American society was changing rapidly. Slavery was becoming more common in the South, and different areas and colonies had developed and adapted their own system of government. Breaking apart from Britain was the final step in a series of democratic actions. Without pursuing freedom, individual rights, and an obviously capitalistic society from the beginning, America would never have been created. Using Wethersfield, Connecticut as an example, American society was becoming more democratic between 1750 and 1790 in accordance with property distribution, social structure, politics, and religion.In early New England society, the government was built on small towns, and citizens relied on th ...view middle of the document...
Most people had between 1-150 acres. There were only a couple landowners that had more than this. While the owners of larger amounts of land obviously became richer, land distribution continued to become more equalized. Therefore, this made Wethersfield more democratic because more parity of land division made the people more equal in the eyes of the government and in the eyes of the other townspeople, and equality is an important part of a democratic government.As in land distribution, people in Wethersfield became more equal in terms of social structure as well. As more people lower in social structure became more involved in political affairs, they began to look out for their own class's interests. The division between the classes began to grow less, not more, ambiguous. However, social equality is an ideology that has yet to be put into American society. American society is, in fact, founded on competition where the "winners", the largest money-makers, are in the top social class and those lower on the social ladder were the "losers." This is the basis of capitalism; the principle America was founded on. Therefore, democracy in America was on a rise in reference to social structure because while classes in America were and still are divided, each class is still represented in the government.In terms of politics, more people from different classes became more active. In general, activity in politics increased in New England during this time because of increased interest of breaking away from Britain, especially in the 1780s. In Wethersfield, more members of the middle class were elected to town offices. In 1756, most representatives came from the top ten percent wealthiest people in the community, and all representatives were in the top fifty percent. In 1756, two thirds of the people elected to town offices were not in the top ten perc...