British colonial America in the late seventeenth century was very responsive to social, political, and economic events taking place in England. As this essay will demonstrate, between the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Great Awakening, which occurred in the early 1700s, the colonies grew in terms of their own economic power, political concerns, and social integration. Eric Foner (2009) suggests that early in this era, Britain solidified its control over the colonies but as the period progressed, this control was diminished in part by the determination of the colonies to achieve a greater degree of autonomy and self-governance. This essay will consider the most significant changes occurring in colonial British America during this period and the response engendered by the Great Awakening to these transformations.
The Glorious Revolution "exposed fault lines in colonial society and offered local elites an opportunity to regain authority that had recently been challenged" (Foner, 2009, p. 103). Prior to the mid-1670s, the British colonies in North America had enjoyed enormous autonomy in governing themselves and relatively little oversight from the mother country. William Penn, writing in 1675, pointed out that the colonies were being influenced by religious divisions that reflected a desire for liberty on the part of so-called Dissenters and argued in favor of greater freedom of worship (in Foner, 2008). At the same time, Nathaniel Bacon, in 1676, called for the colonies to have greater influence over policy regarding Native Americans than they were being allowed while recognizing that the colonies were still bound by loyalty to the Crown (in Foner, 2008). With England establishing the Lords of Trade in 1675 to oversee colonial affairs, it became apparent that the Crown was determined to impose its will on the colonies and to fend off any attempt by the colonials to achieve autonomy (Foner, 2009).
The reaction ...