The 13 Colonies
New England Colonies
 Or Northern Colonies included
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
and New Hampshire.
 New England did not have good soil for
farming.
 Colonists in New England turned to trade,
fishing, shipbuilding, and whaling.
 New England traded with other colonies and
other countries through the Triangular Trade
Route
Triangular Trade Route
 The Triangular Trade Route had three stops.
 First, sugar and molasses would come from
the West Indies to New England.
 New England would send rum and Iron to
Africa.
 Africa would pay in gold and send slaves to
the West Indies.
Navigation Acts
 New England became so wealthy with the
Atlantic trade, that the mother country
(England) wanted to make sure that it was
getting its share of the profit.
 So, the English Parliament passed the
Navigation Acts in 1651.
 These acts were laws that had four
provisions.
 1. All shipping was to be done on British
ships.
 2. Products such as tobacco, wood and
sugar could only be sold to England.
 3. European imports had to pass through
British ports before coming into the
colonies.
 4. Goods not going to England were taxed.
 These acts were not taken seriously, and
many sailors resorted to smuggling goods.
Middle Colonies
 The Middle Colonies included New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
 The promise of religious freedom attracted
many to the middle colonies.
 A Swedish colony built along the Delaware
river was forced out by the Dutch who were
ion turn forced out by the British.
 The Dutch “New Netherland” became the
British “New York”.
 The Duke of York (England) became the
owner of New York and it became a
Proprietary Colony.
 The Duke gave the area of New Jersey to his
friends George Carteret and John Berkeley.
 To encourage settlement, they promised
freedom of religion and representative
government.
 King Charles II owed the Penn family money.
 In repayment, he gave them the area of
Pennsylvania.
 The family sent William Penn to run the
colony.
 William Penn was a Quaker, and he founded
the colony to be a safe haven for Quakers.
 The Quakers were peaceful people who paid
the Native Americans for the land.
 The Middle Colonies attracted immigrants
from all over Europe especially the Dutch
and Germans.
 The main product of the Middle Colonies was
grain. They also prospered in trade and
exporting cash crops.
 Philadelphia in Pennsylvania became the
largest city in the Middle Colonies.
 As the Middle Colonies prospered, more
diverse people came to the colonies. With so
many people mingling, they had to learn to
tolerate each other.
 Slaves were brought to the Middle Colonies
for menial labor (servants, sailors) and
tensions between colonists and slaves
sometimes became violent.
Southern Colonies
 Southern Colonies included Maryland, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and
Georgia.
 Lord Baltimore had established Maryland as
a Catholic colony, but in order to encourage
more settlers, Maryland passed the
Toleration Act granting religious freedom for
all.
 The Carolinas began as a Proprietary Colony,
but when the proprietors refused to send
help against Native American attacks, the
colonists overthrew their proprietors, and
they became a Royal Colony.
 James Oglethorpe established Georgia to be
a refuge for debtors.
 Britain wanted to use Georgia to keep an
eye on Spanish and French settlements.
 When the king removed Oglethorpe, Georgia
became a Royal Colony.
 The Southern Colonies entire economic
system was base on the Plantation System
because of the southern climate and
excellent soil.
 Rice, tobacco, indigo, and other crops did
very well in the south, but they needed much
labor to produce. They turned to slavery.
 Plantations grew to enormous sizes and
Plantation owners became very wealthy.
Smaller plantations were sometimes forced
out of business by larger plantations.
 Unlike the Northern and Middle Colonies,
cities were quite rare in the south.
 The most plantation owners sought to treat
their slaves well, some were brutal to their
slaves. Many hired overseers to make sure
the slaves kept working hard.
Back Country
 Area west of the Appalachian Mountains.
 Many who settled this region were pioneers
living on small farms.
 Most were Scots-Irish.
 They had many conflicts with Native
Americans.
 Since it was difficult to trade with the
eastern colonies, many learned to depend on
themselves.
American Identity
 Land ownership helped establish a person’s
social standing. There was a class system
with the wealthy land owners on top, and the
poor and slaves on the bottom.
 Women tended to the management of the
household. Some in the urban areas could
even run their own businesses.
Books and Learning
 Most children were taught to read and
schools were either private, or families hired
private tutors. Colonial America soon had
more educated people than Great Britain.
 Slaves were not allowed an education
 Most books were published in England, but
soon, the colonists began to publish their
own books like Benjamin Franklin’s Poor
Richard’s Almanac.
 Many colonial books focused on nature and
Native Americans
Great Awakening
 By the early 1700’s, many colonists feared
they had fallen from their religious ways. A
new movement called The Great Awakening,
swept through the colonies.
 Traveling preachers such as Jonathan
Edwards, Cotton Mather and George
Whitfield would roam the colonies bring
thousands back to the faith with their “Angry
God” sermons.
The Enlightenment
 Another movement swept through the
colonies that focused on reason and science
was the Enlightenment. It was very much
like the renaissance.
 Benjamin Franklin was a key figure in the
American Enlightenment.
 The English Philosopher John Locke argued
that everyone had natural rights. These were
life liberty and property.
 He said that people create governments to
protect these rights.
 John Locke also stated that if the
government fails to protect these rights,
then the people should change that
government.
 He also challenged the “Divine Right” of
kings.