Ken Burns American Revolution: Demographics of the British Colonies

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Ken Burns Lessons

Demographics of the British Colonies (media gallery) This topic contains two video clips.

Teaching Tips: This is a great starting point for teachers. Print out the tips which include: Essential Question (1), supporting questions (2), Historical Thinking Skills (2), 

Before Viewing

It is encouraged to view Additional Resources John Adams’ Contributions to Constitutional Thinking,

Class Discussion Questions

  1. What different cultural or ethnic groups lived in the British colonies in the years just before the American Revolution? 
  2. What reasons did people have for moving to the colonies? 
  3. How were the demographics of the 13 colonies similar and different from each other? 
  4. How did class and social mobility vary based on race and gender? 
  5. What kinds of economies were most common in the colonies, and how did they vary by region?

While Viewing 

Viewing Questions Video 1: The Demographics of the British Colonies 

  1. Where in the colonies was slavery legal? 
  2. List some of the nationalities represented in the colonies. 
  3. Why were Native Americans important to colonial trade networks? 
  4. Who owned most of the land in Great Britain? 
  5. What was the social and economic status of most of the population of Great Britain? 
  6. What did many free, white men in the colonies hope for by coming to North America?

Video #1 The Demographics of the British Colonies (Video Clip 4:13): A wide variety of people from North America, Africa, and Europe made up the population of British America. They spoke different languages, practiced different religions, and as Thomas Paine wrote, “it would appear that the union of such a people was impracticable.”

Transcript

The colonists’ numbers had doubled every 25 years. By 1763, the population – Black and White – had reached almost 2 million.

Christopher Brown: And those settlers, produce for the Empire, but they also consume. They provide markets. They purchase goods that are manufactured in Britain. It’s the fastest growing part of the British economy: the trades with North America. (0:29) 

Stephen Conway: The British Empire expanded enormously as a result of the Seven Years’ War. There’s real anxiety that unless this empire is tied together more tightly, by central control and direction, it will start to fragment, in much the same way as the Roman Empire was assumed to have collapsed. (0:50)

Narrator: For more than 150 years, London had treated its North American colonies with what one British politician would call “salutary neglect.” Each colony was part of the King’s dominions, but in most of them, legislatures elected by propertied white men made laws, levied taxes, and decided how they’d be spent. (1:14)

Slavery was legal everywhere, from New Hampshire to Georgia. Many of the black people living in the colonies had been born there or in the Caribbean. But tens of thousands were from West Africa – captured from what is now Senegal, Gambia, and Gabon: Angola, Congo, and the Ivory Coast: Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ghana. (1:44)

Christopher Brown: I think it’s easy to underestimate the sheer diversity and variety, umm, in the colonies. Close to the majority of the population in the southern colonies were African. There are French-Huguenots. There are Germans. There are Scots. There’s Scots-Irish. There are Native people, not just on the frontiers but actually living in the heart of the 13 colonies. (2:12)

Michael Witgen, Historian: Most of the population of North America is Indigenous. 70% – 80% of the continent is still controlled by Indigenous people politically, economically, and militarily. It’s not a separate place. It’s not a timeless space where Native people are sort of existing in harmony with nature and that they have no interest in the outside world. 

Native people want the good stuff that Europeans are bringing. Europeans want the wealth that they can get from Native people. Native powers are as important to the global market economy as a place like Virginia or a place like New York. (2:48)

Thomas Paine: If there is a country in the world where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. Made up as it is from people from different nations, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship, it would appear that the union of such a people was impractical. (3:12)

Narrator: In Britain, 2% of the population, lords and lesser gentry, owned 2/3rds of all the land, and most people had for centuries lived “dependent” lives, either as tenant farmers, working land belonging to aristocrats, or as landless laborers working for an employer. (3:37)

For most free white men living in the colonies, North America was a land of opportunity. 

Alan Taylor: The people who are coming from Northern Britain, as well as a lot of Scots-Irish, often are bringing the resentments that they’ve been pushed off their lands by landlords. And so, there’s a great sensitivity about any kind of financial exaction that could be a slippery slope leading to the kinds of dependence that they had escaped from. (4:08)

Viewing Questions Video 2: 

  1. Which of the 13 original states were represented in the population of Valley Forge? 
  2. What were some of the languages spoken at Valley Forge? 
  3. What roles did women play at Valley Forge? 
  4. What were the men in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment promised for their service?

Video 2: The People at Valley Forge (1:41)

In the winter of 1777-78, Valley Forge was the fourth largest city in America, with over 20,000 people from across the 13 states. Multiple languages were spoken there by a wide variety of people.

Transcript

Valley Forge for a time would be the fourth largest city in America. 20,000 men, women, and children from all 13 states. (0:10)

For many, English was not their native language. They spoke German, Irish, Scots. Welsh, Dutch, Swedish, French, Mohican, Oneida, Wolof, Kikongo and more. (0:26)

Nearly 10% were African-American, most of whom served alongside whites in integrated regiments. Some 60 men were enrolled in a brand-new all-black company belonging to the first Rhode Island regiment. The state legislature promised those who were enslaved their freedom at War’s end and pledged to pay compensation to those whose property they had been. (0:53)

Among the Native American soldiers and scouts at Valley Forge were Tuscaroras, Oneidas, as well as Mohicans and Wappingers from Stockbridge, Massachusetts. (1:05)

The hundreds of women who lived among the soldiers did the men’s laundry, nursed the sick and wounded, and cared for an unknown number of children. (1:16)

Serena Zabin, Historian: When men went to war, they were gone, and so was whatever pay they were going to get and many women just could not survive on their own, and so it was actually better for everybody when women traveled with the armies. (1:38) 

After Viewing 

Review responses to the viewing questions. 

Class Discussion 

  1. How would the army’s experience at Valley Forge have differed without women? 
  2. How did different groups of people shape colonial society? 
  3. In what ways did different groups contribute to the American Revolution? How might the outcome of the war have been different without these contributions? 

Taking it Further 

Additional Resources

Demographics of the British Colonies Media Gallery 

Teaching Tips 

Teaching Tips | Demographics of the British Colonies

Essential Question
  • How did the wide variety of people in the British colonies shape colonial society and how did these different groups contribute to the American Revolution?
Supporting Questions
  1. How did interactions among European settlers, Native peoples, and Africans shape life in the colonies?
  2. How did both men and women participate in the American Revolution?
Historical Thinking Skills
  • Interpreting Charts and Graphs
  • Analyzing Multiple Perspectives

Use the following before, while, and after viewing suggestions for engaging students with this resource and with activities related to this topic.

Before Viewing

Note: This resource lays the foundation for understanding the demographics of the colonies and how different groups contributed to the American Revolution. We suggest building on this foundation with the resource John Adams’s Contributions to Constitutional Thinking, which examines how John Adams and the framers were concerned about creating a united country from 13 different states with distinct populations and characteristics.

As a whole class, discuss the following questions:

  1. What different cultural or ethnic groups lived in the British colonies in the years just before the American Revolution?
  2. What reasons did people have for moving to the colonies?
  3. How were the demographics of the 13 colonies similar and different from each other?
  4. How did class and social mobility vary based on race and gender?
  5. What kinds of economies were most common in the colonies, and how did they vary by region?
While Viewing

Have students watch and listen carefully for key points in the videos that help answer the following questions. If you wish, you can ask students to take notes as they watch. They may watch the videos more than once, as needed.

Video 1: The Demographics of the British Colonies

  1. Where in the colonies was slavery legal?
  2. List some of the nationalities represented in the colonies.
  3. Why were Native Americans important to colonial trade networks?
  4. Who owned most of the land in Great Britain?
  5. What was the social and economic status of most of the population of Great Britain?
  6. What did many free, white men in the colonies hope for by coming to North America?

Video 2: The People at Valley Forge

  1. Which of the 13 original states were represented in the population of Valley Forge?
  2. What were some of the languages spoken at Valley Forge?
  3. What roles did women play at Valley Forge?
  4. What were the men in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment promised for their service?
After Viewing

Review responses to the While Viewing questions above. Then follow up with the activity and questions below and discuss as a class.

  1. How would the army’s experience at Valley Forge have differed without women?
  2. How did different groups of people shape colonial society?
  3. In what ways did different groups contribute to the American Revolution? How might the outcome of the war have been different without these contributions?
Taking it Further
  1. You may assign students the Discussion Questions located under Support Materials for Use with Students.
  2. For a culminating activity focused on the demographics of the British colonies in the 1760s and 1770s, see an additional activity listed below.

Demographics of the British Colonies in the 18th Century

  1. Have students review Chapter Z pp. 1168-1171 from the United States Census Bureau’s publication Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970.
  2. Then, provide students with the Demographics of the British Colonies handout.
  3. Discuss answers as a whole class.

Discussion Questions | Demographics of the British Colonies How did a wide variety of people in the British colonies contribute to the success of the American Revolution? How did both men and women participate in the American Revolution? How did social mobility vary within the different demographic groups in the British colonies?

The People at Valley Forge (Video Clip 1:41) In the winter of 1777-78, Valley Forge was the fourth largest city in America, with over 20,000 people from across the 13 states. Multiple languages were spoken there by a wide variety of people.

ACTIVITY Demographics Census Data Handout | Demographics of the British Colonies

Demographics of the British Colonies

Directions: Review the United States Census Bureau’s publication Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, specifically Chapter Z pp. 1168-1171. After reviewing the tables, answer the following questions:

Compare the years 1760 and 1770:

1. What percentage of the colonial population was white?

2. What percentage of the population was Black?

3. What was the breakdown between men and women?

4. What was the age distribution?

5. Why do you think that these numbers changed over time?

6. Where do you see the largest concentration of Africans/African-Americans in the colonies? What might explain that?