The Middle Colonies 2

The Middle Colonies: Pennsylvania Established 1682 Founder William Penn Came from a wealthy English family King Charles II was a personal friend At age 22, shocked family and friends by becoming a Quaker Quakers: One of the most despised religious groups in England

The Middle Colonies: Pennsylvania The Quakers Also known as the Religious Society of Friends Like Pilgrims and Puritans were Protestant reformers Their reforms went further than other groups Beliefs Believed that all people – Men women, nobles, commoners, were equal in God’s sight Allowed women to preach in public Refused to remove hats or bow in presence of the nobility Spoke out against war and refused to join the army

The Middle Colonies: Pennsylvania English Views of Quakers Were wicked They were arrested, fined, or even hanged for their ideas in England.

The Middle Colonies: Pennsylvania The colony grows: Penn thought of his colony as a “holy experiment” Any religion could settle Penn sent pamphlets describing his colony all over Europe. Soon settlers from England, Scotland, Wales, the Netherlands, France, and Germany began to come. Among the new arrivals, were large numbers of German speaking Protestants that became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch Named because people could not pronounce the word Deutch which means German

The Middle Colonies: Pennsylvania Penn carefully planned a capital city along the Delaware River He named it Philadelphia which is a Greek word meaning “Brotherly love”

The Middle Colonies: Delaware For a time, Pennsylvania included some lands along the lower Delaware River. The region was known as Pennsylvania’s Lower Counties Settlers in the Lower Counties did not want to send delegates to a faraway assembly in Philadelphia. In 1701, Penn allowed them to elect their assembly Later the Lower Counties broke away to form the colony of Delaware

Life in the Middle Colonies Farming Found more favorable conditions in the Middle colonies compared to the New England colonies Produced surpluses of wheat, barley, and rye These were cash crops, or crops that are sold for money at a market In fact, the Middle colonies produced so much grain, they became known as the Breadbasket colonies. Also raised herds of cattle and pigs Every year sent tons of beef, pork, & butter to the ports of New York and Philadelphia From here they were exported

Life in the Middle Colonies Craftspeople Penn encouraged German craftspeople to set up shop in Pennsylvania In time, the colony became a center of manufacturing and crafts. Mining Settlers in the Delaware River valley profited from the region’s rich deposits of iron ore. Heating the ore, they hammered it into nails, tools, and parts for guns

Middle Colony Homes Farm homes Generally larger here than in New England because houses tended to be far apart in the middle colonies The different groups that settled the colonies had their own favorite ways to construct buildings. Swedish settlers introduced log cabins Dutch used red bricks to build narrow, high walled houses Germans developed a wood-burning stove that heated a home better than fireplace

The Back Country Area of hills and thick forests at the base of the Appalachians Small farms Lumbering Hunting Many settlers of this region learned directly from the Indians