Social Classes & Labor
This wealthy, influential group occupied the highest level of colonial society.
Who were the aristocrats?
This system placed men, especially fathers, in authority over the household.
What was patriarchy?
This small, often informal school taught young children basic reading and sometimes writing and religion.
What was a dame school?
This Protestant group was influential in New England and emphasized congregational governance.
Who were the Congregationalists?
This famous traveling preacher drew large crowds throughout the colonies during the Great Awakening.
Who was George Whitefield?
Name the three levels of the colonial class system.
What were the upper, middle, and lower classes?
Under traditional colonial family expectations, who was generally expected to provide financially and lead the household?
Who was the father?
This early learning tool, often a small board, displayed the alphabet, syllables, or religious material.
What was a hornbook?
This agreement allowed children of baptized but not fully admitted church members to receive baptism in certain Puritan congregations.
What was the Half-Way Covenant?
This New England theologian preached the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."
Who was Jonathan Edwards?
A worker agreed to work for a set number of years in exchange for passage, food, shelter, or other support.
What was an indentured servant?
Name two responsibilities commonly expected of colonial mothers.
Childcare, cooking, cleaning, sewing, managing household tasks, and helping with family production or farming.
This Massachusetts law required communities to establish schools to help children learn to read Scripture and resist religious ignorance.
What was the Old Deluder Satan Act?
This eighteenth-century religious revival emphasized personal conversion, emotional preaching, and renewed religious commitment.
What was the Great Awakening?
This minister and missionary worked among Native Americans and kept a well-known spiritual journal.
Who was David Brainerd?
Unlike indentured servants, these European immigrants often paid for passage after arriving by agreeing to work off the debt.
Who were redemptioners?
Children in colonial households often learned these skills by helping adults with work and household responsibilities.
Practical skills such as farming, crafts, cooking, and household work.
Founded in 1636, this institution became the oldest college in what is now the United States.
What is Harvard College?
This minister became known for preaching to enslaved people and advocating the spread of Christianity in the colonies, especially in Virginia.
Who was Samuel Davies?
Name one way the Great Awakening challenged established religious authority.
It encouraged personal conversion, allowed itinerant preachers to attract followers outside established churches, and led people to question traditional religious leaders.
Explain one way the class system affected a person's opportunities in colonial society.
Wealth and social status influenced access to education, political influence, property ownership, and employment opportunities.
How did patriarchy influence family roles, and why should historians avoid assuming every family lived exactly the same way?
Patriarchy generally gave fathers greater authority, but responsibilities varied depending on wealth, region, occupation, and family circumstances.
How did grammar schools and apprenticeships prepare young people for different futures?
Grammar schools emphasized advanced literacy, classical learning, and preparation for further education. Apprenticeships taught trades and practical skills through work with an experienced craftsperson.
Why did the Half-Way Covenant develop, and what concern about Puritan society did it reflect?
It addressed declining full church membership and sought to keep more families connected to the church. It reflected concern about preserving Puritan religious communities.
Compare the contributions of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield to the Great Awakening.
Edwards was a theologian and influential New England preacher who emphasized spiritual conversion. Whitefield was a traveling evangelist whose dramatic preaching drew large, intercolonial audiences.