What experiences tended to unify the colonists in British North America during the eighteenth century?

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Figure false: George Whitefield
Figure false: An anonymous artist portrayed George Whitefield preaching, emphasizing the power of his sermons to transport his audience to a revived awareness of divine spirituality. The woman below his hands appears transfixed. Her eyes and Whitefield’s do not meet, yet the artist’s use of light suggests that she and Whitefield see the same core of holy Truth. National Portrait Gallery, London.

THE SOCIETIES OF NEW ENGLAND, the middle colonies, and the southern colonies became more sharply differentiated during the eighteenth century, but colonists throughout British North America also shared unifying experiences that eluded settlers in the Spanish and French colonies.

CHRONOLOGY

1730s

  • – Jonathan Edwards promotes the religious movement known as the Great Awakening.

1740s

  • – George Whitefield preaches religious revival in North America.

1754

  • – Seven Years’ War begins.

1769

  • – American Philosophical Society is founded.
  • – First Spanish mission in California, San Diego de Alcalá, is established.

1770

  • – Spanish mission and presidio are established at Monterey, California.

Unifying Experiences in British North America

> Unifying Experiences in British North America

  • All three British colonial regions had their economic roots in agriculture.
  • Religion had declined in importance by the eighteenth century.
  • White inhabitants throughout British North America became aware that they shared a distinctive identity as British colonists. They asserted their prerogatives as British subjects to defend their special colonial interests.
  • The consumption of British exports built a certain material uniformity across region, religion, class, and status.