13 Original
Colonies
Part 1: Coming
to America
The first colonies in North America were
along the eastern coast. Setters from Spain,
France, Sweden, Holland, and England
claimed land beginning in the 17th
century. The struggle for control of this
land would continue for more than a
hundred years.
Country
Name of Settlement
Present-Day
Location
Year First Settled
Spain
St. Augustine
Florida
1565
France
Quebec
Canada
1603
England
Jamestown
Virginia
1607
Holland
New Amsterdam
New York
1624
Sweden
New Sweden
New Jersey
1638
The first permanent settlement in North America was the
English colony at Jamestown, in 1607, in what is now
Virginia. John Smith and company had come to stay. The
Pilgrims followed, in 1620, and set up a colony at Plymouth,
in what is now Massachusetts.
First English colony in America to
survive and become permanent. It was
settled in 1607 and supported itself
through tobacco farming. It was later
the capital of Virginia and the site of
the House of Burgesses.
Leader of Jamestown, first
English colony in America to
survive and become permanent.
It was settled in 1603 and
supported itself through tobacco
farming.
English Puritans who fled England to escape
religious persecution. After a 65-day journey
from Southampton, England, they landed in
Plymouth Harbor on the western side of Cape
Cod Bay on December 21, 1620. There, under
the leadership of William Bradford, they
signed the Mayflower Compact, which created
their own government.
Colony founded by the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in December, 1620. Many of the 102 passengers who sailed from England aboard
the Mayflower died. The survivors formed the Plymouth Colony. They faced great hardship but made friends with neighboring Native Americans.
Among the leaders of the Plymouth Colony were William Bradford, John Carver, William Brewster, and Miles Standish.
Other English colonies sprang up all along the
Atlantic coast, from Maine in the north to Georgia
in the south. Swedish and Dutch colonies took
shape in and around what is now New York.
As more and more people arrived in the New
World, more and more disputes arose over territory.
Many wars were fought in the 1600s and 1700s.
Soon, the two countries with the largest presence
were England and France.
The two nations fought for control of North
America in what Americans call the French
and Indian War (1754-1763). England won
the war and got control of Canada, as well
as keeping control of all the English
colonies.
By this time, the English colonies
numbered 13. They were Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode
Island, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware,
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
and Georgia.
War fought between Great Britain and its two enemies, the French and the Indians of North America. Most of the battles
were in Canada. American colonists, including George Washington, fought with the British in this war, which lasted
from 1754 to 1763. The British won the war and won the right to keep Canada and several other possessions in the New
World.
Part 2:
Characteristics of
the Colonies
Each colony had its own unique characteristics, but
historians lump them into groups based on where they
were, why they were founded, and what kinds of industry
they had:
New England
Colonies
Middle
Colonies
Southern
Colonies
Rhode Island
Connecticut
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Delaware
Pennsylvania
New York
New Jersey
Maryland
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
Motivations for the New England Colonies
By and large, the people who settled
in the New England Colonies
wanted to keep their family unit
together and practice their own
religion. They were used to doing
many things themselves and not
depending on other people for much.
Some of these people came to New
England to make money, but they
were not the majority.
Motivations for the Middle Colonies
The people who founded the
Middle Colonies were looking
to practice their own religion
(Pennsylvania mainly) or to
make money. Many of these
people didn't bring their
families with them from
England and were the perfect
workers for the hard work
required in ironworks and
shipyards.
Motivations for the Southern Colonies
The founders of the Southern
Colonies were, for the most part,
out to make money. They
brought their families, as did the
New England colonists, and they
kept their families together on
the plantations. But their main
motivation was to make the good
money that was available in the
new American market.
Economy for the New England Colonies
The New England Colonies were
largely farming and fishing
communities. The people made their
own clothes and shoes. They grew
much of their own food. Crops like corn
and wheat grew in large numbers, and
much was shipped to England. Foods
that didn't grow in America were
shipped from England. Boston was the
major New England port.
Economy for the Middle Colonies
The Middle Colonies were part
agriculture, part industrial. Wheat
and other grains grew on farms in
Pennsylvania and New York.
Factories in Maryland produced
iron, and factories in Pennsylvania
produced paper and textiles. Trade
with England was plentiful in
these colonies as well.
Economy for the Southern Colonies
The Southern Colonies were almost
entirely agricultural. The main feature was
the plantation, a large plot of land that
contained a great many acres of farmland
and buildings in which lived the people
who owned the land and the people who
worked the land.
(A large part of the workforce was African
slaves, who first arrived in 1619.)
Southern plantations grew tobacco, rice,
and indigo, which they sold to buyers in
England and elsewhere in America.
Geography and Climate
New
England
Colonies
Middle
Atlantic
Colonies
Southern
Colonies
Geography
Climate
Appalachian Mountains,
Boston Harbor, hilly terrain,
rocky soil, jagged coastline
Moderate summers, cold
winters
Appalachian Mountains,
coastal lowlands (harbors &
bays, wide & deep rivers),
rich farmland
Appalachian Mountains,
Piedmont, Atlantic Coastal
Plain, good harbors, rivers
Moderate climate
Humid climate
Social Life Colonies
New England Colonies
Middle Atlantic
Colonies
Southern Colonies
Church and village were center of life
Religious reformers & separatists
Villages & cities
Varied & diverse lifestyles
Diverse religions
Plantations (slavery), mansions,
indentured servants, few cities, few
schools
Church of England
Part 3: People
of the Colonies
Large Landowners
•Lived mostly in the South
•Relied on indentured servants and/or slaves for
labor
•Some were educated
•Rich social life
Farmers
•Worked the land according to the
region in which they lived
•Relied on family members for labor
Artisans
•Worked as craftsmen in
towns and on the plantation
•Lived in small villages and
cities
Women
•Worked as caretakers, houseworkers, homemakers
•Could not vote
•Had few chances for an education
Indentured Servents
•Men and women who did not have
money for passage to the colonies and
agreed to work without pay for the
person who paid for their passage
•Free at end of contract (when debt was
paid)
Slaves
•Captured in Africa and sold to slave traders
•Shipped to colonies where they were sold
into slavery (mainly on plantations of the
south)
•Owned as property with no rights
•Children of slaves were born into slavery
Part 3: Beliefs
and Revolution
Beliefs
• The Pilgrims in Massachusetts and the Quakers in Pennsylvania
were examples of people who had left England so they could
practice the religion they chose. Maryland and Rhode Island passed
laws of religious toleration (meaning that people couldn't be
harmed just because their religion was different from other
people's).
• These American colonists also believed that they had a right to
govern themselves. More and more, they believed that they
shouldn't have to pay so much in taxes to England, especially since
they couldn't serve in the English government and have a say on
how high or low those taxes were.
Revolution
• As more and more Americans voiced their concerns over
higher and higher taxes, a conflict began to build. The English
response was to isolate the colonies from each other, in hopes
that the American people would not pull together as a whole.
• An example of this is the Intolerable Acts, which singled out
Massachusetts in general and Boston in particular. One
provision of these Acts was to close the port of Boston
entirely. This was serious business. Boston was one of the
largest ports in America. Closing it meant that Americans
couldn't get food and other essentials from England or
anywhere else, unless they paid extra for it to be transported
from other ports, like New York.
Revolution
• But the punishment of Boston backfired. The Americans
pulled together as never before. They took up arms against
their English governors and fellow soldiers. Even though they
had fought for England in the French and Indian War (George
Washington included), they now fought against England for
the right to govern themselves. The result was the
Revolutionary War, which ended in American victory.
• A new nation was born, one that had its roots in the conflicts
between several European nations. That new nation would
have to make its own way in an angry world.
Part 4:
Education
•If you were a school-age person in colonial America, you
might have gone to a public or private school, just like you
would today. But what you learned and how you learned it
have changed through the years.
•Schools were generally small, not like the large ones many
kids go to today. Kids learned to read from special books
called hornbooks.
•Kids in colonial America were taught a trade, usually the
one their fathers did,
so they could continue the
family business when their fathers
retired. Often, kids would go to
school and learn a trade.
•In the New England colonies, parents believed that their
children should learn about Christianity. To that end,
parents taught their children to read so they could read the
Bible. And once those kids knew how to read, they could
read school books as well. New England villages having
more than 100 families set up grammar schools, which
taught boys Latin and math and other subjects needed to
get into college. And although girls could read, they
weren't allowed to go to grammar school or to college.
•Middle Colonies schools were also largely religious but taught the
teachings of one religion. If you were a Catholic, you learned about
the Catholic religion. Most schools were private. Students also
learned other subjects so they could get into college. Again, girls
weren't allowed to attend, unless they were Quakers.
•School-age kids in the Southern Colonies were taught at home, for
the most part, by their parents or by private tutors. When these kids
became teenagers, they would then go off to college or to Europe.
As in the other colonies, Southern girls did not go to school.
Rhode Island
• Founded: 1636 by Roger Williams and others,
at Providence
• Major Industry: Agriculture (livestock, dairy,
fishing), Manufacturing
(lumbering)
• Major Cities: Providence
• Colony Named for: Dutch for "red island"
• Became a State: May 29, 1790
Connecticut
• Founded: 1636 by Thomas Hooker and others, at
Hartford
• Major Industry: Agriculture (wheat, corn, fishing)
• Major Cities: Hartford, New Haven
• Colony Named for: from an Algonquin word,
quinnehtukqut, "beside the long tidal river"
• Became a State: February 6, 1788
Massachusetts
• Founded: 1630 by John Winthrop & others, at Massachusetts Bay
• Major Industry: Agriculture (fishing, corn, livestock),
Manufacturing (lumbering, shipbuilding)
• Major Cities: Boston, Quincy, Plymouth, Salem, Lexington,
Concord
• Colony Named for: Massachusetts tribe (word means "large hill
place")
• Became a State: February 6, 1788
New Hampshire
• Founded: 1638 by John Wheelwright and others
• Major Industry: Agriculture (potatoes, fishing),
Manufacturing (textiles, shipbuilding)
• Major Cities: Concord
• Colony Named for: county of Hampshire in England
• Became a State: June 21, 1788
Delaware
• Founded: 1638 by Peter Minuit and others
• Major Industry: Agriculture (fishing), Manufacturing
(lumbering)
• Major Cities: Wilmington
• Colony Named for: named for the Delaware tribe and
for an early governor of colonial Virginia, Lord de la Warr
• Became a State: December 7, 1787
Pennsylvania
• Founded: 1682 by William Penn and others, at
Philadelphia
• Major Industry: Agriculture (wheat, corn, cattle, dairy),
Manufacturing (textiles, papermaking, shipbuilding)
• Major Cities: Philadelphia, Lancaster, York
• Colony Named for: William Penn and sylvania, Latin for
"forest"
• Became a State: December 12, 1787
New York
• Founded: 1626 by Peter Minuit and others, on
Manhattan Island
• Major Industry: Manufacturing (shipbuilding, iron
works), Agriculture (cattle, grain, rice, indigo, wheat)
• Major Cities: New York City, Albany
• Colony Named for: Duke of York
• Became a State: July 26, 1788
New Jersey
• Founded: 1664 by English colonists
• Major Industry: Manufacturing (ironworking,
lumbering)
• Major Cities: Trenton, Princeton
• Colony Named for: Isle of Jersey in England
• Became a State: December 18, 1787
Maryland
• Founded: 1633 by Lord Baltimore and others, at
Baltimore
• Major Industry: Manufacturing (shipbuilding, iron
works), Agriculture (corn, wheat, rice, indigo)
• Major Cities: Baltimore, Annapolis
• Colony Named for: Queen Henrietta Maria of England
• Became a State: April 28, 1788
Virginia
• Founded: 1607 by John Smith and others, at Jamestown
• Major Industry: Plantation agriculture (tobacco, wheat,
corn)
• Major Cities: Jamestown, Williamsburg, Richmond
• Colony Named for: England's "Virgin Queen,"
Elizabeth I
• Became a State: June 25, 1788
North Carolina
• Founded: 1653 by Virginia colonists
• Major Industry: Plantation agriculture (indigo, rice,
tobacco)
• Major Cities: Raleigh
• Colony Named for: from Carolus, the Latin word for
"Charles," Charles I of England
• Became a State: November 21, 1789
South Carolina
• Founded: 1663 by English colonists
• Major Industry: Plantation agriculture (indigo, rice,
tobacco, cotton, cattle)
• Major Cities: Charleston
• Colony Named for: from Carolus, the Latin word for
"Charles," Charles I of England
• Became a State: May 23, 1788
Georgia
•
•
•
•
•
Founded: 1732 by James Oglethorpe and others
Major Industry: Agriculture (indigo, rice, sugar)
Major Cities: Savannah
Colony Named for: England's King George II
Became a State: January 2, 1788
Important
Figures of
Colonial
Times
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
When I was born, America was made up of thirteen
colonies that were ruled by England. Trouble between
England and the thirteen colonies started to unfold
following the French and Indian War. The imposition
of the Stamp, Townsend, and Intolerable Acts
angered the colonists to rebel against Mother
England. On April 19, 1775, the colonists went to war
for their freedom.
Benjamin Franklin
During the fight for independence, I was sent to Europe to
represent the colonies. In 1776, I signed the Declaration of
Independence and, in 1778, the Treaty of Alliance with
France. In addition, I negotiated with the French to help the
colonists and became the first United States minister to France.
I helped secure guns, ammunition, and other provisions for the
army as well as volunteer troops. When the colonists won their
independence in 1781, I helped negotiate the peace with
England and signed what ultimately became known as Treaty
of Peace with Great Britain (1782).
Benjamin Franklin
Now that the colonists were free and
independent, it became necessary to decide
what type of government would be established.
Even though I was not in my prime and my
health was starting to fail, at eighty-one, I was
the oldest delegate at the Constitutional
Convention.
Benjamin Franklin
Upon signing the Constitution on September 17, 1787, I
became the only Founding Father to have signed all
five documents that established American
independence: the Declaration of Independence, the
Treaty of Amity and Commerce with France, the
Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace
with Great Britain, and the Constitution of the United
States of America.
James Oglethorpe
James Oglethorpe
I was a British general, a philanthropist, and the
founder of the colony of Georgia. I was born in
1696 in London. I was considered a social
reformer in England, and hoped to resettle
England's poor, especially those in debtor's
prison, in the New World.
James Oglethorpe
I proposed the settlement of a colony in America
between Carolina and Florida to provide a
refuge for persons who had become bankrupt
and to find a place to worship their religion. I
sailed for 88 days, arriving in Charleston,
South Carolina on the ship Anne, in late 1732,
and settled near the present site of Savannah,
Georgia on February 12, 1733.
James Oglethorpe
I negotiated with the Creek tribe for
land and established a series of
defensive forts, most notably Fort
Frederica, of which substantial
remains can still be visited. I then
returned to England and arranged to
have slavery banned in Georgia.
James Oglethorpe
The original model for the colonization of Georgia excluded
the use of slave labor, fearing that runaway slaves could
internally weaken the colony and assist the enemy at St.
Augustine. But, instead of slaves defecting southwards to
the Spanish, runaways from the Carolinas found refuge in
Georgia, thus irritating its northern neighbor.
The banning of slavery also reduced the work force, and
this was felt to be a constraint on Georgia's early economic
growth. Many settlers began to oppose me. Many new
settlers soon set their eyes on South Carolina as a less
restrictive and, they hoped, a more profitable place to
settle. In 1750, after I left the colony, the ban was lifted.
Ann Hutchinson
Ann Hutchinson
I was an unauthorized Puritan minister of a rebel
church discussion group and a pioneer settler in
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New
Netherlands.
I held Bible meetings for women that soon had
great appeal to men as well. Eventually, I went
beyond Bible study to boldly proclaim parts of
my own theological interpretations of the
ministers sermons of that day, some of which
offended colony leadership.
Ann Hutchinson
Great controversy ensued, and after a trial
before a jury of officials from both
government and clergy, I was eventually
banished from my colony.
I was a key figure in the study of the
development of religious freedom in
England's American colonies and the
history of women in ministry.
William Penn
William Penn
I was founder of the Province of Pennsylvania,
the English North American colony and the
future U.S. state of Pennsylvania. I was known
as an early champion of democracy and religious
freedom and famous for my good relations and
my treaties with the Lenape Indians. Under my
direction, Philadelphia was planned and
developed.
William Penn
As one of the earlier supporters of colonial
unification, I wrote and urged for a Union of all
the English colonies in what was to become the
United States of America. The democratic
principles that I set forth in the Pennsylvania
Frame of Government served as an inspiration
for the United States Constitution.