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Declaration of Independence

2021-07-26T06:05:28Z

Stephenkollenborners: test

[[Image:Declaration_of_independence.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The Declaration of Independence; the original is badly faded]]
The '''Declaration of Independence''', unanimously approved by the second [[Continental Congress]] on July 4, 1776, created a new nation, the "[[United States of America]]." Written primarily by [[Thomas Jefferson]], it formally "dissolved the connection" between the thirteen American colonies (which were now using the name the "United Colonies") and Britain. July 4 is still celebrated as the nation's birthday. The document enshrines the basic values of [[republicanism]] as the foundation of America, referred to as [[Americanism]]; it inspired similar declarations in over a hundred countries.

The Declaration of Independence includes the most influential sentence even written in the English language: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Progressive historians have attempted to re-write history and leave the impression that ''[[No taxation without representation]]'' was the only reason for American Independence, when there were actually [[27 colonial grievances]] cited against the king.

==deism new universal etymology dictionary of 1776==
deism a sect among the christians of most or all
denominations who belive there is one god a providence
the immortality of the soul virtue and vice rewards and
punishments but reject revaltion and believe no more than
what natural light discovers to them and belive no other
article of the christian religion or any other this is from
apologeticspress

thomas jefferson and benjamin franklin according to dave miller
were not the deist by todays defintion anyone who tells you there
deist go to open up the new universal etymology dictionary of 1776
and you will find out its lies in american history textbooks

==Public opinion==
[[Image:Commonsense.jpg|thumb|left|120px|[[Common Sense]]]]
Sentiment for independence was crystallized by ''[[Common Sense]]'', the astonishingly successful pamphlet by [[Thomas Paine]]. It sold over 150,000 copies in spring 1776; copies were passed from hand to hand and read aloud at taverns in every colony. General [[George Washington]] was especially impressed and he had it read aloud to his soldiers. Paine's forceful argument convinced the majority that the Empire was a dead weight on American aspirations, and the time was now to become independent. The Loyalists were left almost speechless. Support for the King, which had been fast dwindling away, evaporated after Americans digested Paine's philippic. Not only was liberty at risk under monarchy, Paine said, but so was peace, as monarchs had little else to do but lay "the world in blood and ashes." His key argument was an attack on the possibility of reconciliation.

Paine convinced his readers that independence was more likely to bring peace and prosperity than continued subservience to the empire. But Paine drove ahead adding a millennial quality to the colonists' struggle. This was not a revolt over taxation. The survival of liberty and republicanism was at stake, he argued and if the American Revolution succeeded, generations yet unborn would owe a debt of gratitude to their forebearers who struggled to defend—-and expand-—freedom. Paine foresaw an America that would become "an asylum for mankind." Not only would America offer refuge to the world's oppressed, but like a shining beacon, revolutionary America would herald "the birth-day of a new world," the beginning of an epoch in which humankind across the earth could "begin the world over again."<ref>John Ferling, ''Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution.'' (2002) p. 130</ref>

==May 15th resolution==
On May 15, [[John Adams]] wrote a preamble stating that because of the king's continued efforts to reject all efforts at reconciliation, independence from the crown was inevitable.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9TZfDs_yJPYC&pg=PA551 The United States Declaration of Independence (Revisited)]</ref>

==Writing the Declaration==
[[Image:Declaration committee.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The Declaration Committee]]
The "Declaration Committee," consisted of five people: [[Thomas Jefferson]] of Virginia, [[Roger Sherman]] of Connecticut, [[Benjamin Franklin]] of Pennsylvania, [[Robert R. Livingston]] of New York, and [[John Adams]] of Massachusetts. It was appointed by Congress on June 11, 1776, to draft a declaration in anticipation of an expected vote in favor of American independence, which occurred on July 2.<ref name="committee members">{{cite web
| url=http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/declara4.html | title=Declaring Independence: Drafting the Documents | accessdate=2007-08-04 }}</ref>

At this point the British had been driven entirely from the United Colonies, and independence became increasingly a reality.

===Jefferson's role===
As delegates to the [[Continental Congress]] Jefferson and [[John Adams]] took the lead in pushing for independence. On June 7, 1776, [[Richard Henry Lee]] of the Virginia delegation authored the [[Lee Resolution]], proposing independence. Congress appointed a committee of five men to draw up a suitable public Declaration. Shortly after the committee met, Adams and Jefferson were regarded as the two best to do the bulk of the drafting of the document.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=4rnOtIV-bY4C&pg=PA80 How to Analyze the Works of John Adams]</ref> Adams, however, deferred to Jefferson, on the grounds of three very shrewd reasonings:

<blockquote>"Reason first, you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second, I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can"</blockquote> (Jefferson's authorship was largely unknown before 1800.) He incorporated ideas and phrases from many sources to arrive at a consensus statement that all patriots could agree upon.

Early drafts exist dating to June 1776.<ref>See [http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/frag.html "Transcription of the Fragment of the Composition Draft of the Declaration of Independence"]</ref> Jefferson's colleagues [[Benjamin Franklin]] and Adams made small changes in his draft text and Congress made more. The finished document, which both declared independence and proclaimed a philosophy of government, was singly and peculiarly Jefferson's.<ref>See [https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html "Declaration of Independence"]</ref>

===Virginia role===
{{main|Virginia Declaration of Rights}}

The opening philosophical section is closely based on Virginia's "Declaration of Rights," a notable summary of current revolutionary philosophy, written by [[George Mason]] and adopted in June 1776.<ref>see [http://gunstonhall.org/documents/vdr.html "The Virginia Declaration of Rights," Final Draft,12 June 1776]</ref>
Mason wrote:
::''That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.''
Jefferson rewrote it:
::''We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.''

===First Draught===
The first draught (they spelled "draft" differently at the time)<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html Jefferson's "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence]</ref> of the Declaration is somewhat longer and contains more content than the final version that was accepted by all of the colonies. The most glaring difference is a reference to the efforts of the colony of Virginia to [[History of slavery in Virginia|rid itself]] of the practice of slavery.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/historyoftheunit037601mbp History of the United States of America: From the Discovery of the Continent, Volume IV], by [[George Bancroft]], page 445</ref> The removal of these sections was by the request of only two states: Georgia and South Carolina.<ref>[http://tjrs.monticello.org/letter/54 Extract from Thomas Jefferson’s Notes of Proceedings in the Continental Congress]</ref>

In the section which highlights slavery, Jefferson takes on a mocking as well as angry tone, using bold text and capitalized lettering to make his point. In one instance, Jefferson mocks the King as a "Christian" who at the same time has no problem enslaving other human beings.(This is not a Christian thing to do) In another instance, Jefferson highlights how the King took a decided stance against any efforts by Virginia to end the practice. Jefferson would have been particularly offended by this, as his first act in the House of Burgesses was a bill to abolish the slave trade. The bill failed by only one vote.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NF7r_W2fAeQC&pg=PT147 Thomas Jefferson: Inquiry History for Daring Delvers]</ref>

==Contents==
[[Image:Writing the Declaration.jpg|right|thumb|230px|Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson drafting the Declaration]]
Jefferson himself did not believe in absolute human equality, and, though he had no fears of revolution, he preferred that the "social compact" be renewed by periodical, peaceful revisions. That government should be based on popular consent and secure the "inalienable" rights of man, among which he included the pursuit of happiness rather than property, that it should be a means to human well-being and not an end in itself, he steadfastly believed. He gave here a matchless expression of his faith.

The charges against King [[George III]], who is singled out because the patriots denied all claims of parliamentary authority, represent an improved version of charges that Jefferson wrote for the preamble of the Virginia constitution of 1776. Relentless in their reiteration, they constitute a statement of the specific grievances of the revolting party, powerfully and persuasively presented at the bar of public opinion.

The Declaration is notable for both its clarity and subtlety of expression, and it abounds in the felicities that are characteristic of Jefferson's best prose.<ref>See Carl Becker, ''The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas'' (1922) ch. 5, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VC5nCgcUmjsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:declaration+intitle:of+intitle:independence&lr=&num=30&as_brr=1 online edition]; Garry Wills, ''Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.'' (1978); Pauline Maier, ''American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence.'' (1997)</ref> More impassioned than any other of his writings, it is eloquent in its sustained elevation of style and remains his noblest literary monument.

The concepts of natural law, of inviolable rights, and of government by consent were drawn from the [[Republicanism|republican tradition]] that stretched back to ancient Rome and was neither new nor distinctively American. However it was unprecedented for a nation to declare that it would be governed by these propositions. It was Jefferson's almost religious commitment to these republican propositions that is the key to his entire life. He was more than the author of this statement of the national purpose: he was a living example of its philosophy, accepting its ideals as the controlling principles of his own life. Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4, 1776, which became the birthday of the independent nation.<ref>Peterson, ''Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation'' (1975) ch. 2</ref>

The Declaration of Independence drew upon [[Christianity]] and the Enlightenment English philosopher [[John Locke]]. In his famous work "[[Two Treatises of Government]]" (1690), Locke declared that all men have the natural (inalienable) rights of "life, liberty and estate (property)." Notably the Declaration of Independence does not emphasize a right to pursue property, however, speaking instead in favor of pursuit of "happiness".

==Immediate impact==
Voting in Congress was by states and the Declaration was not unanimous on July 4 but became so a little later. On July 4, the New York delegation could not sign since its instructions to do so did not arrive until July 9. The original title referred to Twelve States, but all thirteen approved it. Several delegates were opposed at first but later signed.

When the Declaration was signed, the 13 colonies now became the 13 states. The new nation created a national army under [[George Washington]], and sent diplomats to secure recognition in Europe. Most successful was [[Benjamin Franklin]], who won support in France and in 1778 secured a treaty of military alliance with France, by which the entire military and naval forces of France joined in the war against Britain. King [[George III]] refused to give up and of "his" possessions, so the war dragged on until the final American victory at Yorktown in 1781 caused Parliament to change the government in London and sue for peace.
[[Image:Rough draft declaration.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The first page of the Declaration of Independence as it began under Thomas Jefferson, with several strikeouts as he formulated his ideas.]]

After the publication of the Declaration, several British rebuttals to it were published. John Lind published the ''Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress'', which was commissioned by the administration of [[Lord North]]. John Lind worked together with philosopher [[Jeremy Bentham]] in its authorship, in which Bentham wrote a scathing criticism of the concept of [[Natural Rights]]: "simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense, — nonsense upon stilts".<ref>[https://www.libertarianism.org/publications/essays/excursions/jeremy-benthams-attack-natural-rights Jeremy Bentham’s Attack on Natural Rights]</ref> Another rebuttal was published by colonial governor Thomas Hutchinson. Both pamphlets mock the concept "all men are equal" noting that America did not free every slave - even though it was Britain who brought all the slaves here in the first place.

==Long-term impact on U.S.==
Americans celebrated the Fourth of July and often read the Declaration at that event, but paid little attention to it other days of the year.<ref>Len Travers, ''Celebrating the Fourth: Independence Day and the Rites of Nationalism in the Early Republic'' (1999)</ref> That changed when [[Abraham Lincoln]] in the [[Gettysburg Address]] of 1863 stressed its priority over the Constitution. Since then the statement that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" has resounded strongly in the American psyche, though it is not echoed much in other countries.

==Declaration under fire by the politically correct==
Former state Representative [[Barbara Norton]], a [[politically correct]] Democrat from [[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]], received national attention in 2016, when she opposed a state bill that would require the teaching of the Declaration of Independence in public schools. Norton called the Declaration "racist" because it applied to [[Caucasian]]s but not [[Slavery|slaves]]. She argued
that if "our children will recite the Declaration, I think it's a little bit unfair."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/05/28/louisiana-state-representative-barbara-norton-declaration-independence-racist|title=State Rep: Declaration of Independence Is Racist|publisher=[[Fox News]]|accessdate=September 1, 2020}}</ref>

==Global impact==
The Declaration was quickly translated into major languages and immediately sparked serious discussion in Europe and Latin America about the legitimacy of empires. By 1826, fifty years after the drafting, twenty nations already had declarations of independence modeled on it, starting with the Flemish 1790 Manifesto of the Province of Flanders and Haiti's 1804 declaration of independence. In the 20th century, the first wave of independence declarations came after [[World War I]] and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires. The second wave lasted from 1945 to 1993, with the closing down of the Japanese, British, French, Portuguese and other empires.

By the 21st century, over half of the 192 nations of the world have such declarations. Most, according to Armitage (2007), have copied the style and structure of the Declaration. Most important, the Declaration has marked and helped create the "contagion of sovereignty" that has transformed a world of empires into a world of states.<ref>Historians discount the influence of previous declarations. David Armitage, ''The Declaration of Independence: A Global History'' (2007) [https://www.amazon.com/Declaration-Independence-Global-History/dp/0674022823/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212623939&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]</ref>

The world was impressed with how colonies broke away from an empire, but it paid little attention to its more controversial metaphysical claims about all men being born equal with certain rights. Translators had great difficulty handling its key concepts. For example, the "unalienable rights" of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were extremely difficult concepts in China, Japan, and Spain (where Catholic teachings placed true happiness only in the other world). The translators' difficulties with the Declaration also indicate that the document's "truths" about human rights were not nearly so "self-evident" as Jefferson believed. In China and Russia, particularly, the political rights of the individual were clearly not self-evident. Although Americans often enthusiastically championed the benefits of democracy throughout the world, not all nations or peoples appreciated the [[libertarianism|libertarian]] and [[capitalism|capitalist]] values enunciated in the declaration. They did, however, appreciate its [[Republicanism]], and most new nations declared independence in order to become republics.<ref>Eugene Eoyang, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Linguistic Parity: Multilingual Perspectives on the Declaration of Independence." '' Journal of American History'' 1999 85(4): 1449-1454.</ref>

==The physical document==
Gustafson (2002) traces the various locations where the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, (known collectively as the Charters of Freedom), were kept until transferred with great ceremony to the National Archives in 1952. The Declaration was moved from one city to another and was at the Patent Office in Washington from 1841 to 1876, among other locations. The Declaration and the Constitution were in the Library of Congress from 1921 to 1952, amid some rivalry with the National Archives as to their proper location. As part of a new conservation effort, the National Archives constructed new encasements to preserve the documents and return them to public display beginning 17 September 2003.<ref>Milton Gustafson, "Travels of the Charters of Freedom." ''Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration'' 2002 34(4): 274-284. Issn: 0033-1031</ref>

==Full text of the Declaration of Independence==
The Declaration of Independence is comprised primarily of five sections: The ''introduction'', the ''preamble'', the ''indictment'' of the British Crown, the ''denunciation'' of the citizens of Britain for turning a blind eye to the King's mistreatment of the colonists, and the ''conclusion''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=0YbjitFzTncC&pg=PA28 The Declaration of Independence]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=E7JbAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT69 Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7JlglMZ6g4MC&pg=PA74 American Rhetoric: Context and Criticism]</ref>

{|background="none" width="100%" border="1"
|-
|valign="top"|
: '''Introduction''':
Proclaims the right of the colonists, upon the basis of their God-given rights, to separate from the abusive king.
|valign="top"|
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

|-
|valign="top"|
: '''Preamble or preface''':<ref>President [[Woodrow Wilson]] referred to the preface of the document as something you should overlook.</ref>
An expression of timeless truths that transcend all ages and generations.
|valign="top"|
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

|-
|valign="top"|
: '''Indictment''':
Lists the 27 grievous acts which the king has repeatedly committed to injure the liberty of his subjects in the 13 colonies.
|valign="top"|

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

|-
|valign="top"|
: '''Denunciation''':
Denounces the people of Great Britain for not coming to the aid of the colonists as they were abused by their ruler.
|valign="top"|
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

|-
|valign="top"|
: '''Conclusion''':
Asserts their reliance upon God for protection, as they knew the King would pursue a path of war.
|valign="top"|
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

|}

==See also==
* [[Lee Resolution]]

==Further reading==
* Armitage, David. "The Declaration of Independence in World Context." '' Magazine of History'' 2004 18(3): 61–66. Issn: 0882-228x Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]
* Armitage, David. "The Declaration of Independence and International Law." ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 2002 59(1): 39–64. Issn: 0043–5597 in [History Cooperative]; also [http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/pdf2html.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhumanrights.uchicago.edu%2Fcurriculumdevelopment%2Fwinter08%2FArmitage.pdf&images=yes online edition]
* Armitage, David. ''The Declaration of Independence: A Global History'' (2007), 300pp [https://www.amazon.com/Declaration-Independence-Global-History/dp/0674022823/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212623939&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Becker, Carl. ''The Declaration of Independence: A Study on the History of Political Ideas'' (1922), [http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/Book.php?recordID=0034 online edition]
* Ellis, Joseph J., ed. ''What Did the Declaration Declare?'' Bedford Books, 1999. 110 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=28656930163675 online review]
* [[Benson John Lossing|Lossing, Benson J.]] ''[[Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence]]'', 1848
* Maier, Pauline. ''American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence'' (1998), 336pp [https://www.amazon.com/American-Scripture-Making-Declaration-Independence/dp/0679779086 excerpt and text search]
* Palmer, Robert R. ''The Age of the Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe and America, 1760-1800'' (2 vol 1959–64), influential comparison of European countries [http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-age-of-the-democratic-revolution-a-political-history-of-europe-and-america-1760-1800-by-r-r-palmer.jsp online edition of vol 1.]
* Wills, Garry. ''Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence'' (2002) [https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-America-Jeffersons-Declaration-Independence/dp/0618257764/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212624675&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]

==Bibliography==
* Bancroft, George. ''History of the United States of America, from the discovery of the American continent.'' (1854–78), vol 8 [http://jrshelby.com/sc-links/bancroft.htm online edition]
* Barthelmas, Della Gray. ''The Signers of the Declaration of Independence: A Biographical and Genealogical Reference. '' McFarland, 2003. 334 pp
* Becker, Carl. ''The Declaration of Independence: A Study on the History of Political Ideas'' (1922), [http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/Book.php?recordID=0034 online edition]
* Boyd, Julian P. ''The Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of the Text'' (1945)
* Dershowitz, Alan. ''America Declares Independence.'' 2003; attacks notion that it created a "Christian nation"; [http://www.questia.com/read/108166171 online edition]
* Detweiler, Philip F. "The Changing Reputation of the Declaration of Independence: The First Fifty Years," ''William and Mary Quarterly,'' 3d Ser., 19 (1962), 557–74; [http://www.jstor.org/pss/1920163 in JSTOR]
* Dumbauld, Edward. ''The Declaration of Independence and What It Means Today'' (1950) [http://www.questia.com/read/17225815 online edition]
* Eicholz, Hans L. ''Harmonizing Sentiments: The Declaration of Independence and the Jeffersonian Idea of Self Government'' (2001) [http://www.questia.com/read/109277434 online edition]
* Ellis, Joseph J., ed. ''What Did the Declaration Declare?'' Bedford Books, 1999. 110 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=28656930163675 online review]
* Gustafson, Milton. "Travels of the Charters of Freedom." ''Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration'' 2004 (Special Issue): 8-13. Issn: 0033-1031
* Jayne, Allen. ''Jefferson's Declaration of Independence: Origins, Philosophy and Theology.'' (1998). 245 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=8499922804176 online review]
* Koch, Adrienne. ''Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson.'' (1943) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=90632012 online edition]
* McCullough, David. ''John Adams'' (2001), very well written popular biography
* McDonald, Robert M. S. "Thomas Jefferson's Changing Reputation as Author of the Declaration of Independence: The First Fifty Years," ''Journal of the Early Republic,'' Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer, 1999), pp. 169–195 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/3124951 in JSTOR]
* Maier, Pauline. ''American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence'' (1998), 336pp [https://www.amazon.com/American-Scripture-Making-Declaration-Independence/dp/0679779086 excerpt and text search]
* Malone, Dumas. ''Jefferson and the Rights of Man.'' 1951. Pp. 550pp, vol 2 of Malone's standard biography
* Middlekauff, Robert. '' The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789'' (2nd ed 2007) general history of the Revolution [https://www.amazon.com/Glorious-Cause-American-Revolution-1763-1789/dp/019531588X/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191287482&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
*Miller, John C. ''Triumph of Freedom, 1775-1783'' (1948), standard scholarly political and military history of the Revolution [http://www.questia.com/read/14559136 online edition]
* Peterson, Merrill D. ''Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography'' (1986), long, detailed biography by leading scholar; [http://www.questia.com/library/book/thomas-jefferson-and-the-new-nation-a-biography-by-merrill-d-peterson.jsp online edition]; also [https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Jefferson-New-Nation-Biography/dp/0195019091/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203807519&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Ritz, Wilfred J. "The Authentication of the Engrossed Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776," ''Law and History Review,'' Vol. 4, No. 1. (Spring, 1986), pp. 179–204. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0738-2480%28198621%294%3A1%3C179%3ATAOTED%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A in JSTOR]
* Wills, Garry. ''Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence'' (2002) [https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-America-Jeffersons-Declaration-Independence/dp/0618257764/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191287805&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]

===International impact===
* Adams, Willi Paul. "German Translations of the American Declaration of Independence." ''Journal of American History'' 1999 85(4): 1325–1349. Issn: 0021-8723 Fulltext: [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568255 in Jstor]
* Armitage, David. "The Declaration of Independence and International Law." ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 2002 59(1): 39–64. Issn: 0043–5597 in [History Cooperative]; also [http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/pdf2html.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhumanrights.uchicago.edu%2Fcurriculumdevelopment%2Fwinter08%2FArmitage.pdf&images=yes online edition]
* Armitage, David. ''The Declaration of Independence: A Global History'' (2007), 300pp [https://www.amazon.com/Declaration-Independence-Global-History/dp/0674022823/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212623939&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Armitage, David. "The Declaration of Independence in World Context." ''Magazine of History'' 2004 18(3): 61–66. Issn: 0882-228x Fulltext in Ebsco. Discusses the drafting of the Declaration and the international motivations that inspired it, the global reactions to the document in its first fifty years, and its afterlife as a broad modern statement of individual and collective rights.
* Aruga, Tadashi. "The Declaration of Independence in Japan: Translation and Transplantation, 1854-1997," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1409–1431 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568263 in JSTOR]
* Bolkhovitinov, Nikolai N. "The Declaration of Independence: A View from Russia," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1389–1398 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568261 in JSTOR]
* Bonazzi, Tiziano. "Tradurre/Tradire: The Declaration of Independence in the Italian Context," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1350–1361 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568256 in JSTOR]
* Eoyang, Eugene. "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Linguistic Parity: Multilingual Perspectives on the Declaration of Independence," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1449–1454 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568265 in JSTOR]
* Kutnik, Jerzy. "The Declaration of Independence in Poland," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1385–1388 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568260 in JSTOR]
* Li, Frank. "East is East and West is West: Did the Twain Ever Meet? The Declaration of Independence in China," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1432–1448 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568264 in JSTOR]
* Marienstras, Elise, and Naomi Wulf. "French Translations and Reception of the Declaration of Independence," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1299–1324 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568254 in JSTOR]
* Oltra, Joaquim. "Jefferson's Declaration of Independence in the Spanish Political Tradition," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1370–1379 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568258 in JSTOR]
* Palmer, Robert R. ''The Age of the Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe and America, 1760-1800'' (2 vol 1959–64), influential comparison of European countries [http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-age-of-the-democratic-revolution-a-political-history-of-europe-and-america-1760-1800-by-r-r-palmer.jsp online edition of vol 1.]
* Thelen, David. "Individual Creativity and the Filters of Language and Culture: Interpreting the Declaration of Independence by Translation," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1289–1298 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568253 in JSTOR]
* Troen, S. Ilan. "The Hebrew Translation of the Declaration of Independence," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1380–1384 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568259 in JSTOR]
* Vlasova, Marina A. "The American Declaration of Independence in Russian: The History of Translation and the Translation of History," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1399–1408 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568262 in JSTOR]
* Zoraida Vazquez, Josefina. "The Mexican Declaration of Independence," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1362–1369 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568257 in JSTOR]

====References====
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jeffdec.html Jefferson and the Declaration]
*[http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trt001.html Library of Congress site on the Declaration's drafting]
*[http://www.duke.edu/eng169s2/group1/lex3/roughpl.htm Transcript of Jefferson's "Rough Draft" of the Declaration]
*[http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3709 Publishing the Declaration of Independence], June 24, 2005 webcast by Robin Shields at the [[Library of Congress]].
* [https://librivox.org/declaration-of-independence-by-the-united-states-of-america/ Declaration of Independence of the United States of America], Audiobook at [[LibriVox]]
* [https://librivox.org/short-nonfiction-collection-vol-066-by-various/ Original Rough Draught of the Declaration of Independence], Audiobook at [[LibriVox]]

{{Declaration of Independence}}

[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:American Revolution]]
[[Category:American State Papers]]
[[Category:Republicanism]]

Declaration of Independence

2021-07-26T06:02:55Z

Stephenkollenborners: test

[[Image:Declaration_of_independence.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The Declaration of Independence; the original is badly faded]]
The '''Declaration of Independence''', unanimously approved by the second [[Continental Congress]] on July 4, 1776, created a new nation, the "[[United States of America]]." Written primarily by [[Thomas Jefferson]], it formally "dissolved the connection" between the thirteen American colonies (which were now using the name the "United Colonies") and Britain. July 4 is still celebrated as the nation's birthday. The document enshrines the basic values of [[republicanism]] as the foundation of America, referred to as [[Americanism]]; it inspired similar declarations in over a hundred countries.

The Declaration of Independence includes the most influential sentence even written in the English language: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Progressive historians have attempted to re-write history and leave the impression that ''[[No taxation without representation]]'' was the only reason for American Independence, when there were actually [[27 colonial grievances]] cited against the king.

==deism new universal etymology dictionary of 1776==
deism a sect among the christians of most or all
denominations who belive there is one god a providence
the immortality of the soul virtue and vice rewards and
punishments but reject revaltion and believe no more than
what natural light discovers to them and belive no other
article of the christian religion or any other this is from
apologeticspress
==Public opinion==
[[Image:Commonsense.jpg|thumb|left|120px|[[Common Sense]]]]
Sentiment for independence was crystallized by ''[[Common Sense]]'', the astonishingly successful pamphlet by [[Thomas Paine]]. It sold over 150,000 copies in spring 1776; copies were passed from hand to hand and read aloud at taverns in every colony. General [[George Washington]] was especially impressed and he had it read aloud to his soldiers. Paine's forceful argument convinced the majority that the Empire was a dead weight on American aspirations, and the time was now to become independent. The Loyalists were left almost speechless. Support for the King, which had been fast dwindling away, evaporated after Americans digested Paine's philippic. Not only was liberty at risk under monarchy, Paine said, but so was peace, as monarchs had little else to do but lay "the world in blood and ashes." His key argument was an attack on the possibility of reconciliation.

Paine convinced his readers that independence was more likely to bring peace and prosperity than continued subservience to the empire. But Paine drove ahead adding a millennial quality to the colonists' struggle. This was not a revolt over taxation. The survival of liberty and republicanism was at stake, he argued and if the American Revolution succeeded, generations yet unborn would owe a debt of gratitude to their forebearers who struggled to defend—-and expand-—freedom. Paine foresaw an America that would become "an asylum for mankind." Not only would America offer refuge to the world's oppressed, but like a shining beacon, revolutionary America would herald "the birth-day of a new world," the beginning of an epoch in which humankind across the earth could "begin the world over again."<ref>John Ferling, ''Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution.'' (2002) p. 130</ref>

==May 15th resolution==
On May 15, [[John Adams]] wrote a preamble stating that because of the king's continued efforts to reject all efforts at reconciliation, independence from the crown was inevitable.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9TZfDs_yJPYC&pg=PA551 The United States Declaration of Independence (Revisited)]</ref>

==Writing the Declaration==
[[Image:Declaration committee.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The Declaration Committee]]
The "Declaration Committee," consisted of five people: [[Thomas Jefferson]] of Virginia, [[Roger Sherman]] of Connecticut, [[Benjamin Franklin]] of Pennsylvania, [[Robert R. Livingston]] of New York, and [[John Adams]] of Massachusetts. It was appointed by Congress on June 11, 1776, to draft a declaration in anticipation of an expected vote in favor of American independence, which occurred on July 2.<ref name="committee members">{{cite web
| url=http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/declara4.html | title=Declaring Independence: Drafting the Documents | accessdate=2007-08-04 }}</ref>

At this point the British had been driven entirely from the United Colonies, and independence became increasingly a reality.

===Jefferson's role===
As delegates to the [[Continental Congress]] Jefferson and [[John Adams]] took the lead in pushing for independence. On June 7, 1776, [[Richard Henry Lee]] of the Virginia delegation authored the [[Lee Resolution]], proposing independence. Congress appointed a committee of five men to draw up a suitable public Declaration. Shortly after the committee met, Adams and Jefferson were regarded as the two best to do the bulk of the drafting of the document.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=4rnOtIV-bY4C&pg=PA80 How to Analyze the Works of John Adams]</ref> Adams, however, deferred to Jefferson, on the grounds of three very shrewd reasonings:

<blockquote>"Reason first, you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second, I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can"</blockquote> (Jefferson's authorship was largely unknown before 1800.) He incorporated ideas and phrases from many sources to arrive at a consensus statement that all patriots could agree upon.

Early drafts exist dating to June 1776.<ref>See [http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/frag.html "Transcription of the Fragment of the Composition Draft of the Declaration of Independence"]</ref> Jefferson's colleagues [[Benjamin Franklin]] and Adams made small changes in his draft text and Congress made more. The finished document, which both declared independence and proclaimed a philosophy of government, was singly and peculiarly Jefferson's.<ref>See [https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html "Declaration of Independence"]</ref>

===Virginia role===
{{main|Virginia Declaration of Rights}}

The opening philosophical section is closely based on Virginia's "Declaration of Rights," a notable summary of current revolutionary philosophy, written by [[George Mason]] and adopted in June 1776.<ref>see [http://gunstonhall.org/documents/vdr.html "The Virginia Declaration of Rights," Final Draft,12 June 1776]</ref>
Mason wrote:
::''That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.''
Jefferson rewrote it:
::''We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.''

===First Draught===
The first draught (they spelled "draft" differently at the time)<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html Jefferson's "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence]</ref> of the Declaration is somewhat longer and contains more content than the final version that was accepted by all of the colonies. The most glaring difference is a reference to the efforts of the colony of Virginia to [[History of slavery in Virginia|rid itself]] of the practice of slavery.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/historyoftheunit037601mbp History of the United States of America: From the Discovery of the Continent, Volume IV], by [[George Bancroft]], page 445</ref> The removal of these sections was by the request of only two states: Georgia and South Carolina.<ref>[http://tjrs.monticello.org/letter/54 Extract from Thomas Jefferson’s Notes of Proceedings in the Continental Congress]</ref>

In the section which highlights slavery, Jefferson takes on a mocking as well as angry tone, using bold text and capitalized lettering to make his point. In one instance, Jefferson mocks the King as a "Christian" who at the same time has no problem enslaving other human beings.(This is not a Christian thing to do) In another instance, Jefferson highlights how the King took a decided stance against any efforts by Virginia to end the practice. Jefferson would have been particularly offended by this, as his first act in the House of Burgesses was a bill to abolish the slave trade. The bill failed by only one vote.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NF7r_W2fAeQC&pg=PT147 Thomas Jefferson: Inquiry History for Daring Delvers]</ref>

==Contents==
[[Image:Writing the Declaration.jpg|right|thumb|230px|Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson drafting the Declaration]]
Jefferson himself did not believe in absolute human equality, and, though he had no fears of revolution, he preferred that the "social compact" be renewed by periodical, peaceful revisions. That government should be based on popular consent and secure the "inalienable" rights of man, among which he included the pursuit of happiness rather than property, that it should be a means to human well-being and not an end in itself, he steadfastly believed. He gave here a matchless expression of his faith.

The charges against King [[George III]], who is singled out because the patriots denied all claims of parliamentary authority, represent an improved version of charges that Jefferson wrote for the preamble of the Virginia constitution of 1776. Relentless in their reiteration, they constitute a statement of the specific grievances of the revolting party, powerfully and persuasively presented at the bar of public opinion.

The Declaration is notable for both its clarity and subtlety of expression, and it abounds in the felicities that are characteristic of Jefferson's best prose.<ref>See Carl Becker, ''The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas'' (1922) ch. 5, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VC5nCgcUmjsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:declaration+intitle:of+intitle:independence&lr=&num=30&as_brr=1 online edition]; Garry Wills, ''Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.'' (1978); Pauline Maier, ''American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence.'' (1997)</ref> More impassioned than any other of his writings, it is eloquent in its sustained elevation of style and remains his noblest literary monument.

The concepts of natural law, of inviolable rights, and of government by consent were drawn from the [[Republicanism|republican tradition]] that stretched back to ancient Rome and was neither new nor distinctively American. However it was unprecedented for a nation to declare that it would be governed by these propositions. It was Jefferson's almost religious commitment to these republican propositions that is the key to his entire life. He was more than the author of this statement of the national purpose: he was a living example of its philosophy, accepting its ideals as the controlling principles of his own life. Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4, 1776, which became the birthday of the independent nation.<ref>Peterson, ''Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation'' (1975) ch. 2</ref>

The Declaration of Independence drew upon [[Christianity]] and the Enlightenment English philosopher [[John Locke]]. In his famous work "[[Two Treatises of Government]]" (1690), Locke declared that all men have the natural (inalienable) rights of "life, liberty and estate (property)." Notably the Declaration of Independence does not emphasize a right to pursue property, however, speaking instead in favor of pursuit of "happiness".

==Immediate impact==
Voting in Congress was by states and the Declaration was not unanimous on July 4 but became so a little later. On July 4, the New York delegation could not sign since its instructions to do so did not arrive until July 9. The original title referred to Twelve States, but all thirteen approved it. Several delegates were opposed at first but later signed.

When the Declaration was signed, the 13 colonies now became the 13 states. The new nation created a national army under [[George Washington]], and sent diplomats to secure recognition in Europe. Most successful was [[Benjamin Franklin]], who won support in France and in 1778 secured a treaty of military alliance with France, by which the entire military and naval forces of France joined in the war against Britain. King [[George III]] refused to give up and of "his" possessions, so the war dragged on until the final American victory at Yorktown in 1781 caused Parliament to change the government in London and sue for peace.
[[Image:Rough draft declaration.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The first page of the Declaration of Independence as it began under Thomas Jefferson, with several strikeouts as he formulated his ideas.]]

After the publication of the Declaration, several British rebuttals to it were published. John Lind published the ''Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress'', which was commissioned by the administration of [[Lord North]]. John Lind worked together with philosopher [[Jeremy Bentham]] in its authorship, in which Bentham wrote a scathing criticism of the concept of [[Natural Rights]]: "simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense, — nonsense upon stilts".<ref>[https://www.libertarianism.org/publications/essays/excursions/jeremy-benthams-attack-natural-rights Jeremy Bentham’s Attack on Natural Rights]</ref> Another rebuttal was published by colonial governor Thomas Hutchinson. Both pamphlets mock the concept "all men are equal" noting that America did not free every slave - even though it was Britain who brought all the slaves here in the first place.

==Long-term impact on U.S.==
Americans celebrated the Fourth of July and often read the Declaration at that event, but paid little attention to it other days of the year.<ref>Len Travers, ''Celebrating the Fourth: Independence Day and the Rites of Nationalism in the Early Republic'' (1999)</ref> That changed when [[Abraham Lincoln]] in the [[Gettysburg Address]] of 1863 stressed its priority over the Constitution. Since then the statement that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" has resounded strongly in the American psyche, though it is not echoed much in other countries.

==Declaration under fire by the politically correct==
Former state Representative [[Barbara Norton]], a [[politically correct]] Democrat from [[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]], received national attention in 2016, when she opposed a state bill that would require the teaching of the Declaration of Independence in public schools. Norton called the Declaration "racist" because it applied to [[Caucasian]]s but not [[Slavery|slaves]]. She argued
that if "our children will recite the Declaration, I think it's a little bit unfair."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/05/28/louisiana-state-representative-barbara-norton-declaration-independence-racist|title=State Rep: Declaration of Independence Is Racist|publisher=[[Fox News]]|accessdate=September 1, 2020}}</ref>

==Global impact==
The Declaration was quickly translated into major languages and immediately sparked serious discussion in Europe and Latin America about the legitimacy of empires. By 1826, fifty years after the drafting, twenty nations already had declarations of independence modeled on it, starting with the Flemish 1790 Manifesto of the Province of Flanders and Haiti's 1804 declaration of independence. In the 20th century, the first wave of independence declarations came after [[World War I]] and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires. The second wave lasted from 1945 to 1993, with the closing down of the Japanese, British, French, Portuguese and other empires.

By the 21st century, over half of the 192 nations of the world have such declarations. Most, according to Armitage (2007), have copied the style and structure of the Declaration. Most important, the Declaration has marked and helped create the "contagion of sovereignty" that has transformed a world of empires into a world of states.<ref>Historians discount the influence of previous declarations. David Armitage, ''The Declaration of Independence: A Global History'' (2007) [https://www.amazon.com/Declaration-Independence-Global-History/dp/0674022823/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212623939&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]</ref>

The world was impressed with how colonies broke away from an empire, but it paid little attention to its more controversial metaphysical claims about all men being born equal with certain rights. Translators had great difficulty handling its key concepts. For example, the "unalienable rights" of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were extremely difficult concepts in China, Japan, and Spain (where Catholic teachings placed true happiness only in the other world). The translators' difficulties with the Declaration also indicate that the document's "truths" about human rights were not nearly so "self-evident" as Jefferson believed. In China and Russia, particularly, the political rights of the individual were clearly not self-evident. Although Americans often enthusiastically championed the benefits of democracy throughout the world, not all nations or peoples appreciated the [[libertarianism|libertarian]] and [[capitalism|capitalist]] values enunciated in the declaration. They did, however, appreciate its [[Republicanism]], and most new nations declared independence in order to become republics.<ref>Eugene Eoyang, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Linguistic Parity: Multilingual Perspectives on the Declaration of Independence." '' Journal of American History'' 1999 85(4): 1449-1454.</ref>

==The physical document==
Gustafson (2002) traces the various locations where the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, (known collectively as the Charters of Freedom), were kept until transferred with great ceremony to the National Archives in 1952. The Declaration was moved from one city to another and was at the Patent Office in Washington from 1841 to 1876, among other locations. The Declaration and the Constitution were in the Library of Congress from 1921 to 1952, amid some rivalry with the National Archives as to their proper location. As part of a new conservation effort, the National Archives constructed new encasements to preserve the documents and return them to public display beginning 17 September 2003.<ref>Milton Gustafson, "Travels of the Charters of Freedom." ''Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration'' 2002 34(4): 274-284. Issn: 0033-1031</ref>

==Full text of the Declaration of Independence==
The Declaration of Independence is comprised primarily of five sections: The ''introduction'', the ''preamble'', the ''indictment'' of the British Crown, the ''denunciation'' of the citizens of Britain for turning a blind eye to the King's mistreatment of the colonists, and the ''conclusion''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=0YbjitFzTncC&pg=PA28 The Declaration of Independence]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=E7JbAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT69 Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7JlglMZ6g4MC&pg=PA74 American Rhetoric: Context and Criticism]</ref>

{|background="none" width="100%" border="1"
|-
|valign="top"|
: '''Introduction''':
Proclaims the right of the colonists, upon the basis of their God-given rights, to separate from the abusive king.
|valign="top"|
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

|-
|valign="top"|
: '''Preamble or preface''':<ref>President [[Woodrow Wilson]] referred to the preface of the document as something you should overlook.</ref>
An expression of timeless truths that transcend all ages and generations.
|valign="top"|
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

|-
|valign="top"|
: '''Indictment''':
Lists the 27 grievous acts which the king has repeatedly committed to injure the liberty of his subjects in the 13 colonies.
|valign="top"|

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

|-
|valign="top"|
: '''Denunciation''':
Denounces the people of Great Britain for not coming to the aid of the colonists as they were abused by their ruler.
|valign="top"|
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

|-
|valign="top"|
: '''Conclusion''':
Asserts their reliance upon God for protection, as they knew the King would pursue a path of war.
|valign="top"|
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

|}

==See also==
* [[Lee Resolution]]

==Further reading==
* Armitage, David. "The Declaration of Independence in World Context." '' Magazine of History'' 2004 18(3): 61–66. Issn: 0882-228x Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]
* Armitage, David. "The Declaration of Independence and International Law." ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 2002 59(1): 39–64. Issn: 0043–5597 in [History Cooperative]; also [http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/pdf2html.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhumanrights.uchicago.edu%2Fcurriculumdevelopment%2Fwinter08%2FArmitage.pdf&images=yes online edition]
* Armitage, David. ''The Declaration of Independence: A Global History'' (2007), 300pp [https://www.amazon.com/Declaration-Independence-Global-History/dp/0674022823/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212623939&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Becker, Carl. ''The Declaration of Independence: A Study on the History of Political Ideas'' (1922), [http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/Book.php?recordID=0034 online edition]
* Ellis, Joseph J., ed. ''What Did the Declaration Declare?'' Bedford Books, 1999. 110 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=28656930163675 online review]
* [[Benson John Lossing|Lossing, Benson J.]] ''[[Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence]]'', 1848
* Maier, Pauline. ''American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence'' (1998), 336pp [https://www.amazon.com/American-Scripture-Making-Declaration-Independence/dp/0679779086 excerpt and text search]
* Palmer, Robert R. ''The Age of the Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe and America, 1760-1800'' (2 vol 1959–64), influential comparison of European countries [http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-age-of-the-democratic-revolution-a-political-history-of-europe-and-america-1760-1800-by-r-r-palmer.jsp online edition of vol 1.]
* Wills, Garry. ''Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence'' (2002) [https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-America-Jeffersons-Declaration-Independence/dp/0618257764/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212624675&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]

==Bibliography==
* Bancroft, George. ''History of the United States of America, from the discovery of the American continent.'' (1854–78), vol 8 [http://jrshelby.com/sc-links/bancroft.htm online edition]
* Barthelmas, Della Gray. ''The Signers of the Declaration of Independence: A Biographical and Genealogical Reference. '' McFarland, 2003. 334 pp
* Becker, Carl. ''The Declaration of Independence: A Study on the History of Political Ideas'' (1922), [http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/Book.php?recordID=0034 online edition]
* Boyd, Julian P. ''The Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of the Text'' (1945)
* Dershowitz, Alan. ''America Declares Independence.'' 2003; attacks notion that it created a "Christian nation"; [http://www.questia.com/read/108166171 online edition]
* Detweiler, Philip F. "The Changing Reputation of the Declaration of Independence: The First Fifty Years," ''William and Mary Quarterly,'' 3d Ser., 19 (1962), 557–74; [http://www.jstor.org/pss/1920163 in JSTOR]
* Dumbauld, Edward. ''The Declaration of Independence and What It Means Today'' (1950) [http://www.questia.com/read/17225815 online edition]
* Eicholz, Hans L. ''Harmonizing Sentiments: The Declaration of Independence and the Jeffersonian Idea of Self Government'' (2001) [http://www.questia.com/read/109277434 online edition]
* Ellis, Joseph J., ed. ''What Did the Declaration Declare?'' Bedford Books, 1999. 110 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=28656930163675 online review]
* Gustafson, Milton. "Travels of the Charters of Freedom." ''Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration'' 2004 (Special Issue): 8-13. Issn: 0033-1031
* Jayne, Allen. ''Jefferson's Declaration of Independence: Origins, Philosophy and Theology.'' (1998). 245 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=8499922804176 online review]
* Koch, Adrienne. ''Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson.'' (1943) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=90632012 online edition]
* McCullough, David. ''John Adams'' (2001), very well written popular biography
* McDonald, Robert M. S. "Thomas Jefferson's Changing Reputation as Author of the Declaration of Independence: The First Fifty Years," ''Journal of the Early Republic,'' Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer, 1999), pp. 169–195 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/3124951 in JSTOR]
* Maier, Pauline. ''American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence'' (1998), 336pp [https://www.amazon.com/American-Scripture-Making-Declaration-Independence/dp/0679779086 excerpt and text search]
* Malone, Dumas. ''Jefferson and the Rights of Man.'' 1951. Pp. 550pp, vol 2 of Malone's standard biography
* Middlekauff, Robert. '' The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789'' (2nd ed 2007) general history of the Revolution [https://www.amazon.com/Glorious-Cause-American-Revolution-1763-1789/dp/019531588X/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191287482&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
*Miller, John C. ''Triumph of Freedom, 1775-1783'' (1948), standard scholarly political and military history of the Revolution [http://www.questia.com/read/14559136 online edition]
* Peterson, Merrill D. ''Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography'' (1986), long, detailed biography by leading scholar; [http://www.questia.com/library/book/thomas-jefferson-and-the-new-nation-a-biography-by-merrill-d-peterson.jsp online edition]; also [https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Jefferson-New-Nation-Biography/dp/0195019091/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203807519&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Ritz, Wilfred J. "The Authentication of the Engrossed Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776," ''Law and History Review,'' Vol. 4, No. 1. (Spring, 1986), pp. 179–204. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0738-2480%28198621%294%3A1%3C179%3ATAOTED%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A in JSTOR]
* Wills, Garry. ''Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence'' (2002) [https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-America-Jeffersons-Declaration-Independence/dp/0618257764/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191287805&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]

===International impact===
* Adams, Willi Paul. "German Translations of the American Declaration of Independence." ''Journal of American History'' 1999 85(4): 1325–1349. Issn: 0021-8723 Fulltext: [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568255 in Jstor]
* Armitage, David. "The Declaration of Independence and International Law." ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 2002 59(1): 39–64. Issn: 0043–5597 in [History Cooperative]; also [http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/pdf2html.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhumanrights.uchicago.edu%2Fcurriculumdevelopment%2Fwinter08%2FArmitage.pdf&images=yes online edition]
* Armitage, David. ''The Declaration of Independence: A Global History'' (2007), 300pp [https://www.amazon.com/Declaration-Independence-Global-History/dp/0674022823/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212623939&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Armitage, David. "The Declaration of Independence in World Context." ''Magazine of History'' 2004 18(3): 61–66. Issn: 0882-228x Fulltext in Ebsco. Discusses the drafting of the Declaration and the international motivations that inspired it, the global reactions to the document in its first fifty years, and its afterlife as a broad modern statement of individual and collective rights.
* Aruga, Tadashi. "The Declaration of Independence in Japan: Translation and Transplantation, 1854-1997," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1409–1431 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568263 in JSTOR]
* Bolkhovitinov, Nikolai N. "The Declaration of Independence: A View from Russia," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1389–1398 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568261 in JSTOR]
* Bonazzi, Tiziano. "Tradurre/Tradire: The Declaration of Independence in the Italian Context," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1350–1361 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568256 in JSTOR]
* Eoyang, Eugene. "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Linguistic Parity: Multilingual Perspectives on the Declaration of Independence," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1449–1454 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568265 in JSTOR]
* Kutnik, Jerzy. "The Declaration of Independence in Poland," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1385–1388 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568260 in JSTOR]
* Li, Frank. "East is East and West is West: Did the Twain Ever Meet? The Declaration of Independence in China," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1432–1448 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568264 in JSTOR]
* Marienstras, Elise, and Naomi Wulf. "French Translations and Reception of the Declaration of Independence," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1299–1324 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568254 in JSTOR]
* Oltra, Joaquim. "Jefferson's Declaration of Independence in the Spanish Political Tradition," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1370–1379 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568258 in JSTOR]
* Palmer, Robert R. ''The Age of the Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe and America, 1760-1800'' (2 vol 1959–64), influential comparison of European countries [http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-age-of-the-democratic-revolution-a-political-history-of-europe-and-america-1760-1800-by-r-r-palmer.jsp online edition of vol 1.]
* Thelen, David. "Individual Creativity and the Filters of Language and Culture: Interpreting the Declaration of Independence by Translation," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1289–1298 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568253 in JSTOR]
* Troen, S. Ilan. "The Hebrew Translation of the Declaration of Independence," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1380–1384 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568259 in JSTOR]
* Vlasova, Marina A. "The American Declaration of Independence in Russian: The History of Translation and the Translation of History," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1399–1408 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568262 in JSTOR]
* Zoraida Vazquez, Josefina. "The Mexican Declaration of Independence," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 85, No. 4 (Mar., 1999), pp. 1362–1369 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2568257 in JSTOR]

====References====
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jeffdec.html Jefferson and the Declaration]
*[http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trt001.html Library of Congress site on the Declaration's drafting]
*[http://www.duke.edu/eng169s2/group1/lex3/roughpl.htm Transcript of Jefferson's "Rough Draft" of the Declaration]
*[http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3709 Publishing the Declaration of Independence], June 24, 2005 webcast by Robin Shields at the [[Library of Congress]].
* [https://librivox.org/declaration-of-independence-by-the-united-states-of-america/ Declaration of Independence of the United States of America], Audiobook at [[LibriVox]]
* [https://librivox.org/short-nonfiction-collection-vol-066-by-various/ Original Rough Draught of the Declaration of Independence], Audiobook at [[LibriVox]]

{{Declaration of Independence}}

[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:American Revolution]]
[[Category:American State Papers]]
[[Category:Republicanism]]

Thirteen Colonies

2021-07-26T05:58:40Z

Stephenkollenborners: thirteen colonies

The '''thirteen colonies''' were the [[British]] colonies that formed the [[United States]]. They were: [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[Rhode Island]], [[Connecticut]], [[New York]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[New Jersey]], [[Delaware]], [[Maryland]], [[Virginia]], [[North Carolina]], [[South Carolina]], and [[Georgia]]. On July 4, 1776, they became states and formed a new nation, the '''United States of America.'''
[[Image:1742map.jpg|thumb|400px]]
[[Image:Pop1750.jpg|thumb|400px]]
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
== New England Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Massachusetts]] || 1620 || [[Pilgrims]], led by [[William Bradford]] || Shipbuilding, fish, lumber || Governor appointed by king || established [[Puritan]] Church (after 1700 called Congregationalist);
|-
| [[Rhode Island]] || 1636 || [[Roger Williams]], for religious reasons left [[Massachusetts]] || Lumber, fish. || Elected by colonists. || Complete [[religious freedom]] for all- [[Anglican]] ([[Episcopalian]]), [[Baptist]], Quakers and other Protestants
|-
| [[Connecticut]] || 1636 || [[Thomas Hooker]], who led a group from [[Massachusetts]] who wanted [[limited government|less government]] || Shipbuilding, lumber, fish || Elected by colonists || Congregationalist Church was established
|-
| [[New Hampshire]] || 1623 || Colonists who left Massachusetts for political and religious reasons || Molasses, fish || Governor appointed by king || Congregationalist
|}

==New England==
{{main|New England}}
The [[Plymouth Colony]], now part of Massachusetts, was founded by the [[Pilgrims]], a small [[Puritans|Puritan]] sect based in [[England]] and the [[Netherlands]]. One group sailed on the ''[[Mayflower]]''. They drew up the [[Mayflower Compact]] by which they gave themselves broad powers of self-governance and introduced [[democracy]] into America. They established the small Plymouth Colony in 1620 and later merged with the Massachusetts Bay colony. [[William Bradford]] (1590-1657) was the main leader.
===Puritans===
{{main|Puritans}}
The Puritans, a much larger group than the Pilgrims, established the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in 1629 with 400 settlers. This group was the Puritans who sought to reform the [[Church of England]] by creating a new, pure church in the New World. Within two years, an additional 2,000 arrived. The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit and politically innovative culture that still lingers on in the modern United States. They hoped this new land would serve as a "redeemer nation." Seeking the true religion, they fled England and in America created a "nation of saints" or the "[[City upon a hill]]," an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community designed to be an example for all of Europe. [[Roger Williams (theologian)|Roger Williams]], who preached religious toleration, [[separation of church and state]], and a complete break with the Church of England, was banished and founded [[Rhode Island|Rhode Island Colony]], which became a haven for other religious refugees from the Puritan community, including [[Anne Hutchinson]], a preacher of [[Antinomianism]].

Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of its founders. Unlike the cash-crop oriented plantations of the Chesapeake region, the Puritan economy was based on the efforts of individual farmers, who harvested enough crops to feed themselves and their families and a surplus to trade for goods they could not produce themselves. There was a generally higher standard of living in New England than in the Chesapeake. Along with farming growth, New England became an important mercantile and shipbuilding center, often serving as the hub for trading between the South and Europe.

== Middle Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[New York]] || 1626 || [[Dutch]]; English in 1664 || Shipbuilding and trade || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], and other Protestants
|-
| [[New Jersey]] || 1664 || [[Swedish]] and [[Dutch]]; In 1664 [[Sir George Carteret]] and [[Lord John Berkeley]] were given the land by the English Duke of York || Oats, wheat, rye || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], [[Quaker]], others
|-
| [[Pennsylvania]] || 1681 || [[William Penn]] as a safe place for [[Quakers]] || Trade and Shipbuilding || Proprietor selected the governor || [[Quaker]] Lutheran, and other Protestant
|-
| [[Delaware]] || 1682 || [[William Penn]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected the governor || Protestant
|}

The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of [[New York]], [[New Jersey]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[Delaware]], were characterized by a large degree of diversity—religious, political, economic, and ethnic. Many Dutch and Protestant Irish immigrants settled in these areas, as well as in [[Long Island]] and [[Connecticut]]. The Germans, called "[[Pennsylvania Dutch]]," were included in this emigration.

===Mid-Atlantic Region===
Unlike New England, the Mid-Atlantic Region gained much of its population from new immigration, and by 1750, the combined populations of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania had reached nearly 300,000 people. By 1750, about 60,000 [[Scots-Irish]] and 50,000 [[German Americans|Germans]] came to live in British North America, many of them settling in the Mid-Atlantic Region. [[William Penn]], the man who founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1682, attracted an influx of [[Quakers]] and other immigrants with his policies of religious liberty and freehold ownership. "Freehold" meant that farmers owned their land free and clear of leases. The first major influx of immigrants came mainly from Ireland and consisted of Scots-Irish [[Church of Scotland|Presbyterians]]. The second major immigration came with Germans trying to escape the religious conflicts and declining economic opportunities in Germany and Switzerland.

====Ways of life====
[[File:The Baptism of Pocahontas 1614.jpg|thumb|The Baptism of Pocahontas, 1614, Oil study for mural by John Gadsby Chapman, circa 1837-40.]]
Much of the architecture of the Middle Colonies reflects the diversity of its peoples. In Albany and New York City, a majority of the buildings were Dutch style with brick exteriors and high gables at each end while many Dutch churches were shaped liked an octagon. Using cut stone to build their houses, German and Welsh settlers in Pennsylvania followed the way of their homeland and completely ignored the plethora of timber in the area. Thus in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 80% of the buildings in the town were made entirely of stone. On the other hand, the Scots-Irish took advantage of America's ample supply of timber and constructed sturdy log cabins.

Ethnic cultures also effected the styles of furniture. Rural Quakers preferred simple designs in furnishings such as tables, chairs, chests and shunned elaborate decorations. However, some urban Quakers had much more elaborate furniture. The city of [[Philadelphia]] became a major center of furniture-making because of its massive wealth from Quaker and British merchants. Philadelphian cabinet makers built elegant desks and highboys. German artisans created intricate carved designs on their chests and other furniture with painted scenes of flowers and birds. German potters also crafted a large array of jugs, pots, and plates, of both elegant and traditional design.

There were ethnic differences in the treatment of women. Among Puritan settlers in New England, wives almost never worked in the fields with their husbands. In German communities in Pennsylvania, however, many women worked in fields and stables. German and Dutch immigrants granted women more control over property, which was not permitted in the local English law. Unlike English colonial wives, German and Dutch wives owned their own clothes and other items and were also given the ability to write wills disposing of the property brought into the marriage.

====Farming====
The Europeans brought entirely new animals, which transformed the landscape, such as hogs, cattle, horses, sheep and poulry. (The Indians already had dogs.) Ethnicity made a difference in agricultural practice. As an example, German farmers generally preferred oxen rather than horses to pull their plows and Scots-Irish made a farming economy based on hogs and corn. In Ireland, Scots-Irish farmed intensively, working small pieces of land trying to get the largest possible production-rate from their crops. In the American colonies, Scots-Irish focused on mixed-farming. Using this technique, they grew corn for human consumption and as feed for hogs and other livestock. Many improvement-minded farmers of all different backgrounds began using new agricultural practices to raise their output. During the 1750s, these agricultural innovators replaced the hand sickles and scythes used to harvest hay, wheat, and barley with the cradle scythe, a tool with wooden fingers that arranged the stalks of grain for easy collection. This tool was able to triple the amount of work down by farmers in one day. Farmers also began fertilizing their fields with dung and lime and rotating their crops to keep the soil fertile.

Before 1720, most colonists in the mid-Atlantic region worked with small-scale farming and paid for imported manufactures by supplying the West Indies with corn and flour. In New York, a fur-pelt export trade to Europe flourished adding additional wealth to the region. After 1720, mid-Atlantic farming stimulated with the international demand for wheat. A massive population explosion in Europe brought wheat prices up. By 1770, a bushel of wheat cost twice as much as it did in 1720. Farmers also expanded their production of flaxseed and wheat since flax was a high demand in the Irish linen industry and a demand for wheat for slaves existed in the West Indies.

Some immigrants who just arrived purchased farms and shared in this export wealth, but many poor German and Scots-Irish immigrants were forced to work as agricultural wage laborers. Merchants and artisans also hired these homeless workers for a domestic system for the manufacture of cloth and other goods. Merchants often bought wool and flax from farmers and employed newly arrived immigrants, who had been textile workers in Ireland and Germany, to work in their homes spinning the materials into yarn and cloth. Large farmers and merchants became wealthy, while farmers with smaller farms and artisans only made enough for subsistence. The Mid-Atlantic region, by 1750, was divided by both ethnic background and wealth.

====Seaports====
Seaports, which expanded from wheat trade, had more social classes than anywhere else in the Middle Colonies. By 1750, the population of Philadelphia had reached 25,000, New York 15,000, and the port of [[Baltimore]] 7,000. Merchants dominated seaport society and about 40 merchants controlled half of Philadelphia's trade. Wealthy merchants in Philadelphia and New York, like their counterparts in New England, built elegant Georgian-style mansions.

Shopkeepers, artisans, shipwrights, butchers, coopers (barrell makers), seamstresses, cobblers, bakers, carpenters, stonemasons, and many other specialized professions, made up the middle class of seaport society. Wives and husbands often worked as a team and taught their children their crafts to pass it on through the family. Many of these artisans and traders made enough money to create a modest life.

Laborers stood at the bottom of seaport society. These poor people worked on the docks unloading inbound vessels and loading outbound vessels with wheat, corn, and flaxseed. Many of these were African American; some were free while others were enslaved. In 1750, blacks made up about 10 percent of the population of New York and Philadelphia. Hundreds of seamen, some who were African American, worked as sailors on merchant ships.

== Southern Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Virginia]] || 1607 || [[John Smith]], settlers from [[Virginia Company of London]] || Tobacco || Governor appointed by king || [[Anglican]] Church was established
|-
| [[Maryland]] || 1634 || [[Lord Baltimore]] as a safe place for [[Catholicism|Catholics]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected by governor || Protestant and Catholic
|-
| [[North Carolina]] || 1654 || [[Virginia]] settlers || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[South Carolina]] || 1663 || [[English]] and other [[Europeans]] || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[Georgia]] || 1732 || [[James Oglethorpe]], brought [[English]] debtors to protect [[Georgia]] from the [[Spanish]] || Indigo, tobacco || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|}
The Southern Colonies were mainly dominated by the wealthy slave-owning planters in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. These planters owned massive estates that were worked by African slaves. Of the 650,000 inhabitants of the South in 1750, about 250,000 or 40 percent, were slaves. Planters used their wealth to dominate the local tenants and yeoman farmers. At election time, they gave these farmers gifts of rum and promised to lower taxes to take control of colonial legislatures.

===South: Chesapeake Bay area===
====Jamestown====
The first successful English colony was Jamestown, established in 1607, on a small river near Chesapeake Bay. The venture was financed and coordinated by the London Virginia Company, a joint stock company looking for gold. Its first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Indians, and little gold. The colony barely survived, by turning to tobacco as a cash crop. By the late 17th century Virginia's export economy was largely based on tobacco, and new, richer settlers came in to take up large portions of land, build large plantations and import indentured servants and slaves. In 1676 [[Bacon's Rebellion]] occurred, but was suppressed by royal officials. After Bacon's Rebellion, African slaves replaced English indentured servants as Virginia's main labor force. The indentured servants became independent farmers at age 21, and mostly became subsistence farmers.

The colonial assembly that had governed the colony since its establishment was dissolved but was reinstated in 1630. It shared power with a royally appointed governor. On a more local level, governmental power was invested in county [[court]]s and sheriffs, also not elected. Voters could vote for a member of House of Burgess.

As cash crop producers, Chesapeake plantations were heavily dependent on trade. With easy navigation by river, few towns and no cities developed; planters shipped directly to Britain. High death rates and a very young population profile characterized the colony during its first decades.

===Lower South===

The colonial South included the plantation colonies of the Chesapeake region (Virginia and Maryland) and the lower South (Carolina, which eventually split into North and South Carolina, and Georgia).

====Carolinas====
The first attempted English settlement south of Virginia was the Province of Carolina. It was a private venture, financed by a group of English businessmen calling themselves the "Lords Proprietors," who obtained a [[Royal Charter]] to the Carolinas in 1663, hoping that a new colony in the south would become profitable like that of Jamestown. Carolina was not settled until 1670, and even then the first attempt failed because there was no incentive for emigration to the south. However, eventually the Lords combined their remaining capital and financed a settlement mission to the area led by John West. The expedition located fertile and defensible ground at what was to become [[Charleston]] (originally Charles Town for King [[Charles II]], thus beginning the English colonization of the mainland. The original settlers in South Carolina established a lucrative trade in provisions, deerskins and Indian captives with the Caribbean islands. They came mainly from the English colony of [[Barbados]] and brought African slaves with them. Barbados, as a wealthy [[sugarcane]] plantation island, was one of the early English colonies to large numbers of Africans in plantation style agriculture. The cultivation of [[rice]] was introduced during the 1690s via Africans from the rice-growing regions of [[West Africa]]. North Carolina remained a frontier through the early colonial period.

At first, South Carolina was politically divided. Its ethnic makeup included the original settlers, a group of rich, slave-owning English settlers from the island of Barbados; and [[Huguenots]], a French-speaking community of Protestants. Nearly continuous frontier warfare during the era of [[King William's War]] and [[Queen Anne's War]] drove economic and political wedges between merchants and planters. The disaster of the [[Yamasee War]], in 1715, set off a decade of political turmoil. By 1729, the proprietary government had collapsed, and the Proprietors sold both colonies back to the British crown.

====Georgia====
[[James Oglethorpe]], an 18th century British [[Member of Parliament]], established [[Georgia]] as a common solution to two problems. British feared that Spanish Florida was threatening the British Carolinas. Oglethorpe established his colony in the contested border region of Georgia and populated it with the poor and debtors who would otherwise have been imprisoned. This plan would both rid Britain of its undesirable elements and provide her with a base from which to attack Florida. The first colonists arrived in 1733.

Oglethorpe established his colony on strict moralistic principles. Slavery was forbidden, as was alcohol. The colonists rejected any puritanical lifestyle and complained that their colony could not compete economically with the Carolina rice plantations. Georgia initially failed to prosper, but in 1752 the trustees turned over control of the colony to the royal government and the restrictions were lifted, slavery was allowed, and it became moderately prosperous.

===Plantations===
By the 1720s, a sew aspiring planters began to construct large Georgian-style mansions, wear bright red attire, and hunt deer from horseback. Wealthy women in the Southern colonies shared in the British culture and spent large sums on the latest fasions and furniture.

The wives of the plantation owners supervised the household slaves, handled medical services for all the slaves, and put on elaborate dinners and festive balls. These efforts were the most successful in South Carolina, where wealthy rice planters lived in townhouses in Charleston, a busy port city. Active social seasons flourished in the few towns, such as [[Annapolis, Maryland]], and on tobacco plantations in Virginia.

====Slaves====
The African slaves who worked on the indigo, tobacco, and rice fields in the South came mostly from the Caribbean sugar islands (plus a few who came directly from Africa). In 1700, there were about 9,600 slaves in the Chesapeake region and a few hundred in the Carolinas. About 170,000 more Africans arrived over the next five decades. By 1750, there were more than 250,000 slaves in British America; in South Carolina they made up about 60% of the total population. Very favorable food and health standards contributed to rapid population growth.

==Economy==
see also [[American economic history]]

[[File:Ec$1800.jpg|thumb|400px|Estimated income in constant 1840 dollars. Source: Alice Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980); Susan B. Carter et al. ''The Historical Statistics of the United States'' (2006) vol 3.]]
The great majority of people throughout the colonial era were farmers and their income was not cash but the value of the crops and animals produced on farms, and mostly consumed by the family. The estimates are based on inventories of estates when people died. Most people lived in poverty—with very few possessions such as a small stock of clothes, a shack to live in, a few household goods—and land and animals. In terms of wealth the per capita wealth of Americans in 1774 was £37.4 ($6700 in 2009 dollars); per adult male £172 ($30,700); and per white adult male £218 ($39,000).<ref>Alice Hanson Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980)</ref>

== Thirteen Colonies and the Ten Commandments ==

Dr. Kenyn Cureton indicates:
{{Cquote|Twelve of the original thirteen colonies adopted the entire [[Decalogue]] into their civil and criminal laws. While the lone hold-out, Rhode Island, did not adopt the first four Commandments, they did adopt the last six. Surveying the organic development of law, former Chief Justice William Rehnquist forcefully argued: “It is… undeniable… that the Ten Commandments have had a significant impact on the development of secular legal codes of the Western World.<ref>[https://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF10I86.pdf Ten Commandments: Foundation of American Society] by Dr. Kenyn Cureton</ref>}}
all commandments derive there authority from god regardless if its all ten of them or just the last six that rohde island adopted the only diffrence is rohde island was the only
colony that did not adopt the first four only the ones proposed by roger williams founder of the baptist church in america

rohde island was the only colony to adopt the last six of the ten commandments without the first four roger williams faced critisism but regardless
even the last six of the commandments still derive there authority from god just like the first four of the ten commandments
and the last six do not just carry a religious bases to them they also are a seclaur standpoint as well
1.Do not kill, 2.Do not steal, 3.Do not bear false witness, 4.Defraud not, 5.Honour thy father and mother. 6.Do not commit adultery
these last six derive there authority from god the first four deal with our relationship with god along with the last six of
the ten commandments however the last six deal with our relationship with god and man the first four deal only with our relationship
with god

in the old testament james madison got the idea of the three seperate branches of government from isisah 33:22 this would be
moses the seventy and the judges well still being three into one god moses gave the name of god as yahweh the son as yeshua
the holy spirit is the third member of the godhead and god placed dinasours on the earth first before adam and eve moses came along later
after eve

==Literature==
Colonial American literature is perhaps the most vibrant field in American literary studies today. In the last decade an explosion of anthologies designed to make widely available a broad range of non-canonical writings produced in and about Great Britain's colonies in the Western hemisphere has provided teachers and scholars with important new tools. The explosion has been driven partly by the identity-based recuperation movements of the 1970s and 1980s, partly by a new awareness of the importance of texts circulated in manuscript or newspapers rather than in book form, and partly by dissatisfaction with the predominant Puritan origins narrative and a swelling interest in transnationalism. New anthologies include Myra Jehlen and Michael Warner's ''The English Literatures of America, 1580–1800'' (Routledge, 1996), Vincent Carretta's ''Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century'' (Lexington, Ky., 1996), Sharon M. Harris's ''Early American Women Writers to 1800'' (Oxford, 1996), and ''Thomas W. Krise's Caribbeana: An Anthology of English Literature of the West Indies, 1657–1777'' (Chicago, 1999), Susan Castillo and Ivy Schweitzer, ''The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology'' (Oxford, 2001) Carla Muford's ''Early American Writings'' (Oxford 2002), and Susan Castillo's, ''Colonial Encounters in New World Writing, 1500–1786: Performing America'' (Routledge, 2006). Add in the University of Massachusetts Press series on native writers and scholars have made readily available a vast array of once obscure English-language works. Some of these new volumes represent an effort by colonialists to catch up to the rest of the field of Americanist scholarship, providing the pre-literary history to contemporary Caribbean or African American literature. In an important sense, however, colonialists occupy a unique position among Americanists. At a moment when many scholars are rejecting nationalist narratives of literary history, which they view as the intellectual equivalent of isolationism in a world increasingly committed to globalization, students of colonial American literature rightly claim a pre-national vantage point. A transnational approach to colonial literature has the attractive features of being both intellectually sound and trendy.<ref>Sandra M. Gustafson, "The Americas in Writing," ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 2003 60(1): 207-213. ISSN: 0043-5597
Fulltext: [[History Cooperative]]</ref>

==Unification of the 13 colonies==
===A common defense===
One event that reminded colonists of their shared identity as British subjects was the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] (1740-1748) in Europe. This conflict spilled over into the colonies, where it was known as "King George's War"; most of the fighting took place in Europe, British colonial troops attacked French Canada.

At the [[Albany Congress]] of 1754, [[Benjamin Franklin]] proposed that the colonies be united by a Grand Council overseeing a common policy for defense, expansion, and Indian affairs. While the plan was thwarted by colonial legislatures and King [[George II]], it was an early indication that the British colonies of North America were headed towards unification. Franklin did not give up; more than anyone, he invented the idea of a United States of America.

===Great Awakening===
{{main|First Great Awakening}}
One event that began to unify the religious background of the colonies was the [[First Great Awakening]], a Protestant revival movement that took place in the 1730s and 1740s. It began with [[Jonathan Edwards]], a Massachusetts preacher who sought to return to the Pilgrims' strict [[Calvinist]] roots and to reawaken the "Fear of God". Edwards was a powerful speaker and attracted a large following with sermons such as "[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]". English preacher [[George Whitefield]] and other itinerant preachers continued the movement, traveling across the colonies and preaching in a dramatic and emotional style.

Followers of Edwards and other preachers of similar religiosity called themselves the "New Lights," as contrasted with the "Old Lights", who disapproved of their movement. To promote their viewpoints, the two sides established academies and colleges including [[Princeton University|Princeton]] and [[Williams College]]. The Great Awakening has been called the first truly "American" event, and as such represented at least a small step towards the unification of the colonies.

A similar pietistic movement took place among some of the German and Dutch Lutherans, leading to internal dvisions. By the 1770s the Baptists were growing rapidly both in the north (where they founded [[Brown University]], and in the South where they challenged the previously unquestioned moral authority of the Anglican establishment.

===French and Indian War===
[[Image:WashingtonFIwar.jpg|thumb|250px|[[George Washington]] during the French and Indian War]]
{{main|French and Indian War}}
The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the [[Seven Years' War]].

The war is called the ''French and Indian'' because the [[Iroquois]] confederacy—which had been playing the British and the French against each other successfully for decades fought on both sides. The French were defeated and in the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)]], France surrendered its vast North American empire to Britain.

The French and Indian war took on a new significance for the North American colonists in Great Britain when [[William Pitt the elder]] decided that it was necessary to win the war against France at all costs. For the first time, North America was one of the main theatres of what could be termed a "world war". During the war, the status of all the British Colonies (including the thirteen colonies) as part of the British Empire was made truly apparent, as British military and civilian officials took on an increased presence in the lives of Americans. The war also increased a sense of American unity in other ways. It caused men, who might normally have never left their colonies, to travel across the continent, fighting alongside men from decidedly different, yet still "American," backgrounds. Throughout the course of the war, British officers trained American ones (most notably [[George Washington]]) for battle which would later benefit the American Revolution. Also, state legislatures and officials had to cooperate intensively, for arguably the first time, in pursuit of the continent-wide military effort.

The British and colonists triumphed jointly over a common foe. The colonists' loyalty to the mother country was stronger than ever before. The war produced prosperity, as royal officials hired American troops and sent in well paid British troops. The French were defeated, and the British took Canada. Most important, the military threat from any foreign power ended, and the colonies no longer needed the protection of the Royal Navy. The British army handled Indian affairs on the frontier, so Indians were no longer a major threat to the Americans.

===Ties to the British Empire===
Although the colonies were very different from one another, they were still a part of the [[British Empire]] and each looked to London for leadership. military protection, and trade.

The political institutions of the colonies were originally patterned after English models, but by the 1760s there was a very different tone. Americans ignored the Royal Court and paid attention to the "country" party in Britain which was opposed to the Court; this was the origin of [[republicanism]] which increasingly dominated American political values.

The codes of law of the colonies were drawn directly from English common law, which was carefully studied by the hundreds of lawyers in the colonies.<ref>Scotland had a different legal system which did not carry over to the colonies.</ref> Eventually, it was a dispute over the meaning of the English Constitution and the rights of Englishmen that animated a new generation after 1760 to demand respect for their historic rights as Englishmen.

Another point on which the colonies found themselves more similar than different was the booming import of British goods by international merchants based in American seaports. Socially, the colonial elite imitated British styles of luxurious consumption, dress, dance, and etiquette. This social upper echelon built its mansions in the Georgian style (named after King George), copied the furniture designs of [[Thomas Chippendale]], and participated in the intellectual currents of Europe, such as [[Enlightenment]]. To many of their inhabitants, the seaport cities of colonial America were truly British cities. The British economy had begun to grow rapidly at the end of the 17th century, and by the mid-18th century, small factories in Britain were producing much more than the nation could consume. Finding a market for their goods in the British colonies of North America, Britain increased her exports to that region by 360% between 1740 and 1770. Because British merchants offered generous credit to their customers, Americans began buying staggering amounts of English goods. Economic integration across the Atlantic was more and more a reality, as the economy of each colony matured and was more involved in oceanic trade.

==From unity to revolution==
===Royal Proclamation===
The general sentiment of inequity that arose soon after the [[Treaty of Paris]] of 1763 was solidified by the [[Proclamation of 1763]], which temporarily prohibited settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. Colonists resented the measure, and it was never enforced.

===Acts of Parliament===

Parliament had generally been preoccupied with affairs in Europe and let the colonies govern themselves. It was no longer willing to do so. A series of measures resulting from this policy change, while affecting the New England colonies most directly would continue to arouse opposition in the 'thirteen colonies' over the next thirteen years, leading to the [[American Revolution]]:
*[[Sugar Act]] (1764)
*[[Stamp Act of 1765]]
* First [[Quartering Act]] (1765)
*[[Declaratory Act]] (1766)
*[[Townshend Acts]] (1767)
*[[Boston Tea Party|Tea Act]] (1773)
* The [[Intolerable Acts]], also called the ''Coercive'' or ''Punitive'' Acts
** Second [[Quartering Act]] (1774)
**[[Quebec Act]] (1774)
**[[Massachusetts Government Act]] (1774)
**[[Administration of Justice Act]] (1774)
**[[Boston Port Act]] (1774)
*[[Prohibitory Act]] (1776)

Following the official act of Independence, the colonies were known as the "United Colonies". On September 9th, 1776, the [[Continental Congress]] voted to change the name of the country to the "United States of America".

==See also==
* [[Colonial military history]]
==Bibliography==
===References===
* Cooke, Jacob Ernest, ed. ''Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies'' (3 vol 1993), comprehensive coverage with Spanish, French and Dutch receiving equal attention with British
===Scholarly secondary sources===
* Adams, James Truslow. ''The Founding of New England,'' (1921)[http://www.dinsdoc.com/adams-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Anderson, Virginia DeJohn. ''Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America'' (2005) [https://www.amazon.com/Creatures-Empire-Domestic-Animals-Transformed/dp/0195304462/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-11 excerpt and text search]
* Andrews, Charles M. "Colonial Commerce," ''American Historical Review,'' 20#1 (October 1914) pp. 43–63 [http://www.dinsdoc.com/andrews-1.htm online]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Our Earliest Colonial Settlements: Their Diversities of Origin and Later Characteristics'' (1933) briefly discusses Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6552109 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Colonial Self-Government, 1652-1689.. (1904) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=55413362 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''The Colonial Period of American History,'' (1934-38) (the standard overview in four volumes) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/a/acls/browse.html online at ACLS e-books]
* Bailyn, Bernard. ''Voyagers to the West: a passage in the peopling of America on the eve of the Revolution'' (1986), winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History
* Bancroft, George. ''History of the United States of America, from the discovery of the American continent. '' 10 vol (1860) [http://jrshelby.com/sc-links/bancroft.htm online editions]
* Beer, George Louis. "British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' vol 22 (March 1907) pp 1-48; [http://dinsdoc.com/beer-1.htm online edition]
* Beeman, Richard R. "The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America'' (2006) [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0812219775/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search]
* Berkin, Carol. ''First Generations: Women in Colonial America'' (1997) 276pp [https://www.amazon.com/First-Generations-Women-Colonial-America/dp/0809016060/ref=sid_dp_dp/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America'' (1988) (online at [[American Council of Learned Societies|ACLS]] History e-book project)
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''A Factious People: Politics and Society in Colonial New York,'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98025896 online edition]
* Brown, Kathleen M. ''Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia'' (1996) 512pp [https://www.amazon.com/Wives-Nasty-Wenches-Anxious-Patriarchs/dp/0807846236/ref=pd_sim_b_shvl_title_17/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bruce, Philip A. ''Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Material Condition of the People, Based on Original and Contemporaneous Records.'' (1896), very old fashioned history [http://www.dinsdoc.com/bruce-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Carr, Lois Green and Philip D. Morgan. ''Colonial Chesapeake Society'' (1991), 524pp [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Chesapeake-Society-Lois-Green/dp/0807843431/ref=sip_rech_dp_3/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Crane, Verner W. ''The Southern Frontier, 1670-1732,'' (1920), [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=28187303 online edition]
* Crane, Verner W. "The Southern Frontier in Queen Anne’s War," ''American Historical Review'' vol 24, (April 1919) pp 379-95. [http://dinsdoc.com/crane-1.htm online edition]
* Gallay, Alan, ed. ''Colonial Wars of North America, 1512-1763: An Encyclopedia'' (1996) [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Wars-North-America-1512-1763/dp/0824072081/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263942660&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Gipson, Lawrence. ''The British Empire Before the American Revolution'' (15 volumes) (1936-1970), Pulitzer Prize; highly detailed discussion of every British colony in the New World
* Greene, Evarts Boutelle. ''Provincial America, 1690-1740,'' (1935) survey by scholar [http://www.dinsdoc.com/greene-3-0a.htm online edition]
* Hatfield, April Lee. ''Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century'' (2007) [https://www.amazon.com/Atlantic-Virginia-Intercolonial-Relations-Seventeenth/dp/081221997X/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-8 excerpt and text search]
* Illick, Joseph E. ''Colonial Pennsylvania: A History,'' (1976) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/colonial-pennsylvania-a-history-by-joseph-e-illick.jsp online edition]
* Kammen, Michael. ''Colonial New York: A History,'' (2003)
* Labaree, Benjamin Woods. ''Colonial Massachusetts: A History,'' (1979)
* Kulikoff, Allan. ''From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers'' (2000) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/from-british-peasants-to-colonial-american-farmers-by-allan-kulikoff.jsp online edition]
* Middleton, Richard. ''Colonial America: A History, 1565-1776'' (3rd ed 2002), 576pp [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-America-History-1565-1776/dp/0631221417/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Morgan, Edmund S. ''American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia'' (1975) Pulitzer Prize [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101062594 online edition]
* Osgood, Herbert L. ''The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century.'' 3 vol (1904-07) [http://dinsdoc.com/osgood-8-0a.htm online edition]
* Tate, Thad W. ''Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century'' (1980) [https://www.amazon.com/Chesapeake-Seventeenth-Century-Thad-Tate/dp/0393009564/ref=sr_1_23/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998781&sr=1-23 excerpt and text search]
* Taylor, Alan. ''American Colonies,'' (2001) survey by leading scholar [https://www.amazon.com/American-Colonies-Settling-America-Penguin/dp/0142002100/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]
* Vickers, Daniel, ed. ''A Companion to Colonial America.'' 2003. 576 pp.

===Primary sources===
* Kavenagh, W. Keith, ed. ''Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History'' (1973) 4 vol.
* Miller, Kerby A., et al eds. ''Irish immigrants in the land of Canaan: letters and memoirs from colonial and revolutionary America, 1675-1815'' (2004) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;cc=acls;q1=United%20States%20--%20History%20--%20Colonial%20period%2C%20ca.%201600-1775%20--%20Biography;rgn=subject;view=toc;idno=heb90012.0001.001 online at ACLS e-books]
===Online sources===
*[http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/colonial.htm Colonial America 1600-1775, K12 Resources]
*[http://earlyamerica.com/ Archiving Early America]
*[http://www.dinsdoc.com/colonial-3.htm ''Classics of American Colonial History'' complete text of older scholarly articles]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Colonial America]]
[[Category:British Empire]]
[[Category:Indian Wars]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:New England]]
[[Category:Massachusetts]]
[[Category:New Hampshire]]
[[Category:Rhode Island]]
[[Category:Connecticut]]
[[Category:New York]]
[[Category:Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:New Jersey]]
[[Category:Delaware]]
[[Category:Maryland]]
[[Category:Virginia]]
[[Category:North Carolina]]
[[Category:South Carolina]]
[[Category:Georgia]]

Thirteen Colonies

2021-07-26T05:52:04Z

Stephenkollenborners: thirteen colonies

The '''thirteen colonies''' were the [[British]] colonies that formed the [[United States]]. They were: [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[Rhode Island]], [[Connecticut]], [[New York]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[New Jersey]], [[Delaware]], [[Maryland]], [[Virginia]], [[North Carolina]], [[South Carolina]], and [[Georgia]]. On July 4, 1776, they became states and formed a new nation, the '''United States of America.'''
[[Image:1742map.jpg|thumb|400px]]
[[Image:Pop1750.jpg|thumb|400px]]
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
== New England Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Massachusetts]] || 1620 || [[Pilgrims]], led by [[William Bradford]] || Shipbuilding, fish, lumber || Governor appointed by king || established [[Puritan]] Church (after 1700 called Congregationalist);
|-
| [[Rhode Island]] || 1636 || [[Roger Williams]], for religious reasons left [[Massachusetts]] || Lumber, fish. || Elected by colonists. || Complete [[religious freedom]] for all- [[Anglican]] ([[Episcopalian]]), [[Baptist]], Quakers and other Protestants
|-
| [[Connecticut]] || 1636 || [[Thomas Hooker]], who led a group from [[Massachusetts]] who wanted [[limited government|less government]] || Shipbuilding, lumber, fish || Elected by colonists || Congregationalist Church was established
|-
| [[New Hampshire]] || 1623 || Colonists who left Massachusetts for political and religious reasons || Molasses, fish || Governor appointed by king || Congregationalist
|}

==New England==
{{main|New England}}
The [[Plymouth Colony]], now part of Massachusetts, was founded by the [[Pilgrims]], a small [[Puritans|Puritan]] sect based in [[England]] and the [[Netherlands]]. One group sailed on the ''[[Mayflower]]''. They drew up the [[Mayflower Compact]] by which they gave themselves broad powers of self-governance and introduced [[democracy]] into America. They established the small Plymouth Colony in 1620 and later merged with the Massachusetts Bay colony. [[William Bradford]] (1590-1657) was the main leader.
===Puritans===
{{main|Puritans}}
The Puritans, a much larger group than the Pilgrims, established the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in 1629 with 400 settlers. This group was the Puritans who sought to reform the [[Church of England]] by creating a new, pure church in the New World. Within two years, an additional 2,000 arrived. The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit and politically innovative culture that still lingers on in the modern United States. They hoped this new land would serve as a "redeemer nation." Seeking the true religion, they fled England and in America created a "nation of saints" or the "[[City upon a hill]]," an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community designed to be an example for all of Europe. [[Roger Williams (theologian)|Roger Williams]], who preached religious toleration, [[separation of church and state]], and a complete break with the Church of England, was banished and founded [[Rhode Island|Rhode Island Colony]], which became a haven for other religious refugees from the Puritan community, including [[Anne Hutchinson]], a preacher of [[Antinomianism]].

Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of its founders. Unlike the cash-crop oriented plantations of the Chesapeake region, the Puritan economy was based on the efforts of individual farmers, who harvested enough crops to feed themselves and their families and a surplus to trade for goods they could not produce themselves. There was a generally higher standard of living in New England than in the Chesapeake. Along with farming growth, New England became an important mercantile and shipbuilding center, often serving as the hub for trading between the South and Europe.

== Middle Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[New York]] || 1626 || [[Dutch]]; English in 1664 || Shipbuilding and trade || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], and other Protestants
|-
| [[New Jersey]] || 1664 || [[Swedish]] and [[Dutch]]; In 1664 [[Sir George Carteret]] and [[Lord John Berkeley]] were given the land by the English Duke of York || Oats, wheat, rye || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], [[Quaker]], others
|-
| [[Pennsylvania]] || 1681 || [[William Penn]] as a safe place for [[Quakers]] || Trade and Shipbuilding || Proprietor selected the governor || [[Quaker]] Lutheran, and other Protestant
|-
| [[Delaware]] || 1682 || [[William Penn]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected the governor || Protestant
|}

The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of [[New York]], [[New Jersey]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[Delaware]], were characterized by a large degree of diversity—religious, political, economic, and ethnic. Many Dutch and Protestant Irish immigrants settled in these areas, as well as in [[Long Island]] and [[Connecticut]]. The Germans, called "[[Pennsylvania Dutch]]," were included in this emigration.

===Mid-Atlantic Region===
Unlike New England, the Mid-Atlantic Region gained much of its population from new immigration, and by 1750, the combined populations of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania had reached nearly 300,000 people. By 1750, about 60,000 [[Scots-Irish]] and 50,000 [[German Americans|Germans]] came to live in British North America, many of them settling in the Mid-Atlantic Region. [[William Penn]], the man who founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1682, attracted an influx of [[Quakers]] and other immigrants with his policies of religious liberty and freehold ownership. "Freehold" meant that farmers owned their land free and clear of leases. The first major influx of immigrants came mainly from Ireland and consisted of Scots-Irish [[Church of Scotland|Presbyterians]]. The second major immigration came with Germans trying to escape the religious conflicts and declining economic opportunities in Germany and Switzerland.

====Ways of life====
[[File:The Baptism of Pocahontas 1614.jpg|thumb|The Baptism of Pocahontas, 1614, Oil study for mural by John Gadsby Chapman, circa 1837-40.]]
Much of the architecture of the Middle Colonies reflects the diversity of its peoples. In Albany and New York City, a majority of the buildings were Dutch style with brick exteriors and high gables at each end while many Dutch churches were shaped liked an octagon. Using cut stone to build their houses, German and Welsh settlers in Pennsylvania followed the way of their homeland and completely ignored the plethora of timber in the area. Thus in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 80% of the buildings in the town were made entirely of stone. On the other hand, the Scots-Irish took advantage of America's ample supply of timber and constructed sturdy log cabins.

Ethnic cultures also effected the styles of furniture. Rural Quakers preferred simple designs in furnishings such as tables, chairs, chests and shunned elaborate decorations. However, some urban Quakers had much more elaborate furniture. The city of [[Philadelphia]] became a major center of furniture-making because of its massive wealth from Quaker and British merchants. Philadelphian cabinet makers built elegant desks and highboys. German artisans created intricate carved designs on their chests and other furniture with painted scenes of flowers and birds. German potters also crafted a large array of jugs, pots, and plates, of both elegant and traditional design.

There were ethnic differences in the treatment of women. Among Puritan settlers in New England, wives almost never worked in the fields with their husbands. In German communities in Pennsylvania, however, many women worked in fields and stables. German and Dutch immigrants granted women more control over property, which was not permitted in the local English law. Unlike English colonial wives, German and Dutch wives owned their own clothes and other items and were also given the ability to write wills disposing of the property brought into the marriage.

====Farming====
The Europeans brought entirely new animals, which transformed the landscape, such as hogs, cattle, horses, sheep and poulry. (The Indians already had dogs.) Ethnicity made a difference in agricultural practice. As an example, German farmers generally preferred oxen rather than horses to pull their plows and Scots-Irish made a farming economy based on hogs and corn. In Ireland, Scots-Irish farmed intensively, working small pieces of land trying to get the largest possible production-rate from their crops. In the American colonies, Scots-Irish focused on mixed-farming. Using this technique, they grew corn for human consumption and as feed for hogs and other livestock. Many improvement-minded farmers of all different backgrounds began using new agricultural practices to raise their output. During the 1750s, these agricultural innovators replaced the hand sickles and scythes used to harvest hay, wheat, and barley with the cradle scythe, a tool with wooden fingers that arranged the stalks of grain for easy collection. This tool was able to triple the amount of work down by farmers in one day. Farmers also began fertilizing their fields with dung and lime and rotating their crops to keep the soil fertile.

Before 1720, most colonists in the mid-Atlantic region worked with small-scale farming and paid for imported manufactures by supplying the West Indies with corn and flour. In New York, a fur-pelt export trade to Europe flourished adding additional wealth to the region. After 1720, mid-Atlantic farming stimulated with the international demand for wheat. A massive population explosion in Europe brought wheat prices up. By 1770, a bushel of wheat cost twice as much as it did in 1720. Farmers also expanded their production of flaxseed and wheat since flax was a high demand in the Irish linen industry and a demand for wheat for slaves existed in the West Indies.

Some immigrants who just arrived purchased farms and shared in this export wealth, but many poor German and Scots-Irish immigrants were forced to work as agricultural wage laborers. Merchants and artisans also hired these homeless workers for a domestic system for the manufacture of cloth and other goods. Merchants often bought wool and flax from farmers and employed newly arrived immigrants, who had been textile workers in Ireland and Germany, to work in their homes spinning the materials into yarn and cloth. Large farmers and merchants became wealthy, while farmers with smaller farms and artisans only made enough for subsistence. The Mid-Atlantic region, by 1750, was divided by both ethnic background and wealth.

====Seaports====
Seaports, which expanded from wheat trade, had more social classes than anywhere else in the Middle Colonies. By 1750, the population of Philadelphia had reached 25,000, New York 15,000, and the port of [[Baltimore]] 7,000. Merchants dominated seaport society and about 40 merchants controlled half of Philadelphia's trade. Wealthy merchants in Philadelphia and New York, like their counterparts in New England, built elegant Georgian-style mansions.

Shopkeepers, artisans, shipwrights, butchers, coopers (barrell makers), seamstresses, cobblers, bakers, carpenters, stonemasons, and many other specialized professions, made up the middle class of seaport society. Wives and husbands often worked as a team and taught their children their crafts to pass it on through the family. Many of these artisans and traders made enough money to create a modest life.

Laborers stood at the bottom of seaport society. These poor people worked on the docks unloading inbound vessels and loading outbound vessels with wheat, corn, and flaxseed. Many of these were African American; some were free while others were enslaved. In 1750, blacks made up about 10 percent of the population of New York and Philadelphia. Hundreds of seamen, some who were African American, worked as sailors on merchant ships.

== Southern Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Virginia]] || 1607 || [[John Smith]], settlers from [[Virginia Company of London]] || Tobacco || Governor appointed by king || [[Anglican]] Church was established
|-
| [[Maryland]] || 1634 || [[Lord Baltimore]] as a safe place for [[Catholicism|Catholics]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected by governor || Protestant and Catholic
|-
| [[North Carolina]] || 1654 || [[Virginia]] settlers || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[South Carolina]] || 1663 || [[English]] and other [[Europeans]] || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[Georgia]] || 1732 || [[James Oglethorpe]], brought [[English]] debtors to protect [[Georgia]] from the [[Spanish]] || Indigo, tobacco || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|}
The Southern Colonies were mainly dominated by the wealthy slave-owning planters in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. These planters owned massive estates that were worked by African slaves. Of the 650,000 inhabitants of the South in 1750, about 250,000 or 40 percent, were slaves. Planters used their wealth to dominate the local tenants and yeoman farmers. At election time, they gave these farmers gifts of rum and promised to lower taxes to take control of colonial legislatures.

===South: Chesapeake Bay area===
====Jamestown====
The first successful English colony was Jamestown, established in 1607, on a small river near Chesapeake Bay. The venture was financed and coordinated by the London Virginia Company, a joint stock company looking for gold. Its first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Indians, and little gold. The colony barely survived, by turning to tobacco as a cash crop. By the late 17th century Virginia's export economy was largely based on tobacco, and new, richer settlers came in to take up large portions of land, build large plantations and import indentured servants and slaves. In 1676 [[Bacon's Rebellion]] occurred, but was suppressed by royal officials. After Bacon's Rebellion, African slaves replaced English indentured servants as Virginia's main labor force. The indentured servants became independent farmers at age 21, and mostly became subsistence farmers.

The colonial assembly that had governed the colony since its establishment was dissolved but was reinstated in 1630. It shared power with a royally appointed governor. On a more local level, governmental power was invested in county [[court]]s and sheriffs, also not elected. Voters could vote for a member of House of Burgess.

As cash crop producers, Chesapeake plantations were heavily dependent on trade. With easy navigation by river, few towns and no cities developed; planters shipped directly to Britain. High death rates and a very young population profile characterized the colony during its first decades.

===Lower South===

The colonial South included the plantation colonies of the Chesapeake region (Virginia and Maryland) and the lower South (Carolina, which eventually split into North and South Carolina, and Georgia).

====Carolinas====
The first attempted English settlement south of Virginia was the Province of Carolina. It was a private venture, financed by a group of English businessmen calling themselves the "Lords Proprietors," who obtained a [[Royal Charter]] to the Carolinas in 1663, hoping that a new colony in the south would become profitable like that of Jamestown. Carolina was not settled until 1670, and even then the first attempt failed because there was no incentive for emigration to the south. However, eventually the Lords combined their remaining capital and financed a settlement mission to the area led by John West. The expedition located fertile and defensible ground at what was to become [[Charleston]] (originally Charles Town for King [[Charles II]], thus beginning the English colonization of the mainland. The original settlers in South Carolina established a lucrative trade in provisions, deerskins and Indian captives with the Caribbean islands. They came mainly from the English colony of [[Barbados]] and brought African slaves with them. Barbados, as a wealthy [[sugarcane]] plantation island, was one of the early English colonies to large numbers of Africans in plantation style agriculture. The cultivation of [[rice]] was introduced during the 1690s via Africans from the rice-growing regions of [[West Africa]]. North Carolina remained a frontier through the early colonial period.

At first, South Carolina was politically divided. Its ethnic makeup included the original settlers, a group of rich, slave-owning English settlers from the island of Barbados; and [[Huguenots]], a French-speaking community of Protestants. Nearly continuous frontier warfare during the era of [[King William's War]] and [[Queen Anne's War]] drove economic and political wedges between merchants and planters. The disaster of the [[Yamasee War]], in 1715, set off a decade of political turmoil. By 1729, the proprietary government had collapsed, and the Proprietors sold both colonies back to the British crown.

====Georgia====
[[James Oglethorpe]], an 18th century British [[Member of Parliament]], established [[Georgia]] as a common solution to two problems. British feared that Spanish Florida was threatening the British Carolinas. Oglethorpe established his colony in the contested border region of Georgia and populated it with the poor and debtors who would otherwise have been imprisoned. This plan would both rid Britain of its undesirable elements and provide her with a base from which to attack Florida. The first colonists arrived in 1733.

Oglethorpe established his colony on strict moralistic principles. Slavery was forbidden, as was alcohol. The colonists rejected any puritanical lifestyle and complained that their colony could not compete economically with the Carolina rice plantations. Georgia initially failed to prosper, but in 1752 the trustees turned over control of the colony to the royal government and the restrictions were lifted, slavery was allowed, and it became moderately prosperous.

===Plantations===
By the 1720s, a sew aspiring planters began to construct large Georgian-style mansions, wear bright red attire, and hunt deer from horseback. Wealthy women in the Southern colonies shared in the British culture and spent large sums on the latest fasions and furniture.

The wives of the plantation owners supervised the household slaves, handled medical services for all the slaves, and put on elaborate dinners and festive balls. These efforts were the most successful in South Carolina, where wealthy rice planters lived in townhouses in Charleston, a busy port city. Active social seasons flourished in the few towns, such as [[Annapolis, Maryland]], and on tobacco plantations in Virginia.

====Slaves====
The African slaves who worked on the indigo, tobacco, and rice fields in the South came mostly from the Caribbean sugar islands (plus a few who came directly from Africa). In 1700, there were about 9,600 slaves in the Chesapeake region and a few hundred in the Carolinas. About 170,000 more Africans arrived over the next five decades. By 1750, there were more than 250,000 slaves in British America; in South Carolina they made up about 60% of the total population. Very favorable food and health standards contributed to rapid population growth.

==Economy==
see also [[American economic history]]

[[File:Ec$1800.jpg|thumb|400px|Estimated income in constant 1840 dollars. Source: Alice Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980); Susan B. Carter et al. ''The Historical Statistics of the United States'' (2006) vol 3.]]
The great majority of people throughout the colonial era were farmers and their income was not cash but the value of the crops and animals produced on farms, and mostly consumed by the family. The estimates are based on inventories of estates when people died. Most people lived in poverty—with very few possessions such as a small stock of clothes, a shack to live in, a few household goods—and land and animals. In terms of wealth the per capita wealth of Americans in 1774 was £37.4 ($6700 in 2009 dollars); per adult male £172 ($30,700); and per white adult male £218 ($39,000).<ref>Alice Hanson Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980)</ref>

== Thirteen Colonies and the Ten Commandments ==

Dr. Kenyn Cureton indicates:
{{Cquote|Twelve of the original thirteen colonies adopted the entire [[Decalogue]] into their civil and criminal laws. While the lone hold-out, Rhode Island, did not adopt the first four Commandments, they did adopt the last six. Surveying the organic development of law, former Chief Justice William Rehnquist forcefully argued: “It is… undeniable… that the Ten Commandments have had a significant impact on the development of secular legal codes of the Western World.<ref>[https://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF10I86.pdf Ten Commandments: Foundation of American Society] by Dr. Kenyn Cureton</ref>}}
all commandments derive there authority from god regardless if its all ten of them or just the last six that rohde island adopted the only diffrence is rohde island was the only
colony that did not adopt the first four only the ones proposed by roger williams founder of the baptist church in america

rohde island was the only colony to adopt the last six of the ten commandments without the first four roger williams faced critisism but regardless
even the last six of the commandments still derive there authority from god just like the first four of the ten commandments

==Literature==
Colonial American literature is perhaps the most vibrant field in American literary studies today. In the last decade an explosion of anthologies designed to make widely available a broad range of non-canonical writings produced in and about Great Britain's colonies in the Western hemisphere has provided teachers and scholars with important new tools. The explosion has been driven partly by the identity-based recuperation movements of the 1970s and 1980s, partly by a new awareness of the importance of texts circulated in manuscript or newspapers rather than in book form, and partly by dissatisfaction with the predominant Puritan origins narrative and a swelling interest in transnationalism. New anthologies include Myra Jehlen and Michael Warner's ''The English Literatures of America, 1580–1800'' (Routledge, 1996), Vincent Carretta's ''Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century'' (Lexington, Ky., 1996), Sharon M. Harris's ''Early American Women Writers to 1800'' (Oxford, 1996), and ''Thomas W. Krise's Caribbeana: An Anthology of English Literature of the West Indies, 1657–1777'' (Chicago, 1999), Susan Castillo and Ivy Schweitzer, ''The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology'' (Oxford, 2001) Carla Muford's ''Early American Writings'' (Oxford 2002), and Susan Castillo's, ''Colonial Encounters in New World Writing, 1500–1786: Performing America'' (Routledge, 2006). Add in the University of Massachusetts Press series on native writers and scholars have made readily available a vast array of once obscure English-language works. Some of these new volumes represent an effort by colonialists to catch up to the rest of the field of Americanist scholarship, providing the pre-literary history to contemporary Caribbean or African American literature. In an important sense, however, colonialists occupy a unique position among Americanists. At a moment when many scholars are rejecting nationalist narratives of literary history, which they view as the intellectual equivalent of isolationism in a world increasingly committed to globalization, students of colonial American literature rightly claim a pre-national vantage point. A transnational approach to colonial literature has the attractive features of being both intellectually sound and trendy.<ref>Sandra M. Gustafson, "The Americas in Writing," ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 2003 60(1): 207-213. ISSN: 0043-5597
Fulltext: [[History Cooperative]]</ref>

==Unification of the 13 colonies==
===A common defense===
One event that reminded colonists of their shared identity as British subjects was the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] (1740-1748) in Europe. This conflict spilled over into the colonies, where it was known as "King George's War"; most of the fighting took place in Europe, British colonial troops attacked French Canada.

At the [[Albany Congress]] of 1754, [[Benjamin Franklin]] proposed that the colonies be united by a Grand Council overseeing a common policy for defense, expansion, and Indian affairs. While the plan was thwarted by colonial legislatures and King [[George II]], it was an early indication that the British colonies of North America were headed towards unification. Franklin did not give up; more than anyone, he invented the idea of a United States of America.

===Great Awakening===
{{main|First Great Awakening}}
One event that began to unify the religious background of the colonies was the [[First Great Awakening]], a Protestant revival movement that took place in the 1730s and 1740s. It began with [[Jonathan Edwards]], a Massachusetts preacher who sought to return to the Pilgrims' strict [[Calvinist]] roots and to reawaken the "Fear of God". Edwards was a powerful speaker and attracted a large following with sermons such as "[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]". English preacher [[George Whitefield]] and other itinerant preachers continued the movement, traveling across the colonies and preaching in a dramatic and emotional style.

Followers of Edwards and other preachers of similar religiosity called themselves the "New Lights," as contrasted with the "Old Lights", who disapproved of their movement. To promote their viewpoints, the two sides established academies and colleges including [[Princeton University|Princeton]] and [[Williams College]]. The Great Awakening has been called the first truly "American" event, and as such represented at least a small step towards the unification of the colonies.

A similar pietistic movement took place among some of the German and Dutch Lutherans, leading to internal dvisions. By the 1770s the Baptists were growing rapidly both in the north (where they founded [[Brown University]], and in the South where they challenged the previously unquestioned moral authority of the Anglican establishment.

===French and Indian War===
[[Image:WashingtonFIwar.jpg|thumb|250px|[[George Washington]] during the French and Indian War]]
{{main|French and Indian War}}
The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the [[Seven Years' War]].

The war is called the ''French and Indian'' because the [[Iroquois]] confederacy—which had been playing the British and the French against each other successfully for decades fought on both sides. The French were defeated and in the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)]], France surrendered its vast North American empire to Britain.

The French and Indian war took on a new significance for the North American colonists in Great Britain when [[William Pitt the elder]] decided that it was necessary to win the war against France at all costs. For the first time, North America was one of the main theatres of what could be termed a "world war". During the war, the status of all the British Colonies (including the thirteen colonies) as part of the British Empire was made truly apparent, as British military and civilian officials took on an increased presence in the lives of Americans. The war also increased a sense of American unity in other ways. It caused men, who might normally have never left their colonies, to travel across the continent, fighting alongside men from decidedly different, yet still "American," backgrounds. Throughout the course of the war, British officers trained American ones (most notably [[George Washington]]) for battle which would later benefit the American Revolution. Also, state legislatures and officials had to cooperate intensively, for arguably the first time, in pursuit of the continent-wide military effort.

The British and colonists triumphed jointly over a common foe. The colonists' loyalty to the mother country was stronger than ever before. The war produced prosperity, as royal officials hired American troops and sent in well paid British troops. The French were defeated, and the British took Canada. Most important, the military threat from any foreign power ended, and the colonies no longer needed the protection of the Royal Navy. The British army handled Indian affairs on the frontier, so Indians were no longer a major threat to the Americans.

===Ties to the British Empire===
Although the colonies were very different from one another, they were still a part of the [[British Empire]] and each looked to London for leadership. military protection, and trade.

The political institutions of the colonies were originally patterned after English models, but by the 1760s there was a very different tone. Americans ignored the Royal Court and paid attention to the "country" party in Britain which was opposed to the Court; this was the origin of [[republicanism]] which increasingly dominated American political values.

The codes of law of the colonies were drawn directly from English common law, which was carefully studied by the hundreds of lawyers in the colonies.<ref>Scotland had a different legal system which did not carry over to the colonies.</ref> Eventually, it was a dispute over the meaning of the English Constitution and the rights of Englishmen that animated a new generation after 1760 to demand respect for their historic rights as Englishmen.

Another point on which the colonies found themselves more similar than different was the booming import of British goods by international merchants based in American seaports. Socially, the colonial elite imitated British styles of luxurious consumption, dress, dance, and etiquette. This social upper echelon built its mansions in the Georgian style (named after King George), copied the furniture designs of [[Thomas Chippendale]], and participated in the intellectual currents of Europe, such as [[Enlightenment]]. To many of their inhabitants, the seaport cities of colonial America were truly British cities. The British economy had begun to grow rapidly at the end of the 17th century, and by the mid-18th century, small factories in Britain were producing much more than the nation could consume. Finding a market for their goods in the British colonies of North America, Britain increased her exports to that region by 360% between 1740 and 1770. Because British merchants offered generous credit to their customers, Americans began buying staggering amounts of English goods. Economic integration across the Atlantic was more and more a reality, as the economy of each colony matured and was more involved in oceanic trade.

==From unity to revolution==
===Royal Proclamation===
The general sentiment of inequity that arose soon after the [[Treaty of Paris]] of 1763 was solidified by the [[Proclamation of 1763]], which temporarily prohibited settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. Colonists resented the measure, and it was never enforced.

===Acts of Parliament===

Parliament had generally been preoccupied with affairs in Europe and let the colonies govern themselves. It was no longer willing to do so. A series of measures resulting from this policy change, while affecting the New England colonies most directly would continue to arouse opposition in the 'thirteen colonies' over the next thirteen years, leading to the [[American Revolution]]:
*[[Sugar Act]] (1764)
*[[Stamp Act of 1765]]
* First [[Quartering Act]] (1765)
*[[Declaratory Act]] (1766)
*[[Townshend Acts]] (1767)
*[[Boston Tea Party|Tea Act]] (1773)
* The [[Intolerable Acts]], also called the ''Coercive'' or ''Punitive'' Acts
** Second [[Quartering Act]] (1774)
**[[Quebec Act]] (1774)
**[[Massachusetts Government Act]] (1774)
**[[Administration of Justice Act]] (1774)
**[[Boston Port Act]] (1774)
*[[Prohibitory Act]] (1776)

Following the official act of Independence, the colonies were known as the "United Colonies". On September 9th, 1776, the [[Continental Congress]] voted to change the name of the country to the "United States of America".

==See also==
* [[Colonial military history]]
==Bibliography==
===References===
* Cooke, Jacob Ernest, ed. ''Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies'' (3 vol 1993), comprehensive coverage with Spanish, French and Dutch receiving equal attention with British
===Scholarly secondary sources===
* Adams, James Truslow. ''The Founding of New England,'' (1921)[http://www.dinsdoc.com/adams-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Anderson, Virginia DeJohn. ''Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America'' (2005) [https://www.amazon.com/Creatures-Empire-Domestic-Animals-Transformed/dp/0195304462/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-11 excerpt and text search]
* Andrews, Charles M. "Colonial Commerce," ''American Historical Review,'' 20#1 (October 1914) pp. 43–63 [http://www.dinsdoc.com/andrews-1.htm online]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Our Earliest Colonial Settlements: Their Diversities of Origin and Later Characteristics'' (1933) briefly discusses Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6552109 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Colonial Self-Government, 1652-1689.. (1904) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=55413362 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''The Colonial Period of American History,'' (1934-38) (the standard overview in four volumes) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/a/acls/browse.html online at ACLS e-books]
* Bailyn, Bernard. ''Voyagers to the West: a passage in the peopling of America on the eve of the Revolution'' (1986), winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History
* Bancroft, George. ''History of the United States of America, from the discovery of the American continent. '' 10 vol (1860) [http://jrshelby.com/sc-links/bancroft.htm online editions]
* Beer, George Louis. "British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' vol 22 (March 1907) pp 1-48; [http://dinsdoc.com/beer-1.htm online edition]
* Beeman, Richard R. "The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America'' (2006) [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0812219775/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search]
* Berkin, Carol. ''First Generations: Women in Colonial America'' (1997) 276pp [https://www.amazon.com/First-Generations-Women-Colonial-America/dp/0809016060/ref=sid_dp_dp/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America'' (1988) (online at [[American Council of Learned Societies|ACLS]] History e-book project)
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''A Factious People: Politics and Society in Colonial New York,'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98025896 online edition]
* Brown, Kathleen M. ''Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia'' (1996) 512pp [https://www.amazon.com/Wives-Nasty-Wenches-Anxious-Patriarchs/dp/0807846236/ref=pd_sim_b_shvl_title_17/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bruce, Philip A. ''Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Material Condition of the People, Based on Original and Contemporaneous Records.'' (1896), very old fashioned history [http://www.dinsdoc.com/bruce-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Carr, Lois Green and Philip D. Morgan. ''Colonial Chesapeake Society'' (1991), 524pp [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Chesapeake-Society-Lois-Green/dp/0807843431/ref=sip_rech_dp_3/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Crane, Verner W. ''The Southern Frontier, 1670-1732,'' (1920), [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=28187303 online edition]
* Crane, Verner W. "The Southern Frontier in Queen Anne’s War," ''American Historical Review'' vol 24, (April 1919) pp 379-95. [http://dinsdoc.com/crane-1.htm online edition]
* Gallay, Alan, ed. ''Colonial Wars of North America, 1512-1763: An Encyclopedia'' (1996) [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Wars-North-America-1512-1763/dp/0824072081/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263942660&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Gipson, Lawrence. ''The British Empire Before the American Revolution'' (15 volumes) (1936-1970), Pulitzer Prize; highly detailed discussion of every British colony in the New World
* Greene, Evarts Boutelle. ''Provincial America, 1690-1740,'' (1935) survey by scholar [http://www.dinsdoc.com/greene-3-0a.htm online edition]
* Hatfield, April Lee. ''Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century'' (2007) [https://www.amazon.com/Atlantic-Virginia-Intercolonial-Relations-Seventeenth/dp/081221997X/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-8 excerpt and text search]
* Illick, Joseph E. ''Colonial Pennsylvania: A History,'' (1976) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/colonial-pennsylvania-a-history-by-joseph-e-illick.jsp online edition]
* Kammen, Michael. ''Colonial New York: A History,'' (2003)
* Labaree, Benjamin Woods. ''Colonial Massachusetts: A History,'' (1979)
* Kulikoff, Allan. ''From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers'' (2000) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/from-british-peasants-to-colonial-american-farmers-by-allan-kulikoff.jsp online edition]
* Middleton, Richard. ''Colonial America: A History, 1565-1776'' (3rd ed 2002), 576pp [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-America-History-1565-1776/dp/0631221417/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Morgan, Edmund S. ''American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia'' (1975) Pulitzer Prize [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101062594 online edition]
* Osgood, Herbert L. ''The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century.'' 3 vol (1904-07) [http://dinsdoc.com/osgood-8-0a.htm online edition]
* Tate, Thad W. ''Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century'' (1980) [https://www.amazon.com/Chesapeake-Seventeenth-Century-Thad-Tate/dp/0393009564/ref=sr_1_23/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998781&sr=1-23 excerpt and text search]
* Taylor, Alan. ''American Colonies,'' (2001) survey by leading scholar [https://www.amazon.com/American-Colonies-Settling-America-Penguin/dp/0142002100/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]
* Vickers, Daniel, ed. ''A Companion to Colonial America.'' 2003. 576 pp.

===Primary sources===
* Kavenagh, W. Keith, ed. ''Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History'' (1973) 4 vol.
* Miller, Kerby A., et al eds. ''Irish immigrants in the land of Canaan: letters and memoirs from colonial and revolutionary America, 1675-1815'' (2004) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;cc=acls;q1=United%20States%20--%20History%20--%20Colonial%20period%2C%20ca.%201600-1775%20--%20Biography;rgn=subject;view=toc;idno=heb90012.0001.001 online at ACLS e-books]
===Online sources===
*[http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/colonial.htm Colonial America 1600-1775, K12 Resources]
*[http://earlyamerica.com/ Archiving Early America]
*[http://www.dinsdoc.com/colonial-3.htm ''Classics of American Colonial History'' complete text of older scholarly articles]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Colonial America]]
[[Category:British Empire]]
[[Category:Indian Wars]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:New England]]
[[Category:Massachusetts]]
[[Category:New Hampshire]]
[[Category:Rhode Island]]
[[Category:Connecticut]]
[[Category:New York]]
[[Category:Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:New Jersey]]
[[Category:Delaware]]
[[Category:Maryland]]
[[Category:Virginia]]
[[Category:North Carolina]]
[[Category:South Carolina]]
[[Category:Georgia]]

Thirteen Colonies

2021-07-26T05:49:58Z

Stephenkollenborners: thirteen colonies

The '''thirteen colonies''' were the [[British]] colonies that formed the [[United States]]. They were: [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[Rhode Island]], [[Connecticut]], [[New York]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[New Jersey]], [[Delaware]], [[Maryland]], [[Virginia]], [[North Carolina]], [[South Carolina]], and [[Georgia]]. On July 4, 1776, they became states and formed a new nation, the '''United States of America.'''
[[Image:1742map.jpg|thumb|400px]]
[[Image:Pop1750.jpg|thumb|400px]]
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
== New England Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Massachusetts]] || 1620 || [[Pilgrims]], led by [[William Bradford]] || Shipbuilding, fish, lumber || Governor appointed by king || established [[Puritan]] Church (after 1700 called Congregationalist);
|-
| [[Rhode Island]] || 1636 || [[Roger Williams]], for religious reasons left [[Massachusetts]] || Lumber, fish. || Elected by colonists. || Complete [[religious freedom]] for all- [[Anglican]] ([[Episcopalian]]), [[Baptist]], Quakers and other Protestants
|-
| [[Connecticut]] || 1636 || [[Thomas Hooker]], who led a group from [[Massachusetts]] who wanted [[limited government|less government]] || Shipbuilding, lumber, fish || Elected by colonists || Congregationalist Church was established
|-
| [[New Hampshire]] || 1623 || Colonists who left Massachusetts for political and religious reasons || Molasses, fish || Governor appointed by king || Congregationalist
|}

==New England==
{{main|New England}}
The [[Plymouth Colony]], now part of Massachusetts, was founded by the [[Pilgrims]], a small [[Puritans|Puritan]] sect based in [[England]] and the [[Netherlands]]. One group sailed on the ''[[Mayflower]]''. They drew up the [[Mayflower Compact]] by which they gave themselves broad powers of self-governance and introduced [[democracy]] into America. They established the small Plymouth Colony in 1620 and later merged with the Massachusetts Bay colony. [[William Bradford]] (1590-1657) was the main leader.
===Puritans===
{{main|Puritans}}
The Puritans, a much larger group than the Pilgrims, established the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in 1629 with 400 settlers. This group was the Puritans who sought to reform the [[Church of England]] by creating a new, pure church in the New World. Within two years, an additional 2,000 arrived. The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit and politically innovative culture that still lingers on in the modern United States. They hoped this new land would serve as a "redeemer nation." Seeking the true religion, they fled England and in America created a "nation of saints" or the "[[City upon a hill]]," an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community designed to be an example for all of Europe. [[Roger Williams (theologian)|Roger Williams]], who preached religious toleration, [[separation of church and state]], and a complete break with the Church of England, was banished and founded [[Rhode Island|Rhode Island Colony]], which became a haven for other religious refugees from the Puritan community, including [[Anne Hutchinson]], a preacher of [[Antinomianism]].

Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of its founders. Unlike the cash-crop oriented plantations of the Chesapeake region, the Puritan economy was based on the efforts of individual farmers, who harvested enough crops to feed themselves and their families and a surplus to trade for goods they could not produce themselves. There was a generally higher standard of living in New England than in the Chesapeake. Along with farming growth, New England became an important mercantile and shipbuilding center, often serving as the hub for trading between the South and Europe.

== Middle Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[New York]] || 1626 || [[Dutch]]; English in 1664 || Shipbuilding and trade || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], and other Protestants
|-
| [[New Jersey]] || 1664 || [[Swedish]] and [[Dutch]]; In 1664 [[Sir George Carteret]] and [[Lord John Berkeley]] were given the land by the English Duke of York || Oats, wheat, rye || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], [[Quaker]], others
|-
| [[Pennsylvania]] || 1681 || [[William Penn]] as a safe place for [[Quakers]] || Trade and Shipbuilding || Proprietor selected the governor || [[Quaker]] Lutheran, and other Protestant
|-
| [[Delaware]] || 1682 || [[William Penn]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected the governor || Protestant
|}

The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of [[New York]], [[New Jersey]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[Delaware]], were characterized by a large degree of diversity—religious, political, economic, and ethnic. Many Dutch and Protestant Irish immigrants settled in these areas, as well as in [[Long Island]] and [[Connecticut]]. The Germans, called "[[Pennsylvania Dutch]]," were included in this emigration.

===Mid-Atlantic Region===
Unlike New England, the Mid-Atlantic Region gained much of its population from new immigration, and by 1750, the combined populations of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania had reached nearly 300,000 people. By 1750, about 60,000 [[Scots-Irish]] and 50,000 [[German Americans|Germans]] came to live in British North America, many of them settling in the Mid-Atlantic Region. [[William Penn]], the man who founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1682, attracted an influx of [[Quakers]] and other immigrants with his policies of religious liberty and freehold ownership. "Freehold" meant that farmers owned their land free and clear of leases. The first major influx of immigrants came mainly from Ireland and consisted of Scots-Irish [[Church of Scotland|Presbyterians]]. The second major immigration came with Germans trying to escape the religious conflicts and declining economic opportunities in Germany and Switzerland.

====Ways of life====
[[File:The Baptism of Pocahontas 1614.jpg|thumb|The Baptism of Pocahontas, 1614, Oil study for mural by John Gadsby Chapman, circa 1837-40.]]
Much of the architecture of the Middle Colonies reflects the diversity of its peoples. In Albany and New York City, a majority of the buildings were Dutch style with brick exteriors and high gables at each end while many Dutch churches were shaped liked an octagon. Using cut stone to build their houses, German and Welsh settlers in Pennsylvania followed the way of their homeland and completely ignored the plethora of timber in the area. Thus in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 80% of the buildings in the town were made entirely of stone. On the other hand, the Scots-Irish took advantage of America's ample supply of timber and constructed sturdy log cabins.

Ethnic cultures also effected the styles of furniture. Rural Quakers preferred simple designs in furnishings such as tables, chairs, chests and shunned elaborate decorations. However, some urban Quakers had much more elaborate furniture. The city of [[Philadelphia]] became a major center of furniture-making because of its massive wealth from Quaker and British merchants. Philadelphian cabinet makers built elegant desks and highboys. German artisans created intricate carved designs on their chests and other furniture with painted scenes of flowers and birds. German potters also crafted a large array of jugs, pots, and plates, of both elegant and traditional design.

There were ethnic differences in the treatment of women. Among Puritan settlers in New England, wives almost never worked in the fields with their husbands. In German communities in Pennsylvania, however, many women worked in fields and stables. German and Dutch immigrants granted women more control over property, which was not permitted in the local English law. Unlike English colonial wives, German and Dutch wives owned their own clothes and other items and were also given the ability to write wills disposing of the property brought into the marriage.

====Farming====
The Europeans brought entirely new animals, which transformed the landscape, such as hogs, cattle, horses, sheep and poulry. (The Indians already had dogs.) Ethnicity made a difference in agricultural practice. As an example, German farmers generally preferred oxen rather than horses to pull their plows and Scots-Irish made a farming economy based on hogs and corn. In Ireland, Scots-Irish farmed intensively, working small pieces of land trying to get the largest possible production-rate from their crops. In the American colonies, Scots-Irish focused on mixed-farming. Using this technique, they grew corn for human consumption and as feed for hogs and other livestock. Many improvement-minded farmers of all different backgrounds began using new agricultural practices to raise their output. During the 1750s, these agricultural innovators replaced the hand sickles and scythes used to harvest hay, wheat, and barley with the cradle scythe, a tool with wooden fingers that arranged the stalks of grain for easy collection. This tool was able to triple the amount of work down by farmers in one day. Farmers also began fertilizing their fields with dung and lime and rotating their crops to keep the soil fertile.

Before 1720, most colonists in the mid-Atlantic region worked with small-scale farming and paid for imported manufactures by supplying the West Indies with corn and flour. In New York, a fur-pelt export trade to Europe flourished adding additional wealth to the region. After 1720, mid-Atlantic farming stimulated with the international demand for wheat. A massive population explosion in Europe brought wheat prices up. By 1770, a bushel of wheat cost twice as much as it did in 1720. Farmers also expanded their production of flaxseed and wheat since flax was a high demand in the Irish linen industry and a demand for wheat for slaves existed in the West Indies.

Some immigrants who just arrived purchased farms and shared in this export wealth, but many poor German and Scots-Irish immigrants were forced to work as agricultural wage laborers. Merchants and artisans also hired these homeless workers for a domestic system for the manufacture of cloth and other goods. Merchants often bought wool and flax from farmers and employed newly arrived immigrants, who had been textile workers in Ireland and Germany, to work in their homes spinning the materials into yarn and cloth. Large farmers and merchants became wealthy, while farmers with smaller farms and artisans only made enough for subsistence. The Mid-Atlantic region, by 1750, was divided by both ethnic background and wealth.

====Seaports====
Seaports, which expanded from wheat trade, had more social classes than anywhere else in the Middle Colonies. By 1750, the population of Philadelphia had reached 25,000, New York 15,000, and the port of [[Baltimore]] 7,000. Merchants dominated seaport society and about 40 merchants controlled half of Philadelphia's trade. Wealthy merchants in Philadelphia and New York, like their counterparts in New England, built elegant Georgian-style mansions.

Shopkeepers, artisans, shipwrights, butchers, coopers (barrell makers), seamstresses, cobblers, bakers, carpenters, stonemasons, and many other specialized professions, made up the middle class of seaport society. Wives and husbands often worked as a team and taught their children their crafts to pass it on through the family. Many of these artisans and traders made enough money to create a modest life.

Laborers stood at the bottom of seaport society. These poor people worked on the docks unloading inbound vessels and loading outbound vessels with wheat, corn, and flaxseed. Many of these were African American; some were free while others were enslaved. In 1750, blacks made up about 10 percent of the population of New York and Philadelphia. Hundreds of seamen, some who were African American, worked as sailors on merchant ships.

== Southern Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Virginia]] || 1607 || [[John Smith]], settlers from [[Virginia Company of London]] || Tobacco || Governor appointed by king || [[Anglican]] Church was established
|-
| [[Maryland]] || 1634 || [[Lord Baltimore]] as a safe place for [[Catholicism|Catholics]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected by governor || Protestant and Catholic
|-
| [[North Carolina]] || 1654 || [[Virginia]] settlers || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[South Carolina]] || 1663 || [[English]] and other [[Europeans]] || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[Georgia]] || 1732 || [[James Oglethorpe]], brought [[English]] debtors to protect [[Georgia]] from the [[Spanish]] || Indigo, tobacco || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|}
The Southern Colonies were mainly dominated by the wealthy slave-owning planters in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. These planters owned massive estates that were worked by African slaves. Of the 650,000 inhabitants of the South in 1750, about 250,000 or 40 percent, were slaves. Planters used their wealth to dominate the local tenants and yeoman farmers. At election time, they gave these farmers gifts of rum and promised to lower taxes to take control of colonial legislatures.

===South: Chesapeake Bay area===
====Jamestown====
The first successful English colony was Jamestown, established in 1607, on a small river near Chesapeake Bay. The venture was financed and coordinated by the London Virginia Company, a joint stock company looking for gold. Its first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Indians, and little gold. The colony barely survived, by turning to tobacco as a cash crop. By the late 17th century Virginia's export economy was largely based on tobacco, and new, richer settlers came in to take up large portions of land, build large plantations and import indentured servants and slaves. In 1676 [[Bacon's Rebellion]] occurred, but was suppressed by royal officials. After Bacon's Rebellion, African slaves replaced English indentured servants as Virginia's main labor force. The indentured servants became independent farmers at age 21, and mostly became subsistence farmers.

The colonial assembly that had governed the colony since its establishment was dissolved but was reinstated in 1630. It shared power with a royally appointed governor. On a more local level, governmental power was invested in county [[court]]s and sheriffs, also not elected. Voters could vote for a member of House of Burgess.

As cash crop producers, Chesapeake plantations were heavily dependent on trade. With easy navigation by river, few towns and no cities developed; planters shipped directly to Britain. High death rates and a very young population profile characterized the colony during its first decades.

===Lower South===

The colonial South included the plantation colonies of the Chesapeake region (Virginia and Maryland) and the lower South (Carolina, which eventually split into North and South Carolina, and Georgia).

====Carolinas====
The first attempted English settlement south of Virginia was the Province of Carolina. It was a private venture, financed by a group of English businessmen calling themselves the "Lords Proprietors," who obtained a [[Royal Charter]] to the Carolinas in 1663, hoping that a new colony in the south would become profitable like that of Jamestown. Carolina was not settled until 1670, and even then the first attempt failed because there was no incentive for emigration to the south. However, eventually the Lords combined their remaining capital and financed a settlement mission to the area led by John West. The expedition located fertile and defensible ground at what was to become [[Charleston]] (originally Charles Town for King [[Charles II]], thus beginning the English colonization of the mainland. The original settlers in South Carolina established a lucrative trade in provisions, deerskins and Indian captives with the Caribbean islands. They came mainly from the English colony of [[Barbados]] and brought African slaves with them. Barbados, as a wealthy [[sugarcane]] plantation island, was one of the early English colonies to large numbers of Africans in plantation style agriculture. The cultivation of [[rice]] was introduced during the 1690s via Africans from the rice-growing regions of [[West Africa]]. North Carolina remained a frontier through the early colonial period.

At first, South Carolina was politically divided. Its ethnic makeup included the original settlers, a group of rich, slave-owning English settlers from the island of Barbados; and [[Huguenots]], a French-speaking community of Protestants. Nearly continuous frontier warfare during the era of [[King William's War]] and [[Queen Anne's War]] drove economic and political wedges between merchants and planters. The disaster of the [[Yamasee War]], in 1715, set off a decade of political turmoil. By 1729, the proprietary government had collapsed, and the Proprietors sold both colonies back to the British crown.

====Georgia====
[[James Oglethorpe]], an 18th century British [[Member of Parliament]], established [[Georgia]] as a common solution to two problems. British feared that Spanish Florida was threatening the British Carolinas. Oglethorpe established his colony in the contested border region of Georgia and populated it with the poor and debtors who would otherwise have been imprisoned. This plan would both rid Britain of its undesirable elements and provide her with a base from which to attack Florida. The first colonists arrived in 1733.

Oglethorpe established his colony on strict moralistic principles. Slavery was forbidden, as was alcohol. The colonists rejected any puritanical lifestyle and complained that their colony could not compete economically with the Carolina rice plantations. Georgia initially failed to prosper, but in 1752 the trustees turned over control of the colony to the royal government and the restrictions were lifted, slavery was allowed, and it became moderately prosperous.

===Plantations===
By the 1720s, a sew aspiring planters began to construct large Georgian-style mansions, wear bright red attire, and hunt deer from horseback. Wealthy women in the Southern colonies shared in the British culture and spent large sums on the latest fasions and furniture.

The wives of the plantation owners supervised the household slaves, handled medical services for all the slaves, and put on elaborate dinners and festive balls. These efforts were the most successful in South Carolina, where wealthy rice planters lived in townhouses in Charleston, a busy port city. Active social seasons flourished in the few towns, such as [[Annapolis, Maryland]], and on tobacco plantations in Virginia.

====Slaves====
The African slaves who worked on the indigo, tobacco, and rice fields in the South came mostly from the Caribbean sugar islands (plus a few who came directly from Africa). In 1700, there were about 9,600 slaves in the Chesapeake region and a few hundred in the Carolinas. About 170,000 more Africans arrived over the next five decades. By 1750, there were more than 250,000 slaves in British America; in South Carolina they made up about 60% of the total population. Very favorable food and health standards contributed to rapid population growth.

==Economy==
see also [[American economic history]]

[[File:Ec$1800.jpg|thumb|400px|Estimated income in constant 1840 dollars. Source: Alice Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980); Susan B. Carter et al. ''The Historical Statistics of the United States'' (2006) vol 3.]]
The great majority of people throughout the colonial era were farmers and their income was not cash but the value of the crops and animals produced on farms, and mostly consumed by the family. The estimates are based on inventories of estates when people died. Most people lived in poverty—with very few possessions such as a small stock of clothes, a shack to live in, a few household goods—and land and animals. In terms of wealth the per capita wealth of Americans in 1774 was £37.4 ($6700 in 2009 dollars); per adult male £172 ($30,700); and per white adult male £218 ($39,000).<ref>Alice Hanson Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980)</ref>

== Thirteen Colonies and the Ten Commandments ==

Dr. Kenyn Cureton indicates:
{{Cquote|Twelve of the original thirteen colonies adopted the entire [[Decalogue]] into their civil and criminal laws. While the lone hold-out, Rhode Island, did not adopt the first four Commandments, they did adopt the last six. Surveying the organic development of law, former Chief Justice William Rehnquist forcefully argued: “It is… undeniable… that the Ten Commandments have had a significant impact on the development of secular legal codes of the Western World.<ref>[https://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF10I86.pdf Ten Commandments: Foundation of American Society] by Dr. Kenyn Cureton</ref>}}
all commandments derive there authority from god regardless if its all ten of them or just the last six that rohde island adopted the only diffrence is rohde island was the only
colony that did not adopt the first four only the ones proposed by roger williams founder of the baptist church in america
==Literature==
Colonial American literature is perhaps the most vibrant field in American literary studies today. In the last decade an explosion of anthologies designed to make widely available a broad range of non-canonical writings produced in and about Great Britain's colonies in the Western hemisphere has provided teachers and scholars with important new tools. The explosion has been driven partly by the identity-based recuperation movements of the 1970s and 1980s, partly by a new awareness of the importance of texts circulated in manuscript or newspapers rather than in book form, and partly by dissatisfaction with the predominant Puritan origins narrative and a swelling interest in transnationalism. New anthologies include Myra Jehlen and Michael Warner's ''The English Literatures of America, 1580–1800'' (Routledge, 1996), Vincent Carretta's ''Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century'' (Lexington, Ky., 1996), Sharon M. Harris's ''Early American Women Writers to 1800'' (Oxford, 1996), and ''Thomas W. Krise's Caribbeana: An Anthology of English Literature of the West Indies, 1657–1777'' (Chicago, 1999), Susan Castillo and Ivy Schweitzer, ''The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology'' (Oxford, 2001) Carla Muford's ''Early American Writings'' (Oxford 2002), and Susan Castillo's, ''Colonial Encounters in New World Writing, 1500–1786: Performing America'' (Routledge, 2006). Add in the University of Massachusetts Press series on native writers and scholars have made readily available a vast array of once obscure English-language works. Some of these new volumes represent an effort by colonialists to catch up to the rest of the field of Americanist scholarship, providing the pre-literary history to contemporary Caribbean or African American literature. In an important sense, however, colonialists occupy a unique position among Americanists. At a moment when many scholars are rejecting nationalist narratives of literary history, which they view as the intellectual equivalent of isolationism in a world increasingly committed to globalization, students of colonial American literature rightly claim a pre-national vantage point. A transnational approach to colonial literature has the attractive features of being both intellectually sound and trendy.<ref>Sandra M. Gustafson, "The Americas in Writing," ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 2003 60(1): 207-213. ISSN: 0043-5597
Fulltext: [[History Cooperative]]</ref>

==Unification of the 13 colonies==
===A common defense===
One event that reminded colonists of their shared identity as British subjects was the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] (1740-1748) in Europe. This conflict spilled over into the colonies, where it was known as "King George's War"; most of the fighting took place in Europe, British colonial troops attacked French Canada.

At the [[Albany Congress]] of 1754, [[Benjamin Franklin]] proposed that the colonies be united by a Grand Council overseeing a common policy for defense, expansion, and Indian affairs. While the plan was thwarted by colonial legislatures and King [[George II]], it was an early indication that the British colonies of North America were headed towards unification. Franklin did not give up; more than anyone, he invented the idea of a United States of America.

===Great Awakening===
{{main|First Great Awakening}}
One event that began to unify the religious background of the colonies was the [[First Great Awakening]], a Protestant revival movement that took place in the 1730s and 1740s. It began with [[Jonathan Edwards]], a Massachusetts preacher who sought to return to the Pilgrims' strict [[Calvinist]] roots and to reawaken the "Fear of God". Edwards was a powerful speaker and attracted a large following with sermons such as "[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]". English preacher [[George Whitefield]] and other itinerant preachers continued the movement, traveling across the colonies and preaching in a dramatic and emotional style.

Followers of Edwards and other preachers of similar religiosity called themselves the "New Lights," as contrasted with the "Old Lights", who disapproved of their movement. To promote their viewpoints, the two sides established academies and colleges including [[Princeton University|Princeton]] and [[Williams College]]. The Great Awakening has been called the first truly "American" event, and as such represented at least a small step towards the unification of the colonies.

A similar pietistic movement took place among some of the German and Dutch Lutherans, leading to internal dvisions. By the 1770s the Baptists were growing rapidly both in the north (where they founded [[Brown University]], and in the South where they challenged the previously unquestioned moral authority of the Anglican establishment.

===French and Indian War===
[[Image:WashingtonFIwar.jpg|thumb|250px|[[George Washington]] during the French and Indian War]]
{{main|French and Indian War}}
The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the [[Seven Years' War]].

The war is called the ''French and Indian'' because the [[Iroquois]] confederacy—which had been playing the British and the French against each other successfully for decades fought on both sides. The French were defeated and in the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)]], France surrendered its vast North American empire to Britain.

The French and Indian war took on a new significance for the North American colonists in Great Britain when [[William Pitt the elder]] decided that it was necessary to win the war against France at all costs. For the first time, North America was one of the main theatres of what could be termed a "world war". During the war, the status of all the British Colonies (including the thirteen colonies) as part of the British Empire was made truly apparent, as British military and civilian officials took on an increased presence in the lives of Americans. The war also increased a sense of American unity in other ways. It caused men, who might normally have never left their colonies, to travel across the continent, fighting alongside men from decidedly different, yet still "American," backgrounds. Throughout the course of the war, British officers trained American ones (most notably [[George Washington]]) for battle which would later benefit the American Revolution. Also, state legislatures and officials had to cooperate intensively, for arguably the first time, in pursuit of the continent-wide military effort.

The British and colonists triumphed jointly over a common foe. The colonists' loyalty to the mother country was stronger than ever before. The war produced prosperity, as royal officials hired American troops and sent in well paid British troops. The French were defeated, and the British took Canada. Most important, the military threat from any foreign power ended, and the colonies no longer needed the protection of the Royal Navy. The British army handled Indian affairs on the frontier, so Indians were no longer a major threat to the Americans.

===Ties to the British Empire===
Although the colonies were very different from one another, they were still a part of the [[British Empire]] and each looked to London for leadership. military protection, and trade.

The political institutions of the colonies were originally patterned after English models, but by the 1760s there was a very different tone. Americans ignored the Royal Court and paid attention to the "country" party in Britain which was opposed to the Court; this was the origin of [[republicanism]] which increasingly dominated American political values.

The codes of law of the colonies were drawn directly from English common law, which was carefully studied by the hundreds of lawyers in the colonies.<ref>Scotland had a different legal system which did not carry over to the colonies.</ref> Eventually, it was a dispute over the meaning of the English Constitution and the rights of Englishmen that animated a new generation after 1760 to demand respect for their historic rights as Englishmen.

Another point on which the colonies found themselves more similar than different was the booming import of British goods by international merchants based in American seaports. Socially, the colonial elite imitated British styles of luxurious consumption, dress, dance, and etiquette. This social upper echelon built its mansions in the Georgian style (named after King George), copied the furniture designs of [[Thomas Chippendale]], and participated in the intellectual currents of Europe, such as [[Enlightenment]]. To many of their inhabitants, the seaport cities of colonial America were truly British cities. The British economy had begun to grow rapidly at the end of the 17th century, and by the mid-18th century, small factories in Britain were producing much more than the nation could consume. Finding a market for their goods in the British colonies of North America, Britain increased her exports to that region by 360% between 1740 and 1770. Because British merchants offered generous credit to their customers, Americans began buying staggering amounts of English goods. Economic integration across the Atlantic was more and more a reality, as the economy of each colony matured and was more involved in oceanic trade.

==From unity to revolution==
===Royal Proclamation===
The general sentiment of inequity that arose soon after the [[Treaty of Paris]] of 1763 was solidified by the [[Proclamation of 1763]], which temporarily prohibited settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. Colonists resented the measure, and it was never enforced.

===Acts of Parliament===

Parliament had generally been preoccupied with affairs in Europe and let the colonies govern themselves. It was no longer willing to do so. A series of measures resulting from this policy change, while affecting the New England colonies most directly would continue to arouse opposition in the 'thirteen colonies' over the next thirteen years, leading to the [[American Revolution]]:
*[[Sugar Act]] (1764)
*[[Stamp Act of 1765]]
* First [[Quartering Act]] (1765)
*[[Declaratory Act]] (1766)
*[[Townshend Acts]] (1767)
*[[Boston Tea Party|Tea Act]] (1773)
* The [[Intolerable Acts]], also called the ''Coercive'' or ''Punitive'' Acts
** Second [[Quartering Act]] (1774)
**[[Quebec Act]] (1774)
**[[Massachusetts Government Act]] (1774)
**[[Administration of Justice Act]] (1774)
**[[Boston Port Act]] (1774)
*[[Prohibitory Act]] (1776)

Following the official act of Independence, the colonies were known as the "United Colonies". On September 9th, 1776, the [[Continental Congress]] voted to change the name of the country to the "United States of America".

==See also==
* [[Colonial military history]]
==Bibliography==
===References===
* Cooke, Jacob Ernest, ed. ''Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies'' (3 vol 1993), comprehensive coverage with Spanish, French and Dutch receiving equal attention with British
===Scholarly secondary sources===
* Adams, James Truslow. ''The Founding of New England,'' (1921)[http://www.dinsdoc.com/adams-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Anderson, Virginia DeJohn. ''Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America'' (2005) [https://www.amazon.com/Creatures-Empire-Domestic-Animals-Transformed/dp/0195304462/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-11 excerpt and text search]
* Andrews, Charles M. "Colonial Commerce," ''American Historical Review,'' 20#1 (October 1914) pp. 43–63 [http://www.dinsdoc.com/andrews-1.htm online]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Our Earliest Colonial Settlements: Their Diversities of Origin and Later Characteristics'' (1933) briefly discusses Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6552109 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Colonial Self-Government, 1652-1689.. (1904) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=55413362 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''The Colonial Period of American History,'' (1934-38) (the standard overview in four volumes) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/a/acls/browse.html online at ACLS e-books]
* Bailyn, Bernard. ''Voyagers to the West: a passage in the peopling of America on the eve of the Revolution'' (1986), winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History
* Bancroft, George. ''History of the United States of America, from the discovery of the American continent. '' 10 vol (1860) [http://jrshelby.com/sc-links/bancroft.htm online editions]
* Beer, George Louis. "British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' vol 22 (March 1907) pp 1-48; [http://dinsdoc.com/beer-1.htm online edition]
* Beeman, Richard R. "The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America'' (2006) [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0812219775/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search]
* Berkin, Carol. ''First Generations: Women in Colonial America'' (1997) 276pp [https://www.amazon.com/First-Generations-Women-Colonial-America/dp/0809016060/ref=sid_dp_dp/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America'' (1988) (online at [[American Council of Learned Societies|ACLS]] History e-book project)
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''A Factious People: Politics and Society in Colonial New York,'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98025896 online edition]
* Brown, Kathleen M. ''Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia'' (1996) 512pp [https://www.amazon.com/Wives-Nasty-Wenches-Anxious-Patriarchs/dp/0807846236/ref=pd_sim_b_shvl_title_17/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bruce, Philip A. ''Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Material Condition of the People, Based on Original and Contemporaneous Records.'' (1896), very old fashioned history [http://www.dinsdoc.com/bruce-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Carr, Lois Green and Philip D. Morgan. ''Colonial Chesapeake Society'' (1991), 524pp [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Chesapeake-Society-Lois-Green/dp/0807843431/ref=sip_rech_dp_3/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Crane, Verner W. ''The Southern Frontier, 1670-1732,'' (1920), [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=28187303 online edition]
* Crane, Verner W. "The Southern Frontier in Queen Anne’s War," ''American Historical Review'' vol 24, (April 1919) pp 379-95. [http://dinsdoc.com/crane-1.htm online edition]
* Gallay, Alan, ed. ''Colonial Wars of North America, 1512-1763: An Encyclopedia'' (1996) [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Wars-North-America-1512-1763/dp/0824072081/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263942660&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Gipson, Lawrence. ''The British Empire Before the American Revolution'' (15 volumes) (1936-1970), Pulitzer Prize; highly detailed discussion of every British colony in the New World
* Greene, Evarts Boutelle. ''Provincial America, 1690-1740,'' (1935) survey by scholar [http://www.dinsdoc.com/greene-3-0a.htm online edition]
* Hatfield, April Lee. ''Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century'' (2007) [https://www.amazon.com/Atlantic-Virginia-Intercolonial-Relations-Seventeenth/dp/081221997X/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-8 excerpt and text search]
* Illick, Joseph E. ''Colonial Pennsylvania: A History,'' (1976) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/colonial-pennsylvania-a-history-by-joseph-e-illick.jsp online edition]
* Kammen, Michael. ''Colonial New York: A History,'' (2003)
* Labaree, Benjamin Woods. ''Colonial Massachusetts: A History,'' (1979)
* Kulikoff, Allan. ''From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers'' (2000) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/from-british-peasants-to-colonial-american-farmers-by-allan-kulikoff.jsp online edition]
* Middleton, Richard. ''Colonial America: A History, 1565-1776'' (3rd ed 2002), 576pp [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-America-History-1565-1776/dp/0631221417/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Morgan, Edmund S. ''American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia'' (1975) Pulitzer Prize [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101062594 online edition]
* Osgood, Herbert L. ''The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century.'' 3 vol (1904-07) [http://dinsdoc.com/osgood-8-0a.htm online edition]
* Tate, Thad W. ''Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century'' (1980) [https://www.amazon.com/Chesapeake-Seventeenth-Century-Thad-Tate/dp/0393009564/ref=sr_1_23/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998781&sr=1-23 excerpt and text search]
* Taylor, Alan. ''American Colonies,'' (2001) survey by leading scholar [https://www.amazon.com/American-Colonies-Settling-America-Penguin/dp/0142002100/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]
* Vickers, Daniel, ed. ''A Companion to Colonial America.'' 2003. 576 pp.

===Primary sources===
* Kavenagh, W. Keith, ed. ''Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History'' (1973) 4 vol.
* Miller, Kerby A., et al eds. ''Irish immigrants in the land of Canaan: letters and memoirs from colonial and revolutionary America, 1675-1815'' (2004) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;cc=acls;q1=United%20States%20--%20History%20--%20Colonial%20period%2C%20ca.%201600-1775%20--%20Biography;rgn=subject;view=toc;idno=heb90012.0001.001 online at ACLS e-books]
===Online sources===
*[http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/colonial.htm Colonial America 1600-1775, K12 Resources]
*[http://earlyamerica.com/ Archiving Early America]
*[http://www.dinsdoc.com/colonial-3.htm ''Classics of American Colonial History'' complete text of older scholarly articles]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Colonial America]]
[[Category:British Empire]]
[[Category:Indian Wars]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:New England]]
[[Category:Massachusetts]]
[[Category:New Hampshire]]
[[Category:Rhode Island]]
[[Category:Connecticut]]
[[Category:New York]]
[[Category:Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:New Jersey]]
[[Category:Delaware]]
[[Category:Maryland]]
[[Category:Virginia]]
[[Category:North Carolina]]
[[Category:South Carolina]]
[[Category:Georgia]]

Thirteen Colonies

2021-07-26T05:46:37Z

Stephenkollenborners: thriteen colonies

The '''thirteen colonies''' were the [[British]] colonies that formed the [[United States]]. They were: [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[Rhode Island]], [[Connecticut]], [[New York]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[New Jersey]], [[Delaware]], [[Maryland]], [[Virginia]], [[North Carolina]], [[South Carolina]], and [[Georgia]]. On July 4, 1776, they became states and formed a new nation, the '''United States of America.'''
[[Image:1742map.jpg|thumb|400px]]
[[Image:Pop1750.jpg|thumb|400px]]
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
== New England Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Massachusetts]] || 1620 || [[Pilgrims]], led by [[William Bradford]] || Shipbuilding, fish, lumber || Governor appointed by king || established [[Puritan]] Church (after 1700 called Congregationalist);
|-
| [[Rhode Island]] || 1636 || [[Roger Williams]], for religious reasons left [[Massachusetts]] || Lumber, fish. || Elected by colonists. || Complete [[religious freedom]] for all- [[Anglican]] ([[Episcopalian]]), [[Baptist]], Quakers and other Protestants
|-
| [[Connecticut]] || 1636 || [[Thomas Hooker]], who led a group from [[Massachusetts]] who wanted [[limited government|less government]] || Shipbuilding, lumber, fish || Elected by colonists || Congregationalist Church was established
|-
| [[New Hampshire]] || 1623 || Colonists who left Massachusetts for political and religious reasons || Molasses, fish || Governor appointed by king || Congregationalist
|}

==New England==
{{main|New England}}
The [[Plymouth Colony]], now part of Massachusetts, was founded by the [[Pilgrims]], a small [[Puritans|Puritan]] sect based in [[England]] and the [[Netherlands]]. One group sailed on the ''[[Mayflower]]''. They drew up the [[Mayflower Compact]] by which they gave themselves broad powers of self-governance and introduced [[democracy]] into America. They established the small Plymouth Colony in 1620 and later merged with the Massachusetts Bay colony. [[William Bradford]] (1590-1657) was the main leader.
===Puritans===
{{main|Puritans}}
The Puritans, a much larger group than the Pilgrims, established the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in 1629 with 400 settlers. This group was the Puritans who sought to reform the [[Church of England]] by creating a new, pure church in the New World. Within two years, an additional 2,000 arrived. The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit and politically innovative culture that still lingers on in the modern United States. They hoped this new land would serve as a "redeemer nation." Seeking the true religion, they fled England and in America created a "nation of saints" or the "[[City upon a hill]]," an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community designed to be an example for all of Europe. [[Roger Williams (theologian)|Roger Williams]], who preached religious toleration, [[separation of church and state]], and a complete break with the Church of England, was banished and founded [[Rhode Island|Rhode Island Colony]], which became a haven for other religious refugees from the Puritan community, including [[Anne Hutchinson]], a preacher of [[Antinomianism]].

Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of its founders. Unlike the cash-crop oriented plantations of the Chesapeake region, the Puritan economy was based on the efforts of individual farmers, who harvested enough crops to feed themselves and their families and a surplus to trade for goods they could not produce themselves. There was a generally higher standard of living in New England than in the Chesapeake. Along with farming growth, New England became an important mercantile and shipbuilding center, often serving as the hub for trading between the South and Europe.

== Middle Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[New York]] || 1626 || [[Dutch]]; English in 1664 || Shipbuilding and trade || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], and other Protestants
|-
| [[New Jersey]] || 1664 || [[Swedish]] and [[Dutch]]; In 1664 [[Sir George Carteret]] and [[Lord John Berkeley]] were given the land by the English Duke of York || Oats, wheat, rye || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], [[Quaker]], others
|-
| [[Pennsylvania]] || 1681 || [[William Penn]] as a safe place for [[Quakers]] || Trade and Shipbuilding || Proprietor selected the governor || [[Quaker]] Lutheran, and other Protestant
|-
| [[Delaware]] || 1682 || [[William Penn]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected the governor || Protestant
|}

The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of [[New York]], [[New Jersey]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[Delaware]], were characterized by a large degree of diversity—religious, political, economic, and ethnic. Many Dutch and Protestant Irish immigrants settled in these areas, as well as in [[Long Island]] and [[Connecticut]]. The Germans, called "[[Pennsylvania Dutch]]," were included in this emigration.

===Mid-Atlantic Region===
Unlike New England, the Mid-Atlantic Region gained much of its population from new immigration, and by 1750, the combined populations of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania had reached nearly 300,000 people. By 1750, about 60,000 [[Scots-Irish]] and 50,000 [[German Americans|Germans]] came to live in British North America, many of them settling in the Mid-Atlantic Region. [[William Penn]], the man who founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1682, attracted an influx of [[Quakers]] and other immigrants with his policies of religious liberty and freehold ownership. "Freehold" meant that farmers owned their land free and clear of leases. The first major influx of immigrants came mainly from Ireland and consisted of Scots-Irish [[Church of Scotland|Presbyterians]]. The second major immigration came with Germans trying to escape the religious conflicts and declining economic opportunities in Germany and Switzerland.

====Ways of life====
[[File:The Baptism of Pocahontas 1614.jpg|thumb|The Baptism of Pocahontas, 1614, Oil study for mural by John Gadsby Chapman, circa 1837-40.]]
Much of the architecture of the Middle Colonies reflects the diversity of its peoples. In Albany and New York City, a majority of the buildings were Dutch style with brick exteriors and high gables at each end while many Dutch churches were shaped liked an octagon. Using cut stone to build their houses, German and Welsh settlers in Pennsylvania followed the way of their homeland and completely ignored the plethora of timber in the area. Thus in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 80% of the buildings in the town were made entirely of stone. On the other hand, the Scots-Irish took advantage of America's ample supply of timber and constructed sturdy log cabins.

Ethnic cultures also effected the styles of furniture. Rural Quakers preferred simple designs in furnishings such as tables, chairs, chests and shunned elaborate decorations. However, some urban Quakers had much more elaborate furniture. The city of [[Philadelphia]] became a major center of furniture-making because of its massive wealth from Quaker and British merchants. Philadelphian cabinet makers built elegant desks and highboys. German artisans created intricate carved designs on their chests and other furniture with painted scenes of flowers and birds. German potters also crafted a large array of jugs, pots, and plates, of both elegant and traditional design.

There were ethnic differences in the treatment of women. Among Puritan settlers in New England, wives almost never worked in the fields with their husbands. In German communities in Pennsylvania, however, many women worked in fields and stables. German and Dutch immigrants granted women more control over property, which was not permitted in the local English law. Unlike English colonial wives, German and Dutch wives owned their own clothes and other items and were also given the ability to write wills disposing of the property brought into the marriage.

====Farming====
The Europeans brought entirely new animals, which transformed the landscape, such as hogs, cattle, horses, sheep and poulry. (The Indians already had dogs.) Ethnicity made a difference in agricultural practice. As an example, German farmers generally preferred oxen rather than horses to pull their plows and Scots-Irish made a farming economy based on hogs and corn. In Ireland, Scots-Irish farmed intensively, working small pieces of land trying to get the largest possible production-rate from their crops. In the American colonies, Scots-Irish focused on mixed-farming. Using this technique, they grew corn for human consumption and as feed for hogs and other livestock. Many improvement-minded farmers of all different backgrounds began using new agricultural practices to raise their output. During the 1750s, these agricultural innovators replaced the hand sickles and scythes used to harvest hay, wheat, and barley with the cradle scythe, a tool with wooden fingers that arranged the stalks of grain for easy collection. This tool was able to triple the amount of work down by farmers in one day. Farmers also began fertilizing their fields with dung and lime and rotating their crops to keep the soil fertile.

Before 1720, most colonists in the mid-Atlantic region worked with small-scale farming and paid for imported manufactures by supplying the West Indies with corn and flour. In New York, a fur-pelt export trade to Europe flourished adding additional wealth to the region. After 1720, mid-Atlantic farming stimulated with the international demand for wheat. A massive population explosion in Europe brought wheat prices up. By 1770, a bushel of wheat cost twice as much as it did in 1720. Farmers also expanded their production of flaxseed and wheat since flax was a high demand in the Irish linen industry and a demand for wheat for slaves existed in the West Indies.

Some immigrants who just arrived purchased farms and shared in this export wealth, but many poor German and Scots-Irish immigrants were forced to work as agricultural wage laborers. Merchants and artisans also hired these homeless workers for a domestic system for the manufacture of cloth and other goods. Merchants often bought wool and flax from farmers and employed newly arrived immigrants, who had been textile workers in Ireland and Germany, to work in their homes spinning the materials into yarn and cloth. Large farmers and merchants became wealthy, while farmers with smaller farms and artisans only made enough for subsistence. The Mid-Atlantic region, by 1750, was divided by both ethnic background and wealth.

====Seaports====
Seaports, which expanded from wheat trade, had more social classes than anywhere else in the Middle Colonies. By 1750, the population of Philadelphia had reached 25,000, New York 15,000, and the port of [[Baltimore]] 7,000. Merchants dominated seaport society and about 40 merchants controlled half of Philadelphia's trade. Wealthy merchants in Philadelphia and New York, like their counterparts in New England, built elegant Georgian-style mansions.

Shopkeepers, artisans, shipwrights, butchers, coopers (barrell makers), seamstresses, cobblers, bakers, carpenters, stonemasons, and many other specialized professions, made up the middle class of seaport society. Wives and husbands often worked as a team and taught their children their crafts to pass it on through the family. Many of these artisans and traders made enough money to create a modest life.

Laborers stood at the bottom of seaport society. These poor people worked on the docks unloading inbound vessels and loading outbound vessels with wheat, corn, and flaxseed. Many of these were African American; some were free while others were enslaved. In 1750, blacks made up about 10 percent of the population of New York and Philadelphia. Hundreds of seamen, some who were African American, worked as sailors on merchant ships.

== Southern Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Virginia]] || 1607 || [[John Smith]], settlers from [[Virginia Company of London]] || Tobacco || Governor appointed by king || [[Anglican]] Church was established
|-
| [[Maryland]] || 1634 || [[Lord Baltimore]] as a safe place for [[Catholicism|Catholics]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected by governor || Protestant and Catholic
|-
| [[North Carolina]] || 1654 || [[Virginia]] settlers || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[South Carolina]] || 1663 || [[English]] and other [[Europeans]] || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[Georgia]] || 1732 || [[James Oglethorpe]], brought [[English]] debtors to protect [[Georgia]] from the [[Spanish]] || Indigo, tobacco || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|}
The Southern Colonies were mainly dominated by the wealthy slave-owning planters in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. These planters owned massive estates that were worked by African slaves. Of the 650,000 inhabitants of the South in 1750, about 250,000 or 40 percent, were slaves. Planters used their wealth to dominate the local tenants and yeoman farmers. At election time, they gave these farmers gifts of rum and promised to lower taxes to take control of colonial legislatures.

===South: Chesapeake Bay area===
====Jamestown====
The first successful English colony was Jamestown, established in 1607, on a small river near Chesapeake Bay. The venture was financed and coordinated by the London Virginia Company, a joint stock company looking for gold. Its first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Indians, and little gold. The colony barely survived, by turning to tobacco as a cash crop. By the late 17th century Virginia's export economy was largely based on tobacco, and new, richer settlers came in to take up large portions of land, build large plantations and import indentured servants and slaves. In 1676 [[Bacon's Rebellion]] occurred, but was suppressed by royal officials. After Bacon's Rebellion, African slaves replaced English indentured servants as Virginia's main labor force. The indentured servants became independent farmers at age 21, and mostly became subsistence farmers.

The colonial assembly that had governed the colony since its establishment was dissolved but was reinstated in 1630. It shared power with a royally appointed governor. On a more local level, governmental power was invested in county [[court]]s and sheriffs, also not elected. Voters could vote for a member of House of Burgess.

As cash crop producers, Chesapeake plantations were heavily dependent on trade. With easy navigation by river, few towns and no cities developed; planters shipped directly to Britain. High death rates and a very young population profile characterized the colony during its first decades.

===Lower South===

The colonial South included the plantation colonies of the Chesapeake region (Virginia and Maryland) and the lower South (Carolina, which eventually split into North and South Carolina, and Georgia).

====Carolinas====
The first attempted English settlement south of Virginia was the Province of Carolina. It was a private venture, financed by a group of English businessmen calling themselves the "Lords Proprietors," who obtained a [[Royal Charter]] to the Carolinas in 1663, hoping that a new colony in the south would become profitable like that of Jamestown. Carolina was not settled until 1670, and even then the first attempt failed because there was no incentive for emigration to the south. However, eventually the Lords combined their remaining capital and financed a settlement mission to the area led by John West. The expedition located fertile and defensible ground at what was to become [[Charleston]] (originally Charles Town for King [[Charles II]], thus beginning the English colonization of the mainland. The original settlers in South Carolina established a lucrative trade in provisions, deerskins and Indian captives with the Caribbean islands. They came mainly from the English colony of [[Barbados]] and brought African slaves with them. Barbados, as a wealthy [[sugarcane]] plantation island, was one of the early English colonies to large numbers of Africans in plantation style agriculture. The cultivation of [[rice]] was introduced during the 1690s via Africans from the rice-growing regions of [[West Africa]]. North Carolina remained a frontier through the early colonial period.

At first, South Carolina was politically divided. Its ethnic makeup included the original settlers, a group of rich, slave-owning English settlers from the island of Barbados; and [[Huguenots]], a French-speaking community of Protestants. Nearly continuous frontier warfare during the era of [[King William's War]] and [[Queen Anne's War]] drove economic and political wedges between merchants and planters. The disaster of the [[Yamasee War]], in 1715, set off a decade of political turmoil. By 1729, the proprietary government had collapsed, and the Proprietors sold both colonies back to the British crown.

====Georgia====
[[James Oglethorpe]], an 18th century British [[Member of Parliament]], established [[Georgia]] as a common solution to two problems. British feared that Spanish Florida was threatening the British Carolinas. Oglethorpe established his colony in the contested border region of Georgia and populated it with the poor and debtors who would otherwise have been imprisoned. This plan would both rid Britain of its undesirable elements and provide her with a base from which to attack Florida. The first colonists arrived in 1733.

Oglethorpe established his colony on strict moralistic principles. Slavery was forbidden, as was alcohol. The colonists rejected any puritanical lifestyle and complained that their colony could not compete economically with the Carolina rice plantations. Georgia initially failed to prosper, but in 1752 the trustees turned over control of the colony to the royal government and the restrictions were lifted, slavery was allowed, and it became moderately prosperous.

===Plantations===
By the 1720s, a sew aspiring planters began to construct large Georgian-style mansions, wear bright red attire, and hunt deer from horseback. Wealthy women in the Southern colonies shared in the British culture and spent large sums on the latest fasions and furniture.

The wives of the plantation owners supervised the household slaves, handled medical services for all the slaves, and put on elaborate dinners and festive balls. These efforts were the most successful in South Carolina, where wealthy rice planters lived in townhouses in Charleston, a busy port city. Active social seasons flourished in the few towns, such as [[Annapolis, Maryland]], and on tobacco plantations in Virginia.

====Slaves====
The African slaves who worked on the indigo, tobacco, and rice fields in the South came mostly from the Caribbean sugar islands (plus a few who came directly from Africa). In 1700, there were about 9,600 slaves in the Chesapeake region and a few hundred in the Carolinas. About 170,000 more Africans arrived over the next five decades. By 1750, there were more than 250,000 slaves in British America; in South Carolina they made up about 60% of the total population. Very favorable food and health standards contributed to rapid population growth.

==Economy==
see also [[American economic history]]

[[File:Ec$1800.jpg|thumb|400px|Estimated income in constant 1840 dollars. Source: Alice Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980); Susan B. Carter et al. ''The Historical Statistics of the United States'' (2006) vol 3.]]
The great majority of people throughout the colonial era were farmers and their income was not cash but the value of the crops and animals produced on farms, and mostly consumed by the family. The estimates are based on inventories of estates when people died. Most people lived in poverty—with very few possessions such as a small stock of clothes, a shack to live in, a few household goods—and land and animals. In terms of wealth the per capita wealth of Americans in 1774 was £37.4 ($6700 in 2009 dollars); per adult male £172 ($30,700); and per white adult male £218 ($39,000).<ref>Alice Hanson Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980)</ref>

== Thirteen Colonies and the Ten Commandments ==

Dr. Kenyn Cureton indicates:
{{Cquote|Twelve of the original thirteen colonies adopted the entire [[Decalogue]] into their civil and criminal laws. While the lone hold-out, Rhode Island, did not adopt the first four Commandments, they did adopt the last six. Surveying the organic development of law, former Chief Justice William Rehnquist forcefully argued: “It is… undeniable… that the Ten Commandments have had a significant impact on the development of secular legal codes of the Western World.<ref>[https://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF10I86.pdf Ten Commandments: Foundation of American Society] by Dr. Kenyn Cureton</ref>}}

==1774 contineital congress prayer==
george washington
john adams
samuel adams
john jay
patrick henery
peyton roundolph
these men were at the continetial cofederation congress that met from 1774-1789
jacob duche was apponited chaplin in 1774

==Articles of confederation==
It has pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of the Legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to approve of and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles of Confederation.
free inhabant
in the year of our lord

==Literature==
Colonial American literature is perhaps the most vibrant field in American literary studies today. In the last decade an explosion of anthologies designed to make widely available a broad range of non-canonical writings produced in and about Great Britain's colonies in the Western hemisphere has provided teachers and scholars with important new tools. The explosion has been driven partly by the identity-based recuperation movements of the 1970s and 1980s, partly by a new awareness of the importance of texts circulated in manuscript or newspapers rather than in book form, and partly by dissatisfaction with the predominant Puritan origins narrative and a swelling interest in transnationalism. New anthologies include Myra Jehlen and Michael Warner's ''The English Literatures of America, 1580–1800'' (Routledge, 1996), Vincent Carretta's ''Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century'' (Lexington, Ky., 1996), Sharon M. Harris's ''Early American Women Writers to 1800'' (Oxford, 1996), and ''Thomas W. Krise's Caribbeana: An Anthology of English Literature of the West Indies, 1657–1777'' (Chicago, 1999), Susan Castillo and Ivy Schweitzer, ''The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology'' (Oxford, 2001) Carla Muford's ''Early American Writings'' (Oxford 2002), and Susan Castillo's, ''Colonial Encounters in New World Writing, 1500–1786: Performing America'' (Routledge, 2006). Add in the University of Massachusetts Press series on native writers and scholars have made readily available a vast array of once obscure English-language works. Some of these new volumes represent an effort by colonialists to catch up to the rest of the field of Americanist scholarship, providing the pre-literary history to contemporary Caribbean or African American literature. In an important sense, however, colonialists occupy a unique position among Americanists. At a moment when many scholars are rejecting nationalist narratives of literary history, which they view as the intellectual equivalent of isolationism in a world increasingly committed to globalization, students of colonial American literature rightly claim a pre-national vantage point. A transnational approach to colonial literature has the attractive features of being both intellectually sound and trendy.<ref>Sandra M. Gustafson, "The Americas in Writing," ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 2003 60(1): 207-213. ISSN: 0043-5597
Fulltext: [[History Cooperative]]</ref>

==Unification of the 13 colonies==
===A common defense===
One event that reminded colonists of their shared identity as British subjects was the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] (1740-1748) in Europe. This conflict spilled over into the colonies, where it was known as "King George's War"; most of the fighting took place in Europe, British colonial troops attacked French Canada.

At the [[Albany Congress]] of 1754, [[Benjamin Franklin]] proposed that the colonies be united by a Grand Council overseeing a common policy for defense, expansion, and Indian affairs. While the plan was thwarted by colonial legislatures and King [[George II]], it was an early indication that the British colonies of North America were headed towards unification. Franklin did not give up; more than anyone, he invented the idea of a United States of America.

===Great Awakening===
{{main|First Great Awakening}}
One event that began to unify the religious background of the colonies was the [[First Great Awakening]], a Protestant revival movement that took place in the 1730s and 1740s. It began with [[Jonathan Edwards]], a Massachusetts preacher who sought to return to the Pilgrims' strict [[Calvinist]] roots and to reawaken the "Fear of God". Edwards was a powerful speaker and attracted a large following with sermons such as "[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]". English preacher [[George Whitefield]] and other itinerant preachers continued the movement, traveling across the colonies and preaching in a dramatic and emotional style.

Followers of Edwards and other preachers of similar religiosity called themselves the "New Lights," as contrasted with the "Old Lights", who disapproved of their movement. To promote their viewpoints, the two sides established academies and colleges including [[Princeton University|Princeton]] and [[Williams College]]. The Great Awakening has been called the first truly "American" event, and as such represented at least a small step towards the unification of the colonies.

A similar pietistic movement took place among some of the German and Dutch Lutherans, leading to internal dvisions. By the 1770s the Baptists were growing rapidly both in the north (where they founded [[Brown University]], and in the South where they challenged the previously unquestioned moral authority of the Anglican establishment.

===French and Indian War===
[[Image:WashingtonFIwar.jpg|thumb|250px|[[George Washington]] during the French and Indian War]]
{{main|French and Indian War}}
The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the [[Seven Years' War]].

The war is called the ''French and Indian'' because the [[Iroquois]] confederacy—which had been playing the British and the French against each other successfully for decades fought on both sides. The French were defeated and in the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)]], France surrendered its vast North American empire to Britain.

The French and Indian war took on a new significance for the North American colonists in Great Britain when [[William Pitt the elder]] decided that it was necessary to win the war against France at all costs. For the first time, North America was one of the main theatres of what could be termed a "world war". During the war, the status of all the British Colonies (including the thirteen colonies) as part of the British Empire was made truly apparent, as British military and civilian officials took on an increased presence in the lives of Americans. The war also increased a sense of American unity in other ways. It caused men, who might normally have never left their colonies, to travel across the continent, fighting alongside men from decidedly different, yet still "American," backgrounds. Throughout the course of the war, British officers trained American ones (most notably [[George Washington]]) for battle which would later benefit the American Revolution. Also, state legislatures and officials had to cooperate intensively, for arguably the first time, in pursuit of the continent-wide military effort.

The British and colonists triumphed jointly over a common foe. The colonists' loyalty to the mother country was stronger than ever before. The war produced prosperity, as royal officials hired American troops and sent in well paid British troops. The French were defeated, and the British took Canada. Most important, the military threat from any foreign power ended, and the colonies no longer needed the protection of the Royal Navy. The British army handled Indian affairs on the frontier, so Indians were no longer a major threat to the Americans.

===Ties to the British Empire===
Although the colonies were very different from one another, they were still a part of the [[British Empire]] and each looked to London for leadership. military protection, and trade.

The political institutions of the colonies were originally patterned after English models, but by the 1760s there was a very different tone. Americans ignored the Royal Court and paid attention to the "country" party in Britain which was opposed to the Court; this was the origin of [[republicanism]] which increasingly dominated American political values.

The codes of law of the colonies were drawn directly from English common law, which was carefully studied by the hundreds of lawyers in the colonies.<ref>Scotland had a different legal system which did not carry over to the colonies.</ref> Eventually, it was a dispute over the meaning of the English Constitution and the rights of Englishmen that animated a new generation after 1760 to demand respect for their historic rights as Englishmen.

Another point on which the colonies found themselves more similar than different was the booming import of British goods by international merchants based in American seaports. Socially, the colonial elite imitated British styles of luxurious consumption, dress, dance, and etiquette. This social upper echelon built its mansions in the Georgian style (named after King George), copied the furniture designs of [[Thomas Chippendale]], and participated in the intellectual currents of Europe, such as [[Enlightenment]]. To many of their inhabitants, the seaport cities of colonial America were truly British cities. The British economy had begun to grow rapidly at the end of the 17th century, and by the mid-18th century, small factories in Britain were producing much more than the nation could consume. Finding a market for their goods in the British colonies of North America, Britain increased her exports to that region by 360% between 1740 and 1770. Because British merchants offered generous credit to their customers, Americans began buying staggering amounts of English goods. Economic integration across the Atlantic was more and more a reality, as the economy of each colony matured and was more involved in oceanic trade.

==From unity to revolution==
===Royal Proclamation===
The general sentiment of inequity that arose soon after the [[Treaty of Paris]] of 1763 was solidified by the [[Proclamation of 1763]], which temporarily prohibited settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. Colonists resented the measure, and it was never enforced.

===Acts of Parliament===

Parliament had generally been preoccupied with affairs in Europe and let the colonies govern themselves. It was no longer willing to do so. A series of measures resulting from this policy change, while affecting the New England colonies most directly would continue to arouse opposition in the 'thirteen colonies' over the next thirteen years, leading to the [[American Revolution]]:
*[[Sugar Act]] (1764)
*[[Stamp Act of 1765]]
* First [[Quartering Act]] (1765)
*[[Declaratory Act]] (1766)
*[[Townshend Acts]] (1767)
*[[Boston Tea Party|Tea Act]] (1773)
* The [[Intolerable Acts]], also called the ''Coercive'' or ''Punitive'' Acts
** Second [[Quartering Act]] (1774)
**[[Quebec Act]] (1774)
**[[Massachusetts Government Act]] (1774)
**[[Administration of Justice Act]] (1774)
**[[Boston Port Act]] (1774)
*[[Prohibitory Act]] (1776)

Following the official act of Independence, the colonies were known as the "United Colonies". On September 9th, 1776, the [[Continental Congress]] voted to change the name of the country to the "United States of America".

==See also==
* [[Colonial military history]]
==Bibliography==
===References===
* Cooke, Jacob Ernest, ed. ''Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies'' (3 vol 1993), comprehensive coverage with Spanish, French and Dutch receiving equal attention with British
===Scholarly secondary sources===
* Adams, James Truslow. ''The Founding of New England,'' (1921)[http://www.dinsdoc.com/adams-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Anderson, Virginia DeJohn. ''Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America'' (2005) [https://www.amazon.com/Creatures-Empire-Domestic-Animals-Transformed/dp/0195304462/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-11 excerpt and text search]
* Andrews, Charles M. "Colonial Commerce," ''American Historical Review,'' 20#1 (October 1914) pp. 43–63 [http://www.dinsdoc.com/andrews-1.htm online]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Our Earliest Colonial Settlements: Their Diversities of Origin and Later Characteristics'' (1933) briefly discusses Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6552109 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Colonial Self-Government, 1652-1689.. (1904) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=55413362 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''The Colonial Period of American History,'' (1934-38) (the standard overview in four volumes) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/a/acls/browse.html online at ACLS e-books]
* Bailyn, Bernard. ''Voyagers to the West: a passage in the peopling of America on the eve of the Revolution'' (1986), winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History
* Bancroft, George. ''History of the United States of America, from the discovery of the American continent. '' 10 vol (1860) [http://jrshelby.com/sc-links/bancroft.htm online editions]
* Beer, George Louis. "British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' vol 22 (March 1907) pp 1-48; [http://dinsdoc.com/beer-1.htm online edition]
* Beeman, Richard R. "The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America'' (2006) [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0812219775/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search]
* Berkin, Carol. ''First Generations: Women in Colonial America'' (1997) 276pp [https://www.amazon.com/First-Generations-Women-Colonial-America/dp/0809016060/ref=sid_dp_dp/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America'' (1988) (online at [[American Council of Learned Societies|ACLS]] History e-book project)
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''A Factious People: Politics and Society in Colonial New York,'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98025896 online edition]
* Brown, Kathleen M. ''Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia'' (1996) 512pp [https://www.amazon.com/Wives-Nasty-Wenches-Anxious-Patriarchs/dp/0807846236/ref=pd_sim_b_shvl_title_17/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bruce, Philip A. ''Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Material Condition of the People, Based on Original and Contemporaneous Records.'' (1896), very old fashioned history [http://www.dinsdoc.com/bruce-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Carr, Lois Green and Philip D. Morgan. ''Colonial Chesapeake Society'' (1991), 524pp [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Chesapeake-Society-Lois-Green/dp/0807843431/ref=sip_rech_dp_3/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Crane, Verner W. ''The Southern Frontier, 1670-1732,'' (1920), [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=28187303 online edition]
* Crane, Verner W. "The Southern Frontier in Queen Anne’s War," ''American Historical Review'' vol 24, (April 1919) pp 379-95. [http://dinsdoc.com/crane-1.htm online edition]
* Gallay, Alan, ed. ''Colonial Wars of North America, 1512-1763: An Encyclopedia'' (1996) [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Wars-North-America-1512-1763/dp/0824072081/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263942660&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Gipson, Lawrence. ''The British Empire Before the American Revolution'' (15 volumes) (1936-1970), Pulitzer Prize; highly detailed discussion of every British colony in the New World
* Greene, Evarts Boutelle. ''Provincial America, 1690-1740,'' (1935) survey by scholar [http://www.dinsdoc.com/greene-3-0a.htm online edition]
* Hatfield, April Lee. ''Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century'' (2007) [https://www.amazon.com/Atlantic-Virginia-Intercolonial-Relations-Seventeenth/dp/081221997X/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-8 excerpt and text search]
* Illick, Joseph E. ''Colonial Pennsylvania: A History,'' (1976) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/colonial-pennsylvania-a-history-by-joseph-e-illick.jsp online edition]
* Kammen, Michael. ''Colonial New York: A History,'' (2003)
* Labaree, Benjamin Woods. ''Colonial Massachusetts: A History,'' (1979)
* Kulikoff, Allan. ''From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers'' (2000) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/from-british-peasants-to-colonial-american-farmers-by-allan-kulikoff.jsp online edition]
* Middleton, Richard. ''Colonial America: A History, 1565-1776'' (3rd ed 2002), 576pp [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-America-History-1565-1776/dp/0631221417/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Morgan, Edmund S. ''American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia'' (1975) Pulitzer Prize [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101062594 online edition]
* Osgood, Herbert L. ''The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century.'' 3 vol (1904-07) [http://dinsdoc.com/osgood-8-0a.htm online edition]
* Tate, Thad W. ''Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century'' (1980) [https://www.amazon.com/Chesapeake-Seventeenth-Century-Thad-Tate/dp/0393009564/ref=sr_1_23/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998781&sr=1-23 excerpt and text search]
* Taylor, Alan. ''American Colonies,'' (2001) survey by leading scholar [https://www.amazon.com/American-Colonies-Settling-America-Penguin/dp/0142002100/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]
* Vickers, Daniel, ed. ''A Companion to Colonial America.'' 2003. 576 pp.

===Primary sources===
* Kavenagh, W. Keith, ed. ''Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History'' (1973) 4 vol.
* Miller, Kerby A., et al eds. ''Irish immigrants in the land of Canaan: letters and memoirs from colonial and revolutionary America, 1675-1815'' (2004) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;cc=acls;q1=United%20States%20--%20History%20--%20Colonial%20period%2C%20ca.%201600-1775%20--%20Biography;rgn=subject;view=toc;idno=heb90012.0001.001 online at ACLS e-books]
===Online sources===
*[http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/colonial.htm Colonial America 1600-1775, K12 Resources]
*[http://earlyamerica.com/ Archiving Early America]
*[http://www.dinsdoc.com/colonial-3.htm ''Classics of American Colonial History'' complete text of older scholarly articles]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Colonial America]]
[[Category:British Empire]]
[[Category:Indian Wars]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:New England]]
[[Category:Massachusetts]]
[[Category:New Hampshire]]
[[Category:Rhode Island]]
[[Category:Connecticut]]
[[Category:New York]]
[[Category:Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:New Jersey]]
[[Category:Delaware]]
[[Category:Maryland]]
[[Category:Virginia]]
[[Category:North Carolina]]
[[Category:South Carolina]]
[[Category:Georgia]]

Thirteen Colonies

2021-07-26T05:44:55Z

Stephenkollenborners: english

The '''thirteen colonies''' were the [[British]] colonies that formed the [[United States]]. They were: [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[Rhode Island]], [[Connecticut]], [[New York]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[New Jersey]], [[Delaware]], [[Maryland]], [[Virginia]], [[North Carolina]], [[South Carolina]], and [[Georgia]]. On July 4, 1776, they became states and formed a new nation, the '''United States of America.'''
[[Image:1742map.jpg|thumb|400px]]
[[Image:Pop1750.jpg|thumb|400px]]
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
== New England Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Massachusetts]] || 1620 || [[Pilgrims]], led by [[William Bradford]] || Shipbuilding, fish, lumber || Governor appointed by king || established [[Puritan]] Church (after 1700 called Congregationalist);
|-
| [[Rhode Island]] || 1636 || [[Roger Williams]], for religious reasons left [[Massachusetts]] || Lumber, fish. || Elected by colonists. || Complete [[religious freedom]] for all- [[Anglican]] ([[Episcopalian]]), [[Baptist]], Quakers and other Protestants
|-
| [[Connecticut]] || 1636 || [[Thomas Hooker]], who led a group from [[Massachusetts]] who wanted [[limited government|less government]] || Shipbuilding, lumber, fish || Elected by colonists || Congregationalist Church was established
|-
| [[New Hampshire]] || 1623 || Colonists who left Massachusetts for political and religious reasons || Molasses, fish || Governor appointed by king || Congregationalist
|}

==New England==
{{main|New England}}
The [[Plymouth Colony]], now part of Massachusetts, was founded by the [[Pilgrims]], a small [[Puritans|Puritan]] sect based in [[England]] and the [[Netherlands]]. One group sailed on the ''[[Mayflower]]''. They drew up the [[Mayflower Compact]] by which they gave themselves broad powers of self-governance and introduced [[democracy]] into America. They established the small Plymouth Colony in 1620 and later merged with the Massachusetts Bay colony. [[William Bradford]] (1590-1657) was the main leader.
===Puritans===
{{main|Puritans}}
The Puritans, a much larger group than the Pilgrims, established the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in 1629 with 400 settlers. This group was the Puritans who sought to reform the [[Church of England]] by creating a new, pure church in the New World. Within two years, an additional 2,000 arrived. The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit and politically innovative culture that still lingers on in the modern United States. They hoped this new land would serve as a "redeemer nation." Seeking the true religion, they fled England and in America created a "nation of saints" or the "[[City upon a hill]]," an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community designed to be an example for all of Europe. [[Roger Williams (theologian)|Roger Williams]], who preached religious toleration, [[separation of church and state]], and a complete break with the Church of England, was banished and founded [[Rhode Island|Rhode Island Colony]], which became a haven for other religious refugees from the Puritan community, including [[Anne Hutchinson]], a preacher of [[Antinomianism]].

Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of its founders. Unlike the cash-crop oriented plantations of the Chesapeake region, the Puritan economy was based on the efforts of individual farmers, who harvested enough crops to feed themselves and their families and a surplus to trade for goods they could not produce themselves. There was a generally higher standard of living in New England than in the Chesapeake. Along with farming growth, New England became an important mercantile and shipbuilding center, often serving as the hub for trading between the South and Europe.

== Middle Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[New York]] || 1626 || [[Dutch]]; English in 1664 || Shipbuilding and trade || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], and other Protestants
|-
| [[New Jersey]] || 1664 || [[Swedish]] and [[Dutch]]; In 1664 [[Sir George Carteret]] and [[Lord John Berkeley]] were given the land by the English Duke of York || Oats, wheat, rye || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], [[Quaker]], others
|-
| [[Pennsylvania]] || 1681 || [[William Penn]] as a safe place for [[Quakers]] || Trade and Shipbuilding || Proprietor selected the governor || [[Quaker]] Lutheran, and other Protestant
|-
| [[Delaware]] || 1682 || [[William Penn]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected the governor || Protestant
|}

The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of [[New York]], [[New Jersey]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[Delaware]], were characterized by a large degree of diversity—religious, political, economic, and ethnic. Many Dutch and Protestant Irish immigrants settled in these areas, as well as in [[Long Island]] and [[Connecticut]]. The Germans, called "[[Pennsylvania Dutch]]," were included in this emigration.

===Mid-Atlantic Region===
Unlike New England, the Mid-Atlantic Region gained much of its population from new immigration, and by 1750, the combined populations of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania had reached nearly 300,000 people. By 1750, about 60,000 [[Scots-Irish]] and 50,000 [[German Americans|Germans]] came to live in British North America, many of them settling in the Mid-Atlantic Region. [[William Penn]], the man who founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1682, attracted an influx of [[Quakers]] and other immigrants with his policies of religious liberty and freehold ownership. "Freehold" meant that farmers owned their land free and clear of leases. The first major influx of immigrants came mainly from Ireland and consisted of Scots-Irish [[Church of Scotland|Presbyterians]]. The second major immigration came with Germans trying to escape the religious conflicts and declining economic opportunities in Germany and Switzerland.

====Ways of life====
[[File:The Baptism of Pocahontas 1614.jpg|thumb|The Baptism of Pocahontas, 1614, Oil study for mural by John Gadsby Chapman, circa 1837-40.]]
Much of the architecture of the Middle Colonies reflects the diversity of its peoples. In Albany and New York City, a majority of the buildings were Dutch style with brick exteriors and high gables at each end while many Dutch churches were shaped liked an octagon. Using cut stone to build their houses, German and Welsh settlers in Pennsylvania followed the way of their homeland and completely ignored the plethora of timber in the area. Thus in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 80% of the buildings in the town were made entirely of stone. On the other hand, the Scots-Irish took advantage of America's ample supply of timber and constructed sturdy log cabins.

Ethnic cultures also effected the styles of furniture. Rural Quakers preferred simple designs in furnishings such as tables, chairs, chests and shunned elaborate decorations. However, some urban Quakers had much more elaborate furniture. The city of [[Philadelphia]] became a major center of furniture-making because of its massive wealth from Quaker and British merchants. Philadelphian cabinet makers built elegant desks and highboys. German artisans created intricate carved designs on their chests and other furniture with painted scenes of flowers and birds. German potters also crafted a large array of jugs, pots, and plates, of both elegant and traditional design.

There were ethnic differences in the treatment of women. Among Puritan settlers in New England, wives almost never worked in the fields with their husbands. In German communities in Pennsylvania, however, many women worked in fields and stables. German and Dutch immigrants granted women more control over property, which was not permitted in the local English law. Unlike English colonial wives, German and Dutch wives owned their own clothes and other items and were also given the ability to write wills disposing of the property brought into the marriage.

====Farming====
The Europeans brought entirely new animals, which transformed the landscape, such as hogs, cattle, horses, sheep and poulry. (The Indians already had dogs.) Ethnicity made a difference in agricultural practice. As an example, German farmers generally preferred oxen rather than horses to pull their plows and Scots-Irish made a farming economy based on hogs and corn. In Ireland, Scots-Irish farmed intensively, working small pieces of land trying to get the largest possible production-rate from their crops. In the American colonies, Scots-Irish focused on mixed-farming. Using this technique, they grew corn for human consumption and as feed for hogs and other livestock. Many improvement-minded farmers of all different backgrounds began using new agricultural practices to raise their output. During the 1750s, these agricultural innovators replaced the hand sickles and scythes used to harvest hay, wheat, and barley with the cradle scythe, a tool with wooden fingers that arranged the stalks of grain for easy collection. This tool was able to triple the amount of work down by farmers in one day. Farmers also began fertilizing their fields with dung and lime and rotating their crops to keep the soil fertile.

Before 1720, most colonists in the mid-Atlantic region worked with small-scale farming and paid for imported manufactures by supplying the West Indies with corn and flour. In New York, a fur-pelt export trade to Europe flourished adding additional wealth to the region. After 1720, mid-Atlantic farming stimulated with the international demand for wheat. A massive population explosion in Europe brought wheat prices up. By 1770, a bushel of wheat cost twice as much as it did in 1720. Farmers also expanded their production of flaxseed and wheat since flax was a high demand in the Irish linen industry and a demand for wheat for slaves existed in the West Indies.

Some immigrants who just arrived purchased farms and shared in this export wealth, but many poor German and Scots-Irish immigrants were forced to work as agricultural wage laborers. Merchants and artisans also hired these homeless workers for a domestic system for the manufacture of cloth and other goods. Merchants often bought wool and flax from farmers and employed newly arrived immigrants, who had been textile workers in Ireland and Germany, to work in their homes spinning the materials into yarn and cloth. Large farmers and merchants became wealthy, while farmers with smaller farms and artisans only made enough for subsistence. The Mid-Atlantic region, by 1750, was divided by both ethnic background and wealth.

====Seaports====
Seaports, which expanded from wheat trade, had more social classes than anywhere else in the Middle Colonies. By 1750, the population of Philadelphia had reached 25,000, New York 15,000, and the port of [[Baltimore]] 7,000. Merchants dominated seaport society and about 40 merchants controlled half of Philadelphia's trade. Wealthy merchants in Philadelphia and New York, like their counterparts in New England, built elegant Georgian-style mansions.

Shopkeepers, artisans, shipwrights, butchers, coopers (barrell makers), seamstresses, cobblers, bakers, carpenters, stonemasons, and many other specialized professions, made up the middle class of seaport society. Wives and husbands often worked as a team and taught their children their crafts to pass it on through the family. Many of these artisans and traders made enough money to create a modest life.

Laborers stood at the bottom of seaport society. These poor people worked on the docks unloading inbound vessels and loading outbound vessels with wheat, corn, and flaxseed. Many of these were African American; some were free while others were enslaved. In 1750, blacks made up about 10 percent of the population of New York and Philadelphia. Hundreds of seamen, some who were African American, worked as sailors on merchant ships.

== Southern Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Virginia]] || 1607 || [[John Smith]], settlers from [[Virginia Company of London]] || Tobacco || Governor appointed by king || [[Anglican]] Church was established
|-
| [[Maryland]] || 1634 || [[Lord Baltimore]] as a safe place for [[Catholicism|Catholics]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected by governor || Protestant and Catholic
|-
| [[North Carolina]] || 1654 || [[Virginia]] settlers || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[South Carolina]] || 1663 || [[English]] and other [[Europeans]] || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[Georgia]] || 1732 || [[James Oglethorpe]], brought [[English]] debtors to protect [[Georgia]] from the [[Spanish]] || Indigo, tobacco || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|}
The Southern Colonies were mainly dominated by the wealthy slave-owning planters in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. These planters owned massive estates that were worked by African slaves. Of the 650,000 inhabitants of the South in 1750, about 250,000 or 40 percent, were slaves. Planters used their wealth to dominate the local tenants and yeoman farmers. At election time, they gave these farmers gifts of rum and promised to lower taxes to take control of colonial legislatures.

===South: Chesapeake Bay area===
====Jamestown====
The first successful English colony was Jamestown, established in 1607, on a small river near Chesapeake Bay. The venture was financed and coordinated by the London Virginia Company, a joint stock company looking for gold. Its first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Indians, and little gold. The colony barely survived, by turning to tobacco as a cash crop. By the late 17th century Virginia's export economy was largely based on tobacco, and new, richer settlers came in to take up large portions of land, build large plantations and import indentured servants and slaves. In 1676 [[Bacon's Rebellion]] occurred, but was suppressed by royal officials. After Bacon's Rebellion, African slaves replaced English indentured servants as Virginia's main labor force. The indentured servants became independent farmers at age 21, and mostly became subsistence farmers.

The colonial assembly that had governed the colony since its establishment was dissolved but was reinstated in 1630. It shared power with a royally appointed governor. On a more local level, governmental power was invested in county [[court]]s and sheriffs, also not elected. Voters could vote for a member of House of Burgess.

As cash crop producers, Chesapeake plantations were heavily dependent on trade. With easy navigation by river, few towns and no cities developed; planters shipped directly to Britain. High death rates and a very young population profile characterized the colony during its first decades.

===Lower South===

The colonial South included the plantation colonies of the Chesapeake region (Virginia and Maryland) and the lower South (Carolina, which eventually split into North and South Carolina, and Georgia).

====Carolinas====
The first attempted English settlement south of Virginia was the Province of Carolina. It was a private venture, financed by a group of English businessmen calling themselves the "Lords Proprietors," who obtained a [[Royal Charter]] to the Carolinas in 1663, hoping that a new colony in the south would become profitable like that of Jamestown. Carolina was not settled until 1670, and even then the first attempt failed because there was no incentive for emigration to the south. However, eventually the Lords combined their remaining capital and financed a settlement mission to the area led by John West. The expedition located fertile and defensible ground at what was to become [[Charleston]] (originally Charles Town for King [[Charles II]], thus beginning the English colonization of the mainland. The original settlers in South Carolina established a lucrative trade in provisions, deerskins and Indian captives with the Caribbean islands. They came mainly from the English colony of [[Barbados]] and brought African slaves with them. Barbados, as a wealthy [[sugarcane]] plantation island, was one of the early English colonies to large numbers of Africans in plantation style agriculture. The cultivation of [[rice]] was introduced during the 1690s via Africans from the rice-growing regions of [[West Africa]]. North Carolina remained a frontier through the early colonial period.

At first, South Carolina was politically divided. Its ethnic makeup included the original settlers, a group of rich, slave-owning English settlers from the island of Barbados; and [[Huguenots]], a French-speaking community of Protestants. Nearly continuous frontier warfare during the era of [[King William's War]] and [[Queen Anne's War]] drove economic and political wedges between merchants and planters. The disaster of the [[Yamasee War]], in 1715, set off a decade of political turmoil. By 1729, the proprietary government had collapsed, and the Proprietors sold both colonies back to the British crown.

====Georgia====
[[James Oglethorpe]], an 18th century British [[Member of Parliament]], established [[Georgia]] as a common solution to two problems. British feared that Spanish Florida was threatening the British Carolinas. Oglethorpe established his colony in the contested border region of Georgia and populated it with the poor and debtors who would otherwise have been imprisoned. This plan would both rid Britain of its undesirable elements and provide her with a base from which to attack Florida. The first colonists arrived in 1733.

Oglethorpe established his colony on strict moralistic principles. Slavery was forbidden, as was alcohol. The colonists rejected any puritanical lifestyle and complained that their colony could not compete economically with the Carolina rice plantations. Georgia initially failed to prosper, but in 1752 the trustees turned over control of the colony to the royal government and the restrictions were lifted, slavery was allowed, and it became moderately prosperous.

===Plantations===
By the 1720s, a sew aspiring planters began to construct large Georgian-style mansions, wear bright red attire, and hunt deer from horseback. Wealthy women in the Southern colonies shared in the British culture and spent large sums on the latest fasions and furniture.

The wives of the plantation owners supervised the household slaves, handled medical services for all the slaves, and put on elaborate dinners and festive balls. These efforts were the most successful in South Carolina, where wealthy rice planters lived in townhouses in Charleston, a busy port city. Active social seasons flourished in the few towns, such as [[Annapolis, Maryland]], and on tobacco plantations in Virginia.

====Slaves====
The African slaves who worked on the indigo, tobacco, and rice fields in the South came mostly from the Caribbean sugar islands (plus a few who came directly from Africa). In 1700, there were about 9,600 slaves in the Chesapeake region and a few hundred in the Carolinas. About 170,000 more Africans arrived over the next five decades. By 1750, there were more than 250,000 slaves in British America; in South Carolina they made up about 60% of the total population. Very favorable food and health standards contributed to rapid population growth.

==Economy==
see also [[American economic history]]

[[File:Ec$1800.jpg|thumb|400px|Estimated income in constant 1840 dollars. Source: Alice Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980); Susan B. Carter et al. ''The Historical Statistics of the United States'' (2006) vol 3.]]
The great majority of people throughout the colonial era were farmers and their income was not cash but the value of the crops and animals produced on farms, and mostly consumed by the family. The estimates are based on inventories of estates when people died. Most people lived in poverty—with very few possessions such as a small stock of clothes, a shack to live in, a few household goods—and land and animals. In terms of wealth the per capita wealth of Americans in 1774 was £37.4 ($6700 in 2009 dollars); per adult male £172 ($30,700); and per white adult male £218 ($39,000).<ref>Alice Hanson Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980)</ref>

== Thirteen Colonies and the Ten Commandments ==

Dr. Kenyn Cureton indicates:
{{Cquote|Twelve of the original thirteen colonies adopted the entire [[Decalogue]] into their civil and criminal laws. While the lone hold-out, Rhode Island, did not adopt the first four Commandments, they did adopt the last six. Surveying the organic development of law, former Chief Justice William Rehnquist forcefully argued: “It is… undeniable… that the Ten Commandments have had a significant impact on the development of secular legal codes of the Western World.<ref>[https://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF10I86.pdf Ten Commandments: Foundation of American Society] by Dr. Kenyn Cureton</ref>}}

==1774 contineital congress prayer==
george washington
john adams
samuel adams
john jay
patrick henery
peyton roundolph
these men were at the continetial cofederation congress that met from 1774-1789

==Articles of confederation==
It has pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of the Legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to approve of and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles of Confederation.
free inhabant
in the year of our lord

==Literature==
Colonial American literature is perhaps the most vibrant field in American literary studies today. In the last decade an explosion of anthologies designed to make widely available a broad range of non-canonical writings produced in and about Great Britain's colonies in the Western hemisphere has provided teachers and scholars with important new tools. The explosion has been driven partly by the identity-based recuperation movements of the 1970s and 1980s, partly by a new awareness of the importance of texts circulated in manuscript or newspapers rather than in book form, and partly by dissatisfaction with the predominant Puritan origins narrative and a swelling interest in transnationalism. New anthologies include Myra Jehlen and Michael Warner's ''The English Literatures of America, 1580–1800'' (Routledge, 1996), Vincent Carretta's ''Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century'' (Lexington, Ky., 1996), Sharon M. Harris's ''Early American Women Writers to 1800'' (Oxford, 1996), and ''Thomas W. Krise's Caribbeana: An Anthology of English Literature of the West Indies, 1657–1777'' (Chicago, 1999), Susan Castillo and Ivy Schweitzer, ''The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology'' (Oxford, 2001) Carla Muford's ''Early American Writings'' (Oxford 2002), and Susan Castillo's, ''Colonial Encounters in New World Writing, 1500–1786: Performing America'' (Routledge, 2006). Add in the University of Massachusetts Press series on native writers and scholars have made readily available a vast array of once obscure English-language works. Some of these new volumes represent an effort by colonialists to catch up to the rest of the field of Americanist scholarship, providing the pre-literary history to contemporary Caribbean or African American literature. In an important sense, however, colonialists occupy a unique position among Americanists. At a moment when many scholars are rejecting nationalist narratives of literary history, which they view as the intellectual equivalent of isolationism in a world increasingly committed to globalization, students of colonial American literature rightly claim a pre-national vantage point. A transnational approach to colonial literature has the attractive features of being both intellectually sound and trendy.<ref>Sandra M. Gustafson, "The Americas in Writing," ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 2003 60(1): 207-213. ISSN: 0043-5597
Fulltext: [[History Cooperative]]</ref>

==Unification of the 13 colonies==
===A common defense===
One event that reminded colonists of their shared identity as British subjects was the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] (1740-1748) in Europe. This conflict spilled over into the colonies, where it was known as "King George's War"; most of the fighting took place in Europe, British colonial troops attacked French Canada.

At the [[Albany Congress]] of 1754, [[Benjamin Franklin]] proposed that the colonies be united by a Grand Council overseeing a common policy for defense, expansion, and Indian affairs. While the plan was thwarted by colonial legislatures and King [[George II]], it was an early indication that the British colonies of North America were headed towards unification. Franklin did not give up; more than anyone, he invented the idea of a United States of America.

===Great Awakening===
{{main|First Great Awakening}}
One event that began to unify the religious background of the colonies was the [[First Great Awakening]], a Protestant revival movement that took place in the 1730s and 1740s. It began with [[Jonathan Edwards]], a Massachusetts preacher who sought to return to the Pilgrims' strict [[Calvinist]] roots and to reawaken the "Fear of God". Edwards was a powerful speaker and attracted a large following with sermons such as "[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]". English preacher [[George Whitefield]] and other itinerant preachers continued the movement, traveling across the colonies and preaching in a dramatic and emotional style.

Followers of Edwards and other preachers of similar religiosity called themselves the "New Lights," as contrasted with the "Old Lights", who disapproved of their movement. To promote their viewpoints, the two sides established academies and colleges including [[Princeton University|Princeton]] and [[Williams College]]. The Great Awakening has been called the first truly "American" event, and as such represented at least a small step towards the unification of the colonies.

A similar pietistic movement took place among some of the German and Dutch Lutherans, leading to internal dvisions. By the 1770s the Baptists were growing rapidly both in the north (where they founded [[Brown University]], and in the South where they challenged the previously unquestioned moral authority of the Anglican establishment.

===French and Indian War===
[[Image:WashingtonFIwar.jpg|thumb|250px|[[George Washington]] during the French and Indian War]]
{{main|French and Indian War}}
The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the [[Seven Years' War]].

The war is called the ''French and Indian'' because the [[Iroquois]] confederacy—which had been playing the British and the French against each other successfully for decades fought on both sides. The French were defeated and in the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)]], France surrendered its vast North American empire to Britain.

The French and Indian war took on a new significance for the North American colonists in Great Britain when [[William Pitt the elder]] decided that it was necessary to win the war against France at all costs. For the first time, North America was one of the main theatres of what could be termed a "world war". During the war, the status of all the British Colonies (including the thirteen colonies) as part of the British Empire was made truly apparent, as British military and civilian officials took on an increased presence in the lives of Americans. The war also increased a sense of American unity in other ways. It caused men, who might normally have never left their colonies, to travel across the continent, fighting alongside men from decidedly different, yet still "American," backgrounds. Throughout the course of the war, British officers trained American ones (most notably [[George Washington]]) for battle which would later benefit the American Revolution. Also, state legislatures and officials had to cooperate intensively, for arguably the first time, in pursuit of the continent-wide military effort.

The British and colonists triumphed jointly over a common foe. The colonists' loyalty to the mother country was stronger than ever before. The war produced prosperity, as royal officials hired American troops and sent in well paid British troops. The French were defeated, and the British took Canada. Most important, the military threat from any foreign power ended, and the colonies no longer needed the protection of the Royal Navy. The British army handled Indian affairs on the frontier, so Indians were no longer a major threat to the Americans.

===Ties to the British Empire===
Although the colonies were very different from one another, they were still a part of the [[British Empire]] and each looked to London for leadership. military protection, and trade.

The political institutions of the colonies were originally patterned after English models, but by the 1760s there was a very different tone. Americans ignored the Royal Court and paid attention to the "country" party in Britain which was opposed to the Court; this was the origin of [[republicanism]] which increasingly dominated American political values.

The codes of law of the colonies were drawn directly from English common law, which was carefully studied by the hundreds of lawyers in the colonies.<ref>Scotland had a different legal system which did not carry over to the colonies.</ref> Eventually, it was a dispute over the meaning of the English Constitution and the rights of Englishmen that animated a new generation after 1760 to demand respect for their historic rights as Englishmen.

Another point on which the colonies found themselves more similar than different was the booming import of British goods by international merchants based in American seaports. Socially, the colonial elite imitated British styles of luxurious consumption, dress, dance, and etiquette. This social upper echelon built its mansions in the Georgian style (named after King George), copied the furniture designs of [[Thomas Chippendale]], and participated in the intellectual currents of Europe, such as [[Enlightenment]]. To many of their inhabitants, the seaport cities of colonial America were truly British cities. The British economy had begun to grow rapidly at the end of the 17th century, and by the mid-18th century, small factories in Britain were producing much more than the nation could consume. Finding a market for their goods in the British colonies of North America, Britain increased her exports to that region by 360% between 1740 and 1770. Because British merchants offered generous credit to their customers, Americans began buying staggering amounts of English goods. Economic integration across the Atlantic was more and more a reality, as the economy of each colony matured and was more involved in oceanic trade.

==From unity to revolution==
===Royal Proclamation===
The general sentiment of inequity that arose soon after the [[Treaty of Paris]] of 1763 was solidified by the [[Proclamation of 1763]], which temporarily prohibited settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. Colonists resented the measure, and it was never enforced.

===Acts of Parliament===

Parliament had generally been preoccupied with affairs in Europe and let the colonies govern themselves. It was no longer willing to do so. A series of measures resulting from this policy change, while affecting the New England colonies most directly would continue to arouse opposition in the 'thirteen colonies' over the next thirteen years, leading to the [[American Revolution]]:
*[[Sugar Act]] (1764)
*[[Stamp Act of 1765]]
* First [[Quartering Act]] (1765)
*[[Declaratory Act]] (1766)
*[[Townshend Acts]] (1767)
*[[Boston Tea Party|Tea Act]] (1773)
* The [[Intolerable Acts]], also called the ''Coercive'' or ''Punitive'' Acts
** Second [[Quartering Act]] (1774)
**[[Quebec Act]] (1774)
**[[Massachusetts Government Act]] (1774)
**[[Administration of Justice Act]] (1774)
**[[Boston Port Act]] (1774)
*[[Prohibitory Act]] (1776)

Following the official act of Independence, the colonies were known as the "United Colonies". On September 9th, 1776, the [[Continental Congress]] voted to change the name of the country to the "United States of America".

==See also==
* [[Colonial military history]]
==Bibliography==
===References===
* Cooke, Jacob Ernest, ed. ''Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies'' (3 vol 1993), comprehensive coverage with Spanish, French and Dutch receiving equal attention with British
===Scholarly secondary sources===
* Adams, James Truslow. ''The Founding of New England,'' (1921)[http://www.dinsdoc.com/adams-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Anderson, Virginia DeJohn. ''Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America'' (2005) [https://www.amazon.com/Creatures-Empire-Domestic-Animals-Transformed/dp/0195304462/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-11 excerpt and text search]
* Andrews, Charles M. "Colonial Commerce," ''American Historical Review,'' 20#1 (October 1914) pp. 43–63 [http://www.dinsdoc.com/andrews-1.htm online]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Our Earliest Colonial Settlements: Their Diversities of Origin and Later Characteristics'' (1933) briefly discusses Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6552109 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Colonial Self-Government, 1652-1689.. (1904) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=55413362 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''The Colonial Period of American History,'' (1934-38) (the standard overview in four volumes) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/a/acls/browse.html online at ACLS e-books]
* Bailyn, Bernard. ''Voyagers to the West: a passage in the peopling of America on the eve of the Revolution'' (1986), winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History
* Bancroft, George. ''History of the United States of America, from the discovery of the American continent. '' 10 vol (1860) [http://jrshelby.com/sc-links/bancroft.htm online editions]
* Beer, George Louis. "British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' vol 22 (March 1907) pp 1-48; [http://dinsdoc.com/beer-1.htm online edition]
* Beeman, Richard R. "The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America'' (2006) [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0812219775/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search]
* Berkin, Carol. ''First Generations: Women in Colonial America'' (1997) 276pp [https://www.amazon.com/First-Generations-Women-Colonial-America/dp/0809016060/ref=sid_dp_dp/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America'' (1988) (online at [[American Council of Learned Societies|ACLS]] History e-book project)
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''A Factious People: Politics and Society in Colonial New York,'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98025896 online edition]
* Brown, Kathleen M. ''Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia'' (1996) 512pp [https://www.amazon.com/Wives-Nasty-Wenches-Anxious-Patriarchs/dp/0807846236/ref=pd_sim_b_shvl_title_17/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bruce, Philip A. ''Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Material Condition of the People, Based on Original and Contemporaneous Records.'' (1896), very old fashioned history [http://www.dinsdoc.com/bruce-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Carr, Lois Green and Philip D. Morgan. ''Colonial Chesapeake Society'' (1991), 524pp [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Chesapeake-Society-Lois-Green/dp/0807843431/ref=sip_rech_dp_3/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Crane, Verner W. ''The Southern Frontier, 1670-1732,'' (1920), [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=28187303 online edition]
* Crane, Verner W. "The Southern Frontier in Queen Anne’s War," ''American Historical Review'' vol 24, (April 1919) pp 379-95. [http://dinsdoc.com/crane-1.htm online edition]
* Gallay, Alan, ed. ''Colonial Wars of North America, 1512-1763: An Encyclopedia'' (1996) [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Wars-North-America-1512-1763/dp/0824072081/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263942660&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Gipson, Lawrence. ''The British Empire Before the American Revolution'' (15 volumes) (1936-1970), Pulitzer Prize; highly detailed discussion of every British colony in the New World
* Greene, Evarts Boutelle. ''Provincial America, 1690-1740,'' (1935) survey by scholar [http://www.dinsdoc.com/greene-3-0a.htm online edition]
* Hatfield, April Lee. ''Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century'' (2007) [https://www.amazon.com/Atlantic-Virginia-Intercolonial-Relations-Seventeenth/dp/081221997X/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-8 excerpt and text search]
* Illick, Joseph E. ''Colonial Pennsylvania: A History,'' (1976) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/colonial-pennsylvania-a-history-by-joseph-e-illick.jsp online edition]
* Kammen, Michael. ''Colonial New York: A History,'' (2003)
* Labaree, Benjamin Woods. ''Colonial Massachusetts: A History,'' (1979)
* Kulikoff, Allan. ''From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers'' (2000) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/from-british-peasants-to-colonial-american-farmers-by-allan-kulikoff.jsp online edition]
* Middleton, Richard. ''Colonial America: A History, 1565-1776'' (3rd ed 2002), 576pp [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-America-History-1565-1776/dp/0631221417/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Morgan, Edmund S. ''American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia'' (1975) Pulitzer Prize [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101062594 online edition]
* Osgood, Herbert L. ''The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century.'' 3 vol (1904-07) [http://dinsdoc.com/osgood-8-0a.htm online edition]
* Tate, Thad W. ''Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century'' (1980) [https://www.amazon.com/Chesapeake-Seventeenth-Century-Thad-Tate/dp/0393009564/ref=sr_1_23/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998781&sr=1-23 excerpt and text search]
* Taylor, Alan. ''American Colonies,'' (2001) survey by leading scholar [https://www.amazon.com/American-Colonies-Settling-America-Penguin/dp/0142002100/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]
* Vickers, Daniel, ed. ''A Companion to Colonial America.'' 2003. 576 pp.

===Primary sources===
* Kavenagh, W. Keith, ed. ''Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History'' (1973) 4 vol.
* Miller, Kerby A., et al eds. ''Irish immigrants in the land of Canaan: letters and memoirs from colonial and revolutionary America, 1675-1815'' (2004) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;cc=acls;q1=United%20States%20--%20History%20--%20Colonial%20period%2C%20ca.%201600-1775%20--%20Biography;rgn=subject;view=toc;idno=heb90012.0001.001 online at ACLS e-books]
===Online sources===
*[http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/colonial.htm Colonial America 1600-1775, K12 Resources]
*[http://earlyamerica.com/ Archiving Early America]
*[http://www.dinsdoc.com/colonial-3.htm ''Classics of American Colonial History'' complete text of older scholarly articles]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Colonial America]]
[[Category:British Empire]]
[[Category:Indian Wars]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:New England]]
[[Category:Massachusetts]]
[[Category:New Hampshire]]
[[Category:Rhode Island]]
[[Category:Connecticut]]
[[Category:New York]]
[[Category:Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:New Jersey]]
[[Category:Delaware]]
[[Category:Maryland]]
[[Category:Virginia]]
[[Category:North Carolina]]
[[Category:South Carolina]]
[[Category:Georgia]]

First Continental Congress

2021-07-26T05:37:23Z

Stephenkollenborners: athens

[[File:1-congress.jpg|thumb|190px|right]]
The '''First Continental Congress''' was called together in 1774, with 55 delegates representing twelve of the [[thirteen colonies]] ([[Georgia]] did not send a representative). This body debated over what the colonies should do, if anything, in reaction to the [[Intolerable Acts]] passed by [[Parliament]] that year. The First [[Continental Congress]] successfully boycotted [[British]] goods coming into the colonies, drastically reducing imports. It was the first step towards a written constitution, establishing statements of rights and principles. The participants agreed that a [[Second Continental Congress]] should meet the following year.

==Background==
The First Continental Congress was brought about directly by a series of Parliamentary acts intended to put an end to such disturbances as had arisen in connection with the tea tax. Most of these measures were directed against Massachusetts, but the other colonies saw in them a menace to their own liberties as well, and the protest was general. New York and Rhode Island proposed a general congress. The Virginia House of Burgesses appointed a day of fasting, and, when dissolved for this action, immediately formed themselves into a convention and advised, among other things, annual inter-colonial congresses. The actual call, however, came from Massachusetts in June, 1774. The congress met in Philadelphia in September of the same year, with fifty-five delegates present, representing twelve colonies.

In Georgia, the governor had succeeded in preventing the appointment of representatives. The work of the congress consisted in the drawing up of a declaration of rights hardly more radical than that of the Stamp Act Congress, together with a petition to the king, and in the more important work of establishing the "[[Continental Association]]" to enforce the non-importation agreements already existing. Before adjournment in October the congress provided for the meeting of a new congress in May of the following year, in case the grievances of the colonies were not redressed in the meantime.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6T0XAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA53|title=School Civics: An Outline Study of the Origin and Development of Government and the Development of Political Institutions in the United States|date=1919}}</ref>

among the 57 delegates at attendence at this metting were two furture presidents
george washington
john adams
samuel adams
john jay
patrick henery
peyton roundolph

==References==
{{reflist|1}}

[[Category:United States History]]

Thirteen Colonies

2021-07-26T04:01:58Z

Stephenkollenborners: test

The '''thirteen colonies''' were the [[British]] colonies that formed the [[United States]]. They were: [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[Rhode Island]], [[Connecticut]], [[New York]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[New Jersey]], [[Delaware]], [[Maryland]], [[Virginia]], [[North Carolina]], [[South Carolina]], and [[Georgia]]. On July 4, 1776, they became states and formed a new nation, the '''United States of America.'''
[[Image:1742map.jpg|thumb|400px]]
[[Image:Pop1750.jpg|thumb|400px]]
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
== New England Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Massachusetts]] || 1620 || [[Pilgrims]], led by [[William Bradford]] || Shipbuilding, fish, lumber || Governor appointed by king || established [[Puritan]] Church (after 1700 called Congregationalist);
|-
| [[Rhode Island]] || 1636 || [[Roger Williams]], for religious reasons left [[Massachusetts]] || Lumber, fish. || Elected by colonists. || Complete [[religious freedom]] for all- [[Anglican]] ([[Episcopalian]]), [[Baptist]], Quakers and other Protestants
|-
| [[Connecticut]] || 1636 || [[Thomas Hooker]], who led a group from [[Massachusetts]] who wanted [[limited government|less government]] || Shipbuilding, lumber, fish || Elected by colonists || Congregationalist Church was established
|-
| [[New Hampshire]] || 1623 || Colonists who left Massachusetts for political and religious reasons || Molasses, fish || Governor appointed by king || Congregationalist
|}

==New England==
{{main|New England}}
The [[Plymouth Colony]], now part of Massachusetts, was founded by the [[Pilgrims]], a small [[Puritans|Puritan]] sect based in [[England]] and the [[Netherlands]]. One group sailed on the ''[[Mayflower]]''. They drew up the [[Mayflower Compact]] by which they gave themselves broad powers of self-governance and introduced [[democracy]] into America. They established the small Plymouth Colony in 1620 and later merged with the Massachusetts Bay colony. [[William Bradford]] (1590-1657) was the main leader.
===Puritans===
{{main|Puritans}}
The Puritans, a much larger group than the Pilgrims, established the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in 1629 with 400 settlers. This group was the Puritans who sought to reform the [[Church of England]] by creating a new, pure church in the New World. Within two years, an additional 2,000 arrived. The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit and politically innovative culture that still lingers on in the modern United States. They hoped this new land would serve as a "redeemer nation." Seeking the true religion, they fled England and in America created a "nation of saints" or the "[[City upon a hill]]," an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community designed to be an example for all of Europe. [[Roger Williams (theologian)|Roger Williams]], who preached religious toleration, [[separation of church and state]], and a complete break with the Church of England, was banished and founded [[Rhode Island|Rhode Island Colony]], which became a haven for other religious refugees from the Puritan community, including [[Anne Hutchinson]], a preacher of [[Antinomianism]].

Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of its founders. Unlike the cash-crop oriented plantations of the Chesapeake region, the Puritan economy was based on the efforts of individual farmers, who harvested enough crops to feed themselves and their families and a surplus to trade for goods they could not produce themselves. There was a generally higher standard of living in New England than in the Chesapeake. Along with farming growth, New England became an important mercantile and shipbuilding center, often serving as the hub for trading between the South and Europe.

== Middle Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[New York]] || 1626 || [[Dutch]]; English in 1664 || Shipbuilding and trade || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], and other Protestants
|-
| [[New Jersey]] || 1664 || [[Swedish]] and [[Dutch]]; In 1664 [[Sir George Carteret]] and [[Lord John Berkeley]] were given the land by the English Duke of York || Oats, wheat, rye || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], [[Quaker]], others
|-
| [[Pennsylvania]] || 1681 || [[William Penn]] as a safe place for [[Quakers]] || Trade and Shipbuilding || Proprietor selected the governor || [[Quaker]] Lutheran, and other Protestant
|-
| [[Delaware]] || 1682 || [[William Penn]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected the governor || Protestant
|}

The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of [[New York]], [[New Jersey]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[Delaware]], were characterized by a large degree of diversity—religious, political, economic, and ethnic. Many Dutch and Protestant Irish immigrants settled in these areas, as well as in [[Long Island]] and [[Connecticut]]. The Germans, called "[[Pennsylvania Dutch]]," were included in this emigration.

===Mid-Atlantic Region===
Unlike New England, the Mid-Atlantic Region gained much of its population from new immigration, and by 1750, the combined populations of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania had reached nearly 300,000 people. By 1750, about 60,000 [[Scots-Irish]] and 50,000 [[German Americans|Germans]] came to live in British North America, many of them settling in the Mid-Atlantic Region. [[William Penn]], the man who founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1682, attracted an influx of [[Quakers]] and other immigrants with his policies of religious liberty and freehold ownership. "Freehold" meant that farmers owned their land free and clear of leases. The first major influx of immigrants came mainly from Ireland and consisted of Scots-Irish [[Church of Scotland|Presbyterians]]. The second major immigration came with Germans trying to escape the religious conflicts and declining economic opportunities in Germany and Switzerland.

====Ways of life====
[[File:The Baptism of Pocahontas 1614.jpg|thumb|The Baptism of Pocahontas, 1614, Oil study for mural by John Gadsby Chapman, circa 1837-40.]]
Much of the architecture of the Middle Colonies reflects the diversity of its peoples. In Albany and New York City, a majority of the buildings were Dutch style with brick exteriors and high gables at each end while many Dutch churches were shaped liked an octagon. Using cut stone to build their houses, German and Welsh settlers in Pennsylvania followed the way of their homeland and completely ignored the plethora of timber in the area. Thus in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 80% of the buildings in the town were made entirely of stone. On the other hand, the Scots-Irish took advantage of America's ample supply of timber and constructed sturdy log cabins.

Ethnic cultures also effected the styles of furniture. Rural Quakers preferred simple designs in furnishings such as tables, chairs, chests and shunned elaborate decorations. However, some urban Quakers had much more elaborate furniture. The city of [[Philadelphia]] became a major center of furniture-making because of its massive wealth from Quaker and British merchants. Philadelphian cabinet makers built elegant desks and highboys. German artisans created intricate carved designs on their chests and other furniture with painted scenes of flowers and birds. German potters also crafted a large array of jugs, pots, and plates, of both elegant and traditional design.

There were ethnic differences in the treatment of women. Among Puritan settlers in New England, wives almost never worked in the fields with their husbands. In German communities in Pennsylvania, however, many women worked in fields and stables. German and Dutch immigrants granted women more control over property, which was not permitted in the local English law. Unlike English colonial wives, German and Dutch wives owned their own clothes and other items and were also given the ability to write wills disposing of the property brought into the marriage.

====Farming====
The Europeans brought entirely new animals, which transformed the landscape, such as hogs, cattle, horses, sheep and poulry. (The Indians already had dogs.) Ethnicity made a difference in agricultural practice. As an example, German farmers generally preferred oxen rather than horses to pull their plows and Scots-Irish made a farming economy based on hogs and corn. In Ireland, Scots-Irish farmed intensively, working small pieces of land trying to get the largest possible production-rate from their crops. In the American colonies, Scots-Irish focused on mixed-farming. Using this technique, they grew corn for human consumption and as feed for hogs and other livestock. Many improvement-minded farmers of all different backgrounds began using new agricultural practices to raise their output. During the 1750s, these agricultural innovators replaced the hand sickles and scythes used to harvest hay, wheat, and barley with the cradle scythe, a tool with wooden fingers that arranged the stalks of grain for easy collection. This tool was able to triple the amount of work down by farmers in one day. Farmers also began fertilizing their fields with dung and lime and rotating their crops to keep the soil fertile.

Before 1720, most colonists in the mid-Atlantic region worked with small-scale farming and paid for imported manufactures by supplying the West Indies with corn and flour. In New York, a fur-pelt export trade to Europe flourished adding additional wealth to the region. After 1720, mid-Atlantic farming stimulated with the international demand for wheat. A massive population explosion in Europe brought wheat prices up. By 1770, a bushel of wheat cost twice as much as it did in 1720. Farmers also expanded their production of flaxseed and wheat since flax was a high demand in the Irish linen industry and a demand for wheat for slaves existed in the West Indies.

Some immigrants who just arrived purchased farms and shared in this export wealth, but many poor German and Scots-Irish immigrants were forced to work as agricultural wage laborers. Merchants and artisans also hired these homeless workers for a domestic system for the manufacture of cloth and other goods. Merchants often bought wool and flax from farmers and employed newly arrived immigrants, who had been textile workers in Ireland and Germany, to work in their homes spinning the materials into yarn and cloth. Large farmers and merchants became wealthy, while farmers with smaller farms and artisans only made enough for subsistence. The Mid-Atlantic region, by 1750, was divided by both ethnic background and wealth.

====Seaports====
Seaports, which expanded from wheat trade, had more social classes than anywhere else in the Middle Colonies. By 1750, the population of Philadelphia had reached 25,000, New York 15,000, and the port of [[Baltimore]] 7,000. Merchants dominated seaport society and about 40 merchants controlled half of Philadelphia's trade. Wealthy merchants in Philadelphia and New York, like their counterparts in New England, built elegant Georgian-style mansions.

Shopkeepers, artisans, shipwrights, butchers, coopers (barrell makers), seamstresses, cobblers, bakers, carpenters, stonemasons, and many other specialized professions, made up the middle class of seaport society. Wives and husbands often worked as a team and taught their children their crafts to pass it on through the family. Many of these artisans and traders made enough money to create a modest life.

Laborers stood at the bottom of seaport society. These poor people worked on the docks unloading inbound vessels and loading outbound vessels with wheat, corn, and flaxseed. Many of these were African American; some were free while others were enslaved. In 1750, blacks made up about 10 percent of the population of New York and Philadelphia. Hundreds of seamen, some who were African American, worked as sailors on merchant ships.

== Southern Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Virginia]] || 1607 || [[John Smith]], settlers from [[Virginia Company of London]] || Tobacco || Governor appointed by king || [[Anglican]] Church was established
|-
| [[Maryland]] || 1634 || [[Lord Baltimore]] as a safe place for [[Catholicism|Catholics]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected by governor || Protestant and Catholic
|-
| [[North Carolina]] || 1654 || [[Virginia]] settlers || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[South Carolina]] || 1663 || [[English]] and other [[Europeans]] || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[Georgia]] || 1732 || [[James Oglethorpe]], brought [[English]] debtors to protect [[Georgia]] from the [[Spanish]] || Indigo, tobacco || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|}
The Southern Colonies were mainly dominated by the wealthy slave-owning planters in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. These planters owned massive estates that were worked by African slaves. Of the 650,000 inhabitants of the South in 1750, about 250,000 or 40 percent, were slaves. Planters used their wealth to dominate the local tenants and yeoman farmers. At election time, they gave these farmers gifts of rum and promised to lower taxes to take control of colonial legislatures.

===South: Chesapeake Bay area===
====Jamestown====
The first successful English colony was Jamestown, established in 1607, on a small river near Chesapeake Bay. The venture was financed and coordinated by the London Virginia Company, a joint stock company looking for gold. Its first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Indians, and little gold. The colony barely survived, by turning to tobacco as a cash crop. By the late 17th century Virginia's export economy was largely based on tobacco, and new, richer settlers came in to take up large portions of land, build large plantations and import indentured servants and slaves. In 1676 [[Bacon's Rebellion]] occurred, but was suppressed by royal officials. After Bacon's Rebellion, African slaves replaced English indentured servants as Virginia's main labor force. The indentured servants became independent farmers at age 21, and mostly became subsistence farmers.

The colonial assembly that had governed the colony since its establishment was dissolved but was reinstated in 1630. It shared power with a royally appointed governor. On a more local level, governmental power was invested in county [[court]]s and sheriffs, also not elected. Voters could vote for a member of House of Burgess.

As cash crop producers, Chesapeake plantations were heavily dependent on trade. With easy navigation by river, few towns and no cities developed; planters shipped directly to Britain. High death rates and a very young population profile characterized the colony during its first decades.

===Lower South===

The colonial South included the plantation colonies of the Chesapeake region (Virginia and Maryland) and the lower South (Carolina, which eventually split into North and South Carolina, and Georgia).

====Carolinas====
The first attempted English settlement south of Virginia was the Province of Carolina. It was a private venture, financed by a group of English businessmen calling themselves the "Lords Proprietors," who obtained a [[Royal Charter]] to the Carolinas in 1663, hoping that a new colony in the south would become profitable like that of Jamestown. Carolina was not settled until 1670, and even then the first attempt failed because there was no incentive for emigration to the south. However, eventually the Lords combined their remaining capital and financed a settlement mission to the area led by John West. The expedition located fertile and defensible ground at what was to become [[Charleston]] (originally Charles Town for King [[Charles II]], thus beginning the English colonization of the mainland. The original settlers in South Carolina established a lucrative trade in provisions, deerskins and Indian captives with the Caribbean islands. They came mainly from the English colony of [[Barbados]] and brought African slaves with them. Barbados, as a wealthy [[sugarcane]] plantation island, was one of the early English colonies to large numbers of Africans in plantation style agriculture. The cultivation of [[rice]] was introduced during the 1690s via Africans from the rice-growing regions of [[West Africa]]. North Carolina remained a frontier through the early colonial period.

At first, South Carolina was politically divided. Its ethnic makeup included the original settlers, a group of rich, slave-owning English settlers from the island of Barbados; and [[Huguenots]], a French-speaking community of Protestants. Nearly continuous frontier warfare during the era of [[King William's War]] and [[Queen Anne's War]] drove economic and political wedges between merchants and planters. The disaster of the [[Yamasee War]], in 1715, set off a decade of political turmoil. By 1729, the proprietary government had collapsed, and the Proprietors sold both colonies back to the British crown.

====Georgia====
[[James Oglethorpe]], an 18th century British [[Member of Parliament]], established [[Georgia]] as a common solution to two problems. British feared that Spanish Florida was threatening the British Carolinas. Oglethorpe established his colony in the contested border region of Georgia and populated it with the poor and debtors who would otherwise have been imprisoned. This plan would both rid Britain of its undesirable elements and provide her with a base from which to attack Florida. The first colonists arrived in 1733.

Oglethorpe established his colony on strict moralistic principles. Slavery was forbidden, as was alcohol. The colonists rejected any puritanical lifestyle and complained that their colony could not compete economically with the Carolina rice plantations. Georgia initially failed to prosper, but in 1752 the trustees turned over control of the colony to the royal government and the restrictions were lifted, slavery was allowed, and it became moderately prosperous.

===Plantations===
By the 1720s, a sew aspiring planters began to construct large Georgian-style mansions, wear bright red attire, and hunt deer from horseback. Wealthy women in the Southern colonies shared in the British culture and spent large sums on the latest fasions and furniture.

The wives of the plantation owners supervised the household slaves, handled medical services for all the slaves, and put on elaborate dinners and festive balls. These efforts were the most successful in South Carolina, where wealthy rice planters lived in townhouses in Charleston, a busy port city. Active social seasons flourished in the few towns, such as [[Annapolis, Maryland]], and on tobacco plantations in Virginia.

====Slaves====
The African slaves who worked on the indigo, tobacco, and rice fields in the South came mostly from the Caribbean sugar islands (plus a few who came directly from Africa). In 1700, there were about 9,600 slaves in the Chesapeake region and a few hundred in the Carolinas. About 170,000 more Africans arrived over the next five decades. By 1750, there were more than 250,000 slaves in British America; in South Carolina they made up about 60% of the total population. Very favorable food and health standards contributed to rapid population growth.

==Economy==
see also [[American economic history]]

[[File:Ec$1800.jpg|thumb|400px|Estimated income in constant 1840 dollars. Source: Alice Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980); Susan B. Carter et al. ''The Historical Statistics of the United States'' (2006) vol 3.]]
The great majority of people throughout the colonial era were farmers and their income was not cash but the value of the crops and animals produced on farms, and mostly consumed by the family. The estimates are based on inventories of estates when people died. Most people lived in poverty—with very few possessions such as a small stock of clothes, a shack to live in, a few household goods—and land and animals. In terms of wealth the per capita wealth of Americans in 1774 was £37.4 ($6700 in 2009 dollars); per adult male £172 ($30,700); and per white adult male £218 ($39,000).<ref>Alice Hanson Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980)</ref>

==Literature==
Colonial American literature is perhaps the most vibrant field in American literary studies today. In the last decade an explosion of anthologies designed to make widely available a broad range of non-canonical writings produced in and about Great Britain's colonies in the Western hemisphere has provided teachers and scholars with important new tools. The explosion has been driven partly by the identity-based recuperation movements of the 1970s and 1980s, partly by a new awareness of the importance of texts circulated in manuscript or newspapers rather than in book form, and partly by dissatisfaction with the predominant Puritan origins narrative and a swelling interest in transnationalism. New anthologies include Myra Jehlen and Michael Warner's ''The English Literatures of America, 1580–1800'' (Routledge, 1996), Vincent Carretta's ''Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century'' (Lexington, Ky., 1996), Sharon M. Harris's ''Early American Women Writers to 1800'' (Oxford, 1996), and ''Thomas W. Krise's Caribbeana: An Anthology of English Literature of the West Indies, 1657–1777'' (Chicago, 1999), Susan Castillo and Ivy Schweitzer, ''The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology'' (Oxford, 2001) Carla Muford's ''Early American Writings'' (Oxford 2002), and Susan Castillo's, ''Colonial Encounters in New World Writing, 1500–1786: Performing America'' (Routledge, 2006). Add in the University of Massachusetts Press series on native writers and scholars have made readily available a vast array of once obscure English-language works. Some of these new volumes represent an effort by colonialists to catch up to the rest of the field of Americanist scholarship, providing the pre-literary history to contemporary Caribbean or African American literature. In an important sense, however, colonialists occupy a unique position among Americanists. At a moment when many scholars are rejecting nationalist narratives of literary history, which they view as the intellectual equivalent of isolationism in a world increasingly committed to globalization, students of colonial American literature rightly claim a pre-national vantage point. A transnational approach to colonial literature has the attractive features of being both intellectually sound and trendy.<ref>Sandra M. Gustafson, "The Americas in Writing," ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 2003 60(1): 207-213. ISSN: 0043-5597
Fulltext: [[History Cooperative]]</ref>

==Unification of the 13 colonies==
===A common defense===
One event that reminded colonists of their shared identity as British subjects was the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] (1740-1748) in Europe. This conflict spilled over into the colonies, where it was known as "King George's War"; most of the fighting took place in Europe, British colonial troops attacked French Canada.

At the [[Albany Congress]] of 1754, [[Benjamin Franklin]] proposed that the colonies be united by a Grand Council overseeing a common policy for defense, expansion, and Indian affairs. While the plan was thwarted by colonial legislatures and King [[George II]], it was an early indication that the British colonies of North America were headed towards unification. Franklin did not give up; more than anyone, he invented the idea of a United States of America.

===Great Awakening===
{{main|First Great Awakening}}
One event that began to unify the religious background of the colonies was the [[First Great Awakening]], a Protestant revival movement that took place in the 1730s and 1740s. It began with [[Jonathan Edwards]], a Massachusetts preacher who sought to return to the Pilgrims' strict [[Calvinist]] roots and to reawaken the "Fear of God". Edwards was a powerful speaker and attracted a large following with sermons such as "[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]". English preacher [[George Whitefield]] and other itinerant preachers continued the movement, traveling across the colonies and preaching in a dramatic and emotional style.

Followers of Edwards and other preachers of similar religiosity called themselves the "New Lights," as contrasted with the "Old Lights", who disapproved of their movement. To promote their viewpoints, the two sides established academies and colleges including [[Princeton University|Princeton]] and [[Williams College]]. The Great Awakening has been called the first truly "American" event, and as such represented at least a small step towards the unification of the colonies.

A similar pietistic movement took place among some of the German and Dutch Lutherans, leading to internal dvisions. By the 1770s the Baptists were growing rapidly both in the north (where they founded [[Brown University]], and in the South where they challenged the previously unquestioned moral authority of the Anglican establishment.

===French and Indian War===
[[Image:WashingtonFIwar.jpg|thumb|250px|[[George Washington]] during the French and Indian War]]
{{main|French and Indian War}}
The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the [[Seven Years' War]].

The war is called the ''French and Indian'' because the [[Iroquois]] confederacy—which had been playing the British and the French against each other successfully for decades fought on both sides. The French were defeated and in the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)]], France surrendered its vast North American empire to Britain.

The French and Indian war took on a new significance for the North American colonists in Great Britain when [[William Pitt the elder]] decided that it was necessary to win the war against France at all costs. For the first time, North America was one of the main theatres of what could be termed a "world war". During the war, the status of all the British Colonies (including the thirteen colonies) as part of the British Empire was made truly apparent, as British military and civilian officials took on an increased presence in the lives of Americans. The war also increased a sense of American unity in other ways. It caused men, who might normally have never left their colonies, to travel across the continent, fighting alongside men from decidedly different, yet still "American," backgrounds. Throughout the course of the war, British officers trained American ones (most notably [[George Washington]]) for battle which would later benefit the American Revolution. Also, state legislatures and officials had to cooperate intensively, for arguably the first time, in pursuit of the continent-wide military effort.

The British and colonists triumphed jointly over a common foe. The colonists' loyalty to the mother country was stronger than ever before. The war produced prosperity, as royal officials hired American troops and sent in well paid British troops. The French were defeated, and the British took Canada. Most important, the military threat from any foreign power ended, and the colonies no longer needed the protection of the Royal Navy. The British army handled Indian affairs on the frontier, so Indians were no longer a major threat to the Americans.

===Ten Commandments in the Thirteen Colonies===
Indeed, twelve of the original thirteen colonies adopted the entire Decalogue into
their civil and criminal laws. While the lone hold-out, Rhode Island, did not adopt
the first four Commandments, they did adopt the last six. Surveying the organic
development of law, former Chief Justice William Rehnquist forcefully argued: “It
is… undeniable… that the Ten Commandments have had a significant impact on the
development of secular legal codes of the Western World.{{citation needed}}

AT THE CONTINETIAL CONGRESS YOU OF 1774 YOU HAD
GEORGE WASHINGTON
JOHN ADAMS
SAMUEL ADAMS
JOHN JAY
PATRICK HENREY
PEYTON RONDOLPH THE FIRST AND THRIRD PRESIDENT OF THE CONGRESS OF 1774
regardless it does not matter what commandments were adopted even if the last six were adopted these laws are not just
against secluar law there also against religious law as well written the ten commandments are found in exdous
so everyone in rohde island colony who broke the first four would not be penalized by the state they would
only punish the last six of the ten commandments keeping the first four is a choice

the articles of confederation reffers to great govenor of the world
free inhabant
in the year of our lord

===Ties to the British Empire===
Although the colonies were very different from one another, they were still a part of the [[British Empire]] and each looked to London for leadership. military protection, and trade.

The political institutions of the colonies were originally patterned after English models, but by the 1760s there was a very different tone. Americans ignored the Royal Court and paid attention to the "country" party in Britain which was opposed to the Court; this was the origin of [[republicanism]] which increasingly dominated American political values.

The codes of law of the colonies were drawn directly from English common law, which was carefully studied by the hundreds of lawyers in the colonies.<ref>Scotland had a different legal system which did not carry over to the colonies.</ref> Eventually, it was a dispute over the meaning of the English Constitution and the rights of Englishmen that animated a new generation after 1760 to demand respect for their historic rights as Englishmen.

Another point on which the colonies found themselves more similar than different was the booming import of British goods by international merchants based in American seaports. Socially, the colonial elite imitated British styles of luxurious consumption, dress, dance, and etiquette. This social upper echelon built its mansions in the Georgian style (named after King George), copied the furniture designs of [[Thomas Chippendale]], and participated in the intellectual currents of Europe, such as [[Enlightenment]]. To many of their inhabitants, the seaport cities of colonial America were truly British cities. The British economy had begun to grow rapidly at the end of the 17th century, and by the mid-18th century, small factories in Britain were producing much more than the nation could consume. Finding a market for their goods in the British colonies of North America, Britain increased her exports to that region by 360% between 1740 and 1770. Because British merchants offered generous credit to their customers, Americans began buying staggering amounts of English goods. Economic integration across the Atlantic was more and more a reality, as the economy of each colony matured and was more involved in oceanic trade.

==From unity to revolution==
===Royal Proclamation===
The general sentiment of inequity that arose soon after the [[Treaty of Paris]] of 1763 was solidified by the [[Proclamation of 1763]], which temporarily prohibited settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. Colonists resented the measure, and it was never enforced.

===Acts of Parliament===

Parliament had generally been preoccupied with affairs in Europe and let the colonies govern themselves. It was no longer willing to do so. A series of measures resulting from this policy change, while affecting the New England colonies most directly would continue to arouse opposition in the 'thirteen colonies' over the next thirteen years, leading to the [[American Revolution]]:
*[[Sugar Act]] (1764)
*[[Stamp Act of 1765]]
* First [[Quartering Act]] (1765)
*[[Declaratory Act]] (1766)
*[[Townshend Acts]] (1767)
*[[Boston Tea Party|Tea Act]] (1773)
* The [[Intolerable Acts]], also called the ''Coercive'' or ''Punitive'' Acts
** Second [[Quartering Act]] (1774)
**[[Quebec Act]] (1774)
**[[Massachusetts Government Act]] (1774)
**[[Administration of Justice Act]] (1774)
**[[Boston Port Act]] (1774)
*[[Prohibitory Act]] (1776)

Following the official act of Independence, the colonies were known as the "United Colonies". On September 9th, 1776, the [[Continental Congress]] voted to change the name of the country to the "United States of America".

==See also==
* [[Colonial military history]]
==Bibliography==
===References===
* Cooke, Jacob Ernest, ed. ''Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies'' (3 vol 1993), comprehensive coverage with Spanish, French and Dutch receiving equal attention with British
===Scholarly secondary sources===
* Adams, James Truslow. ''The Founding of New England,'' (1921)[http://www.dinsdoc.com/adams-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Anderson, Virginia DeJohn. ''Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America'' (2005) [https://www.amazon.com/Creatures-Empire-Domestic-Animals-Transformed/dp/0195304462/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-11 excerpt and text search]
* Andrews, Charles M. "Colonial Commerce," ''American Historical Review,'' 20#1 (October 1914) pp. 43–63 [http://www.dinsdoc.com/andrews-1.htm online]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Our Earliest Colonial Settlements: Their Diversities of Origin and Later Characteristics'' (1933) briefly discusses Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6552109 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Colonial Self-Government, 1652-1689.. (1904) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=55413362 online edition]
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* Bailyn, Bernard. ''Voyagers to the West: a passage in the peopling of America on the eve of the Revolution'' (1986), winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History
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* Berkin, Carol. ''First Generations: Women in Colonial America'' (1997) 276pp [https://www.amazon.com/First-Generations-Women-Colonial-America/dp/0809016060/ref=sid_dp_dp/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America'' (1988) (online at [[American Council of Learned Societies|ACLS]] History e-book project)
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* Bruce, Philip A. ''Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Material Condition of the People, Based on Original and Contemporaneous Records.'' (1896), very old fashioned history [http://www.dinsdoc.com/bruce-1-0a.htm online edition]
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* Gallay, Alan, ed. ''Colonial Wars of North America, 1512-1763: An Encyclopedia'' (1996) [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Wars-North-America-1512-1763/dp/0824072081/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263942660&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Gipson, Lawrence. ''The British Empire Before the American Revolution'' (15 volumes) (1936-1970), Pulitzer Prize; highly detailed discussion of every British colony in the New World
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* Hatfield, April Lee. ''Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century'' (2007) [https://www.amazon.com/Atlantic-Virginia-Intercolonial-Relations-Seventeenth/dp/081221997X/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-8 excerpt and text search]
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* Morgan, Edmund S. ''American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia'' (1975) Pulitzer Prize [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101062594 online edition]
* Osgood, Herbert L. ''The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century.'' 3 vol (1904-07) [http://dinsdoc.com/osgood-8-0a.htm online edition]
* Tate, Thad W. ''Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century'' (1980) [https://www.amazon.com/Chesapeake-Seventeenth-Century-Thad-Tate/dp/0393009564/ref=sr_1_23/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998781&sr=1-23 excerpt and text search]
* Taylor, Alan. ''American Colonies,'' (2001) survey by leading scholar [https://www.amazon.com/American-Colonies-Settling-America-Penguin/dp/0142002100/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]
* Vickers, Daniel, ed. ''A Companion to Colonial America.'' 2003. 576 pp.

===Primary sources===
* Kavenagh, W. Keith, ed. ''Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History'' (1973) 4 vol.
* Miller, Kerby A., et al eds. ''Irish immigrants in the land of Canaan: letters and memoirs from colonial and revolutionary America, 1675-1815'' (2004) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;cc=acls;q1=United%20States%20--%20History%20--%20Colonial%20period%2C%20ca.%201600-1775%20--%20Biography;rgn=subject;view=toc;idno=heb90012.0001.001 online at ACLS e-books]
===Online sources===
*[http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/colonial.htm Colonial America 1600-1775, K12 Resources]
*[http://earlyamerica.com/ Archiving Early America]
*[http://www.dinsdoc.com/colonial-3.htm ''Classics of American Colonial History'' complete text of older scholarly articles]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Colonial America]]
[[Category:British Empire]]
[[Category:Indian Wars]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:New England]]
[[Category:Massachusetts]]
[[Category:New Hampshire]]
[[Category:Rhode Island]]
[[Category:Connecticut]]
[[Category:New York]]
[[Category:Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:New Jersey]]
[[Category:Delaware]]
[[Category:Maryland]]
[[Category:Virginia]]
[[Category:North Carolina]]
[[Category:South Carolina]]
[[Category:Georgia]]

Thirteen Colonies

2021-07-26T03:53:59Z

Stephenkollenborners: july

The '''thirteen colonies''' were the [[British]] colonies that formed the [[United States]]. They were: [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[Rhode Island]], [[Connecticut]], [[New York]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[New Jersey]], [[Delaware]], [[Maryland]], [[Virginia]], [[North Carolina]], [[South Carolina]], and [[Georgia]]. On July 4, 1776, they became states and formed a new nation, the '''United States of America.'''
[[Image:1742map.jpg|thumb|400px]]
[[Image:Pop1750.jpg|thumb|400px]]
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
== New England Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Massachusetts]] || 1620 || [[Pilgrims]], led by [[William Bradford]] || Shipbuilding, fish, lumber || Governor appointed by king || established [[Puritan]] Church (after 1700 called Congregationalist);
|-
| [[Rhode Island]] || 1636 || [[Roger Williams]], for religious reasons left [[Massachusetts]] || Lumber, fish. || Elected by colonists. || Complete [[religious freedom]] for all- [[Anglican]] ([[Episcopalian]]), [[Baptist]], Quakers and other Protestants
|-
| [[Connecticut]] || 1636 || [[Thomas Hooker]], who led a group from [[Massachusetts]] who wanted [[limited government|less government]] || Shipbuilding, lumber, fish || Elected by colonists || Congregationalist Church was established
|-
| [[New Hampshire]] || 1623 || Colonists who left Massachusetts for political and religious reasons || Molasses, fish || Governor appointed by king || Congregationalist
|}

==New England==
{{main|New England}}
The [[Plymouth Colony]], now part of Massachusetts, was founded by the [[Pilgrims]], a small [[Puritans|Puritan]] sect based in [[England]] and the [[Netherlands]]. One group sailed on the ''[[Mayflower]]''. They drew up the [[Mayflower Compact]] by which they gave themselves broad powers of self-governance and introduced [[democracy]] into America. They established the small Plymouth Colony in 1620 and later merged with the Massachusetts Bay colony. [[William Bradford]] (1590-1657) was the main leader.
===Puritans===
{{main|Puritans}}
The Puritans, a much larger group than the Pilgrims, established the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in 1629 with 400 settlers. This group was the Puritans who sought to reform the [[Church of England]] by creating a new, pure church in the New World. Within two years, an additional 2,000 arrived. The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit and politically innovative culture that still lingers on in the modern United States. They hoped this new land would serve as a "redeemer nation." Seeking the true religion, they fled England and in America created a "nation of saints" or the "[[City upon a hill]]," an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community designed to be an example for all of Europe. [[Roger Williams (theologian)|Roger Williams]], who preached religious toleration, [[separation of church and state]], and a complete break with the Church of England, was banished and founded [[Rhode Island|Rhode Island Colony]], which became a haven for other religious refugees from the Puritan community, including [[Anne Hutchinson]], a preacher of [[Antinomianism]].

Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of its founders. Unlike the cash-crop oriented plantations of the Chesapeake region, the Puritan economy was based on the efforts of individual farmers, who harvested enough crops to feed themselves and their families and a surplus to trade for goods they could not produce themselves. There was a generally higher standard of living in New England than in the Chesapeake. Along with farming growth, New England became an important mercantile and shipbuilding center, often serving as the hub for trading between the South and Europe.

== Middle Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[New York]] || 1626 || [[Dutch]]; English in 1664 || Shipbuilding and trade || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], and other Protestants
|-
| [[New Jersey]] || 1664 || [[Swedish]] and [[Dutch]]; In 1664 [[Sir George Carteret]] and [[Lord John Berkeley]] were given the land by the English Duke of York || Oats, wheat, rye || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], [[Quaker]], others
|-
| [[Pennsylvania]] || 1681 || [[William Penn]] as a safe place for [[Quakers]] || Trade and Shipbuilding || Proprietor selected the governor || [[Quaker]] Lutheran, and other Protestant
|-
| [[Delaware]] || 1682 || [[William Penn]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected the governor || Protestant
|}

The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of [[New York]], [[New Jersey]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[Delaware]], were characterized by a large degree of diversity—religious, political, economic, and ethnic. Many Dutch and Protestant Irish immigrants settled in these areas, as well as in [[Long Island]] and [[Connecticut]]. The Germans, called "[[Pennsylvania Dutch]]," were included in this emigration.

===Mid-Atlantic Region===
Unlike New England, the Mid-Atlantic Region gained much of its population from new immigration, and by 1750, the combined populations of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania had reached nearly 300,000 people. By 1750, about 60,000 [[Scots-Irish]] and 50,000 [[German Americans|Germans]] came to live in British North America, many of them settling in the Mid-Atlantic Region. [[William Penn]], the man who founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1682, attracted an influx of [[Quakers]] and other immigrants with his policies of religious liberty and freehold ownership. "Freehold" meant that farmers owned their land free and clear of leases. The first major influx of immigrants came mainly from Ireland and consisted of Scots-Irish [[Church of Scotland|Presbyterians]]. The second major immigration came with Germans trying to escape the religious conflicts and declining economic opportunities in Germany and Switzerland.

====Ways of life====
[[File:The Baptism of Pocahontas 1614.jpg|thumb|The Baptism of Pocahontas, 1614, Oil study for mural by John Gadsby Chapman, circa 1837-40.]]
Much of the architecture of the Middle Colonies reflects the diversity of its peoples. In Albany and New York City, a majority of the buildings were Dutch style with brick exteriors and high gables at each end while many Dutch churches were shaped liked an octagon. Using cut stone to build their houses, German and Welsh settlers in Pennsylvania followed the way of their homeland and completely ignored the plethora of timber in the area. Thus in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 80% of the buildings in the town were made entirely of stone. On the other hand, the Scots-Irish took advantage of America's ample supply of timber and constructed sturdy log cabins.

Ethnic cultures also effected the styles of furniture. Rural Quakers preferred simple designs in furnishings such as tables, chairs, chests and shunned elaborate decorations. However, some urban Quakers had much more elaborate furniture. The city of [[Philadelphia]] became a major center of furniture-making because of its massive wealth from Quaker and British merchants. Philadelphian cabinet makers built elegant desks and highboys. German artisans created intricate carved designs on their chests and other furniture with painted scenes of flowers and birds. German potters also crafted a large array of jugs, pots, and plates, of both elegant and traditional design.

There were ethnic differences in the treatment of women. Among Puritan settlers in New England, wives almost never worked in the fields with their husbands. In German communities in Pennsylvania, however, many women worked in fields and stables. German and Dutch immigrants granted women more control over property, which was not permitted in the local English law. Unlike English colonial wives, German and Dutch wives owned their own clothes and other items and were also given the ability to write wills disposing of the property brought into the marriage.

====Farming====
The Europeans brought entirely new animals, which transformed the landscape, such as hogs, cattle, horses, sheep and poulry. (The Indians already had dogs.) Ethnicity made a difference in agricultural practice. As an example, German farmers generally preferred oxen rather than horses to pull their plows and Scots-Irish made a farming economy based on hogs and corn. In Ireland, Scots-Irish farmed intensively, working small pieces of land trying to get the largest possible production-rate from their crops. In the American colonies, Scots-Irish focused on mixed-farming. Using this technique, they grew corn for human consumption and as feed for hogs and other livestock. Many improvement-minded farmers of all different backgrounds began using new agricultural practices to raise their output. During the 1750s, these agricultural innovators replaced the hand sickles and scythes used to harvest hay, wheat, and barley with the cradle scythe, a tool with wooden fingers that arranged the stalks of grain for easy collection. This tool was able to triple the amount of work down by farmers in one day. Farmers also began fertilizing their fields with dung and lime and rotating their crops to keep the soil fertile.

Before 1720, most colonists in the mid-Atlantic region worked with small-scale farming and paid for imported manufactures by supplying the West Indies with corn and flour. In New York, a fur-pelt export trade to Europe flourished adding additional wealth to the region. After 1720, mid-Atlantic farming stimulated with the international demand for wheat. A massive population explosion in Europe brought wheat prices up. By 1770, a bushel of wheat cost twice as much as it did in 1720. Farmers also expanded their production of flaxseed and wheat since flax was a high demand in the Irish linen industry and a demand for wheat for slaves existed in the West Indies.

Some immigrants who just arrived purchased farms and shared in this export wealth, but many poor German and Scots-Irish immigrants were forced to work as agricultural wage laborers. Merchants and artisans also hired these homeless workers for a domestic system for the manufacture of cloth and other goods. Merchants often bought wool and flax from farmers and employed newly arrived immigrants, who had been textile workers in Ireland and Germany, to work in their homes spinning the materials into yarn and cloth. Large farmers and merchants became wealthy, while farmers with smaller farms and artisans only made enough for subsistence. The Mid-Atlantic region, by 1750, was divided by both ethnic background and wealth.

====Seaports====
Seaports, which expanded from wheat trade, had more social classes than anywhere else in the Middle Colonies. By 1750, the population of Philadelphia had reached 25,000, New York 15,000, and the port of [[Baltimore]] 7,000. Merchants dominated seaport society and about 40 merchants controlled half of Philadelphia's trade. Wealthy merchants in Philadelphia and New York, like their counterparts in New England, built elegant Georgian-style mansions.

Shopkeepers, artisans, shipwrights, butchers, coopers (barrell makers), seamstresses, cobblers, bakers, carpenters, stonemasons, and many other specialized professions, made up the middle class of seaport society. Wives and husbands often worked as a team and taught their children their crafts to pass it on through the family. Many of these artisans and traders made enough money to create a modest life.

Laborers stood at the bottom of seaport society. These poor people worked on the docks unloading inbound vessels and loading outbound vessels with wheat, corn, and flaxseed. Many of these were African American; some were free while others were enslaved. In 1750, blacks made up about 10 percent of the population of New York and Philadelphia. Hundreds of seamen, some who were African American, worked as sailors on merchant ships.

== Southern Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Virginia]] || 1607 || [[John Smith]], settlers from [[Virginia Company of London]] || Tobacco || Governor appointed by king || [[Anglican]] Church was established
|-
| [[Maryland]] || 1634 || [[Lord Baltimore]] as a safe place for [[Catholicism|Catholics]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected by governor || Protestant and Catholic
|-
| [[North Carolina]] || 1654 || [[Virginia]] settlers || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[South Carolina]] || 1663 || [[English]] and other [[Europeans]] || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[Georgia]] || 1732 || [[James Oglethorpe]], brought [[English]] debtors to protect [[Georgia]] from the [[Spanish]] || Indigo, tobacco || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|}
The Southern Colonies were mainly dominated by the wealthy slave-owning planters in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. These planters owned massive estates that were worked by African slaves. Of the 650,000 inhabitants of the South in 1750, about 250,000 or 40 percent, were slaves. Planters used their wealth to dominate the local tenants and yeoman farmers. At election time, they gave these farmers gifts of rum and promised to lower taxes to take control of colonial legislatures.

===South: Chesapeake Bay area===
====Jamestown====
The first successful English colony was Jamestown, established in 1607, on a small river near Chesapeake Bay. The venture was financed and coordinated by the London Virginia Company, a joint stock company looking for gold. Its first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Indians, and little gold. The colony barely survived, by turning to tobacco as a cash crop. By the late 17th century Virginia's export economy was largely based on tobacco, and new, richer settlers came in to take up large portions of land, build large plantations and import indentured servants and slaves. In 1676 [[Bacon's Rebellion]] occurred, but was suppressed by royal officials. After Bacon's Rebellion, African slaves replaced English indentured servants as Virginia's main labor force. The indentured servants became independent farmers at age 21, and mostly became subsistence farmers.

The colonial assembly that had governed the colony since its establishment was dissolved but was reinstated in 1630. It shared power with a royally appointed governor. On a more local level, governmental power was invested in county [[court]]s and sheriffs, also not elected. Voters could vote for a member of House of Burgess.

As cash crop producers, Chesapeake plantations were heavily dependent on trade. With easy navigation by river, few towns and no cities developed; planters shipped directly to Britain. High death rates and a very young population profile characterized the colony during its first decades.

===Lower South===

The colonial South included the plantation colonies of the Chesapeake region (Virginia and Maryland) and the lower South (Carolina, which eventually split into North and South Carolina, and Georgia).

====Carolinas====
The first attempted English settlement south of Virginia was the Province of Carolina. It was a private venture, financed by a group of English businessmen calling themselves the "Lords Proprietors," who obtained a [[Royal Charter]] to the Carolinas in 1663, hoping that a new colony in the south would become profitable like that of Jamestown. Carolina was not settled until 1670, and even then the first attempt failed because there was no incentive for emigration to the south. However, eventually the Lords combined their remaining capital and financed a settlement mission to the area led by John West. The expedition located fertile and defensible ground at what was to become [[Charleston]] (originally Charles Town for King [[Charles II]], thus beginning the English colonization of the mainland. The original settlers in South Carolina established a lucrative trade in provisions, deerskins and Indian captives with the Caribbean islands. They came mainly from the English colony of [[Barbados]] and brought African slaves with them. Barbados, as a wealthy [[sugarcane]] plantation island, was one of the early English colonies to large numbers of Africans in plantation style agriculture. The cultivation of [[rice]] was introduced during the 1690s via Africans from the rice-growing regions of [[West Africa]]. North Carolina remained a frontier through the early colonial period.

At first, South Carolina was politically divided. Its ethnic makeup included the original settlers, a group of rich, slave-owning English settlers from the island of Barbados; and [[Huguenots]], a French-speaking community of Protestants. Nearly continuous frontier warfare during the era of [[King William's War]] and [[Queen Anne's War]] drove economic and political wedges between merchants and planters. The disaster of the [[Yamasee War]], in 1715, set off a decade of political turmoil. By 1729, the proprietary government had collapsed, and the Proprietors sold both colonies back to the British crown.

====Georgia====
[[James Oglethorpe]], an 18th century British [[Member of Parliament]], established [[Georgia]] as a common solution to two problems. British feared that Spanish Florida was threatening the British Carolinas. Oglethorpe established his colony in the contested border region of Georgia and populated it with the poor and debtors who would otherwise have been imprisoned. This plan would both rid Britain of its undesirable elements and provide her with a base from which to attack Florida. The first colonists arrived in 1733.

Oglethorpe established his colony on strict moralistic principles. Slavery was forbidden, as was alcohol. The colonists rejected any puritanical lifestyle and complained that their colony could not compete economically with the Carolina rice plantations. Georgia initially failed to prosper, but in 1752 the trustees turned over control of the colony to the royal government and the restrictions were lifted, slavery was allowed, and it became moderately prosperous.

===Plantations===
By the 1720s, a sew aspiring planters began to construct large Georgian-style mansions, wear bright red attire, and hunt deer from horseback. Wealthy women in the Southern colonies shared in the British culture and spent large sums on the latest fasions and furniture.

The wives of the plantation owners supervised the household slaves, handled medical services for all the slaves, and put on elaborate dinners and festive balls. These efforts were the most successful in South Carolina, where wealthy rice planters lived in townhouses in Charleston, a busy port city. Active social seasons flourished in the few towns, such as [[Annapolis, Maryland]], and on tobacco plantations in Virginia.

====Slaves====
The African slaves who worked on the indigo, tobacco, and rice fields in the South came mostly from the Caribbean sugar islands (plus a few who came directly from Africa). In 1700, there were about 9,600 slaves in the Chesapeake region and a few hundred in the Carolinas. About 170,000 more Africans arrived over the next five decades. By 1750, there were more than 250,000 slaves in British America; in South Carolina they made up about 60% of the total population. Very favorable food and health standards contributed to rapid population growth.

==Economy==
see also [[American economic history]]

[[File:Ec$1800.jpg|thumb|400px|Estimated income in constant 1840 dollars. Source: Alice Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980); Susan B. Carter et al. ''The Historical Statistics of the United States'' (2006) vol 3.]]
The great majority of people throughout the colonial era were farmers and their income was not cash but the value of the crops and animals produced on farms, and mostly consumed by the family. The estimates are based on inventories of estates when people died. Most people lived in poverty—with very few possessions such as a small stock of clothes, a shack to live in, a few household goods—and land and animals. In terms of wealth the per capita wealth of Americans in 1774 was £37.4 ($6700 in 2009 dollars); per adult male £172 ($30,700); and per white adult male £218 ($39,000).<ref>Alice Hanson Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980)</ref>

==Literature==
Colonial American literature is perhaps the most vibrant field in American literary studies today. In the last decade an explosion of anthologies designed to make widely available a broad range of non-canonical writings produced in and about Great Britain's colonies in the Western hemisphere has provided teachers and scholars with important new tools. The explosion has been driven partly by the identity-based recuperation movements of the 1970s and 1980s, partly by a new awareness of the importance of texts circulated in manuscript or newspapers rather than in book form, and partly by dissatisfaction with the predominant Puritan origins narrative and a swelling interest in transnationalism. New anthologies include Myra Jehlen and Michael Warner's ''The English Literatures of America, 1580–1800'' (Routledge, 1996), Vincent Carretta's ''Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century'' (Lexington, Ky., 1996), Sharon M. Harris's ''Early American Women Writers to 1800'' (Oxford, 1996), and ''Thomas W. Krise's Caribbeana: An Anthology of English Literature of the West Indies, 1657–1777'' (Chicago, 1999), Susan Castillo and Ivy Schweitzer, ''The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology'' (Oxford, 2001) Carla Muford's ''Early American Writings'' (Oxford 2002), and Susan Castillo's, ''Colonial Encounters in New World Writing, 1500–1786: Performing America'' (Routledge, 2006). Add in the University of Massachusetts Press series on native writers and scholars have made readily available a vast array of once obscure English-language works. Some of these new volumes represent an effort by colonialists to catch up to the rest of the field of Americanist scholarship, providing the pre-literary history to contemporary Caribbean or African American literature. In an important sense, however, colonialists occupy a unique position among Americanists. At a moment when many scholars are rejecting nationalist narratives of literary history, which they view as the intellectual equivalent of isolationism in a world increasingly committed to globalization, students of colonial American literature rightly claim a pre-national vantage point. A transnational approach to colonial literature has the attractive features of being both intellectually sound and trendy.<ref>Sandra M. Gustafson, "The Americas in Writing," ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 2003 60(1): 207-213. ISSN: 0043-5597
Fulltext: [[History Cooperative]]</ref>

==Unification of the 13 colonies==
===A common defense===
One event that reminded colonists of their shared identity as British subjects was the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] (1740-1748) in Europe. This conflict spilled over into the colonies, where it was known as "King George's War"; most of the fighting took place in Europe, British colonial troops attacked French Canada.

At the [[Albany Congress]] of 1754, [[Benjamin Franklin]] proposed that the colonies be united by a Grand Council overseeing a common policy for defense, expansion, and Indian affairs. While the plan was thwarted by colonial legislatures and King [[George II]], it was an early indication that the British colonies of North America were headed towards unification. Franklin did not give up; more than anyone, he invented the idea of a United States of America.

===Great Awakening===
{{main|First Great Awakening}}
One event that began to unify the religious background of the colonies was the [[First Great Awakening]], a Protestant revival movement that took place in the 1730s and 1740s. It began with [[Jonathan Edwards]], a Massachusetts preacher who sought to return to the Pilgrims' strict [[Calvinist]] roots and to reawaken the "Fear of God". Edwards was a powerful speaker and attracted a large following with sermons such as "[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]". English preacher [[George Whitefield]] and other itinerant preachers continued the movement, traveling across the colonies and preaching in a dramatic and emotional style.

Followers of Edwards and other preachers of similar religiosity called themselves the "New Lights," as contrasted with the "Old Lights", who disapproved of their movement. To promote their viewpoints, the two sides established academies and colleges including [[Princeton University|Princeton]] and [[Williams College]]. The Great Awakening has been called the first truly "American" event, and as such represented at least a small step towards the unification of the colonies.

A similar pietistic movement took place among some of the German and Dutch Lutherans, leading to internal dvisions. By the 1770s the Baptists were growing rapidly both in the north (where they founded [[Brown University]], and in the South where they challenged the previously unquestioned moral authority of the Anglican establishment.

===French and Indian War===
[[Image:WashingtonFIwar.jpg|thumb|250px|[[George Washington]] during the French and Indian War]]
{{main|French and Indian War}}
The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the [[Seven Years' War]].

The war is called the ''French and Indian'' because the [[Iroquois]] confederacy—which had been playing the British and the French against each other successfully for decades fought on both sides. The French were defeated and in the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)]], France surrendered its vast North American empire to Britain.

The French and Indian war took on a new significance for the North American colonists in Great Britain when [[William Pitt the elder]] decided that it was necessary to win the war against France at all costs. For the first time, North America was one of the main theatres of what could be termed a "world war". During the war, the status of all the British Colonies (including the thirteen colonies) as part of the British Empire was made truly apparent, as British military and civilian officials took on an increased presence in the lives of Americans. The war also increased a sense of American unity in other ways. It caused men, who might normally have never left their colonies, to travel across the continent, fighting alongside men from decidedly different, yet still "American," backgrounds. Throughout the course of the war, British officers trained American ones (most notably [[George Washington]]) for battle which would later benefit the American Revolution. Also, state legislatures and officials had to cooperate intensively, for arguably the first time, in pursuit of the continent-wide military effort.

The British and colonists triumphed jointly over a common foe. The colonists' loyalty to the mother country was stronger than ever before. The war produced prosperity, as royal officials hired American troops and sent in well paid British troops. The French were defeated, and the British took Canada. Most important, the military threat from any foreign power ended, and the colonies no longer needed the protection of the Royal Navy. The British army handled Indian affairs on the frontier, so Indians were no longer a major threat to the Americans.

==TEN COMMANDMENTS THIRTEEN COLONIES==
Indeed, twelve of the original thirteen colonies adopted the entire Decalogue into
their civil and criminal laws. While the lone hold-out, Rhode Island, did not adopt
the first four Commandments, they did adopt the last six. Surveying the organic
development of law, former Chief Justice William Rehnquist forcefully argued: “It
is… undeniable… that the Ten Commandments have had a significant impact on the
development of secular legal codes of the Western World.

AT THE CONTINETIAL CONGRESS YOU OF 1774 YOU HAD
GEORGE WASHINGTON
JOHN ADAMS
SAMUEL ADAMS
JOHN JAY
PATRICK HENREY
PEYTON RONDOLPH THE FIRST AND THRIRD PRESIDENT OF THE CONGRESS OF 1774
regardless it does not matter what commandments were adopted even if the last six were adopted these laws are not just
against secluar law there also against religious law as well written the ten commandments are found in exdous
so everyone in rohde island colony who broke the first four would not be penalized by the state they would
only punish the last six of the ten commandments keeping the first four is a choice
===Ties to the British Empire===
Although the colonies were very different from one another, they were still a part of the [[British Empire]] and each looked to London for leadership. military protection, and trade.

The political institutions of the colonies were originally patterned after English models, but by the 1760s there was a very different tone. Americans ignored the Royal Court and paid attention to the "country" party in Britain which was opposed to the Court; this was the origin of [[republicanism]] which increasingly dominated American political values.

The codes of law of the colonies were drawn directly from English common law, which was carefully studied by the hundreds of lawyers in the colonies.<ref>Scotland had a different legal system which did not carry over to the colonies.</ref> Eventually, it was a dispute over the meaning of the English Constitution and the rights of Englishmen that animated a new generation after 1760 to demand respect for their historic rights as Englishmen.

Another point on which the colonies found themselves more similar than different was the booming import of British goods by international merchants based in American seaports. Socially, the colonial elite imitated British styles of luxurious consumption, dress, dance, and etiquette. This social upper echelon built its mansions in the Georgian style (named after King George), copied the furniture designs of [[Thomas Chippendale]], and participated in the intellectual currents of Europe, such as [[Enlightenment]]. To many of their inhabitants, the seaport cities of colonial America were truly British cities. The British economy had begun to grow rapidly at the end of the 17th century, and by the mid-18th century, small factories in Britain were producing much more than the nation could consume. Finding a market for their goods in the British colonies of North America, Britain increased her exports to that region by 360% between 1740 and 1770. Because British merchants offered generous credit to their customers, Americans began buying staggering amounts of English goods. Economic integration across the Atlantic was more and more a reality, as the economy of each colony matured and was more involved in oceanic trade.

==From unity to revolution==
===Royal Proclamation===
The general sentiment of inequity that arose soon after the [[Treaty of Paris]] of 1763 was solidified by the [[Proclamation of 1763]], which temporarily prohibited settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. Colonists resented the measure, and it was never enforced.

===Acts of Parliament===

Parliament had generally been preoccupied with affairs in Europe and let the colonies govern themselves. It was no longer willing to do so. A series of measures resulting from this policy change, while affecting the New England colonies most directly would continue to arouse opposition in the 'thirteen colonies' over the next thirteen years, leading to the [[American Revolution]]:
*[[Sugar Act]] (1764)
*[[Stamp Act of 1765]]
* First [[Quartering Act]] (1765)
*[[Declaratory Act]] (1766)
*[[Townshend Acts]] (1767)
*[[Boston Tea Party|Tea Act]] (1773)
* The [[Intolerable Acts]], also called the ''Coercive'' or ''Punitive'' Acts
** Second [[Quartering Act]] (1774)
**[[Quebec Act]] (1774)
**[[Massachusetts Government Act]] (1774)
**[[Administration of Justice Act]] (1774)
**[[Boston Port Act]] (1774)
*[[Prohibitory Act]] (1776)

Following the official act of Independence, the colonies were known as the "United Colonies". On September 9th, 1776, the [[Continental Congress]] voted to change the name of the country to the "United States of America".

==See also==
* [[Colonial military history]]
==Bibliography==
===References===
* Cooke, Jacob Ernest, ed. ''Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies'' (3 vol 1993), comprehensive coverage with Spanish, French and Dutch receiving equal attention with British
===Scholarly secondary sources===
* Adams, James Truslow. ''The Founding of New England,'' (1921)[http://www.dinsdoc.com/adams-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Anderson, Virginia DeJohn. ''Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America'' (2005) [https://www.amazon.com/Creatures-Empire-Domestic-Animals-Transformed/dp/0195304462/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-11 excerpt and text search]
* Andrews, Charles M. "Colonial Commerce," ''American Historical Review,'' 20#1 (October 1914) pp. 43–63 [http://www.dinsdoc.com/andrews-1.htm online]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Our Earliest Colonial Settlements: Their Diversities of Origin and Later Characteristics'' (1933) briefly discusses Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6552109 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Colonial Self-Government, 1652-1689.. (1904) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=55413362 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''The Colonial Period of American History,'' (1934-38) (the standard overview in four volumes) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/a/acls/browse.html online at ACLS e-books]
* Bailyn, Bernard. ''Voyagers to the West: a passage in the peopling of America on the eve of the Revolution'' (1986), winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History
* Bancroft, George. ''History of the United States of America, from the discovery of the American continent. '' 10 vol (1860) [http://jrshelby.com/sc-links/bancroft.htm online editions]
* Beer, George Louis. "British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' vol 22 (March 1907) pp 1-48; [http://dinsdoc.com/beer-1.htm online edition]
* Beeman, Richard R. "The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America'' (2006) [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0812219775/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search]
* Berkin, Carol. ''First Generations: Women in Colonial America'' (1997) 276pp [https://www.amazon.com/First-Generations-Women-Colonial-America/dp/0809016060/ref=sid_dp_dp/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America'' (1988) (online at [[American Council of Learned Societies|ACLS]] History e-book project)
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''A Factious People: Politics and Society in Colonial New York,'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98025896 online edition]
* Brown, Kathleen M. ''Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia'' (1996) 512pp [https://www.amazon.com/Wives-Nasty-Wenches-Anxious-Patriarchs/dp/0807846236/ref=pd_sim_b_shvl_title_17/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bruce, Philip A. ''Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Material Condition of the People, Based on Original and Contemporaneous Records.'' (1896), very old fashioned history [http://www.dinsdoc.com/bruce-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Carr, Lois Green and Philip D. Morgan. ''Colonial Chesapeake Society'' (1991), 524pp [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Chesapeake-Society-Lois-Green/dp/0807843431/ref=sip_rech_dp_3/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Crane, Verner W. ''The Southern Frontier, 1670-1732,'' (1920), [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=28187303 online edition]
* Crane, Verner W. "The Southern Frontier in Queen Anne’s War," ''American Historical Review'' vol 24, (April 1919) pp 379-95. [http://dinsdoc.com/crane-1.htm online edition]
* Gallay, Alan, ed. ''Colonial Wars of North America, 1512-1763: An Encyclopedia'' (1996) [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Wars-North-America-1512-1763/dp/0824072081/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263942660&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Gipson, Lawrence. ''The British Empire Before the American Revolution'' (15 volumes) (1936-1970), Pulitzer Prize; highly detailed discussion of every British colony in the New World
* Greene, Evarts Boutelle. ''Provincial America, 1690-1740,'' (1935) survey by scholar [http://www.dinsdoc.com/greene-3-0a.htm online edition]
* Hatfield, April Lee. ''Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century'' (2007) [https://www.amazon.com/Atlantic-Virginia-Intercolonial-Relations-Seventeenth/dp/081221997X/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-8 excerpt and text search]
* Illick, Joseph E. ''Colonial Pennsylvania: A History,'' (1976) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/colonial-pennsylvania-a-history-by-joseph-e-illick.jsp online edition]
* Kammen, Michael. ''Colonial New York: A History,'' (2003)
* Labaree, Benjamin Woods. ''Colonial Massachusetts: A History,'' (1979)
* Kulikoff, Allan. ''From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers'' (2000) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/from-british-peasants-to-colonial-american-farmers-by-allan-kulikoff.jsp online edition]
* Middleton, Richard. ''Colonial America: A History, 1565-1776'' (3rd ed 2002), 576pp [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-America-History-1565-1776/dp/0631221417/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Morgan, Edmund S. ''American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia'' (1975) Pulitzer Prize [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101062594 online edition]
* Osgood, Herbert L. ''The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century.'' 3 vol (1904-07) [http://dinsdoc.com/osgood-8-0a.htm online edition]
* Tate, Thad W. ''Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century'' (1980) [https://www.amazon.com/Chesapeake-Seventeenth-Century-Thad-Tate/dp/0393009564/ref=sr_1_23/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998781&sr=1-23 excerpt and text search]
* Taylor, Alan. ''American Colonies,'' (2001) survey by leading scholar [https://www.amazon.com/American-Colonies-Settling-America-Penguin/dp/0142002100/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]
* Vickers, Daniel, ed. ''A Companion to Colonial America.'' 2003. 576 pp.

===Primary sources===
* Kavenagh, W. Keith, ed. ''Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History'' (1973) 4 vol.
* Miller, Kerby A., et al eds. ''Irish immigrants in the land of Canaan: letters and memoirs from colonial and revolutionary America, 1675-1815'' (2004) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;cc=acls;q1=United%20States%20--%20History%20--%20Colonial%20period%2C%20ca.%201600-1775%20--%20Biography;rgn=subject;view=toc;idno=heb90012.0001.001 online at ACLS e-books]
===Online sources===
*[http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/colonial.htm Colonial America 1600-1775, K12 Resources]
*[http://earlyamerica.com/ Archiving Early America]
*[http://www.dinsdoc.com/colonial-3.htm ''Classics of American Colonial History'' complete text of older scholarly articles]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Colonial America]]
[[Category:British Empire]]
[[Category:Indian Wars]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:New England]]
[[Category:Massachusetts]]
[[Category:New Hampshire]]
[[Category:Rhode Island]]
[[Category:Connecticut]]
[[Category:New York]]
[[Category:Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:New Jersey]]
[[Category:Delaware]]
[[Category:Maryland]]
[[Category:Virginia]]
[[Category:North Carolina]]
[[Category:South Carolina]]
[[Category:Georgia]]

Thirteen Colonies

2021-07-26T03:49:23Z

Stephenkollenborners: THIRTEEN COLONIES

The '''thirteen colonies''' were the [[British]] colonies that formed the [[United States]]. They were: [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[Rhode Island]], [[Connecticut]], [[New York]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[New Jersey]], [[Delaware]], [[Maryland]], [[Virginia]], [[North Carolina]], [[South Carolina]], and [[Georgia]]. On July 4, 1776, they became states and formed a new nation, the '''United States of America.'''
[[Image:1742map.jpg|thumb|400px]]
[[Image:Pop1750.jpg|thumb|400px]]
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
== New England Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Massachusetts]] || 1620 || [[Pilgrims]], led by [[William Bradford]] || Shipbuilding, fish, lumber || Governor appointed by king || established [[Puritan]] Church (after 1700 called Congregationalist);
|-
| [[Rhode Island]] || 1636 || [[Roger Williams]], for religious reasons left [[Massachusetts]] || Lumber, fish. || Elected by colonists. || Complete [[religious freedom]] for all- [[Anglican]] ([[Episcopalian]]), [[Baptist]], Quakers and other Protestants
|-
| [[Connecticut]] || 1636 || [[Thomas Hooker]], who led a group from [[Massachusetts]] who wanted [[limited government|less government]] || Shipbuilding, lumber, fish || Elected by colonists || Congregationalist Church was established
|-
| [[New Hampshire]] || 1623 || Colonists who left Massachusetts for political and religious reasons || Molasses, fish || Governor appointed by king || Congregationalist
|}

==New England==
{{main|New England}}
The [[Plymouth Colony]], now part of Massachusetts, was founded by the [[Pilgrims]], a small [[Puritans|Puritan]] sect based in [[England]] and the [[Netherlands]]. One group sailed on the ''[[Mayflower]]''. They drew up the [[Mayflower Compact]] by which they gave themselves broad powers of self-governance and introduced [[democracy]] into America. They established the small Plymouth Colony in 1620 and later merged with the Massachusetts Bay colony. [[William Bradford]] (1590-1657) was the main leader.
===Puritans===
{{main|Puritans}}
The Puritans, a much larger group than the Pilgrims, established the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in 1629 with 400 settlers. This group was the Puritans who sought to reform the [[Church of England]] by creating a new, pure church in the New World. Within two years, an additional 2,000 arrived. The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit and politically innovative culture that still lingers on in the modern United States. They hoped this new land would serve as a "redeemer nation." Seeking the true religion, they fled England and in America created a "nation of saints" or the "[[City upon a hill]]," an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community designed to be an example for all of Europe. [[Roger Williams (theologian)|Roger Williams]], who preached religious toleration, [[separation of church and state]], and a complete break with the Church of England, was banished and founded [[Rhode Island|Rhode Island Colony]], which became a haven for other religious refugees from the Puritan community, including [[Anne Hutchinson]], a preacher of [[Antinomianism]].

Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of its founders. Unlike the cash-crop oriented plantations of the Chesapeake region, the Puritan economy was based on the efforts of individual farmers, who harvested enough crops to feed themselves and their families and a surplus to trade for goods they could not produce themselves. There was a generally higher standard of living in New England than in the Chesapeake. Along with farming growth, New England became an important mercantile and shipbuilding center, often serving as the hub for trading between the South and Europe.

== Middle Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[New York]] || 1626 || [[Dutch]]; English in 1664 || Shipbuilding and trade || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], and other Protestants
|-
| [[New Jersey]] || 1664 || [[Swedish]] and [[Dutch]]; In 1664 [[Sir George Carteret]] and [[Lord John Berkeley]] were given the land by the English Duke of York || Oats, wheat, rye || Governor appointed by king || [[Dutch Reformed]], [[Quaker]], others
|-
| [[Pennsylvania]] || 1681 || [[William Penn]] as a safe place for [[Quakers]] || Trade and Shipbuilding || Proprietor selected the governor || [[Quaker]] Lutheran, and other Protestant
|-
| [[Delaware]] || 1682 || [[William Penn]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected the governor || Protestant
|}

The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of [[New York]], [[New Jersey]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[Delaware]], were characterized by a large degree of diversity—religious, political, economic, and ethnic. Many Dutch and Protestant Irish immigrants settled in these areas, as well as in [[Long Island]] and [[Connecticut]]. The Germans, called "[[Pennsylvania Dutch]]," were included in this emigration.

===Mid-Atlantic Region===
Unlike New England, the Mid-Atlantic Region gained much of its population from new immigration, and by 1750, the combined populations of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania had reached nearly 300,000 people. By 1750, about 60,000 [[Scots-Irish]] and 50,000 [[German Americans|Germans]] came to live in British North America, many of them settling in the Mid-Atlantic Region. [[William Penn]], the man who founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1682, attracted an influx of [[Quakers]] and other immigrants with his policies of religious liberty and freehold ownership. "Freehold" meant that farmers owned their land free and clear of leases. The first major influx of immigrants came mainly from Ireland and consisted of Scots-Irish [[Church of Scotland|Presbyterians]]. The second major immigration came with Germans trying to escape the religious conflicts and declining economic opportunities in Germany and Switzerland.

====Ways of life====
[[File:The Baptism of Pocahontas 1614.jpg|thumb|The Baptism of Pocahontas, 1614, Oil study for mural by John Gadsby Chapman, circa 1837-40.]]
Much of the architecture of the Middle Colonies reflects the diversity of its peoples. In Albany and New York City, a majority of the buildings were Dutch style with brick exteriors and high gables at each end while many Dutch churches were shaped liked an octagon. Using cut stone to build their houses, German and Welsh settlers in Pennsylvania followed the way of their homeland and completely ignored the plethora of timber in the area. Thus in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 80% of the buildings in the town were made entirely of stone. On the other hand, the Scots-Irish took advantage of America's ample supply of timber and constructed sturdy log cabins.

Ethnic cultures also effected the styles of furniture. Rural Quakers preferred simple designs in furnishings such as tables, chairs, chests and shunned elaborate decorations. However, some urban Quakers had much more elaborate furniture. The city of [[Philadelphia]] became a major center of furniture-making because of its massive wealth from Quaker and British merchants. Philadelphian cabinet makers built elegant desks and highboys. German artisans created intricate carved designs on their chests and other furniture with painted scenes of flowers and birds. German potters also crafted a large array of jugs, pots, and plates, of both elegant and traditional design.

There were ethnic differences in the treatment of women. Among Puritan settlers in New England, wives almost never worked in the fields with their husbands. In German communities in Pennsylvania, however, many women worked in fields and stables. German and Dutch immigrants granted women more control over property, which was not permitted in the local English law. Unlike English colonial wives, German and Dutch wives owned their own clothes and other items and were also given the ability to write wills disposing of the property brought into the marriage.

====Farming====
The Europeans brought entirely new animals, which transformed the landscape, such as hogs, cattle, horses, sheep and poulry. (The Indians already had dogs.) Ethnicity made a difference in agricultural practice. As an example, German farmers generally preferred oxen rather than horses to pull their plows and Scots-Irish made a farming economy based on hogs and corn. In Ireland, Scots-Irish farmed intensively, working small pieces of land trying to get the largest possible production-rate from their crops. In the American colonies, Scots-Irish focused on mixed-farming. Using this technique, they grew corn for human consumption and as feed for hogs and other livestock. Many improvement-minded farmers of all different backgrounds began using new agricultural practices to raise their output. During the 1750s, these agricultural innovators replaced the hand sickles and scythes used to harvest hay, wheat, and barley with the cradle scythe, a tool with wooden fingers that arranged the stalks of grain for easy collection. This tool was able to triple the amount of work down by farmers in one day. Farmers also began fertilizing their fields with dung and lime and rotating their crops to keep the soil fertile.

Before 1720, most colonists in the mid-Atlantic region worked with small-scale farming and paid for imported manufactures by supplying the West Indies with corn and flour. In New York, a fur-pelt export trade to Europe flourished adding additional wealth to the region. After 1720, mid-Atlantic farming stimulated with the international demand for wheat. A massive population explosion in Europe brought wheat prices up. By 1770, a bushel of wheat cost twice as much as it did in 1720. Farmers also expanded their production of flaxseed and wheat since flax was a high demand in the Irish linen industry and a demand for wheat for slaves existed in the West Indies.

Some immigrants who just arrived purchased farms and shared in this export wealth, but many poor German and Scots-Irish immigrants were forced to work as agricultural wage laborers. Merchants and artisans also hired these homeless workers for a domestic system for the manufacture of cloth and other goods. Merchants often bought wool and flax from farmers and employed newly arrived immigrants, who had been textile workers in Ireland and Germany, to work in their homes spinning the materials into yarn and cloth. Large farmers and merchants became wealthy, while farmers with smaller farms and artisans only made enough for subsistence. The Mid-Atlantic region, by 1750, was divided by both ethnic background and wealth.

====Seaports====
Seaports, which expanded from wheat trade, had more social classes than anywhere else in the Middle Colonies. By 1750, the population of Philadelphia had reached 25,000, New York 15,000, and the port of [[Baltimore]] 7,000. Merchants dominated seaport society and about 40 merchants controlled half of Philadelphia's trade. Wealthy merchants in Philadelphia and New York, like their counterparts in New England, built elegant Georgian-style mansions.

Shopkeepers, artisans, shipwrights, butchers, coopers (barrell makers), seamstresses, cobblers, bakers, carpenters, stonemasons, and many other specialized professions, made up the middle class of seaport society. Wives and husbands often worked as a team and taught their children their crafts to pass it on through the family. Many of these artisans and traders made enough money to create a modest life.

Laborers stood at the bottom of seaport society. These poor people worked on the docks unloading inbound vessels and loading outbound vessels with wheat, corn, and flaxseed. Many of these were African American; some were free while others were enslaved. In 1750, blacks made up about 10 percent of the population of New York and Philadelphia. Hundreds of seamen, some who were African American, worked as sailors on merchant ships.

== Southern Colonies ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+
|-
! Colony !! Year Founded !! Founded By !! Chief Crops or Trade !! Government !! Religion
|-
| [[Virginia]] || 1607 || [[John Smith]], settlers from [[Virginia Company of London]] || Tobacco || Governor appointed by king || [[Anglican]] Church was established
|-
| [[Maryland]] || 1634 || [[Lord Baltimore]] as a safe place for [[Catholicism|Catholics]] || Tobacco || Proprietor selected by governor || Protestant and Catholic
|-
| [[North Carolina]] || 1654 || [[Virginia]] settlers || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[South Carolina]] || 1663 || [[English]] and other [[Europeans]] || Tar from pine trees, tobacco, pitch, and rice || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|-
| [[Georgia]] || 1732 || [[James Oglethorpe]], brought [[English]] debtors to protect [[Georgia]] from the [[Spanish]] || Indigo, tobacco || Governor appointed by king || Protestant
|}
The Southern Colonies were mainly dominated by the wealthy slave-owning planters in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. These planters owned massive estates that were worked by African slaves. Of the 650,000 inhabitants of the South in 1750, about 250,000 or 40 percent, were slaves. Planters used their wealth to dominate the local tenants and yeoman farmers. At election time, they gave these farmers gifts of rum and promised to lower taxes to take control of colonial legislatures.

===South: Chesapeake Bay area===
====Jamestown====
The first successful English colony was Jamestown, established in 1607, on a small river near Chesapeake Bay. The venture was financed and coordinated by the London Virginia Company, a joint stock company looking for gold. Its first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Indians, and little gold. The colony barely survived, by turning to tobacco as a cash crop. By the late 17th century Virginia's export economy was largely based on tobacco, and new, richer settlers came in to take up large portions of land, build large plantations and import indentured servants and slaves. In 1676 [[Bacon's Rebellion]] occurred, but was suppressed by royal officials. After Bacon's Rebellion, African slaves replaced English indentured servants as Virginia's main labor force. The indentured servants became independent farmers at age 21, and mostly became subsistence farmers.

The colonial assembly that had governed the colony since its establishment was dissolved but was reinstated in 1630. It shared power with a royally appointed governor. On a more local level, governmental power was invested in county [[court]]s and sheriffs, also not elected. Voters could vote for a member of House of Burgess.

As cash crop producers, Chesapeake plantations were heavily dependent on trade. With easy navigation by river, few towns and no cities developed; planters shipped directly to Britain. High death rates and a very young population profile characterized the colony during its first decades.

===Lower South===

The colonial South included the plantation colonies of the Chesapeake region (Virginia and Maryland) and the lower South (Carolina, which eventually split into North and South Carolina, and Georgia).

====Carolinas====
The first attempted English settlement south of Virginia was the Province of Carolina. It was a private venture, financed by a group of English businessmen calling themselves the "Lords Proprietors," who obtained a [[Royal Charter]] to the Carolinas in 1663, hoping that a new colony in the south would become profitable like that of Jamestown. Carolina was not settled until 1670, and even then the first attempt failed because there was no incentive for emigration to the south. However, eventually the Lords combined their remaining capital and financed a settlement mission to the area led by John West. The expedition located fertile and defensible ground at what was to become [[Charleston]] (originally Charles Town for King [[Charles II]], thus beginning the English colonization of the mainland. The original settlers in South Carolina established a lucrative trade in provisions, deerskins and Indian captives with the Caribbean islands. They came mainly from the English colony of [[Barbados]] and brought African slaves with them. Barbados, as a wealthy [[sugarcane]] plantation island, was one of the early English colonies to large numbers of Africans in plantation style agriculture. The cultivation of [[rice]] was introduced during the 1690s via Africans from the rice-growing regions of [[West Africa]]. North Carolina remained a frontier through the early colonial period.

At first, South Carolina was politically divided. Its ethnic makeup included the original settlers, a group of rich, slave-owning English settlers from the island of Barbados; and [[Huguenots]], a French-speaking community of Protestants. Nearly continuous frontier warfare during the era of [[King William's War]] and [[Queen Anne's War]] drove economic and political wedges between merchants and planters. The disaster of the [[Yamasee War]], in 1715, set off a decade of political turmoil. By 1729, the proprietary government had collapsed, and the Proprietors sold both colonies back to the British crown.

====Georgia====
[[James Oglethorpe]], an 18th century British [[Member of Parliament]], established [[Georgia]] as a common solution to two problems. British feared that Spanish Florida was threatening the British Carolinas. Oglethorpe established his colony in the contested border region of Georgia and populated it with the poor and debtors who would otherwise have been imprisoned. This plan would both rid Britain of its undesirable elements and provide her with a base from which to attack Florida. The first colonists arrived in 1733.

Oglethorpe established his colony on strict moralistic principles. Slavery was forbidden, as was alcohol. The colonists rejected any puritanical lifestyle and complained that their colony could not compete economically with the Carolina rice plantations. Georgia initially failed to prosper, but in 1752 the trustees turned over control of the colony to the royal government and the restrictions were lifted, slavery was allowed, and it became moderately prosperous.

===Plantations===
By the 1720s, a sew aspiring planters began to construct large Georgian-style mansions, wear bright red attire, and hunt deer from horseback. Wealthy women in the Southern colonies shared in the British culture and spent large sums on the latest fasions and furniture.

The wives of the plantation owners supervised the household slaves, handled medical services for all the slaves, and put on elaborate dinners and festive balls. These efforts were the most successful in South Carolina, where wealthy rice planters lived in townhouses in Charleston, a busy port city. Active social seasons flourished in the few towns, such as [[Annapolis, Maryland]], and on tobacco plantations in Virginia.

====Slaves====
The African slaves who worked on the indigo, tobacco, and rice fields in the South came mostly from the Caribbean sugar islands (plus a few who came directly from Africa). In 1700, there were about 9,600 slaves in the Chesapeake region and a few hundred in the Carolinas. About 170,000 more Africans arrived over the next five decades. By 1750, there were more than 250,000 slaves in British America; in South Carolina they made up about 60% of the total population. Very favorable food and health standards contributed to rapid population growth.

==Economy==
see also [[American economic history]]

[[File:Ec$1800.jpg|thumb|400px|Estimated income in constant 1840 dollars. Source: Alice Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980); Susan B. Carter et al. ''The Historical Statistics of the United States'' (2006) vol 3.]]
The great majority of people throughout the colonial era were farmers and their income was not cash but the value of the crops and animals produced on farms, and mostly consumed by the family. The estimates are based on inventories of estates when people died. Most people lived in poverty—with very few possessions such as a small stock of clothes, a shack to live in, a few household goods—and land and animals. In terms of wealth the per capita wealth of Americans in 1774 was £37.4 ($6700 in 2009 dollars); per adult male £172 ($30,700); and per white adult male £218 ($39,000).<ref>Alice Hanson Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980)</ref>

==Literature==
Colonial American literature is perhaps the most vibrant field in American literary studies today. In the last decade an explosion of anthologies designed to make widely available a broad range of non-canonical writings produced in and about Great Britain's colonies in the Western hemisphere has provided teachers and scholars with important new tools. The explosion has been driven partly by the identity-based recuperation movements of the 1970s and 1980s, partly by a new awareness of the importance of texts circulated in manuscript or newspapers rather than in book form, and partly by dissatisfaction with the predominant Puritan origins narrative and a swelling interest in transnationalism. New anthologies include Myra Jehlen and Michael Warner's ''The English Literatures of America, 1580–1800'' (Routledge, 1996), Vincent Carretta's ''Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century'' (Lexington, Ky., 1996), Sharon M. Harris's ''Early American Women Writers to 1800'' (Oxford, 1996), and ''Thomas W. Krise's Caribbeana: An Anthology of English Literature of the West Indies, 1657–1777'' (Chicago, 1999), Susan Castillo and Ivy Schweitzer, ''The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology'' (Oxford, 2001) Carla Muford's ''Early American Writings'' (Oxford 2002), and Susan Castillo's, ''Colonial Encounters in New World Writing, 1500–1786: Performing America'' (Routledge, 2006). Add in the University of Massachusetts Press series on native writers and scholars have made readily available a vast array of once obscure English-language works. Some of these new volumes represent an effort by colonialists to catch up to the rest of the field of Americanist scholarship, providing the pre-literary history to contemporary Caribbean or African American literature. In an important sense, however, colonialists occupy a unique position among Americanists. At a moment when many scholars are rejecting nationalist narratives of literary history, which they view as the intellectual equivalent of isolationism in a world increasingly committed to globalization, students of colonial American literature rightly claim a pre-national vantage point. A transnational approach to colonial literature has the attractive features of being both intellectually sound and trendy.<ref>Sandra M. Gustafson, "The Americas in Writing," ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 2003 60(1): 207-213. ISSN: 0043-5597
Fulltext: [[History Cooperative]]</ref>

==Unification of the 13 colonies==
===A common defense===
One event that reminded colonists of their shared identity as British subjects was the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] (1740-1748) in Europe. This conflict spilled over into the colonies, where it was known as "King George's War"; most of the fighting took place in Europe, British colonial troops attacked French Canada.

At the [[Albany Congress]] of 1754, [[Benjamin Franklin]] proposed that the colonies be united by a Grand Council overseeing a common policy for defense, expansion, and Indian affairs. While the plan was thwarted by colonial legislatures and King [[George II]], it was an early indication that the British colonies of North America were headed towards unification. Franklin did not give up; more than anyone, he invented the idea of a United States of America.

===Great Awakening===
{{main|First Great Awakening}}
One event that began to unify the religious background of the colonies was the [[First Great Awakening]], a Protestant revival movement that took place in the 1730s and 1740s. It began with [[Jonathan Edwards]], a Massachusetts preacher who sought to return to the Pilgrims' strict [[Calvinist]] roots and to reawaken the "Fear of God". Edwards was a powerful speaker and attracted a large following with sermons such as "[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]". English preacher [[George Whitefield]] and other itinerant preachers continued the movement, traveling across the colonies and preaching in a dramatic and emotional style.

Followers of Edwards and other preachers of similar religiosity called themselves the "New Lights," as contrasted with the "Old Lights", who disapproved of their movement. To promote their viewpoints, the two sides established academies and colleges including [[Princeton University|Princeton]] and [[Williams College]]. The Great Awakening has been called the first truly "American" event, and as such represented at least a small step towards the unification of the colonies.

A similar pietistic movement took place among some of the German and Dutch Lutherans, leading to internal dvisions. By the 1770s the Baptists were growing rapidly both in the north (where they founded [[Brown University]], and in the South where they challenged the previously unquestioned moral authority of the Anglican establishment.

===French and Indian War===
[[Image:WashingtonFIwar.jpg|thumb|250px|[[George Washington]] during the French and Indian War]]
{{main|French and Indian War}}
The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the [[Seven Years' War]].

The war is called the ''French and Indian'' because the [[Iroquois]] confederacy—which had been playing the British and the French against each other successfully for decades fought on both sides. The French were defeated and in the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)]], France surrendered its vast North American empire to Britain.

The French and Indian war took on a new significance for the North American colonists in Great Britain when [[William Pitt the elder]] decided that it was necessary to win the war against France at all costs. For the first time, North America was one of the main theatres of what could be termed a "world war". During the war, the status of all the British Colonies (including the thirteen colonies) as part of the British Empire was made truly apparent, as British military and civilian officials took on an increased presence in the lives of Americans. The war also increased a sense of American unity in other ways. It caused men, who might normally have never left their colonies, to travel across the continent, fighting alongside men from decidedly different, yet still "American," backgrounds. Throughout the course of the war, British officers trained American ones (most notably [[George Washington]]) for battle which would later benefit the American Revolution. Also, state legislatures and officials had to cooperate intensively, for arguably the first time, in pursuit of the continent-wide military effort.

The British and colonists triumphed jointly over a common foe. The colonists' loyalty to the mother country was stronger than ever before. The war produced prosperity, as royal officials hired American troops and sent in well paid British troops. The French were defeated, and the British took Canada. Most important, the military threat from any foreign power ended, and the colonies no longer needed the protection of the Royal Navy. The British army handled Indian affairs on the frontier, so Indians were no longer a major threat to the Americans.

==TEN COMMANDMENTS THIRTEEN COLONIES==
Indeed, twelve of the original thirteen colonies adopted the entire Decalogue into
their civil and criminal laws. While the lone hold-out, Rhode Island, did not adopt
the first four Commandments, they did adopt the last six. Surveying the organic
development of law, former Chief Justice William Rehnquist forcefully argued: “It
is… undeniable… that the Ten Commandments have had a significant impact on the
development of secular legal codes of the Western World.

AT THE CONTINETIAL CONGRESS YOU OF 1774 YOU HAD
GEORGE WASHINGTON
JOHN ADAMS
SAMUEL ADAMS
JOHN JAY
PATRICK HENREY
PEYTON RONDOLPH THE FIRST AND THRIRD PRESIDENT OF THE CONGRESS OF 1774

===Ties to the British Empire===
Although the colonies were very different from one another, they were still a part of the [[British Empire]] and each looked to London for leadership. military protection, and trade.

The political institutions of the colonies were originally patterned after English models, but by the 1760s there was a very different tone. Americans ignored the Royal Court and paid attention to the "country" party in Britain which was opposed to the Court; this was the origin of [[republicanism]] which increasingly dominated American political values.

The codes of law of the colonies were drawn directly from English common law, which was carefully studied by the hundreds of lawyers in the colonies.<ref>Scotland had a different legal system which did not carry over to the colonies.</ref> Eventually, it was a dispute over the meaning of the English Constitution and the rights of Englishmen that animated a new generation after 1760 to demand respect for their historic rights as Englishmen.

Another point on which the colonies found themselves more similar than different was the booming import of British goods by international merchants based in American seaports. Socially, the colonial elite imitated British styles of luxurious consumption, dress, dance, and etiquette. This social upper echelon built its mansions in the Georgian style (named after King George), copied the furniture designs of [[Thomas Chippendale]], and participated in the intellectual currents of Europe, such as [[Enlightenment]]. To many of their inhabitants, the seaport cities of colonial America were truly British cities. The British economy had begun to grow rapidly at the end of the 17th century, and by the mid-18th century, small factories in Britain were producing much more than the nation could consume. Finding a market for their goods in the British colonies of North America, Britain increased her exports to that region by 360% between 1740 and 1770. Because British merchants offered generous credit to their customers, Americans began buying staggering amounts of English goods. Economic integration across the Atlantic was more and more a reality, as the economy of each colony matured and was more involved in oceanic trade.

==From unity to revolution==
===Royal Proclamation===
The general sentiment of inequity that arose soon after the [[Treaty of Paris]] of 1763 was solidified by the [[Proclamation of 1763]], which temporarily prohibited settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. Colonists resented the measure, and it was never enforced.

===Acts of Parliament===

Parliament had generally been preoccupied with affairs in Europe and let the colonies govern themselves. It was no longer willing to do so. A series of measures resulting from this policy change, while affecting the New England colonies most directly would continue to arouse opposition in the 'thirteen colonies' over the next thirteen years, leading to the [[American Revolution]]:
*[[Sugar Act]] (1764)
*[[Stamp Act of 1765]]
* First [[Quartering Act]] (1765)
*[[Declaratory Act]] (1766)
*[[Townshend Acts]] (1767)
*[[Boston Tea Party|Tea Act]] (1773)
* The [[Intolerable Acts]], also called the ''Coercive'' or ''Punitive'' Acts
** Second [[Quartering Act]] (1774)
**[[Quebec Act]] (1774)
**[[Massachusetts Government Act]] (1774)
**[[Administration of Justice Act]] (1774)
**[[Boston Port Act]] (1774)
*[[Prohibitory Act]] (1776)

Following the official act of Independence, the colonies were known as the "United Colonies". On September 9th, 1776, the [[Continental Congress]] voted to change the name of the country to the "United States of America".

==See also==
* [[Colonial military history]]
==Bibliography==
===References===
* Cooke, Jacob Ernest, ed. ''Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies'' (3 vol 1993), comprehensive coverage with Spanish, French and Dutch receiving equal attention with British
===Scholarly secondary sources===
* Adams, James Truslow. ''The Founding of New England,'' (1921)[http://www.dinsdoc.com/adams-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Anderson, Virginia DeJohn. ''Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America'' (2005) [https://www.amazon.com/Creatures-Empire-Domestic-Animals-Transformed/dp/0195304462/ref=sr_1_11/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-11 excerpt and text search]
* Andrews, Charles M. "Colonial Commerce," ''American Historical Review,'' 20#1 (October 1914) pp. 43–63 [http://www.dinsdoc.com/andrews-1.htm online]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Our Earliest Colonial Settlements: Their Diversities of Origin and Later Characteristics'' (1933) briefly discusses Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6552109 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''Colonial Self-Government, 1652-1689.. (1904) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=55413362 online edition]
* Andrews, Charles M. ''The Colonial Period of American History,'' (1934-38) (the standard overview in four volumes) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/a/acls/browse.html online at ACLS e-books]
* Bailyn, Bernard. ''Voyagers to the West: a passage in the peopling of America on the eve of the Revolution'' (1986), winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History
* Bancroft, George. ''History of the United States of America, from the discovery of the American continent. '' 10 vol (1860) [http://jrshelby.com/sc-links/bancroft.htm online editions]
* Beer, George Louis. "British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' vol 22 (March 1907) pp 1-48; [http://dinsdoc.com/beer-1.htm online edition]
* Beeman, Richard R. "The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America'' (2006) [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0812219775/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search]
* Berkin, Carol. ''First Generations: Women in Colonial America'' (1997) 276pp [https://www.amazon.com/First-Generations-Women-Colonial-America/dp/0809016060/ref=sid_dp_dp/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America'' (1988) (online at [[American Council of Learned Societies|ACLS]] History e-book project)
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''A Factious People: Politics and Society in Colonial New York,'' (1971) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98025896 online edition]
* Brown, Kathleen M. ''Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia'' (1996) 512pp [https://www.amazon.com/Wives-Nasty-Wenches-Anxious-Patriarchs/dp/0807846236/ref=pd_sim_b_shvl_title_17/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Bruce, Philip A. ''Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Material Condition of the People, Based on Original and Contemporaneous Records.'' (1896), very old fashioned history [http://www.dinsdoc.com/bruce-1-0a.htm online edition]
* Carr, Lois Green and Philip D. Morgan. ''Colonial Chesapeake Society'' (1991), 524pp [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Chesapeake-Society-Lois-Green/dp/0807843431/ref=sip_rech_dp_3/103-4827826-5463040 excerpt and text search]
* Crane, Verner W. ''The Southern Frontier, 1670-1732,'' (1920), [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=28187303 online edition]
* Crane, Verner W. "The Southern Frontier in Queen Anne’s War," ''American Historical Review'' vol 24, (April 1919) pp 379-95. [http://dinsdoc.com/crane-1.htm online edition]
* Gallay, Alan, ed. ''Colonial Wars of North America, 1512-1763: An Encyclopedia'' (1996) [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Wars-North-America-1512-1763/dp/0824072081/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263942660&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Gipson, Lawrence. ''The British Empire Before the American Revolution'' (15 volumes) (1936-1970), Pulitzer Prize; highly detailed discussion of every British colony in the New World
* Greene, Evarts Boutelle. ''Provincial America, 1690-1740,'' (1935) survey by scholar [http://www.dinsdoc.com/greene-3-0a.htm online edition]
* Hatfield, April Lee. ''Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century'' (2007) [https://www.amazon.com/Atlantic-Virginia-Intercolonial-Relations-Seventeenth/dp/081221997X/ref=sr_1_8/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998497&sr=1-8 excerpt and text search]
* Illick, Joseph E. ''Colonial Pennsylvania: A History,'' (1976) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/colonial-pennsylvania-a-history-by-joseph-e-illick.jsp online edition]
* Kammen, Michael. ''Colonial New York: A History,'' (2003)
* Labaree, Benjamin Woods. ''Colonial Massachusetts: A History,'' (1979)
* Kulikoff, Allan. ''From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers'' (2000) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/from-british-peasants-to-colonial-american-farmers-by-allan-kulikoff.jsp online edition]
* Middleton, Richard. ''Colonial America: A History, 1565-1776'' (3rd ed 2002), 576pp [https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-America-History-1565-1776/dp/0631221417/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Morgan, Edmund S. ''American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia'' (1975) Pulitzer Prize [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101062594 online edition]
* Osgood, Herbert L. ''The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century.'' 3 vol (1904-07) [http://dinsdoc.com/osgood-8-0a.htm online edition]
* Tate, Thad W. ''Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century'' (1980) [https://www.amazon.com/Chesapeake-Seventeenth-Century-Thad-Tate/dp/0393009564/ref=sr_1_23/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192998781&sr=1-23 excerpt and text search]
* Taylor, Alan. ''American Colonies,'' (2001) survey by leading scholar [https://www.amazon.com/American-Colonies-Settling-America-Penguin/dp/0142002100/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192997693&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]
* Vickers, Daniel, ed. ''A Companion to Colonial America.'' 2003. 576 pp.

===Primary sources===
* Kavenagh, W. Keith, ed. ''Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History'' (1973) 4 vol.
* Miller, Kerby A., et al eds. ''Irish immigrants in the land of Canaan: letters and memoirs from colonial and revolutionary America, 1675-1815'' (2004) [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;cc=acls;q1=United%20States%20--%20History%20--%20Colonial%20period%2C%20ca.%201600-1775%20--%20Biography;rgn=subject;view=toc;idno=heb90012.0001.001 online at ACLS e-books]
===Online sources===
*[http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/colonial.htm Colonial America 1600-1775, K12 Resources]
*[http://earlyamerica.com/ Archiving Early America]
*[http://www.dinsdoc.com/colonial-3.htm ''Classics of American Colonial History'' complete text of older scholarly articles]

==References==
<references/>

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