The 13 Colonies

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For a quick look at the thirteen colonies, scroll down. Or, see the menu below to find just what you need. Welcome to the New World!

Quick Look:

The New World was the name given to the discovered land in 1492. It was a huge amount of land, to the west of England, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, that could only be reached by boat. People were excited. In search of a better life, they wanted to take their families, and move to the New World.

In spite of their best efforts to be prepared, not all of the first colonies were successful, but ship after ship, loaded with people and supplies, kept coming.  Some paid for their passage by promising to send goods back to England. Some paid for their passage by promising to work for others for several years to work off their debt.  Things might have gone very badly for the middle class craftsmen who headed to the New World if nearly all the farmers had continued to stay in England. What changed things was several bad harvests in a row. That gave some farmers the incentive to immigrate to the New World. Farming skills were the single most important skill in these early days. That gave farmers something they never had before - a strong voice in local government.

The New World soon had many settlements along the east coast of what would become, in the future, the United States of America. The colonists did not meet and decide to have three regions, each with its own way of doing things, but that is how it worked out. The regions were the New England Colonies, the Middle Colonies, and the Southern Colonies. Religion was a central part of daily life in all the colonies. Many Christian denominations were represented including the Quakers, the Pilgrims, and the Puritans.

The Middle Colonies: The Middle Colonies were composed of what is today the states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

The Quakers - the "Friends": The Quakers believed in religious freedom. Quaker meetings were quiet places. There was not a lot of discussion usually. People sat peacefully, thinking about things. Both Quaker men and women could speak up if they believed God wanted them to share a thought or an idea. But mostly, they each communicated with God, each with their own thoughts, in silence. They had no ministers. Quakers believed (and still believe) that religion is action not words. The Quakers were the first in the colonies to condemn slavery. Besides Quakers, the Middle Colonies had Catholics, Lutherans, a few Jews, and others. The Middle Colonies were the only colonies with religious freedom.

New England Colonies: The New England colonies were composed of the colonies of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

The Pilgrims - in search of religion freedom:  A small group of people, the Pilgrims, arrived in the New World from England on a rented ship named the Mayflower. They landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, on a cold day in December 1620. Back in England, everyone had to belong to the Church of England. The Pilgrims did not want to belong to the Church of England. They were seeking religious freedom. They believed in the power of prayer. They believed that people should pray every day and give thanks for all they had. They were great believers in keeping their word with others and with God.

 The Puritans - practiced religious intolerance: A large group, the Puritans, arrived about ten years after the Pilgrims. The Puritans wanted a place to practice their religious beliefs. They met in meeting houses. In contrast with other colonies, there was a meetinghouse in every New England town. Except for Rhode Island, New England colonists were mostly Puritans. They were very stern and serious about their religion and beliefs. If anyone disagreed with them, or questioned them, they believed that person was controlled by the devil.

The Southern Colonies:  The Southern Colonies were composed of what is today the states of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. There was no religious freedom in the Southern Colonies once the Puritans took over.  

Daily Life:  The colonies in all three regions established laws and customs that mimicked customs in their prior homeland. But life was not the same. The New World offered new challenges.

• Daily Life for Adults: Much of daily life revolved around farm work and survival.  There were many discomforts. There were no stoves. Cooking was done in fireplaces. There were no knives or forks for eating, except for the very rich. People ate with spoons or their fingers. There were no china dishes. Dishes were made of wood bowls. Whatever their religion, nearly all the people in the colonies believed daily prayer was essential. Seeds, farming tools, farm animals were the bulk of the supplies that arrived by ship. If you had to travel, you went on horseback. You could take a stagecoach, but you were jarred and shaken the entire trip. For example, it took three days to get from Philadelphia to New York. People did not travel unless they needed to. Steamships, electricity, telephones, the internet - none of those things had been dreamed of yet. Life was hard.

• Daily Life for Kids were kept busy. Kids had many chores to do. Kids collected stones from the fields to make stone fences. They collected berries. They helped with the farm animals and the harvest. They helped their mother make candles. They helped to make clothes. Everyone had to pitch in. Kids in the New England and Middle Colonies especially spent a great deal of time in church or in prayer. Sermons were long. Sometimes kids fell asleep. If they did, in some churches they were poked with a long pole with a brass knob on it, to wake them up. They often had homework, sometimes lots of it. School was very different in all three regions because of the difference in lifestyles.

• Recreation: With their parents permission, kids still found time to play. In winter, when the weather was cold enough to freeze various waterways, kids had fun skating on the ice. In all the colonies, kids played with balls and bats and marbles and dolls. They played tag. In the south they played lawn bowling. In the north, they played shuffleboard. There were dances and parties enjoyed by kids and their parents. For some, it was a big deal to go into town. For others, it was fun to visit a country fair and eat candies and watch a puppet show. People did not have a lot of free time, but with the free time they had, they had fun!

Occupations: There were many occupations in colonial times - butchers and bakers and candlestick makers and hatters and coopers and printers and cobblers and wheelwrights and all kinds of smiths and more! The most important occupation was that of farmer. Houses were built differently in the different regions. Clothing varied.

Mercantilism, Government and Trade: Mercantilism is all about trade and how trade is conducted. Mercantilism is a system of government controlled trade. It is not a system of free trade. The different between mercantilism and free trade has everything to do with who controls the price and the destination of both imports and exports. In free trade or capitalism, control is mostly in the hands of the trader. In mercantilism, control is totally in the hands of the government. For a while, England controlled all trade in the colonies. The government in England decided the exports from the colonies to England including what colonists would be paid for the goods they grew or made, and where goods would be shipped. England also imports from England to colonies - England decided what goods were shipped to the colonies and how much those goods would cost when they got there. The colonists had no say. The government in England benefited greatly. Merchants and farmers in the colonies did not.

Looking Ahead: Nearly every settler in the early days of the New World believed the crown (the king back in England) was in charge. They believed next in importance were the nobility, followed by the clergy, lawyers, and doctors, and anyone else who could live without manual labor. But those beliefs didn't work very well in the colonies. The unfair system of trade was bound to cause trouble. After a while, not everybody, but some people became very tired of this system. Ultimately, it opened the road to revolution, and finally, freedom from British rule and the formation of a new country - the United States of America.