The American Colonies

•Title a piece of paper: The American Colonies Notes.•You will copy the big ideas and take notes on the rest.•Make sure you have your name, date, and period in the upper right hand corner of the paper.

Big Idea #1•There were

three very different areas of colonies.

•New England, Middle, and Southern

Big Idea #2

•New England colonies got their money from the sea.

New England Colonies

• New England had long winters and rocky soil.

• English settlers made up the largest group in the region’s population.

• New England’s soil made farming difficult. In contrast, the Atlantic Ocean offered many economic opportunities.

• New England settlers engaged in three types of trade. First was the trade with other colonies. Second was the direct exchange of goods with Europe. The third type was the triangular trade.

Big Idea #3

•The Middle colonies had cash crops and cities.

Middle Colonies• The Middle Colonies had shorter winters

and fertile soil made farming good. The region attracted immigrants from all over Europe.

• The Middle Colonies boasted a longer growing season than New England and a soil rich enough to grow cash crops. These were surplus crops raised to be sold for money.

• Surplus - having more than you need

• The excellent harbors along the coasts of the Middle Colonies were ideal sites for cities.

Big Idea #4

•The South relied on slave labor to work their plantations (large farms)

Southern Colonies• The Southern Colonies had a warm climate and

good soil, which was ideal for growing crops. There, some settlers used enslaved Africans to work their plantations.

• By 1750, there were over 235,000 enslaved Africans in America. About 85 percent of slaves live in the Southern Colonies. Enslaved Africans made up about 40 percent of the South’s population.

• A very wealthy class of Southerners existed that own the large plantations and most of the slaves.

• Not all white people in the South owned slaves. Those that did owned a few. Only the rich plantation owners owned a lot of slaves.

Big Idea #5•The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Map in 1861

Election map in 2000

Page 102

• Make your map look like the map on page 102. The more detail you provide, the higher your grade. The map will be due on Friday.

• The map should be colored or shaded to show the three different areas of the colonies; New England, Middle, and Southern.

• Don’t forget to include a key of what the colors or shading mean.