Morning Run

The English Colonies in North America
What were the similarities and differences among the colonies in North America?
Introduction
In the mid-1700s, the German teacher Gottlieb Mittelberger boarded a ship for
the Pennsylvania colony in North America. He borrowed the cost of his trip by
signing on as an indentured servant. This meant that he would have to pay his debt
by working for the master who bought his services.
The trip across the Atlantic was horrible. “The people are packed densely,”
Mittelberger wrote, “like herrings so to say, in the large sea vessels. One person
receives a place of scarcely 2 feet width and 6 feet length . . . There is on board
these ships terrible misery, stench, fumes, horror, vomiting, many kinds of
seasickness, fever, dysentery, headache, heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer,
mouth-rot, and the like, all of which come from old and sharply salted food and
meat, also from very bad and foul water.”
Mittelberger had to stay on board the ship until his services were bought. Most
servants had to work for their masters for three to six years. Some commitments
varied according to the servants’ ages and strength. As Mittelberger said, “young
people, from 10 to 15 years, must serve till they are 21 years old.”
Why were people willing to go through such hardships to come to the colonies?
Many came to North America for the chance to own land and start a new life.
Others wanted freedom to practice their religion without harm. Some came
because they did not have a choice. A number of people who were jailed for debt
were forced to go to North America. Then they could work off their debts as
indentured servants. Millions of Africans were kidnapped from their home and
enslaved in the colonies.
In this lesson, you will learn about the people who settled the English colonies.
You will read about the similarities and differences between 8 of the 13 colonies.
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Social Studies
Vocabulary
cash crop
charter
democratic
Mayflower Compact
mercantilism
slave trade
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1. The New England, Middle, and Southern Colonies
English settlers started colonies in North America for many reasons.Some were
created by businesspeople. They hoped to profit from resources in the Americas.
Others were settled by people wanting practice their religion freely. One colony
was even started as a refuge for people who owed money. These people would
otherwise have been tossed into prison.
The English government backed all these efforts. England was competing for land
in the Americas with other nations like France and Spain. It was also competing for
wealth. England followed an economic policy calledmercantilism.. This policy
meant that nations gained wealth by controlling trade and starting colonies. The
colonies made money for England by supplying raw materials to its industries.
England turned these raw materials into goods. Then the goods could be sold to
other nations. Some goods were sold to its own colonies.
By 1733, there were 13 British colonies along the Atlantic coast. They can be
grouped into three regions: the New England, Middle, and Southern Colonies.
These regions had different climates and resources. They also attracted settlers
and inspired different ways of life.
The New England Colonies The New England region included the colonies of
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. These settlers
came to America seeking freedom from the religious torment they faced in
England.
Farming in New England was hard because of the long, cold winters and the
region’s rocky, hilly wilderness. But the forests and the sea provided useful
resources and ways to make a living. New Englanders built their economy on small
farms, lumbering, fishing, shipbuilding, and trade.
The Middle Colonies The four Middle Colonies were New York, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, and Delaware. The first settlers came from diverse backgrounds. The
landscape of this region included rich soil of coastal New Jersey and Delaware and
valleys and wooded mountains of New York and Pennsylvania. Farmers in the
Middle Colonies raised a variety of crops and livestock. Lumbering, shipbuilding,
and other jobs added to the many opportunities here.
The people who settled here came from many cultures and religions.One key
group, the Quakers, started the Pennsylvania colony. The Quakers were looking
for freedom to practice their religion. Other groups seeking religious freedom
soon followed. Settlements of French, Dutch, Germans, Swedes, Danes, Finns,
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Scots, Irish, and English began to spread throughout the Middle Colonies.
The Southern Colonies The five Southern Colonies were Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. This region had broad rivers and vast
wetlands that merged with the sea. The soil and the hot and wet climate were
ideal for growing tobacco, rice, and other cash crops.
Rich colonists benefited from these conditions by building large farms called
plantations. Plantation owners relied on indentured servants and enslaved
Africans to run their fields. Harvested crops were brought by river to the coast,
loaded on ships, and sent to other colonies and Europe.
Government in the Colonies All the colonies were settled with the king of
England’s consent. For each colony, the king issued acharter. A charter is a
document that named the colony’s land borders. It also said how each colony
would be run. The colonies may have been far away from England. But, they were
able make their own laws and keep peace and order.
Most of the colonies started forms of government based on the settlement’s
purpose. Colonists elected members of their group to a general assembly. Then
the assembly made the laws.
Many colonies also had a governor appointed by the king. The governor was the
king’s representative. So, he could overrule the elected assembly. Some colonies
also had councils, or groups of men. These councils represented the English
businessmen whose money funded the colony.
In Massachusetts, religious colonists began a theocracy. This government was
based upon religious principles. Leaders ruled in the name of God. After a while,
people voted for representatives to govern them.
Colonies were more democratic than England in many ways. Still, not all people
had a voice. Only free, white, landowning men were allowed to vote. Voters also
had to belong to the preferred church in some colonies. Women, servants,
enslaved people, and skilled tradespeople who were not landowners had no voting
rights.
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2. Massachusetts: A New England Colony
Religion was important in England in the early 1600s.The king ruled over the
Church of England. The Church of England was also called the Anglican Church.
Not everyone agreed with the church’s practices though.
One group wanted to “purify” the Anglican Church by making services simpler.
They also wanted to do away with ranks of power. They were called Puritans. A
radical group among them were called Separatists. Separatists wanted to be
completely apart from the English church. Then they could form their own
congregations. The king began jailing Separatists for not attending Anglican
services. So, some of them moved to Holland. There, they could practice their
religion freely.
But Holland wasn’t home. The Separatists wanted their children to grow up in an
English culture. About 102 Separatists set sail for America on the Mayflower in
1620. The Separatists were called Pilgrims because they traveled for religious
reasons. They hoped to build a perfect society in America.During their trip, they
signed the Mayflower Compact. This agreement described the way they would
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rule in the Americas.
The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, near Cape Cod.They were welcomed by the
local American Indian tribe, the Wampanoag (WAWM-pah-NAW-ahg). This tribe
taught them how to plant crops, trap animals, and catch fish. Without the help of
the Wampanoag, the Pilgrims might not have survived their first winter. The
Pilgrims invited the tribe to share their first harvest in a three-day feast of
thanksgiving in 1621. Today, Americans still celebrate this holiday.
A large group of Puritans decided to follow the Pilgrims to America ten years later.
The king was happy to see them go. He sent them off with a charter for the
Massachusetts Bay colony. The charter said that they could rule on their own.
Puritans were pleased because they wanted to build a community governed by the
Bible. They hoped to set an model for the rest of the world. Governor John
Winthrop, said, “We must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes
of all people are upon us.”
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3. Rhode Island: A New England Colony
The Puritans of Massachusetts gained the freedom to practice their religion.
However, they did not grant that freedom to others. They made rules that
required everyone in the colony to worship the same way as they did.
A young minister named Roger Williams began preaching different ideas. So, the
Puritans put him on trial. Williams believed that all people should be able to
worship in any way they chose. “Forced worship,” he declared, “stinks in God’s
nostrils.”
The Puritans ordered Williams to be sent back to England. Williams left his wife
and children and escaped to the south in 1636. He met a group of American
Indians near Narragansett Bay, the Narragansett people, after trudging through
snow for days. They cared for him until spring. When his family and a few
followers joined him, Williams bought land from the Narragansetts. He called the
settlement Providence. Providence means “the guidance and care of God.”
Williams welcomed people with other religious beliefs. Two years after he moved
there, a woman named Anne Hutchinson was forced to leave Massachusetts. She
had been preaching against the Puritans. She followed Williams. Together they
founded Portsmouth. These and others settlements joined to become Rhode
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Island in 1647. Rhode Island voted for an assembly to rule the colony in 1663.
People of Rhode Island sought freedom to follow their own beliefs. But this ideal
did not include enslaved Africans. Sea merchants learned riches could be made in
the slave trade. Rhode Island became one of the largest centers for the trade of
enslaved people in the world. Some of the richest families in New England made
their fortunes from this trade. But, the isolated coves along the Rhode Island coast
were perfect refuges for pirates and smugglers. Puritans in other colonies were
bothered by the slavery, pirating, and smuggling. Reverend Cotton Mather of
Boston called Rhode Island “the sewer of New England.” All of this convinced
many Puritans that rejecting these people and their ideas was right. Using a word
that implied “criminals,” they gave their own name to the colony: “Rogues’ Island.”
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4. Connecticut: A New England Colony
Not all of the Puritans in Massachusetts shared the same ideas.Thomas Hooker
was a Puritan clergyman who lived in New Towne. New Towne was a fastgrowing community next to Boston. Hooker didn’t always agree with the laws and
leaders. He heard about a valley along a river to the west. So he convinced his
family and about 100 other people to move there with him.
It took Hooker and his followers two weeks to travel to the Connecticut Valley.
There they settled on the site of an old Dutch fort. This had been where an earlier
group of English colonists had lived. Hooker and his followers called their new
place Hartford. Hartford joined with two other settlements to form the
Connecticut colony in 1639.
Hooker thought that government should be based on “the free consent of the
people,” to whom belongs “the choice of public [offi¬cials] by God’s own
allowance.” He helped write the first plan of government in the colonies. It was
called the Fundamental Orders. These orders guaranteed the right to vote to all
men who were members of the Puritan church.
Other Puritans formed a colony nearby called New Haven. They agreed to live by
the “word of God,” so their laws were stricter than those in Hooker’s colony.
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Neither of these colonies was legally authorized by the king. King Charles II
granted a charter for a new Connecticut colony that included New Haven in 1662.
The charter gave people more rights than in other colonies, except Rhode Island’s.
A legend states that when King James II sent Governor Andros to Hartford 15
years later to take back the colonists’ charter, someone stole it and hid it in the
trunk of a huge white oak tree. The “Charter Oak” became a symbol of
Connecticut’s freedom.
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5. New York: A Middle Colony
The English took control of the settlement of New Netherland in 1664. The
English renamed the colony New York in honor of its new proprietor (owner),
James, the Duke of York. The duke gave huge chunks of his colony to two friends,
Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley. Berkeley then founded the colony of
New Jersey to the south.
The duke also gave large estates along the Hudson River to rich Englishmen. The
new landowners charged high rents to farmers working their land. This practice
created a great difference in wealth between the landowners and their poor
tenants. It also deterred people from settling in New York.
The duke of York wanted his colony to be a business. So, he hired people to run
the colony. He also passed his own laws and decided what New Yorkers should
pay in taxes.
New York’s rich landlords approved of the duke’s way to governing his colony.
However, farmers, fishers, and tradespeople did not. They demanded the right to
elect an assembly to make the laws. The duke refused, saying that elected
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assemblies bothered the “peace of the government.”
He finally allowed New Yorkers to elect an assembly in 1683 after years of
protest. This first assembly passed 15 laws. The most important law was a charter
listing the rights most people believed they deserved as English citizens. These
rights included the right to elect their own lawmakers, to trial by jury, and to
worship as they pleased.
When the duke saw what the assembly had done, he abolished it. New Yorkers did
not get a new assembly until they rebelled in 1689 under the leadership of Jacob
Leisler (LIES-ler). Leisler was voted commander in chief of a democratic council
that ruled until 1691. That year, New York was finally granted the right to elect an
assembly. They also had the power to pass laws and set taxes for the colony.
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6. Pennsylvania: A Middle Colony
William Penn asked King Charles II to let him build a colony in America. The king
had two reasons for granting Penn’s request. First, he could repay a large debt that
he owed to Penn’s father, Admiral Penn. Second, he could get rid of William. Penn
had been a thorn in the king’s side for many years.
William Penn was a member of the Society of Friends, or Quakers. The Quakers
believed in a simple lifestyle and in treating all people equally. They refused to
bow before the king, fight in wars, or pay taxes to the Church of England.
King Charles put Penn in jail in 1668. He had hoped to stop Penn from preaching
the Quakers’ ideas. To the king’s dismay, Penn continued preaching after his
release.
Penn sought to begin a colony in America where they would be free to practice
their own beliefs. King Charles gave Penn a huge area of land between the Puritan
colonies of New England and the Anglican colonies of the South in 1681. In honor
of Penn’s father, the colony was called Pennsylvania.
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Penn advertised his colony all over Europe.Many were interested by his Great
Law of 1682. This law promised that people of all faiths would be treated equally.
Penn’s appeal attracted settlers from several countries. An early colonist in
Pennsylvania marveled at the wealth and peace in the colony. He wrote, “Poor
people (both Men and Women) of all kinds, can here get three times the Wages
for their Labour they can in England or Wales . . . Here are no Beggars to be seen . .
. Jealousie among Men is here very rare . . . nor are old Maids to be met with; for
all commonly Marry before they are Twenty Years of Age.”
Penn named his capital Philadelphia, which is Greek for “City of Brotherly Love.”
He wrote government papers making Pennsylvania the first democracy in
America.
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7. Maryland: A Southern Colony
The founding of Maryland was a family project.Sir George Calvert, named Lord
Baltimore by King James I, was an English gentleman who became a Roman
Catholic. Catholics were treated harshly in England because the official church
was Anglican. Calvert wanted to start a colony “founded on religious freedom
where there would not only be a good life, but also a prosperous one for those
bold enough to take the risk.” As a businessman, he also hoped the colony would
make his own family more prosperous, or rich.
But, Calvert died while he was still dealing with the king. The new king, King
Charles I, granted a charter for the colony to Calvert’s son Cecil, the new Lord
Baltimore. The charter gave the Calverts control of the colony. This colony was
called Maryland.
Cecil named his brother Leonard as governor. To make money from the colony,
Cecil needed to attract both Protestant and Catholic settlers. He told Leonard to
be “very careful to preserve unity and peace . . . and treat the Protestants with as
much mildness and favor as justice will permit.”
Leonard’s group arrived in Maryland in 1634. There he and his followers built St.
Mary’s City on a high bluff they bought from a tribe. Leonard agreed to let
Maryland elect an assembly to rule the colony the next year.
Leonard could see that Catholics would always be outnumbered in the colony as
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more people arrived. In 1649, he helped pass America’s first law called the Act
Concerning Religion. This law applied only to Christians and guaranteed religious
liberty. Atheists (people who do not believe in the existence of God) and Jews
were not included.
Protestants and Catholics remained doubtful of one another for more than a
century. The colony’s founding family lost and regained power several times
during this time. Still, George Calvert’s dream was fulfilled. Catholics in Maryland
worshiped freely and took part in the colony’s government with Protestants.
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8. Virginia: A Southern Colony
Jamestown, Virginia, was the first successful English settlement in America. After
a shaky start, Virginia began to grow and prosper. The descendants of those early
settlers had become rich landowners and the most important people in Virginia by
1700.
The economy of Virginia was based on tobacco. Tobacco planters needed vast
areas of land to be successful. They also needed a large number of laborers to
grow their crops.
Planters tried enslaving local American Indians at first.Many enslaved American
Indians died of diseases they caught from colonists. Others escaped and fled into
the woods.
Next, tobacco planters tried bringing the poor from England to work their land.
The workers agreed to become indentured servants for free passage. Many men,
women, and children came to Virginia this way. After five to seven years, they
were given their freedom, a small plot of land, some clothing, tools, and seeds.
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The first Africans brought to Virginia were also treated as indentured servants.
They had the same rights and freedoms as white servants. Then they could buy
land and servants of their own once their service ended. However, fewer
Europeans were willing to endure the terrible conditions on plantations. For this
reason, planters enslaved Africans and their descendants. The term of
enslavement had no end, and the children of enslaved people were also enslaved.
This form of enslavement continued for generations. It was a major part of the
economic development of the colonies and, later, the United States.
Virginia elected an assembly, called the House of Burgesses, in 1619. The House
of Burgesses passed a law that enslaved African workers for life in 1661. By 1700,
more than one-fourth of Virginia’s population—more than 16,000 people—were
enslaved. Colonists in Virginia came to view slavery as essential to the colony’s
economic success.
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9. Georgia: A Southern Colony
Georgia is the 13th and last colony. It was founded by a group of Englishmen
whose business plan was based on a grand and noble idea. They wanted to help
poor people in England stay out of debtors’ prison. In England, people who
couldn’t pay their bills went to jail. James Oglethorpe inspired rich Englishmen to
give money so the poor could build better lives instead of going to jail.
King George II liked this plan because the Georgia colony would help keep the
Spanish from moving north out of Florida. Georgia would stand between Spanish
Florida and the rest of the British colonies to the north.
The Englishmen’s plan depended on getting the settlers’ support. There weren’t
many poor debtors who wanted to start new lives in North America though. Some
thought prison would be safer.
The colonists who went with Oglethorpe to Georgia in 1732 were adventurers.
They were not people in debt as planned. Many Protestants, Catholics, and Jews
came to Georgia in search of religious freedom, too.
Life was hard in Georgia. The Spaniards in Florida wanted to control Georgia. So
they attacked the new settlements many times. Georgians fought them off
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without any help from the other British colonies. Plus, Oglethorpe had certain
ideas about how the people should live. He wanted his new colony to be a perfect
society. He passed laws against drinking alcohol and owning slaves. He also
believed that the settlers should live on small farms and learn to farm their land
themselves.
The settlers weren’t about to go along with his strict views on society. They
wanted to farm large plantations and enslave people like the rich planters in
neighboring colonies. Many disliked his other rules as well.
Oglethorpe returned to England after ruling it for 12 years. The people of Georgia
elected an assem