COLONIAL AMERICA

Britain owned 13 colonies on the east coast of North America.

Colonial America is the time period from 1607 to 1776.

AtlanticOcean

ConnecticutRhode Island

New Hampshire

Massachusetts

Delaware

New JerseyPennsylvania

New York

Georgia

South Carolina

North Carolina

Virginia

Maryland

The Southern Colonies included Virginia,

Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and

Georgia. The land in the South was ideal for

planting large crops. The growing season was

very long. There were many rivers to keep

the soil moist and fertile. The South was

famous for its large plantations. A plantation

is a large farm that produces a single crop for

profit. The crops raised on plantations were

called cash crops. In Virginia, the main cash

crop was tobacco. Tobacco and corn were

produced in the Carolinas and Maryland. In

South Carolina and Georgia, rice was a

profitable crop. Starting in the 1740s, indigo

became a cash crop for South Carolina. Indigo

is a blue dye that was used on military

uniforms and dress clothes in the 1700s. 1

THE SOUTHERN COLONIES

The New England colonies included

Massachusetts, Connecticut, New

Hampshire, Rhode Island. In New

England, the soil was rocky, and the

winters were long. The colonists could

only grow enough food to feed their

own families. So, New Englanders had

to find other ways to earn money.

Fishing, the fur trade, ship building and

trading goods with other European

countries were a few of the more

profitable businesses New Englanders

turned to.

2

THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

The Middle colonies included

Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey,

and New York. The Middle Colonies

had a longer growing season and soil

rich enough to grow cash crops. These

were crops raised to be sold for money.

Common cash crops included fruits,

vegetables, and above all, grain. The

Middle Colonies produced so much

grain that people began calling them

the “breadbasket” colonies. Other

businesses found in the Middle

colonies were the fur trade, ship

building, iron manufacturing, fishing,

and trading with other European

countries. 3

THE MIDDLE COLONIES

By the time Europeans were sailing to the Americas, slavery was

widely practiced in West Africa. Many West African Kingdoms

enslaved those they defeated in war. Slave traders from Arab lands

bought some of these enslaved people. Others were forced to work

in gold mines or farm fields.

The arrival of Europeans in the Americas created a huge new

demand for enslaved workers. They first tried to enslave Native

Americans but that didn’t work out because they kept dying of

European diseases and escaping. They also tried indentured

servants (poor Europeans who worked in the colonies to pay off the

cost of the ship ride to North America, which usually took about 7

years). Colonists found that they needed to look elsewhere to find

the large labor force needed to work on their plantations.

West African slave traders met this need. They sold captives they

gained through wars and raids. Slavery and the slave trade became

major parts of the colonial economy, especially in the South.

Some enslaved Africans on plantations did housework, but most

worked in the fields. Many enslaved workers suffered great cruelty.

Owners of large plantations hired overseers, or bosses, to keep the

enslaved Africans working hard.4

SLAVERY

The thirteen colonies began as either charter or

proprietary colonies. Charter colonies were based

on a charter, a grant of rights by the English

monarch to a company.

Proprietary colonies were the property of an owner

or group of owners. These proprietors ruled more

or less as they wished. For example, they named

their own governors and many other colonial

officials.

Some colonies later became royal colonies, under

direct English control. In a royal colony, Parliament

(people in England who make the laws) appointed

a governor and council, known as the upper house.

The colonists selected an assembly, or lower house.

Over time, townspeople began discussing local

issues at town meetings. These developed into

local governments, with landowners holding the

right to vote and pass laws.5

GOVERNMENT

Religion had a strong influence in colonial life. In

the 1730s and 1740s, a religious revival called the

Great Awakening swept through the colonies. In

New England and the Middle Colonies, ministers

called for “a new birth,” a return to the strong

faith of earlier days.

The Great Awakening inspired greater religious

freedom. It also united colonists from north to

south in a common experience.

By the middle of the 1700s, many educated

colonists were influenced by the Enlightenment.

This movement, which began in Europe, spread the

idea that knowledge, reason, and science could

improve society. In the colonies, the

Enlightenment increased interest in science.

People observed nature, staged experiments, and

published their findings, much as Benjamin Franklin

did.6

RELIGION AND ENLIGHTENMENT