Mr Serra

US History

THE MIDDLE COLONIES

THE MIDDLE COLONIES

COMPARING THE REGIONS

NEW NETHERLAND (NEW YORK)

• While the English Puritans were busy founding their colonies in the North, The Dutch were founding one directly South of them.

• New Netherland was founded in hopes of expanding the Dutch fur trade

• In 1625, New Amsterdam was founded and became the capital of the colony. This would later become New York City.

NEW NETHERLAND(YORK) CONTINUED

• In 1655, the Dutch would extend their colony by taking over New Sweden, a tiny colony of Swedish and Finnish settlers along the Delaware River. This would later become New Jersey

• New Netherland was a diverse colony, to encourage colonization, the Dutch allowed settlers from a variety of countries to settle here.

• The colony included many Africans, free and enslaved. By the 1660’s nearly one-fifth of New Netherland’s population was of African ancestry

RELATIONS WITH THE NATIVES

• Settlers in New Netherland enjoyed friendlier relations with the Natives than the English colonists in New England and Virginia

• The Dutch were more interested in trading for furs with the Natives than conquering them

• The Dutch did engage in smaller skirmishes with various Native groups over land and trade routes

NEW AMSTERDAM

SURRENDERING TO THE BRITISH

• As time went on, the British grew increasingly tired of a Dutch colony fixed firmly between their Northern and Southern colonies

• In 1664, the Dutch surrendered New Netherland to the British without a single shot being fired.

• The colony would be renamed for its new owner the Duke of York, New York was officially founded.

• The Duke would give some of the land to two of his friends, who named the territory New Jersey

THE QUAKERS

• They believed that God’s inner light burned inside of everyone

• They dressed plainly and beleieved in nonviolence as opposed to war

• For their radical views, they faced persecution from both the Anglicans and Puritans

• William Penn and the Quakers would design their colony of Pennsylvania as a “holy experiment”.

QUAKERS VS PURITANS

PENNSYLVANIA-”THE HOLY EXPERIMENT”

• Pennsylvania was designed without a land-owning upper class

• Penn’s plan for government called for a representative assembly and freedom of religion

• The capital was designed to be “a city of brotherly love”, leading to the founding of Philadelphia

REGIONAL BREAKDOWN OF THE COLONIES

QUAKERS AND THE NATIVES

• Before even setting foot in Pennsylvania, William Penn wrote a letter to the Delaware Natives, apologizing for the European settlers that had come before him.

• To ensure that his colonists treated the Natives fairly, Penn regulated trade with the Natives and provided for a court made of both settlers and Natives to settle any disputes that should arise.

• The Natives respected Penn and for more than 50 years, the Pennsylvania colony had no major conflicts with the Native population within the colony

STRUGGLING TO MAKE A PROFIT• Like the Dutch, Penn needed to attract settlers to try and create a profitable

colony.

• After opening the colony to the Quakers, Penn opened the colony to settlers from all around Western Europe.

• Advertisements for the colony were printed in German, Dutch and French.

• Penn himself spent only four years in his colony and died in poverty in 1718. Despite never being an overwhelming financial success, the principles of equality, cooperation and religious tolerance in Pennsylvania would become fundamental values in the soon-to-be American nation.