Middle and Southern Colonies

Chapter 6

The Middle ColoniesCore Lesson 1

Describe the founding and government of New York and New Jersey.

Explain the roles of William Penn and Ben Franklin in the early history of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia.

Lesson 1 Objectives:

proprietorrepresentativetreaty

Words to know:

Look at the map on page 189. With your partner, name the Middle Colonies.

1. Pennsylvania2. New York3. New Jersey4. Delaware

The Middle Colonies are:

England captured New Netherland in 1664 from the Dutch. The capital of New Netherland was New Amsterdam.

They began to settle here. Given to James, the Duke of York, who was the

King of England’s brother. He became the proprietor, which meant he could do what he liked with the land.◦ Proprietor-a person who owned and controlled all the

land in a colony. First thing he did was changed its name to New

York.

New York and New Jersey

New Amsterdam had included all of the land of both New York and New Jersey.

James of York only kept part of the land. The rest was given to two of his friends, John Berkeley and George Carteret. But they still lived in England.

They divided their land into 2 colonies, East and West Jersey.

The 2 joined in 1702 and became NEW JERSEY!

The proprietors divided the land to sell or rent to colonists to farm in order to make money.

Since it was very difficult for them to govern from England, they decided to choose governors, who then chose a small group of people, called a council, to help make important decisions.

The colonists also elected representatives to an assembly, who helped the government and council make laws.◦ Representative- someone who is chosen to speak and act

for others. This was a very important step toward self-

government.

William Penn was a Quaker from England. A Quaker believes that all Christians should be free to worship in their own way.

Penn and many others were put in jail for their beliefs, maybe even killed. Remember, in England, everyone is supposed to belong to the Church of England.

Penn had the idea of starting a colony in North America where all Christians could live together in peace.

His wish came true in 1681 when the King, who owed money to his family, repaid them by giving Penn a piece of land in North America.

He name his land Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania and Delaware

The Duke of York later gave Penn more land, which belonged to Pennsylvania for awhile, but later became the colony of Delaware.

Penn made laws in Pennsylvania that allowed people to be able to voice their opinions and worship freely.

He also allowed them elect representatives to an assembly.

The Pennsylvania Assembly had more power than the New York and New Jersey Assemblies. They could actually approve and reject laws that the governor and his council suggested.

Penn respected the Indians and wanted them all to live as equals.

He made fair treaties with the Lenni Lenape Indians of Delaware when he bought land from them.◦ Treaty-an official agreement between nations or

groups. Pennsylvania’s colonists and the Indians

lived together in peace for many years.

Find the person in the class who has the same color paper as you.

Go find a spot in the room to sit together. Take a set of flash cards. One partner will hold a card to his forehead, making

sure not to look at what is on the card. The other partner will give him/her clues as to what their word is without saying the word or any form of the word.

As soon as the person guesses the word, it is the partners turn to choose a card.

Continue taking turns until all of the cards have been used.

SPONGE ACTIVITY:

William Penn also planned the colony’s first large city, Philadelphia.

He chose a site located on the Delaware River because it set up an excellent harbor where the Delaware and Shuykill Rivers met, which made trade very easy.

HE designed wide, straight roads that made it easy to travel throughout the city.

It became the center of trade, and soon was the largest city in all of the colonies.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia’s most famous citizen. HE bought his own printing press and

published a newspaper as well as a popular book of stories, jokes, and sayings called “Poor Richard’s Alamanac”

He helped start Philadelphia’s first library, fire company, and hospital.

He was also a very famous inventor, inventing things such as the wood stove, clock, and many other useful things.

Benjamin Franklin

“Early to bed, early

to rise, makes a man healthy,

wealthy and wise.”

1. What events led to the founding of New York as an English colony? New Jersey?

2. Why did William Penn start the colony of Pennsylvania?

3. What were 3 things that William Penn did for Pennsylvania?

Lesson Review

Life in the Middle Colonies

Core Lesson 2

People here came from many lands: German, Dutch, Scots-Irish, Scandinavian, and English, even enslaved Africans.

Many were Quakers or members of Protestant churches.

Others were Jewish or Catholic Their society was so diverse because their

proprietors believed in religious tolerance. William Penn supported tolerance, as well as

other proprietors who didn’t care at all about their religious beliefs, only the fact that they would rent or buy land and could pay for it.

A Mix of People

People came for different reasons: some for religious tolerance, others to farm their own land.

All came to find a better way of life! Arrived at the ports of New York or

Philadelphia. Some stayed in the city to find work, but

most moved to the countryside to live and work on farms.

Most people were farmers because the climate and soil were perfect for it.

Children helped out as soon as they were old enough.

Boys planted and harvested crops. Girls helped with inside chores. Children also cared for the families animals

and gardens.

Making a Living

Raised livestock such as cattle and pigs Grew vegetables, fruits, and other crops. Grew many different grains (wheat, corn

and barley) used to make bread. The Middle Colonies became known as the

“breadbasket” of the thirteen colonies. Agriculture was so good that farmers had

enough for their families and still had a surplus.

They would sell this surplus to earn a living.

Farmers

They would use the long rivers of the Middle Colonies to ship their goods and livestock to be sold in Philadelphia or New York.

Some even sold the wood and furs from their land.

The merchants in Philadelphia and New York would turn around and sell the goods as exports to Europe, the West Indies, and other colonial cities (Boston and Charles Town)

The Middle Colonies had a free market economy, where the people, not the government, decided what would be produced.

The proprietors gave them free enterprise (business), which is an economic system where people may start any business that they believe will succeed.

Philadelphia and New York were 2 of the largest cities in the Middle Colonies, both with ports, which made them centers for shipping and trade.

Their free market economy attracted merchants, shopkeepers, and artisans (people who are skilled at making something by hand, such as silver spoons and wooden chairs.

Laborers, people who do hard physical work, also found work in cities.◦ some were enslaved Africans, who worked in laundries,

as house servants, or on the docks loading and unloading ships.

City LIfe

Young people became apprentices, someone who studies with a master to learn a skill or business.

An apprentice often lived in the master’s house.

They usually worked with their masters for 4-7 years.

BOY apprentices learned skills such as shoemaking, printing, and bookmaking.

GIRL apprentices learned skills such as how to spin thread and weave cloth.

Most children learned how to read and write BUT, most colonists believed it was more

important to learn useful work skills. Parents expected their children to learn a

business or run the family farm instead of going to college.

1. Each person has a sticker on their back of a job that a child choose to become an apprentice with.

2. Your partner will give you clues without saying the word or any part of the word. You may want to use clues such as “1 word”, or “2 words”, or “your job is a compound word”.

3. Once you have guessed your word, it is your turn to help your partner try to guess their word.

Sponge Activity

The Southern Colonies

Core Lesson 3

Explain the structure and importance of Virginia’s colonial government.

Summarize the founding of Maryland, North and South Carolina, and Georgia.

Lesson Objectives

PlantationLegislatureRefugedebtor

Words to know:

Became the first permanent English colony in North America in 1607.

Colonists started plantations, a large farm on which crops are raised by workers who live on the farm, on the soil of the tidewater.

Most plantation workers were indentured servants or enslaved Africans.

Plantation owners became wealthy by growing and selling cash crops such as tobacco and rice.

Virginia

As the land around the tidewater began to fill up, colonists began to have to settle and build their plantations in the backcountry, farther from the ocean.

Colonists wanted a voice in the laws of the colony, so they created the first elected legislature, a group of people with the power to make and change laws, in 1619.

These representatives in the legislature were known as burgesses, and so the legislature became known as the House of Burgesses.

Colonists elected the burgesses, but only planters and other white men who owned property could vote.

Almost all of these members of the House of Burgesses belonged to the Church of England, and so the Anglican Church became the official church of Virginia.

Anyone NOT Anglican had to leave the colony.

Governing the Colony

This land was given to Cecilius Calvert (Lord Baltimore) by King Charles I in 1632.

Lord Baltimore was Catholic. Catholics in England were often punished for

their religious beliefs just like the Puritans. Calvert wanted to make Maryland a refuge for

catholics. A refuge is a safe place. Maryland passed the Toleration Act, which was

the first official law in North America that promised that all Christians could worship freely.

New Colonies In the SouthMaryland

England, France, and Spain had all claimed land south of Virginia.

In an effort to keep France and Spain out of this area, so he started a colony in 1663 called Carolina.

Colonists first settled the southern part because of the good farmland and excellent harbors.

Planters built rice plantations in the tidewater.

The Carolinas

The city of Charles Town, now known as Charleston, grew very wealthy.

The northern part of the colony was not as good for farming

In 1729, the colony of Carolina became 2 separate colonies, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Still trying to keep the Spanish and French away, England’s King George III started another colony.

HE gave the land to James Oglethorpe, an English law maker and army officer.

Named the colony Georgia He wanted Georgia to be a place for poor people and

debtors, people who owe money. In England, debtors who could not make their

payments were thrown in jail. Oglethorpe thought it would be better to provide a

place for these people to start new lives. He offered them free trips and small farms of their own.

Georgia

Oglethorpe made many strict laws for Georgia.

Colonists did not like all of these rules, and soon they were changed.

As soon as slavery was allowed, they brought in slaves to work on the plantations.

Georgia quickly became a wealthy plantation colony

Life in the SouthCore Lesson 4

Identify agriculture as the main economic activity of the Southern Colonies.

Compare life on a plantation to life on a small farm.

Describe enslaved Africans lives, work, and culture,

Lesson Objectives

Perfect place to grow tobacco and rice because of the long growing season and warm climate.

These cash crops made the Southern plantation owners very wealthy.

BUT…these crops required much more work than other crops, so they hired indentured servants and enslaved Africans to do the hard labor.

The main cash crop in Virginia and Maryland was tobacco.

North Carolina’s greatest resource was their pine forests.◦ They would use the sticky sap to make pitch, which was used

to seal the boards of ships to keep out water.

Southern Agriculture

The 2 main cash crops in South Carolina and Georgia was rice and indigo, a plant that can be made into a dark blue dye.

Indigo was very hard to grow, until Eliza Lucas Pinckney developed a type of indigo that was much easier to grow.

Soon South Carolina was growing over 100,000 pounds of indigo per year.

Even though the south had large plantations, they didn’t have the large cities that New England and the Middle Colonies did.

They did have Charles Town, the largest city in the Southern Colonies, that was South Carolina’s capital and a center for trade.

Became Charleston in 1783. Planters and traders bought, sold, and exported

thousands of pounds of tobacco, rice and indigo and ships brought goods back from Europe and the West Indies to sell in the colonies.

Population was very diverse.

Charles Town

The planter’s house sat in the middle of the large plantation, near a river or stream, surrounded by horse stables, workshops, gardens, fields, and workers’ houses.

Many laborers were needed to keep the plantation running.

Workers were usually enslaved Africans, who worked mostly in the fields.

Other workers took care of the animals and gardens.

Maids and cooks worked in the planter’s house.

Plantations and Small Farms

Although the south was known for their plantations, small farms were much more common.

Most colonists lived on small farms away from the tidewater.

Most of their help came from family members and maybe one or two indentured servants or slaves.

Grew their own food and had a small amount left over for cash crops.

Children of wealthy planters were educated at home by a tutor.

Boys spent their free time outdoors, learning how to ride horses and hunt.

Girls learned how to sew and sing. Life was more difficult in backcountry farms. Children only learned how to read and write if

their parents could teach them. Backcountry children began helping around

the house at a very early age, including plowing, hunting, sewing and cooking.

Family Life

Gather around in a circle. One player, the hunter, leaves the room. One student in the circle takes the object

and holds it. The hunter comes back in and stand in the

middle. The hunter has 2 tries to find out who is

holding the slipper. If the hunter finds it, he/she switches places with the person and play continues.

Fun Activity

Enslaved Africans were brought to North America more and more in the 1600s and 1700s.

By 1750, although enslaved Africans lived all over the 13 colonies, most of them lived in the South.

Southern Slavery

Enslaved Africans were treated more like property than human beings.

Husbands and wives were often separated from each other, and families torn apart.

Adults and children were forced to work as either house servants or in the fields.

Field work was exhausting, laboring from morning to night, in both heat and cold, almost every day of the year.

Overseers, a person who watches and directs the work of other people, sometimes whipped and punished workers.

Many died at an early age as a result of being treated so cruely.

Life Under Slavery

They were not allowed to leave their plantation without permission, or they would be punished.

Many had to wear heavy iron chains. Sometimes they were beaten or even killed

by planters or overseers. Many fought back by running away. Most resisted by working as slowly as they

could without being punished.

Enslaved Africans banded together and became like a large family to help each other survive.

Many turned to Christianity and the teachings of the Bible to help them survive, which inspired them to write powerful spirituals, which is an African American religious folk song.

They blended their African culture with American culture.

They told stories about their homeland. They invented and played music on the banjo. In South Carolina, Africans invented a new language,

called Gullah, which was a blend of African and English.

African American Culture

Because more than a hundred years from now, slavery will become a huge source of conflict!!!

Why does this matter???