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Middle Colonies
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The Middle Colonies, also known as the Bread Colonies for the region's production of wheat and grain, were one area of Thirteen Colonies in pre-Revolutionary War Northern America.
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The Middle Colonies, also known as the Bread Colonies for the region's production of wheat and grain, were one area of Thirteen Colonies in pre-Revolutionary War Northern America. The area was part of the New Netherlands until the British exerted control of the region that was later divided into New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware.
The British took much of the land from the Dutch around 1664, and most of it became the Province of New York. The Duke of York and the King of England would later grant ownership of the land which would be the Province of New Jersey and the Province of Pennsylvania. The Delaware Colony would later separate from Pennsylvania.
The Middle Colonies had rich soil, allowing the area to become a major exporter of wheat and other grains. The lumber and shipbuilding industries enjoyed success in the Middle Colonies, and Pennsylvania saw moderate success in the textile and pig iron industry. The Middle Colonies were the most ethnically diverse British colonies in North America, with settlers coming from all parts of Europe. Civil unrest in Europe and other colonies saw an influx of immigrants to the Middle Colonies in the Eighteenth Century. With the new arrivals came various religions which were protected in the Middle Colonies with written laws for the freedom of religion. This tolerance was unusual and distinct from other British colonies.
History
The Middle Colonies were originally found and explored by Henry Hudson on a voyage into the Hudson River and Delaware Bay. The Dutch soon claimed the land. Although the Swiss and the Dutch fought over the land in the 1630s through the 1650s, ultimately the Dutch claimed the land, calling it New Netherland. In the 1660s, the English largely conquered this land from the Dutch, renaming the area New York after the Duke of York James II. The colony was periodically granted to various proprietors and split into the Province of New York and the Province of Pennsylvania. Later, the Province of New Jersey split from New York, and existed for a time as West and East New Jersey. The Colony of Delaware later left Pennsylvania.
Province of New Jersey
On September 1664, a British fleet under the command of Colonel Richard Nicolls sailed into New York Harbor and captured the Dutch colony of New Netherland. This colony was given to the Duke of York, and renamed New York. In 1649, the Duke of York Charles II renamed the land west of the Hudson River New Jersey. After ascending the throne, Charles II gave the region between the New England Colonies and the Province of Maryland to his brother, the Duke of York James II of England, as a proprietary colony. James II later granted the land between the Hudson River and the Delaware River to two friends who had been loyal to him through the English Civil War: Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton. This land would become the Province of New Jersey.
In 1665, the Concession and Agreement was written in an effort to entice settlers to New Jersey. This document provided for religious freedom, no taxes without assembly approval, and a governor appointed by the proprietors. The first such governor appointed under in this way was Philip Carteret. Colonists would be required to pay annual quit-rent taxes. On March 18, 1647, after encountering difficulty collecting the taxes, Lord Berkeley sold his share in the colony to the Quakers. This sale divided New Jersey into East Jersey and West Jersey, however, the borders were not decided upon until the Quintipartite Deed in 1676. From 1701 to 1765, colonists skirmished in the New York-New Jersey Line War over disputed colonial boundaries.
On April 15, 1702, Queen Anne united West and East Jersey into one Royal Colony, the Province of New Jersey. Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon became the royal colony's first governor. After Hyde was recalled to England in 1708 over charges of graft, bribery, and corruption, the governor of New York was charged to also preside over New Jersey. Finally, in 1738, King George II appointed a separate governor, Lewis Morris, to run New Jersey.
The Provincial Congress of New Jersey formed in January 1776 to govern the colony with elected delegates. They had Royal Governor William Franklin arrested on June 15, declaring him "an enemy to the liberties of this country". On July 2 1776, New Jersey enacted the New Jersey State Constitution, and soon after, on June 21, empowered delegates to the Continental Congress to join in a declaration of independence. They soon adopted the United States Declaration of Independence, ending their colonial status to England.
Province of Pennsylvania
King Charles II granted the land for the Pennsylvania Colony to William Penn on March 4, 1881 as payment for a debt the crown owed the family. Penn wrote the Frame of Government of Pennsylvania before departing for the colony, which called for the religious tolerance towards many groups, including the Religious Society of Friends and local natives. As a proprietary colony, Penn governed Pennsylvania, yet its citizens were still subject to the English crown and laws. Penn's cousin William Markham served as the first colonial deputy governor.
Demarcated at the 42nd parallel north and 39th parallel north, Pennsylvania was bordered by the Delaware River and the colonies of New York, Maryland, and New Jersey. In 1704, Dutch land given to Penn by the Duke of York separated and once again became part of the Delaware Colony. From 1692 to 1694, revolution in England deprived Penn of governance of his colony. The Pennsylvania Assembly took this opportunity to request expanded power for elected officials, led by David Lloyd. Penn, upon visiting the colony in 1669 and 1701, agreed to allow the Charter of Privileges to be added to the constitution. When the British banned western expansion in 1763, fighting among colonists against the natives and each other grew. In 1774, Arthur St. Clair ordered the arrest of a Virginian officer commanding troops against armed settlers loyal to Pennsylvania. Pennsylvanian revolutionary sentiment continued to grow, and Philadelphia soon became the meeting place of the Continental Congress. The publication of the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 by locally-elected revolutionaries concluded the history of the Colony and began the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Province of New York
The Dutch originally colonized the land around 1613. The English captured the New Netherland Colony from the Dutch in 1664, renaming it the Province of New York after the King's brother, Duke of York James II. The Dutch would later recapture the colony in July 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, but was given back in the Treaty of Westminster in exchange for Suriname. The charter, granted to the Duke of York in 1665, partially conflicted with land chartered to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In fact, the territory originally included the current states of New Jersey, Delaware and Vermont, along with inland portions of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine, though this territories soon split from New York. Despite the charter, the Duke of York never governed the colony himself. He instead appointed governors, councils, and other officers to run the government. Richard Nicolls served as the first governor of New York.
In 1665, the Province of New Jersey split from New York, however, the New York-New Jersey Line War continued until the final borders were decided in 1773. A Colonial Assembly convened in October 1683, making New York the last colony to seat an assembly. A constitution was drafted and passed on October 30, 1683, giving the colonists many rights, including the rights to taxation without representation. However, upon hearing off the constitution, the James II declared it void.
When the Duke of York James II became the King of England, New York became a royal province. In May 1688 the province was made of part of the Dominion of New England. When James II was overthrown, the citizens of New York rebelled against the Royal Governor in Leisler's Rebellion.When the new governor Henry Sloughter in March 1691, the rebellion was stifled and its leader, Jacob Leisler was arrested, tried, and executed for treason. New York's charter and constitution were reenstated soon after. In April 1775, American patriots formed the New York Provincial Congress to replace the assembly. Governor William Tryon was forced from the colony on October 19, 1775, and New York ratified the United States Declaration of Independence on July 9, 1776, effectively ending its British colonial status.
Delaware Colony
Delaware changed hands between the Dutch and Swiss between 1631 and 1655. The Dutch maintained control of Delaware until 1664, when Sir Robert Carr took New Amstel for the Duke of York, renaming it New Castle. A Deputy of the Duke governed Delaware from 1664 to 1682. When William Penn received his land grant of Pennsylvania in 1681, he received the Delaware area from the Duke of York, and dubbed them "The Three Lower Counties on the Delaware River". After he had troubles governing the ethnically diverse Delaware territory, Penn agreed to allow them a separate colonial assembly in 1701. This arrangement continued until Delaware, along with the other Thirteen Colonies, declared its independence form Great Britain.
Geography
The partly unglaciated Middle Colonies enjoyed fertile soil, vastly different from the nearby New England Colonies, which contained more rocky soil. Because of the large grain exports resulting from this soil, the colonies came to be known as the Bread Colonies. In addition, colonies like Pennsylvania became leading exporters of goods like wheat, corn, rye, hemp, and flax. Broad navigable rivers of relaxed current like the Susquehanna River, the Delaware River, and the Hudson River attracted diverse business. Fur trappers moved along these rivers, and their lack of waterfalls encouraged milling and water wheel power.
New York was also sometimes thought of as part of New England, and thus claimed large amounts of land to the west, including parts of the Appalachian mountains.
Industry
Abundant forests attracted both the lumbering and shipbuilding industries to the Middle Colonies. These industries, along with the presence of deep river estuaries, led to the appearance of important ports like New York City and Philadelphia. While the Middle Colonies had a fair amount more industry than the Southern Colonies, it still did not rival the industry of New England.
In Pennsylvania, sawmills and gristmills were abundant, and the textile industry grew quickly. The colony also became a major producer of pig iron and its products, including the Pennsylvania long rifle and the Conestoga wagon. Other important industries including printing, publishing, the related industry of papermaking.
Politics
The Middle Colonies political groups began as small groups with narrowly focused goals. These coalitions eventually grew into diverse and large political organizations, evolving especially during the French and Indian War.
The Middle Colonies were generally run by Royal or Proprietary Governors and elected Colonial Assemblies. Many Middle Colony constitutions guaranteed freedom of religion and forbade taxation without representation. Royal governors were arrested or overthrown on more than one occasion, most notably when New Jersey arrested its governor and during Leisler's Rebellion. Growing unrest in the Middle Colonies eventually led the region to become the meeting place for the Continental Congress, and a certain for revolution. During the American Revolution, a large number of Middle Colonists remained Tories.
Demographics
The Middle Colonies tended to mix aspects of the New England and Southern Colonies. Landholdings tended to be of an intermediate size, except in New York, where there were a number of aristocratic estates. Ethnically, the Middle Colonies were more diverse than the other British colonial regions in North America and tended to be more socially tolerant. For example, in New York, any foreigner professing Christianity was awarded citizenship, leading to a more diverse populace. As a consequence, early German settlements in the Americas concentrated in the Middle Colonies region. Some historians, like Princeton's Peter Silver, have suggested that the relative peace with which various factions who would have been hostile in Europe lived together resulted from a mutual fear of the native population, who carried out numerous raids against the Middle Colonies in the 18th century. Indentured servitude was especially common in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York in the eighteenth century.
German immigrants to the Americas tended to cumulate in the Middle Colonies. German immigration greatly increased around 1717, and many immigrants began coming from the Rhineland. The Germans were especially prevalent in Pennsylvania, where they were erroneously labeled the Pennsylvania Dutch, where they comprised one-third of the population by the revolution. The industry and farming skills they brought with them helped solidify the Middle Colonies prosperity.
The Scotch-Irish began immigrating to the Middle Colonies in waves after 1717. They primarily pushed farther into the western frontier of the colonies. Other abundant groups included the French Huguenots, Welsh, Dutch, Swedes, Swiss, and Scots Highlanders.
English colonists
The original English colonists of the Middle Colonies were diverse, with no common established church, and the early Middle Colony culture was based largely in the culture of York. Divisions in England caused Quakers to seek asylum in the colonies, and many settled in the Middle Colonies. Further civil unrest among Catholics in Northern England saw a further large influx of religiously persecuted colonists to the Middle Colonies.
Quakers were involved in the founding of many of the Middle Colonies, and names like Pennsylvania, Chester County, and New Castle display their influence. However, despite the Quaker influence in places like the Welsh Tract, Baptist and Methodist missionaries migrated first to the Rhode Island regions, but eventually moved into Pennsylvania. Scottish Quakers, such as Robert Barclay and George Keith, mostly went to East Jersey and were largely independent of English proprietor control, associating mostly with other Scots. In contrast, William Penn and both Lord Baltimores encouraged Irish immigration, hoping they could obtain indentured servants to work on their estates and on colonial developments.
When the English took direct control of many of the Middle Colonies around 1664, many Marylanders and Rhode Islanders were pushed into the Middle Colonial region by Anglicans. They settled around the Middle Colonies, most notably in West New Jersey and Philadelphia.
Slavery
Though indentured servitude was more common, slave numbers grew significantly in the eighteenth century. In the mid-eighteenth century, slaves comprised twelve percent of the population of New York. Though the Quakers attempted to pass statutes forbidding the slave trade in 1688, 1693, and 1696, the British Parliament overruled these laws in 1712.
Religion
Many British Middle colonists were Quakers. However, the Middle Colonies, and especially Pennsylvania, had a degree of religious tolerance far greater than other British colonies. The lack of a standardized government sponsored church led the Middle Colonies to be more religiously diverse than the other American colonial regions. Delaware Catholics, New Jersey Scottish Presbyterians, Philadelphia and New York Anglicans, New York and Jersey Puritans, and scattered Baptists and Methodists added to the diversity. Non-British colonists included Dutch Calvinist, Swedish Lutherans, Palantine Mennonites, and the Amish. The Middle Colonies became a haven for Jews in the 1650s, whose influence can be still be seen in the Middle Colonies' architecture.
See also
External links
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