New England Colonies
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Geograhy and Climate
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Economy
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Massachusetts, Connecticut,
New Hampshire,
Rhode Island
Religion
Dominated by the Puritans, reformers seeking to “purify” Christianity,
who came over from England to practice religion without persecution.
Puritans followed strict rules and were intolerant of other religions,
eventually absorbing the separatist Pilgrims.
Life in New England was dominated by church, and there were severe
consequences for those who failed to attend, or, those who spoke out against
the Puritan ways. Singing and celebrating holidays were among things
prohibited in Puritan New England.
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Bitterly cold winters and mild summers
Cold winters reduced the spread of disease.
Land was flat close to the coastline but became hilly and mountainous
farther inland.
Soil was generally rocky, making farming difficult.
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Largely dependent on the ocean. Fishing (especially codfish) was most
important to the New England economy, though whaling, trapping, shipbuilding,
and logging were important also.
Eventually, many New England shippers grew wealthy buying slaves from
West Africa in return for rum, and selling the slaves to the West Indies in
return for molasses. This process was called the “triangular trade.”
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Middle Colonies
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Geograhy and Climate
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Economy
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New York,
Pennsylvania,
New Jersey,
Delaware
Religion
Religion was varied as no single
religion seemed to dominate the entire region. Religious tolerance attracted
immigrants from a wide-range of foreign countries who practiced many different
religions.
Quakers, Catholics, Jews, Lutherans
and Presbyterians were among those religious groups that had significant
numbers in the middle colonies.
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Colonies spanned the Mid-Atlantic region of America and were temperate
in climate with warm summers and cold winters.
Geography ranged from coastal plains along the coastline, piedmont
(rolling hills) in the middle, and mountains farther inland. This area had good
coastal harbors for shipping.
Climate and land were ideal for agriculture. These colonies were known
as the “breadbasket” because of the large amounts of barley, wheat, oats, and
rye that were grown here.
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A successful and diverse economy.
Largely agricultural, farms in this region grew numerous kinds of crops, most
notably grains and oats. Logging, shipbuilding, textiles production, and
papermaking were also important in the Middle Colonies.
Big cities such as Philadelphia and
New York were major shipping hubs, and craftsmen such as blacksmiths,
silversmiths, cobblers, wheelwrights, wigmakers, milliners, and others
contributed to the economies of such cities.
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Southern Colonies
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Geograhy and Climate
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Economy
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Maryland,
Virginia,
North + South Carolina
Religion
Most people in the
Southern Colonies were Anglican (Baptist or Presbyterian), though most of the
original settlers from the Maryland colony were Catholic, as Lord Baltimore
founded it as a refuge for English Catholics.
Religion did not have the same impact on
communities as in the New England colonies or the Mid-Atlantic colonies because
people lived on plantations that were often distant and spread out from one
another.
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Warm climate with
hot summers and mild winters.
Hot summers,
however, propagated diseases such as malaria and yellow fever.
Geography ranged
from coastal plains in the east to piedmont farther inland. The western most
regions were mountainous.
The soil was
perfect for farming and the growing season was longer than in any other region.
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The Southern economy was almost
entirely based on farming.
Rice, indigo, tobacco, sugarcane, and
cotton were cash crops.
Crops were grown on large plantations
where slaves and indentured servants worked the land.
In fact, Charleston, South Carolina became one
of the centers of the American slave trade in the 1700′s.
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