North, Middle, and Southern Colonies

              Each colony in America, whether it be the North, South or in between, had specific characteristics that defines solely that area while sharing many common denominators that unifies the colonies between one another.

Separation of North, Middle, and South colonies.

                Let’s first take a look at the Northern colonies and then make our way down the coast. The North Colonies include the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The people in the North came prepared to work, had strong family units which unified the people, and only had small quarrels with the Native people. The type of people who came to the north were separatists, which means they sought to withdraw from the church of England since they lost hope it would reform from its corrupt ways. (Roark, 94-95) These separatists moved to America with unison with a joint stock company where the company provided the capital and the Separatists provided their labor and their lives as they made the journey to the Americas. (Roark, 95) The North was mainly self-governed towns who made a living through the exports of fish, timber, and subsistence farming. One interesting state was the state of Rhode Island. This state, being founded by Roger Williams, was a state that did not require religious connections since he himself was kicked out of the church because his community could not tolerate how radical of a separatist he was.

                The Middle colonies included New York, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. These colonies were the most diverse ethnic group of people. People from all places found refuge in this quaker land. These people included the Dutch, Swedish, French, Germans, Jewish, and even peace with the Natives. Most of these early pioneers to the new world depended on fur trade and farming as a way of economic dependence. Because of the Quaker influence on the colony, which included the idea that there is equality for all, a single religion was not enforced, yet they still stayed true to a code of morals. Similar to the puritans, Quakers emphasized a relationship with Christ, but they believed that one could so individually through inner light. These colonies overall emphasized religious and cultural difference, which would be why slavery was not well accepted. (Shelton)

                Southern colonies included Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia. The settlers who came here were people who were not expecting to work hard. This is where the use of other’s hard work came into play. Since the main economic advantage the South had was exports of rice, indigo, and tobacco, the southern colonies began full-fledged slavery. The import of people being imported as slaves were mainly from Africa and were granted no rights throughout their journey through the middle passage. By 1770, the Southern states had twice as many people than either other region because of the rapid growth of economics (Roark, 135).

                Overall, all New World colonies were considered new and exciting. According to Jacob, it gave people a “fresh start” and “religious freedom.” Professor Holden added that this new world gave “liberty, a freedom for people to own things and give people opportunities.” All three regions prospered in economics as agriculture as a main source of living. All colonies were traditionally grounded deeply in a religious background, but all regions saw a decline in the 18^th century. Each region was had specific characteristics, but one strong tie they all shared was their loyalty to England. England was their mother land, and it would be sometime before tension would begin to be out of control.

Bibliography 

Roark, James L. ., Michael P. Johnson, Patricia C. Cohen, Sarah Stage, and Susan M. Hartmann.  The American Promise. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2012. Print.

Shelton. "The Middle Colonies." The Middle Colonies. Radford University, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2013.