1. COLONIAL AMERICA

2. Britain owned 13 colonies on the east coast of North America. Colonial America is the time period from 1607 to 1776. Atlantic Ocean Connecticut Rhode Island New Hampshire Massachusetts Delaware New Jersey Pennsylvania New York Georgia South Carolina North Carolina Virginia Maryland

3. The Southern Colonies included Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The land in the South was ideal for planting large crops. The growing season was very long. There were many rivers to keep the soil moist and fertile. The South was famous for its large plantations. A plantation is a large farm that produces a single crop for profit. The crops raised on plantations were called cash crops. In Virginia, the main cash crop was tobacco. Tobacco and corn were produced in the Carolinas and Maryland. In South Carolina and Georgia, rice was a profitable crop. Starting in the 1740s, indigo became a cash crop for South Carolina. Indigo is a blue dye that was used on military uniforms and dress clothes in the 1700s. 1 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES

4. The New England colonies included Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island. In New England, the soil was rocky, and the winters were long. The colonists could only grow enough food to feed their own families. So, New Englanders had to find other ways to earn money. Fishing, the fur trade, ship building and trading goods with other European countries were a few of the more profitable businesses New Englanders turned to. 2 THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES

5. The Middle colonies included Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York. The Middle Colonies had a longer growing season and soil rich enough to grow cash crops. These were crops raised to be sold for money. Common cash crops included fruits, vegetables, and above all, grain. The Middle Colonies produced so much grain that people began calling them the “breadbasket” colonies. Other businesses found in the Middle colonies were the fur trade, ship building, iron manufacturing, fishing, and trading with other European countries. 3 THE MIDDLE COLONIES

6. By the time Europeans were sailing to the Americas, slavery was widely practiced in West Africa. Many West African Kingdoms enslaved those they defeated in war. Slave traders from Arab lands bought some of these enslaved people. Others were forced to work in gold mines or farm fields. The arrival of Europeans in the Americas created a huge new demand for enslaved workers. They first tried to enslave Native Americans but that didn’t work out because they kept dying of European diseases and escaping. They also tried indentured servants (poor Europeans who worked in the colonies to pay off the cost of the ship ride to North America, which usually took about 7 years). Colonists found that they needed to look elsewhere to find the large labor force needed to work on their plantations. West African slave traders met this need. They sold captives they gained through wars and raids. Slavery and the slave trade became major parts of the colonial economy, especially in the South. Some enslaved Africans on plantations did housework, but most worked in the fields. Many enslaved workers suffered great cruelty. Owners of large plantations hired overseers, or bosses, to keep the enslaved Africans working hard. 4 SLAVERY

7. The thirteen colonies began as either charter or proprietary colonies. Charter colonies were based on a charter, a grant of rights by the English monarch to a company. Proprietary colonies were the property of an owner or group of owners. These proprietors ruled more or less as they wished. For example, they named their own governors and many other colonial officials. Some colonies later became royal colonies, under direct English control. In a royal colony, Parliament (people in England who make the laws) appointed a governor and council, known as the upper house. The colonists selected an assembly, or lower house. Over time, townspeople began discussing local issues at town meetings. These developed into local governments, with landowners holding the right to vote and pass laws. 5 GOVERNMENT

8. Religion had a strong influence in colonial life. In the 1730s and 1740s, a religious revival called the Great Awakening swept through the colonies. In New England and the Middle Colonies, ministers called for “a new birth,” a return to the strong faith of earlier days. The Great Awakening inspired greater religious freedom. It also united colonists from north to south in a common experience. By the middle of the 1700s, many educated colonists were influenced by the Enlightenment. This movement, which began in Europe, spread the idea that knowledge, reason, and science could improve society. In the colonies, the Enlightenment increased interest in science. People observed nature, staged experiments, and published their findings, much as Benjamin Franklin did. 6 RELIGION AND ENLIGHTENMENT