Life in Colonial America

By 1700, more than 250,000 people of European origin or descent lived within what is now
the United States. These settlers covered much of the eastern seaboard. Each region of
colonization was economically and socially distinct, as each area developed differently based
on geography, immigration trends, and other factors.

The New England Colonies

The New England colonies spanned modern-day Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine,
Connecticut, and Rhode Island. New Englands economy centered on small farming, fishing,
and home manufactures, as well as sea trade and shipbuilding. The region quickly expanded
as immigrants streamed in and families grew.
New England economy was based on small-scale agriculture, fishing, home manufactures,
shipbuilding, and trading.

Life was fairly stable for New Englanders. They often lived 1525 years longer than their
British counterparts or colonists in other regions, due in part to a better diet. Puritan
communities were close-knit, and because all followers of God were expected to read the
Bible, they placed great emphasis on education. New England was likely the most literate
community in the world.

Religion dominated all aspects of life in New England. In order to vote or hold office, a person
had to be a member in good standing of the church. Religious dissenters were subjected to
public spectacle or banishment. Fervent religious superstition also fueled New Englands most
notorious scandal: the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and 1693.

Beginning with the Mayflower compact, and continuing with the Massachusetts Bay Colony
charter, the New England Colonies quickly established a tradition of self-government. By
1641, 55 percent of males in Massachusetts could votea much higher percentage than in
England. Connecticut developed a similar government with even more voting rights: all male
landowners were granted suffrage under the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which in
1639 became the first written constitution in the New World.

The increase in self-government in New England went hand in hand with increased resistance
against British authority. In an effort to create a united defense against Dutch encroachment
and aggressive Native American tribes, colonists organized the New England Confederation in
1643. England viewed this attempt to unite the colonies as potentially dangerous, but the
confederation persisted and even helped to crush a Native American uprising during King
Phillips War (16751676). In the end, infighting among the colonies doomed the
confederation.

Then in 1655, four royal commissioners inspecting Massachusetts were treated rudely and
urged King Charles II to revoke the colonys charter. Charles did not comply, but the incident
solidified a tradition of antagonism between New England and the mother country. After years
of increasing acrimony, Charles successor, James II, revoked the Massachusetts Bay charter

in 1685 and established the Dominion of New England, which unified all of New England under
one royal governor. However, when the 1688 Glorious Revolution in England replaced James II
with the Protestants William and Mary, angry colonists forced the royal governor to return to
England. By 1691, the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter was reinstated.

The Middle Colonies

The Middle Colonies included New York and New Jersey, and later Pennsylvania. England took
control of New York and New Jersey (then called New Amsterdam and New Sweden,
respectively) from the Dutch in 1664. New York was made a royal province in 1685, and New
Jersey in 1702. Both colonies were governed by a royal governor and a general assembly.
Economically, the colonies relied on grain production, shipping, and fur trading with the local
Native Americans.

In 1681, Charles II granted the last unclaimed tract of American land to William Penn. Penn, a
Quaker, launched a holy experiment by founding a colony based on religious tolerance. The
Quakers had long been discriminated against in the Americas and England for their religious
beliefs and their refusal to bear arms. Seeking religious freedom, Quakers, Mennonites, Amish,
Moravians, Baptists, and others flocked to the new colony. Pennsylvania soon became
economically prosperous, in part because of the industrious Quaker work ethic. By the 1750s,
Pennsylvanias capital, Philadelphia, had become the largest city of the colonies with a
population of 20,000.

The Southern Colonies

Virginia, centered in Jamestown, dominated the Southern colonies, which included the
Chesapeake colonies, Maryland, and the Carolinas. The region was more religiously and
ethnically diverse than the Middle or New England colonies, harboring immigrants from all
over Europe, many Roman Catholics (especially in Maryland), and a large number of African
slaves. In the South, families were smaller than in other regions because adult men far
outnumbered women. Men, after all, were needed to work on the regions massive
plantations.

Plantations, which produced tobacco, rice, and indigo, influenced all aspects of life in the
South. The size of plantations limited the development of cities and a merchant class, which
had brought such wealth to New England. Plantations drew many immigrants to the
Chesapeake region during the seventeenth century through the institution of indentured
servitude. Indentured servants were adult men, mostly white, who bound themselves to labor
on plantations for a fixed number of years until they earned their freedom and, with it, a small
plot of land. However, once free, indentured servants still had to struggle to survive, and
conflict arose between the freed servants and the increasingly powerful plantation owners.
These tensions flared in Bacons Rebellion of 1676. Nathaniel Bacon, an impoverished
nobleman, accused the royal governor of Virginia of failing to protect the less wealthy farmers
from Native American raids. Bacon led a group of about 300 farmers and indiscriminately
attacked the Native Americans. The royal governor branded him a rebel, and Bacon led his
men to Jamestown, where he occupied, looted, and burned the city while demanding political
reforms. Bacon died suddenly the same year, abruptly terminating the rebellion, but tensions
between rich and poor remained.

As tobacco plantations grew in size and demand for workers increased, slavery became the
preferred source of labor: it proved economically profitable and eased the class struggles.
Slavery was officially sanctioned by law in 1660. At this time, fewer than 1,000 slaves lived in
Maryland and Virginia. Over the next forty years, that number grew to nearly 20,000. Slavery
later spread to the Carolinas, and by the early eighteenth century it was so entrenched in
these areas that slaves outnumbered free whites.

Black slaves were increasingly brought to the Southern colonies during the late 1600s to
support an economy based on massive cash Each colony had its own unique characteristics, but
historians lump them into groups based on where they were, why they were founded, and what kinds
of industry they had:

New England Colonies

Middle Colonies

Southern Colonies

Rhode Island
Connecticut
Massachusetts
New Hampshire

Delaware
Pennsylvania
New York
New Jersey

Maryland
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia

Motivations
By and large, the people who settled in the New England Colonies wanted to keep their family unit
together and practice their own religion. They were used to doing many things themselves and not
depending on other people for much. Some of these people came to New England to make money, but
they were not the majority.
The people who founded the Middle Colonies were looking to practice their own religion (Pennsylvania
mainly) or to make money. Many of these people didn't bring their families with them from England
and were the perfect workers for the hard work required in ironworks and shipyards.
The founders of the Southern Colonies were, for the most part, out to make money. They brought their
families, as did the New England colonists, and they kept their families together on the plantations. But
their main motivation was to make the good money that was available in the new American market.

Economy
The New England Colonies were largely farming and fishing communities. The people made their own
clothes and shoes. They grew much of their own food. Crops like corn and wheat grew in large
numbers, and much was shipped to England. Foods that didn't grow in America were shipped from
England. Boston was the major New England port.
The Middle Colonies were part agriculture, part industrial. Wheat and other grains grew on farms in
Pennsylvania and New York. Factories in Maryland produced iron, and factories in Pennsylvania
produced paper and textiles. Trade with England was plentiful in these colonies as well.
The Southern Colonies were almost entirely agricultural. The main feature was the plantation, a large
plot of land that contained a great many acres of farmland and buildings in which lived the people who
owned the land and the people who worked the land. (A large part of the workforce was African slaves,
who first arrived in 1619.)
Southern plantations grew tobacco, rice, and indigo, which they sold to buyers in England and
elsewhere in America.

crops like tobacco, rice, and eventually cotton. By 1660, slavery was officially recognized by
law.