THE AGE OF COLONIZATION
THE MIDDLE COLONIES
“THE AMERICAN DREAM”
-OR-
“A LAND OF OPPORTUNITY”
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“A LAND OF MILK AND HONEY”
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“THE POOR GET RICHER”
MATERIALS
TEXT BOOK:
Page 56 – “New Netherland”
Page 78 – “New York And New Jersey”
Page 78 – “New Netherland Becomes New York”
Page 78 – “New Jersey”
Page 78 – “Pennsylvania And Delaware”
Page 79 – “Penn’s Holy Experiment”
Page 79 – “Delaware: A Separate Colony”
Page 81 – “The Backcountry”
Page 79 picture
Page 80 map
CARTOON BOOK:
Page 59 – all
Page 59 – all
VISUAL MATERIALS:
None
KEY POINTS AND ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
1) How did the Middle Colonies differ from the other colonial regions?
a) The Middle Colonies practiced religious tolerance.
b) They were proprietary governments. Sometimes the owner came and sometimes he didn’t.
NOTES:
1) How did the Middle Colonies differ from the other colonial regions?
a) New York was originally settled by the Dutch and became home to many different peoples.
i) In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman working for the Dutch East India Company, explored the Hudson River looking for the Northwest Passage to Asia.
(1) The area was claimed and became known as New Netherland with its main settlement at New Amsterdam.
(2) By 1630, the colony only had about 300 people, most of whom were French-speaking Walloons from Flanders
(3) Patroons were given land grants for anyone bringing 50 settlers
ii) King Charles II of England gave New Netherland to his brother, James, for political and economic reasons.
(1) Can he do that?
(2) New Netherland lay between New England and Virginia and had the finest harbor on the east coast.
(3) After the Duke of York gained control of New Netherland in 1664, the name was changed to New York and New Amsterdam became New York City.
iii) New York had a proprietary government meaning one person owned the colony and could sell it or give it away.
b) Shortly after claiming New York, James gave some of his new land to Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley which they named New Jersey. It was settled for economic reasons.
i) New Jersey was split in two with Carteret taking East Jersey making Elizabethtown, now Elizabeth, the main settlement.
(1) West Jersey belonged to Berkeley.
(2) The colonies were reunited in 1702.
ii) They attracted settlers by offering cheap land, political freedom, and eligious freedom.
iii) New Jersey had a proprietary government to start. Then New York’s royal governor was also theirs until 1738 when they got their own royal governor.
c) Pennsylvania was given to William Penn. Pennsylvania was settled for religious reasons.
i) The name came from the Latin for Penn’s Woods.
ii) Penn was a Quaker who saw this colony as a “Holy Experiment.”
iii) Quakers, which originally was a derisive nickname, are more correctly called the Society of Friends.
(1) Friends believe in equality for everyone including women and Indians. They were also against slavery.
(2) Quakers have no ministers.
iv) The Quakers first settlement was made in 1682 and was called Philadelphia which comes from the Greek meaning City of Brotherly Love.
v) Settlers got 50 acres of land which brought English, Germans (Pennsylvania Dutch), Scotch-Irish, French, Dutch, Swedes, Welsh, and Swiss.
vi) Pennsylvania had a proprietary government.
(1) Its first governor was William Penn who came over to America.
(2) It had an elected assembly.
d) Delaware was originally controlled by a Swedish trading company and was called New Sweden with its first settlement at Fort Christina.
i) The Dutch took it from the Swedes in 1655.
ii) The English took it from the Dutch in 1664.
(1) It was part of New Netherland at the time.
iii) Delaware was given to Pennsylvania in 1682 and were referred to as the Lower Counties.
(a) It had an independent legislature starting in 1704.
(i) They still had Pennsylvania’s governor
iv) Delaware became independent in 1776.
v) Pennsylvania’s control was excluded from a 12 mile arc from Newark making the circular border with Pennsylvania southern border look the way it does today.
vi) Because of a conflict between Pennsylvania and Maryland over who owned Delaware and where their border was, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon surveyed the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania between 1763-1767.
(1) That survey line between Pennsylvania and Maryland became known as the Mason-Dixon Line and symbolically separates the northern part of the United States from the southern part.