New England Colonies Relationship

The relationships between the colonists and the British crown changed for the worse over the course of 1607 to 1763. After the Seven Year’s War was fought by colonists and won, colonists felt more as Englishmen than ever before. To understand this shift of view from patriotic to bitter relationship, we have to view the relationship from the point of a Pennsylvania farmer. Starting as a paternal and understanding relationship between the crown and the colonists, both the colonists and the crown helped turn the new world into a thriving economic center. After the British Civil War, Enlightenment thinkers started to gain movement throughout Europe, while at the same time tensions were rising for the colonists. After the Seven Year's War was won,

William Penn wanted his colony of Pennsylvania to be a place for religious freedom. He did not want a focus on religion to be the main criteria for his government. “Penn’s Frame of Government prohibited swearing, drunkenness, and adultery, as well as popular entertainments…(Foner, 97).” Meaning that he focused more on public morality than religious morality. Many seeking religious freedom to practice would come to Pennsylvania. During the first years of settlers in the colonies, life in the New England colonies was a struggle compared the southern colonies. Many farmers couldn’t grow much food and farmers were having a difficult time finding a stable product like sugar or tobacco(page 80). The southern colonies had found their marketable product and had gained more economically than the northern colonies. With labor costs low due to indentured servants and slaves, the southern colonies flourished. Ira Berlin calls this generation of slaves the charter generation. The colonies needed labor but did not depend on slaves, it was a society with slaves not a slave society. Since New England was behind on finding a stable crop slaves and

To finance the wars Britain raised taxes immensely sparking upset in both the colonies and in England (pg. 169) England wanting to expand their empire in the colonies wanted French posts out of Pennsylvania sparking the Seven Year’s War. (170) Colonists fought against French and Native forces until the war was won by the British in 1759(170). Northern colonists who fought in the war left with a sense of nationality towards England. Not only had the war left a patriotic feeling with Britain but also brought the colonies closer together. “The defeat of the Catholic French reinforced the equation of British nationality, Protestantism, and freedom.” pg 177. The colonists now wanted to be seen as Englishmen and have the rights of Englishmen in Parliament. Enlightenment thought was also becoming accepted by monarchs in other European empires, but Britain still relied on a social contract of religious beliefs. This upset colonists who thought that social contracts should be based on rights and liberties, not religious beliefs. As tensions grew between the northern colonies and the British crown, the southern colonies still had a booming economy. The southern colonies did not fight in the Seven Year’s War and did not want any changes to economy. They had free labor through the slave trade and relied heavily on constant trade with