Thirteen Colonies

The thirteen colonies, founded between 1607 and 1732, included Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia were under the control of Britain. The Chesapeake Bay area was the first colonized, after members of the London Company arrived in 1607. The last of the original colonies was the southernmost, Georgia. The significance of the thirteen British colonies lies in their unification and rebellion against the king, which resulted in the formation of a new country, the United States of America.

Overview

The area around the Chesapeake Bay was the first successful British colony on the Atlantic Coast. The settlers named their colony Jamestown, after the king, but struggled to survive in the wilderness. The Puritans landed on the northern coast in 1620 and established the town of Plymouth in what they called New England. Ten years later, the Middle Colonies came under British control after Charles II was restored to the throne. They were later expanded when the British took the land settled by the Dutch. The lower South, called Georgia, was settled in 1733.

The Chesapeake

Jamestown, Virginia, was the first successful settlement of the original thirteen British colonies. Founded in 1607 by 105 members of the London Company, the group expected to find gold and make a quick fortune. They were unprepared for survival in the wilderness, and all but 32 of the original party died during the first winter. With the help of Captain John Smith and the local Indians, the settlers began to plant crops and learn to fend for themselves. With access to the James River, the Virginia colony was ideal for commerce, and by 1612 John Rolfe had established tobacco as a profitable export crop. By 1680, Virginia farmers were using black slaves to work the tobacco fields.

Territory at the north of Virginia became Maryland after Charles I gave a land grant to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, in 1632. Settlers arrived the following year. A Catholic, Lord Baltimore initiated a policy of religious tolerance in the colony. Maryland settlers began farming tobacco on plantations like those in Virginia, relying on indentured servants and slaves to work the land.

New England

In 1620 the Puritans, or Pilgrims, arrived in Plymouth on the coast of what is now Massachusetts. Having left England to find freedom to practice their religion, they promptly outlawed other religions in the colony. Nine years later, Puritans in England secured a charter to start the Massachusetts Bay Company. In 1630, more Puritans arrived and over the next ten years nearly 20,000 immigrants settled in New England, establishing cities and towns throughout Massachusetts.

The main city, Boston, served as the capital. The colony had a governor John Winthrop, and set up a governing system similar to Parliament. The church was the center of each community, both literally, as it sat in the center of town, and as the principal enforcer of conformity within the society. Many of the values of Puritanism were assimilated into the new country's culture, including education, self-government, the work ethic, and moral responsibility.

However, Puritan ideals and the tenets of the Bay Colony charter did not work for everyone. For example, Roger Williams advocated fair treatment of the Indians, religious tolerance, and the separation of church and state. For this he was banished from the colony, which he left in 1636. He moved south and founded Providence, later receiving a charter to establish the colony of Rhode Island. In later years, other groups left the Bay Colony of Massachusetts and settled in areas that became Connecticut and New Hampshire.

The Middle Colonies

The Dutch first settled the Middle Colonies, planning to profit from trade in the New World. However, in 1664, the British decided to take over the area between Connecticut and Maryland. The Dutch had no defenses in place and New Netherland became New York with little resistance.

The Middle Colonies were a rich mixture of cultures that comprised not only Dutch and British, but also Swedish, German, French, Italian, and Polish immigrants. The settlers included Quakers, who were persecuted in England but tolerated in the colonies. The Quakers first settled in New Jersey, but many later moved to Pennsylvania.

That territory, west of New Jersey, belonged to William Penn. He advertised widely in Europe to attract settlers and lived in peace with the Indians for some fifty years. His tolerance for all religions and ethnic groups made Pennsylvania a popular destination for Europeans seeking a new life in the colonies, and its capital, Philadelphia, was a center of commerce and politics. Penn also controlled the formerly Dutch territory of Delaware, which became independent in 1701.

The Lower South

A colonial charter from Charles II established the area that became Carolina and Georgia. Settlers from English Barbados founded Charles Town (later Charleston) in 1670. The southern colonies were quite different from those in the North, both demographically and economically. Their focus was on large-scale agriculture, and the settlers depended upon crops they could produce for export, mainly tobacco. Some immigrants from Barbados brought slaves with them, paving the way for the use of African slaves. The province of Carolina was divided into two separate colonies, North Carolina and South Carolina, in 1729.

Georgia, the last of the thirteen colonies, was founded by Sir James Oglethorpe, who planned to bring in imprisoned debtors to populate the new colony. Artisans, merchants, and farmers also found new opportunities there. In addition, the area provided protection against encroachment from the Spanish colony of Florida, just to the South.

Uniting the Colonies

Although each region had unique characteristics and the colonies had never acted as a unified state, by the 1760s they shared increasing resentments toward Britain's rule. Harsh taxation, restriction of commerce, and interference in their governments fed the colonists' anger. The most significant factor was that the colonies had no representation in the English Parliament. As British authorities imposed harsher taxes and rules on the colonists, the spirit of rebellion grew. In spite of their economic differences and lack of training, the colonies united and declared their independence in 1776.

Bibliography

"The Colonies: 1690-1715." Toolbox Library: Primary Resources in U.S. History and Literature. National Humanities Center, Sept. 2009. Web. 2 Oct. 2014.

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/becomingamer/growth/text1/text1read.htm

"The Middle, Chesapeake, and Southern Colonies." AP Study Notes. StudyNotes, Inc., 2014. Web. 2 Oct. 2014.

http://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/the-middle-chesapeake-and-southern-colonies/

"The 13 Colonies" History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 2 Oct. 2014.

http://www.history.com/topics/thirteen-colonies