Early British Colonies in America
By USHistory.org, adapted by Newsela staff on 03.28.17
Word Count 648
A painting showing the life of Southern colonists. Three farmworkers harvest tobacco on a Virginia plantation with farm
buildings visible as a sailing ship lies anchored on the river behind them, around 1612. Photo: Getty Images
In the early 1600s, Europeans sailed across the Atlantic to explore America, which was
then known as the New World. The Spanish were the first to arrive. Christopher Columbus,
who discovered America in 1492, sailed for Spain.
Spain may have gotten to America first, but England established the first American colony.
It was built in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.
The English eventually had 13 colonies in America. They were divided into three groups.
There were the New England colonies, the middle colonies and the Southern colonies.
New England colonies
There were four New England Colonies. These were Connecticut, Rhode Island,
Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
The settlers who founded the New England colonies did not come to America in search of
riches. They came because they were fed up with the Church of England. Known as
Pilgrims and Puritans, they wanted to form a new society based on what they believed God
wanted.
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In the 1500s, King Henry VIII of England broke with the Catholic Church of Rome and
started his own church. The new church was known as the Church of England. Many in
England were unwilling to accept it.
Pilgrims and Puritans
Pilgrims and Puritans both believed in the teachings of John Calvin. According to Calvin,
neither the Catholic Church nor the Church of England were faithful to God's will.
The Pilgrims were called the separatists in England, because they wanted to separate from
the Church of England. The Puritans had their name because they wanted to purify or
clean up the Church. Both groups were punished for their ideas, and were treated very
badly.
By the early 1600s, both groups had decided England was no place for them. The New
World seemed like the perfect place to practice their own religion freely.
By 1620, a few brave pioneers had begun to build their new society in America. In time,
the settlements they established grew into colonial New England.
Middle colonies
There were four middle colonies. These were Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and
Delaware.
While New England was mostly settled by people from England, the middle colonies were
different. People from England, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and
France lived side by side. Algonquian and Iroquois Native Americans also lived in the
middle colonies. So, too, did a large number of African slaves, at least during the early
years.
Unlike New England, the middle colonies were home to many religious groups. Among
them were Quakers, Mennonites, Lutherans, Dutch Reformed, Calvinists and
Presbyterians.
New York and Philadelphia were the two main cities in the middle colonies. Both grew
quickly in size. They gave rise to brilliant thinkers, such as Benjamin Franklin. An inventor
and writer, Franklin became famous in both America and Europe.
In New England, the rocky soil made agriculture difficult. Things were different in the
middle colonies where the soil was fertile. Many farms soon formed there. The wheat and
corn they grew helped feed all the American colonies.
Southern colonies
There were five Southern colonies. These were Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South
Carolina and Georgia.
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New England was a center of religious freedom, and the middle colonies grew and
distributed the crops that fed America. The Southern colonies took a different path. They
turned to cash crops. These are crops grown entirely for their sale value. The two most
important were tobacco and cotton.
Economy based on slave labor
Planting and harvesting tobacco and cotton was backbreaking work. Southern plantation
owners soon began to rely on a large slave labor force. African-American slaves were
treated like farm animals and were bought and sold.
Slaves were present in the North, too, but they were much more important to the South.
They were central to the Southern way of life.
Many rich Southern plantation owners built huge and fancy houses for themselves. These
mansions were like the homes of noble lords and ladies in England.
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