middle colonies

• Products


  • Grain
  • Fish
  • Cattle
  • Lumber
  • Rum
  • Iron
• The Middle Colonies were located between the New England and Southern Colonies
• New Netherland


  Dutch colony located along the Hudson River
• New Amsterdam


  • Main settlement of New Netherland, located on Manhattan Island
  • Excellent harbor and thriving river trade
• Acquiring settlers for New Netherland


  1. Dutch West India Company sent over families from the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and Finland

  2. Company gave large estates to anyone who brought at least 50 settlers to work the land
• Patroons


  Wealthy landowners who acquired the riverfront estates, ruled like kings with their own courts and laws
• Settlers owed the patroon labor and a share of their crops
• England takes over New Netherland


  1. English sent a fleet to attack New Amsterdam in 1664

  2. Governor Peter Stuyvesant surrendered the colony to the English forces
• New York


  Colony given by King Charles II to his brother, the Duke of York, who renamed it
• New York


  • Proprietary colony where the owner/proprietor owned all the land and controlled the government
  • Diverse population including Dutch, Germans, Swedes, Native Americans, and Puritans from New England
  • Population included at least 300 enslaved Africans
• Development of representative government in New York


  1. Colonists demanded a representative government like other English colonies

  2. Duke of York resisted, but in 1691 the English government allowed New York to elect a legislature
• New Jersey


  Colony given by the Duke of York to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, named after the island of Jersey
• New Jersey


  • Offered large tracts of land and generous terms to attract settlers
  • Promised freedom of religion, trial by jury, and a representative assembly
  • Diverse in ethnicity and religion, but did not develop a major port or city
• Ownership changes in New Jersey

  1. Berkeley sold his share, West Jersey, in 1674

  2. Carteret's share, East Jersey, was sold in 1682

  3. By 1702 New Jersey had passed back into the hands of the king, becoming a royal colony
• Pennsylvania


  Colony granted to William Penn by King Charles II, in repayment of a debt owed to Penn's father
• William Penn


  • Belonged to the Quaker religious group, believed in toleration and equality
  • Saw Pennsylvania as a "holy experiment" to put Quaker ideals into practice
• Establishing Pennsylvania


  1. Penn designed the city of Philadelphia himself, making him America's first town planner

  2. Penn wrote Pennsylvania's first constitution

  3. Penn negotiated treaties with local Native Americans to pay for the land

  4. Penn advertised the colony throughout Europe to encourage European settlers
• By 1683 more than 3,000 English, Welsh, Irish, Dutch, and German settlers had arrived in Pennsylvania
• Three Lower Counties


  Southernmost part of Pennsylvania, settled by Swedes in 1638 and later taken over by the Dutch and English
• Separation of the Three Lower Counties


  The Charter of Privileges allowed the lower counties to form their own legislature in 1704, becoming the separate colony of Delaware