Big Picture

Questions

1. What was the official church of colonial Virginia?
2. How did members of the House of Burgesses, the first representative governmental body in America, view their political roles?
3. In what way did colonial Virginia depend upon violence?
4. From what materials were most homes of wealthy Virginia planters in the eighteenth century made?
5. What did the New Light preachers criticize about Virginians during the Great Awakening?

Answers

1. The Anglican Church.
2. Burgesses viewed themselves as bulwarks against executive power, the last line of defense against overreaching kings and governors.
3. Virginians depended upon slaves, which were beaten, raped, and, on occasion, mutilated. Only violence could control this slave system, and as this dependence on violence grew, it turned back on its wielders, infecting Virginians themselves.
4. Brick.
5. The preachers criticized the values, the lifestyles, and even the slaveowning practices of the established order.