702 --> 29:51.272
thousand.

29:51.269 --> 29:53.969
This reconciled me to the
newspaper accounts of his having

29:53.973 --> 29:56.683
preached to twenty-five thousand
people in the fields,

29:56.680 --> 29:59.660
and to the histories of
generals haranguing whole armies

29:59.659 --> 30:01.879
of which I had sometimes
doubted."

30:01.880 --> 30:04.840
So he computes out the radius,
an area.

30:04.838 --> 30:05.078
Wow.

30:05.076 --> 30:07.926
You can actually be preaching
to 30,000 people.

30:07.930 --> 30:10.370
Now, that said,
Franklin says by the end of the

30:10.367 --> 30:13.707
sermon--when clearly there was a
collection plate that was going

30:13.709 --> 30:15.829
to be passed around--Franklin
said,

30:15.828 --> 30:20.018
"I first silently resolved
he should get nothing from me.

30:20.019 --> 30:22.069
I had in my pocket a handful of
copper money,

30:22.067 --> 30:24.487
three or four silver dollars
and five gold pieces.

30:24.490 --> 30:28.180
As he proceeded,
I began to soften and concluded

30:28.180 --> 30:29.830
to give the copper.

30:29.828 --> 30:32.848
Another stroke of his oratory
made me ashamed of that and

30:32.851 --> 30:34.741
determined me to give the
silver;

30:34.740 --> 30:38.140
and he finished so admirably
that I emptied my whole pocket

30:38.144 --> 30:40.264
into the dish,
gold and all."

30:40.259 --> 30:44.059
So even Franklin sort of has to
admire and ultimately contribute

30:44.059 --> 30:45.689
to what's going on there.

30:45.690 --> 30:49.560
So even this sort of true man
of the Enlightenment found

30:49.564 --> 30:52.034
himself affected by this
oratory.

30:52.029 --> 30:52.469
Okay.

30:52.467 --> 30:57.897
So what was the impact of such
Great Awakening sentiment in the

30:57.897 --> 30:58.947
colonies?

30:58.950 --> 31:02.630
Well, in part,
given the distinctive state of

31:02.631 --> 31:06.831
affairs in the colonies,
it suggested to people that

31:06.832 --> 31:11.442
they had the personal ability to
change their lives through their

31:11.435 --> 31:12.655
own free will.

31:12.660 --> 31:16.920
It was personally empowering,
and in that sense it was sort

31:16.916 --> 31:18.896
of a democratizing force.

31:18.900 --> 31:21.260
I almost hesitated when I was
writing this to use the word

31:21.259 --> 31:23.619
"democratizing"
because I didn't want to be--

31:23.618 --> 31:25.458
As I mentioned on that first
day, you put the

31:25.463 --> 31:27.643
"democracy"
word out there and all kinds of

31:27.643 --> 31:29.413
lights go off,
but I just couldn't think of a

31:29.407 --> 31:31.937
better word,
so democratizing I'll stick

31:31.938 --> 31:32.398
with.

31:32.400 --> 31:36.200
Also, the Great Awakening
preached spiritual equality,

31:36.200 --> 31:38.590
and included women,
African Americans and the

31:38.594 --> 31:40.324
poor--
and the power of making

31:40.320 --> 31:42.400
choices, though the impact of
that,

31:42.400 --> 31:44.920
as we'll see,
might not have been so great.

31:44.920 --> 31:48.730
Plus it was an
anti-authoritarian force led by

31:48.727 --> 31:53.887
unorthodox preachers and people
not attached to an established

31:53.888 --> 31:54.818
church.

31:54.818 --> 31:58.758
So we have here a mix of
individualism and personal

31:58.760 --> 32:03.650
empowerment and throw in an
emotional sort of righteousness.

32:03.650 --> 32:07.660
That's a really kind of a heady
mixture of feelings and ideas

32:07.661 --> 32:11.341
that would eventually help to
encourage a real spirit of

32:11.337 --> 32:13.007
political resistance.

32:13.009 --> 32:13.319
Okay.

32:13.320 --> 32:17.240
I'm going to mention a few more
basic things about colonial life

32:17.240 --> 32:19.480
that were different from
England.

32:19.480 --> 32:20.650
Very quickly.

32:20.650 --> 32:24.040
First, the realities of living
on a frontier,

32:24.038 --> 32:27.878
which not only fostered a sense
of independence,

32:27.880 --> 32:31.230
but also a sense of community,
partly in a defensive way

32:31.231 --> 32:34.951
because of fears about Indians
and because of the difficulties

32:34.951 --> 32:38.061
of forging a homestead or
creating a community.

32:38.058 --> 32:41.658
On a more positive side,
colonists generally had

32:41.657 --> 32:45.177
healthier living conditions than
in England.

32:45.180 --> 32:48.410
Food was plentiful,
there were plenty of open

32:48.405 --> 32:50.765
spaces,
and you can actually see this

32:50.773 --> 32:54.213
concretely when you look at the
average size of an English man

32:54.211 --> 32:57.421
and an English woman and a
colonial man and colonial woman

32:57.423 --> 33:00.063
towards the turn--
the middle of the eighteenth

33:00.058 --> 33:00.488
century.

33:00.490 --> 33:03.810
Basically, the average size of
an Englishman in the middle of

33:03.807 --> 33:05.907
the eighteenth century was 5
foot 6.

33:05.910 --> 33:07.140
And the--This made me happy.

33:07.140 --> 33:09.340
The average size of an English
woman was 5 feet,

33:09.336 --> 33:10.456
which is basically me.

33:10.460 --> 33:12.070
[laughs]
It makes me so happy to think

33:12.074 --> 33:13.954
there's a time when I was
average height.

33:13.950 --> 33:15.850
I feel so tall.

33:15.848 --> 33:19.898
However, colonial men and women
on average tended to be a couple

33:19.897 --> 33:21.117
of inches taller.

33:21.118 --> 33:24.438
So you could see--plentiful
food, wide-open spaces--

33:24.440 --> 33:27.190
actually people are healthier
and bigger,

33:27.190 --> 33:30.140
which was true also among
soldiers as a matter of fact,

33:30.140 --> 33:33.510
which was interesting;
you could see it.

33:33.509 --> 33:36.789
This brings us to the third
major category of things that

33:36.791 --> 33:39.721
contributed to the
difference--differences in being

33:39.723 --> 33:41.603
a British American colonist.

33:41.598 --> 33:43.408
So we have the type of person
who migrated;

33:43.410 --> 33:46.040
we just had a whole bunch of
living conditions in the

33:46.042 --> 33:46.602
colonies.

33:46.598 --> 33:49.718
This is the third category,
which is the nature of the

33:49.718 --> 33:52.188
British administration of the
colonies,

33:52.190 --> 33:55.660
which, as I mentioned last
week, was kind of light-handed,

33:55.660 --> 33:58.920
so colonial government and
society could develop in ways

33:58.923 --> 34:02.133
that Britain might not
necessarily have desired or even

34:02.128 --> 34:03.018
recognized.

34:03.019 --> 34:07.779
One of the most striking
effects of this lack of imperial

34:07.784 --> 34:12.894
control was the power of the
typical colonial legislature.

34:12.889 --> 34:16.539
Left alone, the colonists
developed strong legislatures

34:16.541 --> 34:20.671
which often were full of very
contentious individuals who felt

34:20.666 --> 34:24.316
entitled and compelled to fight
for their rights,

34:24.320 --> 34:27.780
or what I discussed last week,
their English liberties.

34:27.780 --> 34:31.260
Some of these colonial
legislatures were so strong that

34:31.257 --> 34:34.477
they often won battles against
royal governors--

34:34.480 --> 34:38.080
battles that were not taken
much note of by the Crown at the

34:38.081 --> 34:39.991
time,
because the Crown wasn't

34:39.985 --> 34:42.575
administering to the colonies
very closely.

34:42.579 --> 34:45.959
And in fact,
by the 1760s most of the

34:45.963 --> 34:51.423
colonies had in place all of the
conditions necessary to be

34:51.416 --> 34:53.856
self-governing states.

34:53.860 --> 34:58.010
They had elective assemblies
and other institutions of local

34:58.005 --> 35:00.505
government,
and these institutions had

35:00.507 --> 35:03.777
broad powers over the internal
affairs of the colonies.

35:03.780 --> 35:08.440
They had a reservoir of
political leaders drawn from the

35:08.440 --> 35:09.120
elite.

35:09.119 --> 35:12.659
And colonists recognized and
were jealous of their power of

35:12.657 --> 35:15.527
self-government,
and were not shy about fighting

35:15.525 --> 35:17.655
royal officials for this power.

35:17.659 --> 35:19.789
So by the 1760s,
there's a lot of things in

35:19.788 --> 35:21.918
place for these colonies,
in a sense, to be

35:21.916 --> 35:24.096
self-governing,
although obviously they were

35:24.097 --> 35:25.007
not already.

35:25.010 --> 35:29.890
So in summary,
what does all of this add up

35:29.889 --> 35:30.469
to?

35:30.469 --> 35:34.509
What do I mean when I refer to
being a British American?

35:34.510 --> 35:38.970
Well, we've talked about a
tradition of voicing opinions

35:38.971 --> 35:40.351
and grievances.

35:40.349 --> 35:44.569
We've talked about a sense of
entitlement to owning property

35:44.572 --> 35:45.362
and land.

35:45.360 --> 35:49.460
We've talked about assumptions
about active participation in

35:49.460 --> 35:51.130
the political process.

35:51.130 --> 35:54.270
We've talked about a
willingness to take risks and

35:54.266 --> 35:56.056
fight for what you wanted.

35:56.059 --> 35:59.789
We've talked about an
independent spirit and jealousy

35:59.793 --> 36:01.663
about your independence.

36:01.659 --> 36:05.269
And we've talked about relative
tolerance of ethnic and

36:05.268 --> 36:06.738
religious diversity.

36:06.739 --> 36:10.939
You can hear this sort of
mixture of things in a comment

36:10.936 --> 36:15.276
by a British officer in the
colonies during the French and

36:15.284 --> 36:16.434
Indian War.

36:16.429 --> 36:19.939
And he observed and wrote back
home, "'Tis the nature of

36:19.943 --> 36:23.463
this people to do all in their
power to pull down every legal

36:23.458 --> 36:24.278
authority.

36:24.280 --> 36:27.390
There is no law prevailing at
present here."

36:27.389 --> 36:30.609
That's a little bit of an
exaggeration I would say--but

36:30.605 --> 36:32.565
another arrogant British quote.

36:32.570 --> 36:34.820
I always do lots of arrogant
British quotes.

36:34.820 --> 36:37.360
"There is no law
prevailing at present here,

36:37.360 --> 36:40.060
that I have met with,
but the rule every man pleases

36:40.059 --> 36:41.489
to lay down to himself.

36:41.489 --> 36:44.539
Every man insists upon
following the dictates of his

36:44.536 --> 36:46.506
own will without control."

36:46.510 --> 36:48.180
A little bit of an
exaggeration,

36:48.179 --> 36:51.299
but you can see certainly what
he feels like he's seeing as

36:51.304 --> 36:54.164
compared with what he knows from
back in England.

36:54.159 --> 36:57.729
Or as a member of the
Massachusetts legislature put

36:57.733 --> 37:01.813
it, "Our people were not
calculated to be kept in any

37:01.806 --> 37:03.446
particular service.

37:03.449 --> 37:07.869
They soon grow troublesome and
uneasy by reflecting upon their

37:07.873 --> 37:10.303
folly" by--
"in bringing themselves

37:10.300 --> 37:12.740
into a state of subjection when
they might have continued free

37:12.739 --> 37:13.739
and independent."

37:13.739 --> 37:17.069
Now that sounds like a sort of
wonderful thing,

37:17.070 --> 37:19.890
impressive, admirable,
like 'oh, our people are--

37:19.889 --> 37:22.709
they like to be independent and
if they commit to something,

37:22.710 --> 37:24.150
they're not happy about that
commitment,

37:24.150 --> 37:25.910
because they think--wow,
I could have been free and

37:25.909 --> 37:27.069
independent; what have I done?'

37:27.070 --> 37:29.420
The problem with that is:
try putting a bunch of those

37:29.422 --> 37:32.092
people into an army and then
expecting them to stay in it for

37:32.085 --> 37:33.235
a long period of time.

37:33.239 --> 37:36.759
George Washington was not a
happy camper for part--

37:36.760 --> 37:40.180
a good part of the Revolution
because he was stuck with a lot

37:40.177 --> 37:42.567
of soldiers who had that point
of view--

37:42.570 --> 37:44.940
like, 'Well,
I'll do this for a little while

37:44.940 --> 37:46.040
and then I'll leave.

37:46.043 --> 37:46.433
Bye.

37:46.429 --> 37:48.459
" And so it's kind of hard
to command that kind of an army,

37:48.460 --> 37:50.840
as we'll see,
and--I guess I can't say I'm

37:50.840 --> 37:54.220
proud to say--
Connecticut was a problem.

37:54.219 --> 37:55.789
[laughs]
Connecticut--as we'll see,

37:55.786 --> 37:58.136
Connecticut had issues;
Rhode Island too.

37:58.139 --> 37:59.379
I think I mentioned that in the
first lecture,

37:59.382 --> 37:59.992
but Connecticut too.

37:59.989 --> 38:02.319
Soldiers particularly had
problems wanting to stick

38:02.315 --> 38:04.285
around,
but that was a general problem

38:04.286 --> 38:05.906
as well,
the sort of spirit of

38:05.914 --> 38:08.544
independence and 'I've done what
I wanted to do;

38:08.539 --> 38:09.939
I'm going to now do something
different.'

38:09.940 --> 38:14.760
So we've looked at being a
British colonist.

38:14.760 --> 38:16.370
We've looked at being a British
American.

38:16.369 --> 38:19.929
The next step that we're going
to be taking on Thursday is

38:19.927 --> 38:23.047
going to be looking at
intercolonial relations--

38:23.050 --> 38:25.400
looking at how the colonies
felt about each other,

38:25.400 --> 38:29.790
looking at how the colonies
interacted with each other,

38:29.789 --> 38:33.729
how they felt about each other,
what their sense was of any

38:33.733 --> 38:37.073
kind of cooperation or union
between these sort of

38:37.065 --> 38:38.285
colony-states.

38:38.289 --> 38:42.059
And by the end of Thursday's
lecture, we're going to see the

38:42.059 --> 38:46.019
first glimmers of tension with
the passage of the Stamp Act.

38:46.018 --> 38:48.278
So by the end of the next
lecture--You can see why,

38:48.280 --> 38:51.180
when I mentioned in that first
lecture that there was someone

38:51.179 --> 38:52.109
in--
when I first taught this

38:52.105 --> 38:53.925
course--who raised his hand,
probably at the end of this

38:53.927 --> 38:55.397
lecture,
and said, "Where are the

38:55.402 --> 38:56.912
dates?,"
that we've had two lectures

38:56.911 --> 38:59.361
without a lot of dates,
but the Stamp Act--We have an

38:59.356 --> 39:01.716
actual concrete thing coming on
Thursday [laughs]

39:01.715 --> 39:03.875
and then actual events of the
Revolution.

39:03.880 --> 39:08.180
But hopefully with these three
lectures you have some kind of a

39:08.179 --> 39:11.259
sense of the--
sort of--foundation of where

39:11.255 --> 39:14.245
we're working from,
as we're now going to show

39:14.253 --> 39:18.733
people basically getting upset,
working themselves a logic of

39:18.730 --> 39:22.750
resistance,
and then acting on that logic.

39:22.750 --> 39:25.240
I think it's important
obviously to understand where

39:25.240 --> 39:28.120
the colonists were coming from
before you plunge right in to

39:28.123 --> 39:30.713
seeing them rebelling against
what they've had and for

39:30.713 --> 39:31.743
something else.

39:31.739 --> 39:33.969
But I think certainly in these
two first lectures,

39:33.969 --> 39:39.119
you do get a sense of some of
the ways in which the colonies

39:39.121 --> 39:43.531
were prepared to resist,
or maybe predisposed to resist,

39:43.525 --> 39:46.625
and some of the reasons why it
took actually,

39:46.630 --> 39:49.030
as you'll see,
a pretty long time for the

39:49.034 --> 39:51.504
colonists to decide to actually
rebel--

39:51.500 --> 39:53.760
that it took a while.

39:53.760 --> 39:56.380
People sort of let go,
finger by finger,

39:56.384 --> 39:58.004
of the British Empire.

39:58.000 --> 39:59.420
They let go,
piece by piece,

39:59.420 --> 40:02.530
until finally they felt that
there was no alternative except

40:02.525 --> 40:03.415
a revolution.

40:03.420 --> 40:04.590
I will end there.

40:04.590 --> 40:06.240
I will see you on Thursday.

40:06.239 --> 40:09.659
If you have questions,
come up and see me now at the

40:09.657 --> 40:13.277
end of class or e-mail them to
me and I will see you on

40:13.277 --> 40:14.147
Thursday.

40:14.150 --> 40:19.000