SUMMARY The Colonies American History

NEW PEOPLE

·         In the 17 century, most settlers who came to America were English, but there were also Deutch, Swedes and Germans in the middle region, a few French Huguenots in South Carolina, slaves from Africa, primarily in the South, and a scattering of Spaniards, Italians and Portuguese throughout the colonies.

·         After 1680, thousands of refugees fled continental Europe to escape the path of war, avoid the poverty.

·         By 1775, the American population numbered more than 2,5 million.

·         Distinctions between individual colonies were marked, even more between the three regional groupings of colonies.

NEW ENGLAND

1.       Geographical situation

·         Located in the north east

·         Thin, stony, soil, relatively little level land

·         Long winters

2.       Economic

·         The New Englanders harnessed water power and established grain mills and sawmills.

·         Goods stands of timber encouraged shipbuilding.

·         Harbors promoted trade, the sea became a source of great wealth.

·         Example: Massachusetts à cod industry

·         Trade and business became the primarily jobs.

·         The needs of townspeople fulfilled by common pastureland and woodlots.

·         Compactness made possible the village the village school, village church and the village townhall, where citizens met to discuss matters of common interest.

·         The Massachusetts grew prosperous, and Boston became one of America’s greatest ports.

·         The woods to build the ships came from the Northeastern forests.

·         By the end of the colonial period, one-third of all vessels under the British flag were built in New England. Fish, ship’s store and wooden were swelled the experts.

·         Rum and slaves were profitable commodities.

·   

  Merchants and shippers would purchase slaves off the coast of Africa for New England rum, then sell the slaves in the West Indies where they would buy molasses to bring home for sale to the local rum producers.

THE MIDDLE COLONIES

1.       Pensylvania

·         Society in the middle colonies was far more varied, cosmopolitan and tolerant than in New England.

·         Under the guidance of William Penn, Pennsylvania functioned smoothly ad grew rapidly.

·         By 1685 its population was almost 9000. By the end of teh colonial period, nearly a century later, 30.000 people ;ived there, representing many languages, creeds and trades.

·         The heart of this colony was Philadelphia.

·         Though the Quakers dominated in Philadelphia, elsewhere in Pennsylvania others were well represented.

·         Germans became the colony’s most skillful farmers.  Important, too, were cottage industries such as weaving, shoemaking, cabinetmaking, and other crafts.

·         Pensylvania was also the principal gateway into the new world for the Scots-Irish. They tended to settle in the back country, where they cleared land and lived by hunting and subsistence farming.

2.       New York

·         As mixed as the people were in Pensylvania. New York best ilustrated the polygot nature of America.

·         By 1646 the population along the Hudson Rivers included Dutch, French, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, English, Scots, Irish, Germans, Poles, Bohemians, Portuguese and Italians.

·         The Dutch had great influence. Their sharp stepped, gable roofs became a permanent part of the city’s architecture, and their merchants gave Manhattan much of its original bustling, commercial atmosphere.

THE SOUTHERN COLONIES

·         The southern colonies included Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, and Georgia.

·         By the late 17th century, Virginia’s and Maryland’s economic and social structure rested on the great planters and the yeoman farmers.

·         Charleston, South Carolina, became the leading port and trading center of the South.

·         The settlers combine agriculture and commerce.

·         Dense forests also brought revenue.

·         North and South Carolina also produced and exported rice and indigo, a blue dye obtained from native plants.

·         By 1750 more than 100.000 people lived in the two colonies of North and South Carolina.

·         German immigrants and Scots-Irish, unwilling to live in the original tidewater settlements where English influence was strong, pushed inland.

·         By the 1730s they were pouring into Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

·         The frontier families lived on the edge of the Indian country.

·         They built cabins, cleared tracts in the wilderness and cultivated maize and wheat.

·         The man wore buckskin, leather made from the skin of deer or sheep.

·         The women wore garments of cloth they spun at home.

·         Their own amusements were great barbecues, dances, housewarmings for newly married couples, shooting matches and contest for making quilted blankets.

·         Quilts remain an  American tradition today.