New England Colonies
During the colonial
period, most New
Englanders lived in
Massachusetts,
Connecticut, or Rhode
Island, and, to a lesser
extent, New
Hampshire. Today,
New England also
includes Maine and
Vermont.
Economy of New England
Most New Englanders
were farmers, but soils
were rocky and the
growing seasons were
short. They grew mostly
subsistence and staple
crops to eat or trade
locally.
More than any other region, New England
profited from the sea by fishing, whaling, and
trading.
Abundant timber
helped make New
England an
important
shipbuilding
center.
The Great Migration
John Winthrop
thought the
Massachusetts Bay
Colony would be a
“city on a hill” that
would serve as a
shining example of
purity.
Between 1629 and 1640 more than 40,000
English Puritans came to New England.
The Mayflower compact
is the earliest example of
self-government in the
English colonies.
Squanto and
Samoset taught
the Pilgrims
how to farm in
New England.
Religion, Community, Education
The town meeting was a
cherished part of New
England’s government.
Ministers like
Cotton Mather
and Jonathan
Edwards (above)
were the most
influential figures
in New England
New Englanders were
the first to support
public education
because they felt all
Christians had an
obligation to read the
Bible for themselves.
Town meetings are still important in New England today.
Dissenters
Anne Hutchinson
Although women and particularly
widows had more rights in New
England than in other regions, Puritan
ministers were unwilling to accept
Anne Hutchinson’s assertion that
ordinary people, even women, could
interpret the Holy Scriptures without
the aid of Ministers. They banished
her.
Roger Williams was also banned by
the Puritan ministers for advocating
separation of church and state,
religious tolerance, and fair
treatment of Native Americans. He
founded his own colony in Rhode
Island.
Middle Colonies
New York, New Jersey, Delaware
and Pennsylvania were the
Middle Colonies
The Middle Colonies produced staple crops and
traded with each other as well as with New
England and the Southern Colonies.
Staple Crops
In the Middle colonies farmers grew staple crops such as corn, wheat, barley, and
oats, and raised cows, chickens, and pigs. Staple crops are crops that can be used to
make staples of our diet like bread. Flour, butter, eggs, milk, etc. are considered
staples. Staple crops would be consumed by the farmer and his family and traded
locally.
Diversity in the Middle Colonies
The Middle Colonies were more
ethnically and religiously diverse
than the New England Colonies.
From the Dutch in New York we
get such American traditions as
the Coffee Klatch, Santa Claus,
Doughnuts, cookies, Ragamuffin
Parades, and words like cookie,
boss, and yacht.
Philadelphia Freedom
Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn and the Quakers (a.k.a. the society of
Friends) who treated the Native Americans fairly, were pacifists, tolerated other faiths
and even believed in equal rights for women.
Southern Colonies
The Southern Colonies of Maryland,
Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia
were where cash crops were grown
using slave labor. Most southerners,
however were small farmers who
grew subsistence crops.
Cash Crops
Indigoused to
make
blue dye.
Cotton was
not grown in
the South
until later,
but it
eventually
became an
important
cash crop.
Rice was grown
in the Carolinas.
Tobacco, brought
from the West Indies
to Virginia by John
Rolfe, helped save
the colony.
John Rolfe
with his
wife,
Pocahontas
Slavery
Although there were a small number of slaves in New England and a larger
number in the Middle Colonies, most imported African slaves worked on
plantations in the South where they tended and harvested cash crops. Most
plantations were in the South, but even in the South, most farms were small
and most farmers could not afford slaves.
First Colony
The First English colony in the New World was Jamestown in Virginia. The colonists
were saved from the ravages of the “starving time” by Pocahontas and her father,
Chief Powhatan. An earlier colony at Roanoke disappeared mysteriously.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The first African slaves
were brought to
Virginia, also in 1619
In 1619 the House of
Burgesses became the
earliest example of
representative
government in the
colonies.
In 1676, a mob led by Nathaniel
Bacon attacked friendly American
Indians, stole their land and burned
the capital. The uprising, known as
Bacon’s Rebellion was later
quashed.
Gimme Shelter
Maryland’s Religious
Toleration Act of 1649
James Oglethorpe founded Georgia
as a haven for debtors, who had
been imprisoned in England for
failing to repay the money they
owed their creditors. Georgia
served as a buffer between the
English colonies and Spanish
Florida.
George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, founded
Maryland as a refuge for English
Catholics. England had been a Catholic
country for 1,000 years, but, after the
Reformation, Catholics were often
persecuted, prompting some of them to
seek religious freedom in Maryland.