WARM-UP QUESTION
• On page 30 of your journal, answer the following
question. Make sure to write 3-4 complete
sentences
• How did the physical geography of the
13 colonies shape the economic
activities of each region?
UNIT #1 – EXPLORATION & COLONIZIATION
8th Grade U.S. History (2015-2016)
MIGRATION
ARE HUMANS DRIVEN TO FIND A BETTER LIFE?
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Push Factors
War
Famine (No food)
Disease
Lack of opportunities
Religious persecution
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Pull Factors
Religious freedom
Land ownership
More food
Healthier living
Page 27
EUROPEAN MOTIVATION
• Expand wealth &
power
• Find a “Northwest
Passage” to Asia
(Marco Polo)
• Spread their religion
• Own personal glory
and adventure
• Main kingdoms: Spain,
England & France
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SIGNIFICANCE OF EARLY
SETTLEMENTS
Jamestown (1607)
• 1st permanent English
settlement (Virginia)
• Settled for economic reasons
• Success leads to other colonists
to move to North America
• Virginia House of Burgesses
(1819) – Representative
Government (elected officials)
• Slavery introduced in 1619
• Cash crop: Tobacco – makes
many colonists wealthy
Plymouth (1620)
• Pilgrims leave Europe to
find religious freedom
• Arrive on the Mayflower
• Male members sign the
Mayflower Compact
(Establishes SelfGovernment)
• Puritan way of life
(Social/Political)
Page 29
CHARACTERISTICS
New England Colonies
• Massachusetts,
Rhode Island,
Connecticut, New
Hampshire
• Long cold winters
• Rocky soil
• Subsistence Farming
• Natural Harbors –
Fishing, Shipbuilding,
Whaling
• Very Religious
(Puritans, Quakers,
Anglicans)
Page 31
CHARACTERISTICS
• New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware
• Shorter winters,
warmer summers
• Better soil for farming
(wheat, barley, etc.)
• Religious Tolerance
(Quakers, Catholics)
• Large farms, logging,
fishing, shipbuilding
Page 31
Middle Colonies
Southern Colonies
CHARACTERISTICS
• Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia
• Long summers, short
winters
• Rich soil for farming,
warm climate, deep
rivers
• Cash crops: Tobacco,
Rice, Indigo & Corn
(TRIC)
• Class-based society
• More diverse;
Anglican/Catholics
• Plantation life, larger
number of slaves,
small port cities
Page 31
POPULATION
PATTERNS
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Established in North America
along the Atlantic Ocean
Population concentrated near
water resources – drinking water,
fishing, farming, hunting,
whaling and ship building
WATER – Needed to LIVE!!
Appalachian Mountains served
as a natural barrier – kept
settlers from moving further
west
New England Region – Mostly
religious, fishermen, whalers,
shipbuilders, timber workers, fur
trappers
Middle Region – Food crop
farmers, iron workers, some ship
builders, many Catholics &
Quakers
Southern Region – Cash crop
farming, some forestry, large and
small farms, mostly Anglican
The Thirteen Colonies
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WOMEN’S
CONTRIBUTIONS
TO THE COLONIES
• Pocahontas is credited with
helping colonists of
Jamestown
• Anne Hutchinson questions
Puritan way of life and
banished – helps settle
Rhode Island
• Eliza Lucas Pinckney
develops indigo as a “cash
crop” first in the Southern
Colonies
• Most colonial women were
the primary “educator” in
the home
Page 35
The Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies
RELIGIOUS
PATTERNS
• Religious freedom the main
cause for establishing the 13
colonies
• Communities “self-governed”
• Pennsylvania colony
experimented with equality
and citizens involved in gov’t
• Disagreements between
religious leaders lead to new
colonies with more diversity
and equality
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SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
• Starts in the British West
Indies (Caribbean) on the
sugar plantations
• Triangular Trade develops
between England, West
Africa and West Indies
• Exchanged in the colonies
for goods (usually cash
crops)
Plantation System
• Large cash crop farms
needed cheap labor
• Slaves seen as property and
labor supply
• Slaves help develop
plantation system and
Southern economy
• Had no rights at all
• The more slaves a farmer had
the higher his social status
• Slaves concentrated in the
South but were present in all
the colonies
Page 37
IMPACT OF ENLIGHTENMENT
PHILOSOPHERS
• Thomas Hooker – Believed in democratic ideas such as
elections by the people and that the people have the power to
limit the governments power
• John Locke – European philosopher who discussed branches of
government (Legislative/Executive); believed in unalienable
rights (Life, Liberty, and Protection of Property)
• Charles de Montesquieu – Expanded on Locke’s idea (added a
Judiciary branch), wrote about separation of powers and
believed education was necessary for a republic
• William Blackstone – English judge/professor who wrote a
book on common law, believed in religious tolerance and also
wrote about “natural rights” (unalienable)
• William Penn – Quaker who founded the Pennsylvania colony,
created an elected legislature as a feature of “self-government”
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