CHAPTER 2 SECTION 4
SETTLEMENT OF THE MIDDLE
COLONIES
MAIN IDEA & WHY IT MATTERS
 Crash Course US HIstory #4
 The Dutch settle New Netherland
 English Quakers led by William Penn settle Pennsylvania .
 The principles of tolerance and equality promoted in the
Quaker settlement remain fundamental values in America.
ONE AMERICAN’S STORY
 “ Fo r m a tte r s o f l i b e r t y a n d p r i v i l e ge , I
p ro p o s e t h a t wh i c h i s e x t ra o rd i n a r y, a n d
[ I i n te n d ] to l e ave my s e l f a n d s u cce s so r s
n o p owe r fo r d o i n g m i s c h i e f, [ i n o rd e r ]
t h a t t h e w i l l o f o n e m a n m ay n o t h i n d e r
t h e go o d o f a wh o l e co u n t r y ; b u t to
p u b l i sh t h o s e t h i n g s n ow a n d h e re , a s
m a tte r s s t a n d , wo u l d n o t b e w i s e . . . . ”
 —W i l l i a m Pe n n - q u o te d i n A Ne w Wo rl d
 How did William Penn’s father enable him to
establish the colony of Pennsylvania?
 Why did Penn want to establish a colonial
government run on Quaker principles?
 How was Penn’s colonial government different
than Jamestown & Massachusetts Bay Colony?
THE DUTCH FOUND NEW NETHERLANDS
 Diverse Colony
 1609 Dutch settled along
Hudson river
 Established fur trade and
trading post in present day
Albany.
 1621: Dutch gov’t gave
permission to Dutch West India
Company to colonize ‘New
Netherlands’ & expand fur
trade.
 included NY & NJ
 New Amsterdam (NYC) was
capital
DIVERSE COLONY
 Dutch West India Company encouraged settlers to move to
New Netherlands.
 Dutch, Germans, Scandinavians, Africans (free & enslaved )
 All religions welcomed: Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims
 Known as ‘Great Confusion of Tongues’
 Dutch & Native Americans traded and got along well.
ENGLISH TAKEOVER
 England says there is a ‘Dutch
Wedge’ between NE & Mid- Atlantic
colonies.
 Duke of York (James II) ordered by
King of England (Charles II) to
invade colony and drive Dutch out.
 Most settlers refused to fight
against British
 Stuyvesant (Dutch gov.) signed colony
over to ‘Duke of York’- who eventually
became King James II.
 ‘Duke of York’ renamed colony New
York
 gave friends lands west of Hudson
 Named New Jersey.
THE QUAKERS SETTLE PENNSYLVANIA
 King Charles II owed money to supporters in England. (e.g.
William Penn’s father was owed 16,000 pounds)
 Instead of money, King Charles II gave William Penn, a
Quaker, a large property in America and asked that William
name the colony after his father: Pennsylvania.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LewnnInReP8
WHAT’S A QUAKER?
 Quakers: believed that God’s
‘inner light’ shined on
ever yone.
 Ser vices held without formal
ministers
 People could speak during
service if the ‘Holy Spirit’
moved them
 dressed in plain clothes
 Refused to submit to persons
of ‘rank’
 opposed war & refused to
serve in British military
 Persecuted in Britain for
religious views.
PENN’S ‘HOLY EXPERIMENT
 Penn wanted a society based on
Quaker ideals.
 ‘ Holy Experiment’ was to create a
colony that had absolutely NO
LANDOWNING ARISTOCRACY.
 Every adult male received 50 acres
of land All men could vote
 Government would be a
‘representative assembly’ which
supported ‘religious freedom’.
 Capital of Pennsylvania was called
Philadelphia
 ‘The City of Brotherly Love’
NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS
 Penn believed - people approached in friendship would
respond in friendship.
 The Delaware Natives inhabited the land in the Pennsylvania
colony
 The Delaware received letter from Penn
 Said that Penn respected them and wanted to purchase land from
them.
 Penn regulated trade between Natives and settlers to ensure
trade was fair
 Court made up of colonists & Natives created to settle
differences
 Relationship between settlers & Natives was peaceful for 50
years.
A THRIVING COLONY
 Penn needed to attract settlers to ensure the colony would
thrive.
 (farmers, builders, traders)
 Advertised throughout Western Europe.
 Signs in German, French, & Dutch in newspapers.
 Settlers came in high numbers
 thousands of Germans
 Had craft skills, and farming techniques
 Penn would never profit from his colony and died in poverty.
 Quakers were outnumbered and slavery was eventually
brought to the colony.
 Principles of equality, cooperation, and religious tolerance
would eventually become the fundamental values of the new
American nation.
THE 13 AMERICAN COLONIES
Colony
Founded
Economic Activity
Massachusetts
Plymouth 1620 / Mass. Bay 1630
New Hampshire
1623
Shipbuilding, shipping, fishing, lumber, rum,
meat products
Ship masts, lumber, fishing, trade
Connecticut
1636
Shipping, livestock, foodstuffs
Rhode Island
1636
Rum, iron foundries, shipbuilding, snuff,
livestock
New York
1625
Furs, wheat, glass, shoes, livestock, shipping,
shipbuilding, rum, beer, snuff
Delaware
1638
Trade, foodstuffs
New Jersey
1664
Trade, foodstuffs, copper
Pennsylvania
1681
Flour, foodstuffs, paper, iron, wheat, flax,
shipbuilding
Virginia
1607
Tobacco, wheat, cattle, iron
Maryland
1632
Tobacco, wheat, snuff
North Carolina
1663
Naval supplies, tobacco, furs
South Carolina
1663
Rice, indigo, silk
Georgia
1732
Indigo, rice, naval supplies, lumber