Becoming America: The Revolution Before 1776 Fr... May 2026

Colonists imported European and Asian goods—from silver communion plates to velvet seat cushions—to define their social status.

In 1680, most European settlers were English. By 1770, the colonies had become a "polyglot" society. Waves of Scots, Germans, Dutch, Swiss, and French Huguenots joined a landscape already inhabited by Native Americans and a rapidly growing population of enslaved Africans. This "unprecedented jumble of peoples" created a unique ethnic and racial diversity that we still recognize as fundamentally American today. 2. The Birth of Global Consumerism Becoming America: The Revolution before 1776 fr...

The following blog post explores the themes of Jon Butler's book, . Becoming America: The Revolution before 1776 fr...

The "Hidden" Revolution: How America Became Modern Before 1776 Becoming America: The Revolution before 1776 fr...