{"id":224,"date":"2018-03-05T15:26:02","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T15:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/?p=224"},"modified":"2018-03-07T02:54:39","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T02:54:39","slug":"the-13-colonies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/2018\/03\/05\/the-13-colonies\/","title":{"rendered":"The 13 Colonies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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    1. “The Colonies”<\/strong> refers to the thirteen original colonies that comprised pre-revolutionary and revolutionary America (1607-1776).\u00a0 All located on the East Coast, the colonies included New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.\u00a0 The term \u201cthe colonies\u201d has been in use since the early 1700\u2019s.\u00a0 Each colony was founded on different principals based on its original settlers.\u00a0 For example, Massachusetts served as a refuge for English Puritans and its society and cultural norms mirrored their strict religious practices.\n

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      Map of the Thirteen Colonies (shown in red). Wikipedia.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n
    2. What is colonialism? \u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>Colonialism is widely understood as political system that involves one country asserting economic and military domination over another.\u00a0 This relationship takes on many forms depending on the conditions of the colonizer and colonized.\u00a0 Due to Western technological advances in the 1500\u2019s colonialism as it is currently understood started to take form: \u201cit became possible to move large numbers of people across the ocean and to maintain political sovereignty in spite of geographical dispersion\u201d[1]<\/a>. The colonization of the early United States can be best represented by the system of settler colonialism, which consists of a foreign population replacing the indigenous populations of an area. This system differs from the imperial systems of exploitation that was experienced in Latin America, Africa and, Asia for centuries.<\/span><\/span>\n

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      An early 20th century advertisement selling Native American lands to those interested in moving out west.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n
    3. The Jamestown Settlement<\/strong> in Virginia was the first successful British colony in the United States.\u00a0 The first English ship arrived on April 26, 1607 carrying 143 Englishmen who would establish a proper colonial outpost modeled after the French and Spanish models in Louisiana and Florida, respectively.\u00a0 What differentiated Jamestown from other colonies was that its original inhabitants were all men seeking fortunes through landownership, as opposed to families escaping religious persecution. \u00a0The colonists\u2019 survival was dependent on a trading relationship with local Native American tribes, despite seemingly constant violent outbreaks between the two groups.\u00a0 Through this relationship, the early colonists learned how to grow tobacco, which became wildly popular in both the colony and in England.\u00a0 The tobacco industry ensured the economic success of Virginia, but required a larger workforce.\u00a0 Therefore, in 1619 the first slaves arrived from Angola, as well as an abundance of indentured servants from the Netherlands and England.\n

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      Arial depiction of the Jamestown settlement. History.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n
    4. \u00a0The Massachusetts Bay Colony<\/strong> was founded in 1620 when the Mayflower arrived in Provincetown Harbor on Cape Cod.\u00a0 Those aboard the Mayflower were British Puritans seeking religious freedom for their separatist protestant beliefs.\u00a0 The pilgrims on the Mayflower intended to create a settlement in Virginia, but harsh weather conditions and a taxing 65-day journey across the Atlantic made finishing the voyage to Virginia implausible.\u00a0 The Mayflower Compact was signed by all the surviving men on the ship and founded the legal basis for the future Massachusetts Bay Colony by establishing a voluntary government in Massachusetts instead of Virginia. The colony continued to grow and soon Boston was established as the commercial center of the colony, creating a burgeoning merchant class.\u00a0 Boston would later become a place of key importance during the Revolutionary War.\n

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      Colonists trading their goods on the harbor.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n
    5. The Colonial Economy:\u00a0<\/strong>The American colonies grew to be an economic success in each region (South, Middle Colonies, and New England).\u00a0 Most of these economies were agricultural, but areas with poor soil or terrains that made farming difficult found success in industries such as trapping or fishing.\u00a0 Regional specialization and seemingly abundant land gave the colonies a comparative advantage over their European counterparts and allowed for their entry into the global economy.\u00a0 Rice and tobacco that was grown in the South and grains that were grown in the Middle Colonies (the area between the Potomac River and the Hudson River) were referred to as cash crops.\u00a0 Despite unfavorable agricultural conditions, the New England colonies rose to economic prominence due to their involvement in fishing and shipping industries.\u00a0 Other colonial industries included shipbuilding, resource extraction, fur trading, and textile production.\n

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      A Pennsylvania farm. Spiritualpilgrim.net<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n
    6. Colonial Society:\u00a0<\/strong>The character of the societies of the colonies was dependent on its geographic location, their economies, and the general values held by its inhabitants.\u00a0 What remained constant throughout all thirteen colonies, however, was that white, landowning, protestant men maintained a privileged role in society.\u00a0 Furthermore, most societies were more or less based on social structures in Europe, creating highly stratified communities. \u00a0Slavery and indentured servitude were staples of colonial society until the Revolutionary period in some colonies and remained until the Civil War in others. \u00a0Interestingly, due to the seasonal agricultural practices of the Middle Colonies and the lack of a strong agricultural economy in New England, the need for slavery was not as strongly felt: leaving a dramatically different legacy than in the South. \u00a0Native Americans were forcibly removed from their lands and were deemed inhuman.\u00a0 Women occupied an interesting role within the home and in the greater community.\u00a0 At the dawn of the Revolution, women were expected to raise families based on the notions of republicanism, which turned the norm that a woman\u2019s place was in the home into a patriotic responsibility.\n

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      Painting of the prominent Royall family (Robert Feke 1741). (royallhouse.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n
    7. The Seven Years Year\/ the French and Indian War:\u00a0<\/strong>Many consider the catalyst for American independence (and the end of the colonies) to be the Seven Years War (also referred to as the French and Indian War), fought from 1756 to 1763.\u00a0 The war began as an imperialist conflict due to Britain\u2019s desire to expand westward the French controlled Ohio Valley to expand the capacity to trade.\u00a0 Despite the British victory, the expense of the war caused the British monarchy to levy a series of controversial taxes, such as the Stamp Act in 1765, that was ultimately part of the driving force that led the American colonists to seek independence.\n

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      The Join or Die cartoon was popularized during the American Revolution, but was originally used during the French and Indian War.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n
    8. Historic Preservation:\u00a0<\/strong>A number of colonial settlements and areas have been preserved to educate the public about a previous era and how it has informed American life today. \u00a0Historic districts bring revenue to cities and states through investment and tourism and can regenerate struggling local economies.\u00a0 Additionally, they provide a sense of identity and community for the area they are located in.\u00a0 Examples of colonial historic districts and sites today include Colonial Williamsburg, the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia and Valley Forge, and the Paul Revere House in Boston.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n