MIDDLE COLONIES
NEW YORK
• Proprietary Colony: Colony in which the owner, or
proprietor, owns all the land and controls the
government
• Taken from the Netherlands (Dutch)
• Diverse population of Dutch, German, Swedish, and
Native Americans
• 1664: 8,000 inhabitants
• 1683: 12,000 inhabitants
NEW JERSEY
• The Duke of York gave the southern part of New
York to two proprietors
• This southern part of New York becomes New Jersey
• To attract settlers, they offer large tracts of land and
religious freedom
• New Jersey had ethnic and religious diversity
• New Jersey had no natural harbors
• Problems?
• Few Profits
• 1702: New Jersey becomes a royal colony
PENNSYLVANIA
• 1681: King Charles II gives William Penn land as a
payment for a debt owed to Penn’s father
• Colony was named Pennsylvania
• Quakers
• Equality
• Follow own “inner light” to salvation
• Pacifists: People who refuse to use force or fight
• William Penn designed Philadelphia
• Penn negotiated with Native Americans
• Paid them for land
• Created several treaties
• 1701: Charter of Liberties
• Granted colonists the right to elect representatives
DELAWARE
• Swedes had settled in southern Pennsylvania before
the English took over
• Charter of Privileges
• Allowed these counties to form their own legislature
• Delaware is formed as a separate colony under
Pennsylvania’s governor
SOUTHERN COLONIES
• White Males control most property
• Plantations
• Important for economic growth of the Southern colonies
• As the number of plantations grow the need for
workers increased
• Workers included: English criminals, prisoners of war, African
slaves, and indentured servants
• Indentured Servants: Agreed to work without pay for
a certain length of time to pay off a debt
MARYLAND
• George Calvert, Lord Baltimore
• Son Celcilius will inherit colony
• Safe Haven for Catholics
• Proprietary Colony
• Estates: Pieces of land
• Given to English aristocrats
• Maryland relied on indentured servants and
enslaved Africans to work on plantations
MASON-DIXON LINE
• 1760s
• Pennyslvania and Maryland argued over the
boundary between the states
• Mason-Dixon Line: Created to end the dispute
between Pennslyvania and Maryland by setting
their boundary
CAROLINA
•
•
•
•
1663
“Charles’ Land”
Proprietary Colony
John Locke created a Constitution for the colony
• Constitution: Plan of government
• Split into North and South Carolina
• North Carolina
• Grew Tobacco, sold timber and tar
• Lacked a good harbor
• South Carolina
• Fertile farmland
• Charles Town
• Deerskin, lumber, and beef
• Rice and Indigo became chief crops
GEORGIA
• 1733
• James Olgethorpe
• Colony was set up for debtors and poor people to make
a fresh start
• Debtors: Not able to repay debts
• British hoped that Georgia would protect the colonies
from Spain
• Georgia is returned to the crown in 1751
• Poor people, religious refugees, and some Jews settled in
Georgia
NEW ENGLAND
• Subsistence Farming: Farmers produce enough to
meet their own families’ needs, with little left over to
sell
• Farming is the main economic activity of all the
colonies
• Northern farmers relied on their children for labor
• Spinning yarn, preserving fruit, milking cows, fencing fields,
harvesting
OTHER INDUSTRIES
• New England
• Mills
• Women made cloth, candles, soap
• Skilled craftspeople
• Shipbuilding
• Lumber for building ships came from nearby forests
• New England is the center of colonial trade
MIDDLE COLONIES
• Cash Crops: Farm crop raised to be sold for money
• Industries
• Carpentry
• Flour making
• Lumbering, mining, and manufacturing
SOUTHERN COLONIES
• Most settlers in the South made their living from farming
• Principal Cash Crops
• Tobaccco- Maryland and Virginia
• Rice- South Carolina and Georgia
• Tobacco is sold in Europe
• Slave Code: Strict rules that governed the behavior and
punishment of enslaved Africans
• Slaves could not learn to read or write
• Slaves could not leave without their owner’s permission
• The majority of white Southerners were NOT slaveholders!
TRIANGULAR TRADE
• North America to England: Rice, Tobacco, Indigo, Furs
• England to Africa: Cloth, Manufactured goods
• Africa to Americas: Slaves, Gold, Pepper
• Middle Passage: Part of the Triangular Trade where
enslaved Africans are shipped to the West Indies
• Terrible conditions
• Spent more than a month chained together in tight spaces
• Approximately 12 million Africans