The Middle Colonies

1
The Middle Colonies
2
New Netherlands becomes New York

• The Dutch set up the colony of New Netherland
  along the Hudson River.
• Rich landowners, called patroons, were given huge
  estates of land to rent to farmers.

3

• Because most settlers in New Netherland could not
  own their own land, most people lived in the
  trading center, the capitol city of New
  Amsterdam.

4

• In 1664, rivalry between England and the
  Netherlands for trade and colonies led to war in
  Europe.
• English warships entered New Amsterdams harbor
  and captured the city.

5

• The King of England then gave the colony to his
  brother, the Duke of York. It was then renamed
  New York.

6

• The Duke of York gave some of this new colony to
  his friends. They called this southern section
  New Jersey.
• New Jersey was set up as a proprietary colony.
  In a proprietary colony, owners or proprietors
  are free to make laws for the colony but had to
  respect the rights of colonists under English
  law.

7
Pennsylvania is Founded

• William Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania
  in 1682 as a model for religious freedom and
  peace.

8

• William Penn belonged to the Quakers, a religious
  group who believed that men and women were equal
  in Gods sight.
• He thought of his colony as a holy experiment
  where Protestants, Catholics, and Jews could
  worship in peace.

9

• Most settlers to Pennsylvania landed at
  Philadelphia, the capital city along the Delaware
  River.
• Among the new arrivals were large numbers of
  Germans. They became known as Pennsylvania Dutch
  because people could not pronounce Deutch,
  which means German.

10

• Pennsylvania settlers enjoyed years of peace with
  the Native Americans because they paid them for
  their land.

11

• Settlers in Pennsylvanias lower counties did not
  want to send delegates to a far-away assembly in
  Philadelphia. In the 1700s they formed their
  own colony of Delaware.

12
A Land of Plenty

• Farmers found the broad Hudson and Delaware river
  valleys to be rich and fertile.
• Winters were milder than in New England, and the
  growing season was longer.

13

• With its ideal growing conditions, farmers in the
  Middle Colonies produced cash crops, or crops
  sold for money on the world market.
• The Middle Colonies became known as the
  Breadbasket Colonies because they exported and
  sold so much grain.

14
Town and Country

• Different groups who settled the Middle Colonies
  had their own favorite ways of building
• Swedish settlers brought log cabins to America.
• The Dutch used red bricks to build narrow,
  high-walled houses.

15

• In the 1700s, thousands of German and
  Scotch-Irish settlers headed west into the
  backcountry, the land along the eastern slopes of
  the Appalachian Mountains.
• Settlers followed the Great Wagon Road, an old
  Iroquois trail.