The Middle Colonies

3 Key excerpts on "The Middle Colonies"

• 

  eBook - PDF

  Music of the Colonial and Revolutionary Era

  • John Ogasapian(Author)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • Greenwood

    (Publisher)

  5 The Middle Colonies If New England was the cradle of American independence, The Middle Colonies—New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware—can fairly be called the cradle of American diversity. England laid claim to the territory be- tween New England and Maryland; however, the English were slow to settle the area. In spite of its moderate climate and vast tracts of rich farmland, no English colonies were planted there during much of the seventeenth century. Instead, Swedish and German immigrants settled what is now Delaware and New Jersey. The Dutch colonized New Netherlands, with its port of New Am- sterdam at the foot of Manhattan Island. They also granted large tracts along the Hudson to a number of patroons, wealthy planters who agreed to bring tenant farmers to work the land and protect shipping on the river. New Am- sterdam quickly attracted a flourishing commerce, and with it a diverse and polyglot population. England reasserted her claims to The Middle Colonies in the 1660s, after the restoration of monarchy under Charles II. New Netherlands was renamed New York, and the settlements that Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant had taken control of not long before became New Jersey. Delaware with its Swedish colonies was granted to William Penn in 1682 as part of his hold- ings in America. Under English domination, Pennsylvania's combination of religious freedom and rich farmland attracted settlers from the European con- tinent, especially the strife-torn principalities that made up seventeenth- and 7 6 Music of the Colonial and Revolutionary Era eighteenth-century Germany. These immigrants brought with them their lan- guages, religions, and love of music and music, making The Middle Colonies a tapestry of cultural diversity in contrast with the overwhelmingly English colonial culture to their north and south. NEW YORK The Netherlands declared independence from Spain in 1581 and quickly developed into a commercial sea power.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Colonial America

  From Jamestown to Yorktown

  • Mary Geiter, William Speck(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  The influence of the Penn family with the ministers was put to its severest test when Benjamin Franklin was sent by the Pennsylvania Assembly to England to protest against alleged abuse of the pro-prietary powers in 1757 and 1764. On the first occasion, Franklin attempted to curtail the proprietors’ prerogatives. On the second, he tried to persuade the Crown to take over the colony from the Penns. In both cases the interest of the Penns at the Courts of George II and George III was too entrenched for Franklin to prevail. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF The Middle Colonies However amorphous the concept of The Middle Colonies might appear historically, by the end of the colonial period contemporaries did see the ‘middle settlements’ or ‘middle provinces’ as forming an entity. Historians seeking the colonial origins of modern American culture have also begun to take notice of them. Traditionally Puritan New England was held to be the seedbed of what is typical about America. Certainly, Puritanism informs a distinctive American attitude. But the connection between Calvinism and the capitalism which became the economic dynamic of the United States is now harder to establish than seemed to be the case in earlier accounts. New England economically became something of a backwater in the colonial period. Boston stagnated relative to the vigorous growth of New York City and, above all, of Philadelphia. The spirit of enterprise in these major eastern seaboard ports was noticed by contemporaries. They also commented, sometimes less favourably, on the motley ethnic mix of The Middle Colonies. The Dutch of New York, the Scots of New Jersey, the Germans and Scotch-Irish of Pennsylvania, to name but the most prominent alongside the English, provided colonial America with a melting-pot society, anticipating that of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries far more than did New England or the southern colonies, whose white inhabitants continued to be predominantly English in origin.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  GED Secrets Study Guide

  GED Exam Review for the General Educational Development Tests

  • Mometrix High School Equivalency Test Team(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Mometrix Test Preparation

    (Publisher)

  The colonies in New England were founded largely to escape religious persecution in England. The beliefs of the Puritans, who migrated to America in the 1600s, significantly influenced the development of these colonies.  Situated in the northeast coastal areas of America, the New England colonies featured numerous harbors as well as dense forest. The soil, however, is rocky and, with a very short growing season, was not well suited for agriculture.  The economy of New England during the colonial period centered around fishing, shipbuilding and trade along with some small farms and lumber mills. Although some groups congregated in small farms, life centered largely on towns and cities where merchants largely controlled the trade economy. Coastal cities such as Boston grew and thrived.

  The Middle or Middle Atlantic Colonies were: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

  Unlike the New England colonies, where most colonists were from England and Scotland, The Middle Colonies founders were from various countries including the Netherlands, Holland and Sweden. Various factors led these colonists to America.  More fertile than New England, The Middle Colonies became major producers of crops included rye, oats, potatoes, wheat, and barley. Some particularly wealthy inhabitants owned large farms and/or businesses. Farmers in general were able to produce enough to have a surplus to sell. Tenant farmers also rented land from larger land owners.

  The Southern Colonies were Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

  Of the Southern Colonies, Virginia was the first permanent English colony and Georgia the last. The warm climate and rich soil of the south encouraged agriculture, and the growing season was long. As a result, economy in the south was based largely on labor-intensive plantations. Crops included tobacco, rice and indigo, all of which became valuable cash crops. Most land in the south was controlled by wealthy plantation owners and farmers. Labor on the farms came in the form of indentured servants and African slaves. The first of these African slaves arrived in Virginia in 1619, starting a long, unpleasant history of slavery in the American colonies.

  Enacted in 1651, the Navigation Acts were an attempt by Britain to dominate international trade. Aimed largely at the Dutch, the Acts banned foreign ships from transporting goods to the British colonies, and from transporting goods to Britain from elsewhere in Europe. While the restrictions on trade angered some colonists, these Acts were helpful to other American colonists who, as members of the British Empire, were legally able to provide ships for Britain's growing trade interests and use the ships for their own trading ventures. By the time the French and Indian War had ended, one-third of British merchant ships were built in the American colonies. Many colonists amassed fortunes in the shipbuilding trade.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book