Colonies Approaching Revolution

Why did the 13 colonies revolt against the crown?
Distinctive economic social and political structures.
Gradual appearance of "American" way of life.

I. Population Growth
  • 1700 - Population is less than 300,000 including 20,000 blacks
  • 1775 - 2.5 million including 1.25 blacks
  • Growth is mostly due to remarkable natural fertility of all Americans
II. A Mingling of Races
  • Colonial America is now viewed as a "melting pot"
  • Numerous foreign groups
    • Germans
      • 6% of the population
      • Mostly in Pennsylvania
      • Lutheran
    • Scots-Irish
      • 7% of population
      • Maryland/Carolinas
    • African
      • 19% of population
  • Michel-Guillaume de Crevecour
    • French settler and writer
    • Makes observations of America as compared to Europe
      • "What then is this American, this new man?"
  • The Structure of Colonial Society
    • 17th Century America
      • Equality (except for slavery)
      • No titled novility
      • Most were small farmers
      • rags-to-riches
    • 18th Century
      • Beginning signs of social classes
      • Barriers to mobility
      • Armed conflicts enriched merchants
      • Prominent people seated by rank
      • 'Jayle Bird' convicts dumped in America
      • Some people start becoming rich.
  • Clerics, Physicians, and Jurists
    • Clerics
      • Most honored profession
    • Physicians
      • poorly trained
      • not highly esteemed
      • epidemics are a constant nightmare
    • Jurists
      • Not favorably regarded
  • Working America
    • Agriculture
      • leading industry
    • Fishing
      • Major industry in New England
    • Commerce
      • Land speculation
      • Triangular Trade between Africa (slaves), West Indies, and New England.
  • Molasses Act
    • An Act by Britain aimed at stopping North American trade with the French West Indies.
    • Trade with West Indies provided crucial cash for colonies
    • If successful, colonists would have a crippled trade and standard of living
    • Early sign of hostility from Britain

III. The Great Awakening (1730s/1740s)
  • Rousing religious revival
    • Religion had weakened over previous decades
    • revival exploded across colonies
    • direct emotive spirituality vs. erudite clergy
  • Most significant:
    • First spontaneous mass movement of American People
      • Broke down sectional barriers
      • Growing sense of one American People.
  • Jonathan Edwards
    • "Sinners in the hand of an angry God."
    • Preached that humans are in complete dependence on God's grace
    • Good works will not save you
  • George Whitefield
    • Preached human helplessness and divine omnipotence
    • Orator of rare gifts; electrifying style
    • traveled the country
IV. Culture
  • John S. Copley
    • Famous American painter
    • Considered a loyalist during Revolution
  • Phillis Wheatley
    • Slave girl brought to Boston at age 8
    • Never formally educated
    • Taken to England at age 20
      • Becomes well known poet
      • Overcame lowly circumstances
  • Benjamin Franklin
    • Established first circulating library
  • John Peter Zenger
    • Newspaper printer
    • Celebrated legal case
    • Assailed corrupt legal governor
    • Arrested for libel
    • Plead not guilty. He argued that he printed the truth
    • Established that true statements about public officials could not be prosecuted as libel


Mineral Properties
  • Crystal Form - Outward appearance of the internal mineral structure (unit cell). Need to have adequate space and time to form crystals.
  • Luster - Quality of light reflected from the mineral surface. Some examples of subjective qualities or descriptors include vitreous (glassy), resinous, earthy, metallic, and pearly.
  • Color - Sometimes diagnostic, but not always.
    • diagnostic: pyrite (brassy yellow,) galena (silver)
    • Not diagnostic: Quartz (transparent to white to black)
    • Some elements can change color
  • Streak - Color of the streak left after scratching a mineral on another surface. This is more likely to provide a diagnostic quality of the mineral. A ceramic streak plate is usually used for this.
    • Streak color is not always the same color as the mineral itself. (Pyrite is a yellow mineral with a dark green to black streak.)
  • Hardness - One of the more useful properties.
    • Hardness is measured by the Moh's Scale and given values from 1 through 10, 10 being the hardest.
      1. Talc
      2. Gypsum
      3. Calcite
      4. Flourite
      5. Apatite
      6. K-feldspar
      7. Quartz
      8. Topaz
      9. Corundrum
      10. Diamond
    • Useful comparisons: A fingernail is 2.5, a penny is 3.5, and glass is 5.5.
  • Cleavage - Preferred planes of breakage along weak bonds. These can be classified as perfect, strong or weak.
  • Specific gravity - Mineral density relative to water
    • Quartz - 2.65
    • Galena - 7.5
    • Gold - 20
  • Crystal habit - The general shape of a mineral crystal. These include prismatic, sheet-like, equant, blocky, and botryoidal.
  • Other types of diagnostic properties: Magnetic, dissolves in acid, taste, smell, feel, luminescence, and flourescence

Mineral Identification
  • Analytical techniques to identify minerals include:
    • Hand specimen with hand lens
    • Microscope
    • Analytical chemistry/wet chemistry
    • electron microprobes (ion microprobes)
    • X-ray diffraction and X-ray flourescence
    • Cathodoluminesence
    • Scanning Electron Microscope
    • Tunneling Electron Microscope
Geology of Energy Resources


My disinterest in the subject will probably get in the way of typing up everything taught in the course, but I'll try to be as detailed as possible.

Contents:
Introduction to Minerals and Rocks


Importance of Minerals

  • Fundamental building blocks of The Earth
  • They hold important clues for the history of The Earth
  • Knowledge of Minerals and rocks is the first step to better identifying and managing Earth's resources
  • They are important to our health
  • They serve various uses for modern economic development
  • 'If we didn't grow it, it came from a mineral'

Periodic Table
  • 92 Elements found in nature (Hydrogen to Uranium)
  • 8 elements make up more than 90% of The Earth's crust. (O, Si, Al, Fe, Ca, Na, K, Mg)



What are Minerals?
  • Naturally occurring Earth materials formed by geological processes
  • They each have a specific chemical composition
  • They are inorganic
  • Solids
  • Have an orderly, regular, repeating crystalline structure
    • Cube (halite, pyrite)
    • Hexagon (quartz)
    • Octahedron (Diamond Flourite)
    • Dodecahedron (garnet)

Rocks
  • Rocks are inorganic solids that are made or of groups of minerals
  • They can be formed of a single mineral or a combination
There are 3 Kinds of Rocks
  • Ingenious Rocks
    • Crystallization of Molten Rock
  • Sedimentary Rocks
    • Accumulation of layers of sediment
  • Metamorphic Rocks
    • Buried sedimentary rocks that have been altered by heat and pressure

Rock Cycle - A Recycling System

  • Deposition - Depositing of small particles in a layer
  • Weathering - Effects of wind and water breaking the bonds of the rock
  • Erosion - Transportation of the weathered particles to a new location
  • Metamorphism - Pressures and temperatures applied

Intrusive Igneous Rocks
  • Crystallized from Molten Rock (magma)
    • Slower cooling underground
    • Larger coarser crystals  - can be seen with your eyes alone
    • Surrounded by smaller crystals - Phenocrysts
    • Surrounding rock that is incorporated - Inclusions
  • Batholiths and Plutons
    • Large Igneous Intrusions
    • Many Plutons make a Batholith


Extrusive Igneous Rocks
  • Crystallize at Earth's surface from Molten Rock (lava)
    • Cool rapidly so they have fine grains - small crystals that require a microscope to see.
    • A mass of extrusive igneous rock surrounding bits of phenocrysts is called a porphyritic rock.


Sedimentary Rocks
  • 75% of all rock on the Earth's surface
  • Weathering (breaking, alteration, and erosion of rock) results in transportation of sediment via wind, water, or ice. The sediment is then deposited and goes through a process called lithification where it is compacted and cemented or 'glued' together.
  • Sedimentary rocks are deposited in layers called
  • There are two types of sedimentary rocks, Detrital (or clastic) and Chemical (or non-clastic)
Detrital (Clastic) Sedimentary Rocks
  • Classified according to grain size:
    • Shale (layered)
    • Mudstone: < 1/256mm
    • Siltstone: 1/256mm - 1/16mm
    • Sandstone: 1/16mm - 2mm
    • Conglomerate: > 2mm
Chemical (Non-Clastic) Sedimentary Rocks
  • Classified according to mineral composition
    • Halite - NaCl
    • Gypsum - CaSO4, 2H2O
    • Limestone - CaCO3

Metamorphic Rocks

  • Form when heat, pressure, and//or chemically active fluids interact with sedimentary or igneous rocks
  • There are three kinds of metamorphic rocks defined by process:
    • High pressure, low temperature - Regional Metamorphism
      • characteristic of subduction zones.
      • sediments have heavy load applied to them and produce a more dense rock.
    • High pressure, high temperature - Regional Metamorphism
      • changes low-grade sedimentary rocks to high-grade metamorphic rocks.
    • Low pressure, high temperature - Contact Metamorphism
      • Magma intrudes into upper crust and heats up surrounding rocks
      • Heat source can provide environment for mineral deposits/valuable ores.




New England and The South in the 17th Century


I. New England - High life expectancies, strong sense of families

  A. Puritans

  • Salem Witch Trials - Mostly women accused. Undermines clergy. The whole thing makes people question the church
  • Halfway Covenant - People that are halfway commited to church are given partial rights. This is done because the church is desparate to keep people committed to the church.
   B. Ideas of Democracy
  • Church members can vote
  • Against slavery
  • Lay foundation for conservative values
   C. Puritans establish Harvard, the first college.


II. The South
   
   A. Indentured Servants
  • People who work for a set number of years to pay for passage to America.
  • Plantation owners get cheap labor and 50 acres of land.
  • This land was initially meant to be given to the servant, but that soon changed and the plantation owners would keep it.
   B. Bacon's Rebellion
  • Non-wealthy men lead rebellion.
  • Rebellion is eventually put down by government.
  • Government realizes that indentured servants could be dangerous.
   A. African Slaves
  • Replace indentured servants after the government became afraid of indentured servants as a result of Bacon's Rebellion.
New England Confederation

I. New England Confederation
  
   A. Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven, and Plymouth join together for political, economic, and defensive reasons.
   B. Dominion of New England - New England is only allowed to sell and buy from England.
  • England sets prices.
  • Colonists don't like it. Unrest!
II. New York
  • Originated with Dutch
  • Very different groups of people; diverse.
  • Peacefully taken over by England

III. Pennsylvania
  • Founded for Quakers
  • Quakers are looking for religious freedom
  • Do not believe in military
  • Bought land from Indians
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