Sociology 2501
Chapter Three - English Americans & the Anglo-Prostant Culture

The Anglo Americans

• Came into existence in the 17th century
• The 13 colonies
• Jamestown and Plymouth
• The Pilgrims
• The Massachusetts Bay Colony
• New Netherlands

• Considered some people inferior to them
• Ethnocentrism - tendency to consider one’s own society superior to others
• Folkways and mores
• Doctrine of White supremacy

• Indians discovered America about 25,000 BC and they reached South America by 15,000 BC
• Indian tribes were diverse societies and cultures
• No fixed policy toward Indians
• Demand for land led to friction
• Indians launched drives to push colonists out
• Puritans
• English
• Legal doctrines

• First Africans came to Virginia in 1619
• Indentured or bonded servants
• Profitability of Black Labor
• Maryland legislature in 1664
• Virginia law in 1661 - runaway slaves
• 1682 slavery was established for life in Virginia
• Plantation life - property
• Many slaves vigorously resisted
• "Maroon communities" - Underground Railroad
• Preventive measures

• 1610 - Jamestown - Northern Ireland
• The Irish of Scots - Presbyterians - economic reasons
• Regarded as "foreigners," also as "illiterate, slovenly, and filthy"
• Due to William Penn’s advertisement, Pennsylvania became destination of Scotch-Irish
• Strong antagonism between Germans and Scotch-Irish
• Conflict with Indians

• Germans and German Swiss - Penn
• Dutch or "Palatines"
• Rural Areas - maintained Language and culture
• Squatting
• Rate of assimilation was very slow
• Strengthened the position of European White Prostestants

• Leaders of the Revolution
• Consolidated the acceptance of Anglo American standards
• By 1790, four of five Americans were immigrants from the British Isles
• Post-revolutionary central government strengthened Anglo American control
• New Constitution
• The assumption was that America was to be "a white man’s country"
• Napoleonic Wars - 1793-1815