COLONIAL AMERICA

COLONIAL AMERICA Its Awesome

States • Massachusetts • New Hampshire • Rhode Island • Connecticut • New York • New Jersey • Pennsylvania • Delaware • Maryland • Virginia • North Carolina • South Carolina • Georgia

Massachusetts • The first Europeans to settle New England landed in present-day Massachusetts. These settlers were Pilgrims and Puritans from England seeking religious freedom. They founded Plymouth, Salem, and Boston, which soon became the hub of the region. A century and a half later, Massachusetts became known as the 'Cradle of Liberty' for the revolutionary ferment in Boston that helped spawn the war of the Thirteen Colonies for independence. Home

New Hampshire • It was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. By the time of the American Revolution, New Hampshire was a divided province. The economic and social life of the Seacoast revolved around sawmills, shipyards, merchant's warehouses, and established village and town centers. Wealthy merchants built substantial homes, furnished them with the finest luxuries, and invested their capital in trade and land speculation. Home

Rhode Island • In 1636 Roger Williams, after being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious views, settled at the tip of Narragansett Bay. He called the site Providence and declared it a place of religious freedom. Home

Connecticut • Beginning in 1614, the original European settlers were Dutch, but by 1636, Connecticut became a British colony. Connecticut was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. Residents of Connecticut are sometimes referred to as Nutmeggers or Yankees. Home

New York • New York was inhabited by Lenape, Algonquian and Iroquois indigenous people at the time Dutch and French settlers arrived in the 16th century. New York was forted by the Dutch at Albany in 1614 and colonized in 1624, at both Albany and Manhattan, before falling under English rule in 1664. About one third of all the military engagements of the American Revolutionary War took place in New York, after which it became the 11th state to ratify the United States Constitution in 1788. Home

New Jersey • Since the state's inception, New Jersey has been characterized by ethnic and religious diversity. In East Jersey, New England Congregationalists settled alongside Scottish Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed migrants from New York. While the majority of residents lived in towns with individual landholdings of 100 acres, a few rich proprietors owned vast estates. West Jersey had fewer people than East Jersey, and both English Quakers and Anglicans owned large landholdings. Both Jerseys remained agrarian and rural throughout the colonial era, and commercial farming only developed sporadically. Some townships, though, like Burlington and Perth Amboy, emerged as important ports for shipping to New York and Philadelphia. The colony's fertile lands and tolerant religious policy drew more settlers, and New Jersey boasted a population of 120,000 by 1775. Home

Pennsylvania • One of Pennsylvania's nicknames is the QuakerState; in colonial times, it was known officially as the Quaker Province in recognition of Quaker William Penn's First Frame of Government constitution for Pennsylvania that guaranteed liberty of conscience. Penn knew of the hostility Quakers faced when they opposed rituals, oaths, violence, and ostentatious frippery. Home

Delaware • Delaware was one of the original Thirteen Colonies and is known as the "First State", officially referring to the fact that it was the first to ratify the United States Constitution. Even though the states were already known as such prior to the Constitution, the motto itself is still historically accurate, as Delaware was indeed the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, the first legal document establishing the new American political entities as "states" (although the Declaration of Independence refers to them as "States"). Commemorating Delaware's ratification, Constitution Park (one block from where Dover's Golden Fleece Tavern once stood) features a four-foot cube upon which is inscribed the entire document as it has evolved. Home

Maryland • On March 25, 1634, Lord Baltimore sent the first settlers into this area, which would soon become one of the few predominantly Catholic regions in the British Empire (another was Newfoundland, where religious disputes led to the first flag's coloring). Maryland was also one of the key destinations of tens of thousands of British convicts. The Maryland Toleration Act of 1649 was one of the first laws that explicitly dictated religious tolerance (as long as it was Christian). The act is sometimes seen as a precursor to the First Amendment. Home

Virginia • Virginia is known as the "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson), exceeded by no other state. Most of the United States' early presidents were from the state. Virginia has also been known as the "Mother of States", because portions of the original Colony subsequently became Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and West Virginia as well as some portions of Ohio. Home

North Carolina • The first permanent European settlers of North Carolina were British colonists who migrated south from Virginia, following a rapid growth of the colony and the subsequent shortage of available farmland. Nathaniel Batts was documented as one of the first of these Virginian immigrants. Home

South Carolina • South Carolina is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. It was the first state to secede from the Union to found the Confederate States of America. The state is named after King Charles II of England, as Carolus is Latin for Charles. Home

Georgia • Georgia is a state in the Southern United States and was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. It was the last of the Thirteen Colonies to be established as a colony. It was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on 2 January 1788. Home

COLONIAL AMERICA