National Period American History Technically

¶ … National Period

American history technically begins in the east in the English colonies and it then spread gradually westward, only reaching the Appalachian Mountains by the end of the colonial period. According to this perspective, the "seeds" of the United States first appeared with the English colonists in 1607 at Jamestown in Virginia, and then followed in 1620 by "the Pilgrims" at Plymouth in New England (Taylor 2002, x). The small colonial cast (as the earlier Spanish and French settlements were pretty much irrelevant except as enemies) is compromised of the people who would create American colonial history, as it wasn't until the United States invaded the "West" during the early nineteenth century that the West would also become a part of the United States. Alaska and Hawaii wouldn't become a part of the United States' national history until the end of the nineteenth century (2002, x).

The early Spanish and French colonizers neglected the mid-Atlantic seaboard, which is an important aspect to consider when contemplating what the United States would become. Because of their neglect of this region, the mid-Atlantic seaboard was open to English colonization during the 1580s. This area they simply called Virginia, named to honor their queen, Elizabeth I, a supposed virgin. Between the years of 1580 and 1620, the English name Virginia the entire area of coast between Florida and Acadia (Taylor 2002, 118). The English at first searched for gold mines on land and Spanish ships with treasures by sea -- sort of "get rich quick" tactics, but these tactics failed and they were forced to come up with ways that were more low and laborious when it came to making their livings. Thus, they began to harvest their plantation. By 1616, the colonists discovered a prime commodity in tobacco, "which permitted an explosive growth in population, territory, and wealth" (2002, 118).

Middleton (2002, 115) states in his book, Colonial America: A History, 1565 -- 1776, by 1660, the colonists were exporting tobacco, sugar, cotton, indigo and other dyes back to England. In October of 1660, English Parliament passed a new act, which excluded foreign traders by only allowing vessels owned and three-quarters manned by Englishmen to enter English colonial ports (2002, 115). This meant that all the aforementioned goods had to go back to England before being shipped elsewhere -- there they would be taxed and therefore denied any competitive advantage. These measures were only beneficial to England, however, the large mercantile marine was being established in the colonial states and it gave work to thousands of men. This provided the source for major naval power, which would become important as the century went on -- and we see its early influences today in our own naval power.

The Great Awakening is another period of time -- during the 1730s and the 1740s -- where there was a decreasing emphasis on the importance of church doctrine and instead there was a greater emphasis put on the individual and his or her own spiritual experience. This was probably the most significant religious phenomenon in colonial history (Geiter & Spark 2003, 167). There were certainly revivals before this time, but they were mainly confined to certain areas like New England. The Great Awakening was an "intercolonial experience" (2003, 167), however, which swept the land from Georgia to Maine. It began in New England and the middle colonies in the early part of the 1730s when people began to question the part the individual played in religion and society. It arose during the same period as the Enlightenment, which was all about the individual and logic and reason and understanding the universe based on science as opposed to religion. Basically stated, individuals wanted to understand salvation from a more personal approach as opposed from the abundance of church dogma that pervaded the colonies.

John Edwards was a key player in the Great Awakening; he preached that people needed to have an individual or more personal approach when it came to God and salvation. He wanted all Christians to practice to tolerance and preached that salvation could only come from the hand of God -- not human works as the Puritans preached. The Great Awakening brought people together (though it did also divide them), but its influence on what the United States would later become is great. First of all, it forced people to have their own religious experience and it decreased the heavy hands of the clergy; new denominations also would come to be because of the Great Awakening as a direct result of the importance that was put on personal faith and views on salvation. The Great Awakening also brought the American colonies together and though there was also some division, there was more unification than ever before in the colonies.

The Great Awakening is so significant in the shaping of American and what it would later become because it gave individuals the freedom to find their own peace with life and God as it pertained to their earthly life -- and also to their later salvation. The United States of America is a country that holds up the rights of individuals to have their own individual experience and the foundation for that freedom started with the Great Awakening in the colonies.

The Boston Tea Party is remembered often these days with the attention the Tea Party has gotten lately. The original Tea Party occurred on December 16 of 1773 when colonists, dressed as Indians, dumped 342 chests containing 90,000 pounds of tea into Boston harbor (Geiter & Spark 2003, 197). This, of course, was a reaction to the implementation of North's Tea Act passed earlier in the year. The Act was created with the idea of helping the nearly bankrupt East India Company fix its financial problem by allowing it to ship tea directly to certain merchants in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston (2003, 197). Lord North refused to remove the duty on tea, which would have lowered the price of teas significantly in the colonies. "The company could offer it for sale at prices which would undercut the merchants who had not been earmarked by it to distribute the tea, who included legitimate traders as well as smugglers" (2003, 197). The organized protests against the Tea Act were another example of the British government's determination to tax the colonists without their consent.