THE MIDDLE COLONIES

1
THE MIDDLE COLONIES
Included New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and
Delaware
Demonstrated features that would later
characterize American society as a whole
Least English of all the North American colonies
Most tolerant of religious and ethnic diversity
2
NEW NETHERLANDS

• Claimed by Dutch
• Began to settle area in 1624
• Named it New Netherlands
• Collection of fortified trading posts to engage
  in fur trade with Indians
• Plan never worked well
• By 1640 the colony only held 5000 discontented
  settlers
• Angry at sloppy and haphazard administration
• Angry at having most of their profits siphoned
  off by merchants headquartered in New Amsterdam
• At the same time, English settlers from New
  England moved into area and refused to recognize
  authority of Dutch administrators

3
ENGLISH TAKE OVER

• English government recognized problems in New
  Netherlands and exploited situation
• Four British warships landed soldiers at New
  Amsterdam in 1664 and forced Dutch governor to
  surrender colony

4
BIRTH OF NEW YORK

• King Charles II gives entire colony to his
  brother, James, Duke of York
• A proprietary colony
• Owned by a single individual
• Colony renamed New York
• New Amsterdam renamed New York City

James, Duke of York
5
DIVERSITY AND TOLERATION

• Because colony included Dutch settlers, English
  authorities were forced to tolerate ethnic and
  religious differences right from the start
• Policy of toleration made colony somewhat
  attractive to dissatisfied people from other
  colonies and from various foreign countries in
  addition to England

Dutch cabin in New York
6
NEW YORK GENTRY

• Duke of York gave huge tracts of land to friends
• 12 friends received 2 million acres each in the
  1690s
• Created powerful aristocratic class in colony
• Made it difficult for ordinary people to buy land
  and become independent small farmers
• Had to rent land from gentry and become tenant
  farmers
• This fact restricted immigration to New York
  despite its other attractions

Two members of New York gentry
7
PENNSYLVANIA

• Became haven for persecuted religious group in
  England
• The Quakers
• Founded in 1640s by George Fox
• Real name was Society of Friends
• Most democratic Protestant denomination of the
  time
• No church government at all
• Women treated as equals
• Did not recognize superior social status
• Refused to take oaths and were pacifists
• Intense evangelicals
• Suffered great deal of persecution
• Fines for refusing to attend Church of England
• Occasional imprisonment

8
WILLIAM PENN

• Son a famous admiral, wealthy landowner, and
  friend of King Charles II
• Wrangled an extraordinary gift from the king in
  1680
• In exchange for canceling the kings huge debt to
  him, Penn was given a huge chunk of territory in
  the New World
• Modern day states of Pennsylvania and Delaware
• Planned to use this colony as a haven for
  persecuted Quakers from England

William Penn
Charles II
9
AN INSTANT SUCCESS STORY

• 4000 Quakers moved to the colony in 1681
• 20 years later population was 21,000
• By 1750, population was 120,000
• Reasons for success
• Rich farmland offered to settlers on generous
  terms
• Any man who brought his family over received 500
  acres of land
• Only had to pay small quitrent to Penn every year
• Complete religious freedom was guaranteed to all
• Could belong to any denomination

10
PENNSYLVANIAN DIVERSITY

• Some settlers were from other colonies or England
• But the majority were non-English inhabitants of
  the British Isles
• Scots, Welsh, and Scotch-Irish
• And Germans

11
SCOTCH-IRISH

• Descendants of Scottish Presbyterians who had
  settled in northern Ireland in the 1500s
• Militarily beat down native Irish and took their
  land
• Created religious and ethnic hatred that still
  plagues Ireland today
• England did not treat them well and, following a
  series of harvest failures in the 1720s,
  thousands left for North America
• Their favorite destination was Pennsylvania
• Over 100,000 came over between 1720-1770

12
GERMANS

• Most came from small states along the Rhine River
• Some were Mennonites and Amish who suffered
  religious periodic persecution
• Others came to escape heavy taxes and poor
  harvests
• By 1776, over 100,000 had come to America
• Favorite destination were Philadelphia, New York,
  and New Jersey

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
13
A MIXED BLESSING

• Scotch-Irish were mean and cantankerous, hated
  the English, had no respect for authority, and
  were difficult to keep in line
• Germans also did not like the English, resisted
  English authorities, and clung to their own
  culture and language and refused to assimilate
  into English culture

14
THE FRONTIER

• Both groups tended to settle on the frontier, in
  clusters of their own kind, squatting on vacant
  land
• Often responded with violence when authorities
  challenged their claims
• Scotch-Irish were especially hostile towards
  Indians
• Caused headaches for Quaker officials in
  Pennsylvania

15
POPULATION IN COLONIAL AMERICA
16
REASONS

• Immigration cannot explain all this growth
• One historian has estimated that if immigration
  had been the only reason for population growth,
  the total population in 1776 would have been
  400,000not 2.5 million
• Natural Increase was the most important source
  for the American population explosion
• More births than deaths

17
LARGER FAMILIES

• Americans had larger families than their
  counterparts back home
• Colonial women married at a younger age than
  European women
• Increased potential child-bearing years of women
• Death rate was lower
• Probably due to low density of settlement
• Also Americans had better and more reliable diets
  than Europeans

18
COLONIAL DRINKING

• Colonists were heavy drinkers
• Average white male colonist over the age of 15
  drank the equivalent of one quart of 80-proof
  whiskey a week
• Believed alcohol was nutritious and healthy
• Even Puritans drank
• Most popular drinks were fermented cider in the
  north and rum in the south

19
DRUNKENESS AND TEMPERANCE

• Most alcohol consumed in small amounts over the
  entire day
• Usually with food
• Actual drunkenness was relatively rare
• But did become more common in the 1700s
• Caused some to view it as serious problem
• Some doctors argued it was a poison
• Quakers and Methodists objected on religious
  grounds
• Temperance movement had little impact on drinking
  habits of Americans until the 1850s

20
HECTOR ST. JEAN DE CRÈVECOEUR

• American society is not composed, as in Europe,
  of great lords who possess everything, and of a
  herd of people who had nothing. A pleasing
  uniformity of decent competence appears
  throughout their habitations. They have no
  princes for whom they toil, starve, and bleed.
  They have the most perfect society now existing
  in the world.

21
AMERICAN SOCIETY I

• Although Crèvecoeur exaggerated, the American
  colonies were a different society from Europe
• Vast majority of colonists were independent
  farmers, working land that they owned
• Not tenant peasants

22
AMERICAN SOCIETY II

• Some historians argue that American colonies were
  becoming more like Europe as time went on
• A wealthy elite did develop, but that did not
  necessarily mean that opportunities were closing
  down for ordinary people

23
PLANTER ELITE OF THE SOUTH

• Owners of the great plantations were among the
  richest and most powerful men in the colonies
• Elegant estates like Mount Vernon and Monticello
  rivaled the mansions of the English aristocracy
• As time went on, it became increasing difficult
  for ordinary men to break into this privileged
  circle
• Planter elite therefore became more narrow and
  exclusive and took on many characteristics of an
  aristocracy

Mount Vernon
24
NORTHERN SOCIETY

• Wealthy class also developed in the north
• Mainly merchants involved in international trade
• But it was less wealthy than southern planter
  elite
• It was also easier to enter
• Hardworking craftsman or shopkeeper could do it
  with a little luck, the right contacts, and a lot
  of drive and nerve

Boston merchant
25
THE FRONTIER

• Although heavily forested, claimed by Indians,
  and far from protection of colonial governments,
  it provided the chance to many to become an
  independent farmer
• Major reason why the colonies did not become
  carbon copies of European society
• Provided a critical safety valve for the
  discontented and dissastified
• Created American tradition of moving in order to
  find better opportunities