A Cultural Approach

Zuckerman, in his article, focuses his attention on the middle colonies and the erroneous tendencies of historians to ignore controversial or pertinent historical issues in favor of obvious, harmless social arguments. Historians have focused on New England as the true "birthplace of America" because of its early literature and thought that focused solely on Puritanism, and therefore offered an obvious and

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easy starting point with which to measure the region's cultural metamorphasis. They see the middle colonies as more of a commercial balancing point between the plantation dominated southern colonies and the manufacturers of New England. Like most people's idea of America, the middle colonies developed a commercial culture ba!

sed on a balanced economy, and, besides that, showed no real homogenous cultural traits that ran through the region.

Jack Greene hypothesizes that the idea of mastery and the relationship between the new colonies and Great Britain were foremost in shaping America's colonial culture.

Mintz and Price focus their concentration on the development of a distinct Afro-American culture in the New World. Overall, Menard, McCuskey and Zuckerman take a similar view on the importance of the middle colonies in colonial America. The problem with this mastery hypothesis is that it covers only the English migration to the New World, and only a relatively small portion of that group. With many different people arriving from Europe, it is logical to assume that their intermingling would cause a similar merging of cultural traits that they brought from their birthplaces. However, the simple fact that they coexisted with relative peace in such a dynamic and volatile atmosphere is evidence enough that the middle colonies were indeed representative of America's "melting pot" reputation. Greene would argue differently, and it is true that the fusion of a single American culture took a longer time to develop, but it is certainly likely that the European contingent in the New World underwent similar processes in becoming a!

n independent and self-sufficient group. Indeed, most of the different groups that coexisted in this region did not intermingle with each other at all, but instead kept their own distinctive cultural and social habits. Greene also advocates relating the culture of colonial America back to that of Great Britain, and that technique can be useful in some ways, such as delineating the differences between the two areas. However, taking thi!

s approach too far can be extremely dangerous, as the English in America were quick to develop cultural traits that had no connection whatsoever to their homeland and a comparison of some of these cultural aspects would only serve to confuse. After all, many English people chose to relocate to America for a wide variety of reasons that had nothing to do with mastery over others, and mastery was surely not at the top of their wish list once they arrived in the New World. Also, the many people who came to America from countries besides England would not fit into this historical approach.

Common topics in this essay:
English Puritans, Mintz Price, Revolutionary Era, Jack Greene, Cultural Approach, Menard Zuckerman, English America, Zuckerman England, England Zuckerman, America Britain, middle colonies, cultural traits, american culture, melting pot, america middle colonies, america middle, colonial america, menard mccuskey, cultural social, colonies offered, idea america,

Approximate Word count = 969
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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