The Colonies Mature

U.S. History to 1877

The “middle” colonies, late 1600s

  New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware

  Like New England

­ Family farms

­ Few slaves

­ Healthier

  Like the South

­ Individualistic

­ Rural

New York

  New Amsterdam in Dutch New Netherlands

  New York, taken by English, 1664

­ Diverse, contentious, profit-oriented

Pennsylvania, 1682

  William Penn & Quakers

­ Spiritual equality, suspicion of hierarchy

­ Austerity and intense work ethic

  Pennsylvania and Philadelphia

­ Pluralism and tolerance

The Carolinas

  Planning a feudal utopia, 1669

  The Barbados connection

  Black majority

­ Rice and race

­ Malaria and yellow fever

­ Gullah

­ Charleston, the South’s only city

Rice plantations

Scotch-Irish

  Settle in the backcountry

  Cultural pessimism

  Clannish

  Violent; intolerant of other’s opinions

  Liberty means freedom from restraint

Growing diversity

  1700: 250,000

  1775: 2,500,000

  Most immigrants not English

  250,000 slaves imported

­ Total of 500,000 by 1776

An empire for trade

  Royal colonies

  No coordinated central control

  Mercantilism

­ Navigation Acts, 1660

­ Staple Act, 1663