The Middle Colonies

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Dein ware were called the Middle colonies. The Middle colonies were between New England and the South ern colonies. These colonies were settled mainly by English, French, Dutch and German people. They developed the region into a rich farming area.

Penn’s woods. Like Roger Williams, William Penn believed in religious toleration. He founded the colony of Pennsylvania for that purpose.

Penn came from a worthy family in England. His father was an admiral in the English Navy and a friend of the King. As a young man, Penn joined a religious group called the Society of Friends. The Friends, or Quakers, as they called themselves, believed in the goodness of all people. They also refused to fight in any wars.

Like the Pilgrims and Puritans, the Quakers were not allowed to practice their religion in England.

In 1681 William Penn made an agreement with the English King. Penn’s father had died in 1670, and the King had owed him a lot of money. Now he owed that money to William Penn. As a payment for the debt, he gave Penn some land in America.

In 1681 Penn sent settlers to this land. He called this land Pennsylvania, which means “Penn’s woods”. It was a beautiful land of thick forests, rich soil and clean rivers.

William Penn worked hard to build up Pennsylvania. He wrote advertisements telling people in Europe about his colony. Soon people from Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland and other countries came to Pennsylvania. Unlike New England, where most of the colonists were English, Pennsylvania was settled by people of many different nations.

William Penn said that Pennsylvania would be a place open to settlers of all faiths. He also said that the American Indians should be treated well. Soon after arriving, Penn made up an agreement with the Delaware Indians who lived in the area.

He paid them a good price for their land. During Penn’s lifetime the relations between the settlers and the Indians in Pennsylvania were very good.

Life in Philadelphia. Philadelphia was the first settlement in Pennsylvania. The name “Philadelphia” means “brotherly love” in Greek. For 300 years Philadelphia has been known as the City of Brotherly Love.

By the 1700’s more than 4,500 people lived in Philadelphia. Philadelphia, Boston and New York were the three largest and most modern cities in the colonies.

In spite of being more than 160 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean, Philadelphia was a busy sea port. Ships sailed from the ocean up the broad Delaware River, The city’s streets were full of traffic.

The Southern Colonies

The five Southern colonies were Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. These five colonies had a warmer climate than the other colonies. Farmers had great plantations where they grew tobacco and rice. However, planting and harvesting these crops required many workers. During the 17th and 18th centuries many Negro slaves from Africa were brought to the South to work on the plantations. The slaves had no rights of their own. Some colonies passed laws saying that the Africans could be bought and sold as slaves. This was the beginning of a sad part of American history.

Charleston in South Carolina was the major city of the Southern colonies. In the 1700’s more than 10,000 whites and 12,000 black slaves lived there. Charleston had an excellent harbour. Planters brought their crops to the port. There the crops were loaded on ships and sent to Great Britain, the West Indies and to other colonies. Merchants grew rich from the busy trade. They built beautiful houses in the city. Many of these colonial houses are still standing today.