Describe early English colonial society and the development of its governance, including cultural diversity, the Middle Passage and the growth of the African population, methods of self-government during salutary neglect, and the Great Awakening (GSE SSUSH2, Domain 1).

What this topic is asking

After it asks you to compare the three regions, the GSE moves to SSUSH2: what colonial society was like and how the habit of self-government grew. You need the colonies' cultural and religious diversity, the Middle Passage and the growth of the enslaved African population, the colonial institutions of self-government that flourished during salutary neglect, and the Great Awakening. This is core Domain 1 (Colonization through the Constitution) material, and it sets up the Revolution that follows.

A diverse colonial society

The Middle Passage and the African contribution

Despite this violence, the growing African and African American population made lasting contributions to colonial life. Enslaved Africans brought skills and knowledge that shaped American agriculture (rice cultivation in the Carolinas, for example), foodways, music, and craft and architecture. SSUSH2 expects you to acknowledge both the cruelty of the system and the cultural contributions of the people held within it.

Colonial self-government and salutary neglect

Two institutions are the classic evidence the exam wants:

• The Virginia House of Burgesses (1619) was the first elected legislative assembly in the English colonies, letting colonists make some of their own laws.
• The New England town meeting let the men of a town gather to vote directly on local issues such as taxes, roads, and schools, an early form of direct democracy.

Other examples include the Mayflower Compact (1620), in which the Pilgrims agreed to govern themselves by majority rule. Together these habits meant that by the 1760s colonists believed self-rule was their right, so new British taxes and controls felt like a violation.

The Great Awakening

The Great Awakening mattered for more than religion. Because the revivals crossed colony and denomination lines, they gave colonists from Massachusetts to Georgia a shared experience and a sense of common identity. By telling people to follow their own conscience, the movement also encouraged them to question traditional authority, a habit of mind that fed into the revolutionary spirit a generation later.

Try this

Q1. Name two examples of colonial self-government and explain what each allowed colonists to do. [2]

• Cue. The Virginia House of Burgesses was the first elected assembly and let colonists make some of their own laws; the New England town meeting let townsmen vote directly on local matters such as taxes and roads. (The Mayflower Compact is also acceptable.)

Q2. Explain what salutary neglect was and why it mattered for the Revolution. [2]

• Cue. Salutary neglect was Britain's loose enforcement of its laws, which let the colonies get used to governing themselves; this built a strong expectation of self-rule, so later British taxes and controls felt like a violation of established rights.