BRITISH COLONIZATION

ON NORTH AMERICA
C L I M AT E , R E S O U R C E S , I N G E N U I T Y

NEW ENGLAND COLINIES

NEW HAMPSHIRE, MASSACHUSETTS, CONNECTICUT, RHODE
ISLAND

Climate:
Bitterly cold winters
Short, mild winters
Short growing season
Geography:
Rocky soil
Hills and mountains
Coastline to the Atlantic Ocean

NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

NATURAL RESOURCES & PRODUCTS
Natural Resources:
Ocean
Trees
Fish
Whales
Products for Economic Trade:
Shipping of products like rum
Fishing
Whaling
Whale oil
Lumber (Europe had run out of large forests for lumber.)
Fur trading
Shipbuilding

NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

REASONS FOR SETTLING
Reason for Settling
1628 Puritans receive a charter to settle in North
America. They were looking for a place to practice
their faith without persecution.
1630 John Winthrop leads a second group of Puritans
to settle the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They named
their village Boston. It had a natural harbor that made
it easier for shipping and import and export of supplies.
Puritans thought that if everyone believed and
worshipped in the same way, their colony would be
peaceful. They did not let people live in the
colony that had different beliefs.

NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

WORDS OF DISSENT
Anne Hutchinson
A colonist who questioned the teachings of the Puritan
ministers.
The leaders tried her for sedition, or speaking in ways that
caused people to question the leadership.
She was forced to leave the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
She and her family formed the colony at Rhode Island.

NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

DAILY LIFE
Life centered around religion.
Rules in the towns were very strict, and rule-breakers were
punished very severely.
Puritans did not celebrate holidays, play games, listen to
music, or dance.
The center of town life was the common area of the
village.
Government: Decisions were made by voting on rules for
the town. The voting was done at Town Meetings. Only
white, land-owning men were allowed to vote.
Men and boys spent their days working in the field or
hunting. Women and girls cared for the home, prepared
food, and making clothing.

NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

DAILY LIFE

(CONT.)

Children worked along side adults and had little

chance to play, and very few toys.
Puritans believed that everyone should be able to
read the Bible. Towns with more than 50 families
were required to have schools for kids to learn to
read.
Long winters made growing crops in the rocky soil
very difficult. Farmers learned how to grow cows
and sheep instead. They traded them and other
products for items they needed but could not
make for themselves. This is called Voluntary
Exchange.

NEW ENGLAND
INDUSTRIES

Lumber industry
Ship building
Whaling/ whale oil
Fishing
Trading (sending and receiving products from other places.)

Trading
Most trading happened in a pattern between Europe, Africa,
and the colonies. This was called Trianglular Trade
Routes.
The Middle Trade Route was the passage between
the colonies and Africa. It was used to bring kidnapped
Africans to the colonies and place them in slavery.

THE MID-ATLANTIC COLONIES

NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA, DELAWARE

Climate
Temperate summers
Cold winters
Average growing season,
good for grain.
Geography
Swift rivers
Deep natural ports on the ocean
Flat planes and rolling hills and mountains inland

MID-ATLANTIC COLONIES
NATURAL RESOURCES & PRODUCTS
Natural Resources:
Flat land and moderate growing season
Rich soil
Swift rivers
Thick forests
Products for Economic Trade:
Paper
Grains such as rye, oats, corn and wheat (Led these colonies to be
called the Breadbasket Colonies.)
Trading (Swift rivers allowed ships to move further inland and trade
with colonists.)
Ship building
Textiles (cloth)

MID-ATLANTIC COLONIES
REASONS FOR SETTLING
The Dutch controlled the area and called it New Amsterdam.
Life was good in Holland was good for people. Not many Dutch
settlers were willing to leave Holland to settle in the new
colony.
To increase the number of settlers in the area the Dutch West
India Company let people from other countries settle in their
colony.
The Dutch West India Company brought the first Africans to
North America as slaves.
The King of England wanted the region for its land, resources,
and trade.
So the King gave his brother the land. The brother threatened
to fight the Dutch colonists, so they gave him the land. Now all
of the Mid-Atlantic colonies belonged to England.

MID-ATLANTIC COLONIES
PLANS FOR PEACE

William Penn received a charter from the King for land in the MidAtlantic region. He founded a colony known as Penns Wood, or
Pennsylvania.
Penn was an English Quaker. He imagined making this colony a refuge
for other Quakers. Quakers believed in living peacefully together.
The largest city in this region was Philadelphia. It is known as the
City of Brotherly Love.
Penn wrote a plan of government that gave colonists the right to: free
speech, religion, right to trial by jury.
The plan also allowed voters to elect the people who would represent
them in government.
Penn worked with the native leaders( the Lenni Lenape)to live together
peacefully.

MID-ATLANTIC COLONIES
WORDS OF TOLERANCE

George Whitefield:
An English minister known for the Great Awakening.
He preached religious acceptance.
People were awakened to start practicing their religion
again.
People were also encouraged to have religious tolerance.
Which means they accepted that others might believe
differently than themselves.
Free and enslaved Africans were allowed to participate in
religious gatherings. This did not happen often in the new
world.

NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

WAY OF LIFE
Colonists in the Mid-Atlantic region were from many
different parts of the world. This led to many cultures,
languages, and religions all in the same area. This is
known as diversity.
Many people heard about the diversity of this region and
traveled to make new lives. These people are called
immigrants.
Free time in the cities of the region was spent at dances, ,
plays, concerts, and social clubs. Horse racing, sleigh
rides and ice-skating were also popular.
In the country barn raisings were common social events.
Families hosted one another to help with big jobs that
needed more help than they had alone.

NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

WAY OF LIFE

(CONT.)

Trade:
Rich farmland allowed for farmers to grow grains, and
raise livestock. They took their products to cities where
they traded for items they could not produce for
themselves (iron tools, shoes, paint).
Rivers leading in and out of cities allowed for these farm
products to be she transported back to Europe where they
could be sold for profit.
This area had many people who had very specific skills.
They were known as artisans. They worked in printing,
smithing, cobbling, etc. They took on student workers
that wanted to learn their craft. These students are
known as apprentices.

NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

WAY OF LIFE

(CONT.)

Government:
White, land-owning men were allowed to
participate in voting to select their own
representatives.
The representatives made decisions and laws for
the colony at the General Assembly.
Trial-by-jury allowed colonists to decide the
innocence or guilt of people accused of crimes.

NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

Benjamin Franklin
He was one of the most famous people to live in Philadelphia.
He helped to improve the city in many ways. He began the first fire
department, the citys first hospital, and set up a militia (army) to defend
the city.
He also thought all people should be educated so he started the public
library to share books.
He was a printer. He printed the Pennsylvania Gazette. He also wrote Poor
Richards Almanack, which was filled with words of wisdom.
He was a scientist and inventor responsible for many new things such as the
Franklin stove, bifocals, and swim fins.
He was also a politician who helped write the Declaration of Independence
and frame the Constitution of the U.S.A.

SOUTHERN COLONIES
MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA,
SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA

Geograhpy:
Coastal plains near the ocean
and piedmont farther inland
(perfect for agriculture)
Mountains in the west
The Atlantic Coastal Plain is
part of this region
Climate:
Mild winters
Hot summers (Long growing season,
also perfect for diseases to grow)

SOUTHERN COLONIES
NATURAL RESOURCES & PRODUCTS

Natural resources:
Fertile soil
Flat land
Long growing season
Plenty of water

Products for Economic trade:

Agricultural products (cash crops): cotton, indigo,
tobacco, rice, sugarcane

SOUTHERN COLONIES
SECOND CHANCES FOR DEBTORS

James Oglethorpe
He had an idea that would help poor people.
There were not enough jobs in England. People who could not work and
pay their bills were sent to Debtors Prison.
Oglethorpe received a charter from the king to settle the land of Georgia.
He decided to bring a group of debtors to the new world and give them
land to farm.
This was a second chance for poor people. Soon many people heard about
free land and second chances in Georgia and moved to the new world for a
new start.
Oglethorpe and his brother made it a law that there would be no slavery in
Georgia. He believed it was wrong to make one man a slave for another
man to get money.

SOUTHERN COLONIES
REASONS FOR SETTLING
Reasons for settling
Catholics settled in Maryland to find refuge and a place to
worship freely.
Debtors settled in Georgia to find a second chance for
economic security.
Many others came to Southern Colonies after hearing that
they could get free land and earn a prosperous living.
Indentured Servants were mostly the children of poor
families in Europe. These children were sent to the new
world to work for the people who paid for their trip. After
7 years they would be free to work their own land. Most
of the children died within 2 years.

SOUTHERN COLONIES
NATURAL RESOURCES & PRODUCTS
Economy:
The economy was based on agriculture.
Large farms called plantations grew cash crops. Cash crops
could be grown and sold for lots of money. These crops were
hard to grow and took a lot of work. Indentured servants and
slaves were used to grow these crops.
Government:
In 1669 Lord Proprietors came up with a constitution, or set of
rules that would be used to govern the colonies.
Free, white land-owners were able to take part in voting that
allowed them to select some of their leaders in an Assembly.

SOUTHERN COLONIES
TRADE

Crops were raised on plantations and moved to

the cities where they were bought and sold to be
transported to other parts of the world.
Colonists wanted more land to plant more crops.
They continued to push westward to clear more
land. They moved west on the Great Wagon Road
and moved into the backcountry.
The colonists forced Native Americans off the land
they had lived on for hundreds of years.

SOUTHERN COLONIES
DAILY LIFE
Daily life:
What you did each day depended on who you were
Farmers worked in the fields each day to try to grow cash
crops on their own.
Planters were plantation owners and were the richest people
in the colonies.
Overseers were hired to watch over enslaved people as they
worked in the fields.
Enslaved Africans worked at whatever job they were given.
Their children when born were also slaves.
Indentured servants came to work for the person that bought
their ticket. After seven years they would be given their
freedom and land to begin their own farm.

SOUTHERN COLONIES
OTHER FACTS
Black Seminoles:
The Seminole tribe gave runaway slaves food and shelter. Many
runaways dressed like the Seminoles and learned their language.

Music & Stories:

Slaves were not allowed to learn to read. They had to find other
ways to preserve their history and culture.
One way slaves kept their culture alive was with music. They
used instruments similar to those played in Africa.
Stories were passed down through generations to tell of Africa
and the history of their people.

SOUTHERN COLONIES
WORDS AGAINST INJUSTICE
Olaudah Equiano
He was kidnapped at 11 or 12 and sold into slavery. He
worked for a sea captain who allowed him to be paid
for his work. He saved his money bought his own
freedom in 1766.
He learned how to read and write. He wrote his
autobiography that told about life in Africa, his time as
a slave, and his time trying to end slavery.
His entire life he worked to end slavery. He spoke in
public and wrote articles about the cruelty and
inhumanity of slavery.

INOVATIONS OF THE BRITISH COLONIES

Democracy:
Decisions in the colonies were made primarily by voting
among the white, land-owning men. This was the first time
in modern history that this would be done.
Frontier:
The region of unsettled land that the European countries
wanted to claim and settle.
Opportunity Cost:
By making a decision to choose one option, you eliminate
the possibility of other options. Making a choice costs you
the other possibility.