The Thirteen Colonies Liberty School- American History 11th Ms. Stephanie Custodio.

The Thirteen Colonies

Liberty School- American History 11thMs. Stephanie Custodio

• The 13 colonies are divided into:• The New England Colonies• The Middle Colonies• The Southern Colonies

The New England Colonies

• New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the U.S.A., consisting of:

1.- New Hampshire

2.- Massachusetts3.- Rhode Island4.- Connecticut

The New England Colonies: Introduction

• Pilgrims form England settled in New England in 1620, to form Plymouth Colony.

• Ten years later, the Puritans settled north of Plymouth in Boston, forming Massachusetts Bay Colony.

• Over the next 130 years, New England fought in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their native allies.

• Puritans: A religious group that wanted to reform the Church of England, different from the Pilgrims, who wanted to separate entirely from the Church.

• They were a powerful group in England: they were well-educated, merchants, landowners.

The New England Colonies: Massachusetts

• Reasons for leaving England:– King Charles I disliked their religious ideas: he took away

many Puritan businesses, expelled Puritans from universities, a few were even jailed.

– Some Puritan leaders decided that England had fallen into “evil and declining times”.

– Economic reasons: looking for land and new businesses.

• In 1629, they convinced royal officials to grant the a charter to form the Massachusetts Bay Company, with the plan to build a new society in New England, based on the laws of God as they appeared in the Bible.


• John Winthrop and other colonists arrived in 1627. He was chosen as the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.– He set an example: he worked as

hard as anyone to build a home, clear land, and plant crops.

– He tried to govern according to its charter: only stockholders who had invested money had the right to vote. The rest resented taxes and laws passed by the government in which they had no say.


• Puritans were determined to keep non-Puritans out of government, so they granted the right to vote for governor to all men who were Church members.

• Later, Church members elected representatives to an assembly called the General Court.

• The Great Migration: Between 1629 and 1640, more than 20,000 men, women, and children journeyed from England to Massachusetts.

• Boston became the colony’s largest town.


• In May 1636, Thomas Hooker and a group of settlers left Massachusetts Bay, settled a long the Connecticut River, and built a town called Hartford.

• He left Massachusetts Bay because he believed the governor and other officials had too much power. He wanted to set up a colony with laws that set strict limits to government.

• The settlers wrote the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut:

– It gave the vote to all men who were property owners, including the ones that were not members of the Church.– It limited the governor’s power.

• Connecticut became a separate colony in 1662, with a new charter granted by the king of England.

The New England Colonies: Connecticut

• Roger Williams believed strongly that the Puritan Church had too much power in Massachusetts.– He believed that the business of the

church and state should be completely separate.• Concern with political affairs would corrupt the

church. • The role of the state was to maintain order and

peace and should not support a particular church.

• The Puritan leaders didn’t have the right to force people to attend religious services.

– He believed in religious toleration.

The New England Colonies: Rhode Island

• The Massachusetts General Court ordered Williams to leave the colony in 1635. – He escaped to Narragansett Bay, spending the winter

with Indians, fearing he would be sent back to England.– In the spring, the Indians sold him land, becoming the

colony of Rhode Island.– He allowed complete freedom of religion to Jews,

Protestants, and Catholics.– He didn’t set up a state church, or require settlers to

attend church services. – He gave all white men the right to vote.

The New England Colonies: Rhode Island

• Anne Hutchinson was a devout Puritan who attended church services regularly in Boston.

– After church, she and her friends gathered at her home to discuss the minister’s sermon, and often she questioned some of the minister’s teachings. She was very persuasive, neighbors flocked to her hear.

• Puritan leaders grew angry, they believed her opinions were full of religious errors and that a woman didn’t have the right to explain God’s law. She was ordered to appear before the Massachusetts General Court in November 1637.

The New England Colonies: Anne Hutchinson

• At her trial, Hurchinson answered the questions from Winthrop and other court members, and her answers revealed weaknesses in their arguments: they couldn’t prove she had broken Puritan laws or disobeyed religious teachings.

• Hutchinson made a serious mistake: she told the court that God had spoken directly to her “by the voice of His own spirit to my soul”. Puritans believed that God spoke only through

the Bible, not directly to individuals.• -The Court ordered her out of the

colony.-Hutchinson, her family, and some friends went to Rhode Island.-She became an important symnbol for religious freedom.

The New England Colonies: Anne Hutchinson

• Some settlers built trading and fishing villages along the coast north of Boston, establishing the colony of New Hampshire.

• Settlers toke over lands used by Native Americans. Fighting often broke our between settlers and Indians.– Largest conflict came in 1675 when the Wampanoag Indians and

other Indian groups that allied to them, attacked colonial

villages throughout New England.– Fighting lasted 15 months. At the end, Metacom, the

Wampanoag’s chief, was captured and killed. – The English sold his family and other Indians into slavery in the

West Indies.

The New England Colonies: Relations with Native

Americans

• New England’s Rocky soil was poor for farming. – They learned to grow Native American crops: corn, bean,

squash, pumpkins.– They hunted wild turkey, deer, hogs.– They collected the sweet sap from the maple trees.– They built ships from cut down trees. – They fished for cod, halibut, shellfish, oysters, lobsters, whales (for oil and ivory)

The New England Colonies: Lifestyle

• Villages:– At the center was the common: an open field where cattle

grazed.– The meeting house: where Puritans worshipped and held

town meetings.– Houses: made of wood, steep roofs.

• Customs:– Sabbath- holy day of rest.– Sundays: no one was allowed to play games, visit taverns

to joke, talk, and drink. Law required all citizens to attend church services.

– In town meetings they discussed what roads should be built, fences to repair, schoolmaster’s pay, etc.

– Witchcraft was punished by death.– Average family had 7 or 8 children.

The New England Colonies: Lifestyle

The Middle Colonies• The middle colonies comprised the middle

region of the Thirteen Colonies of the British Empire in North America.

1.-New York

2.-Pennsylvania3.-New Jersey4.-Delaware

The Middle Colonies• Much of the area was part of the

NEW NETHERLAND until the British exerted control over the region.

• The British captured much of the area in its war with the Dutch around 1664, and the majority of the conquered land became the Province of New York.

• The Middle Colonies had rich soil, allowing the area to become a major exporter of wheat and other grains.

The Middle Colonies: New York

• Patroons: owners of large parcels of lands, or manors.

• Dutch officials granted the land to patroons. In return, they promised to settle at least 50 European farm families on the land.

• Patroons had great power, they charged whatever rents they pleased, few farmers wanted to work with them.

The Middle Colonies: New York

• Many people came to the colony attracted by religious tolerance, although most were Protestants, who belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church.

• They allowed people from other religions (Catholics, French Protestants, and Jews) to buy land.

• The rivalry between England and the Netherlands for trade and colonies led to war in Europe in 1664.

• King Charles II of England entered New Amsterdam’s harbor, took over the city, and gave it to his brother, the Duke of York.

• The king renamed the colony New York.

The Middle Colonies: New Jersey

• The Duke of York realized New York was too big to govern. He gave some of the land to his friends Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, and set up a proprietary colony: New Jersey.

• Proprietary colony: the king gave land to one or more people, called proprietors, which were free to divide the land and rent it to others. – They made laws for the colony but had

to respect the rights of colonists under English law.

The Middle Colonies: New Jersey

• New Jersey attracted people from many lands: English Puritans, French Protestants, Scots, Irish, Swedes, Dutch, and Finns.

• In 1702, it became a royal colony under the control of the English crown.– The colony’s charter protected religious freedom and the

rights of an assembly that voted on local matters.

The Middle Colonies: Pennsylvania

• William Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania.– He came from a wealthy family, he was a personal friend of King Charles II.– At age 22 he shocked his family and friends by joining the

Quakers.

• Quaker beliefs:– Were Protestant reformers.– They believed that all people (men, women, nobles, and

commoners) were equal in God’s sight.– They refused to bow or remove their hats in the presence of

lords and ladies.– They spoke out against war and refused to serve in the army.

• In England, Quakers were arrested, fined, and even hanged for their beliefs.


• Penn became convinced that Quakers should leave England, and turned for help to King Charles.– The king made Penn the proprietor of a

large tract of land in North America, and named the new colony Pennsylvania (Penn’s woodlands).

• Penn thought of his colony as a “holy experiment”:– He wanted it to be a model of religious

freedom, peace, and Christian living.– Protestants, Catholics, and Jews went to

Pennsylvania to escape persecution, but later, English officials forced Penn to turn them away.


• Penn spoke out for fair treatment of Native Americans. – He believed that the land belonged to the Indians and that

settlers should pay for the land.– Native Americans respected Penn’s policy.– As a result, Pennsylvania enjoyed many years of peace

with their Indian neighbors.

• Penn sent pamphlet to Europe, describing his colony.– New settlers from: England, Scotland, Wales, Netherlands,

France, Germany. German-speaking Protestants were later known as Pennsylvania Dutch.

• Philadelphia was the colony’s capital, along the Delaware River.

The Middle Colonies: Delaware

• Pennsylvania included some lands along the lower Delaware River, known as Pennsylvania’s Lower Counties.– Settlers in the Lower

Counties didn’t want to send its delegates to a far-away assembly in Philadelphia.

– In 1701, Penn allowed them to elect their own assembly.

– Later, the Lower Counties broke away to form the colony of Delaware.

The Middle Colonies: Lifestyle• The Hudson and Delaware River Valleys were rich and fertile.

• Winters were milder than in New England, the growing season lasted longer.

• Cash crops: crops sold for money on the world market- wheat, barley, and rye. – The Middle Colonies became known as the Breadbasket colonies for

exporting so much grain.

• Farmers also raised herds of cattle and pigs.– They sent tons of beef, pork, and butter to New England, South or West Indies, England, and other parts of Europe.

• The colony became a center of

manufacturing and crafts: hardware,

clocks, watches, locks, guns, flints,

glass, stoneware, nails, paper, etc.

The Middle Colonies: Lifestyle• Home improvements:

– Swedish introduced long cabins to America.– The Dutch used red bricks to build narrow, high-walled houses.– Germans developed a wood-burning stove that heated a home

better than a fireplace.

• Backcountry: area of land along the eastern slopes of the Appalachian Mountains.– German and Sctoch-Irish settlers arrived and settled in these area,

following an old Iroquois trail known as the Great Wagon Road.– They had to clear thick forests to farm the backcountry.

• Settlers learned from the Indians:– How to use knots from pine trees as candles to light their homes.– Wooden dishes from logs.– Gathered honey from hollows in trees.– Hunted wild animals for food.

The Southern Colonies• The Southern Colonies were established

during the 16th and 17th centuries and consisted of:

1.-South Carolina

2.-North Carolina 3.-Maryland4.-Virginia5.-Georgia

The Southern Colonies• Over time, the region

quickly became well known for its high slave population and highly stratified class distribution.

• The Mason-Dixon Line was the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, and between the Middle and Southern colonies.

The Southern Colonies:Maryland

• In 1632, Sir George Calvert convinced King Charles I to grant him land for a colony in the Americas.– He planned to build a colony,

Maryland, where Catholics could practice their religion freely.

– When he died, his son Cecil, Lord Baltimore, pushed on with the project, becoming the proprietor of the colony.


• In the spring of 1664, 200 colonists landed along the upper Chesapeake Bay, across from the southern colony of Virginia.– Chesapeake Bay was full of fish, oysters, and

crabs.– Virginians were already growing tobacco for profit,

Maryland settlers hoped to do the same.– First town built: St. Mary’s– He appointed a governor and a council of advisors.– He created an elected assembly, giving colonists a role in the government.


• Lord Baltimore made generous land grants to anyone who brought over servants, women, and children.– A few women took advantage of this offer: two sisters,

Margaret and Mary Brent, arrived in 1638 with nine male servants.

– They set up two plantations, 1,000 acres each.– Margaret Brent prevented a rebellion among the

governor’s soldiers. – The colony’s assembly praised her efforts: “the colony’s

safety at any time [was better] in her hands than in any man’s.”

• Act of Toleration: act that provided religious freedom for all Christians.– It ensured Maryland’s continued growth.

The Southern Colonies:Virginia

• Many settlers had gone to Virginia lured by the promise of profits from tobacco.– Wealthy planters tool the best lands near the coast;

newcomers had to push inland, onto Indian lands.

• Conflict over land led to fighting between settlers and Indians:– Indians and white leaders often met to restore peace.– New settlers continued to press inland, Indians continued

to attack the frontier plantations.– After several bloody clashes, settlers called on the

governor to take actions against Native Americans.– The governor refused, he profited from his own fur trade

with Indians.– Frontier settlers were furious.

The Southern Colonies:Virginia

• Bacon’s Rebellion: – Nathaniel Bacon was a young, ambitious planter.– He organized angry men and women on the frontier, and

raided Native American villages.– Then he led his followers to Jamestown and burned the

capital.– Bacon died suddenly, the revolt fell apart.– The governor hanged 23 of Bacon’s followers, but still

couldn’t stop English settlers from moving onto Indian lands along the frontier.

The Southern Colonies:The Carolinas

• To the north, settlers were mostly poor tobacco farmers, with small farms, who had drifted from Virginia.

• To the south, 8 English nobles set up a larger colony.

– They received a land grant as proprietors, from King Charles II.– Charles Town was the largest settlement, later shortened to Charleston.– Most settlers in Charleston came from Barbados, the

English colony in the Caribbean.– Other immigrants arrived later: Germans, Swiss, French

Protestants, Spanish Jews.

The Southern Colonies:The Carolinas

• Rice grew well in the swampy lowlands along the coast.– Rice was a valuable crop traded around the world.– Carolina needed a large number of workers to grow rice.– They tried to enslave local Indians, but many died of disease

or mistreatment and others escaped into the forests.– Planters turned to slaves from Africa, who were brought

against their will.

• North Carolina had fewer slaves. Differences between

the two areas led to the

division of the colony into

North Carolina and South

Carolina in 1712.

The Southern Colonies:Georgia

• James Oglethorpe- respected soldier and energetic reformer- founded Georgia in 1732– He wanted the colony to be a place where people jailed for debt

in England could make a new start.– English government could imprison debtors until they paid what

they owned.– When they got out of jail they often had no money and no place

to live.

• Oglethorpe and 120 colonists built the colony’s first settlement: Savannah.

• Colony’s rules:– Farms could be no bigger than 50 acres – Slavery was forbidden– Later, Oglethorpe changed the rules to allow larger plantations

and slavery, making the colony grow quickly.

The Southern Colonies:Plantation Life

• The Southern Colonies enjoyed warmer weather and a longer growing season than the colonies to the north.– Virginia, Maryland, parts of North Carolina: tobacco-growing areas.– South Carolina and Georgia: raised rice and indigo (blue dye).

• Colonists found that it was most profitable to raise crops in large plantations with slaves.– Most slaves worked in the fields.– Some were skilled workers: carpenters, barrelmakers, blacksmiths.– Some worked as cooks, servants, housekeepers.


• Location:– Tide-Water: region along the coastal

plain with an area of low land that stretched like fingers among broad rivers and creeks.• It offered rich farmland for plantations.• They could have their own docks, and

merchant ships picked crops and delivered goods directly to them.

– Inland, planters settled along rivers.• They provided an easy way to move goods to

market.• Planters loaded their crops on ships bound to

the West Indies and Europe.• On the return trip, ships carried English

goods and luxuries for planters and their families.


• Only a small percentage of white southerners owned large plantations, yet they set the style of life in the South.– Life centered around the Great House, where the planter and

his family lived; the grandest of these houses had:• Elegant quarters for the family• A parlor for visitors• Dining room• Guest bedrooms

– In the growing season, planters decided what crops to grow, when to harvest, and when to take them to market.– Planters’ wives ran the household, directed house slaves, and

made sure daily tasks were done.

The Southern Colonies:The Backcountry

• West of the Tidewater was an area of hills and thick forests at the base of the Appalachians, called the backcountry, just as in the Middle Colonies.– It was more democratic than the Tidewater

• Settlers treated one another as equals.• Men worked in their tobacco or corn fields, or hunted game.• Women cooked meals and fashioned clothing out of wool and

deerskin.

– Hardships brought families together:• Families gathered to husk corn or help one another raise barns.• Families felled trees, grew crops, changed the face of the land.

The Southern Colonies:Growth of Slavery

• First Africans in the colonies included free people, servants, and slaves; even the enslaved enjoyed some freedom.• Slaves on plantations:

– Used farming skills they had brought from West Africa.– They showed English settlers to grow rice.– They knew how to use wild plants unfamiliar to the English– Made water buckets out of gourds.– Used palmetto leaves to make fans, brooms, baskets.– They cleared the land– Worked on crops– Tended livestock.

The Southern Colonies:Growth of Slavery

• To control the large number of slaves, colonists passed slave codes.– They set out rules for slaves’ behavior and

denied slaves their basic rights.– Slaves were not seen as humans, but as

property.

• Most English colonists believed that black Africans were inferior to White Europeans. (racism)

• Some colonists believed they helped slaves by introducing them to Christianity.

• Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania became the first group of colonists to call for an end to slavery in 1688.

The Southern Colonies:The Slave Trade

• European slave traders set up posts along the African coasts.– They offered guns and other goods to African

rulers who brought them slaves.

• Most slave ships went to Brazil and the Caribbean.

• The trip from Africa to the Americas was called the Middle Passage:– Slaves were crammed into small spaces below

deck.– Once or twice a day, the crew allowed the

captives up on deck to eat and exercise.– Some Africans fought for their freedom during

the trip, others refused to eat.

• Records of slave voyages show that about 10% of all Africans shipped didn’t survive the Middle Passage.

Roots of Self-Government

• Mercantilism: theory that a nation became strong by keeping strict control over its trade.– Mercantilists thought that a country should export more than it

imported.– Exports: good sent to markets outside a country.– Imports: goods brought into a country.

• If England sold more goods abroad, gold would flow into the home country as payment for those exports.

Roots of Self-Government

• Navigation Acts: – Acts passed by the English Parliament in the 1650s that

regulated trade between England and its colonies.– Purpose: ensure that only England benefited from colonial trade.

• Under these laws: – Only colonial or English ships could carry goods to and from the

colonies.– They listed certain products that colonial merchants could ship

only to England (tobacco and cotton)

• Benefits:– Law encouraged colonists to build their own ships.– New England became a prosperous shipbuilding center.– Colonial merchants did not have to compete with foreign

merchants because they were sure of having a market for their goods in England.

Roots of Self-Government:

Trade in Rum and Slaves• Yankees: merchants from New England– They dominated colonial trade.– Were clever and hardworking, earned a reputation for profiting

from any deal.

• Triangular Trade: a route developed by colonial merchants with its three legs forming a triangle.– First leg: ships from New England carried fish, lumber, and

other goods to the West Indies. Yankees bought sugar and molasses (syrup from sugar cane), and made rum back in New England.

– Second leg: ships carried rum, guns, gunpowder, cloth, and tools from New England to West Africa. In Africa these goods were traded for slaves.

– Third leg: ships carried enslaved Africans to the West Indies. With the profits from selling them, traders bought more molasses.


Trade in Rum and Slaves• Many New England merchants grew wealthy from the triangular trade, often disobeying the Navigation Acts.– Traders were supposed to

buy sugar and molasses only from English colonies in the West Indies.

– The demand for molasses was so high that New Englanders smuggled in cargoes from the Dutch, French, and Spanish West Indies.

– Bribes made customs officials look other way.


Colonial Government• A governor directed the colony’s affairs and enforced the laws. – They were appointed by the king or by the colony’s proprietor.– In Connecticut and Rhode Island the colonists elected their own

governors.

• Each colony had a legislature- a group of people who have the power to make laws.– It had an upper house (made of advisers appointed by the governor) and a

lower house (an elected assembly).– It approved laws and protected the rights of citizens.– It had the right to approve any taxes the governor asked for. (“power of the purse”- governor’s right to raise or spend money)– Any governor who ignored the assembly risked losing his salary.


Colonial Government

• Each colony had its own rules about who could vote.– By the 1720s all the colonies had laws that restricted the right to

vote to white Christian men over the age of 21.– In some colonies, only Protestants or members of a particular

Church could vote. – All voters had to own property- they believed they knew what was

best for a colony.


Colonial Government• Colonists valued their elected assembly and the rights the Magna Carta gave them as English subjects.

• Colonists won more rights as a result of the Glorious Revolution of 1688.– Parliament removed King James II from the throne and asked William

and Mary of Netherlands to rule.– William and Mary signed the Bill of Rights in 1689 in return for

Parliament’s support- a written list of freedoms the government promises to protect.

• The English Bill of Rights– Protected the rights of individuals.– Gave anyone accused of a crime the right to trial by jury.– Said that a ruler could not raise taxes or an army without the

approval of the Parliament.


Limits on Liberties• English colonists enjoyed more freedoms than the English themselves, but the English citizens’ rights didn’t extend to all colonists.

• Rights of women:– Women had more rights in the colonies.– A woman’s father or husband was supposed to protect her.– A married woman could not start her own business or sign a contract unless her husband approved it.– Unmarried women and widows had more rights than married

women:• They could make contracts and sue in court.• In Maryland and the Carolinas, women settlers who headed families could buy land

on the same terms as men.

• Africans and Native Americans had almost no rights:– Most Africans were bound in slavery

Date post:	15-Jan-2016
Category:	Documents
Upload:	sydney-rynard
View:	218 times
Download:	0 times

The Thirteen Colonies Liberty School- American History 11th Ms. Stephanie Custodio.

Documents