3-3 Notes: Founding the Middle and Southern Colonies

The Middle Colonies• Middle Colonies = New Jersey,

New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware (between New England in the north and the Chesapeake Bay region in the south)

• Swedes, Dutch, English, Germans, Africans all came to these colonies

• Religious freedom attracted Catholics, Quakers, and Jews to this region

• Hudson and Delaware rivers supported shipping, commerce

• Rich soil, mild winter led to farming and raising livestock becoming the most profitable activities

New Netherlands Becomes New York• 1624 ACE – Dutch settlers financed by the Dutch

West India Company founded the colony of New Netherlands (included Hudson River valley, Long Island, and land along the Delaware River)

• Patroon System – A person (“patroon”) could bring 50 settlers to New Netherlands and in return would receive a large land grant and special hunting, fishing, and fur trading privileges

• Jews, Africans (as slaves or indentured servants), Puritans all brought to the colony

• Peter Stuyvesant, governor, attacked the nearby charter colony of New Sweden in 1655 ACE – Swedes surrendered Fort Christina (modern-day Wilmington, Delaware) and left

• King Charles II asked his brother, Duke of York, to drive the Dutch out (New Netherland threatened English trade)

• When his ships appeared off of New Amsterdam in 1664 ACE, the colony surrendered

• Became the proprietary colony of New York – Duke of York was the proprietor (or owner)

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware• Duke of York gave part of his land (province of

New Jersey) to his friends Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley in 1664

• To attract people to New Jersey, they promised settlers freedom of religion, large grants of land, and a representative assembly

• King Charles II owed the Penn family money, so he gave the family a large piece of land in the Americas that became known as Pennsylvania, or “Penn’s woods”

• William Penn became governor, created a colony for Quakers to live in piece

• Extended equality, religious freedom to all (particularly Native Americans)

• As a result Pennsylvania became wealthy as it attracted many different types of people

• 1704 ACE – Penn granted the three lower counties their own assembly. These counties eventually broke away to form Delaware

The Southern Colonies• New Southern Colonies included

Maryland, the Carolina, and Georgia

• Bordered by the Appalachian Mountains on the west and the Atlantic Ocean on the east

• Soil and climate suitable for warm weather crops such as tobacco, indigo, and rice

Maryland and the Carolinas• Lord Baltimore established Maryland in 1632 ACE

as a safe haven for Roman Catholics fleeing persecution in England

• Lord Baltimore promised religious freedom - passed the Toleration Act in 1649 ACE

• Maryland based its economy on tobacco, which is labor intensive

• Workers had to clear new land every 3 or 4 years - Most settlers were servants or slaves (few women came to Maryland)

• 1663 ACE - Carolina founded as a colony• English settlers from Barbados built Charles Town

(later Charleston) in 1670 ACE• Cut timber, raised cattle, and traded with Natives• Carolina’s colonists needed laborers for rice,

indigo - Encouraged importation of enslaved Africans, sold Natives into slavery too

• Sparked war with the Tuscarora and Yamasee tribes

• Carolina’s proprietors refused to send help when the Spanish threatened Charleston

• 1719 ACE - Colonists overthrow the proprietor’s rule

• 1729 ACE - Carolina becomes a royal colony, is split into North and South Carolina, and ruled by appointed governors

Georgia• 1732 ACE - James Oglethorpe

founds Georgia as a refuge for debtors

• English government wanted to use it as a military outpost against Spanish Florida to the south and French Louisiana to the west

• 1739 ACE - During a war between England and Spain, Spain unsuccessfully attempts to drive English colonists out of Georgia

• English, German, Swiss, and Scottish all settled in Georgia

• All religions were welcome• Oglethorpe’s strict rules upset the

colonists, and the king made Georgia a royal colony in 1752 ACE