Life in the Thirteen Colonies

A. Life in the Thirteen Colonies

1. Social Classes

a. gentry –Upper class colonial society

1. wealthy planters, merchants, doctors,

lawyers, ministers

b. middle class- small planters, artisans, farmers

c. lower class – farmhands, free African-Am

1. indentured servants- signed contract to

work 4-10 years in colonies for passage

2. apprentices-young boys who learned a

trade from a master

3. immigrants-looking for better lives

Apprenticesand IndenturedServants were Considered to be lower-class citizens.

B. The Colonies

1. New England Colonies

a. Making a living

1. Farming –difficult due to the hilly, rocky land-

corn- main crop

2. Fishing- codfish- main fish

a. sold fish as exports (sell elsewhere)

b. profits for imports (goods from Europe)

3. Lumber - shipbuilders

a. artisans (craft workers) and other laborers

were used by the shipbuilders

4. Women in the Economy

a. farmers, merchants, produced goods like cloth

5. Slave Trade- 10 million between 1500-1800’s

a. many died under horrible conditions

1.Triangular Trade Route- three way trade

between colonies, Caribbean islands, and Africa

a. New England –took fish, lumber and other goods

1. brought back sugar, molasses –made rum

b. New England –ships took rum, guns, and other

goods to Africa-picked up slaves

c. Took African slaves to Caribbean to work on

plantations

The Triangular Trade Route moved whale oil, lumber, furs, rice, silk, indigo, tobacco, sugar, molasses and wood to England. England shipped back manufactured products, while sending guns, iron, and cloth to Africa. Africa sent gold, ivory, spices and woods to England. It also sent slaves on the Middle Passage to the West Indies. The West Indies sent New England molasses, sugar and slaves.

b. Education – Puritans believed everyone should read the Bible

1. Massachusetts School Law -1647- 1st public

school

a. any township with more than 50 houses must

hire a teacher to teach reading/writing

1. public school- school supported by taxes

2. Harvard- 1636 –first college –for ministers

c. Community life – church or meetinghouse, was

on the commons- social center of towns

2. Sabbath –(Sunday)– no one worked!!!!

3. town meetings –free men discussed and voted

on matters- form of democracy

Education was Important to the Puritans, who felt people shouldread the Bible.Massachusetts passed The Massachusetts School Law, which made towns over 50 households hiresomeone to teach the children to read and write. This was the first public school system in the U.S.Harvard was thefirst college in the U.S.

2. The Middle Colonies

a. Making a living

1. Farming-good soil, mild climate, longer

growing seasons

2. Breadbasket Colonies – nickname due to

amount of grain

a. cash crops –food crops grown to be sold and

exported

3. Markets –Philadelphia/New York- used

rivers like Delaware and Hudson to get their

crops to market

a. Conestoga wagons –made by PA Dutch-

strong, sturdy wagons used on the Great

Wagon Road- colonial trail from PA to NC

and Georgia

1. main route for settlement of Southern U.S.

by mainly German and Scot-Irish immigrants

a. especially in the “backcountry” areas

(around the Appalachian Mts- now Georgia)

b. Education –did not set up public schools- more

based on religion- less emphasis on education

c. Mason-Dixon Line- boundary between Maryland and PA-settled dispute Penn (PA) and Calvert (MD)

CONESTOGA WAGON

POPULATION IN THE MIDDLECOLONIES WAS MORE DIVERSE(DIFFERENT) THAN THE NEWENGLAND COLONIES

THE MIDDLE COLONIESWERE ABLE TO PRODUCEDIFFERENT GOODS AND CROPS DUE TO THEIR LOCATION

COLONIAL PHILADELPHA ARCHTECHTURE

PHILADELPHIA CITY BLOCKS DURING THE 1700’s

The Great Wagon Road

MANYScot-Irishsettled in the Backcountryas noted by theheavily blue-dotted areas.

3. The Southern Colonies

a. Making a living

1. mainly rural (mostly farms) versus urban

(city) in other colonies

a. farmed and planted-Tobacco mainly

b. The Tidewater –land along the Chesapeake

Bay and the Potamac, James, and York

Rivers used by plantations

2. Slaves – traveled the “Middle Passage”- a route

from Africa to America-

a. slave codes –denied enslaved Africans most of

their rights

1. looked on as both persons and property

2. not allowed to read or write, carry weapons

TRIANGULAR TRADE ROUTES

Many slaves became seasick or developed diarrhea. Unable to move because they were chained into their positions, the slave's deck became a stinking mass of human waste. Slaves who had developed sores where their chains had rubbed their skin, had festering wounds often with maggots eating away their flesh. Conditions on the slave ships were so bad that many slaves decided they would prefer to die and tried to starve themselves by refusing to eat or by jumping overboard. They would alsoask other slaves to strangle them.However, slaves that would not eat were whipped or force- fed and the traders and ship owners began fixing nets to the sides of the boat so that the slaves could not jump overboard. Slaves had no choice but to endure the horrific conditions.

C. Democracy in the Colonies

1. Background-Changes in England

a. Magna Carta- English nobles forced King

John to sign first document limiting his power

1. Parliament-two house legislature that made

laws in England

b. English Bill of Rights passed – bill of rights

written list of freedoms that a government

promises to protect (such as trial by jury,

freedom of the press)

2. Types of Colonial Governments

a. charter- companies received a charter from the

king- all about making money

b. proprietor- people who owned the land there

ruled it EX: William Penn owned PA

c. royal- owned and controlled by the King- no

role in government

3. Controls on Colonials

a. England passes Navigation Acts –forced

colonies to use English-built ships, sell only to

England or other England possessions