New York Colony
The Naming of the New York Colony
Named after the Duke of York and Albany, the brother of King Charles II of England.
Year Founded: 1626
Reason for Founding: Trade and profits
LEADER:
Peter Minuit- DUTCH – The NETHERLANDS
Major Towns / Cities: New York City, Albany
Geography/Climate : Mountains in the northeast, lowlands from Lake Ontario along the Canadian border. Atlantic coastal plain. The general geography of the Middle Colonies had a mix of the New England and Southern features but had fertile soil and land that was suited to farming
The Middle Colonies had a mild climate with warm summers and mild winters that were suited to farming and agriculture
Religion: Not dominated by a specific religion which gave way to religious freedom for Quakers, Catholics, Lutherans, Jews and others. Refer to Religion in the Colonies
Economics and Trade: Exported agricultural products and natural resources but were also able to manufacture iron ore products such as plows, tools, kettles, locks, nails and large blocks of iron which they exported to England
Natural Resources: Good farmland, timber, furs and coal. Iron ore was a particularly important natural resource
New York was often referred to as a breadbasket colony because it grew so many crops, especially wheat. The wheat was ground into flour in flour mills then shipped to England.
A typical farm was 50 to 150 acres consisting of a house, barn, yard and fields
Government: By 1775 New York was governed as a Royal Colony.
RELATIONS WITH THE NATIVE AMERICANS
Colonists from the New Netherlands colony had peaceful relationships with the Native American tribessurroundingthe colony. They relied on peaceful relationships in order to make money from the fur trade. The tribes surrounding the colony where the Poosputuck/Unkeechaug tribe, Mohegan tribe, Munsee Delaware Tribe, and Lenni Lenape tribe. Even though the colonists maintained a mostly peaceful relationship with the Native American tribes, the fur trade caused Native American tribes to loose peace with each other. Tribes lost peace with each other because colonistsdemandedlarge amounts of fur which caused tribes to invade each other’s lands in order to hunt more beavers. Eventually this lead to many wars between the Native American tribes.
INTERESTING FACTThe Dutch surrender New Netherland to the British without firing a shot!
At its peak, only about 9,000 people lived in New Netherland, leaving it vulnerable to attack from the English, who fought three wars against the Dutch, their main commercial rivals, between 1652 and 1674 and who vastly outnumbered them in the New World. The breaking point came in March 1664, when English King Charles II awarded the colony’s land to his brother, the Duke of York, even though the two countries were then technically at peace. A few months later, four warships with several hundred soldiers onboard arrived in New Amsterdam’s harbor and demanded that the Dutch surrender. Though Stuyvesant at least outwardly prepared to fight, prominent city residents persuaded him to stand down, and on September 8 he signed the colony over without any blood being shed. In 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch re-conquered Manhattan with an invasion force of some 600 men. But they gave it up the following year as part of a peace treaty in which they retained Suriname in South America. “They thought that was going to be worth more,” Fabend said. “They were wrong.”
Manhattan Island sold for $24.00?????????????
Document: The Purchase of Manhattan Island, 1626
This letter from Peter Schaghen, written in 1626, makes the earliest known reference to the company’s purchase of Manhattan Island from the Lenape Indians for 60 guilders. Schaghen was the liaison between the Dutch government and the Dutch West India Company. In the letter, Schaghen reports the arrival of the ship Wapen van Amsterdam from the New Netherland colony. The original of this document is held by the Rijksarchief in The Hague, but is on display in New York City at the South Street Seaport Museum from September 2009 through January 2010
High and Mighty Lords,
Yesterday the ship the Arms of Amsterdam arrived here. It sailed from New Netherland out of the River Mauritius on the 23d of September. They report that our people are in good spirit and live in peace. The women also have borne some children there. They have purchased the Island Manhattes from the Indians for the value of 60 guilders. It is 11,000 morgens in size [about 22,000 acres]. They had all their grain sowed by the middle of May, and reaped by the middle of August They sent samples of these summer grains: wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, canary seed, beans and flax. The cargo of the aforesaid ship is:
7246 Beaver skins
178½ Otter skins
675 Otter skins
48 Mink skins
36 Lynx skins
33 Minks
34 Muskrat skins
Many oak timbers and nut wood. Herewith, High and Mighty Lords, be commended to the mercy of the Almighty,
In Amsterdam, the 5th of November anno 1626.
The Middle Colonies were the big food producing region that included corn and wheat and livestock including beef and pork. Other industries included the production of iron ore, lumber, textiles, furs and shipbuilding.
Slavery in New York
As many as 20 percent of colonial New Yorkers were enslaved Africans. First Dutch and then English merchants built the city's local economy largely around supplying ships for the trade in slaves and in what slaves produced - sugar, tobacco, indigo, coffee, chocolate, and ultimately, cotton. New York ship captains and merchants bought and sold slaves along the coast of Africa and in the taverns of their own city. Almost every businessman in 18th-century New York had a stake, at one time or another, in the traffic in human beings.
During the colonial period, 41 perent of the city's households had slaves, compared to 6 percent in Philadelphia and 2 percent in Boston. Only Charleston, South Carolina, rivaled New York in the extent to which slavery penetrated everyday life. To be sure, each slaveholding New Yorker usually owned only one or two person
New Jersey Colony
New Jersey founded- 1664
Leaders
Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret.
Reason for Founding: Trade and profits. New Jersey was often referred to as a breadbasket colony because it grew so many crops, especially wheat. The wheat was ground into flour in flour mills then shipped to England
The Province of New Jersey was an English colony in North America that existed from 1664 until 1776, when it joined the other 12 of the 13 colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S. state of New Jersey.
The Naming of the New Jersey Colony
Named after the British island of Jersey, situated in the English Channel and part of the Channel Islands.
Information and Facts with the New Jersey Colony Fact File
Fast facts and interesting information about the founding, establishment, geography, climate, religion, history, natural resources, raw material, and industries (refer to Colonial Times) and the famous historical people associated with the New Jersey Colony of Colonial America. Information and facts at a glance about the New Jersey Colony via this fast fact file.
Year Founded: 1664 by English colonists refer to article on Lords Proprietors
Major Towns / Cities: Trenton, Princeton
Geography: Mountains in the northeast, lowlands from Lake Ontario along the Canadian border. Atlantic coastal plain. The general geography of the Middle Colonies had a mix of the New England and Southern features but had fertile soil and land that was suited to farming
Climate: The Middle Colonies had a mild climate with warm summers and mild winters that were suited to farming and agriculture
Religion: Not dominated by a specific religion which gave way to religious freedom for Quakers, Catholics, Lutherans, Jews and others. Refer to Religion in the Colonies
Economics/ Jobs
Natural Resources: Good farmland, timber, furs and coal. Iron ore was a particularly important natural resource
Major Industries: Exported agricultural products and natural resources including cattle, grain, rice, indigo (dye), wheat
manufacturing: Manufactured iron ore products such as plows, tools, kettles, locks, nails and large blocks of iron which they exported to England
Trade / Exports: The Middle Colonies were the big food producing region that included corn and wheat and livestock including beef and pork. Other industries included the production of iron ore, lumber, textiles, furs and shipbuilding - refer to Colonial Times
Industry: Flax and hemp farms were established in the Middle Colonies furthering the textiles industry
Government: By 1775 New Jersey was governed as a Royal Colony. A colony governed directly by the crown through a governor and council appointed by it
Original Name: The original name of the colony was the Province of New Jersey, later New Jersey
.
A typical farm was 50 to 150 acres consisting of a house, barn, yard and fields
In 1664 the British take control of New Jersey from the Dutch
In 1676 the New Jersey Colony is divided into East Jersey and West Jersey
In 1702 East and West Jersey combined into one colony
In 1746 Princeton University was founded
SLAVERY IN NEW JERSEY
Slaves were especially numerous around Perth Amboy, which was the colony's main port of entry. "By 1690, most of the inhabitants of the region owned one or more Negroes."[2] A 1745 census showed that 74 percent of the slaves in the colony lived in 5 eastern counties, even though these were not the most populous counties in New Jersey. From 2,581 in 1726, New Jersey's slave population grew to nearly 4,000 in 1738.[3] Slaves accounted for about 12 percent of the colony's population up to the Revolution.
From 1713 (after a violent slave uprising in New York) to 1768, the colony operated a separate court system to deal with slave crimes.[4] Special punishments for slaves remained on the books until 1788. The colony also had laws meant to discourage slave revolts. Slaves were forbidden to carry firearms when not in the company of their masters,
and anyone who gave or lent a gun to a slave faced a fine of 20 shillings. Slaves could not assemble on their own or be in the streets at night.[5] Controls were further tightened during times of crisis. During Queen Anne's War, any slave found more than five miles from home without a pass was to be flogged, and the master was required to pay a reward to the person who had reported the infraction.
Slaves guilty of arson were subject to punishments severe even by Northern standards: they were to be put to death in a way that "the aggravation or enormity of their crime shall merit and require." Thus, in 1735, a slave in Bergen County who attempted to set fire to a house was burned at the stake. Six years later, authorities in Hackensack burned at the stake two slaves who had been setting fire to barns.[6]
Yet in spite of these precautions, New Jersey narrowly escaped a violent slave uprising in 1743. Somehow word had spread among slaves in Burlington County that Great Britain had outlawed slavery and they were being held in bondage illegally.
The New Jersey Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery kept up agitation on this issue through the late 1780s, petitioning, distributing literature, and sponsoring lectures. But New Jersey came late and notoriously unwillingly to abolition.
Pennsylvania Colony
Founding of the Pennsylvania Colony
When was the colony of Pennsylvania founded?
The Pennsylvania Colony was founded in 1682 by William Penn and other colonists.
Reason for Founding:Religious freedom for Quakers; trade and profits. Pennsylvania was often referred to as a breadbasket colony because it grew so many crops, especially wheat. The wheat was ground into flour in flour mills then shipped to England.
The Pennsylvania Colony
The Pennsylvania Colony was one of the original 13 colonies located on the Atlantic coast of North America. The original 13 colonies were divided into three geographic areas consisting of the New England, Middle and Southern colonies. The Pennsylvania Colony was classified as one of the Middle Colonies.
The Province of Pennsylvania was an English colony in North America that existed from 1682 until 1776, when it joined the other 12 of the 13 colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.
The Naming of the Pennsylvania Colony
King Charles II of England specified in the charter given to William Penn that the name should be Pennsylvania. This is a combination of the Latin word ' Sylvania ' meaning woodland together with Penn
Fast Facts about the Pennsylvania Colony
Year Founded: 1682 by William Penn and others, at Philadelphia
Major Towns / Cities: Philadelphia, Lancaster, York
Geography: Mountains, coastal plain and plateau areas to Lake Erie lowlands. The general geography of the Middle Colonies had a mix of the New England and Southern features but had fertile soil and land that was suited to farming
Climate: The Middle Colonies had a mild climate with warm summers and mild winters that were suited to farming and agriculture
Religion: Not dominated by a specific religion which gave way to religious freedom for Quakers, Catholics, Lutherans, Jews and others. Refer to Religion in the Colonies
Economics and Trade: Exported agricultural products and natural resources but were also able to manufacture iron ore products such as plows, tools, kettles, locks, nails and large blocks of iron which they exported to England
Natural Resources: Good farmland, timber, furs and coal. Iron ore was a particularly important natural resource
A typical farm was 50 to 150 acres consisting of a house, barn, yard and fields
The Middle Colonies were the big food producing region that included corn and wheat and livestock including beef and pork. Other industries included the production of iron ore, lumber, textiles, furs and shipbuilding
Government: By 1775 Pennsylvania was governed as a Proprietary Colony.
Original Name: The original name of the colony was the Province of Pennsylvania, later Pennsylvania
SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA
William Penn was granted his colony in Pennsylvania in 1681, and added Delaware to it in 1682. Though he flooded the "Holy Experiment" with Quakers whose descendants would later find their faith incompatible with slaveholding, the original Quakers had no qualms about it. Penn himself owned slaves, and used them to work his estate, Pennsbury. He wrote that he preferred them to white indentured servants, "for then a man has them while they live."
In Penn's new city of Philadelphia, African slaves were at work by 1684, and in rural Chester County by 1687. Between 1729 and 1758, Chester County had 104 slaves on 58 farms, with 70 percent of the slave owners likely Quakers. By 1693, Africans were so numerous in the colony's capital that the Philadelphia Council complained of "the tumultuous gatherings of the Negroes in the town of Philadelphia."
Except for the cargo of 150 slaves aboard the "Bristol" (1684), most black importation was a matter of small lots brought up from Barbados and Jamaica by local merchants who traded with the sugar islands. Slaves were used in the manufacturing sector, notably the iron works, and in shipbuilding.
But by 1720, a wheat-based economy had sprung up, and the good reputation of Pennsylvania in Europe was luring Scots-Irish and German immigrants, who were willing to hire on as indentured servants in exchange for passage across the Atlantic. It's estimated that half the immigrants to colonial America arrived this way, and in Pennsylvania about 58,000 Germans and 16,500 Scots-Irish sailed up the Delaware between 1727 and 1754. The Quaker farmers turned to these for work on their farms. On a relatively small farm growing grain, it was cheaper to do it this way than to own slaves.
Indentured servitude was a long-term extension of the old English one-year hire for agricultural labor. Terms ranged from 1 to 17 years (children served the longest indentures), with a typical one being 4 or 5 years. The difference between indentured servants and slaves, on a day-to-day basis, was hard to define. During that time, the worker's labor, if not the worker himself, was a commodity that could be sold or traded or inherited, on the discretion of his owner. The discipline records of the Quaker meetings cover cases of members called to account for cruelty to indentured servants, and these tales tell of servants whipped, beaten and locked up for laziness.
The Quakers again began to buy slaves. The importation of slaves into Philadelphia peaked 1759-1765. Pennsylvania's slave population had risen gradually, from about 5,000 in 1721 to an estimated 11,000 in 1754. By 1766, it was believed to number 30,000. But the end of the French and Indian War opened up a fresh flood of European immigration. Slave importation fell off sharply.