Chapter Five: “Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution”Talking Points-Over the course of the 1700s, the population in the North American colonies exploded.-In 1775, the most populous colonies were Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, NorthCarolina, and Maryland.-About 90% of people lived in rural areas.-Colonial America was a melting pot. Germans were 6% of the total population in 1775.ManyGermans settled in Pennsylvania, fleeing religious persecution, economic oppression, and theravages of war.Scots-Irish were 7% of the population in 1775.They were lawless individuals.-By the mid 18thcentury, a series of Scots-Irish settlements were scattered along the "greatwagon road", which hugged the eastern Appalachian foothills from Pennsylvania to Georgia. TheScots-Irish led the armed march of the Paxton Boys in Philadelphia in 1764, protesting theQuaker policies toward the Indians. A few years later, they led the Regulator movement in NorthCarolina, a small but nasty insurrection against eastern domination of the colony's affairs.-About 5% of the multi colored colonial population consisted of other European groups- FrenchHuguenots, Welsh, Dutch, Swedes, Jews, Irish, Swiss, and Scots Highlanders.
