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Thirteen Colonies: the New England Colonies

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START HERE!

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Colonial America for Kids: The Thirteen Colonies

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Kids learn about the history of the thirteen British American Colonies that formed the United States including when they were each founded, the colonial regions, and fun facts.

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Thirteen Colonies: the Southern Colonies

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Colonial America for Kids: Lost Colony of Roanoke

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Kids learn about the history of the Lost Colony of Roanoke during colonial America including the first settlers, the second colony, where it was located, interesting facts, and why it dissappeared.

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The Middle Colonies were composed of what is today the states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

Because the soil was rich in the Middle colonies, farmers were able to grow more grain than they could use. They began selling grain to other colonies and to England, shipping out of the big ports in Philadelphia and New York. Because of this, the middle colonies became known as the Breadbasket colonies.

The Middle Colonies were more cosmopolitan and tolerant than the New England colonies. A lot of the success of Pennsylvania and Delaware is owed to William Penn. Under his guidance, Philadelphia became a fabulous city, with broad, tree-shaded streets, stone and brick houses, and a bustling port. Manhattan flourished under the Dutch. The Germans were probably the best farmers in the Middle Colonies.

The middle colonies were enriched by the culture of people from all over Europe, including Quakers, Scots, Irish, Dutch, French, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, and more. Farms flourished and craftsmen established successful businesses. There was a brisk business in trade. Ships docked at the New York harbor in huge numbers, fighting for space to unload. New ships were under construction. Coopers made thousands of barrels for storing cargo. Chandlers were merchants who sold everything needed to stock and repair ships. Ships carried food and timber from the New World to the Caribbean islands and returned with coarse brown sugar. Rum and tobacco shipped to England fetched high prices. There were mills to grind grain, sugar refineries, bakeries and taverns, fine craftsmen getting high prices for beautiful goods. Merchants became rich.

There was a dark side to all of this. Some ships returned with slaves. Caribbean and African slaves were traded on ships in the harbor. Smugglers unloaded goods from the ships at night to avoid paying the import tax, which limited monies towns and cities could spend on keeping the streets clean and safe. At night, thieves roamed the unlit streets, targeting anyone really, but especially fashionable English gentlemen in showy outfits.

Still, port towns continued to boom with trade. By the 1700s, cities were divided into wealthy merchants and poor and enslaved workers, and life for many had moved from pleasant to tense.

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The 13 Colonies for Kids - The Middle Colonies

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The Middle Colonies were composed of what is today the states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Because the soil was rich in the Middle colonies, farmers were able to grow more grain than they could use. They began selling grain to other colonies and to England, shipping out of the big ports in Philadelphia and New York.

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For Kids - The New England Colonies

The New England colonies were composed of the colonies of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

In the New England colonies, land was given to a colony by the crown (the king or queen of England.) In these early days of settlement, a colony was not a state. A colony was a business. Each colony was in the business of sending riches back to England in exchange for money, tools, and supplies they needed in their colony. Each colony had a central government. The central government of each New England colony divided their own colony into pieces called towns.

Towns varied greatly in size. But the average town was about 100 square miles (10 miles long and 10 miles wide). Towns were populated by assignment at first - the central government of the colony not only assigned a site for the town, they also assigned a group of people to that town. This initial group was made up of about 30 or 40 households, or about 150-200 people. Most of the people in a group knew each other, and had a common lifestyle back in England or in another settlement. This was done to keep arguments at a minimum. It was also done to keep control. People in a town had the freedom to govern themselves as long as they understood that the colony was in charge of all the towns, and the king of England was in charge of all the colonies; this was understood.

The core of the "town" was the village. There was one street that ran down the middle of the village, with houses on either side. There was a "green", a central park, in approximately the middle. The green held the meeting house, which was also the church in most towns. The militia (the men of the village) gathered to practice on the green. People gathered on the green to chat. Each villager owned the plot of land that held their house. They also owned a plot of land, or several plots scattered about, in the land that surrounded the village. They could sell the land or all their "holdings" (which included their house in the village), as long as the villagers found the new owner acceptable.

The poor were assigned the worse farm plots and lived at the edge of the village. The rich were assigned the best plots and lived near the meeting house. But for the most part, people in a town shared good and bad fortune. They worshiped together. They governed together. They tried to regulate everything, from what a craftsman could charge to the amount of the fine for using bad language. They did not appreciate interference from other towns. A town was a unit. Each town had its own character.

The "town" approach did continue into the early 18th century, but it never got much beyond the New England colonies. The New York colony had town meetings, but it was voluntary. In the New England colonies, town meetings were required forms of government.

The tight hold the New World towns initially held on the early settlers through the establishment of colonial central government approved "towns" soon disappeared. Three things made a huge difference - an abundance of wood, countless fresh-water streams, and seemingly endless land. Slowly, people started to expand beyond the towns. If they didn't like the way they were treated, they could leave, as their courage and other town boundaries allowed.

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The 13 Colonies for Kids - New England Colonies

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The New England colonies were composed of the colonies of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. In the New England colonies, land was given to a colony by the crown (the king or queen of England.) In these early days of settlement, a colony was not a state.

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Life was very different in the rural southern colonies of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The weather in the south provided a long growing season, which allowed crops like rice, cotton, and tobacco to flourish. The south also exported indigo (a blue dye made from native plants). To produce enough rice or cotton or tobacco to make a profit took a great deal of land and labor.

In the south, huge plantations developed, owned and governed by one family. Each plantation was nearly self-sufficient. They produced or made just about everything they needed on the plantation. Planters could easily transport their crops because there were many waterways that allowed ocean going vessels to tie up at a dock. The south did not have a need for big cities, only for port towns (a place with a deep water dock). Charleston, South Carolina was the major port.

For labor, the plantation owners first used indentured servants, people who had exchanged passage to the New World for a great deal of work when they arrived. Once the indentured servants worked off their debt, they were paid for their labor. In time, they could save up enough money to buy their own land, perhaps not a plantation, but land enough to support their families.

By the end of the 1600s, the labor pool of indentured servants began to dry up. Plantation owners were in need of another cheap source of labor. They began to use slaves as the labor force of the south.

The economic and social structure of the rural southern colonies rested on great plantations and smaller farms.

The plantation owners built huge mansions and tried to follow the culture, or what they believed to be the culture, of the aristocrats back in England.

The smaller farm owners were independent of the great plantations and were very outspoken about the rights of free men. Many smaller farm owners found their way into politics.

The third social structure was composed of the people who lived and worked in the port towns.

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The 13 Colonies for Kids - Southern Colonies

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Life was very different in the rural southern colonies of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The weather in the south provided a long growing season, which allowed crops like rice, cotton, and tobacco to flourish. The south also exported indigo (a blue dye made from native plants).