Britain’s Thirteen Colonies 1607-1776

OPENING True or False: England and Britain are the same thing

What’s In a Name? The big island is Britain The small island is Ireland The big island plus the top of the small island is the United Kingdom England ceased to exist as a political entity in 1707 after unification, but it still exists as a region and an idea. http://mentalfloss.com/article/51699/whats-difference-between-britain-and-england

CLASS IN COLONIAL AMERICA Read Basics #2 CLASS IN COLONIAL AMERICA Britain’s thirteen colonies in North America are one of history’s great success stories. The first settlers at Jamestown in Virginia and Plymouth in Massachusetts had a rough time with the climate and local Native American groups. But within a generation of their arrival, people from thousands of miles away were successfully growing crops, growing in population, and growing wealthy. However, not everyone shared in that newfound wealth equally, and it largely depended on where someone was and how they got to the “New World.”   During the first half of the 1600s, thousands of families tired of hardships in England crossed the Atlantic Ocean to start a new life in the Northern Colonies, nicknamed “New England.” They were fleeing religious persecution and the strict rule of King James I, and later, his son Charles I. Both believed in the “divine right of kings” to rule with absolute power, and threatened anyone who questioned their authority. Unhappy with their lives in England, many families chose to make the dangerous journey to the colonies, where they hoped to find peace and religious freedom. Although life in the rugged New England wilderness was hard, families created strong communities there. Men hunted, cut down trees, fished, farmed, built homes, became merchants, and formed churches. And women, often with their children, grew vegetables, dried fish, and raised animals for food and clothing. By 1650, New England was the richest region in the colonies, and Boston, Massachusetts was its leading city. By the year 1700, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had become the major trading center of the Middle Colonies. Wheat, the most important crop of the region, was brought to Philadelphia from the surrounding area. From there it was shipped to Europe, the West Indies, and other American colonies. Most of the city’s residents were single men trying to make money in the trading business. Many had come to the colonies as “indentured servants,” people who agreed to work without pay for a few years in exchange for a ticket to the New World and a place to live. By 1700, the shipbuilding and iron industries had developed to a point at which many men could earn a decent living in these jobs. The few women working in the cities at this time were clerks in shops or stitched clothes together for export to Europe and elsewhere. By 1750, the Southern Colonies had become the wealthiest region in Colonial America. Charleston, South Carolina, was an important shipping city. Planters in the large rural areas near the east coast grew tobacco, rice, and indigo. Many plantations were located on bays or rivers where products could be loaded onto ships to be sent overseas or sold to other American colonies. More than 150,000 slaves and 50,000 British convicts provided cheap labor for planters. Poor white farmers, many still indentured to the sponsors who paid for their ticket to America, farmed and raised animals in the wooded areas of the South. But unlike slaves, indentured servants had some hopes of rising out of poverty if their farms were successful. The overall success of the Southern Colonies was due to the endless work of slaves, who led miserable lives, were beaten, abused, and prevented from learning to read and write. Slaves were property, and were bought and sold at will by their masters. Families were often split apart at slave auctions, as sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, were sold to the highest bidders. Slave labor led to huge profits for rich planters and was the backbone of the southern economy, literally and figuratively, until 1865.

Mapping the Thirteen

Thirteen Colonies BrainPop

Copy and finish the sentence stem below: CLOSING Copy and finish the sentence stem below: Britain’s thirteen colonies were not all the same, for example…