colonial america. western european countries explored and colonized the new world to search for and...
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Colonial America
Western European countries explored and colonized the New World to search for and obtain precious metals such as gold and silver and natural resources they needed. Because the Spanish found large quantities of gold, other nations began to desire gold and wealth for the Mother Country.
The Thirteen Colonies
New England Colonies
Life in the New England Colonies
• Because the Puritans believed that people should worship and tend to local matters as a community, New England became a place of tightly knit towns and villages.
• The center of town was the common-an open field where cattle grazed.
• Near the common was the meetinghouse where Puritans worshipped and held town meetings.
Life in New England (continued)
Religion• The Puritans took their Sabbath very
seriously. On Sundays no one was allowed to play games or visit taverns to joke, talk, or drink. The law required that all people attend church services which lasted all day on Sunday.
• The Puritans taught that children were a blessing from God, and the average family had seven or eight children.
Life in New England (continued)
Government• At town meetings citizens discussed
and voted on many issues such as roads or the pay of the schoolmaster.
• Town meetings gave New Englanders a chance to speak their minds.
• It was this early experience with self government that encouraged the growth of democratic ideas in New England.
Life in New England (continued)
Economy• The Puritans believed that hard work was a
way of honoring God. Through hard work, they built a thriving way of life.
• New England’s rocky soil was poor for farming, but with the help of Native Americans settlers learned to grow Indian corn, pumpkins, squash, and beans.
• The forests had much game such as turkey, deer, and hogs.
Life in New England (continued)
• Colonists collected sap from maple trees in the spring.
• Settlers cut down trees and floated them to sawmills in cities such as Boston, Massachusetts or Portsmouth, New Hampshire which began major shipbuilding centers.
• Other people in New England fished the waters along the coast for cod, halibut, oysters, and lobsters.
• In the 1600s, New Englanders began hunting whales to get oil for lamps, ivory, and other products. Whaling grew into big business.
The Middle Colonies
Life in the Middle Colonies
• Farming conditions were much better in the Middle Colonies than in New England. The Hudson and Delaware river valleys were fertile. Winters were milder than those in New England, and the growing season lasted longer.
• Farmers produced surpluses of wheat, barley, and rye. The Middle Colonies exported so much grain they became known as the Breadbasket Colonies.
• They also sent tons of beef, pork, and butter to New York and Philadelphia to be shipped to other parts of the world.
Life in the Middle Colonies (continued)
•Craftsworkers set up shop in Pennsylvania, and this colony became a center of manufacturing and crafts.
•Iron ore in the Delaware River valley was hammered into nails, tools, and parts for guns.
Life in the Middle Colonies (continued)
• Farms in the Middle Colonies were larger than in the New England colonies. The houses were farther apart, and towns were less important than in New England. Counties, not villages, became the center of local government.
• The different groups of people who settled in the Middle Colonies-the Swedish, Dutch, and Germans-had their own favorite ways of building their homes.
Life in the Middle Colonies (continued)
• The Backcountry• In the 1700s thousands of German and
Scotch-Irish settlers arrived in Philadelphia. They, then, moved the backcountry, land along the eastern slopes of the Appalachian Mountains.
• To farm the backcountry, settlers cleared thick forests.
• Many of the settlers who arrived in the backcountry moved onto Indian lands. Because of this, violent conflicts sometimes arose between settlers and the Indians.
The Southern Colonies
Life in the Southern Colonies
• As the Southern colonies grew, two distinct and different ways of life emerged-one along the Atlantic coast and another in the backcountry.
Life in the Southern Colonies (continued)
• Tidewater Plantations– The Southern colonies had warmer
weather and a longer growing season than the northern colonies.
– Virginia, Maryland, and parts of North Carolina all became major tobacco-growing areas. Settlers in South Carolina and Georgia raised rice and indigo.
Life in the Southern Colonies (continued)
• Colonists realized that it was more profitable to grow tobacco and rice on large plantations.
• On the southern plantations, 20 to 100 slaves did most of the work.
• Most of the slaves worked in the fields, but some slaves were skilled workers such as carpenters, barrel makers, or blacksmiths. Still other slaves worked in the main house as cooks, servants, or housekeepers.
Life in the Southern Colonies (continued)
• The earliest plantations were located along rivers and creeks of the coastal plain. This land was washed by the ocean tides, and it became known as the Tidewater. The Tidewater had rich farmland for its plantation.
• Further along inland, planters settled along the rivers so they could have an easy way to move their goods to market.
Life in the Southern Colonies (continued)
• Most Tidewater had their own docks where ships picked up crops and delivered goods. Because of this, few large seaport cities developed in the Southern colonies.
• Only a small percentage of white southerners owned large plantations, yet planters set the style of life in the South.
Life in the Southern Colonies (continued)
• The Backcountry South– West of the tidewater, life was very different.– Thick forests and rolling hills covered this
land; this area was called the backcountry.– Life there was more democratic than in the
Tidewater. The people were more likely to treat one another as equals.
– Men tended smaller fields of tobacco and corn, or they hunted game.
– Women cooked meals and made simple clothing out of wool or deerskins.
Life in the Southern Colonies (continued)
• The hardships of the backcountry brought people closer together.
• Families gathered to husk corn or help one another build barns.
• The lived along the Appalachian Mountains, these people changed the face of the land.
Trade Between the Colonies and Britain
• Mercantilism was the economic policy that dominated British and colonial trade after 1660.
• According to mercantilism, a nation became strong by building up its gold supply and expanding trade.
• Mercantilists thought a country should export more than it imports.
Trade Between the Colonies and Britain
• In the 1650s, Parliament passed a series of Navigation Acts to regulate trade between England and the colonies.
• The purpose of these laws was to ensure that only England benefited from colonial trade.
• Under the Navigation Acts, only colonial or English ships could carry goods to and from the colonies.
Trade Between the Colonies and Britain
• The Navigation Acts also listed certain products, such as tobacco and cotton, that colonial merchants could ship to England.
• By doing this, Parliament created jobs for English workers who cut and rolled tobacco or spun cotton into cloth.
Trade Between the Colonies and Britain
• The Navigation Acts helped the colonies, too.
-The law encouraged the colonists to build their own ships; therefore, New England became a prosperous shipbuilding center.
-Also, colonial merchants didn’t have to compete with foreign merchants because they were sure of having a market for their goods.
Trade Between the Colonies and Britain
• Many colonists resented the Navigation Acts for they felt the laws favored English merchants.
• Colonial merchants often ignored the Navigation Acts or found ways to get around them.
Trading in Rum and Slaves
• The colonies produced many goods, and ships went up an down the Atlantic coast trading.
• New England merchants dominated colonial trade.
• Colonial merchants developed many trade routes. One route was known as the triangular trade because the three legs of the route formed a triangle.
Trading in Rum and Slaves
• On the first leg, ships from New England carried fish, lumber, and other goods to the West Indies.
• In the West Indies, traders bought sugar and molasses. The ships sailed back to New England, where the colonists used the sugar and molasses to make rum.
Trading in Rum and Slaves
Trading in Rum and Slaves
• On the second leg of the journey, ships carried rum, guns, gunpowder, cloth, and tools from New England to Africa.
• In Africa, merchants traded these goods for slaves.
Trading in Rum and Slaves
• On the final leg of the route, ships carried enslaved Africans to the West Indies.
• With the profits from selling the enslaved Africans, traders bought more molasses.
Trading in Rum and Slaves• Many New England merchants grew wealthy from
the triangular trade.• In trading this way, they often disobeyed the
Navigation Acts.• Traders were supposed to buy sugar and molasses
only from English colonies in the West Indies.• However, the demand for molasses was so high
that New Englanders smuggled in cargoes from the Dutch, French, and Spanish West Indies, too.
• Bribes made customs officials look the other way.
North America in 1770
13 colonies
Major cities, rivers, Appalachian Mts.,
Ohio River valley, Chesapeake Bay
British forts
French and Spanish territories
Proclamation of 1763
1. What are some products in your
homes that are made in other countries?
2. What would happen to our lifestyle if trade did not occur?
3. Dependence on trade with other countries is good for Americans.
4. Interdependence (trade both ways) is good for Americans.
Four Causes of the American Revolution
• Westward Movement
The Proclamation of 1763 provoked the Americans. Why?
• The Army
The Quartering Act an the Boston Massacre
Political Life
• Each colony developed its own governments, and the governments had much in common.
• A governor directed the colony’s affairs and enforced the laws.
• Most governors were appointed by the king or the colony’s proprietors; however, colonists elected their own governors in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Political Life• Each colony also had a legislature.
• In most colonies, the legislature had an upper house and a lower house.
• The upper house was made up of advisers appointed by the governor.
• The lower house was an elected assembly that approved laws and protected the rights of citizens.