Ch. 6: Colonial American Industries

Vocabulary:

industry, New England Colonies, Middle Colonies, Southern Colonies

The Colonial Divisions

• The English Colonies in the New World Were divided into three different sections.– The New England Colonies (Massachusetts, New

Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut)– The Middle Colonies (New York, Pennsylvania,

New Jersey, and Delaware)– The Southern Colonies (Maryland, Virginia, North

Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia)

Industries in the New England Colonies

• Land is not good for farming (Lots of rocks).

• Good for growing trees.• Cut down trees for lumber.• Built boats out of lumber.• Boats bring in supplies from

other countries through merchants.

• Boats take out things like rum, sugar, cotton ,and tobacco and bring in things like slaves.

The Triangular Trade

Industries of the Middle Colonies

• Soil is okay for crops, but it could be better.• The Middle Colonies grew most of the grain for all

the colonies.• They grew wheat, rye,

barley ,and oats.• It was called the

breadbasket because the crops they grew all made bread.

Industries of the Southern Colonies• The soil is FANTASTIC!!!• You could grow anything in the

Southern Colonies.• People were growing crops for as

much profit as they could.• Since these crops made so much

money they were called “cash crops.”

• They grew cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar cane, and a bush called indigo. (Indigo berries are used to color clothes a bluish-purple)

• They grew these crops on gigantic farms called plantations.

• They needed lots of workers for the plantations, so they bought slaves to work for them.

Slavery in the Colonies• Slavery was legal in all the

colonies, until the Civil War.• The Southern colonies used the

most slaves because the large plantations needed lots of workers.

• Slaves were forcibly captured in Africa and sold in the Americas.

• They were forced to work for no pay, and were often treated harshly, even beaten if they refused to work.

• When slaves were sold to slave owners, families were often split up and mothers and fathers were sold to different plantations as sons and daughters.

• Often, slaves would run away.• They would be punished severely if

caught.

Questions about Chapter 6

1. Who worked the fields of large plantations?

2. Why were the Middle colonies called the “breadbasket colonies”?

3. What was traded during the triangular trade?

4. Why did Southern plantations need so many slaves?

5. Why was shipbuilding so important to the New England colonies?