1. Colonial Regions New England Colonies = Religious Freedom
The Middle Colonies = Religious Freedom & Economic Opportunity
The Southern Colonies = Economic Opportunity

2. New England Colonies
Poor soil forced New Englanders to rely on farming trade instead of agriculture.
Lumbering, shipbuilding, and fishing became chief industries- natural harbors and abundant forests.
New England colonies included: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.

3. New England Communities
The Puritan concern for the moral health of the community provided:
The foundation for later reform movements such as abolitionism and the women’s rights movement.
Protestant work ethic.
Increasing intolerance of all other religious viewpoints = conflict
Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson.
Rhode Island was founded by Williams after being kicked out of Massachusetts.
Salem Witch Trials
Small villages and farms created a tightly knit community-guaranteed religious purity.

4. New England Politics
Mayflower Compact created ‘democratic-like’ government.
– Aimed to create “just and equal laws…for the good of the colony.”
– Those laws approved by the majority would be binding.
John Winthrop-First governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony, wanted to establish a “city upon a hill.”
New England colonies had strong democratic traditions through town meetings-where every male church member voted (direct democracy).

5. The Middle Colonies
Excellent land for farming- region became the “bread basket of the colonies.”
Exported grain, fruit, vegetables to other colonies and England.
Rivers allowed for easy trade between port cities and interior.
Fewer industries than New England, but more than the South = Mixed Economy
Shipbuilding, lumbering, and commerce through seaports and commercial centers like Philadelphia and New York.
Merchants and artisans thrived in ________________ towns.

6. Middle Colonial Society
More religiously tolerant (Quakers in Pennsylvania, Jews and Huguenots in New York, Presbyterians in New Jersey).
Middle to small size farms created a weaker aristocracy and more social mobility-the emergence of a middle class.
Population was ethnically mixed (German, Dutch, English) and religiously tolerant (Quakers, Amish, Jews, Huguenots).
William Penn (a Quaker and founder of the Pennsylvania colony) and other leaders maintained better relations with the Native Americans.

7. Middle Colonial Politics
Maintained a number of democratic principles from England.
Colonies governed by royal governors and elected assemblies.
Many constitutions guaranteed religious freedom and prohibited taxation without representation.

9. Southern Colonies
Region was dominated by plantation-style agriculture.
Plantations produced cash crops-tobacco, rice, and indigo for export to Europe.
Labor originally supplied by indentured servants , but transitioned to slavery by the late 18th century.

10. Southern Society
Large landholdings (plantations) in the tidewater (eastern Virginia) favored wealthy aristocracy-planters (Cavaliers in Virginia)
Middle class and poor farmers settled on the frontier in the Piedmont and Appalachian regions (Scots-Irish) and engaged in subsistence farming, hunting, and trading.
Region was sparsely populated- churches and schools were too expensive-wealthy received education.
Established church was the Anglican Church.

11. Southern Politics and Society (cont.)
Political affairs controlled by planters and social status based on family.
Representatives in colonial legislatures were primarily members of the planter class.
Plantations required expansionary tendencies because of soil exhaustion.
Southern colonists would continually push west.
Southern colonies had closest ties to England-Cavaliers received land grants from the king.

12. Colonization and Native Americans
Conflict with Native Americans occurred primarily in New England and the Southern colonies-Middle colonies had the best relationship with Native Americans.
Most conflicts occurred over land as colonists continually expanded westward.
Many Native Americans died due to a lack of immunity to European diseases.