Chapter 3 Section 3 - RRCS



Chapter 3 Section 3

“The Middle Colonies”

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Geography of the Middle Colonies

*New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware

*Hudson River flows south through New York to New York City (most populated city in US today)

*Pennsylvania – Middle Colonies 2nd largest state

*Philadelphia (PA’s largest city) on Delaware River

*Growing season longer than New England; climate was warmer

*Fertile soil was well suited for crops like wheat, fruits, and vegetables

New York and New Jersey

*NY began as Dutch colony (New Netherland)

*Many successful farmers in Hudson River valley; profitable fur trade between Dutch and Native Americans

*Dutch also made money trading with merchants in British colonies (violated Britain’s mercantile laws and angered British government)

*New Netherland problems: small Dutch population; many colonists from Sweden, France, and Portugal; some English Puritans on Long Island (hostile to Dutch rule)

*New Netherland separated England’s northern colonies from its southern colonies; England and Holland were rivals at trade.

New Netherland Becomes New York

*1664 – England’s King Charles II granted right to all the Dutch lands in North America to brother James. All that James had to do was conquer the territory – James sent warships and Dutch surrendered. New Netherland was renamed New York, after James, the Duke of York. New Amsterdam, capital of New Netherland, became New York City.

New Jersey

*1665 – New Jersey established when part of southern New York split off to form a new colony. New Jersey was proprietary colony – a colony created by a grant of land from a monarch to an individual or family

*1702 – NJ received a new charter as royal

colony – colony controlled directly by the English king; NY had become royal colony in 1685.

Pennsylvania and Delaware

*1640s and 1650s, Quakers were one of a new religious group in England. Their ideas were very different from Puritans.

*Quakers believed that

*all people had a direct link with God

*they did not need ministers

*all people were equal in God’s eyes

*Quakers among first to speak against slavery; women were equal to men and often led meetings

*By 1660s, many Quakers refused to pay taxes to support Church of England and were persecuted

*William Penn, Quaker leader, used connections with King Charles II to set up a colony where Quakers would be safe from persecution (land almost as large as England; mostly in PA)

Penn’s “Holy Experiment”

*1682 – settlers from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Germany, Holland, and Switzerland arrived (Penn advertised throughout Europe)

*Penn’s goal: create a colony in which people from different religious backgrounds live peacefully

*1682 – Penn granted colony an elected assembly and provided for religious freedom

*Penn tried to deal fairly with Native Americans – did not let colonists settle on land until Native Americans sold it to them

Delaware: A Separate Colony

*First settlers here were from Sweden

*Dutch lost control when they lost New Netherland/New York

*Delaware settlers did not want to send delegates to distant assembly in Philadelphia, so Penn gave area its own representative assembly

*1704, Delaware became separate colony

Growth and Change

*By early 1700s, >20,000 colonists lived in PA

*Due to fertile soil and hard work, farmers grew more than needed and sold the rest

*Top cash crop: wheat (PA was America’s “breadbasket”); NJ also produced a lot of wheat

*1700s - manufacturing began in Middle Colonies

*Largest manufacturers produced iron, flour, and paper; artisans worked as shoemakers, carpenters, masons, weavers, and coopers (made barrels used to ship and store flour and foods)

Backcountry

*Western section of Pennsylvania (frontier region extending through colonies from PA to GA)

*Most backcountry settlers were Scotch-Irish; then German immigrants (“deutsch” interpreted as “Dutch”, so German immigrants in PA were called Pennsylvania Dutch)

*Backcountry settlers fought with Nat. Americans

Diverse and Thriving Colonies

*by 1750 – non-English immigrants made Middle Colonies most diverse part of North America; NYC and Philadelphia largest cities/busiest ports

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